Cody stood behind his brother, watching as Zack tried to pick the lock on the room's door. "C'mon...open already," he muttered as he moved the pin around.

"Do I even want to where you learned how to do this, Zack?"

"Not that it really matters anymore but no, you probably don't. Dammit! Apparently I didn't learn it all that good," he said as he stood up and looked around.

"Well."

"Well what?" Zack asked as he strode across the hall and ripped a fire extinguisher from the wall. He raised it over his head and brought its base down squarely on the knob, twisting the metal and splintering the wood.

"Nothing." Cody pulled the remains of the lock from the door and pushed it open as his brother tossed the extinguisher on the carpet.

"I'll tell you one thing, Cody. We're not doing this all night. This is the tenth suite we've been in and we haven't found anything remotely useful except some little kid's Spiderman backpack and a box of Oreos. And they're those nasty mint Oreos so they don't even count." Zack picked his baseball bat up and followed his brother inside the room.

"I know. I was hoping that there'd be something good in at least one of the rooms."

"Why couldn't somebody have checked in with a bunch of body armor and swords?" Zack asked as he scouted the room, pulling open a large wardrobe and finding nothing but clothes many many sizes too large for them.

"Maybe someone did and they used them to get out of here," Cody said as he picked through a closet.

"You know what we need to find?" Zack asked, continuing as if he didn't hear Cody's last remark. He didn't wait for his brother to answer before answering his obviously rhetorical question. "Shotguns. Lots of shotguns."

"I doubt we'll find any of those, either." Zack continued his chattering as they finished the room. Cody was glad his brother had recovered from the shock of earlier but he wished Zack would give it a little rest. "I think we're done here. Should we even bother with another room?"

"No," Zack told him. "I think if we were going to find anything we'd already have found it."

Cody started to argue but stopped. He'd already suggested they try one more room three times and he knew it was just a stall. Looking in an eleventh and then a twelfth room would just put the inevitable off a bit longer. It was time to do it. "You're right. We'll just have to outfit ourselves somewhere else. There's bound to be a mall on our way out of the city."

Zack stopped in his tracks. "A mall, Cody? Didn't you learn anything from all those zombie movies I made you watch with me?"

"No, I usually had my head buried under a blanket so I didn't notice all that much."

"Ha," Zack laughed, "that's true. But malls are the last place you want to go when zombies happen."

"Wait a minute. Those were movies, Zack."

"Yeah, but think about it. Do you think you're the only person in Boston that thought about going to a mall after all this happened? Everyone goes to the mall in the movies. What if one of those people happened to be bit and turned while they were in the mall and they bit their friend and then the friend bit the next person that went to the mall and so on and so on. You'd have a mall crawling with zombies just waiting for you to walk in. You'd be munched on before the door even closed behind you. It would be like a zombie assembly line."

Cody was dumbstruck and it was a few seconds before he could speak. "Zack, that is probably the most ridiculous thing you've ever said. However," he said as Zack began to protest, "it's probably also right."

"Of course it is."

"So where do we get our gear?"

"Hopefully we'll come across some little outdoors shop and we can get whatever we need there. If we don't...we'll have to get lucky and pick things up piece by piece."

"You've thought about this before, haven't you?" Cody asked as they left the room and headed back to their own suite. "You've planned what you'd do if this ever happened."

"I have," Zack admitted. "You don't think I actually paid attention in class every day, do you?"

Cody grinned and shook his head. "Let's go, George Romero."

"Who's that?"

"Don't worry about it."

As they walked back to their room, Cody began to feel an invisible weight pressing down on him, pushing on him, telling him that they needed to leave now. It was the mother of all bad feelings. He stopped Zack and put a finger to his lips and listened.

"What?" Zack said in a whisper once Cody started moving again.

"I don't know, Zack. Something isn't right. Don't you feel it?"

"No. You'd better not be trying to spook me, Cody."

"I'm not. I swear." They reached their door and quietly pushed it open. Zack's knuckles went white around his baseball bat and he walked in slowly. Nothing looked out of the ordinary and he motioned Cody inside.

"No one's in here," he told his brother.

"I know. I still feel whatever it is. We need to get out of here fast."

"We need to pack still!"

"There isn't time, Zack. We have to go." Zack looked in Cody's eyes and saw...not quite fear, but it was close. Whatever it was, Cody was serious. "Grab us each a change of clothes and I'll grab some food and water. We'll get everything else we need once we're out of the city." After a short pause, Zack nodded and raced back to their room. Whatever had spooked his brother had started rubbing off on him.

He yanked open the drawers on their dresser and grabbed a handful of socks and underwear and a few t-shirts and stuffed them in his pack. He looked around, his eyes trying to find anything else that they might need. Finding nothing of immediate value, he grabbed the pack off the bed and headed back to the kitchen in time to see Cody stuffing two water bottles and their mother's address book into the front pocket of his pack.

