Chapter 7: Surreal
We had been walking for a while, just barely making it out of range of the soldiers final sweep. They made three passes in increasing distance from the wall where we were last seen. Then they sweep back inwards to make sure that we didn't just hide. The soldiers had made our night incredibly difficult. This was the main reason I laughed at Marlene when she said that the trek would be simple. I know how this part works. And I knew that the street would drop into a sinkhole in just a few hundred feet. We were walking down the center of a 2 lane highway. There were old and creaky buildings all around us, some just a few levels high and some touching the sky. The world was so impressive now. It was so amazing to see what the world would look like after god had reclaimed most of the land that we had tarnished. Looking at the way the overgrowth weaved in and out of the man made buildings was like looking at the greatest work of art ever created. Mankind was no more. Men are nothing more than animals here. We are herded and killed, butchering each other and ourselves for no greater good than to feed ourselves and to stretch our miserable lives just one more day. And every day was a fight for our lives. We arrived at what looked like the end of the world. It was where the street sunk into a sinkhole and took buildings and cars and anything else that it could into the soft dirt below. The tower to our right side was tipped to an almost 35 degree angle, held up only by the support of the building that the crumbling tower had smashed into. The shadow of the beastly structure seemed to bring darkness into even the night air.
A sharp and repetitive sound echoed loudly against the silence of the city. It sounded like small pieces of rubble being beat together in quick succession, but I knew better. Clickers. There were infected, and then there were clickers. Infected are the freshly turned. The ones who still have the look of humanity and their clothes are typically only as old and moth eaten as when they were alive. They hear and see and chase people down like they did that night 20 years ago. The clickers have been festering. They started as simple infected, but after years without anyone to chase, they usually end up sitting down and "Sleeping". When they sleep like they do, the fungus from inside of their brains that turned them, starts to grow and fester. It covers their faces in a strong and hard fungi armor. It grows outwards through the eye sockets, meaning that they no longer have the ability to see. They use echolocation and advanced hearing to be able to locate food and others infected. The worst part about clickers is that they are viciously starved. If they manage to grab you, they will not wait even an instant before biting into your neck and ripping out your throat. Normal infected you can push off of you and get away, but once you get caught by a clicker, you are sentenced to be a bloody mess on the floor. I refused to be a bloody mess on the floor. Not this time. Clickers and infected cannot have A.I. integration like the soldiers did. They have to have the same programming as they did in the original game, right? If I hid well enough nothing would happen to me. Right? I needed to know. If it was any harder here than in the original game, I would have some pretty serious issues with keeping the others safe, let alone myself.
We made our way around the edge of the sinkhole towards the leaning tower off to our right. We were able to walk right through a broken window on the bottom floor of the building. As we got to the foot of the monstrosity, I looked up at the metal and greenery. As beautiful as it was to see from a distance, I remembered vaguely what awaited me inside, and it was not pleasant. "What was that sound?" Charlotte asked as we walked into the cover of the building. I forgot she didn't know. "Clickers. Bad things. You don't have to worry about it right now, Tess has a gun and she will cover you." I turned to Tess. "There's one right through this door and to the left. It's going to jump me. You should shoot it before then if possible." I turned without waiting for a response and opened the door to the hallway of the building. To the right there was a spot where the floor ended and a pit opened up, all the way down to the basement. In front of me there was a dead body in soldier's rags. His face and chest had been ripped apart violently and there was blood all over. It was clear that he had not had a good time, and the blood was old and dry, but the body hadn't started to decompose yet. And on my left there was a clicker barreling down the hallway… "FUCK!" It tackled me to the floor right at the edge of the pit and then it was hit by a bullet. Tess's gun was smoking as I pushed the body off of my own.
