The car was on its side with its side windows shattered and the back and front windshield cracked. The front windshield had an Infected's head smashed through it.

Erin and Diana woke up and slowly lifted their heads to look around. Suddenly, a loud female scream emerged, scaring Tom out of his unconsciousness. The boys in the back groaned in pain as they dangled in their seats. They were lucky that they had their seatbelts on. The screaming didn't stop, and when Tom looked up to see where it was coming from, he noticed that his wife was backed up into the seat. He grabbed hold of the handle above the door and kicked the Infected's head, trying to push it out, but he couldn't. Erin eventually got up and frantically made her way to the front, where she stuck a piece of sharp glass in its head and pushed it out of the windshield in a panic.

Tom's two daughters started to cry from the back seat, as one was stuck dangling in her seat and the other smashed against the broken glass with cuts on her face. Tom and Mari looked around to make sure that everyone was fine, and so far, everyone seemed to be awake and aware of where they were.

"Is everyone okay?" Tom asked, getting groans and head nods in response. "Okay. Let's try getting out of this car, and then we can make sure no one is seriously injured, okay?"

Again, everyone groaned in response while some tried getting the seat belts off and others tried to get up on their feet. The boys managed to get out of their seat belts, causing Ben and Chad to fall on top of Braden, which made him moan in pain. Tom made sure that he was careful in not hurting his wife or himself while taking his seatbelt off before helping his wife out of hers.

"Sweetheart, get in the back or cover yourself," Tom said calmly to his wife. In response, she nodded and covered her neck with her hands and crouched down.

Tom grabbed the handle again and started kicking at the driver's window until it shattered to pieces. He hopped onto the side of the car and looked over everything, making sure that nobody, or nothing, was out there. He called out for his wife and helped her out too before calling out to the others and telling them that it was clear.

"Daddy, we're stuck!" The girls whimpered and huffed as they struggled to get their seatbelts off.

Erin and Diana got up and cut the girl's' seat belts off, making sure to catch one of them so that they wouldn't fall on top of the other and hurt themselves. Erin walked to the front of the car and started kicking at the windshield until the middle section smashed to pieces. Diana eventually helped and took one side of the windshield while Erin took the other side, making sure to take down all of the glass off the windshield so that no one would get cut. Erin signaled for the girls to get out of the car with caution before Diana followed them out. The boys were still trying to bounce back from the fall that they had took on each other. Ben got up first, crawling over the seats to get out of the car before he turned and helped Chad, who was helping Braden. When all of them were out of the van, they took in one another's injured and tired expressions.

It was midnight and the moon was high in the sky dancing alongside a bunch of shining stars. The only sound that was hearable was the crickets that seemed to be everywhere. The tall trees were a heavy brown bark with dark green leaves that sat on top of the tree top almost looking like the tree was wearing a hat. The atmosphere was still but to some of the people it was sort of creepy like.

"What do we do now?" Braden asked, raising his arms up to his head.

"Well, for one, we're staying together, just letting you all know," Tom announced. "We don't split off for anything."

"Daddy?" Vanessa cried softly as she lifted her head to reveal her cuts and pieces of shattered glass on her face. "Daddy?"

"Oh my god, baby," Tom said, crouching down to her height. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. We'll just clean you up, okay?"

Vanessa nodded while crying.

"Don't touch it," Tom said. "We have to find a hospital or some medicine to help her."

Everyone was looking at the little girl to see if they could find a way to clean her up, except for Chad, who was ripping his red, white, and blue flannel shirt. He wrapped it around his hand to use it as a glove, and bent down to Vanessa, holding her face still while picking every little glass piece that he could out of her face.

"We can't just leave the glass in. We have to take it out now," Chad explained, carefully trying not to hurt Vanessa. "We don't know what will happen down the road." He tried to get a bigger piece out from near her temple, causing her to move back and let out a whimper.

"Hold still, I need to get this big glass piece out," he ordered softly. "This one really needs to come out now."

Tom pushed Vanessa towards Chad and stood right next to her so that she wouldn't back away or move. After a few pulls trying to get the piece out, it finally worked. Once he tossed that part away, he quickly put pressure on where the piece was, trying to stop the bleeding from continuing.

"Here, keep this on it, okay?" Chad told her. "It will make sure the bleeding will stop."

Vanessa nodded her head, keeping the shirt on her face. "Thanks," she said softly.

"Okay, now let's go." Chad stood straight up. "Ready?"

Everyone nodded.

"Stay together, all of you," Tom said. "We need to find medicine and bandages."

They started walking along the street, keeping their eyes peeled. For a few miles, they didn't come across anything: no homes, no stores, no people, nothing. That was until they came across a shopping village twenty minutes away from the car accident. The village wasn't as big as they had expected, but it would have to do for now. The group kept their weapons up in case they needed to swing, and walked closely together, looking around for anything or anyone. They stopped at the corner and peeked out of the parking lot.

