Author's Note:

Ah, sorry this one took a while. But here it is :D
I HIGHLY recommend you to try out this soundtrack while reading for a more in-depth feel of the story.

The Last of Us Left Behind OST - Evasion

Pretty much it for this A/N. Continue on reading!


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Chapter Seven: Ambush

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We were alert. The plodding continued, there were about three soldiers in the perimeter, probably that time for them to start scouting. God, why did we have to choose this place?

I sighed.

Riley really was an idiot.

We were sitting ducks, I was still uncertain whether the soldiers were outside the carnival, or inside. Worryingly, I turned to Riley in hopes for advice.

"What's the plan?" I asked in a low voice.

She kept her tone calm and soft so that no one but I could hear her.

"I'm gonna take a quick peek and see if these guys are outside the wall. If they are then we'll find a way to get out of this place before these fuckers can catch us."

"And what if they're inside?"
"Then you just gotta trust me in this."

She held her finger to her mouth, signalling a 'Hey Ellie, I think it's time for us to shut the fuck up now' kind of action. Riley popped her head outside and checked all directions, some time later, she yielded back with her thumb in the air.
"Coast is clear, we should move." she whispered. I nodded and followed her lead, creeping out of the tent and quickly hugging the inside wall of the carnival. I could hear a soldier yawn from the outside, it felt unnerving to me that the only thing separating us was a layer of measly cement.

We reached the exit, Riley beckoned me and I searched for any soldiers outside the venue. Unsurprisingly, there were two of them guarding the entrance. Both their backs were facing us.

We surveyed around, and I managed to find half a piece of cemented brick that had been chipped off of the wall. Picking it up, I faced Riley and handed it over. We both had the same idea stirring in our heads.

Distract those fuckers.

She nodded with a smirk, and carefully, she threw the brick ahead of the two soldiers. The sound alerted them, and sure enough, they slowly approached to where the area was.

All according to plan.

We sneaked out of the carnival, step by step, little by little, we inched away slowly and cautiously. Paranoid as I was, the sweat flowing out of me was immense. It had taken us several minutes, but we were just a few meters before an alleyway that we could hide in. Although as soon as I thought that we had gotten away with it, we were given the exact opposite.

"Hold it!"

His deep and gravelly voice seemed to be gargled in lead. The sharpness in his tone made me flinch, and we both turned our heads back unwillingly to check whoever it was. Well, we had automatically assumed that it was a soldier, and we were not disappointed.

There stood our man of the hour, fully armored and packed like a canned good. He sported an assault rifle and aimed the majestic machine directly at us.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Shit." I hissed, stopping in my tracks. We didn't dare to move an inch.
The soldier grabbed a radio transmitter from the side of his shoulder and uttered something to the other end, static emitted shortly after and he released it. Turning back to us, he aimed his gun cautiously.

"Put your hands where I can see them." the soldier commanded, he was coming closer to us now. The blood boiled and rumbled in my throat, each step he took sent a whirlwind to my stomach. Riley was very still in my peripheral, but she seemed calm. Why? Why on earth would she be calm at a time like this?

But when he took another step, she grabbed something from her backpack and threw it on the ground. I heard the clinking and clatter of a cylindrical metal object as it rolled around the pavement, arriving before the soldier's feet like a welcome mat.

It was a smoke grenade.

"Run, Ellie!" she yelled as the bomb spewed out the gas, the soldier was engulfed in the smoke, unable to see. There was an abundance of yelling and hacking and more yelling, but Riley grabbed my hand roughly as she dragged us away from the scene. My head was spinning, and I almost tripped on my own feet.
We dashed to the alleyway, gunshots followed us like a pack of dogs. As we narrowly escaped the crossfire, I decided to stop for a moment and take a breath. Because apparently, my lungs refused to take in the air it needed.

My lungs collapsed.

"Jesus Christ, Riley!"

"What?"

"That was pretty fucking stupid."

She chuckled.

"Hey, 'least we're alive."

What a maniac, this fucking clown.

