Chapter Five

Trapped Again

I fell to the floor, pushing my back against the counter. Did they see us? They must have! They were looking right at us! Robyn was still fumbling through the small cupboards, completely unaware of the large party stumbling around the front of the store. Shit. Pure shit. The only option now would be to either fight our way out, or bust the door down. I don't think we would last very long against them so that leaves only one option. I looked to my left, expecting to see Alan crouched down beside me but frowned when I saw he was still standing.

"What the hell are you doing? Get down!" I tugged on his arm but he refused to move. God damn him! He's going to get us all killed! I poked my head over the counter and sighed in relief when I saw them slowly receding from the store. I stood up slowly and walked over to the locked door and pulled on the handle. I knew it was locked but I hoped that by some miracle maybe it would click open. It didn't.

"Sweet cheese! I found them keys!" Robyn exclaimed, throwing the keys in the air. Every head at the front of the store whipped in our direction. She looked at me with a triumphant smile but frowned when she saw my shocked expression."what?" She asked confused. Of course she would be oblivious to what she had done. I opened my mouth but shut it automatically when the people began screaming.

Her eyes widened in fear. She didn't bother looking back. She didn't have to. The people at the front of the store lurched towards us. Groans of hunger swam through the air and forced a wave of fear over me. I looked down at the ring of keys in Robyns hands and cursed. "Shit! Which one is it?" She hissed while looking at each key. I snatched them off of her and jammed the key into the lock. I tugged on the handle but the door didn't budge. I looked back and squeaked when I saw that the attackers were half way to us.

There must be at least thirty keys on here! There's no way I'll find the right one in time! I stabbed the fifth key in the lock and huffed in anger when the door refused to open. Sixth key. Seventh key. Eighth key. Ninth. Tenth. Eleventh. No luck. I risked a glance back and panicked when I saw Alan wrestling with one of them. He pushed him back but was immediately grabbed by another.

"Hurry!" Robyn screamed in my ear but I ignored her. Slow and steady wins the race. Right? I stuffed another key in the lock and froze. Please. No. Let me be wrong. I closed my eyes and breathed slowly, silently praying. I lifted the small key up and whimpered when I saw half of it was missing. I shook my head and widened my eyes. "Why have you sto-" She stopped mid-sentence when she saw the broken key in my hand, her eyes widening considerably.

"We're screwed," She croaked, backing away from the door. I stepped towards her but was abruptly pulled back. I fell to the floor and smashed my head against the corner of the counter. I winced in pain and looked up at who had pulled me and screamed when I saw a woman with no nose looking down at me. She lunged down at me, her hands outstretched and mouth hanging open. I grabbed onto her wrists and held her at a safe distance. She snapped her jaw and stuck her tounge out, attempting to taste the blood that ran down my forehead.

I kicked my legs at her but it was useless. I looked around but saw nothing that could help me. Robyn had collapsed on the floor with tears streaming down her face and Alan was busy knocking away a tall man. I squirmed under her and sucked in a deep breath. My arms began to shake as the fatigue overtook them. It would only be a matter of seconds before they would collapse completely. She inched towards me, snapping her jaw continuously. I groaned in disgust when she ran her dry tongue across my forehead, soaking up all the blood like a sponge.

I shut my eyes, preparing myself for the pain that was to come. I didn't notice when I felt the pressure from the woman release, but I sighed in relief when my arms to fell to my side and began to regain their strength. "Get up!" I snapped my eyes open at the sudden sound of the husky voice. I looked up and saw the back door wide open. A tall man with a shaved head stood before me wielding a metal baseball bat. I looked down at the woman lying still on the floor with a pool of blood slowly forming around her before I stood up. He placed a hand on my shoulder and unexpectedly shoved me towards the door.

I blinked profusely as the sudden darkness surrounded me. I looked back at the stream of light that poured through the open door and squinted. The man who saved me shoved one of those people back with hilt of his bat and slammed the door shut. For a moment I sat still on the ground where the man had pushed me. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I was able to make out two people moving around the large room.

