Janice and Ellie were behind me. Nick was still asleep and out of it, since Janice had stitched him up. The three youngsters, Molly, Rebecca and Sean were fearfully anxious. I could feel the tension in the quiet night air.
What happened next nearly freaked us all out. A knock came at the door. I turned to look, but couldn't see anything. I nervously contemplated on whether I should get up and go see, but Ellie put her hand on my arm, trying to stop me from getting up.
I ignored her and just calmly shook her arm away, as I moved from my seat. I looked out into the dark. I saw a man and a lady standing there. The woman turned and saw me.
"Hello... I'm Sarah... sorry... I didn't mean to trouble you or scare you all. We don't mean no harm. We just need your help... please... my son is hurt... we wondered if you could help us. We need medicine and someone who knows what they are doing... please... we... we don't want any trouble.... just help." She pleaded, but I was suspicious of anyone.
I opened the top of the window slightly and used my torch to see what they looked like. The lady had scruffy dark hair and she was with a man of medium height, but the boy wasn't there. I didn't want to trust them, but somehow she looked anxious.
"Where's your boy?" I asked.
"He's back at our campsite... it's just around here... up the road about five minutes walk away... please... can you help?" She cried.
"I'm not sure... how old is your son?" I asked wanting to see if she was telling the truth.
I wanted to know more and I thought I should ask a few questions. Perhaps, their answers would show if they were genuine people or not. I went with the flow and hoped it would work.
"He's ten years old," she answered.
"What's his name?" I asked hoping she would answer.
"It's Sam... I'm Sarah and this is my husband, George."
I smiled slightly and nodded trying to be brave.
"Okay... have you come across any of the infected?" I didn't know if this was a worthy question, but I thought I would ask anyway.
"Yes... loads actually..." she said.
"Have you killed any of them yourselves?" I thought I needed to know this answer.
"Hey... what are these questions... we are just asking for help and our boy is very ill... we are wasting time." Her husband said.
"If you want our help you must answer my questions... I don't know who you are or who you are with, so I'm not going to trust anyone until I know more about you." I stated trying to be blunt, but nice at the same time.
"Okay... yeah... we've killed lots of the infected... my wife and I... also the others we are with are very good at it lately and they have helped us to survive... but my son is weak and we don't know what's wrong with him... we just need someone else's help... someone who is medically trained or knows more about these things." George said.
"Okay... tell me... how did you kill the infected?" I asked.
"We stab at their brains and they seem to die doing that... we don't shoot though because that will attract more of them." George replied.
"Okay... how many others are in your group?" I asked hoping it weren't too many of them.
"There's another four people waiting back at our camp with our son... there's another married couple and their daughter who's only eight years old and an old gentlemen who's the grandfather," he answered.
I didn't think it was the same people that had come to the caravan earlier, but I couldn't be sure. The only way I was going to find out was if we recognised them and that meant taking a risk. It was worth asking though I thought to myself.
"Did any of your people approach us earlier?" I asked.
"No... we just saw your caravan come up here a few minutes ago... are there other people around?" Sarah asked looking at her husband at the same time.
"Yes, there were earlier... that's why we were hiding here. They seemed threatening... I think they wanted our caravan." I told them hoping to find some glimmer of panic in their faces, but they seemed more terrified at my words than anything else.
"Oh no..." George said.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked.
"Our people are waiting for us to come back... they're with our son... what if these people are... do you think they are dangerous." He asked with an anxious voice.
"I'm not sure... look... don't worry... we will help you..." I had decided they seemed genuine enough, because Sarah started to cry and George tried to comfort her by putting his arms around her.
I shut the window on the caravan door and spoke to Janice and Ellie about what we should do.
"Ellie, Janice... I think we should go and help them, but we should all go... we should all stick together." I said.
"What?... bring the kids too?" Ellie asked in a furious voice.
"Well... would you rather stay here with them?" I asked.
"Not really... I'm just not sure this is the right thing to do... what if they are lying?" Ellie asked.
"I think they are genuine and if they are... those children back there could be in danger... please we have to help them, especially as their child is sick." I looked at Janice, hoping to get her opinion.
"Lydia... Nick isn't in a fit state to go anywhere... maybe we should leave him here or at least in that cabin... what if Ellie stays there with the kids and just you and me go?" Janice asked.
"Okay... it's too dangerous for us all to go... let's leave
