Chapter 3: Someone was here

I looked at the doorway to the garage, the lamp was lighting it up from a far distance away. A part of me just wanted to give up, and just go back home. I was pretty sure that I was risking both me and Christians lives, by chasing a false dream...

I looked at him for a few moments, he looked set on it. I looked down on the ground, another part of me was also telling me that I was going to find my brother somewhere, but he was not going to be my brother anymore... He was going to be a part of them, I never even wanted to think about it, but now I could not get my mind off of it.

"What if we don't find him, what if he is just gone? What if we do, and he is really gone..." I said to him. He kept on staring at the door for a few moments, but eventually he turned his head back over to me. He looked at me dead in my eyes for just a few moments, and then he responded to my question...

"Kid... We have to try, I don't want to find him dead just as much as you, but he could still be alive... He could be afraid, and not know what to do... You have to think about it like that..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, just trying to get what he had just said into my brain.

I knew he was right, what if he was alive, and he was alone... He could die, from starvation, thirst, or worst off he could be there for days, and when he finally decided to try to get food or water, he goes out of the community into a bunch of the dead...

There was only so many places he could be, I closed my eyes for just a few moments, if he was still alive, someone would find him, and that someone had to be me, I was his brother, he looked up to me and Angela... It could only be me...

"Alright, let's go... Give me the lamp, you walk in first..." I said to him. He looked down at the ground for a few moments, I could tell what I had just said had resonated in his head. But eventually he got over it and he looked back at me and he nodded his head to me.

He then handed over the lamp to me, I nodded back to him. Then we began to walk out of the hallway, it had seemed like we had been in here for hours, and in truth, that might actually be the case. We had been sitting in the hallway for quite some time, then we went into the bathroom and Lilly's room.

I shook my head, we had to do this properly, this was not a game, we could not just walk through this as fast as we wanted to. Christian looked around in the living room just in case. Which I did not blame him, unless someone was here recently, which I was pretty sure of, then there was another 1 of the dead in this house.

I lifted my gun up, putting my safety on just so I did not accidentally take off a part of Christians skull. Then we walked into the kitchen, this room Christian did not spend as much time looking around like he did in the kitchen.

Partly because I had already been in this room, and I had made quite a bit of racket falling onto the ground. I looked at the pile of blood, it was partly smeared on the ground because of when I had fallen on it just a few minutes ago.

I stopped Christian just before he walked into it, he looked at me a bit confused as the what I was trying to tell him. I then pointed my head towards the blood that was sitting in front of us on the kitchen floor, he looked at it and then nodded.

Then me and him both began to step around it, and once we were around it, we then began to walk towards the door of the garage. Now that we were at the garage door, Christian just stood there for quite a few moments and then he looked at me and he nodded to me.

I nodded to him as well, he then began to knock on the door, a bit louder than I thought he should have. But I did not say anything about it, I doubt that even if the dead had heard it from outside if they could even specify where the source of sound had come from in the first place.

We sat there for a few moments, and then he turned his head back to me. He then began to nod, and just as he was about to turn the knob on the door, there was a bit of a loud crash from inside the garage. I saw his face, change from a bit of a smile, as he now looked quite a bit worried...

"Kid... Take your safety off, I did not hear the dead from the garage, I think that there is someone in there." He said to me. I looked at him, a bit surprised that he had noticed that I had turned my safety on, his head was turned the other direction when I had done it...

I shook my head, that was the least of my worries right now, if someone was in there, I had a feeling that they would be shot... I was pretty sure that Lilly did not often have visitors...

When there were, it was either me, Angela, or Liam... I was pretty sure that Amgela had been taken in by the other group... Besides, she would not be hiding in a garage right now... She would be looking for me and Liam...

Liam, there was no way that he could have killed one of the dead by himself. He was only 5 years old... I felt a bit bad that I had recently missed his birthday, but I shook my head on that, I should not be worried about that... I should be more worried if Liam was alive...

