The woman turned back to her husband. “Don’t you dare embarrass me like that.” She stuck her hands on her hips. “In front of people that we’ve only just met too!”
Michal’s face turned from being all taught and screwed up, to a slightly rosy colour in an instant. His arms now hung limply at his side while he listened to the telling off from his wife.
The lady finished up, and turned back to Steven and Emma, both of whom had been silently watching his dressing down. “I really am sorry about that.” She coughed. “We got off on the wrong foot there.” She stepped forward. “I’m Shirley and you’ve already met my husband Michal…”
Emma smiled at the woman. “Please, don’t worry about it. This whole situation is crazy and we’re all a little on edge… It’s nice to meet you. I’m Emma and this is my husband Ste…”
She was cut off mid-sentence by a blood curdling scream that came from behind her and some way across the field.
Everyone quickly turned to the source of the sound, to check out the cause of the scream.
Steven was the first to speak. “What is, what’s that going on over there? Everyone seems to be running this way!”
It was no longer just the first scream. The almost tranquil sound of wild meadow had been replaced by a loud panic, that had erupted at the far end of the field. People were running as fast as they could in every direction, including that of the small group.
Emma grabbed her husband’s arm. “I don’t like this. It’s almost as if they’re being chased!”
Shirley stepped forward just in front of the pair. She squinted as she tried to make out what has happening. “She’s right they are being chased. There are more people there than there were on the bus… Oh my god! They’re, they’re attacking them! What are they doing, are they trying to eat them?”
Michal stepped up, and while placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder gently pushed her to the side. “Don’t be ridiculous Shirley. How can they be eating them?”
She pointed. “But look.”
There were people running towards them, people trying to run in every direction. People were falling over as they ran. They were being jumped on and attacked violently. People were being tackled to the floor by the newcomers, but it seemed like a stretch to Michal to say they were being eaten.
“I don’t see it… Must be football hooligans or something.” He nodded to himself. “That must be it. They must’ve mistaken our coach as carrying a rival firm and driven us off the road and now they’re attacking.”
Shirley looked at him gobsmacked. “What are you on about? There isn’t even any football on today.”
Michal grabbed his wife’s arm. “Whatever. All I know is this place isn’t safe, we should get away while we still can.” He spun them both around and started jogging towards the treeline.
Emma and Steven were still standing there, just watching on, as if enthralled by the ensuing chaos unfolding before their eyes.
Suddenly Emma snapped out of it and gave her husband’s arm a sharp tug. “This isn’t safe. We need to get out of here.”
He didn’t need any convincing. “We do.”
The pair turned and followed Shirley and Michal in running towards the treeline.
The four of them soon came to an abrupt halt. They had spotted slightly scruffy looking young man. He’d come running out from the treeline. He was wearing a small black backpack and waving his arms frantically. He started to shout at them.
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“No! No! No! No! Keep Running! Keep Running! Don’t stop!!”
No one seemed to quite know what to do.
Michal grabbed Shirley by the wrist. “He could be with those hooligans! We can risk it let’s go.” He pulled her to the right and the pair started running.
The man that appeared from the treeline, had now stopped. He was still frantically waving his hands. “No! You don’t want to go that way!!”
Michal and Shirley paid him no attention. If anything, they sped up.
Emma and Steven seemed to be frozen to the spot while they contemplated their next move.
The man switched his focus to the pair. “Hey, hey! This way. Hurry!!”
Emma turned to her husband. “What do you think?”
“We don’t know him, but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to follow Michal and Shirley.”
“Me either!” She pulled on her husband’s arm. “Let’s go.”
They started running towards the scruffy looking man. Seeing that someone had listened and was now heading towards him, he relaxed. Seeing this eased Emma and Steven’s concern about their decision.
The man had pulled a device out of his pocket. He looked concerned about what he saw. “Hurry! They’ve noticed you!!”
Emma glanced over her shoulder as she ran, to see that most of the group that had been attacking their fellow passengers at the far side of the meadow had now switched their attention to the pair. There were at least ten figures running in their direction and at least as many were chasing after Michal and Shirley.
As they drew closer to the man, he started pointing to the trees behind him. “Come on. We need to get to the treeline!”
He started to run as they reached him and the three of them together headed towards the trees.
Emma glanced at the man. She didn’t think he looked dangerous, but he seemed to know more about what was happening here. “Who are those people?”
He looked back at her as they ran. “Who? No, no. I’m afraid the questions should be what are they? The answer is, I don’t know. All I know, is they’re dangerous!”
He looked completely serious to Emma, but she couldn’t understand what he’d meant by that.
They soon reached the trees. Emma and Steven followed the mysterious man inside the wood. They ran inside only about twenty meters before he came to a stop. He leant back up against the nearest tree, blocking himself from view of the meadow. Emma and Steven followed suit.
Emma noticed the man was looking left and right, and all around their surroundings as if he was looking for something or someone. “Is everything alright? You look as if you’ve lost something.”
He stopped. “Yes… I mean no. My friend, I was hoping they would still be here, but I suppose that is too much to ask of someone I’ve just met in this situation.”
Unsure what to make of that, she decided to find out what he knew. “What the hell is going on?”
He nodded towards the meadow. “We’re in trouble if those things find us.”
“You mean those people, right?”
He slowly shook his head. “Those are not, people. You’ll just have to trust me for now, but if you get close enough… You’ll see.” The man peered out from the side of the tree. “They’re still coming.”
Emma did the same. She was just in time to catch a glimpse of two people fall in front of the second group. “Ah!” She cupped her mouth to dampen her scream. “They caught them!”
The man glanced at his device again. “I’m sorry, your friends, the ones that ran the other way… They’re dead.”
Emma’s gaze shot back to the man. “What do you mean, dead? How can that be? How could you know from here?”
“I can see on this.” His held up the device. “But we don’t have time to discuss this.” He glimpsed around the tree’s edge again. “Still coming, but they’ve slowed down. We better decide what to do quickly… Do either of you have any weapons?”
Emma and Steven looked at each other, before turning back to the man, shaking their heads. Emma answered. “We were on a bus journey, we we’re on our honeymoon before we ended up here… There’s no way we’d have any weapons with us!”
The man nodded slowly. “Right of course, not. Why would you… So, you’ve only just got here?”
Steven scratched his head as if thinking, before answering. “A couple of hours at most.”
“Right, not long enough to find any of the bags, not if you just stayed in that clearing… There would more than likely only have been one, if that.” The man sounded almost as if he was talking to himself. He caught himself and looked at the pair. “Sorry… That’s ok we’ll just have to try and get away without being spotted again. Oh, I haven’t even told you my name yet. I’m Blake by the way.”
Emma laughed. “That’s perfectly understandable under the circumstances. I’m Emma.” She pointed to Steven. “And this is my husband, Steven.”
Blake nodded. “Good to meet you both.”
“So, what should we…” Emma was interrupted by the sound of branches breaking.
Blake glanced around the tree. “Oh, shit they’re in here. No time. Run!”