The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 3: The day of reckoning

I had woke up and realized that I had pissed myself. I would have to throw this underwear out somewhere I didn't want my sister or anyone else to see what had happened. Especially not Jordan, he would make me a living meme to everyone.
What a terrible dream, I couldn't really remember what it was really all about but it scared me half to death. It was fading a long way out of my memory at this point and I looked out the window to see the sun had just barely been raised above the sky.
It looked absolutely beautiful, like that girl I had seen yesterday. That unfortunately I would never really get too meet. She would have her first week here and then since she was at least 16 she would then go and move to her job that she would be stuck in the rest of her life. And Shannon would not let a woman be a farmer so it seemed that me and her would never really properly get to meet. And even if we did she would most likely go after that dickhead Jordan.
I hated him so much, he'd been pissing on me since I was 8 and his parents had first took him here from a group that was "hundreds of miles away" they had said. He would make fun of me in front of all the kids our age and they would laugh about it and take his side all except one. Her name was Bella but me and her always used to be friends and I had a big crush on her. But what a surprise the same day I asked her out was moments before the storm had come through and killed both of my parents. But of course it was much worse than that. She said no, not a big surprise. Maybe I wasn't the best looking but I was somewhat decent looking. And then she had told me that she was dating Jordan, then seconds after that the wall was struck by lightning and the wall fell over.
That's the day that basically ended me. I took the double whammy. Not only did she reject me for the guy that basically bullied me for a few years. My parents then both get torn to pieces minutes after that. I hadn't seen what had happened. My mother took me into the room made for atomic bombs and told me to stay in there with my brother. But my sister had seen it all and it had haunted her for several years. She had told me crying, as if I was the bigger brother in that situation that first it was our stepfather that had run in to try and save her and all of the young kids. But he was bitten and torn to shreds, a few moments after that so was my mother, and then the kids. I would be torn apart if I had seen something like that and my sister had seen it from the roof that my mother had pushed her up in just minutes ago.
I tried clearing those thoughts from inside my head. Just telling myself it happened so long ago and just leave it in the past at this point... I tried but I failed, Jordan didn't bully me after that but then again I wasn't around much with other kids. I just took care of my brother while my sister was away doing her own things and I took care of my mothers best friend Lilly.
I walked out of my bedroom and saw that only my brother was awake on the couch reading another book. Like he did as per usual about every single day, all day. I loved him so much and felt so bad for him to not have either of his parents... At least I somewhat remembered mine. I remember my dad always taking us out to go do all these fun things even though he worked what seemed like 24/7.
I came in and gave him a hug and said to him, "Im ready for the big day." I told him... But I instantly knew he had been listening to what had been going on last night when I saw him wipe a tear off of his face. I wanted to cry too but I couldn't I was ready for the life ahead of me, ready to be a farmer for the rest of my life... I had excepted that fact at this point and was just ready to get it over with. Because it seemed like nothing could go right for me, I couldn't have friends, a family, or anyone I cared about basically.
And now as it turned out I would most likely be a farmer like 500-600 other people in the community were. People my age called them the weak ones. I always thought it was funny because when it came time for them to get in there they ended up being farmers too. But it wouldn't be funny for long, I knew no one would care for me or really love me if I became a farmer. Most of the girls in this community wanted to be with a guy like a scavenger, a wanderer, a warrior, or a watchman to watch the walls and shoot down any of the undead that tried to get in because of the noises they had heard from the community.
I was ready, the day of reckoning was about to be upon us and I was ready for what Shannon would be telling me in just a few hours. At noon to be exact, we didn't have clocked but most people could tell time at this point. People still had their calenders, that's how we knew when it would be someones birthday or what day someone died to mark their grave.
I knocked on my sisters door because i knew she wouldn't be asleep... She would rarely sleep and if she did it would only be for an hour or two. She said, "You never know out there if someone is going to sneak up on and still your stuff or try to kill you, a few scavengers have died because of that and its happened to me once or twice.
You never know when or if someone is watching you, you always must be thinking at all times..."
She moaned and told me to come in and close the door. "Alright last night i told all the scavengers here if they would train you... Most of them said no. A few did say yes... But I think you shouldn't be a scavenger you will see what is going on when the time comes... I trust this man." I felt a little upset that she would not allow me to be a scavenger but I was wondering what she was talking about for the rest of that. She trusted a man? There's only a few i knew that she did trust and they're all dead now so we see how that turned out.