After we had collected ourselves and blamed each other for our own carelessness, Riley proposed to keep moving. I eagerly agreed, staying out in the streets of Boston without proper gear gave me immeasurable amounts of insanity and stomachaches. And just to be clear, I favored the former more than the latter.

We walked from the alleyway and to a narrow area. The wind picked up again, and my shoulders prickled as the swift cold played with my bare skin. Despite being summer, the weather was unpredictable, and I regretted to have worn such clothing.

The previous events seemed to have left my memory, and I almost forgot that it'd happened.
Again, I almost did, if it weren't for the voice that entered my ears.

"They're over there!" the gravelly voice yelled again, and mind you, the guy didn't sound exuberant at our attempt to escape.

We looked back again, only to be greeted by guns and scopes which reflections' had blinded my sight momentarily. I felt like a deer, frozen in the road, unable to move away from the car accelerating towards it, refusing to stop. Before we even managed to move, a shot rang out, the sound deafening my already tortured ears.

I closed my eyes with teeth clenched, bracing for the pain to show its entrance in my body.
But the pain did not come.
What did, though, were the yells of distress coming from the girl beside me.

Riley.

Oh, fuck.

Stunned and still processing what had happened, I stared at her as she gritted her teeth in anguish.
Have you ever felt like that particular deer? Frozen on the road? I bet you have, and this moment was one of the several thousands that made me feel like one. The realization of Riley getting shot had not passed through me, my brain was a vegetable, frozen, like the deer.

My eyes tried to locate the gunshot wound, and her upper arm had advertised a bright red spot, her side had been punctured by the bullet. A piece of cloth from her jacket was missing, and in replacement was a fleshy laceration type of wound. The bullet was wedged somewhere inside of her arm, it was bleeding. Riley was shot. She, and also I, would die if we continued to stand motionless.

I snapped out of it and helped her up. The soldiers shouldn't be too far now, considering that the footsteps and shouts were increasing in volume. I quickly wrapped Riley's wound with the cleanest rag I could find and we ran as fast as we could out of that shithole.

"Come on, come on." I stammered as she leaned on me, we exited the alleyway and took several turns from the roads that we encountered. My heart was racing, the only person that I had cared for was fucking shot. And if that didn't help, a bunch of military rouges were on us. Like dogs, they were all barking and growling, wanting a piece of the injured deer that they were running after.

When I took the fifth turn, a soldier had flanked our side and tackled me, doing so made me lose my grip on Riley. She let go and struggled to stand up, looking at me painfully as I was getting placed in a headlock by the dear ol' man.

He attempted to strangle me, his hand meeting my mouth. Big mistake. I bit his finger with as much force as my teeth would allow, and he screamed achingly and quickly withdrew. Now free, I tried to take my switchblade out from my pocket, but the soldier's iron fist had met paths with my jaw before I could sink the blade in him.

The impact made me fall almost immediately, my fragile chin felt like broken glass and my vision was blurry. I could hear Riley scream my name in concern and terror. My vision was hazy, I felt faint.

But a gunshot had rang through, and it stimulated my senses briefly.

BANG!

Then two more were quickly fired after the first one. A sudden urge of panic and dread came over me as I hoped to God that it wasn't the soldier who fired those shots.

...

...

Fortunately, it was Riley who held the gun.

The soldier fell with a large thud, a small puddle of blood started to form below his body. I staggered to get up, my face felt incredibly swollen and sore. Riley reloaded her gun, her face flooded with pain and worry.

"Are you alright?" she asked, her voice was still strong, yet her frame was not.
"Y-yeah. But, Riley, you-"

She held up a hand before I could try and dress her wound.
"Later." she persisted. "Not when we got these fucking soldiers everywhere."

I nodded, not wanting to prolong her suffering as we ran again. Twenty agonizing minutes had passed, and our pacing slowed. Riley leaned on a wall and panted heavily, obviously showing signs of extreme pain.

"Can you still keep up?" I asked desperately, hoping for a positive answer.
"I don't think I can." she whimpered softly, my palms were sweaty and jittery. I had no idea on how to react to the situation.

