Monaco stared out the window and into the night.

"My mother used to drive this way. She always blasted the oldies station. I hate that music but I miss her."

"Soedo you know where a gas station is, Chief?"

"You're such a bitch. Did you know that?"

"Don't be so crude. I had friends and family who died too, you know. You can't live in the past, Monaco. Those people in that school are your family now."

He seemed to contemplate her words, soaking them in and trying hard to accept their meaning.

They continued to drive. A few moments later he directed her down a curvy road which he promised had a gas station at the end. The road was vacant, and the small houses they passed along the way were either sealed up tight or broken into. No zombies presented themselves and the lonely road was devoid of wrecked cars.

"How far away is it until we get to Townsend?"

"It's about an hour away."

"Fuck, I hope we run into a few more rotters. I'm forty-eight points away from kicking your ass."

The bright lights from a Shell station shone through the thick foliage ahead. They spotted four cars in the parking lot and two empty trucks at one gas pump.

Sarah parked in a vacant slot and hoped that the pumps still worked. Alex pulled up behind her and immediately scanned the area with his long rifle's scope.

"Stay sharp," she told Monaco. "I'll go inside, you fill up the tank, and tell commando back there to keep an eye on things."

"I'll shoot him if he tries anything," Monaco replied, clutching his rifle.

"Pray that he doesn't. I have a gut feeling he's pretty good with that sniping rifle of his. Try to keep him on our side, okay?"

Monaco nodded and got out of the car. As he uncapped the gas tank and made sure the pump had fuel he watched the stranger from the corner of his eye.

Sarah strolled toward the store carrying her shotgun.

"Wait," Alex called after her. "I'll go with you."

Monaco stopped him before he even had a chance to follow. "She wants you to keep a look out. Stay where you are."

Alex unstrapped his rifle from his back and pointed it away from the Native American. He stepped past the car and headed for the gas station.

"She doesn't want you in there with her," Monaco said. "Why don't you fill up your motorcycle and wait."

Alex gave a low grunt and walked back. He wheeled his motorcycle toward a spare pump and began filling the fuel tank.

"Where are we headed?"

Monaco gave him a wary glance and continued squeezing the handle on the pump, willing it to go faster.

"We're not going much further. Where are you from?"

"Texas," he replied, and added, "I'm looking for someone."

"Who is that?"

"I'm searching for a man with a tattoo of a crow clawing a skull on his neck, and a really bad attitude."

"He sounds like a Marauder."

Alex stiffened. "Have you seen him?"

"No, but I've seen his type. Did this man do something bad to you?"

Alex flexed his back. The wolf head knife strapped to his belt slapped his leg.

"You could say that."

They were finishing filling up the vehicles when a scream erupted from inside the Shell station. Both of them ran inside just as a gun blast shook the night.

Sarah turned back and saw Alex approaching Monaco. The two started chatting just as she slipped through the gas station doors. Inside the store, metal racks that had once held an assortment of chips, candies, fake flowers, car products, and over the counter medicine, were now bare. She spotted a handful of M&M bags on the floor and bent over to pick them up and then stiffened.

The barrel of a gun pressed into her back, followed by a gruff male voice: "You're a pretty one. Don't move or I'll have to shoot you and we wouldn't want that. Stand up real slow and leave that shotgun on the floor."

Sarah did as he said, but held onto the M&M bags. The man jumped in front of her. He looked to be forty-something with crooked teeth, patches of dark hair sprawling over his head, and was naked except for a pair of black gym shorts. His ribs poked out from his sides and he must've only weighed about a hundred pounds.

"Lift up your shirt so I can see your tits. Go on now," he said, waving the handgun in her face.

She pocketed the candies and grabbed the lower part of her shirt and lifted up the fabric enough to show her lacy pink and black bra.

The man licked his lips. "My, you have some great tits."

He reached for her chest and Sarah attacked. She leaped forward and grabbed the gun from his hand, then she smashed her fist into his mouth, knocking a handful of teeth down his throat. He choked and hunched over, coughing.

"You son of a bitch!" Sarah said, and kicked him between the legs as hard as she could.

A high pitch squeal escaped his mouth.

Sarah put the handgun up to his lower back and pulled the trigger. The flesh rippled as the bullet shattered his spine, pierced his stomach, and erupted out the other side. He wiggled on the floor like a fish struggling to get back into the water, and then he was still.

Alex and Monaco barged into the store, saw Sarah standing over the dead man, and lowered their weapons.

"He wanted to rape me," she explained. She snatched the man by the legs, and dragged him outside.

"What are you doing?" Monaco questioned her.

"Don't worry about it. Search the store, take what you can get and let's bolt." She didn't wait for a reply, instead pulling the dead man about twenty feet away from the car and onto the road. "You picked the wrong girl to fuck with."

