Now this was the message that kept on giving. It warmed Santa's heart to see the Mormon was taking a proactive approach to the season. Santa howled out in enthusiasm, at the Mormon's work. But wait. There was something missing. Santa quickly headed over to the same gift shop, and procured another tube of wood glue and a red lightbulb.

Approaching the lined snow mobiles, he went to the furthest one and glued the lightbulb onto it. Giving a satisfied growl, he peered at the Mormon as he mimed carrying a sackcloth using his concrete iron weapon to be a visualization of sorts. He then pointed at the SUV with the bar. After allow was Santa, and he couldn't ride the sleigh and reindeer without presents. And of course he'd need to attach all the reindeer properly to the sleigh. That'd be easy enough, for Santa and his newfound compatriot were guided by the Christmas Spirit.

Kate

“I’m Dot. She’s Luanne. We’re twins.”

Oh boy, were they twins. Their faces were mostly impossible to tell apart, each having the same beautiful green eyes and heads of messy dirty blonde hair. Kate wasn’t familiar enough with either girl to discern whether there were slight differences or not, and now was not the time to dote on it anyway.

She would have to keep track of their clothes for now, she supposed, beginning to catalogue what each girl was wearing. The seemingly stark difference in their personalities would also help in deducing which girl was which.

The gentle peace maker, Dot (the one that had introduced the two), had an outstanding article of clothing. A doctor’s coat, at least three sizes too big for her, covering whatever she was wearing underneath. It pricked Kate’s curiosity, but she withheld from commenting about it.

Kate’s family, and these girls, and the little boy who had yet to introduce himself, were all still strangers to each other. And Kate wasn’t too keen on become attached or familiar with any one of them until she was sure they would stick together for a while.

“I think the hospital's that way. Maybe they've got some kinda emergency center down there. Ain't a bad spot for an emergency center."

She took note of this one’s intelligence. That was positive. While brute force was a welcome addition to the group, they needed cunning and intelligence to survive and lead. The more thinking minds, the better.

“Smart kid,” Selina complimented the girl. For a moment, Kate made eyes contact with those eerie grey eyes, startlingly beautiful against Selina’s brown skin, and smiled encouragingly. Good job, Sel. Be nice,, she thought, as though Selina were in her mind.

If there was indeed an emergency center, it was critical that they reached it. Hopefully the government would have already sent help. And if there was no government there, at least, she hoped, there would be other people. Living people.

She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile to Dot, before turning her attention to the other twin. This one had been dubbed by Kate as the aggressive independent thinker. Before she had spoken anything to the girl, she had already wandered off, mind clearly on the task at hand. Watching her go, Kate sighed a sigh of relief.

Reason being, the two of them couldn’t have been wearing more different clothes. Luanne, the sasser, was wearing a southern belle dress that looked like it had been shredded for convenience. Kate couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone wear a belle dress (and I mean, living in New York, that’s not really surprising), but she had assumed nobody wore those things anymore. Kate also couldn’t imagine the cutesiness of what the dress had probably looked like matching Luanne’s personality (or what she knew of her personality, thus far), but hey, people were allowed to wear whatever they wanted.

Kate could see Luanne rapping her bat against the windows of cars before checking them, looking for a keyed vehicle.

“David,” Selina was gesturing to Kate’s brother, pointing in the direction of Luanne. David nodded, before turning to his little buddy,

“Listen, I’m just going to look for cars with…Luanne,” he reassured the boy, taking a moment to recall the bell dress twin’s name, “You can stay here with Kate and Selina. They’ll won’t be moving very far, from here.”

“Make sure you both don’t go too far,” Kate chimed, as David followed after the girl. He nodded, giving a thumbs up to her, and Kate couldn’t help but feel affection for her sweet little brother. He was all grown up now, hardly what one would call little, but he’d always be a kid to her.

“You can help us look for cars,” Selina said to the boy, pointing to Kate and Dot as she spoke, and sounding gentler, and more like her sweet tempered self.

