The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 16: Come on Kid

Tyler looked around a bit confused, as to who had called out his name, and as to where they were. I rolled my eyes, and just waited til he turned towards us to notice that it was just us. After a few more seconds of him just looking around confused as all hell, my mentor finally yelled at him to get his attention to where we were, right beside an old oak tree.
The leaves had all fallen, I knew that it was the fall, and there was a bit of a chill tingling through the air. It gave me a bit of a shiver, and I wanted to go inside... I did not want to do all of this all over again, I just wanted to go into my house and get a couple of days of good rest.
I knew that would not work very well for me, I could not live with myself if there were a bunch of the dead in the community, and everyone's lives here was in danger. Speaking of that, where were all of the dead? We had not run into one yet...
I shook my head, I wondered what was going on. Was Shannon trying to pull all of the dead over to the community house on purpose? That did not make very much sense... How did she even have electricity to have that started up in the first place?
I payed attention to Christian, as I heard him begin to speak to Tyler, after Tyler had been searching around for quite some time, wondering who on earth had just said his name so loudly.
"Tyler! We are over here, what are you doing? What is going on?" He said to Tyler. Tyler then turned his head over to us, and then he nodded to us. I looked at him, and then rolled my eyes, even though I knew he could not see it from that far away.
Tyler turned his head back to outside of the walls, as if he was just completely ignoring what Christian had just said. He lifted up his binoculars and then began to swivel his head around for quite a few more moments. Then he put down the binoculars and he got down from the steps of his guard tower.
He then began to walk over to us, we were about 100 feet away when we had first ran into him, and noticed that it was just Tyler thankfully. I was worried as to why there were people more worried about guarding the walls right now, than worrying about there being gunshots from the community house.
Based on my best guess however, Tyler was not the best at judging which direction something was coming from anyways. I also wondered how people could be guarding the walls right now when we should be more worried about the dead walking all around our community.
Well, maybe... They were not, they were all focused on the gunshots, and the speakers coming from the community house, the area around where we were at was fairly safe from the dead. I shook my head, and then I looked over at Tyler, as I saw him nod back to us, and then he began to talk.
"I am not sure what is going on if I am going to be honest... Shannon just told me to guard the walls, she said there was going to be a lot of gunshots, which meant that a lot of the dead were going to be coming our way." He said to us. I looked at him and then nodded, Christian still looked a bit confused.
I was a bit confused as well, it made sense I suppose at to why she would want him guarding the walls, but what did not make very much sense, was as to why there were gunshots going on in the community in the first place.
It was as if she was wanting to pull all of the dead over to the community house. That did not make very much sense to me at all, that was the last place I would want the dead to be. That was the last place standing in our community that actually gave people hope for a better future.
She was willing just to tear it all down? For what reason? I was now starting to think that maybe Shannon was the one that was the traitor. I shook my head however, that just did not make very much sense as to how that could possibly be so...
For one, my sister was the one that had brought in the people that had been telling them about us, if she was the one to betray us, she would not have had to do that in the first place. She could have been the one to just talk to the people in the other community, and tell them about us...
Then again, it did not make sense as to why she took the threats of the attack of our community so lightly... Right as we put our guard down, it seemed that was the moment that we had gotten attacked. I shook my head, I should worry about this another time, I doubt she betrayed her own community that she led.
I then focused my attention on my mentor, as I then began to hear him speak back to Tyler, just about all that was going on over the last couple of days. I was glad as well, because it got my mind off of all that was drowning up my head.
"Well... I think we are going to go check it out Tyler, if you don't know what is going on, just meet us in a few days at Bens house. If we are not there, Liam and Chester will be, and they might need some help..." He said to Tyler. Tyler looked at him a bit confused and a bit surprised at the same time.
I saw a bit of a happy look pop on to his face, as he then turned his head towards me, and he grinned at me. I was a bit confused as to what he was so happy about. I squinted my eyes at him, as he then began to speak what he was thinking about over to me.
"You found your brother huh? That's good... Well you two stay safe, and I will come to see all of you, and will check on Liam if you are not alright... Good luck both of you." Tyler said to us. I looked at him, and this time I smiled back at him, and then I nodded back at him.
