A deep rumbling sounded above him, weight pressed against his chest and stomach. Danny stared up into the dead eyes of the Tank above him. This Tank had already chased him down the street and thrown him into countless buildings and cars. His body throbbed and his eyes stung. He felt heavy, unable to lift his own arms to shove the beast away, or at least try. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath upon seeing the Tank raise his fist. Instead of a fist beating him into the ground, like he expected, a small paw pressed against his chest instead. He groaned and opened his eyes, finding an orange cat standing on top of him, kneading and purring loudly. He sighed and laid his head back, "Cat…" he grumbled. He opened his eyes again and looked up at her, "Cat?" he asked.

The cat purred and laid down on his chest, tucking her front paws under her and closing her eyes contently.

"Oh- no, Kitty." He gently nudged her back with his hand, "You're making me want to go back to sleep." He whined. "I need to get up…" he groaned.

The cat laid her head down.

Danny sighed, "Move, cat." He commanded sleepily. He then pushed her with a little more power and got her to move. However, it was only for her to stand up, stretch, and sit down and stare at him. He sighed and started scratching her ears, having her tilt her head so that he was forced to scratch the back of her neck. Her ear twitched and she looked toward the window, then jumped off his stomach with heavy force onto the windowsill. He grunted and held his stomach, "Okay…" he coughed, "That happened…" he took a deep breath and rolled into a sitting position with his feet on the pale, tan carpeting. He sighed and stepped out into the hallway. He made his way to the living room and waved at its occupants.

"Morning sleepyhead." Rochelle chuckled, "You've been asleep for a while."

"Enjoy your nap?" Nick asked.

"Yeah…" Danny mumbled and sat down next to Sam, who was then holding the black cat on her lap. He reached over and scratched the ears on Olive, "Where'd the cats come from?" he asked. "They weren't here before."

"Tacome and I went and brought them over while you were asleep." Vincent said.

Danny looked over and shrunk a little, "Um… V-Vincent, look…" he looked down, "Sorry for being a jerk earlier…" he apologized. "I… I didn't see what you were doing at first, but now I do." He said, Sam looking at him with a small smile. "Thanks." Danny finally made eye contact with Vincent.

Vincent smiled, "Do you feel better?" he asked.

Danny nodded, "Much." He furrowed his brows, "Where are Tacome and Tucker?" he asked, seeing that they were the only ones not present in the room."

Tacome and Tucker were actually walking down the street in a small plaza of shops.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Tucker asked, his new hand gun clutched in his hand and his other hand holding onto the strap to the bag he was given for scavenging.

"Of course." Tacome nodded, "You know how many restaurants are here?" she asked, "Boomers are everywhere. Just shoot them before they get you and don't get blown up on." She advised. "That's really the biggest threat here."

Tucker relaxed a little bit, "Okay, then."

Tacome stopped and stared in the window of a shop that had several wedding dresses in the window, "Hey, Tucker. Wanna pick out a dress for Jazz?" she asked.

"Huh?" Tucker looked in the same window she was looking at, "What!?" he yelped and looked the other way.

"Oh, come on. It's obvious." She teased, "Besides, it's too dangerous to have a ceremony." She said, then she looked down sadly, "Vincent and I broke into a jewelry store and picked out our bands." She said.

Tucker paused, "Wait, you two weren't married before this?" he asked.

Tacome looked at him, "Well, no." she said, "We planned on it and wasn't able to get the paperwork done about it just yet. Now that everyone's undead, we… just got wedding bands and called ourselves married." She wiped her eye, "Our wedding dance was running away from a Charger." She said, "We were barely twenty when this all happened." She said.

"And now you're… what- twenty-three?"

"He is." She said, "I'm twenty-two."

"And your son, you said he's?"

"He's two." She said.

"Why did you-"

"We didn't plan him." Tacome cut him off.

"That poor-"

"Shh!" Tacome snapped.

"What?"

"Shut up." She insisted and listened very carefully.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Impossible." She whispered. She grabbed his wrist and started heading back to the house.

"What?" Tucker asked once more.

"There's a Tank over here." She said, "We're not armed enough to fight a Tank."

Tucker's blood ran cold. "A Tank?"

"Yeah… they're never in this area… they might be trying to switch territories." She said. "Just stay quiet, and we won't have to fight it."

Tucker nodded and stepped carefully. Walking quietly was the easy part, navigating around several cars that may be armed was difficult- considering that the area was layered. Fortunately, Tacome and Vincent had long ago, spray painted a line on each of the windows of the cars they knew weren't armed. "Good thing you tagged the disarmed ones, right?"

"Yeah." Tacome nodded, "But we didn't tag all of them. There are some that we don't know are armed." She said.

"Like?"

"This one." she pointed at a late-model Cadillac, "We don't know whether or not this one has an alarm."

