Breath

Chapter 6

The group searched the shopping centre for anything they could use. There wasn't much left as it was the one place where everyone went when everything started. It was obvious how the shopping centre had got attacked by psychopaths. The question was, where did all the survivors that were in the shop go? Joseph was thinking about this and Cathy was too as she asked.
"What happened to the people who were here before?"
Just as she said it, there was a scream. It was coming from a jewellery shop. Joseph ran towards it. The glass was all over the ground. There was two people rolling around on the ground beside the counter. Joseph didn't know what was happening until he saw blood. He ran forward and pulled the two apart.
"Augh!!" He shouted as he noticed one of the two people he'd pulled away from each other was a psychopath. Blood was dripping from its mouth. Joseph kicked the psycho away.
"Go!!!" He shouted at the other person he had pulled the psycho away from.
The psychopath charged at him again. Joseph dodged it. But there was another scream. He spun around. The woman who he had told to go was on the ground again. The psychopath was biting her neck, blood was going everywhere. Joseph slammed his machete into the psychopaths head.
The woman was writhing in agony on the ground. Blood was spurting from her neck, she was getting paler and paler. Joseph looked down at her. She finally lay still. Joseph looked at her for a few more seconds and was about to turn away when he heard soft breathing. He turned around and saw to his horror that he woman was breathing. Her eyes were open wide and blinking, her mouth was moving. Joseph walked towards her and crouched down. The woman looked at him. Then something shocking happened. She began moving her head, then her torso, then her legs and within a few seconds, she was standing up. She was groaning. Joseph stood up slowly. The woman suddenly roared and jumped at him. Joseph was taken by surprise. The woman knocked him over trying to bite him. He threw her off. He had left his machete in the psychopaths head when he killed it. He only had a knife. He slashed at her chest. Blood dropped down onto him but the woman hadn't been affected. He slashed again, this time more blood poured out. He then slashed her again. This was enough to make her fall. He rolled away. She was trying to get up again. Joseph stood up. Cathy came darting into the jewellery shop. She walked over to the woman who looked up at her groaning. The floor was covered in blood. Cathy lifted her meat cleaver high above her head and brought it down into the centre of the woman's head. The woman lay still. Cathy tugged the meat cleaver out of the psychopaths head.
"Are you okay?" She asked Joseph.
"Yeah...Yeah I'm fine, thanks." He said walking over to her breathing heavily, calming down after the fight.
"Well, come on, the others are still where you left them. Kai and Jay are trying to barricade the main doors." Cathy said turning around and walking out of the shop. Joseph walked over to the first dead psychopath. The man that had killed the woman. He pulled his machete out of its head. Then he remembered something. Something he hadn't been able to think of while fighting the woman. She had TURNED into a psychopath! The psychopath had killed her, then she turned into one herself. He had bitten her and she turned into one of them. These thoughts were racing through Joseph's mind. He couldn't believe what had just happened. He then ran out of the shop and back to the others who were at the entrance. He ran out to them and told them everything that had just happened.
Everyone was quiet by the end. They were speechless.
"So...so like zombies?" Jay asked wearily.
"Not really, they can use weapons." Lisa answered. She loved horror movies, zombie movies in particular.
"Still, they can get turned, like in the films." Kai put in.
"So, you can't get bitten?" Cathy asked.
"Well unless you wanna turn into one of them, go ahead." Kai replied. He gave Cathy a smile. Cathy blushed.
There was silence for a minute or two until Joseph asked, "So how's this barricade going?"
"Good enough, the doors are doing the main work, this is just in case." Jay answered looking at the barricade which was made up of a few benches, bins and shopping trollies still connected to each other. The last trolly on either end was tied by a chain to a pillar.
Joseph looked at it for a few moments. There was silence again, everyone was still taking in the fact that you could be turned into a psychopath by being bitten by one. Jay broke the silence this time.
"Lisa, maybe you should go to the control room and check the cameras. You can tell us if there's any psychopaths. Y'know, in case the psychos break down the doors." Jay suggested to her.
"Yeah...yeah okay. And if any thing is coming, I can speak into the intercom." Lisa agreed.
"Good idea, will I go with you?" Jay asked.
"Yeah, it'd be safer." Lisa replied.
Jay looked at Joseph who nodded.
He and Lisa began walking to the control room upstairs.
Joseph looked at the other two.
"Let's go." He muttered
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Joey could see their home now, at the end of the road. Stan was still unconscious, Alan was supporting him with one hand and trying to hold two weapons in the other hand, Stan's and his own. They were struggling, trying to go as fast as they could.
Then they saw what they had feared most this entire journey. Psychopaths. There was about 20. Joey frowned, he was so worried now.
"No, no, please no." He muttered to himself. Alan didn't know what to do. He thought quick.
"Joey, come on, over here!" He said gesturing towards a bungalow just across the path. Joey and Alan heaved Stan across the path and towards the bungalow. They laid Stan down. Joey attempted opening the front door of the bungalow. It wouldn't budge.
"Stand back." Joey told Alan. He ran and kicked the door open. They went and picked up Stan and walked into the bungalow. The bungalow was smaller than it looked on the outside. Joey and Alan put Stan on the couch. They then closed the door which was missing a piece on the side. They tried barricading the door with a table. Luckily the psychopaths hadn't noticed them, otherwise they'd probably have been killed by now. When they were sure the door was barricaded enough, they began tending to Stan. Alan had found a bag of frozen peas in the freezer which was surprisingly still working. He held the bag on the lump on Stan's head. Joey began searching for food. He walked into the kitchen and began searching the cupboards. He found a few boxes of cereal, a jar of honey and a bunch of bananas.
"I got some things." He said walking into the sitting room where Alan and Stan were.
"Good," Alan muttered glancing at the food. He was still tending to Stan. "At least we're not too far from home." He said, looking up at Joey.
"Yeah, I know. I wish we had, like, a way to contact the others." Joey replied opening one of the boxes of cereal. He grabbed a handful of cornflakes and ate them happily.
Suddenly, Stan coughed and opened his eyes. He looked around wondering where he was.
"Stan!" Alan said with a surprised tone in his voice.
"Where are we, where's the others what happened?!" He blurted out. He looked around, he was getting tired. Just speaking had taken a lot out of him. He lay his head back down. He was breathing heavily for a minute or so. Then when he finally calmed down, Joey explained what had happened.
"You got knocked out, we decided to take you back to base, the others kept going and now we are in this bungalow."
"Why are we in this house?" Stan asked.
"Well, the base is just down the road," Alan started but he was cut short by Stan.
"Then why aren't we there instead?!"
"Well, the problem is....psychopaths." Alan answered.
"Alright, come on, let's go." Stan said attempting to stand up. Joey stopped him, which wasn't hard as Stan couldn't walk properly at the moment anyway.
"We'll figure out a way to get back or we'll wait until the others come back from scavenging. We can fight better with more people." Joey explained. Stan nodded and lay back down on the couch.
"Okay, fine."