A/N Hello Everybody! It's a been a long while since I last updated, and mostly writing block is to blame for that one. Anyway, I have recently decided to go back and re-play the Last of Us. And because of this, I instantly thought of my story, The Two of Us. This story, while not having the most favorites and follows (mostly because It was absolute shit) it still has the most chapters, the most words, and it was the first ever story I really wrote. So, with that being said, I have decided to revisit and re-write The Two of Us. The original will stay up, mostly so I can see myself how much ive changed. If you enjoy, please make sure to Fav and Follow this, as well as drop a review. Without further ado, enjoy! (This is not a Humphrey/Kate story. This is a story between Kate and a OC, and it is anthro + Human)
A small pocket flashlight shone around frantically, noticeably lighting up the dark, cracked asphalt between broken down cars and freshly mutilated bodies. Heavy drops of rain fell forcefully onto the ground below, mixing with the blood as it did. The clouds blacked out the already dark night sky, making the flashlights of searching parties and the occasional burst of gunfire the only noticeable luminance, while hulking skyscrapers towered on either side of the street, observing the firefights occurring on the streets below. Just as they had observed the fall of humans just twenty years prior. The result of a medical experiment gone wrong, turning the population that once walked the halls of those very skyscrapers into cannibalistic, deranged creatures. Cities, like the one that housed these unfathomably tall buildings, were hit the hardest. Naturally, this gave birth to the hardest survivors, the most brutal people, who would do absolutely anything to survive. These people would come to form groups hundreds or even thousands in number, who would come to control the cities, making them their home. With such a dependency on raiding because of the lack of materials in an already scavenged city, these groups would come to be extremely hostile and extremely loyal to their group. A common name was placed around these people. They were called Hunters.
And that was exactly what Jeremy had found himself up against. His small clique thirty strong had wandered into the downtown sector of Pittsburgh, completely desperate and willing to risk everything because of the hunger ensuing the group. While looting the small remains of a department store, the group were thrown into a gun fight with the Hunters. The group had retreated out the back door, but they were deep in Hunter territory. A chase had gone on for better part of the day, with Jeremy's group losing people along the way. The Hunters had finally cornered them, and the only means of retreat was into a dark, destroyed building so high it hovered menacingly above Jeremy when they're group reached it. Just because the cities had become the almost rightful territory of the Hunters, that didn't mean they were clear of infected. Large buildings like this were the perfect place for remaining infected to be. This posed the same threat the Hunters did, so Jeremy's group devised a plan.
With what little time they had, Jeremy and a few other men pushed a few broken-down cars into a defensive formation around the entrance to the door, creating as much cover as possible. Only eight men, Jeremy included, were tasked to defend the door way. The better part of the group, thirteen strong, were to delve into the building. Five men lead the way, while behind them were the remaining women and children. Just as the group disappeared behind the first shadow of the building, the Hunters found their location. For what seemed the millionth time, Jeremy crouched behind cover as bullets pounded against the rusted metal of the cars in between them. The seven men around him followed suit as the storm of bullets got more server as more Hunters started to show up. The eight of them looked back and forth between each other, silently waiting for the first brave soul to peek up and retaliate, and for a good minute, no one did. When a time finally hit that the wave of bullets was at its least intense, probably due to the necessity of reloading, Jeremy decided to put his neck on the line and be the inspiring touch they needed to get the men up and firing.
Jeremy quickly launched his head above the trunk a car, orange with rust, and set his eyes down the sightline on his barrel. He didn't really aim to much, he just clenched the trigger a couple of times, feeling his rifle eagerly kick back with each bullet spewed from his gun. He put five rounds down range, but he only heard one cry of pain. However, this still was enough to get the other men around him up and shooting. Casings of the bullets being fired fell to the asphalt in unison with the heavy drops of rain that continued to coat the city. Jeremy's detachment was now spraying their own wall of fire. It was short lived however as a man to Jeremy's right was struck. A wail of pain escaped him before he tumbled backwards and eclipsing the very bullets casings he had just produced. The men saw this and retreated to cover, allowing the Hunters to once again gain the suppressive advantage. Jeremy dropped his rifle and gripped the downed man by the shoulders. He knew him, just like he knew everyone in the group. His name was Craig. Craig was only two years older than Jeremy, being born the same year that humans went into near extinction. His left cheek was almost completely gone, a huge gaping hole going straight through it and out the other cheek. A man to his left asked a question, having to scream just for his voice to be heard over the constant eruption of bullets. "Is he alive?" the man asked.
