The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 18: A long time

I had been out there for about 2 weeks now, sadly I had not seen Angela, but every time I had come back I had picked up Liam. He had told me that he had not seen her at all as well, and I just took that of as if she was out there for a very long time.
She had done it before, she was out there for over a month when our parents had died, I had thought she had died or someone had killed her, but eventually she had come back.
I was worried about it that one time because I had heard about people in our community dying to someone out there before. She had also told me she had been attacked a couple of times, but I knew that she was upset at Shannon and was probably just taking some time away from the walls.
I felt a little sad, because me and Liam still wanted to see her, maybe even Tyler and a couple others. I had only seen Sasha once since I came back and it almost seemed to me that all of the sudden she had just completely forgot who I was.
She had said her goodbye to Liam but when I tried to talk she just turned around. I wondered if there was something wrong with me or if she had maybe regretted her decision to come after me like that. Maybe she was already with another guy, it kind of saddened me but I was used to it at this point, I had been with someone before Jordan took my girl, and she had gone after another guy as well.
I missed Kate, ik that she had become and wanderer but that was the last I had ever heard from her. I knew she wasn't dead. She had been a wanderer for over a year, Jordan told me a couple of days ago when we hung out that they weren't together and they had done a mission about 2 months ago.
I felt good in my head that they weren't together anymore, but I don't think I would even want to go after her at this point. She knew that I liked her, I had expressed that in several occasions, but she went after the guy that made fun of me. And now that she wasn't with him, she wasn't talking to him either.
I cleared those thoughts from my head, it was all in the past at this point, Jordan was a better person, I'm sure his dad had a lot to do with that as well. My stepdad was friends with him, not as close as Christian but they did still share a bond.
I went to Liam's room and knocked on the door, at was not as bright out side as it normal was, but at this point the fall season had already started. I knew that the sun didn't start coming out yet.
I heard him groan and then get up from his bed, he then opened the door, he was in underwear, and I was almost tempted to laugh, but I used to do the same as well, I would sleep with basically no clothes on.
I headed into his room and looked at his collection of books, a few of them were from the library, but a few of them we did own. Speaking of that, the library had sent a message on my door that his books were overdue, I would probably had them over to Lilly since she went to the library semi often. The library was on the exact opposite side of the community from me, so even if I did come back for a night I would not even have time to bring the books to there.
I made a mental note and then grabbed the books that the library said they needed as Liam put on the rest of his clothes. I went over to the kitchen and then began deciding what I was going to make.
I decided on toasted cheese. I knew that Liam liked that, and it wasn't my favorite thing to eat but I would deal with it. I had gone to the market last night, at was open all times of the day, even though most people did not come during the night. Most people said it was easier than being a farmer if you had that sort of job.
A few woman did not even have jobs in the community if their spouse already had one. Only a couple men didn't 2 of them were paralyzed, I was surprised they even made it to here if they were. The rest of them had mental issues. One of the paralyzed dudes swore he could still work, but Shannon's father did not want him to.
I felt bad for Shannon, her father died at a younger age from food poisoning, he didn't die from being out there or old age. Angela thought that maybe she poisoned him but I kind of doubted that, she was way too young to even be leader. She was 14 at that time and to become leader you had to be at least 18.
I knew 100% for sure that our mother didn't die from her, the storm had come through so unless Shannon had the power of god, there was no way that she could do that.
I think if Shannon had the power of god she would have liked this apocalypse in the first place. She has power and she most likely would not have ever had that if the world was normal. I wish the world was normal.
Sometimes I thought that maybe I was in some sort of dream or maybe even in a coma, but I knew now that it was not true, no matter how badly I wished that it was.
I noticed that I had nearly burnt the bread and I quickly pulled it out and put it on a plate. There was a bit of black spots on it, I made a mental note to myself to not give that one to Liam. He had always told me how he hated having a burnt grilled cheese sandwich.
I began making another one making sure I wasn't thinking to much about things that were in the past, and making sure I was thinking about things that were in the present.
Thinking to much would get me killed, Christian had told me several times while we were out there. He knew that I always had stuff on my mind, and he was trying to clear those types of thoughts from my head.
He was right, I did think to much, I was doing it again, but this time I did luckily pull out Liam's piece before it had any brunt spots on it. I made sure that it was nice and crispy, I had forgotten to put olive oil on it but he probably would not notice.
I then began slicing the cheese and then putting it on the bread. The bread from his was still hot so it made the cheese wet. Not as much from mine but it was still a little bit like that. I was more just thinking to make Liam happy however.
I wasn't as hungry as I normally was, I had eaten a pretty solid amount, and I was getting used to eating squirrel from time to time even though Christian was beginning to bring bread, Jelly and Peanut butter on the trips out there.
I had some sort of feeling in my head that he was just pretending to like eating the squirrels, because he had told me several times he had traps every were for squirrels. And it seemed like today we went too a new section.
