The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 22: Warrior

I woke up, it was way too early to wake up... I was still so tired but I didn't want to go back to sleep. I had just had one of the worst dreams I think I might have ever had.
The dream seemed like it could not have been real. I dreamed that Liam and Angela were being torn apart by a heard and there were gunshots everywhere. I almost wanted to wake Christian up and tell him that we should go back to the community and make sure that everything was okay.
It was probably just a bad dream though. I didn't want to sleep, when I was in dreams, everything felt so real. It scared me when I had those types of nightmares.
I just saw Liam's face being torn apart and Angela was crying from far away and she just stopped fighting and she was torn apart as well. There were bombs exploding everywhere, something I had only seen on the news before this had all gone down in the first place.
I could only think of what had happened just less than a month ago when we had found a dude hanging from a tree. They had warned us that they were coming for us. Everyone wasn't worried about anything, not even me myself.
I could only think that in my dream that it was all real and it had just happened. Angela hadn't come back for a long time, she could be back any day now. I just went out of bed and went downstairs.
I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I would take anything over going back to sleep at this moment in time. I walked through the back door that was near the garage.
I heard scratching as if the little girls were trying to get out. It just made me feel 100 times worse just thinking about them and what had happened to them.
I closed my eyes and opened the door to the back porch. There wasn't a fence around the yard so if I fell asleep and one of the dead smelt me or heard me then I would be dead.
It wouldn't be that bad really would it? Sometimes I was fine with dying, there wasn't really much to live for anymore. Sometimes when I fell asleep I would pray that this was all just a dream and I would wake up back to normal again.
But it seemed like god had left us and he didn't want to answer my prayers. I wish everything could have just been normal and I would be with my mother and father right now, and we would all be happy together.
They never really had any arguments. My father wasn't really around much for that to happen in the first place. I had remembered my mother told me that my father had an important job where he worked a lot. She always told me that he cared for us and loved us so much.
I never really got to meet my dad fully, I was so young and he died when really fast when he actually finally had time to meet me. Well not really he still was working a hard job as a worker, building the walls and all of that. He and his friend saved 3 peoples lives.
My mother was always smart, she was a teacher before all of it had all gone down, she was apart of Shannon's fathers original council and she always gave him great advice.
Everyone in the community knew her and it seemed like she knew everyone else as well. Even the farmers or the women that did not have jobs in the first place. They all loved her very much, and the community was in shock when a lot of people died and she was one of them.
It took a while for the community to rebuild, she wall was remade in less than a week with warriors and people that worked on the walls guarding it. But there were dead in houses and dead that were still everywhere in the community.
It took Shannon over a month to even get her role as leader. My father had died with Shannon's father, 2 important people saving the lives of 3 people that I didn't even know who they were.
They could have ran away one of the men had said, and they would have been stuck and torn apart, but they did their best to give us time and save us.
It all seemed like it had gone bad, some more than others, but it had gone bad for everyone. Angela liked to say that Shannon was happy how it had all gone down, maybe so but that didn't make her a bad leader.
I closed my eyes, I didn't see the dead anywhere nearby me and I was so tired, I didn't care if one of them got on me as I fell asleep.

I woke up, very slowly, I had a dream again, not a scary one but I couldn't quiet remember what it was. I looked up in the sky, it had slightly risen in the sky, I knew that Christian would be awake at this point however.
He was always up super early, I opened the door and slowly began heading upstairs, stretching my body to try and get all of the aches and pains out. Today Christian told me we were going to go and scavenge the other house.
I had pretty much learned and known what the job was of a scavenger in the first place, but it was always good to find out what was the best to get and not to get. The weeks before we hadn't gone in this direction but I had still learned a lot, Christian told me the first thing I needed to learn was how not to die out here.
I wasn't the best with melee weapons but I definitely was getting there. Guns were always my specialty but there was only so much ammo I could carry with me. People had wondered why Shannon didn't just go out to the other community and make ammo from there.
I understood why though, if a heard came through they were stuck behind a wall, the people who make that kinds of stuff don't know how to fight the dead in the first place. Every job out there learned how to fight them, but Warriors were definitely the best at that.
That's why most scavengers and wanderers usually had one on them at all times. Angela had one lady that she had with her, but that lady was killed by some people that attacked her and Angela. Angela felt bad about it because she took all the shots for her. Now Angela went out on her own, even though both me and her knew that was super dangerous.
I walked into the room that Christian had spent the night and noticed he was not there. It didn't really surprise me that he was still not asleep. But what did surprise me that he had taken his bag wherever he had gone.
Surely he hadn't forgotten about me right? No there's no way, he knew he was training me. I picked up my bag for myself, he might be on the front porch or the kitchen maybe making some beans for us in one of the pans that was still there.
They had a water spicket in the back I noticed when I had woken back up so surely he would have woken me up heading over to it to clean it. I shook my head telling myself to stop worrying so much about every little thing. There's absolutely so way that he could have forgotten about me.