"Do you think that someone in the other community is still here?" I asked him. He looked at me for a few moments, then he put a hand to his finger to tell me to be silent. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded, I was being quite loud, but I'm sure if someone was there, they had already heard the knocking.

We sat there for just a few moments longer, just in silence. Christian did not even dare more his hand towards the door knob. After a few moments of silence, if someone was in there, they sure were trying to be quiet...

"I doubt it, but there is a small possibilty of that being true... Lilly was just killed recently, I will teach you how to notice that another day... But now this is our main focus... Turn the lamp off..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded to him.

I then turned the lamp off, I too doubted that it was someone from the other community... But if Lilly had been killed, and someone had been in the house during that time to finish Lilly off, then this could only spell trouble for us...

Christian then nodded to me in the dark to hand the lamp over to him. I gave it to him, as he then opened the door to the garage. All I heard was silence, but then there was a bit or another loud crash from much closer than before...

I moved back a little, quite a bit surprised to hear to from that close, but then I noticed that it was just Christian throwing the lamp down the steps... It had scared me, it had probably broken the lamp, I was a bit confused as to why he had not just thrown something else, but he probably was not thinking about it at the moment.

It was still a smart move, if someone was waiting at the door for someone to walk it, with a gun pointed at us, then they would have shot, the moment that they had heard those walking down the steps... It made sense, I looked back over at Christian and whispered to him, just in case there was someone bad in there.

"I don't think that they would have a gun, makes sense as to why there were bricks beside Lilly's dead body... I don't think they are a part of the other community, but we need to be safe just in case." I said to Christian. He looked at me for a few moments.

And then he grinned at me, he then let out a bit of a snort. Then he looked behind me for some reason, I suppose he was still worried that someone might just randomly sneak up on us. I shook my head at him, I was quite a bit confused as to what was so funny to him.

"You say that like I'm not the mentor, I've got this kid, but at least your thinking on your own level now..." He said to me. I looked at him, a bit upset at what he had said at first, but once I took in what he said at the second part I then nodded at him. But he had his head turned back at the garage.

I sat there for a few more moments, as he then began taking his first steps into the garage... I did not hear anyone moving, so obviously if someone was in there, they were trying to be as quiet as possible, I think someone was hiding, not trying to kill us...

"Wherever that came from, I believe it came from the far right..." He whispered over to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I shook my head at him... At this point, now he was the one that was wasting time...

He then began walking down the first step, the board that he walked on began to creak. There were a lot of places in this house that it would creak, this house was made before the apocalypse had happened. He winced as he heard the loud creak sort of vibrate in the small garage.

"Yeah... I mean that is the only place you can go to in the garage..." I said to him. He looked back at me when I had said it, which he probably should not be doing if he was worried about someone being in the garage, which I was beginning to wonder if it was just some sort of mishap.

Things often usually tended to break, or fall when you just opened doors in this house... I did not feel like saying anything about it, because it was like Christian had always said, there is no such thing as being too safe. I did not want to get him thinking that we were safe when we in fact may very well not be.

"Haha... Real funny kid, yes... I know... You always need to be like that even in places you been in before... You never know..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, but I did not say anything back to him. I knew that he was right, but I did not want to admit it to him.

Once he was down to the bottom of the steps, I then began to follow his lead. Toting my gun up such as he was doing. He then stopped moving, and I stopped with him, just as I got to the bottom step to the entrance into the garage.

I looked at him a bit confused, he had his gun pointed at something, did he see something that I did not? I looked at where he was pointing his gun, he was pointing it at the far side of the wall. I did not see anything there, but to be fair, it was a bit too dark for me to notice, so I lifted my gun towards the wall as well.

"Is anyone there? We will shoot you if you move... So start your talking if you are in here..." I said. I waited for a few moments, for some odd reason I expected someone to respond, but the garage just stayed in darkness, with no sounds...

I sat there for a few moments, and then I looked over at Christian, he was looking back at me as well, but he was shaking his head at me. Which confused me a bit, had I done something wrong? That seemed like the smartest play that I could think about it my brain.

