Cough! Cough! Cough-cough!
Ugh… god damn it… I feel like absolute death… Do you know what that feels like yet? To be so incredibly sick that all you want to do is roll over and let death swallow you whole in its tight embrace? No, not yet? Good – make sure that it stays that way.
But this… it can't just all be a coincidence. One night I'm sleeping comfortably; trying not to worry about whether I'm going to find Lilly and Jane's heads on spikes, and the morning after I and a number of others all feel like absolute shit.
That doesn't just happen.
"Let me take a look at you, Clem," James remarks, placing my hand at my side as he checks my forehead. Damn… why does it look like there are three doctors in front of me now? Why is the whole room spinning? "Hmm… you're burning up. The fever's already set in, it seems. Shit…"
"What's… wrong with me…?" I ask softly; coughing into my sleeve as I try to keep it all together.
Grabbing a cloth from his pocket, James dabs at my head in order to remove the sweat that's undoubtedly formed. "Hard to say without my lab," he explains with a grimace. "If I had to take a guess, I'd say that you might have some sort of flu virus. Clem, have you been in contact with anyone that's been sick lately?"
"No…"
"Hmm… has there been anything different recently? Any changes in eating patterns? Have you felt lightheaded at all?" he probes, trying to get a sense at what the hell might be going inside this little body of mine. "Have you been in contact with any new material? Did you happen to come across anything different, like a new kind of food, or maybe a sweater, or…?"
All at once, everything clicks as I whip the blanket off my legs and toss it aside like a live grenade.
That son of a bitch…
"You fucking piece of shit!" Racheal swears; eyes interlocking with Alden's as he backs up in fear. There's really nowhere for him to run, but a whole bunch of us are incapacitated right now. The only ones who haven't been affected were the ones who didn't use the blankets last night – namely Kazuki, Zayne, Racheal and James. Emily, Elliot and I have basically been knocked out. "So that was your game all along, wasn't it?! You got sent over here to poison the lot of us! Give me one good reason why we shouldn't light up the fire pit again and stick your head inside?!"
"I didn't know anything about making your people sick, I swear to you!" Alden pleads; his eyes wide with fear and astonishment. "Tracy… she only told me to scout out the food, and… and to break out Kazuki… I-I had no idea that those blankets were laced with disease! I would never have agreed to it had I known!"
"He's… cough-cough… lying to us!" Elliot exclaims from his spot on the floor. Emily's passed out nearby, and Kazuki's safely locked away in the interrogation room (although you can faintly hear her banging on the door). Zayne's looking rather pissed off this morning, as is to be expected, and then you have James – who has actually remained surprisingly calm throughout this whole thing.
That unnerves me quite more than I'd like to admit.
When Racheal and Zayne back the guy up against the wall, with the latter of the two brandishing a pistol at his side, Alden starts to panic a little bit. "I swear to god, I didn't mean for this to happen! I – "
"All I'm hearing out of your mouth are words – words with no meaning whatsoever," Racheal remarks, tilting her head to the side as she sharply glares at him. "I think your time here has come to an end, Alden. We should find a nice, open field to drop you off. Maybe the walkers will be more welcoming for ya!"
"Don't try it, alright?! Just hear me out! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!" Alden exclaims, sighing in relief as Racheal slowly backs up – only a little bit, though. "Look… I know this is a horrible thing to have happen to you folks, and I know that it's largely my fault. And I'm so, so sorry that it came to this. The group that I'm with… they're not right, whether it's in the head or not I'm not entirely sure. But they just… do things sometimes without thinking of anyone else. All Tracy and Joshua are interested in is the situation for their own group – they'll stop at nothing to get what they want."
"Pssh, yeah, no shit! So why are you still with them?! You could've left the same way that I did!" Zayne insists, but Alden doesn't seem to agree with that very much.
