Don't know if it's good news for you guys, but I will now be turning off the censorship of curse words since the first time I was paranoid, but now seeing as how it doesn't matter in my other stories, I will be putting in some cursing now, except for F*** cause I still don't know if that's okay to use in a teen rated story.
Chapter 11
Ellie, Elizabeth, Dante, Faith, Desmond, Alex, and Jack
"The Hidden Road"
Not a word is spoken since that fight, only heard are the sounds of the tires rolling in high speed on the dirt land and the song playing from the radio. Elizabeth just finished patching Dante up, the wound was a severe one, so severe that no human would of survived it this long, luckily Dante is not human, something which Elizabeth is curious to know more about, but for now she will have to let Dante rest.
To the Nephilim, it pretty much sucks, his ability to heal had apparently stopped, for how long he doesn't know, this never happened before, and it just sucks. Not to mention his shoulder hurts so much.
"So, how are you feeling?" Ellie asked Dante who sat beside her seat.
"I've been a hell-of-a-lot better than this, but I've dealt with worse ones too," Dante answered.
"Worse than getting impaled in the shoulder?" Ellie found that really hard to believe, "How the hell did that happen anyway?" She did notice Dante having blood on his jacket where his shoulder is, she noticed it right when she first met him and the others, she figured that he was shot and probably had it taken care of by now. That's definitely not the case. What kind of an idiot leaves a wound without treatment?
"Kid, if I start explaining it now, I'm gonna have to start punching the guy who did this in the first place," Dante's eyes wander over Alex who just sat there calmly and smirked in receiving a glare from the Nephilim. Ellie followed Dante's glare to Alex and shuddered when her eyes sets upon hooded man again.
"Dante, we talked about this," Elizabeth began, she was sitting right next to Dante, "He didn't attack you by WILL, he was forced to."
"I probably would of done it anyway," Alex stated.
"Well that's sounds like a good enough reason to me," Dante reaches for his Rebellion and started to get to his feet but worn out as he is had him sat back down immediately.
"You shouldn't move for a while," Faith suggested, "A wound like that can kill a regular human being."
"Yeah well unless there'll be chances of getting attack by those things again, I'll just shrug it off," Dante said.
Elizabeth sighed at the Nephilim's stubbornness, even if he isn't human, if he's not healing soon then he could die from any wound if it's not treated right away.
"What are you?" Desmond in the driver's seat questioned, "Like seriously, you should've been dead by now."
"I told you before, I'm a demon," Dante says.
"Wait, you're what?" Ellie's eyes widen, "You're...you're joking, right? You've got to be."
"Nope," Dante simply said, "Well, actually, I'm not...all demon if I'm being honest."
Faith's eyes narrows at the statement, "And what does that mean?"
"I'm what's called a Nephilim," Dante began, "I'm half-demon and half-angel."
"Okay, now I know you're bullshitting," Faith rolled her eyes.
"Well shit Red, I don't know what else to say," Dante began, "I fought off that multi-eyed drill guy, fought with this asshole-"
Alex made a mental not to rip out Dante's throat the moment he gets all his powers back.
"-I'm still alive even after getting stabbed, I don't know what else you need to see to believe, do I need to sprout my wings?"
"Can you actually do that?" Elizabeth and Ellie synchronized, surprising Dante at their amazement over him.
"I'll actually come to believe it if I see that," Faith says.
"Well sorry, I can't do that, even if I CAN do that I don't have all my powers, so you're just going have to take my word for it." Dante seriously doesn't like hearing Faith's attitude, and Faith doesn't like Dante's...everything basically.
'He reminds me of so much like Jackknife,' Faith presses the bridge of her nose.
"Oh, am I giving you a headache?" Dante saw the expression Faith made, "If you really can't stand me that much then maybe you should go on your own then."
"Dante, no-" Elizabeth started but Faith cuts her off.
"Well maybe you're better off keeping your mouth shut, I'm actually starting to get use to this guy next to me," Faith pointed at Alex, "He at least talks less and makes things less aggravating."
Alex just rolled his eyes, not over Faith's comment which he felt nothing towards it, it's the fact at how these two people are at each other's throat despite being in the same situation and must work together in order to survive. Perhaps it's Faith's own fear over what Dante is that she has come to hate him, at least this is what Alex theorized.
"Oh so NOW I'm aggravating," Dante was preparing himself to get up and in Faith's face, "Did you already forget what I did back at that facility, I defended both you and Desmond."
"From that multi-eyed freak? We handle that ourselves just fine," Faith argued.
"Oh sure, because that ended well for you, didn't it?"
