The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 9: Miles out

I woke up and saw that Liam was right beside me smiling at me. I wondered how long he had been there just staring at me. The kid had heart, he would keep going until he won, which there was nothing bad in that, believe me.
"I was just about to get you up! Come on we are going to Lilly's before I have the first day with my daycare." He said to me. I moaned and then got out of bed. I put on a t-shirt and walked out of the room. My sister was sitting there cleaning dishes. I would have asked her for help normally but now I was working too.
"Yep your daycare ladies name is Sasha, tell her that Ben says hi." I told him. He smiled and then ran over and sat on the couch.
"How do you know that Ben?" Liam asked me. If I said the straight up answer than they would both laugh at me. But I would change up the wording a little bit. I wasn't going to lie, she was really good looking, and I think she liked me back, but I couldn't be too sure.
"I went to the daycare yesterday, I thought that Angela was going to be on one of her supply runs." I said to him. It would make sense and it didn't make me look like I was some sort of weird idiot.
"Well I'm here now! But I don't know how long I'm going to be gone. Or you Ben, Christian told me that you were going to be spending the night out there." She said to me. I don't think that he wanted her to tell me that, it also kind of scared me to think about that. This was only going to be my 2nd day out there. I kind of just wanted to go be a farmer for a few seconds. But I just cleared those type of thoughts from my head. That would give Shannon exactly what she wanted, making Angela look like her family was just a bunch of lazy nobodies.
I kind of wished that Angela would have tried in that last election, but she showed no signs and she had always told me she didn't want to be a leader. I guess I could understand where she was going, but wasn't being a scavenger even harder than being leader?
Maybe not... She had to tell everyone where to go and tell all the wanderers mainly, the scavengers just did their own thing, along with Christian. And then she would be watching out for the whole community. The community was doing good so I couldn't deny that she was a bad leader.
"Alright, lets go! I told Lilly yesterday that we will be coming over and I brought her some stuff for her to make the food." She told us. I nodded and she opened the door and me and Liam followed her.
It would be a bit of a long walk for Liam, all the way back to the daycare, but we made it perfectly fine the other day when we walked here and then back to Shannon's. I wasn't such a big fan of Lilly anymore, she was telling me that I would be getting a weak job, but she still was friends with my mother and I still cared about her.
But at the same time, maybe she wasn't wrong, she did know Shannon more then the rest of us. She wasn't friends with her but she did use to be a part of her council till she retired, mainly because she was just tired of Shannon. I don't even think her own council liked her that much but they did agree with her decisions... Even though she is the one that made that council.
There was about 40 members and they usually voted on the sort of decisions that Shannon wanted to make in the community. Lilly had told me, if Shannon didn't agree on it, then it would have to be 75% of the vote, if she did than 50%. It seemed semi fair but if she didn't agree on it then odds are that she would make a big fuss.
That's why Lilly had retired a bit early she was only 55. We were about halfway there and the sun had just finally began to creep into the sky when all the sudden I heard a loud shout. It kind of scared me but then I realized that it was just Tyler.
"Hey Ben, how was your first day! And Angela hope you have a good one too." He said to us. I smiled, he was a good guy, not too bad looking and I never understood why Angela never gave him much of a chance. She had told me, "I don't want to lose another person that I care about." But I didn't believe that, otherwise she would have wanted me to be a farmer unless she was saying that she didn't care about me.
"Not to bad, didn't kill one but I bet I will today." I shouted back to him. He nodded and Angela waved to him and he smiled, I knew he still liked her and a felt so bad for him.
"That's okay, it took me at least a week till I killed one with my gun." He said to me. I then realized that Christian would soon be teaching me how to use those things. He had said to me that he didn't like to use those unless there were a lot of them in front of him. Which meant that he would soon be having to teach me too.
"Well we got to go to Lilly's but I will see you around Tyler." Angela told him. We then began continuing heading to Lilly's, it was a bit strange that hed be there, but I suppose he had to switch sections of the wall pretty often. He smiled and then waved goodbye to us but then said one thing to us real quick.
"By the way, Lilly is going to be moving into a new place near Shannon's sometime soon. Im sure she will tell you were, if not I will show Ben someday soon." He told us. Angela nodded and then we began heading towards Lilly's place. I waved at him while we were on the way back but he didn't see me.
Once were there Lilly just smiled at us from her porch. She was always up, and almost every time I came over and saw her she was always on her porch. One time I had come over and asked if she slept on there, she just laughed.
"I've already got the pancakes and a bit of sausage ready, you guys can go ahead and come in." She told us. Angela nodded and me and Liam went in while Angela stayed on the porch.
"Its Been a while Ben, I love these." Liam said so me, grabbing about 4 pieces of the small little sausages and one pancake. I grabbed 2 of those and then put about 3 pancakes on my plate. I got some of Lilly's delicious maple syrup that she made all by herself.
Me and Liam began to eat up, and after a few moments had past then Angela had decided to also come in. Lilly was right behind her. Angela went over and picked up a plate for herself and then grabbed a couple pancakes but no sausage.