I went downstairs and headed towards the kitchen. Once I got in he was not there either. Now I was actually starting to get worried, he hadn't left me surely... He never really seemed like the type of guy to do that.
I began looking through the rooms to make sure that he was not in any of them either. I opened the garage and looked around, once again Christian was nowhere to be seen. I thought maybe he might have dragged the girls out and given them a proper burial. It didn't really seem like something he would do though.
I looked at the car that the guy had in his garage though, it was a very sweet mustang. It didn't surprise me that he had a nice car, with the size of the house he owned. He must have had a decent amount of money before it had all gone down.
He didn't deserve that type of money with the types of things that he had done. I thought back to the little storage room that he had hidden the little girls in. It was absolutely disgusting, I left the garage not wanting to be in there anymore.
I suppose I would go back upstairs and see if maybe he was in one of the rooms or maybe one of the bathrooms. I don't know why he would be in one of those and carrying his bag into the bathroom. I suppose I would just wait a while for him.
I sat down on the chair that was in the upstairs hallway. I was waiting for maybe a sound, footsteps but there was nothing to be heard. Maybe he had gone outside to walk around a bit. I needed to stop freaking out about every little thing that happened to me.
That was probably the likely thing that he did. He was fine on his own before he would be perfectly fine now, there was no reason that he would all the sudden get attacked and die.
I went downstairs to go sit on the front porch. I opened the door and looked around, to the right there were a couple chairs and a bit more room, and to the left there was less room but there was a little swing. I sat down on that and just waited, I figured that he would come back at some point.
Maybe he had heard me last night or he had seen me on the back porch. I was a pretty deep sleeper so it really wouldn't have surprised me if I hadn't woken up. I was surprised to have woken up as early as I did.
Christian had a rifle with a silencer on it, maybe he had gone out to hunt some deer. That seemed to make a little bit more since, he had tried to catch one before but he missed the killing shot, he had hit its body but it had then ran away.
He was very disappointed about that, he said that he hated that rifle for hunting because it hardly hurt anything. He had said he was pretty sure it was not even strong enough to kill one of the dead.
I doubt that, their skulls were weak, he probably meant that as a bit of an aggravated joke. I sat back and just swung back and forth a little bit, I would ask him why he didn't carry a silenced sniper with him if he only used that for hunting.
But it made since why he didn't have one I suppose, we only had a few of those and they were mainly used to guard the watchtowers back at the community.
Maybe for his birthday coming up, if we went towards these mountains more often then I could probably go and try to maybe find one, someone was bound to have one of those in these mountains for hunting. This was more of a country area that we were in.
Im surprised that neither my mother or Shannon hadn't looked in this area for guns and ammo, they just didn't explore this very much because there weren't really any cities nearby. They had a map where they liked to explore. They had gone out over 50 miles once for a bit of a small city.
I was starting to get a bit hungry, I pulled open my bag and began to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was starting to get really surprised that he was not back at this point. He was strong he could make it if he got attacked, but there was nothing nearby us I began to realize, so the only way he could have possibly gone was to the nearby woods.
Maybe he had caught a deer and was having trouble carrying it back. I should probably go look just in case that was what was happening.
I finished off the rest of my sandwich and put my gun back into my saddle. I slid my knife in there as well, just to make sure I knew to use it and not waste any ammo.
I then began heading towards the woods, I didn't want to go to far in just in case I couldn't find my exact way back. I had plenty of water and food on me, but that didn't mean that I wanted to get stuck in there.
I looked around for a bit, I tried tracking the area that Christian might have gone, but I still didn't know how to do that, and Christian said he would teach me that after my training was complete. He told me it wasn't really that important of a skill.
He had told me a couple of things and showed me a couple of things, but I hadn't quiet caught a firm grasp of the concept. I looked around for any holes in the leaves that were everywhere but I could not really find anything. I decided that I should just head back to the place. He should be 100% back by now no matter where he had gone.
I was starting to get super worried now, if he had gotten bit, he wouldn't have died yet, that took a couple of days... I started thinking about the group that was threatening us. I just shook my head not believing that kind of theory.
There was absolutely no way of that, they had taken the 2 people in with them. They were in the exact opposite direction than we were right now. He had to be okay, if he had gotten attacked by a herd maybe he had pulled them off in a different direction than the place we were at right now.
There was no way of that either, I would be able to see them, they were slow walkers. I could see miles out from just the front and back porch. Where the hell could he have possibly gone.
I then thought of a possiblity that he could have gone somewhere that he was talking about yesterday. It made a bit more since, but at the same time it didn't, there was no other possible way at this point though.
I don't really know why he would go into the other house without me, surely it didn't take that long, unless there was a bunch of good stuff in there. I shook my head, I really needed to stop worrying so much, like Christian said, if I thought negative, than negative would lead in my direction.
