Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm sorry that it took so long but I've finally managed to finish Chapter 4. Work has been so busy these past couple of weeks and the next few aren't going to get much better. So to that end, I must apologize that I might not update for a couple of months until I can square away work and all the rest of it. I'm sorry that I don't have an estimated time for you to expect the next chapter by so please keep checking and I will update at some point in the future.
Regardless of my poor admin skills, I do really hope you're enjoying reading Lost in Darkness and please do message and review. =)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Last of Us, It belongs to Naughty Dog.
Chapter 4: Hunted
BANG!
The single 9mm round exploded from the pistol's muzzle and embedded itself deep into the soldier's knee as he stepped through the open doorway.
"Aggh fuck! Fuck!" He yelled, clutching his oozing knee.
A second round to his head silenced his cries. Jack was quick to snatch up the pump action shotgun that lay underneath the soldier's corpse. He grabbed the pump and worked the action, forcing a cartridge from the tube into the chamber. A second shadow fell over him as another soldier appeared in the doorway, an assault rifle in his hands and a ballistic mask covering his face. Jack aimed loosely and fired the shotgun. Small cracks appeared in the masks hardened screen where the shot pellets impacted. Jack gripped the forend of the shotgun, cocked it and fired again, then again. The soldier's ballistic mask caved in on itself, taking half of the man's face with it. The soldier's corpse hit the floor with a dull thud as a dark pool of red gathered around the mush that remained of his head. Jack grabbed the soldier's assault rifle and pulled it into the room with them, throwing it across the floor towards Ellie. He scuttled like some sort of spider and closed the distance between them, scooping up the assault rifle and handing Ellie the shotgun. He pulled back on the assault rifle's cocking handle and watched the 5.56mm round itself from the weapon's right hand side before snatching up the brass round and placing it in his pocket. Slowly, he stood up and turned his back to the door.
"Hey, you!" A muffled shout bellowed.
Jack whipped around and caught sight of a soldier, his shotgun trained in Jack's direction.
"Oh shit!" Jack cursed.
"What're you waitin' for? Fuckin' waste him!" A second soldier ordered.
Ellie, thinking fast, threw herself into Jack and pulled him down into cover as a blast of shot peppered the wall.
Ellie gritted her teeth as rounds whipped all around them. She felt Jack's hand grasp her forearm, almost touching her bite mark. Electrified, she snatched her arm out of his grip and felt him grab the top of her jacket instead, dragging her away from underneath the window as rounds ripped through the wood with ease. As bullets tore around them, they cowered down as low as they could to the floor to protect themselves. Ellie squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her hands over her ears, yelling as the gunfire roared. Then, suddenly as it had started, all was quiet.
"Fuck!" Came a muffled curse.
Ellie quickly snapped her eyes open and whirled around the corner, throwing the shotgun up into her shoulder. She gripped the weapons forend, trained the sights on the soldier and squeezed the trigger. The weapon roared and the soldier's neck near came clean away from his body, a geyser of blood gushed from the open wound. She stared at the corpse as it collapsed to the floor. It looked as though somebody had come along and just... hacked away at the man's... head... She fought to control her ragged breathing as the bitter cold winter wind her mind had created whistled around her.
"Ellie? Ellie!?" Jack called, shaking the girl's shoulder as she remained completely motionless, staring straight ahead at the corpse in front of them.
An eerie silence had caused a momentary lull in the gunfire.
"Ellie, he's fucking dead!" He hissed at her. "We've got to..."
Jack cut his words short as he heard several dull thuds as something landed in front of them. Ellie murmured something that Jack couldn't quite hear.
"What?" He whispered.
"DOWN!" Ellie screamed, grabbing Jack and forcing him closer to the floor.
There was a blinding flash of light and the sounds of thunder.
Steven waited patiently behind his men. He watched carefully as his point man pulled the small, black cylinders out of his combat vest and pulled the rings from the top of them. As the flash bang and gas grenades were tossed through the open window, Steven checked again that his helmet and respirator were firmly secured on his head and that the safety catch on his pistol was off. Whoever this fuck that thought it'd be a good idea to shoot his soldiers was, Steven wanted to be sure he killed them. No prisoners.
Not this time.
BOOM! BOOM!
The flash and gas grenades went off with dull cracks. For a moment, Steven was taken slightly aback by the shock wave that coursed through his body. He shook his mind free as his men pushed him from behind.
"Go! Go! Get in there!" They yelled.
Steven entered the building and scanned his arcs of fire, almost tripping over the corpses of his two soldiers as he went. He kept his pistol raised and went for one of the far rooms. The sound of his men crashing through the building's rooms drowned out his rapid breathing. Sickly, green gas swirled around him, obscuring his view beyond his respirator's lenses.
"Room clear!" One pair shouted.
Steven felt the gloved hand of a soldier on his shoulder as he stopped at the far room. An assault rifle barrel appeared over his shoulder. He held out three fingers and slowly lowered them.
