Mattie held out the baby carefully and let Nicholas hold Cole. In exchange, she crammed the pacifier, the clothes, the monkey and the diapers into the backpack and headed for the front door. She peeked out of the window in case any of the infected were in a position to ambush them. She saw none, but they could be absolutely anywhere. Waiting and lusting for spilled blood. Her eyes flickered toward Nicholas, and she felt a sudden wave of gladness that he had found her. Quickly she suppressed it. 

"We'll take turns holding him," she said, turning the knob. "That way we'll give each other rests from it." She opened the door and stuck her head out, again to make sure that no living dead were approaching, and stepped outside. Then she changed her mind, hurried to the kitchen and grabbed a sharp knife, and headed back toward the door. She needed something now that she had lost her crowbar.