The Home Of The Dead (Book 2)

Chapter 6: Get some sleep

I knew that voice right away, but I did not dare turn around. It seemed like it was not real... I sat there for a few moments, and then I heard the footsteps of Christian as he was walking into the room. He stopped for a few moments, and there was nothing but silence.
Christian then put his hand on my shoulder, he was doing his best to make me feel better. He knew that my brain was freaking out right now, none of this seemed real at all. I just sat there, staring down at the ground. I then began to cry, it was something that I did not do very often anymore.
I fell down onto the ground, and then felt the hands of a completely different person grab on to me. Those were the hands of my brother. I brother that I thought was gone for sure, a brother that I had just about given up on. It gave me hope...
Hope, that maybe my sister had not done those evil things. Maybe Tony was still good, and maybe things were going to be okay. I just sat on the ground crying for a few moments longer. Feeling the body of Liam, pushing against mine, I could hear that he was crying as well.
I then sat there, and put myself into a sitting position at least, and looked to just make sure that it was my brother. I could see blood on his hands, but it was not the blood of his own. I looked back at the entrance to the bedroom, not being able to see it, but I could tell that it was the blood of Lilly.
"This is real Ben... Your brother is still here..." I heard Christian say to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded gratefully to him. It was what I needed to hear, I needed to be reminded that there was still hope. I could not just give up quite yet, my brother... He was still here with the rest of us.
I turned to Liam, who just was staring at the ground, I saw zero emotions on his face. I looked at the blood quite a bit confused still... Surely there was no way that a 5 year old kid could have done that to Lilly... Surely he needed help, or someone else had done it.
I stared at him, no one that was in the room with us said a word about anything. I knew that Christian was thinking the same thing that I was however. I closed my eyes, just trying to clear out all of the thoughts that were swarming my mind.
I then opened my eyes back up, to see that Liam was hopping on me to give me a big hug. I happily let him give it to me. Still not sure if any of this was real or not. I turned my head over to Christian, who nodded to me.
I was glad that we did not take the plan of Christian this time, which was to shoot first and to think 2nd. I could not imagine us accidentally shooting my brother. I would never be able to heal from that... I was not sure if I would even be able to heal from all that I had seen the last few days.
I held on to my brother for a few moments longer, but I realized that I still had a few questions that needed to be answered. I still could not believe that it was my brother that had killed Lilly. Even with the blood on his hand to prove it, I still felt like it had to be someone else.
"What happened Liam? Tell me all of it..." I said to my brother. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he stared down at the ground. I held on to him a bit closer, I could tell that he was in a lot of pain. I knew that he and Lilly were closer than I had ever been with her.
I could feel the vibrations radiating from his body, I could just feel the pain. It only made things all the worse for me. I wanted to close my eyes, and just wake up... I wanted to be 10 again... Not 4, I would have never had my brother with me if that were so.
My brother then moved himself off of me for a few moments, I could see the tears falling from his eyes. Even through the insanely dark light that was in the room. I looked over to Christian, and I coule see that he was in pain as well... Just seeing my brother the way he was, he did not even look human right now.
"I was at the daycare... My friend got hit, and the daycare lady got mad at me even though it was not me... She put me in timeout..." He said to me. I looked at him a bit confused as to what he was talking about. I knew he was a smart kid, did he not understand what I had meant when I told him to tell me all of it?
We sat there for a few moments, I was still confused and I could tell that Christian was as well. What was he trying to tell us? If he had been at daycare, then how on earth did he end up at Lilly's? Had he been in the bathroom? Surely not right?
There was no way he had been in the daycare when all of this had gone down, did that mean he went to Lilly's after all of this had happened? I shook my head, that did not make sense either. If he had gone there, and Lilly was one of the dead, she would have torn him apart before he even had a chance.
I closed my eyes, how did he get hear in the first place? The only way that seemed possible to me, was that he had already been here... I was so confused, but I lifted my head up as I heard Christian begin talking after at least 15 seconds of nothing but silence.
"How did you get here then? Did Lilly die after the attack? How did you get around her to get into the room?" He said to Liam. Liam looked down at the ground for a few moments longer. As if he had not heard a word of what Christian had just said to him.