Three.
Two.
One.
Steven span around the corner into the room, his eyes out on stalks trying to pick out any targets through the gas. It was a large room with a master bed in the center and a row of closets lining one whole wide of the room. A broken out window One of the soldiers threw the bed over. Nobody was under it, however. They ripped open each closet in turn but found nothing but old clothes or nothing at all. Until Steven pulled open the last one.
Steven froze on the spot as he stared in at the skeletons, their bones locked in an embrace. During their final moments, they must have comforted each other as they died. Steven adjusted his helmet uncomfortably and wiped his gloved hand across his mouth.
"Jesus..." He breathed.
"Steve," A soldier called. "Building's clear. He got away."
Steven nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Let's go." He said. "He's in this town somewhere, find him."
Steven turned to follow his men out but halted himself as he glanced at the window. He stopped to pull a small shred of red fabric from the broken glass. Quietly, he stuffed the ripped cloth into his combat vest.
Ellie's retinas screamed in protest as the first grenade went off, blinding her. She inhaled quickly through her mouth and immediately wished that she hadn't. As her vision returned to normal, her throat burned and she broke into a fit of violent coughing as her nose began to stream. She couldn't hear anything other than a shrill, high-pitched ringing in her ears. The scene in front of her played out in slow motion like some silent movie. She first saw through the horrible, green mist, a pair of armoured legs charging into the room. A bright torch pierced through the fog, searching for them. A violent reaction in her stomach occurred and she felt the vomit rise up through her windpipe. Green, acidic, bile erupted from her mouth and nose, spilling over the floor in front of her. She wiped her sleeve across her face but she couldn't stop coughing. She felt a pair of hands grab the fabric of her shirt and pull her back.
In a daze, she struggled to her feet as Jack grabbed her left arm and pulled her into the back room. She barely glanced at the room as Jack lifted his leg and booted the glass window until he'd smashed out a gap big enough to crawl through. Ellie regained some of her senses enough to watch Jack disappear through the broken window. She picked herself up and launched herself after him. She winced as she felt a ragged shard of glass pierce through her shirt and rip away a chunk of cloth, and her skin with it.
Her feet hit the dirt first and she crumpled up at the impact, her mouth open in a silent yelp. Or was it a real yelp and she just couldn't hear it yet? Her throat still burned and she rolled over to retch into the dust. She spat out globules of green phlegm and groaned.
"What the fuck!" She cursed, getting to her feet.
Jack shook her.
"C'mon, we gotta get outta here!" He shouted, taking off into the maze of back streets and alleys of Pinewood.
But Ellie remained still. She regained her breath and pressed her back up against the building as she heard the soldiers crashing about at the window above her. A rifle barrel emerged from the window frame and moved about, scanning the alley opposite the window. She waited for the soldiers to leave before she sprinted away from the building and a different direction to Jack had gone.
Her feet pounded in the dirt as she sprinted. She risked looking over her shoulder but only saw the empty alley that she'd left behind. Suddenly, she found herself crossing over a road. As the evening sun began to drop below the horizon Ellie gasped as she was caught in a vehicles headlights.
"Shit!" She gasped.
The truck screeched to a stop in front of her. Her eyes opened wide in fear as she leveled the shotgun at the windscreen and fired three shots into it. She dropped the empty weapon at her feet and turned to run as the trucks back dropped and soldiers piled out and gave chase.
"The girl! Remember, Less-Than-Lethal shots only!" One soldier shouted.
Ellie dove down another alleyway, no idea where she was going. She kept running as the soldiers gained on her. Several gunshots rang out behind her and she heard the rounds impact into the wall next to her. She cursed and ducked as more rounds came in. She bobbed and weaved to avoid them down the long alley. The sounds of their shouts began to fade away as she put distance between herself and the soldiers. A final, loud crack sounded from behind her and she gasped as a hard, solid object smashed into the back of her leg.
"Fuck! Damn it!" She yelled as her leg began to throb painfully.
She writhed on the ground and fought to see past the water in her eyes to find what had hit her. A small, black object the size of a baseball lay close to her. A rubber bullet. The sound of boots fast approaching. Ellie threw herself around as two pairs of gloved hands grabbed hold of her.
"Gotcha now!" One of them gasped, his breathing ragged from running so far in a respirator.
Ellie protested and struggled as they began to drag her back the way she had come.
"Fuck you! Let go of me!" She spat.
"Shut up!" The soldier snapped.
Ellie threw her head back and brought her open mouth down on the arm of one soldier. She grunted as a stab of pain shot through her mouth as she bit down on the protected armour plates covering his forearm. Ellie closed her eyes and fought to try and escape the grasp of the two soldiers.
"Quit your squirming!" One ordered her as they both lifted her up and slammed her hard against the ground.
