Chapter 8
The valley felt peaceful. The trees swayed with the wind, the pleasant scent of flowers from the fields filled our noses, and the sky was a magnificent orange. Life had come back into the valley. With the knowledge that there were no longer any Fireflies threatening the safety of Jakson, the walk home was much less stressful than the walk to the Firefly campsite. On the way, we cleaned up the traps we had set. There was no longer any need for them.
"Well shit." Tommy said. "What the hell are we supposed to do about tomorrow? There aren't any more Fireflies for us to hunt down." We shared a chuckle.
"I reckon we'll just have to keep hunting like we did that first day," I responded. That brought back recent memories of Will. That poor kid. We needed somebody else to come with us now that he was gone. I thought about talking to Maria about bringing Ellie with us the next morning. She would probably love the idea of getting out of that tower.
My thoughts were cut short by the sound of gunfire.
"What the hell was that?" I asked.
"It sounded like it came from the town. Don't worry about it. Probably just one of the lookouts taking potshots at some infected." Tommy reassured me. However, the look on his face changed after hearing several shots soon after. "That can't be good. Either there are a lot of infected, or hunters are attacking the town again. Tyson isn't that bad of a shot. Even with that eyepatch of his."
Tommy and I took off in a sprint. Our destination: Jakson.
Back at Jakson…
The first shot brought me out of my thoughts. The second shot made me realize that the lookouts weren't shooting. The third shot made me turn around to see old man Tyson falling out of his tower. His body landing on the ground with a loud and disturbing thud. I immediately took shelter behind one of the houses. The townspeople started running in every direction. Just because I knew the general direction that the shots were coming from didn't mean everyone else did.
Disoriented people started running down the main street to find cover. I watched body after body hit the ground after a bullet flew through each person. I decided to sneak around the other side of the house to see if I could get a bead on wherever the shots were coming from. Even as I rounded the corner of the house, bullets were still flying down the main street. It was a massacre.
I dropped to my knee and lifted my scope up to my eye. I scanned the tree line. Nothing but green and hills, until a recognizable flash from a muzzle caught my eye. There were two men standing at the edge of a cliff around 400 yards from where I stood. Even if I was in one of the towers it would be a hard shot for me to take. The fact that they were hitting us with pinpoint accuracy told me that they had to be at least ex-military. Nobody was that good a shot. I had to try though. I had to keep the rest of the townspeople safe.
I put the crosshair right on the forehead of the sniper and put my finger on the trigger, but before I could do the deed, I watched through my scope as his head exploded. The man standing next to him stood up and started to run away, but immediately fell to the ground after a bullet passed through his temple. "That must be Joel and Tommy!" I thought. I sat and waited for them to come into the view of my scope, but they never showed. I then realized who it must've been.
"Ellie! A-are you okay?" Benny came running up beside me.
"Was that you just then?" I half asked, half yelled.
"Yeah," he responded. "I shot them through the window in my house. They were so focused on the street they didn't think to look towards any of the houses."
"Who are they? Hunters?"
"Nah, I don't th-think so. Hunters aren't as skilled with rifles as these guys are." All I could think was how I was glad he was on our side. I quickly told him how I had my crosshairs on the sniper.
"You wouldn't have hit him." He said matter-of-factly.
"Why not? I'm a good shot." I responded confidently.
"That may be true, but they were much too f-far away for you to shoot with your crosshairs on his head. The bullet would have dropped in mid-air and hit the ground beneath them. That would have given away your p-position, and then you would have been done for. The only way to hit someone from that distance is by aiming a foot or two above their head. That allows the bullet to drop while still hitting its target." Again. Glad he was on our side.
"How do you know about stuff like that?" I asked. He turned away.
"Parents." He stood up and started making his way to the gate.
"Where are you going? Those people on the street need help."
He looked back at me and pointed toward the gate. "Those snipers weren't the only attackers. More are coming over the walls." I looked past him and saw several men dressed in dark clothing coming over the walls. "We need to take them out before they get too far into the town." He was so calm. Like he had been through this before. He ran a short distance in front of me, lifted his rifle, looked down the scope and fired off two shots. In one swift movement, he had killed 2 of the "hunters" on top of the wall, which sent them falling to the ground in a dead heap. I followed closely behind him. I figured being with him was the safest place I could be at that moment.
His suppressor was keeping the enemy from knowing our exact location. Every person that was smart enough, or unlucky enough, to look in our direction got a bullet through the eye. He was an amazing shot and put down these guys without a second thought.
"We need to get to the armory," he said. "You need an automatic rifle. I have a plan." I simply nodded and followed his lead through the maze of houses and alley's. Eventually we jumped over a fence that landed us in the backyard where the armory door was located. He unlocked the door, lifted it up and motioned for me to enter. I followed his direction and started rummaging through the crates, looking for an auto rifle and lots of ammunition. After I found what I needed, I emerged to find another dead "hunter" hanging over one side of the fence.
