Last Of US
Episode 10
"Forsaken"
Rylan grunted at the pain of the piece of glass wedged into his side, his face was sticky with his own dried blood. He has been out for a while, fresh blood trickled from his cuts on his face and torso. His shirt was torn to hell, there was no saving it, he didn't' have an extra but he could wear his jacket which was not an option due to being in the mid-day summer heat. The boy looked around the wreck, there was no sign of more hunters or Joel and...
"Ellie..." He muttered.
He sighed in relief of seeing two more dead Hunters, and Joel's and Ellie's things were gone. He needed to find her not because of his mother's promise but because Ellie was his friend, his only friend left in this world. He saw they must have left in a hurry no time to check on the bloody teenager. The first thing Rylan had to do was care for the glass in his abdomen, he carefully tore off the shirt to get a closer look at the wound, the glass was in deep but no where near his arteries because if it was he would have been dead by now. Problem was he needed to stop the bleeding, but he didn't know how to stitch close the wound, "Can't afford not to." He remembered Ellie say, and she was right. In this world you need to know everything in order to survive in what's left of the world, in or outside the zones, there was only one thing Rylan knew how to do when it comes to wounds besides bandaging, Cauterization.
Rylan started a small fire, holding the broken piece of windshield in place before pulling it out. Rylan took his trusty knife and placed the tip onto the fire, when it was hot enough the tip of the blade was blazing orange, it made the bloody teenager gulp. He swallowed back the resistance and took a huge breath and pulled out the glass until it was out, he shrieked at the pain, blood started gushing out of the wound. Rylan then clenched every muscle in his body and touched the scorching blade to the broken skin, he let out a bloody painful cry not caring if other hunters heard it or not, this was the second time in his life to be touching a scorching hot piece of metal. The sizzling sound and smell of his own flesh cooking made Rylan... Hungry, most people would feel sick over the smell of flesh but not to Rylan. The wound was closed, he began tending to the other cuts with some bandaging, Rylan didn't bother cleaning his blood soaked face and torso. But now Rylan was hungry, but there was no food around except for...
Rylan stared at the hunter's dead body, but then reached over to feel the letter D Branded on his shoulder blade, "No... Not again." He muttered before grabbing his underarm holster containing his Silver Ghost, and his other holster with his Magnum with the one shot. After strapping on his gear and gets his sling backpack, The bloody and shirtless teenager walks through the abandoned city, population: Hunters and Infected. Rylan was lucky that nothing was broken, yet he was sore and aching all over, from afar he could look like an infected which would easily get him killed, but no one else in this city is nice anyway.
"Where are you Ellie?" He whispered to himself.
He hoped to god if there ever was one that she was alright, he told her she was strong and a survivor and couldn't allow her to shed more tears for him. 'She must be hurting, but She has to stay strong...' He thought. He couldn't take the pain anymore, he found a nice quiet place to do a few minutes of Jiu Jitsu meditation, he felt the pain subside and was replaced with calmness.
Rylan was pulled from his meditation by the sound of someone approaching. He looked behind himself and climbed quickly to his feet, ignoring the screaming pain in his abdomen and muscles. He drew the Silver Ghost, and looked around himself. He was in what had once been a supermarket. Rylan quickly crept behind one of the shelves and listened. He bit down on his tongue to keep himself from groaning; the pain was intense. He moved silently, peeking around the shelf, keeping a tight grip on his weapon. There were hunters, a lot of them, moving around. Rylan listened carefully to their conversation and guessed that they were looking for him and Joel and Ellie.
Rylan did a headcount with his eyes. He counted ten guys. Why the hell were they moving around in such a large group together? Rylan had an odd feeling that Joel and Ellie had given the bastards more trouble than they had expected. That raised another question: how long had he been out? It didn't matter. He had to move.
Rylan no moved as quietly as he could, maneuvering his way around the hunters, sometimes just barely avoiding detection. For just a minute there, Rylan felt like he was going to go unnoticed. He was almost out of the supermarket. And then he stepped on a piece of loose rubble from the ceiling above them. It shifted, grinding against the concrete on the ground and other bits and of rubble. It was just loud enough to gain the attention of the hunters. "Shit, tourist!" One of them called. Rylan moved fast, jumping out of the way as a bullet from the hunter's pistol ripped through the air past him. Rylan crouched behind an overturned shelf and waited for the firing to cease, even for a moment.
When Rylan had his chance, he took aim and fired. One of the hunter's heads rocked back with a spray of blood and gray matter as the bullet slammed into his forehead. Rylan crouched back down and looked around him. There were a few more shelves near him and Rylan moved behind them, getting another step closer to the door. He popped off a few more rounds, taking down another hunter. The firing stopped and he heard the familiar sound of a gun being reloaded. Rylan took his chance then and sprinted for the door.
