Days of Decay

Chapter Thirteen

Piper whimpered and kept her hands tight around the weapon in her leg, but she made no move to get it out of her or to apprehend the girl responsible for it.

Asha stared at the girl who seemed to be frantically looking from the group to somewhere behind them. What was she talking about? Or rather who was she talking about, and why did she stab Piper?

The group were so taken aback and in shock that none of them moved, even though Piper's stunted cries filled the room.

Asha's face twisted into confusion and horror as reality set in. This girl was only around eight years old and there she was stabbing someone viciously with blood dripping from her hair. This was what the world had become. The silver lining was that she wasn't infected, but she sure acted like one of them.

"Who are you looking for? We can help you," Max said as he cautiously walked towards the situation, his hands up.

The girl wasn't having any of it. With Max's advance, she yanked the pick from Piper's thigh and motioned to throw it at him. Piper fell to the floor but kept pressure on her wound.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Max said, promptly stopping in his tracks. "We're not gonna touch you."

A tense, silent moment passed until all attention suddenly focused on the tiny pattering of feet that came from down the hall.

Immediately, the little girl's eyes widened; she almost looked guilty about what she'd just done.

In the next second, an even younger girl came into the room. She was clutching what looked like a fat, cat toy, and she went and wrapped herself around the older girl. The girl grasped the littler girl and shook her shoulders roughly.

"Look what you made me do! Don't ever do that again. When I say stay, I mean stay!" She shouted at the child.

"But I heard something, I was scared!" She spluttered, her eyes watering. The cat toy dropped from her grasp.

Asha stood transfixed on the girls who weren't even interested in the group anymore; the others went to Piper who was giving them reassurance. She was a nurse, she knew what to do with herself.

The girl was protecting the other girl. Asha understood now.

The older girl was slightly tanned and had mousey brown hair that was tucked up in a messy ponytail. She was quite lanky for her age, with long, thin legs and gangly arms. Her ears were large compared to her head and she had harsh dark circles under her pretty eyes.

The smaller girl was pale as anything with short, dark hair. She had one half of it up in a pigtail and had a long, unkempt fringe that covered her eyes. Her cheeks were rosy, and her overall body was chubby; Asha wasn't sure how.

"It doesn't matter if you're scared. You have to do as I say, you have to!" the older girl cried.

Asha could tell she was genuinely terrified for the safety of this girl who couldn't have been more than four years old. It didn't look like they were related but she couldn't say for sure; they might have been cousins.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," The littler girl whined. Her tiny, plump hands holding on to the other girl's arms as she still shook her.

"Next time, you stay in the cupboard. No matter what," The older girl ordered firmly.

She acted far more mature than her age; it came with the territory. She then turned her attention to the group again and pulled out another weapon from her trousers, a dagger. She pushed the smaller girl behind her –who promptly picked up her toy and hugged it- and held out both weapons towards the group.