Kate had easily figured that family would strike a chord with Selina. It had already been hard enough, before the apocalypse, being a biracial, same-sex couple, about to have a kid of their own. It had already been hard for Selina, even before that, being the product of a biracial couple herself, as well as being bisexual. Neither one of these women needed anyone shitting on their family, especially not now, not in these conditions.

But, up until now, Kate hadn’t realized just how aggressive insulting the family made Selina. She preferred her familiar, sweet, Selina, the funny, easy going, reassuring one. Though, aggressive Selina, was kind of sexy. But that was a thought for another time.

Kate was glad Selina was getting back to her usual self, but was sure the tension between her and Luanne would stick in the air for a little while. It was ironic, seeing as how both were trying to protect their own, and coming to clashes over it.

“I think I found something,” David’s voice interrupted Kate’s thoughts. He was standing near a oldish sedan whose bumper was hanging precariously from its hinges, “It’s old, and looks ready to be thrown in the junk pile, but it’s got keys, and half its tank is filled.

Ah but before the presents were to be delivered, the reindeers needed to be reigned to the sleigh. Santa returned one again into the shop which held the snowmobiles, he began searching for something useful to connect the sleigh to the reindeer. Aha! A stroke of serendipity, underneath a destroyed shelf and its plywood boards were two lengths of chain. Bending downwards and freeing the chains he noticed that they did have a set of towing hooks attached to them. Proudly holding this discovery he exited the store and glanced at the SUV.

Santa took off his backpack and placed his bar downside it, as he went to the SUV. Taking great care in the holiday cheer that would transform this vehicle, Santa inspected the frame and attached the hooks securely onto the vehicle. Tugging on the chain Santa felt that it seemed secure and would work.

Santa glanced at his backpack and returned it upon his back as he grabbed his iron bar and returned to the most sacred craft store. Returning out of it with some Christmas garland with several broken lights, Santa grunted out happily and began to wrap it around the chains.

Once this sleigh was finished, it would be a majestic icon of Christmas. But there was still work to be done, before Santa could ride the merry sleigh. Santa thought of these things, alongside what great gift the Mormon would want. For Santa had checked his list, not once or twice, but thrice and the Mormon was definitely on the Good List.

"Y'know Santa..." Elder Rivers said "This'll be the first Christmas I spend away from home and without my family..." The Mormon sighed, walking slowly with his head down as he traced the sides of the snow mobiles with his fingers.

Walking into the craft store, Elder Rivers took a piece of nylon string, tying it to the keys of each of the snow mobiles in such a way that if he tugged on it, they would all turn on. The handle was a plastic jump rope handle glued to the string. Finished, Elder Rivers opened the back seat door of the SUV and stashed his moped all the way to the end. He then reached into his fanny pack to take out a bible. He opened up to a page and began reciting lines and prayers, apparently to the SUV as well as the snow mobiles. It was the first time Elder Rivers had ever done such a thing, though he had been taught to.

Finally done christening Santa's new sleigh, Elder Rivers got onto the front most snow mobile. "Get in" he told Santa, gripping tight onto the string.

Behind the mask, Santa's expression took on a melancholic grimace upon hearing that Elder Rivers wouldn't be able to celebrate Christmas with his family. Santa growled out something, and watched as the Mormon was finishing up the attachments of the snowmobiles to the sleigh. Santa placed down the iron bar with concrete and clasped his hands together, glancing down as the Mormon blessed the Sleigh. Santa prayed another shorter one, after the Mormon had finished, and after that picked up the bar. As the Mormon took his place on Rudolph, the front most snowmobile, Santa gave a quick and rather rushed series of growling, his head peering to each of the snowmobiles, as if he were addressing them all.

Then Santa, opened the front driver door to the SUV, and placed his iron bar on the passenger seat, and took off his backpack and set it on his lap. While keeping the front door open Santa growled out again, leaning forward and pointing with his left hand. Then Santa proceeded to slam the door shut.This sleigh would hold wondrous Christmas presents, but first, it had to be tested out to make sure it was ready for the Holiday Rush.

