Chapter 13: Truck Ambush
As Joel slowly drove the truck through the streets, Ellie took the time to stare at the city surrounding them.
She had only been in the city around ten minutes, and was already fascinated by it.
"I wonder what it would have been like before the infection," she muttered, staring in awe at the buildings they passed.
Joel didn't say anything about her comment, and she guessed he was focused on finding the quickest route through the city.
They had been able to convince Fatty to give them some oil before they left, but other than that they were limited on the amount they had.
I would be just fine if we could stay here a bit longer, she thought, but understood Joel's logic; they didn't want to break down in the middle of the city.
Ellie took the tape out of the music player, figuring that Joel was tired of listening to the same thing for two hours straight, and slipped it back into her backpack.
She put her head in her hands, gazing at the buildings again. Many looked similar, but she was starting to notice subtle differences in each one.
The car suddenly slowed, and Ellie glanced ahead of them, seeing wrecked cars blocking the streets.
"Just perfect," she heard Joel say, and she could tell he was irritated; either from some form of lack of sleep, or from the situation.
"What do we do now?" she asked, glancing around them.
The only option seemed to be to turn around, but Ellie didn't feel too disappointed. She had noticed some other streets connecting to the last ones, but she guessed Joel knew this was the quickest route through the city.
She heard him mumbled something she couldn't quite understand before putting the truck in reverse, turning it around and starting to drive back towards where they had come.
"It's ok," she said, trying to reassure him a bit, "there are other roads connected to this one."
She heard Joel sigh, making her feel somewhat bad. They only had limited fuel and could be trying to find a route out of the city for a long time.
"Sorry," she heard Joel mumble, "I'm just-"
"Tired?" she finished for him, continuing when he glanced over at her, "Trust me, I can tell. You get more grumpy than usual."
She had meant the last part as a joke, and knew that Joel understood that as he sighed.
"Do you want me to put in another tape?" she asked, reaching for her backpack. Joel stopped her with a shake of his head.
"No, this is fine," he answered, "I need to concentrate right now."
What is fine? Us talking or the silence? She wondered, feeling somewhat confused.
Ellie saw Joel turn the truck down another road, making her gaze at the buildings again; except this time they seemed somewhat different.
She wanted to ask Joel about them, but figured that her questions would probably irritate him now, so she kept them in her head for now so she wouldn't anger him.
The car lurched to a stop quickly, making her nearly run into the dashboard.
"Easy," she stated, glancing over at Joel.
Wonder why he stopped, she thought, but then found the reason.
A man stumbled out from behind some of the wreckage; his side was bleeding badly.
The man was saying something, waving them towards him.
Ellie's eyes widened in shock, taking in the sight.
"Are we going to help him?" she asked, glancing over at Joel and seeing him narrowing his eyes.
"Ellie, put your seatbelt on," Joel commanded, making her confused. She did what he said, and then felt surprised when Joel took his foot off of the brake.
"But what about the guy?" she questioned, pointing towards the hurt man on the road with confusion.
Joel looked over at her and shook his head.
"He isn't even hurt," he stated, and Ellie was going to ask what he meant when the car lurched forward, sending them straight towards the man.
He's going to kill him at this speed, she realized, remembering back to their conversation a while ago.
She was about to tell Joel to stop, but didn't when she saw the man pull out a gun, shooting through the windshield a moment later.
Ellie ducked her head, trying to avoid getting shot. She felt a bump and saw the blur of the man fly by, making her glance ahead to see more men.
What is going on? Are these more hunters? She wondered, but then ducked when she saw a brick break her window, sending more glass inside the car.
Ellie felt the car start to lurch again, but thankfully Joel was able to get it going in a straight path again. She glanced over at her broken window, her eyes widening when she saw a bus coming straight towards the truck.
"Not good!" she stated, then realized she should warn Joel, "Joel, there's a-"
She never got to finish her sentence as the bus collided with the truck, making Joel lose complete control over it.
The majority of sunlight disappeared from her view, and the truck jolted to a stop when it ran into the wall of an abandoned store.
Ellie quickly reached for her backpack, feeling a bit dazed.
"I'm ok," she stated, hoping Joel wasn't hurt.
"Good," Joel commented before continuing as he put his backpack on quickly, "Get out of the car."
Ellie started to open the truck door, realizing that whoever had attacked them was probably still alive.
Except the guy that hit the truck, she thought as she started to open the door, he's definitely dead.
She nearly fell out of the truck as the door was ripped open and someone grabbed her. She quickly twisted around to see someone forcing Joel out of the car as well.
She started to struggle against whoever was taking her, reaching for her switchblade as she was roughly shoved on the ground.
The switchblade fell from her grasp, making her start to struggle against the man again. She bit down on his hand, feeling blood in her mouth as her head got slammed into the ground.
I need to get the switchblade back, she thought frantically as she tried to get out of the man's grasp.
