Four men exit the car. The man from the drivers seat. The largest of the group, walks forward towards us.

Wearing a cowboy hat and gas mask, there is a rope hanging from his belt. His voice is muffled, but I can still make out what he says.

"Ho damn. Thanks for the delivery!"

He says while waving to us. Then turning back to the other men and pointing at Courtney with his thumb.

"And lookee here boys, we've got two types of fish for dinner tonight."

He says while laughing.

"Take 'er on home boys. I'll deal with this one"

He points at me.

Two of the men walk over and pull Courtney down out off the forklift. Onto the side opposite me, I can't see whats going on. But I can hear the struggle between them. A few more gun shots ring out.

The man in the cowboy hat is now leaning over me. Rope in hand. He is accompanied by the fourth passenger. A much shorter man than the rest. He wears a white coat and chefs hat.

The smaller man places a foot on my chest and there is little I can do while the one in the cowboy hat ties me up.

Dragging me to the car, I am tossed into the back seat. The door slamming shut behind me. The one in the chefs hat gets in the front passengers seat, keeping a gun pointed at me the whole time. Cowboy hat man reclaims his place in the drivers seat.

As we begin to drive away, I glimpse out the window.

One of the other two men is now driving the forklift. Behind is Courtney, hands tied together, the rope continuing on to the back of the forklift. She is being dragged behind it in the snow.

A few minutes pass before the man in the gas mask starts speaking.

"The name's Spark Plug. It's a strange name, I know, no need to tell me. But that's the name my Mama gave me."

he pauses for a few seconds, then.

"What, no laugh? It's a joke son, lighten up. I get it though. It's not a very good name. I'm workshopping a few others. The truth is I'm new to this whole post-civilization world too."

A few more moments of silence pass.

"Still nothing eh? Ya must just be too scared to laugh. Can't blame ya kid. I would be too, if I were you right now. See, here's the thing. I'm not a bad guy. Sure sure, I may seem like it right now, but that's only from your perspective. See, I use to be an electrician. Back in the before times or whatever you want to call them. So all this zombie stuff starts happening right? Well what do I do. It didn't take a genius to figure out the power wasn't gonna stay on for long. So I rig up a few generators. Build myself a little utopia. Well now other survivors start coming out of the woodwork. Begging to me, oh please let us stay with you. we'll do whatever you want. So pretty soon I've got me a small army. He who controls the power, has the power. Now, even though I'm a king in this new world of ours. I haven't forgotten my roots. Like I said, I'm not a bad guy. Hell, I was even gonna let you two go. Live and let live right. But then I saw the forklift. Damn that's good eats, so what else was I suppose to do? And then the boys, well, when they saw that girl you were with, they just kept going on about how pretty they thought she was. wouldn't stop with the can we, can we, can we. I knew I wasn't gonna hear the end of that one so I figured hey, throw them a bone right?"

More silence. Then his tone turns angry.

"Well damn son, can ya really blame me. We're really not too different. See I watched you take that coat from the dead guy. Really wrestled it right off him. It's a mighty fine coat sure, hell I wish I got to it first. But what you did. What I'm doing. Gotta take whatcha need to survivor. And beggars sure can't be choosers now can they?"

Another pause.

"Oh what, you the strong silent type?"

The truth was, I had never been in a car before. Never gone this fast in my life. Motion sickness was setting in and I was trying my best not to throw up.

"You're still worried we're gonna kill ya, is that it? Like I keep tellin' ya. Me, not a bad guy. I just can't risk you hanging round. Getting some dumb heroic ideas in your head. Coming back to save the girl, take the food. Whatever your power fantasy is. So what better solution than to take you far far away. Drop you off in some field. Middle of nowhere type. Granted you'll probably freeze, or starve, get eaten by a zombie. there's really any number of things that could happen to you. But hey, that's just the cruel reality we live in. No blood on my hands."

I close my eyes, trying to quell the motion sickness.

What feels like a long time passes before the car comes to a stop.

"Alright, get out. This is where we part ways. Wish I could say it was nice talking to you, but you didn't say a damn word."

"Sorry."

"Now that's more like it. where was this enthusiasm fifteen minutes ago?"

Spark Plug gets out and opens my door. I sit upright and start to shimmy toward it. A swift boot into my chest and I'm down on my back again.

"Nah, I was just kidding. This is where we drug you."

The man in the chefs hat sticks a needle in my neck. Seconds later my eyes close.