"Uh, guys," Ellie wanted to try and stop the two from arguing but they were really going at it. Jack just watched. Elizabeth, meanwhile, just didn't know what she could say for these two to stop arguing. The journey ahead is long, she knows that, so this argument between Dante and Faith has to stop or everyone will just get tired of it...or it will press one of them to leave the group.
Elizabeth can't have that, but she doesn't know what to say.
"Better than how you ended up, at least I was careful, unlike a certain idiot who let his guard down."
Dante glare of annoyance over Faith became one of despised, "You know if I wasn't there to begin with you would of been dead or caught again!"
"Stop it!" Desmond yells, having heard enough of this, "Just stop, okay, this isn't the time to start fighting each other! If this is how it's going to be then you guys might as well keep things to yourself and don't even look at each other."
His words silenced Dante and Faith but he wasn't done just yet.
"We need to start getting use to us being together, as freaky some of you people are, none of us chose this and we just have to deal with it. So we can either stop talking shit at each other or don't talk at all, every one of us is in charge in making sure the other keeps going, that's how we got this far to begin with."
It was true, from what Desmond recalled, Faith saved him from his prison and in turn he saved her from getting shot, then Dante bought enough time for the two to escape by distracting the Big Daddy. Together, they managed to set Elizabeth free but then Alex - who was under the Control's influence at the time - shows up after, Dante kept the hooded man busy while Faith and Desmond dealt with the Big Daddy, while both parties were losing, Elizabeth manages to free Alex with a key Faith found and with the Living Weapon's independence regained, he kills the Big Daddy but the group then suddenly became overwhelmed with more enemies showing up and surrounding them while their weak in power and energy.
Just when all hope seems lost, Elizabeth opens a portal - which still boggles Desmond's mind and he can tell that he isn't the only one - got everyone out of the facility and to some far away place. It was then that they met Ellie, who led them to that abandoned building, and then introduced to them Jack, who probably would of been attacked if not for Ellie and the cowboy provided weapons and medicines for all of them.
Alone, they would never stand a chance. Together, their time of freedom and survival rate just went up.
Elizabeth had to get up and walk over to Desmond just to say, "Thank you."
Desmond just shrugged, "Someone had to say it."
Jack agreed with Desmond and so did Ellie, better to be in a group than being alone. Alex however was the only who didn't feel the same way as everyone else, other than him having no intention to work with these people, but he agreed with Desmond's reasoning, even he knows that he can't fight and guarantee victory without being at one-hundred percent in power, and that would just be him without the chains.
Which by the way, are starting to cause an itch.
"Heads up guys," Desmond says, "Looks like we're coming close to a town."
From a distant, buildings were starting to show, by the look of how far they are, the group will be able to reach this town in ten minutes.
"Do you think that they'll have some people who are friendly there? Or another abandoned place?" Ellie asked.
"For our sake, let's just hope its abandoned," Elizabeth comments.
"...Yeah," Ellie was hoping to come across more friendly folks like the ones she met in Armadillo, but that alone might be her asking for too much.
Ten minutes goes by and the group sees a road towards an entrance of the town. "Alright, we'll stop for a bit just for Jack's horse to rest," Elizabeth suggested.
"Maybe we can search the entire town, you never know what we might find that can be useful," Ellie suggested.
"Kid's got a point," Dante said, and though Faith stayed quiet, she also agreed but would never do so if it's with the Nephilim. Desmond also agreed and so did Jack, they didn't bother asking Alex because they knew that he wouldn't really have much of a choice, which he didn't really care at all.
Desmond slows down the vehicle and Jack slowed his horse as they went through the entrance, they passed by buildings with multiple windows in the front like apartment complexes or motels, looking run down and abandoned, broken window glasses and rubble scattered across the pavement, old style broken down cars lay on the streets in which Desmond had to drive around them and Jack follows.
"This is looking more like a city," Desmond says.
"I've never seen a place so deserted before," Jack comments, "I don't even see a bird anywhere."
"Just what the hell happened here," Faith mutters, this place looked as if it went through a warzone, she also agreed with Desmond that it is looking like a city, but it was in different style compare to city she lives, the building around here were old style, bricks instead of steels and triangular roofs instead of a flat surface. Faith could see the trouble in running across roofs like that. Not enough space to build momentum.
Eventually, Elizabeth suggested Desmond to stop in the middle of the road when they passed by a clinic store, something that they could use to help Dante and for the future. Desmond slowly steps on the brakes and then puts the vehicle in park as Jack stops his horse right beside him. Ellie was the first to get out and give a good stretch to her arms and legs and the rest of the group gets out, save for Alex and Dante, the Nephillim was less than pleased.