"Kid... There's no one here, just go and close the door, I'm going to turn on the lamp just in case, but I am pretty sure this small little garage is empty..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, I felt like he was not being cautious enough, especially after we had heard something fall on to the ground in here just a few moments ago.

I shook my head anyways, and then I walked back up onto the steps, and I grabbed onto the door handle. I then slowly, and quietly began to close the door, still having a worry in my mind that someone was watching everything that we were doing right now.

I turned my head back around, and then I saw the lamp begin to flicker on, I put my hand over my eyes for a few moments, it hurt my eyes to see the sudden brightness in front of me. After a few moments, my eyes then eventually got over the bright light in the room.

I looked around to see where the loud crash might have come from, and then I saw in the far corner, there was a boxing set that had fallen over... I looked at it a bit sadly, recalling a few old sad memories in my mind, memories that I did very much regret...

"Ben! Good morning! Guess what I got for you last night?" Lilly said to me. I looked at her, a bit confused and a bit surprised at the same time. It was still hard to see from the bright light in the room. She had just woken me up, but as I looked out the window, I should have been awake hours ago.

I had just been sitting in my bed, thinking, and almost not thinking at the same time... I had just lost my mother recently, things could not get any worse for me right now. I looked at Lilly a bit surprised, and a bit confused at the same time.

As the bright light began to dimmer down for me, I noticed that she was holding something in her hand, but not only that, in the far corner of the room there was something sitting there. I looked at what it was a bit closer, and then I turned my head down at the boxing gloves.

I looked at her quite a bit confused, was she saying that she had gotten me a boxing set? I looked at her a bit upset almost, my 11th birthday was yesterday, and all she had gotten me was a boxing set? I shook my head, when had I ever said that I liked boxing...

I tried to keep myself as calm as I possibly could. I knew that she had only done it with good intentions, but this was most definitely not what I had wanted as a birthday present... I was hoping more for a bb gun, my friends had real guns, that was the least I could have asked for...

I knew that Lilly was heavily in on an anti gun movement in the community however. I looked down at the ground a bit disappointed, but I did my best to keep myself as calm as possible at the moment. I smiled back at her, and she cracked a smile as well.

"Thanks Lilly! But you did not have to, I didn't really want anything for my birthday anyways..." I said to her. She looked at me a bit surprised for a few moments, she then put the boxing gloves down on the dresser, as she began walking towards me.

She sat down on the bed beside me, I looked at her for a few moments. She then then went up to me, and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheeks like she always did in the morning. I pushed her off of me in a bit of a joking way like we usually did and then I brushed off the wetness of her lips on my cheeks.

"Well... You always used to talk about how birthday and christmas presents were your most favorite thing in the world... Besides you seemed interested when I was telling you about how my husband used to practice boxing." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I looked down at the bed side.

I did remember telling her that I did like boxing I suppose, but that was just to make her feel better, I often used to lie to her like that. I just never wanted her to feel bad, she always had a big smile on her face, and I loved that out of her.

"Yes... That was before my mother died..." I said to her. It instantly went into a much darker subject, and she looked away as soon as I said it. I knew that she was hurt just as much as I was. My mother was her best friend, she was her only friend...

I felt a bit bad for taking that route, but either way she was going to feel bad no matter what, I just needed an excuse to make it seem like it was not the fact that I didn't like boxing, but more on the fact that I missed my mother... She did in fact give me the best presents...

"I am sorry... I lost a lot when she died as well, but we need to overcome our hurdles, and not think about things that happened in the past... You are still alive, and so am I... Be happy with what you still have, you are not the only one that has lost a lot..." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I looked back down at the ground once again...

I knew that she was right, I was still in a lot of pain from what I had lost that day, a lot of people had lost a lot that day. I just hate to bring stuff up like that as often as I seemed to do. Lilly came in to give me another hug, this time I happily took the hug.

I was in so much pain, I knew that I would never get my mother back, there was nothing that could save her, or bring her back to life... People had been talking about a cure for quite some time, I knew that there would never be a cure however.

