A White Knight On His Steed

**A White Knight On His Steed**

**By Coco Gash Jirachi**

**I don't own Zatch Bell!...**

**Summary: The night before Valentines Day, after the battle, before Zatch was to marry Tia for his Queen, Maruss visits Tia, and mends their broken friendship. MarussxTia. ZenoxKolulu. PamoonxLaila. WonreixLi-en. BragoxSherry. ZatchxPenny. SuginoxA Cactus.**

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"Did you hear?"

"I can't believe it..."

"I saw it coming from far away..."

"King Zatch and-"

"Tia."

"I heard that she was a bully to Zatch before..."

Maruss was walking down the streets, hands in his pockets, casually looking at his feet and the pavement as he paced along.

"Hey, Maruss! Wait up!" called a voice as foot steps scurried after him.

Maruss picked up his head, and look towards his left.

"Oh, hey there Brago. What's goin' on?" asked Maruss.

"Nothing new really." said Brago.

"You're kidding, right Brago?" asked Zofis, catching up to his friend and older brother.

"Why? What's going on? Somebody die or something?" asked Maruss.

"You mean you didn't hear yet?" asked Zofis.

"Uh, no." said Maruss. "Unless it's that increase on yellow tail breeding notice put up on the bulletin this morning, I've no clue."

"You're serious?! The whole Kingdom is talking about it!" said Zofis.

"Why? What's this big news?" asked Maruss.

"It's Zatch." answered Brago.

"What? Is he sick?" asked Maruss.

"He's quite fine." said Brago. "He's just announced that he's to wed to his future Queen tomorrow. Valentine's Day."

"So what? Who's his Queen?" Maruss asked, stopping to step to the side of the street for a drink of water from a drinking fountain.

"Tia." said Brago.

Maruss choked, spluttered up water, and it even came out of his nose. His eyes widened as he started to regain his breath from the shock.

"Tia's getting married..." Maruss began. "To Zatch?..."

"See, that's why I didn't want to tell him, Zofis." said Brago. "It broke his heart."

"I... I just can't believe it..." Maruss said.

"Hey big brother!" called a voice as two different shuffling foot steps approached them. His little brother Mali/Moses, and his little sister Yuki.

"Hi!" said Yuki.

"What's the matter?" asked Mali, cocking his head to the side.

"He just found out that Tia's marrying Zatch tomorrow." said Zofis.

"What? No way!" said Yuki. "Tia's his girlfriend!"

"Ex," Maruss said, hair hiding his face. "Ex-girlfriend."

"What?" asked Yuki.

"But just before you left for the battle-" Mali began.

"I was being a God damned idiot during the battle," Maruss said, clutching his right fist over his heart. "I still regret every moment of my life because I hurt her."

"I may not be old enough for a boyfriend," Yuki began, putting her hands on her hip. "But I know that's no good reason!"

"I get it!" said Maruss, glaring at his little sister.

"Geez. Chill." said Brago.

"Brago, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, the day of love, the day Zatch and Tia are going to get married, so how could I be happy with a new relationship if that happens? I can't. Everyone else will have someone to love, but not me." said Maruss.

"Aw, that's not true!" said Brago.

"Hey guys!" said Zeno as he passed by, one arm interlocked with Kolulu's.

"How's it going?" asked Pamoon and Laila as they held hands passing them as well.

"Good day!" greeted Wonrei as him and Li-en passed by, waving his hand.

"I love you, my Cactus..." said Sugino, passing by, clutching a prickly cactus to himself. "Even if you hurt, I love you."

"..." Brago blinked, his head following Sugino after he passed by. "Now **_THAT BOY_**, has some issues." Brago concluded.

"Okay, so, maybe you'll be alone." Zofis admitted.

"Thanks for the reminder." Maruss responded sarcastically.

"So will me and Brago." said Zofis.

"There you guys are. We've been looking everywhere for you." said Sherry as her and Koko approached them.

"Heh, sorry Sherry. Just met up with Maruss again." said Brago.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Koko, tilting her head to the side, looking at the blonde whom was just hunched over the water fountain.

"He found out that Zatch and Tia are getting married tomorrow." said Mali.

"And Tia's supposed to be Brother's girlfriend." said Yuki. "Untill he hurt her."

"They get the point, Yuki." Maruss growled. He then sighed. "Come on you two. Let's get home. I gotta get started on supper anyways." With that, he picked up Yuki, and Mali took his hand, and they headed down the side walk, backs to the other four. "See you guys around." he said before they were headed for the corner of the side walk.

"Hey, Maruss!" Koko called after him before pacing to the mamodo boy.

"Hm?" Maruss said, looking back for a minute.

"You know, right now, you're reminding me of Sherry when we met." Koko said when she approached him. "Right now I can tell you don't think you can be happy anymore, but believe me, it is waiting there for you. Like the light at the end of a dark tunnel."

Maruss blinked when Koko paused for a moment.

"Right now you don't know what to do, but there's always an opening, a way out. So if you just keep walking through the darkness, then you'll find the light." Koko said. "But if you stop now, the happiness that waits for you will be lost forever. So, you just can't stop now."

Maruss managed to give a small smile.

"Thanks Koko. That helps." he said. "I'll think about it." he finished before turning back and heading down the side walk again.

**_If you stop now, the happiness that waits for you will be lost forever... You just can't stop now..._**

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After supper that night, Maruss put Yuki and Mali to bed, and then sprawled out across the bed in his room. Although they were orphans living on their own, they weren't poor at all. They had money when they needed it. They were semi-rich (a phrase made up by Tia, since she knew that they weren't average or rich, just inbetween).

A song played on a CD player on the night table, Maruss holding a CD case in his hands, staring at it as the music played. It was a favorite of him and his siblings. Their Mother used to play it when they couldn't really get things right, to understand. It was called "Daydream Believer," by a group of four long-haired humans from the sixties called "The Monkees."

Maruss was deep in thought, staring at the CD case as the music played.

_Oh, I could hide, _'_neath the wings
Of the bluebird as she sings.
The six o_'_clock alarm would never ring.
But it rings, and I rise,
Wipe the sleep out of my eyes.
My shavin_' _razor_'_s cold, and it stings. _

_Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean
To a... daydream believer
And a homecoming Queen. _

_You once thought of me
As a white knight on a steed.
Now you know how happy I can be.
Oh, and our good times starts and end
Without dollar one to spend.
But how much, baby, do we really need? _

_Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean
To a... daydream believer
And a homecoming Queen. _

_Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean
To a... daydream believer
And a homecoming Queen. _

_(Instrumental interlude) _

_Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean
To a... daydream believer
And a homecoming Queen. _

_Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean
To a... daydream believer
And a homecoming Queen. _

_Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean
To a... daydream believer
And a homecoming Queen... _

"Big Brother?" Maruss heard softly as the instrumental tune and the sound of Davy Jones' voice faded away.

Maruss had relaxed himself, head on the pillow, CD case next to the CD player, eyes closed, just about ready to get up, change, and fall asleep.

But instead, he opened his eyes, turned his head, and looked at his door.

There was little Yuki. Tia had made it so that they kind of matched, only Yuki had blonde hair, golden eyes, baby blue markings around her eyes, a gold bracelet on each wrist, the same lines down her cheeks as her brothers, and she wore a light pink dress that was Zatch's style with a white bow on it. Only now, since it was night time, Yuki wore her pink long-sleeved pajamas that had tiny yellow, green, red, and blue diamond sparkle-shapes on them. She screamed cute.

"What's the matter, Yuki?" Maruss asked, sitting up, eyes not leaving his little sister for a moment.

"Big Brother, are you hurt somewhere?" Yuki asked, her eyes shining.

Maruss' gaze softened. He stood up, approached his younger sibling, and kneeled down to her height.

"I'm just going through a tough time right now, Yuki." he answered, his hands on her shoulders. He pulled her into a hug, and her eyes showed confusion, but she let her head be rested onto his broad shoulder, and closed her eyes.

"Brother..." she said softly.

This was a point in time that seemed to last for a long time, when it really was only a moment or two.

Yuki was brought back into reality by the feel of Maruss shaking, and the sound of Maruss crying.

"B- Big Brother?" she asked. "What's the matter?" she finished, pulling back to look at him.

"Yuki... I haven't felt so heart broken since Mom and Dad died." Maruss said. There was a knot in his stomach, and his head was hung as tears flew down his face. "But, then, Tia and I met, and well, she just gave me the will to live on, keep going, and she was an antidote that made me feel better. But now, I realize, she made the pain go away."

"I know you love her, Brother." Yuki said. "I've seen the way you looked into her eyes. I looked at your eyes. Then I looked at her eyes. It's true."

"I know. But I was such a fool during the battle." Maruss said, still silently sobbing. His right hand moved to cup the part of his chest that was over his heart. "I can't go on like this. Nothing can make the pain go away..." he finished, his hand tightening, and forming into a fist.

"If you love her, run to her." Yuki said.

"What was that?" he asked, looking up into his little sister's eyes.

"If you love Tia, don't let her marry Zatch tomorrow." Yuki said. "Run to her tonight, and prove that you're sorry and that you love her truely."

Maruss' eyes shined a bit, and his face lit up when he gave a small smile.

"Thanks, Yuki." he said, messing the hair on her head slightly. "That helps me. Now I can talk to her, face-to-face."

"Your welcome, Big Brother." Yuki said.

Maruss stood up and walked past her, down the hallway, into the living room.

Maruss put on his white over-coat, buttoned it, and opened the front door.

"Good night Big Brother." Yuki said in the hallway doorway.

"Good night Yuki." Maruss responded, walking out into the cool evening, closing the door behind himself.

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"Tia?" asked Penny. "Is something the matter?"

Tia was sitting at her mirror, head in her arms.

"I don't know." Tia answered. "I... I... I just..."

"Aren't you happy? You're going to marry Zatch in the morning." Kolulu said.

"And he is such a kind and brave soul. He set all of the mamodo from one-thousand years ago free." said Laila.

"I know..." Tia responded. "I just feel like... my heart is missing something..."

"Don't worry Tia." Megumi said. "Everything will be okay."

"**_OUCH!_** Damn, I hate these vines! These prickers are just about the most painfull thing I've ever felt! And that's saying something!" said a familiar voice to Tia.

The pink haired soon-to-be-Queen mamodo lifted her head up, and looked over at her open door that led to the balcony.