"Come on, I'm fine now," Dante insisted, but Elizabeth shook her head, a medkit in hand.
"You fainted Dante, you need to rest, and that wound isn't going to close up any time soon, I have to stitch it up," Elizabeth takes out a needle of thick strings use to close up the wound.
Dante stiffened when he tried to stretch his arms, feeling great pain to his shoulder. With a sigh, he removes his overcoat and sat down in the car seat and let Elizabeth tend to his wounds.
"Thank you," Elizabeth says, though really Dante has a feeling that it should be him to thank Elizabeth for doing this, she actually reminds him of Kat.
Just the thought of her made him really worry and even miss his friend, and also wondering what she could be doing right now. Maybe searching for him? That's when he realizes. He doesn't know if he should mention what happened to Vergil if he ever sees Kat again, would she hate him if he told her? That Vergil died because of him? Vergil may have used Kat but that doesn't mean she wasn't grateful for Vergil saving her life. He cursed under his breath when he came to this realization.
"I really wish I could send all of you home right now."
Dante was out of his thoughts when he heard Elizabeth talk.
"But all I can ask if you could bare with this travel for a while, I don't know how long but..."
Dante realized that Elizabeth must of took his look of debating for frustration in not being able to go home right now.
"Don't worry about that," Dante said, Elizabeth puts the string through the hole of the needle, "I'm just thinking about what I should say to Kat."
"Kat?"
Dante nodded, "A friend of mine, I think you two would of gotten along okay," he stops talking when he heard footsteps behind him, turning his head a little, he saw the girl with the distinctive hair color.
"Uh, hey, bad time?" Ellie asked.
"Not really," Dante says, Elizabeth announced that she's about to start stitching Dante up, the Nephilim says he's ready and the young woman begins.
"I just," Ellie began, "I just, wanted to say, I'm sorry about your brother."
The mention of him made Dante frown.
"I really didn't mean to drop it like that, well, that was before I even knew your brother was-"
"Kid." Dante stopped Ellie from talking any further, "It's fine, just, let's not talk about that, okay?" He winces when he felt Elizabeth pull the needle out, "Besides, it was my fault that he ended up that way."
Elizabeth halted her stitching for a moment when she heard what Dante said, Ellie looked just as surprise.
"It's a long story," Dante said.
"Do you think you can shorten it?" Ellie asked, she was just really curious about the guy, if he isn't bullshitting her about the whole Nephilim thing of course, but after what she's been experiencing since yesterday, she's ready to believe anything now.
Dante looks down for a moment, contemplating how he can shorten the biggest turn of his life, and then began his story.
"I was just living a life in my own way," which includes drinking, picking up chicks, getting in trouble with the authority, the basic things, "At the time, I couldn't remember what my childhood was like, I knew I was different, I just didn't really ask that many questions since I knew no one was around to give them to me, and I never really accepted anyone's help, until I met Kat, she took me to someone who's apparently my twin brother, and from there I found out what I really am, and what happened to our parents."
Dante goes on and on in telling his story, he intended for Ellie and Elizabeth to only hear this but it ends up being heard from everyone since the place they're in was so dead quiet. They heard him talk about fighting off demons in another reality called Limbo and how he helped Virgil fight off against this guy name Mundus, and when the time to defeat Mundus came and went, Dante ends up fighting Vergil because of the twin brother's real intention, to rule the world by using the power he and Dante possess. It ends up with a fight between Dante and Vergil, Dante lost control and nearly killed Vergil on the spot until Kat stopped him, and the Nephilim let his wounded brother go.
"Wow," Ellie says, "Faith's right, you've got to be bullshitting."
Dante's brow twitched in annoyance at the mention of the runner.
"But if you're not, you are the coolest."
His annoyance was replaced with a smirk, until it immediately faded away when the thought of Vergil came.
"I really thought that Vergil survived, but...he obviously didn't," Dante said, "And it's because of me."
"But you never intended to, right?" Elizabeth says, "You had to stop him with everything you had."
"Yeah," Ellie agreed, "And besides, he could of been killed by those guys, the Control or whatever, they might have gotten him and-"
"I stabbed my own brother in the heart," Dante says bitterly, "Even if that didn't kill him, I still got him captured because of it."
Ellie opens her mouth to respond but no words came out, nothing came to her mind.
Dante sighed, "Look, I appreciate what you're trying to say, but let's just stop talking about that," he ended with a tone that's shows he's done with that discussion.
Ellie nodded in understanding, Elizabeth just finished stitching Dante's shoulder and after that, she steps out of the car.
"Well, a few of us should go out and scavenge, I'm willing to go," Elizabeth said.
"I'll come too," Ellie offered, "I've always find myself doing that all the time."
