The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 9: Good Luck

To be honest, it was very hard for me to fall asleep right now. I felt so exhausted, I had not slept in quite a long time. I knew I needed the sleep, but I could not stop thinking about Liam every moment that I was awake. I shivered thinking about seeing his dead body on the ground in Lilly's house.
Or worse, finding him a part of the dead, because I would have to be the one to finish the job that the other community had started in the first place. I hated them, so did Tony... Or so he said, I did not know what was real and what was fake anymore.
My sister could have been with him all this time, betraying our community, it made so much sense to me, as to why she still had a feeling that Tony was still alive. It is because she knew that he was still alive... She was talking with him this whole time when we all thought that she was crazy.
I always knew that she was a bit different than most people, I often just thought she was like that because she had seen our parents die, and not only that, but she also went outside the walls, and there was truly some crazy shit that went on out here.
I wanted to say to myself that my sister would never do anything like that, but if I was going to be honest, I had never gotten to really know my sister as well as I would have liked to. But there was someone that I knew, that did get to know her fairly well that I could talk to about it.
It was not Tony, he could easily lie about it. But no... It was Tyler, he always was in love with my sister. Sadly she never felt the same way about him, but I knew that she still considered him as a really close friend. Could Tyler be a part of this too? No... His story didn't make sense as to how that could be possible.
On that note, I finally layed my head back, no longer just staring at the wall in the room that I was in. It was a nice room, not much like the place we lived at now. It was closer to the mansion that we used to live at a long time ago. Back when my mother was still alive.
But she wasn't anymore, it was time for me to get over it. All of this, I would try to find my brother, but if he was gone then I had to get over it. Christian was right, about everything, it saddened me to see that he always showed zero emotions, but I now knew why.
I closed my eyes, trying to drown out all of the thoughts that were swarming through my head right now, it was hard to just focus on one single thought right now. I just needed to get some sleep, the answers would come to me soon enough, at least I hoped...
I finally fell into a deep, much needed sleep, due to the fact that I had not slept in a long time. I did not know how long I would be out for, Christian might be worried about me. I needed the sleep though, he would have to just get over it, he would be fine and so would I.

I woke up, but not in the bed that I had been sleeping in last night. It was another one of those dreams, I already could tell... It seemed so real, I almost wanted to believe that it was real. I knew it wasn't but there was a small part of me that it seemed real.
I picked up my arms and looked at them, then I swatted a mosquito that was on my arm. This was real right? There was no way that it could not be, I felt all of it. I shivered and then I began walking, I heard footsteps behind me and I turned around.
I saw 3 people behind me, 1 was Jordan, the other was Sasha for some reason... I could tell that we were outside of the walls so it surprised me quite a bit to even see her in the first place. I looked at the 3rd one and nodded as well, it was Phillip.
It seemed so weird to see all of them with me. They were all following me to, maybe not so weird to see Jordan, but the other 2 it kind of surprised me. I looked at them and then stopped, they stopped as well a little bit confused as to the reasoning as why I was stopping us in the first place.
"What's going on Ben? You seem to be acting a little bit strange today." Sasha said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, she seemed to be a little bit older than I had remembered. I looked down at the ground, in fact, I seemed to be a lot taller than I remembered as well.
I looked at my arms as well, they also, seemed to be a lot bigger as well. I had gotten a lot stronger... Had I just had a brain fart and forgotten what had happened to me in the last year or so? What was going on with me right now?
"I am going to see my sister today... I hope that she is okay, I don't know what those god awful people have been doing to her." I said back to them. Jordan looked down at the ground, I wondered why for a few moments, Phillip grabbed on to his shoulder as if he was trying to make Jordan feel better about something.
I had not actually said that, I was now beginning to notice that I was only in control of a few parts of my body, something else was taking over the rest of me. Including my voice, I had no idea what was going on. It was going to be another one of those dreams.
"Can you make sure my mother is okay too?" Jordan said to me. Looking me dead in my eyes. I had never seen Jordan looking at me like that before, most of what he said to me usually was a joke, but clearly this was some serious business as to what was going on right now.
"I'll try my best, I can't make any promises even to myself..." I said back to him. He looked at me for a few more moments, he then nodded and began looking at the ground sadly for a few more moments. I turned my head back over to Sasha he began talking to me.
She looked even more beautiful than I had ever remembered, clearly she was a mess right now. She was not trying to look good, but to me, woman looked even better when they looked like that, I did my best to try not to get hard, as I smiled at her.
