The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 18: A New Chapter

Christian turned his head over to me and squinted his eyes at me. I already knew what he was about to say, "watch your language kid" as if he did not say far worse than that. After a few moments however, he turned his head away from me, and he did not say anything about it.
I watched the herd that was to the left of us, I had never seen one so big... Was Shannon doing this on purpose so that the community could never recover from it? I am sure it would have been a lot better just to take them out 1 by 1 then to make them form into a massive heard.
An idea then popped into my head... What if she was forming them up into a massive heard so that the rest of us could get out of the community? I shook my head on that however, she would have told the people here about that before she actually did it...
I knew she was smart enough to realize that... Then an evil thought came into my head, what if she was doing this to make it safe for a few people to get out. Her "best people". That could be true as well, but everyone else in the community would here the gunshots and wonder what was going on...
Christian then cleared all of the shots that I was just thinking about out of my head as he began to speak, which I was glad for of course, sometimes he was right when he said that it was best not to think to much about things. I turned my head over to him to listen in on what it was that he had to say.
"Alright kid, we will go to Kim's house, get your "holy shit" and then we will come back here, and stay about 200 feet behind the heard to find out what the hell is going on." He said to me quickly. I looked at him and then nodded at him, trying my best not to laugh at what he had just said at the same time.
Any other situation besides this one it would have been funny what he had just said, but I knew I could not laugh right now with all that was going on around us. It was funny what he had said, but now was not the time to be laughing at the moment.
I looked at Christian, as he looked around to make sure that it was safe to walk around, while we did not attract the heard or very many of the dead that were a bit behind the heard. He kept on staring for just a few moments, and then he turned his head over to me, and he nodded me to let me know that it was time to go.
I nodded back to him, and he took the first steps out of the small path that was used to get to the market place. I looked at the crops, surely Shannon would not leave all of this behind right? I shook my head, and then began to follow my mentor outside of our safe area, and near the heard.
Luckily the heard was paying no attention to us, and none of the rest of the dead were as well, their eyes were locked on something completely different, whatever it was that was in front of us. I closed my eyes for a few moments, but then I felt Christian nudge against me.
I looked at him for a few moments, as he pointed his finger over to Kims place that was not to far away now in the distance. I recognize the place, as I had been there just a few days ago, and I nodded to Christian. He nodded back to me as he began to walk over to it.
I still had difficulty believing on what he had told me just a few minutes ago. I wanted to believe it, but I could not bring myself to it, and he had told me himself not to trust any person that I came across. I knew he trusted me, but sometimes he did some things that just did not make sense.
I shook my head, if he had wanted to kill me, then he would have already done it. I knew that for a fact, he was way stronger than me, and he was a lot smarter than me when it came to stuff like that. I just had to hope that what he really had said was actually true.
He could easily be with my sister on this, but I still was not too sure if what Shannon had assumed, was true, if my sister had really betrayed our community or not. She knew that no one would read her diary, well until now, and she always put her deepest and darkest secrets in there. Nothing in there pointed out that she would have betrayed us.
But if it was to get Tony back, then she might have done it. She always "knew" that he was somewhere out there alive. I shook my head, trying to clear my head from all of those thoughts that I was drowning in right now, Christian was right, best not to think too much when we were out here.
I kept on following him, as I saw we were no more than 500 feet away from Kim's place now, and behind us in the distance the dead were at least 1000 feet away, besides a couple of stragglers of course. We were safe from the heard for now however.
I cursed myself for even thinking those thoughts in my head, as I heard a shot from Christians gun, and I turned back around to see what it was... Was he shooting at someone? What was going on? He knew there was a massive heard behind us...
Surely the only reason he would have done that is if someone was aiming a gun at us. I looked to see what it was, and I saw that there was one of the dead holding on to Christians foot, and I knew how strong they were as well, as it easily tore off his shoe.
It tried biting at it, but it realized that it was not a human, and then it began crawling towards Christian once again. I noticed that its legs were missing, and it made me feel like I was going to puke just thinking of it being an actual person, and thinking about what must have happened to them.
Christian then pulled out his knife, and stabbed it into the skull of the dead. He then easily pulled it out of the skull, he hid hit it in the perfect spot like he had always told me to do. He turned his head over to me, and he looked a fair bit upset at me for some odd reason.