"You ready?" he asked and Cody nodded.

"I think so. Let's go. The feeling is getting stronger." They were at the door when Zack suddenly stopped.

"Wait!"

"What?" Cody turned around to see Zack at the refrigerator. "I have food in the bag, Zack! Come on already."

"I'm leaving a note. For Mom. Just in case."

"Zack..."

"I know, Cody. But maybe she made it out. This way she knows where to look for us." He pulled the marker from its holder and quickly wrote out a note. Mom, we're heading to Aunt Jolene's farm. Hope to see you there. Love you so much, Zack and Cody. Cody's eyes started to water as he read it once Zack stepped away. "I'm ready now."

Cody could only nod as he wiped his eyes. A lance of pain stabbed through his heart, momentarily overpowering the urge to flee. "That's a good idea, Zack," he said, forcing the words through his throat.

"Let's go, Cody. You can get emotional later," Zack told him as he guided his brother to the door. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he picked up his bat. He looked at Cody and saw him nodding. He felt it, too. "This is freaky, Cody."

"I know," was all Cody said as he pulled the door shut behind them. They were in the hall and heading for the nearest stairs when Zack stopped dead in his tracks.

"No fucking way," he said softly.

"What?" Cody asked and followed Zack's outstretched hand with his eyes. He saw the numbers over the elevator door lighting up. 21. 22. 23. Ding. The doors opened and they saw at least a dozen zombies in the car. And the zombies saw them. Moans came from ragged throats and the corpses stumbled after them. Cody seemed rooted to the spot as they got their first real look at a zombie; part of him revolted at the sight, another part fascinated that something like them could even exist, and a third, more primal part, that was furious at being ignored when it told him to run.

The smell coming from the open elevator doors was nauseating. Zack felt his stomach do back flips as he tried to pull Cody away. "Come on, Cody," he gurgled, fighting the urge to dry heave in the middle of the hallway. When his brother didn't move he grabbed him by the hair and pulled. "Let's go!" he said as Cody yelped, breaking the spell. They scrambled for the stairs at the other end of the hallway.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Zack yelled as they skidded to a stop in front of the door. "Zombies can't use elevators."

"It seems they can," Cody said. "They were bound to hit the button for our floor eventually. It's just pure luck."

"Never happened in the movies," Zack huffed. He pulled the door open and peeked inside. "It's clear. They started sneaking their way down the steps, stopping to listen at every landing. They heard the tell-tale sounds of unlife on a few floors and gave the doors to those floors a wide berth. They were between the first and second floors when Zack pulled Cody to the side.

"You aren't going to freeze up on me again, are you?"

"No, I'm not. I'm fine now. They were just so...terrible."

"I know. I almost puked," Zack said.

"I couldn't even do that."

"It's okay. Remind me to not doubt your bad feelings again, by the way. If you'd let me ignore it they could have trapped us in our suite. Or worse." The boys quietly plotted strategy for a few moments before Zack retreated back up to the second floor landing.

"What are you doing?" Cody shouted as quietly as he could.

"Something I've always wanted to do – pee on the steps." Cody could only shake his head as he waited for Zack to finish up, trying to not hear what sounded like a troublesome zipper being pulled up as Zack did his business on the carpet.

"I can't believe you," he said when Zack took his place beside him again. "Ready?" Zack affirmed that he was. Cody crept to the door and slowly raised his head high enough to peek through the glass panel. He was taking in the lay of the lobby when he suddenly threw himself to the floor and pulled Zack down with him. They crawled to the corner of the landing after a few seconds.

"What was that about?" Zack demanded as he rubbed his elbow.

"I was looking around and one of them walked out from somewhere I couldn't see and almost saw me. I was so scared I almost pissed my pants."

"You should have peed on the steps like I did."

"No, I shouldn't have. Anyway, I think we can make it out through the main door. Most of the zombies seem to be crowded around the other end of the lobby so it should be a pretty clean shot. The other choice is trying to make our way out through the kitchen. We could possibly grab a bit more food on the way, but..."

"But the kitchen could be crawling with zombies and we could end up being their food," Zack finished.

"Exactly."

"The front door sounds good to me. Are you ready?"

Cody sighed. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"You're not about to get all there shouldn't even be zombies walking around on me again, are you? I think the time for that stuff has passed."

"No," Cody said defensively. "I'm okay. This just isn't the way I thought we'd leave the hotel for good."

"Me neither." He put a hand on Cody's shoulder. "Ready?"

"Let's do it."

The twins gently pushed on the door and cringed as the hinges creaked ever so slightly but relaxed when it didn't seem as though the sound was noticed by any of the zombies. Cody pushed it further and they slipped out and into the lobby.

