S5E07:

"So what do you know about this bakery?" Warren asked Addy as they exited Limbo out the back where Murphy had a car and a couple of ATV's.

"Supposedly it's where they bake the bizkits." The red head replied.

"So why the big mystery around these bizkits anyway?" Murphy asked now wearing a black leather jacket over his red suit.

"Nobody likes to talk about the fact that they contain human brain matter." George replied.

"Well where they getting the brains from then?" Murphy asked.

"No one knows." George shrugged.

"It's time we find out." Warren said as Addy laid a map of all the outposts on the hood of Murphy's car.

"Brain bizkits?" 10K asked with Doc to his left and Bailey to his right, "How is this not your idea Murphy?"

"Laugh it up stump boy." The red man replied, "One of these days this apocalypse is going to make me a rich man."

"The bizkit bakery is on the edge of the no go zone." Addy told them.

"Not the type of place that welcomes visitors." George added also knowing the area well. She had, after all, been here longer then any of them.

"Let me point out a few obvious red flags." Murphy said resting his shoe on the front bumper, "Backwood yokels, secret brain bakery and I'm sure I hear banjo music in our near future. Need I go on?" He counted on his fingers as 10K and Doc fist-to-wrist bumped since Warren was having them split up again. Doc was going to drive George back to Altura to make sure Dante got a fair trial while the rest of them were going to take the ATV's and go find the bakery. Addy got on one to drive and 10K got on behind her, seeing as her only other option was going on the ATV with Warren and Murphy Bailey opted for the one with Addy and 10K.

"Hold on tight back there Bailey." Addy teased.

"Drop it Addy." Bailey said getting on behind 10K, "We've got work to do."

"Oh come on, like you two didn't have a romantic little reunion back in Altura already?" Addy said still in a light tone as she turned around smiling at them. Her smirk dropped when she saw the serious looks on both their faces.

"There's a bit more to it than that." 10K said, his voice dull and Bailey mouthed 'Red' from behind him where only Addy could see. She seemed to understand and turned back around and revved the engine. Bailey leaned forward and wrapped her arms around 10K's middle holding onto him tight so she wouldn't fall off. She buried her face into his shoulder blade a bit embarrassed after Addy's comment but luckily the roaring engine meant there was no room for awkward conversation.

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When they got to the bakery Warren had them park on higher ground so they could scope the place out from afar before they moved in.

"Looks abandoned." 10K commented.

"Doesn't mean nobody's home." Warren pointed out.

"This must be the place." Murphy said, "I smell brains."

They crept down the hill and moved to the first door they saw, creeping around corners and moving as quietly as they could. Addy broke the lock to the door with her Z Whacker and Warren led them inside with her gun ready to fire. 10K moved around and aimed his gun with her while Addy and Bailey followed behind them and Murphy brought up the back. When they entered the huge warehouse-like bakery Warren silently nodded her head and pointed her fingers signaling Addy, Bailey and 10K to check the rooms down another hallway while she and Murphy cleared the large bakery floor.

The first room they came to 10K kicked the door open gently and Addy waited in the frame while Bailey moved on to the next room. There were only a few metal tables and some leftover cooking utensils like a whisk, a spatula and. . . a knife. She smiled as she picked it up and was happy when it slid into her belt just as well as the old one had. She turned to go back knowing this room didn't have any help or answers for them but when she heard voices she stopped.

"Hey, you okay?" Addy asked.

"I'm fine." 10K replied and Bailey felt bad for him, he must be getting tired of repeating those two words over and over again to people.

"Okay, just checking." Addy said then Bailey heard footsteps, 10K must have cleared the room just as quickly as she had.

"Lefty." She heard Addy mutter and worried about how 10K would react to the nickname, Addy hadn't been there to see all the times 10K had blown up at Red, Sun Mei and herself but Bailey knew it came from his own frustrations, she just hoped Addy saw it that way, just in case.

"Come on Cyclops." 10K replied and Bailey smiled, happy that 10K was getting used to letting things brush off his shoulder.

"Oh no, after you, Captain Hookless." Addy said and Bailey heard more footsteps as they headed to the room across the hall, "Look I don't want to pry but. . . damn it, I don't know. I don't know why things have to be so hard. I mean between Mack and. . . and Lucy, my eye is the least of what I've lost."

There was a long silence and Bailey wasn't sure if 10K would reply or not, then he did, "I can still feel my hand in my dreams." He admitted and it broke her heart, "I carry heavy gear, lace my shoes. . . hold her hands, shoot my gun. It's like. . . having a friend that was there, but. . . isn't anymore. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah I know what you mean." Addy replied and after another long silence Bailey came out of her room making her footsteps louder then they needed to be just so they knew she was coming.

