The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 1: Lets Go (Sashas POV)

He held me for so long, I needed it. I had just lost my best friend, I loved her dearly to my heart, even if we had not talked in such a long time. I could tell he needed it too, his daughter was laying dead in front of him at the front door.
After a few more moments he finally lifted me up, looking at me dead in his eyes. I could see nothing but pain in them, I knew that he loved her so much. I knew he had a lot of questions, I was not sure if I had all of the answers, I had no idea what had happened today.
Ben had told me about it, he knew, and no listened. Everyone took it as a joke or just a small little threat, but now here we were. To be honest, I took it as a joke as well. Ben would do his best to tell me that it was real, I payed attention to what he said but I did not think of any of it being a possibility.
There was no one else out there... Or so I thought, clearly we had not gotten attacked by our own people. Why would they do something like that? The community was perfect as is, there was no need to start a rebellion.
But the guy that had gone up the steps, yes... He had a weird sort of scar on his eye, it was not normal. Clearly someone had cut it there, I had never heard of anyone coming into the community with a large scar on their eye. No... It had to be true, what Ben said... There was no other way.
"What happened? How?" He asked me. I wanted to give him all the answers, but to be honest. I was asking myself the exact same thing. My best friend, she should be alive, if I had not knocked on the door. She would have it locked and she would be safe inside.
"I was coming here... Then I heard gun shots, so I started running. It's my fault, its all my fault." I said to him. He looked at me a slight bit confused, then he looked at his daughter. Her brains spewing on the floor, and he nodded for me to continue.
"I figured, the attack was not a game, it was real... I should have been my cautious. This is my fault." He said to me. I shook my head at him though, he looked at me confused once again. I almost did not want to tell him, I did not know how he would react to it, but I had to tell him...
I had to tell him how his daughter died, and I had to tell him why. It was the first thing he had said, when he had opened the door and seen his daughter dead, lying down at the front steps. It was not in my nature to lie to someone, I couldn't do it now.
"No... It's mine, she would have been safe inside, as soon as I knocked on the door, she let me in. That is how it happened." I said to him. He looked at me a bit surprised, I thought he was going to get angry at me, but instead all I saw on his face was nothing but sorrow and remorse.
He walked into the house, then he closed the door and locked it. Just like it was before, she would have been fine without it, I would have been fine if I just stayed at home. We both could be alive, but I had decided to pick the worst day possible to go see my best friend.
He then nodded for me to walk past Ashley's body and sit with him on the couch, it did not feel right just sitting in the room with Ashley's dead body just lying on the floor. I looked at him for a few moments and then I shook my head at him.
"Can we at least move her, or go into another room, I can't bare sitting there with her laying beside me on the ground." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he nodded to me. I sighed thankfully, I could not stay in the room with her sitting on the floor in front of me.
"Yes... Let's go to the other room, we will give her a proper burial in just a little bit. I am in just as much pain as you, though it may not seem like it." He said to me. I looked at him, right in his eyes and I nodded.
I could tell that he was not lying, the look that he had on his face showed me nothing but pain, and I felt bad for him, it was worse for him than it was me, she was my best friend. But that was his own daughter, that was his blood. I felt sick once again.
We then began walking into the same room that I had shot the guy, apparently with not a very strong weapon, but I could still see a little bit of blood on the floor, I was not sure if it was because of where he landed or the bullets that I had hit him with.
"I don't want to be in this room either." I said to him, pointing to the small trail of blood that was going all the way to the front door, he clearly knew that it was not Ashley's blood, her blood was spewing all over the floor in the other room still, but he did look a bit confused still.
He looked at the blood for a few moments, and then he looked at me a bit surprised. It was almost as if he was seeing the scene of what had happened to me in his head, he shook his head feeling a bit sick, and then he nodded to me as he began talking.
"You hit someone with a birdshot in here didn't you?" He asked me, I looked at him a bit surprised, and a bit confused at the same time. It was the same thing that I had heard the people talking about in the room a few hours ago.
"I think so... I don't know what that is, I was just using your shotgun in the attic to protect myself, they knew I was hiding up there." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, then he looked back at the blood that was on the floor and he nodded to me.
He then began to smile, it actually surprised me a bit. There was not much going on in my mind that I could smile about right now. I had no idea how he could be smiling right now, I always knew that he always had a smile no matter what was going on, but in this instance I just couldn't understand how he could.