Elder Rivers looked back, carefully reading Santa's gestures. By then, he had gotten to understand part of what Santa was trying to communicate, if only partly. Elder Rivers gave a thumbs up, smiling, before turning back, pulling on the ignition string. Nine engines roared all in tandem, the chorus echoing through the empty mall. Elder Rivers let go of the string to firmly grasp Rudolph's handles. It seemed the snow mobiles had trouble pulling the SUV at first, the front tracks grinding on the floor.

Soon enough though, as they gained momentum, the SUV picked up speed, pulled by a team of snow mobiles. "I can't believe this worked" Elder Rivers mumbled, riding around the mall.

"The trouble though is getting out of here" Elder Rivers explained. "There are zombies waiting just outside. I might be vulnerable."

Santa rolled down the window, using the hand crank, and poked his head out. The sleigh was working! It was magnificent. Santa nodded when Rivers mentioned how he'd be exposed to the creatures. Growling he moved his torso out of the window as he pointed to a hardware store that the sleigh was nearing by. It could have the solution to the risk of the zombies attacking the Mormon. Or maybe it wouldn't. But it was always worth the shot.

Santa returned back into the sleigh fully, checking on his backpack before securing it on the passenger seat.

Flick.

What struck him, at first, was the quiet. The silence was deafening, as if he had been flown to outer space, where his senses would be properly deprived. He looked around again, at the desolate road, the abandoned fields, the windmill that vehemently refused to turn. But it was the charred remains of a one-story ranch nestled at the center of the property which dominated his vision.

Flick.

He stared down at the lighter gripped in his hand. His initials stared back: A.P.. Anthony Parker — the latter, the same name painted in clean white letters across his mailbox. This was his grandparents' house. This was the reason he had come back from Seattle. His grandfather had been Tony's idol since he was a kid. He even had his old revolver, now holstered at the hip. In many ways, Tony was lucky. He had brought the pistol, along with the fixed blade he bought on his frequent trips north, to show his ninety year old grandfather. He never could have known how useful they'd become. His mind raced, as he recalled in vivid detail how he got there in the first place. Tony remembered the plane landing at Jonesboro Municipal — how airport authorities attempted to control the situation, the doors locked, airport security armed and alert. But they were all doomed from the beginning. There was a man, on the same plane as Tony's. He was sick. Tony thought nothing of it; none of them did, until it was too late. Until, a day into the lockdown, he woke with a hollow look in his eyes. A look of pure, emotionless animalism. And then he ripped the throat out of a nearby lady. And then an older man who moved a little too close out of confusion. None of the guards were around, none of the passengers had any clue what to do. That was when Tony grabbed his bag, and ran. He kept running, and didn't stop until he cleared city limits. And then he began to walk. Lake City was by no means far, but it felt like an eternity to him. He began to lose focus, to get into the rhythm of the walk, and it nearly cost him his life. Tony noticed the man when he was under twenty feet away. It wasn't a man, though. It was one of them. Tony dropped his bag, frantically fishing for his gun, his knife, anything that would keep him breathing. He clutched the hilt of the fixed blade as the walker closed in and made a lunge for him. Tony leaped backwards out of fear, and then — in a moment of miraculous strength — he composed himself, tightened his grip on the knife, and thrust the knife upwards through the thing's jaw, into its brain.

That was his first kill. Standing there, seeing the house his family owned for generations burned to embers, Tony knew it would not be the last. He looked down again at the lighter, his eyes beginning to cloud with tears. He had made it from the airport to Lake City, but when he came upon the house, the silence, he knew there was a problem. He crept toward the door, prepared for the worst, for monsters like the man at the airport, the thing on the road. But the door swung open, and all he found were bodies. His grandparents. He saw his grandmother first, lying motionless on the couch in the family room. Her skin had a sickeningly pale greenish hue, and a bullet hole penetrated her forehead. Even still, she looked.. Peaceful. The other body was sprawled atop the hardwood floor a few feet away. Tony moved closer to his grandfather, searching for any sign of familiarity between the man he once was and this sack of rotting meat, but he could not. The body had been mutilated beyond the point of recognition, and the entire head had been caved in with a blunt object of some sort. It didn't matter, anyway. His grandparents were dead. Tony left the family room, turned on the gas stove, and left through the door for the last time. All it took was a makeshift incendiary using an old rag, a bottle, and gasoline from the garage, and the ancient house erupted.