"Could it..." Tia began. "Could it really be him?" she asked, blinking.

Surely enough, soon, a hand grasped onto the white railing of the balcony in Tia's room at the palace, and then another. Who pulled itself up, was Maruss.

"Maruss!" Tia said.

Maruss was panting and out of breath. He had scratches on his hands and on his face, and a few small streaks of dirt on his white over-coat.

"Tia... Boy, am I glad to see you again." Maruss said.

"Hang on a second!" Tia said, jumping down from her seat at her mirror, and pacing over to the balcony. She grasped Maruss' hand. "You must be exhausted."

Tia helped pull Maruss up and into her room.

"That's better, now." Tia said with a smile.

"What are you doing here, you big bully?" asked Megumi.

"Yeah. Why are you here? Are you trying to kill Tia again like last time?" asked Penny.

"No, no! It's nothing like that." Maruss said, holding up his hands. "Tia," he said, looking at the pink haired mamodo. "I need to talk to you."

Tia then realized something, and her eyes grew cold.

"What is there to talk about, Rameses Samui?" she asked, crossing her arms. "After you hurt me like before, I can never trust you again." she said, turning around, and striding to the mirror again.

"Tia, you have to understand-" Maruss began.

**_"Get out of here!"_** Tia snapped, turning around, glaring burns of orange-pink in her eyes. **_"Before I call the palace guards!"_**

"Tia, please. Just let me talk to you for a little while!" Maruss begged. He closed his eyes, and let his head down slightly. "Alone." he added quietly.

Tia took a while to consider it.

"Oh, alright." Tia said after a long while. "Just wait outside, guys."

"If he tries anything, just call us in." Penny said with her hands on her hips as they went to her door and walked out.

"Tia, you can't marry Zatch tomorrow." Maruss said as soon as they left, looking at her with shining eyes. "You're making a big mistake."

"The mistake I ever made was being friends with you." Tia spat at him.

"Tia, please," Maruss said. He approached the four years younger than himself mamodo, kneeled down onto one knee, and took her hand. "Listen to me..."

"Maruss... You have to understand, it's hard to trust you again after you hurt me." Tia said, placing her free hand onto the back of her neck where a scar from Maruss' Garon spell was still visible when the hair was out of the way.

"Tia," Maruss said. "I gotta do this quick." he mumbled to himself. "I love you."

Hearing those words, the thing in Tia's heart that was missing soon appeared.

"Rameses..." Tia said, amazed. Tears sneaking into her eyes, she smiled and jumped forwards, giving him a great big hug. "Oh, Maruss! Rameses Samui, I love you, too!"

Maruss, startled by the sudden burst, quickly recovered, and wrapped his arms around her.

"I know I'm four years older than you, I know you're marrying Zatch, I know that you're the best thing that ever happened to me, but most of all, I know I love you." Maruss said. "Your eyes are like rare diamonds, sparkling so bright. They make the skies radiant... and light."

"Maruss, you big softie." Tia said, pulling back and punching him on the arm.

"Ow." Maruss whined, rubbing his upper arm.

"You know, just before you showed up, I felt like my heart was missing something." Tia said.

"For real?" asked Maruss, blinking.

"But, when I heard your voice, and now that you're here," Tia continued. "I feel complete again."

"Heh heh." Maruss chuckled with a smile.

"That was so sweet." said Penny's voice.

Both blushing, they looked at the door, which had Penny, Kolulu, Laila and Megumi's heads sticking in.

"I asked you to leave!" said Tia.

"Well..." Kolulu began.

They moved out of the way, opening the door.

Zatch was with them.

"Zatch!" said Tia. "I- I-"

"Tia, you don't have to explain." said Zatch. "I understand perfectly."

"You do?" asked Tia.

"Yes, I do." said Zatch. "In fact, there is a matter I came to discuss with you. I felt like there was someone I had before I lost my memory. Well, you were a lot like a bully, and well, I kind of, fell in love with..."

"With who?" asked Tia.

"Penny." Zatch said. "I don't know why, but, there's just something about her. I thought it would break your heart, but I guess Maruss already mended it for you."

Tia's eyes gained sympathy.

"He did a long time ago," said Tia.

"Penny," Zatch continued, looking at the sea-foam green-haired girl. "I know this is sudden and all, but, would you be my Queen?"

"I think I've died and gone to Heaven..." said Penny, her cheeks red like no tomorrow. "Zatchy, you, you, really, like me?"

"Uh-huh." Zatch said with a nod. "I guess you finally stole my heart. So will you?"

"You don't know how much!" Penny answered.

"Which means I don't have to unbook the wedding plans for tomorrow." said Zatch.

"You mean marriage, too?!" asked Penny. "I think I'm coming back to life from dying..."

Tia giggled at Penny.

"So Tia," Maruss said. "Do you wanna... come back home with me? And stay with me and my brother and sister?"

"I will." said Tia.

"Still friends, Tia?" asked Zatch.

"You bet." said Tia. "And hey Maruss, question."

"Ask away." said Maruss.

"If you needed to get up here, why did you climb the vines instead of just using your Ei Garon spell?" asked Tia.

Maruss' face went dead-white.

"I was... trying to make a more dramatic entrance..." Maruss said.

"Well, it worked." said Tia. "So, let's go home."

"Right." said Maruss, taking her hand, and they both walked to the balcony together. "Hang on tight. It's long way down." he told her, his arm around Tia's waist.

"See you, Tia!" said Kolulu as they waved.

"Bye!" said Megumi.

"Take care!" said Laila.

"See you tomorrow!" said Penny.

"Keep in touch!" said Zatch.

"We will," Tia said with a wink.

Maruss then held out his free arm, and made it so that the morning star on the end of the chain on his Ei Garon spell tied around the railing of the balcony. Then, he dropped them down from the edge, and at a fair speed, they were dropping towards the ground.

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"See Maruss? Now we can be together all the time." said Tia the very next day as they were walking to a church to see Zatch and Penny get married.

"Sure can." said Maruss.

"I always knew you'd two would end up together," mocked Mali as him and Yuki tagged along behind him.

"Ah, you just wait Moses." said Maruss. "Just don't end up marrying a cactus."

As they walked for the church, they passed a newspaper stand with the front page article entitled: _Young Mamodo Sugino Marries Cactus Named Katrina._ And on the front page, was Sugino affectionately hugging "Katrina" Cactus, and giving her a kiss.

****

**_AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY A FREAKIN' EVER AFTER._**

**_THE END._**

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**In case you guys are confused about Maruss' full name being Rameses Samui, here's the explanation.**

**The full name of his little sister "Yuki Samui" quite literally translated from Japanese is "Snow Freezing."**

**As for his little brother and himself being Rameses and Moses (his nickname being Mali for some odd reason), in my own little AU, the three of them are reincarnations of Rameses and Moses from Egypt, Yuki being the reincarnation of Miriam, Moses' little sister.**

**That's just to clear things up for you.**

**So, how you like it?**

**Please review and tell me how it is!**

End file.

A White Knight On His Steed by Coco Gash Jirachi


No Way Out

**NOTE: Drabble I randomly came up with after doing a collab picture with TwilightMemories. **

**BragoSherry. Rated T for imagery that could be taken suggestively. Brago's POV.**

**I don't own Konjiki no Gash Bell/Zatch Bell.**

**The picture this was inspired from (take out the spaces):**

**http // www. deviantart .com /deviation /45783482/**

**--**

**No Way Out**

Every motion you make draws my attention to you; even so small as a blink of your eye. You have truly captured me, wrapping me around your little finger without either of us noticing until it was too late. As you whimper under my touch, I whisper, _"You asked for it." _Your only response is another moan as my fingers slip the strap of your nightgown off your shoulder, smirking against your lips.

There's no way out...

Not now.

End file.

No Way Out by EtherealSinger


From Depressed to Joy

My first fanfic. Please don't flame me too badly, but advice would be nice. Thanks

Zatch=**This**

Tia=This

Kiyo=_This_

Megumi=Normal

-flashback- Zatch and Tia were the remaining two Mamodo. Zatch cried at the thought that they would have to fight for king. He decided to give up his book to Tia, but before he could say anything, Tia sacrificed her own book. "You deserve to be king more than I do, Zatch. Please burn my book."

-end of flashback- Zatch ruled as king of the Mamodo world now, but had an empty feeling. Ever since he became king, he hasn't seen any of his friends that he knew from the human world. And the one he missed the most was Kiyo. After all, Kiyo was his human partner. Zatch sat on his throne mourning his lonely self.

-human world- Kiyo remembered it as if it was yesterday. The memory of Zatch leaving him to rule the Mamodo world burned in his mind.

"I love you, and I'll never forget you, Kiyo. You're my best friend."

Kiyo started to cry at Zatch's last words.

"I'll never forget you either Zatch...."

-Mamodo world- Zatch went on one of his daily walks alone with his head down, in hopes of running into one of his old friends that he met in the human world. Tasting failure, Zatch walked back to his castle in loneliness. When he finally reached his castle, a loud scream, "SURPRISE!" filled the air. Zatch's sad and depressed frown became a big smile. All of his friends from the battle to become king had finally come.

"**Where have you guys been? I've been so lonely**."

"Well, I was going to come here myself, but I thought it'd be even better to find all of our friends and come together."

"**Thank you, Tia**."

-human world- Kiyo was still feeling depressed. Not only did he miss Zatch, but his only friend was Suzy. Suzy was probably one of his least favorite people in the world, but he hung out with her because he didn't want to look like a loner. Just thinking about having no friends made him miss his old friends that he lost touch with. Kiyo's doorbell rang as he was thinking about his old friends. Kiyo opened the door to see Megumi with a warm smile on her face.

"_MEGUMI! I missed you so much...._"

"Yeah sorry I couldn't visit. I was busy with my concerts and photo shoots."

"_I see....have you heard from any of our ally friends_?"

"Sadly no I haven't."

"_Well at least you're here now._"

The rest of the day, the two just talked and hung out, resulting in a better mood for Kiyo.

-Mamodo world- Everyone was ready to leave the castle after a long day. After everyone was gone, Tia stayed back to talk to Zatch.

"Can I talk to you Zatch?"

"**Of course. What's wrong?"**

"Well, we've known each other for so long now, and I don't want to hide my feelings anymore. I love you Zatch."