Just at that moment, Tucker had accidentally kicked the back of his own heel, tripping and slamming his hand onto the car. Both of them froze, expecting for an alarm to go off. However, there was no alarm. Both of them let out a breath and Tucker straightened up, "Well, now you know." He stepped back and bumped into another unmarked car. This time, an alarm wailed through the area.

There was a massive bellow that got the two to run twice as fast as normal. Tacome quickly glanced behind her and found that the calm sea of cars had become a vicious tidal wave of metal, glass and tires.

"You idiot!" Tacome slapped the back of Tucker's head and ran faster. "This way!" she screamed and pulled his wrist to the right, ducking into a convenience store. She jumped over the counter and yanked him over.

The rumbling that had been rolling after them stopped, the ceased sound was followed by a loud pounding and another bellow of frustration.

"What do we do now?" Tucker asked.

"Shut up and stay quiet, for one." Tacome snapped in a whisper.

Tucker looked down and away, "I'm sorry…" he whispered.

"I'm not mad at you." Tacome said softly, "I'm terrified. Tanks don't roam in this area. They prefer the mall or a parking lot bigger than that." She explained.

"You have all this down to a science, don't you?" Tucker asked.

"We gotta figure out zombie territories so we know what to look out for." She said, "We have a map and everything."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Tacome sighed. "I really hope this Tank doesn't stick around too long." She said.

Tucker looked back up at her. She had her head rested against the cabinet that they sat against and her weapons on her lap. She carried a magnum at the moment, a pair of swords and a pipe bomb. Compared to what he, Danny, Jazz, and Sam were comfortable with, she was lightly armed. He only had his throwing stars and a handgun that Danny had found earlier. He took a deep breath and looked back down.

"Sorry I snapped at you."

Tucker looked back up at Tacome. He scoffed, "Don't sweat it." He said, "I've always been a little clumsy…" he confessed.

"I'm just scared…" Tacome said, "I don't know if I'll see my baby again…" she said. "We're too far from everyone for them to hear the commotion."

Tucker sighed, "We'll be okay." He said, "Knowing our luck, some miracle will happen and we can make it home safely." Tucker said optimistically.

"'Knowing our luck'- that's your luck." She said somewhat bitterly. "Knowing my luck, it won't be the tank that kills us- but a Smoker that comes out of nowhere." She said bitterly, "Or even a Hunter." She sighed. "I should've listened to Vincent." She looked down.

Danny sat in the living room nervously and tapped his foot repeatedly. His hands folded in front of his face and his eyes staring at nothing in particular. He had heard the Tank. He'd told them that he heard it, but after telling them of the dream he'd just had and his encounter with the cat, they thought he might have just been hearing things. However, his worry grew worse and worse.

"Danny, relax, Tacome can handle herself out there, Tucker's perfectly safe with her." Coach said. He had Jayden sitting on his lap at this moment.

Danny closed his eyes and pulled his eyebrows together. "That's it." He stood straight up and changed forms to his sickly, paler, ghost half, "I'm going out for them." he said, his voice hoarse, raspy and barely present.

"Danny, not like that!" Sam protested, however, Danny had already taken off and had phased through the ceiling.

Ellis, Vincent and Rochelle were first to jump up and arm themselves, "Nick, Coach, watch Jayden and the girls." Vincent commanded.

"Yes, sir." Coach said.

Danny forced himself to stay airborne, and suppressed several coughing fits. He flew in the direction of where he heard the Tank- which just happened to be Downtown Chandler. He looked around the street and finally found the lumbering pile of muscle beating his fists into the ground. He then paused, hearing the growl of an engine behind him. He turned around to see that he had been followed. Sighing in relief, he realized that he left unarmed and without and backup. He landed, knowing Vincent and the others would have a hard time missing the Tank. As he landed, his knees buckled without warning and he fell to the side and coughed violently. As he gasped for another breath and tried not to cough, he yelped when something touched his shoulder, only coughing more.

"Sorry- Daniel, Sweetie, are you okay?" Rochelle asked, kneeling to help Danny up.

He looked up at her and took several deep breaths, "I don't know what's wrong with me…" he wheezed.

"Change back." She said calmly. "If being like this is getting you sick, then don't." she said, "Sam, Tucker, and Jazz need you."

Danny nodded, letting the rings scan him and change him back to a human. He took a deep breath and stoop up, wobbling slightly with a head rush. After his hearing returned to him again, he heard the rapid fire of an M-16 and the powerful shot of a combat shotgun and a sniper rifle. He turned around and watched Vincent and Ellis bring the powerful monster to his knees. Rochelle helped him stand up and watched Tacome run out of the convenience store and hug Vincent in relief. When Tucker stepped out of the store Danny ran and hugged him.

