Someone must have been watching survival movies before the apocalypse including Zombie ones because there was a section separated from the rest of the building which they used for quarantining people. It wasn't much. Just a big room whose one end which was 5 individual compartments by shoving shelves and boxes together and using long cloths as curtains. They called this the examination room. People would have to go through an inspection before they would be granted access into the quarantine area. After which they stay in quarantine for at least 3-5 days before they are let into the living quarters. If wounds were discovered, they were further divided based on what kind of injury it was. For definite bite marks the person would be given the option of waiting to see if they turned and then shoot if it happened or set free outside at a less dense Zombie spot far away from camp. They would be given something to take their own life if they wished to. Not that waiting for the change helped. Anyone who got bit would turn without exception. But since the virus was new and people needed to keep up hope, they still continued to practice it. What if under some miracle there was someone who was immune to the virus. Then they would be the salvation for all mankind.

Ash had to applaud whoever thought of this idea. It was practical and gained the trust of the people in the camp. The camp was a bit safer with these measures in place. Rhys led the group into the examination area and distributed one person for each newcomer. Luke obviously volunteered to examine Ash with a devious grin. He threw an arm around Ash's shoulder and griped him tightly.

"I object!" Ash said out aloud as soon as the suggestion was made.

"What's the issue?" Rhys asked coming over to where he and Luke stood.

"I ask for a swap in personal" he looked Rhys straight in the eyes stubbornly and shook off the arm around him. There was no way he was going to strip in front of a pervert who had already shown lecherous intentions towards him.

"Why?" The man asked him "I trust Luke to fulfil this job without issues."

Ash glared at him without budging determined to stand his ground to the end. Seeing this Rhys finally sighed heavily and said, "Alright I will examine you."

"I will join you just in case. The boy is a bit suspicious." Luke said as he followed into one of the 5 makeshift cubicles. "After all, how can someone survive by himself for 3 weeks without even a scratch." James had told them each of their backstory when they arrived. So, they were familiar with Ash's.

Although Ash was against the idea he didn't complain further as it won't be him and that weirdo alone anymore.

"Go on strip!" Rhys said as they entered the small cubicle. He leaned against the wall with crossed arms and looked up at Ash. Luke was right next to him and squatted down to enjoy the show. Ash was didn't really care about people seeing him in his birthday suit. after all he was kept in lap lab naked most of his life. He has been stared at so much that he had become immune to shame and nudity. But the reason why he was hesitating was because he didn't really know if the wound on his arm was really healed or not. it still throbbed when he slightly pressed on it. He wondered what they would do to him in case they discovered the wound. would they throw him back out there or would they put a bullet in his brain? Ash shuddered at the thought.

Seeing that the gazes on him were turning annoying, he realised that there wasn't much he could do in this situation and started tugging the cloths off him. Once he stood in front of them in just his underwear, he looked back up at them. Luke gave a long whistle as he slowly stood up and started circling him. His eyes locking at strange places. although Ash felt very uncomfortable, based on his previous experience he brushed it off and stood still without giving any of his thoughts away. The other man hadn't moved yet. Ash stole a glance at him. Their eyes locked for a moment and Ash again felt the same feeling as before. Fear. but even with the fear assaulting his senses he could not look away. he felt like he was imprisoned by those dark eyes. neither of them broke the eye contact. suddenly he felt s finger sliding down the curve of his back and his eyebrows furrowed slightly. After two more rounds around him and 'accidental touches here and there for 'closer inspection'. Luke finally took one step back from Ash giving him some much needed breathing space.

"All clear Rhys" he said grinning widely which made the two finally break off their staring contest.

"Did you check his arm?" Rhys asked suspiciously. when he heard this Ash gulped and looked at his arm.

"Of course, I did"

Rhys didn't say anything. he finally stood up from his pose and walked towards Ash. He then grabbed the arm where he was covering before, the arm were Erva bit him, and looked at it. There was a big reddish- blue bruise on his upper arm. Ash also looked relieved. There was no chunk missing anymore. Just a very bad bruise remained. After he saw the bruise, his eyes flicked up at the boy who suddenly didn't look tense anymore.

