The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 18: Help!

I had forgotten, his mother was a part of the council. I could feel the energy from him, he was doing his best to hide it like he usually did, but I could tell that he was in pain. He was just staring down at the table, I did not know what to say to him to make him feel better.
His mother was certainly a good woman, she had taken care of him before, and after the apocalypse had happened. His father I had heard had left him at a young age, all of Jordan's friends used to make fun of him and make jokes about it, but I could always tell that it was a painful subject to think about.
Now his mother was gone, Jordans friends use to make fun of him as well because he loved his mother so much. I loved my mother a lot as well, but they usually made fun of me for different things. I grabbed his shoulder to try and make him feel better, I could feel the tension from him.
"I'm sorry Phillip, your mother was a good woman. I just have to hope that my brother is still alive out there now, I have to go soon..." I said to him, making sure that he remembered that I was out searching for my brother. He looked up at me sadly and nodded to me.
"I hope he is okay, pray for my mother please..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments and then I nodded to him. I got up from the table and I nodded to him to make sure that he was going to be okay.
I did not want him to do what he did earlier, he was not a very big guy, he was smart... But he would have been mauled apart if he had gotten further down the streets. I doubt he would now that he knew his mother was gone but there was no such thing as ever being too safe.
"He's all I have left, I have to make sure that he is alive... Pray for me as well, it is dangerous out there right now." I said to him. I had forgot that his family was more of a Christian family. My family had never been one, in fact my father was an atheist, he often fought with my mother about whether or not god was real. It was always a sore subject for me.
Phillip looked at me for a few moments a bit confused as to what I was talking about. He stopped me before I walked out the back door. I looked back at him to see what it was that he was trying to say to me.
"What about your sister? You always told me she was usually out of the walls. You don't think that she is still alive?" He asked me. I then realized that I might have spoken too much. I thought about lying to him, saying I found her dead, or she might be alive.
I was not a very good liar though. I sat back down at the table with him, I had to choose my next words carefully. I did not want him to blame me for all of what had happened, he might even attack me, I did not want to have to fight him.
"Phillip... My sister might have betrayed us, she took in people that were scouting our place, and Shannon told me that she was there with them when it had all gone down." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, then all of his emotions suddenly disappeared from his face.
It was almost like he had just had his soul taken out of him. It was something that I had only heard about, things like robots and all of that. People were always worried about that, but they did not even think about a virus, but who would have?
Suddenly his emotions came back, and he looked at me very angrily for a few moments. He balled up his fist like he was about to swing at me, I moved back a little bit making sure that he was not about to fight me. This is what I had feared when I had thought about telling him about what had happened to his mother.
"Your telling me that your sister betrayed us and got my mother killed?" He asked me, he already knew what the answer was to that question. He was just repeating it because he was wondering if he had just not understood what I had said to him.
He was angry, I could tell. I did not want to push him any further. I thought about lying to him, but I knew that he had heard what I had just said and he would not believe me if I changed the story.
"Yes... There is a good chance, but there is a chance that they found her. I don't know because I was not there. Please don't blame me for this, I am not my sister. I did not know about any of this." I said to him. He looked at me for a few more moments, he still looked like he was about to swing at me.
Then he un balled up his fist and he looked down at the table sadly. I could see that he was in pain once again, I was just glad that he was not blaming all of this on me. If my sister had really betrayed us, I had no part in any of it.
He then looked back up at me after a few more seconds of just staring at the ground showing no emotion. He always was like that when someone talked bad about him, the difference was I was not talking bad about him. I could tell that he was still a bit angry, just not really angry at me.
"Well... Can you go? I need time to collect my calm, you need to go find your brother. Don't worry, I do not blame you for this, I believe you." He said to me. I could tell that he was in a lot of pain, he was doing his best to hide that from his face and the way he was talking.
I looked at him for a few more moments, and then I nodded to him. I then picked myself up off the chair and began walking to his back door. I shivered, looking out the window to see the walls behind me. At least they had not taken the walls down like they had done to the other community.
I looked back at Phillip a bit sadly, I felt bad for him. I remember the day that I had out that my mother was gone. It was many days after she had actually died. I was in the storage shed for quite some time, I was in so much pain, much like the pain I could tell Phillip was in right now.
It took me a lot of time to heal from that, a lot of that was too do with the help from Angela. I shivered a little bit thinking about her. She had helped me so much, I could not imagine what it was like for her, she had seen it all happen right in front of her eyes. She had seen our parents being mauled to death.
"Phillip, I am sorry. I can help teach you some things with Jordan about how to make it out there. We all have to move on from the past." I said to him. He kept on staring at the ground, as if he had not heard a word about what I had just said to him.
I looked at him a bit sadly for a few moments, I could feel the pain radiating through the room. I wondered if he had even heard what I had said. Maybe it was just not something he had ever wanted to do. I shook my head and then I opened the back door. As I began walking out I heard Phillip say something to me right before I closed the door.