I wasn't sure what we were doing today but he had told me I had less than 2 weeks left till he wasn't training me anymore.
He told me he would still be out there the first month, but it wasn't up to him for me to choose where we were going. i was pretty sure we were going to be doing, warrior, wanderer, gatherer or scavenger. We hadn't done hardly any of that, he had said we were mixing them in but we weren't quiet ready to get into the full mixture of things.
He had told me that it would be a bit longer to get trained because I was being trained to be in multiple areas. Maybe not as good as a normal person was in one area, but I could do all of the above and that made me useful.
Christian had told me that when we did wanderer that we would be exploring a completely new area on the map and then we would bring that area back to Shannon and make a basic map design.
Shannon had maps of the whole state and country put up on her wall in her mansion but I also knew that things had changed during that time so not everything would be the same.
There were still some cities almost 40 or 50 miles out but Shannon said the community wasn't ready for that type of trip yet. I had actually gotten to know her a bit better. She had told me she didn't hate my sister, she just didn't really like her all that much because they shared different mindsets and different opinions and it made them seem to argue a lot.
I was tempted to ask her why she kept denying me of all those jobs, but that would be cutting it a little too close. She wasn't a bad leader by any means, there was some things we disagreed on but she said it was normal and sometimes she would change her mind.
I yelled at Liam from the other room to come and get his grilled cheese sandwich.
"Im coming hold on! Let me finish this page!" He said to me. They weren't exactly hot anymore but they weren't cold either. I hated how my mind randomly went into another direction a lot of the time. Christian was right, it would get me killed out there if I was too busy thinking to realize there was an undead on me.
Liam then paced into the room and smiled once he realized what I had made for him, by now the sun was about to rise in the horizon and I could see just a tiny bit of light.
It seemed weird making grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast, but I was just so tired of that boring nasty cereal and some eggs.
We sat down at the cabinet which had tall chairs in the kitchen. Angela always wanted to have a table but she said we didn't have enough time to bring one. I asked her why she didn't just bring one of those guys in that carries stuff in like that.
She then told me that we also did not have enough room which was fair enough. We had a bathroom and 3 bedrooms, and then a small living room area with a kitchen. It wasn't like a normal house before all of this had all gone down. The builders had built it, from time to time they had to fix things or make something new but their jobs weren't as hard as it had been when it had all gone down.
Shannon had told us in a few weeks that their jobs would get a lot harder since they were expanding the gates now that they had enough supplies really soon. It would take a lot of warriors to protect them while they built. They also needed to clear out the area.
The wall tower guards like Tyler did a good job but they couldn't see everything. There also was a forest nearby that they would have to chop through so that would take a while.
It wasn't like before where they could just pull a big machine and tear it all down, now they had to go and chop them down with axes.
I looked at Liam and smiled, and then began swiping across his hair, he always loved when I did that, he didn't want me to do it a lot, like over and over again, but I did it every once in a while.
"Liam I don't know when Angela is going to be back. But I might be out there for a week to potentially even more. Stay safe and don't leave the daycare if anything happens." I said to him. He looked over to me and nodded but after a few seconds he looked at me a bit confused.
"Why is that? Is there something going on out there?" He asked me. I had talked just a little bit too much, he was smart enough to realize that. But I didn't want to tell him because I didn't want to scare him, and the more I thought about it the more I was worried about Angela.
"Remember Angela's friend the other night? I just want to make sure you stay safe." I said to him. He smiled and nodded at me. It was a lie, but I couldn't tell him the truth.
We continued to eat until we had finished our grilled cheese sandwich. Today I would not get to see Shannon, I knew she worked most days, besides the weekend and a random day in the week. I wanted to talk to her and ask her what exactly was going on.
But I was going to bring him over to Lilly's today and she would take him over tomorrow if I didn't come back, which I most likely would not.
Once I was done with my sandwich I headed over to the bathroom and took a piss. It was a pretty long one and it reminded me that I needed to bring my cups for water this time. I forgot it half of the time, and if I wasn't thinking right now than I more than likely would have forgotten it again.
Christian had started bringing 2 extra just in case but I was always supposed to bring 4 big cups just in case. There was also places made to refill your water hear and there. The community had done a good job with all of our leaders, keeping the people who went out there as safe as possible.
I went back into the living room and nodded to Liam, once he had finished his grilled cheese sandwich to come and follow me.
I began to put on my shoes and put everything I needed into my backpack. Once Liam had gotten down from the chair he did the same, for his own backpack that he carried to daycare. Soon he would be heading to actual school, they would still let kids sleep over night but he would be taught some things.
Things like math, science, reading, and writing, but also things about how the world was now. He would start all of that up next year. I knew he was definitely smart enough to get through all of that. He would have to do that until he was 12. I was bored the last few years I just stayed home. We had a tv I would watch movies. There was still so many at the library I had not seen.