"Thank you." I nodded at Tess. "We want to go down. Into the subway. There seems to be two ways to get there. First-" I kicked the body of the clicker over the edge of the pit and down he went. A loud crack and splatter sound marked the end of the decent, and made ever so clear that the path was not survivable. "The other option is that we go up that staircase-" I pointed behind me at the closed door. "And then make our way back down the staircase on the opposite side of the building." I wracked my brain trying to figure out a quicker path, but couldn't find one in my memories. Well this would be an excellent time to explore methods of murder with all of the infected around. We walked up the staircase, found the first unlocked door and wound up in a room with no walls. The drywall had eroded away, leaving nothing but rotten plaster and the steel beams that held the room together. I looked out of the holes in the wall and knew where I was. There was a small drop to the right and looking through the openings it was clear that the room below was filled with infected. At least 6 of them together. One was a clicker too, so this was going to be fun.
I looked around the room and found a revolver with 3 bullets. Good. This will help me out quite a bit. I picked up the old pistol in one hand and the new revolver in the other. This was going to be a lot of fun even if it was hard as hell. I smiled at the girls and winked at Charlotte before stepping backwards through the wall. I dropped into a corner of the open room below, a wall in between myself and the nearest infected. I hit the floor and quickly scanned my surroundings. I peeked around the wall and found myself face to face with the grey dead face of an infected soldier. His mouth opened into a horrible gaping hole and he lurched forward at me with a terrifying howl. I fell backwards onto my ass as the body collapsed onto mine and I felt warm blood rolling down my chest and sharp pain in my neck. I was no longer Joel.
I was standing in an open field and watching as small dots of pollen or spores or something floated by my face. Charlotte walked up to me looking completely like herself and I smiled at her.
"I died, didn't I?" She nodded and leaned into me.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her concern was prevalent. I nodded and relaxed for a minute.
"Yeah." I looked into her eyes. "This is a lot more relaxing than being in the game, actually." I laughed and then fell backwards into the grass. Charlotte giggled and laid down with me.
"So what should we do now?" She looked at me and blushed.
"I have no idea. We can play more of this, or switch to something else?" I looked up at the sky. It was so blue. The grass was so green and the little yellow flecks of whatever they were made this place seem so real. Surreal. Perfect. It was my little piece of magic just between my life and my other life. A purgatory of sorts. Albeit the most amazing version of purgatory that I have ever imagined. Me and this girl. Alone. For as long as I want. I could also call this heaven because as far as I was concerned, this was what I wanted forever. I could spend eternity in this bliss. A little spore landed on the tip of my nose and I stared at it. I heard a chuckle turn to an outright giggle as Charlotte watched me watching my nose.
"Yes?" I smirked turning onto my side, giving her all of my attention.
"You know your eyes aren't supposed to move that way." She managed through her fit of laughter. "You look so silly like that."
"And you are silly in a much more beautiful way. You know that if you asked me for something I would do it, right?" I smiled at the girl. The sunshine felt warm and I quickly made a decision. I grabbed her hand, pushed it over her head and pinned it to the grass. Her other hand came up to my chest as a reaction and ended up pinned just like the first. I was straddling her from above and my lips met hers before she had time to process what was even happening to her. I grabbed her by the back of the neck and her tongue was in my mouth. We closed our eyes and melted into one for a few minutes, making out like there was never going to be another chance. I felt her hands struggling against mine once more, so I released them. They rushed immediately for my waist, pulling at my jeans. I bit her bottom lip and her whole body arched against mine. She had my pants off before I could even get her shirt up over her bra. I opened my eyes as I sucked on her neck, watching as her head fell backwards in excitement. She grabbed at my shirt, pulling hard and it tore off of my chest. I worked her shirt off over her head and then kissed her hard again.
