Chapter 4
~Ellie's POV~
Dylan and I continue walking through the woods. He's telling me something about some sort of card game he and his dad would play, but I can't pay any attention. To be honest, I just want to find his parents and move on on my own.
"Ellie?" he asks, "Are you listening?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah..." I say. He raises a brow.
"You sure?" he asks, and I nod, "Okay!"
Dylan grins.
"Whoa! Look!" Dylan says, running over to an old, wrecked truck.
"Dylan!" I say, running after him. Just how dumb is this kid?! Doesn't he know better than to run off like that?! He's not paying attention and looking at the truck.
"Cool!" he says, "Look at this thing! Do ya reckon it still works?"
I sigh.
"Probably not." I say.
"Do you know how to drive?" Dylan asks, and I nod. He grins.
"Cool!" he says, "My dad used to tell me that you had to be at least sixteen in order to drive without a grown-up. Are you sixteen?"
"No, I'm fourteen." I say.
"Oh, cool." he says, "Well, can we see if it works?"
I know that it most likely doesn't work, but maybe if I just humor him and try to get it to run then we'll be able to move on.
"Alright..." I say, getting in the driver's seat. Before I can try to turn it on, I hear shouting nearby.
"Shit..." I say, "C'mon, we've gotta run. Even if this thing works, it'll cause too much noise."
"But won't we be able to get away quicker?" he asks in a whisper. I shake my head.
"No, I think we'd better stealth through this one." I whisper, "You know how to be stealthy?"
He nods.
"Good." I say, "Now follow me."
We walk away from the truck.
~Dylan's POV~
I wish we could've used the truck, but I'm gonna trust Ellie on this one. We sneak through the woods, knowing that hunters are nearby. I hate hunters. Dad would tell me that they ate other people, but who could do that? Why would they eat OTHER PEOPLE? Why not animals? Finally, we don't hear the voices anymore.
"I hate hunters..." I say.
"Yeah, I do too..." Ellie says. She shivers a little. Had she run into them before?
"Have you run into them before?" I ask.
"Yeah, but... I don't wanna talk about it." Ellie says.
"Oh... Okay." I say. I decide not to say anything else about it, I don't want to make Ellie sad. As we walk, we see the exit of the woods up ahead.
"Look!" I say, "That's the way out!"
I start to run toward it, but Ellie grabs my arm and stops me.
"Nope! No runnin' off without me." she says, slightly sternly. I nod.
"Okay..." I say. We walk out of the woods and we find ourselves in a city.
"Wait... I recognize this place..." Ellie says.
"You do?" I ask.
"Yeah... This is where I grew up..." Ellie says.
~Ellie's POV~
This is the place. The place where I was raised, where I was trained, where I met Riley, where Riley and I... Got bitten. Come to think of it, where is that old mall? Riley's grave is near there, and I kind of... Want to visit it.
"You lived here?" Dylan asks.
"Yeah..." I say, "Uh... Let's keep goin'. I've got somethin' I wanna show you."
Dylan smiles a little.
"What is it?" he asks. I smile a little.
"It's a surprise." I say. We start walking through the city, keeping an ear out for any of the infected. Everything is silent. The only thing we hear is the sound of our footsteps echoing through the city. Where is everyone?
"I wonder where everyone went..." Dylan says.
"I don't know..." I say. Then I remember. I heard about tons of spores getting into the city, and lots of people turning. I hope we don't run into any of them. We're getting closer to the mall, I can tell.