Tony felt a tear slide past his nose, as he finally found the strength to turn away from the charred remains of the house. His granddad's truck was gone: stolen, most likely. It was to be expected, considering the circumstances and how man kept it outside in the driveway at all times. He had already searched the standalone garage, though, and found an old Harley Davidson. His grandfather loved anything with an engine — more than likely, he had bought the bike cheap and made fixing it up his pass-time. Tony found the keys easily, filled the tank with the nearby can, and started the engine in two turns. Granddad Russell had done a damn fine job, he thought to himself pensively, before pressing down on the pedal, and taking off back toward Jonesboro.

(Collaboration Post Featuring Barksdale's Jack Gray and Major Ursa's Michael "Mikey" Walker)

Jack slowly pulled his blade out of his former friends chest. Or he tried to do it that way at least. The fucking thing had really gotten in there. He turned and twisted the blade before quickly yanking, pulling the damn thing out and trying not to cringe at the noise that was created by the action. The knife was obviously covered in blood, and that wouldn't do. Biker dudes carrying blood soaked combat knives tended to stand out. There wasn't too much he could do about that right now though, he wiped it off on the hospital bed and sheathed it. It would have to do until he could dispose of it. With all the shit that was going on this whole thing wasn't nearly as dangerous or difficult as it would have been not so long ago. Imagine walking into a hospital and stabbing a dude to death in his bed when everything was normal. That shit simply wouldn't have played. Well, it wouldn't have played well, that's for damn sure. Anyway, time to go.

The rough looking biker quickly made his way down the halls and back down the stairs. He did his best to avoid the sick people but that was pretty damn hard. The place wasn't anywhere near as packed as he imagined it would be but there was still a fair number of the poor bastards roaming the halls. They were mostly doing that horrible growling thing they seemed to do. He dusted past most of them but one managed to do a decent lunge at him. Reacting quickly Jack just socked the dude and moved out the way. Shockingly the man barely reacted. He didn't drop or even stumble. He just turned right back around. Jack was in no way a weak person. He wasn't the biggest bruiser out there but he packed one hell of a punch. He had dropped men seemingly twice the size of the fucker who had just effectively ignored his blow to the temple. What the hell was wrong with these people?

The ill ass hole lunged yet again and Jack had officially had enough of this crazy shit. He pulled his blade from it's sheathe and plunged it into the man's abdomen as he threw himself towards Jack. The blade went in all the way to the handle. This man was dead. No one could survive this. The blade could have easily reached his spine. Jack quickly pushed the man forward and pulled the blade out, sending the man to the ground forcefully. What was really fucked up though was the fact that his eyes were still open. His mouth was still moving. And a growl. That fucking growl.

“What the fuck is wrong with you people?” Jack asked, bewildered.

The man began getting up. Jack all but lost his shit, booting the man in the head as he tried to rise and then stomping on his face and head repeatedly. It must have been at least fifteen seconds before Jack stopped stomping on the man. His head was a mess of blood, messier than any murder Jack had ever committed. Or at the very least far more brutal.

“Come on! You getting up! Get up! I swear to God...” The man didn't rise. He was unmoving. Dead this time, Jack hoped. Next he was going to have to try and cut the fuckers head off. He didn't want that.

Continuing on towards the back entrance a strange, somewhat crazy thought entered Jack's mind.

“I'm hungry... The fucks the cafeteria?”