I moved off of her body as I kissed down her now mostly exposed chest. Her eyes watched me closely as my fingers found her pants. Working quickly, they had her pants unbuttoned and almost off before I had even touched my own clothes. My blood had completely changed directions in my body, making my cock so hard that before my pants came off, I could feel my heartbeat increasing. I smiled as she licked her lips. We were in just our underwear now. I was in my boxer briefs that hugged my shape so well you could see the veins through the crotch of them. She was in the most beautiful black lace bottoms, that had little black lacy roses around the waist and a small line of them around each leg as well. The rest of them was almost completely see through, with a silky black fishnet look. Her bra had the same designs, the roses circling her large breasts, and the rest of them was covered in the same silky, see through fabric that she wore between her legs. I smiled and reached up to her bra, finding the hook on the front between her breasts. She blushed as the hook released and her beautiful and perfect round tits practically bounced right out of their holder. She was easily a C cup and maybe even a D cup, but they were just as perky and firm as if she had B cup size. She looked down at herself, then blushed as she saw the hungry look in my eyes. She was mine now. I kissed her hard, pushing my tongue into her mouth and scooping her neck into my hand to pull her even closer to me. Then as the kiss came to a natural end, I pulled back just an inch from her lips, then kissed again on her chin, then again on her neck. I kissed slowly down her body, spending a few extra seconds teasing her nipples between my teeth. I continued to kiss down her sexy, smooth stomach until I reached the top of the black lace. My teeth closed over the top of her panties and I slowly peeled the thin cloth down her legs. Her already red face turned the color of a tomato as I crawled back towards her face, over her still body with her black lace bottoms in my lips and a hungry need painted plainly on my face.
"You're mine." I growled softly into her ear, letting the fabric fall onto the grass by her head. I leaned back, so that I was sitting upright, straddling the completely naked girl. I slowly pulled my underwear down around my legs. My rock hard cock was standing at attention as it was released from its prison. I watched the girl below me bite her lip in excitement and anticipation as the underwear fell away, letting my rock spring outwards, swinging slightly before it found her mouth. I grabbed a fist full of her hair and pulled her face to my engorged member, and she kissed it. Her lips parted and her tongue slid between them, pressing against my shaft. I used my grip of her head to direct her mouth to the most pleasurable spots, then I let go of her, letting her fall back to the grass. I reached between her legs, then pulled them over my shoulders. She changed quickly from silent and lusty to loud and pleased. Her face widened into an 'O' shape as my tongue moved deeper and deeper into her moist opening. My tongue flicked in circles and pushed hard against her g-spot, as she bucked and screamed her way closer to orgasm. I slipped two fingers into her, replacing my tongue and then began to suck and lick at her clitorus. Her back arched upwards as her moans were sucked back down her throat. I smiled into her as her eyes rolled back and her back relaxed. She bucked and ground her crotch against my mouth as she released. A long, half sigh, half moan came from the girl's lips before she collapsed onto the grass in a sweaty mess of silky flesh and cum. She took a deep breath in and then blinked before regaining the ability to move any other parts of her body.
I smiled mischievously. I leaned in and kissed her hard, taking what was left of her breath away. Pushing against her soft skin, I pressed my hard cock between her legs and let it slip into her. She moaned loudly as I parted her lower lips, filling her with myself. She closed her eyes and whispered "Deeper" as I slowly pushed farther and farther into her. The pleasure was as surreal as the world we were in. We felt every move the other made in the most sensual ways. I felt her pulse from her neck where my hand held her in place. She felt mine from the length of cock buried inside her. I moved back and forth, and she moaned with every stroke. It was like a work of art, and twice as passionate. We lay in the grass, converging for another few minutes before we both spilled over the edge, wrapped in the ecstasy of our embrace. For a few minutes, our slowing heartbeats synchronized like metronomes. There was nothing but us in the world, literally. We were perfect together. We fit perfectly together.
After we had been laying there for about an hour, I began to get restless. "Would you like to play some more?" I asked her.
She giggled. "Depends on your definition of play."
"I mean the kind of play where we go back into the game. Not the kind your dirty mind is stuck on." I winked and smiled.
"Sure. I guess I could use some zombie murdering to lift my spirits. I did just watch you die pretty brutally… I see now why humans get so attached to each other. Your mating rituals are so… Fun." She blushed again and pressed up against my body. "I am yours."
