Hey, guys! I hope you're having a lovely weekend! I'm posting a new chapter of Twinkie Quest early this week, usually I only upload every Thursday, but I'm so excited for this fic that I can't resist posting this today. I hope you enjoy and please review, I love reviews of all kinds and they really inspire me to do my best writing!

It was getting late; the sun was already on the horizon. We needed a place to bunker down for the night and seeing how we were in the middle of nowhere in Colorado, we probably weren't going to be able to just find a mansion like we did while we were in L.A. The only reason we left was because it was getting old having to deal with the sheer number of zombies.

So, we were headed east, away from the coast since that was where the majority of the zombies are since that was where most humans were. The few humans who were still there, acted almost no different than the zombies. They'll stab you in the back and tear you to shreds if you drop your guard. Literally in some cases.

I winced at the reminder, shifting in my seat as I felt my wound pull uncomfortably tight. It was a stab wound, a few weeks old now, just beginning to finally close up a bit. We had been talking to a woman in a grocery store, when her boyfriend came up behind me and stabbed me in the back.

Needless to say, Tallahassee killed both of them easily and was able to carry me out, even as a horde of zombies was coming, ravenous at the smell of blood. Lucky for me, though, the man had terrible aim and hit mid-back, several inches to the right of my spine.

Unluckily for me, the knife wasn't exactly clean and my wound festered for the first two weeks. I had a fever of over a hundred for most of that time as the infection spread, but Tal turned out to be quite a capable medic. He said that he was used to dealing with wounds like this from hunting and hiking, so he knew a few tricks.

With time, my fever fell away and the infection cleared up, so it was now healing nicely. Just because it was finally healing doesn't mean it still didn't hurt like hell.

Tallahassee noticed my discomfort, so, he abandoned his Twinkie and looked up at me,

"You okay? It's not giving you trouble again, is it?" I grimaced before shifting again, shaking my head,

"No, it's fine." Tal narrowed an eye at me, clearly able to see my pain,

"No, it ain't fine. Don't be a hero here, let me help you, we don't want it getting infected again."

"I said it's fine. It's just pulling a bit, that's all." Tallahassee pressed his lips into a thin line, controlling his rather explosive temper, and just said,

"Is it dry? Does it need more of the cream?" I nodded slightly,

"Yeah, a little bit." He nodded,

"Okay, hop on out. It's in my duffle." He was out of the caddie before I could even argue with him, so I muttered to myself while I unclipped my seatbelt and climbed out of the car.

Tal already had the back open and was riffling through his duffle when I got there. I already knew the drill, so I shrugged off my brown hoodie and folded it neatly before I put it next to Tal's duffle. I gave my light blue button down the same treatment before Tallahassee made a triumphant sound and pulled the jar of cream out.

He never would tell me what was in it, just that it works, and works it does. It acts as an antiseptic and a moisturizer to keep the wound from drying and cracking open and getting infected. Another plus about the cream is that it's also a mild anesthetic, so it helps with the pain too.

Tal set the jar to the side and started shuffling through the duffle again, looking for clean bandages. That gave me enough time to carefully pull my under shirt over my head and fold it. I reached around my back and began picking at the bandage that was already there; it's the kind of bandage that you would put over a suture, so all of its edges are adhesive.

Tallahassee found the pack of bandages and had exchanged it for the jar of cream just as I had finished peeling off the bandage. I wadded the used bandage in my hands as Tal examined my wound.

I jumped when his hand touched my back. Tal asked,

"Did that hurt, Lil' Spit?" I shook my head,

"No, just surprised me." I could practically feel him hesitate, unsure if I was lying or not. "Honestly, it didn't hurt, just jumpy." Tal sighed before returning to the wound. I could hear him mutter something, but I couldn't make it out and I didn't press.

Tal smeared some of the cold cream over my wound, immediately soothing some of the burn. His hand was still on my back, so he probably felt my muscles relax, but he didn't say anything about it.

I didn't turn around to face him, but I hear him screw the lid of the jar back on before picking up the box of bandages. He opened the box and pulled out an individually wrapped bandage. He ripped open the package before taking a step back over to me, but didn't stick it on just yet. He touched around the wound again, this time asking,

"How does it feel now?" I sighed, knowing that I was caught in my lie, before saying,

"Better."

