Cody didn't plan on going far from his brother's sleeping form while he was on watch but his sense of curiosity got the better of him. He picked up the gun in one hand and the lantern in the other and started walking, first checking and rechecking the fire door that led outside from the locker room before venturing into the rest of the gym. Their barricade was still holding strong and he heard nothing from the outside to make him believe that they would be getting very unwanted company any time soon.

He strolled across the main floor of the gym, stopping occasionally at a piece of equipment as he tried to figure out how on earth it was used. Most times he'd simply have to shake his head and move on when even the diagrams stenciled on the machines didn't help. He continued and walked past the basketball court and found the stairs to the second floor. Cody looked back toward the locker room, momentarily thinking about returning, before heading up the steps to the second floor and its lap track and stationary bikes and treadmills.

Giant windows overlooked the parking lot they'd crossed on the way in and he doused the lamp and studied the outside world in the moonlight. He would flinch at every recessed shadow, thinking it a zombie shambling its way toward them, and then frown and call himself an idiot when he saw it was nothing at all.

"Calm down, Cody," he told himself. "Stop being such a scaredy cat. There isn't anything out there. "

As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw that wasn't entirely true. There were a few zombies in his field of view, all of them ambling aimlessly and thankfully not in his direction. He sat down and watched them, wishing he'd thought to bring the binoculars so he could study them better. As he watched, he saw that they ran the gamut in their movement. One could barely manage to step without almost losing its balance while another seemed to have a gait quite like that of a normal human. And that one was fast, too, covering what Cody estimated to be fifty feet in less than twenty seconds.

"How are they so different?" he asked aloud. "What makes that one fast and the drunk looking one so slow? Is it injured? Did the infection affect them in different ways?" Cody leaned back on his hands and wished he had someone with the answers to his questions. He eventually grew tired of spying on the zombies and decided to continue his tour of the building. Lantern in hand, unlit until he was away from the windows, he went back downstairs and made his way to the employees-only section of the building.

He walked through the swinging doors and nearly wet his pants when the door swung back and hit him on his backside. "Shit!" he whispered and waited for his thundering heartbeat to subside. Lockers spanned one wall with names and numbers on them, small offices were on another wall, and what looked like a loading dock on the far wall. Cody looked around and walked to the sliding metal door and lifted up on it, expecting it to be locked and surprised when it wasn't.

He got down on his knees and lifted it up a few inches to peek out and found himself looking into what had to be the back of some sort of delivery truck. Puzzled, he lifted the door a bit higher and saw he was right. After another moment of indecision, he stood up and pushed the door all the way up on its rollers. Cody stepped into the back of the truck and found a small sliding door between himself and the front seats. He slid it open and looked at the steering column and the set of keys still hanging in the ignition.

"Outstanding," he whispered to himself. "We don't have to walk tomorrow." Cody made sure the doors were locked and windows up so they wouldn't have any surprise guests when they left in the morning. He pocketed the keys and walked back into the building, closing the door behind him and slipping the bolt through the hole. "Just in case," he told himself.

Cody made his way back to the locker room and settled in on the other plush couch. He picked up a muscle magazine and spent the next hour or so being awed at the freaks of nature he saw on the pages. He looked at one of his arms and flexed and saw next to no bump where his bicep should be. He laughed at himself and then at the guys in the pictures. "Bet at least one part of me is bigger than those steroid junkies," he said as he closed the magazine and set it on the large table.

As the time until he was to wake Zack up dwindled, he began yawning more and more. Cody began running through his small inventory of staying-awake tricks and found that they weren't up to the task. He looked at his brother sleeping so soundly and deeply that he felt bad for having to wake him early.

"Zack, wake up, Zack," Cody whispered as he starting shaking his twin's shoulder. Normally it took either an act of Congress or a small explosion to wake the boy up but he was up in a flash and had his hand around Cody's throat before he even realized it. "Zack, it's me," he croaked as he beat at the choking hand.

"Oh shit! I'm sorry, Cody," Zack said as he let go as fast as he'd struck. "Shit. Are you okay?"

