When I finished going to the bathroom, I washed my hands with water and lots of soap. I opened the door to Harlow standing right outside, her arms crossed firmly over her chest. Ripley, for her part, was sprawled out on the bed, fast asleep.

“The food and water are gonna run out in a few days.” I brushed past Harlow on my way to get clothes to change into. “The zombies will come here, and we’ll run out of bullets.”

“How is that any different from anywhere else?” Harlow asked. “We’re gonna run out of food and ammunition, since there aren’t any more factories, and zombies are always gonna find us. At least here we have a place to sleep.”

I hated that she had a point, but things weren’t like that in the quarantine. I’m not entirely sure where they got food, except Beck once said something about a major government stockpile of dehydrated meals. Plus they had a garden, a water purifying system, electricity, and fences.

“Well, you can stay here as long as you want.” I grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. “But Blue and Lazlo are going with me. So…” I shrugged and went into the closet to change.

Harlow didn’t say anything after that, and for the first time since I’d met Lazlo, I was glad that we’d run into him. He could at least be useful for getting Harlow to do stuff.

I changed and got ready, but Harlow took her sweet time. She searched through all of the former inhabitant’s makeup, and spent way too long getting gussied up for a vacuous rock star who was way too old for her. He had to be at least twenty.

I gave up on waiting for her and went downstairs. Blue made a fire in the sink and held a skillet over it, cooking meat-type patties. It was the first almost cooked food I’d had in ages, so I ate happily.

Harlow came downstairs wearing another skirt and strappy tank top, pairing it with her usual combat boots. Her hair was pulled back nicely, accented with some diamond clips she’d found in the jewelry box.

“I have fantastic news,” Blue grinned. “I poked around the house this morning, and I found an SUV in the garage. The keys were on the key rack, it’s gassed up, and ready to go.”

“You mean we don’t have to walk?” Harlow’s eyes sparkled. “And we can actually take stuff with us?”

“Honest?” I asked, fighting to contain my happiness. I thought I was going to spend the next month walking to Wyoming. “Did you test drive it and everything?”

“Well, I started it to make sure it ran,” Blue said.

“It purred like a kitten,” Lazlo added.

“It’s in the garage?” I asked, already backing away.

Before Blue could say anything more, I rushed out to the garage. It was dark, but I could still see the bulky shape of a massive gas-guzzling SUV.

I hit my hand against the garage door opener, which naturally didn’t work since there wasn’t any power. But I didn’t care. I was too excited. I had to pry the garage door open myself, but my happiness empowered me.

With the sunlight shining in, I got my first good look at it. It was black and damn near brand new. Cupping my hands, I peered in and admired how spacious the interior was. There was even plenty of room in the back for Ripley.

“It is pretty exciting,” Lazlo smiled, coming out to the garage to inspect it with me.

“No, it’s more than exciting. This is life changing. This…” I was on the verge of tears I was so happy. In the months before Max and I had gone to quarantine, we had found exactly two running vehicles with keys, and they both sustained traumatic injury. “When are we leaving?”

“As soon as we’re ready, I guess,” Lazlo shrugged.

“If I had known about this, I wouldn’t have slept last night.”

“Wow.” He looked at me with awe. “I don’t think you’re kidding.”

“I’m really not,” I admitted.

I ran back into the house, hurrying to gather up all my stuff so we could get out of here. I even packed Harlow’s stuff to speed the process along. Our messenger bags were filled with essentials. If we had to leave things behind, we’d still have everything in a carry-on size.

We loaded up the SUV, and I felt almost optimistic. Sure, I still didn’t know where my little brother was, or even if he was alive, and man-eating zombies still roamed the hollow shell of the earth, but god dammit, we had a car!

It took some cajoling to get Ripley into the back, but I did not want to leave her behind. She’d be an invaluable resource against the infected, but more than that, I kind of liked her.

Thanks to a can of tuna, she eventually got in, and once she settled in amongst the bags and realized she was free to sleep, she seemed okay with it.

I called shotgun, and Lazlo scowled. Blue got to drive because he found it, but he promised me that I’d drive the next leg.

When he started the SUV, and I heard the rumble of the engine, my heart soared. We backed out of the driveway, turned on the road, and drove away from the abandoned house.

“How about some driving tunes?” Lazlo suggested.

“There aren’t radio stations anymore,” Blue said, but he fiddled with the radio.

Static blared out. The GPS kicked in and told us it couldn’t locate the satellite, but Blue hit another button and shut it off. He hit something else and smiled.

“Eureka! A CD player!”

Bon Jovi wafted out of the speakers, and we all exchanged a look.

“I don’t know. That’s kind of really unexpected,” I said.

“Not bad, but really unexpected,” Blue agreed.

“I think it’s kind of bad,” Lazlo said. “But it could be worse.”

“Yeah, it could be your CD,” I said, and Blue laughed.

“Ha ha.” Lazlo rolled his eyes and sunk lower in the seat.

“Who is this?” Harlow asked.

“Somebody who’s probably dead,” I said and looked out the window.

The burgeoning development started giving way to more established homes, and the houses got older and less nice. It wasn’t until we’d been driving for a while, and houses turned into buildings looking sad in the desert sun that it dawned on me where we were.

We turned on the strip, which should’ve been glittering with garish bright lights but instead looked like a dusty ghost town.

A reproduction of the Eiffel Tower had fallen on its side. Cars were crashed or simply left deserted up and down the road. A massive fountain was filled with stagnant water and floating bodies. Trees on the boulevard were wilted and dead. Several rotting corpses lined the sidewalks, and carrion birds circled in the sky.