"And where would I go, huh? Run off into the woods by myself? I'd be dead within the week! Two if the biters were feeling generous!" he states as he relaxes his body a little bit. The guy's still a little fidgety, but not nearly as much since none of us are posing a serious threat to him right now. "My options were laid out for me, and I took it. I had to stand by and watch as Tracy unleashed Josh upon innocent victims – we used to call him the Blood Hound up until he found out about it. I couldn't say a damn word when they started… cutting people, leaving them to rot in their rooms and acting like everything was perfectly fine…"
I start tuning out what they're saying after a little while – partly because I'm as sick as a dog, but also because James is digging through his bag, no doubt searching for something that might help me out a little bit. Scrummaging around, James pulls out a small pill bottle and empties what remains into his hand.
"Ibuprofen," he says simply, as if I'm supposed to know what that means. "It's a pain killer. This puppy might not be a cold-remover, but it might be good enough to relieve some aches for a little while. You should only take one for right now, so swallow it."
"Since when… did you become nice?"
Chuckling quietly, James smirks as he closes the bag back up; satisfied as I take a big gulp. Bleh! That tastes horrible! "You've just caught me on a bad week, that's all," he says, turning his attention back to the rest of the group. "What do you think? Should we trust what he says?"
"No," I reply instantly; not feeling the least bit of sympathy for the man who (knowingly or not) infected a bunch of our group members. "But… we can't ignore him. We should… try to bargain him and Kazuki… for Bo and… Lilly."
Leaving me be for a little bit, James wanders on over to Elliot, who seems to be taking this whole infection thing even worse than I am. His eyes are going bloodshot, his nose is running like a leaky faucet and he's really looking worse for wear.
Hmm… based on how apologetic and shocked that Alden has been since this morning, perhaps he really didn't know anything about the blankets. Clearly this Tracy woman had almost everything to do with it, but why would she try something like this? Normally, people come over to attack us with guns and shooting; not scare tactics and infectious diseases. Coupled with how we aren't even completely sure what this infection actually is doesn't help matters, and I'm getting pretty worried.
What's gonna happen to all of us?
"There's a small doctor's office in the city a good ways away from here," Racheal states, running a hand through her hair as she tries to keep calm. "Most of the doors have been locked up tight, but I know a different way inside. I can head on over and search the place for medical supplies. James, is there any way that you could travel to this space centre of yours?"
"It would take at least a day to get there, and the roads are dangerous without some backup to help me out."
"Damn it… alright," Racheal solemnly replies, bending down to check Emily's pulse before standing back up again. "I'm heading out right now – the longer we wait, the more likely this'll get worse."
How could it possibly get any worse than this? I think to myself, feeling as though I've sunk as far down as I could possibly get. Man, what did Tracy put in those blankets? Dog shit?
"I'm coming too – it'd be a good idea to have someone watching your back," Zayne says, already swinging a bag over his shoulder and heading out the door before anyone can tell him otherwise. Not having much of a choice, Racheal relents before narrowing her gaze over to Kazuki's room.
Oh no…
"Racheal…? What are you doing?" I mumble quietly; my voice being too soft for her to actually hear me. As she forcefully unlocks the door and swings it open, she narrows her gaze at the poor kid before pointing out to the front door.
"This is for reassurance," she explains swiftly, gazing hard at Alden for a brief moment. "Need to make sure that you two don't try anything else. You're coming with me."
Raising an arm out in a vain attempt to stop her, I end up rolling onto my stomach and briefly get Racheal's attention. "Don't… hurt her…" I say, not wanting any unnecessary blood spilled. "She didn't… do this…"
Bending down on one knee in front of me, Racheal tilts my chin up slightly before nodding towards me. "Don't worry," she reassures, "I don't kill kids. That's not who we are."
"Umm… good to know… Not that I'd let you come near me anyways…" Kazuki stutters, unable to believe that we'd even be having this conversation at all. I don't mean to scare the girl – that's actually what I don't want to happen.
But you really can't be too careful with anything these days. Better just to use words first rather than finding out that somebody's been shot to death.
As Racheal practically marches her out of the grocery store as if they're all in some kind of boot camp, I see Alden physically relax and sink down low against the wall and onto the floor. He just dodged a bullet, literally. If Lilly and Jane had been here…
Wait a minute! He might know something, wouldn't he?!
"James?" I croak out, bringing my back up off the dirty floor so that I'm now in a sitting position. All the blood rushes to my head as I move up a little bit too fast. "Can… can you bring him… over here? Please?"