"Awesome. Let's go then." I swiped my menu open and selected start from last checkpoint. The green grass was gone in an instant. I was standing in the building, in the small room with no walls. I was looking into the room where I was torn apart and devoured.. It seemed a little smaller than before. But I saw just where they all were and I was not going to lose again. I cocked both of my weapons and jumped down. The thump of my feet turned the nearest infected's attention, so I put a bullet through his head before he could do anything. The gunshot alerted the rest of them. All six of them left came at me at once. I unloaded the revolver into the clicker first, making sure he died quickly. The rest of them would go down with a single headshot each. I pointed and clicked, letting my gun do all of the work, and before long they were all dead. I picked up the ammo that they dropped and reloaded my revolver. The pistol had about 4 bullets left, but now my revolver had 12. I was ready for another battle to be sure. I picked up a long board with nails on one end, and tucked it away to use as a weapon another time. I smiled proudly as the girls dropped into the room with me and followed me to the other side. Part of what had been the ceiling had collapsed into the room, making a ramp up to the next level on the far side of the building from where we came in. That seemed a lot easier than It had been on my last try.
"Good kills." Tess said as I led them up the ramp.
"They killed me the first time around, it was not good, just better." I replied.
"What do you mean they killed you? What first time?" Tess said, almost angry with my passive demeanor. I shrugged and walked forward, Charlotte on my heels and holding my hand. Tess stopped and stood, staring at me for a minute. "You're really just going to walk away from this conversation?" she egged. I shrugged again.
"There isn't really much for me to say. I know what's going to happen. That's all." I evaded the best I could.
"Tell me how you know it all. Tell me what happened to you Joel. What made you think so highly of yourself? What gave you this knowledge that you have used to scare everyone else. I am getting scared too, Joel. I won't just play dumb and follow you around anymore. I want answers." She said firmly. I knew we wouldn't get to keep going until I gave her what she wanted. She was a stubborn bitch when she wanted to be, and if she were a real person, I would owe her an explanation.
"This is all just a game. A video game. Remember those? You are a character. I am a person like you, but from a world outside this game. I became Joel. I took over his body and I am playing this game. He is the main character. You will follow me no matter what I tell you, because that's how the story works… I don't blame you for being scared, but I am the safest person to be around right now because I have played this game before. We make it to the capitol building and once we get there, the fireflies are all dead… That should be proof enough for you. When that happens, you will know I wasn't kidding.." I closed my eyes and frowned. I knew what I was saying was true, but I had just confirmed that an event would happen. One that I did not want to happen at all. She just nodded slowly, accepting what I was saying. "I don't believe a word you said, but I know what I saw. You know things. I will follow you until we get to the capitol building and if you lied, I will put you down Joel. I swear I will do it." Her voice trailed off slowly at the end of her statement. She would kill me, I knew she was telling the truth, but I also knew she didn't want to.
We walked to the far end of the building and found a stairwell that was totally blocked, up or down. There was a window that had been busted out and hanging feet below it was a window washer platform. There was another next to that one and they seemed to form a pathway. And when a game gives you a path, you take it. I lead the way to the window, but before I could even prepare myself to start climbing out of the safety of the leaning tower of death, Tess was pushing past me. She was hopping down onto the metal platform and as I was watching her jump down about 4 feet to the next window washing platform, Charlotte was walking out onto the first platform. Apparently I was the only one afraid of heights. "Hey! Wait up girls!" I said as I stepped out onto the metal mesh sheet dangling over 30 stories above a plethora of sharp and jagged rocks. I closed my eyes as the platform below my feet began to swing back and forth, just an inch. The whole world seemed to be closing in around me. I was going to fall and I was going to die. But at least the view was gorgeous.
