The Dead Live (Book 3)

Chapter 26: The Plan (Shannons POV)

I stood there for a little while longer, as I stared at my poor horse, and its mangled up body that was on the ground, blood pouring all over the place. I wanted to just go up to him, and hold him for a long time. It was as if I was just trying to pretend that none of this was even real.
It was though, as I blinked a few times, as I heard the loud noise of another horse neighing. I turned my head away from my horse, and over to where it was that I had heard another horse neigh. It sounded almost as if it might be a neigh of grief, which I was not sure if that could even be a real thing for animals such as these.
I knew that the horses had been raised in the same stable, and they some times went on missions together. I was not sure if friend ship was a real thing for them. Well... I knew it had to be, as I felt like I had a friend in that horse that I was staring at, lumped down on the ground ahead of me.
I let out a sigh, as I closed my eyes at the same time too. I heard the groans of the dead all over the place, as if they were coming at me from all directions. I was about ready for them to just take me. It was the end of the line for my heritage, as it was a sad end, but it had ended for many others.
I was lucky to even make it this far, but at the same time, I kind of wished that I had not, as I had seen some of the worst shit imaginable in my life time. They were things that I would have thought that could not be real, or would never happen to me when I was much younger.
But of course... Who would have seen all of this coming? Every one thought that the world was going to end in a nuclear war, but they were all wrong. It ended in a much worse way, and one that not a single person in this world would have ever seen coming.
A bunch of crazy cannibals tearing the world, and the people in it apart. It almost made me want to laugh, just at the thought of it. It was not really a funny situation, but it was the only thing that my brain for some reason wanted to do at the current moment in time.
I felt a bit bad for humanity, but at the same time, we really had in coming. We did not want to believe in a God, and we all pushed him away. Out of schools, and laughing and frowning at people that might even dare believe in him. My parents were one of those types of people, as even if they cared for humans, not a day went by where they frowned upon a God.
To be fair, they had a fair point, as there was some bad religions that took over to world, and killed lots of good and innocent people. I wish that God could have seen that before he destroyed it all. He took every thing from all of us, for some sort of test?
I shook my head, as I shook off all of those thoughts at the same time as well. I knew that I could not let my self get trapped in my head at the moment, especially with all that was going on around me at the current moment. I stood there for a bit longer, as I tried to remember what it was that even was going on around me.
I then heard the loud clamps of the hooves of a horse, as I opened my eyes when I realized that it was coming right over to me. I blinked a few times, as I was a bit confused with all was going on at the current moment in time, until I saw Tanner flying towards me, riding on his massive horse.
I began to freak out, as it looked like the horse was about to slam right in to me, as I tried to dodge it at the last second, but some thing grabbed on to me to stop me right as I did so. I looked around, as I was a bit confused as to what, or who it was that it might have been.
At first I thought that it might have been one of the dead that had done it, as I had heard them drawing closer and closer to me, as each second passed. I also knew that they had a very strong grip as well. It was not the case how ever, as my body was shaking around at the moment, as I had not a clue as to what was happening right now.
I looked over to the person that done it, as I noticed that it was not one of the dead, but rather it was Tanner. I began to grow a little bit more relaxed, as I knew that I was safe with him by my side. Even if he was quite a bit older than me, he was such a strong, and handsome looking man.
I could not help but be attracted to him, as I felt like it might lead to my down fall at the same time as well, as I then began to remember the bit of argument that we had got in to earlier. I shivered at those thoughts, as I knew that I typically did not like to think that bad of people.
A lot of times it was to my demise, as it felt more often than not, that was when some one betrayed my trust, and I was right to not believe in them. I let out a bit of a sigh, as I saw Tanner roll his eyes, as he shifted his focus back on to the road that was ahead of us, at the current moment.
There was a big hole in front of us, which you might think would be easy for us to get through, besides the fact that there was a bunch of the dead that were ahead of us. If our horses were to get bit, at the same time too, I knew that they would not just die right away, but they would start to get sick, and progressively weaker and weaker.
It was always a bit strange to me, that the animals, when they were to get bit, would in fact die, but they would not wake up, like a human would, and start to run at you like the dead did. I felt a bit sick at the thought of that as well, as I knew first hand, that was how it all worked.
My job, before being a leader, was to do a bunch of tests, and lab experiments, on people that had gotten bit, and animals as well, that had not gotten bit yet. I made them get bit though, and I felt evil for doing what it was that I had done.
