Edward and Fablo arrived at the top of the building after climbing off the ladder, the starry night sky above them and the cold wind of the night brushing against their bodies, completely driving away the small voice of sleep that had been whispering to Edward's consciousness.
Their eyes swept across the ruined streets and destroyed buildings for as far as they could see, the moon was high in the sky shining so much that its brilliance lightened up the dark surface of the night a little but it was still not enough for normal people to see past four blocks of buildings in the night. Edward was different though, one of the changes that happened to him after he woke up back then was the sudden ability to see clearly at night as if it was day. So while ordinary people could only see as far as three blocks in this night that were being lit up by the moon, Edward could see as far as he could during the day with every small detail visible to him just like that lone zombie that was wondering at the end of the street; hmm, it seemed to have wondered here by accident as Fablo and the others had completely cleared this area so there shouldn't be any zombies around here.
Wait, hold on! A…zombie?!
Edward instantly came to his senses and blinked his eyes multiple times to make sure that he was not hallucinating but the hideous creature that was once a human was actually there, standing still in the middle of the street while occasionally turning its rotten head to the sides.
'Gosh! How did a zombie get here? What if there are more of them?!'
Edward was flustered at the sight of the zombie and hurriedly looked at Fablo who had his eyes closed and was enjoying the cold breeze of the night with a calm expression on his face.
The zombie was quite a distance and it would be difficult for ordinary people to spot it, Edward was not sure if Fablo could see that far so he wanted to alert him just in case.
"Don't worry, I've seen it too"
But Fablo suddenly opened his mouth and said, stunning Edward and causing his words to hang in his throat. He could only look at the hulky man in surprise and marvel at how good his eyesight was even at night.
Edward turned away from staring at Fablo and looked at the ruined streets instead to see if he would spot another zombie while at the same time imagining how beautiful this place must have been three years ago before the zombie outbreak. Since Fablo already said he saw the zombie as well and was not saying anything about why he called Edward out here at this hour, Edward decided to stay quiet as well and not rush him.
"Sorry"
Fablo's voice suddenly sounded in Edward's ears while he was looking around the streets, Edward turned to look at Fablo and found the latter staring at him with a somewhat sad expression on his face. Edward was visibly surprised, he did not expect to hear this from Fablo after what happened today.
"Sorry about what Lia did today, she…" Fablo stopped his words. He wanted to tell Edward that Lia was not serious with her actions but he refrained from saying that because he knew that Lia was dead serious about killing Edward and it would not be a good thing to lie to the kid so he would know how to take care of himself around Lia.
"Why are you saying sorry? You saw what happened, right? I caused that man's death, why are you being nice to me" Edward voiced out in confusion and suspicion. He believed that Fablo must have seen what happened if not from the very start just like Lia, yet he was still trying to console him. What was this man aiming at? It couldn't be that he was into young boys and was trying to conquer Edward with kindness, right?
Edward shivered at the thought and gazed at Fablo with vigilance.
Fablo looked at the kid who was staring at him with suspicious eyes and his sad expression became more visible.
True, he had seen what had happened before Lucas got surrounded by zombies but he was too far and busy to provide support and Lucas was already dead by the time he got the chance. Even if he had disregarded himself to go and help Lucas at that point, the zombies would not have simply let him dash past them and the others whom he had saved would have died in the end, the deaths would have been more than today's had he gone for Lucas, and there was still a chance that he would be delayed and Lucas would end up dead regardless.
And as for Edward who had frozen in place instead of helping Lucas, Fablo believed it was from fear or shock that had made Edward freeze and he kind of blamed himself for this, no, he blamed himself completely for it.
After all, he had insisted on Edward following them despite the objection of the others and the reluctant look on Edward's face back then, so Fablo saw what had happened today as his fault.
Maybe the kid was not ready but he did not give him the chance and had insisted on bringing Edward with them, he should have let the kid get accustomed to things first.
'There really are kids in this chaotic world after all, I didn't think someone would still be so scared of zombies that they would not even be able to move' Fablo thought as the scene from how Edward had remained frozen even when the zombies that had killed Lucas were almost upon him, Lia had been the one who had saved him in the end; he did not know that the zombies were actually ignoring Edward since the first one had not actually moved past Edward completely before Lia cut its head in two.
This also raised another question for Fablo as to why Lia did not just let the zombies eat Edward if she was intending to kill him but that thought was left aside since everything had been resolved…for now, that is. As for Edward's question, why was he being nice to him?
"Just an impulsive thought of mine" Fablo smiled at Edward before looking away, his gaze piercing into the night and landing on the zombie.
Edward obviously was not going to believe that it was all just an impulsive thought but what was he supposed to believe then? He had also seen the man's sad face and this reduced his suspicions towards Fablo a bit but not completely eradicating his vigilance, the man must have had other thoughts that he was not willing to tell Edward for some reason.
"Do you regret it though?" Fablo said and looked at Edward again who also turned to look at him before adding "Do you regret that you did not do anything to save Lucas?" He asked.
Edward pulled his gaze from Fablo and stared ahead. Did he regret watching Lucas get eaten? What sort of question was that? Any normal person would feel regret obviously, but strangely, Edward felt nothing, like it was all normal. Though he did not say it to Fablo and simply stared at the space in front of him without saying a word, his action could easily make people misunderstand his answer and take his silence as a yes which Fablo did. He thought Edward felt regret but found it hard to say it.
He nodded, this reaction was normal. It meant Edward would have helped Lucas if he had not frozen at such a critical moment.
"Then why did you freeze? Why didn't you help?" Fablo asked further.