Starting with a flashback to the beginning of Strike a Match, Make It Last, in case no one knows that this takes place on the same timeline as SAMMIL.

Enjoy!

Alice hugged herself tightly, resting her forehead on her drawn up knees. She heard a shuffling beside her, but it was only Michael as he sat down on the forest floor. Alice looked up and noticed her father leaning against a tree a couple feet away from the clearing. She bit her bottom lip and reached over to Mara to touch her arm gently, silently requesting her attention. Her mother stopped humming softly to Gracie and met Alice's blue eyes with her brown ones.

"Dad's blaming himself." Alice said softly.

The moment Josh had fallen into the river, Jerome had recklessly followed the shore, ordering Michael to protect his mother and siblings. He hurried alongside the water only so long, before he lost sight of Josh's body being carried by the waves. He took a longer than necessary to return to his family, tightened his jaw, and told them that they'd be setting up camp there for the night.

Mara's gaze drifted over to her husband and she nodded in agreement. "I know." She took a deep breath and carefully passed Gracie over to her. "I'm going to go talk to him.

Louisa watched her walk away from the fire while Matty curled into her side, longing for comfort.

Jerome nearly flinched away from Mara's touch when she laid a hand on his shoulder.

"J?" She whispered.

Jerome poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue, trying so hard not to cry. He needed to be on his guard. He couldn't do this right now.

Mara wrapped her arms around his waist, one of his arms hugged her shoulders tightly as he kissed her forehead while he held his rifle at the ready with the other. Mara sighed, resting her cheek against his dirty gray t-shirt. "You were his hero, you know?" She said.

Jerome remained silent, his throat burning as emotion clawed at it. He focused his tired eyes on the trees around them.

Mara continued, "He wanted to be just like you. He loved you so much."

Jerome let go of her with a grunt and pulled a hand through his blond hair angrily. "We're only a week into this whole thing and I've already lost one of our kids—"

"It wasn't your fault," Mara said gently. It was something you trained yourself to do very quickly, when the undead was attracted to noise.

"I could have done something."

"Don't make this harder on yourself, Jerome."

"He's gone, Mara. Josh is gone." He growled without thinking.

Mara didn't reply. She covered her face with her hands and leaned back on a tree as she tried to calm her sobs.

Jerome's shoulders slumped guiltily. He closed the distance between them and lifted her chin, pressing a soft kiss to her trembling lips. "I'm sorry."

Mara cupped his face, making him meet her eyes. "He wouldn't want you to blame yourself. He saved Gracie. He knew that's what you would've done. He wanted all of us to be safe. We lost a part of us today, but have to keep moving forward. It'll be hard, but we can handle it."

One week later…

Jerome slipped his jacket onto his shoulders and picked his rifle up off the small table in the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Mara asked him from the sofa that was in the connecting room.

"Last minute watch duty. I'm on the wall tonight." Her husband replied.

"Daddy, do you have to go?" Gracie asked softly from the floor beside Matty where they were coloring quietly.

"You weren't supposed to work until next week." Mara pointed out.

"I know, but we gotta help where we can." He shrugged and leaned over her for a quick kiss before heading for the door of the small apartment. "Love you, guys."

"Be safe, J," Mara called after him as he left.

Jerome left the apartment building and walked out into the street of 'Church,' a survivor camp of sorts. Walls were set up to block anyone from coming into the few blocks of the town that had been cleared of the walking dead. Barrels that held small fires for light were dotted down the sidewalks and pairs of volunteers with weapons patrolled alleyways.

Jerome patted his son, Michael, on the shoulder when he walked by him on the way to the gate that was the entrance and exit into the camp. He climbed the ladder to the lookout and nodded at the other guards there before sitting down and preparing himself for a long night.

It was about midnight when several other survivors showed up to relieve the people on the gate. As Jerome climbed down, one of the patrolmen came running down the street without his partner.

"Tanner was just bit!" He cried, slowing to a halt as a crowd began forming around him.

"Did you take care of him?" One of the men demanded, but any response was cut off by several gunshots in the distance.

"He stayed back to take care of the hoard that broke through one of the barricades! It's only going to be a matter of minutes before this place is overrun! There's way too many of them!"

As if to prove his statement a group of zombies came stumbling around the corner of a building, growling inhumanly and grinding their teeth hungrily. A bloodcurdling scream came from inside the building and it caught the attention of a few of the Creepers. They shuffled up close to the door and scraped at the wood and pounded on the window, breaking the glass and reaching in their hands, in attempt to grab something to chew on.

"Dad," Michael began breathlessly as he ran up to Jerome.

"Go get Louisa and Alice, I'll go get the others. Meet up at the van." He ordered him quietly before they took off in separate directions.

"Michael, what's going on?" Alice questioned when her brother came rushing into the shop where people could trade for supplies.

"A load of Creepers got past the barricades. We're leaving." He told his sisters, leading them out of the store and into the street.

They quickly made their way up the street to an alley that was far too close to the string of zombies that seemed to be multiplying by the second.

"How did this even happen?" Louisa gasped. "Aren't there patrols that take care of Creepers outside of the barriers?"

"That alley has always been a weak spot," Michael grunted, opening the back of the van so Alice and Louisa could stuff their bags into it. As they climbed into the vehicle, Michael pulled a silenced pistol from his belt and shot a Creeper when it had noticed them.

Michael kept his eyes peeled for his parents, and when he saw them, running out of the apartment building, he hopped into the front seat of the van, started it up, and drove down the street. The van screeched to a halt right in front of them and Alice pulled the side door open for Mara and the kids while Jerome climbed into the passenger seat.

Without a single look behind them, Michael drove the van out of the town, through the gate that had been knocked down by several other cars.

And btw, y'all, if you wanna see some of the Second Chances characters, I've got a board on Pinterest (user: tryingtobreathe) that's called "Second Chances" (duh) and yeah.

"I know there's got to be more to life than smoking weed. Getting off and getting by. You are the rhythm to my rhyme. You are my radio, turn you up when I feel low. You are the soundtrack to all I know. You are the rock to my roll..." -Rock To My Roll, Anarbor

-Rachel