Nodding, the doctor wanders on over to our unwelcomed guest as he nudges Alden with his foot. Pointing over towards me, James manages to slowly convince the man to come over and see what I want with him.
I plan on getting some answers – actual answers this time, and not just stupid rumours.
"You were with Tracy's group…" I start off, trying to stay focused as best I can. "That means… you saw Lilly… and Bo!"
Immediately recognizing the pained look on his face, my stomach turns to knots as he cautiously nods his head again. What the hell is he not telling me?!
"You must be Clementine, then…" he acknowledges, looking to the floor. "Lilly was… telling me about you."
"Where… are they? What happened to them?" I demand crossly, feeling a stormy rain cloud looming over my thoughts as my blood boils just thinking about what kind of messed up, animalistic shit these people may have done to them. "What happened…? Tell me… TELL ME!"
My question is abruptly interrupted when the front doors slam wide open, and in pops the people that none of us had wanted to see – this really isn't an ideal time for Tracy and the rest of her group to show up.
"Well hello there, ladies and gentlemen," she says with a wicked smirk as their people get started knocking over shelves and raiding the store. Hunger and desperation clearly will make people do the craziest things.
Ellie's POV
Alright, let's go through the checklist here…
Backpack? Check.
Knife thingy? Umm… Hmm, let's see… Oh, there it is! Yep, check!
Okay, I think I'm all set! Now all I have to do is… oh no! I completely forgot about food and water! Well, I'm sure I can get by on crackers, right? And maybe there'll be a puddle or something I can drink out of.
Yeah, that's what I'll do! See? I can plan this stuff out all by myself!
Now I'm off to find Clementine and all of her friends – this shouldn't be too hard, right? No, this should be easy-peasy! I used to play as detectives with Riley all the time, so all that I've gotta do is look for clues. Footprints, pieces of clothing, things like that.
I saw it in a picture book once, you know! I'm not making this stuff up!
Making sure that Tommy can't see me anywhere, I tiptoe over to the door like a ninja and try to lightly push it open. When that doesn't work, I try shoving it a little harder; almost tripping over myself until I finally manage to get out. Man, that's heavy!
I feel kinda bad that I'm leaving Tommy all by himself, but I have to do this thing. Clemmy and the others could be in terrible danger, so it's up to Super Ellie to come to the rescue!
Super Ellie is supposed to have a sidekick, but… sigh, thinking about that just makes it ten times worse. Riley would want me to be happy… but it's hard to do that when everyone around you is gone.
But don't worry, Clementine! I'll come save you, and then you can make everything better!
Wow… I forgot how big this place actually was! Some of these buildings are super-duper big! I bet that I could see the whole wide world from up there!
As I walk around a little bit, I can't help but hug myself tightly as I gaze upon the big, scary hole in the ground. I don't know what happened over here, but… maybe it was some kind of explosion! A big boom that blew up the ground!
I don't want to think about that, though… I've only been out here for a few minutes, and I'm already totally lost. I don't like being lost, it makes me feel all scared and yucky inside!
Looking down into the hole, I clap twice and listen as the sound bounces around down below. As cool as that might be, it still doesn't change the fact that I can't find any clues. No footprints, no pieces of clothing, and no arrows pointing me in the right direction. Why can't they just make things easy for me? Couldn't they have left a trail of bread crumbs for me to follow or something? Is that too much to ask?
Feeling a little bit sad, I sit down on the edge of the hole and look down at all of the trucks, buses and cars; dangling my legs over the ledge as I notice all the dead, gross faces looking back at me. Don't you find it weird how these guys all used to be people before? I sure do… I still wonder if there are still people living inside them somewhere. Clementine doesn't think so, but maybe she's wrong about that this time. I mean, how else would they come back to life if there wasn't something still there? You can't just force a dead body to stand up again and start moving around!
As the wind blows by and I hug my sweater more tightly around my body, I can't help but sniffle a little bit. This isn't fair… why do things have to be so crappy all the time now? I don't wanna be so scared anymore! I'm tired of losing my friends and family, and I'm just so… well, afraid!
I'm scared… I'm scared of ending up alone…
"God damn it… God fucking damn it! I told you they were gonna be trouble, but no, you just DIDN'T want to hear it, did ya?"