I was a bit confused as to why that would be so, it was not my fault that one of the dead just so happened to be hiding in a bush. Maybe it was my fault that I had not been paying attention however, but neither had he if he had not seen it coming. I looked at him and I squinted my eyes as he began talking.
"A little help here please kid? I almost got myself killed, what help are you if you can't actually help me." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I lowered my head to the ground, a bit upset at myself for not helping him like he had just said.
I then looked up, a lot of it was his fault as well, he could not just blame it on me. Sure, I had my eyes on the heard that was behind us, but it was his own stupid decision to be shooting at one of the dead. I felt like I should let that be known as well...
"Why would you shoot at it? What the hell was I supposed to do? I bet the heard is coming after us now." I said to him. We both turned our heads to the heard, and sure enough, they were looking around a bit confused as to what they should go after.
But many of them had already turned around and they were coming after us now. Christian looked at the massive heard that was in front of us, and his eyes were wide open, he did not know what to do right now. I could tell that he was trying to think, but we did not have time to think.
I say that because I was mainly worried about the stragglers that were right beside us while we were walking over to Kim's place. There was no way we could go in there while a massive heard was on us, there would be no way of getting out of there, it was only a 1 story building...
Kim and Sasha would be stuck in there with us as well, we would get both of them killed. We could not just so hap hazardly put their lives in danger like that, we would have to run... The heard was splitting in half now, as I looked back over to it.
There were still a lot that were going after the community house, but at least a hundred of them were heading over to us, not to mention the stragglers that were nearly right up on us now. If we were going to have to stand here and fight, we had no other option to use guns...
We had plenty of ammo in Christians bag to fight off the current ones, but the more we shot, the more of the heard would be coming after us. We had to get out of here, potentially even leave the community completely if we did not want to risk other peoples lives.
My head turned back over to Christian as he cursed himself and then looked at his pistol that was on his belt. We did not have time for this however, we needed to make a decision right now, or else we would end up as the dead.
He looked at his pistol for just a few moments longer, and then he turned his head over to me, and he nodded at me as he began to speak to me.
"That is some bullshit, I had the safety on, I was not the one to shoot." He said to me, but almost as if he was speaking to himself. I looked at him, and then I squinted my eyes at him. I looked at the pistol on his belt and saw that he was right, it must have been an accidental unlucky shot.
Unlucky was my middle name I suppose, I was not the right person that you wanted to be around if you were saying that you wanted to get lucky. I closed my eyes for the slightest moment and then opened it, realizing that it was not a smart idea right now. I turned my head over to Christian, as I began to speak to him.
After a few more seconds, Christian nodded to me, and then we began to head away from them, but not going anywhere near Kim's place. First we had to get them off of our trail, once we they were too far behind them, that's when we could retrace our steps back to Kim's place.
But I feared, that it would be too late to get to the community house at that point. That was the least of my worries right now however, I was more worried about that dead that were coming at us from all directions. I began to follow Christian with my gun out just in case I needed it.
I did not have my safety on, unlike Christian who had just got unlucky... If I had to pull the trigger, then I would not want to switch off my safety if I was in that dire of a situation. Christian pushed one of the dead back to make room, and I quickly ran through the small little tunnel before it was too late.
Suddenly I heard the gunshots once again. Me and Christian took a few extra steps until it was safe, just to make sure they were not right up on us, and then we turned our heads to see what direction that the dead had decided to go.
I looked, and I saw that most of the dead that were chasing us, had turned their heads back to the other direction, but a few of them were still coming after us, I counted at least 5, and when I turned my head behind us, I saw no dead coming after us.
I looked back over at Christian, not sure what it was that we were going to do next, and then I looked back at the massive heard that was in front of us, past the couple of the dead that were slowly coming after us. I pulled out my pistol just in case, and then I began speaking to my mentor.
"Geesh... What are they doing? A couple is hard enough for us, thats got to be a couple thousand." I said to him. He looked at me, and then he nodded to me. Then he suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me down from my gun, I looked at him a bit confused.
He shook his head at me, I was very lost on what it was that he was trying to say to me. Maybe he was saying that we should keep going past, but if we did that, then there would be no time for us to get over to Shannon's place for sure. I payed attention to him, as he began to talk to me however.
