The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 17: There's good in the bad

I nodded to Christian and then picked my shoes back off the ground wondering why I had even taken them off in the first place. I remembered Angela getting upset about wearing shoes in the house but I am sure she would get over it if she would have known the circumstances.
I then led the way to the meeting place, I wondered what Shannon would say... At this point I had lost all respect for her... We would see if she could earn that back from me based on the way things turned out today.
"I have this feeling that Shannon is going to be a bit stiff and take it with a grain of salt..." He said to me. With a grain of salt? I had never heard that catch phrase before but I assumed it was probably something that people liked to say before it all went down.
"I wish I could help... But honestly anything I say Shannon would probably want to do the opposite of... She knows my name now, she has always known that I was related to Angela." I said to him as we continued walking. It was more than likely to happen if I said anything at that gathering. Honestly I was tempted to say the opposite of what I should say just so it would work vice versa. But everyone that would be there would think I was crazy and I would lose all of my respect.
"You can help me for what I should say... Ill do the talking, you just give me advice..." He said to me. I thought about it for a couple of minutes, but then I thought to myself, did I really fully know what the world was actually like out there?
I mean I had seen quiet a bit while I was out there a few days. The heard and the dead lady hanging from a tree. But otherwise, I hadn't even fully gotten to the point where I knew almost everything like Angela and Christian knew. I even question if Shannon did even tho she had been apart of my mothers council and been out there a few times.
"Are you sure that you want my advice? I've only been out there a few days... Besides Shannon knows you train me and remember the meeting a few days ago for who would train me?" I said to him. He looked down putting his finger down on his chin as if questioning if what I said was right or not.
"Kid I know your smart, maybe not as smart as your genius brother, but you are still smarter than 95% of people. Im smart but I got myself into some drugs before it all went down, my brain doesn't function as good as it normally should." He said to me. I remembered when I was really young my parents had always told me not to do stuff like that but I barely remember and now it wasn't much of a thing.
I remember Jordan had told his friends and me to come to his house because his dad had a weed farm. Jordan always seemed strange to me, not in that sense, but sometimes he would act like he was my friend and other times he would treat me like shit. Maybe that's why Kristan, the girl that I had once liked had chosen him, we were best friends and she talked to me more than him. But maybe she thought we were friends for some odd reason.
"Well I mean I suppose I could help... Maybe get Jordan and those girls on your side at the meeting, explaining what is really going on, I know Jordan will definitely be out there on it knowing it is his dad, and they are the best of the best for warriors." I said to him. Christian slowed down a bit and continued walking but at a slower pace. He looked like he was thinking about it very carefully, and then he looked at me and then slowly nodded.
"That sounds like that would work, they will 100% be there because they know the meeting is happening, there should be at least 50 people there not counting her council. Her council was started by mostly her dad and your mother only 2 or 3 have died since then so they are smart enough to know." He said to me. I nodded and we continued heading towards the place. Im surprised we weren't going a bit faster but I guess maybe I was freaking out a bit too much for how much time I had left. I was sort of hungry as well, the meeting usually had food set out so that should feel me up.
"Good luck with that, Ill stay back and watch unless there's something I really need to say, but I think if I said anything Shannon would probably be upset." I said to Christian. He nodded and then smiled at me. After the bit of talking I could finally see the meeting place from not too far away, there were a few people there but not all that many, and the ones that were there looked like they were setting up food.
We weren't late at all and I was finally happy for the first time in days. I had enjoyed the new job but I could not say it made me happy going around killing things.
Shannon was sitting down at the podium on a chair reading what looked like was a book. We did have a library and a few people still did write, but most of the time when they did it was usually about how things had all gone to shit and how life was miserable now.
I didn't really see anything on the cover so maybe it was some sort of journal or maybe it was the books that had recently come out. He really knew but I stopped worrying about it and sat down with Christian at a nearby chair and table.
Shannon was still burried down on her book to even notice me, she probably knew that Angela was gone, I would assume so since Shannon would make a big fuss if she stayed in the community several days at a time.
Jordan and his dad then showed up and sat down on the other side of the table from us and then nodded to the both of us. I nodded back to them. I figured that we would probably wait for Kim and Milly to show up before we started talking.
One of the ladies that was apart of the council got up on the podium and held the microphone so that everyone could here. She let out what sounded like a cough or maybe something else so that everyone could hear.