Elizabeth was surprise to hear that from the dark red hair girl, "Really? How come?"
Ellie realizes that she just opened a door of her coming to explain her life story, and she isn't all that thrilled in going into details about it, "Let's save that story for another time," she said in order to divert the topic of her world away.
"I'll go too."
Ellie and Elizabeth heard Faith as the runner approaches them, "Better to leave the guys here to watch over Dante and Mercer."
"I don't NEED to be looked over," Dante said out loud.
Elizabeth very much agrees to the idea of having Faith come with them just so she and Dante would have a moment apart from each other. She accepted Faith's offer and also Ellie's and goes to tell the others.
"Yeah I heard you," Desmond said, "We can look around this area while you go check around the block."
"You sure it's a good idea?" Jack asked as he fed his horse with an apple he had in the bag the horse carries, "You got enough bullets just in case you run into trouble?"
"You're going have to ask Faith and Ellie," Elizabeth answered.
"But you don't have a gun, do you?"
Elizabeth's shuffle was an answer to Jack's question, he reached for his revolver and handed to Elizabeth, "Here, this should help."
Elizabeth hesitated before accepting the gun and ammos also, "Ever fired one before?" Jack asked.
Elizabeth stares at the revolver in her hand, it was strange, but she felt a familiar feeling when she held this particular gun, "I think I have," she checks the ammo inside without any troubles, "No, I have a feeling that I've shot a gun like this before."
But the moment she tries to remember, she ends up getting a small migraine until she abandons her search through her memories.
"Thank you, I'll give it back when we get back."
Jack just waved his hand and shook his head, "Keep it, we all got to arm ourselves."
Elizabeth nodded in thanks to the cowboy again and then goes to where Faith and Ellie are waiting for her.
"Alright, let's go."
They nodded and then left the group, with Ellie stopping for a sec to wave the guys a see-you-later before catching up with Elizabeth and Faith. They turned to a corner, where more buildings shows, some looking more damaged the others, but every building has the entrance blocked off by either boards covering the doors or a car crashing into them, they walked along the pavement and passes by old styled light posts.
"I've never seen a place like this before," Ellie comments, "I mean, I've been through cities, but this is a first I see a city that looks this different."
"I've seen some pictures with a city that has a style like this, but I can't remember what that city was called," Elizabeth stated.
They stopped when a five story high building without a blocked entrance came in view and they all agreed to go to it, they also made an agreement to not go too far away from the others. They entered the run down building which had broken furnitures, papers scattered across the floor, and cracks on the pale colored walls and floor.
Faith suggested for each of them to look at each floor and both Ellie and Elizabeth agreed, Ellie remains on the first floor, Faith goes to check the second and third, and Elizabeth searches through the fourth and fifth floors.
From where Ellie is, she searched from shelf to shelf in every book case, looked behind tables and furniture, she found scraps she can use to craft or upgrade her weapon, and that's it, nothing else that can be useful to help them on their trip.
Ellie's questioning how they can go on without any food, the thought of starving to death unnerved her, maybe when they come across another forest that wasn't so dead like before, she might be able to shoot down a deer for a meal.
After searching through the first floor, Ellie goes to the second floor to see how the two women are doing. Walking up the stairs, she stops when she sees Faith leaving one room and making eye-contact with her.
"You find anything?" Ellie asked.
"Nothing that useful," Faith answered.
"Hey, I probably should of mentioned this, but if you ever find any scraps, like nails, tapes, cans, something like that, can you give them to me? They're pretty useful if you know what to do with them."
Ellie walks up to Faith as the runner thought over Ellie's request. "Okay, but what would you do with cans and nails?"
"Ever seen how a bomb is made?" Ellie questioned.
"Seen videos, never tried to make them myself, but why do you know how to make one?"
"It's something you got to know if you ever want to make a surprise against someone after you," the Ellie answered vaguely. But Faith was able to decipher her words.
"Hard life, huh?"
Ellie didn't respond for a moment as she walked past Faith, "...Yeah."
Faith just watches as Ellie looks around the hallway they're in with a stoic face, but inside, she was curious about the girl, wondering what kind of life she's been living to have such a grown up attitude. In a way, Ellie reminds Faith of how she was when she was near the girl's age.
Faith follows Ellie all the way to the third floor, searching through all the rooms together and then heads up to the fourth floor where they thought that they would come across Elizabeth right away. When they didn't, they assumed she was in one of the rooms or in the fifth floor. Seeing every room open and empty, they believed it was the later thought, but when they got to the fifth floor, she wasn't there either, every open door they pass by with the rooms were empty, down to the end of the hallway.
