The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 15: Sasha

I woke up and the sun was begining to rise. I was glad to have a good sleeping schedule again, because before now I would wake up around 2pm and go to bed around 4am. To be fair, there really was no reason for me to be getting up back then.
Now there was, I was actually being trained to do something useful. Rather than just be sitting around all of the time or being trained to be a farmer. I knew that's what Shannon would have wanted from me. To see Angela fail, that's all she wanted, she didn't give 2 shits about me.
I went to Liam's room and saw that he was still asleep. It seemed weird because for a long time he was the one that got up early. Now it was me...
I nudged him to wake him up and he slowly moved around and then opened his eyes. I smiled and he smiled back at me.
"Hey Ben... Breakfast ready?" He asked me. I had completely forgotten about breakfast. I shook me head and he groaned a little bit and his smile went away. He then got out of bed and put on his pair of shoes.
"I will make some hard boiled eggs, then I am going to drop you off at the daycare. I have to go to a meeting today in the community. It is really important." I said to Liam. He nodded and then followed me into the kitchen. I went ahead and put in some water in the pot I had used last night. I began to boil all of the water.
Shannon would be getting people from the community to go to the meeting. She had people that would go around to the important people houses and tell them that there would be a meeting tomorrow. I remembered that Shannon did not send people to our house when Angela was hear. It made Angela super upset and she made I big fuss about it the next time there was a community meeting.
I couldn't blame her, I would not be too happy if I was one of the main people in the community and my leader wouldn't tell her that there was an important meeting the next day. I never really understood why Shannon hated Angela so much. I mean Angela had told me because the community had voted for Angela over her and her father used to be the old leader. He wasn't a bad leader but my mother was a much better leader and most people in the community knew who Angela was at this point.
But Angela had denied the job saying she didn't want to be the leader. The community had another vote and this time they voted it Shannon. Shannon was a good leader, she just let personal decisions get in her way a lot. It made her seem like she was a bad leader. But I thought she did her job pretty well no matter how much I hated her.
I could definitely not ever be the leader, I would never want that sort of job. I just didn't know hardly anything about everything that went on, all the places we needed to scout, and so many other things.
Most people didn't even know who I was in the first place. Jordan had called me the weak kid when I was younger, but at least to Christian, Angela, and even Jordan I had proved them all wrong. All the community really knew about me was that I was the son of the old leader.
I think they knew Liam more than they knew me honestly. Liam wasn't out there all that much but everyone knew he was smarter than everyone. Even if a lot of people couldn't tell at such a young age.
I was the odd man out, I was almost a farmer, I would have been weak and would have had to farm to the crops and the animals my whole life.
Once I cleared those thoughts from out of my head I turned the stove off and the pulled the eggs from out of the pot. Liam instantly went after one of the eggs and I held him back.
"Its too hot for you too eat right now Liam, you don't want to get burned." I said to him. Liam nodded and then headed toward the couch in the other room and began reading a book.
I was happy for Liam, I didn't have many friend when I was younger. Liam had already apparently gotten a few. Shannon had told me there were a few kids making fun of him. I knew the reason why, its because he was smarter than them and the only way out was to make fun of him.
I felt bad for him, I wish I could tell him that but I knew no matter how hard I tried to tell him, in the end he wouldn't listen. My mother, stepfather, and Angela had told me that when I was younger. I knew I was smart but I wasn't nearly on the level of Liam. I also knew Angela was smart, our whole family was that's why my mother used to be the leader.
Shannon was smart but she did make a few stupid decisions just to do the opposite of what Angela and a few others Angela had told me about wanted to do.
I never could really quite understand Shannon. Angela had thought the death of her friend was because I Shannon but I thought that was a bit to far. Even for a person like Shannon. She wouldn't kill someone that might try and take her spot as leader.
Or else Angela and everyone else here would be dead up to this point. Even her own group didn't agree with her decisions very often. There was 40 before but some of them had died in the storm or just died from cancer or old age. There was probably around 25 of that old group, and a few of them that were new were also from my mothers group.
It made it hard for Shannon to make decisions that hurt Angela. A lot of people didn't agree with them so she never got away with that type of stuff.
"Alright Liam! They've cooled off enough!" I said to Liam. He shouted for me to bring them to him. "Come on you lazy bum! Get at least a little bit of excersize."