You cant cure a person that has missing limbs, missing intestines, or something else that was missing. I wish that you could, but it was just simply impossible. Besides, my sister had finished the killing blow to my mother and our stepfather.

I shivered just thinking about it, but then I heard a loud knock on the door, that thankfully took my mind off of the subject. I could tell that it also took it off of it for Lilly as well. I knew who it was that was knocking at the door, and I pulled myself off of the bed.

"Sorry Lilly... That is Phillip knocking at the door, he must want be to hang out with them today." I said to her. She looked at me with a bit of a sad look on her face, but she did not say anything to me. I felt a bit bad for bringing up my mother again.

I shook my head as I put on my shoes, and I began to walk out of the room to go meet with Phillip at the front door. Who was now knocking a bit frustrated that no one had answered the door yet. I saw him looking through the window but he did not notice me through the dark hallway.

"Hold on Phillip! I'll be right there!" I yelled to him. He then spotted me through the hallway and he moved away from the window. I heard him drop down on one of the chairs on the front porch as he looked a bit frustrated that I had not left the house quite yet.

"Hurry the hell up! I've been sitting here for forever!" He yelled back to me. I shook my head, Phillip had still not grown up from that stage where you over exaggerated about everything. Which to be fair, neither had I, I suppose.

I then looked back at Lilly one last time. She still had her head leaned down towards the ground. I shook my head, and then began to walk out of the room, but just as I did I heard one last thing come out of the mouth of Lilly.

"Have fun with your friend Ben..." She said to me. I could hear sadness in her voice, I knew she did not want to be alone right now, but I did not want to hang out with her, I wanted to go be with my friends...

I closed my eyes, trying not to think about those times that I had spent with Lilly, those times were gone now. I then opened them and then looked at Christian, he was looking right back at me a bit sadly... It seemed that he was sad about the fact that I was sad.

I shook my head, and then I regained my footing, Christian did as well, as he looked back around the garage room, moving his head left and right, still expecting someone to be in the room with us for some odd reason.

Once Christian was done searching through the room for who knows how many times he had already done it, he then turned his head over to me, he then nodded to me as he began speaking to me.

"Let's go to the other room... If there is nothing there, then I don't know what to do, they must have left the house some way or another." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded back to him. We then both began walking up the steps to leave the garage.

Just as I was about to close the door behind us, I saw something out of the corner of my eyes, just before Christians lamp was out of the room. I then stopped Christian right before he went out of the kitchen, he looked back at me a bit confused why I had stopped him.

We then walked back into the garage, once I saw the light from the lamp bring some light back to the room, I noticed it once again... I don't know why, but something was telling me that I needed to go check it out, Christian was still looking around, a bit confused as the reason why I had stopped him in the first place.

"Christian, there is a crawl space, I have a gut feeling that something is important in there." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he nodded to me. It actually surprised me quite a bit, I would have thought that he would have said something or another about how, it was nothing and there was probably nothing in that crawlspace.

"If you have a gut feeling... Then lets check it out, there's nothing to lose..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, a bit surprised that he had taken that stance on what I had thought about. But I nodded to him happily.

We then began walking down the steps once again, this time a bit louder, because there was nothing that we were trying to sneak up on. We probably should not be walking this loud, if someone was in there, then they might shoot us or do something to us.

I shook my head though, I had been in that crawlspace a long time ago the only thing that could fit in there, was a young kid... I began to think about it more and more, and now the gut intinct that was telling me to go in there and check it out, I was beginning to realize, that there might be a chance.

Christian opened up the door to the crawl space, and he lifted up the lamp to see if there was anything, or anyone in there. I looked around as well, it was a bit of a smaller crawl space. I did not see anything unfortunately... I pulled my head out of the crawlspace a bit saddened.

Christian however was still looking in there, I shook my head, I always wondered why he took so long to look around in small little rooms like that, if there was something in there we would have seen it right away...

Christian then stopped, and he gasped. I turned my head back over to him, a bit confused as to what it might be, had I missed something? He then turned his head out of the crawl space, and he began speaking to me, looking at me dead in the eyes...

"Ben... Someone was here..."