The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 1: The least of your worries

I shivered, once again. I was scared to see what I would find on the other side of the door. I knew someone was dead in there, there was no way that anything good could come out of this. Even if I did think positive, there was just no way that someone could have died inside Lilly's house that wasn't Lilly or Liam...
Unless... I remember that Angela had given Lilly a gun at one point, what if Lilly had used the gun to kill someone and then she and Liam had gone of with each other and they were both safe. I shook my head once again, there was a difference between positive, and realism.
I knew Lilly hated guns, she had the gun that Angela had given her locked up somewhere safe. Odds are if someone had come in, Lilly would not have had enough time to react and grab the gun. There was no way that Lilly would take the life of another person no matter how bad they were either.
I slowly tried to open the door, but then I noticed that the door was locked... Which came as a bit of a surprise to me as well. Someone had managed to lock the door, maybe Liam was not in there at all... Maybe Lilly had been bit, and she ran inside and locked the door, here were so many different theories going on in my head, but there was no way to answer them.
I wanted to just walk away right now, and just give up... I would be lying to myself if I did though, I knew there was a lock under the door mat. Christian looked at me for a few moments, then he looked around at the roads which a couple of the dead were walking around in.
"If its locked kid, we can just wait another day... If your brother is dead, it's not going to do much to help him. It's getting dark out right now..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, I badly wanted to do what he said, and just wait another day.
I could not do that though, and I knew it. I could not hold this off any longer, it was now or never... Either my brother was dead in there with Lilly, or he was stuck in the other community like my sister... Just not with my sister, god knows what was going on in there.
If my sister had betrayed us, surely she would not let them do the stuff that Tony had told us about to Liam. I had so many questions just swarming my brain right now. I just had to choose one thing at a time... That one thing that I needed to chose was to at least find out what had happened to my brother.
If he was not here, there was no other place that he would be at that he would be safe at. I closed my eyes, Christian coughed a little bit to get my attention. I opened my eyes right away and I nodded to my mentor.
He had taught me, to be strong... Right now I was not being strong, I was being quite weak. It was time, to prove to everyone that I was strong... I was like my sister, and I was like my mother, my brother... My stepfather... And hell, even my own father...
I did not know him all too well, but I had heard the stories of some of the things that he had done for our community while he was still alive. I had heard how he had died, he had pulled off a herd from the community, when the community had not finished the walls.
He was with one of his closest friends, his friend had came back a few days later... But he had come back with terrible news. I shook my head trying not to think about that, because Christian had also told me another thing.
That was not to think back in the past, and all of the mistakes that you have made or things that have happened to you. I knew he was right, I looked back up at Christian, and I gave him a smile, I wanted him to know how grateful I was to have him as my mentor.
He looked at me, a bit confused for a few moments as to why in my right mind I would me smiling. But it seemed as if he came to the realization as to what I was thinking about. He smiled right back at me, as I went down to pick up the the key from the mat.
I lifted up the older rusty key, hopefully it would still work. I kept a smile out for Christian, but he was no longer smiling, so I lost my smile as well. I saw him looking at something, and I squinted to see what it was. I then realized what he was looking at right away.
He was watching the sun gaze down on the horizon, I watched it for a few moments as well. Then he coughed at me to get my attention once again. I nodded to him, and then I got back to what I was doing in the first place.
What was it again? Yes... I remember now, I was going to unlock the door to Lilly's house, I just feared what we were about to find inside of there. Once it was unlocked, I slowly, and quietly began to open the door, remembering that Christian had said that he had heard one of the dead walking around in there somewhere.
The door made a loud creak about halfway through opening it, I cursed myself. I then remembered that it might not be the worst thing possible. I had remembered that I had accidentally taught Christian a new idea to knock on the doors before you walked in.
That way if there really was one of the dead inside the house, it would either come up to the door, or it would start groaning in whichever room that the dead was trapped in. But if Christian was not lying, then if he had heard one of the dead, there were no nearby bedrooms near the front door.
I looked around, and moved back from the door. Maybe it was not the best idea to be knocking loudly on a door in the first place, I did not want to take the risk of one of the dead hearing me, that could spread to multiple more of the dead following that one dead... Then that could end badly.