Jeremy placed his index and middle finger to Craig's wrist and neck. The constant pulsing of a heart beat greeted him. At least he knew that Craig wasn't dead, he sure as hell wasn't awake though. Jeremy turned and nodded, not even attempting to yell back a response. He and another man lifted Craig against the car he was already behind and proceeded to get back into their positions of cover. "Alright" called the man that had asked of Craig's status. "Next time the lot of them reload, we peak back over cover and do the same thing. We have to give the others time to traverse the building."
Everyone agreed even if it was unspoken and waited for the man's signal, crouching ever lower to avoid the rushing stream of bullets. Before the signal could be given another wail of pain erupted from behind the protective barrier of vehicles. Turning to his left, Jeremy saw a man fall to the ground, clutching the side of his stomach. Just as he reached the ground, the door he was taking cover behind started to pop as bullets started to break their way through. The man had been shot through the car. To Jeremy's right the same exact thing happened to another man. Jeremy grabbed Craig's shoulder and flung him back to the soaked street he was just on, following suit. Most of the remaining men had the senses to get low, and one even ran back to the doors of the building. Jeremy kept his hand on Craig while he looked towards the man who was supposed to give the signal. "We need to back up to the door" he shouted.
"What about Craig" asked Jeremy as he sunk lower to the ground when more bullets came over his head. "Leave him" came the man's quick response. Jeremy shook his head. "We can't just leave him. Someone needs to help me carry him back to the door, no man left behind." The man's mood quickly and noticeably changed to angry. "This isn't some fucking movie kid, people die and people get left behind, it's the nature of things. Trying to get Craig out of here just increases our chances of dying with him."
"He's right" spoke up another. Jeremy shook his head distastefully. He didn't like leaving him, especially when he was still alive. But if nobody was going to assist him in carrying Craig back, he couldn't have done it himself. "Fine" he shouted back, refusing to say any further. The man to give the signal before now went to give it again. At the time of least intense from the wall of bullets, the men remaining by the car shot up and ran, the one man already at the door providing covering fire. Another got shot on his way to the door, which only left Jeremy, the man at the door, and the man giving the signals. The first was named Mark. He was an older man, around forty years old. Jeremy had never really conversed with him, and the same went for the other. His name was Mitch, and he was even older than Mark, clocking in at forty-seven years of age. Jeremy felt out of place with the two older men, being only eighteen himself. He slid behind the cover of a receptionist desk in the main lobby, the two older men also taking cover in the lobby.
"What do we do?" asked Mark, facing Mitch as he said it. "I say we race through the building and find the rest of the group" answered Jeremy, not giving Mitch any time to answer. "Yeah, that's smart, just lead the hunters right to the women and children" said Mitch, giving Jeremy a dirty look. With the recent transpiration of events Jeremy was beginning to dislike Mitch more and more. "Do you have a better idea? Staying here will just result in everyone dying anyway." "Well, the rest of the group might get out alive if we try and hold them off a bit longer" concluded Mark, looking to both men for approval. Before Mitch could answer, a gunshot was heard. And not one from outside the building. The three men looked back to the door where the group in question had gone to. A small boy, had to be only eight or nine, came running through the door, tears streaming down his face and a pistol in hand. Before he could reach Mark and Mitch, who were closest to the door the boy came running through, he got tackled to the ground. Before anyone could react, the clicker that had just jumped on the boy started to tear through his neck with the decayed, yet sharp as blades teeth.
