The Dead Live (Book 3)

Chapter 1: To The Towers (Shannons PoV)

I stared through the windows of my home. Well, the community home rather, as I knew that I had to stop referring to it as mine. No one had a place here that they could say was theirs... A lot of this had been here long before we had come here.
These used to be normal peoples homes, and we had practically stolen it from them. Had we really though, they were dead more than likely, if they knew that it was used to save the lives of many others, than perhaps they would have been okay with it.
I shook my head, as I knew what my thoughts really needed to be focused on at the moment as well. They were every where, it was all over, I had lost it all. I had so much power, and now it was all gone. I closed my eyes, as I knew that I should not be focused on the power.
My father would not be proud of me, if he knew what was going on in my head right now. He had taught me better than that, he was such a good man. I do not think that I could ever be like him. I felt a bit evil, like I had betrayed my own people.
It had to be done though, we would have all ended up dead if I had not gone with the deal. They had locked me up and taken me to him. They were going to kill me, if I had not convinced him not to otherwise. I was good at getting into mens heads like that.
This was no normal man though, and I did the best job that I could have done for that man. If I had not made the deal, than everyone in the community would have ended up dead. I only had a few days to warn them, they would have all gotten scared, and many of them would have ran away.
Sure, we could have fought back, but there was far too many of them to try to have a chance at winning. We would have all died... Hell, maybe we all had anyways, and he had lied about the deal that we had made. The only people I had seen so far, were people that were not even in the walls that day.
I could be alone right now, I had only seen a few people. It could all be over, and I was thinking that we still had a chance to make it. Even if we did end up staying together, it would not last all that long, once they found out that they would be taking a bunch of our stuff every few months.
It was the only chance we had though, and I would have to hide my secret to the grave with me. I could not tell a single soul about the deal that I had made with them, if they found out, than hell, for all I know, they might end up killing me.
They would not listen to a word that I had to say, if they found out that it was me that had made the deal with them. I kept my eyes closed, as I turned my head away from the window. How were we going to get out of this situation that we were in now?
I had not even thought of what might happen to us once they torn down the walls, and let a bunch of the dead inside. They would kill, and take a lot more than just half of my people. For all I knew, they were all dead already any ways.
If they weren't dead, than they would starve, or they would try to run out of their homes, trying to get any sort of food that we might have still left. They would not make it long out there by themselves. Even I knew how dangerous the dead could be.
Not just a couple of them, but they were everywhere, there was no way out of this. I then opened my eyes, as I turned my head back over to the window. It was a bit chilly inside, as I knew that we must be near the winter at this point, though I did not keep up to date with the calendar anymore.
The power was out in the community as well, meaning that they must have beat down the solar panels, or broken the cords that led to all of the houses. There was no source of heat for me now, and I shivered a bit, as I put my hands on my arms to try to warm them up a little bit.
I sat there, as I saw that the sun was going down a bit lower into the horizon, meaning that we only had a few hours of day light left in the day. I knew how dangerous the dead got in the night as well. Every day that I let go by, I knew more and more people would die.
I had to think of some sort of way, to try to save my people. I did in fact care for them, which was a lot of the reason that I felt a bit guilty making the deal with the leader of the other community. I did not have much of a choice though, I had to keep that in my mind.
I had led to the death of so many innocent people though. The blood was on my hands, and I knew that if we did make it out of this, I would have to carry that with me the rest of my miserable life. I shook my head, as I blinked my eyes a couple of times, just trying to shake those thoughts.
I had to think of something quick, some way out of here, to save the lives of my people. I let the sun get a small bit of warm air on my body. As I just stared at all of the dead that were all across the streets of my home, my community.
I squinted my eyes, as I got angry, not just at myself, as I knew that it was my fault, but I was angry at God. If there even was a God of course, how he had let so many innocent people die. Yes, what had been said in the Bible had come to pass.
But if this was the end of the world, then why were there still evil people out here? Were we in hell right now? I did not do much wrong before all of this to get here. I did not go to church, was that where I had gone wrong? I stared for a few more moments, as I knew this was not what my thoughts should be on right now.
