Dakota and Connie screamed. They held each other tightly, watching the growing crowd of shambling people surround the car. A man with a missing chin smacked the windshield repeatedly, his flapping tongue danced across the wind like the sections hair on his head that still clung to his rotting scalp.

A pair of women appeared at the passenger window, their clothes stained with blood, slapping the glass and pressing their graying faces against it. They hungrily chewed at the partition, their teeth scraping loudly. More people appeared, this time from both directions of the road. Connie spotted Linda Travers, a teacher at Dakota's school and vice president of the PTA come limping along. Her left leg was broken, the white bone poked a jagged head through her skin and tore at her stained skirt as she hurried toward the vehicle.

"Dear god, it can't end like this!" Connie cried, as her daughter buried her head in her shirt and screamed. Dakota's hat had fallen onto the center console, covering the cupholder and the soda she had been carrying when Connie had flung her into the car back at the house.

"Mommy, make the car go! Get us out of here!" She cried, as the zombies began hitting the car from every direction. The banging grew louder, as more and more reached the car and furiously tried to get in.

Connie wanted to yell, wanted to scream, wanted to somehow ready her little girl for death, but instead cried and held her tighter. It wasn't supposed to happen like this! Dakota was only seven, she had barely made it halfway through second grade, and her birthday was in three weeks! How could she die like this? Eaten…. by….. by zombies?

Connie's mind held no answers. She squeezed her daughter tighter and tighter, crying out as the rain of blows on the station wagon intensified. It was only a matter of time before one of them made it through the glass……

Dakota pulled away from Connie, her face dripping with tears. She had a curious expression in her eyes, and she pulled herself toward the windshield. She struggled to look over the dashboard.

Connie pulled her back, "What is it? What's wrong?" She had to yell over the sound of the zombies attacking the car.

Dakota jumped. She squirmed to look out the window, amidst the chaos of zombies before them. There was a man crawling up the hood, his entire left side was peeled away, like he had been burned in an explosion. She screamed and fell back into Connie's grasp.

The woman reeled away from the sight of the man. They were everywhere now, so many had encircled the car that she could only see their swarming bodies. Connie felt Dakota jump again, and sobbed.

"Mommy, do you hear that?" She cried out.

Connie looked at her daughter and shook her head. "Shh, baby, it's just them."

"No! Listen! There's something else!"

Those words pierced through Connie. Were there other creatures out there? She hadn't even begun to think if the disease could be spread to animals. Her mind produced zombie wolves, bears and snakes; all coming down from the woods to greet her as she sat defenseless in her empty car. She sobbed and grabbed Dakota.

"I hear it again!" Dakota cried out. She struggled away from Connie and climbed up to the dashboard again.

"Dakota, baby…..please…" Connie began, when suddenly the windshield cracked inward, and something grazed her head. She screamed, swinging her arms upward at the glass, expecting a riot of hands and teeth to assault her. Connie reached out for Dakota, but the little girl bolted upright and pointed out into the road.

"MOMMY, LOOK!"

There was no avalanche of undead pouring into the car. Instead , a single bullet hole was visible in the glass, and the burned man tipped and fell sideways off the hood. Blood and brain matter splattered the area around the hole. Outside the blossom of crimson, Connie spotted a man in a plaid shirt with black jeans aiming a small pistol toward them.

"What the-?" She began, realizing she was no longer crying.