"He followed us. Got what you need?" He asked.
"Yeah. I got you some extra magazines, too." He smiled and nodded in gratification. He seemed so comfortable in this situation. He was definitely in his element. We hopped the fence and started making our way towards the middle of town.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"There is a house in the middle of town that is currently unoccupied. We're going there so I can get set up to take out the rest of these guys."
"What about me?"
"I'll tell you when we get there." The house was right around the corner and just like Benny said, it was unoccupied. We locked the door behind us and started making our way upstairs. He pointed towards a room and told me to open all of the windows. I did as I was told and ran back into his room where he was setting up a chair and desk to rest his gun on.
"Okay. Now what do I do." I asked.
"Take this." He stretched out his arm to hand me something yellow.
"A walkie-talkie?"
"I need you to go back down to the streets and run through every alley and house down there. I'll be your eyes. The only way we are going to fight these guys off is if we hunt them down ourselves."
I nodded and started walking out of the room when he said: "Also, do be careful. I don't feel like doing all the work." He flashed a grin, which I reciprocated. I ran downstairs and made sure every door and window was locked before I left. I didn't need my "eyes" getting blindsided while I was gone.
Running through the town, hunting the "hunters" was something I hadn't done in a while. I'll admit, it was a rush. I clipped the walkie to my pack strap and radioed in to Benny.
"Benny, this is Ellie. You there?"
"You have to say over when you're done talking… Over."
"Jesus, I'm not gonna start this. Where do I need to go first?" He laughed.
"Head back towards the armory. If more of them were following us and they find our stash of guns, then it'll be bad news for us down the road. Over."
"Got it." I followed the same path we took to get to the house the first time. "Hey, so, when we get done with this, do you think you could teach me how to shoo-." As I rounded a corner, a hunter was already poised and ready to fire. Before I could even lift my gun, I heard a muffled gunshot rip through the air. I closed my eyes, expecting to be dead. When I realized I wasn't, I opened them and saw the hunter on the ground with a hole in his head.
"Focus on the task at hand, Ellie. But yeah, I'll teach you when we get through this. Over." I continued my mission to the armory. I met several more hunters along the way, but they were either put down from two auto rounds to the chest, or Benny putting one through their skulls. Luckily, when I arrived at the armory there were no hunters in sight.
"It's clear at the armory, Benny… Over." I said reluctantly.
"Good. Now I need you to – wait a second…" Two muffled gunshots ripped through the air in the distance. "Sorry. I need you to go to Maria's. Do you remember how to get there?"
"Oh, shit! I forgot about Maria!" I yelled. I took off towards her house. Benny was yelling at me to calm down, but I disregarded him. Tommy would kill me if something happened to her. Every corner I rounded, or clearing I ran out into was littered with fresh bodies. Benny was taking them out before I could even see them. He let out a frustrated yell when I started blindly running to Maria's and decided to be proactive. I didn't even hear the gunshots at that point. I didn't hear much of anything.
I came out behind one of the houses about a block down from Maria's and lifted my rifle to see clearly down the street. I scanned the road. Nothing. I then lifted my scope to Maria's front door to see it had been kicked in, blown apart.
"Shit!" I yelled, taking off down the street.
"Ellie, stop! We need to plan this out," Benny reasoned.
"There's no time, Benny. They're in there with her right now!" I made it to the porch and started leaping up the stairs, three at a time. Before I could make it to the top, a hunter came out of the front door with his pistol pointed straight at me. Benny made quick work of him, which allowed me access to the house.
When I entered, three men were in the living room. Two closer to the front door, and one by a window. I caught them off guard which gave me time to put a round in the first hunter's head, and two in the second hunter's chest. I turned to the third. The window next to him shattered to pieces, and he fell to the floor. A bullet hole in his temple. I combed through each room downstairs. If they didn't know I was here before, they definitely knew now.
"Ellie, before you head upstairs, you should know that I can see Maria. She's in a room on the front facing side of the house, but there are two men in there with her… and one has a knife to her neck."
"Can't you take him out?" I asked.
"Of course. The problem is, if I do he could fall down still gripping the knife, which could possibly slide across Maria's throat-"
"Killing her…" I finished. He confirmed. I was running through possible scenarios in my mind. Every outcome would find either Maria or myself dead. "We're gonna have to take that risk, Benny. I don't see any other way. If I bust up in there, they might slit her throat without a second thought. But if we wait too long trying to come up with a plan, they might kill her anyway."
"… Okay." He said. "I'm going to count to three. When you hear the glass break, that'll be your cue to break the door down while the second hunter is disoriented." This was a big gamble. "Are you in place?"
"Yeah," I whispered. "I'm ready."
"Okay. One…" I gripped my rifle so hard my knuckles turned white. "Two…" I pointed my rifle at the door knob and place my finger on the trigger. This was it.
"Three."