"Looks like we got ourselves a little happy boy over hear." Lilly said laughing at Liam. We all shared a quick laugh and then Lilly looked right at me. "So Ben, how was your first day out there?"
I finished the rest of my pancakes in my mouth before I began to speak. I wasn't sure what to say because she thought that I should just stay back and br a farmer and not risk my life. But at the same time, she probably did that so I didn't get my hopes up about Shannon's decision. She knew Shannon better than all of us.
"Not too bad, I wasn't able to kill either of them but I was close." I said to her. She nodded and then looked away through the window nearby her. Maybe she just didn't want me to risk my life I wasn't too sure, but I knew that she just wanted the best for me.
"Im going to be out for a few weeks, maybe 2 or 3, I've got a bit of a longer mission. There's been talks around the scavengers and wanderers that there might be another group out there, Im going to have to be going further out then normal." She told Lilly, I looked a bit sad, but if there really was another group out there it was probably for the best. "If you could take Liam in maybe once a week and let him stay in your spare room that will be much appreciated."
"Why? I can make it out there on my own, you guys don't think that some day I won't be as strong as Ben?" Liam said looking at Angela a bit saddened. I agreed with Angela however. I knew that Liam would probably get bullied like I did when I was younger, he just looked like one of the kids that would.
"Its not that Liam, there's several other reasons, you will get bullied because you are smarter than everyone else there. Ben got bullied a lot too, but he is stronger than them and you will be too, mentally and physically."
"Okay... I guess so." Liam said, a bit saddened but he knew it was also the truth. Lilly gave him a quick hug and then we finished eat the rest of our food. It was delicious, everything that we had eaten lately. It wasn't like the food my mother used to make but it was still fantastic.
"I'm glad you had a good day, Angela said you were going to be out there for the night tomorrow, I wish you luck." Lilly told me. I nodded and then got up from the table and wiped my mouth with a napkin.
We sat there in silence as Angela finished up the rest of her meal. Liam went back to get some more sausages. It was his favorite thing to eat so I couldn't really blame him for it. Its just a shame that we don't have as much as we like. We have a good amount of animals, don't get me wrong, but not enough to be eating meat everyday, or else we couldn't replenish as waste as we ate, so we tended to just eat a lot of veggies.
Suddenly I heard a knock on the door and was a bit confused. So was everyone else besides Angela. Normally Lilly would not have very many guest around her place. Besides me and Angela she was generally alone. I told her she could go find a man, there's plenty of older single men in town but she always just laughed and said no.
"Come in Christian." Angela told the person at the door. It made a bit more sense to me now, I just didn't know that Christian really knew Lilly that much or really knew where Lilly lived. Lilly looked delighted when she heard the name of Christian.
"Thank you... Hey Ben ready for your 2nd and 3rd day? Im sure Angela already told you that we were going to be out there tonight." He said to me. I nodded and then he began looking around and then he smiled when he saw Lilly. "Well hey there Lilly, didn't expect you to be here."
"Well yeah, this is my house..." She said back to him. I couldn't tell if they had some sort of mutual respect or if they just straight up hated each other. Christian then walked further into the house and closed the door behind him.
"Ah, some food... Mind if I have some? Id love some sausage, although its nothing like the Squirrel we ate yesterday." He said looking right at me and smiling. He began picking up a plate of food before anyone even told him yes or no. I heard Liam sound like he gagged from right behind me.
"Ew... A squirrel? That is nasty, I see those things climbing up trees all the time." He told Christian. Christian just laughed and then sat down and began to eat some of the food Lilly had made for him. I thought Lilly might be upset based on how the had talked a few seconds ago but she was smiling.
"Its not too bad, ask your sister Angela. Its actually quite good if you get used to it." He said back to Liam, and then he looked right at Liam with a smile. "And hey, if Shannon doesn't get over herself then I might be the one who trains you."
"It is disgusting... Don't listen to him." I told Liam. Liam nodded and then just smiled back Christian. Christian just shook his head and then continued to eat the rest of his meal. Liam went back and then began looking at Lilly's shelf full of books. He then saw one that he liked and began reading it.
"You like reading huh? I've got a library that we started in the community, but it is fairly far away, someday I will take you there and we will check out a lot of books." Lilly said Liam. The community didn't used to be so big. We started around 500, a lot of houses were already here from neighborhoods, but once we started getting more and more people then they started a group called builders that started building things. They still existed and there was a lot of them but they mainly just fixed things that were broken around the community.
"That would be cool, I've only been there once with Angela, but I wouldn't mind going and looking to see if there's any cool books for me to read." Liam responded to Lilly. Liam was always by far, the smartest person in the community, and if he wasn't born in this life than I bet he would have been a scientist or maybe even a politician.
He had began reading at age 3 and a few months ago he had reached 4 and was almost reading chapter books at this point. I was so proud of him, and if there were kids making fun of him, then they were clearly the ones that were weak. I would have to probably go and tell Sasha to go and look after him because I knew there would be some young bullies in there.
"Alright Ben! You about ready?" Christian said to me, and he began rinsing out the plate which the rest of us had already done.