"Moseby would have kittens if he saw this disaster," Zack whispered as they made their way through the wreckage and blood and random chunks of flesh.

"I don't think he cares at the moment," Cody whispered back, nudging Zack to look near the reception desk. Moseby's tie was askew and most of his scalp was missing but it was most certainly the former manager of the Tipton.

They crept past the couches and crouched low, readying themselves for a dash to the door. Cody looked back and mouthed "on three" to his brother. Zack nodded and felt the muscles in his legs start tensing. His brother's hand moved into view and Zack watched as one finger was replaced by two and then by three. He took off like a sprinter out of the blocks after Cody. They raced across the remaining distance, Zack shoulder blocking a zombie that unexpectedly turned and ambled into their path to the ground, and reached the doors and threw themselves outside.

Cody whistled as they stood atop the steps that led down to the street. They looked around and did their best to take in the sight below them. Burned out cars, dozens of dead bodies, a handful of wandering zombies, and what looked like the remains of a hastily erected barricade filled the street. "Wow," was all he could say, his eyes focusing on a body that had had the top half of its head blown off.

"Yeah..." Zack echoed, trailing off. "This is bad. Looks like a bomb went off."

"We'd better go," Cody said, "they've seen us." As he spoke, three of the closest corpses started moving toward them. One was moving much faster than the others and drew Zack's attention.

"Which way?"

Cody took a quick scan of the street and pointed. "That way. It looks clearer. We can wind our way back over to the highway after we get out of all these big buildings." They quickly descended the steps and started weaving their way through the cars and piles of trash, trying to put as much distance between the zombies they saw without making enough noise to attract those they hadn't. It took them nearly an hour to travel ten blocks.

"We're never going to get out of the city at this rate," Cody said when they stopped for a quick water break. He passed Zack a bottle and took a long sip from his own. "We're still a long way from the 90."

Zack nodded and finished his drink. "I know. What if we stop snaking around and just go straight?"

"Uh, we'll run into the zombies we keep going around. And in case you haven't noticed, some of them can move pretty fast."

"We can outrun them."

"Maybe for a little while, Zack. I don't know if I want to get into a race with something that can't get tired." Zack fell silent as he considered Cody's point.

"You're right. Sorry, Cody."

"Nothing to be sorry about." Cody twisted his bottle closed and slipped it back into his backpack. "You set?" he offered his brother a hand.

"Yep," Zack said, letting Cody help him up.

They moved on, putting another half dozen blocks behind them. Zack was idly twirling the bat in his fingers when he stopped suddenly. They'd just edged around a corner and walked past an overturned bus and stepped right into a mass of zombies.

"Shit shit shit!" Zack yelled as they wheeled around and ran the other way. "Between the buildings!" he added as he pushed Cody to the right. The alley seemed clear in the moonlight until they were about halfway down and then he saw they weren't alone. They slammed on the breaks and looked back over the shoulders. "Great," Zack mumbled. They were boxed in.

"Fire escape!" Cody yelled in excitement.

"You first. I'll follow you up," Zack said as they raced back a few dozen feet. Cody began climbing the rusty ladder and Zack shifted around nervously while he waited. "C'mon, c'mon," he said as Cody struggled up the rungs. One of the zombies was too close for comfort and Zack realized he wouldn't be able to wait. He stepped forward, bat twitching over his shoulders, and swung. The bat connected and Zack felt a sickening crunch as the side of the zombie's head caved in.

"Let's go, Zack!" Cody screamed from the top of the ladder. Zack watched the body fall and ran back to the ladder and started to pull himself up. "Watch out!" He looked down just in time to see another zombie grabbing his foot.

"Get off!" Zack stomped down as hard as he could and kicked the zombie in the face. Its grip loosened slightly and Zack was able to pull his foot free. His shoe, however, remained in the zombie's hands. By the time he'd joined Cody at the top of the ladder, there was a swarm of undead at the bottom at least one hundred strong. He leaned over the rail and spat.

"You okay? You're not...you know?"

"No, I'm fine. Just lost a shoe." Zack leaned down and checked his foot just to be sure. "Yeah, I'm good."

Cody reached down and tried to pull the window open but it wouldn't budge. "Use your key," Zack told him.

"Huh?"

"Your bat, Cody."

"Oh, right." Cody swung and the window shattered. He used the end of the bat to clear the shards from the frame before gently climbing inside. He helped Zack in and they looked around at a filthy apartment. "We should check this place out before we move on," he said.

"After we eat." Cody started to argue but his stomach told him it was a good idea after all. He pulled out an almost whole loaf of bread, some lunch meat, and the rest of their cheese from his bag. They quickly made sandwiches and all but inhaled them. Zack tossed the empty cheese package over his shoulder once they were finished. "What?" he asked when Cody stared at him. "Did you not notice how dirty it is in here? I don't think it's going to matter." Cody could only shrug.

