The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 4: You cant break my soul

I laughed, it sure was... But I knew that I would be getting an at least halfway decent job that my sister Angela had thought to give me. Hopefully, at least... Not as a scavenger but, maybe something else, obviously not a farmer or something else where I would be stuck inside the walls. All I really knew to this point was I would being going outside of the walls. It would be a bit dangerous but I wasn't afraid of those things. They were just little things that didn't move all that fast. My sister had said they had seemed to speed up lately but they weren't even close enough to jogging distance.
The only problem though, was it seemed as if they had unlimited stamina and never got tired... And that's what got people killed... If you ran too fast that's when you got tired too quickly... That's when you died... "A good steady jogging pace out there was the best. And then to switch directions because the dead out there just follow one path until they find a new one." Is what Angela had said. She knew that I had always wanted to live out there and kill those undead creatures that had killed my father my stepfather... And my mother who I cared for the most.
"Are you ready for it Ben? I don't think you will like what you see out there... I can tell you, I went out there with you mother a few years ago, and it was absolute hell out there..." She said to me. Its almost as if she wanted me to go be a farmer and live in the community my whole life. But that's not what I wanted... That is a boring lifestyle... And she had just given her retirement rights last year. I knew she was old enough, but I wouldn't want to be sitting there all day thinking about how the world had all gone to shit... I would much rather just die out there, to those things.
"Yes I will be fine, Im ready... My family didn't die out here... They died in here, so statistically speaking... Its safer out there." I said to her. She laughed and shook her head at the same time. A had always had my way with words. Liam was smarter but he couldn't get away with talking to others, like I could. I was ready, my whole life I had been sitting here doing nothing in my community and being a useless waste. I wanted to go out there and help the group... Not sit here all day and do nothing... Do jobs that will feed a few people for a year... You can find useful stuff scavenging, guns, ammo, tools, etc. I knew I wasn't going to be a scavenger, but my sister said I would have something even better in store for me.
I sure hoped it was true... I didn't want some sort of boring job where I was stuck in the community all day. I knew my sister cared a lot about us, and I wasn't too sure if she was going to give me a job to make me stay safe inside of the walls instead of being out there.
"Alright Lilly, I just wanted you guys to see each other... I wasn't too sure when you guys would be seeing each other again. It's been a while since we have even seen each other... I know Ben cares a lot about you..." Angela said to me. I did, it was true... Even though she was nearly 50 years older than me she was basically my only friend. Lilly thought I had other friends but Angela knew I didn't really get along with the normal kids that much. We just didn't really have common interest and I was just a joke to them. Even as my mother being leader, the had always told me I was the weak one. After my mom had died though, Jordan was the main one and he laid off of doing that. So the rest of them did because they knew it wasn't exactly "cool" anymore.
They basically just followed him, and the girl I had liked did too. Im guessing that girl that I saw the other day would end up dating one of his friends. Just knowing my luck, but I still could dream about it. Or maybe they wouldn't be with the group in the first place. Based off of what Angela had told me what Shannon hold to them.
Angela and Shannon were actually sort of close in age, her father was the first leader which was mainly the reason she became leader but she was only about 3 or 4 years older than her. You would think they would be friends or whatever because both their parents were leader. But they couldn't seem to agree on anything, and everyone in the community knew they hated each other.
"Bye Lilly, wish me luck that I don't have to be a farmer." I said to her. She nodded and then waved at me goodbye, this might be the last time I see her in a while, Angela had said to her. That definitely meant I was not going to be a farmer... But what did that really mean for me?
"That wouldn't be bad after all... Poor kids probably going to die out there... He has no idea what he is getting into." Lilly said quietly, but I didn't hear what she had said. And to be honest I didn't care to hear. She had more of an aim low mentality, that's why she never had that great of a job in the community... But at the same time, she was a bit older than most. Few people had died based off of age in the community. The community had been young since the start. The older ones died right off the start because the were a lot slower and they had no idea what was going on.
Most of us had no idea what it was off the start. It took us weeks to find out that if you got bit, a few days you would die depending on the severity... Maybe sooner, but not longer. Just enough time to pay your dues to your family.