"Would you ease up already? They said we could come over to this place for saving their lives! That site was a deathtrap anyways. We kept Ryan up on that crane for way too long…"
Oh no… Those sound like bad guys! I'd better hide before one of them finds me…
"One week is nothing, Kelly. Besides, it's not as if he was going anywhere – we did tie him to a pole, after all."
"What the hell is wrong with you, Katie? We had a dead guy up on a crane and acted like it was no big deal!" the weird lady exclaims, holding a big, mean-looking gun in her arms. "We should've given him a proper burial. He deserved that much…"
Patting her buddy on the shoulder, the second woman shrugs her shoulders as they get closer towards my hiding spot. Crap! "Relax, Kelly – Ryan still had a purpose even after he died. He was one hell of a scarecrow! Kept the birds from shitting all over us, at least."
Chuckling quietly to herself, Kelly shakes her head with a small smirk. "I can't even believe I'm having this conversation right now," she admits, unfortunately spotting me as she widens her eyes and points straight towards me. "Whoa… holy shit! What's a kid doing out in the middle of nowhere like this?!"
Time for me to book it out of here!
Knowing that they're starting to chase after me, I try to run in circles in order to get them confused. Maybe if I outrun them for long enough, they'll both just give up and go home!
"Kid! Wait up! We just wanna talk to you!"
Ha, yeah right! More like you wanna cook me up and put me in a stew! Those fairy tales couldn't have lied to me about everything!
As I slowly start to run out of breath, and notice that the two grownups are catching up to me, I bolt it over to a dirty car and open the front door; quickly hopping inside and shutting the door behind me.
Thankfully, I'm able to lock the door behind me as I crawl over to the driver's seat with wide eyes. They can't catch me in here!
Holding my switchblade out in my hand near the steering wheel, I start to panic as the two women stand on either side of the car. "Go away!" I screech, glaring at Kelly with a big scowl.
The two of them look at each other once before shrugging and glancing back towards me, with Katie simply opening the other door beside me as she pokes her head inside. Stupid me forgetting to lock all the stupid doors!
"Leave me alone!" I yell as Katie pulls me out of the vehicle. For a moment I think that they're trying to kidnap me, but I get kind of confused when she just drops me back down out on the pavement. "Why-what do you want?! I'll cut you up if you don't leave!"
"We just want to talk to you, okay? There's no need to try and hurt anybody," Kelly soothes, introducing herself and Katie as I keep my weapon out in front of me. "What's your name, darling?"
"…Ellie…"
"Ellie, huh? That sounds like a pretty kick-ass name to me!" Katie smirks, causing me to giggle slightly as she fist-bumps me. Maybe these two aren't as bad as I thought they were. "But you can't be living out here by yourself. Are you with a group somewhere? Any chance that you know someone named Emily? Or Zayne, or someone named Jane…?"
"I know Jane, not the other two, though," I tell them shyly as I put my finger in my mouth. "I wanted to try and find her and my friends, but… then I got lost! I can't remember how to get home now…"
"Well, seeing's how we're looking for the same person," Kelly mentions, standing up to full height as I look upwards, "wanna tag along? We can help you get back home. You wouldn't happen to live at the Houston Space Centre, would ya?"
"Yeah, that's it!" I nod enthusiastically, causing the two women to snicker as they point to a huge, cool-looking building with those big glass windows that I always thought were so neat. How did they build it so damn tall?!
Hmph… maybe I wasn't so lost out here after all.
Told you I knew what I was doing!
Jane's POV
Taking a big whiff of the air, I scrunch up my nose in disgust as I quietly sneak my way over. This place reeks of dead corpses, diesel fuel and French fries. How that's possible, I'm not entirely sure, but maybe my mind's just trying to play tricks on me. It took me all night and almost a dozen walkers to kill, but I'm finally here. I've finally arrived at the Renegade outlet mall.
I haven't even entered the building yet, and already I can tell how much of a bitch it's gonna be looking around in here. This place is a damn maze.
And I'm the mouse who's getting tossed into it.
"Alright… where are you?" I quietly say to myself, holding my rifle out in front as I slowly creak the glass door open. The echoes of wandering feet and broken glass tells me that I'm definitely not alone in here.
