36 Confessions

A lone bus was travelling through the road ploughing its way through a barren road filled with undead and deserted vehicles, their owners either dead or hiding away somewhere from the bloodthirsty zombies.

The group of teenagers inside the bus were quite relaxed as they chatted casually to pass their time.

"Jason comes with me for a moment," Arya asked as she indicated him to come with her to the back of the bus to have a private chat.

"Moving quite fast you two eh!" Harry teased with a face accent as he wiggled his eyebrows at them in a suggestive way.

Arya and Jason showed him the holy finger as they moved to the back of the bus.

"Yo couldn't resist for any longer" Jason teased but his voice sounded a bit fake as if he was putting up a front.

"Cut the crap" Arya looked at him fiercely.

"What did you do to put you in such a state.?" She composed herself as she asked him in a concerned way. He had been acting weird ever since he came back from his tip the washroom in the school. He was trying his best to cover it up but he could not hide it from her and Aiden, Aiden just thought that her brother was worried about the apocalypse so she did not ask. And Harry was one of the most intelligent people she knew but when it came to reading people he becomes a dumbasss. Kim did not know him enough to notice his odd behaviour.

Back then when he asked to go to the bathroom she kind of knew that he was going back to deal with Jack. She knew that he was fiercely protective of his loved ones so he would not calmly sit back as someone hurt Aiden.

"I-I" The fake joyous look he had on his face broke into pieces as a devastated look overcame his face.

"I threw him at a group of Zombies…" His face grew more devastated as he continued talking.

"I walked away before I could see the result but I-I can hear the sound of his screams and flesh being torn off by the zombies in my mind it keeps ringing in my mind," Jason said as he almost broke down. He was just a normal teenager who would go to school regularly and would always fantasize about being the protagonist in an anime. The act of doing such a thing made him doubt his own humanity. First, he killed a lot of people by the grenade he threw at the stronghold Kim was being kept in and then he used his own hands to shoot a man to death. And finally, he threw a guy who was smaller than him in age at a group of bloodthirsty zombies to be ripped apart by them piece by piece. He did not even think of himself as a human he might as well be a demon in human skin.

Arya's eyes widened as she heard him. She could not believe that he could do something like that. She had thought he would hurt the guy or at his wost just shoot him down. But for him to do this was shocking. But she kept all of it inside for now, right now she had to handle this situation calmly and make him feel better and not take any drastic measures.

Arya put her hands on his shoulders causing him to look at her, She looked at him right in the eyes as she asked him.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"No " Jason denied fiercely.

"Why did you do it?" Arya asked another question.

"If I had not come in time Aiden would have been eaten alive by the zombies because of his selfishness and his greed," Jason replied.

"Do you regret it?" Arya asked again.

"I don't regret killing him but I regret not killing him directly" Jason replied with a definite look on his face. He would kill Jack all over again if he could go back in time and change his decision but he would give him a swift death instead of falling prey to his emotions and doing what he did to him.

"Then I'll reply with the same words you said to us. The world has changed and there is no place for unnecessary kindness. He deserved death for harming Aiden. Your way of killing him was cruel but he did deserve it." Arya consoled him but then her voice turned soft as she said something that made him stare at her.

"The Jason I knew was a silly otaku and an intelligent engineer at the same time. He was fiercely protective of his loved ones. He would get into fights if someone said something bad to us. He would do silly car tricks which would make me look at him with adoration while thinking in my mind ,how could I fall in love with such a dumbass. Sometimes he would go on and on about anime as I looked at him with a blush on my face." Arya said with a soft smile on her face.

"I know that we need to change to adapt to this new world, we need to become selfish and clever but is it necessary to be cruel?" Arya asked no one in particular.

"Maybe I'm Naive to think this but I don't want you or me or anyone in our group to become cruel just to survive"

" I still want us to have a true love story in this messed up world… Maybe I'm Naive to think this as it's not known whether we might live long enough to see tomorrow… But at the same time, I want us to grow old together even if this world around us turns in to a living hell"

Arya had tears in her eyes as she poured out her heart in front of him. Jason was dumbstruck for a second before he moved forward and pulled her in a bear hug.

"I freaking love you"Those words came straight out of his heart.

"And you are right he did deserve it but I won't ever be cruel again in my life not until I absolutely have to be."

" And I will become strong enough that even god would not be able to harm my people"

Jason said as his eyes were lit up with the fierce desire to be strong.

"You'll be a dumbo forever" Arya felt like Facepalming but she did not want to get away from his warm embrace. She wished that time would stop at this very moment keeping her in his warm embrace forever.