"What do you mean? I want to be a scavenger not a farmer or some sort of teacher..." I said back to her... She just laughed. It wasn't much of a joke to me, I wanted to be a scavenger, I didn't know who she was thinking about to train me but it obviously was not a scavenger and I didn't really want to be a watchmen and sit there all day shooting at the undead a staring at nothing. Because nothing had ever came and nothing ever would but the first leader had set them up and everyone in the community seemed to agree on it.
"You will see when the time comes, you may be upset at first but you will get over it and be happy with it soon enough." She told me. It irritated me a lot but I suppose I would have to get over it, she knew what she was doing. But at the same time it seemed to me that she was going to have me be a watchmen and she thought I would be okay with that. Watchmen had always been a no go in my eyes and such a boring job. I would only be working 2-3 days a week in 4 hours shifts which meant i wouldn't work all that much... But at the same time, I didn't want to really be sitting there all day on a useless job it felt like to me. And I knew for sure at this point that I wouldn't really be a part of Shannon's group because she hated my mom and my sister, so why on earth would she want me.
"Why cant you just tell me now? If I'm not going to be a scavenger like you, and people said they would train me then there's nothing else that I wont to do Angela, why wont you just let me be a scavenger?" I asked her basically begging her. If people said yes then why is she not letting me? That's what I always wanted to do, I wanted to be useful to the community. She just sat there and did not look at me at all but still wore that stupid little smile on her face that was beginning to really piss me off.
"Like I said you will see. That is all I'm going to tell you for now but you should really clean yourself up... Whens the last time you've taken a shower?" She asked me. I groaned and then just walked out of the room. Why wouldn't she just tell me? We don't get birthday presents like before all this so why cant she just at least tell me that? Besides I suppose I hadn't showered for over a week, and i smelt really nasty... Maybe that's what that girl was looking at me for the other day. But i put that off, there's no way you would smell that bad from 20 feet away...
I took all of my clothes off and then hopped into the shower. It felt nice just finally cleaning myself up, after the death of our mother I hadn't been taking care of myself as good as I needed to. It felt so warm and relaxing and I just wondered to myself why I didn't hop into the shower more often.
But then the thoughts of my dream from last night went back into my head, just thinking about that guy I had seen I couldn't quite remember his name, like Dallas or something along those lines... But he just looked straight up evil. I had never seen someone look like that ever before in my life and it scared me. He was just straight up evil and he seemed happy about it.
I fell back and slipped down in the shower and cut my leg a little bit on the way down. It had begun to slightly bleed but it didn't really hurt all that much. Even though it looked as if I was bleeding to death, I would probably need a bandage and maybe even need to get stitched up.
"You okay Ben?" My brother yelled from the other room. I lifted my head back and just laid back in the bathtub just letting the warm soak into my body. I didn't respond for a solid few seconds because it had tripped my mind. "Ben?" I had forgot what I was even thinking about and what had scared me so much.
"Yes Liam, Im fine just got scratched up a little bit." I said back to him. He didn't say anything but I knew he just went back to reading his book. My sister was like a mother to him, and her boyfriend who is dead now was his father basically up until about a year ago. He probably doesn't even remember him all that much at all. I was his brother who looked after him though and he knew that and was thankful for that. Now he was just trying to return the favor.
I just kept laying back in the shower for a little while longer before I finally got up and decided to go into the kitchen and put a bandage on my cut. I wasn't too sure what exactly gave me that cut in the first place but im long past asking questions. I just go with the flow, it was probably stupid of my, yes, but I didn't want to really think of all the bad that has happened to me. That's why everyone in this community is depressed. I cant say I'm not but I've had worse things happen to me than most and I think I can say I've coped with it pretty well.
I walked into the Kitchen with a towel on to see my sister making food on the counter, she was using the stove for some bread and chee was clearly making some grilled cheese.
"Hey Angela I got cut in the shower... Can you check it out for me? I don't want to be stitched up, but I also don't want to die from blood poisoning." I said to her. She nudged for me to come over to her and I sat back in the seat. She looked at it and said some words to herself that I couldn't quite hear.
"You don't need stitches but it is a pretty bad cut, Ill get a bandage for you, you can use that as proof to Shannon that you are strong enough to be like us." She said to me. I was wondering what she meant by that. Because she had just told me earlier basically that I would not be a scavenger like her. And that hurt like hell that she didn't want me to be a scavenger. In my mind I was thinking that maybe she was thinking wanderer. But most of them were out looking for new places there was only 1 back at the moment and that was a female and she had said he. And I knew I would not be a warrior because I was no way near strong enough for axes and swords all day. But it was still a cool thought just thinking about being one of them and helping the wanderers find new places and protecting them from the undead and sometimes other people. I had heard stories of what had happened to some that had died or just straight up been attacked by random people out there.
