SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE
"drugs. we sell hard-core drugs."
Sarah and Paige finally make it back home, but on their last bus stop, Sarah realised she forgot to tell her sister that her father had made them promise to go over to see Mrs Adler earlier that day.
"Stop dragging your feet." Sarah snaps as she looks over her shoulder to see her sister much further behind and staring at their house just next door.
"Why do we have to go? We could just go home." Paige sighs, pulling her gaze away from the building and towards her sister who was staring at her with a blank expression.
Sarah stops walking, waiting for Paige to catch up, "because dad already said we would go, we can't back out now."
"But they smell like old ladies." Paige whines, linking arms with her sister, though she know it was only so Sarah would stop her from running.
The eldest twin scrunches her nose with a slight smile on her face, she did have to give Paige that, it did smell like old ladies. Knocking on the door, it was open within an instant and Connie Adler beamed down at the twins, she was a nice lady, despite the stench of dusty perfume already hitting Paige right in the face.
"I was getting worried." She says as she ushered the pair inside her abode.
"We were getting something for our dad." Sarah replies, stopping inside the hallway.
Paige kneels down on the carpet as the border collie runs over for a fuss off of her, "hey, Mercy." She greets with a fond grin, scratching under the dogs ear.
"Hey, is everything okay? Like on the news?" Sarah asks, also petting Mercy on his back.
Mrs Adler walks towards her kitchen that was seperate with doors that were straight out of an old Western saloon, "like what, hun?"
"Well, there was just a lot of police and stuff on the road today."
The older woman stops and turns around, "well that's true every day, isn't it? People there need to get right with Jesus. Three nails plus one cross equals four given." She heads over to the oven, "I was thinking we could make some cookies."
"Chocolate chip?" Paige asks hopefully, leaning forward on the kitchen isle.
"Raisen." The younger girl turned back around to her sister at this, her teeth gritted.
Sarah pulls a face that tells her to shut up.
As the cookies were baking, Sarah starts work on her homework, Paige does the opposite and instead does everything but. She lays her head on the table, her eyes feeling heavier and heavier from the boredom, she honestly had no idea how Sarah could be working during this.
Getting up from her spots as Mrs Adler rushed passed to tend to the cookies, Paige wanders over to the book shelf that was stacked with different DVD discs. Pulling them out one by one, she was surprised how many modern movies she was able to finding in the aging household.
However, one in particular caught her eye. Pulling it out from the dust, she flipped it over with an excited glint in her eyes. Showing the case in the direction of her sister, "hey, Sarah, look."
Sarah groans loudly, chucking her pencil between her books and leaning backwards on her chair, "not Curtis and Viper 2."
"Curtis and Viper 2." Paige grins widely, holding the disc to her chest, "do you think she'd let us take this?"
"I mean considering you and dad are the only people in the world who like that movie, my two cents would yes."
"Oh shut up." Paige ignores the remark and heads into the kitchen, never knowing what was going on with the older woman in the wheelchair behind her back, and she would be grateful she was oblivious. "Hey, Mrs Adler, could we borrow this."
The woman pulls out her glasses and reads the title, without a second thought she said yes to the girl, causing for a smile to grow again. She put it in her backpack for safe keeping.
"You know what, our dad's gonna be back real soon, we should go." Sarah pipes up from beside Paige and while the older woman let them go easily, the cookies were non negotiable.
° ✝ °
Paige lay asleep on the sofa's arm while Sarah read from her magazine, who knew being forced to do your homework would be so tiring? But the sound of her father making an entrance for the first time that night woke her up, only being able to hear the back end of the short conversation between Joel and Sarah as he sat down between them.
Paige turned away from the arm and rested on Joel without hesitation. "It's ten." Sarah said, turning off the TV.
Joel leans back and wipes his eyes in a stretching position, "I know. They gave us the wrong size for the headers." He's only met with blank and confused faces. "That doesn't mean anything to you. I'm sorry."
"Where's the cake?" Paige asked with a raised eyebrow, lifting off her father to allow him to take off his work boots.
he sighs again and curses under his breath, "c'mon, man." Sarah complains.
"I'll get us one tomorrow."
"Swear?" She says, "or you don't get your present?"
The man swivells around like a little boy on Christmas, "you got me a present?"
"Swear."
"On my life."
Sarah and Paige nod at each other before looking under their respective pillows, Sarah goes first, pulling out the watch from her side. "Fixed it for you." They say as he opens the white box, stunned to speak.
"Did you?" He asks, his face confused as he held it to his ear. The twins panic and pull at his wrist, only to see the watch ticking away. He laughed at their reaction heartily. "Where'd you get the money for this?"
"Drugs. We sell hard-core drugs." Joel hardly seems fased at their attempt at humour.
"Better when I do it."