With an audible click, bright light flooded the room and blinded me temporarily. I closed my eyes and slapped my hands to my face in an attempt to shield myself from the light. After a few seconds I removed my hands and opened my eyes. I looked around the gloomy room and sighed in relief when I saw Alan and Robyn further away from me. The man who had saved me from the woman walked towards me and blocked my view of Alan and Robyn. His black boots covered in a shiny liquid I knew was blood. He stretched his hand out and I grabbed it without a second thought.

He pulled me up off the ground effortlessly and smiled. The hairs on his chin seemed to extend the greater his smile became. Tattoos plastered themselves on his left arm and creeped all the way up to the side of his neck and disappeared behind his head. His white vest and blue jeans were covered in blood but he didn't seem to notice nor care. "Good thing I got to you when I did!" He exclaimed, chuckling softly. His eyes lightened to a topaz colour, but soon dissolved when his smile faded.

"Were you bit?" He asked sternly, all traces of humour had abandoned his face and left him grim and sad. I shook my head and he sighed in relief, scratching his hairless head. The bright red dots that painted his body stood out immensely on his pale skin. I reached up and brushed away a drop of blood on his cheek. He didn't have to help us. He could have left us to die, but instead he saved us. I couldn't be more grateful towards him. He smiled down at me and the light colour of his eyes suddenly returned.

"I'm Nick, and that little girl is Zoey." He explained, pointing to a small woman behind me. She was wrapped in a pink jacket with tight white pants with her dark brown hair tied back back in a tight ponytail. She looked annoyed when he referred to her as a 'little girl', but she smiled at me welcomingly. I introduced myself to the both of them and told them the names of Alan and Robyn who were both currently frozen on the spot. Zoey pulled me to the side and had me follow her to a smaller room filled with vending machines. I glanced back at Alan and saw Nick was helping him up. What if he was bitten? He was swarmed by at least four of those things, there's no way he would have been able to fend them all off. Or am I just underestimating his strength? Considering how weak I was, who could I compare him too?

And then there's Robyn, crumpled up in a ball of blood, sweat and tears. The situation must have just dawned on her, as it had for me more than once. It clearly hit her hard though, I only got a small glimpse of her tear stained face before they both disappeared from sight. Zoey sat me down on a chair and retrieved a small red box from one of the many cupboards. She pulled out a needle and thread and went to work on my head wound. It must have been worse than I thought when I heard her gasp loudly. I guess with all the fear and adrenaline, the pain of the wound was the furthest thing from my mind.

"So have you tried calling the police?" I asked when she finally stopped talking about her medical degree, and how I was in good hands.

"The phone lines have been down for hours. We tried to get a signal on the TV but we only managed to see about three minutes of what was happening." She explained, cutting the thread and washing the sharp hook under a tap. "It's some sort of disease. The people outside are infected with it, obviously." She continued but stopped when the others walked in the room.

"Are either of you injured?" she asked, keeping her voice low and warm. They both shook their heads and sat down in one of the many chairs in the room. "Anyway, as I was telling Melody, the news reporter said that whatever this was, it was worldwide. The only advice he had for us was to stay in doors and not let anyone in who appears sick." She dabbed the back of my head with a warm cloth that soaked up the remaining blood. I thanked her and buried my face in my hands before they could see the tears that were about to escape.

"So none of you are bitten or nothin' right?" Nick asked, looking at each of us carefully. It was clear he didn't trust us. I didn't blame him. If I was in his position I wouldn't trust us either. I looked at Alan and Robyn for confirmation and shook my head at him.

"So how do we get out of here?" Alan asked abruptly, standing up from his chair and walking over to me. He didn't look at me but I could tell he had something to say to me, something important.

"What? You wanna leave?" Zoey asked, disbelief painting her face. Alan sat down next to me and curtly nodded his head. "But you just got here! I mean we have plenty of food and water and we're safe!" She exclaimed, still shocked that he wanted to leave. I looked at him curiously, wondering what his motives were. When he caught my gaze he just smiled and returned his attention to Zoey.