"Huh, where's Elizabeth?" Ellie wonders.
Faith is also questioning where Elizabeth is, when they reached to the end of the hallway, they turn to a corner and saw a stairway leading up to another door.
"Looks like she went to the roof," Faith goes to the stairs with Ellie following her behind, she opens the door and steps out. It was strange to not be met with the feel of the breeze, but the strangeness of it subsided when she sees at the end of the roof, Elizabeth is looking something that must have really caught her attention, not even glancing back to Faith and Ellie.
"Hey Elizabeth are you..." Ellie's words were forgotten when she saw just what Elizabeth was gawking at.
"I...I know what this city is," Elizabeth said without looking at Faith and Ellie, "I've seen pictures, I thought this place looked familiar, but I didn't actually think we really be in this specific city."
In all honesty, Elizabeth would of preferred to be in Paris, to see the Eiffel Tower herself, but Elizabeth still finds herself amaze to see another landmark, and that landmark - two of them in fact - would be the giant clock tower that she read in a book called Big Ben, and away from Big Ben, was the giant Ferris Wheel she knows it to be called The London Eye.
It was in the name itself that Elizabeth knows where they are.
"This is London...We're actually in London."
Ellie slowly walks up beside Elizabeth, her eyes at Big Ben and then to the London Eye, "Whoah. Check out that big-ass Ferris Wheel. Man, I've heard about London but I didn't think it be this cool."
Elizabeth looks at Ellie in confusion. She's heard of it? That shouldn't be the correct response, it's common sense in which simply saying that you've heard of it is unnecessary. What's more, she sounded as if she never knew London has a Ferris Wheel?
"Have you even heard of Big Ben?" Elizabeth questions Ellie.
"Who's that?" Ellie just imagines that for someone with the name Big Ben would either mean that they're tall or fat.
Elizabeth is speechless. Just what kind of education was Ellie given in her world? Though Elizabeth has lived all her life in a tower, she was at least given some knowledge of the world.
The thought of being shut out of the world, living without books or to even see the sky sent a shiver down Elizabeth's spine, and letting her feel sad for the girl who is reminding Elizabeth of herself for her somewhat naivety, yet what makes Elizabeth different from Ellie is that Ellie seems to know enough about how the world she lives in works, and Ellie is only a teen.
Faith for the most part just had a subtle reaction to the knowledge of being in a different city, but one thing did came up in how Faith feels about the city. It was the fact that it was too quiet, not a sound of a bird or even the sound of the wind blowing, and Faith didn't like that at all. So accustomed was she to the busy noises of the city she grew up in that the lack of any noises really brings up a bad feeling in Faith, like for there to only be dead silence - that even birds or anything else would not come here - would mean that something is causing them not to go anywhere near this place.
Faith really doesn't like the feel of this, and she's not the only one.
"You know, maybe we should keep going," Ellie suggested.
"You're right about that," Elizabeth nodded in agreement, "Who knows how long it will take to check out those buildings."
"No, I mean, maybe we should leave this city."
Ellie's suggestion confuses Elizabeth, "Leave the city?"
"It's just that, this city is cool and all, but it's seriously freaking me out. I've got a pretty good hearing and I can't even hear the wind."
Ellie is basically reading Faith's mind.
"There's nobody here, and if you ask me, that's not always a good thing. Sometimes I wonder if something's gonna pop out."
Faith nodded in agreement with Ellie, "She's right, if you think about it, something's got to be here, an animal or more of those things that chased us, but if they're staying clear from this place then there's got to be a good reason."
"Like, something here is scaring them away?" Elizabeth questions.
Faith and Ellie looks at each other as if they have the same answer, it was Ellie who answered to Elizabeth, "Maybe."
A glass breaking caught everyone off guard, all three equipped their weapons and aimed them to where the sound is heard. They see broken pieces of a glass bottle right beside the open doorway.
There was no wind, so something has caused that bottle to tip over, and the only possibility in what caused this maybe within the shadow right through the doorway. They waited, not moving a muscle, though they try to remain calm, Elizabeth's and Ellie's nerves were starting to come to them save for Faith who kept her bravery.
But even her courage faltered when she saw something move, and that something made her eyes widen and brought fear to her, Ellie and Elizabeth.
"Ho...ly..." Ellie started to say but she finds herself choked in her own words when the figure revealed itself, leading Faith to finish her sentence.
"Shit."
I wasn't sure if Ellie would know what England is, but considering how Boston in the Last of Us is like, where it is heavily guarded and basically keeps the world of infected out, any knowledge around the world would be considered unnecessary since there is no reason to know more about them unless they're useful somehow.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Leave a Kind and Honest Review.