"Don't shoot, we can take out the dead with our knives, if we shoot, then they'll just come right back after us again... We might not get the same luck next time." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded to him, I wish just a bit afraid because I was a lot better with a gun than a knife.
Eventually however, I put my gun back into my buckle, and I whipped out my machete. I looked at my mentor for a few moments, and he smiled at me. As if he was enjoying what we were doing right now, I smiled back at him for some odd reason.
Then me and him ran after the dead that were in front of us, I cut the 1st of the deads head in half and then I ran over to get the 2nd one. I nearly tripped doing so because I was going so fast, but I regained my balance just in time to cut through the head of the other one.
I then turned my head over to see if there was another one, but I saw that Christian had somehow already got the other 4. I was so confused how he could do it so fast like that. I thought that I had gone faster than usual and I was the one that was using the far superior weapon.
I looked around for just a few moments, just to make sure that we were safe, and that no more of the dead were coming after us. After I knew that we were safe, I then turned my head back over to Christian, and I began to speak to him.
"How did you get them so fast?" I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, slowly putting his knife back into his belt, I did the same as him, putting in my machete, which I always wondered how it did not drag me down when I carried it with me.
Christian told me it was finely made, I just did not know how it was possible to make a weapon that strong, that able to keep you light on your feet. It was one of the first things that he had given to me as well. I was grateful for it, I would much rather use it than a knife.
He began to laugh, a bit louder than he should have, but the dead were so far away, it really did not matter anymore. I rolled my eyes at him anyways, and then payed attention to him, as he began to speak to me.
"You have to choose the path that you go after, I had the clear advantage, but you might have had time to take down 3 if you had chosen a different path to walk on." He said to me. I looked at him a bit confused for a few moments, maybe that was a part of something that he still had not taught me.
I often forgot over the last couple of days, that I still was not anywhere near done with my training. He still had a lot that he needed to teach me. It just felt like I was, because I had been alone the past few days. Besides being with Sasha and Chester I suppose, but that was something all together completely different.
I still was a bit tired, I was not going to lie to myself, I just wanted to lay down and sleep for as long as I possibly could. But I also knew, that I could not do that until I knew that our community was in safe hands... At least, if that was ever going to be possible again.
I realized that I had just been staring at Christian for quite a few moments, and he shrugged his shoulders at me, as if he really could care less now that I had my mind trapped in a lot of different thoughts. He then began to head over to Kim's place which was no more than 100 feet away from us now, we were almost in her front yard.
I could not wait to see Sasha one more time before we went of to the community house, I missed her so much, and I cared about her a ton as well. I shook my head, remembering what I was thinking about a few seconds ago, I then began to speak to Christian as we walked up to Kim's front steps.
"Can you teach me how to do it like you do it." I said to him. Before he knocked on the door, he turned his head to me, and then he squinted his eyes at me, like he always did when he was about to say no... Which I was a bit confused about, why would he not want to teach me something useful like that?
I might need it once I get out on my own. I looked down at the ground a bit sadly, but then I turned my head back up at him, as I began to hear him speak up to me.
"Maybe kid... But you have to also realize, that sometimes killing them fast, is not the correct call, if there is a lot more than that on you, you could put yourself into a trap..." He said to me. I looked at him, and then I nodded to him, I suppose he was right with what he was saying, as he usually was as well...
He knocked on the door, and we sat there for quite a while. I wondered if Kim had heard the gunshots as well, and she had gone over to the community house... She would be in a lot of trouble, there was going to be a massive heard right behind her.
After a few more moments, I then heard footsteps, and someone came over to the door. Christian looked at me and then smiled, I looked at him a bit confused as to what was so funny to him, but then I heard who was at the door and I instantly understood why.
"Ethan... You get back... Who's here? Kim? Are you already back?" I heard the voice of Sasha say from the other side. Christian looked at me, and I was a bit confused as to why that might be so. He then nodded his head over to the door, as if he was waiting for me to be the one to respond to her.
After a few seconds of silence, I realized why that would be so, she would not know who was at the door if Christian was the one to talk, she hardly knew him at all. So I stepped up, and I began to speak to her, nodding at Christian, because he had made the right decision once again.
"Its me Sasha... Ben... I am here with my mentor, I left a bunch of my stuff here." I said to her, loudly so that she could here me through the door. I knew that she was a bit afraid of the dead being all around the community, she would have to get used to that if she wanted me to really mentor her.