"Smart... All the guns up in the attic are not real or they don't have any real ammo, I just kept them up there to teach Ashley when the time came, my real guns are somewhere completely different, that was the only one to do any real damage to someone." He said to me. It was a lot to take in, he had always told us not to go up there because there were guns.
Me and Ashley had thought about it several times, but in the end, we knew that it was best not to do something stupid like that. I guess it made sense though, because if we had actually lit off a shot, it could have hurt one of us badly. Like it had hurt the guy that I had shot. It still didn't seem real.
"I didn't know, I just shot and then I fired, then they didn't come back up, they just left." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, looking down at the blood, and then he nodded and then took me to another room.
I walked down the hallway, I remembered walking down it so many times when I was younger. Used to play hide and seek with Ashley, we were a bit old for it, but we were bored and we just needed something to do. We then walked into his bedroom and he sat down beside me at the bed.
"So... Tell me what happened, start to beginning. I see that some houses and parts of the wall were burnt down, I ran here right away... Did they just leave?" He asked me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I shrugged my shoulders at him.
To be honest, not even I was all too sure about it. All I knew was that I heard lots of gunshots all day, and there were people in the house trying to find me. He was looking at me for answers, but I was mot sure I could give them. I would just tell him all that I knew...
"Well I woke up, and then I went to get something to eat... I realized that I had not talked to Ashley, after our fight... So I decided to go there, I didn't know this was going to happen today..." I said to him. He looked at me a bit painfully at the last part that I had said.
"Yes... She told me about that, she said that she was sad that you guys were not talking anymore. It's been such a long time..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I looked down at the ground, I could have picked any other day but today.
That was my type of luck, and I hated it. It seemed like it happened to me more often than not. He grabbed onto my shoulder to try to make me feel at least somewhat better, it was not much help though, me and him were both in a lot of pain.
"Yes... I was walking there, and then I heard the gunshots. I started running... I should have just gone back home, I was just freaking out." I said to him. He looked at me a bit sadly and then he nodded to me.
There was a part of my mind, in a weird way that wanted him to be upset at me. I wanted him to blame me for all of this, it was weird to even think about it like that. But that's how it was, and I could not take my mind off he noticed the look in my eyes, and he began talking to me.
"This is not your fault... You didn't know what was happening, I do not blame you. I just want to know, how? And why?" He said to me. I looked at him for a few more moments, and then I nodded to him, thanking him for not blaming me for all of this.
Even though I knew that he should be, he was just too good of a person to let even his emotions cloud his judgement. I looked down at the ground once again, I didn't want to continue on, I had to though I then looked back up at him, it was time to finish the story, I had already wasted a bit too much time.
"I came here, she opened the door and let me in. Then she got shot, and the people that did it came in, they were looking for me. I shot 1, and then they left, and I just hid in the closet until I heard to knocking on the door." I said to him. He looked at me with a little bit of pain on his face.
Pain that I could not blame him for, I did not know how at this point he could not blame me. I was blaming myself, I knew that it was my fault. He was just too good of a person to do it. He looked at me and then he nodded to me.
"We got attacked, I have to see if there are more survivors, if you want to come with me. We can't just be the only ones, there are smart, and there are strong people in our community." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded.
We got up from the bed, I was scared to even think about going outside right now. I was afraid at what could possibly be out there, they could still be out there. Just waiting for us, waiting to gun us down.
As we walked down the hallway, and we went into the living room, I saw Ashley's body laying on the ground in front of us. I felt sick seeing it, like I was about to vomit. I then looked away from it, I fell into the Tanner once again. I hated seeing my best friends body just laying on the floor, blood laying everywhere.
We always talked about living forever, or dying at a really old age. I never even believed it, but it was always something that me and her liked to talk about. I guess neither of us even thought of something like this even being a possibility.
"I can't do it... I can't... Im sorry Tanner." I said to him. He held me for a few moments. I could feel the pain, the heavy breathing coming from his lungs, he still tried to do his best to keep my head up, even though there was nothing good to think about.
"If the community is really destroyed... Come take her with me, to the daycare. That is you guys place, that is where we needed to let her rest. Just please do this for me... Better yet, do it for her. The dead are everywhere out there. We need to go fast." He said to me. I looked down at the ground for a few more moments, and then I nodded to him.
I looked outside, it was getting dark. I knew what the dead were like out there, I remember when I was much younger. I shook my head not even think about those thoughts, I then nodded to him.
"Alright... Let's go..."