Chapter 3: Chapter 1: No Friends, No Problem
I had woken up late again. It was 2 PM, i was just enjoying my last days as a 13 year old, knowing, that soon, as a matter of fact tomorrow. I would be 14 and that's when i would get my first job and be working basically none stop all day everyday. I didn't know what exactly i would be doing, I just hoped it would be something useful. Hopefully not something like working on the farms. I know i wasn't the strongest kid in the world, but still, I don't want to be sitting there all day taking care of crops and taking care of animals.
My sister had gone on another trip, alone, like me i guess, but still i wouldn't want to be out in that hellhole all alone. All those undead things coming after me, if there was a swarm they would kill me in seconds. My sister was smart and had been doing this for years. She had learned it from our stepdad, who also died out there. So we see how much that really helped him.
I was left alone to take care of my brother, he was 4, but he knew how to take care of himself, with just me and Angela around him and no mother, and no father, that's just how things had to go.
He had learned, maybe not exactly what was out there behind those gates. But little Liam had to learn. I barely knew what was going on when it all first had happened. All i remembered was being alone and hiding for maybe months, low on food, low on water, low on basically everything. Until we found this place and they had just begun starting up the walls, the place was huge it took nearly a year. Lots of people died because of it, but lots of people were saved. My father was one of those that had died for it, I didn't remember him all that much, but i do remember that he had cared about us so much, no matter what was going on in our lives.
My brother was on the sofa taking a nap, if i had been like this a few months before there's no telling what my brother would be doing. But he had learned a lot recently, about what to do and what not to do. I was thankful, my sister was not around much, just going out doing supply runs, she used to trade with another group, but no one know what happened to them about 2 years ago. Most people assumed that something had gotten in and killed all them but my sister didn't really believe that.
She had told me, "there no way that a few of the undead had gotten in there and killed every single one of them. If they had been run down at least a few would have gotten out. They know where we live they would've come here." But that had been a while and there was no signs that there was anything else out there that could've done that so i just assumed people had tried to get away but our place was almost 20 miles out and maybe they didn't know the exact way to get here. That seemed to make more since then another group taking them down, there were no other groups anywhere near us.
I still listen to my sister conspiracy theories though. I just thought it was a little bit funny. I got out of my bed looking from the other side of the room to make sure i hadn't woken up my brother. And i decided to go to Lilly's house. She was through the other side of town, it had taken almost a year to make those walls they were almost 3 miles wide. Which meant it would be a bit of a haul but it would be worth it and i knew Liam would be okay by himself if he had woken up from his nap.
This would be about a 2 mile hike which meant it would take about 30 minutes there and then 30 minutes back but she usually gave me something as a treat. So maybe it would be worth it, and i just wanted to make sure she was okay because i might have a job like my sisters where i would have to go out there. It scared me but i tried to pretend to myself that i was ready for it. I knew i wasn't, but there was nothing wrong with trying. I would like to have the same job as my sister, maybe even get trained by her. I wanted to do something useful to the group other then be trained to be a farmer, and just sit there all day and plant and take care of crops. Over half the town was a crop field. It was smart and they had started it off the start. It was directly in the middle of the town, while the houses were to the side.
Which went that it was a haul to get the Lilly's but it could be worse. They didn't want us to go straight through the fields which i never understood why they didn't just make a path through the middle, sure it might take a bit of our food source out but we already had plenty in the first place. That's what we used to trade to the other group in exchange for weapons, tools, etc.
The other group had been near downtown Asheville so they had gotten plenty from shops and people apartments or houses. Our group had just started a farm, because 1 of the founders of our group owned 1 nearby. So we took a lot of the seeds from his farm. He was also dead too. He died within the first year of me being here, died like my dad building the walls, on the exact same day. He tried to help my dad fight threw a big group of those things. But they both had failed to get through and they didn't have guns to help them out a lot. Now people always had guns on them. Above 14 of course, that way someone wasn't stupid with it. They told us, only use it if you need to, it takes a big group like what happened that day to need to use those. Otherwise we have knives or swords, or even axes to use to kill 1 at a time. The gun shots were loud, the dead weren't smart at all but they knew what noise was and that bring a herd in all directions after that noise.
Our group had started with 500, but over time we have gained more rather than lose some. We had nearly 2000 at this point and everything seemed like it was going great. People died, a lot from just being out there alone, maybe they weren't dead. But a lot of people had died from straight up old age or cancer, or something along those lines. About 50% of the group was below 25, but there were still a few older ones out there, the leader of our group was not one of those ones. She was a good leader, her father had been leader before, and he had taught her very well, but he had died about 3 years ago the same way most did. But she had learned a lot of her traits from him. Sadly there wasn't much she could do as leader besides supply runs and telling people different directions to go and look for, maybe hoping to find a group or a town with stuff in it that we could scavenge.
