"I'm getting more than a little sick of the cars we find crapping out on us after a few hours," Zack said as he pulled their most recent find into the parking lot of the mechanic's garage. He slammed the gear shift into park and the metal-on-metal screeching immediately ceased. Zack leaned back against the seat and then punched the steering wheel. "Just once I'd like to find something that isn't as old as we are."

"Any idea what's wrong with it?" Cody asked as he opened his door.

"Aside from the fact that it's making the worst noise I've ever heard, no." Zack got out and walked to the front and stood beside the left tire. "I'm pretty sure the noise is coming from here. Maybe the axle or something." He kicked the tire.

"Can you fix it?" Anthony asked after he gave the tire a second kick. "I bet there's a ton of tools in there." He gestured at the rows of bays behind them.

"Probably not, Anthony. My car fixing skills stop at changing a tire and filling it with gas. But I was hoping that we'd be able to find something here that's drivable."

"Well, there's enough cars here that the odds should be in our favor," Cody said as he looked at the rows of cars that were parked along the property's fences. A quick count put the number somewhere around two dozen after discounting the obvious no-gos.

"They should be," Zack repeated, "but we'll see. Let's head inside and see if we can find where they keep the keys."

"If we can't find those, there's no point in checking out the cars," Cody added.

The three boys left their car, Zack giving it another kick before walking off, and headed for the front of the building. There were six large rolling glass doors and a smaller office door on the far end. From what they could see, the bays behind the rolling doors were shallow but there was plenty of room behind them. Rows and rows of shelves, all lined with boxes and auto parts, lined the walls around an open center area.

"Looks like an old warehouse that was converted," Cody said as he tried to pull up one of the doors. It rattled against the lock and he moved on to the next. He found one to roll up on the third try and stood back as it slid easily up its tracks and locked into place. Zack ushered Cody and Anthony in ahead of him and covered them.

"You two check the office first. I'll be there in a second," Zack said and herded them in that direction. He stopped and walked back to the door. He looked up and saw the bottom of the door a few feet out of his reach. There was a chain hanging from the side of the door but it didn't move when Zack pulled on it. Puzzled, he set his weapon on a cart piled with tools and pulled again, trying to see what the door was hanging up on. He swore under his breath when he realized he couldn't solve the puzzle.

"This is crap. There should be a damn latch somewhere," he said as he gave the chain one final yank. Zack picked his shotgun up from the cart and backed his way toward the office, his eyes flicking between the door and the others. This was a bad situation and he knew it. He came to a halt with his spine resting against the frame of the office door and the shotgun resting on his shoulder.

Cody looked up and saw the scowl on his brother's face. "What's wrong?"

"The door won't close," he said, not needing to elaborate further.

"Of course it won't," Cody replied. "Come on, Anthony, let's find those keys and get out of here." The office was long but narrow, with an ancient, stained desk at one end and boxes of every conceivable type of junk lining every bit of floor space. They ignored the floor clutter and searched the walls and it didn't take them long to scour every inch of wall space and find nothing but bikini calendars and pieces of corkboard with hundreds of invoices stabbed onto them.

"It's a wonder they could find anything in here at all," Cody muttered as he returned to the front of the office. "They've got their stuff scattered everywhere." He rifled through a stack a papers sitting on a box of air filters and tossed them back down.

"Maybe they put them in the desk," Anthony said as he walked over to it and started opening drawers.

"Probably not," Cody told him, but he let the boy check anyway. He grinned when Anthony pulled out a Snickers bar and held it like a gold medal. "Not keys but a nice find anyway, kid."

"We'll check the warehouse and if we don't find anything we'll just walk from here," Zack said as Anthony broke the candy bar into three pieces and handed two of them out. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The three boys left the office and headed into the spacious warehouse. Cody ran his gaze around the dozens of shelving units that ringed the central area. Row after row of parts he had no name for. Smells that he'd come across before but couldn't place. Ladders that leaned against the shelves and reached almost to the ceiling. He whistled as he looked over all the equipment strewn across the floor. "Looks like everyone left here in a hurry."

"I'll say. I bet they could build a car from scratch with all the stuff in here," Anthony said as he peered into a box of spark plugs. "My uncle would be in heaven right now if he saw this place."

"He was a car guy, huh?" Zack asked as his eyes flitted between the room and the front bays.

"Oh yeah. He used to buy old cars and restore them. He always had at least two of them sitting in his garage," Anthony remembered as he walked down an aisle, running his fingers over the front of the boxes. "He was working on an old Mustang when all this happened." Anthony's voice rose slightly and it sounded like he wanted to say more but went abruptly quiet. "Maybe one day I'll go back and finish it," he said after a few seconds.

