Venom

Chapter Three

I awoke from my troubled sleep to hear talking around me. I groaned and rubbed my eyes as I grudgingly sat up. I couldn't sleep last night, not with the horrifying dream of watching my own friend get murdered right in front of me. Tyler's painful screams echoed in and out of my head as my brain replayed the scene over and over again, and I couldn't stop it. I couldn't save him. I couldn't do anything. I swiftly brushed my messy light blue hair out of my face. I saw Tyler, Josh, Mikey, Frank, and Brendon sitting near one of the cardboard boxes I saw earlier. Some of them were snacking on food such as crackers and cereal.

"Good morning guys," I yawned as I stood up and walked over to the bunch with my blanket.

"Good morning Jay, you're finally awake," Frank greeted me. I nodded sluggishly and sat down next to Frank and Josh. "Do you want anything to eat?" Frank questioned me.

"Yeah, I could use anything right about now," I croaked. Frank gestured to the box sitting in the middle of all of us,

"Take whatever you need. There's plenty to go around." I nodded my thanks to him and grabbed myself a pop tart out of the box. I ripped open the packaging and took a bite of the sugary goodness.

"Now that you're up Jay, we can start planning," Josh explained.

"Planning?" I asked with a tilt of my head. Josh nodded as he popped some cereal into his mouth,

"So basically we're making a survival plan. We can't leave with this radiation until some time has passed. Since it isn't directly in our city we could leave sooner. Still, the radiation never fully goes away. It will be safer to wait until it's necessary to leave than to leave now to get supplies. It seems that already we have a lot of supplies such as food, water, and lanterns." I nodded understanding what he was saying.

"Eventually we will need gasmasks, but where would we get them?" Mikey questioned. The room went silent, so silent that anyone could hear a pin drop to the floor.

"Well, I don't know. I've never seen a place that sells them. We for sure will need them though when needing. Also, we would need appropriate clothing to leave here." Josh explained.

"But what type of clothing? Hazmat suits if there are even those around here?" Brendon piped up from the back with a confused look on his face, his eyes wide. Josh nodded,

"It would be our best bet if there are any around here. If we can't find any I heard that white clothing is good," he paused thinking for a moment, "we also need to decide on a safe time on when we could leave. That is if we don't run out of materials before that time."

"Definitely over a month. With the radiation and chemicals being a few cities away it makes it dangerous for us to leave for a while, as well as other cities around here," Frank explained. I agreed. It would take ages for the radiation to lower enough for us to leave.

"At least three months," Tyler suggested, "maybe even longer, like five." Brendon looked at us all with worry filling his gaze,

"Or maybe even years!" He exclaimed, "who knows how long it takes for radiation to go away to a point where it is safe for us to leave." I shivered with the thought. How long would we even be trapped inside for, and what if we run out of materials before it is safe to leave the house? It's all so overwhelming. It's not every day that something like this happens and your whole life is changed, but here we are. Of course something like this would happen to me. I have the worst luck. Then out of nowhere the room went silent. Everyone stopped talking simultaneously. It was as if a switch had been flicked off causing everyone to stop the chatter. Noises sounded upstairs. Footsteps? No, I thought to myself it had to be something else. I listened very closely trying to figure out what the sound was. It sounded as if it were near the front door, it definitely wasn't inside of Frank's house. Then I realized what it was. It was knocking. No, not just knocking. It was banging. Screaming. I looked at the room feeling terror shake my body to its inner core. My gaze flittered to each and every person in the room until Tyler spoke up in a shaky voice,

"Should we let them in?" The room fell silent again. You would be able to hear a pin if it were dropped at that moment. Frank gulped and turned his head towards the stairs,

"Well... We could, but we would have to check who it is. You know, to make sure that it isn't one of those people." I nodded in agreement. Frank gestured with his hand for us to stand up. One by one we all got to our feet and walked to the basement steps leading to the first floor. Frank lead the way up the stairs and to the door. When we all reached the door he put a finger to his mouth hushing us. He crouched down onto his knees and peered out the peephole on the door. He then stood up and mouthed the words we're safe. He opened the door slowly to reveal a girl standing at the doorway. She had a gas mask on her face and long, messy, black hair. She was of a medium completion and had glowing green emerald eyes. Behind her, the whole outside was filled with fog. Clouds filled the sky and the sun was only just beginning to rise.

"I'm Serenity. I promise I won't hurt you. I'm not one of those monsters, I promise," the girl stuttered looking into the house. I shuddered at the way she spoke the word monsters. It was chilling like ice. Frank looked back at us and then at her. He seemed to have thought for a moment before gesturing this Serenity in,

"Come in, we musn't be exposed to radiation for too long." The girl hobbled inside and sat down as soon as she got inside the house. Frank quickly shut the door behind her. We all seemed to watch as she threw her bookbag off of her and reached inside. She pulled out something that looked to be a bandaid. She forcefully pulled up her sleeve and began to wrap it on her arm. There was a giant thin scratch on her arm that was gushing blood. That is when I noticed the dry blood on her sweatshirt. I stifled a gasp as I continued to watch. She must have sensed my worry as she quickly stuttered,

"I can explain!" Frank looked down at the girl with sympathy in his eyes,

"Don't worry. Just finish what you're doing. When you're done take a seat on the couch." She nodded and quickly finished wrapping the bandaid onto her arm. She then pulled down her sleeve and walked over to the couch. Frank and Mikey were close behind with Josh and I taking up the rear. We all found a spot and sat down onto the couch. The girl whisked a strand of hair out of her face and looked around nervously. She then let out a sigh,

"Get ready for a story full of pain and terror. What you're about to hear," she paused as her gaze darkened, "won't be a happy story with a happy ending. It's full of suffering..."