"Pretty much," Cody replied as he rubbed his neck.

"I didn't...I don't know why I did that. Holy shit." Zack laid back down on his makeshift bed and put his hands over his eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Zack. You didn't really hurt me," Cody told him, but the way he was massaging his throat said otherwise. "Anyway, I know it's a little early but I was starting to nod off."

"Not a problem, Cody. Get some rest and I'll hold the fort down for a while." Zack kicked his blankets off and stretched while Cody took off his shoes and shirt and slid into bed. Zack had barely retrieved a Monster from his bag and popped the top before his brother was out, buried so far under the towels that all Zack could see was some blond hair and the black shoulder strap of his wife beater. "And a good night to you too, bro," Zack snickered as he took a healthy hit from the can.

He started to pull on some clothes but stopped, deciding that there really wasn't a point. He settled for his new boots and slid the pistol into his boxer's waistband. Easy reach at the hip, he thought to himself as he pretended to draw it like a gunfighter from the old west. "I'm your huckleberry," he said in his best Doc Holiday impersonation. Cody snored his disapproval.

Zack unknowingly followed his brother's footsteps and found the stairs to the second floor. He leaned against one of the treadmills and gazed out the windows and saw huge banks of clouds rolling in, eating up the moon and stars. "We're gonna get pounded," he muttered. "Better now than in the morning, I guess."

Now that his brain had warmed up from the caffeine, it shifted into high gear. Assuming they did make it to the farm, because there were only about 50 million zombies between here and there, should they stay there all winter? Would the zombies freeze? Would it kill them if they did or would they just thaw out and go back to munching on survivors when it warmed up? Zack shook his head. He hadn't ever planned out anything like that in his zombie diary. What if they went to somewhere warm during the winter months? Like the Bahamas. It would be much easier than trying to stay warm in the middle of the Great Plains. Were there geeks in the Caribbean? How hard could it be to drive a boat?

"Oh, whatever," he mumbled after his mind went on with another dozen what-if questions that he couldn't possibly answer. Would they rot eventually? He rolled his eyes and wished he had something to distract himself. "Sure could go for some tv right about now. Maybe some microwaved popcorn and a chocolate milkshake." Zack turned away from the windows and walked back to the steps. "Yeah, and while I'm dreaming, I'll take a helicopter and a zebra, too. And court side seats to the Celtics. And a solid gold toilet seat. Just because."

Zack took the steps slowly and tried to keep his mind from wandering too far. "I really want some pork chops. And we need to find a map." The more he walked around the gym, the more the utter silence unnerved him and the more his mind tried to come up with things to occupy itself. Zack found himself humming songs he hadn't thought of in years and making lists of every single teacher he'd had since Kindergarten.

His hums were soon drowned out by rain pounding down on the roof. He looked up, half expecting it to give way under the deluge and flood them out and half wondering why someone would make roofs out of metal in the first place. It was like being in a room full of hyperactive kids shaking coffee tins filled with rocks. Zack soon wished for utter silence again as he left the equipment area of the gym and its vaulted ceiling and retreated to the relative quiet of the locker room.

Cody was still sleeping but it didn't look much like peaceful sleep to Zack. His eyes drifted over to his bag and the secret stash of porn it held as he cursed the rain or hail or whatever was throwing itself against the building. Cody never slept through storms well and Zack knew that the very second he was engrossed in one of the magazines, Cody would wake up and that was a conversation he didn't want to have again.

He smirked as he thought about it, though. He had been caught in flagrante delicto by Cody about two years ago and got a lecture about how pornography was degrading to women and how he wasn't even old enough to look at it and blah blah blah. Zack, always the early-bloomer, had simply covered up and told Cody to come back when his balls dropped. "Yeah, we're not doing that again. No thanks." He tore his eyes away from the bag and picked up a two month old Sports Illustrated.

They traded watches twice more during the night and each passed uneventfully. When Cody woke his brother for the final time, he was already dressed and dangling a set of keys in front of him. Zack's eyes were still blurry and it took him a second to focus on the jangling mass.

"I went walking around last night and I found a very nice surprise," Cody told him.

