Wow, these last few days have been amazing. Thank you so much for your reviews everyone, I can't believe how wonderful you all are! Your theories about Sanji's muteness are getting more and more interesting too. Someone got really close, actually two people got really close, but I'm not going to say who.

There were a lot of questions this time around, but I think most of them were answered in this chapter, so I'll leave those be and answer a few others. Someone asked about parings in this story: There are a couple parings besides Sanji and Zoro, but they are a tad unconventional, and also a secret. I'm saving the unveiling for later. Yes, I do like Road Warrior, I recommend both of them. Yes, I do have a favorite Zombie movie, actually, I have two: 28 Days Later, and even though it's not technically a "zombie" movie, it comes close enough—Pontypool. No, Sanji is not a vampire (that was a good idea though). And last but not least: No, I don't plan on having this end tragically. I can't. I won't. It's not going to be rainbows and kittens, but I'm not killing off characters.

Please enjoy chapter eight! And again, thank you so much!

Chapter 8

The red headed woman had introduced herself as "Nami" and had spent almost the entire ride, to wherever the hell there were going, staring at Zoro. That in itself had not been particularly disturbing, but the scrutinizing attention had finally gotten on the swordsman's last nerve when realized that freak Kidd was doing it too.

"What the hell are you staring at?" Zoro growled.

Kidd just glared at him, but Nami tilted her head to the side as she answered.

"We're just wondering who you are that you can get Sanji to do that."

"Do what?" Zoro asked.

"Sleep," Nami said.

Rolling his eyes, Zoro adjusted himself, and Sanji against him, as the truck hit another bump in the pavement. "I'm not even sure what that means. The shit cook sleeps all the time."

Nami's eyebrows lifted and her voice was breathy as she murmured, "Really?"

Chuckling, Kidd leaned in close to her and whispered.

"He called him 'shit cook'."

"Who are you people," Zoro asked, "How do you know Sanji?"

The corners of Nami's mouth turned up in a small smile. "Some of us go way back with Sanji, some even before Dead Day. He'd probably be running with us if he didn't feel so obligated to feed all those people that Law's saved."

That was interesting. Zoro was momentarily surprised to find himself a little jealous. This group had known Sanji before the world ended, and that meant that they probably knew a lot of things about the cook that Zoro did not. For example, what had Sanji been like before? Had he worked in a restaurant? Where had he lived? Was he seeing someone? Had he been able to speak at one time?

"Where are you taking us?" Zoro asked, trying to get his mind on something else.

"We have a temporary camp set up in the center of the Badlands," Nami said. "It's way out in the open; you can see Deadies coming for miles. We're almost there, actually."

Zoro didn't bother trying to look because the truck was already slowing. The shift of the gears jarred the bed, waking Sanji. The cook stirred, slowly sat up, and wiped at his eyes with the back of his wrist.

Zoro nudged Sanji's foot with his own and frowned when the cook looked at him. What was he supposed to do now that he knew Sanji had some kind of sleeping disorder? Was it a mental thing? Was it physical? Was it even a problem anymore? All the cook seemed to do when he was around Zoro was sleep, so none of this even made any sense. What else was the cook going through that Zoro was unaware of?

He couldn't ask those things though, not now. Not when there were crazy redheads watching them. But Zoro couldn't say nothing either.

"You okay?"

It was lame, but Sanji seemed not to mind. The cook smiled at him and nodded, running his fingers lazily over his eyes in a way that was just short of fucking adorable, before he turned to Nami and Kidd. He waved to them.

"Sleep well?" Nami grinned.

Sanji gave her thumbs up.

When the truck stopped, they got to their feet and climbed out of the bed. Sanji hit the ground and immediately turned to help Nami down. She smiled at him and accepted his offer with a soft "thank you." It was a ridiculously chivalrous gesture, extremely old-fashioned in Zoro's opinion, but the swordsman also had to admit to himself that it was rubbing him the wrong way only because he was a little jealous. Not that he wanted Sanji to be helping him down from places or anything. That would be stupid.

Luffy and the others had parked the bikes and were headed toward a campfire surrounded by tents and another couple of vehicles. A small group of people were waiting for them, all sporting their own various ideas of what badasses wore during the apocalypse. Leather jackets mostly, steel-toed boots, bandanas, a few of them had swords. Zoro wasn't sure if they were going for the classic biker gang look, or possibly pirates. Either way, Zoro didn't care. As long as they could kill Deadies, they could be wearing pink, frilly, tutus and Zoro would be cool with it.