That could either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.
This place definitely hasn't had a great stream of good luck since it was abandoned, and it looks like the slobs that occupied it afterwards weren't exactly looking to tidy up the joint. Were they planning on staying here for the long term, or were they just gonna dine and dash like a lot of people I used to know? That was my philosophy at one point, back when I was still travelling with Jaime across the countryside. Always keep moving, I remember telling her, although she never wanted to go anywhere.
No, Jaime wanted to wait there for the dead to swallow her up like a turkey on Thanksgiving. She didn't even scream when they came for her, didn't cry when they ripped out her throat.
I'm not going down that road, no way. I'm gonna fight for my life until the bitter end, regardless of what they might throw at me.
Checking down the dark hallway to make sure that I haven't been followed, I bend down in order to grab onto a shutter that's blocking the way into some of the bigger stores. Lifting upwards with all my might, I raise the shutter above my head as I quickly slide underneath and lower the thing back down behind me. The screeching of rusted metal as it finally closes makes me cringe, and I have to hide behind an old dumpster as a couple of dead ones wander over to investigate.
Crap, I mutter internally, how am I gonna keep going at this rate?
When I accidentally bump into the dumpster, I find out that the thing is actually on wheels – that gives me an idea. With their attentions otherwise occupied, I shove the dumpster straight towards the walkers as they get trapped in behind it.
"Wraaaagggghhh!"
"Shut the fuck up…" I murmur, pulling out my knife and shoving it right through both of their skulls. If things go as smoothly as this, I might be out of this joint by sundown!
Crouching downwards, I quickly jog over to the far wall as I stick my head around the corner; eager to find Lilly and Bo so that I can get out of this creepy place.
Anyone up for shopping?
Clem's POV
"Now look at what we have here! You fellas have been holding out on us, haven't you?" Tracy calls out from the back room; monitoring her group's progress as they start piling all the cans out to the trucks. With this Josh character holding a shotgun warningly over at us and a couple other survivors doing the same with side arms, we can't do anything except watch as they take all of our stuff.
Snapping her fingers three times, Tracy tells them to hurry it up a little bit so that she can get the trucks moving again before anybody else shows up. "Anyone who slacks off loses their share!" she announces, pilfering off our goods like a band of pirates. "I don't wanna see a speck of corn left over, got that? We need everything they've got! It's gonna be a long winter soon!"
"Winter?" I ask quietly, wondering what the hell she's talking about. When she notices my curious stare, Tracy walks over to me with a smirk.
This lady is bat-shit crazy if she thinks she's getting off freely like this.
"Pretty clever, wasn't it? Luring Alden over here and having him bring you all down without him even knowing! Now that takes some talent!" she brags as Alden stands near the fire pit; unwilling to participate any longer. "Oh, rolling dead body parts all over your blankets sure was good for a few giggles. Most of you should be up and about soon enough. So you must be Clementine then, correct? The little leader of this little group? I'd congratulate you on the fine job that you've been doing thus far, but I don't really think that'd be an appropriate response. I hate liars, you know."
When I try to stand up and pull out a gun, Tracy simply chuckles before shoving me against one of the old, empty food cabinets and knocking me back down. Smacking my hand away when I try to reach for a sharply-cut metal can, the woman seizes the object and raises it to her head level.
"Are… are you going to kill us?" I cough, feeling a burning desire to end this woman right here.
"I don't think that would be the appropriate response now, do you?" she remarks, chucking the can far out of my reach as she shakes her head. "No… killing you would be too easy, and I'm not a killer. I'm not some psycho maniac out to murder you in your sleep just for a fun time. I'm a survivor, just like you. We all are, actually. Isn't that right, Josh?"
"Whatever you say, boss," he replies, cocking his shotgun back and aiming it right towards Elliot's head as he tries to reach for his gun. "Don't even think about it, boy! You threaten me or my family like that again, and you won't like how this ends! Now put your hand back nice and slow!"
"Just do it, Elliot…" Emily murmurs, looking pretty shitty herself as she finally wakes up and realizes what's going on. "It's not worth losing your life over!"