I turned my head back to the door, realizing that I probably should not be looking away. I then sighed to myself for a few moments, I knew that there was one of the dead in there somewhere, the question was, just where might it be?
There was no way that someone had randomly come in and cleaned up the place. That was one thing that I knew for sure, the door was still locked, and the key was still there... So that was no way that it could be a possibility for that to happen.
I looked around in the room, just to make sure that it was safe for a little while longer, and then I nodded for Christian to come into the house with me. After a few moments, he nodded and then he walked in with me, holding his knife up at the same time, just in case things went wrong.
Which it tended to happen that way. I closed the door, as quietly as I could behind him, and then me and him slowly began walking into the living room of the house. I looked around at each and every corner, just in case there was something, or someone hiding in here, just waiting to kill either one of us.
We stood still, both of us gazing upon the dark room, luckily there was still a tiny bit of sunlight coming through the blinds of the windows. As far as I could see, the room that we were in was safe enough for now.
I turned my head back to Christian, as he looked around the room one last time, he then nodded his head to me realizing that I was looking at him. He was used to this stuff a lot more than me, he would give me the best idea of how to work with this situation.
"Alright Ben... You check the kitchen, and the garage, and I will check the hallway and the bedrooms." He said to me. I looked at him for a few seconds longer, and then I nodded my understanding to him.
He began to walk off, but before he could get far enough away from me, I instantly thought of a good idea. I stopped him right away, and he turned his head to me and looked at me a bit confused as to what it could be. I sat there for a few moments, trying to think of what to say for him to best understand the thought process going through my brain right now.
"Christian hold on... I have an idea... This might make it more safe for us..." I said to him. He looked at me a bit confused, and he began to stroke his chin. Probably thinking in his mind what I could possibly be thinking about in my own.
I waited a few seconds longer, for him to potentially push it off. But he actually genuinely looked interested in the idea that was forming in my brain. He nodded to me, I waited for him to give me the okay.
"Ben... If you think it is a good idea, then I am all ears, you have thought of some stupid ones before however." He said to me. I looked at him, and then I looked down at the ground. I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I was a bit embarrassed about it to this day still, if I might add.
I had thought that it would be a good idea to shoot while inside one of the houses, because I thought the wall would work as a sound barrier. I remember Christian getting so mad, and he was freaking out as a bunch of the dead quickly strolled up on the house.
Luckily we got out of the place safe, as we ran out of there as soon as possible. But I had not even told Christian of the idea before I did it, I just decided to myself that I was going to test it out. Which, turned out to be a bad idea, because I could see the dead swarming from up the hills.
The worst part about it, was that I had not even shot one of the dead. I had just thought that it might be a good idea to test out my theory. Christian was very mad at me that day, but he eventually got over it, and now he just laughs about it, kind of like he was right now.
"If I say Liam... If he is somehow alive in here he might say something back, but also, the dead that is in here will walk towards us rather than sneak up on us. We have our backs turned to the door so we will be safe, there's only 2 areas in can come in from." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he began to bluntly stroke his chin once again.
He was clearly thinking deep into it, but eventually he nodded to me. Letting me know that it was a good idea, and that we should try it out. I smiled back at him, happy that I had thought of a good idea... At least in Christians eyes... Some of his ideas weren't the best either.
"Alright, we can do that... If I don't here anything on the count to 30, then we have to walk in... We have sat here long enough... There is clearly one of the dead on here somewhere, I know what I heard." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, he was looking at me dead in the eyes, letting me know that what he said was true.
He didn't need to even bother with that, I knew that Christian was not a liar for one. None the less, even if someone did lie a lot, they should know that this was one of the times that it was not a good idea to lie. I looked at Christian, waiting for the okay.
He nodded to me, and a shiver went down my body, I knew that this was it, this could be good or bad... Or it could even be both... I was not sure yet, but I could only see bad coming out of this scenario.
"Is anyone here? Liam?!" I said, a bit loud, but not loud enough for the dead to hear me from outside the house, and to walk over to us. I then counted down the seconds slowly in my head, and surprisingly there was no response at all, not from anything.
