Linda walks to the end of the street looking around with bewilderment, only to stop before a high concrete wall that has barricaded the rest of the street off. Ellie followed and stopped to stare at a poster of a supermodel stuck up on a wall. She is White and a redhead, but with hair a shade darker than Linda's, and wears a red dress.
"That girl is so skinny," Ellie noted. "I thought you had plenty of food in your time."
"We did," Joel answered. "Some just chose not to eat it."
"Why the hell not?" Ellie sneered.
"For looks," Joel answered flatly.
"That's stupid," Ellie said contemptuously.
"Joel, your answer is too simple," Linda added dryly, then goes on to explain super models to Ellie.
"But why be so thin?" Ellie asked.
"Part of the industry," Linda answered. "I don't get it. You're thin, so why does this bother you?" As she gestures at the picture of the model as impatience festers in her.
"Back then there was so much food to eat and it sounds like nobody starved. Today, being thin means you don't eat a lot because there is not a lot to eat. So if there was a lot of food back then, there shouldn't have been a reason for someone to be so thin."
Linda gave a wry expression from what sounded like, irrationality. "There were people who were naturally thin. You certainly look it." Glancing Ellie over. "Many people got fat because they ate too much and were not active-"
"Don't you get it yet, Linda?" Joel interjected as he too starts feeling a little flustered with this talk. "The end of civilization meant the end of plentiful food. People started killing over food, and didn't matter if it was spoiled or never meant to be eaten by people. Pet food was eaten . . . along with the pets. I once ate cat food, and even rats . . . I've even heard rumors of cannibalism. Hope it's not true, but it wouldn't surprise me . . . I will eat my boots if starvation was not a bigger killer than that fungus." As he emphasizes that last sentence by pronouncing each word fully.
"Oh, I-I didn't understand how bad things had truly gotten," Linda said humbly. "It was just that I found some food in one house. It wasn't much, but it was still something, and still edible too."
"You were just lucky," Joel said.
"And besides," Linda said as she kneels down and begins rooting around on the exposed ground from underneath the asphalt, "there's plenty of food right down here." As she straights with a wiggling beetle clasped between her fingers.
She then casually pops it into her mouth and chews it up as if it were a piece of meat.
"Argh, I'm gonna be sick," Ellie winced with disgust as she looks away while covering her mouth. "I thought you were only pulling our leg, but you just ate a fuckin' bug! Gross!"
"At least she's got the right idea," Joel snickered. "Of course, it never got that bad for me because I was always able to trap rats, hunt game, and find stuff . . . Now c'mon. Let's keep at it."
They go up to the spot where they wish to cross. Linda takes note of the sign on the left reading, Warren Centre. A jab of melancholy goes at her. Again, Linda stares at that pond in the middle of the street.
"So do we swim it?" Linda asked.
"I can't swim," Ellie said.
Joel wades into the water.
"What are you doing, going into the water fully clothed like that?" Linda exclaimed with a sneer as she points at him.
"Over the years, I've been forced to jump into the water at a moment's notice in order to swim away to save my life," he answered. "Now wait there. I'm gonna see where this goes."
He slogs up to his neck and starts swimming away toward the overpass. The sound of an engine approaching causes him to duck underwater, and Linda and Ellie to jump out of sight behind a wrecked car.
Linda peeks out to see a humvee drive from the left across the overpass and stop for a moment. Shots are heard from it, to be instantly followed by a woman's scream, then drives forward to the right.
Linda and Ellie emerge just as Joel is resurfacing once again.
"What was that all about?" Ellie wondered.
"Nothing good," Linda answered fretfully.
Joel takes hold of a wooden pallet floating nearby and swims toward the ladies.
"Linda, can you swim?" He asked.
"Yes," she answered firmly.
"Good . . . Ellie, get on. We're cuttin' through the hotel. Come on, Linda, you're gonna have to get wet with your clothes still on."
Ellie jumps on the pallet and Linda watches with uncertainty with arms folded as Joel pushes her up to what is a bus. Once there, she climbs up.
"Set up that plank like they did," he said.
Ellie does so. "Alright. Now you just need to find a way up."
Joel looks back at Linda.
"Well?" His tone gruff. "Come on. Or we'll leave you behind."
"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Linda admonished as she shakes her hands fretfully and starts wading into the water. Between the cold and the discomfort of having to get her clothes wet causes her to gasp with shock.
She finally goes up to her chest and starts swimming forward to meet up with Joel.
"Ah, glad you could join me," he quipped as he casually wades aloft.
"Let's just get going," Linda said quickly and irritably.
Joel looks across from where he ferried Ellie to see a transport truck container blocking the entrance into another building. This one is open at its end as is the side door that can be seen further in. "I think we need to go through there."
He enters it, followed closely by Linda. They enter a building that still has a dry floor due to it being above the water level and get out of the water to be upon it. Linda immediately smells the rot and notices that this is, or was, a coffee shop.
"Oh, this place stinks," Ellie said from atop the container after following them through.