"Hurry your ass up!" I heard from around the corner of the building where Tess and Charlotte had already made their way through a hole in the wall. I grabbed a firm handle of the railing closest to the next window washer lift. I turned backwards from the drop, measured out how far apart they were and then took a deep breath. This would be easy. This would be perfectly easy. I knew it wouldn't break or drop or anything because it didn't in the game. I remembered this part. I remembered the scenery. I remembered how brave I had felt when I had jumped this gap easily, but it wasn't me doing it. It was Joel. Joel was the hero here and I was nothing. Not unless I could make it through this obstacle. I took one more breath and then jumped, kicking my feet out behind me and swinging downwards until my legs ran into the railing of the next walkway. I let my body weight drop to the lower platform, but held on firmly to the first. My landing left the metal shaking and swaying. I looked down at my feet and quickly my eyes shut themselves again in reaction to the horrors that I had just beheld. The ground was still there, it was waiting for me to make just one mistake. One misstep that would send me plummeting from the building and splattering all over the rocks below. I released my firm grip on the first hand rail and grabbed onto the next. I heard a loud squealing sound and Charlotte yelled something, but it was too late. I was standing still, holding onto the railing for dear life as the metal platform that I had just released took my place in freefall, smashing over the rocks almost as soon as I realized that it was what had fallen. I looked down where the loud bang sound reverberated from and saw the metal shreds scattered around the ground, some shooting off and flying at least 20 feet from the location of impact. I looked back up at the ledge where Charlotte and Tess had disappeared to and their faces peeking back around the corner to make sure that I was still alive. A deep breath and a few well placed footsteps and I was safely back inside the building. "HOLY SHIT! DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?! I ALMOST DIED!" I yelled at the two of them as they stood waiting for me. Tess had her arms crossed and looked more upset that I was wasting the time in her day. Charlotte looked like she was about to break into tears laughing at me. She had to cover her gaping mouth in an attempt to not be rude, but my feelings were already hurt.
"You know that it was programmed to fall after the last character got off of it.. Just so that you are aware. You weren't in any real danger." Charlotte smiled at me innocently, trying to be too cute to be mad at. It worked. I sighed and we kept on our journey. We made our way downwards, into the basement of the building. Before long we were only able to see with our flashlights. The good news was that zombies don't typically understand lights. When the infected charge someone its usually because they heard you, not because they saw you. They have much better hearing than most and quite often are blind from the disease that ruined them. I lead the way down into a hole in the floor of the basement of the building. We ended up in a mostly collapsed subway station. There were spores in the air, so Tess and I grabbed our gas masks and quickly covered our faces. Charlotte smiled and took a deep breath of the floating parasitic dust and then walked straight through it.
Tess looked over at me with concern and I smiled and shook my head. "She is actually immune to the infection." I confirmed what I knew she was thinking. "That was why I showed her her own arm. She is… another player. She hasn't played the game before so I was showing it to her to make her understand what she meant to the story. She is the cure Tess. We just have to get her to the fireflies and the game is over." Tess closed her eyes and shook her head, the ideas were not fully sinking in with her. How could you believe that your whole existence was a lie. How could you believe that everything that you worked so hard for, every memory that you had and every bit of your personality was just programming for someone else to enjoy? I wouldn't take that news well either. I was surprised with how well she kept going, even after hearing the news. We walked through the blurry tunnels, unable to see more than 10 feet ahead through the thick layers of spores in the air. The whole place looked like it had an orange sheen over it. The tunnel opened to our left. There was a train blocking the tracks past the opening, so we had to come out of the subway at this exit. We hopped off the tracks and onto the platform. As the spores began to clear I heard a sound. Then there was another sound. Clicks echoing off of walls and pillars from another room. It had to be a large room to cause the echos. The room that echoed with the sounds of clickers looked something out of a mall, but completely underground. Lining the room was shops from wall to wall. There was also plenty of infected. The total count probably ended up around 10 or 15 of them. Only a few were normal infected and the majority were clickers, standing patiently waiting for the next sound to pounce on. I pulled out my gun for protection, but didn't even raise it. Shooting now would cause all kinds of problems and we would end up swarmed before we could even put two of these fuckers down. There was no way out but slow and steady sneaking.
