The Purple Haze by Gary Richardson

looked at them. As he looked, he could see that they were just as confused as he was about the situation. He had thought that everyone was dead, and then he had met Mike. No doubt the thieves had thought in the exact same way. He felt kind of smug inside, seeing them completely bewildered and disorganised when he and Mike ambushed them. He quickly shook this feeling off though, as self-pride in this job could quickly get you killed. He sized them all up, thinking which one would most likely pose the most threat to him in a fight. Two were of medium build, one with dark hair, one blonde. The third was taller and more built than the other two. This had to be the leader.
    James pointed his MP5 at him. “You,” he said, “what's your name?”
    “ Martin,” the thief said.
    “ Are you the leader of your crew?”
    Martin looked up at him. “You could say that, but being leader isn't going to help much now, is it?”
    James nodded his head, contradictory to what Martin had said. “It won't help you,” he said, “but it's definitely going to help me. I'm going to ask you some questions, and you are going to give me answers.” James motioned towards the counters. “Now, we've already spoken to your ginger nut friend in there, and he's told us a whole lot about what's happened here. He's actually pretty nice, really keen to talk. Told me the built fellow with the shaved head made him do it. Now, I want you to tell me what happened.”
    Martin knew James was bluffing. He felt like he was trying to get him to tell him something about the fog as though he actually knew something about it. Martin's first thought was of Colin
    “ How is Colin?” he asked James.
    “ He's alive at least. He killed a bank clerk, so he's in some serious trouble for that.”
    “ What? How do you know he killed him?” said Martin, unable to believe that Colin would do that to someone.
    “ Well, he's got three bullet holes in his chest and he certainly didn't do that to himself.”
    Martin felt bad. Nobody on his team had ever killed anyone. It was a rule of the crew. Only injure if you have to, never kill. He looked James in the eyes. “Maybe he did kill him, but let's cut the bullshit. What the hell is going on here?”
    James lowered his gun and stared at him. He didn't even feel the need to carry on the bad cop act. It was obvious these men were just as clueless as him. He was about to say something when a gut wrenching scream suddenly broke the air. He shone his torch in the direction of the scream. The dark haired thief, who had been sat closest to the dead people, was the one that was screaming. James didn't know what to make of what he was seeing. He stood dumbfounded at the sight in front of him blinking repeatedly as though trying to get his eyes to focus properly. He saw that the dead woman was somehow moving and had taken hold of his leg, and had then bitten clean into his flesh, right through the boiler suit.
    Martin saw the scene in the glow of the flash light. “Dave!” he yelled. The woman pulled her head up, taking a chunk of Dave's calf with it. The meat clung to the leg with strands of meat that snapped back as they broke like elastic bands being stretched beyond their limits. Dave yelled and writhed in agony on the ground as the woman began chewing the flesh, the blood dribbling down her chin and dripping onto her already stained top. James just stared in shock. It took him a moment to digest in his head what was happening. It was Martins voice that snapped him out of it.
    “ Help him!” Martin yelled with a tone deep concern in his voice. James quickly moved over to the woman and kicked her to the floor. He grabbed hold of Dave and pulled him backwards away from her, a trail of blood forming as his leg dragged across the floor.
    James saw Martin and Gaz trying to move away from the scene. He nodded to Mike and the two of them pulled the thieves up off the floor so they walk away from the woman. “Mike, put pressure on