Zatch had a shocked look on his face. Tia almost walked away thinking Zatch didn't feel the same way, but before she could leave, Zatch ran after her and held her in his arms.

"**I love you too, Tia.**"

-human world- After a day spent with Megumi, Kiyo was exhausted. He just laid on his bed thinking about the day with Megumi. He eventually fell asleep after realizing he loved Megumi.

The next day, Kiyo stayed at home thinking about how he was going to tell Megumi how he really felt about her. A knock on the door came. Kiyo answered and saw Megumi standing there with her usual bright smile.

"_Hi Megumi. How are you today_?"

"Good how about you?"

"_Well, I'm not doing too bad, but there's nothing to do. Wanna go to the park or something_?"

"Sure!"

The day went by, and Kiyo still didn't tell Megumi how he felt.

"Damn I'm going to be late for my photo shoot. I'm sorry Kiyo, but I have to go."

As Megumi started to walk away, Kiyo screamed her name.

"_MEGUMI WAIT! I wanted to tell you that..._."

"That what?"

"_...that I love you. I never had the courage to say it before_."

Megumi didn't say anything for a minute, but finally whispered something in Kiyo's ear.

"I love you too, Kiyo."

Kiyo just smiled.

"Why don't I take you to your photo shoot?"

The newly bonded couple walked together without any regrets of their confessions.

Done with my very first fanfic! Kinda corny but give me a break lol. Any advice would be nice. I also accept ideas for stories.

End file.

From Depressed to Joy by SuicideHurts


ZOMBIE HUNTER part 5

ZOMBIE HUNTER part 5

(Season final)

Max helped Zack to a drug store and shot a zombie with his shotgun. Max poured alcohol on Zack's leg and wrapped it. Zack said, "What now", "We hunt down Jeremiah and cut his head off". A couple of moans and growls happened and max boarded up the windows and door. They went upstairs and shut the door. Max said, "We get out tomorrow but now we rest". The next day they took an SUV and drove to the barrier to see it was filled with a liquid. Max said, "I'll go in you stay here and if I'm not back in an hour leave". Troops were walking and saw max, "Freeze". Max shot them and went in to see it was making zombies, the whole time he was helping the enemy. Then Zack came in and said, "I crashed the car into a tank to help you and well now we better escape". They got out but left 70 charges to blow the place up. Zombies were everywhere and they had a hard time getting through. But they found a mall that had survivors. They got a mission to blow the dam and let the city flood if that happened by 2 hours they could join. Max went alone because he only had his friend left, the dam was flooded with zombies though.

End file.

ZOMBIE HUNTER part 5 by LoganNOVELZ101


Doing Wichita

Doing Wichita by patricia51

(Columbus is driving Wichita wild, making her moan aloud as he pleasures her. Who knew that he was capable of doing that to her? Not him.)

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

There's a pause.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

I brace myself.

"Goddddddddddddddd."

"Wichita! Tallahassee and Little Rock could be back any moment and they would hear."

"Who cares? Just don't stop!"

I'm pretty sure that no one, least of all me, would have believed that it was what I was doing that was making Wichita moan and cry out like she is. Me, who had barely even dreamed of any girl before much less one as beautiful as her. Me, who never even had a fantasy like this. But here she is and here I am and I AM the one doing it.

I'm getting ahead of myself a little though I guess. How did we end up here, here being defined as not only the bedroom we're occupying right now but the house where that bedroom is located? It's not a very long story. Hopefully. I want to get back to Wichita. Wouldn't you?

We were just leaving the park; in fact Tallahassee had just used his car door to nail the last moving zombie when we turned back. We had to do that. As smitten as all four of us were with the realization that we had become a family (and Tallahassee with the remnants of his Twinkie) we had taken a quick stock of our weapons situation and went back to recover the various ones that Tallahassee had discarded during his trip around the park's rides.

The thing was we had my double-barrel shotgun, empty; Wichita's shotgun, also empty and Little Rock's pump rifle, empty as well. Notice a pattern here? True, Tallahassee still had the two pistols he had used to decimate the zombies that had invaded the park after the girls had turned everything on but he had exactly three rounds for both of them. The odds of us finding another Hummer loaded with automatic weapons? Slim and none. So we retrieved his weapons. Another shotgun, an assault rifle and the Uzi submachine gun made a nice arsenal. All we needed was ammunition. It's pretty hard to follow the double-tap rule when all you can do is click the trigger at a zombie.

Now it's not like you can just stroll on down to Wal-Mart and drop by their sporting goods department. Of course I always tried to avoid Wal-Mart anyway. Too many people and don't even get me started on the bathrooms there. Besides, zombies tend to stay around the place they became infected. They don't drive and they don't take long hikes. In fact after a while their cardio sucks. That's why you have to keep up your own.

Not knowing exactly where to start we went to the one place we knew didn't have any zombies. We went back to Bill Murray's place. Yeah, the whole idea was a bit creepy, the place where I had shot him. But in fairness to me Tallahassee had thought he was a zombie at first and Wichita had hit him with a golf club. So I wasn't the only one who was fooled. And as he said, he never was very good at practical jokes.

We built a low fire again and sat around it for a while. No Monopoly though, we were way too tired. After a bit the other two wandered off to sleep leaving Wichita and I in front of the fire, propped up on a pile of cushions. It was wonderful. I got to brush her hair back from her ear again and we snuggled and fell asleep in each other's arms.

The next day we commenced our search for ammunition after picking up food and water and filling the vehicle with gas. We had debated taking another one but no one was comfortable with the idea of splitting our foursome up even to drive. Now that we were together we were going to stay that way.

Tallahassee had an idea. While I suspect more than a bit of that idea revolved around the possibility of finding an unlooted stash of Twinkies it was a good one and we followed it. We went on a search for an out of the way country store. They still exist and we found one sitting on a crossroads. Tallahassee was able to take out the former proprietor who turned out to be the only zombie. There was enough ammo there, along with other supplies, to keep us going for a good long time.

The next step was to follow a nearby dirt road to where it ended at a single two story house. Amazingly there was no one there, alive or dead. So we moved in. We shuttled stuff from the store and made ourselves at home. Tallahassee was disappointed that there weren't zombies to kill (he was somewhat mollified because he had found a twelve pack box of Twinkies in the store). So he went on expeditions to the surrounding countryside. Occasionally, reluctantly, Wichita allowed Little Rock to go with him after extracting numerous promises the older man would keep her safe.

Not that she really needed to have worried about that. Obviously before the shit-storm of the infection Tallahassee had been an awesome dad. And nowadays he felt that way towards Little Rock. He was gruff sometimes but he treated Wichita's sister like she was his daughter. Any zombie ever got to Little Rock would have to do it over Tallahassee's cold dead body and that, brother, was going to be some job.

All this is to explain how it was that the girl I'm crazy about and I were all alone together one day and able to make all this noise without attracting attention.

During this flashback I must have let my attention slip because Wichita cried out.

"Columbus! More! Harder!"

I complied. I was astounded how good I was at this. After all, in spite of stories I might have told to certain people, I had never done this before. Or anything like it before. But here I was. And it wasn't like Wichita was giving directions or anything like that, except by the volume of the sounds she has been making.

Oh my God. I can't believe it. Wichita has been moaning and groaning and letting out all kinds of sounds since I started. But then I have been too. But I just made Wichita purr! Like a cat. Like a big happy sexy dark-eyed cat. And now she just collapses on the bed. Well I'm pretty worn out myself so I join her. She wraps her arms around me and hugs me even tighter that she did that night at the park.

"That... was... awesome! YOU are awesome!"

I blush. Happily though. I'm glad she feels so good now. The mind-blowing kiss she gives me makes me feel pretty darned good too.

It's got to be the boots she wears all the time. They look great on her but they have GOT to be hard on her feet.

Otherwise why would she go so crazed over a foot massage?

(The End)

(Hehehehehe... Did you think that they were "Laying some pipe"? "Going twenty toes"? "Putting Percy in the playpen"? "Wallpapering the closet"? "Passing the gravy"? "Going Heels to Jesus"? Our Columbus for goodness sake? Maybe in a future story. And doesn't Tallahassee have a way with words?)

End file.

Doing Wichita by patricia51


Survivor's Rage

Survivor's Rage

Now, Tallahassee didn't feel very guilty that he had survived the Zombie Apocalypse. He grieved for his son's death, yes, but he didn't feel guilty.

It was hard to feel very guilty when you were this angry.

Columbus took a quick peek out the window. He paled, his eyes widening. "They're coming," he announced, quickly striding over to a cabinet. He opened it, taking out guns and handing them to his companions.

Wichita rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on!" she exclaimed. "We just arrived here two hours ago!"

"Well," Tallahassee growled, "you know our policy, don't you?"

Columbus winced slightly as Tallahassee cocked his shotgun. "You know, I think that's more of _your-_"

Little Rock rolled her eyes. "It's our policy, wimp," she said. Tallahassee patted her on the back, smiling with pride.

"Time to nut up or shut up," Tallahassee declared.

He kicked open the door, shot the first raving lunatic that he saw in the face, and then all hell broke loose.

Columbus, Little Rock, Wichita- none of them really understood Tallahassee. None of them had been close to any of their family when the Apocalypse hit. Of course, Wichita and Little Rock had each other- but neither of them had been killed, had they? Neither of them had been ripped to shreds in front of the other's eyes, had they?

The Zombies had taken his own son, and all he could do was kill them. He couldn't get his son back. Buck wouldn't come back from the dead- and Buck was all that Tallahassee had.

The house in Tallahassee was perhaps the only structure occupied by a human in the entire state- for all the resident knew, the entire nation.

The man inside the house, however, had other, more depressing things on his mind. Yes, more depressing than the thought of being the last sane man in the United States of America.

His son was dead.

The Zombie snarled- a horrible sound, like a chainsaw- right before Tallahassee shot it in between the eyes.

He had barricaded himself in his house for a week since Buck's death, wanting more than anything to escape from the spot where the horrific event had happened yet unable to move- unable to make himself goddamn _move _from the spot.

"Bastards," Tallahassee muttered. "Bastards, bastards, _bastards, bastards, bastards, get away, get away, get away, get away!"_

Part of the reason Tallahassee had never felt very guilty immediately after his son's death was because, well, he wasn't all _there, _exactly.