"What happened here?"

Ash stayed quiet. He was not good at lying. That was the only time when his constitution gave him away. His ears would turn bright red even before he spoke. Just thinking up excuses made him that way and that was exactly what was happening right now.

"Why is he turning red?" Luke was bewildered by the cute reaction. "Is it something embarrassing?"

Under the questioning gazes Ash finally caved in "It was done by a woman" he whispered in a small voice.

Their eyes widened a bit in surprise. The kid who barely looked like he reached adulthood was fooling around with a woman shortly after the apocalypse started. No wonder he was reluctant to speak about it. "and where is the woman then?" Luke asked. For a woman to leave such an obvious hickey, she must have been a very strong and possessive woman. There is no way someone like that would leave the boy alone. 'was he forced into it?' the men wondered looking at the tiny boy in front of them who was avoiding eye contact. 'yup, he must have been completely devoured'.

Oblivious to the thoughts in those men's heads, Ash was trying to speak as little as possible inorder to keep them guessing. But he never would have thought that they would think up something so outrageous.

"I-I escaped from her" all the words in between those two sentences form his story was said in his head.

'As they thought he boy was forced and then he escaped. That would also explain how the boy was able to survive over 3 weeks in the apocalypse alone. He must have been with that woman until recently and then since he wanted to hide his shameful past, he lied that he was always alone.

Seeing the weird looks that he was receiving Ash felt a chill run down his spine. He wanted this interrogation to be over and done with and he wasn't confident in answering any more questions without revealing his secrets, so he spoke up pulling away his arm from the other's grip "Am I done with the inspection?"

"...Yes!" Rhys fisted his empty hand and walked out after dropping that one word. Ash quickly scrambled for his cloths and started putting them on.

Luke, who was still there walked up to him and poked at the bruise on his arm before he could cover it with his shirt. "How was it?"

Ash felt the slight throbbing from where he was being poked at and glanced down at the bruise on his arm. 'how was what? Getting bitten. If you are that curious why don't you go and give it a try' Ash thought rolling his eyes in his head. But this guy had some power around here, so he decided to humour him. "Painful" he answered with the most obvious word he could think of.

'Sure, enough the poor boy didn't have a good hook-up experience.' Luke stupidly solidified the idea in his head. "that's too bad. Why Don't you come to find me after your quarantine? I will show you how it is done right." He wriggled his eyes suggestively.

'Is this guy stupid? why on earth would I let you bite me? I didn't know there was a right and wrong way to bite someone.' His image of Luke went further down the gutter. Weirdo. "No thank you" Ash replied quickly finishing buttoning up his shirt and walked out of that suffocating small space. He saw Beth, Tom and James standing at a side talking with a red-haired woman. 'She must be Susan' he walked over to them and felt safe at once.

After talking for a bit, the three newcomers were left in quarantine along with Josh and James. The rest of the people who went out for supplied didn't really have any direct contact with the Zombie, so they were excluded from quarantine.

Three days passed in a flash. After days of running in fear, Ash could finally let down his guard and relax peacefully with the knowledge that there were other people around him, and he was safe for the short term. The group spend the time catching up on precious sleep and playing games. During that time someone came over with a bucket of water and fresh cloths. Everyone took turn dipping cloths in the liquid and wiping out the grime and dirt. Changing into the new set of cloths, Ash at last felt clean. The blood and dirt had been bothering him for a while now. So, he finally let out a sigh of relief when he finally saw his pale skin again from under all the dirt. Finally, all the exhaustion was starting to disappear from Ash's face. After the quarantine period was over all 5 of them were let into the living quarters of Tesco.

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The electricity was already gone so people were using charged battery lamps and candles for light during the nights and during the day they would make do with whatever small light leaked from the hammered close windows. Ash was expecting something grand to be honest. But he was met with disappointment as he took in his new surroundings. All the excess shelves which could be moved, were shoved to a side in order to make more space for everyone to lie down. Most of them had just some discarded cloths spread out on the floor as a barrier between the cold floor and their skin. All the shelves were empty. Either everyone had realised the predicament and scrambled to collect as much as possible for themselves or it was all stored away to be rationed out by the people in charge. Ash hoped it was the latter. If people started eating without worry about tomorrow, then they would first die of starvation than a Zombie bite. It looked like since they had the food covered for the time being, what the supply runs were for were for blankets and lamps.

