The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 6: Day 1

Angela then began to walk away waving to me goodbye. I had never really met this guy in my life... I knew that he was basically my stepfathers best friend. But he had never really come around the area that much. Otherwise I had only seen him a few other times.
"Alright first... Did you get something to eat? Ill be providing you lunch." He told me. Providing me lunch?! I had been told by everyone that the first day was no more than 2 hours and it was no earlier than 7:00 AM right now. Maybe he was not joking when he said it was going to be roughest day off my life.
"I'm okay... Got a little bit this morning." I said back to him. He then began to smile which kind of scared me. I really had no idea who this guy was then...
"Alright, but Lunch isn't going to be till the time we leave... That will be around 2... I'll take your first day a little bit easy... But I want to train you within a week." He told me. I gulped a little bit. That was easy? 7 hours? This was about to be the roughest week of my life.
"Uh... Okay..." I said to him. Those were just about the only words that could come out of my mouth up to this point. He wasn't lying when he said it was about to be the roughest day of my life... Physically at least...
"Alright Day 1 and little bit of Day 2 we are going to be teaching you how to be a scavenger... Its a bit of the job I do... I do a bit of everything." He told me. So maybe it would not be that bad after all... If I was going to be taught how to be a scavenger, then I suppose I could still be like Angela...
"The other days are for the other jobs out there I suppose I said to him." He nodded but then continued talking.
"Yes... But I also do a bit of my own thing, such as just killing basically everything in sight... Some day this world will get back to normal again... I hope, not too sure if there are really any other groups out there or not." He told me. Well it certainly would be helpfully to learn all aspects of basically everything. And it sort of made since why the training aspect of all of this would be taking so long. I would have to be learning basically how to do every aspect of everything out there in the world. If that's what this guys job was then why did not many people have respect for him?
"I think there are... This country... And this whole world is huge, we can't be the only people out here." I said back to him. He nodded, I hoped that we weren't the only ones... I mean if other groups didn't have food or water they would die out pretty fast. Luckily we had both a water system and plenty of food for everyone.
"Maybe so... But you never know... No one knows what happened to that old group, the weren't starving... And it looked like someone bombed those walls, there's no way it was a lightning strike that killed every single one of them." He told me... I didn't really know because I had never actually seen anything outside of the walls. It actually was beginning to scare me and a shiver then went through my body.
"Alright... So teach me to be a scavenger." I told him. He then shook my head which was kind of surprising me. Maybe it would be an easy day, but most kids got trained for nearly a month and I had to learn everyone's job within a week.
"Im not teaching you to become a scavenger... This is my job, and it isn't a scavenger like you sister and father." He told me. I ignored it because he probably never actually really knew my actual father. I knew if he was alive he would be the actual leader, way better than Shannon, today.
"Sorry that's not what I meant." I told him. He did look a little offended which was not my plan by saying that at all. He then nudged me to come into his little almost cabin looking house. He then told me to sit down on the sofa that he had in his small little living room.
"Alright, surprise! We are going out there day 1... So it won't be like all those other measly trainers... I wont you to see what it is really like out there... Being out there when you were what? 5? You probably don't remember it all that much. And even if you did, you're about to be getting into something about 100 times worse than what you remember... Before you were probably just running... But that is not what we are going to be doing." He said. It was a lot to really take in, it was truth really. I had not really remembered much from when it had all first started... Besides my parents telling me to run very chance they had, and seeing some of those things trying to move slowly towards me. At first when it had all come down I had thought they were just a little sick and needed help. I had always tried to tell my parents that. But they didn't listen, which made since now after all those horror stories of people being out there that everyone had told me.
These things were dead, they weren't people anymore, and they would tear you apart quite literally in chance they had. They didn't eat, they could go years without doing that, I never quite understood how that was even possible. A lot of people assumed it was just a virus, but that couldn't be possible... How could a virus make it to where you didn't have to eat, much less drink for long periods of time... Any human, or hell, any animal couldn't make it a week without any of that, that is why I knew it was not a virus that did all this. These things were just straight up dead...
"So, im going to pack up 2 cans of water for you, and then we are going to go out there. It's time for you too go see the real world... You won't like it... Hell I don't even think that annoying ass bitch Shannon has even ever gone out there." He said to me. I agreed with him whole heartedly... At least my mom had gone out there a few times when she was the leader of the group.