"Yeah, the wood's all rotten," Joel said.
"Did you also go to coffee shops a lot, Joel?" Ellie asked.
"I did. All the time."
"And what would you get?"
"Just . . . Just coffee."
Linda smirks. While this was once a proper coffee shop, some coffee shops used to also sell marijuana.
"What about you, Linda?" Ellie asked.
"I've never been in here."
They walk across the top of the containers and carefully cross the plank one by one. Linda takes a moment to look at the sign above the doorway to read that it is the River Café. A tightness forms in her throat, but she keeps it to herself for the moment.
"Do you think those hunters are gone?" Ellie said.
"We're about to find out," Joel replied.
After Linda crosses the plank, she suddenly stops while gasping as her heart skips a beat from shock, and her throat tightens. Along with the Warren Centre and River Café signs, the hotel's sign above the entrance pushes her melancholy forth.
"What's wrong, Linda?" Ellie asked.
"The Hotel Grand," she answered in a cracked tone while pointing at the sign.
"Oh yeah, the sign," Ellie said.
"Who used to work in there?" Joel asked.
Linda takes a deep breath and sighs.
"My father," she finally answered in a heavy somber tone. "He used to be a manager."
"So . . . are you afraid that you'll end up finding what's left of him?" Ellie asked carefully. "Maybe he escaped the city."
"Yeah, maybe," Linda replied with a sad smile.
Joel walks up to the smashed out window and listens, then sticks his head in and jumps inside, causing a splash.
"It's clear, ladies, come on down."
Linda enters first, frowning at the several inches of water that covers most of the floor, but jumps down anyway, understanding that she is already soaking wet. Ellie follows next.
"Whoa . . . this is fancy," Ellie said impressively, despite the wrecked and rotting decorum that Linda was quick to notice instead. "Ever stay in a place like this, Joel? Before it all went to shit I mean."
"No . . . no, this is too rich for my blood."
"Oh, I bet it was nice. Hey, Linda, did your father make a lot of money working here?"
"He did. That's why we lived in an upper middle class neighborhood."
"Upper . . . middle class?"
"It means that they were fairly well-off," Joel said.
"And I did stay here one time," Linda said. "It was overnight as a high school graduation present. It wasn't the fanciest suite, but it was still a very good room."
"You were so lucky," Ellie said enviously.
"Yeah . . . I was," Linda sighed with a slight nod while still looking all around as her mind takes on that dreamy sensation once again.
She remembers when this place was once a clean, orderly, luxurious hotel. But now . . . it is a horrid mess, with a swamp for a floor and plants growing everywhere. Near the center of the room is a large scaffolding with clapboards all over it. She remembers that is was shortly before going off to university when her father mentioned that they were doing some renovation work in the lobby. The central stair casing where two sets of stairs go off in opposite directions, the left one to the elevators for the rooms and the right one to the foyer, is now crushed by the massive chandelier that used to hang over it.
Linda looks off to the side and notices Joel at a coffee bar to the left of the entrance, staring at a coffee maker intensely while walking around the bar to get behind it. She decides to walk over and join him.
"Ahhh, I really miss coffee," Joel sighed with sad fondness as he stands before a coffee brewer.
This causes Linda to chuckle as she now stands in front of the counter behind him.
"I bet my father would've said the same thing if he were here," she mused. "Me? I never cared for the stuff."
"Oh, I'll be checking in for one night and I would like your finest suite please," Ellie is next heard saying in a grand tone over across at the right while standing before what had been the check-in counter .
"What the hell are you doin'?" Joel called out whimsically while walking out from behind the counter.
Linda smiles and chuckles.
"Why yes, you can take my luggage upstairs," Ellie continued playfully.
"You are a weird kid," Joel said wryly.
"At least she tries to find humor in all this," Linda countered playfully.
"There's a time for humor and a time for seriousness. And with hunters in this place who will kill us on sight, now's not the time. So let's continue tryin' to find a way up."
"I bet we can get up there," Ellie said while pointing left of the staircase.
"No, it's too high," Joel said. "Let's see what we can find."
They look around the place.
"Hey, there's a ladder back here," Ellie called out, prompting Joel and Linda to go over. It is an aluminum ladder resting at a vertical against the scaffolds. "I bet we can get it up there."
"That side leads to the elevators and up to the rooms," Linda said as she points to the left and continues on around.
"Then that's where were headin'," Joel said as he picks the ladder up and carries it over. He sets it up at the side and climbs up to the top. "Come on up."
First Ellie goes up, followed by Linda. Joel next looks over to the other side, over at the foyer with a lounge over there that has a bar.
"I'm gonna see if I can find anything useful over there for a moment," he said. "Wait here."
They watch as he shimmies across what is left of the central stairs. Once on the other side, Joel walks up to the lounge and starts looking around. He finds stuff and puts them into his backpack. He next picks up something and reads it. This prompts him to hurry back and jump down below.
"What is it?" Linda called out.
"I think I found what looks like a combination to a safe."
"I think there's one down in that office behind the check-in counter."