Jeremy was the first to react, putting multiple rounds into the hardened, plague ridden cover that encased most of the clickers head. Mitch and Mark joined in, and the clicker was dead as quickly as it arrived. Mark jumped up, dodging the bullets still coming through the door as he ran to the kid. "Jeremy, cover him" ordered Mitch as he leaned out of cover and fired at the still pursuing Hunters. Jeremy joined in, firing the last few rounds in the makeshift rifle he had before he reloaded his clip. Just as a fresh clip was implemented into the appropriate slot on the rifle, Mark's voice rang through the lobby louder than the gun shots. "More clickers!" Mitch and Jeremy turned without question, and started to open fire on swarms of infected that started to burst through the door way. Mark, who was still by the little boy's side, was swarmed, and was quickly lost in the sea of decayed bodies charging the last two survivors.
Since Jeremy and Mitch were on other sides of the lobby, they both backed up to opposite ends. Indirectly, rounds from the Hunters continues spray hit the infected, giving time for both men to reload and get off another volley. With the way the building faced the street, Jeremy was backing up towards a set of windows that faced the street, which shockingly, had not yet been shattered by bullets. He fired off a few more rounds, and went to load in another clip. In doing so, he faintly heard the lowering of fire from the Hunters as they realized what was happening, and the distant, pained screams of Mitch. Before he could set another clip in the gun's receiver, he was charged. A regular, non-rotted infected practically tackled him, sending him, and the infected, flying out of a window and back onto the street. Jeremy used the gun that was now sideways on his chest to shove the infected individual off him and sprawling down into a puddle on the sidewalk. He shot up just in time as more infected came jumping out the window. Jeremy turned, only to see a wall of barrels as the Hunters aimed at the infected. Jeremy jumped back down, laying against the sidewalk as bullets began to rain out. The first few infected who had seen, and were targeting Jeremy, had been slaying, so the rest who jumped out were more focused on the wall of food in front of them.
Hundreds of infected came through the window and the door, and soon started to overwhelm the Hunters, who now were in a mass retreat just like Jeremy's group had been in a few minutes prior, emphasizes on had. Jeremy again jumped to his feet, and using the chaos around him to his advantage, pushed his way through the infected, heading the opposite way of the Hunters. He made it through the horde unscathed, but a few had seen him slip through, and were now in hot pursuit. Jeremy ran as fast as he could, his shoes soaked through with the amount of puddles he charged through. The infected were faster and were gaining quick. He didn't care though, and just continued to run, adrenaline fueling his body in a last-ditch effort to escape the gruesome death that surely awaited him. His eyes scanned ahead, searching for any path of escape, but all he saw was open road and boarded up buildings.
Dodging through the decaying cars on the street, Jeremy picked up a broken off tail pipe, and turned. He set his feet and swung with all his might. If he had missed, it would probably have thrown his arm out. Alas, the tail pipe made purchase on the jaw of the closest infected to him. The pipe broke instantly, shattering into a million different pieces as the body of the infected sprawled across the hood on another car, unmoving. Jeremy instantly set his feet again, throwing up his fists in readiness for his last stand. Six more infected were on the way, screaming and growling as they came. The first swung a wild punch, intended to knock Jeremy down and open him up to the feast they wanted to have. Jeremy ducked, and using the momentum of the swing, flipped the monster over his body and onto the soaked street. That was all though, as the next one tackled him into the side of a car.
Jeremy grunted with pain as his back forcefully slammed into the rusted frame of the vehicle. The infected went for his neck, jaw unhinged like a snake and ready to sink its teeth into Jeremy's flesh. Jeremy pushed instinctively before the infected could however and flung its body away from him. The next tackled him to the ground, which was the one thing Jeremy didn't want. On the floor, he was defenseless with his legs readily exposed to the remaining, and closing, infected. Jeremy's head was flung as he hit the floor and contacted the metal plating of an old man hole covering, instantly making his vision go fuzzy and grey. Jeremy didn't even move from how shockingly painful and sudden the pain was. His hearing receded to, leaving only a low hum to fill his ears. After that, it was all black.