The dead man's eyes snapped open, but they were no longer his own. His vision had taken on a blank, milky white stare as he became one of the undead.

Sarah shot his kneecaps out, effectively crippling him. She walked back to the car, got in, and started the engine. The zombie dragged itself toward her using its hands, but it was moving much too slow to reach her.

Monaco and Alex came out of the gas station moments later. They each had plastic bags crammed with canned goods. Monaco loaded the items into the back seat and rode shotgun while Alex went back to his motorcycle.

"He had some food to part with," Monaco said.

"Good, I'm glad that wasn't a total waste," Sarah said. She revved the engine and let go of the brake pedal. The car headed straight for the zombie and crunched over his body as though it were a bundle of sticks.

"That's thirteen, Chief. I hope we run into a few more or you might win this bet."

"I changed my mind. You can stay in the school with us."

"That's sweet of you, but it won't fly. A bet is a bet, there's no backing out."

They drove into the night marking the road red from the gore drenched tires. From time to time Sarah would laugh for no reason. Monaco remained silent.

"Stop the car," Monaco ordered. "We're almost there. I need to get my bearings."

Sarah pulled over on a long stretch of road. Mountains towered above them on both sides and hundreds of stars watched them from above. Ahead of them was a Waffle House and a hotel, but besides that there was nothing except trees swaying in the wind.

Monaco got out of the car and stretched. After popping his back he headed for the forest.

"Hey, where the hell are you going?" Sarah called after him.

"I'm taking a piss. I'll be back," he said, and disappeared into the woods.

"Don't go far," she said.

Alex parked his Harley next to the car and shut it off.

"We can't stay here," he said, looking in the distance.

She turned her head to where he was staring and witnessed countless shapes lurching out of the hotel and a few from the Waffle House.

"Dammit, there must be hundreds of them. This is great!"

"What are you talking about? This is bad."

"Yeah, but not really," she laughed. "Hey Chief, get back out here. I want you to see this."

Monaco emerged from the woods quickly. He zipped his pants up and ran to the car.

"What's wrong?" His voice drifted off as he looked at the road ahead. "Shit, this is not looking good."

Hundreds of zombies shuffled toward them, groaning and reaching out with their gnarled hands.

"Get in the car. Alex, stay close behind me and if something happens try not to get killed."

Sarah got behind the wheel. She let the car idle until Alex was in position.

"Try to keep count for me, Chief."

"You can't go through them, its suicide."

Sarah slammed the gas pedal to the floor and cheered. She held onto the steering wheel as tight as she could and headed straight into an army of the dead.

Monaco braced himself against the dashboard and chanted, "Shit, shit, shit, shit," until the impact.

The car bulldozed into the undead crowd, snapping bones, cracking femurs, and sending dozens of rotting corpses flying over the hood.

Alex's motorcycle squealed behind them as he tried to avoid both the zombies reaching for him and the crushed ones on the road.

The Chrysler lost its momentum as it slammed into more and more of the walking dead. Sarah twisted the wheel, cutting a path through them, and off the road. She glanced in the rearview and saw Alex lagging behind. The zombies had surrounded him and he began shooting.

"We're clear," Monaco grinned. "We made it."

Sarah witnessed the huge crowd of zombies circling in on Alex. Ahead, the road was clear and freedom was just a short drive away.

Sarah put the car into reverse and spun around.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"We're going back for him."

"Leave him, he's nobody. We don't need him."

"If it wasn't for that guy I couldn't have held my position at the school's entrance. He saved my ass and now it's time to return the favor."

Sarah could make out the faint headlights from the motorcycle but little else. The undead hordes were swarming like angry locusts and were teething for a warm piece of meat. She slammed into the crowd a second time, knocking half a dozen zombies out of the way.

The motorcycle's headlight winked out.

She drove toward where it was and found Alex swinging a machete at the crowd as they converged on him. He was spinning around like a ceiling fan, slicing into skull after skull with a sickening CHUNK which could be heard even above the hungry groans.

Sarah stopped the car beside him and leaped out with her shotgun. She fired round after round into the flesh eaters until she reached his position.

"Come on. Let's get the fuck out of here!"

Alex shoved two zombies backward and ran to her. Together, they made it to the car rattled but unharmed. Monaco was still in the passenger seat firing into the crowd with his rifle.

The zombies were crawling all over the hood and the roof, trying to gain entry.

Sarah shot one on the roof, cutting it in half. Then, strong hands pushed her into the driver's seat and slammed the door behind her.

The horde reached for Alex before he got into the backseat, tearing the baseball bat from him and clawing at his steel-toed boots.

"Drive!" He screamed at her.