"Thank you... I need that, I can't live with myself if I know that my mother taught me to keep my head up and to keep fighting, and I just didn't." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, as he looked over at me, it was well spoken what he had said. I always knew that Phillip was definitely one of the smartest out of all of Jordans group of friends.
I looked at him and nodded, I was happy for him. He needed to keep fighting, just like I did every day. Just like I was right now, I could just give up, count my brother as dead. There was a fair chance that he was dead, but I had to keep hope up.
Just like Phillip had told me, his mother was always good to him. She always gave him good advice, he was always the one that I had missed to most out of Jordan's whole gang.
"Stay safe Phillip, I'll come back. You will get to see your mother one last time." I said to him. He looked at me and I managed to get a small little smile out of him. It was more of a painful smile, but at least he was smiling, and there was nothing to complain about on that note.
I nodded to myself, and then I closed, and locked his door. I looked around a bit sadly. I had been in there for quite some time. It was beginning to get bright outside, I had not slept in over 2 days. Sleeping was the last thing on my mind right now.
I walked around the edges across the bushes on the sides of Phillips house. It was now Phillips house, not his mothers. I doubt Shannon would move him, there were plenty of houses to live in now that half the people had been supposedly killed.
It was good to know that Phillip was still alive, it gave me hope that at least there were some people alive out there. Tyler and Andrew had hid themselves in a shed, and the others that I had seen had been outside the walls when all of this had first gone down.
I walked around to the edges, there seemed to be a lot less of the dead then there were in the night. It was not because they had already begun the clean up on the community right? Maybe it just seemed like there were more in the night because I was so afraid of them.
They were not as scary during the day, but I knew that they were still not something just to be messed with. Christian had told me many people had died because they were just playing around with the dead. It was not something that I would ever do by any means, but it was definitely something to be well noted.
I had made a lot of progress last night, I had gone at least half a mile, and I could see the daycare not too much further down the road. I looked around to make sure that none of the dead were near me and I kept on walking as quietly as I possibly could.
This was the first place I would look, I feared that I would see a bunch of dead children in there, even though I knew what Tony had told me they did with the children. I still had a thought in my mind that I was going to find that in there.
I kept on walking, this time at a bit of a faster pace now that I was getting closer and closer to the daycare. I knew that it did not really matter, but I could not help myself but do it. Luckily I was in a section of the community where I did not see many of the dead around here.
I was so close to the daycare building now, but I stopped myself right before I walked through the front door. I saw there were 2 dead right in front of me, they were tearing open a dead body right at the front door.
It did not give me a good feeling about what the rest of the daycare would look like, but I still had to go in. Just in case, maybe Liam was laying in there, dead like the daycare lady that I could see was sitting at the front. Or maybe he was hiding in a closet or a bathroom, there was a good chance of that as well.
I knew that Liam was a smart kid, but would he really have known what was going on to have the time to react that way? Maybe he was in the bathroom just because he needed to use the bathroom and just happened to have perfect timing.
At this point I was just doing my best to have some sort of hope that Liam was alive out there somewhere. I knew that he was a smart kid, but if he did not know what was going on around him, what kind of a chance did he really stand in all of this?
I slowly began walking up to the front door. I did not want the dead to hear or see me. I looked at them as they were tearing open the lady, I wondered how she had not woken up as one of the dead yet. Then I saw the gunshot wound that was on her head.
I did not know the lady at all, but I had seen her at the daycare a couple of times that I had picked Liam up or dropped him off. It still saddened me a bit to see her being torn apart by the dead. I then walked through the front door and closed it.
The dead instantly saw me and heard me, but they were so busy eating apart the lady to do anything about it. I looked around at the daycare for a few seconds making sure there was no more dead lying around in there anywhere. Then I pulled out my gun as one of the dead finally began to pull itself up from off of the ground.
I made sure that my silencer was on it this time, I did not want to have a heard come up on my like last time. I knew that there was plenty of food to make it by for a long time in here if it was so, but I really did not want to be sitting in here for that long. If Liam was not in here, which he obviously would not he in any of the main rooms, then I needed to find him somewhere else.
I nodded to myself when I saw the silencer was on the muzzle of the barrel, then I shot the first dead right in the head. As the 2nd one saw his friend fall to the floor he then began to try and get up like the first one, but it was to late for it as I shot that one as well.
I looked at the dead lady a bit sadly, all of her intestines were torn open, but I was used to it at this point. I remembered the day that I had found the little girl in the crawl space, that was a lot worse than this for sure. I shook my head thinking about it.
I was here for Liam, not to be thinking about all of the things that had happened to me so far.
I then put my pistol into my holster and then began to walk around all of the rooms to make sure that there were no more dead, or dead bodies anywhere in the daycare. I nodded to myself as I thankfully did not see any anywhere. I then walked over to the first out of 3 closets that were in the daycare.
I opened it, but all I saw was a bunch of clothes that fell over in front of me right as I opened the door. I cursed myself and then shook my head, it did not matter all that much anyways I suppose. I then walked over to the other 2.
The 2nd one had a bunch of clothes as well, but luckily this time none of it fell over on top of me. I closed the door, and then I began walking over to the last closet. Liam probably was not in any of them, odds are if he was anywhere, then it would be in the bathroom because it had a lock.