They brushed the crumbs off themselves and got up and started a quick search of the apartment.

"It's a shame the power went out because this guy has about a million pizzas in his freezer," Zack said as he checked the kitchen.

"It's a shame he never did laundry either," Cody called from the bedroom. "I'm not digging through these piles of dirty clothes for anything." He joined his brother in the kitchen and pulled the cabinets open. "2005," he said as he tossed a can of beef stew aside. "I think we're wasting our time here. Let's go."

"Yeah, if we wanted dirty underwear we'd be in heaven. But since we...did you hear that?" the twins went silent and listened. Zack pointed to the window and they stole to the fire escape. Cody snuck a look and couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"There's two climbing the ladder," he whispered.

"Yeah right." Zack looked and saw Cody wasn't pulling his leg. "How is that even possible?"

"I have a theory but I think I'll save if for later."

"Right." They snatched their packs and bats and headed for the door. Zack yanked it open and they set off down the hall just as the first zombie made it to the top of the fire escape. They took the steps in twos and threes and burst out into the foyer of the apartment building. Cody took a few seconds to catch his breath and they returned to the street. After they got their bearings, they set off again, eager to put more of Boston behind them.

They avoided getting trapped again as they wound their way out of the city despite Zack's shoeless foot slapping against the ground with each step. They'd passed through enough of Boston to escape the skyscrapers and found themselves nearing the suburbs.

"I was hoping the streets would have cleared out a little by now," Cody said as they peered around a corner.

"Why? You planning on stealing a car or something?"

"Actually, yes," Cody replied. Zack did a double-take. "It's going to take us forever to get anywhere if we stay on foot.

"You really think you can drive a car?" Zack asked, a grin spreading across his face.

"I don't see why not. Mom could do it."

"Yeah, barely. If we find one, I'm driving."

"We'll see," Cody told him, not conceding the point but not wanting to argue about it now. "Anyway, I think it's time we found a good place to sleep for a few hours." Almost as if on cue, Zack yawned.

"I was thinking the same thing."

The boys kept their eyes open for a suitable building to crash in and eventually found a small coffee shop with a second-story apartment. They barricaded the door and pulled a mattress from the bedroom into the living room. Cody insisted on changing the sheets and Zack, the more he thought about it, couldn't really blame him. They stripped to their underwear and crawled under a light blanket.

"First thing we're doing tomorrow," Zack announced, "is finding me a new pair of shoes. I'm not walking around like this all day. Half my sock is worn off."

"We can do that."

"So what was that theory you were going to tell me earlier?"

"You want to go to sleep that bad?" Cody snickered.

"You can't see it right now since it's dark, but I'm rolling my eyes at you, Cody. Spill it."

"Okay, okay. It goes like this," Cody said, pausing to roll on his shoulder to look at his brother, "I think that the more zombies there are around, the smarter they get. Kind of like a hive-mind."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, it makes sense with everything we've seen today. Remember when the fences in New York collapsed? That wall was up all day. I'm sure the zombies didn't just appear out of nowhere all of a sudden when the filming started. A few of the early shots from that video showed more and more arriving before they started pushing against the wall and knocking it down. They were just standing around until enough got together to realize they could push it over. If that's not enough, think about the zombies in the elevator."

"You said that was just luck," Zack interrupted.

"I thought it was at the time but it fits, too. If it was pure luck, there would have been zombies on more than just a few floors. All it would have taken is for one of them to have walked into the elevator and hit a button. But the car was full when it showed up on our floor."

"So one couldn't have just bumped into the button and gone up?"

"Nope. The buttons are recessed, remember? You have to push them."

"Jeez," Zack said softly. "So it took a bunch of them to get together to realize they could climb the ladder at that apartment, right?"

"Exactly. If they manage to swarm, they get smart."

Zack groaned. "I wish I would have waited to ask you about your theory until tomorrow."

"And now that I think about it, it happened on the news clip of the two guys we saw. There were tons of zombies in the street and they couldn't get to the men from the front so they figured out that they could go in from behind."

"How sure are you about this, Cody? Seriously."

"About as close to one hundred percent as I can be."

"Thought so. And I think you're right. Do you realize that you figured out more in a few hours than the scientists were able to scratch out in almost a week?"

"I hadn't thought about it like that, no. I just want to keep us alive."

"You keep that up and I'll let you drive the car if we find one," Zack said and Cody could hear the smile on his brother's face.

"I'm holding you to that."

"You can hold me to whatever you want as long as you let me go to sleep now," Zack yawned.

"Goodnight, Zack."

"'Night, Cody."

Cody soon heard his brother's soft snores. He rolled onto his back and put his hands under his head, surprised at how hard it was to fall asleep in an utterly silent city.