Author's Note - We find out what happens after a pack of clickers stumble upon Ellie and her company in chapter 2. Took me the better part of the weekend to finish this but nevertheless, here it is.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own The Last of Us, it belongs to Naughty Dog.
Chapter 2: The Cabin in the Woods
"Oh no.." Ellie breathed.
Steven froze with fear. The recognisable, gutteral screeching of an enraged clicker pierced through the still air. Susan and Steven exchanged a glance as her eyes wandered past him, wide as saucepans. Ellie followed her gaze. There, less than ten metres from them, a group of five clickers stumbled it's way clumsily towards them.
"Fuck." Susan gasped loudly.
One of the clickers stopped in it's tracks. It shuffled around to face the source of the noise, to face them. Steven took a careful step backwards, never taking his eyes off of the creature once.
Crack!
Susan's head snapped around to Steven and treated him to an expression of complete horror as he looked down at the broken branch beneath his combat boot. He looked back at her as the five clickers screamed in unison, racing towards them. Susan screamed in terror as the beast rapidly closed the distance between them, it's arms flailing wildly, it's deformed head thrashing.
Steven dropped the baton and snatched for his assault rifle. His fingers found the sturdy pistol grip and he swung the weapon's muzzle up to meet the charging clicker. Ellie covered her ears as a burst of automatic fire erupted from the assault rifle, the empty casings clinked when they hit the forest floor.
"Susan! We've gotta go!" Steven yelled, turning and running fifteen metres before spinning around and looseing another barrage of fire at the monsters.
Susan drew her pistol and fired several single rounds. Ellie's ears rang between the rattle of automatic fire and the screeching of clickers. Her heart stopped as another sound soon joined with the clickers. She peered around the tree. Almost a dozen screaming runners sprinted towards them, attracted by the deafening gunfire. She had to do something. She couldn't stay tucked into the tree, she'd be ripped to shreds by the infected.
"No, Steven! We can't leave her now, we've come too far to lose her now!" Susan shouted between rounds.
What could she do? She was unarmed, outnumbered and terrified. Ellie frantically looked around, desperate to find inspiration. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her by the collar and started to drag her away from the tree. Between the bursting stars she saw a pair of combate boots pounding in the dirt. She dug her arms into the ground in an attempt to stop herself. She clasped her fingers tightly around a solid branch, aimed for the centre of the leg, and swung.
The bone made an awful crunch as the branch connected splintered against Susan's knee. She screamed and Ellie felt the pressure on her collar released. Ellie tumbled to the ground as Susan came crashing down next to her. The 9mm pistol clattered on the ground a few metres away. She had no time to waste. Ellie was up on her feet within seconds. She ran towards the shore where she'd thought she was alone minutes before, scooping up the 9mm as she passed it. Behind her, more weapons joined the racket of gunfire that echoed between the trees.
Run Ellie! She told herself. Don't stop!
She exploded from the treeline and splashed through sandy puddles in a rush to reach the rock. Her trainers soaked right through and coarse grains of sand stuck to her skin, rubbing her raw against the fabric of her jeans. Suddenly she became aware of thudding footsteps behind her. Looking over her should, she saw a single runner hot on her heels, foaming at the mouth. Ellie willed her legs to go faster.
So close to my stuff! She thought.
She covered the remaining distance and snatched up her bow and the arrow beside it. In a swift motion she turned to face the runner, nocked an arrow, drew back on the bowstring and released. The arrow shot forward with a twang before penetrating through the runner's eye socket. A loud bang and blast of air accompanied the impact. No, she it couldn't have been the arrow, could it? She glanced past the monster as it stumbled and fell before her. Smoke leaked from the treeline as another explosion and shockwave hit her. More voices had joined Steven's cries. Whoever these people were, there were a lot of them. She had get away. Far away, and fast.
Ellie quickly threw her backpack and guitar over her shoulders and dashed away into the woods. The gunfire behind her ceased with a long, drawn out burst of automatic fire. No more screams, no more shouting. The only sound was the thud of her trainers in the dirt and her rapid breathing. She kept running and didn't look back. She had no idea where she was going.
And she didn't care.
Susan let out a cry of pain as the object impacted into her leg, though the protective knee pad took the brunt of the blow. The strength faded from her already weakened muscles and they collapsed from under her. Stars danced in front of her eyes as her head smacked against the ground. Her grip loosened and she felt Ellie and her 9mm pistol slip from her grasp. Fire from Steven still echoed between the trees. She felt a twang of fear pierce through her when she heard him yell at her.
"Sue! Look out!"
Heavy footsteps and frantic wailing rapidly encroached from behind her.