Ellie gasped as the air was forced out of her lungs, spittle dribbled down the side of her mouth as she desperately tried to suck oxygen into her lungs. As her vision started to blur and consciousness began to slip away from her, Ellie felt the tight grip around her shoulders release her. She blinked hard and wiped the water from her eyes as a deep, gurgling roar sent chills down her spine. She rolled onto her front in time to see the bloater swing it's meaty arms at one of the soldiers. It's limb connected with the soldiers head, cracking his respirator lenses and breaking his helmet strap. The kevlar rolled off his head, leaving him exposed. The soldier screamed as the Bloater's foot squished his head. Ellie grimaced as grey brain matter stuck to the Bloater's flesh. The second soldier cried in fear and anger, firing his pump action shotgun repeatedly into the Bloater's chest. But the creature simply shrugged off the 12 gauge rounds. It gripped the shotgun barrel and pulled it from the soldier's grip before ripping the respirator from the soldier's face. The soldier screamed in terror as the Bloater took hold of the man's face, desperately trying to pull at his jaw. Ellie turned her gaze at the sound of tearing flesh.
She stumbled to her feet, turning her back to the Bloater and the recently deceased corpses of Susan's men. Ellie raced back down the side street, taking turn after turn without any clue where she was headed. Her lungs threatened to burst inside her chest as she emerged out onto an open street. Gunfire and the screams of infected surrounded her and echoed through the streets.
Where now? C'mon, Ellie. Where now? She thought to herself.
Ellie gasped as she saw a familiar sight. She raced across the street and launched herself through an open door to Ridley's Family Market, slamming it closed behind her.
"Fuck," Ellie cursed as she scanned the the door. "No lock..."
The space behind her was filled with solid, seemingly impenetrable darkness. One of the tracked vehicles rolled by outside, unleashing hell with the deafening yet rhythmic fire from it's main cannon.
Thump-Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump-Thump.
Gathering her nerves, Ellie snatched the 9mm pistol from her waistband and reached her free arm forward, probing for a wall. Relief washed over her as her fingers found the solid plasterboard. Exhaling gently, she felt her way along until she found a door frame. With her pistol leading the way, Ellie took her first cautious steps into the room.
"Oh man..." She whispered.
The 5.56mm assault rifle vibrated in Steven's arms as he soaked up the recoil into his shoulder. Rounds erupted from the weapon and ripped into the horde of infected he and his small fireteam were desperately trying to keep at bay as the withdrew. He silently damned himself for allowing himself to become separated from the main search force. They had originally been searching in a larger group twenty strong with one of the APCs to support them.
Then the infected had attacked...
They'd come out of the damn woodwork. Steven had never seen so many infected appear so suddenly at one time. Reacting as they had been trained to, Steven's men had positioned themselves into an effective firing line to hold against them. But there were simply too many and despite the complete protection the military armour and equipment provided against both bites and spores, some of the men lost their nerve.
"Cowards! Stand and fight!"Steven yelled as the men peeled away from their baseline.
It didn't help that the fucking APC had also retreated, rolling itself backwards at speed down the street. He'd never have admitted it but Steven knew he should have followed it with the rest of the soldiers. But that didn't matter now. He had three of his brothers to look after and keep safe. And he was damned if he was going to let them down.
His assault rifle made a distinct metallic click and Steven instinctively checked for the problem before ejecting the empty magazine and sliding in a fresh one, hitting the bolt release and sending a round into the chamber. How much longer could they hold out against this horde? They had seemed to have come out of nowhere! One minute they had been scouring the streets for the girl and that damned other kid. Then he had kicked in the wrong door. Surprise had seeped into him as his boot had connected with the wooden door and sent it off it's hinges, crashing down at the feet of half a dozen runners taking refuge in the building. They seemed almost as surprised as he was, staring out at him with cold, dead, blood-red eyes.
The silence didn't last for long.
BANG!
Steven was snapped back into action as a 12 gauge shotgun went off beside him. His ears rang as the head of one of the infected runners erupted in a shower of blood and spores, painting the walls behind it followed by the war cries of his three men as they unloaded into the runners. Their dying screams pierced the otherwise still air, mingling with the distant rifle and cannon fire as the desperate fighting raged throughout Pinewood. Steven could have sworn he heard the dying beg them to stop, like they didn't want to die, as if there was still somebody in there. They'd put a stop to all of this. They had to succeed where the Fireflies had failed.
If anybody could save this world, Susan could. And Steven knew he would follow her to hell and back.
"Alright, boys. This seems as good a place to regroup as any. Slap in a fresh mag, get some water on board and get ready to go in a few." Steven sighed, reloading his own weapon, noting he only had two magazines left.
He glanced over at his three men, wiping the condensation from their respirator lenses, reloading their weapons and trying to regain some of their composure.
"C'mon, through here." He sighed, gesturing a darkened hallway.
The darkness within seemed to grow thicker the deeper it went. Still, it beat travelling on the streets, still swarmed with infected. Steven carefully and quietly led his men into the gloomy hallway, glancing at a collection of faded letters on the wall. The words only briefly registered in his mind.
Ridley's Family Market