Chapter 2

**Two Weeks Later**

Tommy woke with a start, his upper body thrusting off the bed, as he inhaled loudly. Another nightmare. He wiped his forehead with a quivering hand. Cold sweat covered his body. He had dreamt of Sarah.

She was playing football in the park with her team, like she had most Saturday afternoons before the attack. Tommy and Joel would work early morning and then stroll down to the football pitches and watch her, usually stopping for a hotdog on the way. Sarah had scored, and after spotting her father and uncle, had jogged across the park to greet them. Tommy waved happily as Joel whistled with two fingers in celebration. As she touched the white line, marking the edge of the playing field, she froze suddenly, the happy smile leaving her face. Her body then jolted, head snapping back; like she had been tugged on a string. From beneath Sarah's smooth skin erupted the fungal plates of the later stages of the infected. Tommy backed away in horror as his niece's beautiful face contorted and twisted into a monster. The mouth, which was creepily similar, smiled through the mutilation.

"I scored! Did you see?"

Tommy cried out as the infected stalked towards them and jumped, wrapping its arms around their necks.

"Why aren't you happy? I scored!" The monster spoke just like Sarah.

"Daddy, aren't you happy? Uncle Tommy, didn't you see me score?"

He tried to push her away, but she gripped his neck tightly. The fungus was touching his face. It was cold and rough against his cheek.

"Get off!" He cried out, tugging at her violently. "Joel, this isn't Sarah!"

"What's wrong Tommy? Aren't you happy?" Joel asked quietly as he turned to face his brother, still in his daughter's hold. He smiled like nothing was wrong; like Sarah hadn't transformed before them; like her face hadn't morphed into something purged from the depths of hell. Slowly his smile grew wider and wider, eventually splitting his face in two and from the wound grew out the infection.

Tommy screamed as they laughed, asking over and over why he wasn't happy. Thunder roared from above. The park became deserted. No laughing children playing football, no parents cheering them on, no dogs chasing frisbees. As the park became silent so too did Joel and Sarah. Their cackling subsided. It was quiet. So quiet. Sarah hiccupped. Then Joel. Then Sarah again.

Only they weren't hiccupping. They were clicking.

Tommy managed to get out of their embrace and staggered a few steps backwards. He watched as they clicked to each other a few times, their heads twitching.

"What are you…..?"

At the sound of Tommy's voice, they immediately stopped communicating and began to shriek. They jumped at him, teeth flashing, white and dangerous. He could feel Sarah's small hands clawing at his arm, but it was when Joel lunged at his neck to tear out his jugular, did he jerk awake with a gasp.

The young man patted his neck frantically and held a hand over his pounding heart as he watched his brother sleep soundly in the bed beside him. Joel was always sleeping nowadays.

They had been given the luxury of only having to share a tent with each other. Usually there were four or five people cramped into one. They had made it to the other side of the tolls on that horrific night when Sarah had died. It took four days, but the military had established a base and set up temporary sleeping areas. They were housed in section C, one of the smaller camps. There they were protected day and night by armed guards and were given food rations. Food, toiletries, batteries and weapons were under tight control. One of the soldiers had managed to capture and kill a deer, so instead of tins of beans or soup, they had eaten meat the night before. It was a rare treat if they had protein through their diet. Tommy's stomach rumbled at the thought. He would have given his right arm for bacon, eggs and hash browns right about now. He had already lost weight and his jeans were sitting low on his hips.

"Joel, wake up. We're on scout duty. Joel." Tommy swung his legs off the bed and rubbed his face. He slept with his shoes on, terrified there would be an attack during the night. There had been an attempt three nights previous. One of the infected had managed to climb the gates and attack a soldier before it was brought down. The soldier had been bitten. Tommy had watched from their tent as four men dragged him off into the woods. He had never been seen again.

Joel shifted in his sleep. The younger man sighed and reached over to shake his brother's shoulder.

"I said wake up." He shook him harshly, losing patience.

"Sarah!" Joel woke the same way as Tommy. His whole body shuddered from the effects of a bad dream. Tommy gave him a few seconds to pull himself together.

"We're on scout duty. We need to get going."

"You go on ahead."

"Joel, if you don't go, you won't get rations tonight." Tommy moaned. Joel never stuck to the work schedule and they were always losing out on extra potatoes or coffee.

