The room was dimly lit by moonlight that streamed in through the gaps in the boarded-up windows along with the three large candles that sat on the table in front of me. Each candle was a different scent which combined with the musty smell of the room and the stale body odor of the occupants creating a truly disgusting mess for the nose.
All of the furniture in the room had been pushed aside with a majority of it piled up against one of the four doors. The table with the candles had been placed along one wall so that the five other people in the room could sit along one side of it and face me over the scratched wooden surface. One of them had placed a chair in the middle of the room for me to sit on though it was obviously made for a young child so it was about three sizes too small.
Everything combined made it a very grim scene which was impressive considering we were currently living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
“This meeting of the council at the end of the world is now called to order” called the man sitting at the center of the table before hitting a hammer against the tabletop causing the flames of the candles to shutter violently. Due to the poor lighting, I wasn’t able to make out much about any of the five but the one in the middle was the largest of them in both length and width.
“Didn’t we agree on the final council?” another of them replied, this time the voice obviously belonged to a woman and while I was sure at least two of the figures in front of me were female I couldn’t tell which was speaking.
“No I’m pretty sure that it is supposed to be the ministry of humans” came a man’s voice from the left side of the table.
“Order, order!” the man in the middle spoke up again hitting his hammer a few more times before continuing. “We can discuss the name later, right now we are here to decide the fate of this man”
As if the current seating arrangements were not enough to make it obvious that he was talking about me the hammer wielder found it necessary to motion at me wildly with both of his arms which ended up almost knocking the candle in front of him off the table. My earlier joy of finding other people was quickly being diminished by the less than friendly welcome I was receiving.
“We need to like know about him and stuff” the other woman’s voice injected her words broken up slightly as if she was chewing gum while she spoke. “So like what did you do before the creeps?”
While ‘creeps’ was not something I had heard until that point it was easy to figure out what she meant. The weird name was another warning sign though that the people judging me might not be all that smart.
“I worked as a high school nurse” I replied internally steeling myself for the mocking that always came with the reveal of my previous profession. While the job had been rewarding the negative ramifications seriously left me regretting the choice.
“Like oh my god that is so gross,” the same voice called out before devolving into a fit of laughter.
“Like oh my god, Becca why don’t you shut up” the first woman responded. Her tone showed that she was mocking the other woman.
“Are you with anyone else?” a new voice chimed in from the right end of the table.
“No I’m alone” I admitted hoping that it didn’t sound as pathetic to them as it did to me.
“Well he doesn’t seem that impressive and based on his being alone it is doubtful that he is much of a team player,” the man on the left said.
“True and he doesn’t have anything on him that we need” came from the center of the table.
“Yeah so like I think it is safe to pass on letting him join us” Becca added her tone taking on a bored drawl to it.
A sudden movement from the corner of the room diverted my attention from the group before me and caused my whole body to tense up as I expected the worst immediately. It seemed only fitting that this group wouldn’t have made sure the room was secure before starting this whole debacle. The form moved towards me with quick precise steps which were reassuring since it proved that the person was at least alive.
The figure got close enough that I was able to see they were wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up before they turned towards the table.
“He is coming back with us,” the person said, the voice revealing that it was most likely a guy.
“Oh my god, you can’t just decide that on your own” Becca shot back the bored tone in her voice replaced with anger.
“I can and I just did, he is coming with us and that is final. You dumb asses should at least be able to see that the group could use someone with medical knowledge, it is a far more useful skill set then whatever you brought to the group as a beauty blogger” the hooded man replied smoothly as he took a few more steps so that he was standing directly between me and the table.
“Oh my god you know I was a lifestyle vlogger!”
“My point still stands, you provide nothing for the group and if it wasn’t for the fact that the apocalypse seems to coincide with frat boy mating season you wouldn’t have been let into the group. Luckily for you though Greg prefers thinking with his little head so you made the cut” the hooded guy replied forcing me to bite the inside of my cheek to avoid laughing.
“Dude my name is Damien now” the man from the left side of the table called out as he stood up quickly. “Becca is a vital member of our team, she can spot a creep from a mile away!”
The guy in front of me crossed his arms over his chest before turning his body towards his new opponent. Sitting behind him I could almost feel the waves of satisfaction coming off of the hooded man as he tore into he verbally assaulted his companions.
“Okay there Damien” he started putting so much emphasis on the other man’s name that it was almost tangible. “First off, why don’t you just let cosmetologist Barbie fight her own battles if she is as capable as you try and make her out to be. Secondly, stop calling them ‘creeps’ they are zombies plain and simple so please stop giving them cute little nicknames. Now for my final point, you can all either shut up and get over yourselves or me and the nurse are going to leave you here so that you can continue to pretend this is a democracy until the zombies smell those tiny brains rattling around in your overly large heads and decide to do the world a favor and eat you”
As he finished my mouth was filled from where I was biting my cheek and I had to resort to balling my hands into fists so that I was digging my fingernails into my palm. The room had become dead silent after the hooded man stopped talking that I was afraid my body shaking with my suppressed laughter would somehow be heard. The silence dragged on until Damien flopped back down into his chair loudly his own arms crossed over his chest tightly.
“That’s what I thought, we leave at first light” the last man standing said before turning away from everyone and returning to the dark corner that he had emerged from.
While the merry band of dimwits sitting in front of me was probably not going to increase my chances of surviving something told me that putting up with them might be worth it to join the hoodie-clad man’s group.
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