"Get us the fuck out of here," she told her.

"I'm trying," Sarah hissed through her teeth. She turned the key in the ignition but the engine wouldn't turn over, and only made an aggravating clicking noise. She pounded the steering wheel. "Dammit, start you piece of shit." She pumped the gas pedal and gave the key a hard turn.

The engine choked and black smoke discharged from the exhaust pipe.

Sarah put the truck into reverse, running over a dozen or so zombies as she backed out of the building.

The zombie horde stretched out their arms, their nails and exposed bones chipping paint off the truck's exterior as their prey slipped away. Once on the street, Sarah put the truck in second gear and drove out of town.

"Hell yeah," Sarah grinned.

"Thanks for coming back for me. For a minute there I thought you'd left me," Joelle explained.

Sarah winked at her, "You owe me one, remember that," she said.

"I will," Joelle answered. She looked behind them and watched as hundreds of walking dead oozed from the building and spilled onto the street. They stumbled forward as one, and followed the truck which had momentarily eluded them.

"Can you find the Marauders?"

"Yes," Sarah said, rolling her eyes. "But it won't be easy. We're low on gas. I don't know how far we'll make it."

Joelle leaned back in the seat and propped her broken ankle on the dashboard. It felt great to have it elevated, even if this was just a short trip.

"I trust you," Joelle smiled, and shut her eyes.

Chapter 4.

Alex stood on an adjacent rooftop and lowered his binoculars as the red truck crashed through the crowd of zombies and sped down the street. He'd never witnessed anything like it before. The tough girl had rammed right into the building, rescued her friend, and gotten out alive. It was a remarkable sight to behold, and one he'd never seen before. They weren't typical survivors. They were Marauders, and wherever they were headed was certain to house more of the nomads.

He stored his binoculars into a loop on his belt and headed for the metal ladder. They couldn't get too far, and even if they did, he knew what signs to follow to lead him to them. He'd had a full year of practicing.

He climbed down the ladder and leapt off at the last three feet. His Amy boots slapped the pavement, making enough noise to draw the zombies near. He quickly ran down a side street and toward his Harley. He'd taken the bike from a nomad six months ago. He'd tracked the man for a week in order to obtain information about Graves, but the nomad hadn't known anything useful. The motorcycle had suited him well on his other hunts and provided a way to avoid wrecks in the road. But before he could reach the Harley, four zombies shuffled out of an abandoned coffee shop and started making their way toward him. He unstrapped his shotgun from his back, and waited. He didn't like to waste bullets but he was running out of time. The girls were getting away.

Once the zombies were a foot away he fired. The buckshot spread wide and punched through three of their heads. He finished off the last zombie with the butt of the shotgun.

More hungry groans came from the store.

He quickly reached the motorcycle, shouldered his shotgun, and jumped on. His other gun, a long barreled rifle that was strapped to the bike for easy use, shook when he started the engine. As he pulled onto the road, a horde of rotting corpses flooded the street after him. Had he been just a few seconds later they might've gotten to him. Alex gripped the bike's handles and raced out of the dead city.

The red truck sputtered and choked along a desolate stretch of highway. Sarah drove slowly in the breakdown lane, avoiding wrecks and running over zombies when they stumbled into her path. A few times she was forced to drive onto the median. The carnage from the last year had made the highway such a mess it was pointless to go further. But Sarah kept her foot on the gas pedal and continued, figuring that the Marauders would hear or see them a mile away and come to investigate.

"They normally take the back roads," Joelle snapped. "Maybe you should turn off at the next exit. We should've reached them by now."

"This is a short cut," Sarah replied. "Besides, we both know they left without us this morning."

"Graves wouldn't do that," Joelle said.

"What is with you two anyway? You know you're just the flavor of the week for him, right? He was all over Cassandra when we left. He's a pig and not even a good looking one at that."

Joelle pouted and looked out the window.

"He saved my life," she said. "I owe him."

"You don't owe him shit," Sarah said. She veered to the right as a zombie walked out from behind an upside down Volvo. She rammed the walking corpse, sending it tumbling backward. "He's just using you."

"So what if he is? Why do you care about me all of a sudden?"

Sarah's upper lip twitched, "I don't like watching someone being used."

"He's using you for this mission. How is that any different?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes at Joelle upon hearing her comment.

"That's different. The mission was about getting food and weapons to the others, not giving up your body for sex."

"He saved my life," Joelle interjected. "If it wasn't for him I wouldn't even be here, and neither would my daughter."

Sarah bit her tongue.

"I bet you didn't even know I had a child, did you?"

"No, I didn't. You're lucky. I can't have children."

"I'm sorry," Joelle said. She dug in her pocket and withdrew a crumpled picture of a smiling little girl with blond hair sitting under the shade of a willow tree. "This is Claudia. She's five years old. I need to get back to her. She doesn't like being left alone."

They fell silent. The tension between them slackened from stretching out so far. Minutes ticked by; Sarah drove the truck hard. Joelle put the picture away and stared out the window into the highway wasteland. Neither one spoke again until the truck jolted like a bucking bronco.