"You found someone's keys laying around? That's great," Zack yawned.

"No, not quite. I found them in the ignition of a delivery truck."

Zack narrowed his eyes and looked at his brother. "I don't remember a delivery truck being anywhere inside the gym, Cody."

"It wasn't. I checked the loading dock and it was backed up to the door."

"Jeez, Cody. Just because you have a gun doesn't mean that you should go looking for trouble."

"I didn't. I listened at the door and didn't hear anything so I rolled it up an inch or so and looked out through the bottom and was staring into the back of the truck. And before you ask, yes, the truck was zombie-free. The doors were locked and the windows were up."

Zack was now feeling a little better about Cody's discovery. He didn't stumble into it blindly like Zack thought he did. Maybe there's hope for him yet, he thought. "My bad, bro. I was just worried for a minute. How much gas is in it?"

"I...don't know. I didn't turn it on."

"That was probably for the best," Zack said when he saw Cody looking a bit crestfallen. "You found the truck but didn't start it up because you might have drawn a ton of geeks down on you in the middle of the night. I would have done the same thing." Zack's words inflated his brother.

"Thanks, Zack. Now why don't you get dressed and we'll get out of here. If you behave, we'll stop for a McMuffin or something."

"Was that a joke by Mister Serious over there?" Zack laughed. "Who knew it would take a zombie apocalypse to bring out your sense of humor?" he got up and ruffled his brother's hair.

Zack got dressed and they packed up their few belongings and made their way to the loading dock. They both put their ears against the steel door and listened for any sounds and were soon satisfied that they wouldn't have unexpected guests in the immediate future. Cody pulled the bolt from the lock and they rolled the door up.

"You weren't kidding, Cody," Zack said as they walked into the truck.

"Of course I wasn't. Now help me figure out how to get the truck's door down so we can get out of here." That problem was quickly solved and Cody latched it.

"Hand over the keys," Zack told him as they looked at the front seats.

"No way. Our deal said that I get to drive first, remember?"

"Okay, fine. I don't know why I agreed to that. You haven't ever driven before," Zack said as he motioned for Cody to take the driver's seat.

"Yeah, and you have? Grand Theft Auto doesn't count." Chagrined, Zack sat in the passenger seat and buckled up while Cody tried to adjust his seat. "Who sat here last, Dwight Howard?" Cody mumbled, naming one of Zack's favorite NBA players (and one of the few he knew that wasn't Kobe or LeBron or Michael Jordan-did he even play anymore? Cody wasn't sure) who just happened to be about a mile tall as far as Cody was concerned.

"Yep, it was him. He moonlights as a delivery man when he's not playing basketball. He has to bring in a little extra money. Sixteen million a year doesn't go as far as it used to these days."

Cody snorted as he slid the keys in and turned the ignition, almost expecting the truck to not start. It did and he looked over at his brother with a glance that filled with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. "Let's do this." Cody slid the gearshift into D and goosed the gas pedal and the truck tentatively lurched away from the dock, throwing both of them against their seat belts.

"Stop driving like Mom. Smooth and easy on the gas, Cody."

Cody listened and had the truck going around the parking lot on a few practice laps as he got the hang of driving making sure to hit every large puddle he saw. He laughed as the water sprayed up and was soon confident enough in his abilities to swing the vehicle toward the exit and the main road beyond. He stopped at the intersection and flipped on his turn signal.

"Really?" was all Zack could say.

"I was-"

"Just go, you goof," Zack laughed.

Cody did. He pulled the truck out and aimed for the center of the road and stepped harder on the gas. They began accelerating and Zack could see a wide smile blossoming across his brother's face and couldn't help but grin a little himself. He looked in the side mirror and saw the gym already all but gone in the distance. As long as the roads stayed relatively clear they could go as far as they would all day on foot in an half an hour in the truck. He settled back against the seat and enjoyed the view.

"How is the gas tank looking?" he asked after they'd been going for a while. "There'll be an F and an E and a needle somewhere in between. Hopefully closer to the F."