Rylan hooked a right and began to sprint. He had barely made it a few feet when he went slamming into someone and they both went tumbling to the floor. Rylan lets out a groan at the pain that shot through his abdomen. He got back up onto his feet and came face to face with a man who looked to be somewhere in his mid-twenties. He wore a white tank top and blue jeans.
"Hey, hey! Be cool man." He said. Both of them looked back at the sound of the hunters exiting the supermarket. "Hey, maybe you should follow me." He said, motioning for Rylan to follow before running down the street and cutting into an ally. Rylan looked back at the hunters. They had caught sight of him.
"Ah fuck." He muttered before turning to sprint after the man, into the alleyway. The pain was screaming in Rylan's skinny built abdomen, but eventually the pain subsided from the adrenaline rush, the stranger kept leading Rylan through the Alleyway while being chased by the hunter savages. The stranger gripped Rylan's wrist and pulled him into hiding, The hunters ran right passed them. Rylan and the Stranger can hear distant conversations of the men,
"Where the hell did he go?!" One of the hunters growled.
"Leave him, that kid ain't gettin' that far the way he looked." another gasped.
"Yeah let the others get him..."
"Alright... Get back to the market, we got to take care of our guys. I swear that kid, and that old man and his little bitch is mine when I get my hands on 'em." Then they were gone. Rylan clenched his fist and fought the urge to rip that guy's head off, they came out of their hiding spot the adrenaline began to subside and the pain returned. Rylan groaned grabbing his side.
"The two they were talking about... friends of yours?" He asked.
"Yeah..." Rylan gasped.
"Well... They're alive by the sound of it. My name's Henry." He said holding out his hand. Rylan leaned up and shook it,
"Rylan..." he smirked. Henry looked over Rylan's condition, bloody, battered, and sliced to hell, Henry whistled at the sight,
"You don't look so good."
Rylan huffed, "You should see the other guy." He joked. "Why did you help me?" He asked suddenly.
"I thought you were an infected at first, but then seeing you still breathing and being chased by those assholes shut that out. I guess you can say that my crew and I have a little disagreement with them too."
"Oh..." Rylan muttered before falling to his knees, Henry caught the boy in his arms,
"Whoa, easy there man..." Henry felt the kid's skin was on fire, "Goddamn, you're burning' up... C'mon, let get you outta here." He said helping Rylan to his feet and moving away from the area. Rylan passed out from dehydration and a small fever from some of his wounds being infected by the looks of it, Henry didn't bother to check for bites but wasn't gonna let a kid die out there alone. Rylan's vision went back and forth, not knowing how he managed to keep walking, when his vision came back almost a 10th time he was somewhere in the shade, probably indoors lying down on a cot. He can hear multiple voices at once, he can see a woman near him about to give him a shot,
"What is that?" Rylan gasped,
"Shhh, it's alright, it's amoxicillin. To help get rid of the fever from your infected cuts." She stuck the needle in his arm and injected the antibiotic substance.
"Good, I'm allergic to penicillin." He sighed in relief,
She smiled, "Good thing you reminded me..." she collected the medic kit and walked away, she seemed nice enough. Rylan felt much better considering he was covered in fresh bandaged and stitches. The blood however was yet to be cleaned, and people all around looked nervous seeing him covered in crimson red.
Rylan sat up on the cot slowly, feeling a small wave of nausea wash over him. He squinted one eye and rubbed at his temple gently. He could feel the beginnings of a headache, and his skin felt hot. He knew he had to have an infection, but he tried not to worry about that. He stood slowly and felt another, stronger, wave of nausea wash over him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes and the world wasn't spinning, Rylan surveyed the area he was in. It looked like he was in some store or something. He considered the amoxicillin the woman had given him and guessed it was a drug store...but then again, Rylan doubted amoxicillin had been available in drug stores before the outbreak.
Rylan looked at the woman, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable. "Uh, thanks for...the meds I guess."
She grinned at him. "No problem, name's Lisa by the way."
"Rylan." he said, shaking her hand when she offered it. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down, completely aware for the first time that he didn't have a shirt on. "Hey," he said, looking back to Lisa. "You wouldn't happen to have an extra shirt would you?"