"Everyone go ahead and eat we have signs on the road about the meeting so to one should be coming towards us this time. The meeting will start in about half an hour." She said, I recognized her as one of my mothers old council members that she had brought in. Her family was out there and they were getting attacked by not quite a heard yet but there were a lot of zombies. My stepfather had saved him and her kids that were about my age. But she was very smart and she had been with another group far away for a while, but she knew what it was like to be out there alone.
Sadly my stepfather got there too late to save her husband and 1 of her kids but he had saved 2 others and she had been thankful for him saving them even though he was too late for the others.
I didn't remember her name but I did remember that she was smart, and she was brave, I was sure that she had stood up against Shannon several times. I knew Shannon applauded her and hated her sometimes for that, but she was one of the top council members.
And Shannon wasn't just going to kill her off like Angela had said about that other lady. The upcoming election was about to come down, and Shannon was taking down the people that might take her place. It made sense, I wanted to say something, but I knew that no one would believe me.
People thought of Shannon like she was innocent even though she had been out there a couple times and had once had to kill someone, I heard a rumor going around that she had enjoyed it but that was quickly put to a hualt. Sometimes I believed it but I knew in my head that no one in this community could be that cruel.
There were a few evil people that were here in the beginning but anyone that taken in would first be asked questions by the people that brought them in, and then they would be asked questions from Shannon.
I got up after a couple of minutes realized how hungry I was, even though Christian and Andrew, Jordans dad, were engaged in a conversation, but it wasn't all that important of one for me to listen and join in. The important conversation would be when Kim and Milly came back. I felt bad for Andrew and Jordan, his wife and Jordans mother were somewhere out there being held hostage or maybe even dead.
I couldn't imagine what was going threw their heads at this exact moment. I closed my eyes for a few seconds just too clear the thoughts from my head. I would worry about that later, right now I was just happy to eat some good food.
I got some steak and some green bean casserole, then I began heading back towards Christian and the others. I then saw that Kim and Milly were just showing up and nodding to all of them.
I sat down beside Christian again and began eating, Jordan and Andrew had already gone to get food before I did so they were already back.
Christian looked at what I was eating and then he got up from the chair and headed over to get some for himself. I laughed when he got up and he just shook his head at me and smiled.
Kim followed him but Milly just stayed back, she kind of looked skinny in the first place I thought she must be going on some long term sort of diet because there's no way she decided to eat when she knew that the meeting had tons of food for everyone.
The community usually had good amounts of food, but it was a bit rough at first and there was one season the food had gotten rough because there was some sort of insect that had gotten in and torn apart the crops. That was the main reason they never really wanted us too take too much food just in case something like that ever happened again.
I had also heard that soon Shannon would have workers coming in and expanding the gates about a mile in each direction for more housing and some more crops to grow in certain areas. It wasn't all that often people were brought in nowadays but people were still brought it now and then and the community was kind of low on housing.
We had the supplies necessary to make more walls we would just have to take down the walls that were already there, and people would have to work more on the walls until we got to people that got jobs to work on the walls.
I felt a bit bad for Tyler because he was already working at least 60 hours a week hopefully others that worked 24 hours or less would step up, because 10 hours per day sometimes even more was just a little bit to rough for one person even if it wasn't really a labor job.
He had bottles of water because we had a few lakes and rivers flowing in, they went under the walls, a couple times some of the dead fell into them and got stuck in there. People were worried whether it would get sick and kill them but there was so much water a little bit of blood in billions of gallons of water would most likely not kill us. It hasn't so far at least.
Christian came back and everyone looked at each other wondering who was going to talk first but I was the first one to talk, it kind of surprised me myself since I wasn't much of a talker and I was a bit shy to even my family, and people I was around.
"Lets eat first we will still have a bit of time to talk." I said. Everyone agreed and they began eating, Christian was smart with the table he chose there wasn't really anyone else nearby and there was only 8 chairs at this table.
We had 2 spots left and then I saw Tyler walk up with a dish of food and he nodded to all of us when he sat down. Now there was 1 spot and it would be for Jordans mother but she was somewhere out there being held hostage in who knows what sort of circumstances.
Once everyone was done eating, Christian was the first one to begin talking. He looked towards Tyler to make sure he was listening to everything that Christian was saying to us.