I looked to the other house, I saw that the door was open. It made me feel a bit better, It might have been open yesterday, but I doubt it, if someone had left their place when it went down they would have closed the door.
Normally Christian closed the door when he headed into places, but there had been a few times he didn't, this made a lot more since this was most definitely were he was at right now, he probably had just caught the jackpot.
I then went over to it, I was tempted to knock on the door like yesterday, Christian had told me my stupid idea was actually smart, but he had probably already done that, and if he didn't he probably had caught whatever was inside.
I stopped again though, there was always one possibility, that maybe Christian had gotten bit in the perfect spot in the neck and had potentially not seen it coming. The odds were very low, but if he also heard me knock he would know it was me and he would shout to me.
I knocked very hard on the door. I then began to wait, I heard a groan, my mind began to race, as it then went to the room that I was standing in and slowly heading towards me.
Christian surely would have been in here... There's no way, maybe he didn't knock and he was dead, maybe he didn't knock and he was in there still. It then got too close to me and I pulled out my gun in a quick and dumb decision. He would have yelled if he had heard me...
I shot at it and hit it perfectly in the head... But the shot was so loud, my ears were popping, I didn't realize the silencer was not on. I could have sworn I had it on... I then realized how dumb I was... How could I have forgotten.
I was cleaning it last night and I had left it on a nearby dresser. If Christian had really pulled a heard then they would have heard it... But at the same time there might be one nearby.
I had to check to place real quick and go see if that thing had killed him. He would not have turned at this point. But he could still be dead. I ran into the room that the dead had come from but he was nowhere to be seen in there.
I then began running into the other rooms, hoping maybe that he was alive, but if he was then he would have shouted because he heard me. I went into the last room and something grabbed my arm and pulled me down.
For a second I thought that maybe it was Christian, sadly it was not however, and it pulled me down so hard that I was on the ground instantly. I was about to pull out my knife, these things were so strong, when I went into my belt the knife was not there. I looked at the ground and saw it but it was too far away, it had probably fallen down the exact same time that this dead had grabbed me and pulled me down itself.
There was only one other solution it was starting to pull off my shoe, if it bit be i would have to cut off my foot, and if Christian was really gone then I was done for at that point, if I didn't bleed out there's no way I could just crawl or single hop all the way back to the community.
I pulled out my pistol and shot at it, once again it was so loud, with the door being open the shot would reciprocate over, I hit it perfectly but my ears were in so much pain. I had to get out of here, if Christian was here or had heard be then he would have already been here.
Anything nearby would be coming in my direction at this point. I just stuck my fingers into my ears, the pain hurt so much... I wanted it to go away, I was beginning to feel tired but I knew I couldn't sleep.
There was at least a couple that had heard me, I would be dead if I fell asleep, especially being a deep sleeper. I was beginning to find out that was a huge flaw, Christian was telling me that I needed to stay up late and get up early.
Enough thinking... I pulled myself back to my knees and began to head out of the house. When I got to the front porch I then realized that I had left the pistol and my knife back in the hallway.
I cursed myself and then ran back inside to go and grab those, time was of the essence at this moment. Christian surely would have heard me, he would have dropped a deer if he heard it and be running at this exact moment.
There wasn't time to be thinking about him though at this moment. I had to hurry, after I had grabbed them I just threw them in a spot in the back of my bag. I didn't have time to worry about putting them in my belt at this exact moment.
I turned to right in the direction that Christian should be heading... If he was alive of course, I shook my head to try and tear those kind of thoughts out of there. Think positive... That's what I needed to do, like he said...
I turned to the left and saw the absolute horror. There was at least 200 hundred to 300 hundred dead heading my way. They weren't close to me, but if I was going to the mountains they would be following me that way. I would have to hurry... Hope that Christian was that way and I would then have to turn in another direction.
At least there was one bright side to the absolutely terrible situation that I was in at the moment. At least I had pulled them away from the community, odds are they wouldn't have taken down the walls but they would have wasted a lot of ammo.
I turned and then began heading to the right, trying to do everything that Christian had taught me, Don't run your stamina will run out so fast... Go at a steady slightly fast jogging pace, you're faster than them.
I nodded to myself, and then began running, I was scared, I was alone, there was nowhere for me to go... I didn't know what to do, without Christian I was helpless...
Where could he possibly be at... The only thing I could think is he was dead somewhere, maybe the woods, maybe he tripped on something, the dead never go into the woods...
"Just stop thinking, just go... He's out there somewhere, maybe he went even further and he's running back as we speak." I said to myself. It was only to make myself feel better. I didn't know how to make it out alone.
I would have to go so far out several miles at least before I could head out in another direction and run back to the community. I was afraid, I wasn't ready for this, I was still being trained, he had the map not me...
I just shook my head... Stop worrying so much Ben... Its time to become a warrior.