Around 35-40 people were living in close quarters. Most of them were men and among the women, a lot of them were women with children. Woman can be very resilient when they had something to protect. But they were very emotional and selfless creatures. When any kind of danger comes at any of their loved ones, they would be the first ones to lay down their lives to protect them. That's why the number of women who survive crises are small. This is not because the lose their mind when something scary nor because they have a weaker physique than men happens but because they are brave enough to sacrifice their own lives for their children, husbands or lovers. Not everyone could claim to be able to do the same thing. That's also why women who had other strong purposes than their families and loved ones would end up becoming fearsome existences during chaos.

Ash counted around two children in between the age of 7-11 and then another five teenagers between 13-16. They seemed to know each other. Maybe they studied in the same school or attended the same Sunday mass. Then there were two kids in their late teens, a boy and a girl who seemed to be a couple.

Seeing the newcomers everyone observed them quite openly. No one cared about etiquettes on 'staring is rude'. James was leading them around, showing their new home. Josh had long disappeared as soon as they were given the okay to come out from quarantine. There wasn't really much to show. There were some staff bathrooms and toilets which could be used in turns. The long queue took forever so, people would go without showers for days. Water had to be sparingly used as they had to tamper with a few things before the water started flowing again to their building. Most people huddled in small trustworthy groups and observed the other groups warily. Food was rationed twice a day, and this was one of the many times when dispute could erupt as everyone wanted larger shares. They would do all kinds of antics like claiming to be sick, having a broken leg, starving children to even a dead comrade share which he promised him before his passing.

Seeing people munching on dry biscuits and packets of chips, it looked like they were smart enough to finish all the perishable goods first and stored off the non-perishable foods. But calculating the number of people staying here and size of the store it was obvious to Ash that they were already starting to run low on food supplies. Once that happens it would be even harder to control this mob. After all fear and hunger could even turn a saint into a monster. This tiny place couldn't be regarded as a long-term solution anyway. Sooner or later they would have to move.

"Although it isn't much, it's still safe for the time being" James could read what everyone was thinking. "I will take you to Mrs Nolan. She is the one in charge of settling newcomers in. She also distributes tasks so that everyone has something to do here. You can think of her as a mother figure" he chuckled lightly and led them through the groups of curious onlookers and finally stopped in front of an elderly woman.

"This is Mrs Nolan" James introduced them to her. She turned and glanced at them quickly before shifting her eyes back to James who just laughed "and these are the newcomers form the left, Tom, Beth and Ash" Her brown eyes followed each one of them as their names were mentioned. She looked to be in her early sixties, her once brown hair had already halfway turned grey. Soft wrinkles were visible around her forehead and deeper laugh lines were around her lips and eyes. Clearly, she was a very friendly and cheerful person. At least she was before the world went to hell. But now she just said a curt "hello" and left all the talking to James.

After James finished all the introductions, he bit them farewell and left saying, "get settled in. Boss will see you guys afterwards. Tell you the rules around here and tell you about the guard rotations." After he left there was a long silence as the woman sized them up without saying anything. They started fidgeting uncomfortably under her observing gaze. Then she finally broke the silence "Welcome to your new home" her still sentence made Ash smile widely. For some reason he found it funny. It was a rare occasion when his poker face broke.

Ash nodded in response to this and saw that the others did the same. "she then rummaged through a few boxes next to her and pulled out three long coats and handed them to them. "this is all we have for a mattress so you will have to make do. Later if you get the chance to go on a raid you can get some better ones yourself. The only proper ones we have are being used by the elderly and mothers with children." Again, Ash didn't complain much and look the coat that was outstretched towards him. "Most spots are already claimed by others, so you have to be careful not to stir up trouble when choosing yours. Now off you go, and later James will take you to Kyle. After you talk with him come back here and I will give you some chores to do." Tom and Beth found her a bit weird and as soon as she finished, they rushed off to find a good place to set the 'mattresses' and greet the others.

