The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 13: Jordan

I nodded, I would be alone in this one... Only my 3rd day out here and I would have to do it alone, most people learning to do stuff like this didn't even go outside for a few days, but me... Well, I would have to save my own life before I could save Christians... To be fair it was all my own fault.
If I hadn't have gotten so excited about finally killing my first one, I might not already be dead. Who even gets excited about killing another person anyways? I shook my head, those things weren't people, they used to be but not anymore.
I looked around for the air vent not seeing anything but the dead walking around the walls. But then on the other side of the house I saw the air vent. It wasn't much room in between my feet and the hands of the dead. I had to be careful about how I did this... One mistake could get me bitten... I could get bitten and still save Christians life though.
He was more important than me in this community. I wouldn't blame Shannon if she banished me from the community for this. I knew Angela would follow me if she did, Shannon knew that.
"You got this kid, use the map to know where we at first... We are at the Plaza settlement, you will have to follow the way to the gas station and then turn left." He said to me. I knew all of this at this point but it was still good to hear his words. This might be the last time I would ever see him.
There were so many around us, I'm not sure the people in the community could even save him.
I shook the thoughts from out of my head and began heading towards the spot near the air vent on the roof. It was going to be a bit of jump, and even if I made it I might fall or they might bite into me.
There was no other way out of this situation at this point. We could hope that someone from the group comes and finds us here. But odds are they probably wouldn't... There was no reason to being this close to the community... The scavengers had already scavenged everything nearby. The wanderers went so far out we wouldn't see in of them and any of their warriors that would save us.
I looked and the air vent then I went back a little bit. I was ready, my heart was racing like crazy though. I was so scared, but the more I thought about it the less likely I was going to make it.
I then began to run... I had never really ran much before now, besides playing tag when I was younger. I thought I was going fairly fast however I had never really ran before so I couldn't be all too sure.
I then ran as far as possible... I barely hit the platform. There were so many running at me and I slightly stumbled and almost fell on them. But something in my head wasn't going to let my body do that.
There were so many around me, now it felt like I was even more screwed than before. There was no way back on the roof and I wasn't close enough to a window.
I began to yell hoping that someone would hear me. I then realized how stupid I was trying that. There were even more coming towards me now that they had heard me yelling.
Now I was even more screwed... There was no way out of this situation, there were so many around me... There was no way to get around them. I was about to accept death when all of the sudden I heard someone talking.
I opened my eyes again to look where it had come from. I then saw Christian pointing towards me from the nearby window. There were so many of the dead trying to pull me off of my feet.
It was so hard to even try to stay on my feet. I was almost ready to just give up and accept my fate at this point.
"Kid! Keep yelling they are leaving the front door! I will get you up from there." He told me. I nodded and then just looked around, even if he got out I was still screwed there were so many around me. I couldn't even count how many there were, 100? Maybe even a little bit more.
But I did what Christian had asked me to do and I began yelling. I could see even more coming up to me and it just made me want to give up just thinking of how screwed I was. There were too many for me.
I wanted to just jump down and let them tear me apart. I would be with my mother and father again. I hope they wouldn't blame me for all of this. Christian said he didn't but it seemed like he was lying just to make me feel better about myself.
I had failed everyone, I had just done exactly what Shannon had wanted me to do. Now she would probably kick out Angela for this. It wasn't her fault but she would find something to blame her for.
I then heard yelling from way further out. Who was it? It wasn't Christian was it? There was no way he could get out either. But then I saw him from far away yelling as loud as he possible could.
The dead then turned and began heading towards him. Most of them at least, the ones closer to me where still coming on me. Now we were both screwed, it was still my fault... There were still a bunch of them on me and now there were about to be a ton of them on him. And he had a bag and they had infinite stamina...
I closed my eyes, they were pulling down on me so hard and I was trying my best to stay on my feet. But at some point soon, I would be worn out... One of them would pull me in... And even if I fought through I would do from dehydrated, fighting off of them was really wearing me down so it would be pretty fast.
Suddenly I heard yelling from closer up and I saw Christian right in front of me. The dead were starting to push towards him and he chopped one of them down with his machete.
"Come on kid! Go now!" He yelled to me. I then ran off the one spot that he had made for me. I then began following him as we both began running.
He was a bit faster than me and I was tempted to ask him to slow down, but right now we weren't in that type of position. We were running down one way of the houses and then we saw another herd right in front of us.
Christian pulled me and then we began running in another direction.
There were so many everywhere... There were a few in front of us and he grabbed his pistol and shot at them right in their head. I thought it was a bit dumb for him to make more come after us. But I suppose we didn't really have much of a choice at this point. There were so many around us we couldn't just kill them 1 at a time with some machetes.
We didn't have enough time for that. Once again there was another herd in front of us... And we turned around in the opposite direction. The other herd that we had run into a bit earlier was behind us but not too close to us that we couldn't run to the left. But Christian held me back.
"Well kid its been a fun ride... We got have pur backs turned right now... Hope we get super lucky and don't get bit and don't get pulled in." He said to me. I then noticed the herd that Christian had pulled in earlier was there to the left.
"Goodbye Christian..." I said to him. He nodded and then we turned backs and pulled out our machetes. Christian pulled out his gun and killed the ones close by us then he ran out of bullets in his clip.
There were at least a hundred of them in my direction, I couldn't imagine Christian. I wasn't even sure I could kill one and then pull it out on time to kill another much less do that to that many of them.