Lisa smiled and chuckled a bit. "Let me go see." Rylan watched her walk off for a moment. He sat down on the cot and rubbed at his temple again. He looked up when Lisa called his name. He caught the shirt she tossed him with one hand and pulled it on. He examined it and thought; 'I look like Joel.' It was a red, plaid button-down shirt. He buttoned it up, leaving the top two open, and rolled the sleeves up to just below his elbows. Lisa nodded her head when he had finished and pointed to the floor on the other side of the cot. Rylan looked at it and saw his stuff. He nodded to her and leaned over the cot to pick them up.
Rylan had just finished strapping on his gear when Henry came over. "Hey man, good to see you aren't dead."
Rylan nodded his head. "Yeah, I've definitely had better days." He looked around the drug store at the others. Henry caught this and said;
"Well, you've already met Lisa and me." Rylan nodded his head. He did a headcount. All together there were seven people. Counting himself there was eight. Henry pointed across the pharmacy to an old and ruined magazine rack at a kid, who looked to be a few years younger than Rylan.
"That's Sam-my brother. Lisa, of course. That grouch over there," Henry pointed towards the front door, where a guy near Joel's age stood with a rifle in his hands. "He's Vincent. Decent enough once you get to know him." Rylan's eyes drifted over to what looked like a couple, sitting near the cash registers. "Kevin and Julie. They're kind of inseparable." Then Henry pointed to a woman leaning against the wall with a shotgun in her hands. She had a blank expression on her face, but her eyes were red, the eyelids themselves were puffy and Rylan could tell she had been crying. "That's all of us." Henry said.
Rylan sat back on the cot and stretched his arms a bit. "So, you guys have a plan? Or have you just been hiding here like rabbits?"
Henry snorted. "We're looking for the fireflies. Heard they were stationed somewhere out west. Trying to get there. We were just going through here to get supplies."
"Yeah, that was a great idea, wasn't it?"
Henry snorted again. "Yeah, you're tellin' me." Rylan looked towards the front doors, his thoughts turning to Joel and Ellie. He nudged Henry with his elbow.
"Hate to rain on your parade but, if you want me to go with you, I'm gonna' have to say no. I got people here. We got separated."
Henry thought about it. "Well, we're gonna' be heading out pretty soon. If you want, you can move with us a bit. Ain't exactly safe to keep to one spot around here. Rylan nodded to show his agreement with that. Traveling in numbers was probably better. At least he'd have someone to back him up for a short time. He nodded.
"Yeah, I can work with that."
Henry, his brother Sam and their group along with Rylan moved out from their camp. Rylan was walking ahead of the rest looking back at the couple holding each other close, Rylan smiled at this. It kind of reminded him of Ellie and Him but not that close obviously, God thinking of it just hurt him worse than the physical pain, after all they almost kissed, twice already. She may have wanted to be more with him, but he didn't feel the same way, he felt like shit after that and after the fact that she thinks he's dead already. He made a promise he was looking to keep, and the feelings, he had with Ellie, were too obvious, somewhere deep inside he knew he was falling for her too. But what would happen after they get Ellie to the fireflies? Now that thought haunted him even more.
Rylan was snapped out of his thinking when Lisa tapped his shoulder, she smiled at him but frowned upon looking at Rylan's sad expression. "Are you okay?" She asked sweetly. Rylan liked her, well for being friendly of course,
"Y..Yeah just, thinking..." he replied looking down.
"About Ellie?" Rylan was surprised at how she knew that, "Henry told me that you were separated with your people."
Rylan smirked, "Yeah, I promised her that I would protect her, but then we got separated... She thought I was killed from the wreck."
"Oh sweetie..." She gasped, she put a comfortable arm around him. "I'm sure you will be able-"
*Bang!*
Lisa and Rylan fell to the ground the others were startled by the gunshot, Rylan tried to move Lisa but a look of horror flashed upon Rylan's face. Lisa's face was covered in blood and her eyes were still, lifeless. He pushed her off to his side, seeing her lying there limp, and being covered in her blood caused him to vomit up whatever was left of the rations he was given to him, by Lisa. Suddenly Rylan began to hear machine gun fire, the woman with the shotgun was the next to fall being torn apart by the rapid gunfire. Vincent took aim with his rifle,
"Eat led, Slackers!" He shouted, but the truck sped right to him running over his body and hearing the bones crush under the tires. Kevin and Julie ran off with each other, Henry rushed over to Rylan and lifted him up to his feet running away from the hunters with him and his little brother Sam. With one glimpse back to Lisa's body Rylan muttered,
"I'm sorry..." Shedding a tear for the poor soul who deserved so much better than being killed by the savages.
Okay people that's it for this week's episode of The Last Of Us, Tune in next week for another exciting adventure with Ellie and Joel. Will they be able to find each other again? Until then, Peace! ~ Exangellion & Revanite201