"Get out!" Tallahassee roared, shooting another Zombie. "GET OUT!"

And the hordes eventually trickled out, and all that was left was a broken man sobbing in a room that stank of blood, death, and mold. Something dripped, and the man didn't know if it was his tears or the blood.

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

The words whispered themselves into the man's ears night after horrible night.

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Rage, rage, against the dying of the light._

Tallahassee was breaking ,crumbling, tearing apart, and somewhere deep inside him, he knew that he didn't want to go crazy- he didn't want to lose his mind, because then he would be good as dead.

The words kept crawling over his brain, over and over and over again, occupying every crevice they could find and saturating his mind, filling it to the brink when there was nothing else he could think of except those words.

And Tallahassee didn't even know where the words had come from- he just knew that they existed, and maybe, maybe they were the only commands he could follow in this madness.

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

The next day, a Zombie managed to break into his house. It almost got to Tallahassee, because for that moment, the man was realizing how nice it would be to just give up- to just let it go.

And then the gun came up and the Zombie came tumbling down, because Tallahassee was afraid of death.

Tears slid down the barrel of the gun and into the Zombie's blood, where the two mixed together and washed away.

Tallahassee almost felt guilty once. Why did I survive, he wondered. Why couldn't I have joined my son?

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

Tallahassee wanted to die, right then and there, but he was too scared of death to pull the trigger.

It was when the next Zombie that stormed into his house had a bit of Buck's shirt in between his teeth when Tallahassee snapped.

"BASTARD!" he roared. "You killed him! You took him away!"

And when that Zombie's head was torn apart by his bullets, Tallahassee didn't sit back down. He didn't stop.

He went outside and shot the next fucking Zombie he saw, and he shot the next one, and the next one, and the next one, until he couldn't hear their motherfucking snarls anymore.

_Do not go gentle into that good night._

Tallahassee chuckled as he remembered the lines from his distant past. But though he laughed, his eyes burned with rage and his knuckles were white. Though he laughed, his heart began to burn in flames as hot as hell. And when he looked- when he looked up and down the street full of dead corpses, he didn't see Zombies- he saw murderers, every single one of them _murderers_ that had murdered his son.

"Daddy ain't going down gentle, Buck," he whispered, "Daddy's going to be rather angry for a while."

Tallahassee wasn't very guilty about his survival anymore. Survivor's guilt, he reasoned, was a fucking disgrace. In his mind's eye, he could see Buck pouting whenever he sulked over that bitch of his wife. He could remember how Buck was sad whenever he was weak- and how he laughed whenever he held him in his arms and swung him around and around and around until it seemed like nothing else existed in the world except Tallahassee and his son.

_And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray._

And Tallahassee swore. He cursed at the goddamn Zombies, the fucking Zombies, the motherfucking son-of-a-bitches, the assholes- he swore up and down that every single fucking one of them would burn in the deepest, hottest corners of Hell.

After all that time spent in that room, Tallahassee still remembered where the car keys were. He painted a large number 3 on the side of his truck and got in. It was a wonder, really, why he had never gotten out of the place before.

"I've wasted so much time," Tallahassee muttered.

And Tallahassee drove, leaving dead Zombies wherever he went.

The rage never died back down. Tallahassee received a new family, but Buck was still dead, and the Zombies that killed him were still out there. Tallahassee could be thankful for his new family, but he would _never _stop being angry.

_Bang._

"Come get some, freaks!" Tallahassee roared.

Columbus swore as a Zombie broke free from the main group and launched itself at him. He quickly backpedaled, shooting the Zombie in the chest.

"Double tap," he muttered, shooting the Zombie in the head. It stopped convulsing and went limp.

Columbus whipped his head around at the sound of a chainsaw. His eyes widened. "Hey, hey , hey!" he exclaimed. "Tallahassee, that is fucking dangerous!"

Little Rock hit him over the head with the butt of her gun. "Tallahassee can handle things," she said, rolling her eyes. Columbus grumbled some indecipherable words that Little Rock presumed were no doubt uncomplimentary. In retaliation, she hit him over the head again.

Tallahassee snarled, grinning wildly as he did so. These were the monsters that had killed his boy- and Tallahassee wasn't going to leave this world without taking as many of them down as he could. These were the freaks that were trying to kill his _new _family- and they would do so over his _own _corpse.

He sure as hell wasn't going gentle. He had said that he wouldn't, right?

"Anybody want some?" he shouted, swinging the chainsaw around. Columbus winced involuntarily.

The chainsaw ripped through the Zombie, spraying blood everywhere.

"Get some here!"

Selling cans of whoop-ass wholesale was Tallahassee's specialty, and he wasn't going out of business anytime soon.

Review, please. Tell me if I got Tallahassee right or not- I don't want to deface such a fucking awesome character. Thanks, and point out any grammar or spelling mistakes.

End file.

Survivor's Rage by yesimahuman


Rule 5: Stick Together

Rule 5: Stick Together

_**Written in response to cottoncandy_bingo prompt: desert. Haven't played in the Zombieland fandom in a while. Sort of pre-slashy, but could be gen if you don't perpetually wear slash goggles. Rated for canon-typical language and violence. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome.**_

* * *

Columbus wakes, dizzy and confused, in dark and deserted room in a dark and deserted house in a dark and deserted town in the middle of the desert. Altogether, in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, it is arguably the worst place he ever could have found himself abandoned.

He sits up slowly, trying to ignore the way it makes his head pound in time with his too-fast heartbeat, and shivers when the blankets fall away.

Why is he cold? He's sure he remembers complaining about the broken air conditioning in the truck they'd driven here, remembers the too hot air on his too warm skin as they'd picked through houses looking for supplies under the high noon sun. More importantly, why is he alone? He remembers Tallahassee, too, bitching up a storm about the lack of decent supplies in any of these stupid, empty cookie cutter houses.

"Tallahassee?" He calls out, as loudly as he dares when he doesn't know if this place is clear.

He listens carefully.

Nothing.

"Tallahassee! Where'd you go!?"

He climbs slowly out of the bed he's been left in, and he has no idea why everything hurts, the type of bone deep ache he hasn't had to deal with since he had a persistent strain of the flu back in 10th grade. The old, wooden boards creaks under his feet, and he's careful of the shattered glass and the layer of miscellaneous debris that litters the floor. He has to catch himself on the doorframe as the world spins madly around him - as if it isn't already crazy enough, now it can't even do him the favor of staying right side up, ugh - and he starts to think that maybe moving was a bad idea.

If he can just make it to the couch, he'll be able to keep an eye outside, he tells himself, setting the goal as he forces himself to take another step, and then another. There's a pile of haphazardly stacked books on the floor, though, and he falls over them, landing awkwardly on his ankle.

"Fuck," he breathes, hands curling around it, where it's already starting to swell. "Just perfect, just what I needed. Now I'm completely useless." No wonder Tallahassee left him behind, he thinks, no wonder the girls ditched out last week. Why would anyone want to be stuck with him when he can't even manage to walk without fucking it up?

That line of thought makes him feel sick to his stomach, though, and he has to sit on the floor for a long, long moment trying not to give in to that feeling.

When he finally feels like he can maybe move again, he sets a new goal. Columbus drags himself back to his feet - well, foot - and stumbles-staggers his way back into the room he'd woken up in. It only has one boarded up window, and the single doorway makes it decently defensible. His best choice, for now. He collapses back onto the bed and feels more like he's just ran a mile than hobbled a few yards - a fact that does not bode well for rule number one of life in zombieland.

"Just... just for a minute," he tells himself, when he pulls the blankets back over his shaking body, eyes already falling closed.

When he wakes again, it is to the familiar, distant crash-bang-groan of zombies moving around outside. He shoots upright, trying to find the source of a sound that seems to come from all directions, but that's hard to do when everything is spinning again. He can make out the lumbering shadows of the undead passing by the window every few minutes, but it takes way too much effort and energy to keep tracking the slow, uncoordinated movements, and as it is, he can barely keep his eyes open.

But he has to.

He has to because for some reason he's alone.

He doesn't have rules for that anymore, doesn't know how to be alone when he's had other people for so long now. He's had Tallahassee nearly since the start, and Little Rock and Wichita have come and gone and come and gone and come and gone again, but now Florida is gone, too. And so he has no one.

"Tallahassee!" He shouts out, even though that is not the best idea with the walking dead so close outside the house. "Where the fuck did you go?" That comes out more as a delirious mumble, as he pulls the blankets tighter around himself, feeling cold and clammy and miserable. "W-where'd you go?"

"Argghhhhh!"

That terrifying noise is way too close, preceded by the sound of something heavy giving way under too much pressure. More boards breaking, a more coherent part of his mind suggests, as it tells him to stop laying there and _do something_.

Bleary, unfocused eyes settle on a broken piece of the headboard, sharp enough to serve as a weapon. It takes too long to pry it loose, though, and the first of the zombies that invaded the house are already shambling into the room.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mumbles, trying to decide which one of the three identical zombies he sees is the real one because fucking fuck he is dizzy. He picks the one in the middle - because he feels like he's most likely to hit that one anyway - and surges forward. His jacked up ankle does not appreciate the move and nearly gives out under him, but he manages to drive the spike through the zombie's head. It lands, really dead, at his feet and the next one trips over the corpse, giving him the time to work out where to aim that blow, but that one breaks the makeshift stake into two equally useless pieces and now he's weaponless with three more shambling walkers closing in.

This would be the time to run, he thinks, except now is not the time for cardio, not when he can barely put any weight on his foot and he feels like he's fighting in zero gravity.

Two get stuck in the doorframe, trying to get through to him at once, but the third is mindlessly pushing into them and it's only a matter of time until they all come falling through the door, blocking his only exit and this... this might be it.

He's lasted this long, nearly a year of surviving in Zombieland and this is it.

The third one looks away from him just a second before it's head explodes in a shower of blood and brain and bone. The other two back off, change direction, and it's only a moment later that a gore0covered baseball bat takes first one and then the other out.

"Ya couldn't go a day without me before ya nearly go an' get yerself killed?"

Columbus collapses backwards, sliding down the side of the bed to sit on the floor because thank fucking god, it's Tallahassee. "Where the fuck were you?"