She used to be a good trade negotiator but now that the other group was gone. There wasn't really much use to it anymore. Part of the reason my sister thought that it was a band of rogues or another group was because all their supplies were gone. But no one really listened to what she had to say and i just assumed it was just people leaving and trying to get out. Because i mean, at this point that group would have found us at this point. And if the entire other group was dead. We would be dead at this point. Maybe they didn't have walls that were as strong as ours. Or maybe they didn't have enough people manning those things. It just didn't make sense to me that my sister was thinking another group had gotten in. Its 8 years in at that point and they had just now found them.
But while that was on my mind i had failed to realize that i had walked almost 2 houses down from Lilly's. I had to stop thinking so much, I might end up like my sister with all her theories. I laughed it off and then turned around to head back in Lilly's direction.
There she was as per usual around this time of day, just outside with her little hat, tending to her garden. It didn't make since to me why she had that garden, they were basically all the same crops except for the strawberries. We had plenty to eat from but it got really repetitive on what we ate. Around once a year, usually on Thanksgiving the whole group would get together around a few spots and get a different type if food usually from people gardens but we also found a lot of food outside of the walls the the scavengers would find. Mainly my sister but the other ones tried their best though too. They just didn't seem to go out at much as my sister did. Usually just inside besides maybe once a month they would go out there and scavenge for a few days. My sister used to go out there with her boyfriend almost everyday, rarely being at our place. But he's dead too at least that's what we assume, another part of my sisters theory that the group had gotten them because he had gone out there himself the same time that the other group disappeared. And was going to go trade with them, his little wagon taking him there, I just assumed that he got there the time that the group had been taken down or a herd got him while he was sleeping or something like that.
"Hey Ben, don't tell you came to get some more strawberries. I don't have enough to feed your family everyday you know." Lilly said to me taking out all of my thoughts. She sat on her porch smiling at me. She was a little bit older than my mom but they had been friends before it all went down and they had become even better friends after. I smiled back at her trying to erase my thoughts. I knew i thought about stuff way too much. It was unhealthy for me.
"Well I mean, yes id like some strawberries but, I also don't know if im going to be seeing you anytime soon. Surely you have to know that my birthday is tomorrow? And i will probably be busy training with my sister soon." I responded to her. She held her pretty little smile not saying a word to me. So i walked onto the porch and sat beside the chair next to her. It used to be her husbands, but he died the first few months that it all had gone down, there was a sickness that had spread over the group killing over half of them. But the group had rebounded successfully and were stronger than ever.
We weren't getting as many people to come in as we used to, last one being over a month ago but we were still strong.
"No i didn't know that, you've only told me that the last 5 times you've been over. But what a surprise, you have come back again." She said back at me jokingly. I looked away. Realistically even though she was nearly 50 years older than me she was my only friend. I didn't really like any of the guys and girls my age so I just liked to hang out with her. I knew very much like me she was extremely lonely.
"Well i just wanted to let you know i case you'd forgotten and im going to miss you. If im with my sister then, i wont exactly be seeing you around much. Speaking of her, whens the last time you've seen her or even talked to her." I told Lilly. She looked up at the ceiling, lets the sun almost gleam down on her eyes. And then she shook her head.
"Last time i saw her was about 2 months ago, she was having a disagreement with Shannon as per usual, when i brought her some strawberries. And she stormed out of Shannon's place. I couldn't quite here what they were talking about hut it was none of my business anyways. Last time i talked to her was last Thanksgiving, about 8 months ago." She told me. I shook my head, and then thought about my sister. She was always out there i rarely saw her anymore and when i did she only gave me a few words, usually "take care of your brother" and "I will be back in a few weeks"
There was this one time she was gone for almost 2 months and i was about to mourn her death by the time she had come back. She had comeback with lots of stuff so I couldn't really complain all that much.
"Well im not stupid i know that Thanksgiving was a long time ago, i know she doesn't really talk to me much anymore anyways." I said back to her. We went silent as i thought about my sister again. What she had gone through was about 100x worse then what i had come through. She had seen the people that we both loved die, i don't know where i would be at in my life if i har seen all of my family die like she did. So i couldn't really blame her for the way she was now. I just knew that she was strong, way stronger than i was.