I opened up the closet, this time there were no clothes in there. Instead there was just a bunch of snacks, but no little kids were hiding out in there. I shook my head a bit sadly, if Liam was not here, then the only other 2 places that he would be at would be Lilly's place, or the other community.
I shook my head once again, I just had to hope that it was the opposite. I then began to walk over to the bathroom, but as I did I realized that the back door was open. I shook my head not thinking much about it, I just closed it just in case one of the dead snuck in on me.
I locked it for no apparent reason and then I went over to the bathroom door, if Liam was in there it would be locked, and not only that he would have heard someone walking around. But I knew he was a smart kid, he would not walk out of the bathroom if he heard someone walking, especially after he had heard a bunch of gunshots.
I then began to open the door, right away I instantly noticed that it was unlocked. I opened the door to the room, as the lights flickered on since it was one of the motion senser sort of bathrooms that I had been in when I was much younger.
I looked around, there were 2 stalls and 2 normal toilets that were lowered for the smaller kids to pee. I saw no feet anywhere in the bathroom, not even in the stalls. But I knew once again that Liam was a smart kid and he would have known that and he would have his feet up to the stalls.
"Liam, are you in there?" I whispered for no apparent reason, because there was nothing else anywhere nearby that would have heard me. I got no sort of response though, and my hopes became even slimmer. I walked over to the stalls anyways, maybe he was asleep and he had not heard me.
Odds are he was not, because how could anyone sleep after what they had just heard going on and had no idea what it was. The stalls were closed though, maybe there still was a chance.
I then opened the first stall, and it was completely empty. There was nothing in sight. I closed the door and then I walked over the the 2nd stall. I closed my eyes before I opened this one, I had low hopes that he would be in there, but I prayed that there was still a chance.
I then opened my eyes, then I opened the door to the stall. But there was no one in there. I lowered my head a bit sadly. I just had to hope that he was at Lilly's then, because that was the last sort of hope that I could have.
I walked over to the toilet, remembering the night that I had tried to sleep in one. That was the night that I had found out that Tony was still alive, the night that I had saved Christian. There was still hope, I knew it, but I shook my head anyways.
There was also a good chance that Tony and Angela were both betraying us. I closed my eyes, I remembered as well, what had happened that night. It was the first night that I had shot a living human. I felt sick thinking back on that. I then shook my head.
I opened my eyes once again and then lifted myself up, I had to stop thinking about the past, like Christian always told me. We all had dark memories, it was better not to think about them... Otherwise you would drown in them. He was right...
I began walking out of the bathroom, as I saw the lights shut off, just as I closed the door to the bathroom. I still had to have hope, that was something that Christian was wrong about. He said to always think that the worst thing was going to happen, that way you would not be disappointed.
I had to keep my head up, if I did not find Liam at Lilly's, then that meant that Liam had been taken in by the other community. I did not even want to think about what would happen to him there. Tony had already told me so many stories about them raping the kids and the women, and they would be laughing about it.
I looked around at the daycare room, there was no point in me being in here anymore, it was on to Lilly's place now. I closed my eyes for a few moments, and then I opened them. I then began to open the back door, looking through the window to make sure none of the dead were nearby first.
I walked out as slowly and as quietly as possible, Lilly's place was not too far from here, she was no more than half a mile away. I shivered, I just had too keep going. But right as I began walking I heard loud gunshots from not too far away from me.
I looked around a bit surprised, had someone outside the walls come in through the gates and found a big surprise inside? What was going on? I had to go and help them though, I could not just let them get torn apart by the dead, even if it was not a person I was not all that fond of.
I began running over to where I had heard the gunshots coming from, they were further away from Lilly's place, but I knew that I had to help whoever it was before I could even think about going over there. I could not live with myself if I just let someone die.
I ran over and saw it was at the nearest house to the daycare, there were dead all over the place. And more dead were coming after they had heard the gunshots. I had to help them fast, or else I might end up like them. I ran over and looked at my belt counting how many shots I had.
I had 12 in the magazine, then I had 2 other magazines in my belt. It was enough to take down 36 if I was perfectly accurate. But it looked like there were a lot more than 36 right there, and I guarantee that more than 36 more were about to come.
I grabbed my knife and put my pistol into my holster, then I stabbed at the nearest dead that was running at where the shots had come from. Luckily this was not me from a month ago, I knew how to take down the dead with a knife.
It instantly fell the the ground as I stabbed it, but it was a bit loud, and there were no more gunshots, I had to hope that the person wad not already dead. It was loud enough for the others that were nearby to hear it as the began coming towards me.
I stabbed another one, but there were too many around me too kill fast enough and stay alive at the same time. I ran forwards a bit and then I pulled out my pistol. I shot 2 of the dead perfectly, I was always accurate with my guns. But there were a lot more than that coming.
I then heard the person that was shooting yelling, luckily they were still alive, but that was not what I was thinking about. I knew who's voice it was and I gulped.
"Somebody! Please... Help!"