“Yep it is burning up ahead. Tom that is North Platte?”
“Yes. It looks like the first fire is at the Wal Mart on the north side of the highway and the other one is at a hotel to the south of it.”
Stewart nodded while taking a closer look. “So which way do we have to go to get to your parent's farm?”
“North. Through town would be easiest. Either that or we head back about fifteen miles. There is only the one bridge here, or we could go past it and go up through the industrial park by the golf course….”
Stewart lowered her binoculars and turned to Tom, “It is your call, the Wal Mart is probably burning, but I don't see anyone or anything moving around up there. How far north of town do you live?”
“Oh not far at all, just out of town turn right and then take the third left. The farm is at the end of that road. Just north and east of town.”
“Do we need anything from the town?” Stewart asked all of them.
“No. We have enough food to get through the night. But we better get moving if we want to be bedded down before sunset. I don't want to be poking around a farm in the dark.” said Max, then he hastily added, “I mean, if your parents aren't there Tom.”
It was close to sunset now, with the harsh heat of the mid afternoon finally fading. They group was down to two vehicles again, Stewart's Denver Police Cruiser and Max's minivan. The wrecker had started overheating a couple of hours ago and Max had concluded there must have been two sets of gears in the vehicle and he had been running the truck in the 'low' gear range. The engine got so hot they had decided to dump the truck and stick to the vehicles they were used to. They had not had to move any wrecks off the road since the morning, which made the decision easier and they left all but one of the diesel fuel cans with the truck as well, which freed up a little more room in the two vehicles they did have.
Tom and Stewart got into the cruiser while Max and Amelia hopped into the van. Seth, Nick and Riley were in the back of the cruiser and the rest of the kids were in the minivan. Opening the van door Max sat down into the middle of an argument between Cory and Kenny.
“You have to keep your shoes on!” Kenny insisted.
“No! Leave me alone!”
“Put them on! That is a rule! You have to wear shoes!”
“What is going on guys?” Max asked sliding the van into gear as Amelia hopped into the passenger seat.
“He won't wear his shoes Max!” Kenny said.
“I don't have to!” Cory yelled back.
“Kenny? What have I told you about that?”
“Uh, but he is in the car. In the car you have to wear your shoes.”
“Kenny didn't you ever go over to a friend's house?”
“One time I did, yeah, I didn't like it. They didn't play right.”
“So things were different at their house than at your house?”
“Yeah and I didn't like it. They messed up the rules.”
“That is what I mean here, in our van the rules are different. There are not any rules about keeping your shoes on.”
“But Max he is barefoot! He doesn't even have socks on! When you go out of the house you have to have shoes and socks on. Always!”
“What about if you go swimming?”
Kenny laughed, “No! Not then. I got to go swimming once, they had a sprinkler, it was inside over the pool and water would fall down on you. I didn't wear shoes then.”
“So sometimes you didn't have shoes on when you were outside the house.”
“I always had shoes on in the car. Always.”
“Well in our car you can wear shoes or go barefoot or just wear socks, those are the rules.”
“Okay. But if you have shoes on you have to wear socks. And if you are barefoot you have to keep your slippers on.”
“No, no Kenny. You don't in our car, you can wear any combination of shoes, socks, bare feet, flip-flops or sandals or even boots if you want to. It is completely up to each person. Okay? So please leave Cory alone.”
Kenny seemed to sulk, then asked, “Could I go ride with Policeman Stewart?”
“No!” Max and Amelia said at the same time. They pair of them had long ago given up on telling him that Stewart was a nickname and that she was a police woman.
They settled back and Max pulled out after Stewart, who was proceeding down the interstate slowly. Jessica and Erin were sitting in the middle seat, with the boys in the third row. The girls were coloring pictures when Jessica wrinkled her nose and said, “Phew! Who farted?”
Erin said, “Eeew!” and a moment later Max and Amelia were hit with a stench rolling in from the back seat, where Kenny sat with a happy smile on his face. Cory was studiously not looking at any of them, remaining focused on a hand held video game.
“Alright, boys who did it?” asked Amelia rolling down her window. Max rolled his down as well and turned the air conditioning on 'max'.
“Did what?” asked Kenny.
“Made the smell!”
“Farted!” said Jessica, leaning forward to breath in the smoke tinged air from behind Max.
“Not me.” said Kenny.
“Me either.” Cory replied, “It's him.” he said pointing his finger at Kenny.
“Uh-uh!”
“Is so! He took off his shoes and the smell came out!”
“Holy shit! This is really bad.” Max flashed his headlights at Stewart and stopped the car in the middle of the road, the passengers bailed out of the minivan, except for Kenny who just looked at everyone.
Stewart backed up her car and rolled her window down, “What is it?”
“We may have found a way to kill all of the zombies.” Max said. A second later Jessica giggled and even Cory smiled.
“What? How?”
Max looked at where his van was parked, noted the slight breeze carrying the sour foot odor towards them and said, “Just wait for it…”
Stewart wrinkled her nose in disgust, “What the fuck is that? Is that…did he shit his pants in there?”
“No! No pooping except in a bathroom and always wipe clean after! I didn't poop myself!”
“He took his shoes off.” said Amelia.
“Oh God that is..ugh! I am moving the car out of the way!”
Stewart backed up more until she was no longer downwind of the van's open doors and windows. By then Seth was yelling out of the cruiser window for Kenny to put his shoes back on.
“You can't take your shoes off outside of the house!” the boy called. Riley, upset by the commotion started barking non-stop.
Sighing Stewart opened her door and stepped out to lean against the hood. “Biting dogs, kids yelling in my ears, toxic foot odor. Geezus to think two days ago I thought I had it bad with just the flesh eating zombies.”
Seth continued his tirade against Kenny while Max and Stewart stood looking at each other. Slowly Max grinned and then Steward started to laugh. Tom, opened the door on the other side of the cruiser and stood up, keeping one leg inside.
“What is it?” he asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.
Max shook his head slowly and tried to stop laughing. Amelia stepped over to them, “Are you going to let them argue like that?”
This caused Max to laugh harder, but Stewart just reached in and unlocked the rear doors to the cruiser. Quick as a shot Seth was out and yelling at his brother about the rules. Amelia turned to go intervene and Stewart stopped her, “Hold up honey, let them work this one out.”
The other kids, not used to adults standing by and watching a yelling match, looked ill at ease and nervous, except for Cory who walked, barefoot, over to the cruiser and hopped up onto its hood, where he continued to play
