I held my torch close to my body, trying to light up the ground. I could only see a meter in front of me; everything else was pitch black. But I continued to run as fast as I could, tripping over my own feet every now and then. I didn't have anywhere else to go, let alone could see where I was going. I squinted into the blackness trying to make out the dark shadows as I sprinted past them. They lurked everywhere; dangling over my head, sometimes moving with me. But I couldn't falter now; I had to find a light. I stressed over where Greg had gone; I couldn't see anything, so there was no hope looking. I tried to think of even the slightest possibility that he made it out of the house. He must have, or my heart would be tearing into pieces. No, my brother had to be out here somewhere; alive.

I continued to run, not letting my mind remember what I was running from. I then noticed a small glow in the distance; my pace increasing. It was only a small glow that began to flicker, like it was about to fade. I tried to move my legs faster and faster along the ground when suddenly, out of nowhere, something gripped my arm. It all happened so fast; I almost screamed in horror from the blow, except a hand flew over my mouth at the same time. It held so tight forcing me to fall backwards, my feet slipping out from beneath me; my torch flipping out of my hand into the darkness. In the next second, I was on my back in the pitch black; a hand still holding shut my mouth. I closed my eyes squeezing as tight as I could, waiting for the nightmare to end. I could hear its breath, hovering over me. At that instant, I knew that was it. I would never see Greg again and that was how I would die. Lying underneath the very thing I was running from...

In that very next moment, an intensely bright light approached; I heard its breath gasp. The hand suddenly vanished from my face. I jumped up quickly, retrieving my torch from the ground and ran to the light. My heart continued to pound out of my chest as I reached the light's glow. It was a large red jeep; search lights all around. It began to slow down as I ran to the passenger door and jumped in, not thinking about anything else but the light. The car suddenly accelerated throwing me back into the seat. I grabbed the seatbelt and clicked it in as fast as I could, while trying to stop myself from being thrashed around. I glanced to my side and noticed it was man driving, maybe in his late fifties. His face was one of a complete stranger; a ragged red beard covering most of it. He must be from a different hide out that we didn't know of. I could tell we weren't on a road, as the thrashing became more violent. The search lights lit up our path along the country track, leading to a place of the unknown. I gazed out of my side window, only to see more darkness lurk in every direction. I quickly looked away, staring down at my hands. I hadn't noticed it before, but they were shaking so much, I could hardly grip my torch.

We drove without a word for the rest of the night; not closing my eyes for a second. As the sun began to rise, the ground became more visible. It seemed that we were a long way from any towns or roads. We continued to travel along the bumpy surface for the rest of the day, when the jeep suddenly came to a halt. The sun was just on the horizon about to set into horror; the night. There were no trees of forests in any direction as far as I could see, so the shadows couldn't see. The man suddenly jumped out and walked to the front of the jeep. He bent down so I couldn't see him, appearing again not a minute later. I wondered what he was doing, but held my tongue as he got back in his seat. He slowly edged the car forward when the bonnet fell down, what seemed to be a hole. The man continued to inch the car forward until the whole jeep was facing down what looked like a metal shaft of some kind. It was a ramp into a square hole aiming underground into darkness. I suddenly realised I was being tricked into a trap. I hurriedly reached for my seatbelt trying to yank it free from the clip to escape. The man's hand caught mine before I could open the door and run.

"It's all right," he spoke in a deep croaky voice. "It's not what you think. We just don't have enough power to light everything up down here. I'm Bruce by the way."

I looked into his eyes for any sign of attack, but he seemed too friendly to be one of the darkness. Could this really be another hide out of humans? I thought ours was the only one left.

The Jeep continued to follow the ramp downwards towards the Earth's centre. After a few minutes, the slope suddenly ended. It levelled out to a flat surface, lit up by two dangling lights in the centre of the metal room. I turned in my seat to see a large metal door closing off the shaft behind us, probably my only exit out of here. Bruce turned off the jeep and jumped out. He moved around to the back and grabbed out what looked like travelling suitcases. I stayed sitting in the car watching carefully for any abnormal movements. He walked over to the only other door at the end of the room in front of the car. He turned around; surprised I was still in the same place he had left me. He gestured for me to follow him; another convincing human trait.

I gathered my thoughts and decided it would be best to get out of the car and follow him. He seemed human enough to me. As I followed the man through the door, I noticed the he was quite tall, having to duck as he walked. The door opened to a small hallway with another door at the end. We continued to walk through multiple doorways every twenty metres or so. Once the doors closed behind me, Bruce would pull out his key and deadlock every door. There was definitely no chance of me escaping now. It seemed like we had walked through at least twelve doors before the hallway opened out to a large circular room. From there, were seven small arches leading in different directions. Without hesitation, Bruce continued on walking through the far left archway, carrying his luggage. After a small amount of time, it opened out to another circular room. However, this one was much bigger and full of people.

As I entered, I heard a few gasps around the room, but the noise level seemed to be silent. I gazed around with gaping eyes at each human. There were so many, at least fifty. Bruce dumped his bags down on a table in the centre of the room and started unpacking. At that moment, most of the humans seemed to forget about me, drawing their attention to what looked like food, which Bruce handed out from his bags. He must have been sent out to gather food when he found me. Few other people lingered where they were, watching me with cautious eyes. I continued to watch Bruce, as he was approached by another man; who looked to be in charge.

"What's the news?" the man asked Bruce in a whisper; the only sound in the room.

I was so use to listening for even the slightest crack of a twig at night that I could hear his whisper from across the room.

The others continued to reach for the bags of food, while Bruce and the man moved away to the side for privacy. The man wore dirty blue jeans like Bruce, with a grubby shirt. He didn't seem as old as Bruce, but a lot scarier. I moved closer so I could hear their conversation properly.

"The sun just set. But it's getting worse, day by day," Bruce informed the man, shaking his head. "The food is getting scarce. I'm surprised I even found someone alive, she was lucky that one," Bruce nodded to me, while the other man still just stared. "She looks to be only 14 or so."

Bruce half smiled and winked at me. I could tell the other man wasn't one to smile, so I took no offense to his gawking. Bruce guessed my age exactly, but what did that matter. Where was my brother, Greg? I knew that this moment might be my only chance to save him.

"We have to find my brother," I told the men, in a loud clear voice.

The whole room turned their heads in my direction. They seemed shocked at my level of tone as they mustn't speak any louder than a whisper down here. They all continued to stare, wide eyed. I had to try again; maybe they didn't hear me clearly. Maybe they would help if I could just show them our hideout. We had people too.

"We have to find Greg!" I yelled out to everyone this time. I could see the horror cross their faces as I yelled out. They definitely knew I would draw attention from the outside. But I knew this was the only to tell them. "You're not the only ones, we have a hideout too," I spoke directly to Bruce and the man.

I couldn't compose my emotions as they overflowed. I burst into tears and collapsed into a ball on the ground. I felt an arm squeeze me around the shoulders, hugging me.

"You must be silent," a higher pitched voice whispered in my ear. I could tell it was a woman. "Everyone's dead, we're all that's left. Don't let them hear you."

I could feel my body shaking beneath her arm. I felt the shivers run up my spine as I sobbed in hysterics. We had a hide out, and my brother was there. I was his only chance of survival; he was only ten years old! Then, without warning, everything went pitch black.

And that's when the screaming started.