"It was only $20, which we stole from you." Sarah curls back into the couch now that there was nothing beneath her pillow, Joel pulls his face, "I could have stolen sixty, but I put the change back because I'm an honest thief." Paige on the other hand was not, she kept five dollars; its not like he would miss it. Their father hums, "besides, its the thought that counts. And you were never gonna do it for yourself, so." He thanks them quietly.
"Can we get to my fun present now?" Paige asks, a smile that she couldn't hide growing as she was already reaching for the DVD. Once they both give her the go ahead, the curly haired girl pulls out Curtis and Viper 2, Joel matching her excitement, jumping around the couch as eh reached for it. Sarah could only shake her head.
"This is the one with the deleted scenes." He turns to look at the back where it was rated five stars; well deserved, Paige and Joel thought.
"Can you imagine how good these are gonna be? Come on, put it in while it's still your birthday." Paige urges, tucking her legs under her to prepare for the movie ahead.
As the film went on, Sarah and Paige fell asleep. Joel carried his girls to bed, tucked them in before leaving to get his own sibling. Leaving them completely alone.
° ✝ °
Explosions are what disturbed them from their slumber. Paige peeked an eye open to see her sister be covered in green light. "What's going on?" Her voice scratchy from having been asleep.
Sarah sits up in her bed and walks over to her sister, offering a hand out which was gladly accept as fear seeped through their bones, "come on, let's find dad."
The twins peer out of their room, which was still illuminated from the flashing lights flying past their house from planes. They were at an unease and with Joel not being in his bedroom, Paige's clammy hand gripped her sister tighter.
Walking downstairs, Sarah tried the TV, only to be met with an emergency broadcasting. Switching it off, Mercy, the Adlers dog jumped up at them through the window, whimpering and crying as he did so.
Paige moved first, pulling Sarah along to make sure the dog was okay, usually, he was never allowed out of the sight of his owners. Further, the tension rose as helicopters flew overhead, spotlights hitting all over the roads.
Mercy cried and cried, pulling against the twins grip as they tried to lead him home, a dogs intuion was to never be ignored and the further to Adlers they got, similar to earlier that day, Paige wanted nothing more than for her and her sister to go home. Finally, they lost their grip of him and the dog took off the opposite end of the street.
Sarah began her walk to the Adler's, who had suspiciously left their door open. They would never do that. Paige pulled on her arm, stopping her right outside the door way, "let's just go home, okay. Let's just call dad and Uncle Tommy. Please let's just go home." She begged, feeling sick to her stomach as Sarah continued on.
"We need to see if they're okay." Sarah said, her voice shaking but she tried to put on a brave face.
"Have you ever seen horror movies? Because this is how it starts, okay and we'd definitely be the first ones to die." Paige tended to ramble when she was scared but all Sarah could do it squeeze her hand as hard as she could.
Walking through saloon style doors, Paige prevented her sister from slipping by bring her closer to her. Looking down to see the culprit, Sarah's shoe was covered in a blood; blood that trailed all the way to Mr Adler.
"Help me." He whispered. The closer they got, the more they could see the exposed tendons in his neck from where a chunk of flesh was ripped out.
Sarah couldn't pull her eyes away from the man but lingered away from Paige back away from the counter bringing Sarah with her. The same woman who was restrained to a wheelchair, the same woman who hasn't spoken in months, was hunched over Mrs Adlers body with what seemed like fungi growing from her mouth and nawring at the womans body.
The thing screamed as it chased the twins out of the house. Paige could hear her heartbeat pounding in her skull as they reached the road and the familiar headlights of Tommy's truck approached them. Joel jumped out quickly and gripped the girls in his grasp, "get in the truck right now! Move!"
He held a wrench in his hand while Tommy got out of the drivers seat with a rifle. Right then, the monster came running out of the house, thrashing around as if it had no care for its own body. As it wriggled on the floor it began to run at them, "what're we doing, Joel?" Tommy yells, aiming his rifle at the woman.
Then, as it ran closer, Joel hit it with his wrench, the body falls to the ground. Still. He drops it and the brothers turn to look at Sarah and Paige, both stood with tears in their eyes and hurried breaths, Joel quickly but hardly explains the situation to them and places them in the car.
The twins held onto each other in the backseat, finding comfort in each others arms as red and blue flashes from police sirens lit up the family. The road to the hospital seemed longer than it ever did before, the terror that filled the vehicle was suffocating and Paige wanted to hide under her covers to get away from the horrors she had consumed; to be away from everything to make it okay.
The highway was backed up, their only option of escape gone. Tommy was cursing and beeping his horn all the ways he knew how and Joel tried his best to calm the situation. Turning the car into the field, they find the Military holding up the highway, blocking any civilian from entering or leaving.
"Head North." Joel suggested as the car pulled to a stop.
Tommy shakes his head, his hand still on the wheel and his foot pressed firmly on the gas, "could be a lot of people."
