"If you can't pull your own weight you aren't coming with us," Zack said to him. "It's that simple." Anthony looked over to Cody for support but he was standing with his arms crossed over his chest and shook his head.
"Zack's right. We aren't a babysitter. You might end up getting us killed. Sorry, kid." Cody turned his back on Anthony and started walking away, pack slung over one arm. "Good luck," he called back as he walked to the door.
"What do you want me to do? Whatever it is I'll do it!" he yelled. "I'll do it! Please don't leave me behind!"
"You had your chance and you blew it," Zack told him. "Don't try to follow us. I'll shoot you." Zack spun on a heel and followed his brother out into the night.
Anthony woke up in a cold sweat. He opened his eyes and turned his head to see Cody's sleeping form laying only a few inches away. He bit back a random sob and tried to relax with a series of deep breaths. It was only a dream, one that he wished would fade back into the haze it came from, but it still made him shiver. He scooted closer to Cody and pulled the sheet back up to his chin.
Anthony looked at the ceiling for a long while before sleep took him again. He fought back tears once when the idea of them leaving him in real life refused to get out of his mind. He drug a hand across his eyes to wipe away the wetness and almost on cue, Cody shifted in his sleep and draped a hand over him. Anthony relaxed into the sheets and it wasn't long before he was under again, peaceful.
Nightmares rarely come alone and this night was no exception. Not long after he'd drifted off under Cody's arm, Anthony was tossing in his sleep again, tormented by another bad dream. He tossed in his sleep, desperately wanting to wake up but was unable to do so.
He was back in their house again, a few days after the zombie outbreak had fully taken root across the world. His mother was sitting on the edge of the couch, focused on the television with a cigarette dangling from two fingers, more ash than unburned tobacco. He was in the kitchen fixing himself a bowl of cereal with the last of their milk.
"They said that there's Army and National Guard units forming up all over the place, Ant. They're calling them exterminationgroups. Did you hear that? Help will be on the way soon."
"I heard it, Mom," he told her but didn't believe it. He fished a spoon out of the drawer and shut it.
"They're showing video of troops getting into trucks," she said as he walked back into the room. "Look at all of them."
"That's a lot of trucks," he said as he took in the end of the video. There was no bar telling where the video was filmed from or even a little live bar floating in the upper right corner. He looked at his mother, to tell her that the video could be from anywhere, anytime, but couldn't when he saw her face. She looked upbeat and hopeful for the first time in days and he refused to ruin it.
Three days passed in a second of dream time and he was sitting on the couch while his mother was in the kitchen getting him a glass of water. He yawned and leaned back against the couch. He heard her scream and the glass break just like he had a thousand times and was in the kitchen with her a heartbeat later.
"Help me," she screamed. "Help me, Anthony!" she reached a hand out for him and he watched as her skin darkened and shriveled before his eyes. He looked up and saw the zombie's ragged teeth deep in his mother's throat. "It's...so cold," she said as the life drained from her eyes and was replaced with maddening, ravenous hunger.
"Mom!" he croaked and took a half-step back as she reached for him again. Her nails had turned a putrid green and they clutched at the air inches from his nose. Anthony turned to run and his foot slipped on the tile floor. He went down to one knee and immediately launched himself sideways and out of her grasp. He regained his feet and ran for the door.
"Join us," the zombie that was his mother called to him as he fumbled with the lock. He looked over his shoulder and barked a short cry before flinging the heavy wooden door open. His fingers reached for the latch on the storm door when he saw his mother standing on the front porch. He pinwheeled his arms and stepped back as her fingernails began carving through the glass.
"You won't feel a thing, I promise. I've never lied to you, have I, Ant?" his kitchen-zombie-mother rasped from behind him as she stumbled across the carpeting.
Anthony, desperate, turned and looked to the nearby stairs and saw his only escape route. He'd taken the first three steps in one leap before coming face to face with a third version of his undead mother. "Come on, Ant. Don't be scared." She reached out for him and he fell backwards and landed gracelessly in a heap at the bottom of the steps.
He shook his head and his vision cleared enough to make out three familiar but terrible heads looming over him. "It will all be over in a second," they said together as they bent down. He felt their dead fingers crawling over his skin and he shuddered with revulsion. A scream began forming in his throat but it was blocked by his terror. The damn finally burst and he let it out.
Anthony sat up, eyes wide and fingers knotted white around a fistful of blanket. He jerked his head around the room and relaxed once the fact that it was only a dream sunk into his mind. The twins were still sound asleep, he noted, and was grateful that he didn't scream in the waking world. He forced his hands to let go and laid back down with a sigh.
