It was still early evening when the art collective settled down for the night in the squat. Blankets were distributed and I found a spot to lie down in. Most of the group seemed to be emotionally spent, and so talk quickly ceased. Outside was mainly quiet, but every now and again there would be a disturbance that would rouse people from slumber. My own sleep was fitful. Too many new experiences, images and unwanted memories intruding into my thoughts.

It was just before midnight when we heard the loud hammering at the door. We listened quietly in the dark. It was Mina who stood first and she laid her hand on my arm.

"Come with me?" she asked

I nodded and reached across for my hammer. A couple more of the group followed behind, and we descended the stairs as noiselessly as we could.

The hammering on the door continued. Mina stood against the solid wooden door which had neither windows, letter box or peephole. We listened to the hammering which slowly abated. In the silence we could hear someone weeping on the other side of the door, and then very faintly someone saying the word please.

I could see Mina scrunching up her face as she tried to process the voice, and then her features softened as recognition dawned on her. She turned to us.

“Its Alistair!”

She kept the security chain connected to the front door as she slowly opened it.

“”Alistair”, she called out gently.

“Mina! Thank God. Please let me in. I’m hurt."

I reached out to Mina, and put my finger to my lips. I then spoke out to Alistair.

"How are you hurt, Alistair?"

"I’ve been bit", he said. "It hurts so bad."

Mina went to remove the chain.

"Wait", I said. "We all know what happens when someone gets bit."

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"From the movies", Mina said. "But what if it’s not like the movies. What if not everyone turns?"

I immediately thought of the young man outside the store that I had bludgeoned to death after he had been bitten. Mina reached up for the door chain, but this time I did not stop her.

Alistair stood on the other side of the door. He was ghostly white and held his arm close to his chest. Mina guided him in and shut the door behind him.

We took Alistair upstairs and the rest of the group were already awake. Someone grabbed water and others grabbed a spare blanket that was torn into strips, and Alistair removed his jacket. The wound was open on his forearm and the flesh was marbled around the bite wound.

Mina dampened a strip of the blanket and lightly pressed it against the wound, and then removed it so that someone else could then bind the open wound with another strip of material.

"What happened?", someone from within our group asked.

"I was in our squat, and one of them things just crashed through the window", Alistair said.

Mina turned to me. "Their squat is in a basement."

"This thing just attacked everyone there. We couldn’t fight it off. We had no weapons. It got everybody. I tried to help, but when I got bit too I managed to get to the door, and closed it behind me."

Mina listened and said “Everybody?! Suzie? Erika? Annabelle? Phillip?"

Alistair sat and heaved a huge sigh. “Everybody."

We lowered him down on to his back. His brow was fevered and so we pressed down a wet cloth. Mina said that she would take the first watch and we would switch hourly. She laid a hand on my arm and told me she would call me if she thought my help would be needed. I laid myself down, my hand clutching the hammer beneath the blanket, and when sleep tugged at my eyelids I gladly slipped into the blackness.

I don’t know whose watch it was when he turned, but when it happened it was with a savagery and suddenness made even worse, if possible, due to the confined enclosed space where we all were sleeping.

My mind awoke to the sound of screaming. The smouldering candle was now out and a thin wisp of smoke drifted up from where it had been knocked over. And with the curtain drawn too the room was now in pitch blackness.

All I could hear was screaming and the scrabbling of multiple people blindly moving in the dark. I remained still and clutched the hammer tighter. Someone made it to the curtain and pulled it down.

It was still night time outside, but there was some moonlight. The darkness lifted from the room only slightly, but it was just enough for me to discern silhouettes if not the actual individuals. Now I had my bearings I moved quickly backwards until I was up against a wall. I heard more screams as one silhouette moved from one space to another. As it crossed the window there was enough light to identify the individual. It was Alistair, or at least the zombified version of him.

He launched himself at an individual cowering in the dark on their feet in front of me, and when I heard her scream I knew it was Mina. Alistair bore down on top of her, but Mina had brought her knees up to her chest, and so far Alistair could not close in for the bite. I stepped forward raised my hammer and struck down with all my might.