He was hungry. Blood craze tended to do that to people he guessed. He didn't want to stop in town either. That bloody place was crazier than here. He didn't want to be around too many people who seemed to ignore fatal knife wounds inflicted on them. Screw that. So, he decided to head to the cafeteria, as crazy as that was. Quickly power marching and following the signs there he soon found what he was looking for and headed behind the counter. Seemed the ladies were off work today. He wasn't two steps behind the counter when something grabbed his leg. He almost shit himself, tripping up and only just managing to shield the fall with his arms rather than his face. The knife was a loss though, it slid away when he fell. Probably for the best. He didn't want to land on it. He quickly flipped onto his back and saw what it was that grabbed him. One of those sick ass holes, this one with a massive chunk of flesh missing from her throat. She was trying to chew on his god damn foot! Jack kicked out and tried to back away, but a man on his back crapping himself with fear and adrenaline can only move so fast.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” Jack said with increasing volume as he desperately tried to escape the sick chicks grip.

-

Though Mikey sobbed quietly behind the door, and the opposite door had a the growling monster knocking things over as it paced the small space of the restroom, even the young boy couldn't help but hear the bit of commotion from outside. With the small piece of glass still imbedded in his foot, he whipped one eye then the next into the collar of his shirt and leaned against the table, limping over to his hockey stick bag. Leaning down not too far, the young boy had some strength to pick it up and unzip is quickly. One heavy wooden hockey stick, and one slightly lighter metal one. Mikey couldn't say for certain what metal, but it was kid of the same material as a soda can, right?

There was a line of blood on the white tiles as he went back to the door, serving to remind him of his pain in the foot and making him sob just a little more. Somehow, Mikey pushed himself to move. What he wanted was to open the door and find a security or police officer here to save him, or his parents, even just a doctor...but the part that vividly remembered the horrors outside before the blind run, it told him that the monsters would come running in as soon as he opened the door. In the end, the rule he remembered since the early grades won over. The golden rule, and as much as he'd wanted to just stay inside, safe, he'd hate to be in a situation needing rescue and finding that others would rather save themselves.

So, turning the heavy door knob, feeling some sort of locking mechanism unlock...the boy opened the door wide, a metal hockey stick in hand. Instantly his eyes widened in horror when his eyes automatically went to the sight of a bloody monster human attacking a downed man who swore over and over again. Mikey's vision whited out for a moment where he stood, and the young boy couldn't hold back the loud scream, "AHHHHH!" His yell was enough to draw some extra attention to himself, the monster turned to face him, horrific blood spatter with her throat a big gnarly hole. "AHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH!" Closing his eyes, he swung his hockey stick at the woman monster.

There was impact as it hit, wherever it hit, but the sound made his head spin. Taking a step back, turning his head as he opened his eyes, Mikey's injured foot met the solid ground...hard. Letting out a yell, the world was turned on it's side as he went down, and he let out another yelp before trying to scramble up again.

-

Jack was surprised as all hell when suddenly some kid came out of nowhere, let out a bad ass war cry and smashed the sick woman around the head with some sort of club. More than anything the big bad biker wanted to praise the little youth. To shake his hand and admire his sheer badassness. There was no time for that. The blow had knocked the woman to the side a bit but she would be coming back at them any second. Jack used the time he had been gifted to scramble back a bit and regain his blade before quickly getting to his feet and getting his confidence back. The woman was scrambling, getting back to her feet. Jack couldn't give her another chance to attack. He stepped forward and brought the blade down fiercely; piercing the woman's skull and carving deep into her brain. For the second time that day he struggled to yank his knife out through bone.

Taking a second to regain his composure he turned around to face the dude who had saved him. He was short as hell. Young. Looked about ten years old, or rather he should have. Jack had never seen a ten year old so battered and bloodied before though.

“Thanks for saving my ass kid... Well, my leg's ass at least.” Jack chuckled, stopping when he saw the child's foot. “Holy sh- sugar tits kid. What happened to your foot? Need to get that cleaned up just in case. The backroom. Should be a first aid box in there. Come on.”