I needed to focus my mind on how I could get all of the dead out of here, and try to save the people that I still had left... If there were any to begin with. I shook my head, as I just stared at all of the dead for just a few moments longer.
I heard a noise come from outside, as I turned my head over to where it might have come from. It did not seem as though it were all that far away, though I was not all too sure as to what it was that had made that sound in the first place.
I turned my head, thinking if I should go out to try to check on what it was that it might have been. I then shook my head, as I remembered that there were the dead all around outside, and if I went out there, it would surely lead to the death of me.
I was no willing to risk it, as I still had nightmares about the day that my father had died. He had died, trying to save the life of that annoying bitch Angela's father. I had been there to see it as well, and I hated her for it every day that passed now.
I was at least glad that they had taken her with them. I was never okay with a person getting raped, but I hope that she got what she deserved in there. She always was against any decision that I would make, and I knew for a fact how she would trash talk me behind my back.
I turned my head back over to the window that I had been staring through as I wanted to feel a bit more of the warmth of the sun, before it got dark outside. I stared at the sun for just a few seconds, as I knew it was burning my eyes.
I then blinked, as I noticed that something odd was going on at the moment. It seemed that all of the dead were walking away from the window that I had been staring through, besides the dead that were a long ways away in the distance at least.
I looked at them for a few moments, as they walked across the mansion that I was in. I was a bit confused as to what it was that they were doing. I then realized what it was. Though I did not go outside the gates of the community all that often, I did know that you could distract the dead away from you with simple noise.
The noise that I had heard a few moments ago, though I was not all that sure what it was that the noise had been, it was clearly pulling all of the dead over to where the noise had come from. I blinked for a few moments, as I was trying to configure what my mind was trying to tell me.
I then realized what it was all at once. I knew what it was that I had to do now! It was not over, we still had time to save the lives of many people, the day was still not done for yet! I got up from the chair that I had been sitting on, as I tried to think of how it was that I was going to do this, whilst standing on my own feet.
I blinked a few times, as the pieces were beginning to jell together in my head, all at once. We could pull the dead out of the community! But how exactly was I going to do that? I could pull them I couldn't just simply toss a shoe across the wall, and then open the gates for the dead to go across right?
Even if that did somehow manage to work, if I did open the doors the the community, that meant that more of the dead would just walk in. No... I had to think of some sort of way to kill the dead, all of them... But, what did this have to do with getting their attention over to somewhere.
It once again began to click in my head, all at the same time. I could pull them up to the community house, but it would be risky, they could break in through the windows, and the doors if they really were trying to get into the place.
I could not just simply shoot at them through the windows. How was I going to do this? I then spotted something below me, that my father had made with many others, when we first had set up the walls among the community.
I stared at it for a few moments, as I thought about what it was that my brain was trying to tell me, that was so special about the stage that was ahead of me. It was used to speak to the people of the community, at meetings, and many other places.
It was strong, and it would hold against a horde of zombies if it needed to. But what did that have anything to do with what it was that I was planning on doing in the first place? I blinked a few times, as once again, it clicked, as it now made sense as to what it was that I must do.
The stage was about 7 or 8 feet off of the ground, meaning that the dead would have to be insanely smart, if they were to try to climb their way up it, and the stairs were made out of wood as well, meaning that it could easily break into pieces.
It was now beginning to all of the sudden make sense to me, all at the same time. I had about 10 people that were in the community house as we spoke right now... Andrew, Tyler, Donald, Kim, Eric, Milly, and a few others.
If we could somehow get up on that stage, that meant that we could shoot a couple of gun shots... The dead that were all in the community, they would all be able to hear it... If that were so, than that meant that they would all be heading over to the stage.
The stage was easy to break the stairs, so that meant we could break them apart, meaning that the dead would not be able to get across the stage, unless they somehow managed to climb on to each others bodies, which I had only heard of a few times before, in massive hordes.
This was going to be a massive horde though, so I was still not too sure if it would work... How would we be able to kill them, we could not just simply stab them, or else they would most definitely be able to climb on the dead bodies of all of the other dead, and get on to the stage.