I picked an empty bottle off the ground and tossed it over a vending machine. It crashed heavily on the floor and the echos sent the clickers into a rage. They all began to swing their arms like deadly windmills and tore off in the direction of the noise. One of them headed straight for us, so I stepped to the side, and waited for it to smash into the vending machine. It hit the plastic casing with a loud thump and toppled backwards onto its back. I stuck a knife through its eye hole, but because of the plating around its head, the knife stuck into the head of the hideous deceased without killing it. I stood up before it could make another move and stomped on the handle to the knife. The whole things head seemed to implode under the impact. The knife bounced up and left a small but deep slash across my thigh. I picked it up and crawled as fast as I could without making sounds to where Charlotte and Tess had taken up waiting for me near the exit to the hallway. I looked back to find that all of the infected had taken to attacking the body of their fallen comrade. The noise was luckily enough to cover our footsteps as we rushed to the gate. I pulled on the gate, but it was solid. One of the security gates that you see covering the front windows of shops in bad neighborhoods or in malls. I looked around and found a ticket booth for the subway. I pulled the door open to the box and it made a loud popping sound as it opened. Of course, every single dead head turned their attention to our activities and soon they were rushing at us. Tess yelled "You had to fucking draw their attention?!" as she jumped to grab a ladder that had been sticking out horizontally over the gate the whole time. She and Charlotte quickly climbed up the ladder to safety. I couldn't quite get to the ladder in time, so I closed myself into the small booth. I pulled the door closed behind me and smiled through the glass at the two girls, then waved for them to keep going. They hopped down to the other side of the gate through a fairly large hole in the concrete. The booth was completely surrounded and the infected began to smash their fists into the thinning glass. One of them managed to smash a hole into the booth. I could hear Charlotte yelling to try to turn their attention from me, but nothing helped. There was nowhere to hide and they could see me. They would keep coming until they had me. I smiled mischievously as a thought came to me.
Charlotte was panicking. She was horrified that I might not make it out. She had this look of pure anxiety as she heard the glass give in and the infected grew louder as they began to push into the small ticket box. "This is horrible!" Charlotte cried out as Tess held her hand. "Nobody should have to die this way. He must be in so much pain…" She dropped onto her rump and buried her face in her hands.
"He'll be fine. Apparently this is just a videogame." Tess said, reassuringly as she could. She knew it wouldn't be, but saying it outloud always helped her and those around her. She waited for the howls of pain meaning the end of my life. She watched for blood on the hands of the infected, swinging into the booth. She looked for any sign that I was gone, so she could turn and run. And then there was a sign. A bright sign. The darkness receded quickly and the orange of the spores turned to red and ember as the flailing infected bodies all began to catch fire. The floor and walls of the box seemed to burn the brightest, but the bodies began to melt. Black and blue as the flames burned hotter than ever before. They all fell away from the small box and as the flames began to go out and the only thing left alive outside the box was shrivelled, charred and barely clinging to whatever life it had left, that was when I stepped out of the box.
I smiled at the girls. "Look what I made!" I held up a wine bottle that I had filled with alcohol and plugged with a cloth. "A molotov Cocktail!" I climbed up and over the gate the way the girls had gone and shrugged. "There was a lot of booze in that ticket booth. Someone was very unhappy with their job." Charlotte jumped me and yelled loudly "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWFUL TO WATCH YOU DIE LIKE THAT!" and Tess simply smacked me in the back of the head and then smiled at me. "Asshole." she muttered. We shook off the experience and kept moving forwards. We made it to the exit and out of the subway. We were only a few blocks away now, We just had to keep walking at this point.
Continuing our long and convoluted travels, we began traipsing down the street, close to exhaustion as we approached yet another roadblock. There was a bus crashed sideways between two small shops that completely blocked off any path around it. The bus must have rolled over into the position because the roof of the bus was completely ripped to shreds. The metal that used to safely hold passengers was now sticking up at odd angles looking more ready to rip a man's guts out than protect him. We turned off down an alleyway and my blood ran cold. "Run." I whispered softly, taking off down the street as quietly as I could. The two girls followed in confusion. Charlotte began to ask a question, but I pushed a finger to my lips and shushed her intensely. I turned again, this time stopping by a roll up garage door. I grabbed the unlocked chain and quickly began to hoist the door open, panic in my every action as I began to hear what I knew was coming. I quickly rushed the girls under the door. Tess immediately moved to hold up the door for me to get through as well. I practically dove under the door as a horde of infected at least 100 strong rounded the corner in a frantic mob of hunger. The door slammed shut behind me and the mob quickly swarmed the door, pounding on it continuously. The sound created was something straight out of a horror film, but worse because of the sheer numbers of them.