"Alright Ben you got this, they wont break your soul, there's no way Shannon can bring you down." Angela told me giving me a quick hug before we headed all the way back the go to Shannon's place. This was it, this was about to be my life, after I found out what I was going to do after today... It was going to be the potentially greatest day in the existence of this planet. At least for me...
We slowly headed over there, we still had at least an hour until noon, we brought Lilly a nice batch of flowers and then we had left off. It took us about an hour because of the slow pace we were walking at right now... But it was soon to be noon. Clocks didn't work anymore, no one really knew the exact time but there would be a lot of people there that didn't train anyone, or rather were not training anyone that wanted to train someone. Shannon had let everyone know when we had the monthly meet ups in the community, most people went, but you did not have to go... Angela usually did not go, or she would be out on a run, so it would not have even mattered.
I just looked at the fields, at this point I was mostly sure that I would not be a farmer... But at the same time, what if that guy had changed his mind and didn't want to train me... My sister had told me that I had volunteers to go be a scavenger though so I was hoping I would be fine. Maybe I didn't want the job Angela had wanted me to do, maybe I could still be a scavenger.
My sister had told me I would like the job but the person that would be training me was a lot harsher than most, but it was in a good way... And I had to believe it, I just had no idea who would really be training me, my sister didn't exactly have many people she would call friends. But a lot of the community took her side over Shannon's, they new she was a great leader but she was way to harsh on Angela for some reason.
I never really understood why though, she must have thought that maybe Angela would take leader from her. Angela would be a good leader, but she was the first one picked and she said no right away. The community had a voting ceremony every other year though, only one person had challenge Shannon for her spot almost 2 years ago and they had gotten almost no votes, besides maybe a few of his friends.
Angela did not like Shannon at all and was iffy and a few of her methods but she knew that she was still a good leader. I remember how Lilly had told me the argument that they had a few months ago. Shannon knew she was a good leader and she took that with a little too much pride.
"I will always be a better leader than you ever would." Shannon had said to her. Lilly said that Angela had just laughed it off and then walked out. I knew Angela could be a good leader... But she was also not even 18 when the voting started the first time and she never wanted to be the leader. But for some reason Shannon thought she had won leader in the voting poll. About 80% of the community had voted for Angela she just didn't want the job... So it went to the runner up at around 10% votes of Shannon.
At last we had finally got to the community house. There were around 50 people standing around and Shannon came running over to us... Not looking to happy at us...
"Are you serious Angela we have been waiting for hours for you to get here." Shannon said to her. Angela looked away and just smiled at her... She knew that Shannon was bluffing but I didn't I couldn't tell time great, but it looked about noon right now and that's when she said to be there. It wouldn't even start around that time.
"What Shannon?" A guy said to her from not too far away, I recognized it to be one of Angela's old crushes... Tyler, and he was staring at Shannon all confused. "I was the first one here... And that wasn't but about 30 minutes ago." Angela burst into a fit of laughter and I giggled a little bit. Shannon backed off a little but still had a few words too say.
"Your timeline must be off Tyler... You must be thinking about Angela a little too much there." She said back to him. No one laughed but I did think it was a bit funny. Everyone knew he had asked her out several times... He had even asked to marry her when she was dating another guy. Angela didn't laugh like most people did, she just kindly rejected him. I felt bad for him, he wasn't bad looking by any means but he always looked up to her like she was the greatest thing on the planet.
We sat down on some chairs and waited a little bit for the rest of the people that had wanted to come to join in. After about 30 minutes of waiting Shannon signals to everyone that it was time to start. I suppressed a laugh because I thought it was so many that she had said they were waiting for hours and we happen to have to wait another 30 minutes.
"Alright today we celebrate the ceremony of Ben! Son of Kinston, the old leader of our group that was one of the best." Shannon told everyone from the microphone. They had a lot of guards in beside the walls nearby for any of the dead that might hear it.
I thought that it was funny, because the group only had 3 leaders ever and she would be top 3 no matter what. No one really thought about it like that, I could tell because no one was really smiling from the crowd... Most people there were just ready for one thing.
