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Hiding

Joseph lit the candle. It was pitch black. He walked into the kitchen and searched through the pantry. It was filled with several weeks’ worth of empty cans. He turned around and looked at the others. They were beginning to get hungry, and he feared that something bad was going to happen.

After several minutes of rummaging through the empty cans, he found one new can of ravioli. There was no electricity, so it had to be eaten cold.

“I found a can of ravioli.” Joseph said, as he walked into the other room.

“How do we disperse it?” A woman asked.

“We’re not dispersing it, Rebecca! I’ve given up my share too many times! I think I deserve it!” A man shouted, jumping to his feet.

“You don’t get it all, Jesse. There’s not much, so we each get a bite.” Joseph said.

“Aw, come on!” said Jesse, angrily.

“I think the children should get some first.” Rebecca said.

Jesse rolled his eyes and kicked the table, walking away.

“If you want food, you can go find some.” said Joseph.

“You know what?! I can’t take this anymore! I think I will go. I’m going to check the other apartments.” screamed Jesse.

“Be quiet!” Joseph whispered. “They’ll hear us!”

“Who cares?!” Jesse screamed. “You can all die for all I care! I’m getting out of this shithole!”

Jesse stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. Everyone stood paralyzed in fear. Joseph’s eyes darted around the room, between the doors and the windows. He reached into a kitchen drawer and rested his hand on a gun.

After several minutes, everyone ran to the window. They looked down and saw Jesse crouch behind a car. He looked around before quickly running across the street. He went into the building across the street. Everyone looked around the building, trying to spot him in a window. Finally, after several minutes of searching, Joseph saw him. He was walking around inside a room. Jesse walked up to the window with a can of food, and stuck up his middle finger at Joseph.

Suddenly, Jesse spun around. He held the can close and slowly stepped farther into the apartment, to a point where no one could see him. It was quiet for several seconds, and then blood splattered all over the window.

Joseph and the others quickly spun around and ducked below the window. He crawled through the room and reached up into the drawer. He pulled out the gun and held it close.

“Get away from the window!” He whispered.

Everyone quickly crawled over to him.

“Get the children. We’re leaving. It’s no longer safe here. They found him, so there’s a strong possibility that they saw him leave here.”

“But where will we go?” another man asked.

“There’s a market down the road. We can hide there, and hopefully there will be food left.” Joseph replied.

He grabbed the can of ravioli and headed for the door with his gun.

“I’ll go first, and make sure it’s safe.” Joseph said.

He hid behind the wall, took a deep breath, and then slowly opened the door. When it was open to a point where he could see out, he began to crawl out. He peered around each way.

Everyone sat in the room, frozen. They were waiting for several minutes, before Joseph rushed back and said “Let’s go. It’s safe, but I don’t know for how long.”

They all ran out of the apartment and headed for the end of the hallway. Joseph ran ahead again and stopped by the corner. He peered around.

“Shit!” He said, backing away from the corner. “There’s one at the end of the other hall.”

He checked the gun to see if it was loaded. When it was, he jumped around the corner, only to find the vampire was right there. Its putrid breath hit his face like a wave. It snarled and revealed its fangs. Blood covered its teeth. It punched him in the chest and sent him flying into the wall. It dove at him, but saw the others, and stopped. It looked down at one of the children and charged.

When it lifted the child up, the front of its face exploded. Joseph was standing behind the vampire with his gun raised. He fired several more bullets into it. Blood sprayed everywhere. Rebecca took the child and made sure he was okay as the vampire collapsed.

“Go, go, go!” Joseph yelled!

Everyone began running down the hall. They reached the door and ran out into the alley. Joseph led the way around and they finally reached the store. They ran forward and threw the door open, leaping inside the store. Joseph told them to board up the windows and doors.

They all began stacking things in front of the windows and they put a pole through the door handles. Joseph headed to the back of the store with several other people and began grabbing garden equipment for protection.

Joseph headed to the back of the store. He went into the EMPLOYEES ONLY area. He crept slowly forward. There was a clicking noise, and someone said “Move and you die.”

There were people surrounding him with guns and crossbows.

“I’m on your side.” Joseph said.

“Yeah, we’ll see.” The person said. “Now take us to the others.”

Back in the front of the store, Joseph walked out of an aisle. Rebecca turned to say something when the other people began coming out of the aisles, weapons pointed.

“Who are you?” The woman leading the other people said.

“We’re just survivors.” Rebecca said.

“Before we put down our weapons, we’re going to check you. If any of you are showing symptoms of changing, we won’t hesitate to kill you.” The woman said.

They began walking towards Joseph and his group. They checked their eyes, and searched for any visible cuts. When they came out clean, the woman lowered her weapon and held out her hand to Joseph.

“My name’s Kate.” She said.

Everyone else lowered there weapons and introduced themselves. Their names were Jessica, Scott, Austin, Taylor, and Jon.

Joseph introduced himself and his group: Rebecca, Charlie, Mark, and the two children, Caleb and Tyler.

“Holy shit.” Joseph said. “You guys have a lot of weapons.”

“Yeah.” Said Kate. “We’ve been searching and created a large collection. We have even more firepower in the back. Come with us. We’ll give you guys some good guns.”

They followed her into the back. When they got there, there were machine guns, pistols, knives, and pretty much anything that can cause damage.

“Holy crap!” Joseph said, staring in awe. “You guys are seriously dangerous.”

“We’ve found, that to survive, you need this many weapons.” Kate replied. “Now come on, pick your weapons.”