Begrudgingly, Elliot does as he's bid; frustrated with how easily they were able to get in here and take over the place. Of course the one day that we don't have somebody on watch is the one day that we get ambushed like this!
"If you're not killing us," I say, having to speak a little louder so that Tracy can hear, "then give us back Lilly and Bo… You can take Alden back, but you have to release our friends first! There's nothing more you can extort from us!"
Ignoring me for a few seconds, Tracy grabs the last batch of food that this place has as her group starts carrying their haul out to the trucks. With James being the only one really capable of running around at all right now, they've tied him up to a chair and have sat him down with the rest of us.
"We gave you plenty of chances to concede to our demands – an entire fucking month almost," she snaps angrily, shaking her head at Alden as Josh slowly backs up with his gun still raised. "Alden here has made his choice, and you did by not complying to what we asked for! So your so-called friends got what they really deserved! Josh, didn't you say something about that one guy… what was his name, Bo?"
"I caught the fucker trying to bust out of the joint. No worries though," he explains in a sickeningly calm tone, "he won't be around much longer. Hung him from the helicopter blades with the rest of 'em."
"No… You fuck…. Fucking LIARS!" James belts out, turning into his Hulk form once again as he struggles to break free of his binding. One slap across the face from Tracy has him in an even angrier frenzy. "God damn it… Bo?! Why?! WHY DIDN'T YOU FUCKING KILL LILLY INSTEAD?! WHY?!"
Shocked by his response, I glare angrily over at James, but he barely blinks an eye as he grieves over the apparent loss of his good friend. I'll admit, I'm going to miss him too, but to say that about Lilly… that's crossing the line. I don't give a damn that they didn't get along – nobody talks about my family that way!
NOBODY!
"Fuck… you…" I try to talk, but my voice is cut off as I erupt into a small coughing fit. I shouldn't be pissed at James considering what's going on, but I can't really help it! "Ugh… shit…"
With a shake of her head, Tracy spits on the floor before turning to leave with the rest of her companions; leaving Alden behind and, consequentially, Kazuki. "Now this has just been fucking pathetic. What a bunch of losers – I thought that you'd at least put up a bit of a fight! Y'all aren't any fun!" she mocks, giving us all the finger as she cockily starts strolling away. "Toodles, everybody! We appreciate your cooperation and all of that bullshit! We more than likely will never meet again with where we're off to, so take care of yourselves… or don't and get eaten by a pack of roamers, what do I care?"
As the trunks of the vehicles close outside and the engines roar as they speed off into the distance, I roll onto my back and kick the floor in frustration; pushing myself off the cabinet as I crash to the floor. James has his head lowered sadly without any hope for renewal, Emily's got her head buried in her hands muttering how this could've possibly happened, and Elliot's struggling to breathe as he tries to fight off the illness he's sustained. Alden, knowing fully well that he should've chosen a better group, is bent down near the fire pit as he sadly gazes over at me.
"I'm so sorry… If I had any idea they would go that far…" he cuts himself off, wisely doing so as I probably would've tried to shoot him if he kept on talking. Friend or not, he let those bastards walk in and take this group's life support.
They raided and pillaged us without even firing a single shot.
Jane's POV
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I repeat over and over again; worry evident in my eyes as I stumble with the door that leads out to the cafeteria. There's little to no time to spare on this one, as I gaze upon the downed helicopter with fear.
What the fuck have they done to him?!
I watch as he holds himself up on one of the helicopter blades for dear life – one stump of an arm hanging uselessly at Bo's side, while the other one tries to keep himself from letting go and getting hung by a thick rope around his neck. Add to the fact that a bunch of walkers have ganged up on him down below, just waiting for him to let go so that they can eat his legs, and you've got one screwed up situation.
"Just hang on, damn it…" I mutter, finally breaking the door open as I rush inside. As soon as Bo notices me, he desperately shakes his head in protest. "I'm not letting you die in here!"
"G-get… out…" Bo sputters, struggling to talk with the noose wrapped around him. His arm is violently shaking as he tries to hold himself up, and that's when I start waving my arms around in an attempt to turn the walkers' attention towards me.