It was a lot of the reason that I did not trust, nor did I like Angela all that much at all. Her mother had made me take that job, and she had hid a lot of it. I felt like Angela would be like her, and I did not trust her all that much. Hardly any one knew about that, as neither Tanner or Christian had a clue of what had gone down.
They both had good looks on Angela's mother. I closed my eyes, as I dared not to think of that, as I knew that I just needed to focus on the fact that we needed to get through all of this, and get back home. I was not sure how much use I would be in all of that how ever.
I shook my head, as I opened my eyes, to see what was going on in front of me, and to see where it was that we were at right now. We were closer than ever before, to the dead, as I saw that they were all around us. I looked at them, as I saw that their eyes were on me, as their hands were reached out to grab me, even though they were several feet away.
I felt sick, and scared, as I just focused my eyes on what it was that was ahead of me, as I saw that we had a bit of a clear path out of the community. It seemed to be closing in quite a bit fast though, as I began to freak out, as it did not seem like we were going to be able to get through.
I heard Tanner begin to whip his horse, to get it to go faster, which it indeed did, as I did not realize how fast his horse went, as we easily got through the gap before it closed. I blinked a few times, as I let out quite the sigh of relief at the same time too, as that was way too close for comfort.
I almost let out a bit of a smile, until I looked behind me, and saw what was in the distance. It was the first thing that my eyes locked on to. It was not the massive heard of the dead that was heading straight towards us, it was my horse, that was almost a little blip in the back ground at this point.
I lowered my head, as I remembered all that had just happened, as I was deeply hurt by it. If only I had not chained him up, like Christian had told me to do, than he would have been able to get out of there, and perhaps even be able to roam free, and live a life that was not just him being in a stable all of the time.
I closed my eyes, and I turned my head back over to Tanner, and the long road that was ahead of us. As I heard us racing up to catch up to Christian. It seemed more like Christian was slowing down to let us catch up to him though, as I knew that even if Tanner had the bigger horse, it still was not easy to carry 2 people.
I let the wind blow across me, as I was almost about to cry. There was no time for that how ever, as Christian went straight to business, as I heard him speaking up, even with the loud wind that was flying past me. I opened my eyes, and looked over to him at the same time as well, to hear what it was that he had to say.
"Don't do shit like that Shannon... I don't care if you want to die, even if the community needs you... You almost got the rest of us killed..." He said to me, as if he was reading in to my thoughts. I looked at him for a couple of moments, as I knew that he had a bit of a fair point, by the fact of what he had just said to me.
I knew that if I had not got in the way, that they would have been able to shoot the dead a lot faster, rather than be worried by the fact they might shoot me. I knew that it would have not saved the life of my horse, as there was far too many dead coming after him, by the time that we had managed to get out of the building.
It would have put us in a lot more of a safe position at the very least. I sighed, as I knew that I was a lot to blame for the stick situation that we had got in to in the first place. I blinked a few times, as I looked at the ground, and at the tall grass that we were flying through at the current moment, with quite the hurt and sad look on my face.
I was not sure what to say... I had lost my every thing... That was all that I had left, as a memory from the past... Now it was gone... Now it was time to move to a new future, but the only problem for me was, I was not sure what was in store for that future, and whether or not it was a good or a bad thing.
A part of me wanted to tell my self that it was good, but at the same time, I knew that it was not good to lose some thing that you loved. I shook my head, as I looked over at Christian at the same time as well, as I saw that he did not have his eyes on me, like I did with him, as I squinted my eyes.
There was a fair reason for him not to, I suppose, as he needed to have his eyes on where it was that we were going at the exact moment. I knew that it was my fault, as I dipped my head a bit low, and then I began to speak back to the both of them, in a bit of a quiet voice, but loud enough for both of them to hear, even with the loud wind.
"He was all that I had left... Now he is gone... Now it feels like I am gone too..." I said back to him. I stared down at the ground for a little bit longer, as a part of me wanted to let go off Tanner, and just fall of the horse. I wanted to just feed my self to the dead, like my father and my mother had done.
They had not done it on purpose though, and I knew it... They had done it to save the lives of many others, or a single person in my moms case. Why was God so cruel to them for that? I knew that there were plenty of believers that were good people, that had got killed as well, so that counted out one theory.
I shivered, as it was silence besides the fact that there was the loud wind. No one said a word back to what it was that I had just said. It was as if they knew that what I had said was indeed correct, and there was nothing that they could think of, to say to me, to make me feel any sort of better.
I closed my eyes, as I just held on to Tanner, almost as if I was holding on to my father, that day that I had told him about my mother. I did my best to shake off all of those thoughts, as we continued to ride, just in dead silence this time.