"Stay safe Ben... I hope to see you soon, in good condition... This is going to be very dangerous." She said to me. I looked at her and then nodded. She had a serious look on her face, something I had never seen from her before. Much like Jordan, she liked to joke around a lot.
"I will be okay... I will come back fine, I promise you. You guys stay safe as well, notify me through the walkies when you guys are set up." I said back to her. She looked at me and nodded, then she looked down at the ground a bit sadly for a few moments.
For some reason I ignored it, and then I looked back at the other 2 to make sure that they were listening to what I had just said to all of them. Jordan nodded, and then so did Phillip. I nodded back to them as well, and then I turned around, and had a shiver run down my spine.
"Ben... I love you... Stay safe..." Sasha said to me. I did not even turn around, it was almost like I had not heard what she had just said to me at all. I wondered what was up with that, but then I heard all of their footsteps as they began walking away from me.
For some reason, I turned around anyways, and I saw someone still standing there. A bit of a sad look on his face, I wondered why he had that look but I did not think too deep into it. As I began talking to the 1 person that had stayed back unlike the others.
"Jordan... If this is another thing about Sasha, scrap it... Me and her are done." I said to him. I wad a bit confused as to what I was even talking about in the first place. Jordan looked down at the ground for a few moments.
Eventually he lifted his head back up, he smiled at me and then he nodded at me. He began talking to me, saying nothing about Sasha at all. I felt a bit of anger in me, but it disappeared when he began talking, I wondered what all of that was about.
"I'm surprised that you even knew I was still here, Christian must have done a damn good job of tracking footsteps." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and this time I was the one that began looking down at the ground.
Had something happened to Christian, I could feel a little bit of pain in me for some reason and I was not sure what that was about. I then looked up at him, this time I smiled at him, it seemed like the pain went away in just 2 or 3 seconds.
"Yes... He did, and I am going to teach you the exact same thing, after we get all of this done... We don't have to worry about anything anymore." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, not very sure about what I had said, but he just nodded, showing no emotions on his face at the same time.
He looked down at the ground a bit sadly once again. For some reason I rolled my eyes, as if I knew exactly what he was about to say to me. He then looked back up at me and then nodded to me once again. Then he began talking to me.
"Sasha does care about you... I promise you, she opened up to me about it, she regrets what she did." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments. I was a bit confused as to what he was talking about, but my current self seemed to know exactly what it was that he was trying to say to me.
I looked at him dead in the eyes, he could not handle the stare down that I was giving him. It did not even seem that he believed what he had just said to me. Whatever it was that he was even talking about in the first place.
"If she did care, she would not have done what she did... I am going to finish her training, and she can do whatever she wants, to whoever she wants for all I care." I said to him. Jordan looked at me for a few moments, and then he turned around as if someone was looking in on us, but then he turned his head back to me.
"If that is how you feel so be it, but you were in love, that is all I know. Good luck to you, I hope to see you back in good hands." Jordan said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded to him. He then turned around and began jogging back to the others that were far ahead of him at this point.
I looked at the ground a bit sadly for a few moments, and then I turned around, in front of me I saw something that I had never seen before. It was a huge city, clearly just recently made as well. For some reason my current self was not freaking out about it.
I just began walking over to it, as I got closer I noticed that there was barbed wire in front of me all around the very big city, and in the barbed wire were a lot of the dead. The were shoving their hands trying to come after me, but it seemed like it was giving them no such luck. I saw the front gates, there were a bunch of guards on them.
I nodded to them, and they nodded back to me. But I kept on walking past the gates, it seemed as if I was not going in there. What was I doing in the first place then? I then saw what I was going after, as I squinted my eyes to see what it was.
There was a small little cabin ahead of me, and there were 2 big guards also standing at the front, but they had not seen me yet. They looked evil, I was tempted to pull out my gun, but as I looked down I realized that I had no gun in my belt for some reason, nor did I have a knife.
I thought I was supposed to have both of them on me at all times outside of the walls, that is what Christian had always told me at least. I walked up closer than before, and the guards then noticed me, they put their hands up and their guns up at me as if they were about to shoot me.
For some reason I was not acting afraid at all, in fact I seemed to find a little bit of humor as to what they were doing for some reason or another. They first guard then began talking to me with a deep voice, his voice almost seemed as if he was faking it.