"Now let everyone eat! Enjoy the meal before we give him his trainer!" Shannon said and then stepped down from the stool... I knew the meal was a lot of the reason a few people were here... Just purely based off of the waste I saw off of a few guys. They were most likely farmers or did not have a job at all... Most farmers had never trained a person before. It was just a few that had several times and it wasn't hard to train them.
I went ahead and went through the long line of tables wondering what I was going to eat. Angela followed Liam over to the desserts section. Liam was always a big fan of the cakes and brownies that people tended to make. It was never like the cakes that you got from the store before it all happened but they were still pretty good. I went ahead and got some chicken from the chicken farm that the farmers owned directly in the middle. There were thousands of chickens in that huge coop and they had other coops to make more chickens from based off the roosters we had. We usually ate the roosters but on days like today we got a nice normal chicken. Fresh one, not like the ones from the stores before the undead.
They were great, most of the food we got was, we got around 2 eggs per day, but they were distributed weekly. I was never a big fan of the eggs but I always loved the meat I would get.
There were always several different meals you could make with it... My sister always tried to make good meals whenever she was there. They were never really like the meals my mother always used to make. Those were fantastic and it seemed like every time it would be something new. My sister tried doing that, but she never knew the same type of recipes that my mom did. She didn't do bad by any means... But it still just wasn't like moms cookings.
I got some mashed potatoes, and then added some gravy on them. I loved that, it was absolutely my most favorite thing to eat in this world. Jordan used to joke on me saying that I would be a farmer and be growing things like those some day. I used to think maybe he was right, but now I know I'm going to get a good job like he did. He became a warrior, back a few months ago when your family was aloud to train you, but we all know why Shannon changed that.
I sat down with Liam and Angela, Angela had a pretty decent sized plate, she seemed to eat a lot but never gain any weight, she was in no means skinny but she wasn't even close to fat. Liam was sitting beside her with only a big plate full of mashed potatoes.
"Mashed potatoes are good, you like them to Benny." Liam said to me, I laughed and then said "Indeed." We then got together Tyler walked over and sat beside me. Tyler and Angela were still friends, it just always seemed like a weird relationship to me. Not by any means did Angela want to date Tyler, but they were still friends. They began talking and I ignored their conversation and just thought to myself, who was this guy that was supposed to train me? Is it a warrior? I don't see any here, they must be on missions or don't want to train me because I wasn't exactly, big.
I was so confused because there weren't many people here... Half of them were just fat farmers... And not a lot of men... Was Tyler supposed to train me? Was this what all of this was about? I didn't want to work on the walls my whole life... Surely she knew that right? I hadn't exactly expressed my feeling to her about that but she knew...
I just kept on eating and let the thoughts get out of my head. Just eat stop thinking, its going to happen really soon.
"He's not here yet Im not to sure where he is at?" Angela said to me. It scared me a bit. There were 2 scavengers here, but 1 was already training and I wasn't to sure the other 1 would want to train me. If I didn't get this job then I would most definitely be a farmer... I don't even think any teachers or daycare teachers were here that would train me.
I just kept on eating not looking around. Surely the more I ate the sooner he would get here before it was too late right? I just hoped and prayed that I wad not going to be a farmer and whoever this guy was would show up any second now. But the more and more we waited the less and less sure I was that this was going to happen... And Angela looked a bit paranoid about it too... Which scared my, I just had to hope to god he hadn't changed his mind.
"Alright, now that everyone has had enough to eat, yes you can go get your final plate big guys over there... Its time to see if anyone want to train this young man over there." Shannon said, Angela stood up and then ran off, Shannon smiled when she saw that. I was beginning to like her less and less day by day. Tyler looked around confused but then shook his head. Liam looked a little scared and I went over to him real quick.
"He's not coming is he?" Liam asked me... I sadly nodded, if he, whoever he was, had not come at this point I was pretty sure he wasn't coming period. And Angela running off kind of proved that. Maybe Tyler would give me the job, Id much rather be doing that then be a farmer.
"Now please stand up if you'd like to train this boy... If no one does I will give him to a farmer." Shannon said smiling right at me. This woman seemed like she was almost pure evil and just hated our family. But for what reason? Because more people had voted for Angela rather than her? It was ridiculous, and she was really going to make me be a farmer just to try and take Angela down... I had no part in this and it was not fair for me at all.
