"Hey! Lame brain! Over here!" Hannah waved her hands in the air wildly as a feasting carcass rose from its knees and turned towards her. As it began to take is lumbering steps towards her with ever increasing speed her eyes widened and she began to walk backwards as the creature snarled at her. It grew closer and closer, faster and faster. When it was close enough for Hannah to see the chunk of bloody flesh hanging from its teeth she let out a gasp. It extended its revolting fingers to grab her and bite down. Now, almost within arm's reach, Hannah let out a shriek. "JANE!" Jane flew from her hiding spot in the hall closet. She tackled the carcass and pinned it to the floor. It let out a deep and angry hiss as it spasmed and squirmed under her force. "If you're gonna do it, do it now kid!" Hannah pulled the carving knife from the small purple backpack that had grown to be an extension of herself. She adorned herself with the bag again and held the knife in her hands as Jane had taught her. She walked to the carcasses head and, grasping the handle tightly with both hands, raised the immaculate blade above her head. the curved edge of the blade gleamed in the early morning light that oozed through the dirty apartment window.

She looked at the disgusting thing as it writhed under Jane's strong grip on its shoulders, her knee pinning down his lower torso. It raised its head to snap its rotten blood smeared teeth at her. The knife was growing heavy in her hand. She longed to be able to force the blade into its decomposing skull and end its shrieks and snarls that she had come to realize would never leave the echos of her mind. But she couldn't. She was frightened. Paralyzed with fear. She couldn't do this. She can't do this! "Hannah!" Jane shouted, looking at her expectantly, forcefully. "Hannah do it now!" The girls arms held their uncomfortable position but began to quake. "I can't do it!" Jane looked up at her with furrowed brows. "Just do it! Get it over with!" The carcass violently spasmed in a bid to break free, causing Jane to force the creature down hard, slamming is back onto the hardwood flooring with force. A sickening crack could be heard as the skull broke. "I can't! I'm scared!" Jane looked up at the little girl once more, sweat gleamed from her brow as she forced the carcass into submission. "Either you kill it, or it kills you."

Jane looked at the girls fear filled eyes and glared at her. As she turned her head to reach for the blade tucked into her boot she heard a thunk and feel the spatter of hot liquid on the back of her neck and in her hair. She turned back around to see Hannah now at he own eye level, returning her steely glare. "There. Happy now?" Jane felt the movement below her soften then stop completely as the body went limp. She looked at the girl, meeting her eyes and smiled. "First kill. Nice work kid." she raised herself to her feet and gave her a small smirk, which was returned in kind. Jane wiped the blood from her neck and surveyed the room. "Look for anything useful. Weapons, water, food, anything. They went from room to room in the sweltering apartment, and salvaged what they could.

As Jane went through the kitchen Hannah looked around the bathroom. She looked through the medicine cabinet and found nothing of value except a near empty bottle of ibuprofen. She looked under the sink and found only some drain cleaner and a bottle of bleach. "Find anything?" Jane walked in and nealt down to see what Hannah was doing. "Just some pain killers." Hannah said uninterestedly. "Not much here really." She moved to close the cabinet drawer when Jane stopped her with her own hand, pulling it open again. "Grab the bleach." Hannah's face twisted into an expression of confusion. "Why?" Jane grabbed the bottle and felt the weight in her hands, judging how much was left. "One teaspoon of this stuff can sterilize five gallons of water. This stuff is like liquid gold now." Hannah looked at her in admiration. "Really? How did you know that!?" Jane looked at her with a coked eyebrow. "I'm a doctor? We kinda have to know that stuff." Jane placed the near empty bottle in her backpack and walked into the living room again and began rooting through the drawers.

Hannah shuffled behind her but kept her distance. Jane glanced over at her and saw how she was half hiding behind the sofa. She returned her gaze to the task at hand, looking through the piles of random items left behind when the apartments residents fled. "What?" she murmured almost absentmindedly. Hannah's eyes darted from her dirty sneakers to the side of Jane's face back to her shoes. "I didn't know you were a doctor." She pulled out a half empty lighter from the back of the drawer and stuck it in her pocket. "Hmm? Oh yea. I worked in autopsy." Hannah tugged at a loose string on the couch. "What's that?" Jane squatted down and looked through the bottom drawer, pushing past dusty dvd's and video games. "Autopsy? Oh thats when-" Jane turned and saw that hannah's eyes were big as saucers and she was fumbling with her fingers. 'She's afraid of doctors...' Jane realized. She looked Hannah right in the eye. "Honestly? When patients die, they are sent to me. I cut them open and figure out why they died." Hannah gasped. "Look kid, I know it's not the nicest thing in the world, but i'm not going to ever sugar coat anything with you. If we are going to make it out of this alive, we need to be straight with each other. Get it?" Hannah looked at her for a moment and then gave a tiny smile. "Promise? I hate when grownups lie to me. I've known that Santa is just my mom and dad since I was 6. Jane gave a smirk. "What tipped you off?" Hannah smiled and picked at her nails. "Santa and my parents use the same wrapping paper." Jane crossed her arms across her chest. "Not bad kid." Jane gave her a crooked smile. "Ya know that reminds me of when I was a kid. I would-"

BANG! BANG!

Jane tackled Hannah to the ground and laid on top of her, covering her mouth. Hannah covered her ears and let out a muffled scream.