Free Zombies! A Love Story by MAGGIE SHAYNE

over the side steps of the rig while Chuck and I swapped places. We paused in the middle. Chuck’s arms were around me, and he pulled me against him. “Victory kiss now?” He asked.
    “We haven’t won yet.” I tried to sound stern and not smile, but his flirting and his confidence boosted my mood. “Will you shut up and drive?”
    So he did.
    We had a herd of the mindless drones shuffling after us when he pulled out of the gas station, dragging the hose because there was no freaking way we could’ve wound it up without winding up as zombie snacks. We didn’t go fast. Speed wasn’t the point. We rolled the windows down, hooted and hollered out them to attract attention. We ran over several of them as Chuck plowed onward, slow and steady. He moved the truck just fast enough so they couldn’t keep climbing all over us, shifting, grinding gears in a way I figured would have the truck’s mostly dead driver wincing. We came across crowds of them blocking the road out of town, moving toward us and our noise, and mowed them down like a chicken harvesting machine in a PETA video. And you know I didn’t have a single twinge of regret. They were already dead. And besides, as we passed, the creeps were already dragging their broken ass bodies back up again, and stumbling after us.
    “Mom and the others could maybe make it out of town, with the freaks all following us,” I said, eyeing my cell phone and hoping the battery was holding out. I should’ve brought the charger when I ran from the house.
    “They’ll make it for sure once we wipe the bastards out.”
    “ If we wipe the bastards out.”
    “Now who’s being negative?”
    I watched his face in profile as he drove. He was intense, more focused than I’d ever seen him. His shirt was torn jaggedly open. His face was smeared with blood and dirt. And whiskers, because he hadn’t shaved since yesterday morning. “I’ve never seen you like this, before, Chuck.”
    “I’ve never been like this before.”
    “You look like a freakin’ super hero.”
    “You’re lookin’ pretty Lara Croft yourself, Suzy.”
    I smiled, warming all over. “Really?”
    “Only hotter.”
    When I could pull my lips out of smiling long enough to speak again, I said, “I never should have left you alone out there at the party.”
    “You didn’t. You left me with our friends. And my sister.”
    “I know, but–”
    “If you’d stayed, you might’ve been....” He shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about that.”
    I reached out, put my hand on his bicep. “Damn, Chuck, when did you decide to get all ripped, anyway?” Glancing my way briefly, he said, “When we saw that Bruce Willis flick together, last time we were both home at the same time. You made some comment about how hot he was.” He shrugged. “I figured that was what you wanted, so–”
    “You think I’m that shallow? That you weren’t buff enough for me?” He shrugged.
    “I couldn’t figure out what else it could be. I could tell you were trying to put walls between us, Suz, and I couldn’t come up with any other answer. I’m smart. I’m a hard worker. I’m not bad looking.”
    “You were like Clark Kent. Now you’re like Superman. It was me, Chuck. I....” I shook my head hard. “This is no time for this conversation. Hang a right, the next mile and a half is all Hastings land.”
    “So what’s the plan?”
    “Find the potato fields. Drive up and down them with the taps on this baby opened up a little. Drizzle them liberally with gas from the tank. Hope to hell it’s full. And then–”
    “I’ve got a better idea. Look over there.”
    I looked where he was pointing. Saw the pipes lining the ground. “The irrigation system?” Then the lightbulb over my head snapped on and I nodded. “You’re brilliant, Chuck. Have I ever told you that?”
    “Many times. Tell me I’m hot again, I like it better.”
    “Later. During that victory kiss.”
    We drove around the field, following the