"Yep let me just say goodbye to all of them and we will be free to head off." I said back to him. I went and gave Liam a big hug, I was grateful that Lilly would be looking out for him some of the days. He hugged me back with a hug that almost felt like it was about to pull me down.
I then went over to Lilly and gave her a hug, she kissed me on my cheek, I would miss her, I knew she just didn't want me to get hurt when Shannon told me know that's why she had always talked like that. Now that Christian was training me Im sure that would soon be over with.
I then went in and gave Angela a hug and she hugged me back and then whispered into my ear.
"Don't let him bring you down too much, he's lost a lot, good luck out there Ben." She said to me. I nodded and then began to head back to where Christian was standing at the front door.
"Goodbye all of you, I will miss you, wish me luck and I will see you guys soon... I promise." I said, saying the last part mainly towards Liam. I always knew that he had looked up to me, he had always told Angela that he wanted to be strong like me some day. Not Angela even though she was the one that had gone through way worse stuff than me. I knew she was way stronger than me, I hoped that someday I would be able to get to her status.
They all waved at me and then we headed out there front door. Christian had my bag full of stuff at the front door. I had completely forgotten about all of that, I said thank you and Christian just grunted as his response.
"No problem kid, you're going to have to get used to taking that with you basically everywhere. My memory is not the greatest so we could be halfway through a day before I noticed... For me it is just natural instinct." He told me. I nodded and then we began heading through the closest gate to Lilly's which was the opposite direction towards my place so this would be a bit of a long haul.
"Yuh know, that lady always had a thing for me. Shes just about 20 years to old for me, and besides... If I cared about someone, odds are they would probably die, so I am trying my best not to care about you kid." He said to me. I shook my head, I knew that's why he was calling me kid, but at this point it was too late for him, I could tell that he genuinely cared about me.
"Yeah I kind of noticed that, I wasn't sure the way that she was acting but now that you say that it makes a lot of sense all of the sudden." I responded back at him. He then laughed and we continued walking towards the gate which I could now see from not too far away. I think the main reason he didn't want to be with her was because she was 20 years older than him. I felt a bit bad for her.
This time when we came to the gate it was not Tyler that was on the guard tower like it was yesterday. It was some other lady that looked a little confused to see Christian in this area, which made sense because I doubt that Christian was going to Lilly's much less anyone's very often.
"Hey Christian! Whatchu doing all the way at this gate today?" The lady said to him, I could tell very much like Lilly the lady seemed to have a crush on him. I didn't really understand why because he wasn't the best looking man but maybe they just liked the way he went around the community.
"Just picking up this little guy from his girlfriends place Susan." He said back to me. She laughed but then looked at him a little bit confused.
"Girlfriends in the senior section of the community? I mean I get that Seniors can have kids but they've surely been trained for a while." She said back to him looking slightly confused. I decided to step in to the conversation and annoy Christian a little bit.
"Not mine, I think he meant his." I said to both of them insinuating a little joke that only Christian would understand. She looked a bit jealous which I thought was funny, mainly because she didn't think that he was dating a Senior, unless she knew about the crush that Lilly had on him or maybe she thought one of the seniors had a kid around his age. She looked a bit younger than him no older than 30, maybe even a bit younger than that.
Christian gave me a bit of a tough punch on my arm which did hurt a bit, but then I just began to laugh and she then realized that it was a joke. She laughed as well, even though she didn't really know what the joke was about.
She opened the gate to let us out and we went ahead and followed through the gate. Once we were out of earshot of her then Christian punched me a bit harder on my arm.
"C'mon dude, I liked that girl, your lucky she thought that it was a joke. I woulda beat the shit outta yuh." He said to me. I couldn't tell if that was a joke or not so I stopped giggling and we continued walking.
"Thought that you said that you didn't want to like a women because they'd die like everyone else." I said to him, he shook his head and then began to walk a bit faster. I began laughing again and he just grunted.
"C'mon kid, that's not really what I said, you must have a different head than most people if you didn't understand what I meant by that." He told me. We then continued walking and all was silent for a while.
I knew that he liked the silence that wah he could here one coming, someday I hoped that I could be like him and here them coming from what seemed like miles away.
He then began walking towards the woods as if he saw one and I was a bit confused. I was looking around and normally he would tell me if he heard one before he would just start heading towards it.
I was really confused for a few moments until I saw the line of strings that I saw yesterday showing that there was a line of squirrels. One of them looked like it had been torn apart already.
"Don't eat that one kid, its been eaten by one of the dead, I don't know what would happen and I don't really want to know." He told me. I shook my head and just walked over to him. I picked up the torn up squirrel which looked fine to grab because the blood had already gone stale. "Kid what... Wow... You're so funny."
"Thanks." I said back to him and then he threw the other 4 squirrels inside his little pack. "You didn't actually think I was going to eat that... I was going to be a famous comedian before all of this shit went down."
"Yeah haha... I knew you weren't going to eat one, its just natural instinct. And you're going to have to eat one if unless you want to be hungry. These cans of beans aren't going to be enough to feel you up for 2 days. We are going to be several miles out."