I felt my eyes beginning to flutter open. The light was no longer present as it was dim in the area. I didn't exactly know where I was, but I knew it was different than where I was when things went black. This isn't the store?

"Where," I muttered, my voice inaudible. "Where am I?"

"Aaliyah," A female's voice spoke, rushing to my side. "It's Sue. You're in my classroom. It's okay, you just fainted." She spoke softly, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Sue," I tried to speak, but everything was still extremely blurry and everything was still so hard to hear.

"Hey, Ethan is here too," Sue said trying to comfort me to the best of her ability.

"Mouse?"

"Mouse? Do you mean Ethan is Mouse? Wait a minute," Sue sat up on her knees. "You're telling me, this man right here, is Mouse? Mr. Bob Head? Your math partner?" She continuously questioned.

I chuckled a small bit, or at least to the best of my ability considering my condition.

"Wait, she's Sue? The one you'd ditch me for?" Ethan questioned.

"She ditched you for me?" Sue quietly asked the boy.

"Yeah-"

"Aaliyah you are my best friend, don't ever forget that."

I smiled as I began to regain my consciousness and take in my surrounding. I finally sat up, a small groan escaping my lips from the massive headache I was dealing with. When I got my vision back I could see the two just looking at each other with complete confusion. "Yeah, Ethan is Mouse," I confirmed. "Ethan I didn't tell her your name because I knew she would do something stupid."

"You've never made good choices with the boys you talk to, you can't blame me for wanting to stalk him just a little bit."

"Sue, all he fucking did was sleep-"

"Changes nothing, I don't see your point." She adjusted her glasses and then crossed her arms at me. Ethan just looked confused and awkward while he stood by the door and just watched us bicker.

"Anyway," I attempted to change the topic. "Where is everyone?"

"Room 1-C." Ethan monotonously replied.

Sue looked at me with worried eyes. "We can talk to them, but no promises they'll be kind to you Aaliyah." She pats my back a small bit before helping me up to my feet. "No matter what, you'll always have me." When Sue spoke with sincerity it always meant the world to me because when she was serious about something then she is all in. Knowing she was serious about me made me feel like no matter what, I was no longer alone.

When we stood up Ethan quickly gestured his head towards the door and I nodded in response. The 3 of us left the classroom

Quietly walking to the room that the rest were waiting in I felt nervous. I could hear my heartbeat pounding but I tried to focus on the footsteps from the 3 of us instead. It began to work until Ethan opened the door and held it for me and Sue to enter and I saw the others just stare at me. Harry, the only one I recognized, greeted me with a sweet smile while the others were either indifferent, nervous, confused, or upset.

It stayed silent for a small moment before a small blonde spoke. "Who are you and how do you know them?"

"Math partner."

"Best friend."

Sue and Ethan spoke in unison, both without much emotion in their tone. I felt strange hearing them speak together, putting two and two together that they occasionally spoke with similar tones. Which was strange to me as I was known to speak with such emotion, letting my heart take charge more than my head.

"They never met each other because Sue is scary and Ethan won't stop sleeping." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. I was a bit quiet with my explanation feeling intense pressure with all of the stares.

"Um," A small girl with short brown hair and blue eyes spoke. "What's your name?"

"I'm Aaliyah." I gave a small wive. "What's yours?" I asked to return the polite gesture.

"I'm Emily." She grinned.

"Are we going through this stupid introduction shit again?"

"Eugene," Harry sighed at the blonde boy, who seemed to be addressed as Eugene.

"What?" He looked at Harry with a bit of confusion. "Last time we let someone join-"

"Eugene," Ethan spoke with a neutral tone that held annoyance and anger in it. The expression on his face carried those same emotions.

The girl, who introduced herself as Emily, looked at Eugene with hurt in her eyes while her lips slightly parted.

A boy with circular glasses closed his eyes and sighed, then looked back at me with a small grin. "I'm Lawrence."

He seems nice.

The rest just looked at me with almost annoyance. Silence.

"Guys," Harry looked at them. They stayed silent. He sighed.

"You introduced yourselves to me?" Emily spoke quietly looking towards the others.

"That was before everyone started dropping like flies." A redhead rolled his eyes.

"That isn't her fault-"

"So it's just okay to bring someone new after we just lost 3 other people?" The redhead raised his voice. "To just let her end up like the rest? Yes, sure, let's get acquainted, when you or I die that is going to matter so much."

