This is my first story on this account and it is co-written with MaraDixon413. Edited by a beta reader and reviewed by my writing partner. But if you catch any other mistakes please leave a review and I'll try and fix it.

Sal is portrayed by Rowen Blanchard and Jed is portrayed by Jacob Tremblay.

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For three days I've listened to those bony fingers scrap against our car. I've listened as teeth clattered clumsily against the glass, wallet chains and rings make little dings against the doors. For two of those days it was this, continuously. There were five of them, clambered around our car, waiting for me or my brother to try and escape, then they would grab us and rip us apart. I knew this because I watched it happen to our mother.

I saw it over and over again in my mind, every time I closed my eyes. When it was quiet I heard her screams, mixing together with the monsters moans.

But this morning the silence woke me.

They had wondered off, or were waiting on the other side of the house, who knew. There was only one left, the only one that mattered. She had let them take her so that me and my brother would survive.

She lay there, all mangled, hair missing in chucks and her once soft doe brown eyes turned grey and milky. Blood, thick and dark and red, was spilled all over our driveway. She could walk, but she didn't follow the others. She sat leaned against the door, the only sound she made was the ragged breathing from her lungs that more or less were still intact, her entire rib cage had been ripped open by those freaks.

She shouldn't be breathing, but she is. She had died but she isn't dead.

My own breathing didn't sound that great now that I thought about it. My chest hurt and my tongue felt like cotton, my mouth was dry and sore. The only thing we had to drink was the water bottle full of apple juice my brother had managed to hold onto as we ran, everything else we packed was scattered all over our driveway. It wasn't much, just a few pillows and a blanket. The rest was in the bag that sat in our rooms, forgotten in the chaos.

I saved the juice for Jed, letting him have a little at a time. Now only a little bit sloshes around in the bottom.

Georgia summers are not kind, the heat is unmerciful. I know as soon as he wakes up the juice will be gone.

As if on cue he rolls over, he let out a small cry and pulled himself up, looking around frantically. His cheek was red where it had stuck to the seat covers . It makes my chest tighten to see him, his hair matted to his forehead with sweat and his face flushed red. Dark purple circles had formed under his eyes and I'm sure I don't look much better. I watch as he remembers where he is, and a look of utter disappointment crossed his face. His eyes met mine and my heart clenches.

Its not right to see a five year old look so hopeless, their supposed to be full of obliviousness and live little blissfully ignorant lives. Not this. This isn't how things are supposed to be.

"Hi Sal," He mumbles, his throat dry and scratchy.

"Hey Jedi," I say quietly, like the monsters were listening.

Jedidiah is why I'm still breathing. If not for him, I would have tried already to fight my way through the wall of monsters that were here yesterday, but I couldn't risk it with him. I wouldn't be able to carry him and outrun them. His only chance would be I'd be on top of him when I fell, then while they were busy with me, he could run. Like mom.

"Can we go in now?" He asks.

I look out the window again, it's smeared with blood. Dust sticks to it, making it hard to see anything clearly. But I know its just mom out there.

"I think so, soon okay?"

"Is she still there?"

His face was so open and I was in envy. I wanted to be like him, to be the little kid who could get scared and cry and be kept safe. But now I'm the grown up.. me. I'm not even sixteen...

I thought back to before, when the rumors first started to drift around school. My friends and I thought it was all a big hoax, people attacking and eating each other. But then people started to get sick, my aunt who worked in one of the hospitals in the city, she told my mother about how the death tolls were rising. Then dead people started walking, and we had to get out.

We were going to the refugee center in Atlanta, when they grabbed her.

In last few days I watched people abandon their homes, all from the car. They didn't stop, they couldn't, the car was surrounded. Their faces showed the fear and shame of the choices they made to leave us behind, without helping. They had their own families to protect and couldn't take the chance.

But now we have our chance.

"Come on back here Jed, we're gonna get out of here?" I tell him. I wasn't sure yet what I was going to do but it had to be today, I wasn't sure Jed could take another day in this furnace of a car.

He peeled himself up from the sweaty seats and crawled over, clutching his stuffed rabbit. He'd had the things since he was a baby, and it was evident. The stuffing had been worn out of its arms and legs, the ribbon around its neck hung in strings. He hugged it tightly to his chest and curled up with the door against his back.

I climbed up front, sitting in the passengers seat. I chewed my lip and popped my knuckles nervously. She was there, right outside the door. I knew from watching Mr. Byers down the street, that if you got bit, you got the fever. That was what killed you, burned you up inside out.

"Sal? What are you going to do?" Jed asked hesitantly.

I'm not sure. I lean over and look out the window, at my mother sitting against the car. Only I knew 'it' wasn't my mother. She died, her guts are spilled all over the driveway, for days along with the others she clawed at the window, trying to get in, trying to eat us.

Whatever the thing sitting against the car was, it wasn't my mother. Not anymore. She wouldn't hurt us, never. This thing would.

My eyes travel around the car, eyes searching desperately for something to use, and then it hit me. There was a screw driver in the glove compartment, and I wish I had come to my senses earlier.

"Sally!?" Jed said again, louder this time.

I reached over and pressed the button, and the compartment popped open. I grabbed it, holding it tightly in a sweaty hand.

I tapped my knuckles against the window lightly, just enough sound to get her- its attention.

I watched as it raised itself up, fingers slipping through the slit in the window, I had to roll it down to let some air in. It snapped its jaws hungrily, banging its head against the side of the car.

It was hard to believe just two days ago she had been so beautiful. Long brown hair with big brown eyes, me and my brother were like her copies. Now she had withered into this. You think of people dying and you imagine it in a hospital, surrounded by people who love you, your eyes close, and never open. But this, whatever this is, its changing everything.