She sluggishly rolled onto her back, her head still swimming from the blow but she could just make out the ferocious shape of the infected runner sprinting towards her. Before she knew it, the beast was on top of her, wildly beating her with it's limbs. Her biceps burned the longer she fought to hold off the creature. She briefly caught a glimpse of the ragged, gnashing teeth the runner was desperately trying to sink into her flesh. All attempts to kick the runner off ended only in a waste of energy. Her strength was fading, the jaws grew closer. Susan closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable pain of teeth ripping at her flesh.
The pain never came. Susan heard rather than felt as several high velocity rounds passed close to her body and into the runner's. It's body tensed up and screamed, sending vile spittle into her face. The limp corpses' weight lifted from her chest and she greedily sucked in oxygen. She lay on the ground, regaining her strength.
"Sue!" Steven shouted. She opened her eyes and saw him standing over her, an assault rifle in one hand, extended the other to her.
She took his hand and pulled herself to her feet. He gently slapped her shoulder. The terrifying screech of more infected filled the woods as a dozen more figures burst through towards them. Steven snatched the 9mm pistol from his holster and handed it to Susan before rushing off. She fired slowly and accurately at the nearest infected as Steven crouched down beside a tree, leaning against it to provide a more stable shooting platform. Automatic fire rang out from Steven's assault rifle as he layed down a wall of fire.
Susan kept firing.
Bang-Bang-Bang-Click.
Horrified, Susan looked at the pistol. The slide had locked back and she had no more rounds, no magazines, no defence.
"Steven! I'm empty!" She screamed.
Her heart sank as Steven's assault rifle produced a similar click.
"Magazine!" He yelled, popping open his ammo pouch and pulling a magazine from it. "Last mag!"
Susan cursed. They were done for.
BOOM!
The earth shook. Dirt showered over Susan as an explosion ripped through the oncoming infected. She picked up on three more weapons opening fire and the infected began to fall dead.
"Grenade!" A voice yelled. The voices all chorused the same word. Susan tucked herself in behind a tree trunk and braced for the shockwave.
BOOM!
She never had gotten used to the grenades.
The screames of the infected were silenced for good with one, long, deafening, four second burst of automatic fire.
"Position clear! Position clear!" A familiar voice yelled. "Re-organise!"
Susan untucked herself and peered around the tree trunk and let out a sigh of relief. Four of her men had already grabbed Seven and pulled him into a defensive perimeter. She crawled towards them. One of them, clad in heavy riot control gear and brandishing a light machine gun, grabbed her clothes and pulled her into the middle of them. One of the gunmen lowered his weapon.
"We're clear, guys. Sue, you okay?" He asked, pulling the ballistic visor up over his helmet.
Susan stood up and brushed herself off. The other soldiers lowered their weapons but remained watchful for any more infected. She looked at her comrade's face, one she knew well and trusted with her life. A trust well deserved.
"Yeah. Thanks to you guys, Jacobs." She said, breathing out slowly.
Jacobs nodded.
"Where's the girl?" he asked. He knew there was no point messing about.
Susan felt the anger build up inside her.
"She got away." She said, trying to sound calm in front of her men. She decided not let them know where Ellie stood on going with them in the first place.
Jacobs just half nodded. He knew there had to be more to it than that. But he had known Susan a long time. She was nothing if not persistant. They'd find her. Or die trying.
"What now then, Sue?" Steven asked.
She stood silent a moment, lost in her own thoughts. She considered her responce.
"We keep looking." She said, addressing all of the soldiers. "Spread out. Look for ground sign that gives any indication of which way she went."
The men nodded then dispersed in different directions.
Susan shivered as the adrenaline began to wear off. She became aware of the throbbing pain in her right knee. The little bitch had whacked her good. She rested herself on a tree and scanned the ground for her own 9mm pistol. It became clear that Ellie had made off with it.
"Clever girl.." She mumbled to herself.
She felt a twang of frustration surge through her. This was the second time that girl had escaped her. It had taken them months to pick up her trail and now she was gone again. Not for the first time, Susan questioned why she was even going through with this whole chase. Why she was risking the lives of so many men and women that would follow her to the end and back again. Susan mentally slapped herself out of the moment of weakness. She remembered what had kept her going for three years. And she missed him dearly.
She was broken from her thoughts by the sound of footsteps behind her. She turned to see the soldier carrying the light machine gun approach her.
"Philip found something down by the shore, Sue, if you want to come and have a look." The man said.
Susan nodded. The news had brought her spirits back up.
