Sarah was asleep on the couch, though she wasn't snoring. She was relaxed and had went into slumber after waiting for her father to return from working with his brother, tommy.
But she was taking care of some kid for a while. Taking care of is used lightly. It was suppose to be till seven but the parents didn't come back yet. He was asleep on the floor, fell asleep at eight.
By the late night program, it was ten in the evening.
The boy awoke in the midst of some laughter on the television, and saw some man in a suit talking to another.
He never cared for this sort of stuff, he just wanted some cartoons.
The front door opened, standing in the way was a mature man, handsome in all honesty. But the boy saw him as some sort of action hero sometimes when he was over.
"Hey Joel." He said.
Joel closed the door behind him and then looked at the kid in surprise.
"Uh... Hey, Adler. Shouldn't your parents of came by?"
Adler hadn't thought of that. He started to cry, sniffling...
"Hey!" Joel said calmly and trying to sound reassuring. He hadn't dealt with kids as old as three since Sarah.
"I'm sure they'll be here soon."
"They called a while ago and said they'd be late." Sarah said, just rising from the cushions of the couch. "His dads a cop, remember? And his moms one of those nurses in the old people houses."
"Right..."
Joel sat on the couch by Sarah, and scooted a bit so Adler could join. It was the late night show, and they were talking about some stupid political stuff that didn't seem important, just if movies are portraying this or that right, if violence should be banned.
He began flipping through the channel, searching for something else to watch. "Sarah, why don't you go to bed. Maybe take Adler with you so you can make sure he gets what he needs."
She sighed "but I'm not tired."
Adler had fallen asleep on her arm. Joel had looked over and let off a little chuckle. "I think lil' Ad is."
Sarah had perked up all of a sudden, and dug through some of her stuff that she had brought to the room after school. She pulled out a box that certainly had something expensive in it.
It looked brand new, unlike that box that once held the proposal ring of Joel's ex wife.
"What's this?" He asked.
He pulled open the box to see the ticking little trinket.
"A watch!" He said surprised. He wrapped it around his wrist and gazed at it even more.
"How did you get this?" He said.
"I sell hardcore drugs." She answered.
"Well, maybe you should pay the mortgage." He laughed and looked at her, she was holding her head by her resting arm. The two kids had fallen asleep.
Joel sighed.
He carried each and placed them in Sarah's room, the bed was big enough. Its just a small child and a twelve year old. But once he closed the door and went back downstairs.
.
Sarah awoke to her cellphone ringing, she held the pink phone in her hand and read the name. The bright letters read off "Uncle Tommy?"
She pressed the talk button, and heard her uncle ask for her father in a panicky sort of way. "Uncle Tommy, what's going on?"
But before he could explain, his phone disconnected from the line. "Hello? Hello?" She asked.
Adler had slowly awoken, rubbing his eyes with his little hands and opening to show his brown eyes in the dark. He looked over to see Sarah standing up from her bed and walking to the door way.
"Sarah?"
She turned to see the young boy get up and follow her, she did not reject him coming with her.
They went to her fathers room, she knocked before entering "dad?" The door opened a slight.
She went inside and saw that the TV was on, some woman was reporting on something. It didn't make any sense with every siren ringing in her area, and certain people talking.
Then the explosion happened.
Sarah looked outside and saw it flowing up to the sky.
"What's happening, Sarah?" Adler asked her.
But she couldn't answer the question. Even if it was clear, she wouldn't be able to answer him with all this shock.
The TV fizzled loudly and the two left the room.
They went down stairs to look for Joel. It was dark, but there was light peering through the windows from the outside lights.
Sarah and Adler walked through the house, something thumped up to the glass while their reflections showed.
They were in Joel's work room, where the back yard was; the light outside did not help pry Adler's fingers from Sarah's shirt, standing aside so she would protect him.
But even Sarah was scared.
"Dad?" She asked hesitantly. When she took a step forward, a man ran inside and slid the door closed. He was breathing heavily and looked at Sarah and Adler.
It was Joel, sweat crossing through his dark hair and thin beard.
"Sarah, Adler. Stay back." He said as he searched the drawer of his table. He had reached for his small gun, just a little revolver with a short barrel. It shined with the reflection of a psychotic man, running into their glass door.
Joel turned around and aimed the gun at him "stay out!" He yelled. "I'm warning you!"
"Dad!" Sarah called. Adler stayed behind her and began to hide in her shadow, breathing scared breaths as the man burst in; he tripped but still went after Joel.
The trigger was pulled, the man lied dead on the floor with his blood thrown at the walls like paint.
Adler began to cry into Sarah's shirt in confusion and fear.
"Y-you... You shot our neighbor." Sarah met her fathers eyes and froze. "He was fine and healthy this morning..."
"Sarah, Adler. He wasn't a person anymore. He would of hurt us. Come on."
Sarah and Adler followed him, regardless of their state and followed him outside to see Tommy had driven into their parking.