He knew from experience that sleep wouldn't be coming back, not after a dream like that. His heart was still racing when he gently rolled off their make-shift bed and got to his feet. He looked back and saw Zack sprawled out over half the bed and Cody curled into a small ball and wondered what he slept like.
After peeing in the bathtub, Anthony returned to the upstairs room and dressed. He checked his watch and felt his eyes getting moist when he saw the date. "We were supposed to leave for vacation today," he said softly. "To the beach. I've never been to the beach. And Disney. Never been there, either. Probably never will now." His mind tried to bring up images of his mother and he quickly changed thoughts before it could, picturing a zombie Mickey Mouse with red-stained gloves slowly chasing after tourists. He grinned a small, sad grin.
Anthony took a deep breath to calm himself and sat down in a computer chair across from the twins. He looked at them fondly, wondering for the hundredth time why they would pick up a stray like him and being thankful just as many times that they did. I've got to show them that I'm useful, that I can take care of myself. He had no illusions that he'd have been able to survive forever by himself. There had been enough close calls already and he knew that his luck would have eventually run out. He was determined to watch out for them, watch over them.
He didn't know that he'd fallen dreamlessly asleep. Anthony woke up with a start to a noise from the street below, a trash can being kicked or knocked over from the sound of it. He crept to the window at the end of the room, ignoring his foot that seemed to have missed the wake up call the rest of his body had received. He hissed at the pins and needles feeling as he reached out and separated two of the wooden blind slats.
He saw only four of them down there and was relieved. Four was a relatively safe number and he hesitated to wake the twins. Anthony let the blinds fall closed and retrieved his chair and reopened his spyhole. Still just four. The one in the lead was missing its entire left arm and the majority of its scalp but it still trudged on. Disheartened, Anthony watched. And thought.
Inevitability. Anthony knew the word, had heard it many times, but it didn't come running when his brain called for it. It would have fit what he was thinking perfectly, much more than the eventually that was running through his mind like a river. Eventually. Eventually. Eventually.
"They're going to get us eventually," he said softly as he sat on his perch and watched the walkers – their word, the colony people. "How can we stop things that don't bleed and don't die when they're missing pieces?" Another staggered into view from around the corner. As he watched, he knew they knew he was there. Near. There. Close.
The walkers, zeds – Zack's word, one of many like punkass undead nasty zombie motherfuckers when he was shooting at them – were turning their heads on rusty-hinged necks and attempting to smell him out. Them out. Or maybe it was what Cody had been discussing with himself last night; some sort of heartbeat radar. Faulty, to be sure, balky like the old television in Grandma's basement, but working well enough to guide them in the right general direction.
They stumbled past him, up to the end of the block, before stopping cold in their tracks and looking around with more of their sightless vision. He held his breath and willed his heart to stop beating for the long few seconds they looked at the house they were sleeping in.
Their black idiot gaze looked his window over, seemed to pass through the blinds and into the recessed shadow he was shrouded in and meet his own. We don't know where you are but we know you're here, it said. We will find you. Eventually.
Anthony wanted to argue, to scream at it and declare their horde of bullets and blades, and tell it that it was grossly mistaken.
Bullets are finite, it said in his mind. When they are gone, they are gone. Who will make more?
"I'll lop your head off like a dandelion," he retorted.
Blades dull and numbers overwhelm, child. For every one of us you shoot or dismember, a hundred more will take its place. Surrender to the inevitable.
Its soulless eyes held his and he couldn't tear his gaze away. Being on this earth for nine short years, Anthony had little concept of abstract ideas such as freedom or chauvinism but he knew the name for what he didn't see in its eyes. Humanity. It had none and threatened to take away his. He shivered even in the summer morning heat. The thing, a woman, he noted at last, finally shifted her gaze to another house before shuffling along in a new direction. Her followers shifted course as well, heading up the street across from him and forcing him to watch their jerky, elongated shadows chase after them.
Anthony let out the breath he forgot he was holding and jumped back in surprise when the woman turned her ragged head around. There is no hope for you or your kind. We are legion. You are few. You are three.
"I'll die for them. I won't let you touch them."
They will die. They will rise again.
"No. They won't."
They will. You will. We have all the time in the world. It will happen. Eventually.