"Zion, if you continue to speak like this I will grab Ethan's bat and swing it straight at your face." Sue next to me took off her glasses with one hand and rubbed her temples with the other, letting out an exasperating sigh while threatening the boy.

Ethan just quickly turned to face Sue with surprise on his face. "No, you're not-"

"Hailey." A quiet girl with long chestnut brown hair interrupted Ethan. She seemed so nervous. Her eyes looked at me yet almost avoided eye contact at the same time. She seemed to be about in between the height of me and Sue, while Emily was a bit taller than all of us.

I smiled, a feeling of relief and happiness growing inside of when hearing the girl introduce herself. "Hi, Hailey." I greeted, though I felt nothing awkward in this situation, she made me feel a bit better.

Harry looked at the blonde and the redhead. "Who's next?"

They both rolled their eyes and sighed. The blonde, without facing away, hopped slightly to take a seat on the desk that was directly behind him. "Eugene, I guess."

That was followed closely by an annoyed grunt from the redhead. "Zion." He huffed.

"See, it wasn't that hard." I rolled my eyes, meaning to only say it in my mind but accidentally blurting it out. The quick realization that it wasn't in my head and that everyone heard my sarcastic remark I immediately slapped my hand over my mouth and stared at the others wide-eyed. "I'm so sorry." I removed my hand for a mere 2 seconds solely to say those words before they fell over my lips again.

"Like I was explaining before," Harry spoke up and turned to the others. "She survived for over 2 months all on her own. The place we found is also stocked up with food and we took some here. She offered to take the trips to bring more here but if she could stay." He proposed. "I feel like it wouldn't be a bad idea, especially since she's already so close to both Ethan and Sue. We wouldn't need to feel any suspicion when she's already closely trusted as well as appeared after the fact of everything."

"You speak as if you planned an entire PowerPoint presentation just to help me out." I sunk into my shoulders, feeling almost like a burden because someone had put so much time into putting together this entire essay of why I should be able to stick around this small group of people. I sighed. "What happened before I showed up?" Everyone's face fell after I asked the question. "I just feel like that maybe I should be able to help the decision by figuring out what is the safest option for all of us." I tried to hide my anxiousness behind my serious proposition, but by the small hand that had placed itself onto mine, I had realized it was probably very noticeable. Sue squeezed my hand and turned to look at me. I turned to view her as well and she just gave me a simple nod, reminding me that she won't ever leave my side.

Lawrence sighed with the emotion of grief slapped all over his face. Without putting the warm smile back on his face that I saw just moments before he spoke, "We've lost 3 members of our group all so close together. First, it was Emily's friend who had gone missing, another group member who had got taken by zombies while out looking for supplies, and most recently a girl who was found dead in her room." He closed his eyes as if he was trying to forget the image of what he had seen.

Must be hard being a high schooler seeing all of the shit we've seen. I gulped as I looked over at Harry after Lawrence had explained the situation. "Was that Scarlett?"

"How do you-" An angry Zion spoke up, taking a step towards me.

"We told her." Ethan stepped in, copying Zion's movement by taking a step forward as well yet moving a bit in front of me as if to shield me from whatever was happening in front of me.

"Just because she was your math partner doesn't mean you can just tell her everything," Zion complained stepping up to Ethan. Although Zion was tall, Ethan was still looking down on him. Ethan stepped over to Zion as well and just stared down at him. I tried to step up into the situation as well but Sue held my hand tighter and pulled me closer to her. I looked at her and she just slowly shook her head with a look of concern.

Ethan didn't even speak any words before Zion surrendered and took steps back.

"Well," Sue spoke up, letting go of my hand and taking a couple of steps forward herself. "Me, Ethan, and Aaliyah are going back to where she stayed these past 2 months to bring the supplies back."

"Sue-"

"Lawrence." Sue looked at the boy with no emotion. The look soon turned into a stare and the stare soon turned into a glare. It almost felt as if Lawrence's once soft face turned cold as he slowly began to return the glare. "She stays in my room." She seemed to emphasize the fact that I would be staying in her room specifically. I didn't know what was going on between the two, but I knew something was wrong. Sue was my best friend. So at that very moment, I took a mental note.

Be careful of Lawrence.