"Wow. Thanks Joel. That was a close one." Tess said.
"Yeah… That was close. I hate those fucking things." I muttered. Charlotte sat on a step, kicking her feet out in front of her.
"I like this place. It smells like cabbage." The small redhead said with such a straight face that both me and Tess couldn't help but break out laughing. Charlotte looked at us and frowned. "What? It smells like cabbage. I love cabbage!" I smiled and sat next to her on the step.
"Remember to remind me that I said this, but when we next see Tommy, I promise you can have some of his cabbage. Sound good?" I said softly. She nodded and smiled wide. She had this way of forcing my smile. Not in a bad way, but in the way that she always gave me something to smile about. There was never a dull moment. I loved listening to her talk and watching her move. She was this little ninja of fun, sneaking into your heart and killing you with cuteness.
We got up and began to search our new shelter. A slightly flooded garage, with tools on the walls and a large van parked in the center. There was a workbench against the wall and a few gun parts sitting on top as if we were the only people to have made it into the building. "Hey Tess, you want proof this is a videogame?" I smirked and tossed my pack onto the workbench, then pulled out my guns. I pulled a few cogs and metal sprockets out of my bag, laid them on top of my guns and then hit each gun with a hammer. The pistol all of a sudden had extra space for ammo and the revolver had a scope and higher damage and penetration power. I had no Idea how it happened. It just seemed like the thing to do. Video Games are the weirdest things. Tess stared at the transformation and nodded. "You know what, that was very bizarre… I think I have to start believing you just because you keep doing random magic tricks." She smiled for the first time in a while and I gave a half hearted smile back. I hated this place.
We scavenged for a few minutes, then moved to the next room. We cleared the space of 2 infected, then again scavenged. If we were going to be stuck, we would at least make the time useful. The building seemed fairly old in and of itself, but many of the things inside the building were centuries old. There were artifacts of all kinds. Pottery, clothing, and even a pre-outbreak, mint condition iPhone X was left to rot in the decrepit building. Those things were expensive as shit! Charlotte walked around the rooms, taking in everything she saw and stopping to read each of the plaques that still had text on them. She reached out to touch a small white vase with blue flowers wrapped around it and as her hand grasped the surface, it slipped out of her grip and crashed to the floor. Tess swatted Charlotte's wrists and gave her a dirty look. "That was older than Joel." Tess said matter of factly. "Actually, it's older than all three of our ages combined." she corrected herself, before turning around, picking up a bat from an old exhibit and smashing a similar vase to bits. The shattered pieces scattered about the room as the two girls smiled and laughed. I watched the events play out and smiled to myself. We worked our way to the roof, hoping to make the rest of the journey without any interference from the horde that roamed the streets below. We walked up a staircase, but there was only one open door. It lead through a room that was completely collapsed with rotten wood beams and the doorway out was blocked by all kinds of debris. I went to the doorway and then turned to hug Tess. "You are amazing. Don't forget that." I muttered, about to tear up. She cocked her head to the side and looked at me skeptically. I remembered this part of the game like I had played it yesterday. She wouldn't understand what I was talking about now, but I knew that if I warned her the story may just end abruptly at this dead end. We could end up stuck here forever because I decided to open my damned mouth... I pulled Charlotte to my side and kissed her hard. "Keep that one safe as you can. Okay?" I smiled at the girl. She nodded, confusion plain on her face.
"Of course. Where are you going?" Charlotte prodded.