"I know what it looks like," Cody shot back as he looked down at the cluster of gauges. "We've got between a quarter and half a tank. And assuming this truck gets at least fifteen miles to the gallon and its tank holds somewhere around eighteen to twenty gallons, that means we can probably get-"

"Don't care. Just drive." Zack closed his eyes and started to doze as the miles rolled past. He'd been drifting in and out of sleep for about ten minutes when he felt the truck start to slow down. He opened his eyes and saw that the road ahead had become more crowded with abandoned cars. Cody slowed down further and began weaving between them.

A metal-on-metal screech ripped the air as Cody cut it too close and sideswiped one of the cars. He muttered something under his breath and yanked the wheel to the right and did it again with another car on the other side. "Damn it."

"Calm down, Cody. Just take it easy."

"It's harder than it looks. Next time we're taking a little car instead of a truck." Cody took a deep breath and focused on finding a path through the traffic. He forced his fingers to release their death grip on the steering wheel and tried his best to relax as he maneuvered the truck around the obstacles. He made it through the maze of cars and back to the open road and wiped his brow.

Zack felt the truck accelerate and started to drift off again. He opened his eyes but they closed almost as quickly. We've got to figure out a better way to stand watches, he thought as he yawned. Or we need more people. He dropped off into strange dreams without realizing it.

Cody spared Zack a few glances as he drove. He was more than a little envious that Zack got some extra shut-eye but still avoided all the potholes that seemed to call out hit me, Cody! Hit me! as they neared. He drove on, reaching the hour mark according to the clock on the dashboard. Forty miles or so, he figured. Nice. His feet gave quiet thanks.

He breasted a small hill and saw a small mob of zombies wandering around in the middle of the road a half mile or so further on. Cody slowed and Zack's eyes popped open.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked.

"There's some of your geeks in the road in front of us."

"So?"

"They're in the way."

"Hit them."

"Are you crazy?"

"Probably, but that doesn't matter. Hit them."

Cody shrugged his shoulders and hit the gas, avoiding the urge to yell out "Punch it, Chewie" as he did so. The truck picked up speed and plowed into the zombies. The first one all but came apart on contact and showered the front of the truck and windshield with gore, one of its arms landing on the hood like some sort of grizzly ornament. Cody flicked on the wipers and cleared his view as he ran the rest of them under the truck.

"Okay, that was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," he said as they rounded a curve and got back into zombie-free driving.

"If that creepy arm wasn't still there on the hood, I'd say it was the most awesome thing I've ever seen," Zack replied. He made little shooing gestures at the arm but it didn't move. "Next time we stop I'm knocking that thing off."

"Next time we stop it won't matter since we'll be out of gas," Cody told his brother.

As it turned out, Cody was wrong. They'd gone another ten miles and Cody was quickly discovering that driving wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Yes, it was fun for a little while but then it got incredibly boring as mile after mile rolled by and all you could see was the road in front of you and trees on both sides. And something laying across the road in front of you.

Cody slammed on the break with both feet just as Zack yelled "watch out!" and something that sounded like "spike strip!" but it was too late. They skidded across whatever it was and heard two double pops as their tires exploded and shredded. Cody fought to keep control of the speeding truck but it was impossible with only the rims touching the road. He jerked the wheel one way and then back the other as he tried to keep the truck from rolling.

Physics eventually won out and the truck went over, throwing both boys against their restraints as it rolled across the pavement before coming to a rest upside-down. Cody found himself face-to-face with a dangling air freshener as he checked to be sure he was still in one piece.

"You okay?" he asked Zack.

"I think so. Now hurry up and get your seat belt off. We have to get out of here."

"Huh?"

"Just trust me on this for now. I'll explain later," Zack said as he unlatched his belt. He pulled on the door handle and felt resistance so he put his shoulder into it and it opened. Cody did the same on his side and dropped to the ground after managing to grab their bags. "Come on," Zack called quietly and Cody followed him as he raced for the trees.

"What are we running for?" Cody asked when Zack stopped for a breather. They'd run zigzags for nearly five minutes through trees and bushes and other small plants and Cody was lost.