"W-what do you want me to do?"

The rag that covered her wound was now drenched in crimson, tiny droplets of blood often dripped to the floor. She was losing blood, it would be fatal if it wasn't properly treated.
"Just give me a second, Ellie." Riley said as she raised a hand to her upper left arm. She got a roll of bandages from her backpack and replaced it with the old rag. The fact that we were out in the open made me feel anxious.

"The bullet, it's still there—"

"I know that!"

I was taken aback a little,

Maybe a lot.

But I knew she was in pain.

Riley sighed, two fingers pressed to her forehead.

"Sorry. My mind is really messed up at the moment."

"It's fine, I get it. Here—let me help you with that." I started to wrap the bandage on her arm and tightened it to stop most of the bleeding.

The air was still.

...
...

"Riley." I spoke, breaking the quietness.

"Mm?"

"You're gonna be okay, right?"

She looked at me—then at the bandage.

"I'll be fine."

I nodded my head, finishing up the bandage.

"Good."

I didn't believe it.

Riley got on her feet and gave off a weak smile. "Thanks, El. I think that'll do."

We exited the alleyway and started to cross the road, she was ahead of me, yet she limped every now and then.

Limping was not a good sign.

"You sure you're alright?"

Riley nodded. "Bother's me, but I've dealt with worse."

A few moments had passed, and we ended up rounding a curb. This was the abandoned, less-watched areas of Boston. If there weren't any soldiers around, the infected would probably be sulking.

We kept our noise to a minimal.

"I think we should rest in that building over there." I suggested, pointing at a faded red apartment.

"What—and get ambushed by Runners?"

"Would you rather like resting on the goddamn road? Out in the open? 'Cause we can do that."

She gave in. "Smart-ass."

We walked over to it and settled inside for a while.

We sat and leaned on the wall, thinking of what to do next. The soldiers should have lost our tracks by now, so resting would have been plausible.

Uneasily, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to relax.

Just for a few minutes.

FWAP!

All of a sudden, a jolt of electricity filled my body. Every part was tingling and my skin felt like it was burning, I moaned in pain after the short shock. And after the electricity had exited, my nerves failed to function, and I fell harshly to the ground.

A man stood before me with a taser in his hand. He didn't seem to be from the military, his tall shadowy figure fell on me. My conscience grew dark, muffled echos of my name reaching out toward me.

How the hell did they find us?

Riley yelled out my name, practically horrified, before rushing at the man with full force.

She shrugged off her gunshot wound like it was nothing.

"You fucking asshole!" The punch attempted to land on him.

It failed.

The man had dodged her attack, making Riley lose her balance. As her guard was down, he shocked her from behind with his taser.

Bzzzzzt!

I watched helplessly as I saw Riley fall down beside me, unconscious, like she was brain-dead.

No.

"Stop . . !" I grunted, trying with all my might to get up, but the man kicked my gut from the side and I toppled on the floor again. The pain engulfed my body, it was too intense, I couldn't stay conscious enough for it to lessen.

I was going to black out.

But before I did, I heard shoes scraping the rough floor, and another figure appeared next to the man. A muffled voice pierced the air, it was strict and strong, like a leader's.

"Take them to the hideout."

He nodded and carried Riley like a sack of rice. He walked off while the other person remained, they seemed to be looking down at me.

I watched the man disappear as he continued to hold Riley. I had no idea where he was taking her, and the thought of that was horrendous.

I lifted my arm and reached out my hand, every muscle was aching within me.

"Riley . . . " I tried to call out, but she didn't hear me. Of course she wouldn't. I knew that it was useless, but I called her anyway.

In exhaustion, my arm collapsed, my cheek touched the cold stony floor. I didn't know what to do, everything seemed to shut down inside of my head. I could hear my heartbeat much more clearly now, my chest aching after each individual pulse. Before I couldn't take it any longer, I spotted the figure in my peripheral. They moved from their position slowly and walked up to me, the light above shone brightly on their face and I could finally identify who it was.

It was Marlene.

...

Everything went dark.