As the sun rose Joel was the first to wake with Sarah's head still on his lap he gently got up and put her head down and then moved over towards Tommy giving him a nudge.
"What time is it" Tommy yawned
"About time you got up" said Joel
"Is that so" replied Tommy
"Come on you gotta come help me make some something to eat" Joel responded
Joel and Tommy moved into the adjacent room and had a look at what they had scrounged up during the previous day a few eggs and a tin of bacon after a few minutes of cooking the food Sarah walked in.
"That smells good" Sarah said licking her lips
"Good morning to you to sleepy head" replied Joel
Sarah seemed to have pushed past or at least found a way to deal with the things she had seen as her mood seemed much more uplifted today.
"Okay now tuck in" Joel said as he handed out plates with the food on
All three devoured the food as they hadn't eaten properly for days, once they had finished and settled down for a few moments Sarah noticed something in the garden and went to get it.
"Sarah be careful now" Joel said
"Look a ball" Sarah replied as she picked up a Soccer ball (Football)
"I think we can spare a few minutes for a game what do ya say Joel" said Tommy
"Ah hell why not" Joel replied
The group began to kick the ball around Sarah outplaying both Joel and Tommy being more agile and even showing them up for laughs, this brought a smile to both Joel and Tommy's faces as this brought back a sense of normality and it showed Joel that his little girl was still all there and her leg had fully healed. After a while they decided to call it quits and move towards the town they saw from the previous day. The walk was a good trek with both Joel and Sarah trading remarks back and forth almost making what happened just a few weeks ago seem like a distant memory. Upon arriving into the town they found it to be much like the village.
"Dam it we missed them again" Tommy exclaimed
"What does that sign say" replied Joel
Upon closer inspection it revealed this town was evacuated just days earlier to be moved to a permanent quarantine zone.
"Just how bad is our luck" Tommy exclaimed
"What are we gonna do now daddy" asked Sarah
"Let me think... ah we can look around for a working car there must be one then we can get to one of these zones" Joel suggested
"Beats anything I can think of, we might as well look around" replied Tommy
The town was in better shape with a higher military presence the shops were more intact but still much of the contents were gone most likely taken as supplies. Looking through the shops they found a clothes store almost perfectly intact except for a few broken windows here and there looking inside they found some fresh clothes and some new shoes that fitted Sarah to which she seemed delighted.
"Right now let's find some travelling gear" said Joel
"Sounds good to me" replied Tommy
Looking through a couple other stores the group found some backpacks that were in better condition to the one they had picked up earlier and donned these new backpacks one each which they then filled with a refillable water bottle some extra clothes and anything else of use they could find, Joel also picked up a couple knives that could be of use he handed one to Tommy and then turned to Sarah.
"Sarah... I want you to... hold on to this okay" Joel said as he handed a switchblade over to Sarah
"What going on dad" Sarah asked
"Just, just hold on to it, it's to defend yourself with okay" Joel said
Sarah nodded and pocketed the knife feeling a little better that she could now protect herself.
Everything seemed to be going fine until a voice could be heard outside
"Did you hear the Bosses brother has been gunned down" said the first man
"Yeah the way I heard it was some little girl gunned him down" said the second man
"Don't go mentioning that to him or he'll probably kill both of us" replied the first man
"Keep it moving the boss wants these weapons loaded now" a third voice bellowed
"Remind me again why we're working for this guy and not hiding in some quarantine zone" the first man grumbled
"You trust the government to keep us safe no we do things our way once we control the guns in this area we will decide what happens not them" the second man said
The bandits began to move away down the street towards a pickup and began to drive away leaving Joel Tommy and Sarah in peace.
"They couldn't be from the same group we encountered in the woods could they be" asked Joel
"It looks like it they said we killed their bosses brother" Tommy replied
In Joel's min he experienced a flash back to the woods where Sarah had shot a man, could this have been the bandits leader's brother, this was not what Joel wanted to be thinking about those bandits would be looking for them, Joel looked over to see Sarah looking through a couple music CD's.
"What are you doing" asked Joel
"Just looking through this music" replied Sarah
"Well we better get moving" said Joel
"Alright give me a minute" replied Sarah
Sarah put a couple disks into her backpack whilst Joel wasn't looking, Tommy seeing this just smirked.
"Come on lets go then" said Joel
The group began walking down the street and as they came up to a dark alleyway they were jumped by the guys from earlier
"Woo looks like we got ourselves some live ones" one bandit cried out
Tommy managed to shoot one of the three before the gun was kicked from his grasp.
"You're gonna pay for that" the other bandit shouted
"Stay back Sarah" shouted Joel
As Joel and Tommy wrestled with there would be assailants, Sarah looked on in horror as there was almost nothing she could do as she froze up and then after a moment broke through reached into her pocket drew her knife and lunged forward stabbing the man attacking Joel in the shoulder the man yelped in pain managing to push Sarah over, the man still physically imposing managed to keep Joel pinned to the floor as he reached for his gun, Sarah crawled back against the wall noticing an empty glass bottle she picked it up and threw it at the bandit drawing his gun shattering against his head causing the bandit to miss his shot this gave Joel an opening where he wrestled the gun off the bandit and shot him with his own gun just as Joel turned around he saw that Tommy had managed to dispatch his assailant with the knife he gave him earlier.
"Whoa just a couple more moments there and they might have got me" said Tommy
"Oh thank god you're okay" Joel said as he hugged Sarah.
Upon regaining his composure Joel and Tommy decided to search the Truck the bandits had left finding a couple 9mm handguns which Joel and Tommy almost immediately adopted and some other assorted items such as more tinned food which would also prove to be useful
Tommy went round to the other side of the truck to see what else the bandits had left and in that instant a screech rang out and an infected (runner) knocked Joel to the floor and began flailing around trying to bite him Joel tried fighting him off but its jaws were getting closer to his throat, then bang! A shot rang out hitting the infected right in the side of the head Joel got up looked over and Tommy running from around the car.
"Oh shit you okay Joel" asked Tommy
"Yeah just peachy" replied Joel
"At least we know the guns work" Tommy remarked
Then the air became filled with more screeches from many different directions.
"Oh shit we gotta go" shouted Tommy
"Sarah get in" yelled Joel
As soon as the doors were closed the infected appeared
"God dam it Tommy drive through them" shouted Joel
"Here we go hold on" replied Tommy
The car ripped through the crowd of infected and off into the distance
"Do you know where this quarantine zone is" asked Tommy
"Right now just focus on getting us as far away from this place as possible" replied Joel
Tommy drove until the screams of the infected could no longer be heard, Joel turned to Sarah
"You okay baby girl" asked Joel
"I'm fine" Sarah replied
"Look over there in the distance" Tommy exclaimed
"It looks like the city" said Joel
"Weren't the infected in the city" asked Sarah
"Yeah but only in the ones that weren't quarantined early enough, I bet if that's where the military is" replied Joel
With a new destination in mind and being not too far away the group head off by truck hoping to arrive soon just to be able to get some normality back to their lives.