Breathing the Dead ~ H.S

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO: BREAKDOWN

A/N: Next chapter is here :)

We've been hiding in quarantine for just over a month. Mason, Annalise & I always made sure that we stuck together; whether we were settling down to sleep or just going to get lunch. The chief officers gave us updates on the apocalypse regularly, and it only seemed to be getting worse. Most officers who went out to look for supplies never made it back. And whenever a search was launched for our missing peers, all you'd get out of it was the fact that whoever you were searching for was either never found, dead, or one of the undead walking around.

My mother isn't here. I've never stopped looking for her ever since I arrived here - but despite how many citizens are stuck in this cramped little police station, I'm sure I would've found her by now if she was here - and I get more and more worried every day. All I could do was pray to God every night that she was safe - because I've been at the station long enough to conclude that she didn't make it here when this whole thing started.

Our base wasn't very well organized at all. Meal times were erratic, there was no order in the bathroom lines at all, and you had to change where you slept every night. We were all getting sick of it - sometimes I feel as if I'd be better off taking care of myself outside - amongst the biters. It honestly doesn't sound too hard for me; I'm more than capable of taking care of myself, and zombies are slow and dumb. All you gotta do to get rid of them for good is get them in the head with anything.

But what do I know? Maybe it's harder than it sounds.

Lately, I can't shake off the feeling that this survival base is going to break down any day now. The stuff that guy said on my first night here never left my mind. I knew he had a point - out of all the zombie movies & games & shows I've seen, large survival bases never lasted long. But all that stuff was fiction - people actually didn't know anything about zombie apocalypses because they've never experienced it. All they do usually is take the basic knowledge of an apocalypse and create drama with it. But this was real. Maybe in real life...big survival bases can last a while.

Actually, speaking of that guy, I haven't seen him in ages. Well...I have - I've seen him getting lunch a few times I suppose, but we haven't properly spoken since our first night in quarantine. And to be perfectly honest, I haven't even caught a glimpse of him for a couple of days now. I wonder what happened to him?

Probably nothing. After all, there are so many people here that the only ones I always know the location of are Mason and Annalise. As for everyone else...well...frankly I don't really care. Surely he's around here somewhere. I was curious about him - he had this sort of mysterious vibe, and I wanted to see more of him. Wait - that came out wrong. Well, whatever. I'm sure you know what I mean.

My point is; I kinda wanted to get to know him more.

So anyway - here I was, eating from a can of fruit salad while resting my head against Mason's shoulder. Annalise sat by us; silent and hardly interacting. The poor girl. She was still trying to recover from the trauma she suffered during her parents' deaths.

"Attention! Attention, everyone!" Chief Officer Samuel King was saying over a megaphone.

Everyone's attention was immediately turned to him.

"Over the past couple of days, a whole group of survivors has escaped from our base," he paused as several gasps and mutters rose up from the crowd, "nobody knows why on earth this group would choose to leave the safety of our quarantine to live amongst the walkers, but that's their decision," he cleared his throat before continuing, "though we still haven't finished collecting names, escapees included: Vivienne Greene, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Hailee McDermott, and Harry Styles."