Eventually though, he picked his head back up, and he nodded to the both of us to let us know that he was paying attention to what both of us were saying. He then looked over at me, as he responded to the questions that Christian had just asked him.
"Well... I was in timeout, then I heard the gunshots... The daycare lady went out to see what was going on. That's when we heard gunshots from closer to us. We all sat there, hiding for a little while... That's when they came in..." Liam said to us. I knew right away what Liam had meant when he said they... I could tell that Christian did as well.
We sat there for a few moments, no one said a thing. I could not put words out of my mouth, this all seemed like it was one big horror story. I knew that it was not though, I knew that all of this that had happened was real. If not, this must be the longest dream that I had ever had.
After a few more seconds of just pure silence, I heard Christian begin talking once again. Just to get the conversation back on point. I just wanted to get this over with as well... I wanted to tell my self that that it was going to be okay, but I knew that nothing would ever be the same... This was worse than the storm... They now owned us...
"Did the kill her? Or do you not know what happened to her?" He asked Liam. Liam looked at him for a few moments, and then he looked back down at the ground. He looked as if he was about to cry again, but this time I saw no tears drop from his face.
He just sat there, staring at the ground for a few moments. Then he looked back up at me once again, as if he was paying Christian no attention, and I was the one that was asking all of the questions. He then sat there for a few moments longer, and then he began to respond, his voice raspy for the first couple of moments.
"Yes... They came in, they had her body carried with them. All of the kids in the day care say it. Everyone was freaking out..." He said to us. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I looked down at the ground. I closed my eyes, I could not imagine the horror that had happened in my brothers mind, and all of the kids that were there with him.
I had seen some scary shit at a young age, but nothing was as bad as the story that Liam was telling me about. I would never be able to heal from what Liam had witnessed. I felt bad for him, he would probably be emotionally scarred for this rest of his life after what had happened to him in that day care.
It still was not adding up though, was Liam lying about this? I shook my head, I knew that my brother was never one to lie... This was not one of the moments to be lying none the less. I still was a bit confused as to how he had ended up in the closet of the guest bedroom.
"How did you end up getting here then Liam?" I asked him. Not trying to say that he was lying at all, but I still was very confused. I could tell that Christian was as well, but he shook his head at me as if he was telling me that I should not be asking this question.
Which I suppose maybe he was right, I should just be happy that my brother was okay, he could be in a much different place with the rest of the kids right now. If Liam did not want to continue on with his story, then I did not blame him at all...
But Liam, he did turn his head over to me, and this time he looked much stronger than he just had a few moments ago. He nodded to me, and then he continued on with where he had left of in his part of the story.
"I went out the back door before anyone had time to notice. I ran here, and Lilly was hiding in her garden, once I got here, she took me inside with her." He began saying to us. I looked at him for a few moments, it was now beginning to add up.
It was starting to make sense to me how all of this had happened in the first place. I cursed myself a bit for even thinking in my right mind that Liam would be lying about any of this. I looked over at Christian, who I could tell was also thinking through all of this in his head at the same time.
I looked over at my brother once again, I could tell that he was being fully serious, and this was not one of those moments to lie anyways. I felt sick, just wondering what the ending of the story was going to be. I looked at him, and then nodded, I may as well find out what the end was...
"What happened after that? How did Lilly end up the way that she is now?" I asked him. I did not dare say the word die, or dead... I knew that my brother hated that word. I suppose you could look at it as, how he hated reality... The reality was, Lilly was dead.
My brother looked down at the ground, and he just sat there staring for a few moments. I could tell that we were about to get into the rough parts of the story. I touched his shoulder to make him feel a little bit better, which I could tell it worked fairly decently.
"She told me to go into the garage and hide in there... That's when they came in, they were looking for me... Not her... But she refused to tell them where I was, so they shot her..." He said to me and Christian. I looked over at where Lilly's body layed.
I could not see it because it was too dark in the room for me to see a thing, but I had not noticed that she had a gunshot wound anywhere. It would make sense that they would not shoot her in the head as well. I did not like to think evil, but it made sense the way that evil tended to think.
They knew if they couldn't find Liam, they may as well kill her so that Liam had no way of getting out. I closed my eyes, the pain was rushing through my heart right now. It felt like it was about to explode, like I was not going to have any emotions left in me after all of this. But who would?