Tom looked back at the group. "You guys stay here," he told them. "I'll go see if there are any stores with things we need."

"No, I'll go," Chad said, taking his backpack off of him. "You have your kids to protect. I'm smaller and faster. If I get into any trouble, I could outrun them."

Tom glared at him for a second before shaking his head. "No, I'm older."

"You have your kids. I'm going," Chad repeated, not showing any signs of backing down. "I'll let you know what I see down there. If I get into any trouble, I could easily lose them. Keep an eye out here. Your kids wouldn't want you going, anyway."

"Okay, kid," Tom finally agreed. "Be careful."

Chad nodded before taking a look out and starting to walk when he didn't see any signs of the Infected. He kept quiet and low as he ran down the parking area, hiding behind cars every once in awhile as he made sure that the Infected didn't sneak up on him. He ran up to the first store and looked inside the window to find nothing inside. He went to the next one, only to see a barber shop inside and one Infected walking around. As the Infected turned around, Chad ducked behind the only piece of wall on the bottom; eventually, he crawled to the next store to find clothing in it, but there was still no sign of the Infected.

Chad opened the door slightly and listened for any shuffling going on inside of the store. When he didn't hear anything, he decided to whistle lightly so that only people in that store would hear. He didn't hear anything, so he did it a little louder, and to be on the safe side, he hid behind a pillar so that he wouldn't be in the way when one of the infected in the clothing store came running out of the door.

"Do we need clothes?" Chad asked himself uncertainly.

Once that was cleared up, he moved on to the next stores. One happened to be a shoe store, but ended up being locked. The other store just so happened to be a small gym. He knocked on the window before going in, and this time, a few Infected came bursting out of the door, growling. Chad slowly scattered away at a good distance before standing up and getting ready for them to come at him. Once the Infected saw him, they started to go in his direction. Chad took a step, swinging at the first Infected that was coming at him.

While he was taking care of that first infected the second took his chance and pounced on Chad. He had his back pressed against the concrete floor while the infected male was straddling Chad thrashing his hands, pounding on Chad's chest and making a screeching yet hissing sound. The third infected did not waste any time waiting for the second one to be killed; instead, he made his way towards Chad wrestling with his fellow infected. Chad reach for his crowbar that was to his right and when his fingers wrapped around the bar, he swung his arm upwards hooking the top of the crowbar into the eye socket of the dead while he held the second infected face away from him with his forearm.

The infected fell quickly to the floor face first making the crowbar to go deeper into the skull of the infected. Chad couldn't get the crowbar out if he wanted it to so he took hold of infected, who was still on top of him, shoulder, pushed him to the side and twisting his own body in the process. He used his leg to push the undead into the pillar moving it a little bit further away from him causing the dead to hit his head. Chad got to his feet as quickly as he can before flipping the infected with his crowbar in its head and tried pulling his crowbar out. He looked back at the infected picking itself up from the floor and Chad immediately pulls even harder on the crowbar just to get it out.

After a few twists and pulls the crowbar comes loose and out of the skull, sending Chad stumbling back a few steps. Eventually, the last Infected dropped to the floor right beside Chad's feet along with the crowbar causing the sound of metal to concrete echoed through the hall. He then walked into the gym with caution not paying any attention to the only weapon he had to protect himself with. Even though he didn't hear anything and had just killed three Infected, he still felt uneasy about being in the gym.

"First Aid Kit, where are you?" He questioned himself in a whisper. "You have to be somewhere." He searched the room until he found one. "Ah-ha!" He semi-yelled. "There you are, baby."

He took hold of all of the First Aid Kits left on the shelf and stuffed them into his backpack before heading out and going back to the others. On his way back he had to go past the barber shop just to be able to get back to the other eight people waiting for him to come back. As he walked past the barber shop zipping up his backpack and lifting his backpack more higher on his shoulder, something from the corner of his eye catches his attention and he comes to an abrupt stop. His eyes furrow just a bit as he backed up, turned his head to his left and took a look inside the shop where nothing was in there except anything a barbershop needed in order to be a barbershop.

Chad twisted his body until he was fully standing facing the large window looking inside for anything that gave a sign the infected was still in there wondering around somewhere. Chad moved his eye in every possible direction his eyes could go in and still nothing. He was getting more worried about the infected when he knocked on the glass multiple times and after a minute he heard a hissing noise but it didn't come from the inside.

Chad's body stiffened, "Oh shit." He cursed under his breath as his head dropped down and he took a breath. He looked back up to the glass where he could spot what looked like half of a figure with his shoulders rounded and his back lifted up and fell matching the figures heavy breathing. It let out a screech before trying to rush Chad. Chad quickly jumps to the side and makes a run for it down the hall and maneuvering his way around the cars and light poles in the parking area.

