Hey, guys! Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy!

Sarah woke up to the sound of screaming, and a sharp, aching pain in her leg.

Groggily, the blonde got up and took in her surroundings with bleary gray eyes. Cracked glass was surrounding her, a sea of broken car windows and blood. Her father was clearly knocked out, and anxiously she shook him.

"Daddy?" When he didn't answer, she shook him again. "Hey. Hey!"
"What?" He mumbled, lazily yawning into her face, sending a blast of tobacco into her nostrils. His eyes latched onto a nearby figure- a zombie- chewing on the internal organs of a young woman near a flipped Toyota nearby.

"Get back, baby," He suddenly whispered, hurriedly, urgently. "Get back."

Stomping hard, he kicked the glass of a car window and, as quickly as possible, crawled out of it and onto the cracked pavement below. Panting, he got up and leaned against the car, when a figure suddenly barreled against his body. His eyes widened as he took in the zombie, and pushed him away, barely stifling a yell.

Instantly, a fist appeared out of nowhere, and connected with the zombie's head. Joel Miller latched eyes with his brother, saying a silent thank-you when an urgent, slightly cracked voice broke him out of his gaze.

"Dad?" Sarah asked, and instantly Joel crouched down, helping his daughter out of the flipped-over truck.

"I'm here baby, I'm here. Just gimme your hand." He said, as soothingly as possible. Obliging, Sarah offered him a small, tanned hand and Joel pulled his daughter out of the truck. Instantly, she yet out a yelp as she stood on her feet, falling onto his chest instead.

"What is it?" Joel asked tensely.

"My leg hurts," She gasped out, over the sounds of anguished screams.

"How bad?"

"Pretty bad."
"We're gonna need to run," Tommy yelled out, surveying the situation with wild eyes.

"Oh my god." Joel uttered, watching a zombie feast on a little boy's body. He could've been only about five years old. Silently, he handed his brother the gun.

"You keep us safe." He said, glaring into his brother's face, and then pulled up his daughter with both arms. Instantly, he was glad of how small and skinny she was, for the first time in his life. She was heavy, of course, but luckily not as heavy as an average eleven-year-old would've been.

"Now hold on tight." He warned the girl.

"Okay!"

Joel took off running, his brother and countless others at his side. Nearby, streetlights flickered and screams filled the thick, heavy night air. A loud, angry moan yelled out behind Joel, a terrified scream following.

"Daddy, I'm scared," Sarah gasped.

"Just keep your eyes closed, honey!" Joel yelled over the horrified shouts. He ran as fast as he could, sweat beading on his forehead. He had to keep Sarah safe- he had to, he had to, he had to-

"Oh my god!" Sarah sobbed into his shoulder as she watched a woman shielding her little baby get feasted on by a rotting corpse. Nearby, a building exploded in flames, and a streetlight fell down onto the road.

"Keep running!" Tommy yelled, and they ducked into another street, just as another building burst into flames. People screeched as zombies attacked their friends, family, loved ones- it was pure havoc, pure chaos, the scariest thing Joel had ever laid eyes on.

"These people are on fire." Sarah mumbled shakily.

"Don't look, Sarah," Joel said roughly as they passed the burning building, the heat scorching his skin.

"Okay."
The screams of the burning filled their ears, though, and Joel quickly shouted, "Just keep lookin' at me, baby!"

They ran onto another street, Sarah moaning into her father's shoulder as the anguished, pain-filled cries of the dying exploded into their eardrums. Nearby, a silver Mercedes crashed into a small VW Beatle.

"We're going to get out of this," Joel promised as he darted off near the movie theater. "I promise."

A car on fire rolled by, and instantly exploded in a fiery, horrific, spectacular ball of flames.

"Get back!" Tommy yelled, watching the townspeople scream in terror. "There's too many of them!"

He turned to a dark, frightening alleyway hiding behind two small houses.