"Uhhhh... The first day? What if we get into a heard or, I don't really know how to make it." I said to him. It gave him a bit of a chuckle but I didn't see anything funny about this situation at all... I had never been out there... "I don't even have a weapon how is this funny?" I asked him. He then looked me right in the face and slid me a machete that he had just taken off the wall for himself.
"Go for the head... You need to stop worrying, we aren't even going but maybe a mile out, if there is a heard we would see it from at least 1000 feet away." He told me. Fair enough but I mean going for the head was what everyone had told me. It wasn't that long before everyone found that. I just, I mean surely there was another way. If this was truly a virus then how come 15 shots the the chest not kill someone?
"But what if we get we lose sight of each other?" I asked him. I shook his head as if I was some sort of idiot.
"For christ sakes kid stop worrying... We are going in there together... So you will br at my side at all times. If by any means we somehow, which wont happen, lose sight of each other then just yell my name." He told me... I still had so many questions to ask him but he was already walking out the front door telling me to follow him. There were 8 sections of the gates, which was why a lot of the group were also guarding the walls less than 1/4 of a mile apart. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad to take Tyler's offer. But Shannon had said no...
There was a section less than half a mile away and I had to get in as many questions as I could before we were out there. I truly had no idea what to do, and it seemed like he had no idea how to train me. That's probably why he had never trained a person in the first place. But I had to shake those thoughts from out of my head.
"What if I yell and a heard hears me..." I asked him. He looked right at me and just stood still staring me right in the eyes. It kind of scared me but I was by no means a coward and I would show him that.
"They can hear gunshots from far away they cant hear yelling... Kid just follow me and you will be fine." He told me. I mean I wasn't just a little kid, this is the reason I was being trained in the first place. I was going to become a man. I had questions and I didn't really see what was such a big deal about me asking them.
"Im not a kid, and My name is Ben..." I told him. He shook his head but he just kept on walking. I followed him, we were about halfway to the gate, I could slightly see it in the distance, there was a bit of a fog this morning that was lowered my sight. This was about the distance that Christian had told me we would see a heard, but I bet we could see it even further out than that.
"Okay well just stop talking and start watching, you're about to see hell, I want you too know what we are getting into before you actually start your training." I responded to me. I nodded and we kept walking towards the gate get closer and closer. I was starting to get scared, and there were some shivers coming down my spine now. I wasn't too sure if I was ready now... All those stories so many people had told me about, it was about to become a reality for me... I thought I was ready before but now I wasn't so sure.
"Open the gates." Christian told the guy... I then realized it was Tyler, he was one of the main gate leaders I had forgot about that. He was out here about 8 hours everyday. He was the most active on the walls... Some people would get 10 hours maybe even less per week but some weeks Tyler would get almost 60 hours...
"What's the password?" Tyler asked him. Christian looked down confused. I didn't realize there was even a password either, maybe it was for kids, but who would let a kid out in the first place?
"What? Now there's password? Jesus Shannon... You know who I am Tyler... Just let me out." Christian said to him. He laughed and then opened the gate to let us out. A kid had gotten out once when they had changed shifts and he went up the latter and jumped down. He broke his ankle or at least made it to where he couldn't walk and by the time one of the guards had run up to him he was getting torn apart by one of the dead. After that incident Shannon made it too where there was 4 on the gate at once and their shifts didn't change at the exact same time... I never understood why it wasn't like that in the first place.
"Password correct, I wasn't sure you would remember that... Its kind of long." Tyler told us. I then realized it was just a joke and let out a bit of a laugh which Christian looked at me as soon as I did that. So I just pretended that I was coughing.
Christian said something under his breath and then we walked through the gates. This was the first time I had seen it out here since I was 4 and it looked so beat up. The grass was insanely high up and there was weeds everywhere. How would we really see if there was an undead out there? What if one was a small kid and was walking towards us and we didn't see it. I had to clear the thoughts from my head, if I thought that it was going to get me killed out there, odds are it was going to happen.
Tyler then closed the gates and waved at me goodbye, Im surprised he wasn't confused why I was going out there on day one. But he probably wasn't thinking about it all that much. I waved back at him and then we took off. There were no dead anywhere to be seen.