"Sanji! Bro!" the large man with the Santa hat fell into step with them and clapped Sanji on the back. "Bike's runnin' great! You've taken real good care of her!"

Sanji pulled his notebook and pen from his pocket and scribbled a few words. Zoro didn't get a chance to see them or hear Franky—was that his name?—'s response however, because Nami had slipped her arm into his and was pulling him toward the campfire.

"Come have a drink while Sanji catches up," she said, that smile still pulling at her lips.

A drink sounded good. Actually, a drink sounded really good. Maybe this gang wasn't so bad after all.

With some good whiskey in his belly and a fire to keep his hands and feet warm, Zoro found it was a lot easier to be civil. Nami introduced him to another seven or eight members of the gang, members whose names he promptly forgot, before she sat beside him and started to unbutton and unzip various layers of clothing. Zoro had to admit she was a very attractive woman, even when she wasn't baring all that skin, and he could see why Sanji might have a thing for her.

"So what are you doing all the way out here?" Luffy asked once the gang had said their hellos and settled down around the fire.

Zoro glanced at Sanji. There was no way he was going to talk about their mission unless Sanji explicitly told him it was all right to do so. Going way back with someone didn't automatically mean you could trust them with things like food or meds in an apocalypse. Maybe Sanji wanted to keep what they were really doing a secret? Zoro didn't know.

However, Sanji seemed okay with handing the reigns over to Zoro. He sat on the crate next to the swordsman's, wiping his hands and face with the rag and bottle of water Drake had given him. When Zoro looked his way, he merely shrugged and nodded his head.

"There's a bad lung infection going around our camp," Zoro said slowly. "We're making our way north, trying to get ahold of some antibiotics."

"You got a list?" Kidd asked.

Sanji nodded again and pulled the paper Chopper had given them out of his pocket. He handed it to Kidd and the redhead stood, glancing over the list of things that may as well have been dinosaur names, as far as Zoro knew anyway.

"Killer," Kidd said, motioning with his head.

The masked blond moved close, glancing at the paper over Kidd's shoulder.

"Look through our supplies and see if we have any of these."

Killer nodded, taking the paper and heading toward the largest of the vehicles. Zoro watched him, not exactly sure how he felt about this whole thing. It would have been understandable if Sanji and he had something to trade. Trading was common practice now that money was no longer a currency, but Zoro was fairly sure they had nothing.

And he would die before he gave up his sword.

Leaning in close to Sanji, Zoro whispered as casually as he could, "Is this a good idea? I mean, how well do you actually know these guys?"

Sanji took his pad and wrote a few words for Zoro to read.

Don't worry, they're all crazy but they do what Luffy says.

"And you trust Luffy?" Zoro asked.

With my life.

It was ambiguous comfort, but the way Sanji looked at him then calmed the swordsman's trepidations. If Luffy was the kind of someone who had the cook's complete and utter trust, the least Zoro could do was try and play nice.

"Okay," Zoro whispered.

Sanji grinned and turned to watch Kidd and a few others as they spoke to each other in low voices. Luffy was nodding, listening intently to Drake and another man with long, blond hair—Zoro had forgotten his name of course. They seemed intent in their discussion and focused on whatever it is they were trying to convey. Zoro hoped it wasn't something like they were trying to talk Luffy and Kidd out of helping.

When the group broke up, Luffy and Kidd came to sit with him and Sanji by the fire.

"The towns north of here have been picked clean," Kidd said quietly. "You're not going to find any of those meds even if you go all the way to Seattle. I think we might have a little doxycycline, but that other stuff on your list is some serious medical shit."

Zoro ran a hand over his mouth. "So, what are you suggesting we do?"

Kidd turned to Luffy, his eyes betraying the excitement he was no doubt feeling. For Zoro, that was both interesting and completely disconcerting because who the hell knew what kinds of things got Kidd excited?

Luffy took a breath and crossed his arms over his chest.

"We have an idea that will get you all the meds you need and more."

Zoro glanced at Sanji and the cook nodded, shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay," Zoro said, "What's the catch?"

"Well," Luffy smiled, "It's not so much a catch as it is breaking into a heavily guarded compound and possibly starting a war. And possibly dying."

Sanji snickered at Zoro's side and the swordsman turned to watch as his friend wrote a few words on his pad of paper.

Well, if that's all then sign us up.

Shit. Just when Zoro thought he couldn't crush any harder on someone, Sanji had to go and do that.

"Great!" Luffy's smile widened into a grin and he clapped his hands together.

"Kidd, go find Bartolomeo and Bellamy! This is gonna be awesome!"

TBC