AUSTIN, TEXAS
september 26, 2003

THE MORNING SUN SHONE BRIGHTLY THROUGH REESE MILLERS LIGHT GREEN CURTAINS. The young girl's eyes fluttered open as she looked to her alarm clock to see it was around 7 am. The girl yawned, pulling the covers off her body. Reese placed her feet into a fuzzy pair of slippers with small cat ears on the top. She then bounced over to her older sister's bedroom across the hall to wake her up. "Sarah! Wake up." The girl gently shook her sister as the curly haired girl groaned, her eyes squinting at the light that flooded in.

"I'm awake Ree." The curly haired girl responded. The younger sister grinned, "Well hurry up, I wanna help make breakfast before Dad gets up." She said, starting to walk back into the hallway. "Get dressed first!" Sarah called out to her sister, as she pulled the covers off of her. Reese simply ignored, rushing down the stairs to start making breakfast. Sarah stood up, rushing over to pound on their fathers door to wake him up, his alarm doing nothing.

"What did I tell you?" Sarah spoke, teasing but all feeling a bit annoyed that Reese ignored her. The younger girl, simply sent her a cheesy grin. Sarah scoffed, smiling at her sister. "You want eggs, Ree?"

"Scrambled, please!" Reese called back, grabbing her notebook from the kitchen counter, scuffling her cat slippers along the tile floor. She always thought it made a weird sound she didn't like. Reese sat down at her spot at the table, starting to write out a cheesy birthday note for her father.

Avril Lavigne played on the radio as Sarah started making the eggs. Heavy footsteps went down the stairs, as Joel entered the kitchen. "Where's the pancake mix?" Sarah questioned, looking through the cabinets, hoping they still had some leftover. "Oh, was I— Yeah, I was. Sorry." Joel thought out loud, going straight over to the coffee machine.

"I was going to make you birthday pancakes." Sarah replied, pouring a glass of juice for both her father—which she was going to steal after he only had one sip—and one for her sister. "You know, I don't really like pancakes." The man complained, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Reese noticed how much he liked coffee, she thinks he could drink it with every meal if Sarah didn't push him to be healthier. She never understood its appeal.

"I know you don't like them. It's for our benefit." Sarah answered plainly, as Reese got up from her seat grabbing the orange juice from the counter. Joel looked at his daughter as she took a sip, "Vitamin C, Dad." Reese said blankly, pushing the other glass closer to him. He glanced between the juice and his daughter, before taking a sip.

Reese colored in a small stick figure drawing of Joel wearing a hard hat, considering he worked in construction, Reese thought it was fitting for him. Reese soon finished her drawing for his card as Sarah finished cooking the eggs. "How old are you again?" Sarah questioned as they all took sporadic bites.

"Thirty-six." The man answered, Sarah already having a quip to say back. "Gonna have to wear diapers soon."

"Who says I don't already?" Joel snapped back, sending his daughter a look.

"Your shopping list." Reese replied, taking his statement literally. The father and daughter both stared at the younger girl, who barely even spared a glance up to them, focusing on her breakfast.

"Got me there." He remarked, before pulling something out of his teeth. "Shell."

"Calcium." Sarah answered, giving him a wide grin, food almost spilling out of her mouth.

"Lovely." Joel turns as he hears the garage door opening, "Is there enough for Uncle Tommy?"

"He doesn't need food." Reese remarked as she played with the food on her plate.

"Ay! You're still alive, you old fucker." Tommy jokes, giving his brother a pat on the back.

"Aw, he loves you." Sarah says, turning to her father.

"He's dependent on me. Not the same." Joel states, as Tommy began to raid their fridge.

"I thought we was having pancakes?"

Joel shrugged his shoulders, "We'll pick you up something in the road. Concrete guys gonna be there?"

"Yeah, they said maybe." Tommy answered. Reese began to tune out the brothers conversation about the work day. She moved her plate over to the side, grabbing a crayon and continued to finish her picture. She heard the important information that they would be home at nine that night.

