They were parked in the middle of the highway. There were three dead zombies lying scattered in the highway. They had been living in the SUV when Zac and Amanda had happened along.The SUV had broken down just under an overpass. The overpass led into a small town nearby. The Zombies had stayed in the SUV and raided the town nightly. It had probably seemed like a pretty good system to them. Their mistake had been deciding to stay put when they heard the bike."I don't know how you can sit in that goddamned truck with that smell," he told her now.Amanda took a deep pull from the joint and then sniffed at the air. "She shrugged. "Doesn't bother me," she said. "I don't get why it bothers you." she looked over at the dead where they lay on the blacktop. The two of them had dragged them over onto the road. Two of them had scrambled into the back of the SUV trying to scratch their way out. Zac had shot them both. That would have left a mess had they been alive, but the dead ones didn't really seem to leave much of a mess. The third one had leapt out when she had thrown open the door and nearly gotten her. That had been bad. Having one so close. But she had run the long knife she carried right through its head. That had left a mess, but outside rather than inside.The car had smelled pretty bad for a little while, but once she got the windows down and aired it out it wasn't so bad. Her eyelids flickered. She took another deep pull.Zac Taybro was easily three hundred pounds if he was ten. His long greasy black hair stuck to his sweaty cheeks as he sat on the bike drinking whiskey straight from the bottle.Give him another hour, Amanda thought from the open door of the SUV, and he'd pass out like he had the night before. He did the same thing every time. A two or three day drunk, then sober for a week or two. Constantly bitching about what used to be. And the way he dealt with the zombies? It was just a matter of time before one got him. They were bound to. Would have already, if not for her. How many times had he sat down next to his bike and just drank himself into a stupor. Too many times. And at least five of those times the dead had come for him and would have had him if she had not been there to kill them first. Maybe she was getting as sick of him as he was of her.Amanda knew she was not the most attractive woman in the world. It was a rough world and age was catching up to her. She was forty five after all. She laughed and took another deep hit off the joint. Okay, she admitted to herself, forty-eight. And it was a rough forty-eight too. For most of her life she had been a beach baby and the sun had played hell with her face and skin. Her skin was brown and tough. Her bleached out hair dry and wispy from too much sun and salt water. The first time Zac had seen her naked he had laughed at how white she was where her clothes covered and what a contrast it was.Amanda didn't mind though. At least he didn't beat her like Freddy had. He was just a harmless teddy bear... A big harmless teddy bear, she amended. She took one more hit. The joint was down to nothing. She pinched it between her fingers and then flipped it back into her mouth and began to chew what was left. She laughed once more. A low chuckle to herself as she listened to Zac continue to complain about the world and the way it was. A big bitchy teddy bear, she amended once more.Of course he was different when he was sober. And he didn't like other people coming around. When he was sober he was a bigger pain in the ass, she thought. But still, he wasn't mean to her, just others he ran across, and if she was honest she had to admit that she was not terribly fond of other people either. Zac was fine, but other than Zac she could not think of a single person in her life that had treated her with any kind of real respect at all. None. So why should she care about people now?