Keep Moving On
I woke up, my surroundings strangely familiar.
I was in a house, a living room from the looks of it. The couch I rested on was crafted from worn brown leather and oak. The wallpaper I'm guessing was meant to be some kind of cream, but in the years it had faded.
I recognised this place. I lived here. Before Pittsburgh. Before...
A woman screams. I know that voice. The name she calls.
The growls of an Infected girl.
The screams. Oh God, the screaming. I saw it all, I heard it all.
She's dead.
The Runner looks up at me. A face too familiar. Eyes unrecognisable.
It charges.
BANG!
The Runner died.
A man sobs in the corner.
"What have you done?"
BANG!
I woke up with a panicked shout. Someone grabs my shoulder. I reacted, turning us over, lifting a rock to finish my attacker.
"The fuck Kenneth?!"
That voice. Ellie.
My bleary eyes focus for the first time. I saw Ellie beneath me, suffocating under my weight. I scramble off of her. I look at the rock in my hand. It was a good rock, heavy and sharp, ideal for cracking a skull. I dropped it as if it were suddenly hot to the touch.
"Sorry" I couldn't say much more. My breathing was laboured, panic tightened my throat. I closed my eyes, took a few seconds to regain composure, then looked at Ellie once more.
She surprised me. I was expecting a look of fear, anger, confusion. Her face was all that, and more. I saw... concern.
"What was that?" She asked
I didn't answer her. If I spoke now I might have started crying. Painful memories lingered in my mind: screaming, gunshots, death.
"Kenneth?"
"N... Nightmare" I said at last.
She nodded like she understood. Then she hugged me.
"Fucking hate bad dreams" she said.
We stayed like that for a moment, I don't know how long exactly.
She released me. "Thank you" I whispered.
She shrugged her shoulders "Don't usually do that, but you looked like you really needed one"
"Where are we?" I asked
"A beach of some kind" Ellie answered, "Henry found us, pulled us out the water"
"What about Joel?"
"He's alive. Still hasn't woken up though"
I grunt from not far off alerted us to Joel's awakening.
"Henry! He's awake" came Sam's voice. We gathered round the old man, I was careful to stay out of arm's reach, didn't want Joel lashing out at me or anything.
Joel got to his feet as Henry jogged over.
"See?" Henry grinned "What'd I tell, huh? He's good, everything's fine"
Henry continued speaking as Joel made a slow but speeding beeline towards him. I could see what was going to happen, I had no intention of stopping it.
Joel slammed Henry into the sand, stealing the man's gun and pointing it at his head. "Get back son!" he growled as Sam came between them. Henry waved his brother away "It's fine" he assured him "He's pissed but he's not gonna do anything"
"You sure about that?" Joel snapped
"Stop!" Sam begged
"Joel" Ellie put a calming hand on the man's shoulder.
"Ellie" I spoke "The bastard left us to die"
"No" Henry argued, his voice level and calm "You had a good chance of making it and you did. But coming back for you meant putting my brother at risk. Stay back" Sam had started edging towards them again.
"If it was the other way around, would you have come back for us? I saved you"
"He saved me too" Ellie added "We would've drowned"
Joel looked at me. I hated it, but Henry had a reasonable argument.
"Fucker's got a point" I grunted.
Joel dropped the gun and walked off.
Sam dropped to his brother's side and gave me a dirty look. "I don't like it when people stab me in the back" I growled. I eyeballed Henry for added effect "No matter their reasons"
"You saying there's never been a person that you'd kill for, betray for?" Sam retorted.
My hand went into the pocket where my shiv was, the other one clenched into a fist.
"Kenneth" Ellie warned me.
I took a breath. My nightmare had left my emotions raw and temperamental. It took all my willpower not to hit something.
Henry got to his feet. "You know" he said to Joel "For what it's worth, I'm really glad we spotted you guys"
He started walking, his movements enthusiastic "Now, that radio tower is on the other side of this cliff. Okay? Place is gonna be full of supplies. You gonna be real happy you didn't kill me"
We were off.
"That was intense" Ellie stated. She turned to Joel "You cool?"
"Yeah" came his reply "Let's go find that radio tower"
Oh yeah, forgot to say, Henry and his survivor buddies, before they all died that is, had came up with the plan to regroup at a nearby radio tower, where they had stored supplies or something like that. Anyway, that's why we're looking for this tower now.