"Go, Tommy."

"You haven't eaten for two days and even then you never finished your meal. You can't keep going on like this. Everyone has to pull their weight and work for their rations. We might get toothpaste if we both put in a shift."

"Boy, you keep going on at me like that and I am going to knock you on your ass."

Tommy rolled his eyes, but shrugged on his shirt, quietly. Joel sighed and lay back down on the bed; arms folded over his chest and closed his eyes once again.

"See you tonight. I am going to catch me some rabbit."

"Good luck with that. You couldn't catch a cold as I remember."

"If I did catch one would you eat it?"

Joel cracked open an eye and stared hard at his brother. Tommy raised his hands in mock surrender and turned to exit their tent.

As Tommy walked out of the area cordoned off for sleeping, he shielded his eyes from the sun. Normally a sunny, warm day like this would mean he could work on his bike outside or go hiking with his family – basically things that used to make him happy. But with no breeze or heavy rain to deafen the sounds of the hunting group traipsing through the wood, they would be lucky to catch anything.

"I hear you, but I can't do anything about it." Tommy mumbled to his empty, rumbling stomach. Unfortunately they were sandwiched between two infected towns. Towns that were full of supermarkets. The thought of all the food going to waste as the people starved was enough to make some people reckless. A small group had ventured back into Joel and Tommy's town to raid shops and homes for food and other items needed to survive. Unfortunately none of them had returned, so no one knew if they had been successful or not.

The soldiers kept telling them they needed more time to come up with a plan and they were still waiting on new orders. They had limited ammunition and no one knew what towns, cities or states were infected. Was it just contained in the USA? There was talk of some people sailing to South America, or a lucky few had made it to Europe. Were they safe?

"But I'm hungry!" Tommy walked past one of the many white tents in the area and heard a child sobbing inside.

"Jesus…." Tommy whispered and hurried to catch up with the group scheduled for scouting duties. He couldn't stand listening to the children crying.

He met up with a group standing just outside the border of section C. There were seven men and women including him and two soldiers. As he approached, a young woman with blonde hair smiled weakly at him.

"Tommy?" The soldier said, holding a clipboard.

"That's me."

"And your brother?"

"Uh, he's not feeling too well. He'll make up the shift tomorrow." Tommy scratched his head embarrassed as the group stared at him.

"Okay. Let's go, kids." The two soldiers took point and marched towards the woods. Tommy fell into line. Today was going to be a long day. It would be an even longer night if they didn't find something.

Two hours into the trip and people were beginning to get anxious. They hadn't come across anything that would serve as food and some people were sitting on a fallen log, wiping the sweat from their foreheads.

"Over here!" The blonde girl had stumbled across bushes covered with berries. Some people looked up at her voice, but known walked over.

"We can eat these, right?" The girl asked, pointing to the fruit.

Tommy looked around not realising she was talking to him. She raised her eyebrows in question.

"Uh….."

The girl shook her head and laughed.

"Some scouting party we have here." She pointed over at the group of people resting. "Dan was a janitor at my cousin's school. Rachel groomed my dog. I worked in an office before….." She trailed off, wrapping her arms around her and looked to the ground sadly. Tommy shifted his feet awkwardly, not sure what to say. His gaze found the fruit in front of him.

"I guess there is only one way to find out about the berries." He grinned at her, when she looked back up to his face and pulled one off the hedge and popped it into his mouth. He swallowed and counted to ten. The girl's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Well, I ain't foaming at the mouth, so that must be a good thing!"

"That was so stupid!" The girl reprimanded. "Aren't there like really poisonous ones?"

"That was stupid." Tommy whirled around and came face to face with a soldier. "Lucky for you, son, those ones are harmless." The soldier shoved a basket into his chest.

"Make yourself useful and fill it."

"Sir, yes sir." Tommy muttered and mock saluted as the man retreated back to the group that had begun to collect firewood.

The girl giggled.

"You know there were easier ways to impress me."

"Impress you? I was just starving." Tommy joked.

She stuck her tongue out and began tearing off the berries and putting them in the basket.

"I'm Tommy."

"I know. You were late and the soldier was threatening to let you starve."

"What can I say? My bed was too comfy."

Both of them knew the cots used for sleeping were either brick hard or broken. She chuckled and held out her hand.