"Whoa!" Tucker stumbled, "Dude, what the hell?"

Danny stepped back and scratched the back of his head, "I was worried… I-" he sighed, "I don't wanna lose any more of my family."

Tucker smiled, "I'm okay, man."

"Come on, guys! Let's get back to the house." Vincent called.

"But we didn't find any bandages for Jazz and Sam." Tacome said.

Vincent paused.

"We can improvise." Rochelle suggested, "We always have."

"With wounds as fresh as theirs, I don't want to risk it." Vincent agreed with Tacome.

"Then Danny and I'll go." Ellis volunteered.

They all looked at Danny, "With your condition- would you even be up for it?" Tacome asked.

Danny paused, "Yeah, I'll be fine." He nodded, "It's only if I try using my ghost powers, so I should be fine, just as long as I don't use them."

Vincent sighed, "Fine, if you insist." He said, "But we're making someone else go with you. And you're arming yourself." He said sternly, "You are not wandering around here with just your fists to defend yourself."

Danny felt as though he'd been scolded. He nodded, "Yes, Vincent."

"Come on, everyone in the car. Let's head home." Tacome called out and sat in the front passenger seat. This particular vehicle- a Ford F-150, was claimed as Vincent's, whereas Tacome drove a sky-blue Grand Marquis. Otherwise, she'd be driving. Ellis, Rochelle, Danny and Tucker all hopped into the bed of the truck, and Vincent got into the driver's seat. As they all drove off, Danny took note of this, "Hey, Ellis, Rochelle, how does the whole vehicle thing work?"

"What d'ya mean?" Ellis asked.

"I saw Tacome with the grey car, and Vincent with this truck." He explained.

"Yeah, do the cars stall that bad or something?" Tucker asked. They all spoke louder than usual due to the wind in their ears.

"No- we all have our own car." Rochelle said. "We just share most of them to conserve gas."

"How can we get one?" Tucker asked, beginning to get excited over the idea.

"If you can find the keys and hotwire it, then it's yours. Just as long as you can drive it." Rochelle said.

Ellis narrowed his eyes and smirked, "Can you kids drive?"

Danny and Tucker looked at each other, then looked down and shook their heads.

"What, too young?" Ellis asked.

"No- old enough." Tucker said, "I was gonna get my driver's permit the day after this whole thing started in Michigan." He explained.

"I was grounded." Danny said shamefully.

Rochelle giggled, "Grounded? Why?"

"Missed curfew." Danny and Tucker said simultaneously.

Ellis laughed loudly, "What with savin' the world and stuff, you'd think they get it."

"They never knew." Danny said.

"Really?" Rochelle gasped. "Why not?"

"His parents were ghost hunters." Tucker said. "With a lot of 'ghost-detecting' equipment."

Ellis got quiet and just stared at them, "Wow."

"How'd you get out of that one?" Rochelle asked.

"By the skin of my teeth." Danny said. "Too many close calls."

"They actually caught him a couple of times." Tucker chuckled, earning an elbow to the ribs from Danny.

"Man, it's gotta be rough."

"It was."

The truck came to a stop after they had pulled up to the house. With a small conversation and a brief moment to regroup, Danny, Ellis and Nick were sent back out in search of bandages. Nick unfolded the map and laid it on the trunk of the car Tacome had parked in the driveway.

"So where're we going?" Ellis asked.

"Towards Lindsay." Nick said. "Not that far- and not very infested last time Vincent checked." He explained.

Ellis leaned over his shoulder and looked, "That's Hunter and Smoker territory." He pointed out.

Danny studied the map for a while. There were several highlighted areas and several symbols in certain areas. "What do these mean?" he pointed at one particular symbol. This symbol looked like the bottom part of a rake.

"That's how we tell what areas are territory to what." Ellis explained. "That one's Witch territory." He pointed at the same one that Danny had pointed to. "This one's Boomer," he pointed to a circle with a line running horizontally through it, "Smoker's." he then pointed to a swirl.

Danny studied these by himself. The next one was a circle with an 'x' through it, indicating a Hunter, next was an arch with a line going down through it, representing a Tank. Three vertical lines was a Charger, a horseshoe was a Jockey, a teardrop with a line going diagonally through was a Spitter, a question mark was a Shifter, a twisted line that looked like a spring was a Twister, and the last one was a skull and crossbones logo, representing a Bulldozer. He looked back at the map and didn't see any skull and crossbones logos, "There's no bulldozers here?" he asked.

"Can't say that." Nick shook his head and folded the map back up. "Fortunately we haven't seen one anywhere around here."

"Or unfortunately." Ellis said. "The big fucker could be really good at hiding." Ellis climbed into a large dodge that had been parked across the street. After hotwiring the vehicle, it roared to life. "Come on, guys, get in!" he called.