It was a huge guy, so I doubted that he was faking it. But it sounded such a deep tone that it seemed like he was. I stopped myself in my track as they began talking to me.
"Put your damn hands into the air and say your name loud so that we can hear you... Or we will shoot your ass." The guy said to me. I put my hands into the air and just smiled at the guys. The second guy almost looked as if he was afraid because I was smiling at them.
The first guy noticed the look on the 2nd guys face, and he punched the guy, then began saying something to the guy that was too quiet for me to hear in the first place. Eventually the guy looked at me and then nodded to me, I then began saying my name loudly.
"I am King Ben the first! Arthur, you know who the fuck I am, let me in!" I said to the first guy. He looked at me as if he was even laughing, and then he nodded for me the head forwards towards them.
I did do so, still having my hands in the air as I walked up to them. They then began checking my pockets and my belt to make sure that I had nothing on me, and then the 2nd guy nodded to me to go ahead and go into the cabin. I walked into the cabin, in 1 was 1 large room and what looked like 1 bedroom in the back.
There was only 1 person in the room with me, as the door then closed loudly behind me. I noticed who the person was right away, I sat down on the small little couch with her, and then I turned to the door as if I was waiting for someone to walk in with us.
"Ben... Remember, act as real as possible. We have to make sure that he does not think a single thing about what we are doing." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I nodded to the lady. She said it quietly making sure the guards outside of the place did not hear it.
"Don't worry Shannon... I've got this... I am always calm, you just make sure you do not say anything suspicious to him." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, and then she nodded to me. I could tell that she was a bit scared, but I believed in her for some reason.
We just sat there in silence for a little while longer, the whole time I just stared at the doorway, as I looked over at Shannon from time to time, she was looking at the deer on the top side of the wall and from time to time looking out through one of the only 2 windows that were in the cabin.
Then I heard footsteps at the front steps of the cabin. I heard people talking for a few moments, me and Shannon both turned our heads. I knew what it was, I knew that he was hear... I was not too sure who "he" was, but apparently whatever was in control of me right now did.
Then the door opened, I saw the first person walk into the room, the guy looked surprisingly familiar to me. I don't know what it was about him, but the next person walked in and he was looking at the first guy wondering what it was that he was supposed to do next.
Clearly the guy in front was the leader of all of this, I looked at the leader for a few moments, but something else turned my head. As I saw 2 people that I knew very well walk into the room with me. 4 more guards were standing there, 2 of them holding the girl down on her knees as they closed the door behind them.
"Well... Well... Well... Ben, you have grown up quite a bit in the last half year... You sure you don't want to join us? You can have whatever you want... I heard the news about your girlfriend, we can get you a better girl if that's what you want." He said to me. I looked at the guy for a few moments, and then I chuckled at him, he began laughing back. I then looked over at my sister who was on her knees on the floor, her boyfriend Tony standing right beside her.
"No... I would rather rot in hell than rot in your prisons, London..." I said to him. He looked at me a bit surprised as to what I had just said, but he did not say anything about it to me. He then looked over at Shannon, Shannon I could tell was trying to stay strong.
I felt a bit bad for her, I did not know what was going on right now, but I was a bit afraid for her, and for my sister who was sitting on the ground. I looked over at London, who was apparently the name of the guy, as he began talking to Shannon.
"So Shannon... What is this bullshit about your community moving? You do realize, that you are supposed to tell us where you are moving to right?" He said to her. Shannon looked at the guy for a few moments, it almost looked like she gulped, but she stayed strong with how she was talking to London.
"We are moving, people are leaving us, and the area we are in is bad. We are going to tell you where its at, we just don't have it safe yet, and we don't need your people fucking it up for us." Shannon said to him. London looked at her for a few moments, then he began stroking his chin.
He was a thinking about what she said for a few moments, I could tell that he was actually genuinely putting that into factor, I could also tell that the people that were in his community were evil, especially the guy that was staring him down with a little smile.
"Fair enough I suppose... But we will be there next time... What is the meeting place that you are giving us our shit?" He said to her. She looked at him with a bit of a wince when he said that, but I could tell that it was more a fake wince because she was trying to make this look as real as possible.
I was still not sure what was going on, clearly there was something deeper going on behind the scenes. I knew for sure that Shannon was an amazing actor, if the apocalypse had not happened I would not be surprised to be seeing her in hollywood.
"Lets go into the other room, I don't want your buddy, Anderson here,  to tell everyone and then plan an attack on us behind your back." She said to London. London looked at her and then nodded, then he looked at the guy that was staring him down in the first place.