-

Having sat up at this point to stare up at the obviously human man, almost wanting to hug this stranger in sheer happiness for knowing he wasn't quite alone in this situation...the downed monster woman with a new few gorey head injuries cause the boy to start quaking at the whole of the situation. Almost, but not quite being able to laugh when the man said 'tits'. "I-I-I...! There were m-monsters all over...on the road, in cars..." Lifting his arm, Mikey tried to make an explanation of how large or how many of them, but seemed to fall short. With the mention of the backroom he was just about sitting in front of the doorway of, the boy's eyes widened and he turned to point at the restroom door further in, the sound of banging still coming from behind it, "O-one of them is in there! The d-door is locked, it can't get out!"

-

"Good looking out, little man. We'll keep an eye on that door. We should be cool as long as we're not too loud though. Don't want to attract any more of those things... I'm Jack by the way. Happy Jack. My friends call me Happy." Jack smiled, holding out his hand.

"Come on, let's get that foot in check and you can tell me why you're here. I'll help you get where you need to go."

Travis' head was spinning as so much shit went on around him. He wasn't built for this kind of stress. He wasn't built to save lives and fight…whatever those things were. As the russian walked up, rather abruptly, Travis glanced to him, a bit light headed from all the blowing at pumping. He didn't stop his pumping, only turned his head to the side a bit, confused by the man as he dipped once again and blew a huge gust of air into the girl's lungs.

"How long do you do this before you admit that a person is croaked?", he asked harshly, his breathing rapid as he straightened and continued pumping, "C'mon…"

His head snapped up once more at the cop that suddenly showed up, and he took her in. She was just what they needed. They needed guidance, and a skilled gun to protect them while they were vulnerable. They needed an advantage over some of the freaks out there.

As Travis dipped once more to blow air into Ryland's lungs, she gasped suddenly, nearly killing him as their lips locked. Her hands began flailing about, slapping at him and finally grabbing his hair to pull him away from her face.

"Whoa…hey. Stay down. Seriously, you want to stay down…", he explained, pressing her shoulders down. She didn't speak, only stared at him with wide eyes, her hands clutching at her throat, "We're working on that, sweetheart…"

Out of sheer worry for her safety, Travis turned the valve on her nearly empty tank as far as it would go, causing it to hiss loudly into her nose. With a gasp, she began to calm, her entire body shaking.

"There we go…", he whispered, pushing some of her hair out of her face. He let out a loud sigh, and sat back on his ass, his eyes finally training on the situation above them, "What the hell are you supposed to be?", he sassed at the Russian.

"Да, лицом вниз Калашникова с топором. Бьюсь об заклад, у вас есть колючие волосы аниме и кричать, чтобы зарядить лучи энергии, а также. Я думал, Америка была землей огнестрельного оружия." Ivan replied, loading the chamber of his Kalashnikov.

"Я даже не нужно беспокоиться спрашивать ли вы на самом деле говорят на русском." he said, and pulled out a potato.
"Vodka" he said, displaying it. "Vodka?"

Luanne continued her work, methodically going from car to car, rapping on them, and inspecting them. This was something she could do, at least. It didn't require thinking, social engineering, or even diction. Car, tap, look, car, tap, look.

Luanne's ears perked up at Selena's mention of her sister, and the girl stopped for a second to look back.

"Yup, she's 'bout the smartest kid around. Prob'ly the smartest y'all ever seen," said Luanne, glowing with pride. She didn't know much about intelligence, but at the very least she knew that her sister was smart. She used to be a little jealous, but had since figured out that she had her own good qualities. Qualities that had really helped them out so far in these crazy times. Qualities that were finally a little useful.

Just then, she heard David call out and immediately went to inspect the car. She rapped on it a little, searched the front, and cautiously opened up the back door; keeping her bat pointed inside defensively at an arm's length. She peered inside, and saw that it was unoccupied.

"Clear," she called out, immediately taking a seat in back and turning to David.

"Now, yer gonna wanna take th', uh, that one road. With the daggerm... with the place. It gots th'... y'know what? Ask Dottie."