She turned and began walking again, heedless of a fifth zombie that had joined her small group and shouldering her out of the way. Anthony sat back on his haunches and put his head in his hands. "They will not touch them," he silently vowed as he looked across the room at the sleeping twins.
He neither moved nor made a sound for several long minutes after the small band of walkers departed, his brain busy going through all the things the zombie hadn't said. His eyes finally darted to the rifle leaning against the door frame and back to the window. He sighed and shook his head. Dropping the walkers would possibly bring more on them and he wasn't going to risk it.
Zack and Cody roused themselves a short while later and he was relieved. "You okay?" Cody asked when he saw the way Anthony was slouched in the chair.
"I'm good," he replied, having pushed the earlier encounter and its afterthoughts from his mind. "There were some zombies out in the street a while ago and they hung around for a little bit before they wandered off."
"How close?" Zack asked, going from barely awake to serious in a matter of seconds. Anthony wondered if the boy even knew his hand was reaching under his pillow for a pistol or if it was instinct.
"They were on the other side of the street and went up the block. I think they know we're somewhere around here.
"Then we shouldn't be here if they come back," Zack said as he pulled a shirt over his head. "We'll stop and eat breakfast after we've put some miles behind us."
They walked through street after street of nearly identical houses, cookie cutters as Anthony's mother had called them, and he couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. He craned his neck to take in as much as he could, looking deep inside windows or in the branches of trees or the shattered back windows of a beat up Chevy Cavalier. He saw nothing but the feeling grew.
As they moved, he realized they weren't being watched at all. They were being sensed. Goosebumps ran up and down his arms and he fought back a total body shiver. He knew it was only his mind playing tricks on him but he couldn't ignore the feeling that there was a mass of walkers nearby. "Stop for a minute," he said, closing his eyes and straining to hear any noises in the still morning. The twins passed questioning looks between themselves but froze in place. "They're close."
Zack tightened his grip on his shotgun and nodded. He looked around in hopes of finding more information to add to Anthony's vague warning. They walked on, their steps slightly quieter than before and their eyes a fraction more attentive. The sidewalk seemed to grow exponentially long.
Anthony raised the first alarm. "There! By the house with the green shutters!" He pointed to a house a few doors down the road and across the street.
"End of the block, too!" Cody yelled.
"Shit," Zack muttered as he took in the situation. They were boxed in on two sides and their only escape route would take them through narrow neighborhood streets that might be just as infested.
"They're moving fast. We've got to go," Anthony said, his already high voice raising another octave in fear. He was stuck halfway between pulling the rifle from his shoulder and turning and running. His eyes widened as his legs turned to lead.
Zack saw that he was right with one fast look. These weren't the usual walkers that he was expecting or used to. They weren't what he feared most, runners, but they were almost joggers. He slung the shotgun over his shoulder and pulled his pistol out and fired off a few rounds into the nearest group. Three dropped and another stumbled in the dying echoes.
"Come on!" he screamed, grabbing Anthony by the back of the shirt and dragging him along when the boy's feet seemed rooted in the concrete.
Time slowed down and breaths seemed at a premium as Anthony struggled to regain control of his body. He nearly fell a number of times before his limbs would completely listen to his commands. He was vaguely aware of Cody calmly walking backwards and pumping round after round into the advancing throng to buy them time to get away. His eyes fixated on one empty shotgun shell as it was ejected and tumbled through the air before everything swam back into focus in a rush.
"That's good enough, Cody," Zack called, "let's get out of here!" Cody reloaded on the run and quickly caught up with the two of them.
Their meandering path took them through street after residential street and what appeared to be an industrial park before they slowed to a fast walk. Anthony could feel his heart hammering in his chest as his massive adrenaline surge came to an abrupt end.
"Cody, Zack, I'm sorry about what happened back there," he said when he could finally manage. "I couldn't move."
Cody slid an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. "Hey, it happens," he told the younger boy nonchalantly. "Zack's done the same for me, I've done the same for him, you'll do the same for us."
That made him feel both better and worse. Not even two hours ago he'd vowed that he'd do whatever he could to protect the brothers and they ended up saving him when he froze up. Anthony swore behind closed lips.
"Don't worry about it," Zack said kindly. "Like Cody said, we've both done it. We were somewhere just outside Boston when a bunch of zombies jumped us and I couldn't move a muscle. It felt like someone had carved me out of stone. Cody grabbed my hand and pulled me along. No harm, no foul, right, kiddo?"
"I guess," Anthony replied, completely unconvinced he hadn't just failed a crucial test. He looked between the brothers for any hint of displeasure with him and came away with none. He furrowed his brows and thought as they walked.
