“It might not be….Stewart! It might just be a guy who needs help!” at the last possible second the man jumped back and Stewart swerved right to avoid him. Max got a good look at the guy and turned to her and yelled, “Stop!” at the top of his lungs. Stewart, surprised, slammed on her brakes, the car started to slide sideways and she let off enough to straighten out, muttering something about “too cheap to have cars with anti-lock brakes” under her breath.
Stewart turned to Max to find out just what was so important to stop for, she didn't see any obstacles in the road ahead or any hordes scrambling out of the ditch to attack them either. Max, however slipped off his seat belt and jumped out of the car without a word to her. The next time she saw him was in the rear view mirror, running towards the zombie with his pistol out, but pointed down towards the ground. She unbuckled herself, pulled out the shotgun and followed him to the soldier. When she was ten steps away she watched Max point his gun at a stalwart looking man a few years older than he was. The two were talking and the older man hadn't raised his rifle towards Max, but he hadn't put it down either.
Max turned back towards her and yelled, “He is alive! He isn't one of them! Stewart he is alive!” then he rushed to the man and embraced him like a long lost brother. The two men hugged for few seconds, then a few seconds more, tears rolled down their cheeks.
Stewart kept her gun at waist height and cleared her throat loudly, “Excuse me, Max. I hate to interrupt this love scene, but who in the hell is this guy?”
They parted looking a little abashed and Max said, “This is the guy I was telling you about, Bill. Bill this is Stewart, she has been with me since this started.”
Bill put his hand out towards Stewart, she looked at Max and asked, “You're sure he is okay? I mean really okay, not just because you want him to be?”
Max turned to look Bill over, then back at Stewart, “He is alive, I don't think he is infected, he seems healthy.” Then to Bill, “I can't believe it is you! What the hell are you doing here? What is going on? How is Trish? Man it looks like you've lost a few pounds too.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold up there a bit!” Stewart shook his hand and smiled at him while he was talking. “So tell me how you got here? Where are Sarah and the kids.”
Max's face fell and he looked at the ground, prompting Bill to say, “Oh Max! Max no! I am sorry man. So sorry! We heard, we heard Denver was a mad house, like Chicago. It was nuked wasn't it?”
Nodding Max said, “It wasn't….good. Sarah got bit right before I got home, because of me actually some of the smart ones they…”
Cutting him off Stewart said, “Wait. Hold it right there. This is not the place or time to talk about this. Bill can you come with us or do you have men with you?”
“No, I don't have any men with me. I don't know if I can go with you. Something has happened to me. Something I can't explain away and I…I am not sure if I am human anymore.”
Max smiled at his friend, “I wouldn't worry about that Bill. You shouldn't worry about that at all! C'mon Stewart lets go back to that gas station and get that map we were talking about before we saw Bill.”
Stewart grinned at Max, “Fine, I am driving. And you two can start talking.”
The helicopter behind them turned on its axis and started towards them briefly, then dipped and veered off to the north along the river, the sounds of small arms fire was cut off as they sealed themselves into the car.
Stewart didn't bother crossing the median to get into the 'correct' lane, she just turned the car around and headed back to the last exit they had passed. There were a slew of stations to choose from, but Stewart pulled up to the first one they came to. The electricity was still working, which came as a surprise to all three of them. Despite what Stewart had said Max and Bill did little other than fawn over each other on the way back to the exit. Stopping by the pump Stewart said, “Max can you and Bill go get this thing turned on? I'm gonna top off the tank while we are here.”
“Yeah, we can do that.”
“Hey grab us something decent to eat too, if anything looks edible anyway. No 'food bars' though I am sick of those.”
“Will do. C'mon Bill.”
“Oh and Max, tell Bill our story, I want to hear his too, but I think you can safely give him ours without me being around. Remember to tell him how many times I've saved your life.”
“Yeah, sure, Stewart I will do that.” said Max as he and Bill approached the front door of the gas station.
“On second thought I think I would rather be there when you tell him!” she called just as they went inside.
Max immediately went behind the counter and started looking for the switch to turn the pump on.
“Shouldn't we check for zombies first?” asked Bill.
“There aren't any here, they are all east of us, this place is deserted.”
“You can't know that for sure.” Bill ventured, looking around nervously.
“Bill, you remember you said you might not be able to go back? I think I know what you are going through. I have a sense of these things. I know if there are zombies around. I can sense them about a mile or two away, further if I concentrate. I can see people too. This place is empty, no threats to us.”
Slowly Bill lowered his rifle barrel down, but he didn't seem to relax.
“Here we are.” said Max as he pressed a blinking button, outside Stewart gave him a thumbs up as the gas started to fill the tank.
“Max, uh, what else can you do?”
“Well I seem to be stronger and tougher, I can punch through safety glass…well not in one punch, but I can get through it eventually. What is going on with you?”
Bill shifted his feet nervously and looked at the floor, “I, uh…”
Stewart came through the door like a tornado, Bill turned and raised the gun in a flash, “Just me partner, good reflexes though. Damn good reflexes. It only took two gallons. Can you believe the price of gas these days? Unbelievable!”
Lowering his rifle Bill stepped back and said, “I am sorry. It's just that I am a little jumpy after the last few days.”
“No apology needed. Any food Max? Or are you just working here these days?” she asked. Max was still behind the counter, looking for all the world like a store clerk.
“ My days of clerking are long over. Let's go see what they got to eat, huh?”
The three of them headed over to the cooler section and started looking at the food through the glass. Stewart opened the door and pulled out a burrito that had the words “La Bomba” on it in a southwestern font. Turning it over she looked at the expiration date. “What is today?”
Both men shook their heads and Max said, “They took my cell phone, even though it didn't work to make calls, so I can't tell you the date or time or anything.”
“Yeah me too, what about you Bill?”
“The military guys took all of our cell phones, mine still worked, when I had it two weeks ago.”
“God we are pathetic, we can't even keep track of the date without some gadget to tell us!” Stewart took the burrito and went over to a microwave, she opened one end and sniffed the contents before putting it inside and heating it up.
“Uh, do you think you should eat that? It might be expired.”
“Max, I am not touching those sandwiches, they are almost green, and I am not eating another power bar unless I have to. You don't have to eat the burrito, so relax. Hey Bill was Max always this way?”
“Mostly, as a kid he was a finicky eater.”