Tallahassee kicks and drags the corpses out of his way, climbs over the last two to get in the room and looks down at his very much not okay companion with something that almost looks like concern. "I went ta find some medicine for your sorry ass, spitfuck. After you started mumblin' crazy shit and passed out on me in the middle of checkin' this place, I thought it'd be safer to leave ya here. Definitely wasn't gonna leave ya in that hothouse of a truck." He reaches down, presses his hand to Columbus' head, and pulls it away just as quickly. "Damn, yer still burnin' up."

Sometimes Columbus forgets that Tallahassee had a kid before all of this, that he did this sort of thing. "'M cold," he argues, probably sounding not unlike a kid himself.

"Well, sucks for you, then," Tallahassee says, as he rather unrepentantly pulls a bottle of water from the bag of fresh supplies slung over his shoulders and thoroughly douses Columbus with it. "You're gonna get colder."

Columbus is sputtering out curses, soaked in what feels like ice water, but is, in actuality, more like lukewarm water. When another bottle appears, he is rightly suspicious, but Tallahassee hands him this one, along with a couple of pills and a command to swallow them. He does as told.

"Since ya went hollerin' up a storm and drawing all kinds of attention to this place, we'll have ta find someplace else," the older man says with a sigh, like he'd been planning on staying here a while. "So come on. There's another empty house up the block that's still mostly usable."

Columbus, still drippy and dizzy, does as told, but this time his ankle is even less forgiving and he promptly ends up back on the floor. "I, ugh, I might've fallen trying to find you last night," he admits, while Tallahassee hauls him upright again. "Sorry?"

The man slings one of Columbus' arms over his shoulders, supporting the weight that his busted ankle can't take. "What am I gonna do with you?"

"Take me with you, hopefully," he mumbles, perhaps in his delirium, as he leans against Tallahassee's side.

"Ya really musta been out of it, if ya thought I'd really left ya here." Tallahassee's looking down at him again, his eyes softer than usual. "I'm not that easy ta get rid of, you know. Not even a swarm of those walking corpses could stop me."

"What happened to 'don't get attached?" Columbus mumbles.

Tallahassee breathes out a heavy sigh, full of things like Buck and the girls and whoever else he lost before all of this, and says, "Fuck that," and, "Didn't work, anyway."

Columbus agrees, it really didn't, and that's another rule crossed off his list. He revels in the warmth radiating off of Tallahassee when he holds a little tighter, but that stirs another thought, a worrisome one of, "What if you get sick, too?"

"I'm fine," he insists, as if being a badass is enough to keep the germs away, "Bearin' in mind the fact that you managed to catch one helluva cold when we haven't seen a living person in a week, I'd say there's not much we could do if I did, 'cept hope those pills work. But, I haven't gotten it yet, so I think we're alright." If near constant close-quarters haven't infected him, nothing will, he suspects. "Now, come on," he says, as they take a few test steps, "You'll be better in no time."

"Yeah," Columbus nods, feeling a little spark of hope in what is a mostly hopeless world. He dares a bigger step and staggers into Tallahassee's side, off balance.

"And hopefully just a little bit less attached," Tallahassee jokes, as they finally figure out the best way to walk like this, hobbling out of that house. They stop every few feet to deal with an incoming zombie or dodge an obstacle that would threaten the careful balance they've found and continue on their way like it should be, together.

End file.

Rule 5: Stick Together by Animegirl1129


ZOMBIE HUNTER part 1

ZOMBIE HUNTER part 1

A giant brown jeep pulled up and max with his 3 trusted troops went in the abandon building. They split up into teams of 2. Jason and Zack went left, Jake and Max went right. Jake turned the corner and motioned for max to move in. max saw a zombie and shot it into a wall with his shotgun. Meanwhile Zack went up the staircase with Jason but only saw record sheets not the laptop with a possible cure so the 2 went to help Max's squad. Max was back to back with Jake shooting zombies when his 2 other troops ran in shooting zombies. When the zombies were down they went into an elevator to reach the proper floor. They saw the laptop busted on the floor and decided they needed to escape when the elevator bleeped. Zombies were coming so Zack shot the cable causing the squad more time. Max shot the air vent down and the troopers climbed through onto a porch. Max no choice but to call back up and he did, they failed the mission and had to find another way for the cure.

End file.

ZOMBIE HUNTER part 1 by LoganNOVELZ101


Tallahassee's Twinkie Quest

It had been many years since Tallahassee had traveled across the zombie infested world with the friends he had made, but that was no more. The days had been long gone, and now only Tallahassee was to remain. There was just one thing he wanted before he would allow himself to join the zombies or let himself rot and die, and that was a Twinkie. The only Twinkie left in the whole wide world. If only Hostess hadn't shut down right before the zombie virus started to spread, there might have been more out there, but with only one left, Tallahassee pressed on to find it.

He traveled across the world, by not only land, but sea as well. He had many close calls, but nothing ever stopped him. He only kept going, taking in all the pain and using it as fuel for his journey. Little over a year later, his efforts payed off. He reached the home of the last Twinkie on Earth, he ran inside the house overjoyed.

After navigating the mansion of the Twinkie's house, he eventually found it's resting spot. Laying his eyes upon the pure beauty of the Twinkie, he slowly approached. He wanted that thing inside him so badly. He laid down next to the Twinkie. It was about the same height as him, but a little bit wider, which was okay with Tallahassee since he liked it busty. Readying to take a giant bite of the humanoid Twinkie, it quickly got up and kicked him away. Tallahassee grunted and pulled himself away from the Twinkie. The Twinkie was alive, it could speak and everything. "You dare try and eat me you filthy man? Do you know how to treat a lady?"
"My God it can talk."
"Who are you calling an it? Look at me, I'm no average Twinkie. I'm a beautiful lady who you'll never get up close to again in your life, you perv!"
The Twinkie quickly ran off outside of the house and towards a cliff. Tallahassee ran after her, grabbing her arm before she jumped off the cliff. "I'm sorry... look... we just met and this is crazy... but... oh to hell with it. I want you, you're all I need in life. Please... I beg you to give me a chance."

Tallahassee and the Twinkie, who revealed herself to be known as Twink, were sitting at the shore of a beach. "Oh, I'm getting so wet," stated Twink. "We should probably get higher up on the shore then," Tallahasee mindlessely replied. Without warning, Twink grabbed Tallahassee and kissed. He was everything she wanted in a man, and she knew right away that he was the love of her life. Tallahassee removed her from himself and reached into his pocket. He puled out a ring and handed it over. Twink stared at the ring, this was the most romantic thing to ever happen to her. She took the ring and appected marriage with him. They lived happily for many years, and had twelve kids. Zombies slowly started depleting in numbers. Things were perfect in Tallahassee's life, but this was to change very soon...

Tallahassee woke up at two in the morning. He leaned up in bed and looked over at his love. They both lost their romantic fire, they didn't give a damn about each other no longer, they just stayed together for the sake of their children. Tallahassee's head had a horrifying thought about eating Twink in her sleep. He quickly laid back down and tried to forget it, but it keeped him up all night, and he thought about it all day, staring at Twink the whole time. Many more days and nights passed, and he had reached a point of horrible insanity. He watched as Twink slowly fell asleep one night, and then violently devoured her. He then became aware of himself, he could only think about his guilt then. A noise came from the doorway. Tallahassee looked over, one of his and Twink's kids saw the whole thing. There was only one thing to do, eat him too so no one would find out about what happened. Two twinkies was not enough though, as he found himself craving more. He ate all the children he had with Twink. Once again all alone in life, Tallahassee had no desire to live life at all. He killed himself, totally dishonored of what he had done.

End file.

Tallahassee's Twinkie Quest by IAMASEXYMAN


1. When you were running

**I've kicked this around a while, and am still not sure what I want to do with it. Here's a first installment. I plan to rate this "T", but could get on a more mature side: not graphic, but serious. Italicized lyrics are from artist Sara Groves, song title "When It Was Over". **

_When it was over and they could talk about it
She said there's just one thing I have got to know
What in that moment when you were running so hard and fast
Made you stop and turn for home_

_He said I always knew you loved me even though I'd broken your heart
I always knew there'd be a place for me to make a brand new start_

Columbus and Wichita lay in the back seat of the SUV, passionately making out. In the driver's seat, Talahassee snored loudly. In the rear, Little Rock slept on an improvised bed. Columbus broke the kiss and brushed Wichita's hair back behind her ear. "Do you want to do this?" he said.

Wichita frowned, turning her eyes in her sister's direction. "She might hear us."

Columbus looked to Tallahassee. "He would smell us."

Wichita sighed and changed positions, so that her head was at his feet. "When you remember the day we met," she said, "what do you think about most?"

"I remember you with your sister," he answered. "I could see how you cared for each other. And even when you had guns pointed at me... I wished I could be a part of it."

She nodded, and made a swallowing motion as if fighting a lump in her throat. "I remember when I stopped to let you out," she said. "I told you I hoped you would find who you were looking for. But I wanted to ask you to stay. Sometimes... I stay awake wondering if I would have, if you had gotten out that door." She shivered.

"I wouldn't have," he said, and hugged her legs. It was not long until Wichita was asleep, but Columbus's eyes remained open, gleaming with tears.

	2. The Proposal

Columbus and Wichita dined on a blanket on a hillside, with the last of the bottles they had pilfered from Bill Murray's collection. The SUV was parked behind them. Tallahassee and Little Rock were nowhere to be seen, as Tallahassee had promised to make sure of. "Krista," Columbus said, reaching for his back pocket. "Will you- ah" He paused while he fished in his pocket. "-Marry me?"

After a moment of conflicted silence, Wichita burst out laughing. "Oh my god, that has to be the worst proposal ever," she said. Columbus flushed, and fumbled with the ring in his hand. "I mean, you're supposed to get on one knee. And if you're going to propose, you should have the ring ready before you ask. And- Wait, let me see that ring." Columbus held it out sheepishly. She held it up for critical inspection. "Where'd you get this?"

"Tallahassee found it," he said. Under her stare, he added, "-Under the seat. Uh- I guess it's yours."

She dropped the ring back into his hands and punched him in the shoulder. "You propose to me- and you don't do it right- and your delivery is terrible- and you use my own ring? _And_ it doesn't even have a real diamond!"

"It looked pretty," Columbus said. "And- well, diamonds were never really worth that much. Du Beers had control of the supply, and kept the prices artificially high. They used to have people shot on sight if they were collecting diamonds... My geology professor talked about it a lot."