"Thanks, John." She said, confidently striding towards the shore and the rock she'd found Ellie sat upon, plucking away at her guitar.
Philip was waiting for her by Ellie's rock. He was crouched down examining the corpse of an infected runner. Susan grimaced when she noticed the steel head of an arrow protruding from the back of the corpse's skull.
"Jesus.." She said, kneeling down beside the corpse. Philip nodded slowly.
"Yeah. This girls good." He said, pointing behind her. "There are tracks that lead that way, back into the woods."
Susan followed his finger. Sure enough, a trail of imprinted shoeprints dotted in the sand between her position and the tree line. She pulled a small compass, a notepad and a pencil from her combat vest and scribbled down the direction.
"East." Susan said quietly. "She's heading East."
The sky darkened and the roar of thunder echoed through the Wyoming mountains.
"We'd better get a move on." Philip said.
"Rain's coming in."
Ellie's lungs burned and her legs ached. How far had she run? She couldn't remember but it felt like miles. She brought her legs to a halt and dropped to her knees,greedily sucking in oxygen. She swung her backpack off her shoulders and dug around, pulling a canteen of water out. Unscrewing the top she cautiously looked aroud, waiting for her heart rate drop down and her legs to recover. She gulped down a few mouthfuls of water before screwing the top back onto the bottle and replacing it into her backpack.
Cool drops of rain began to lazily drop onto her forehead. For a moment, she allowed herself to lean back against a mossy boulder and close her eyes. Her heavy breathing had almost returned to some state of normality. She sucked air in through her nose before exhaling it into vapourous clouds of steam as the temperature started to drop. Green foliage and moss covered rocks surrounded her on all sides and the birds sang harmoniously to each other in the tree tops. She may have had a comfortable life in Jackson county, where the food was plenty and the walls kept her safe. But she had always felt more alive beyond the perimeter fences. One with nature she would stalk her prey like a hunter. She loved the sounds and smells of the fresh, woodland air. Joel would often take her down to the river and teach her bit by bit how to swim like a fish.
A stab of pain forced it's way into her gut, tying her in knots and feeding fuel to the tears stinging behind her eyes. As much as she loved the wilds, anything she killed, any new skill she'd mastered, she would always return home to tell Joel her stories of adventure. But that life was all but destroyed now. Jackson was gone, the river was gone. Joel was gone.
The rain had begun to fall, gradually dampening her face to the point she couldn't feel the individual tears rolling down her cheeks. She let out a saddened sigh, slung her backpack straps then continued in the direction she'd been going. She didn't recognise where she was, but that didn't matter.
It's not like I've got anywhere else to go. She thought sadly.
Thunder tore through the sky and a flash of lighting lit up the shadows as she walked. Her clothes were now soaking wet and heavy. Every step became a challenge in the soggy underbrush. She stepped out of the woods onto a beaten old dirt road. The rain filled in the various potholes and trenches running up either side. Ellie paused for a moment, deciding which route to take. She considered each direction before setting off, following the track to the right. She heard the gentle rush of a river in the distance. And what she though was more thunder.
Ellie pulled her hood over her head to provide some protection from the downpour. It had only grown stronger in the half hour she had been following the track. She paused for a moment and studied the forest either side of her. It was beginning to get dark but she wouldn't allow her mind to play tricks on her. She ignored the shadows of the trees and rocks and continued walking.
After walking a few more paces she stopped again. Something wasn't right. It was too quiet. Even through the gentle rainfall, she should have heard the birds singing and the deer roaring for each other. But she heard nothing. Only the rain and thunder. It was then that she realised what was wrong. The thunder was too even. Natural thunder rose and fell in noise levels, almost deafening at it's worse and barely audible at it's weakest. This sound was constant. No, not constant.
Getting louder.
Ellie began walking again at a brisker pace. She had a really bad feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. The noise was barely audible at first but now it seemed to be all around her. She stared into the woods, desperately trying to pick out the source of the noise which was almost deafening her now. She drew her bow and nocked an arrow then turned to face the road again. She recoiled in horror.
Around the blind corner came two massive, hulking monsters of metal and machinery. Ellie had seen them before. She froze on the spot as she was caught in the driver's view. The behemoth slammed on the brakes, causing it's tracks to skid in the mud and the rear end to rise up. The back end of the vehicle crashed down to earth with a squeel of the jockey wheels and a squelch is displaced mud. Protruding from a hatch on top of the terrifying turret, the wide eyed vehicle stared down at her in disbelief.
"What the fuck?" He yelled, barely audible over the beasts engines.
Ellie drew back the bowstring and loosed an arrow at the vehicle commander, striking his shoulder. The force knocked him back.
