Kat had watched a car roll slowly down her road about 4 hours ago. "A trap? Or a survivor?" she thought, still peering out the window as if she'd see it if she looked hard enough. She fiddled with the pocket knife in her jacket pocket. When will James arrive? Are those people good or bad?

These things were too much for her 7 year old head, she let herself slide down the wall, resting her head on he knees. She knew 2 things for sure.. 
1, She needed someone to help her, a grownup who was strong and could tell her what to do. 
And 2, She needed to find James.

Should I follow the car? ... No, it was could have been a trap and it would be too far gone by now. She needed to head out on her own once again. Kat shoved two cans of creamed corn and a bottle of water into her satchel. It was getting heavy now, but she lugged it onto her tiny shoulders regardless, there was no time to be 7 when you'd watched your family die. All that she had now was James, and she was determined that she would find him. 

Kat walked along the forest edge for as long at the forest followed the road, once the road started peeling away from the treeline she began to walk cautiously on the side of the road. She remembered that there was another safe house her and James had stayed up for several weeks nearby, and hoped he was there. 

As Kat made her way deeper and deeper into the city, she stayed closer to walls and lurked in the shadows, being extra careful to stay out the way of prying eyes. She'd already walked for what seemed like days, but in reality was only a few hours. She was still in the suburbia part of town, and soon she needed to stop for a rest. She ducked down a side road, and after a few mintues found herself outside a large old apartment building with an empty alleyway to the side. She walked down to the end of the alley, it was empty aside from an overturned rubbish bin and a large wooden door on the ground. [i]Why is that door on the ground? How can people walk in and out if its not the right way up? How silly.[/i] Kat thought comically to herself. 

She felt safe with big tall walls on three sides around her. She could rest here and be safe she hoped. The door was basically useless, it must lead to a big pit or something, maybe its for rubbish, Kat concluded. She still kept a wary eye on it as she sat down with her back against a wall, and flicked out her pocket knife and began scratching her name into the side of the wooden door, just for fun. After a few minutes of rest she was pretty certain there was no one around, and she began softly singing to herself. It was a lullaby in spanish that her mother had used to sing her, and it was the only song Kat knew.

Suddenly Kat stopped singing, had she just heard something? She leaped soundlessly behind the rubbish bin. She was certain she had heard a sound. Something from the other side of the door. She couched behind the bin, slowly and silently bringing the rifle around from her back into her arms. She kneeled in th position James had showed her, and pointed the gun directly at the door. Her heart seemed to go cold as another small nose confirmed that there was indeed [i]something[/i] behind that door.

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James woke up gasping for air, there was something heavy and wet on top of him, crushing his body slowly as he struggled to breath. He tried to move and as he tensed his body to push whatever was on top of his away, his eyes flashed white hot with pain. It felt like every bone in his body had been broken. With a gasp he stopped, lying still until the throbbing pain faded. Slowly, James lay his head back down on the soft dirt. He would try again soon, but for now he would let himself drift back to sleep.