The sight of Mark and Henry heading towards the staircase drew the attention of the rest of their group, causing fear to ripple through them as they noticed the large spider feeding on the next floor. They began to believe it was going to be a repeat of what they just went through.
But then they heard the sound of someone walking, and loudly at that, as if he was doing it intentionally.
The group on the ground floor strained to identify the source of the heavy footsteps, only to be greeted by Noah's voice from the top of the stairs, and his sarcastic remark insinuated to be directed towards Mark.
Mark had only spoken to Noah once, earlier that morning, and Noah hadn't left much of an impression on him. However, hearing Noah's voice now stirred something within Mark. Though he didn't immediately recognize the voice, he felt a sense of challenge rising within him.
His emotions were stirred even more, and this was just giving him more ways to vent not only his helplessness against the mantis but also for his friend Jack, who sadly never made it back. He berated himself for not noticing sooner, only realizing Jack's absence after reaching the cafeteria.
He constantly talked about fighting back, yet he couldn't protect his own friend. When he saw the spider, he saw the chance to prove to everyone, and most importantly himself, that his choice to fight back was correct and the deaths that occurred weren't his fault.
He looked up to the voice, looking forward to the confrontation, his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the voice's appearance.
"Your… you're not dead? How?" Noah's appearance was disturbing, if not horrifying to the group below, but their tension lowered when they found out that Mark did, in fact, know him. Their relief caused them to obliviously ignore the confusion in Mark's tone or the high vigilance he was in when he saw Noah.
Many of them lowered their guard, but there were three people whose reactions were different from the rest.
Charlie, one of the three people Mark initially grouped with, found himself sweating profusely as he realized the dangerous person before them was Noah, the very person they tried to sentence to death not too long ago.
He already believed the man to be crazy, he still was haunted by the gruesome display of the piles of zombies. He saw that Noah's body was covered with even more blood than before, and unlike before when he wielded a hammer, the ginormous axe made him appear more intimidating.
On the other hand, Jasmine couldn't shake off a trace of suspicion. Not for Noah, but from what Mark uttered when he saw Noah, as well as her little brother's body language. Mark didn't seem worried at all for the other student's well being, and he wasn't pleased to see him either. She couldn't make any guesses about what happened between the two just from observing; maybe if Noah showed a little more emotion, then she could understand a little bit more.
Yet, something continued to gnaw at her memories whenever she gazed upon Noah's figure. She felt that she knew him or he should at least be important enough for her to know about. It didn't help that his current demeanor was completely different than what he's used to showing.
His messy attire and bloody appearance made it harder to recognize him. But to her surprise, she heard someone quietly sobbing on her side, and before she could register who it was, she heard the person speak, and Jasmine was finally able to make sense of why Noah felt so familiar.
"Noah? You're alive… sigh… thank goodness…" Ailetta mumbled amidst her tears. Despite her efforts to contain her emotions, tears continued to stream down her cheeks, relief washing over her.
"Noah? Could it be 'that' Noah?" She thought back to the person who was constantly bullied by a specific group on campus. He also just happens to be the first friend Ailetta made in their first year, but when Ailetta began to be caught up in his bullying, he started to avoid her altogether. He even went to the extent of dropping any classes that he held with her.
Since then, she never really heard much about him anymore. He kept to himself in class and even more so outside of it. Besides Ailetta mentioning him from time to time about the rumors of him belonging to a gang and always getting into fights, she would've probably forgotten he attended the school.
"How? HAHAHA! That's a great question to ask for someone who tried to kill me."
"!"
The emotional roller coaster for the group seemed to be never-ending at this point. This information brought a lot of questions to the party that chose to follow Mark as a leader, and it brought even more uncertainty for Ailetta and Jasmine, who were affected the most. However, the ride didn't stop there. At that time, Mark didn't think he was in the wrong to attempt to end Noah's life, and with his stubborn ideals, he still believed he wasn't wrong.
"You know that's not how it happened, so don't you dare! We wouldn't have tried to kill you if you weren't bitten! How were we to know you were telling the truth? If you were lying, then we could've possibly been in danger!"
"!"
"Mark? Do you hear yourself?" His sister finally decided to step in before everything became worse. She already noticed the change in everyone's demeanor when they looked at him. How could he stand there and openly admit he tried to kill someone? It also appeared that Noah even tried to reason with them, yet they still pursued it! She didn't want to believe it. She knew something was different about him, but this bit of information is just too much for her. 'Is my brother a murderer?' Fear crept into her thoughts.
"Jas… No! It's not like that. Don't listen to him! He was bitten by a zombie; he could've turned any second! How cou-"
"And yet here we are. You fucking hypocrite, you'll kill an innocent person just because of an assumption, but I bet you wouldn't do the same towards someone you cared about. Well, I'm done with playing the blame game. Mess with me again, and we'll see who'll be killing who."