Joel then turned his attention to the radio broadcast as it talked about disturbances in Jakarta. "Jakarta. Where is that, Middle East?" The man questioned, taking a sip from his coffee mug.

"Doesn't ring a bell. It's definitely a country. Or maybe part of Asia?" Tommy replied not knowing the answer himself.

"Jakarta isn't a country. Being a part of Asia isn't mutually exclusive with being a country." Sarah stated, factually.

"It's the capital of Indonesia." Reese said quietly, even though the other people in the room heard her.

Joke smirked towards his daughter as she didn't spare a glance up from the paper. "Shit. Hope for us yet." Tommy remarked from the kitchen.

"All right. Finish up quick, we'll drop you guys off." Joel announced, as he checked the time. He slapped his wrist where a watch would usually be, noticing its absence.

"I'm still eating my eggshells." Sarah protested, as Joel walked into the kitchen.

"You got seven minutes."

"Your t-shirt's inside out."

Joel glanced down, his shoulders dropping as he realized his oldest daughter was right. "Shit."

"He's losing it." Tommy smiled, as his brother went back upstairs to fix his shirt.

Reese slipped on her chair, walking into the kitchen, stopping in front of the older man. "Uncle Tommy? Is this good enough for Dad's birthday?" Reese questioned holding the drawing she made out to him. It pictured her, Sarah, Joel, and Tommy who both wore hard hats.

Tommy smiled, grabbing the piece of paper from his niece. "It's perfect, baby. I'm sure he'll love it."

The young girl grinned, "Yay!"

"Now, go get dressed. Don't forget to brush your teeth." Tommy called out as Reese groaned. "Oh, we're doing this now." He remarked, before snatching her up into his arms and carrying her all the way upstairs, as she yelped and kicked to try and escape him. "You did this to yourself!"

Reese's day was boring, she didn't learn anything new that she was hoping she would. She didn't see Sarah at all like she normally would, she had mentioned something about getting their father's watch fixed along with visiting Mrs. Adler next door.

After Reese got home from school, she found the house empty. The girl simply decided to do what she always did, draw or write. Her teacher, Ms. Weston said that her writing skills were getting better over the past few weeks, that was until she suddenly disappeared from the class. One day she was there, the next gone. The principal said she suddenly became sick and was under investigation in the hospital. Reese hoped she would be better soon.

Reese grabbed her bucket of drawing supplies and moved to sit in front of the TV in the living room. She grabbed the remote, flipping through the channels until something caught her eye.

A few hours passed until Sarah arrived back home to find her sister laying on the carpeted floor, fast asleep as old rerun cartoons played on the television. She set her bag down before carefully picking up, and carrying her sister upstairs to her green themed bedroom.

The next time Reese awoke the sun had set to pitch black outside. She rubbed her eyes, seeing faint lights peaking through the window. Police sirens wailed outside, along with multiple planes flying overhead. Even though she didn't know what was going on, the young girl had a feeling of dread, slowly building up until it would finally come to a head. "Sarah? Dad?" The girl called out, hoping to get a response.

She quickly got up, realizing she still had on her shoes and clothes from hours earlier. Reese turned to her bed, quickly grabbing the small dog stuffed animal. The raven haired girl walked down the hall over to her sister's bedroom, clutching the dog plush in her arms, "Sarah?" Her head peeked through the door, seeing her sister was nowhere to be found. Reese then turned around entering her fathers room. "Where are you guys?" She muttered to herself as she looked around the room.

She then opened the top drawer of her dad's dresser, the girl noticed the small knife that sat there. Her brows furrowed, she's never seen this before. Reese slowly opened the to see the sharp blade, she ran her finger over the blade seeming to get lost in the blade. Loud voices was heard from outside causing her to flinch, the knife digging into her finger.

The girl winced as dropped the knife, holding her finger that was now stinging as blood slowly spewed out. Reese quickly grabbed a cloth, pressing it down hard on the cut.