She rocked him with a hard shove. "And then you try to give me a lecture on geology!" She pulled him in and kissed him. When it finally ended, she was holding the ring in her hand, without him knowing how it got there. "And- I accept."

As they undressed each other in the back seat, Columbus said, "You know- I've never done this before. So-"

"Well, I haven't either," she said. He paused, she stared. "You thought I was-"

When Tallahassee discreetly returned, he found Columbus sleeping in the front passenger seat.

	3. Tal and Little Rock

**I thought of this only in the last day or so, but it would probably fit in best earlier in the story. (Anyone agree/disagree?) The flashback is based directly on a deleted scene, with a little modification to the dialogue.**

Tal and Little Rock lay on the bed, the man resting his head on the backboard and the girl lying prone with her legs intermittently swinging in the air. They were watching the only programming they could find on TV, which was "That 70s Show" in Spanish. Shouts could be heard from the living room. "I think Wichita shot Jackie while we were at Pacific Playland," Little Rock said.

"Hold on," said Tal. "Did you just hear a crash?" He did not need to listen closely to hear the sound of breaking glass- followed by a loud laugh.

"OO! They're having another smashing contest!" Little Rock said. She started to rise. Tal took hold of her ankle.

"I think your sister and Columbus want the living room to themselves," he said.

"Oh, Wichita doesn't do that."

"You sure?" Tal said with a smirk.

"Of course I'm sure. She always says, do things _for_ the boys, not _with_ them..." Tal narrowly avoided a spit take. There was another crash, more laughter and then a decidedly muffled cry. Little Rock barged out and shouted, "Okay McSkinny, what are you doing to my sister?"

A moment later, she ran back into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her. She crouched in an almost fetal position, and slapped away Tal when he tried to lay a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to talk about anything?" he said. "C'mon over, girl. Tell Uncle Tal what's the matter."

Ten minutes and more passed before she responded: "If Wichita and Columbus are together, what does it mean?"

"Well, it doesn't mean she stops loving you," Tal said. "It means she loves him, too. But, I think when people are in love, there's more to spread around to everyone else."'

"What if she has a baby?"

"Then she'll love him too... And so will his aunt." Little Rock began to cry, loudly.

"Tal... I think I need to tell you something..."

_Six weeks earlier..._

"You know what's amazing?" Little Rock said as they drove off in the Humvee. "That they lasted this long. They should be so proud!"

"Yeah, they can die happy," said Wichita. Little Rock gave her a long glance. "No."

"Okay," she said, but kept giving her the questioning gaze.

"Look, what did we talk about?"

"Trust no one, just you and me."

"...Even if it means leaving behind the slow and the weak." After a pause, Wichita added, "Or in this case, one slow and one weak."

"Okay." She still didn't look away. "You know, in the Discovery channel shows, the wildebeest always wait for the slow and the weak. Ever wonder why?"

"Maybe so when the lions show up only the slow and the weak get eaten," Wichita answered sardonically. Her expression became thoughtful.

"Or maybe it's because even the strong and fast get slow and weak once in a while," Little Rock said.

Wichita turned the humvee around...

Little Rock cried herself to sleep on Tal's shoulder, without saying another word.

	4. One Left Behind

**So, this is setting up an arc for the rest of the story...**

Krista lay awake beside the man she still knew only as Columbus. She had never allowed herself to become attached to a man before, and wasn't sure how she felt about it now. He was, in every way, better for her than she would ever have thought before, and she could have told him things even he didn't know about himself. That, behind the anxieties and insecurities that made him seem cowardly, he had more courage than any man she had met. That he gave her everything she wanted from a lover. And that she was almost certain she was in love with him. But she was still not sure if it was enough.

She shifted, and gave a gratified smirk as she felt him stir at the brush of her hip. Then, unbidden, she thought of another passer-by...

_Seven weeks earlier_

The man was perhaps 35, but could have been older. He grew his hair long, but was obviously compensating for a growing bald spot on his scalp. He looked like an artist, though his 1980s-vintage Audi convertible marked him as most likely a middle-management executive with pretensions. He did not look at all at home on the roads of post-apocalyptic Oklahoma, but that made him seem all the more determined to survive.

His Audi convertible slowed to a halt for a young woman standing beside the road. "Please, I need a ride to LA," she said. She rested her hands on the door and leaned forward. "My fiancee's there, I know he's alive, but he can't get out. Are you going anywhere near there? I'll give you anything you want if you help."

The man considered first the ring on her finger, and then her neckline. "I'm on my way to Vegas; I hear there's safe places there. I can get you at least as far as the Arizona-California border," he said, getting out of the car. "But I'll want a little something up front..."

After fifteen minutes, he got back in the car, and the woman got in beside him. "Thank you so much," she said.

"So," Little Rock said as she sat up in the back seat, holding a PPK pistol from the glove compartment, "tell us more about Las Vegas."

When they forced him out of the car ten minutes later, Wichita threw her ring after him.

She awoke with a gasp, and a tear running down her eyes. Columbus mumbled and stroked her hair back, without completely waking. She kissed him, until his eyes fluttered open. "What is it?" he said.

"I... I love you," she said.

	5. True Sisters

Columbus sat on a couch in a cabin in northern California. Once again, Tal and Little Rock were nowhere to be seen- this time departed on an early morning run to the city. "I'm sorry," Wichita said.

"I am, too," Columbus said. "I- I shouldn't have let it make a difference."

"But it does make a difference, you know," Wichita said. "As-" She practically bit her tongue as she went silent. Columbus stared down into her eyes, his face twitching as wheels worked within his mind.

"Oh, god," he said. "I'm so sorry." She reached for her pants, pulled out her wallet and handed him a photo, taped together. He held it up to the dawn light. It was a photo of Little Rock, perhaps four years younger, with her older sister. A young man rounded out the subtly awkward trio, leaning in to sniff the older girl's blonde hair.

"She isn't my real sister, of course," said Wichita. Columbus nodded, she snorted. "`Real'. Let me tell you about her real sister. She took care of- of her while their mom was working two jobs to support them. And when she couldn't be there for her little sister, why, she called up her boyfriend, and he would drive all the way from college just to `babysit'. They found out about it, but never found him. Her sister made sure of that. So, she bounced to her aunt, who signed her into a foster home in Wichita, Kansas. She was happy, the first two days. Then she found the photo her aunt sent with her to remind her of home. I fished it out of the garbage, because I thought she might want it again later. You know why I kept it?"

The look he gave her now, as he saw the hate behind her eyes, was one she had only seen when she had him at gunpoint. "So I would know him when I saw him. I had it all planned out. I meant to do it to, even after the outbreak. I was going to search Little Rock until I found him, and then- I was going to bash him over the head, just enough to knock him out. I had a few ideas where to go from there. But I was sure I would cut hi-" Columbus managed to kiss her then, desperately fearfully.

"Please," he said with tears in his eyes. "He's gone. You're here, and she's here, and both of you are with me."

She nodded, and took a deep breath. "She stopped me," she said after a moment of silence. "I never told her, but she knew. I don't even remember how we got started on the Pacific Playland BS, but she remembered going there with her father, and she convinced me she needed to go there. I suppose she saved my life."

"Mine, too," Columbus said.

Tallahassee hit the brakes in surprise as he approached the cabin. "What the f-?" he said. A huge column of smoke and flame rising into the air. He hit the accelerator and barreled down the dirt road at nearly highway speed.

Wichita waved at them as the SUV skidded to a halt. Behind her, Columbus added a coffee table to the raging fire in front of the cabin. "We're having a campfire," Wichita said with a smile. "And guess what- we went through the pantry, and found everything we need to make s'mores!" As she raced her sister inside, she gave a slight nod in the direction of Columbus. Tallahassee turned in suspicion, but all he saw was Columbus throwing a small piece of paper into the fire.

	6. Destination: Vegas!

Columbus had his arm around Wichita as they announced their decision. "We want to have a wedding," Wichita said.

"Don't see how it makes a difference," Tallahassee said. "What do you want to do, anyway?"

"We want to... ah... go to Las Vegas," Columbus said.

Tallahassee made a T with his arms. "Wait a minute! Didn't we settle this already? No going into the really big cities? Especially ones with lots of bright, flashing lights?"

"But we heard a story," Wichita said, "that there are safe places out in Vegas."

"You heard the same story about Pacific Playland!" Tallahassee said. "I've heard it about a hundred places! It's all BS!"

"But it's not the same story," Wichita said. "This isn't about some place with no zombies at all, it's about a place where people are holding them off."

"It's the casinos," Little Rock jumped in. "Right at the start, they had guards, an' security systems, an' enough food for thousands. When people started turning into zombies, they acted just like kings in castles used to do: They locked the doors, fought off attacks, and lived off what they had stored." She crossed her arms and scowled. "It could have happened. And, by the way, there weren't any zombies in the Playland when we got there."

Tal rubbed is chin thoughtfully. "Okay. Let's say it's true, and let's say the people haven't starved or been eaten. How do we get there if it's surrounded by zombies? And when we get there, how do we get in? I doubt if they would have lasted this long opening the door for just anybody."

"We can see what turns up," Columbus said. "If there isn't a safe path to an inhabited casino, we turn back, don't even go into town."

"All that so you and your girlfriend can play dress-up?"

"No, so we can find a safe place to live," Columbus said. "If there's anywhere we can stay safe, it would be those casinos, and if they've lasted this long they're going to be working on ways to grow food, and clear the zombies off the streets instead of just holding them off. They'll want people with... experience." A light was dawning in Tal's eyes.

"And," Wichita said, "they'll have the biggest snack bars you can imagine. Who knows what they might find?"

Tal's ecstatic expression could have belonged to a pious man contemplating heaven or a hedonist contemplating fornication, but there could be no doubt what soft, golden temptation was foremost in his mind. "All right then," he said, "we're going to Vegas!"

	7. Stopover

**A little more on the "mature" side of things... **

They were reasonably sure, based on the presence of several slot machines, that they were somewhere in Nevada. They knew little else as they rolled into the gas station. "Okay. Gas, food, maps... uh, hygiene products," Columbus said.

Wichita kissed him on the lips. "You and Tal take care of gas, we can take care of food and such. Love ya." He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels before going inside.

He went to the men's room first, and ended up alongside Tal. "I thought only girls did this," said Tal. Glancing slyly first at Columbus, then at the vending machine on the wall, he said, "So. You and Wichita."