"What happened after this? I am guessing you came out to get food and water..." Christian said back to Liam. Liam once again took a few moments to even react to what Christian had just said. He was just too busy staring at the ground, I was clearly not the only one with zero emotions right now.
I knew that Christian hardly had any emotions, or at least that is what he had said to me. I often failed to believe that, but now I was actually starting to understand where he came from. Liam finally began to reply to the question that Christian had just asked him.
"I didn't, I heard you saying something, I thought that you were inside the house. So I went to go check out what it was, that is when she came after me." He said to us. I looked at him a bit sadly, I already knew what happened after all of this...
Maybe it did make sense, maybe Liam had actually finished off Lilly. I just did not want to believe it, I knew that Liam was going to be scarred for this rest of his life for having to do something like that at the age that he was. He should not even be able to see a dead person, much less kill one...
"Do you need food or water right now?" Christian said to him. He looked over at Christian for the first time. And then he surprisingly shook his head. How long had Liam been without food and water? It had been about 2 days since all of this had gone down, he must be dehydrated right now...
Liam then pointed to something that was in the closet with us, I squinted my eyes to see what it was. I then saw that it was some water bottles and some cans of food. I had seen it earlier, but I had not thought too deeply on it when I had looked into the closet.
"I am okay... I had to come in here, Lilly was biting through the door... There was no way out, I looked through the window but all I saw was the dead everywhere. So I had to kill her with the bricks... It was the only way I could survive..." He said to us. I looked at him for a few moments, and I felt like I was going to puke.
He was so young, I felt terrible for him. I did not even think about Lilly right now, it was much worse for Liam. Lilly had lived a fairly decent life, even if the apocalypse had happened during it. She had not had to do any of the things that Liam had already had to do within 5 years of his life.
"I think you 2 should go get some rest... I think your minds are tainted right now, you 2 sleep in that bed, I'll head into Lilly's room... But I doubt that I will be able to sleep." Christian said to us. I looked at him for a few moments, and I then looked at Liam.
I could tell he was exhausted as well, if he had even managed to sleep in here, it was extremely uncomfortable and there was no way that he could have slept good. I got up from off of the ground and looked at Christian and nodded thankfully.
He nodded back to me, and I turned my head back over to Liam, to help him get up as well. It was probably very hard for him, having to be stuck in some tight spaces over the last few days. He probably had not been moving one bit.
Once he was up, we all just stood there completely still, just in silence. No one said a thing to each other, and no one took the first step to get out of the closet either. I just sat there, not even daring to get out of here, I did not want to see the dead body of Lilly on the ground in the hallway again.
After a few moments however, I was beginning to get tired of just sitting there, as I nodded to the rest of them to get them to pay attention to me. I realized that it was probably very hard for either of them to see in the room right now, so that most likely did not do very much use.
"Let's go ahead, we can think in our sleep, though I hope that none of us have bad dreams." I said to each one of them. I saw Christian nod back at me, but Liam was just standing there, completely still, with a blank look just stuck on his face, it was what I had feared, I could tell that he was broken.
I could tell that Christian noticed it as well, Christian then did a thing that surprised me quite a bit, he went over to Liam, and then he picked him up, had he noticed something that I had not? I forgot that he had a kid at one point as well... It was making sense now, I had always thought of him as a bit of a loner.
I followed him, as he carried Liam in his arms over to the bed, I followed him as well, Christian then dropped Liam on the left side of the bed, I sat down on the right side, still not ready to lay down and sleep for the night quite yet. I sat there just staring at the hole in the door.
Christian noticed that I was looking at it, and he shook his head at me. I turned my head away, I knew that he was right, I did not need to be thinking as much as I did, because most of the time when I did think, it was always on a deep and dark subject.
I turned my head back over to Christian, as I could hear him walking to the end of the room, over to the doorway, the walk out of the room for the night, but there was still one thing that I wanted to ask him.
"Christian, do you think that things will ever come back to normal? What happens when the dead are no longer?" I said to him. He turned his head over to me, and then he began to stroke his chin. I could tell he was thinking of how to respond to that. He then nodded back at me.
"I am not sure kid... We can talk about it tomorrow, but for now, get some sleep."