"Reese!" The girl turned, hearing her father's voice coming from outside. She picked up the knife tucking it in her pocket. She ran down the stairs going outside to see her family outside around Tommy's truck. "Dad?"

Joel rushed over to his daughter, "Hey, baby girl. It's okay." Reese's eyes watered, as her heart rate picked up.

"Joel, we gotta go." Tommy stated.

"Okay, get in the truck." Joel demanded, Reese ran over to the vehicle, quickly hopping in.

Tommy drove the car around, Reese looked up from her still bleeding finger. She saw what looks to be the Adlers wandering around in the middle of the street. "What's wrong with them?" She questioned, the two adults didn't give her a response at first. "Daddy?"

"We don't know." Joel answered his daughter.

"They're saying it's a virus. Some kind of parasite." Tommy stated, as Sarah wrapped an arm around her younger sister.

"Is it from terrorists?" Sarah questioned.

"We don't know."

"Are we sick?" Reese asked, her voice quiet and shaky.

"No, of course not." Joel replied as Tommy groaned.

"No cellphone, no radio. Minute ago, the newsman wouldn't shut up."

"How do you know?"

"What?"

"How do you know we're not sick?" Sarah asked, as Joel turned back to face his daughters.

"They're saying it's mostly people in the city. That's why they got the highway blocked off." Tommy spoke, "My God. It's Jimmy's place." They all looked over to see a large farmhouse up in flames.

Reese looked down as they continued to drive wherever the hell they were going. Reese closed her eyes hoping and praying that this was all a bad dream to wake up in the morning from. She hung onto the dog plush like it was going to slip away from her at any moment. It seemed to help her try and calm her racing thoughts. This can't be real. It can't be real.

The next thing she knew, the truck was flipped over, alarms blared out in the distance. Screams from around them entered and exited. Reese felt a sharp pain in her head, as her ears quietly rang. Her eyes opened to see Tommy standing over her, holding her head close as he picked her up in his arms. "We gotta get off the street!" He yelled, before a car crashed into the truck they were just in a minute ago.

"Tommy? Tommy!" Joel exclaimed from the other side of the rubble, separating the two brothers. Tommy peeked through a small gap between the cars, Reese shut her eyes due the smoke the fire created. "Head to the river! I'll find a way. I got her. Get Sarah out of here, Joel! Go!"

Tommy put the small girl down, crouching down to her level. "Can you run?" The girl looked around before nodding, "I need you to stay next to me the entire time. Got it?" Reese hummed in response, as Tommy stood up, the girl grabbing tight onto his shirt.

The two ran down the street, before cutting through a tight alleyway. Reese ran after Tommy, but ended up dropping the stuffed animal on the ground. She quickly stopped in her tracks, turning around to pick up the toy. Tommy ran ahead, Reese tried to catch up to him as he rounded a corner. The girl sped up to reach her uncle, and when she felt close enough to reach him, someone burst out of the building next to her lunging at the young girl. Reese screamed, as the person who was now an infected zombie flailed about, trying to grab her. "Uncle Tommy!"

A shot rang out as the body looming over her fell to the side, blood spewing onto Reese. "Are you okay?" Tommy questioned, helping the girl up. Her breath was shaky, as her chest heaved up and down. "Come on. We have to go. Hold on to me." The man picked her up, setting her on his back.

They ran through a couple more streets before they got closer to the river. Tommy slowed his pace aiming his gun towards a figure, who seemed to be standing over someone else.

"Oh God." Tommy exhaled, looking forward to a body up ahead. Reese looked over to see her sister, dark red surrounding her stomach. Joel crawled over to his daughter, "No, no. Okay, You're okay."

The girl's breath rapidly quickened as Joel pressed his hands on her wound. "Sarah?" Reese looked at her sister, climbing off her Uncle's back. Tommy reached out to stop her from getting any closer, going to cover her eyes from the horror. "No! Sarah!" Reese exclaimed, before crumbling into Tommy's hold, as she sobbed.

Will things get any worse than this?