He remained studiously silent, then as he relaxed, he started to talk: "Well... We talked, and tried a few things, took it, you know, slow, and we could tell we were, well,_ right _for each other. And-" He started to get a sly look in his eyes. "Well, have you ever seen the look she gets when she shoots a zombie? Well, I swear-"

The door slammed open as Wichita strode in. Columbus not only fell silent, he stopped in midstream. "Don't mind me, boys," she said. Then she used the butt of her Mossberg to bash open the vending machine.

He walked out in a coughing fit, walking faster as he passed Wichita and Little Rock, then slowed as he heard snatches of their conversation. "...Trust me," Wichita said, casting a bemused glance after him, "if you wait for the right guy and the right time, it will feel right."

"Yeah, but _that_?" Little Rock said, boring into the back of his neck with a toxic glare. "I mean, how does even _he_ like _that_?"

He returned from filling the tank to find Little Rock trying to console Tallahassee. "See, a Zinger is like a Twinkie," she said. "They're spongy, they're full of cream... The only difference is, the Zingers come with frosting on top!"

"No, no, no!" Tal said. "It's the texture that matters..." Columbus almost stopped to join in the debate, but kept walking under Little Rock's stare.

"It's okay," Wichita said as they brushed past each other. "She's adjusting, that's all."

They rode back out, with Columbus driving, Tal as passenger, and the sisters in the back. Tal pointed to a massive, decrepit brick of a pickup among the wrecks lining the road. "You see that?" he said. "It's a '63 Dodge D200. My father owned one for a while. I saw it once in a Christmas movie, you know, the one with Chevy Chase."

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?" Columbus said.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Tal said. "Man, that Cousin Eddie busted me up."

"Wait a minute," Wichita said, leaning forward far enough to breathe on the back of his neck. (She had long since learned never to touch him while he was driving. "You sounded nervous there. Did you get scared by _National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation_?"

"The open scene's very intense," he said, hunching his shoulders. "I mean, the guys in that pickup truck are so mean to that family, and then they leave them trapped under a lumber truck... I saw it when I was young... Fine, twelve." He managed to relax his shoulders and give a sheepish smile as Little Rock burst out laughing.

As they rounded a turn in the road, the ancient Dodge pulled out and cruised at a leisurely pace after them.

**And, incidentally, _I _think that truck was scary. **

	8. The Promise

_There is a love that never fails
There is a healing that always prevails
There is a hope that whispers a vow
A promise to stay while we're working it out
So come with your love and wash over us_

The strip mall was at the edge of North Las Vegas, and looked to have been run down even before the zombie apocalypse. Its anchor stores, at opposite ends of the L-shaped structure, were a high-end outlet clothing store and a hardware store. Among the stores in the middle were a jewelry store, a Precious Moments figurine shop, and a reproduction weapons shop. Tallahassee tried out his latest weapon, an M16 with over/under grenade launcher, by firing a concussion grenade into the Precious Moments store. Little Rock cheered at the chorus of crashes. "Want to go in and finish 'em off?" said Tal.

"No," Little Rock said, after a genuine pause for thought. "Wichita wants help picking out clothes." The sisters hurried giggling toward the clothing store. Tal wandered into the weapons shop. Columbus went to the jewelry store.

"So," Little Rock said as she handed clothes to her sister, "you are _totally_ into this guy!"

"I know, I can't believe it," Wichita said. "I guess it happens."

Little Rock appraised her selection. "Yeah, he's going to explode when he sees that skirt," she said. "It fits with your jacket. But we need something different for a top." A short time later, she concluded, "Now that is perfect. But I'm thinking, accessorize. The weapons shop... No, the hardware store!"

"Exactly what I as thinking," Wichita said. She turned, and then almost spontaneously they were in each other's arms, in tears.

_Three years earlier..._

In the back of a red convertible, Krista winced as her sister stitched the cut on her lip. When it was done, she pressed an ice pack to her sister's black eye. "Look, we have the car, and the only people who know we have it aren't going to talk about it," she said. "We're free and clear, as long as we keep moving. We can get money whenever we have to... I can always think of something. From now on, we trust no one. Just you and me." She rested her chin on the top of her sister's head. "And I swear- I promise to _God_... Nobody ever hurts you again. _Ever._"

Columbus stepped into the weapons store. Tallahassee turned to greet him, twirling a ball and chain. "How to you think the zombies will like a real mace face?" he said.

"Well, it's not going to intimidate them, any more than anything else," Columbus said, almost absent-mindedly. "And that's not a mace; a mace has a head fixed to a solid handle. That's a flail... And there's actually no evidence that it was used historically... It's really not even a practical weapon."

"Wha- OW!" In his distraction, Tal hit his own ear.

Columbus looked over the weapons, and chose a vintage KaBar for later evaluation. "Listen, have you seen Wichita?"

Tal smirked. "Yeah, I saw her and Little Rock headed for the hardware store. Saw what she was wearing, too. You're gonna be one lucky little spitf*." Columbus walked out flustered, and neglected to perform his usual 360 survey. Thus, he never saw the Dodge pickup.

Little Rock leaned against the hardware store's massive metal and wood shelves. "Don't you know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding?" she said with a hint of bemusement.

"Yes... right... unlucky..." Columbus made another false start at breaking his stare. He was still taking in parts of Wichita's outfit, without quite getting a handle on the whole. He managed to get as far as shifting from the slitted black leather skirt and black stockings to the strapless scarlet top and peeking lingerie.

Wichita strode up to him and placed the Mossberg in his hands. "Now that you're here," she said, "maybe you can help me accessorize." She stepped back and reached for one of her selections.

Then Little Rock gave a stifled cry. Columbus whirled around in an instant, and barely held his fire. Tal stood at the door, his hands tied together on top of his head. Behind him were five men with guns and blunt instruments. Not far off, he heard the sound of approaching motorcycles.

	9. Standoff

Columbus pumped the shotgun, but held his fire, weighing the odds. One biker was already in the door, crouched behind a checkout counter. Another was to the left, covering him through the glass storefront. The other three stood just outside the door. All wore flak jackets. There could be no question of the position of two of them. A big man with a vintage Army helmet, long hair an even longer beard was a perfect fit for second in command: His obvious size and strength were combined with a gaze that was perceptive but without the intelligence and initiative of a leader. He held Tal's own M16 to the back of his head. "How did you get captured?" he said to Tallahassee. "You had the assault rifle!"

"I know!"

"With a grenade launcher!"

"I know!" Tal burst into tears. "But they're _people_, man!"

The biker who stepped forward now, carrying an inelegant .44 revolver, could only be the leader. His shaved head looked more like a concession to the inevitable than a choice. He looked about 35, but could have been older. He looked as subtly out of place among the bikers as a feral dog in a pack of wolves: He was less imposing in physique, and less assured in his manner, but there was a quality of anxiety tempered by cunning, which marked him as someone who, given the mettle to survive at all, could not stop until he had reached the top.

"We don't like killing," he said as he stepped inside, with the smooth voice of someone working far below his income potential. "Well... at any rate, _I _don't like killing. So let's see if we can work something out. First, let's make introductions. You can call me Branson. That's Enid." He indicated his second. "And I understand he goes by Tallahassee, and you answer to Columbus."

"What do you want?" Columbus said. "Guns? Food? Gas?"

"Oh, we have those things in more abundance than you could imagine, and if we needed them we wouldn't need your cooperation to take them," said Branson. "But we have some use for services." He looked briefly but pointedly at Wichita and Little Rock.

Wichita pulled her sister to her. "Nobody touches her."

Branson smiled. "All well and good... Just make a deal."

"Please," Little Rock sobbed, "not for me."

Branson looked back to Columbus. "But first- drop the gun."

"Don't," Wichita hissed. Branson looked at her again, this time thoughtfully, almost uneasily. But Wichita was paying more attention to Columbus and his trembling hands. "I'll kill you if you do!"

Enid stepped inside, leaving Tal with an even larger man. Columbus leveled the gun at him. "Go ahead," he said in an incongruously pleasant voice. "Get it out of your system." Columbus all but threw the gun to Branson. He caught the shotgun with one hand, relinquishing a double-handed grip on the .44, and the shotgun casually by the middle.

"You coward, I hate you!" Wichita shouted. She fired her PPK pistol before anyone realized it was in her hand. She fired two shots through the storefront, and the biker covering her fell, stunned or injured either by her fire or by a rain of falling glass. Enid pinned Columbus to the shelf. Branson nimbly jumped to the cover of a display stand of paint cans. Turning her body to protect her sister, she drew a bead on him with the pistol.

"Please," Branson said, "Let's be sensible. You have, what, six shots? Just five if you were smart and left the chamber empty." The biker behind the checkout stand shifted positions for a better shot. She fired four shots, hitting him in the vest and the unprotected shoulder. A near miss caused the cash register drawer to fly open, striking him in the back of the head and slamming him chin-first into the counter. She shifted her aim back to Branson. "Get out of here, or I kill you."

"Then what?" he said. "I'm dead, you're out of bullets, and believe me, I'm the least of your problems."

Wichita kissed her sister's head. Then, with her chin still resting on her scalp, she thrust the gun against Little Rock's throat. "No one hurts her," she said coldly. "Never again."

**Incidentally, that's "Enid" as in "Enid, Oklahoma".**

	10. Reunion

"Oh,*," Columbus said, trying to see around Enid. "Holy *."

Enid grinned, exposing teeth that had been rotten and crooked long before the American Dental Association became zombie food. "Tell you what," he said. "Talk her down, and we'll let you have her back when we're done."

Branson shoved over the display stand, sending paint cans everywhere. "Enough play time," he said. "Final offer. Drop that gun, we let them go."

"You first," she said.

"Things don't work that way," he said as he advanced toward her. "We're the ones with the leverage." He stopped abruptly. Again, a troubled look was on his face. He looked at her hand, and especially the ring on her finger. A light of recognition dawned, followed by pure hate. "Good God. You're them. That's my own * gun. And I've still got your ring, you *!"

"Oh, God," Wichita said.

"You know, you gave me one of the best jobs I've ever had," he said. "Think you can do enough to pay for an Audi?"

"I'm sorry," she said.

