Breath

Chapter 1

Joseph took a sip from his bottle. He couldn't drink too much. The water was too precious. He decided to save his packet of crackers for later. It was very quiet. Usually everyone would be rushing about working, not today, not at this time. They were allowed to sleep in on Sundays. Joseph got up and looked out the window of the apartment he was in. He saw what he saw every morning. The street was crowded. Joseph always woke up before everyone else. Mainly because he was worried about the people outside getting in. Today, he wanted to go scavenging but he and the scavenge group could only go a certain distance from home under the rule of their leader, Samuel.
Joseph wanted to go by himself but he knew it would be a bad idea. Those people outside would easily overpower him. He looked away from the window in case one of the people outside saw him.
His full name was Joseph Walker. He had blondy - brown hair. It was down past his ears. He hadn't been able to cut his hair since everything happened. He had been able to shave though. He had green eyes. He was just under average height for his age, 19.
He missed his family, he knew his parents had been killed but he didn't know what happened to anyone else. He was an only child.
Then there was a scream. Joseph looked back out the window and saw a man getting surrounded by the people outside one grabbed him and bit his neck. It was too late to go out to save him and even if Joseph did go out to save him, he'd giveaway where he and his group were hiding. All he could do was sit down and try not to listen to the screams and the blood splashing to the ground. Joseph could hear the people dragging the body away at last.
" What happened ?!" shouted Samuel running into the room.
"They got someone." said Joseph.
"Shit, that's two in two days." Samuel said more to himself than to Joseph.
"We're down on supplies." muttered Joseph.
"Yeah, I know, I'm sending out a scavenging team later."
" Who?" Joseph asked.
" Jay, Cathy, Lisa, Kai, Alan, Stan, Joey and you." Samuel replied.
" We need to go further."
" You know my rule, we stay near home." Samuel breathed.
" Well, if we go further, we'll find more supplies, people, hell even a better home!" Joseph argued.
" There is too many of those......things out there." Samuel said frowning.
" We can fight them." Joseph said looking out the window again.
"And if we go now, while there's none out there, we'll have a better chance of getting to where we want to go." Joseph continued.
"And what about getting back?" Samuel asked.
Joseph wasn't going to be beaten.
"We can sneak in through the back, someone could create a diversion out the front and get the ones that usually hang around the back to move, then we can sneak in."
" So there will be more that could attack us?" Samuel asked.
"Obviously not in front of home, a bit away from here." Joseph replied.
"And who do you expect to do that?"
"Me, I'm fast, I mightn't be the strongest but I'm fast." Joseph said smiling.
This was true, Joseph wasn't the strongest. He was fast though and was smart enough. Not the smartest though, Cathy was the smartest. Cathy was one of his closest friends in the group along with Jay, Lisa, Alan and Stan. Cathy had straight dark hair, she was taller than him as was Jay. The others were about the same size as him, if not taller.
Jay had short dark hair and brown eyes, he was particularly skilled in hunting and climbing. He hiked a lot before everything happened so that came in handy when scavenging because of his stamina.
Lisa was very close to Cathy, she was clever and strategic which came in handy. She had the same kind of hair as Cathy but she was smaller. They had found her and her family getting attacked. This happened before they found where they stayed now. Sadly, they only managed to save Lisa in the end, she was distraught. Cathy comforted her for weeks. Cathy was like that. She was so caring. But that wasn't always a good thing because one time while scavenging, they came across a dying child, only 11, she had been stabbed in the neck by one of those people outside. Cathy took the time to talk to her while she died. No one else ever did that. Joseph hated himself for that. Then they got ambushed by those people outside and only just made it out losing one of their best scavengers. Cathy was the one distraught over this and Lisa comforted her, returning what Cathy did for her. Ever since then they'd been great friends.
Joseph didn't consider the rest of the group 'friends'. As Jay had put it, "They're just people we socialize with." When he said that, Joseph laughed. For the first time in weeks. Jay always knew how to cheer you up.

Alan was brave. He had lived with three older brothers before so he was quite tough even though you wouldn't think it. He had short black hair and a pale face. He was clever as well so he was one of the most useful members of the scavenging team.

Stan always had a smile, even when he was sad. He'd say that if you keep smiling, good things happen. Alan asked "Then why did this all happen?" Stan replied with "Well we are still breathing aren't we?"
Joseph always remembered that. Whenever he was scavenging or fighting, he'd think of that and it would give him hope. Hope was important nowadays. Joseph believed if you don't have hope, then why even try surviving. Stan obviously believed that too as he would say similar things when they were out. He had short dirty blond hair. He was fast as well. The one thing Joseph liked about Stan, the reason he found him so useful, was that he would make others want to survive. He was so enthusiastic, he'd laugh while others wouldn't. That's why he made such a good friend.
In the end, Joseph managed to get Samuel to agree to let him go through with his plan. Joseph decided to eat the crackers he had earlier as he'd need some energy for the scavenging trip. All he had to do now was pray nothing would go wrong.