"Clear and cleaned out." She said as they turned to her, "You guys find anything?"

They both shook their heads before they all continued searching, then they heard shooting coming from the other room, then saw movement and turned to see a man with a beard and long brown greasy hair. He looked startled and quickly grabbed an automatic gun and started firing. Addy ducked to one side while 10K dove for the other. Meanwhile Bailey backed up and crouched behind a rolling cart of metal shelves that was taller than even 10K. Its lower shelves had sacks of flour which helped shield and protect her from the spray of bullets; then Addy signaled that she'd sneak around to catch the guy from behind leaving Bailey and 10K in one room while the guy took cover behind the doorway opposite them.

"Intruders!" he shouted and 10K rolled his eyes before using a nearby barrel to rest his gun on to shoot, "Don't worry brother, I'm coming for ya!"

When he turned the corner to check where they were hiding 10K shot but missed by enough to give the guy time to duck back around the doorway and reload his gun.

"Brother!" he shouted as 10K moved his position and joined Bailey behind the cart of shelves. He sat his gun on it and turned to her.

"Pass me that." He whispered and she lifted a sack of flour from the floor and put it on the shelf. 10K used his one hand to move the bag so it weighed down his gun so it wouldn't move when he fired it. Together they rolled the cart silently across the floor then he looked through his scope and lined up his shot again. The next time the guy turned to look for them 10K fired and the guy fell back. They heard him whimpering so they knew he wasn't dead but 10K had definitely got him. Bailey saw 10K smirk to himself before they saw Addy move across the doorway and they joined the red head and found her standing over the guy who was cowering in the corner with a gash on his cheek. She knocked him in the nose good before grabbing him by the shirt and hauling him up.

They led him out, back to the room where they left Murphy and Warren. A man with a mustache, glasses and a baseball cap had his gun pointed at Murphy and Warren had her gun pointed at the man.

"Is that the other bruddur that's got us covered?" Murphy asked seeing them come in.

"That you bruddur?" Mustache asked.

"This crazy woman here done bust me right in the honker." Mullet whimpered with his hands up in surrender. Warren took Mustache's gun and he gave a deep sigh.

"So. . . you's are in need of some help are ya's?" Mustache asked them with his hands now raised like his brother.

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"Watch out for the one eyed one." Mullet said when his brother got him a cold piece of meat to use as an ice pack and rested it on his forehead, "She's not nice, not at all. She's mean like a badger."

"I thought you people spoke English in Canada?" Murphy asked.

"We do's." Mustache said.

"You do's?" Murphy asked.

"Sides it ain't no Canada, not no more. No 'merica either it seems. Pardon me manners, I'm Gilly that there's my brother Sco, Scully for short."

"But. . .that's longer." Murphy said confused as Bailey sat down on an old cooler on the floor while 10K looked around at the old shelves, some had cookie trays on them and others were empty, but it did look like this had been a major operation here once. Warren asked Gilly if the rumors that bizkits were made here was true and he confirmed it. Said after the Black Rain they had been heading to Newmerica but they got caught by a pack of Z's and their brother got bit but he never turned. Their mom caught him sneaking brains and that's how they found out about Talkers. Their mom baked up some bizkits using roadkill brains. Once word got out everybody wanted the bizkits so they set up the bakery.

"So what happened, why'd you all stop?" Warren asked.

"We've been under attack from Z's outta nowhere ever since someone blew up the vote." Gilly told her.

"Sounds like someone didn't want you making bizkits." Murphy said.

"Yeah, we thought you's was them. Come back to finish us off."

Warren asked why they couldn't just talk to Gilly's mom about the bizkits and he said their brother bit her and that's why she was locked up in the office with their other two brothers.

"Mom's got the only copy of the recipe on her and she turned about two weeks ago." Scully said, "Gilly and I are running out of options here."

The brothers plan was they were going to try again to get the recipe from their mom, the sooner they got the recipe the sooner they could bake some bizkits and get their mom and brothers back. Right now they were playing rock, paper, scissors to see who would be the one going into the office with the three starving beyond reason Talkers. When Scully lost he started whining again begging for best three out of five.

"Hey we all need ya to keep yer wits here or this is gonna go south quicker than a noofie skeedoo hitting ground." Gilly said slapping a hockey goalies' helmet onto Scully's head.

"A noofie skeedoo?" Warren asked.