"Sal!" Jed cried from behind me, I turned to see him with his eyes shut tight, hands over his ears. He knew, he understood.

"Keep your eyes closed Jed!" I said firmly.

"Sally its mommy stop!" He said crying louder.

Panic began to bubble in my chest, making our situation more dangerous. They would hear him, they were attracted to sound?

"Jed please be quiet?" I begged him gently.

He buried his face into his knee's, and that muffled his crying just a bit. But we had to hurry.

I grit my teeth and looked at her again. Her eyes, they were dead. She was dead. This was a monster.

I brought my arm down hard, the screw driver lodging itself into her forehead. She stopped, her jaw went slack, then she started to slid. I pulled the screw driver out and watched her fall until she laid limp in the pavement.

My throat burned, and my chest felt like it was going to burst. She.. it, whatever the heck it was, was dead. I killed it.

Hot tears rolled down my cheeks but I swallowed any sounds that threatened to come up. But Jed, he was sobbing now.

I let the screw driver fall from limp fingers into the seat, as I turned and crawled back into the back seat. I grabbed my little brother, pulling him into my lap. He stayed stiff and ridged, just crying. His little hands gripped tightly into his hair.

"I'm sorry, Jed please stop?" I cried. I felt as small as him.

"You killed mommy!" He screamed into my chest.

It was like someone was strangling me. The air wasn't getting to my lungs no matter how much I tried to breath, I was suffocating in this stupid car!

I tried again to suck in some air, wipe my eyes, swallow the sobs that threatened to rip through my throat at any moment.

I pushed Jed back, taking a hold of his wrists, gently... but he wouldn't be able to pull away.

"Look at me!"

He did, his eyes were rimmed red and his chest heaved.

"That's not mommy, okay Jedi. Mommy died, she went to heaven with daddy and grandma!"

"I saw her!" He cried.

How could he understand, how could I make him. He was five, I was fifteen and I didn't understand!

He stared up at me with every emotion I could think of. He didn't know what to think.

"She got sick and she died, and the mommy part, the good part that was mommy, that went to heaven? That thing out there in the driveway isn't mommy anymore. That thing will hurt us if it gets the chance."

I didn't know what I was saying. But it made sense. She couldn't have been inside that thing, or else I did kill my mother?

"Will she come back again?" He sniffed, I let go of one of his wrists so he could wipe his nose.

I shook my head. She was dead this time, she had to be.

But that answer didn't seem to help. If anything he looked like he was about to cry again.

"Wanna go inside now?" I asked him, I did. I wanted to go inside and lay on my bed and cry. Scream. Rant. Take a shower?

He nods, wiping his eyes. But the tears he wipes away are quickly replaced.

I reach over and pop open the door, and a wave of relief floods over me. I climbed out, and then helped Jed clamber down. I picked him up, and let him hide his face in my hair as we walked around, passing the body that lay motionless by the car.

I couldn't help but turn back to look at her again as I opened the door, getting ready to go back into my house for the first time since the monsters surrounded our car.

My mother had always been so strong, even after my dad died. But to see her slumped against the car, her blood smeared all over the ground.

It was heart breaking.

Inside I set Jed down, and watched him wobble a little on his feet. He stared around the house in shock. His arms were still wrapped tightly around his rabbit, it was strange to see someone look so lost in their own home.

"Go get you something to drink in the kitchen okay?" I told him gently, pushing him toward the kitchen area. I was going to go to our rooms and grab the emergency bags we accidentally left behind in all the panic.

"No stay with me!"

His eyes were wide, and he grabbed hold of my hand.

"Nothings gonna hurt you in there?" I asked confused.

"Please Sal, don't leave!"

I frowned but nodded. If I was his age I wouldn't want to be left alone either.

"Come on we'll go together?" I sighed.

We went into the kitchen, and it looked so strange. It looked just how we left it, but at the same time it seemed so different. There was even an episode of Scooby Doo still playing on the loop on the little TV my mom kept on the counter for Jed while she worked.

I fixed him something to eat, noting the canned foods we had. I should take those to the refugee center?

Then I went back to our rooms and grabbed the bags.

I wanted to stay, to wait it out. But I know we can't stay in this house forever, and we can't wait for anyone to save us. We needed other people, grownups? I could take care of Jed, I baby sat the kids on my street all the time. The Orms and the Anderson's, the Grimes family.

Lori?

My mother and Lori had been best friends since high school, since they both got pregnant and married so young. There was a chance, a slight one, that she might be home still. It had only been a few days from with Mr. Grimes still in the hospital she might stick around even longer?

I got Jed dressed, his favorite star wars T-shirt and a new pair of jeans. I got him some shoes since he didn't have any when we ran, we were panicked after Mom saw it happen at her work. She didn't even give us time to grab our bags.

I got dressed too, something easy to run in. I didn't know how many more of those things were still hanging around?

Jed stood at the end of the hallway, his rabbit hung limp at his side. He still hadn't let go of it.

"I wanna stay!" He said loudly, "There are monsters out there?"

I resisted the urge to groan. What he didn't understand is that we were leaving to go somewhere safe from the monsters?

"We gotta be brave right now like the Jedi?"

His name had given him a love of Star Wars as soon as he made the connection.

This seemed to get his attention, and he hesitantly made his way over to me and took my hand.

I took a long look around our house, I didn't know when we'd be back? I don't know when this thing will blow over either, when they'll find a cure or a vaccine.

I ignored the tightness in my chest, and opened the door, stepping out into the driveway. Something heavy settled on my shoulders, and what felt like a rock formed where my heart should be. It felt like I was making something final, like I was sealing my fate. I just gripped Jed's hand tighter, and shielded him from the body in the driveway, then we made our way down the street to the Grimes house, and I prayed they were home.

I'll post a new chapter- or try to with my schedule, every Thursday.