New group

A while ago, eight people quietly hid under an enormous shelf that had fallen over. None of them dared to make a sound as beads of sweat formed on their faces. The banging sounds of the zombies that had chased them into hiding here could still be heard but the sounds of the fighting on the other side had died down a few minutes ago yet none of them dared to come out.

They could see the fear in each other's eyes, and the occasional gulping sounds made them tensed and anxious.

"Do you think it's alright to come out now?" One of the women whispered in a hushed voice to the person close to her, she tried to make her voice as low as possible.

"I don't know. But I think it's better we stay a bit longer, it will be better to wait for the zombies outside to leave so we can go out through the front door" one of the men in a security uniform whispered in response.

" Yes, I agree with Fablo. Whatever breed of zombie that was, it is only best for us to not come across it, not to talk about whatever it was that was fighting such a thing" Another man replied in a terrified voice and the others immediately turned quiet but that was like a silent agreement between them.

The image of the ghastly zombie that was fighting Edward was still vivid in their minds, although they did not see Edward's figure clearly due to the speed of his movements, anything capable of fighting such a thing should best be avoided as well.

It was at this moment that they suddenly heard the sound of the door being forced open, they all immediately held their breath as despair appeared in the eyes of all eight of them, someone was already shedding silent tears.

They all listened carefully and realized that the door that had been forced opened was the one separating this hall and the back door, which happened to be the place they had planned to escape through but had been forced back here due to the two things that were fighting there.

The people did not know whether to cry or just be terrified. It looked like the fight was over and whatever had won had come to finish them off, too.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Sounds of calm footsteps were heard, it seemed the owner was searching around the place; most likely looking for them, they all began to pray in their hearts for whatever it was to go away.

Bang! Bang!!!!

The noise of the zombies trying to pull down the front door suddenly intensified and sounded like the number of zombies had increased by at least half. Thankfully, the shelves that they had used to hold the door seemed to still be holding on but it was probably only a matter of time before it came crashing down, only God knows if they would survive if it came crashing down or whatever was looking for them would finish all the zombies as well before leaving.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The footsteps that had stopped when the noise outside increased sounded again and it seemed to be moving closer to them, they shifted as the anxiety was making them restless.

"Umm, hell? Is there anyone here?" A male voice sounded and the expression on their faces changed a bit.

That voice clearly belonged to a human and a young man at that but none of them dared to bring themselves to answer.

Three years into the apocalypse a lot of things that did not make sense and defied logic had appeared everywhere. From strange breeds of animals and zombies to super soldiers created by the government, even plants have reached an unreasonable level of evolution. Who could tell if that was really a human or a trick of a new breed of zombie? They would rather not find out and just let it be, they were enjoying their ignorance.

The sounds of footsteps drew closer before finally coming to a stop a few feet away from the shelf that they were hiding under.

"Is there…no one here? Was…thinking too…?"

The same voice seemed to have muttered something but the voice was too low for them to make out everything it said.

They all held their breath and clenched their hands as they desperately prayed inwardly for whatever it was to go away, Fablo turned his head to look at his companion's face when he suddenly caught sight of one of the women's fingers at the edge of the shelf. It was so close to the end that Fablo believed it would easily be spotted if the owner of the voice looked over.

His eyes widened in horror and he hurriedly but quietly gestured to the owner of the fingers, the woman's eyes also widened in fright, and hurriedly retracted her fingers but she was too late as the next words they heard made them freeze from dread.

"I know that you are hiding under the shelf, I'm a human so you can come out," the voice said calmly and everyone turned to look at the woman whose fingers had most likely sold them out, she looked back at everyone with sorry and teary eyes. She knew that she would be the reason for their deaths if whatever was standing outside turned out to not be a human but she still held a sliver of hope and prayed for what the voice had been saying to be true.

Fablo, the man in security uniform and also looking to be the oldest amongst them all shook his head and muttered to his companions to come out. His reasoning was simple, they had the numbers and whatever it was outside might not be their match.

Of course, it was delusional to depend on numbers in the apocalypse especially when dealing with zombies as a single weak zombie can wipe out a room filled with people once panic broke out. But still, it was worth the try. They had already been spotted and it would be bad if they got crushed by their cover(the shelf) instead, wouldn't it be better to try fighting? And if it was really something that they could not fight, they could try running in different directions; that way, at least some of them might survive.

But still, even Fablo hoped for whatever it was that was waiting for them to really be a human.

Steeling his resolve, Fablo was the first to crawl out from under the shelf and was followed by the other seven, prepared to face whatever was waiting for them.

…..

Presently.

Edward and eight people stood facing each other, none of them said a word but Edward could see the shock and other expressions on their faces. 'What happened to them?' He wondered in his thoughts.

While Fablo and the other seven had the same thoughts.

'He truly is a human' 

But they did not know what to react with, they sure were relieved to find out that Edward was a human but the tension and anxiety from earlier made them unable to say a word for a good couple of seconds.

Someone suddenly slumped to the floor and started to sob.

Everyone looked at her and did not know how to react, the one crying was the woman whose fingers Edward had seen. The guilt that had been eating her for the past couple of seconds had finally been crushed when Edward turned out to be a human and not a zombie, she could not help but cry knowing that they were no longer in danger, for now and also knowing that she might have caused everyone's death had it been a zombie instead of Edward.

Fablo and the others looked at her with strange expressions, they too felt bad at remembering how all of them had stared at her a few seconds ago. They did not feel fit to console her after what they had done to her a few seconds ago.

Edward only stared at the sudden development in front of him, unsure of what to do or say. Heck, he did not even know what was going on with them!

Fablo was fast to come to his senses and turned to Edward, he observed Edward for a few seconds before approaching him. His expression and everyone else had finally eased up a bit seeing Edward in a pair of clean clothes, he did not look like someone who had engaged in a fight at all.

"Are you alright, kid?" Fablo said as he inspected Edward.

"I'm fine, I'm not hurt or anything" Edward replied. It was normal to ask such questions as people would usually hide a bit knowing they might be endangering others, humans were that selfish so Edward did not stop Fablo from doing a quick inspection on him.