She sat there in silence for a few moments, I heard her whisper something to Kim's little boys, and then after a few more seconds of there just being complete silence, she then unlocked the door, and then opened it as well.
As soon as it was open, I gave her a big hug and a kiss on the lips. She looked at me a bit surprised, but she took on to it with open arms. Christian I could tell looked a bit surprised as well, but he did not say anything abou it, but I saw a big smile on his face.
Which actually came as a bit of a surprise to me, considering the fact that he always told me to never get too attached to one person. I was not all that attached, it had hurt me when she had begun to ignore me, but I still did care about her.
She smiled as well, and then she looked at my mentor, and then back at me, and she nodded to the both of us. Christian was not that tall at all, maybe 5'10 if I had to guess... Sasha was about my height at around 5'5 but she looked like an ant up close to Christian when you compared the both of them.
Her body was nice and thicc, but Christian was just so strong, I wondered what we would look like if we stood beside each other in a mirror. I never thought about it like that, but I did know that I had lost a lot of weight, and I had also gotten a bit stronger in the small time I had been out of the walls with my mentor.
I shook my head, and then turned my head over to Sasha, as she began to speak to the both of us. First to Christian, and then after she had finished speaking to him, she then turned her head over to me, and she smiled at me.
Her smile made my day, she was the most beautiful women I had ever seen, and she had such a kind heart. I was happy to have her back with me, I would be very lonely only having my little brother at my side with me in this new cruel and crazy world.
I remembered that she was speaking to us, and I payed attention before it was too late, so that I did not miss what it was that she was saying to me. Christian rolled his eyes, he could see the look in my eyes that I was giving Sasha but he did not expose me on it.
"It is nice to meet you Christian, Ben has told me a lot of cool things about you, he loves you as a mentor." She said to him. He looked at me, with a bit of a surprised look on his face, which confused me quite a bit. Did he think that I did not like him?
I knew that a lot of people he went outside the walls with did not like him at all. Maybe it was because he was open and honest with them, and it made sense that people did not like that. Christian then looked back at Sasha as he began to speak back to her.
"That's quite strange, I would have thought that he would have told you about all of the cruel things I made him do..." He said to her. She looked at him a bit confused for a few moments, and then she turned her head over to me, as if she was waiting for me to say something about it.
I rolled my eyes at my mentor, I knew I cursed at him when he made me do some stupid tasks, but he had not made me do anything really that cruel... Not yet, that was at least. I shivered, wondering if he was trying to whisper a hidden message to me that he was about to make my life miserable.
I shook my head, and then looked back over at Sasha, as she began to talk to me, after the short moments of silence, and her expecting me to say something about what Christian had just said. There was nothing to be said about it however, it must have been a joke, that was the hope at least...
"Yes... We were expecting you to come back right away... It is just in the other room that you slept in the other night... We left in on the bed for you." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I nodded to her gratefully. Then I gave her another hug before I walked into the other room, going across the hallway to get my stuff.
I looked in the room beside mine, and saw that Kim's kids were just staring at me, and then they noticed that I had seen them and they looked away and began to laugh to each other. I rolled my eyes, I wished I could be a kid again sometimes...
The word was so sweet and innocent to me, and I never had to worry about what was going on outside of the walls. The poor kids were probably freaking out the day that the attack had happened, they were just lucky like my brother that they were not in a daycare.
Although, I could not really say that, my brother had ran out of the daycare the moment that he had seen the dead daycare lady. So he had been in there the moment that it had all originally gone down... I shook my head trying not to think about that, I was just glad that he was safe now.
I rolled my eyes, and then I went into the guest bedroom that I had slept in the other night. I looked at the bed, and forgot how nice it was compared to the ones that we had at our house. This bed was bigger than my sister had in her bedroom.
I shook my head, not trying to think about my sister anymore, she was gone now. I then picked up my bag from the right beside the bed, and then I began to walk out of the room. I looked at the pictures of the family just before I did that however.
I saw a man, it must have been Kim's husband, I felt a bit bad for her. We all had lost a lot of things it our life, I hated the fact that my brother had to grow up without a father or a mother... Now he had just lost our sister, which was basically his mother figure.