When Tom was about to take a peek out to see if he could see Chad, he heard footsteps.

"Swing! Swing! Swing!" Chad yelled as he slid past Tom and the group.

Tom didn't hesitate as he took a swing and hit an Infected right in the head, causing it to fall backwards to the floor. Chad got up, breathing heavily, when Erin ran to him to see if anything was wrong.

"Thanks," Chad said, panting while leaning his arms on his knees.

"Are you okay?" Erin asked while rubbing his back.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Were you running all that time?" Tom asked.

"No." Chad shook his head. "When I was walking back, I didn't notice that the one in the barber shop had gotten out."

"You didn't kill it?" Erin questioned him.

"It was trapped in the barber shop. I didn't know it would have escaped," he said in defense. "Any way, I found these." He opened his backpack to reveal the First aid-kits in his bag. "Found them in a gym at the last store."

"Great, thanks," Tom said, grabbing one and instantly putting some bandages on his daughter's temple.

"Other than that, all there was was a clothing store," Chad informed. "Not sure if we need any clothes."

"We should get new clothes, Tom," Mari told Tom. "Just for the kids. I don't want them in these clothes with this gunk all over them."

Tom nodded. "Okay, let's go."

The group started to search the abandoned clothing store for anything that they might have come in handy while on their way to the safe zone. Mari came out with both girls wearing a new outfit.

They all looked around seeing nothing

She kneeled down, fixing their shirts a little bit before standing up and beginning to look around like the rest of the group was.

Tom let out a sigh, along with Erin and Ben. "I can't find anything in here."

"Nothing over here, either," Erin said, kicking a box to the side.

"Okay, we've already got the kids' clothes. Now let's go before who knows what drags us back in here," Tom said, eyeing the store warily.

Everyone started to make their way towards the entrance and went back to the road that they had been on before. Tom and Braden looked down the road to make sure that it was clear before going while Chad and the little girls looked the other way.

M.J squinted her eyes, noticing a few figures walking in their direction. "Mommy, there's people," she called out, pointing to where she was looking.

Everyone turned around and looked in her direction to see exactly where she was looking.

Tom walked up behind her and took hold of her shoulder. "Sweetie, we have to go. Those aren't people." He pushed her in the other direction. "Come on. Let's go before they know we're here."

The group slowly walked ahead of them as they stole glances at the figures stumbling towards them. They then began to pick up the pace by jogging, too nervous to look back. A few miles down, the group stopped under a freeway to take a break from running. Everyone except Chad was looking up at the huge concrete piece hung above them, giving them shade.

Chad was too busy looking at the houses and the path in front of them. He watched the view, scanning everything that he saw. Eventually, something in the distance caught his attention, making him do a double take. He squinted his eyes a little and then took a few steps closer to get a better chance to see it. Erin took notice and looked where he was looking.

"What is it, bro?" Erin asked.

"There's a sign right there," Chad spoke, causing Ben to look at him and then to where Erin and Chad was looking. "That looks familiar. The whole scene around it, too. I've been there before."

"Are you sure?" Erin raised her eyebrows hesitantly.

His eyes widened when he realized why he recognised it. "I know where we are." He pointed at where he was looking before crossing over to a street. "We're close." He started to walk towards the street.

"Chad, where are you going?" Ben frowned.

"I'm going to go find her," Chad replied.

"Chad, we don't even know if she's still alive," Ben responded, trying to reason with him.

"There's only one way to find out." He picked up his pace and started to run before eventually disappearing behind a building. "Chad!"

Erin started to run after, and soon, the others headed in the same direction. Chad was ahead of them all as they continued running. Eventually, they were surrounded by walls with houses and bushes behind them, but Chad wasn't in sight. They looked around and started to breathe heavily as they searched for any sign of him. They walked closer to the nearest street, but was stopped by a hand in the bushes.

"Don't," they said as quietly as possible.

Soon, Chad emerged from behind the bush he had used for protection if anything or anyone came along while he was looking around the big brick wall and walked off . Everyone watched and started to follow him again.

"Where are you going?" Ben asked.

"I thought we were going to look for her," Erin said.

"We can't get through," Chad turned and told them.

"Well, why not?" Erin asked.

"The streets around the house are full of those things," Chad informed them.

They turned around and poked their heads past the wall only to see a bunch of Infected walking and crawling around. Their eyes widened at the sight, and they slowly walked backwards to where Chad was standing. Erin let out a sigh as she stopped in front of her younger brother, who was running his fingers through his hair.

"Well we can always think of a plan." Erin insisted with a shrug, just then she heard a groaning, "But let's go somewhere safe and think of one because I want to be as far away from those things as far as possible." Erin nervously laughed but stopped and walked past the group away from the crowd of infected.

*Edited