"Come on... I'm tired Ben. Whatever..." Liam said to me. He then got up from the couch and ran over to go get a few eggs. Those were the last of those so I would have to go to the market and get some more. I would do that tonight before I went to pick up Liam from the daycare.
He munched down on the eggs very waste and then tossed the shell into the trash and I did with mine as well. Liam opened the fridge to see if there was anything else and I couldn't really blame him. I was also still very hungry.
He pulled out a few pieces of ham from the other night and then nodded for me to get some. I went in and grabbed the rest of the ham that was left. I then looked around for what all I would need to get from the market.
I looked around for a few before finally closing the fridge. I ate the rest of the ham, it wasn't as good as it was when Angela still made it but it was still delicious. She was so good at making food.
I remember a lot of people would come to the community events for things like peoples 14th birthday just for the food that her and her friends used to make. They didn't even care about the kids that were getting a job.
We still had those types of people but a lot of them were just fat people that were farmers or just didn't even have a job at all.
You were allowed to retire around 55, a lot of people still wanted to work however just to pass time. A lot of people didn't have jobs out all however. They would claim disability and not work at all. But most people in the community were working and helping to keep the community strong even if they had an easy job like being a farmer.
A lot of people worked on the walls as well. Probably up to 250 to 300, there were so many towers and you couldn't just work everyone on the walls to death. Most people had around 8 hour shifts before another person came in. Shannon would usually be the ones that set up those shifts and gave them to the people to go and tell them what their jobs were for the month.
It was another job that was pretty important, you had to go around telling people if there were events or meeting, there were around 30 or 40 people that had that job. It was not a bad job but I doubt Shannon would have even allowed me to do that.
"Alright Liam, lets head out." I said to him. He nodded and then I opened the door and left the house. I looked around, it wasn't exactly hot but it was the perfect day to be outside. It had to be around 70 degrees and the air was swirling in making it feel sweet. I sat there and enjoyed it for a few before I got Liam and then we began heading to his daycare.
We were nearly there and I looked around. Something seemed wrong, I noticed the girl that I had saw the other day that Angela had brought in. She was there with her parents they were climbing up one of the towers, they were trying to get out.
I looked a bit confused and she saw me from not too far away. She put her finger on her mouth as if too say to keep things hush hush. I had no idea what they were doing. They were definitely going out, maybe they didn't like the community.
I just nodded at her, I wasn't really going to ask questions. I continued walking to the daycare with Liam, I could tell he saw them as well. He looked at me a bit confused.
"What were they doing? Do you think it is the group that everyone is talking about that they are going to see?" He said to me. I thought about it for a second, but then I just shook my head. I could tell the people that Angela had brought in were good people. Angela was smart enough to tell the difference between good and evil.
"I don't think so... They might be leaving, or maybe they like being out there." I said to him. I thought about it possibly being to other group for a while. But then I just shook my head from those thoughts. I did know that the other group was out there somewhere coming after us. But I don't think they were a part of that.
"Alright Ben, I will take your word on that..." He said to me. I nodded and then we continued walking towards the daycare. We were almost there, and once we were i rung the bell and then opened the door.
There were still a few kids asleep but there were also a few that were awake. I nodded for Liam to head in and he went in towards a few kids, one of them was the one that he had been hanging out with yesterday.
"Hey Liam! It is so good to see you! We've got lots of stuff to do today!" A lady nearby me said to Liam. Liam nodded and then continued talking to the kids. I nodded to the lady that had said something to Liam to show her that I was the one that had brought him in and then I left the daycare.
I then began to head off back home, it was still a bit too early to go to the meeting. If I did go there I would be sitting outside the community house for several hours at a nearby bench. It was starting to heat up a bit as well, it was a bit cooler this morning but now it was getting really hot.
I kept on walking, thinking about Jordan's dad, and thinking about the lady that had been hanging that I had seen 2 days ago and yesterday night. I was never friends with Jordan at all, I used to view him as an enemy but now it had seemed like he had changed. He wasn't with the same group that he used to hang out with, I think we could become friends soon.
I didn't know if he was with that girl that I used to like and was friends with. Honestly I really didn't care anymore. It was way in the past, I would let that sort of pain out of my head. My mother said to not think about any of the bad and to always think about the good. But there was so much bad in the world, no one could think about the good.