I could barely cope with all that had happened to me and i hadn't even seen it happen in person. After a few more minutes of silence Lilly had finally decided to speak.
"Well I will certainly miss you and I will give you some strawberries on your way back. Thank you for checking on me, it seems like you check on me more then my neighbors, i haven't seen Tom in months, i almost don't know if he is alive or not. You should go say goodbye to your friends, you look as though you had barely waken up." She told me. I felt a little sad at that last part but i didn't show it too her. My sister and brother was the only ones that knew i didn't really have friends. It wasn't that i was ugly. I definitely seemed better looking than most people my age. I just didn't really think on the same level as them and i didn't really like the same things they did, and a lot of then still had their family, the opposite of me.
She quickly went inside and gave be a paper bag with a little bit of strawberries inside of them.
"Thanks ill miss you too. Im sure Liam will be happy to have something besides eggs and corn for dinner tonight. Well i mean we will but we will have a dessert too." I said back at her. I then picked up the bag and made my way home. I wished i had talked to her a little bit more. She was basically my mother now that she was gone. I needed to get some things off my chest but it was a little too late at this point so i would just decide to go home. And hide my feelings inside as per usual.
I tried not to think about it too much as i walked all the way back home. Just thinking about my little brother and thinking about how happy he would be to see that I had gotten him some strawberries. I just kept thinking about it till i had walked through the front door.
There he was still on the sofa but this time he was awake. He was sitting there just looking at a book learning how to read. I had taught him my best but it was up to him now besides maybe a few words he didn't understand. It wasn't really a chapter book but it wasn't a book you would really read to your newborns. He didn't even look at me when i walked it that's how smart he was and how good he was at just thinking as I found out once again.
"You got me some more strawberries from Lilly's Ben? Thanks, sis came in with people while you were gone. Said she was going to Shannon's." Liam said to me without looking up from his book. I put the strawberries on the counter he was definitely smarter than me, I was smarter than most but i was nothing compared to Liam.
"Alright thanks, can you just stay back while i go and just, see her for a few." I told Liam. He looked up from his book just enough so that i could see his full head. He smiled at me with his cute little smile, even with all the bad stuff that had happened to us he was always happy and always made me smile.
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking, you're going to go work with her." He told me. He was too smart for me that hadn't even gotten into my head yet. But that would be really cool if that were so. Especially since now she would probably be here for my birthday tomorrow and they would have say yes if my sister told them she wanted to train me. I also did want to go see what exactly was going on with the people she had found. It usually wasn't the scavengers that went around finding people but sometimes they would if they didn't look harmful. Usually they stick to certain regions and let the wanderers go look around for people and look for new areas to explore. The scavengers just went around killing the undead a few at a time, or looking at the areas the wanderers found. They didn't really take in many people.
I went out the door quietly and then started a fast jog to Shannon's that was thankfully only about half a mile away. Hopefully catching up to her before they got there. Usually i wasn't aloud to be around Shannon when she was talking to important people. I wanted to see the people and hold my sister back hopefully for a day that way i could try and get her to start training me tomorrow. If she let me of course, I would hope that she would agree to train me to be a scavenger just like her. If she said no that would hurt.
Right as i got to Shannon's i found her with 3 other people but Shannon was already standing there, almost like she already knew they were coming. I wanted to talk to her before Shannon started talking, I knew how long their disagreements usually lasted. It could take up to hours in there, and I just wanted to go ahead and talk to her.
"Hey Angela can we talk real quick before you go in there?" I said as i caught back up to her. I hadn't even payed a lick of attention to the people was with. Besides from far away i noticed there was 3 of them but i couldn't exactly see them. She smiled as she saw me and then nodded her head. Smiling was rare from her so i a took a few seconds to clear my head before i thought about what i was about to say. But just before i could i heard Shannon yell from about 50 feet away.
"She came here to talk to me so you can wait." Shannon said to me. I knew she didn't know my name and she was a bit of a prick. I felt a bit upset but i just nodded and then walked back looking at the people she was with before i headed to the bench about 300 feet away.
But what i saw surprised me so much i almost fell over, i saw a girl maybe 2 years older than me that was absolutely beautiful. And she was looking right back at me a smile that almost made me want to just go straight in and give her a big hug or maybe even a kiss. I had never kissed a girl before so it would be a little bit awkward for me. I stopped for a few seconds just staring at her.
"For gods sake little man hurry up what are you looking at?" Shannon yelled back at me. I looked a bit funny but i ran over to the bench just thinking about her. I knew she wasn't thinking about me at all the way i was to her. But a man can dream.
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