"It's down Red Wolf Boulevard ... I think. The way the car went. It's pretty much straight ahead." Dot was making sure to speak slowly in case these northern folks didn't know what a boulevard was. "Shotgun, by the way." Sure enough, Dot climbed into the broken down station wagon's front passenger seat. "In case ya need anything pointed out to ya."

She was actually starting to like the pair of women. It was nice to see a pair of sisters sticking together. It showed a certain familial bond... She was a bit confused, though, about how amorous they seemed. She assumed that was a northern thing, like how the French would kiss to say hello. That was probably it.

"It's nice ta see two sisters gettin' on so well in times like these. Who's the dad, if it ain't too rude ta ask? What happened ta him?"

Santa's growls were barely audible over the nine roaring engines. Elder Rivers turned back to check before noticing Santa point towards a hardware store. Elder Rivers turned towards the store, pulling the SUV with him. In front of the store, he stopped, getting off Rudolph.

"What could we do here?" Elder Rivers asked. He stepped towards the SUV to help Santa out of the car, opening the door for him. Elder Rivers then stepped into the store himself, having an idea. He looked for masks- something he could see through but could still protect his face from being bitten, lest he begin to turn and have to wander the rest of his days on Earth as a zombie instead of dying happily and getting his own planet.

Santa was helped out in exiting the vehicle, and when out and slammed it shut. He pointed towards Rudolph and made noises like a chainsaw as he swung his hand as if he was chopping something. Hopefully the Mormon would get that terse explanation.

Glancing back at the sleigh he walked up to the outside of the store as he peered through looking to see what things could be of use. But he then returned back to the sleigh to keep an eye on it.

Whirring noises and a chopping motion. Elder Rivers was certain this wasn't any sort of greeting or handshake- they had already been met. He turned around to see if someone was there, but as he suspected, it was no one. Elder Rivers wondered why Santa couldn't simply talk- or maybe he's been trying to but all the sounds were muffled by the mask.

Elder Rivers turned his attention back to the store, picking up a welding mask and protective gloves. He figured those would be the most useful against the zombies. He also needed some kind of a weapon- or at least one stronger than a BB gun. A blow torch and propane tank would work- but wouldn't be so effective while on the sleigh. He sat back and pondered what he could possibly use.

Santa kept vigil over the Christmas Sleigh as Elder Rivers was focusing upon the hard-ware store, and searching. He began methodically walking around the reindeer, peering from behind the goggles, examining them all. Yes, the reindeer were most magnificent, and behind the mask Santa was smiling. Santa knew Elder Rivers would find something useful in the store.

Santa paused, as he adjusted his hat, which slightly moved to the left. Pushing it back, he peered back towards Rivers, pondering on whether or not that he should assist. But, for now, Santa continued walking around the sleigh keeping vigil.

David

”Clear,” David’s head moved to the side as he examined the inside of the car. Relief flowed through him. Whoever had abandoned this junky piece of machinery had clearly not suffered any misfortunes. At least, not while they were inside. Free from blood, and smelling like fresh pinecones, the dingy little vehicle would do its job well.

Luanne had settled in the back seat quickly, and confusedly stuttered out some nonsense directions before deferring to her sister.

"It's down Red Wolf Boulevard ... I think. The way the car went. It's pretty much straight ahead." David couldn’t help but feel the twins underestimated them in some way. For example, Dot spoke slowly, and while it could have just been that she was trying not to confuse them out of the goodness of her heart, a sensation prickled in the back of David’s mind telling him it was more than that. And Luanne’s body language seemed to scream condescension. But, then and again, David and fam were foreigners to Arkansas. It was better Dot clarified the directions, rather than allowing them to loose themselves.

"Shotgun, by the way." She called, and David watched as Selina’s mouth twisted sourly. He nearly relinquished the driver’s seat to her; Selina was a fantastic driver. But David was just as fantastic, and his sister-in-law could do with sitting in silence for once. In the back seat. Besides, surely she would be glad to cuddle up with Kate and spend some peaceful, slightly intimate moments, on what David assumed would be a very empty road.