"This way," He yelled, taking off and opening the fence guarding the alleyway. "C'mon!"

Joel had barely bounded two feet before a zombie lunged at him. Tommy instantly pulled the trigger on his gun, and the zombie fell down onto the pavement with a sickening crash.

"He's dead!" Sarah wailed, not able to take her eyes off the corpse.

"We're almost there," Joel promised, running off into the dark. "We're almost there, baby."
They passed a chain-link fence, in which zombies were trying to cut their sharp, brown teeth through the metal links.

"They're getting through the fence!" Tommy shouted, as if they hadn't saw that themselves.

"Keep going! Find a way outta here!" Joel yelled, running into an outside café.

"C'mon!" Tommy cried, as zombies were already chasing the three out of the alleyway and into a small building. Tommy pushed his weight against the door.

"Get to the highway!" He yelled, his forehead sweating bullets.

"What?" Joel whispered.

"GO! You've got Sarah- I can outrun 'em!" Tommy promised. The flailing hands of the dead were now beginning to push their way through the door.

"Uncle Tommy?!" Sarah yelled.

"I'll meet you there," Joel said fiercely, ignoring his daughter.

"Hurry!" Tommy yelled in response.

Joel pushed through the back door, and back into the thickening early morning air.

"Daddy, we can't leave 'im!" Sarah protested in a cracking voice, as they bounded across the parking lot, passing a young man flailing as a zombie feasted on his flesh.

"He's gonna be fine!" Joel reassured her, jumping into a dusty, abandoned road hiding behind a small red fence.

"They're gettin' closer," Joel whispered to himself.

"Dad?!" Sarah shouted, alarmed.

Right behind them, a zombie moaned with hunger and pain. Joel darted up a small hill, trying to get the zombie off his tail- no, zombies, off his tail.

Just as they were about to be attacked, a bunch of gunshots echoed in front of them, and the zombies flailed to the ground, as dead as can be.

Joel looked up and into the eyes of a young soldier, about ten feet away from the two.

"Hey!" Joel called hoarsely, approaching the man. "We need help-"

"Stop!" The soldier yelled, pointing the gun at his chest. Joel staggered back, heart beating fast under his chest.

"Please," He begged, "it's my daughter- I think her leg's broken-"
"Stop right there!" The man boomed, pointing the gun at Sarah's head now.

"Okay." Joel responded slowly. "We're not sick."
"Got a couple of civilians out in the outer perimeter." The soldier muttered into his two-way radio. "Please advise."

Sarah tightened her grip on her father's neck.

"Daddy," she whispered in a hoarse voice, "what about Uncle Tommy?"
"We're gonna get you to safety and go back to him." Joel said. "Okay?"

"Sir," the soldier protested, "there's a little girl."
They waited in anxious silence, watching the soldier all the while.

"But…" the soldier trailed off. "Yes sir." He raised his gun.

"Listen, buddy, we've just been through hell. Okay, we just need-" Joel broke off as the man pulled the trigger. "Oh, shit."

He stumbled around just as the soldier pulled the trigger. He rolled down the hill, clutching his sore sides. The soldier stood over him.

"Please, don't-" Joel whispered. And he didn't, because Tommy shot him. Joel stared at his brother in a furious sort of pride- until, of course, he heard his daughter's anguished moans.

"Oh, no." He whispered, and stumbled to her side.

She was clutching her stomach, sobbing a little.

"Sarah!" He cried, not bothering to disguise his panic. Lifting her bloodied hands, he breathed a huge, overwhelming sigh of relief, as he saw the bullet had not hit her heart- it had barely skipped the top of her stomach. She was going to be fine.

"You're going to be okay, baby." He reassured her. "Okay?"

"It hurts!" She wailed, her tanned face scrunching up in pain.

"Okay?" Her father pressed.

"…Okay."

So, how was the chapter? Please review, and with that-

Love, hugs, and all that jazz,

The-Word-Writer