I was ready to fight anyone out there who had attacked me or attacked someone that I was with. Even if that meant killing. I had only seen a few glimpses of people having to kill other people but I knew I would be ready for it if it came to that. I was about 99% sure at this point though that I would be working inside the walls because now that I thought about it if there were no wanderers and I couldn't be a warrior then what could I do, trading wasn't a thing anymore. All those groups were dead and long gone. Well All those groups as in 1 group at least.
My sister put the bandage on me and fixed me up, making sure that it would stop bleeding. Then she picked me up, I wobbled a bit but then I steadied myself. I would be fine, just a natural reaction after sitting there for a few minutes.
"Thanks Angela, alright Ill get ready, lets head to Lilly's rather than sit here waiting for it to be noon." I said to her. She nodded and then I walked towards my room and took my towel off. I then put on some underwear and then began to pull up some shorts so I could look good with the bandage on. That's when I looked out the window. There was the girl from earlier but she was just staring at me from about 40 feet away. She then noticed I saw her and then gave what looked to be a laugh. She didn't see me na- nah there's no way I wasn't behind the window when that happened. But still I thought it was a bit odd that she would just be looking through that window at perfect timing. And then laughing like she was. There's no way she could have seen me.
I then put the rest of my clothes on and then walked out of my bedroom door with Angela and Liam sitting on the couch together. He was showing her how good he had gotten at reading lately. He had still struggled with a few words but he picked them up after a few seconds and kept going.
I was so proud of him and just sat there and watched for a few minutes as he kept reading to her, she helped him on a few words here and there that he seemed to struggle with but all and all he was doing an amazing job. Probably almost better than me at reading. I had learned a few things from the teachers in the community... But they weren't actual school teachers except 2... Well 1 after the storm but that was after i had finished learning all that they could teach.
After Liam had finally finished out the final page, they finally both got up, my sister held his hand as they got ready to go the front door when they saw that I was ready.
"Alright Ben, its your big day... Maybe the biggest one for the rest of your life, you ready?" Angela said to me. I nodded and then put my shoes on at the front door. I was excited, but at the same time I was a little scared. I didn't know what exactly my sister had in store for me, but her plans didn't exactly usually end up the way they were supposed to.
"Yep... Im ready... Just a little nervous." I told her as we opened the front door. Angela put her hand down and then closed the door before responding to me.
"I would say, don't be... But I was nervous the day I turned 14 too. Im just lucky my stepdad stepped up for me. He was always one of the best and he trained me to be the best. But that was before he even married our mother. He used to tell me that it was the reason they got married in the first place." She told me. I knew how nervous she was. I was 6 when that day happened and I don't remember it that much... But I did remember her crying to our mom the morning it happened. Even though she knew that our mom wouldn't let her just have a bad job. In fact a lot of the women in this community didn't even really have a job. They kind of just walked around the city everyday or took care of their kids at home and were perfectly fine living that way.
I thought it was a bit strange that they didn't really want to be useful to the community but a lot of men didn't want to either so they were just happy having a job such as being a farmer and only having to do it like once per week. Not everyone in the community really had to work... Most people in fact didn't work hardly at all. There was no reason too. And once you turned 55 you were free from working forever. But most people here were not that age. Most older people had died right off the start except for a few.
We began walking our way to Lilly's it would take a little while but we could just enjoy the final time I would have with all of them before I would get my job and potentially never be around anymore. Kind of like my sister, one time she was gone for a month... And we had all thought she had died. But she spent her time with us very wisely. I just looked at the fields beside me praying to god i would not be working in those... I still had a thought in my mind that it might happen even though my sister had told me it would not be happening. And even if the guy ended up deciding to say no, then one of the scavengers would pick me up and train me. Which I would be happy with even though most of them were actually really lazy.
Finally after a solid 30+ minutes we arrived at Lilly's house and then knocked on her door. She didn't respond till the 2nd batch of knocks until finally we heard her yell from the other side of the house. And then after about a minute she had come to the front door. Smiling as she saw all 3 of us were finally together for the first time in a long time.
"Ah here he is... I just made a fresh carrot cake for you... You're going to love it... And not only that... Oh sorry Angela I didn't realize you hadn't told him yet at this point... My apologies..." She said, at this point I was insanely confused because there were no other jobs I would be interested in and it seemed like there was a big one that they thought I would be... I didn't want to be in Shannon's group and besides Shannon wasn't a women and my sister wouldn't go and talk to her. Lilly picked up where she had left off. "The day of reckoning is upon us."