"You bitch!" he screamed. "Get her. boys!"
The point APC roared as it span around to the right on a dime.
"Fuck!" Ellie, cursed loudly, taking off into the wood line.
The APCs reversed rapidly back the way they had come in an effort to follow her. A sound like tearing fabric ripped through the air as a hail of bullets whizzed past Ellie's shoulder. Her whole body cried out in protest as she bounced over rocks and fallen trees in an attempt to escape the metal monsters line of fire. Ellie glanced over her shoulder and saw the pair charging down the road parallel to her tree line. As long as she stayed in the trees, the APCs couldn't follow.
No sooner had the thought left her head, she found herself in open ground again. A steep ravine down to the river lay opposite her and she skidded to a halt to stop herself from going over the edge. She looked behind her and started to run again but one APC emerged from the road and roared down the road towards her. She was about to turn and run the opposite direction when the second APC burst out behind her. Surrounded on all sides she saw no other option. Bullets landed at her feet as she stepped over the drop and let gravity take her.
"SHIT!" She yelled.
Ellie rolled down the slope, the gravel scraping away the flesh of her backside and elbows. It wasn't a very big drop but it was steep. She hit the bottom of the slope but momentum kept her going and she carried on into the river with a splash. She struggled to keep her head above the surface as the current took her far from the hulking machines of death behind her.
The river carried her far downstream, past rocks and overhanging trees until it finally deposited her into a lake. There, she regained her senses and used her remaining strength to swim ashore. Ellie hit the rocky beach and dragged herself out of the freezing water. She lay shivering on the beach for a couple of minutes, regaining her breath.
"Whoa nelly, that was close." She murmered to herself.
Once she gained sufficent strength she pulled herself to her feet and wrang out her pony tail. Night had begun to fall and she needed to get out of her wet clothes before she froze. She had to get moving. Miraculously, her guitar hadn't been damaged. She breathed a sigh of relief then made her way off of the rocky beach and into the woods that sat beyond the shore. She walked for ten minutes, stumbling through the trees.
Huh, one with nature my ass. She thought as she crashed through the bushes and trees.
She stopped suddenly. Something had caught her eye in the darkness ahead. The faint outline of a building. She upped the pace slightly but remained aware of the threat of infected. Or worse. She delved into her backpack and pulled out the 9mm handgun she had picked up running from Susie. Or was it Susan? Ellie was too cold and tired to remember properly. With her pistol at the ready, she pushed open the wooden door to the cabin.
It seemed all clear. The single roomed cabin looked like it hadn't been used in years. She dropped her pistol on the small, round table in the centre of the room and placed her backpack and guitar underneath it. A very old wood burning stove sat against one room of the building with enough wood near it to last the night. Ellie immediately set about lighting a fire in the stove. After several minutes of failed attempts with numb fingers, she finally got the paper and kindling to catch. Bright orange flame produced instant heat that stung Ellie's fingertips. She tossed in a couple of firewood logs then shut the iron cast door.
Ellie sat back, watching the intense flames scorch the wood black.
Funny, she thought, of how she could relate herself to a burning piece of wood. But a husk of it's former self, everything burned away and turned to ash. Thankfully, her angry stomach pulled her from her dark thoughts. Several wooden cupboards adorned the walls of the cabin. She gingerly pulled one open and was relieved to find that the food supplies were as untouched as the cabin was. The burning fire heated up the cabin nicely as Ellie pulled a can from the cupboard and studied the faded label.
"Smith's cherry pie filling." She read to herself.
Ellie shrugged her shoulders and stuffed the can, along with several other tins of food into her backpack for the future. She ripped open a tin without looking at it's contents and wolfed the lot down.
Before settling down on the dust-covered camping cot pushed into the corner, she bolted the door shut, covered the windows and dug about in her backpack again.
She lay down on the camping cot, snuggling up into a ball despite the warmth of the cabin. In her hands she held the notepad Joel had given to her along with her guitar. She silently read the first sentence in it.
People will line up to here you play in no time, baby girl.
A single tear rolled down here cheek as she began to succumb to sleep.
"Goodnight, Joel." She whispered.
To be continued...
Afternote: Finally finished chapter 2 over the weekend! It's been long and exhausting juggling work and writing around but eventually got it ready. Got a longer chapter for you to read here so enjoy!
Just a heads up for the coming week, I'll be away from my laptop all week so won't be able to even start working on chapter 3 until the start of next week most likely.
Thanks to you for reading and I hope you're enjoying this story so far. Should start to get more interesting within the next couple of chapters.
Until next time.
The Courier