"Well we can't go South, we can't go East, we can't go West. Hell else are we suppose to go." Joel snaps. "Tommy, come on!"
It snaps him out of his stupor and Tommy pushes the pedal, heading North. As they approach, Joel nods his head, "yeah, I know this place. This could work."
"Yeah, but then what?" Tommy asked, his knuckles turning white around the steering wheel. Joel replies.
"I don't know, Mexico. Just far, far as we can. How much gas?"
"Three-quarter tank." With that, Joel formulated a plan, needing to keep his family safe as the town drew closer and closer.
Planes were getting nearer to the ground, cop cars on every street and people around every corner, there was no where they could go and their only hope was to drive through the crowd to some kid of safety.
Tommy argued the morals of driving through terrified people, and Joel only retaliated, causing for a near miss with another car. He reversed his car as hordes or people came flooding out of the movie theatre covered in gallons of blood. Paige and Sarah shout for their father over the bickering as a plane got lower and lower to the ground, headed straight for them.
While they drove as fast as they could, they were still caught by the blast and Paige blacked out with a stinging sensation down her right eye.
° ✝ °
Paige woke up to the sound of her sister whimpering and a pair of hands gently tapping her face. Opening her eyes, she frowned when her right eye was glazed over and every motion was blurred. Above her was her father, who sighed in relief when she stared back up at him.
He brushed the hair out of her face and tried not to look at the blood that covered his hand as he wiped over her eye, "baby, you're okay, you hear me." Recieving a small nod and a cry, he began to push her to Tommy's side of the car since she was closest to him, "you crawl over to your Uncle Tommy, okay? It's safer."
Tommy reached through the broken glass and took his niece from his brother holding her to his side as Joel crawled back to get Sarah to go with Tommy and Paige, the eldest twins leg was broken and she couldn't walk.
"We gotta get off the street!" Tommy yells, Paige's blood seeping into the fabric of his shirt but he held her as close as he could. He was cut off by a rouge police car slamming into his truck, it erupted into flames, blocking the family away from each other.
"Paige!" Joel immediately yells, "Tommy!" The youngest brother had his back to the fire as his body protected Paige from the roaring flames. "Paige, talk to me!" He yells again, his shoulders sagging a little when he sees their faces through a small gap.
"Head to the river, we'll find a way." Tommy reassures him. Seeing his hesitance to leave they lock eyes, "I won't let anything happen to her. Joel, go!"
Quickly the family went different direction as Tommy peered down at his niece, "can you walk?" He asks softly, keeping his finger on his gun.
"I can't see out of my right eye." She whimpers, "it's all gone." Paige was vulnerable, taking away part of her sight must've been a cruel trick, on a night like these, she felt useless, she was a burden and all she wanted was her family.
Tommy gulps and breaths heavily as he hears the roars of the fungi monsters gaining on them. "You stay with me okay, we're all that matters." He doesn't wait for her to reply as he drags her with him, not letting her go as he'd much rather die for her than let her be another victim tonight.
Paige felt bile crawling up her throat, from the running she wasn't used to and the amount of bodies that were being devoured in front of her, blood spewing in every direction, no where was safe; no matter what Tommy said.
Running through the small town in Texas, it was like Tommy knew the place better than he knew the back of his hand, he pulled her through a backalley and through what appeared to be an old diner. Throwing whatever he could in the way of their pursuers and shooting with what ammunition he had left, Tommy and Paige finally made it to the riverbank.
They were met by gunshots.
Joel and Sarah has fallen down the small riverbank, scattering away from each other as a soldier shone the light in his face. Joel could only plead for his life.
Tommy quickly saved his brother and the body crumpled to the ground.
Paige saw her first.
"Sarah?" Her voice broke with heartache. This caught the attention of the rest of the Miller family, slowly being pulled apart by the cries and gasping of the girl who slowly bled out.
The blood that surrounded her beautiful sister flowed like a river and speckled her face like freckles on a summer day, a summer day she would never see again. Sarah Miller did not deserve the fate she received, the young girl only wished to spend her life with her family and it was ripped from her before it even begun.
Paige reached her first.
Her legs running before her mind could comprehend. Her knees buckled next to her sister head, taking it in her lap, she could only tell her that it would be okay, because what else could she say. In Paige's mind, this couldn't be real. They came into this world together, they should've went out together too.
"I'm here. I'm here, it's okay." Was all Paige could utter, trying to convince herself that this was all a dream.
Her tears mixed with Sarah's blood, dripping onto the girls face as she held her tightly to her chest leaning down hoping to hear her heartbeat. Just one last time was all she needed.
Paige said goodbye last.
That night, a part of her soul left with Sarah, half of her heart burrowed in Sarah's hand, clutching it as she never got to say goodbye. Sarah Miller didn't survive Outbreak Day but Paige Miller did. How was that fair?
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