"...stop up there and grab a quick breakfast. Or lunch or whatever," he heard Zack say as they walked across a massive parking lot. He looked up from the ground and saw Zack pointing to what had to be a massive, multi-floored hospital.
"Sounds good," Cody replied. "Maybe have a quick peek inside after we're done and see what might be sitting around for us, too. What do you think, Anthony?"
"Yeah," he hesitated, "that sounds good to me."
The matter settled, they approached the stand of trees separating the rows of buildings from the hospital and filed through. The front of the structure was too full of hiding spots for Zack's liking, with the ribbons of asphalt broken by overgrown bushes and trees and high grasses that blocked large areas from view. They headed around to the back of the building in hopes of more open areas.
"You know what I could really go for right about now?" Zack asked as they skulked past the doors that led to the ER. "Deep dish pizza. Piled high with cheese and a pound of sausage per slice. Enough tomato sauce to... " his voice abruptly ceased as they finally reached the back of the building.
"Holy shit," Cody croaked as Anthony clutched at his arm and grabbed tight.
The back lot of the hospital had large receiving docks and wide expanses of concrete and nearly every available inch of open space was piled high with bodies wrapped in white sheets. A Dumpster was filled past capacity and three corpses were danging halfway to the ground. Cody took a look at the grounds and his first thought was that the bodies were stacked like cords of firewood. Clouds of flies buzzed around, thick enough in some places to veil the sheets in a deep black.
"We'll...wow," Zack finally said. "We can go down through that little path between the bodies and find somewhere else to eat."
"I can't," Anthony said in a whisper. "I can't go through there." His knuckles went white around Cody's elbow as he took in the sight. The bodies were five high in some places and splotches of red colored the white field as far as he could see. "I can't." He shook his head and took a partial step behind Cody.
"I don't blame you," Cody said as he moved to block the boy's view completely. "We can go around, right, Zack?" the look he gave his brother told that it was not a question.
"Yeah, we can do that." Zack's mind was already reversing their course and trying to find a way that would take them around the hospital without taking them too far out of their way. It took him a few more seconds to tear his eyes away from the bodies. "C'mon, let's get out of here. This place feels wrong."
Zack led the way with Cody and Anthony trailing close behind. Cody spared one final glance over his shoulder but stopped Anthony from doing the same. "Seeing it once was enough," he told the boy as he put a hand on the back of his neck and steered him along.
"So how many of the bodies were normal people and not zombies they finished off?" Cody asked his brother while Anthony was relieving himself a discreet distance away. He took a bite of cold soup from a can with one eye on the stand of bushes Anthony had headed to.
"No more than half, I think. Who knows what all went on here before they got overrun. If we'd pulled back the sheets I guarantee you we'd have seen all sorts of injuries, not just bites. I bet they ran through supplies lightning quick once things got hairy."
"Probably," Cody agreed. "You aren't mad at Anthony for earlier, are you?"
"No, why would I be?"
"You haven't said much to him since we left the hospital and stopped for lunch."
"I haven't said much to you, either. I've just been thinking about things. I'm not mad at him."
"He just got spooked, that's all."
"Yeah, I get it, Cody. I'm not mad."
"Not for the zombies either, right?"
"Cody, listen very carefully to what I'm about to say. I'm not mad at him. Not at all. He's only nine so how could I blame him for freezing up when a wall of gomers get the drop on us? Hell, he shouldn't even have to be worrying about things like that now. He should be thinking about what time his favorite cartoon comes on or who his teacher is going to be next year instead of worrying about getting munched by a goddamn zombie."
"Good. I just wanted to be sure you were okay with everything."
Zack let out a dramatic sigh. "Okay, if you bring it up again I'm going to be mad at you. Not your son," Zack grinned, "but you. Got it?"
Cody smiled back. "I got it. Speaking of, here he comes. I was just about to go after him."
"Hey kid," Zack called out to the boy, "you didn't wipe with poison ivy, did you?"
"No!" Anthony said. "At least I don't think I did."
"Well, you'll know for sure in a few hours."
Ten minutes later they were moving on again. They hadn't had much luck finding a car they could take and the early afternoon heat was beginning to wear on them. Their hair was matted to their heads and their shirts were stuck to their backs.
"This is ridiculous," Zack said as he took a long pull from a water bottle. "Why couldn't zombies have happened in the spring or fall?"
"Not winter?" Cody asked.