"We'll be right there beside you," Cody told him.

"That's right," Zack added as the boy started back up the aisle toward them. "Now let's see if we can find some keys."

Zack walked the area, quickly becoming irritated at their lack of progress. The keys had to be somewhere but they couldn't find them. The obvious place, the normal place, would be a rack on a wall but from what they'd seen so far, this place was anything but normal.

"Wow!" they heard Anthony exclaim a moment later.

"You found them?"

"No, not the keys but something else. Maybe even better."

His interest piqued, Zack took a few steps toward the boy and felt his stomach grumble when he saw what Anthony was holding. "MREs," he said. "You found food!"

"I don't know if I'd exactly call them food," Cody said as he took the package from Anthony's hand and examined it. "I read that the troops called them Meals Rejected by Everyone instead of Meals, Ready to Eat."

"If it's good enough to keep our Army fed while they chase camels across the desert, they're good enough for us," Zack told him. "And they have meat in them. Something that we haven't had in a long time."

Anthony wasted no time in tearing one open and letting the contents fall to the floor. He rooted through the packages until he picked up one with chili mac stenciled in bold letters on it. He seemed resigned to being the guinea pig and tore the package open and scooped out two fingers of the chunky mess directly into his mouth. "It's...not bad. Kinda like Chef Boyardee," he said as he greedily scooped out another bite.

That was good enough for Zack and Cody and they each grabbed a pack at random from the box. All manners were quickly forgotten as the boys dug into the first real meal they could remember in a month. When all was said and done and Anthony was nibbling on what was supposedly a cookie but looked more like a hockey puck, there were remains of half a dozen MREs sitting on the floor between them.

"Those were surprisingly good," Cody announced with a belch. "We're definitely taking these with us."

"Yes we are. But we'll ration them out so we don't run through them in a few days," Zack said. "We'll keep scrounging for food along the way so we can make them last."

"There's three boxes of them so we should be set for a while," Anthony told them as he looked at the shelves. I don't know why they're here but I'm glad they are."

"I guess one of the workers was ex-military," Cody said after he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Or maybe a camper or survivalist. Whatever he was, he's just given the three of us food for almost a month."

The trio, their quest for the keys temporarily forgotten, worked on pulling the large boxes from the shelf and stacking them on the floor. Zack was about to say that they'd probably have to take at least some of them out of the boxes to make them all fit in a car when his words died on his tongue. A familiar shuffling and moaning echoed across the vast warehouse.

"Shit!" Zack yelled as he whirled around to find himself five feet away from a walker. He took a step back and looked wildly for his shotgun.

"Zack! Down!" Cody yelled and he threw himself to the floor. A shot rang out from Cody's pistol and the zombie collapsed in a pile with a bullet hole in its forehead. The spent casing clattered to the floor at his feet. He scrambled to his feet and reached a hand down to help Anthony up.

"Time to go!" Zack said as he picked himself up. He started for the boxes, meaning to pick one up and carry it out with him, when another low moan reached his ears. He stopped in mid-stride and turned around and dove for his gun.

"Forget the boxes," Cody exclaimed as he dropped the when it rounded the shelf. "We've got to get out of here!" He led the way and froze in his tracks when he saw the massed zombies pouring through the open door.

"Oh shit," Anthony said softly from Cody's side.

"Is there another way out of here?" Zack asked as he stepped between the two.

"Not that I saw, no," Cody answered and was confirmed by Anthony.

"Last stand," Zack said softly. He put a hand on each of his brothers' shoulders and squeezed.

"We were so close," Cody replied as he took aim at the closest of the approaching zombies.

"We aren't finished yet," Anthony announced, giving each of the twins an incredulous look. He pulled his small nine millimeter from its holster and shot the zombie Cody was aiming at in the face. It stumbled backward and fell, momentarily slowing the throng down. "Come on already!" he said as he shot again.

Their fatalism broken, Zack and Cody jumped to action. Zack began a slow withdrawal, peppering each step with a blast, and Cody led their retreat to the most defensible portion of the warehouse. He knocked over ladders and threw boxes and pushed large jacks across the floor to create a zombie obstacle course as they fell back. The air soon filled with the acrid smell of burnt gunpowder and their ears were ringing as they reached the back wall.

"Get against the wall, Anthony!" Zack yelled as he tossed the empty shotgun aside and pulled out his pistol. "Get behind us."

"I can still fight!"

