Chapter 12:

The sun shone brightly through the cracked window, pooling on the floor by where Joel lay, wrapped tightly in the thin blanket he had. As he sat up, rubbing at his eyes with his hand, he guessed it was probably close to November. It was cold enough to be around that time. Joel climbed slowly to his feet, stretched his back and looked around him. He moved towards the archway. He peered through it and into the kitchen. Chad was in there and was sifting through a bin of ratty old clothes. When he noticed Joel's presence, he looked over.

"It's getting cold." He said, pulling out a heavy button-up coat and tossing it to Joel. Joel caught it and pulled it on over his shirt, rolling the left sleeve up to just above his stump. Chad pulled out a few more winter coats. He tossed one of them to Joel. "For your girl." Joel nodded his head, watched Chad for a minute more.

Chad looked at him. "We should stay here another night. A few of us should scout the area, see if we can't find any supplies." Joel considered it. He had a point, and having some time to rest would be nice. Chad looked at him, and cleared his throat. "Of course, we might just want to move quickly-get to Bertrand as fast as we can." Joel shook his head. "No, no. Maybe you're right." The corner of Chad's lips curved up.

"Yeah."

"I'll talk to Tommy about goin' out to find supplies in a bit." Chad nodded his head. Joel stepped away from the archway and went back to the spot where he'd slept the night before. Rebecca was now awake and was checking her pistol's magazine. Joel didn't say anything, just walked past her and looked out of the window.

Joel rubbed at his eyes, and let out a sigh. If it was November...it would be somewhere close to Sarah's mother's birthday. Joel pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't even know why he was thinking about her-he hadn't thought about Brittany in years. Why was he thinking about her now, of all times? He didn't know, and tried to close the door on those memories, he couldn't be thinking about her now, not when they were on the road.


Devin and Ellie were on the second floor of the house, searching through the rooms and making sure they weren't missing any kind of items that they could use. "Here we go." Devin said, opening up a drawer to find several CD cases. He pulled them out and began to look through them. "Let's see...Nirvana, Staind...Korn and Skillet. Whoever had this room had good taste." He pulled his pack off of his shoulders and put the CDs into it. "If we can find something to play these on, we'll have a rockin' time." He said, pulling his pack back onto his shoulders. Ellie rolled her eyes. "That was terrible."

"Not all of us can tell terrible puns and get away with it." Devin moved back to the doorway. "C'mon. I need some new gauze for my eyehole." This made Ellie chuckle. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they found Joel, Tommy, Chad and Rebecca talking. Devin walked over and stood beside Joel. When Joel noticed Devin, he looked at him. "What?"

"You got any gauze?" Joel huffed. He took off his pack and pulled out a roll of gauze before handing it to Devin. Devin took it, said thanks. "What are you doing?" Ellie asked as Devin moved off to the side to re-wrap his head. Joel pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're plannin' on goin searching for some supplies. We're gonna' be stayin' here another night." Ellie nodded.

"So where are we searching?" Joel scratched the back of his neck. "Well if you'd give me a minute we'll figure that out." Ellie huffed, and nodded her head. When she was once again off to the side, Joel looked back at the table that they were standing around and looked at the map they had spread out over the table.


After an hour of conversation and slight debate (mainly between Joel and Ellie) it was decided that Joel, Devin, Ellie and Chad would go out for the run. Chad had asked Tommy and Rebecca to stay with Angel and make sure she didn't do anything dumb. So Joel and the others geared up, and the they set off. They had been walking for God knew how long when Devin noticed the truck stop. He pointed it out to the others. "Joel, check it out." Joel looked at the truck stop. "Probably our best bet." He said. He motioned for the others to follow, told Ellie to stay close and they began in it's direction.

Joel tried the knob, and when he found it wouldn't open, he looked at the others before giving it a kick. It rocked on it's hinges. Joel kicked it one more time, and the door swung in, slamming against the wall. Joel drew his 9mm and moved in, his gun drawn. Devin, Ellie and Chad followed his example and they moved in. They split up, searching the place from top to bottom. Joel was sure they weren't going to find anything when he heard Ellie call for him. "Joel! Look at this!" Joel moved quickly, walking towards the back of the ransacked truck stop until he reached Ellie. She was crouched beside what looked like a trap door.