"I just think that we should find out what this is. What's happening, you know? I mean we've been on a plane so we have no idea what's been happening back here. And you two don't seem to know much," he explained, gesturing to the two of them. "Also, I don't think that door is going to hold for very long. Not with all those people banging on it." I frowned at the thought of the door collapsing under their barrage of attacks. He was right of course. All those bodies bashing themselves against the door at once. It would only be a matter of time before it was demolished completely.

I looked at Zoey and Nick, they were both frowning at each other, as if they were deeply disturbed by Alan's thoughts. I cleared my thought impatiently and resisted the urge to have an emotional breakdown. I looked over at a very silent Robyn and frowned when I saw that she was still weeping. She had placed her head on the table with her dark hair sprawled out around her. Her back rose and fell with every sob, but fortunately she was successful in muffling her cries.

Nick was the first to talk, and I have to admit that I was slightly insulted when he refused to look at us, but instead kept his eyes on the floor. "Well mate, there's a bit of a problem with that plan," he huffed, folding his arms across his large chest. Alan raised a brow and gestured for him to continue. "Your just as trapped in here, as you were out there." He said, clearing his throat countless times between his words. Looking as if someone had just slapped him across the face, Alan leaned across the round table towards him.

"What do you mean by that?" Alan asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"The only other door is in the docking bay, and its swarmed with those things." He explained with a grimace. Great! I thought sarcastically. We're just as trapped as we were before. At least this time we're vaguely safe. And we have food and water, and two other people. Being in here was definitely an upgrade from out there. Where they come out of no where and cloud you with a mass of bodies. The thought unnerved me, and I quickly shook it off, focusing my attention back on the conversation at hand.

"Look, how about we sleep tonight, and talk tomorrow?" Zoey suggested, looking at each of us for our reactions. I nodded my head slowly while Alan and Nick were reluctant to agree. Robyn was still busy with her emotions that we didn't bother to wait for her reaction. Zoey and Nick left the room mumbling something about sleeping bags.

I still couldn't wrap my head around all of this. A disease? Really? What sort of disease does something like this? Maybe this was some kind of mutation of rabies? What about the man on the plane? He wasn't bleeding. Unless the wound was somewhere under his coat. I grabbed a roll of paper towels from under the sink and started washing the blood from my head. Alan watched me carefully, as if he were studying me like an unknown animal.

"What?" I asked annoyed, raising my eyebrows at him.

"Nothing," he lied, and quickly looked away.

"No, its obviously something. So just tell me now and get it over with." I replied a little harshly. My voice sounded alot angrier than I intended it to be but I didn't bother apologising. At a time like this, manners were the least of my concern, as were many things.

"Do you blame me for what happened to Esther, Daisy and Ronnie?" He asked. I widened my eyes but looked away. The question had caught me off guard. I hated him for what happened, but did I blame him? I certainly blame him for not letting me help them, but deep down, no matter how much I tried to convince myself. He did the right thing. Even if I did jump in to save them, I probably would have just died along with them. Then why did I hate him for saving me? I was grateful towards Nick but rash and hostile towards Alan. Am I so screwed up that I don't know when someone is just trying to help me?

I looked up and saw that his eyes were thoughtful and sad. He blamed himself for what happened. Was he asking me just to make himself feel better? Or did he genuinely care what I thought about him? Either way it would probably be best to tell the truth.

"No. I don't blame you." I admitted, not entirely sure if what I was saying was entirely truthful. His eyes softened but I could tell my words didn't help to console him much. Nothing I could say would make him feel any better about what happened. Only time could help him. After a few moments of silence Zoey returned with three green sleeping bags. She handed one to each of us and told us that we should probably sleep in this room. It was the only place you couldn't hear the loud pounding on the door and moans of the infected people.

I un-rolled my bag and snuggled deep inside. The warmth and softness of the bag was the only thing that could stop me from crying. It was far too early to sleep and I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be able to even if I tried. But at least in the sleeping bag I felt safe and secure, something that even the empty warehouse couldn't provide.

Thankfully, after hours of restlessness I fell into a deep and tortured sleep.

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Chapter five! I hope you all enjoyed reading! I can't believe that this story managed to make it to number #83 on the sci-fi list!!! Thank you all so much for being such supportive readers!

Thanks for reading!