Ok guys don't hate me. I know I haven't done anything for a really, really, really, REALLY really (x400) long time with "Jinxed", but I kinda fell in love with this game and, well, this happened. I PROMISE I will continue with "Jinxed" after my exams next week (April - May 2015). But for now, enjoy! (please don't hate meeeee)
The Last of Us II
CHAPTER ONE
"Easy now, easy."
"Shh," I reply. A few moments pass. I concentrate on the animal in the distance. I can feel my heart thumping in my chest. The pulse travels through my whole body. Into my legs, my head, my hands. I take a deep breath, and count to myself. One, two, three. I squeeze the trigger and lean forward into the recoil. I see the brown animal look up in this direction just before its head snaps back, tearing flesh and shattering bones.
"Atta girl. Nice shot."
"I've shot a deer before you know."
"Yeah but none of them were that far away."
I stand up, holding the rifle around my back. I dust off the front of my shirt, since I was lying on dirt. "Come on. We've got to get our dinner for the week."
"Yeah, I'm coming." I follow Joel through the forest. The woods around me is so lush, so peaceful, so alive. "Beautiful isn't it?"
"What?"
"The world. Isn't it pretty?"
"I suppose it is."
"Was the city like this? You know, before it all went to hell."
"Yeah some places. Where I lived there were parks like this, really similar."
"Must have been amazing. Too bad most of it is just shit now."
"There's the trail," he says, pointing at the puddle of blood in the grass. "Shouldn't be too far from here now."
We soon arrive to the body of the deer. Its head lay on the ground with blood pouring out of the hole between its eyes. Its lifeless body lies in the middle of a clearing in a pool of blood.
"Thing bled out over here? That was fast," Joel says as he approaches the body.
Wait, how did it die here? A deer this size can definitely run for way longer than this. In the distance I hear a sound; an all too familiar sound.
"Joel!" I yell as I remove my rifle. I aim it at the head of the clicker running at him and fire. Blood and parts of its flesh falls everywhere, including on the deer.
"Son of a. . . how the hell are there infected over here? These parts have been uninhabited for years!"
"Look at his shirt," I say as I make my way over to Joel. "Poor bastard was a camper out here."
"That means that there'll be more of em."
I look at the deer on the ground. "You can't eat this. Look, it's got infected blood all over it."
"It's getting dark, we need to head back now."
"Wait what about you? What'll you eat?"
"Nothing. I'll see what I can find at the house," he says while pulling the deer's antlers. "Help me with this."
"Wait no Joel. There isn't anything at the house. We cleared it out a few days ago."
"Well I'll think of something."
"There isn't anything else, we have to find another deer or a rabbit or. . ."
"Ellie!" Joel pulls me down and fires four shots behind me, each one with a screech of pain after it.
"What the fuck?!"
"Now no one will eat anything."
"What do you mean?" I turn around to see a massive swarm of runners and clickers charging our way. "Oh shit."
"Ellie come on!"
I stay close to Joel as we sprint in the other direction. An army of clicking and screaming and yelling follows us closely.
"Joel where are we going?"
"Just keep running!"
I listen to Joel and continue to sprint behind him. I hear footsteps behind mine, but I dare not turn around to lose speed. Then, something grabs me by the shoulders. The infected runner yells and shouts as it pins me to the ground. It tries to bite me, but I thrust my knife into its right eye. That doesn't stop it though.
"Ow, Joel! Get off me you fucking. . ." Joel fires three shots into its head. Blood splatters everywhere, and I am covered in it. "Shit, that's disgusting," I say.
"Ellie come on, they're getting closer." I listen and hear the hoard not too far away. "In here," Joel says as he opens the door to an abandoned home. He shuts the door and pushes a bookshelf in front of it to barricade us in. I take a moment to catch my breath. "Okay, we should be good now. I don't hear them anymore so we must have. . ."
"Don't fucking move." I swing around to find an orange haired girl pointing a shotgun at me. I aim my weapon at her, which is only a handgun, compared to hers. "Drop the gun."
"You first."
She cocks her shotgun and points it straight at my face. "Ellie," Joel says.
"Shut up." She looks at Joel's backpack. "What's in the bag?"
"None of you goddamn business," I snap at her.
"Ellie."
"Take em off, both of you, and slide them over here," she steps back a foot or two.
"Yeah? Fuck you!"
"Ellie, please," Joel says to me.
The girl steps closer to me. Joel leans forward, causing her to stop. "Listen you little shit, if you open your mouth one more time I'm going to put five buck shots in it, you hear me?"
"You can go and fu. . ." Before I can finish my sentence, we hear clicking coming from outside.
"You hear that?" Joel says, he peeks through the window, "Damn clickers. Three of em." He looks at the girl. "Okay, if you could just. . ." She points the shotgun at Joel, causing him to raise his hands. "Look, there are three of those things out there. Now you could hold us up in here and draw some attention, or you could give us our bags and we get the hell out of here." The girl looks at us nervously. She finally lowers her gun and turns to run outside. "Come on Ellie."
"We could have taken her."
"Yeah, not unless one of us took a bullet."
We exit through the back of the house and see the girl crouched behind an old, rusted car.
"What are you still doing here?" Joel asks.
"Hey, get down!" she whispers. She points at the yard next to this one. Clickers walk aimlessly around another rusted truck. "Clickers, two of em. Ellie. . ."
"On it,," I say as I take my gun from the holster. I begin to move to closer cover, careful not to make a sound.
"What the hell are you. . ."
"Calm down," Joel says to her, "We've done this before."
I duck down behind a large flower pot. One of the clickers is right in front of me, making its disgusting clicking noises. It's a woman, older than that girl, but far younger than Joel. Even though she is dead, the thing controlling her, that fungus is still alive, but not for long.
I wait for Joel to get in position next to the other clicker, that way we get both of them at the same time. Once in position, I take out my knife. I just washed this thing too, I think to myself. Joel silently counts with his fingers to me, Three, Two, One. On one I jump up on the clicker and shove my knife in its throat. The fungus growing on its face feels disgusting, like a soft sponge covered in blood and hairs. The screeches they make slowly fade as they die on the ground.
I look at the blood on my hands, "Fuck that's gross."
"It's clear, you can come out. . ." We both look at where she was, but see nothing. Then, we hear a single, blood curdling, scream.
I follow Joel as we run toward where we heard it. The silence makes our footsteps louder, and we hear shouting coming from behind a house. We turn a corner to see her on the ground fighting a runner off.
"Help! Help me!"
"Joel!" He fires three shots at the infected, killing him and splattering blood all over the girl. She frantically moves away from the body, breathing heavily.
"Are you alright?" Joel asks her. She picks up her shotgun and slowly stands up, shaking violently. She looks at Joel, then at me, her green eyes staring straight through me. I've seen that look before.
"Oh my God. She's infected." She looks at her arm. Her left arm has a bite mark. Blood pores out through it down to her fingers, dripping onto the blood covered ground. She looks back at me with her green, hopeless eyes. Her shaking hands grab her shotgun, bringing it up to her chin. Tears run down her cheek before. . .
"No!" Joel screams as the blood sprays everywhere, and her body falls to the ground.
"Oh my God!" The body falls down to my feet. Her hair is spread around her face, lying in a puddle of blood. "We could have. . . she could have. . ." I cover my mouth with my hands. I ignore the blood on my hands putting more blood on my face. My heart struggles to slow to a normal pace.
"Come on Ellie. Let's go."
To Be Continued. . .