But not really having friends had made it a bit difficult. I had been offered to hang out with Jordan several times but I was just so mad about Kate for such a long time. After the first few times of me saying no he eventually got the jest.
Once Liam was fully packed and ready we began to head towards Lilly's place. I closed the door, I didn't need to lock it because there was no reason to steal for anyone anymore. The mansion was locked however because people had gone in a few times and taken some things. One time it was the same dude who did it twice.
My mom forgave him the first time, but Shannon knew he had done it before and she kicked him out of the community the second time. She had said, people never could learn.
We began heading towards Lilly's and I tried my best to clear my thoughts as we were walking over. Just as Christian had told me. I found one way to clear all of my thoughts as I began just talking to my brother. A normal conversation that we had not had in quiet a while.
"So how has daycare been? Met any friends?" I asked Liam. Liam nodded but then I saw a bit of a frown from him. I wondered what it was, but then instantly understood where he was coming from as soon as he told me about it.
"Yeah I have met a couple, Im going to hang out with one tomorrow, his mom is a warrior and so is his dad and brother. But his mom has been missing for a while." He said to me. I instantly then realized that it was Jordans family and it instantly made it seem like we shared a closer bond even through the hate that I felt to Jordan when I was younger.
"Oh you mean Jordan and Andrew?! That's cool, Im friends with them." I said to him he smiled, but I realized he had frowned for a few and I wanted to ask him about that. "I noticed you looked a bit upset, what's that about."
He lowered his head and continued walking, I wanted him to tell me but I understood if he wouldn't, I tended to hide my feelings when I was younger as well. But now everything that happened to me I would usually tell Lilly and Angela. I had only seen Lilly twice since I first started this job and it would be nice to see her again.
"Well, there's kids that call me a loser and a no life there behind the teachers backs." He said to me. I felt a bit bad, Jordan would make fun of me but he would not make fun of me in that sort of way.
"Don't listen to them... They're just stressed and need to take that on someone else. You are smarter then them, and to be honest I think you are the smartest in this entire community." I said to him. He put his head up and smiled, I knew that would make him feel a bit better. He knew he was smart and he was proud about it.
I then turned to my left realizing that we had nearly passed Lilly's while we were too busy talking.
I hopped on the porch and knocked on the door, which seemed like as soon as I did she was just waiting for that, even though she didn't even know I was coming today.
"Hey Liam! Hey Ben! How have you been the past couple of days you two?" She asked the both of us. I smiled to her and let Liam talk about it first.
"Not too bad! We've had fun and we've done a few projects for art in daycare!" Liam said to her. She smiled and then leaned down a bit and gave him a quick little hug. She then looked at me and continued smiling. That's what I loved about her, she always had a smile on her face no matter how rough things got.
"What about you? And boy! A just realized you were growing! At least an inch since I've last seen you." She told me. I almost wanted to say it was probably the shoes, but I had felt a lot of growing pains over the past few days and weeks every time I sat down for long periods of times. I thought maybe it was because I was worn out but I now knew the exact reasoning.
"Im not doing too bad! Just tired, yeah I've had the pains..." I said to her. She frowned a bit sadly but then she leaned over to me and gave me a big hug as well.
"Yeah Angela and your stepfather told me the exact same when the first started... Its almost like that at any job, besides the market of course." She said to me. I always knew how she hated people that worked at that sort of job, she used to work on the council and she retired from that job about the time Shannon had moved in.
I smiled and then said goodbye to both of them. I then realized why my bag was so heavy and then stopped them before they closed the door.
"Oh I almost forgot, later or another day can you bring back these books next time you go to the library?" I asked her. She nodded and then grabbed the books from out of the bag. I then realized why she was frowning for a couple of seconds. I had a pistol with a silencer and a few blades and knives burried in my pack. She had always told me she hated guns a ton.
I didn't understand why she didn't realize they were important now, no one was going to go around and do mass shootings, and now they were used to saving peoples lives.
"Sorry... I said to her." She shook her head and then waved goodbye again. I turned around and began heading back home. I wouldn't be surprised of Christian was already there. He was always up super early, even though the sun had barely risen in the sky.
I thought about what exactly we were going to do today, and over the next couple of days, I couldn't wait to try out scavenging, Angela had told me about that sort of job several times before, and it had always been my end goal even though I liked what I was doing right now. No matter how strenuous it felt.
I kept on walking back to my place just thinking, I was assuming Christian was going to be doing Wanderer, that way we could take out multiple at the same time. He said he was enjoying my company but he was ready for me to start doing things on my own.
I was ready to start doing that as well, I was just a bit afraid if I could actually make it out there.
I walked up to my place and then I noticed that Christian was waiting for me with his bag sat down on my front porch. It seemed like no matter how early I was he would always get here before I got back.
"Hope you got lots of ammo, food and supplies... We are about to be out there a long time."