Rid the People

Chapter 5

"If any of you move I'm putting a bullet through your chest, got it?" His voice was gritty and loud, cutting through the ghost-like atmosphere while Cassidy's blood pumped furiously in the midst of her panic. It rose from her feet to her head, in which she thought for a moment she would faint again, crumble pathetically on the ground below their feet.

"We don't want trouble," She found herself saying. She tried steadying her voice, despite her throat constricting. "We came here to go to our friends apartment, Matthew Woodburn and Sam Hall."

She thought if she'd given them their full names, that by miracle they would know them. But from the stern look on the leaders face, the frown on the other two behind (a man and a woman), they hadn't a clue who she was talking about.

"Tobias, they're not them. We don't have to threaten them." The girl said, stepping forward, her gun trained lazily towards the area they stood.

Cassidy felt dizzy. It took everything within her to stand rigidly on the spot, attempting to push down every molecule of adrenaline that buzzed around her head. Though given the chance, she doubt she could move. One pull of the trigger; that's all it took and everything she knew would be nothing.

"Yeah, I know," Tobias said, a low whisper. He slowly pushed down his gun, the nozzle then facing the concrete below. "Who are you, then?" He looked directly at Cassidy, then at Dan and Lizzie.

Cassidy noticed the dried, crusted blood in his matted black hair. Despite the fact they were clean with what appeared to be fresh clothes, the woman with brown hair had a slash across her cheek, while the man beside her, with thick, ginger hair, had mud on his fair-coloured eyebrow.

"I'm Cassidy." She said, still refusing to move.

Lizzie cleared her throat. "I'm Lizzie."

"Dan."

Tobias, the one with the black hair, took a step forward. He looked around first, craning his neck to see beyond the buildings that towered above them. "You better come with us, then. It's not safe to be standing here."

Cassidy could sense Dan tense from beside her, his jaw pulsating rapidly in what appeared to be him chewing on his tongue, holding back the urge to speak up. She placed a reluctant hand on his shoulder, silencing him, before stepping forward.

The two people behind Tobias had lowered their guns at once, perhaps, by miracle, not wanting to convey the wrong message.

"Will you let us continue? We need to find our friends. That's what we came here to do." Cassidy said. Did she sound calm enough? She could barely hear her own voice above the pulse in her ears, the buzzing in her skull.

Tobias shook his head. "I'm sorry, any chance of them being alive is practically zero."

Cassidy inhaled a deep breath. The image of Matthew bombarded her; he was now lying in a pool of his own blood. His vibrant green eyes use to be vast, his laugh emanating whatever room he was in. Now he was grey, dead. She thought of Sam, his brilliance, his glasses that rest atop his crooked nose, his brown eyes peering behind the lenses as if he had known exactly what everyone in the room was thinking, had the answer to everything. She imagined him with his glasses off, his lanky body soaked, like Matthew, in his own darkened blood.

Or were they roaming around, dead, like the crazy people were? Was it true what Dan had said about them being zombies, dead people who had risen to roam the world again...

Cassidy, now lost in her thoughts, had ultimately fell silent.

Dan stepped forward instead. His knuckles were in a tight ball, down by his sides. "We'll go with you. Only for about ten minutes. Then we'll leave."