"Amelia."

"That's a pretty name." Tommy complimented as he shook her hand. It was cool and soft and Tommy suddenly didn't want to let go. He did though and raked a hand through his hair nervously.

"Flattery won't get you any more berries."

Tommy smirked and shoved a small handful into his mouth. The girl playfully punched his shoulder.

"Hoy! Those are for the rest of the group!"

"It didn't seem to bother you when I was being a guinea pig."

"Well, now I know I might get a little desert after dinner, I may have to fight you for them."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, really!"

"You going to set your poodle on me?"

The girl looked at him in confusion.

"I just assumed if you had a personal groomer for your mutt, it would be one of those fancy dogs."

Amelia laughed again and shook her head,

"You not what assuming does?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"She was a German shepherd actually. Lady."

"Was?"

"She made it to the other side of the tolls, but the day after she turned on me. I think it was the stress. She attacked me and then ran away. I signed up for the scouting party to see if I could try look for her."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. She's a tough cookie. If anyone can survive in the wild, it would be Lady."

"I'm sure she is chasing squirrels and rolling around in muddy puddles as we speak."

The girl nodded and wiped a stray tear away from her face.

"You're right."

She cleared her throat, tucked her hair behind her ears and started picking at the berries once again.

"I had a dog too. I called him Charlie. He was a spaniel."

"Oh! I love spaniels!"

"Ow! You two lovebirds. More working, less chatting. Five minutes and we're moving out!" The soldier indicated with his thumb they were moving into deeper woodland.

Tommy flipped the guy off, but filled the basket anyway. It took a couple of minutes to clear the fruit, which glistened temptingly in colours of red and purple.

Amelia plucked the basket from his grasp and began to follow the rest of the group.

"Thanks, Tommy." She said over her shoulder.

"What for?"

She twirled around to face him, basket swinging in front. "For making me laugh and listening to my problems and helping me forget this god awful place for a moment."

"Sure thing." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "We all look out for each other now."

"Hey bro! You in here?" Tommy stuck his head in the tent. It was nearly five o'clock before Tommy returned back to camp. Joel was there, but apparently hadn't heard him. He was still in bed. Eyes open, but unseeing.

Tommy approached slowly.

"Joel?" He whispered tentatively.

"Is this real?"

Tommy licked his lips and sat on the bed that his brother lay on. They went through this nearly every day. Joel was struggling with the loss of Sarah, struggling to come to grips with reality.

"Yeah, Joel. This is real."

"I can't keep doing this. It hurts so much."

"I know. You just need to take things a day at a time. We survived getting out of town. We can survive here."

"I don't want to survive Tommy! I want her back!" Joel growled.

"She ain't coming back, Joel. She ain't ever coming back."

Joel closed his eyes. The silence was heavy in the tent.

"We caught some pigeons. The women are going to try make them into pies. That would be good, right?" Tommy asked quietly, after a time.

Joel didn't say anything. He just kept his eyes closed and wished Tommy would leave him alone.

"You'll come to dinner tonight, won't you?"

"Leave it alone."

Suddenly Tommy grasped both his shoulders and was leaning over him, his face intense and close to his.

"Please Joel. You're gonna' die at this rate! You look pale and you've barely left this bed. If something happens and we need to leave, you're not going to make it. You'll be as weak as a kitten."

Joel batted at his arms and shoved Tommy off of him.

"I've already told you to drop it."

Tommy stood up, face red with frustration.

"Why are you doing this?" He demanded.

Joel's temper snapped and he hauled himself up from the bed, grabbing at Tommy's shirt. He pulled him close.

"I don't want to keep living, you hear me?! I don't care whether I waste away here or not. I died that day that bastard shot my…." He broke off with a sob, dropped his hands and sat back on the bed. He was trembling with adrenaline.

Tommy bit down on the emotion that was threatening to bubble to the surface. He watched his older brother for a moment and then rubbed his hands down his face. He walked to the entrance of the tent, but stopped before going outside.

"You and Sarah are the only family I have. If you go….." He turned to Joel, tears brimming in his eyes. "I'll be alone." He stalked out, before that thought overwhelmed him.

Joel's eyes were also filled with tears and he dropped his head in one hand with a sigh when his younger brother left. It was just too much. Everything was too much.