Once it took a little while for no one to say anything Tyler looked around then stood up. "I will train him." Tyler said to everyone... I mean it was a bit disappointing but I was just grateful that Tyler would be training me rather than some farmer.
"Excuse me, you know the new rules... No family is allowed train a sibling or a family member." Shannon yelled back at him. For real? Did she actually believe me and Tyler were family? We don't even look nearly the same... Im mixed and Tyler was just straight up white.
"Im not even dating his sister for one... This isn't fair... You're just trying to get back at Angela. You're going to switch out the rules once he's trained as a farmer and then add them back when her little brother is of age." Tyler said back at her. A lot of the crowd nodded in agreement and booed at her.
"Friends is the same as family... And we don't want people to play soft on people they care about. You guys must surely understand right?" Shannon looked at everyone in the crowd. It was harassed with more boos from everyone there. "I am not allowing this and you guys cannot stop me. You guys will understand soon." She said to everyone there. The boos got even louder and a few people just left and walked off. Which Im sure Shannon was perfectly fine and happy with.
"I mean this is bullshit, but I will train him." The one scavenger said back at Shannon. People shouted in happiness then began booing at Shannon again. Shannon looked down at them looking absolutely disgusted like she was better than all of them.
"Once again, I can't allow that scavengers and scavengers his sister is a scavenger." Shannon said, more people began to walk off absolutely disgusted with Shannon, to the point where there was only 20 or 30 left and still no sign of Angela. It was really disheartening.
"Okay, this is ridiculous, we are about to impeach you in a few days because of this ridiculousness..." Tom, the scavenger yelled at her. She looked absolutely fine with that though and did not look scared at all. She just laugh at him.
"You think that scares me? Everyone in this community knows how good of a leader I am you wont even get 100 votes much less 1400." Shannon said just laughing at her. Someone said from the crowd "Not if we all tell everyone how big of a prick you are." She just kept looking at Tom and smiled. A lot of people muttered their agreement.
"I will train him." Someone said from far away. I turned around and saw my stepdads best friend Christian from a few feet away. Behind him was Angela looking absolutely disgusted...
"You really told him you had changed it to tomorrow?" She said. A lot of the people in the crowd clapped at Angela then looked back at Shannon to see what she had too say next.
"Shannon yelled back, I thought we were changing it to tomorrow, besides he is friends of this boys stepdad..." Shannon yelled to her looking disgusted. No one in the crowd believed her at all and they just stared at me.
"Are you serious, you are going to let your hate for Angela cloud your judgements? You wont say a thing about it if it was someone else! Everyone in this town is friends with her family members for Christ sake... Her mother used to be our leader, and a much better leader than you nevertheless..." He yelled to her. She looked back and then laughed. She looked right at Angela and then began talking, everyone looked away from me and back to her.
"Fine have your way, you guys disgust me... Im trying to help the group, imagine him being a wanderer and learning from his stepdad... He would not be harsh on him at all..." Shannon said to them and then stepped down from her podium. I smiled, it would be a bit weird to have Christian, he was really a bit of a dick to everyone in the community but he was my stepdads best friend... I never understood his job, its like it would be all 3 in one, I didn't even think of him training me, he had never trained anyone in the 1st place. He was just kind of on his own and made up his own rules.
"For christ sake Shannon... Im not even friends with his real family... And you see how I am to everyone in this community, am I not harsh enough?" He said. She just ignored him and then walked back to her mansion giving him the finger. Everyone else them began to leave besides a few that came over and congratulated me.
"Congrats Ben, he will be a good man to train for you." Tom said to me and then he took off to his place on the other side of the community. I thanked him before so.
I thought about the job that my sister had assigned for me. I knew he was going to be very rough on me. That was ridiculous what Shannon had said and I lost basically all my respect for her.
"Alright Ben it starts early in the morning tomorrow as long as your legs okay. He said to me smiling. Oh I think you are going to absolutely love this. I know I will." He said to me. For some reason I didn't know if that was a joke or what that was at all. It actually kind of scared me and had be taken aback.
I waited for them all to leave and then said to my sister, sticking my finger up at Shannon's place. "You cant break my soul."