Noah declared before proceeding to make his way down the stairs. If it wasn't because Mark was such a nutcase and really believed he was doing the right thing, then he would've tried to fight him to the death here and now instead of worrying about watching his back every second.
And yet, while he walked past, part of him hoped that he would try something. If he openly attacked Mark first, there was a chance he would have to fight everyone here, but if it was the other way around, they might not interfere since Mark would be in the wrong.
Originally, Mark and Henry moved to the side of the steps to let him pass. However, they noticed the spider descending alongside him, prompting both of them to retreat to the main floor.
Mark, still distressed over his sister's belief that he was a murderer, allowed Noah to pass without much thought. It wasn't until the spider crawled by that he remembered it had been feeding on a person.
"Wait! If that thing belongs to you, then you obviously murdered that person up there!" And before Noah could even justify himself, Mark then noticed the other two corpses on the ground that he was too emotional to notice before.
"And them as well! You may not have turned into a zombie, but you're obviously not any better. What do you have to say for yourself?" At this point, Noah was becoming beyond annoyed. Mark couldn't admit he was wrong before, and now he's jumping to conclusions again. He realized that it would come down to how it was before, so instead of defending himself, he just proceeded to walk to the door.
"I said wait, dammit! You need to answer for this!" Mark exclaimed as his frustrations boiled over.
"STOP!"
Mark braced himself to run after them, who knows what action he was prepared to take if not for being interrupted by a shout and footsteps passing on his side. Once again, Henry stood in his way, blocking his path.
"Those people tried to kill him, you can't blame him for what happened." Henry pleaded in Noah's case instead. 'That monster is finally leaving, and you keep trying to keep him here?' He still remembered when Noah repeatedly called him stupid. He finally realized how Noah felt after dealing with Mark. Yet no matter the reason Henry tried to explain, Mark was still dissatisfied.
"And so he has the right to kill them then? Obviously, he's not even harmed so he could've easily stopped them instead of killing them. What makes yo-"
"Sigh! Mark, that's enough!" Jas couldn't continue to see her brother make a fool of himself. She's seen enough to finally make her own conclusions, but more importantly, she was concerned for her brother. The animals now are much more dangerous than they could ever believe. They already had to run away from the human-sized mantis, and Noah is walking around with a creature that could be just as deadly. Frankly, she felt they were fortunate that Noah didn't want revenge for what her brother had attempted, especially since she heard it from Mark's mouth himself about his murder attempt over a misunderstanding.
"What? He clearly killed those people, and we're going to do nothing??" Mark couldn't believe what he was hearing, especially from his own sister.
Thankfully, Noah was no longer bothering with the two siblings or any of the others for that matter. He just needed to get out of there and rest for maybe an hour or two. With the trait he obtained from the zombie's genes, two hours would be enough to increase his stamina by 24 percent. That would be enough to maintain him physically; he could sleep later in the day to relieve any mental exhaustion he accumulated.
When he was about to reach the door, he noticed someone blocking his way. He first assumed that the person was really going to attempt to stop him from leaving. Then he noticed who the person was….
"So it's you, huh? I don't know how you got mixed up with him, but at least yo-"
Ailetta dove into his chest before he could finish what he wanted to say. Coupled with the fact that she was crying, the sudden situation caught him by surprise. He wasn't sure what or who the tears were for; his lack of self-worth wouldn't allow his mind to accept that it could be for him.
Normally in a situation like this, it would be the person in his position to comfort the other, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so. And it wasn't just because of the blood. Holding her would make him feel that he would be accepting something that he convinced himself that he didn't desire, and that feeling alone scared him. He didn't like where this was going, and he certainly didn't like the thoughts running in his head; he already decided that this shouldn't go on.
Ailetta seemed to be aware of his inner turmoil and took a step back but remained close enough to where the two could feel each other breathing.
"I was worried, so worried about you…you've been avoiding me all this time, and not once did I stop thinking about you..I know why you did…but…but will you continue to do so even now? I know what it's like to be alone, and I know you've suffered through that loneliness even more. Let me come with you! It could be just like the stories we used to talk about! And… an-"
"Sigh, I was wondering what you were trying to get at…" Noah's head hung while he silently reminisced to the times where she would always interrupt him during his reading. Yet it would never upset him, and it was also something he looked forward to since he was able to share with someone the last thing he truly enjoyed. He wasn't trusting enough of anyone since all he knew was that people viewed him as an outlier, or a means to achieve their own goal. He only showed his 'true' self during the moments they had discussions over his stories, which it seems she valued just as much as him.
Sadly, it's not enough to break down the walls he set in place around his heart.
"I'm sorry Le…but, you're better off being with them…and you're right, it does remind me of those stories, and that's why I need to be alone. You should've seen some of the crazy things out there by now; nowhere is safe. The thing is, I'm not planning on hiding, this is the life I feel I've always wanted, and you'll only hold me back. I'm not dumb enough to say I can protect you either. You should live your life too, grow stronger, because if it's really like the stories we read…then this is only the beginning."