Firing off a few rounds that bring two of the walkers to a second grave, I narrow my eyes in determination as the rest of the pack stumble towards me.
"Over here, assholes! Fresh meat, come and get it!" I shout while reloading and rushing over to a better position. With the amount of rubble that's fallen from the roof due to the helicopter crash, I can climb up and have a bit of a height advantage over my pursuers. "That's right, step right up! Come and get some!"
Shooting two more walkers and kicking the third (and final) one onto a rusted pole, I gasp in shock as Bo loses his grip on the helicopter blade and falls downwards; his face turning red and purple as he struggles violently for air. Thinking quickly, I carefully try to traverse on top of the downed bird while wobbling along.
"It's alright! I've got you!" I tell him, slipping as I roughly bang my knee on the vehicle. As I hiss through my teeth to ease the ache, I pull out my knife once again and crawl my way forward; past more of the sharp chopper blades until I get to the one that Bo's hanging from. As the fight slowly starts to die from his crazy arm swings, I desperately climb towards it and swipe at the cable.
It takes about three or four whacks until it finally collapses, sending Bo down to the ground as he gasps painfully for air. He's just avoided a private execution.
Climbing back down, I rush over to Bo as he tries to shimmy the cable off of his neck… with the only hand he's got left. "Fucking Christ…" I exclaim softly, helping Bo with the rest of the cable. "What the hell did they do to you?!"
"…gave me the old chop…" he wheezes, coughing and rolling back to all fours as he declines my offer to help. "I've got this… Nothing I can't handle, trust me…"
"Bo… where is she?" I ask fearfully, completely afraid of what his answer might be. "Where's… is Lilly here? Please tell me she's alive…"
Glancing up at me as if he's forgotten something totally important, Bo's gelatin legs lift him up as I force him to wrap his arm around my shoulders. "I tried to break us out… that's why they put me there… She's this way."
I support his weight as we slowly make our way through one of those Target stores that my parents used to shop at when they were still alive. Everything's just as red as I remembered it being, only this time there's more of that red colour thanks to numerous blood spills that have stained the tile floor.
I knock a grocery cart out of our way as it crashes into an old clothing rack.
"Bo, where is she? Why aren't you telling me anything?!" I demand, not wanting to burst out into tears if there's a horrible surprise awaiting me somewhere.
"They…" he stops himself, shaking his head as he points to an old security office. "There… she's inside. I smashed the glass so that I could get out, but… sigh, just see for yourself…"
Gently dropping Bo into a chair near the men's changing room, I get a shiver crawling up my spine as I shakily grasp the door handle. What if she's…? How am I supposed to…?
Putting on a brave face to act as my façade, I breathe deeply before opening up the office and looking inside. Nothing but darkness in here, really. Darkness, some shattered glass and a security screen with fuzzy white lines scrambling the reception on the screen.
When I finally do see her, laying in a heap on the floor, I almost lose all control in my legs.
"…Lilly…?" I ask, feeling like a timid little girl as I bend down towards her. She doesn't even look like the same person anymore – her eyes and cheekbones are all sunken in, she's got multiple bruises and cuts lining her face, and her fingers are so cold that I'm starting to wonder if there's any blood left in her system at all.
Lilly Caul looks like a fucking skeleton.
Barreling down beside her, I hold her head in my lap with tears in my eyes; lightly brushing my fingertips along her cheek as her eyes just barely flutter open.
"…Mmmghr?" she mumbles incoherently, causing me to shush her as I stroke her hair tenderly.
"Shh, shh, Lilly… It's me, Jane… Remember me, and that whole marriage thing?" I chuckle quietly, having mixed feelings about finding her like this. "I'm gonna take care of you, alright? You, Bo and I are gonna get out of here… for good…"
Her lips curve into the tiniest of smiles as her eyes lazily roll over to my face. That's literally the most action she can manage right now, but I'll take it – it's a sign of life if there ever was one.
"…J..an…e…" she murmurs ever so slightly as I rock her head softly in my lap.
"I promise, Lilly…" I tell her, meaning every word that comes out of my mouth. "I'll never let them take you from me. Never again…"
I spend another hour or so hunched over in that room, thanking whoever might be listening for bringing my sweet angel back to me.
We can go home now.