The guy looked at her, and then he did his best to act like he did not know what she was talking about. But clearly he was not nearly as good of an actor as Shannon was. I knew what she was going to say to him for some reason, it almost made me want to crack a smile but I stopped myself.
"I would never do something like that!" He said to us. London looked at him for a few moments, and then he began laughing at the guy. Anderson looked at London a little bit confused, clearly he did not know how stupid he had just sounded.
"Yes you would... That is why you are my coleader, they know that if I die, you are next in line..." He said to Anderson. He looked at London, and then he smiled a little bit, London looked at Shannon for a few moments, and then he nodded to her once again, he then began heading to the other room, nodding to one of the guards at the same time.
I watched him as he walked into the other room and then shut the door, I heard them talking for a few moments, and then the guard opened the door to the bedroom that they were in, he then nodded to Shannon, notifying to her that she was free to go in now.
Shannon then began walking over to the room, she looked at the guard and then she nodded back to him. Then the guard closed the door to the room, there were no sounds or anything at all, I looked over at my sister, who looked back at me with a bit of a smile.
Tony then looked at my and then he winked at me, for some reason I knew why he winked at me, but at the same time I was a bit confused as my normal brain had no clue as to what was going on right now. I was just going with the flow right now.
I heard something fall to the floor in the other room, I turned my head to the doorway a bit confused wondering what was going on, the guard turned his head and then he opened the door to the room to make sure that his leader was safe and wondering what was going on.
He closed the door behind him, I could not see what was going on in the other room, but I could hear talking for a few moments. I did not hear Shannon talking so it worried my quite a bit, had she ruined the plan and attacked London? What was going on?
After a few more moments, the guard eventually walked out of the room, with a bit of an angry look on his face, as he was staring right at Tony, he just walked right past as if nothing had happened at all. But he kept on staring at Tony with a bit of a suspicious look on his face.
I gulped, whatever had gone on in the other room had clearly not been good at all. I shivered and just kept on staring at the door to the other room, expecting Shannon and London to walk out of the room, both perfectly fine, and London agreeing to the deal that she had put on the table.
But the look on the guards face was telling my something completely different, something bad had gone on in the other room, and I was not too sure what it could have possibly been, had London said something that had made Shannon angry? Had she run at him London?
It would not surprise me, London would have fought back, even if it was a woman. I shivered, as I then heard the door handle begin to open, it seemed like everything right now was going super slow. I saw the door begin to open and I saw London walk out, he was shivering a little bit.
In his hand I saw a blade, but that wasn't all that was on his hand. His hand was moving around a lot, he had done something to Shannon, I could tell, and it looked like he might have regretted it at the same time. I looked at London and then I got up from my chair.
It seemed like I was about to run at him for a few moments, but all of the guards lifted their guns up to stop me at the exact moment. It would be stupid if I ran after him, and it would be the end of me at the same time. I just looked at London angrily and began talking.
"What did you do to her?!" I yelled to him a bit angrily. He did not even look at me as if I had not said anything at all. He just looked at the guards, a bit sadly... He had clearly killed Shannon, or at least done something to her, not the scar... There was too much blood.
He looked down at the ground and dropped his knife on it, he then got down on his knees. His coleader Anderson went over to him to see what was going on, but London pushed him off a bit angrily, he clearly did not want to be near anyone right now.
"Get the hell away from me! Leave me alone... Give me some time to god damn think at least... I just killed her." He said to him. I looked at him angrily, it was just as I had thought, London had killed Shannon, no one said a word about it to each other.
Tony just looked surprised, and Angela had her eyes closed. Anderson kept on pestering London though, and I could tell it was really getting on his nerves now. Anderson then began talking to London, holding on to his shoulder as if he was trying to pretend he was London's best friend.
"What the hell happened? What's going on?" He asked London. London began crying, it surprised me a little bit but I was still angry at the fact that he had just killed our leader. I wish I had a gun on me right now so that I could shoot him right now, him and everyone else that was here.
"She fucking betrayed us! Get Tony and that girl down right now! You too Ben!" He said, looking right at me. I looked at him a bit surprised, how did he know what was going on? I just nodded and then went down on the ground on my knees not saying a single word about it.
I just began shivering, then I closed my eyes, I was afraid... How had he known? I opened my eyes, but it was just darkness now... What was going on? Had someone put a bag on me?