"No, winter sucks, too. I'd complain more if we were walking in the snow. We've got to figure out how to hot wire a car or something. If we keep going much longer today, the bottom of my boots are going to start sticking to the pavement." Zack raised a foot and caught it with a hand to take a fast glance at the sole just to be sure they weren't already melting.
"I guess it's a good thing we're on the home stretch then," Cody told them. "Even if we don't find another car to drive, it won't take us but maybe another two weeks to walk to Kansas. Three weeks, tops." Zack made an oh, only two or three weeks? gesture.
"Assuming we can find a way across the Mississippi if the bridge is blown," Anthony piped in.
"Assuming that," Cody admitted.
"We will," Zack said confidently. "I don't care if we have to raid someone's backyard pool and take their foam noodles and float across."
"We might end up in New Orleans if we do that."
"That's okay, Cody. Maybe we can toss a few beads to the pretty ladies while we're down there." Zack pantomimed throwing handfuls of beaded necklaces to girls on second story balconies.
"Huh?" Anthony asked, perplexed.
"Don't worry about it, Anthony," Cody laughed. "I'm pretty sure we've already missed Mardi Gras but even if we didn't, I doubt they'd have much you want to see, Zack. Then again..."
"I wonder if you could have s-"
"Anyway," Cody interrupted his brother with a look of shut your face before Zack's stream-of-consciousness ramble led to places Anthony didn't need to know about. Zack returned the glare with a smile and a shrug.
As they walked and checked cars, Anthony was quiet, answering questions directed at him but generally zoning out and thinking. Zack wasn't upset with him as far as he could tell. If anything, he was going out of his way to make sure Anthony knew he wasn't. He wondered if Cody had said something while he was taking care of nature's call. He also wondered where he'd picked up the headache that was slowly working its way from one side of his skull to the other and was moving farther from annoying and closerto blinding with every step.
He mopped a drop of sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his shirt and exhaled slowly. No matter what Zack might have said and despite Cody's usual kind words and almost parental affection, he still felt like he'd let them down twice. And the day is far from over, he told himself crossly. He'd made the encounter with the zombies much, much closer than it needed to be and made them take a longer route around the hospital just because he couldn't handle walking through an outdoor morgue. Stupid. He wasn't being much of a help at all. He remembered his first dream and frowned.
Anthony bit back on those thoughts and resolved himself to act right and stop being a burden. He pulled a water bottle from his pocket and it doubled and trebled in his vision as he tried to grab the cap to turn it. "Wow," he said as he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. His eyesight returned to normal for a few seconds before colorful motes began dancing before him.
"Are you okay, Anthony?" Cody asked.
"Yeah, just got a little dizzy all of a sudden."
"Should we take a break? Cool off and rest up for a while?"
"No, once I get this bottle open and get a drink I'll be okay," he told them just before the ground began rushing up before his eyes. He distantly heard one of the twins yelling and felt a jolt of pain as he hit the ground.
Cody was on his knees beside the boy in a second and Zack was right beside him. Cody reached down and felt his neck. "His pulse is racing and his skin is as dray as a bone," he said with alarm. He yanked the duffel strap from the boy's shoulders and lifted him, looking around for the nearest patch of shade. Zack, wide-eyed and out of his league, grabbed the pack and followed his brother.
"What's wrong with him?" he asked once Cody had the boy's shirt off and settled comfortably.
"He either has heat stroke or is close enough to it that it doesn't matter. Give me your water bottle and take his shoes and socks off." Zack did exactly as he was told. Cody took the boy's shirt, emptied Zack's bottle on it, and put it across Anthony's forehead. He took his own bottle and poured most of it over the boy's body, taking care to soak his shorts.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I hope so. What he really needs is ice, air conditioning, and maybe an ambulance but we'll have to make due with what we have. How much water do we have left?"
Zack rummaged through their bags. "Three twenty ouncers, what's left in his, and what you have in yours."
"That's barely enough for one of us on a day like this," Cody frowned. "Maybe not even enough." He daubed the shirt around Anthony's head before holding it over his chest and wringing it out. Zack swore he could almost see the water evaporating from Anthony's belly before his eyes. Cody took off his hat and began fanning the boy. "We've got to be smarter about this. We're lucky this hasn't happened before now."
"I thought only little kids and old people had to worry about this," Zack said as he took over fanning while Cody poured more water on the boy.
"They're the most at risk but everyone has to be careful on a day like this. If it's not close to one-ten I'd be surprised," Cody told him. "He might be nine but he isn't much bigger than we were at seven. And we were short."
