“You’re the one driving.” I gave him an odd look, and he smiled tiredly.

“Yeah, but aren’t we on some mythical quest to find your long lost brother?”

“He’s not the Holy Grail, and he’s only been gone for a few days,” I brushed off Lazlo’s teasing and leaned my head on the headrest.

“So I used hyperbole,” he rolled his eyes. “You knew what I meant.”

“I already told you all I know. Go north, and hope we find somebody who knows something.”

I hated the vagueness of the information, and when I kept repeating it over and over again, it only hammered in exactly how unrealistic and ridiculous it sounded. Fortunately, nobody else really had a better plan, or any plan at all, so they didn’t question it.

“What’s your brother’s name? Max?” Lazlo asked.

“Yep.”

“How come you don’t talk about him ever?”

“What do you want me to say?” I picked at a frayed string on my jeans.

“I don’t know. Whatever you want.” Lazlo shrugged. “I just think it’s weird that this kid is so important to you, and he’s the reason we’re all traveling across the country, and you never say anything about him, other than you have to find him.”

“I’m not forcing anyone to go with me,” I said icily. “And going to a quarantine is good for you, too.” Finding Max didn’t necessarily benefit everyone, but he had been taken to one of the only safe places I knew of on earth.

“That’s not what I meant,” he sighed. “I just… Why are we going after him?”

“He’s my brother.” I looked over at him. “Wouldn’t you go? If it was your brother or mother or third-cousin? Everybody else is dead.”

“So that’s it? That’s the only reason you’re going?” He arched an eyebrow. “There’s nothing special about the kid at all? It’s just some arbitrary action because he’s a surviving family member.”

“No, of course not,” I bristled.

“Then tell me about him.”

“We survived everything together.” My chest ached at the thought of Max. It was so much harder when I let myself think or worry about him. “He’s strong, a lot stronger than most kids. I never had to remind him to run or tell him to duck. He always just knew.”

“So what happened? How come he’s not with you now?” Lazlo asked.

“He’s sick.” I let out a deep breath, and it was shaky, so I swallowed hard. “He’d been in the medical center of the quarantine. Then the zombies attacked. Some of the army personnel and Max had already evacuated by the time I tried to get to him.”

“What’s he sick with?” Lazlo asked. I shook my head and looked away, unwilling to talk about it anymore.

“I know you’re just being nice and conversational, but I can’t talk about this. I can’t talk about him,” I said as gently as I could.

“Why not?”

“I can’t talk about stuff because I can’t see it. If I want to do this, I have to put on blinders and go, and keep going. If I stopped and thought about all the shit I’ve done and seen this past year, I couldn’t…” I shrugged, unable to really speak anymore.

“I’m sorry,” Lazlo apologized and looked over at me. “You’re better with all this than I am.”

“Hardly,” I laughed hollowly.

“No, you are,” he insisted. “You’re better at everything than I am.”

“That’s probably true,” I said, and Lazlo laughed. I even smiled a little.

The sun started to rise above the horizon, and I felt a little better. I was just thinking that Lazlo might not be a total idiot when the SUV began decelerating. Based on the panicked expression on Lazlo’s face as he pounded the gas pedal, I knew he had no clue what was going on.

Then the SUV stopped moving entirely.

– 10 –

“What the hell happened?” I demanded.

Lazlo shook his head, fiddling around with the gauges on the car. A monitor mounted in the dash for GPS and satellite radio glowed blankly the way it always had. In some strange attempt to revive the car, Lazlo flicked on the dome light.

“What’s going on?” Blue asked groggily from the back.

“I don’t know. The car just stopped,” Lazlo managed to downplay the anxiety in his voice.

“Did you hit anything?” Blue leaned forward between the seats to investigate further.

Lazlo accidentally clicked on the stereo, causing Bon Jovi’s hit song “Wanted Dead or Alive” to come blasting out of the speakers, scaring the hell out of the three girls sleeping in the back.

“Sorry!” Lazlo fumbled, turning it off.

“What’s happening? Why aren’t we moving?” Lia asked frantically.

“I don’t know!” Lazlo snapped in frustrated. “It just stopped!”

“Whatever. I have to pee,” Harlow sighed and got out of the car, and Vega went with her.

I considered telling them to watch out for zombies, but the rising sun showed nothing around. Mountains were off in the distance, but the land around the highway was still fairly flat, with green shrubbery dotting it. Other than sparse vegetation, there was nothing.

We had traveled through a small town about an hour before, but it looked just as deserted as this. Zombies tended to only be a problem when there was an actual population, not a forgotten stretch of highway.

“Oh, I see.” Blue nodded. “We’re out of gas.”

“What do you mean we’re out of gas?” I glared at Lazlo.

“Oh,” Lazlo said as understanding hit him. “I didn’t even notice.”

“You didn’t notice?” I shouted incredulously, but he looked more exasperated than ashamed. “You’re a fricking idiot!”

I threw open the door and got out. Sitting there pissed me off too much, so I paced next to the car. My mind raced. Losing the vehicle would slow us down so much, and we’d be way more exposed to injury or death. All because Lazlo didn’t think to pay attention to the damn gas gauge.

“Maybe we can figure something out.” Blue got out of the car. He ran a hand through his sandy hair and looked around.

“Remy.” Lazlo had gotten out and walked around the front of the SUV. Based on his stupid sad expression, I suspected he got out to calm me down. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t think about it.”