"We're way past the time for that," he said. "You know the worst part? I was _into_ you. I was ready to ask you to come all the way to Vegas with me. I was even thinking we might settle down there. But you cut that short, didn't you?"

"I wasn't into you," she said coldly. "You were a big, selfish prick. I could hardly wait to leave you by the road. You were the only one I ever wanted to die."

"So, so much for apologies!" he said. Pointing back with the butt of the shotgun, he added, "But I guess we both did pretty well for ourselves. I met Enid. You met that runt. Just in case you actually care, I don't think I'll hurt him, 'cause I pity him. How much longer were you planning to string him along?"

"Columbus?" Wichita said. Columbus didn't answer. "Columbus, I love you."

At almost the same moment, Tal shouted, "Wichita, behind y-!" He was cut short with a blow to the head from the only biker still outside. The other had used Branson's distraction to climb through the broken storefront, go around behind Wichita and grab her gun hand through the shelving.

The pistol fired.

	11. Vengeance

Sparks showered down from a lamp over Columbus's head. Enid lurched back in pain. Columbus saw Wichita struggling to free herself from the biker holding onto her arm. "Run!" she screeched to her sister.

Wichita struck the attacker behind her with the butt of her empty pistol, knocking off his police-issue helmet with a stunning blow. But then Branson hit her over the head with her own shotgun, and she sprawled to the floor. "You're mine now, whore," he said, pressing his foot between her shoulder blades. Then there was a cry from Enid. She and Branson both looked to see him drop to his knees with a KaBar knife low in his chest. His expression was more of surprise than pain, and much the same expression was on Columbus's face.

Branson fired at him, but his aim was poor with only one hand, and Columbus was already running at him. Columbus slammed into him, and with the benefit of surprise as much as momentum pushed him back to the shelves. He dropped the shotgun, and with one hand freed was able to wrestle back. Before the chief could take advantage of his superior strength and much greater experience, Columbus slammed his head back into a metal post with stunning force. Branson toppled forward, and he had scarcely hit the floor before Wichita was upon him.

The biker outside pushed Tallahassee aside, raising the assault rifle to intervene. Before he could fire, Tal struck a necessarily double-handed blow to the back of his head, then struck a roundhouse slap to his chin. He staggered and dropped the gun, but countered with a punch that sent Tal skidding. As he bent to pick up the rifle, a small voice said, "Hands up." He looked up, and smiled.

"C'mon, kid," he said, "do you think a kevlar vest can't stop a nail gun?"

As Little Rock quickly demonstrated, it couldn't.

Wichita's overtaxed pantyhose failed catastrophically as she drove her heel into the fallen chief's crotch. "Wichita!" Columbus shouted. He tried to take her by the arm, but she literally shrugged him off. Then he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back. "He's down! We're safe!" he said. For a moment, he lifted her off the floor and set her down beside the shelf. "Now we need to get out of here!"

Wichita snatched up a circular saw and revved it. "He would have taken me," she said. "He would hurt Little Rock. You would have let him."

"No, you know that isn't true," Columbus said. "The shotgun couldn't get through a flack jacket. The knife could. I let go of the gun so they would let their guard down, and come closer. I could have saved you even sooner if you hadn't pulled the gun!" She stepped forward, and he took a step back.

"He's a leader of a gang," she said.

"But you put him there,"he said. He reflexively backed up again.

"I didn't make him what he is. He was a prick when I met him, and he as a prick after. I just led him to the right people. If we let him go, he'll just hurt more people."

"But he isn't hurting anyone else today. And he's human."

"Krista?" Little Rock said.

Columbus brushed her hair behind her ear. "Who do you want her to grow up to be in Zombieland?"

Wichita dropped the saw with a clatter. "I don't hate you," she said. "But I wish I'd never let you touch me." Then she turned and hugged her sister.

They ran for the SUV, pausing only long enough to help Tal to his feet. Columbus heard a small voice say, "Little help?" He hurried on, assuring himself that he had _not_ just seen a man with both hands nailed to his flak vest.

Just as they peeled out of their parking place, a car and swarm of motorcycles pulled up to the mouth of the parking lot. "Don't stop," Wichita said.

"I won't," Columbus answered. Before he could put the SUV in gear, a bullet slammed into his door. Turning in surprise, he beheld Branson lurching after them, a .32 pistol in hand.

"Just so we're clear," the chief shouted. Then he waved his arms in a signal, and the bikers scattered. "You let me live, I let you live- for now." Columbus nodded and hit the gas.

	12. Forgiveness

_When it was over and they could talk about it
They were sitting on the couch
She said what on earth made you stay here
When you finally figured out what I was all about
He said I always knew you'd do the right thing
Even though it might take some time
She said, Yeah, I felt that and that's probably what saved my life_

By nightfall, they stood in the chapel at the Circus Circus casino. While still miles out of town, they had been met by an armed patrol from the casino. The management was sufficiently impressed by Tallahassee's exploits that they insisted on sending a helicopter to pick them up. The ceremony was presided over by a member of the clergy not ordinarily involved in such proceedings, one Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker.

Tal led Wichita down the aisle, still in her specially selected get-up but wearing a white fur coat over everything else as a token concession to tradition and general modesty. Columbus stood at the end, dividing his gaze between longing looks at his bride and nervous glances at Little Rock, who stood beside him in lieu of a best man. Tal guided his hand to Wichita's, and on contact his mind fell under a cloud of warm, friendly static. He only sporadically followed what was being said, and saying yes when something was expected. He was sure he botched even that; at one point Wichita stifled a giggle and Little Rock gave him a furtive kick in the shin. He took the longest sustained interest when Sister Knickerbocker recited a Bible verse he had memorized at around age ten and could still remember: "Love is patient... Love is kind... Love keeps no record of wrongs..." At that phrase, he met Wichita's eyes and saw sadness there. He squeezed her hand, and she smiled, though a tear ran down her cheek.

Then the time came to kiss the bride, and he all but fell upon her.

Sister Cynthia loudly cleared her throat. He looked up, and Wichita pushed him back. "The bride requested an additional ceremony," she said. Wichita stepped back, leaving him to face Little Rock.

"Do you, Little Rock Arkansas, take this man Columbus Ohio to be your brother-in-law, to help and put up with no matter how annoying he gets?"

Little Rock's face contorted with every appearance of long thought. "Okay, I do."

"Do you, Columbus Ohio, take this woman Little Rock Arkansas to be your sister-in-law, to protect and take care of like your own sister?"

"I do," he said.

"Then, you may now shake hands." They did.

_Oh love wash over a multitude of things
Love wash over a multitude of things
Make us whole_

As Columbus carried her awkwardly over the threshold of a penthouse honeymoon suite, Wichita said, "Wait. Do you need to ask me-?"

"No," he said, not needing to be told the question. He only wiped away a tear before shutting the door behind them.

In the chapel, Sister Cynthia listened to Little Rock while she cried on Tallahassee's shoulder. "He was just one," she said, "just one man we left on the side of the road. But there were so many! _I can't even remember how many!_" She only cried harder as Tal tried to put his arms around her. "And we almost did the same thing to you!"

_There is a hope... there is a healing... and a promise to stay._

Columbus and his bride reclined in the hot tub. He whispered in her ear, and flushed but managed a sheepish grin as she burst out laughing. "Oh, my, God, that is exactly what your name would be! Maybe I'll call you that in bed from now on." She started to say something more, but he ducked her head under the water. She ducked his back, and soon they were in another wrestling match which neither wanted to win.

Tal lay on a couch, which he had moved to look out onto the balcony. "Somewhere out there," he said, sweeping the skyline expansively,"there's a grocery store. And somewhere in it, there's the _last_ box of Twinkies."

"And the _last_ pack of Trident sugarless gum," Little Rock added, sounding sleepy but still cheerful.

"Yeah! And in the back there's two sisters... who really love each other... and just need to know that other people care about them too."

"I'd like to meet them."

"Me too, pup." And soon, both slumbered.

_So come with your love, and wash over us._

**I'm definitely not done with this series or my story arc, but this is it for this fic. Thanks to those who followed this far, especially those who have left reviews. If your interests run that way, you can also check out "the Rookie" under Terminator, which I plan to give an extra push in the immediate future (Wichita/Krista as treated here has quite a bit in common with my OC Cass in that story), my completed fics on this site, and my fiction and nonfiction on other sites. And Sara Groves is worth a look too!**

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Trip to Vegas by David N. Brown


The only hope

It is 5:oo pm , me and my daughter are alone in a world filled with the walking dead and right now we are in a field surrounded by trees and flowers, who knew the world could go down the drain but still partly pure.

See a few months back a super virus broke out, and killed millions of people so much of my friends and family are gone now and all I have left is my baby Lilly the only reason I still go on in the dead plane of a world I use to call home.

Tomorrow me, and Lilly are heading for a safe house we had heard about, we've been traveling for weeks now we are so close the safe house is in New York you can see it over the trees all the tall buildings.

The Next day

"Mommy," says Lilly panicking.

"Yes, honey what's wrong," says Elli nervously.

"We need to get moving I can hear walkers coming through the trees," said Lilly panicking.

"Okay, only grab the important supplies," responded Eli.

They started to run, the moans got closer and closer, they finally got to the city they ran for the safe house when they got to the door their were two men standing there with big guns, they ran to the men and the men said get into the building to get checked out for any signs of infection, but all assured Lilly was infected.

When they were in the woods and Lilly heard the zombies she was scratched by one.

Eli was so upset with this news; she told Lilly that every thing will be alright, even though she already knew she wasn't going to be alright. She knew what was going to happen to her. She was terrified, but she knew what must be done. She told her mother that she loves her and that she wishes it could have ended in a different way. Eli got upset and started saying if Lilly died that she must go too that she will not go on with out her daughter.

Lilly looked at her mother and said, "Mommy, if you really love me, you must let me go and when I'm gone keep going. Don't give up because I must leave, you must do this for me. Do you understand me?

Eli said to her daughter crying, "I love you and never forget this, I will keep going, and I will never forget my baby girl."

"I love you to momma, I will miss you." Said Lilly with a stutter in her voice.

As Lilly walked out of the door, Eli ran to try to stop her from leaving her, but as soon as Lilly got out the door Eli heard 30 gun shots, and she dropped to her knees crying and screaming why. As the weeks went on Eli got more and more depressed, and finally her body gave up from weakness and she had died.

The end.

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The only hope by sarahdavi