Breath

Chapter 8

Joey, Alan and Stan began eating the rest of the cereal. The psychos outside still hadn't noticed them. Stan was thinking.
"I hope Lisa's okay." Alan said.
"I didn't know you and Lisa were a thing." Joey said to him.
"We... We slept together once." Alan said grinning.
"Dude, what age are you?" Joey asked laughing.
"17" Alan replied. "That means it's legal, right?"
"Does anyone care about the law anymore?" Joey asked.
Alan laughed but then frowned.
"Why are we laughing? People are dead, some of them are out there walking around." He said.
"Just cuz other people are gone doesn't mean you have to be depressed the whole time. After my mom died, I thought I'd never be happy again, but then I found our group." Joey said to Alan smiling.
'That was one of the coolest things I have ever heard' Alan thought to himself.
"Anyways, we're probably gonna have to wait till tomorrow to get home." Joey said pointing out the window. The sun was pretty low meaning it'd be dark soon.
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Joseph ran to the front of the shopping centre. Sure enough, there was about 5 psychopaths crawling under the doors. Joseph didn't know how. Then he saw it, there was about 50 hands under the doors lift no them up. The psychos were slowly but surely pulling up the doors.
"Shit, shit, shit." Joseph muttered to himself as he began sprinting up the escalators to get to the top of the shopping centre where the control room was. He met Lisa and Jay halfway.
"Joseph, we're almost out of power." Jay said immediately.
"We're gonna go and check out the generator in the basement." Lisa continued.
"Are you two stupid, when the psychos get in, and they will, you'll be trapped in the basement. You'll die. We have to leave now!" Joseph said to them.
"But the doors are shut. Unless you wanna go out the front." Jay said back.
"The power is the only thing that will allow the doors to open and shut. When the power goes out, the doors will stay shut and we'll be trapped in here until the psychos come." Lisa added.
"It's too risky to go to the generator." Joseph said.
"Then how are we going to get out?" Lisa asked.
"The windows on the second floor is the best option." Joseph said.
"Come on." He said running down to the first floor.
He began shouting for Cathy and Kai. They were fighting off the psychos that had managed to get in to the shopping centre.
Joseph called them, they turned to look at him.
"We're leaving!" He said to them.
Suddenly there was a loud crash. One of the huge doors had fallen down, psychos began flooding in. Cathy and Kai turned and ran up the escalator. Joseph began lifting a heavy metal bin that was beside a bench outside a DVD shop. Kai went over to help. They dragged the bin over to the closest escalator and they pushed it down. The psychos that had been working their way up the escalator got bowled over by the bin. Joseph and Kai got the bench outside the DVD shop and pushed it down the escalator. It stood as a barricade.
"That should buy us some time." Kai said as he followed Joseph over to a window with metal bars on the outside. Outside the window was a ladder that lead down beside the shopping centre. The building across from them had a large hole in the side. It looked like there had been an explosion or something. Joseph smashed the window.
"Shit we need a crowbar." He said.
"There's a DIY shop just down the hall." Jay said running away from them. He came back a few moments later with a crowbar. He handed it to Joseph.
"Thanks." Joseph said as he began prising the bars frame from the wall. Luckily it wasn't very well done, so the bars fell off easily.
"Go." He said gesturing to Cathy. Cathy closed out the window with the help of Kai, Lisa went next, then Kai, then Jay. Joseph walked away from the window and killed two psychos before he went over to the escalator that wasn't blocked by the bench and kicked the psycho near the top. That psycho fell back pushing the one behind it, then that one knocked the one behind it and eventually almost all the psychos on that escalator were on top of each other near the bottom. Joseph then ran over to the window and climbed out. Kai had taken the crowbar.
The five of them made their way down the ladder. Most of the psychos had gone into the shopping centre. There was a few lone psychos around the front of the shopping centre.
Otherwise their way home was clear. Joseph, Cathy and Kai had their backpacks full of supplies. Jay and Lisa had collected some stuff on their way to the control room, their bags were only half full.
The sun was almost at the horizon. Joseph smiled, the sight was nice. But it wasn't safe at night, they all knew that.
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Samuel couldn't sleep. He sat up. He looked out the window. The moonlight wasn't bright enough for him to see much but he could make out some psychopaths outside their apartment block.
He got out of bed and walked down the hall to the room near the stairs. Rita was awake. She was reading with one of the torches you wound up to use. Samuel knocked on the door.
"Yeah?" Rita asked.
Samuel opened the door and walked in.
"Hey, Samuel." Rita said surprised. "What can I do for you?"
Samuel smiled. "One thing."
He walked over to her bed and sat down on the side.
"What are you doing?" Rita asked.
"Here's a deal. If you make love with me, I'll give you ... Extra.... Rations." He said as he began to stroke her chestnut brown hair which was tied back.
"You want to have sex with me?" Rita asked.
"Yes." Samuel replied.
"And I'll get extra rations?"
"Exactly."
Rita thought for a moments.
"I never knew you were... like this." She said.
Samuel merely smiled.
"Have you done this for anyone else?" Rita asked.
"No, you're the only one." Samuel lied.
Rita thought again, then she put her book down and faced him.
"Ok."