"What kind of truck stop needs a basement?" Joel heard Chad's voice behind him. He looked back. "I ain't got a clue. But there's a good chance there might be somethin' worthwhile down there." Joel pulled his flashlight from it's strap on his pack and flicked it on before opening the trapdoor and looking into the basement. From where he stood crouched, he could see the thick layer of green fog. "Spores." He said, sliding the flashlight back onto it's strap.

He pulled his backpack from his shoulders and pulled his gas mask from inside. He looked back at the others. Devin was mirroring Joel and had a gas mask of his own in his hands. Chad shook his head. "My gas mask broke a long time ago. I'll just wait up here." Joel went down the ladder first, followed by Ellie. "Hey, what about hers?" Chad asked. Devin suddenly remembered that Chad hadn't been told about Ellie's immunity. "She's immune, we'll explain later." He left Chad looking completely puzzled, and followed Joel and Ellie into the basement.

"This ain't no basement. It's a cellar." Joel said. The cellar was huge, almost the exact same size as the truck stop above them. "Alright, should we split up?" Devin asked, noticing how muffled his and Joel's voices sounded. He always hated that about the gas masks. Joel nodded. "Keep your eyes and ears open. We don't know what's down here." Devin and Ellie nodded and the three of them split up to look for anything of use.

Joel found nothing except a few batteries that would fit his flashlight. He shook his head and huffed. "Well that's just great." As he turned to look in another spot, he saw two guys drop down into the cellar. Another guy was already in and had the angle on him. Joel felt someone slam into him and the both fell to the floor.

When they heard the sounds of the scuffle, Devin and Ellie spun around. Devin felt a pipe slam into his temple and he fell to the floor. He rolled onto his back, ignoring the suddenly blurred world around him and scuttled back, drawing the .357 and pulling the trigger. The one holding the pipe died as his brains splashed against the floor.

Ellie was slammed into the wall by the second guy, who turned to look at his buddy as he fell dead. While he was distracted, Ellie gave him a hard kick to the nuts. He stumbled back with a yell of pain. Ellie pulled her pistol from her back waistband and pulled the trigger twice. Both bullets ripped through the guy's chest cavity and he fell, dead. "Fuck." Ellie muttered. Several more people jumped down into the cellar, obviously attracted by the sound of the gunshots. They attacked Devin and Ellie. There was four of them, and Ellie had just shot one of them, when the rest grabbed Devin.

One of the guys put a gun to his head and they began to back up. Two of them climbed up the ladder, and the guy holding Devin didn't let go of Devin until the others reached down for him. The entire time, Devin fought and struggled, but soon he was out of sight. The guy who'd held Devin aimed his gun at Ellie. But right then, Joel (who'd been struggling with the guy who'd tackled him) slammed into him. Joel had the guy on his back, when he put the barrel of a second gun (a revolver) against Joel's right shoulder and pulled the trigger. Joel let out a yell of pain and the guy shoved him back.

Ellie had kept her pistol trained on the both of them the entire time, and she pulled the trigger as the guy climbed up the ladder. Her bullet grazed his arm, but then he was gone too.

Ellie and Joel climbed up the ladder, after him. When the got to the top, they saw Chad struggling to his feet, his crossbow in his hand. Chad's nose was broken, his eye was blackened and his lips were busted. Blood oozed steadily from his nose. All three of them aimed, but Chad fired first. His arrow stabbed into the guy's back and he fell. The three of them hurried over to him and Joel dragged him to one of the damaged tables.


AN: So, Devin's been kidnapped. What did you guys think? Was this chapter good? Should I elaborate more on Joel's wife (I probably will anyway)? Who the hell are the douchebags that kidnapped Devin? And is Joel going to be able to get that info from the guy Chad shot? Find out the answers to these questions next time.

~Exangelllion