"Joel, I've been trying to get a hold of you for hours!" He saw Adler and had a look of confusion. Looking up at an agitated Joel.
"Who's the kid?"
"Adler." His voice growled. "Let's go."
They had left the house and abandoned the place into the darkness. The car lights made the road a menacing thing, and the grass even worse.
The radio had been turned on, only a few channels had been on but were shut down soon. "What's happening?" Sarah asked.
Joel and Tommy didn't have a clue. And neither answered.
There were some people out on the road, saving their hands for them to stop. "They need help." Sarah said. Adler looked up to see the people be passed by, tommy didn't even look at them.
"You didn't even help them."
"Some one else will." Joel answered her, but Adler only got more cozy by Sarah as his mood got worse with the insecurity of these events.
Town wasn't any better, people were running from something terrible. And Tommy had to try and drive around them, it wasn't something easy. Especially when some stranger walked from behind material things.
"Goddamn it, all these people-" before Joel could even finish, some other vehicle ran into them; the car shattered like the windows, pieces were everywhere.
Sarah sat up and looked everywhere. Joel was knocked out in his seat while Tommy was outside. Adler put his hand on Sarah, she looked to see him with a few wounds. Tears had streamed down his eyes when he said
"Sarah..."
She picked him up and shook her dad awake. "Dad! Get up! Dad!"
His eyes opened wide to see the carnage of running people and fire. The violence was blinding.
He looked at his daughter and also saw Adler. He led them outside and Sarah felt something something bring her down. Her father looked to see she had stepped on some glass, her bare feet had a deal of glass inside.
She had made a pained noise and Joel pulled the shard out of her foot, blood was flowing out slowly. But she would only limp and they wouldn't be able to get out fast enough.
He lifted her up and put her in his arms.
"Joel? What about me?" Adler looked up at him as the chaos swarmed around them. He was desperately in need of Joel as well, Sarah's father looked over the place for Tommy. And in the nick of time, there he was.
"What happened?" Joel asked his brother in anger, his teeth gritted with every word.
"I don't know! Let's just get out of here."
Joel still didn't let his anger go away. "Next time, look."
Tommy told Adler to keep close and they ran through the streets, the infected were coming all around the place like those zombies in those zombie movies. They did seem similar, but they couldn't be that. Some of them didn't even have bite marks... At least not that Joel or Sarah noticed.
They were running for their lives, after all.
They had ran into some food shop and were running from a horde of infected that seemed to of caught them before the two could even make a slick run.
Tommy and Adler were standing outside the doors of the back way, when Joel and Sarah ran out. Tommy locked the door behind them some way, and told them to go on. He'd catch up.
Joel, Sarah, and Adler were running through some unstreetly places, it seemed like they were going to be running out of the city.
When they were up some small hill, there was a soldier there. He wore some black uniform, one that didn't seem familiar to either Sarah or her father.
"Go back!" The man ordered them, his gun trained on them like they were fiends.
"Please," Joel begged "we just got out of that mess of a city and-"
"Go back." He ordered again. But he suddenly began talking to some one else, supposedly through one of those ear phones. But this seemed different. It wasn't some casual call that anyone would make. It was orders.
"But... There's a child..."
He let off a sigh and confirmed the worst.
"Oh shit..."
As Joel was going to run back, to escape this man and make sure they all made it out alive. He felt hard iron go through his skin, piercing some organs. He let out a pained howl and dropped his daughter, who looked at her weakened father and went over to him as quickly as possible.
"Dad! Dad get up, please!" She shook him as much as possible. Till she heard the man come down and aim the flash light at her.
She froze. She closed her eyes and froze. A tear slipping through the cracks of her shuttened eyes.
She heard the sound, it rang through her ears. But when she opened her eyes, she saw the man had fallen. The gear on his helm had broken, a big gaping glass hole.
She looked back to see Adler, holding her fathers gun. His little hands were bug enough to kill the man, and he some how willed the strength to keep it in place.
She began to breath faster then she had, it wasn't in fear. But surprised that the three year old had saved her life and not Tommy, who only managed to get their after she saw Adler.
If Adler hadn't been there, she would of been dead.
She looked to her father, who was begening to breath his last breath. He looked up to the stars and saw each shine like the chaos wasn't even there.
But he looked to his daughter, who seemed to be screaming at him. He heard her faintly. "Dad! Dad! Please, get up! I need you!"
He looked up to the stars and said. "I know. I'm sorry, Sarah... I'm..."
The stars vanished from his gaze, the darkness swarming his vision like a bottomless pit. Till he could feel his breath leave him.
"D-dad? Dad? DAD?!" She began to scream and cry, trying to awaken him once more. Hoping it would work. Tommy was trying to get her and Adler to keep going, but she kept sobbing and screaming at her father.
When Tommy scooped her up, it didn't stop her from screaming his name and watching her own father; he didn't even move. He was lying their as his blood flowed onto the stone.