The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 12: Not Your Business...

I looked at my mentor, and then I nodded to him. I then looked at my brother, he was engaged in a deep conversation with Chester as it seemed, I was glad that my old friend had grown up. Well, maybe not with the fact that he was enjoying talking to a young kid.
I just felt a bit bad, leaving my brother so soon, all that was going on in his head right now, I wish for once I could just tell my mentor no... There were plenty of people that could help him do the job that he was planning on doing, but I just could not bring myself to do so.
I looked down for a few moments, and then finished off the last pieces of a much needed sandwich, and then I grabbed a water bottle, I had my bag at Shannon's still, there was about 4 large cans of water in that. This would have to do for now, or at least until the water was back on in the community.
I wondered if they had taken down the power line, or if they had stolen our solar panels. Shannon had said they had taken a lot of our stuff back with them. I shook my head though, I hated that group, and I knew that one day that group would pay for what they had done.
At least, if there was a god out there to do so... If not, than it would be me that would make sure of it. I looked at my mentor, as he was just taking a few sips of his water. He then nodded to me, and he began to speak to me.
"Ben... You've still got your backup bag right? Go take that and take to bottles and some clothes with you, I don't know how long we will be out there... It's like you said, there might be people that need help." He said to me. I looked at him, and then nodded. Then I left the room that we were in.
As I walked towards my bedroom, I looked at my sisters. I knew I was not allowed in the room, but I was curious as to why that was so, even after the fact that she knew that I had started to go out of the walls with Christian. I always assumed it was because she stored her guns in there.
I knew that I should not be coming into this room, but I felt like walking in anyways. I closed the door, just in case Liam or Christian walked in, wondering why it was taking so long. Liam seemed to be engaged in a deep conversation with Chester however, about who knows what.
It confused me quite a bit, they did not really have all that much in common, I shook my head though. At least my brother seemed to have made a friend. I shivered thinking about the lady that my brother had told me, she was the mother of his best friend.
I shook my head though, that was the last thing that I needed to worry about on my mind. There were 100 other thoughts drowning in my head right now, that was the last one that I should be thinking about. I rolled my eyes at myself, and then looked around the room.
It seemed like a normal bedroom, maybe this was where she hid the chips, and that is why she did not want us coming into the room. I looked around for a few more moments, I felt like laying down on the bed, I knew that it was a comfortable bed, but Christian was in the other room waiting for me, and I knew time was running short on us.
We had already wasted so much of it today. I began to walk out of the front door to the house, but then I looked at my sisters closet. I kept on staring at it for a few moments longer, and I wondered why my eyes were drawing me into that room.
I closed my eyes for a few moments, and I was just about to open the door to head over to my room, to get my bag and just go ahead and get back over to Christian, but once again something stopped my, I wondered what it was, why was something in my head so badly wanting me to go into that closet?
I opened my eyes, and then I decided, I may as well find out. I walked over to the closet, and then I opened the door, as it opened the closet, I looked around and I saw a rife right away. It now made sense to me again why she did not want me to go into her room.
I knew that I was not allowed to have a rifle until I had finished with my training. I shook my head, trying to stop thinking about my grabbing a rifle, I knew that Christian would not be okay with that if I walked back into the other room with that on my back.
I began to close the door to the room, and then at the last second I saw something that engreuged me quite a bit. I stopped myself from closing the door, and then I walked back into the small little closet once again. I looked at what I saw that was sitting on one of the shelves and then I grabbed it right away.
I then walked back into her bedroom where there was a bit more light for me to see. I looked at the book that was sitting in front of me for just a few moments. I read what it was that was on the cover. I felt wrong for grabbing this, and even thinking about reading any of this.
It made me feel a bit sick, but I knew that I should read it, this might provide me with all of the answers that I needed to find out. I looked at the cover of it, and saw what it said which must have been made with an ink and quil.
"Angela's Diary..." I said to myself, making sure not to be too loud so that the others could not hear me from the room beside me. I opened the first page, and saw the date on it... It was the first day that we had made it to this community, I remembered that date.
I looked at it for a few moments, and then I began reading about what it said. I saw many sad things, stuff about what the world had come to, and how she wanted to give up. I wanted to slam the book closed, and never open this again. I knew why now, this was why my sister did not want me sneaking into her room.
I couldn't just close it though, I felt like, for some reason, that I needed to keep on reading deeper into it. I skipped a couple pages, and saw another familiar date that I could not forget. It was 9/11 but not the 9/11 that many other people would think about.
This day stood out to me more than any day, I knew that it was the terrorist attack from about 30 years ago. But it was even more to me, and everyone else in the community. I was not the only person that had lost someone that day. It was the day that the storm had hit.
It was apparently a hurricane, at least that is what people had said, but it was the lightning that had taken the walls down... Once the walls were down, it was all over for everyone here. I looked at it, and saw, that it seemed like a normal day at first for my sister.
"Today, my younger brother, Ben, has gone to his friends place, my parents are about to start a community meeting from downstairs, but I am not allowed to listen... Sometimes I do listen to a few of the words that they said... I am taking care of Liam right now, I hear lots of yelling, there is clearly a disagreement." I began to read, from inside of my head. It still felt completely wrong, and I felt like I should quit right now.