I sat there for a few moments longer, as I saw Christian nod to him as well. Then he turned his head over to where the grocery store was, you could see the tip of it, just over the fields. I looked over at it as well, I wanted to get some food for Liam and Chester, but we would not be back for a day or so, so it would not be very much use, trying to carry that for a few days.
Maybe it would be better if I got some supplies on the way back, that would be after we found out what had happened here in the first place. I closed my eyes for a few moments, hearing Tyler walk away, over to his spot on the guard tower, to do the job that Shannon had assigned to him in the first place.
I then began to hear Christian begin to walk away as well, I opened my eyes, and saw him walking towards the street to get over to the market place. He must have not seen me with my eyes closed, just thinking about stuff. Either that, or he just did not care, I know he did not like it when he saw that my mind was trapped in thought.
It kind of annoyed me, because it seemed like he was the one that had his mind lost in thought today. I shook my head anyways, and then I began to follow my mentor over to the market place. That was not before I heard Tyler whisper something to me that Christian could not hear.
I turned my head over to Tyler, he was looking at me, and he nodded for me to head over to him. I quickly jogged over to him, I did not want Christian to get to far ahead of me, though it did seem like he was walking extra slow right now, almost as if he was doing that on purpose for some reason.
I turned my head back to Tyler, and I nodded to him, for him to start talking, and to get his mind off of the thoughts that must be drowning in his head right now. I am sure it had to do with something about my sister, I am sure he was probably a bit sad when he found out that Tony was still alive.
Tony being alive was the only reason that I did not count out the possibility of my sister betraying us in the first place. I always knew she was madly in love with him, even after he had gone off the grid. She did not even give Tyler a chance, and Tyler had shown her a lot more love and compassion than Tony ever had.
"Do you think Angela betrayed us? I don't think she did, I think Shannon is hiding something, I don't think Shannon betrayed us either as well. I think that someone has." He said, almost in a whisper, which did not make much sense do to the fact that Christian was far ahead of me now.
I looked at him for a few moments, and then I began to stroke my chin. I was thinking on it, I had already done a fair amount, so I was not so sure as to why I was doing so. I then looked at him for a few moments, and then I squinted my eyes at him.
He looked at me, with a bit of a surprised look on his face for a few moments. I knew why, I had a look on my face, that made it look like Tyler was acting a bit suspicious, but it was not that at all. I was just really trying to dig deep into all of this, while I still had the time to at least, before I had to get back over to Christian.
I then shook my head at Tyler, he had a bit of a confused look on his face, as if he had forgotten what it was that we were just talking about. I then began to speak over him, to clarify the reason of me shaking my head at him in the first place.
"I don't think she did, I am not going to lie to you. I had my thoughts that she might very well have, but you know her more than me... I looked in her diary, she still uses it, I did not find anything that really stood out to me." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he lowered his head to the ground.
I wondered if he truly did know much about my sister, she did not really like to talk much about stuff to very many people. I shook my head, I knew that he did however, and I knew my sister always thought of him, as if he was her best friend, but nothing more than that.
He kept his head down to the ground, I felt a bit sad for him, but I knew that I should not, he had gotten the easy side, so to say in the community, a lot of us had it a lot worse than him. Maybe my mind was being a bit harsh on him however, he had already lost nearly everything he had cared about, quite a long time ago.
Eventually, Tyler lifted his head up at me, and then he nodded to me. I nodded back to him. I could almost see tears dropping from his eyes, but he held them off as long as he could. I knew he was in a lot of pain, I knew that Angela was the last thing that he had ever cared about. He then began to speak to me, and I could hear the pain in his voice as well.
"You stay safe Ben... You have grown up a lot recently, take care of your brother, he is your future, and he is all that you have left as well... I will keep in touch with you my friend..." He said to me. I looked at him, and then I nodded to him.
It felt a bit weird, to have one of my sisters friends consider me as a friend, I knew he was at least 5 years older than me. But it felt true, in the tone of his voice, and the pain in his eyes, I could just tell that he really considered me as his friend... His last friend that he had as well.
He then began to walk up the steps, to get up to the top of the tower, I watched him all the way up a bit sadly, as he lifted up the binoculars to see if there were any dead around the area, then he lifted up his rifle, and pointed towards something, and then he shot at it.