"Maybe walking in the winter wouldn't be such a bad idea after all," Zack said softly.
"Nah, then we'd have to worry about frostbite. We'll make it."
They sat quietly for the next hour, Cody sitting cross-legged against a tree with Anthony's head resting on his shins, while they gradually lowered the boy's body temperature. Cody would occasionally check his pulse and nod as it began to drop back to normal. He looked down and saw Anthony's eyelids begin to flutter.
"Hey buddy, how are you feeling?" he asked.
"Better, I think. I passed out, didn't I, Cody?"
"You did. Heat stroke, if I had to make a guess."
"I'm going to be okay, right?"
"You'll be fine. We're going to take it easy for the rest of the day and try it again in the morning."
"I don't want to slow us down. I can go right now. Watch." Anthony started pushing himself up and Cody leaned forward and put a hand on his chest to stop him.
"I'm sure you can but you're not going to."
"But there's," he quickly looked at his watch, "a good six hours of sun left. We can probably get out of Indiana before the sun goes down if we leave now." He tried to rise again but Cody didn't move his hand.
"Hey hey, calm down."
"Cody's right," Zack said. "You need to rest up. We could use some down-time as well. Besides, Illinois will be there tomorrow," Zack told him as he handed over a bottle of water.
"I can go, really," Anthony said again. He had stopped trying to stand up but looked at the twins with pleading eyes.
Zack and Cody exchanged a worried glance before Cody spoke. "What's wrong, Anthony? What's got you so determined to move on?"
The boy didn't answer immediately. He was mulling over his words, deciding how much of his inner fear to expose. He looked up into Cody's concerned eyes and swallowed. All or nothing. "I don't want you to leave me behind if I slow you down."
"What gives you the idea that we'd do that?" Cody asked after taking in the words.
"Why wouldn't you? If I'm not any good, why would you keep me around? I'd be dead weight."
"We'd keep you around because we like you, Anthony," Zack told him. "You're like the brother I really wanted." he winked at the boy. Cody grinned and gave Zack a gesture of playful disapproval.
"We won't abandon you no matter what, Anthony. Okay?" Cody looked down at him and didn't say another word until Anthony nodded. "Ever. You're one of us now, for better or worse."
"Part of the team," Zack added. "And the rest of the team wants you to chill out for the day, got it?" he awkwardly patted Anthony's leg before deciding to leave the touchy-feely stuff to his brother since Cody was better at it.
"Okay." Anthony knew when to give in. Cody pulled him up into his lap and gave him a half-hug. Antony relaxed into it and smiled a real smile.
"Once you drain that bottle we're going to go find somewhere nice and cool and lay low."
"Maybe we should start moving at night again," Zack said. "If it's going to stay this hot, it'll be dangerous to move if we can't find a car."
"Zombies are more active at night for whatever reason," Cody reminded him. "But it could work out better for us that way. We'd sleep during the heat of the day, hopefully, at least, and then be awake when the zombies on the prowl." He borrowed Anthony's bottle and took a sip before continuing. "Of course, we'll also be more exposed to them if we're up and moving at night instead of holed up in a house."
"I think that's a chance that's worth taking. What if we're traveling tomorrow at this time and I haven't drank enough water and pass out when there's zombies around? I know I've lost weight but I'll still be hard to carry with a bunch of gomers on your tail," Zack said as he pulled his shirt up and showed off his much smaller belly.
"Point taken," Cody said.
"So we find a cool place to rest up in, find enough water to get ourselves right again, and then move on later tonight?" Zack asked.
"I vote yes," Cody said and looked at Anthony for his opinion.
"It sounds good to me."
"That was easy." Zack stood up and the others joined him. Anthony put his shoes back on but left off the shirt. He reached for the bag he'd been carrying but was beaten to it by Zack.
"Not this time, kiddo. I've got it." he waved a finger when he saw Anthony was going to protest. "I've got it. You can carry it again tomorrow. Maybe I'll put some rocks in it or something so you'll feel better about it," he said with a grin.
"Or maybe you won't!" Anthony replied, laughing with him.
Well, I've now written this chapter twice and I'm not sure I like it as much as the first time. Long story short, someone got my computer sick and it decided to eat a bunch of files. Awesome, right? I guess the good that came out of all that is that it gave me time to think more about the story and it just got a little longer than it would have if I'd not have had to write it again.
Anyway, sorry for the delay.