People were nicer now, but at the same time the world had changed... The world was owned by the dead now, and not the living. Someone had told me once that they were at a funeral and the lady that was in the casket had all the sudden walked up and everyone thought that it was a gift from god.
But then all the sudden it started biting on the people that were at the funeral. I have to think about it, as an it. Those things were were not people anymore, not even close.
I was about to open the door to my house when suddenly I heard someone say something to me nearby. I didn't know what the said but I turned to my right and saw that Sasha was sitting there at me smiling. I hadn't even noticed her because there were so many thoughts in my head.
"Oh hey Sasha, I didn't even hear what you said sorry. I've just been thinking a little bit too much today." I said to her. She nodded and then got up from the chair that was on our front porch. She went up closer to me, so close that it seemed like she was about to kiss me. Which I would be fine with...
"Its okay, I just was saying hey... Just wanted to talk to you and get too know you a little bit better, may I please come in?" She asked me. I nodded and then I opened the door the house. I sat down on the couch and then she sat down beside me on the same couch. I thought it was a bit weird because we had 2 couches and 2 chairs.
She was sitting so close to me I could feel her body against mine. I thought she was acting a bit strangely to me yesterday, and she still was now.
"I want to know your story, you tell me yours and I will tell you mine, I really want to get to know you, you seem like a really nice guy." She said to me. I nodded to her and she was just staring me right in my eyes.
"Sure you go first, I don't like really telling my story to many people..." I said to her. She nodded to me and then leaned back on the couch. She then took her shoes off.
The community still had shoes, and we had people who found those and made those types of things. We had a factory near the fields that they made that type of stuff in. They made a lot of things, they made bullets for weapons, but not that often because they only had one machine for those things.
"Alright... I was really young and me and my family had come from Greensboro and were taking a vacation to Asheville. When all of the sudden there was really bad traffic in front of us. It was so bad we had not moved for hours and people were beginning to get out of their cars." She said to me starting off her story. I nodded for her to continue talking, it sounded interesting and she was so nice and sweet.
"My dad walked out of the car to go look what was going on when suddenly some dude jumped on him and started tearing him open. My mother ran in to help him, she started getting torn apart as well, and I saw that there were more of those people coming." She started telling me. I could tell she was feeling a bit emotional and I moved in closer to her, I could tell that it made her feel a bit better.
"My mother told me to run so I did, I ran for days. I was only 6 at the time so I got worn out pretty quickly... And someone found me and took me in... That's all I really remember, you are younger than me, but I still would like to hear your story, at least what you remember." She told me. I nodded and then I just asked her a quick question.
"Who found you?" I asked her. She looked at me really close and then she nodded at me. And I wanted to smile but I couldn't because I could tell she was a bit hurt just talking about it.
"Believe it or not, it was your trainer Christian, he took me in, then the daycare people took care of me till I was 14, no one would give me a job, and one of the teachers took me in and trained me to do what I was born in." She said to me. I nodded and then she looked towards me ready for me to tell my story.
"I don't remember much because I was 4 when it all went down, I remember being at the fair and then they told everyone to leave so we did. There was some dude going around going crazy and attacking people. My parents took us back home and we stayed back because the news was telling us everything was canceled and not to go too school or work until they could figure things out, that's when everything turned off. First the news and the internet, and then phone lines, and then the power." I said to her. She nodded for me to continue the story after I had continued taking a bit of a break.
"That's crazy, we have completely different stories... Tell me more, how did you get to the community?" She asked me. I nodded clearing thoughts from my head so that I could continue telling her my story.
"Well once the lights had turned off and we were out of food, we went out there and saw them everywhere. We hid in gas stations and store bathrooms and then we found this place nearby because we lived in Asheville. Well someone found us and brought us here." I said to her. She nodded and then smiled at me, I smiled back at her.
She then moved closer towards me and I was beginning to feel a bit nervous.
She then all of the sudden did not something I did not expect. She went on top of me and then began to kiss me.
I let her do it not fighting back and we kissed more and more, it was something I had really never done before.
"You ready for something Ben?" I nodded I was a bit confused. She then took her shirt off and she had no bra on. Normally I would have noticed that but I was not paying that close attention.
They were nice sized and absolutely beautiful. I smiled looking at her with nothing but love, I had only known her for a few days but I had liked her from right off the start and I could tell she felt the same way about me.
"Yes... Im ready Sasha."