The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 16: Stay Safe Pt. 2

I walked out of the room, Shannon and Aidan watched me, as I closed the door behind myself. I did not blame them, Aidan was a co leader of his group and Shannon was the leader of ours, he probably had some things to say, or to ask her. They probably were going to build a trade route like we used to have with the other community.
I didn't really care either way, whatever it was, it was not my business. I kept on walking as I heard them continue talking. I went through the hallway, remembering living here, I used to love these paintings. I always wanted to paint, but I never got the chance to do it. There were always so many other things that were on my mind.
I looked at the ground for a few moments, trying to clear my thoughts of all of that. I didn't need to think back on when my mother was still here, Christian was right on that part. My mind was tainted, it needed healing, my sister was always good to help me with that.
I shook my head once again, did I really know who my sister actually was? She could have betrayed us, I wish I could say that it could not be possible. There were so many things coming right out in the open to prove otherwise.
I closed my eyes, I just needed to breath. I heard something moving in the room beside me. Someone was still awake, at least someone that was living I hoped. I didn't want to talk to anyone right now, I just wanted to go, go find my brother, any moment he could lose his life.
I was wasting my precious time, every moment in a persons life was valuable, especially nowadays, you never know when it could be your last. It sounded even more weird to say that after what had happened to the world. It had changed, but obviously not for the better like you would think.
Everyone always says to learn from your failures, clearly this world had not learned, and there was so much failure. I lifted my head up and began walking out to the back door of the place. It would be the closest route to get to Lilly's.
The mansion was big, it wasn't a joke when they called this place a mansion. I kept on walking to the end. I then heard a door open, I did not dare turn around to look who it might be. I just wanted to be by myself right now, I needed some time to think, and regain myself.
I then heard the person that had walked out of their room say something from their side of the hallway that was obviously aimed towards me. I turned around to see that thankfully it was just Christian. I would not have complained if it was Jordan either though, he was more my age and he might understand a lot that I was going through.
Especially since Jordan had lost his mother, or at least that is what they were putting it out as, they didn't even want to have hope that she was still alive, and I could not blame them for it, just go ahead and let the pain be over with.
It's something my sister never brought herself to do with Tony, but I suppose that in the end she was right. If my sister had betrayed us, she would have known that Tony was still alive in the first place, Tony must be betraying us as well.
It made sense now, she knew Tony was still alive, she always pointed that fact out. If she had betrayed us, then she would have been right, of course she would have known that Tony was still alive, they were probably still together through all of this.
I shook my head and turned my attention over to Christian, he was talking to me again, I had completely forgot what he had said at first. I was not really listening to him, my mind was distracted on so many other dark and evil thoughts.
"Kid... Are you good? Where are you going?" He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, I was still distracted by my thoughts, but this time I actually managed to realize what he had said to me, as I nodded to him.
"Yeah... I'm just going to check to see if Liam is still out there." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, he looked a bit confused. I did not understand why, he then began talking to me once again.
"I thought that was where you had gone in the first place." He said to me. I looked at the ground, I wish I had gone to find him, he was the most important thing to me right now. He was the last thing that I still had left, if he still was left.
I kept on staring, as I heard Christian cough to get my attention. I nodded my apology to him, he shook his head, I was waiting for him to tell me the same thing that he always did, "kid, stop thinking so much, it'll get you killed." But he didn't this time.
"Sorry... No... I was going to, but you are right when you say that I think too much. I went the wrong way and I didn't want to go back to see Shannon finishing her council." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments and then he nodded his understanding.
It was kind of cruel the way I had said, to finish her council. But how could I word it differently, it was a cruel world that we were living in, the events that had happened today had more or less proved all of that to me. I closed my eyes for a few moments until I heard Christian respond back to me.
"Kid... Its not always bad to be thinking too much. If you are a leader, that is a good thing, but you have to realize that you aren't a leader." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, it was well worded, and he was right, sometimes I did think of myself as if I was the one to lead.
"Yeah... I guess you are right about that, I just cant help it, its like it is trapped in my mind, always." I said to him. He looked at the ground for a few moments after I had said it. Then eventually he looked back at me a bit sadly which confused me a bit.
Normally Christian was never one to be sad, besides the day that I had to finish his wife and his newborn son. I could see the pain in his face at the exact moment, it was obvious, even when I did not know him all that well. I was just a bit confused what he was thinking about right now.
"Well, Shannon has high regards for you, if you want, I can get you into a part of her new council." He said to me. I looked at him, it seemed intiscing, but I was not as interested in it as I might have thought I would have been.
It seemed cool the moment he had said it, I could go become like my mother. She was a brave leader, she lost her life to save our community, without her our community would have had no idea what to do the day that the storm had hit. I then began my response to Christian.
"How do I know that when the other group comes to get our stuff in 6 months, they wont kill her council again?" I asked him. He looked at me for a few moments, and he nodded. It was a good question, he and I both knew it.
He then looked back over to me and he nodded back to me once again. He then told me his thoughts about it.
"She made a deal with them, correct? I think you will be okay... She would happily take you in, even counting your age and all." He said back to me. I looked at him for a few moments, but then I shook my head. Honestly I did not really want a job like that.
It did not sound enticing to me, I loved going outside the walls, even how scary it could be some of the days. Sure it was more dangerous being out of the walls, but being stuck in the walls all the time just did not sound like a good time to me. I wanted to at least do something with my life.
Maybe I could be a part of her council and go outside the walls. It would be a first, no one else had done something like that before. I suppose there was a reason to that though, sure some of them had gone outside the walls before but it was not for a long time.
It just could not work in the long run though, Shannon needed her council on her at all times. More than ever none the less, I looked at Christian, he still seemed a bit sad. I could not blame him, Angela had told me that he was beginning to grow fond of me.
"I love being outside the walls, I would not give that up any day." I said to him. I could tell right away that it cheered him up quite a bit. He would not admit to it though. He then nodded to me, a smile managed to crack his face, it was one of the few times I had ever seen that from him.
"Well... I suppose so, if you're going out to find your brother, do realize that it is going to be dark out there. You know what the dead are like in the dark." He said to me. I looked at him, I indeed knew what they were like, but it did not faze me at all right now.
I just needed to go find Liam and make sure that he was okay, any moment longer that I waited could be his last moment. There was a part of me that feared me even looking. I had a dark feeling that I was going to find him and Lilly being torn apart by the dead.
But maybe, I could at least have some sort of hope that I would find them both holed up together perfectly safe, if Angela had betrayed us, she would have at least made sure of that right? I shivered and then lifted my head up to Christian to make myself look a bit stronger.
"I have to find him, any moment could be his last. I can't bare the thought of it any longer." I said to him. He looked at me sadly for a few moments, but in the end he nodded to me. It was like he had told me, in the end, we were near the point that I was too make my own decisions, and when that moment came, he told me that he would not stop me.
"Well, I can come with you and help, if you don't want me in there with you than I wont be." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, the thought came into my mind, I might need help with it, but the thought went away and I shook my head realizing that it might be a bad idea.
I had no idea how we had even managed to get here in the first place in less than 2 days. No sleep, I was exhausted, but sleeping was the last thing that was on my mind right now. He looked at me a bit surprised but he nodded back to me.
"I want to be alone for this, besides, the more there are of us, the more likely they are to hear us." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, I could tell that he was not so sure. In fact it was always me that made the most amount of noise.
But he got the point that I was trying to get at though. Right now I just wanted to be alone, I did not want anyone to be with me if I found my brother dead, or missing none the less. The last thing I needed was to be with someone when I got very angry, it never ended well for either of us.
"Well... Good luck Ben, and stay safe..."