He then put the gun down, a perfect head shot as I could tell, I always knew that he was a good shooter. I looked at him for just a few moments and then turned my head around, I could see Christian in the distance, but I could easily just catch up to him in less than a minute if I sprinted.
I turned my head over to Tyler, as he wad just sitting on the chair of the watch tower, staring out into the distance, I felt like I should say one last thing to him before we began to head off. But just before I began to talk, I heard a couple more gunshots in the distance, coming from the community house.
I looked over at my mentor, and then saw him stop, he turned his head around to make sure I was okay, but then he realized that I was not with him, and I saw a panicked look on his face. I quickly said one last thing to Tyler before I went over to Christian to calm him down.
"Goodbye Tyler, and you stay safe... We will find her some day, and she will be safe, I promise you that." I said to him. He turned his head over to me, but he did not say anything back to me, he just nodded his head, and then looked back over to outside of the walls.
I wondered if he actually believed that, I was not sure if I did. But one thing that I was sure about, was that my sister was alive, and I would see her again some day... I would make myself a promise about that, as I then turned my head over to Christian.
He was looking around for a bit longer, as he then turned his head over to Tyler's watch tower, he spotted me, and then he nodded to me. He was just happy that I was okay, and that he had not lost me. He had lost me one of the days that I was outside the walls, I remember it, as if it had happened to me, just yesterday.

I looked around, freaking out a bit, I had been walking with my head to the ground. When I had looked up, I had seen that I had lost Christian. I did not know how that could be so... He always tracked my footsteps, telling me, what seemed like every moment how loud my footsteps were.
Now he was gone, and I was in the downtown area of the city, and I could see a couple of the dead walking around. Luckily, none of them noticed me, but there was a ton of dead walking around me. One mis step, or me accidentally walking on a beer bottle, that would spell the end for me.
I did not dare close my eyes, like I usually did when I tried to think something like this through. If I did that, one of the dead could walk up on me and I would not expect it, it would tear me apart... Even I single bite, that would be the end for me... I knew how all of this worked.
I was tempted to yell Christians name for help, but that would be very stupid of me as well. I kept on walking, making sure not to step on anything from in front of me. But it was what was behind me, that would spell the downfall for me.
I slipped on a pool of water that I was standing in, and I fell to the ground in a loud thump. I looked around to see if any of the dead had just heard that, and as I looked around, I saw that none of them were walking over to me thankfully. I turned to my left side one last time, and I saw 1 staring at me.
It began to sniff a couple of times, just to make sure that I was an actual living human, and then it yelled, it then began to run after me, or rather like a limping jog, but it was still faster than I had expected one of the dead to run, and I did not have time to get up.
As I tried pulling myself up, I saw that it was right up on me now, I pulled out my gun and was about to shoot, but then the dead fell to the ground in front of me, A bullet hole on the back of its head that leaked through the front and nearly whizzed right past me and hit me as well.
I looked around to see where it had come from, it clearly had a silencer, so it must be someone from our community, or even Christian right? I then saw that a lot of the dead had heard the other dead flop to the ground, and 1 by one they slowly formed up in a heard and began coming after me.
This was the end for me... I was dead now. This was not like that time that Jordan and his friends had saved us, they were all around me now, and I did not have Christian by my side this time. I managed to lift myself up, from off of the ground though, and I sprinted past one of the dead.
Just as I was about to keep running I heard someone yell to me to get my attention. I turned around, and saw that Christian was poking his head out of a broken window, through all of the wood that had it blocked up as well, he was trying to get my attention.
"Come on kid!!!" I heard him yelling. It was louder than I remembered it being in the memory, as I blinked my head and noticed that I was no longer in that memory anymore...

I opened my eyes, noticing that Christian had seen me, and he was yelling at me to get my attention. I could tell that he was pretty upset with me, and as soon as we got somewhere safe, he was going to have a long talk about me thinking too much again.
I shook my head, and realized that I was still standing completely still, just staring at him, as if I was paying attention but refusing to come over to him. He yelled at me, much louder this time, and I looked around to make sure that none of the dead were around before I turned back to him.
"For the last time! For fucks sake! Come on kid!"