I kept on reading however, something was drawing me in to keep on doing so. I knew that I should not, this was my sisters business, I knew that it was wrong to ever read another persons journal or their diary. I closed it for a few moments, but I kept my finger on the page.
I sat there for a few moments, I felt like I was going to cry, but no tears seemed to run down my face. It was like I had turned into what Christian was trying to make me into. It was not right, and I knew it, I knew that a human should have emotions...
I looked at the cover once again, I saw a couple of pictures on it. There was one of a baby, but it was not my brother. It was a picture of me, back when I was a baby, and my sister, a lot younger, probably just a few years older than my brother was right now, she was the one that was holding on to me.
I saw a big smile on her face, and saw that she was missing a couple teeth as well. I put my hand on the picture for a few moments, and now, I began to feel the tears dropping from my eyes. I wish this was a dream, I wish I could go back to that day... I wish I could warn people about all of this.
Then they would know, and they would be prepared, then the world would not have come to an end... Would people have listened to me? I remember walking by some homeless people a couple times, my dad would give them some spare change...
I remembered what they had on their signs, always... "The world is coming to an end, repent!" I wish that I could repent for my sins, but would god forgive me? Why did god want me to live in this world? Why did god let evil people live in this new world?
I closed my eyes for a few moments, I knew I should not be reading this, this was for my sister only, but I had questions that needed to be answered, and this might be the only way. I opened my eyes back up, and kept on reading about the day that my mother had died.
"I just heard something very loud, there is people yelling and crying. I am going to take my brother out to the back porch, we should be safe on the roof, I will be soaked, but if it is to save my brother than it is worth it, there is nothing in this world more valuable to me than my family." I read on. I looked at it, and so far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
It still pained me to read it, I had the memories of hiding in that shed for several days, just hearing nothing but the moans and the groans of the dead. I was so afraid, I did not know what to think, whether everyone had left me, or if everyone was dead.
There was many times I was tempted to open that door, and to look around and see what was going on outside of the little shed, but I kept my mothers promise to never walk out of the shed. I remember the day, that my sister had found me in the shed.
I had been in there for nearly a week, it was a storage shed for extra food and water in case something like that did happen, and everyone in the community knew about it. My sister had not opened the door expecting to find me in there, but the look of surprise on her face was out of this world.
There was no way that my sister could have possibly betrayed us, surely right? It was all just one big coincidence, and I was very sure of it. This was her own diary, she let no one read it, so she stored all of her secrets in that... I looked at the page, that was the end of that.
I kept on scrolling, and then I noticed another date for one reason only, and that was my sister. She would always bring that up, she was sure that her boyfriend was not gone, and that the attack had been from another community. That is why Shannon believed she had been the one that had betrayed us.
She knew all along that there was another community. She knew that Tony was a part of that, I did not know if that was either suspicious, or whether she was just smarter than the rest of us. I shook my head though, I was only here to find out the truth, it was best not to waste any more time.
I kept on reading on in the small little story of her life, trying not to drop any more tears, because I knew, there was only more pain to come from this. I did not even want to think about the ending, because that would truly be the last time she would write in this diary.
"I know he is out there somewhere, I looked through all of it, I saw many people that I remembered, and many were missing, they took some of them back, my Tony, he was one of them..." I read, and that was about it for the rest of that day, I expected more from that, but she could have also been busy during that time.
I kept on scrolling, now I had been wasting a lot of time, and Christian might start to get worried at this point. I began to scroll through the book until I reached the end, I made sure it was, by checking the pages after that, and there was nothing more left to it.
I then began to read the final page, and the date, that was Liam's birthday. I looked at it for just a few moments, I then began to shiver, as I realized what I saw on the words... My sister had not betrayed us, she had seen this coming she must have been close, and that's why she got caught.
"It is my little brothers 5th birthday today. I love him so much, along with Ben, I have not seen him for a while and it makes me sad... But he had found something, I think we might be getting attacked, just like the other community was, but Shannon, she refuses to believe me... I think she might be a part of this, but it does not make sense, why would she let her own people die?" I looked at it for a few moments, she had not betrayed us, and now I was beginning to grow a bit suspicious of Shannon.
I should not be, I knew my sister always did not trust Shannon, plus Shannon would not let the very own community that she led, get torn apart like that. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, and then I heard the door to my room open.
I did not hear any footsteps, and I thought it was my brother, but then I realized why I did not hear any footsteps, it was my mentor. He was always insanely good at hiding his footsteps like that, I wished that I could be like that some day.
I looked down at the ground, as he looked at the diary that I was reading, and he squinted his eyes at me. I knew that he thought that I should not be looking into other peoples stuff like that. I did not know how to respond to it, but I figured I had a good reason...
"I am sorry Christian... I just needed to see if I would find the truth..." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he walked closer to me. Then he sat down beside me on the bed, but he did not say a word to me.
I was not sure if he was okay, or if he was upset at me. He had told me that he had not read his own wife's diary after she had passed away. I knew that he would not be okay with my sneaking in and reading my own sisters... After a few more moments he then began to speak to me.
"Well... I hope you did, you shouldn't be reading stuff like that though... It is not your business..."