“Nick! What are you doing!”
As he struck up the match the small light filled the gloomy, overcrowded room.
“Are you trying to get us killed? Put it out!”
The room returned to jet-black as the match was knocked from his hand and fell to the ground.
“Sorry, I was just wondering...” Nick trailed off, it was impossible to see his expression in the darkness.
“It’s all right, we understand.” Someone else said.
There was a noise outside, then silence within. Not a breath was drawn.
The noise shuffled away and everyone let out a slow breath of relief.
“That was too close Nick, why do you have to be so stupid! You know the rules!” was said in a sharp whisper.
We could all sense an argument starting and everyone made a muffled sound that was just recognisable as a groan.
“Soph, don’t start, nothing happened, it’s fine.” I said, Sophie had a fiery temper and if she wasn’t calmed down quickly things could get ugly.
“Rebecca, you can’t be serious! You heard that thing out there, what if it had been there a few seconds earlier? We could have been caught!”
“Yes, but it wasn’t and it’s gone now, but if you want it to come back keep this up!”
There was no reply, I could tell that she was pissed off but at least she’d shut up.

It was quiet for a long while after that, nobody had anything to say and as a general-rule we had decided not to speak unless there was something important to say.
Then a loud scratching noise was heard outside followed by a deafening crash. Everyone froze. We could hear footsteps coming towards the door. Nobody breathed. The door handle began to shake. Someone grabbed my arm with their hands and buried their head. Then the handle began to turn and it forced its way through the doorway. Light poured in, momentarily blinding our unadjusted eyes, then I could make out a silhouette of a man. The intruder was pulled to the floor and the door swung shut.
“Who are you? Why are you here? What are you doing!” There was a loud ripping sound as the invader’s clothes wear torn.
“Just checking for bugs” came the reply.
There was a huge commotion as the struggle ensued, eventually they finished their frisking and things calmed down a little.
“He’s clear.”
“Thanks Jake, sorry for all that but you can’t be to careful you know.”
“Yeah, but...”
“No, we’re gonna ask you some questions first if you don’t mind.”
Sophie took the silence as a submission, then proceeded.
“What were you doing here?”
“I was looking.”
“Looking for what?”
“Nothing just looking, looking for the sake of looking, to see if there was anything to find you know?”
“Don’t give me that crap! Nobody just goes out these days, unless they’re trying to get themselves killed.”
“What does it matter to you why I was out anyway? I was out okay! The real question is what are you lot doing in here? It’s a wonder they haven’t found you yet!”
“Shh! Or they will! We’ve been here a while, we know how to stay undetected. Just tell us what you were doing out there!”
“I’ve told you! I was just having a rummage, I’m not stupid I know how to stay undetected too!”
“Oh really is that what that crashing was, you being inconspicuous?”
“I misplaced my footing okay! But there was no one around, nothing heard me!”
“We did, scared us half to death!”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Of course she had known what he had meant, that was just Sophie, being difficult as usual.
“What’s your name?” I asked
“Axel Imler.”
“Were you with anyone else?”
“No.”
“Where are you staying?”
“Around, we move about, can’t stay in the same place to long, you know?”
“We?”
“Me and my sister, our parents were killed when...”
“I’m sorry to hear that, we’ve all suffered our losses here. What brought you to this area?”
“They’d started coming around our old place a lot recently, we thought we’d make a move before they could get around to doing a scan.”
“Where’s your sister now then?”
“Hidden. She should be safe for now but you have to let me get back to her, she’ll get herself killed if she thinks anything has happened to me!”
“Jake get him a jacket, by the sound of that “search” there isn’t much left of his.”
“Rebecca! What are you doing! We can’t let him go just like that!”
“Oh really what do you propose we do then Sophie? His sister is out there, do you want to be held responsible for anything happening to her?”
“Are you honestly turning this on me! How do you even know he’s telling the truth, he didn’t even mention her until now!”
“I don’t know if he’s telling the truth or not but what trouble is he going to cause us? Are you trying to say he’s working for them or something? I don’t think they’ve done collaborations like that before.”
“Then who’s to say they won’t? You can’t let him go Becca!”
“He’s going Soph, and that’s that. Jake a coat.”
There was a rustle of fabric as the jacket was passed to Axel.
“Really I’m okay, You keep it, I have clothes back with Ally.”
“No, you need it, you’ll freeze out there.”
“Fine.” More rustling.
“Axel?” came a voice from the corner.
“Um yes?”
“Will you and your sister be okay? You could come back here?”
There was silence but we were all really waiting for Sophie’s explosion. But there was nothing.
“Thanks but we’ll be fine, really”
There was more rustling as he stood to leave.
“Thanks for the jacket, I'll try to get it back to you.”
“Don’t worry about it, but if you need anything we’re here.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks again for the jacket.”
With that he opened the door and left. We listened for a while but it was silent.
Then things got loud.
“WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU PLAYING AT! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! Oh Axel have my jacket, I love you, HAVE MY BABIES!”
“Soph calm down, I...”
“No, Rebecca I will not calm down! You have no idea who that guy was and you just let him go! He knows where we are Rebecca! Who knows what could happen! What if he gets caught on his way back and they scan him! They’ll find us Rebecca!”
“He won’t be caught you heard how quiet it was when he left, he’ll be fine, we’ll be fine.”
“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT! And as for you Rose! WHAT KINDA SHIT WERE YOU TRYING TO PULL! You can stay here if you want Axel, YOU TWO MAKE ME SICK!”
“Sophie! Calm down now! If you don’t all you’re going to succeed in doing is getting us found! Stop, now.”
“BUT REBECCA!”
“Now!”
She stopped, but it was too late, this time there was definitely something out there, and it wasn’t Axel. A sinister clicking noise swarmed the air. They were here.
The air in the stuffy room chilled. If we thought we had known the meaning of true fear before we were now proved wrong. Then a bright white light seeped through the cracks in the door. The door opened again and we all knew this was it. A tall lean figure stood in the doorway. At first glance it might just look like any of us, but when you see them, those harsh soulless eyes, you know that all traces of humanity are gone.
The black eyes stared into the room, examining our faces.
“It’s okay,” it said, “you’re safe now.”
Then it was black again.