At least these kids had their mother, and they had a smile on their face still. Something that I had not truly seen in the face of my brother after all of this had gone down... I saw him smiling while he was talking to Chester, but it almost looked like it was a bit of a forced smile.
I shook my head, and then walked across the hallway, hearing Sasha and Christian talking back and forth to each other, I walked into the room, and just stood still, figuring I would just let them talk, and just spy in on the conversation that they were having with one another at the same time.
I looked over Sasha, as she spoke first to my mentor, and my mentor had a big smile on his face, as he winked at me when he saw me walk into the room with them. Sasha did not see him do that, and she had not known that I was already back in the room with them either.
"Yes... I lost my father a while ago, I have just been living on my own since then. I am happy that Ben came into my life, me and him are great fri-" she began to say, but then Christian cut her short, as he rudely interrupted her in the middle of her sentence.
"Boyfriend... Yeah I know... I could see the way you two were looking at each other the other day." He said to her. I shook my head at him, I hated it when he was stupid like that. I did my best not to blush, and I could tell Sasha was as well, but she was not very good at hiding it, if she even was trying to.
I rolled my eyes, as she then looked down at the ground, with a bit of a sad look on her face. Christian did not seem to notice it, he had his eyes locked on mine. I could tell that Sasha was a bit upset at herself for ignoring me, it made me feel a bit better now that I knew for sure that she was not lying and just playing with me.
I never thought she was in the first place, I believed her when she told me that she did not talk to very many people, she did tell me that a lot of guys used her just trying to hook up with her, I never asked her about it however, I did not want to get to deep into that.
After a few moments however, Sasha lifted her head up at my mentor, and then she began to speak to him, I did my best to pay attention to whatever it was that she had to say to him, though the sleep was starting to catch up to me once again.
"Well... Yes, at least I hope he still calls it like that." She said to him. He looked at her a bit confused as to what she had meant by that, but he did not think to deep on it, as he knew that it was none of his business. He looked back over at me, and this time, Sasha noticed it and she turned her head around, and gave me a bit of an embarrassed look.
I walked over to the both of them, and then I stood there beside Sasha, I figured that I should let her know, that I accepted her apology and that I really did care about her a lot. I then began to speak up to the elephant that was in the room still.
"Yes... We are together, and we will stay that way as long as we can..." I said to Christian, although it was mainly aimed towards Sasha. I looked outside, and I noticed that Christian was doing the same as well. He and I both knew that it was about to get dark outside now.
We probably had less than an hour of sunlight at this point, if we wanted to get over to the community house, it was now or never. Christian looked at me, and then he nodded, he was clearly thinking the same thing that I was thinking at the moment.
He then turned his head back over to Sasha, and then he nodded to her. I looked at him a bit confused as to what was going on, but then he began to speak what it was on his mind, I made sure that I was paying attention even though the sleep was really catching up to me now.
"Do you know where Kim went off to? Any chance that she told you about the gunshots?" He said to her, and on perfect time as we heard the loud gunshots popping off once again. She nearly jumped hearing them, which told me that she had no clue.
She looked at him for a few moments, and we just sat there, no one said a thing to one another. Now I was beginning to wonder if maybe she did know what was going on... How come none of this was relayed to me or Christian?
She nodded to him, and then she began to speak to him, turning her head over to me at the same time. I nodded back to her, and listened in to what it was that she was about to tell us about what all was going on at the community house.
"Well... I was not sure... She said that there would be gunshots and all of that, and just to keep the kids safe... She said she was going to help Shannon out... But there was one thing that she did say that kind of stood out to me." She began to say. She then stopped herself, which I was a bit confused as to why that was so.
We sat there in silence for a few moments, and I began to get a bit antsy, did she really know what was going on at the community house? Why were they shooting off guns? Why would they want the dead to come over there, and all of the dead outside the walls would hear it as well.
Christian then stepped up this time, and he said what both of us were thinking clearly. I was not the only one that was worried about what it was that might be going on over there.
"What was it that stood out to you?" He said. She had only said it a few seconds ago, but he was clearly wanting her to just go ahead and get on with it, just like I was... I really wanted to know what it was that we were about to be walking in to.
Sasha looked at the both of us, and then nodded, realizing that she was waiting to long, and it was beginning to freak the both of us out. She then began to tell us what Kim had said to her.
"Well... I didn't understand what she meant, but she said it was going to be a new chapter..."