"Get against the wall now!" Anthony complied, squatting down on one knee to get a clear shot through the twins' protective ring. Zack's distinctively loud gun rang out repeatedly until the clip ran empty. He ejected it and quickly slammed another home and began firing again. "One, two, three, four," he counted until he reached twelve. He stuck the gun in the back of his pants and picked a tire iron up from the floor.

"I'm out!" Cody shouted as his gun dry. He tossed it behind him and reached out for one of the large jacks he'd pushed around earlier. Quickly, he began unscrewing the long steel handle until it came off in his hands. He fell back two steps and joined his brothers, waiting for the horde to reach swinging distance.

"Come on, you fuckers," Zack muttered as he spun the tire iron around in his hand. "Come and get some!"

Cody ripped his shirt off and wrapped it around the handle and tied it tight. "Non-slip grip," he said as Anthony looked at him questioningly. He held the metal bar just off his shoulder like a batter awaiting a pitch and waited for the walkers to take the last few steps.

"Here we go!" Zack yelled as he swung, enjoying the hearty crunch he heard when the end of the iron connected with the thing's skull. It fell but Zack was already turning and swinging at another before the first could hit the floor.

Time lost meaning as the boys fought for their lives. Muscles fatigued and their strength flagged but they couldn't stop. Zack threw a sweeping arc to his left and caught one in the neck before reversing his course and bringing the iron down on the top of another's head in a looping strike. Both fell. Cody swung upward and caught one in the jaw, sending it flying back into group. Someone was screaming but no one was sure who it was.

Sweat poured and black blood flowed but they stood their ground amidst the growing pool of zombie offal. Mulch, Cody thought randomly. It looks like mulch. He thrust from low to high, stabbing under a zombie's chin and coming out through the top of its head. He kicked out with a foot as he pulled back, freeing the pole.

"Zack! On your left! Cody, there's a crawler in front of you!" Anthony called out, his eyes searching for any threat that the others might have missed. A zombie with a crushed skull fell between the twins and Anthony worked to pull it out of their way, momentarily grimacing as his hand reached through it and he felt a wriggling mass beneath an open wound. He yanked his hand out and grabbed the corpse by the remains of its shirt and pulled it from beneath their feet.

The bodies began to pile up as the zombies began to dwindle. By the time they were down to a handful, Zack could barely lift his arms and Cody was doing more poking than swinging with his jack handle. When the last walker fell, it was all Zack and Cody could do to not join them on the ground.

"Let's get out of here," Cody finally said, discovering his throat was raw and figuring that it was him that had been screaming. He put an arm around Anthony's shoulders and let the boy guide him through the piles of fallen zombies.

Once they were outside, they collapsed onto the warm concrete. Cody rolled onto his back and showed his gore-streaked chest to the sky. Zack sat back against one of the closed bay doors with his head in his hands and his hair hanging over his face.

"Zack?" Anthony asked softly after they'd rested for a few moments.

"Yeah?"

"Why were you counting your shots in your last clip?"

It took a second for Zack's mind to process the question. "I was saving three bullets in case things didn't go well," he said as he pulled the pistol from behind his back and ejected the clip. He took out the remaining bullets and laid them on the ground, one pointing to each of them.

"Oh," Anthony said, visibly stunned at Zack's revelation.

"You weren't really planning on shooting us, were you?" Cody asked, looking up from beneath his hair.

"Yes. I was. If we were going down, I was going to make damn sure we stayed down."

"Wow," was all Cody could say.

"Would you rather roam around eating people until your muscles rot off, Cody? I wouldn't. That is the last thing I want." Zack put the three bullets back into the clip. "And while we're on the subject and since it obviously needs to be said, if I get bit I want one of you two to shoot me before I turn."

"I don't know if I could, Zack. Not until I knew you'd died at least."

"It might be too late by then, Cody. We haven't seen anyone get bit and change. It might take a few minutes or it might take hours. We don't know. I could be complaining about how one of the gomers finally got me and a second later I'm sinking my teeth into your neck." He looked over at Anthony. "If Cody can't or won't you have to do it, Anthony."

"I...okay, Zack."

"Promise me."

"I promise," Anthony said after the words seemed to get stuck in his throat for a few seconds.

"Let's take a step back here, you guys," Cody told them after he watched the exchange. "We almost died in there and everyone's nerves are a bit frayed so let's just calm down. We've made it this far and nothing, I repeat, nothing, is going to stop us from getting to the farm. Together. The three of us. All this talk about shooting each other is just nonsense because it's not going to happen." Cody abruptly stood up and headed back into the building.

"Where the hell are you going?" Zack called to his back.

"I'm getting the food and your shotgun if I can find it. I'm ready to get out of here," Cody said over his shoulder.

