This Beautiful World - Book #1 (BxB)

Chapter 11

It didn't take long for my family and friends to come running up to me once I was downstairs again. My mother was the first to throw her arms around me, followed by Riley. Caitlyn still seemed annoyed with me that I chose to go and leave her behind, but it didn't last long. She was occupied with the dog that we had found, which was sitting happily in her arms.   

And as I suspected, Alex was with them as well. I knew that he had no intention of coming back upstairs. It annoyed me that he so easily found a way out when he was the one who wanted to come upstairs with me. It wasn't like I forced him to. I was more than willing to help out the others without him tagging along. Though I was a little mad at him, I would let it go. 

"Aiden, I'm so glad that you're okay." My mother sounded relieved. I felt bad for running off into danger after recently meeting up with her again. She was already worried enough when we were separated before. Leaving so suddenly like that only gave her another reason to worry. 

"Did something happen when you were upstairs? You look like you're in shock," Riley commented. I guess the look on my face must have given it away. 

I wasn't ready to tell them what happened. I wasn't sure how Alex would feel about the information that I now had, but I knew that it would make Riley feel terrible. She might begin to blame herself as I did at first. After talking to Stella about it, it did help me realize that it was out of my control. As much as I wanted to help people, I knew that I couldn't help everyone. There's only so much that I can do. 

Thankfully, Stella stepped in. "I think that you should let Aiden rest for now. He can fill you in on what happened later."

That seemed to prevent the flood of questions that I'm sure would have been heading my way otherwise. For now, I wouldn't have to talk about what I witnessed and what that ultimately meant. They would hear about it eventually, whether it was from me or from the others who were in our party. 

We found a spot to sit among the group of other survivors. This was my first chance to actually see the other people who were part of the group. There were eight other people. Three women, two men, two younger children, and a female who looks like a teenager. We had a decent-sized group on our hands. Most of them huddled together, but there was one man who stood out from the rest. He stayed away from the group with a scowl never leaving his face. He was giving me bad vibes. He glanced in our direction and I quickly looked away. 

Besides taking note of the others who were in the group, not much was going on. My own group was making small talk amongst themselves, but I found it hard to focus on what they were saying. I kept thinking about what happened and worrying about the group that was still upstairs. Something else could have happened to them. 

But my fears were extinguished when shortly after, they were walking down the stairs. Xavier looked exhausted. He wasn't carrying the weapon that he had earlier. I assumed that he didn't want to scare the others by bringing it down here, especially considering that there was blood on it from the zombies.

I stood up and walked over to them, along with Stella who did stay down here with me. Since Xavier looked so tired, I figured that something else must have happened.

Of course, Stella was quick to ask, "Is everything okay?"

Arin was the one who answered, "There was another zombie. Thankfully, it wasn't like the first that we encountered. This one didn't come back to life when Xavier killed it."

When he said that, it gave me hope that the professor might not have come back to life either. The zombie that did looked a little different from the ones that I've encountered so far. The ones I've seen still looked mostly human compared to that thing.

"Since we've seen two different types of zombies, it does make me wonder how many others there are. Things might turn out worse than they already are," Xavier commented when he seemed to catch his breath.

He had a point. Out of the two zombies that we've seen, there were ones who were more normal like how we saw in movies, and then there were ones that had another creature inside of them. Since this was just beginning, there was a lot that we haven't witnessed yet. The zombies might evolve over time. There was still a question gnawing at the back of my mind.

How did this happen in the first place?

I didn't have much time to think about it. Stella clapped her hands together, which drew me out of my thoughts. "Let's not drive ourselves insane by thinking about it now. It's been a few hours, so let's hand out food to people. And since we have some new guests, we should all go around and introduce ourselves again."

Stella put an arm around me and led me back to my group. She explained to them what we were about to do as well. Since there were so many people, I doubted that I would remember everyone's name. I did learn that while they've been in this building, they gathered all of the food and put it in a single room. We would most likely do that for the rest of the floors as well. It was a way to ration food while we were stuck here.

Arin, Xavier, and Tyler were the ones who handed out food and bottles of water to everyone. Some people were grateful while others stayed silent about it. Then it came time for the introductions.

As I thought, it was hard for me to remember everyone's name. Besides the people who I was first introduced to, I was able to remember two other names. The teenage girl was called Milly and the guy who gave me bad vibes was Logan. I learned that they had been stuck here for three days already.

While we were still in the middle of introductions, Logan seemed to get impatient. He interrupted, "This is pointless. I don't see the point of getting to know any of you when the majority of you will die."

"Don't say things like that. We don't know what is going to happen and if I can help it, I'm not going to let anyone die. We all need to work together to make sure that we all make it out of this okay." Xavier stood up. The other man's words seemed to set him on edge.

Logan scoffed. "Yeah, right. It's irritating how you've taken the role of leader around here. Instead of wasting our time here, we should find somewhere safer to stay. I told you the rumors that I heard about that town with a wall around it. We should be heading there."

This time, Arin was the one who stepped in. "And I explained to you why that's a bad idea. We don't even know if that place really exists and if it does, doesn't it seem a little suspicious? They built a wall around that town and then suddenly, a zombie outbreak happens. This was planned."

"Whatever." Logan had no better retort to that.

"If you want to leave, we won't stop you. And anyone who wants to go can," Xavier said, which put an end to the conversation.

No one made a move to leave, not even Logan. He talked big, but couldn't follow up with his actions. At least, for now.

After that, we all ate in silence. The short argument was enough to make things awkward. It did make me curious, though. This was my first time hearing about a town that had a wall built around it. I didn't hear anything on the news about it and there were no rumors circulating at the campus. It wasn't like we could check the news here either. There appeared to be no power in this town. We wouldn't learn about what was going on in the world unless we went out there ourselves.

It only led to more questions.