If we used guns? We had the ammo locked up in the basement of the mansion, and I knew that we had plenty to take out many hordes... Was it worth losing the ammo, especially at a time like this, when we needed ammo more than ever?
I thought about it for just a few moments. I then began to think that it might not be a good idea. We had thousands upon thousands of bullets in there, we could carry it to the top of the stage and shoot down the dead as they came up to the stage.
If we used all of it up, where would we get more from though? Did it really matter though? I began to think about it a bit more, as I knew that the plan was the only way out, to try to save my community. We would all die if I did not at least try...
What good would ammo do for us, if we were all dead? I nodded to myself at once, as I quickly made my decision. There was no going back on it now, I had already made up my mind. That was the plan, and sure, maybe I was not thinking of things that could go wrong with it, but it was our only chance.
I shivered, as I imagined the dead climbing on the stage, and tearing us apart, just as they had done to my father long ago. I had a lot of anger and vengeance in my heart at the moment, as I knew the dead used to be just normal people, and they could not control what they were doing.
They would pay for what they had done to him though. I then began to walk out of the small little dining room, as it was one of very many that this place had. This was the one that I mainly liked to be alone at, and to just think to myself at.
There was a much larger one down the stairs, that I usually met up with my council to eat dinner, and to speak to them about the plans of the community at. I shivered, as I felt a bit sick, and a bit guilty as well, as I knew I was the one that had led to the death of them.
I did not know that it would have gone that far though, but at the same time as well, I knew that the only persons fault it was, was my own. I shook my head, as I walked out of the dining room, and down the hallway, that led to the stairs to where all of the others were at right now.
After I had heard that Christian and Ben had left just the night before, I made sure to tell the others not to do the same, no matter how badly they wanted to. At the same time as well, I we did get a few others as well, Kim including, though I knew that she had kids at home.
That is why I was glad that I had thought of this plan fast, as I knew that she would not be here all that long, no matter what I said, as she had to get back home to make sure that her kids were safe. I did not blame her for it either.
Though I did not know what it was like to have kids, nor did I think I ever would, as I had heard stories, about babies dying in the womb, and tearing their mother apart from the inside as well. It scared me, and I never wanted to try it.
Not that a man would ever want me in the first place, I was fairly decent looking, but most of the men that ever came after me, I would either fuck up my chances with them, or they would only want me, because they wanted my power that I had over the community.
I closed my eyes, as I knew that I needed to focus on what it was that I had been planning on doing anyways, as I shook my head. I sat there for just a few moments, as I let the calm, quiet sound, besides the dead groaning outside of the house, calm me down a little bit.
I then opened my eyes, as I kept on walking down the hallway that was in front of me, getting ready to head down the stairs at the same time as well, to tell the others about the plans that I had to try and save the community. I hoped that they agreed on it as well, as it was our only chance that we had left.
I stopped as I got right in front of the steps that were ahead of me. I squinted my eyes at the same time as well, as I heard a bit of some creaking, and some stomping from down below. I moved back, scared at what it might be. Could it be one of the dead? Had he come here to finish what they had started?
I then saw a familiar face in front of me at the same time as well, as he began to head up my section of the steps, blinking a few times, as he stopped, surprised to see me there, as if I had been waiting for him. He then nodded his head at me, at the same time as well, and then he began to speak to me.
"Oh... I was just coming up here, I was going to ask if you had thought of a way that we could get rid of the dead from out of the community..." He asked me at the same time. I looked at him for a few moments, as if it seemed as though he had read my mind.
Either that or it had just been perfect timing. We had been here for a few days in fact, and I had promised everyone a way out of here, but I still had not told them what it was. I had just mainly been in my room, grieving in my own sorrow.
I looked at him for just a few moments, as I then suddenly nodded to him at the same time as well. I did have a plan for him in fact, though it was different than the plan that I had for the others. I then began to tell him what it was that I had planned for him.
"Yes... I need you to get any people that might be alive that guard the gates, and tell them to get to the towers!"