Kate
Kate kneeled by an old dumpster, her two companions Hutch and Cando directly behind her. In her hands, she held a set of binoculars, and was currently watching the proceedings of a fire fight between a group of Hunters and a smaller group of survivors in the down town area of Pittsburgh, a human metropolitan area in the once state of Pennsylvania. The Hunters, unsurprisingly, were exceedingly brutal and were destroying the small group. They had fallen back into a large hotel, the name of which the sign was to show was corroded and rotted away, so it was impossible to tell the name. The she-wolf Kate sighed inwardly. She wished she could at least offer some assistance to the small group. But this was Kate's first run, and as such, her and her team were not allowed to engage unless in a defensive matter.
Kate had just turned nineteen, and by her pack's standards, was the accepted time to begin embarking on runs and hunts. With her pack only having the 'human' form for the last twenty or so years, the ability to function in the same way humans have were a little confusing for the packs older generation, like Kate's parents. But for people like Kate, Hutch, and Cando, this was how they were born. And since Kate was brought up to be an alpha, she has spent her entire young life learning acrobatics, how to use human weapons and vehicles, and how to conduct combat on an equal playing field with a human enemy. And to be frank, she was eager to test them, even if it meant going against such a large force. She knew her parents, and her teammates for that matter would disapprove, so she is refraining from acting on her impulse.
"I want some action" groaned Kate, her tail swaying back and forth restlessly between her legs. Hutch fixed his hoodie, allowing the hood part to sit more easily on top of his head as he spoke. "Winston and Eve wouldn't approve" he commented in a friendly, yet understanding tone. Kate didn't respond, but just groan with irritation again. She wanted to help these people, yet here she was, suspended from doing so until her first successful run.
"I agree with Kate" spoke Cando as he gripped and released the handle of his side arm. "These thieving bastards deserve to get what's coming to them." No one responded to his comment, mostly because Kate had the binoculars up to her face. She saw a human male get thrown through a window by an infected, and shortly afterwards, a horde erupting through the window. Very quickly, the Hunters went into a full-on retreat. "Look at them run" exclaimed Cando excitedly, glad the Hunters were being chased for once. "Look" said Kate, pointing to the horde. The male that had gotten tackled was now running, being pursued by a couple of infected and heading straight for them.
"Infected are coming towards us, that's self-defense, right?" asked Kate with a smile as she went to stand, equipping her military grade M4 in her hands. "Kate no" said Hutch hurriedly. "No one is going to see Hutch" seconded Cando, equipping his side arm. "Besides, he needs help" said Cando as they witnessed the human get tackled to the soaked street. Kate jumped into action, and was on top of the infected before they could even get a bite off. Cando and Hutch were right behind her. They opened fire, spraying down the infected.
Kate reloaded her gun, putting the clip she just used into a pouch on her vest. Afterwards she bent down to examine the human. Kate's mother Eve was the equivalent of the packs doctor, so Kate had a basic understanding of medical knowledge. "He's not dead, and from what I can see, not bit either" mentioned Kate as she checked his pulse and his legs and forearms for bite marks. "Well, what do we do with him then?" Cando shifted his feet as he asked the question, trying to hide his shiver from the cold. Kate saw through it though, and realized how cold the human must be.
"Let's get him some place warm, hell, maybe even bring him back to the pack. It's not like he has his own anymore to go back to, from what we just saw." Cando and Hutch looked at each other, then back to Kate. "I don't see the harm in it, just make sure you bind him once we reach the truck, I don't want him suddenly turning aggressive." Kate nodded at Hutch's comment, and the three wolves hoisted the human and placed him on Hutch's shoulder. Then, they proceeded to head back to their truck, a half mile out of city limits, and return home. A large smile played at Kate's lips, as she had just completed her first successful run, and got a little action to.
A/N welp, there it is, the first chapter in The Two of Us: Remastered. Was it good? Let me know in the reviews and all, any form of praise or criticism is welcome, and greatly appreciated, and if you found any grammatical errors let me know so I can go back and fix them. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you guys in the next chapter. PEACE