"Hey guys" I alerted them, pointing ahead. Maybe there's some stuff on that boat over there". I was of course referring to what looked like a small fishing boat. It had ran aground, plants were growing through the holes in its hull. It had obvoiusly been there for a long time.
Joel searched the boat and found some small crafting supplies, and a comic for Ellie. As well as that, there was a small letter, written by a guy called Ish, asking us not to step on his skull should we find his corpse. I kinda liked this guy.
"Woah" Ellie exclaimed
"What?" Joel asked
"First time on a boat" she explained
"It's a lot different in the water"
"One step at a time" Ellie smirked
"Hey Ellie!" Sam called "I think we've found something!"
"Let's go see what it is" Ellie said
"Ladies first" I joked
We followed Sam up the hill, where we found Henry trying to pry open a sewer outlet pipe.
"I bet..." he grunted when he saw us "that this goes all the way through"
"You need a hand?" I asked
"Yeah" his answer was blunt.
It took the combined strength of Henry, Joel and myself to lift the grate. Everyone crawled in, and soon we were in one of the most spacious sewers I had ever seen in my life.
And it was dark. Really, really dark.
I hated the dark. I hated being blind, unable to see your own hand in front of your face, unable to see whatever Infected lurked in the shadows, whatever danger lay in wait.
Flashlights went on, and I sighed with relief.
"Sam..." Henry started
"Stay close" his brother finished for him
"Someone's finally learning" he smiled
The path eventually split into two. Ellie, Joel and I went one way while Henry and Sam went the other way.
"I hate this place" I growled as we trudged through the sewer's filth.
We found a gate, which was blocked (naturally). Fortunately there was a vent could lead to the other side, and Ellie was small.
Joel reached down and ripped the grating of the vent, the rusted bolts breaking like gingerbread. A few rats ran out in response.
"Oh yeesh" Ellie exclaimed "That's a big rat"
"Don't like rats?" I asked her
"About as much as you hate the dark"
I scowled at her, she just smiled in response "What, you thought I didn't notice?"
She had wisely decided to get into the vent now, emerging on the other side. Past the gate was a dead end, but there was a machete on the shelf. I handed Joel my pipe and took the blade for myself. It was awesome.
"You think they'll stay with us all the way to Tommy's?" Ellie asked Joel. She must have been referring to the two brother.
"Dunno, we'll see how everything pans out" he answered
"Who's Tommy?" I asked
"Joel's brother" Ellie explained
"He was a Firefly" Joel elaborated
We caught up with Henry and Sam. They were stuck in this large open room. It was flooded and there was no way across.
"I can't swim" Sam stated
"Am I the only young guy around here who can bloody swim?" I complained. I wasn't really expecting an answer.
Joel gestured to a floodgate "Maybe this leads somewhere" He tried to turn the wheel to open it, but it was jammed. He jumped into the scummy water.
"Kenneth, when I tell you to, you're gonna turn that wheel. Understand?"
"Yes sir"
He dove under the surface, and came back about twenty seconds later.
"Try it now"
I did, and it opened. Joel swam through, promising he'd be back soon.
So we waited.
"So what about you?" Ellie spoke up
"What about me?" I asked
"You gonna stay with us?"
I won't deny I hadn't thought about it. Initially I just wanted to stick around long enough to get out of Pittsburgh, and I wasn't ready to risk another disaster (No! Bad Kenneth, back to reality!) but I'd be lying if Ellie hadn't grown on me in a way.
"I think I might" I answered
She smiled at that.
Joel came back, pushing along an industrial pallet.
"Hop on" he told Ellie. She did so as if they had done it a thousand times before. Joel pushed her to the other side, where she fired up an old generator, and a platform moved the rest of us over. Henry pulled Joel up and out of the water and we were on our way again.
"Uh, what's up with this?" Ellie wondered aloud.
We had come across a door, not too unusual, except that this door had been drawn on in what looked like crayon. I looked like a child's scribble of a castle.
"You think maybe there's people inside?" Sam asked
"Could be" was Henry's reply
"Are we really going in there?" I asked. I ddin't want to admit it but the kiddie drawings in such a setting as a sewer really made me uncormfortable, nervous.
"No choice" Joel put it bluntly.
Joel pushed the door open, then something crashed.
Authors Note
And thus begins the Sewer/Suburbs arc. Enjoy!