"Hush," Zack said as he pulled Cody's head close to his own. "That strip didn't get in the middle of the road by itself, Cody," he whispered. "Now be quiet for a few minutes."

Cody went silent and tried to help his brother listen for whatever it was he was listening for. As far as Cody could hear, the only sounds in the area were birds and his own heartbeat. He looked at Zack and got a hang on gesture. Zack looked like he was straining to pick up any sound. His eyes were closed and he was turning his head from side to side. Finally, he was satisfied.

"I think we're okay now. If they were coming after us, we lost them in the woods."

"Who's they?"

"Whoever set out that spike thing, Cody."

"Why would someone do that?"

"So they could take our stuff, I guess. I bet there's people picking through what's left of the truck right now."

"I hope they don't mind coming away with a bunch of nothing," Cody said wryly. "The only thing in that truck was some spare change. And why would they even bother wrecking us? It's not like there aren't dozens of places where they could get stuff around here."

"They did it because they can. Who's going to stop them? The police? Yeah, right. Sure, they could go to a store like we did and face the same chances of getting munched on, but why? They can just wreck whoever is driving down the road and take their stuff."

"That's just not right."

"No, it's not. But we're playing with new rules now, Cody. Fair and right don't mean anything anymore." Zack dug a water bottle from his bag and took a sip. They didn't have many left and he wanted to make it last. He was trying to figure out the best way to refill their supply when he noticed Cody was talking to him. "Huh? Sorry, Cody. I was thinking."

"I asked you how many people you think they might have wrecked."

"I don't even know," Zack said after he thought it over for a bit. "We've seen a bunch of wrecked cars in the roads around here. I didn't think to look at any of their tires, though. Maybe a few, maybe dozens."

"Maybe they aren't even around here anymore. They might have gotten bit," Cody opined as he took a drink from one of his bottles.

"Possibly. Either way, I want to get away from here. Like I said before, just because we have a gun doesn't mean we should go looking for trouble." Zack screwed his bottle's lid back on and stuck it in the bag before helping Cody up. "We'll find the road again a few miles from here."

A few miles ended up turning into a few hours as they wove their way through small towns and fields before before finding the highway again. Cody lobbied to commandeer another car but Zack vetoed that idea, saying that he wanted to get further away from the site of their accident before they got back on the road. Cody began to think that his brother was suffering from a bad case of paranoia after they'd passed the fifth car with keys still in the ignition without taking it. He didn't say anything, though. Zack had managed to get them this far and Cody trusted his brother's instincts.

It wasn't until after they'd eaten a late lunch in a baseball field that Zack said they could get back behind the wheel again. "I get to drive this time. You kind of didn't do so well the last time, Cody."

"I seem to remember having some help in wrecking the truck, you know."

"It was a joke. Calm down." They packed up and started moving again, Zack shaking his head as Cody made a detour to put their trash in a garbage can. Cody began to wish that he'd spoken up earlier as they passed car after car that either had no keys or keys and a stick shift. "I can drive one of those," Zack argued.

"Oh yeah? How do they work? When do you use the clutch?"

"They, uh..."

"You only know about them from The Transporter, right?" Cody had tried to explain how they worked one night while they were watching the movie. Zack was impressed that the car had three pedals instead of the usual two and how the man never seemed to use the brake. "I know I can't drive one and I damn well know that you can't drive one, Zack, so let's keep moving."

They did. Before long, their luck turned and they found a well-worn little hatchback with an automatic transmission and the keys. Zack declared he was driving this time around and settled into the driver's seat after the boys had stowed their gear in the back. Once they were strapped in, Zack turned the key and groaned as the engine struggled to turn over. It grunted and wheezed before finally catching and he popped it into gear before the car could change its mind. He peeled out and nearly ran it into a ditch before he got it under control.

"Slow and steady, Zack. It's harder than it looks," Cody said as Zack struggled with the steering wheel.

"Any slower and we might as well be walking." Zack swore and finally managed to get the car aimed down the center of the road. "And for the record, this car doesn't count as me driving since it's older than we are and sucks. I get to drive again next time we find a car with power steering that actually works."

