Chapter Four

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Hallo! [: 
I apologise for this but I've gone back to the other chapters and edited some stuff I wasn't happy with, I also added another point of view but nothing that changes the story and so feel free to ignore the changes ha. Thank you for reading & hope you like, ish.
G'bai. :)


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CHAPTER FOUR

Half an hour later, I saw hell for the first time in my life.
I had never believed in any Gods or devoted myself to a religion, despite the fact my mother and father were both firm preachers. To me, the idea was too far fetched and although my heart ached wishing for something after life, my head couldn’t quite catch up with it. That was me though; never believing something until I saw it, which is probably why I was finding it so hard to believe in the reality of this ‘virus’.


 Nonetheless, ‘hell’ was the only word I could use to describe what I saw within the petrol station; it simply did not belong on earth, let alone ten feet away from us. It was then all my doubts were put to rest, whether that was a good or bad thing, it happened.


‘Want me to run in and pay?’ Keith offered, regarding the petrol, ‘It’s the least I can do for you guys’.
‘No, it’s really oka-‘
‘Sir’, he cut back to my father, ‘You may have saved my life and for that, I need to repay you. Let me get this, it’s nothing’.
Dad simply nodded with a small smile, winking towards Lucas and I. ‘I like that kid’.
‘Yeah, me too’ Lucas grinned back, not surprising me at all. For the last hour, Keith and himself had been chatting as we all drifted in and out of sleep, each offering to drive, each being turned down. For a while, everyone apart from Keith, Dad and I were asleep and I found myself in an easy conversation with the boy next to me, laughing together easily. I found out who he was rather than just the stranger who had hitched a lift in our car, I knew a little from his story and I suppose I gave away a little of mine, whatever that was. Mum and Joel had both woken up only minutes after the car had gone silent for at least the fifth time and we managed to keep Joel busy, playing endless games of ‘I spy’ to keep his questions firmly within his head. Nobody was quite ready to confront any situations yet.


‘Mum, I’m hungry’ Joel whined, hugging her leg tightly. Honestly, I was kind of glad he’d said something – I didn’t want to be completely irritating and ask for food but nobody had eaten in over 24 hours and I imagined we were all pretty hungry.
‘I know baby’, she smiled, pushing his hair out of his eyes, ‘wait till we’re all back in the car then how about we get out the munchies?’
Joel whooped and began to skip round our legs, before he stopped dead in his tracks when we all heard the most bloodcurdling shriek coming from the petrol station. It sounded almost inhuman, someone would have to be in the most paralysed state of fear to release a scream quite like that – that’s why I froze.
‘Oh shit’ Dad muttered as he began to jog towards the small building.
‘Chris!’ Mum shouted after him, taking a few steps towards the petrol station before she turned to us and cursed, enveloping Lucas, Joel and I in a tight embrace.
‘Help!’ a feminine shriek erupted from the building, sending shockwaves through my body. This wasn’t happening.
What wasn’t happening?


Suddenly, as quick as the noise had started, it ended with an eerie silence; only heavy breathing could be heard among our small cluster of family. There was no way we could see what was happening, the petrol station building was about twenty five feet away but shelves almost completely covered the large windows, blocking our view.
‘What’s happening?’ I whispered, reaching for my mothers’ hand – her palm was sweating profusely, she was just as terrified as me.
‘I don’t kn-‘ 
In a millisecond, there was a deafening crash as glass shattered from the station, sending miniscule shards everywhere. I barely noticed though, my eyes were focused on my father and Keith who were sprinting from the door, a wild look in their eyes.
‘Get in the fucking car!’ Dad screamed to us, gesturing wildly with his hands. I wasn’t sure how to react, but my heart was hammering with adrenaline pumping through my veins, so I sensed the urgency and began to dive towards the car with Lucas and my mother who had scooped Joel up in her arms, using her free arm to open the car door. I was slightly ahead with Lucas, who yanked the door open and shoved me into the car, knocking my head painfully on the roof. I barely noticed.
‘Step on it’ Keith panted as he reached the opposite door mere seconds after I had gotten in, Dad following close behind, both of them slamming the doors forcefully behind them.
‘Lock up’ he panted.
‘What is it, Chris?’ Mum asked, fear laced deep within her voice. Dad didn’t need to answer her though, we all saw it in unison.


From the petrol station sprinted what looked like a man in uniform, running from something. It was soon clear that wasn’t the case though. As he got closer and closer in what seemed like slow motion, I began to make out the blood splashed across his body, the limp in his step, the flailing arms, the heart-stopping, terrifying expression on his face.
And then, as he approached my window, I noticed his eyes – they were completely devoid of pupils with blood tricking from the demonic whites. His expression was completely contorted with rage and I could hear his snarling even from where I was through the metal of the car, his voice carrying for many metres. Not only this, but his skin was only semi human-like, drained of most of its colour so it seemed to decay horribly, his clothes ripped and hanging limply from his frame. The skin from his jaw had been completely torn from his face, revealing a set of bloody teeth, jagged and threatening.


It was then that I truly believed in whatever had been on that tape, whatever was going on around us, the ‘hell’ which had been described to me thousands of times before.
Because now, it was standing right beside me, hammering on the window so hard I could see cracks forming.
‘Dad!’ I screamed, absolutely petrified at the close proximity of this monster, man gone crazy, whatever the hell he was.. The car was our haven, if we didn’t leave in seconds, he, or it, would get in and I could only imagine myself as the victim much like the reporter, being ripped from limb to limb. Ripped from limb to limb by whatever was stood in front of me.
‘Harley!’ Lucas and Keith both tried to yank me further from the door while Joel began to join in with my screams, my mother shouting for my Dad to hurry up.
‘These fucking keys!’ he cursed frantically, turning them again and again in the ignition. I could feel tears running down my face, contemplating death, knowing this was never how I planned to die.
How could anyone plan this?


As the man’s face grew more and more terrifying , he began to smash his head into the window, pouring blood down the glass, only slightly masking the image of a further two people running from the petrol station towards the Audi.
‘There’s more’ I breathed, and in a heartbeat they were at Mum and Joel’s window, an older female and a girl who looked only slightly older than Joel began hammering on the glass, their faces twisted in fury also, their eyes without pupils.
‘Mummy!’ Joel screamed, squirming frantically as he tried to run nowhere in particular, much like the rest of us.
‘Hallelujah!’ Dad cried as the car let out the most beautiful rumble and lurched forwards, sending the people around the car sprawling to the floor as we pulled out, falling back onto the road.
Nobody said anything for a few seconds, we were all panting so heavily that it seemed impossible anyway – there was nothing to say, nothing rational to describe what we had just witnessed, nothing which would cleanse our mind of what would surely haunt us for the rest of our lives. So many questions were being hurled around my brain, following the thumping headache which beat as quickly as my heart, hammering like there would be no tomorrow.
Were they people? Would we have tried to kill them if they had barged their way in, even the young girl?


‘What the fuck just happened?’ Lucas demanded, his voice obviously shaking, barely audible over Joel’s sobbing.
‘Sh honey’ Mum whispered, clutching Joel tightly, ‘This is all just a bad dream, you’ll wake up soon and we’ll be somewhere beautiful’.
‘Promise?’ he sniffled, twisting my heart a little. I saw a silent look pass between Mum and Dad, a look that shared fear, sadness and confusion.  I knew because it was the exact look that had passed between Lucas, Keith and I just seconds ago.
‘I promise’ she whispered, and in that moment, I wanted to be wrapped up in her arms so I could believe her.


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