"That's when ya hop on a moose's back when it's crossin the river and ya ride it til it touches down. If you're still on after that point ya better be expecting a good chomp down cuz no moose likes a passenger." Then he turned to Scully and started pushing him up the steps to the office as he continued to protest, "You lost! You always pick scissors, you're dumber than goose poop, go!" then he came back down the stairs and pointed to Murphy, "Hit it sunburn!"

Murphy started up an old boom box while Bailey got off the cooler and made her way over to 10K who was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking amused as he smirked.

"Do you think this is going to work?" Bailey asked crossing her arms.

"No." he said still smirking.

"Yeah me either." She said shaking her head.

"I swear these guys remind me of two dudes I saw in a barber shop once." 10K said smirking and shaking his head though his comment only made Bailey look at him curiously. It didn't take long for the plan to go south like a noofie skeedoo and they resorted to a backup plan.

"I think the only way to calm them down at this point is to feed them actual brains." Warren told Gilly. Before they could put it into action though zombies busted into the bakery just like they had at Altura the day of the vote.

"Looks like somebody ordered take out." Murphy said as the zombies charged in stumbling toward them. Gilly took the radio and used it to smash one of the Z's as Murphy and Warren went to join him in a piking party while Bailey, Addy and 10K took the Z's that were coming in from the other entrance.

"Let's get that number up." Addy said readying her Z Whacker while Bailey drew her knife and hatchet and 10K lifted his gun and fired a shot downing one of the Z's. He looked up from his scope surprised as Addy charged forward and killed the next zombie with her bat. Bailey took on one that was going for Addy's right where she couldn't see as well. She used her hatchet and swung making a deep diagonal gash in the Z's torso as its guts spilled out and it stumbled. Then as she spun from the momentum of her first swing she brought her knife around and pierced it into the side of the zombies head.

When she turned back Addy was piking another Z behind 10K while he aimed at two that were coming for him. He shot and missed then shouted for help. He and Addy both spun and Addy crouched with her bat raised over her head horizontally and 10K rested his gun on it. He shot twice and hit both Z's.

"Behind you!" Bailey shouted as she saw more Z's stumble in the door behind 10K. She felt another grab her from behind and she started to wrestle with it.

"Switch!" she heard 10K shout as Addy threw her bat into the air and 10K caught it in his right elbow as he passed her his gun. Addy shot one Z so it fell to its knees then she whacked it with the gun while 10K shattered the skull of the other Z with the bat. Bailey pushed forward keeping a grip on the collar of her Z so it couldn't get too close and bite her. Her shoving made the zombie back up until it hit a table and leaned back against the tabletop and its head leaned into a huge mixer that was so large it could have made enough dough for all the Talkers in Altura. She saw the power button to her right and kicked it with her foot turning the machine on. The huge blade started whacking the zombie in the head harder as it got faster and faster until finally its head just cracked like an egg making its brains spill into the large mixing bowl as its body let go of her and limply dropped to the floor.

Taking deep breaths she turned around and saw the other zombies had all been dealt with. She headed back over to the others and when they met back up with Warren, Murphy and Gilly Warren had already decapitated a Z and had given its head to Gilly who cracked it open with a giant silver nutcracker tool and pulled out its brain. They were quick to feed it to Gilly's mom and three brothers, Scully now among them. Soon they started to go back to their old selves and the mother looked up at them a bit horrified in herself.

"Oh my. Did I do this?"

"Ma it's you's." Gilly said happily as they hugged and his brothers ate. "Mom these American's come lookin' for help."

"Oh my goodness." She said, "I'm sorry ya had to see me looking all dead like this. And I wish I coulda given this place a quick licking before they showed up. What can we do for ya's?"

"We're looking for bizkits." Warren explained, "Our supply has been cut off and we have starving Talkers."

"They want to know yer secret." Gilly said.

"Oh, well, there is no secret." She said, "I was lacing my bizkits with brains for the first little while, then we ran short of brains so we started having flour delivered from Heartland. The secret ingredient's already mixed in. If I can help to keep someone else from going through what we've had to, so be it. We got enough brains right here to make up a batch of the original recipe." She said gesturing to the recently mercied Z's, "Oh and look at this one!" she said happily turning to where Bailey had mercied the Z with the mixer, "Already gotten some brains in the mixer, good girl." The mom said cheerfully and Bailey blushed looking at the ground.

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After they'd made a batch of bizkits they packed them up and got them ready to go with Murphy who was going to go back to Limbo along with the family where they'd be safe. Limbo would be the new distribution point for bizkits and Murphy, having a soft spot for Z's and partial Z's, would keep them safe. Meanwhile Warren was going to go with 10K, Addy and Bailey to Heartland to find out about this flour that they used to ship to the bakers and hopefully learn more about this secret ingredient.