What about the Twinkie? (I've always wanted to use that in a story.)

That is the question on a lot of foodies' minds at the moment.

The answer lies in the 2009 horror-comedy "Zombieland." And we have Woody Harrelson to thank for predicting the fate of one of the most pop culture-entrenched snack foods in history.

I'm referring to the recent announcement that Hostess is talking about shutting down its bakeries. Among the casualties of the shuttering would be the Twinkie: the golden, fluffy, cream-filled sponge cake.

Though many films and television shows have suggested Twinkies, like cockroaches and Keith Richards, will survive the apocalypse, they really do have an expiration date. (One of my favorite movie exchanges involving Twinkies comes from 1984's "Ghostbusters," when Egon explains to Winston the amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. "That's a big Twinkie," Winston responds)

However, that didn't stop writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick from making the Twinkie an important and funny subplot in "Zombieland." Woody Harrelson's Tallahassee — a gun-toting, father-turned-drifter and one of a handful of survivors of a zombie apocalypse — bemoans to Jesse Eisenberg's Columbus that "Someday very soon, life's little Twinkie gauge is going to go empty."

He was right.

Tallahassee spends most of the film focused on finding that one box of Twinkies he knows is still out there, beckoning him to the sort of momentary sugar high that can only be appreciated when the rest of the world has turned into crazed, flesh-eating zombies. It seems that search for Twinkies has turned into a case of life imitating art. The possible demise of the sugary snack has caused folks to seek out Twinkies by the basket, and shopping cart; many have even turned to selling them for profit on eBay and Craigslist.

Many consumers and fans are perplexed and saddened that one of their favorite foods is possibly coming off the shelves. (Ding Dongs and Ho Hos were also produced by Hostess.)

In the meantime, all we can do is hope that it won't take ransacking abandoned Hostess trucks to find them.

As Tallahassee so eloquently put it, "This Twinkie thing, it ain't over yet."