In certain situations, a natural leader within the group arises when they have to make a big decision. The person becomes the decision-maker, allowing the group to move on a certain path.

The group could choose a leader based on several things due to their expertise in a certain field or their situation. For example, being the strongest in the group, maybe even having the confidence to get things done, or just being the overall peacemaker who is the most trusting.

However, there would be times when problems arise, often, there would be a troublesome one in a group or those with conflicting views, but that wasn’t what Zain was worried about. It was when someone believed they knew better and felt like they should be the ones leading.

Zain couldn’t help himself as he scorned when looking at Jade. It caused her to flinch back and hide even further behind Buke.

“Jade…do you even know my name?” Zain asked.

This unexpected question made a few in the room tilt their heads, including her friend Tanisha.

“Why does it matter? How is this going to prove anything?” Jade replied._.

“It does matter. What is my name? Your name’s Jade Padda, and that’s Tanisha Burns.” Zain replied. “It’s a simple question. What’s my name?”

For a second, Jade paused, and it looked like she was wondering what to say, but she bit her lip when nothing came to her mind.

“You don’t even know my name, and I bet you don’t know the ones you are trying to convince either. Of course, when push comes to shove, you’re not going to care about them, but for me, it’s different.

“I’ve known Skittle since Primary School, and we had each other’s back whenever one of us was in trouble. As for Buke, Skittle helped him when he almost dropped out of school, upping his grades, and the three of us have been through our fair share of trouble together.

“I’m not forcing them to do anything, and they don’t ask me to do anything either, and it’s the same now. So I’m not requesting, but I’m telling you, I will be leaving this place, and they can choose to follow me or stay. It’s up to them.

“But I will say something before I go. I won’t do anything that would put them in danger. What I’m about to say might contradict some of my previous statements before, but I realised something when playing those games.

“If the world has gone to sh*t, what’s the point of surviving if you have no one to enjoy it with?” Zayn smiled, and with that, he turned around, already heading out of the door.

Hearing these words, Buke shook off Jade from his arm and walked forward, and Skittle did the same and the three of them left the room, leaving the two girls behind.

Seeing this, Jade was grinding her teeth.

‘Who the f*ck is this loser!’ She thought, only to see another person go past her.

“Tanisha, what are you doing?” Jade almost shouted at her friend.

“We would have died if they didn’t come. I don’t know if you noticed, but the door is already almost broken. I’m sorry, Jade, but I want to live.” Tanisha said.

Clenching her fist, Jade was so furious that a vein appeared on the side of her head.

‘You…you used to follow me everywhere. It was only because of me that you were able to get into our group! And look at you know, you are abandoning me just like that!’

Tanisha hadn’t left the room yet, as she was covering her body in the blood of the dead Zombie just like the others asked. Walking up behind her was Jade. The latter stood directly behind her for a few seconds.

— —

“Wait!” Jade called out, running down the hallway and catching up with the others. They were now on the second floor, below where they had met the two girls. The others noticed she had blood all over her clothes, and more, just like the others.

The two boys turned around and were somewhat pleased that she had decided to come with them. Sure Jade was being stubborn, but in their eyes, she hadn’t done anything bad and was just thinking what was best, even if they knew that Zain might have felt differently,

“Wait, where is Tanisha? Wasn’t she with you?” Skittle asked. “Or did she choose not to come?”

“That…damned Zombie that you guys took out was still alive. While she was trying to cover her body in its blood, it suddenly got up and grabbed her. It started to bite her. I tried my best and eventually killed the Zombie, but Tanisha was already gone.” Tears began to roll down her face, and she pulled away, looking in the other direction.

The two boys didn’t know what to say. They felt somewhat guilty and had their heads lowered. Because they had left, a person had died. They had seen a few deaths already when running into the apartment group. However, this was the first one where they felt they could have genuinely prevented it.

“I just…I just didn’t want you guys to leave!” Jade said out loud once again.

“Stop crying!” Zain said in a quiet but stern voice, going right up to her. “If you make any more noise, I’ll shut that mouth of yours myself. They’re here, there, underneath us.”

Not knowing what he meant, the group moved to the staircase which would lead to the reception room. The first large open space didn’t have a narrow staircase. Reaching here, they could see at least fifteen Zombies were walking around, and then there was the exit.

The exit had been barricaded, and it looked like someone had put a chain on it with a lock.

‘Someone was trying to block the zombie, but this has caused a problem for us.’ Zain thought. ‘But there’s a bigger problem…Jade, she’s lying. I confirmed that Zombie was dead. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have got the Exp loss for killing it.

‘So what did this woman do to her friend?’

******

Thank you for reading the story so far, remember to use your stones to vote for WSA 2022