"Is he okay?" Anthony asked once Cody was inside.

"I hope so. He needs to be." Zack got to his feet and helped Anthony up. "Hopefully he's just a little spooked over what just happened and he'll get over it soon enough. Now come on, let's help him."

A moment later Zack and Cody came out carrying a large box and Anthony was dragging the opened third across the ground. They loaded one of the boxes of MREs in the back seat and put the other two in the trunk. Zack tried to engage Cody in conversation with Anthony's help but the younger twin was having none of it.

They had been on the road again for nearly an hour and the grating metal sound had nearly snapped Zack's nerve when Cody came out of his funk. "Pull off the highway," he said as he pointed at an exit.

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I just realized how stupid we've been," he told them.

"Care to explain that one?"

"We've been looking for cars with keys in them on the side of the road instead of looking where they come from. See that?" Cody pointed to a large red billboard with a stylized ram with an exit number below it.

"A dealership?" Anthony asked as he began to see Cody's logic.

"Yes. Cars, gas, and keys in one stop."

"We just tried the whole find-the-keys thing, Cody. Remember?"

"Quite well, actually."

"And you want to try it again?" Zack looked over at his brother and waited for his reasoning.

"Yes. This car is on its last legs and we need a new one. A dealership, hopefully, at least, will be more organized than some random garage."

Zack slowed down while he thought Cody's idea over and then turned off on the ramp. "We're going to be in and out of there in five minutes. No more. That's my condition to your idea. If we don't find where they keep the keys in that time, we'll go back to finding a car the old fashioned way. Okay?"

"That's fine with me," Cody told him and Anthony assented as well. "It'll work this time."

Zack worked the car the last mile and a half down the street before they saw their target. His forearms were straining against the wheel. Whatever had been grating before had obviously broken and it was becoming impossible for Zack to keep the car from pulling hard to the left.

"We're here," he said as the car ground to a stop in the parking lot. "You two have five minutes and they start right now. I'll watch the lot so we don't get surprised again. If you need help, just shoot and I'll be there."

Zack watched the two boys smash their way into the building and disappear behind a solid wall. He paced back and forth beside their car and wished he had something to wipe the zombie snot from the shotgun. He shook off as much as he could and wiped a bit more on his pants. He'd almost left it behind in the garage but couldn't part with it no matter how covered in filth it was. He'd clean it eventually.

Zack was about to check his watch when he saw movement inside the building. His eyes perked up and he instinctively thumbed the safety off before he realized it was only his brothers. He watched, puzzled, as they pointed between the cars and the glass of the showroom. "What are they doing?" he asked aloud. He was about to go find out for himself when Anthony, looking at Cody, pointed to the glass a final time. Cody shrugged and walked to a new Jeep and climbed in. Anthony swung himself in the other side and Zack waited for the magic moment when his brother turned the key. He couldn't help but pump his fist when Cody gunned the engine.

"Shit!" he yelled when he realized what Cody was planning. He took three giant steps to the side and turned his head just as the Jeep exploded through the plate glass and bounced into the lot. Zack couldn't help but grin as pieces of glass tinkled down on the blacktop. "I've always wanted to do that," he told them when Cody pulled up beside him and brushed a few stray pieces of broken glass from his lap.

"We couldn't figure out how they got the cars in there so we figured we'd just make our own door," Cody said, trying to hide a grin.

"Yeah, that, and it was too awesome not to do!" Anthony added, his face a billion-watt smile.

"I'll admit I'm a little jealous. Now let's load this bad boy up and get on the road," Zack said as Cody pulled the Jeep over beside their car's trunk. It was a tight fit but they got everything loaded in minutes with a little room to spare. Zack spat on the old car before he pulled himself into the Jeep.

"How much longer do you think we have?" Anthony asked once they were back on the highway and making good time again.

"No more than a few hours, I think," Cody told him. "Five at the most if I had to make a bet."

"Five hours," Zack repeated. "It's hard to believe we've come this far. We'll be at the farm by dinner time."

"Hopefully. Traffic could get bad or we might have to-"

"Five hours sounds good enough to me, Cody," Zack grinned as he relaxed into the seat. "If we reach six, you have to cook dinner when we get there."

"Let me check my menu...hmmm...Army rations. Yum yum yum."

Two of those hours had passed and they were on the far side of Kansas City when the calls of nature began to make themselves known. Anthony was fidgeting in the back and Cody felt like he had a bladder full of glass shards. Rest Stop, One Mile appeared on a blue road sign and both boys sighed with relief.

"You know, we really don't have to pull off to a rest stop these days," Zack said as his brother maneuvered the Jeep in its direction. "We could always just stop and pee on the side of the road."