"If you see one tell me, I don't want you to get killed and you won't really know how to use that machete right away." He told me. Fair enough, I didn't even think about that, but I probably would have done that if I saw one... I needed to prove to him that I was worthy for this job. 1 week from now I would probably be out there on my own... Probably not, he would probably be with me or I would have a warrior with me. He just wouldn't be training me.
I nodded to him and we kept on moving, he then held me back as if he was trying to get me to stop.
"That's one right there. I need you to watch me carefully as I kill that thing okay?" He told me. I nodded once again not even knowing where he was looking. He then went ahead and ran in the other direction I was looking.
I quickly spun around just in time for him to chop off its head. It scared me its head was torn in half and I wanted to cry. I wasn't ready for all of this... These used to be just normal people going through their daily life.
Christian then began heading towards me seeing that I was a bit upset and he just shook his head.
"Jesus kid... You weren't ready for this shit... I can go and take you back so that you can be a farmer... You won't have to see shit like this ever again." He told me but I just shook my head and wiped the tears from my eyes. I almost wanted to go pick that guy up and go inside his wallet to see his name.
"I got this, I just thought I was ready... But it still hurts thinking that... Yuh know... He used to be a normal person like us a while ago." I said to him. He shook his head a little bit and then nodded for me to keep on walking.
"I stopped thinking about that a while ago kid... But now that I think about it... I was like you when I killed or saw people kill the first ones... I mean I had to kill my own wife and kids early on. They were inside this community in one of those houses." He told me. I felt bad for him, I had never realized that he had a wife and kids... He still seemed a bit young, no older than 35, but he acted older like he had seen lots of shit. And to be fair he had, I hadn't I just heard the stories.
We kept on walking seeing nothing nearby besides a beat up road with grass and weeds popping out of the little cracks. We then began walking on that road to make sure nothing sneaked up on us.
"I don't want to go to far out, in case we run into someone... A lot of the people in this world are lost, at least the ones I found and they try to kill me the moment they see the opportunity. A lot but most are still good so don't kill them right away." He told me. I wasn't exactly planning on killing a person the moment i saw the chance but I guess he was just trying to make sure.
"They must have been changed because they haven't been in a group in a long time, maybe not even ever." I said to him. I agreed with me, using a quick little nod and we kept on walking... We were about halfway to a mile when Christian slowed me down to a and maybe me stay still.
"There is one not too far away... I need you to hear it and always be looking around just in case." He told me. I looked around but failed to see one nearby.
"I don't see anything are you sure there is one nearby?" I said back to him. He put his finger up to my ear telling me to stay silent.
I suddenly heard it, it wasn't all that loud but I could there it from maybe 50 feet away and too the left. I nodded my head and then he held me up.
"Alright now like I showed you earlier..." He said nudging me to go after it. I wasn't sure I was ready. I almost wanted to ask him to show me again, but it had been almost half an hour since we saw the last one and I wanted to prove to him that he was wrong and I was ready.
It was a female with shorter hair, a lot of it was torn off but there was still quite a bit left. I felt bad again for her... But I had to clear that thought from my head... Everyone had told me, those things out there were not humans and didn't think of you like one either. But I still had this thought inside my mind that it was.
"C'mon kid, go ahead and get it..." He told me. But I knew instantly that it had heard us talking. We were not loud by any means but there were no sounds nearby besides a woodpecker from far away going after a tree... And that wad the exact direction she was going at before she had heard us.
It was now or never, I pulled out my machete from out of my belt. Then ran after it, I couldn't think of it like a human... It wasn't... I then hit it on the head. But it kept going I must have not hit it in the right spot. Now it was stuck and I couldn't pull it out. It was about to push me back when Christian came in for the killing blow. He then helped me by picking me up.
"Sorry I thought that was going to kill it." I said to him, making sure that he was not upset. He shook his head but didn't seem disappointed. For the first time in his life more than likely he said something that I wasn't expecting.
"You didn't hit it with that machete correctly, that was my fault for not showing or at least telling you how to use it. You gotta hit it on the head like this." He told me. He then picked out my machete and pushed it in the correct direction. "Alright kid... We aren't even nearly done, there's still a lot I need to show you. This is simply just day 1."