"What are you doing?" Joelle said.

"Nothing," Sarah answered. She gripped the wheel tighter, willing the truck to go faster. "It's dying, I can't help it."

"Do something!" Joelle squealed and curled up in the seat.

"I'm trying!"

The truck lurched forward one last time and then came to a sudden halt.

Sarah twisted the ignition key and stomped on the gas. The truck responded by coughing more black smoke, then nothing at all.

"Well, I guess we're walking," Sarah said.

"Maybe we could take another car. There are hundreds of them out here."

"That's true, but most of these cars are rusted or totaled. I doubt we could find a decent one in this mess," Sarah said.

Joelle scanned the highway. In front of them was a pile up of twisted metal, behind was an endless row of vehicles with smashed out windows, flat tires or both and neither would provide them the proper vehicle for traveling among the dead.

"We have to try, please," Joelle urged her.

"You mean I have to try while you stay here."

"I'll keep you covered," Joelle suggested. "I can shoot a gun, not well, but I can kill those things if they get too close."

"You're not staying here. We'll go together, I'll search for a car and you search for zombies."

Joelle pointed past Sarah's head.

"There's one," she said.

Sarah turned and looked as a lone corpse walked past the wreckage and kept going down the highway. It glanced at them briefly and ignored their presence.

"Don't worry, he's harmless," Sarah told her.

Joelle looked at her as though she'd lost her mind.

"He's a Doomed Wanderer. Don't tell me you've never heard of them?"

Joelle shrugged, "Sorry, I haven't."

"There on a mission to get somewhere. That's why we call them Doomed Wanderers. They're doomed because sometimes they never get there and even if they do there is nothing there in the first place. They're wanderers because they can walk for weeks on end without getting much of anywhere. Now, take that one over there," Sarah said, pointing, "we can make all the noise we want right now and he'd just ignore us but if we got in his way he'd be no different than any other zombie."

Joelle watched the dead man shuffle along. His skeletal feet were poking through his loafers. His body was in tatters. A huge gash ran along his back, exposing his spine.

"Where do you think he's going?"

"Back home or to a place he remembers being happy," Sarah answered. She smiled sadly. "A few months ago I saw one headed for a cemetery. I watched it for hours. He walked to a woman's grave, sat down, and wouldn't move from the spot."

"Why don't all of them turn out like that?"

"They're people, we're all different. They're just us, only hungry for flesh," Sarah replied. "Come on, we've got work to do."

They left the truck, taking all of their belongings with them. Sarah put everything on the hood except for her handgun. She went to the nearest car, a dented Cadillac. A quick search revealed no keys and a corpse with a missing head in the back seat.

"No luck," Sarah said.

"Try the SUV over there. It looks like a family car, it might have a key."

Sarah peered inside and noticed a small bundle wrapped in a dusty blue blanket. She tried the handles but the doors were locked.

"I hate to break into this. If it starts we'll have to deal with a broken window."

"Just do it," Joelle insisted. "I spotted a group of zombies headed this way. They should be here in a few minutes."

"Great, that's all we need right now."

Sarah reared back, preparing to smash the end of her revolver into the driver's side window when the bundle under the blanket sat up.

"Oh shit," Sarah gasped.

It was a little boy, one half of his face was chewed away, exposing tiny black and yellow teeth, but the other side was unblemished. He stared at her and banged on the glass as though asking to be let outside.

Joelle saw the kid and panicked, "Leave him," she said.

Sarah got close to the window and saw a key in the ignition of the SUV.

"It has a key. We can't risk not taking a chance. This might be the only car we can find."

"But he's just a little boy," Joelle quipped.

"Joelle, he's not a boy anymore. He's one of them."

"That's not what you said about the Doomed Wanderer."

"That was different. He wasn't guarding our only means of escape. I'd put a bullet in his head too if it meant getting back to camp."

The moans from a gathering zombie horde drifted across the highway ruins.

"We don't have time for this," Sarah said. She put the barrel to the glass and fired point blank. The window shattered and the boy leapt forward to bite her. She shoved the gun in his forehead and pulled the trigger. The blast threw him into the passenger seat where he remained motionless on his blue blanket.

Joelle sucked in her lips.

Sarah opened the door through the broken glass and got inside. She twisted the ignition key and the SUV started up without difficulty. She opened the passenger door and kicked the dead boy onto the road.

Joelle wiped her eyes.

"Are you coming or what?"

Joelle eyed the boy for a moment then at the crowd of living dead headed for them. She hopped to the open door, avoided stepping on the boy, and removed the blue blanket from the seat.

"What are you doing?" Sarah demanded.

Joelle carefully placed the blanket over the boy's lifeless body and then she got inside the car. She gave Sarah a sad smile and put her head down in defeat.

Sarah backed the car up to the truck. She got out and tossed the supplies she'd left on the hood into the backseat. When she got behind the wheel again she faced her partner.

"I had to do it."

"I know," Joelle said. "I don't like it but I understand."