"In case ya need anything pointed out to ya." Dot was saying. David nodded, prying open the rusty sedan’s door. Were cars supposed to rust? Not the cars of the modern era, that was for sure. This old fossil had probably been time traveled here, David decided. And he didn’t really mind that it didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense anymore, anyway.

Selina

“You go in the middle.”

Selina pushed Kate forward, guiding her freckled lover to the middle seat of the shitty Sedan David had found them. Hesitantly, Kate moved in, squishing herself against Luanne.

It would be a tight squeeze; two adults, a preteen, and a young boy needed to fit back there, plus any equipment they held.

Selina slid after her, motioning for the boy to follow. Kate would be most protected in the middle, Selina had decided once they were glued together in the back. She threw her arm over Kate’s shoulders, just so that her fingers jabbed near Luanne’s face.

Ever so slightly, she purposefully flicked the girl’s hair, just barely brushing the dirty blonde locks, teasing the belle dress girl. She was too wound up, easily set off, with a peppery mouth prone to cussing. And, Selina decided, she herself was similar. It would be a positive change if the tone of the group changed from deadly serious, to playful but weary. Even if that meant she got cussed at a little.

"It's nice ta see two sisters gettin' on so well in times like these. Who's the dad, if it ain't too rude ta ask? What happened ta him?"

Selina blinked, and just out of her peripheral vision, she could see Kate’s lips purse with withheld laughter.

“Didn’t you hear when I was cursing your sister out back there?” She jabbed her thumb back in the direction of the walker filled pharmacy.

“Besides,” here she held up Kate hand against her own, assuming Dot would look back from her seat in front, “Do you really think we look like sisters? Look how pale Freckles is compared to me.”

“Sweety,” Kate said, sounding warmer and less amused, “Me and Selina are married. She’s my wife. And this baby, it’s hers. Biologically, by blood. This little girl is going to be born 100% the child of both her parents.”

Selina watched with affection as Kate gently caressed her own stomach, looking lost in thought.

“But what about you girls. You two seem really close. That’s pretty nice.” David began attempting small talk as he turned the keys in the ignition. The dinosaur of a car roared to life noisily. Looking back, Selina felt her heart thudding loud in her chest as several walker were aroused awake by the loud drawl of the engine.

“You better drive fast, Davie.” Kate, who had turned to look back alongside Selina, warned. She was eying the walkers with tense apprehension. Selina could feel Kate pushing herself closer to Selina’s body, burying her shoulder her partner’s breasts. She was scared. And so was Selina.

David nodded, but kept up with the small talk, trying hard to lighten the mood in the vehicle, “So, who’s the older one?”

Elder Rivers glossed over a section of the store dedicated to saws- normal saws were too floppy to be reliable; chainsaws needed too much fuel and were much too heavy to be reliable. Then, he saw an axe. It was the only one in the store. The other axes seemed to either have already been bought or lifted during the chaos of the apocalypse. He took it, holding it in one hand near the head. It was too heavy to use on the sleigh, however. There was plenty of candy lined at the counter. Elder Rivers grabbed as many of it as he could, stuffing it into his fanny pack.

When Elder Rivers went back ot the SUV to load in his axe, he noticed that Santa wanted something from him. "Yeah?" he asked.

Santa glanced at Elder Rivers as he grabbed an axe. He gave a curt nod to Elder Rivers, as he placed it in the SUV. It would do quite well. He gave another growl, as he gestured forwards, as he swung open the door to the SUV. Santa paused for a moment, before walking around to see the back of the SUV. Peering at the trunk glancing at the moped and the axe, Santa returned back to the front of the SUV.

Santa growled as hunching his back, as he held his two hands back as he mimed carrying a sack, glancing at the Mormon before growling. Santa wanted to make sure he had a gift or two at the ready to hand out from the sleigh. But, there would be another opportunity for it. Santa quickly shook his head as he returned back to the SUV and entered it.