"I'll be right behind you... But I can't help." I said, my lips pulled back into a forced smile. "I promise you will be okay. Okay?" I kissed her cheek. She nodded solemnly and looked through the debris expectantly. I took a deep breath and then lifted the huge beam. The hole created was just large enough for Charlotte and Tess to squeeze through. Seconds after they were safely on the other side, the rotten debris shifted and the whole pile came crashing to the floor. A pathway opened up to my left, and I quickly pushed my way through it. There was yelling and shooting from the other side of the wall as I picked up the pace. "Joel!" I heard Tess yell through the debris, trying to make sure that I was still okay. I ran through the halls and didn't give a single fuck as I was chased by 2 clickers. I was on a mission. The infected caught up with me just before I turned the last corner. I felt fingers scrape my back in an attempt to grab hold, so I wheeled around and swung a metal pipe straight at the things head. Everything from the neck up disappeared from the body before It collapsed to the floor. The next one came at me over the first and tripped. I dodged and let it hit the floor before driving the metal pipe into through the back of its skull. I turned back and ran to the doorway where an infected piece of shit was pounding on a closet door. I was too late. I pulled out my gun and shot the thing dead, then opened the door slowly.
"Its me." I muttered before pulling the handle and bringing light to the darkness within. Charlotte came running out first. She was so happy to see me that she jumped into my arms.
"Al! You're here! I thought for a second that the rubble might have crushed you!" I ignored the comment and gave Tess my hand to help her stand back up. She was noticeably upset and her eyes didn't open for a minute. I pulled her to the side and looked her in the eyes. "I know. I'm sorry." I said, beginning to tear up. Charlotte looked between our two sad faces and then ran up to hug the both of us. We stood for a minute, just regaining composure and hugging each other before moving on. We turned and walked to the windows on the far side of the building and opened one up. Charlotte jumped first, going out the window so fast you would have thought she was being chased. Tess was next, climbing awkwardly out the window onto the fire escape and then heading up. She was careful not to move one of her shoulders much and I noticed it clearly, even though she did well to cover it up. I followed the group, once again trailing behind to make sure that everyone was safe for the time being. I followed the two up the stairs to the roof and looked around. It was far from the tallest building in the city. In fact, at only 3 stories, it was pretty close to one of the smallest, and yet the view was incredible. I looked out over the landscape and soaked it all in. It was real. It was so much more real than my memories of this place. You could see buildings all around. To one direction was a view of suburbia as far as the eye could see. The opposite direction was towers, raised overhead to amazing heights. It was like being in new york, but every building was decrepit. They were shedding bricks, losing windows, and even decaying into rubble. Each building told a story, but every story ended the same. When people were removed from the landscape, nature took over once again. Men were raised by god's hand, buildings and cities raised by man's hand. But as god was forgotten by men, men were forgotten by god. And alone, without god, man never stood a chance. And neither had man's creation. But God's creations not only survived, but thrived. The greenery hanging from every missing stone, the trees that toppled towers, and even the spores that infected the men. The world was thriving again. The world was alive again. And it was good. This was how earth should be in the real world.
"I almost hope that this happens someday. I almost hope that the world ends so that this world can begin." I said to Charlotte. She smiled and held my hand.
"Someday it will. And even if you never see it, you will have experienced it. We all return to dust." She said softly, almost poetically. Her hair blew in the breeze. My lips pulled back farther, my smile a bit brighter.
"I experienced it, even if I will never see it. And that is why I started playing games to begin with." I smiled and leaned against an air vent. "This is where I leave tonight, princess." I reached out and grabbed Charlotte's hand. "I want this image to be in my dreams. This scenery and you." I kissed her head and she smiled.
"Sleep well my administrator." she said genuinely, plastering one of the biggest smiles onto my face.
I signed off of the game and then I was alone again. Sitting in my living room with nothing but a dream. A dream of the end of the world. And a girl waiting for me at the edge of that world. And she was mine. I got up, stretched and got ready for bed. That night as I fell asleep, I pictured the view. I never wanted anything more than to see that memory forever.