Cody started to argue but didn't when he saw the muscles in his brother's forearm straining to hold the car where he wanted. The last thing he needs now is a distraction, Cody thought as he looked out the window, only partially listening to Zack swear at the car as he attempted to manhandle it around a curve.

"No wonder they left this piece of shit behind," he said, "I'd have left it on the side of the road, too. Come on, you rust bucket!"

Cody tuned him out as they drove. He opened the glove box and looked around, hoping to find a map but only coming up with the owner's manual and a ton of fast food napkins and catsup packets. He smirked, thinking that was the exact same thing he'd expect to find in Zack's first car.

For a rust bucket, the car got them surprisingly far before it ran out of gas. The afternoon had rolled by and the shadows were getting long when it began sputtering. Zack aimed it at the nearest ramp and left the highway, managing to just make it before the engine died. They coasted to the end of the ramp and Zack came to a halt at a long-dead stoplight.

"Which way?" Zack asked as they got out and looked around.

"I don't think it really matters tonight," Cody said as he pointed in each direction. "Looks like houses both ways if we go far enough."

"True. We'll go left. But not just yet." Cody looked at him with questioning eyes as Zack walked to the side of the road and grabbed the largest rock he could find. Cody knew what was going to happen next as Zack hopped on the hood and smashed the rock through the windshield. "Now we can go."

"Feel better?"

"Very much." They walked along the side of the road, each boy thinking his own thoughts, until they neared the rows of houses. Cody grabbed his brother by the shoulder and stopped him in his tracks.

"Listen!"

Zack was about to tell Cody he was crazy but then he heard it. "Music!"

"Janet Joplin, to be exact."

"Who?"

"Some woman Mom liked back in the day. I think Mom said she overdosed and died in a pool of her own vomit."

"Do you know how much vomit it would take to fill up a pool?"

"It's just an expression, Zack. But what do you think? Should we find it?"

"Stealthily. We'll scout it out and if it looks good, we'll drop in. If it smells the least bit wrong, we're out of there and no one knows we were even there." Cody agreed to that plan and they moved to the other side of the street to wrap themselves in the setting sun's shadows as the zeroed in on the music.

"These people are either really stupid, really well armed, or there aren't many zombies around here," Zack whispered as they staked out the house they believed to be the source.

"Or maybe they're just old and don't care," Cody said as he handed Zack the binoculars. "Kitchen window."

"Or that. He looks like he's every bit of fifty and she can't be that far behind." As Zack watched, the woman was wearing an apron and cooking something over a small gas camping stove while the man was chopping something up on a cutting board beside her. "They look like someone's grandparents."

"Are we doing it?" Cody's voice was eager.

Zack studied the window for another moment and then studied his brother before answering. "I think so." Zack wanted to throw the idea of visiting strangers into the fire but he couldn't. Nothing jumped out at him screaming that this was a bad idea, nothing looked wrong. That in itself bothered him slightly. "We'll stay the night if they let us." Cody looked incredibly relieved. "If nothing else, we'll get a good night's sleep out of it and maybe a hot meal."

Zack led them to a tall fence a few yards from the kitchen window. It was obviously new, he noticed. The earth around the posts hadn't settled yet. He was about to call out when the man came to the window and beat him to it.

"Don't move yet, boys. Let me turn off the defenses before you blow yourselves up." He disappeared from view and the twins turned to each other and both mouthed defenses? at the same time. "Okay, it's safe. Come around to the garage door and I'll let you in," the man told them as he reappeared in the window.

Sorry this chapter took so long, guys and gals. Too much work and not enough free time for the last two weeks or so. This chapter was mostly written to University of Louisville basketball games (go Cards!), Detroit Pistons games (stop losing, please!) and...I can't believe I'm saying this, but Rihanna. I grew up on 80s glam rock and 90s grunge and industrial music and I generally think that today's music is utter garbage but she's like my dirty little secret. Of course I'll deny it if anyone asks me. Coming up next, assuming I get to go back to my normal work schedule, will be a much quicker chapter.