Mike looked at the exasperated group in front of him. Clearly they had been drained of any energy. Their clothes all had been sprayed by blood. There was young man holding what appeared to be his wife's hand. Another man slightly older then him wore a black trench coat. There were four teenage boys one of whom had a badly wounded leg. A female college student and a man dressed in a police uniform stood behind them.

"Hey guys, I'm Mike."

"Hi Mike I'm Chad." Chad replied holding out his hand. This is my wife Bridgette." He gestured towards the four boys starting with the oldest. "That's Anthony, Rodney, Matt at Jeremy." He motioned towards Tony who kept behind everyone else.

"Tony."

"That's Tracy over there," he said pointing to a college blonde, and over there is Owen." He pointed to a man dressed in police uniform.

"Hi Owen. I've been here with these guys for about a month now. They come off harsh at first, but when you really get to know them they aren't so bad. You've guys have been out in that mess an awful long time. I'm surprised you're all still alive."

--

Billy leaned over attempting to put the jack in place. Bridgette and her husband knelt down beside him fiddling with the device. Chad turned to wipe some sweat off of his face only to spot the long line of cars headed their way.

"Ok we gotta hurry it up guys." He was somehow able to remain calm under the pressure.

"Fuckin' put your hands up!" A gun flew in front of each of their faces. Six cops dressed in uniform were pointing their weapons at the helpless three. There faces were coated in a light layer of sweat and cruelty. It looked like they had been doing this for some time after the infection broke out. "How many people you got in the van fatty?" The leader asked a very upset Billy.

"I don't know a few?"

"How many!?"

"I don't know." The officer waited for something more, but got nothing. "Search them!" He ordered referring to Billy and the newlyweds. Then he turned towards the other two men. "Get them off of that bus. I better not be able to see any free hands." The officer searching Chad pulled a gun from inside of Chad's coat. "Oh what do we have here Mr…" He waited for a wallet to be thrown at him. He caught a badge instead. "Excuse me, officer," he said almost mockingly. "Malone."

Soon a line of zip cuffed passengers were getting off the bus. "We need two more pairs," an officer getting off announced. He and his comrade walked over to their group to grab the needed pairs.

Chad looked to his left through beads of sweat and saw Harry pull out a gun. He raised it high into the air before one of the policeman saw.

"No!"

--

"Well come over here guys because they're gonna want you all to be using the showers. I might as well get you started." Mike started down the movie theater's long hallway. Advertisements for outdated movies hung in their dusted frames surrounded by creamy beige walls. The carpet was purple and stained with different movie related concessions.

"The water's cold at first, but you get used to it. At least it's something anyway. They're right over here." He lead them into a giant lobby covered in the same purple carpet. Two big wooden doors were wrapped in chains, stamped with planks, and barricaded with tables. White curtains hung in the corner, a sign that shower's were there.

Donald came down from the opposite hallway his brown coat overly bulky. "Ok gang. Showers then, shall we?" Coalmen appeared at his side.

"You!" he demanded pointing at the injured child. "Come with me." Normally the boy would have refused, but this time uncertainty had caught the best of him leaving his mind for the taking.

"Anyway," Donald began, stepping forward as the boy wobbled passed him.

"Who's that again?" Mike whispered to Chad."

"Jeremy."

"Excuse me guys. I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything here, but we have important stuff to go over here. Mike you should know more than anyone that we're a team here. That's the honest truth people. If you don't contribute to the team we might as well all be zombie meat." He puckered his lips preparing for the next sentence.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Donald. I'm pretty high up as far as power goes around here, but anyway lets get to the basics of showering. Firstly it's important to remember this one phrase, "everything goes back,"" he examined the sentence before deciding it'd be effective to repeat it.

"Everything goes back," he said. Donald awaited a question, but got none. "What I mean about that," he began again stumbling over is words. "when you shower don't let anything go down the front of your face. You don't want anything getting in your eyes or something like that. That would not be good." He looked at his boots which were also brown.

"Undress."

Matt looked up at his older brother Rodney for instruction. The boy just nodded and started to take off his clothes. The faces of the survivors were marked by only slight uneasiness, for they had suffered worse before.

"This is a violation of my rights." Tracey whined.

"Listen missy, it's very important that you take these showers. The three boys tried not to look at her, but Tony was of no positive influence. Donald looked away gentleman like before speaking again. "Go ahead." I'll be waiting here when you're done."

The showers were old and rotted. Carpet left exposed to the water had retained mold everyone had to walk over. Small poorly constructed drain sat in the middle of the five showerheads.

Tony kept watching the females closely without the slightest bit of arousal. Matt had the most embarrassingly obvious attraction to them. It might have been funny for the pair of older brothers to make fun of him, but they were too warped after all they'd been through to care.

"Ok," Donald called. Several men rushed forward still in gear to check the piles of clothes. Nothing of any interest was found before they left.

"Looks like that's good to go then," Donald said in reply to their leaving. No one bothered to look at him.