I looked at Christian, a bit surprised and a bit confused when the number 30 went into my head. Had someone somehow managed to get in? Was Angela still in the community somehow? There was no way... Shannon had told me that she had been taken back with the rest of them.
She was the only one to have a key... How could this be? What was going on? Had the dead tripped on something and had an insanely unlucky ending? That was the only thing that possibly made sense in my mind right now. I closed my eyes, and Christian grabbed on to my shoulder.
"Alright kid... Let's just go with the plan we had before... I don't know what is going on, I am not lying to you..." He said to me. For some reason he thought that he needed to tell me that he was not lying to me once again.
It seemed a little bit suspicious to me, but I shook my head on it... Then again maybe I shouldn't, while he may be my mentor, if my sister had betrayed us, then it would not surprise me if he had either. I shook my head, I should not be thinking those types of thoughts on people that I called my friends.
"I know that you aren't Christian, you don't have to worry about that." I said to him. Letting him know that I did believe him, and letting him know that I trusted him as well. He looked down at the ground for a few moments, a bit upset at himself for some reason.
I looked at him, it was starting to get dark, we had to hurry up and get on with what we were doing. I turned my head away from Christian, and then I nodded to myself, we had to get this over with right now, there was no more pushing this off.
As I began walking, I heard the footsteps of Christian walking as well, letting me know that he was now doing what he should be doing. I nodded to myself, happy that he was finally out of whatever funk he had going on in his head.
I then walked over to the kitchen, right as I walked into it, I tried to turn the lights on for some odd reason, even though I knew that the power had gone out in the entire community. I shook my head, cursing myself for being so dumb again, and then I looked around at the kitchen.
I did not see anything, but I looked around once again, just in case I had somehow missed something. I did not see anything, so I turned my head over to the door to get into the garage, this was the place that I was more scared off.
I doubt that Christian could hear the footsteps of one of the dead from there, but I was just more scared because of how dark that I knew it would be in there with no windows in there. I shivered, thinking of the possibility of Liam being in there dead, there was no way I could do the necessary deed.
I closed my eyes for a few moments, trying not to think negative like that, and I nodded to myself... Things were going to he okay, this was all going to end good for me... I reopened my eyes, and then I nodded to myself, as I began walking towards to garage...
Right away I tripped on the slippery ground. I fell down to the ground, freaking out at the same time, thinking that one of the dead might sneak up on me at any moment. I lifted myself and I looked around, just to make sure just in case... It had been a fairly loud thump as well.
It still should not be loud enough for any of the dead to possibly hear me from outside, I lifted myself up a little bit, and then heard Christian say something to me in the other room, mainly just to make sure that I was okay and had not gotten bit or hurt too badly...
"You alright kid? That was kind of loud..." He said to me. I turned my head to the other room, I could tell that he was still in the living room, probably looking in the closets for some reason, which would be the last place I would be looking if I was worried about there being any of the dead.
I lifted myself up entirely from off of the ground, and then I sighed to myself, I was now soaked all over my jeans and the rest of my body... I shook my head, Lilly was normally good at cleaning up any messes like water from off of the ground... This must have happened right around the time of the attack.
"Yeah I'm okay, just slipped on some water..." I said to him. I did my best to brush off some of the water that was on me, but as I looked at it, I realized that it was not water at all. I began to freak out, scared as I could get up and go... "Um... Christian... This is not water... This... This is... This is blood..."
I sat there for a few moments, I wondered how I was going to get this off of me, but that was the least of my worries at the moment. I should be wondering how on earth that blood had even gotten here in this first place... I heard a bit of a quiet thump from the other room.
There most certainly was one of the dead in here somewhere... It must be quiet for some reason, I thought that the dead were not supposed to be smart... I shivered once again... Wondering why I had heard of a thump in the other room.
After a couple of minutes of no response from Christian, I then began to get worried, I picked up my gun... If there was no dead in the house... Someone was in here... Had they done something to Christian... At this point, a gunshot did not matter inside the house as long as I made it out alive...
I moved a bit closer into the other room, but just before I got to the hallway, I finally got a response from Christian, which at least made me feel a slight bit better, in the fact that we were at least somewhat safe...
"Kid... I think that, should be the least of your worries..."