Ash stayed behind as he was curious on how everything worked here, and Mrs Nolan was the best source of information right now. "Why do we need to be careful while picking our spots?" he asked trying to find a topic to continue their talk. Mrs Nolan looked at him for a moment and smiled. Her previous demur of being distant vanished at once with that. "Ash was it?" he nodded in response. "you remind me a bit of someone I knew"

"oh" he didn't know how else to answer that. Hearing his response, she chuckled lightly "to answer your question, although everyone has been living under the same roof for 3 weeks now, not everyone trusts the others. You can say this is a place which is still unorganised."

"I thought that guy Rhys was the leader here. Why hasn't he done anything about it" Ash voiced his question.

"That brat indeed had the skill to save and bring everyone here. He also had the foresight to fortify the place, but he wants nothing in management. In other words, he doesn't want to take responsibility for others. So, this group is still divided and leaderless." Mrs Nolan answered as if she was waiting for someone to ask her that question. "there are lot of people in here who want to take lead" she whispered, "So there is often dispute and the entire group is further divided with people supporting different leaders. Although all of them respect and listen to Rhys since he saved their asses."

"Then why do they call him boss?" Ash asked surprised. He had really thought that he was the one leading everyone here.

"Not everyone calls him that. Only his previous acquaintances do. There are ten or so people that surround him and they have known each other even before all this." She smiled again "even then he is not the real boss of those bunch"

"What do you mean?"

"you will meet his brother Kyle later. He is the one in charge of that group. So, Rhys is more like the small boss" Ash nodded and didn't ask further and changed the topic.

"I feel like you started rationing the food if I am not wrong?"

"Sharp eyes you have got there." She answered "its true. When we first came here it was swarming with those things. Once they were taken care of and the place cleaned up, everyone started hording packaged and other food for themselves and broke out into a fight. The entire place was cleaned empty and all those who were a bit slow didn't get anything in their name. So, Kyle had to step up and order everyone store all the food in the storage area. That was a big mess. A lot of people didn't cooperate and after clearing up the riot was when they started laying down some ground rules. Anyone who broke it is severely punished. So, you better be careful."

Suddenly a few people came up to them and started asking Mrs Nolan for their chores and recording the ones that they have already completed. Seeing that the woman was getting busy, Ash bid his goodbye and went around to look for a place to settle down. Before he left, she told him were she was sleeping and that he was welcome to join them there if he hadn't found any other places. Like She said most places were already taken and people were huddled together in groups looking unwelcome at anyone else who was passing by. He saw that Beth was able to find a spot with a friendly girl and had settled down next to her. Tom on the other hand looked like he had been chased away a few times already and was still standing around with his coat in hand.

When he spotted him, he was about to talk with a group of men who were facing away from him. Although he didn't catch what was being said, he saw the men shake their head and shoo him away. This made the man angry and he started arguing with them and it got into pushes and shoves and finally a punch landed on him by the time Ash got there. Without a word he started walking past them, but Tom obviously saw him as well and rushed towards him and grabbed hold of him in desperation. After all he was the only one, he knew in this group of strangers.

Ash was surprised that he still dared to stick with him after what he had done during their escape, but he didn't say anything. The group of angry men walked up to him "Is he with you?" the man in the front snarled at him. Ash felt Tom's hand tighten on him and he sighed "I do know him" he replied with a stiff face.

"Then you should advise him not to get too cocky or no one will give you a spot to stay, just like him. He has the nerve to cheat us. We obviously saw him at the other side talking and smiling with the other group and then he came over here to spy on us." Ash looked at Tom and thought that he really had bad luck or maybe what those men were saying was true who is to say.

"Brother doesn't have to worry about me. I already have a place"

The man looked surprised and so did Tom. "Whose side are you on?"

"I don't know anything about sides, but Mrs Nolan told me that I could stay with her group. So, if you will excuse me..." with that he shook off the grip on him and started walking again leaving a surprised group behind. Tom, not daring to stay there any longer, tagged behind him. Ash didn't have a good feeling about him following him, but he didn't say anything more.