Joel makes a beeline for that office. He soon returns with a smile.
"You were right," he called back.
He is soon back up with them and goes to work crafting stuff. One of them being bags of white powder.
"These are smoke bombs," he said. "And I can also make another one of those nail bombs. Oh, and let me make something for you, Linda."
He makes her a shiv pipe and hands it to her. Linda tentatively takes it and looks it over. A scissors was taken apart and each part was taped to either side of the curved head.
"That will do a lot of damage," Joel assured her.
"Ah, thank you," Linda said hesitantly and tucks it into her new backpack. She suddenly seems surprised at herself that she didn't object.
They are soon off once again, with Joel leading the way upstairs.
"Watch your step," he said in reference to a section of the stairs that had fallen out. It's rounded manner suggesting that a giant had bitten a piece out. They carefully walk that narrow part and stand before the elevators.
"What now?" Linda asked. "We obviously can't take the elevators."
"Through here," Joel gestures to the missing window alongside them, leading to a section of roof.
They crawl out through it and walk along the roof. It is at that moment that they can hear voices.
"Oh shit. Get down, get down," Joel hissed as he quickly crouches and hurries up to the wall.
They can hear the hunters talking but are not close enough. Joel edges along, careful to stay lower than the windowsills. Ellie and Linda follow, also making sure to stay that low as well. Once up against another window, they can hear them clearly now.
" . . . Check for what? I ain't seen a clicker in weeks . . . "
" . . . That's 'cause were thorough. We're gonna keep being through. Now let's wrap this up, right . . . ?"
" . . . Alright, whatever . . . "
They fall silent. Joel puts his hand up to prevent Linda and Ellie from talking to him in the first place. He slowly gets up and crawls inside. The ladies rise to watch him go in, and he again holds his hand up to them as he quietly sneaks toward the doors. Linda feels her heart pounding in anticipation, and fear. Given that they are soaking wet, they may end up making squishing noises.
Linda watches Joel lower his hand and creep through the side door. Taking this as a sign that it is okay, she enters. Being careful not to make any noise. Once inside, Ellie follows. Ever so quietly, she creeps to where Joel had gone and looks to see him now within arm's reach of the man.
In a flash, he grabs the man in a headlock with arms firmly around his neck. The man tries to reach behind at Joel, but he keeps moving his head to the side. The man ceases his struggle and goes limp. It comes to her that he had either cut the flow of blood off to his brain, or he had strangled him, or possibly both.
He turns around to see Linda, and she quickly enters, followed by Ellie. They huddle up against the wall to get out of the way. Joel stalks off to the doorway of this room and looks to see a man searching through drawers. He looks both ways down the hallway and continues onward toward that man. Linda also takes this to be her cue and hurries after him, followed by Ellie.
Once again, Joel reaches that man and gives him the same treatment as he had his buddy. Linda and Ellie stand off to one side and watch. Linda is both impressed and unnerved by Joel's ability to go into a den of enemies and take them down one-by-one with such casualness. She would not have been able to do such a thing without panicking. And given that they are soaking wet, they did not make as much noise as she had anticipated.
Joel sneaks into another room through another interconnecting doorway, with Ellie then Linda close behind. Ever since they had first entered this area, Linda cannot help but notice how degraded this place has become. She had seen pictures of the interiors of dilapidated buildings, but nothing like this. Those places were cleaned out as they were in the process of being abandoned. This place still retained its trappings. And luggage is scattered about the place, some neatly and some haphazardly, some open and some closed. Candles are set up on night stands and dressers. Doors were torn down. Linen still covers the beds. There are even articles of clothing still hanging in the closets.
Even after the world had fallen apart, people were still living here. When the time came, they were in a hurry to get out.
Joel slides against the corner while staying low. He peeks around the corner and quickly looks in the other direction, then gestures for them to follow as he goes down the corridor. On a reflex, Linda takes her gun out and cocks it. It catches Joel's attention and he darts a glare at Linda and furiously shakes his head while ardently mouthing no. They continue along as they creep in single file close to one another. Linda can hear her own breath, along with the distant muffled chatter of the hunters behind them. They don't sound like they are approaching, but she still looks back for a moment, then looks forward.
On a reflex, Linda shoots a hunter at point blank range through the underside of his chin as he is coming out of a room alongside her. Joel whirls around to give her an intense look, then glances down at the now dead hunter by her feet.
"I'm sorry, Joel, he just came out of nowhere and-"
"Can't be help! Come on!" Joel shouted as he starts running.
They quickly follow him down the hallway. Shouts are heard behind them. They hurry into a room with no adjoining doorway. Joel hides next to the door while the ladies take cover behind the double bed. The musty smell wafting off the sheets causes Linda to wince. They hear the hunters closing in.
" . . . Look! The trail of water leads to that room . . . !"
" . . . They're fucked! That room doesn't join with another room . . . !"
" . . . Hey tourists, come out if you wanna die a quick painless death . . . !"
" . . . Or stay in there and die a slow painful one . . . !"