I heard Christian already stabbing through them and pushing through others nearby. I realized that would be the best idea if I wanted to at least give myself at least some sort of chance.
They were just just a few seconds away. I pulled my machete up ready for the first one.
Suddenly I heard loud shots coming from the other side of the herd in front of me. They were gunshots but they were machine gun shots not just normal pistol shots. Was someone here? It wasn't Christian, he didn't have one of those on him and it wasn't coming from anywhere nearby him.
I saw a few of the herd from behind me fall over. The other ones closer to me turned around and headed in the direction of the gunshots. I spun around and looked at Christian... A few of them had turned around and began heading towards the other herd as well. But there was a bunch on him still about to pull him down.
I ran at them and then pushed them over. Christian nodded and then began running in the direction of the gunshots. It was the only way... There were to many in front of me. I stood there not knowing what to do.
"Kid! Run!" Christian yelled at me from behind. My mind went back to the presence and then I turned around and began running in the same direction as Christian.
There were so many in front of us, and a few of them were being shot down but then the gunshots stopped... They would have to reload, whoever those people were.
I just hoped that they weren't the same people that had killed that lady the other day.
Christian began pushing through them and I followed him right behind him since he was making a path for me. When I got past them they were right on me one of them tried taking a bite at me even... But luckily to was not quite that close to get me.
I ran so close to them that I almost fell into him. It would have killed both of us but I stopped myself right before I did. They had stopped shooting, and I was wondering how long it took to reload.
Then all of the sudden we were at the end and I almost fell over when there was nothing in front of me.
I looked ahead and saw a man and 2 women with the man. They had large rifles and they were looking right at us.
I noticed the man from far away and felt a bit disappointed. He hadn't made fun of me for years but I still didn't like to see him. It was Jordan...
I closed any thoughts out of my head and we continued running towards him. He was picking up a molotov and was about to throw it.
"Hey Ben... But you guys are glad we heard the yelling..." He said to me. I nodded feeling to tired to even talk. He began heading forwards towards the herd.
I was wondering what he was doing but then I had forgotten that he was setting up a molotov. I had never actually seen one used before. I remember I had joked earlier about the firecrackers being moltovs a long time ago.
But it blew up as soon as he through it above them. He then ran back over to us and picked up his gun and backpack. He nodded to us and we began running as fast as we could. I looked back at where he had thrown the molotov.
There were so many of them on fire and every single one of them had gone towards the fire. We were safe but the neighborhood still was not safe.
Any second and we could run into another herd... I wasn't sure if Jordan happened to have another one of those molotovs or not.
Once we had gotten out of the neighborhood and had gone about a quarter mile out we sat down to take a breath. I was so exhausted... I had never run that fast for so long in my whole life. My heart was beating because I was scared but at the same time I was worn out.
I almost wanted to just stay on the road and just sleep. But I couldn't and one of them could just walk upon me and kill me. Everyone was breathing heavily so thankfully I didn't look weak.
"Jesus... What were you guys doing there? Scavenger shit? I just heard that you got the job Ben... Congrats." Jordan said to me. He then nodded towards the 2 women that were with him.
"This is Kim and this is Milly..." He said to me. He pointed Kim at the smaller lady who was about 30 and had blonde hair. Then he nodded to Milly who looked about 20 and looked a bit bigger and stronger. You could tell which one was the Warrior and which one was the wanderer or scavenger.
"That's cool... Why are you being so nice to me all the sudden Jordan? I thought you hated me." I asked him. He just shook his head and looked away for a few moments. Maybe he had a random change of heart or maybe after my mother died he felt bad.
"I've changed as a person... I regret the way I treated you a long time ago. I never hated you, I just was a bit jealous and me and my friends needed someone to make fun of." He said to me. I looked at him but I wasn't still completely sure whether he was lying or not about changing as a person.
"You're friends? You mean the guys who followed you and everything you did?" I asked him. This time he didn't respond. He just looked down looking a bit saddened but he just nodded.
"Alright, now that you 2 are done arguing we are going to go to the community... We have important business to attend to." Christian said. Jordan looked at him a bit confused but then he just nodded and then we began heading off.

We had just passed the gas station not too long ago, the sun was begining to set we would have to get back to the community very soon. I had never been out here before dark until now. Last night didn't really count because I was in a room inside the gas station.
We passed by the lady that was hanging and then Jordan held us to a stop. He looked at us a bit confused and Christian just shook his head to him.
"Don't know how she got there kid... I got a message for it if you want to see it." He said to Jordan. Jordan looked a bit upset and he then lowered his hands as if he was asking for the message.
"My mom was with that woman... If she got hanged then where is she? And who hung her? Another group?" He asked. He looked at both of us for answers but I just shook my head because I really had no idea what was going on. I just knew there was another group and Angela's theories weren't wrong.
"Kid we really have no idea, there's still one left alive... We really need to get back... We don't really know how long we have." Christian told Jordan. I felt bad for him, even though he had made fun of me when I was younger I still didn't wish for his own mother to die.
"We need to go find him then right now... He could be alive and they are holding him hostage." Jordan said us. Kim shook his head and him and then held him back.
"We need to get back, I have supplies in my bag... We don't know where he went and we are low on food and water." She said to him. I felt bad, I knew he cared about his father, he had always bragged about him when he was younger.
"Im sorry Jordan..."