"Good." I heard him peel off the backing of the bandage and then he put it over my wound. He pressed on the edges, making sure the seal was tight before backing away, saying,

"You're good." I picked up my undershirt and tugged it over my head before I said,

"Thanks." Tal shoved the supplies back into his duffle nodding in reply. I had just pushed my arms through the sleeves of my button up when I thought I heard a noise. I froze, listening for it again. Tal noticed and whispered,

"What is it?" I held a hand out to him, silencing him, and then I heard it again. I spun around, looking for where it had come from. "What do you hear?" Tal asked again but I didn't respond. I thought I saw the car that the sound was coming from, so I jogged over to it.

It was a blue, compact, Honda, blood decorated the exterior and the front two tires were flat. The front seat was empty, but the back did indeed have an occupant. Tal was right on my tail and when he saw what I was looking at, he backed up a step, shaking his head,

"No. Fuck no, not gonna happen." I opened the door to the back seat and a large, black, German Shepherd jumped out. It jumped up, putting its front paws on my stomach. It licked at my hand when I petted his head, he's friendly.

I looked over at Tallahassee, who had a scowl on his face.

"Oh come on! Please let me keep him! You can name him if you want, he doesn't have any tags." Tal crossed his arms,

"How about Dip Shit?" I glared at him,

"No, a nice name." Tel growled,

"Who even said you could keep him?" I was at the point of begging, all dignity's long gone by now,

"Please! Please, Tal, let me keep him!" Tallahassee was silent for a little while, silently fuming. The dog put its paws back on the ground and sat at my feet, leaning against my leg,

"See! Look how obedient he is!" Tal finally threw his hands up in defeat, saying,

"Fine, keep the damn thing! But if it shit's or pisses in my Caddie, I'll kill it myself."

"Deal!" I crouched next to the dog and rubbed his face, his tail was wagging so I took that as a good sign. "Come on, what do you want to call him?" A look of pain crossed his face as he pressed his lips into a thin line; I instantly knew what he had thought of. Tal swallowed and turned away, heading back to the car. I decided that I could speak up, so I did exactly that,

"Buck's a good name," I noticed him flinch, so I continued the thought, "But it's up to you."

"Not that… anything you want but that." Tal said over his shoulder, his voice was clearly strained.

"Okay, how about Finnegan?" Tal nodded, but otherwise stayed silent. I figured he needed some time, so I turned my attention back to the dog, saying, "What do you think? Do you like Finnegan?" He licked my face in response. I grinned and stood, giving his head a final pat, saying, "Well, Fin, it looks like you're stuck with us."

I patted my thigh as I walked back towards the caddie, calling him to me. He ran over and hopped in the backseat as I held the door open for him. I closed the door just as Tal closed the back; I quickly climbed into my seat and put my belt on before Tallahassee climbed in and hit the gas.

Half an hour later, we arrived at another store, we still needed supplies since the last one didn't exactly pan out; not that Tallahassee had a hand in that at all, note the sarcasm. Moving on, this one looked more deserted than the other one anyhow.

I hopped down and opened the door behind me to let Fin out, who jumped down and pranced around my legs, wagging his tail. I chuckled as I patted his head with my free hand; the other was holding my gun.

"Are you sure you wanna bring him in, Spit Fuck? You don't know what he might do." Tal asked as he strapped various weapons to his body. I shrugged,

"No better time to find out than the present, besides, he might be able to help us with the zombies." Tal scoffed,

"Yeah, and my shit's gonna grow legs and win a marathon." I just glared at him and ignored the comment, instead I patted my thigh to call Fin to my side, he had been sniffing something on the ground a little way away. He looked up at me before trotting to me and sat obediently at my side.

I knew Tal had seen what Finnegan did, so I crossed my arms and cocked an eyebrow at the staring muscle head. His eyes narrowed, not saying anything out loud, but I could read his lips saying, little shit, as he returned to the weapons.

I just chuckled to myself, triumphant, as I walked toward the store front a few feet, looking in through the windows the best I could. The sun had set quite a while ago, there were only a few pale pink streaks left, the rest of the sky was dark blue and black. Inside the store was pitch-black, it made me nervous.

Tal walked up behind me, shoulder brushing mine as he walked past. I grabbed his arm, asking,

"Wait, can't this wait until tomorrow, it'll be safer then." He looked back at me, thinking for a moment, before he asked,

"When was the last time you ate something?" I subconsciously touched my stomach, which was empty, had been for a quite while.

"I'm fine." Tal fully turned to face me,

"That wasn't an answer." He looked threatening, but I knew he wasn't going to hurt me, so I repeated myself, emphasizing both words,

"I'm fine." I could see his jaw muscles clench as he turned back toward the store, saying,

"We're going in there now. Here," he handed me a heavy duty flashlight, "stay close. Don't get separated again."