"Alright, Im going to be the one doing most of the talking, Jordan and Andrew you guys will help since it is your family and if anyone needs or feels like you have something to say then please step up." He said to all of us. Tyler looked at him a bit confused. Christian wasn't really paying attention to him now.
"Wait, Im a bit lost... Their family? What's going on? Is someone out there killing wonderers, warriors, and scavengers? Is Angela going to be okay?" Tyler said. I think he was more worried about Angela, and I could not really blame him, I always knew how much he cared about her.
To Angela though, he was nothing more than a close friend, I felt bad for him, I never understood, he wasn't as good looking as her previous boyfriend, and boyfriends before then, but he wasn't bad looking at all. He had brown hair, he was sort of taller maybe 6'2 and he had a bit of a small nose.
"I have no idea if she will be alright. I suppose we will see, we are afraid there might be another group out there somewhere... Jordan and Andrews wife are missi- well you are about to find out." Christian said to him as Shannon stepped up to the podium and notified everyone that the meeting was starting.
She then nodded for Christian to head up there with him, Jordan and Andrew followed and she looked a bit confused but she let them follow anyways.
"So... We are here to talk about there potentially being another group out there that is out there killing some of our own and threatening us." She said to everyone. Everyone there all began to talk very loudly to each other and everyone looked shocked. The entire place was in chaos.
"Everyone please be quite, I will explain what is going on, Jordan and Andrew will be here to help in case they need something to say, they are currently holding Andrews wife and another man hostage. Please stop freaking out so we can get this all sorted." Christian said to everyone. Everyone stopped talking so loudly and they began listening to what he had to say. Christian looked right at me and I nodded for him to continue.
"We need to find where they are at, potentially if this is another group of just a couple people making threats. I have this feeling it is more than that. They were very close to the community so we must assume they are watching us." He said to everyone. He then passed over the mic to Shannon to see what she had to say about all of this. Everyone began yelling to each other very loudly again.
"Everyone please be silent. I have thought about this today and last night. I want more people on the walls and looking through binoculars more often. We will send out search parties to find them and potentially even the other community. From there on we will see if we do find them." She said to everyone. People didn't say anything this time, they knew working for them was about to get a lot rougher for them but I don't think that was what was mainly on their mind. Jordan then walked up to Shannon and began talking.
"I think we need to be mainly worried about my mother, every person is this community is important, especially people with roles like hers." Jordan said to everyone. Shannon shook her head when a couple people shouted their agreements.
"Like I said more people on the walls but we need more people finding the other community because they might be held up there as well." Shannon said to everyone. For once I agreed with her and I could tell most of the crowd did. Jordan and Andrew actually nodded their head when she said that as well. It made sense, if she was anywhere it would probably be the community she was held up at. One person stood up the crowd to start talking.
"I think we should have the right to bare arms to normal people in the community and maybe even council members... We have 500 guns, we also need to step up our game on ammo... More people should be in there for that." The guy yelled to everyone. Shannon walked up to the podium again and the crowd was shouting their agreements.
"Then it is settled, Im glad everyone agreed on this, since most of the council is here, if anyone thinks otherwise please stand up and I will have a voting tomorrow on it, however it will have to be 75% because I agree on their side." She said to everyone, no one stood up it seemed as if everyone agreed on it.
The ones who maybe didn't seemed as if they were to scared to stand up for it and most people would not take their side or even listen to what they had to say.
"Everyone you may head off and continue with the rest of your day, I will send scouts out to notify the people who weren't here today when they come back and notify everyone in the community, she will be scared but with the weapons heading out, it is only fair for everyone to know.
Jordan and Andrew got off of the podium and Christian followed them. They were talking to each other as they headed back over and I couldn't quiet catch what exactly they were saying. If it was something that important they would tell us their selves.
"Wow... I did not realize that was going on... Im glad everyone got into an agreement though. Normally that isn't the way it goes. People are going to have to step up for my group, Im tired from working this much even if it isn't that much of a hard working job." Tyler said to them. Andrew and Jordan nodded and then looked around and say their goodbyes to us.
Milly and Kim left and it was just me, Christian, and Tyler. Tyler took a hug from Christian, something I had never really seen from either of them so it seemed a bit weird to me.
"See now guys... There's good in the bad."