"It's a throwback to when things were normal, I guess," Cody said.

"I don't have to pee," Anthony informed them, "and I'm a little tired of using leaves." Zack smirked.

"Rest stop it is," he said. A minute later he was pulling into one of the parking spots near the buildings. There was a smattering of cars on either side of them but aside from their idling engine the place was still. Cody shut the Jeep off and stepped down. He gingerly followed Anthony toward the men's building while Zack explored the nearby vending machines before deciding to join them.

A short while later they were all outside again, standing beside an overturned garbage can. They were all itching to get on the move again but were enjoying the feeling of stretching their legs. Aside from the few minutes they'd spent fighting for their lives in the garage, they'd been sitting in a car for most of the day. Anthony bent over and touched his toes and gave out contented sigh as his calves flexed.

"Well, shall we?" Cody asked after they'd wasted a few minutes.

"Yeah, I think so," Zack answered. "Somebody blew up the bathroom here and it's starting to smell," he said as he grinned at Anthony.

"No! It smelled like that when we got here," the boy retorted. "It was probably you-hey, that car over there has gas cans in the back."

"Yes it does," Cody said after he looked where Anthony was pointing.

"I'll get them," Anthony told them and started walking across the parking lot. Zack nearly followed after him but Cody held him back.

"Let him do it. He's strong enough. Besides, he probably feels like he needs to do his part to help out after earlier today," Cody said and Zack agreed.

Zack stepped back into the shadows of the building and was liberating himself a soda when he heard an all too familiar moan. "Oh you've got to be kidding me. Not again." He looked back through the buildings and saw a crowd advancing on them. "Fuck this."

"We've got to lead them away from Anthony and then double back to the Jeep!" Cody screamed. "Hey! Hey!" he picked up a glass bottle and threw it at the ground in front of him. "Yeah, that got their attention."

"Anthony, stay there. We'll draw them off and then come back for you!" Zack yelled and saw the boy's wide eyed face nod in response. The twins ran at the zombies and then zagged to the left. The vast majority of the corpses followed them while the others seemed unable to decide which warm body to go after.

"There's a couple of fast zombies behind us," Cody huffed as they raced down the sidewalk. Zack risked a glance back over his shoulder and saw that Cody was right. There were four or five zombies steadily pulling away from the pack. They wouldn't catch them unless they were seriously gassed but it was an unpleasant thought nonetheless.

"Runners. Not what I wanted to see. I was hoping that the last time we saw them it was a one time thing."

"Apparently not. Come on, let's loop around that semi."

Anthony watched as the two boys dashed and took nearly all the zombies with them. His mouth dropped open when he saw them head for the tractor trailer and another group of zombies behind it. "No no no!" he yelled as he began running for the Jeep. Anthony slung the one good gas can he'd found in the back and pulled himself into the driver's seat.

"How hard can it be?" he asked himself as snapped on his seat belt and started the vehicle. Anthony slammed the gearshift into reverse and backed out of the spot in a cloud of tire smoke. "Awesome!" he yelled as he slewed the Jeep around and threw it into drive. He stomped the pedal and laid his hand on the horn. The twins turned their heads around just before they reached the truck and changed their course to meet him further down the road.

Anthony hit a curb at about forty miles an hour and jumped a grassy median. The Jeep bounced hard and the boy nearly lost his grip on the wheel but still whooped with glee as he clipped two of the slower runners and sent them into the bushes. He slowed down as he approached the twins and let them climb in. Pulling the wheel hard to the left, Anthony made a tight turn and raced back up the road and headed toward the highway on ramp.

The manic smile that had been plastered to the boy's face finally faded into a grin once they merged on the Interstate. "Oh man," he said as he slowed down to a more reasonable thirty, "that was awesome!"

Zack, who had been white-knuckling the roll bar for the last twenty seconds, laughed as he strapped himself in. "That was some nice driving, kid. Better than Cody, actually." He ruffled the boy's hair.

"I'll stop up here and let one of you guys drive," Anthony said. "If you want," he added, obviously hoping that they didn't.

Zack and Cody looked at each other. "No, I think you've earned a little time behind the wheel," Cody told him. "As long as things don't get ugly and you can keep the car pointing forward, it's all yours."

"Thanks, Cody!" he replied and smiled at him.

"Hey! Eyes on the road, rookie," Cody barked playfully.

Moving sucks. I think I'd rather face an army of zombies than pack one more damn box. Anyway, sorry this took so long but things are busy in my world right now. There's one more chapter to go and hopefully it won't take so long to get done. Thanks for reading!