The man's weight lifted off of her suddenly, and she glanced over just in time to see Joel knock him out.
"What's wrong with these guys?" Ellie asked as she walked over towards Joel.
"We're leaving," he stated instead, shaking his head.
She nodded, hoping to get out of the area as soon as possible.
Suddenly being stuck in Pittsburgh isn't sounding like such a great idea anymore, she thought, but tilted her head in confusion when she saw something move behind Joel.
Her eyes widened when she realized what was moving behind him.
"Joel, behind you!" she shouted, but realized she was too late.
She wasn't sure if being made known had made the man move faster, or if it was just that she had warned Joel too late, but either way the man swung the wooden board, connecting it with Joel's back.
Ellie scrambled for her switchblade, but when she looked at the scene again, Joel had the wooden board now and the man was knocked out.
She quickly walked over towards him, freezing when she heard more voices coming into the store.
She sneaked over towards a counter, seeing Joel do the same on the opposite side of the room.
"He's behind the counter!" she heard one of the men shout, making her peek out from behind the counter.
They've found him already? She thought with worry, seeing the group of men start to crowd around the section where Joel was.
She heard a gunshot and saw one of the men fall, making two more left. She saw Joel move towards another section of the counters, and the click of an empty gun rang out a moment later.
He ran out? She thought, wanting to smack herself when she remembered the extra bullets she had slipped into her backpack before leaving the safe house.
Ellie glanced out from behind the counter, seeing one man walking towards Joel's position.
Where did the other one go? She wondered, but then shook her head, guessing Joel might have already taken him out.
Her eyes landed on a brick that was lying on the ground a few feet away. She glanced at the man before quickly grabbing the brick in her hands.
Let's hope my aim has improved a bit, she thought while standing up.
"Hey! Over here!" she shouted, getting the man's attention.
Her eyes wandered briefly over to Joel, who had an extremely angry expression on his face.
The man turned towards her, and Ellie threw the brick as hard as she could, hitting him square in the face.
She heard the man swear, and then saw Joel finish him off with a hit to the head with the wooden board.
She ran over towards his position, seeing him give her a frustrated look.
"You shouldn't have done that," Joel said, and she took it as a scolding.
"You were in trouble," she retorted, then couldn't help adding, "again."
"I had everything under control," he stated, making her reach for her backpack.
"You ran out of bullets," she said, handing him the extra from the safe house just when she heard more people coming.
"They're coming," she warned, knowing Joel saw them coming from over the bus.
He quickly led her near another exit to the store. She crouched down, hiding behind another counter.
Footsteps echoed throughout the store.
"Watch out," she heard one of the men warn the others, "this tourist has some fight in him."
Tourist? She thought, resisting the urge to ask Joel what the man meant.
Joel led her out the exit, motioning for her to stay there. She watched as he snuck back inside the store, hiding where the men could see him.
One of the men came towards Joel, and he silently knocked him out, sneaking towards another section of the store before he was seen.
"Find anything yet?" she heard a shout from one of the men inside the store.
She withdrew her head from the door, making sure not to be seen.
"He's still here!" A frantic shout was heard a moment later, making her hope they hadn't found Joel.
She heard the sound of a body hitting the floor, and she assumed that Joel was done with the group when no further shouting was heard.
Ellie stood up and turned around, planning on resting against the wall until Joel came out of the store.
She felt surprise run through her when she saw a man from the group staring at her with a pipe in his hands. She guessed that he had come into the attack late, and was now surprised to see her.
Ellie glanced down at her switchblade, and then at the man's pipe with a sigh.
My switchblade can definitely not beat the pipe, she thought, figuring she should at least try and hold the man off until Joel came out.
The man seemed to sense her thoughts; a victory smile came onto his face a moment later.
Ellie heard footsteps from behind her, and both her and the man turned to see Joel walk out of the store.
She looked at the man, seeing his eyes widen when he caught sight of Joel's pistol.
The man started to run, and she glanced at Joel, hearing a gunshot and then the thud of the man's body hitting the ground.
"That should be the last of them," Joel stated, then glancing over at her, "You ok?"
"Yeah, I guess so," she answered, following him as they walked towards the man's body.
"Good, because we need to get out of here quickly," he explained, making her nod.
"Where were you?" she asked as Joel bent down to search the man, adding more bullets to their stock.
"I figured that you were safe out here," Joel explained, standing up, "I didn't count on there being a loner though."
Ellie nodded, remembering the man's face when he saw Joel's pistol, and started to laugh.
Joel glanced at her with an amused expression on his face, shaking his head.
"I can't help it; his face was too funny," she said, trying to stop laughing but failing, "He looked like he could have wet himself."
Her statement made Joel laugh a bit as well, and she knew that he had thought the same thing.
Ellie followed him back towards the bus, seeing that it was blocking the road that they came from.
"We can't go back the way we came," Joel stated, and she wondered what they were going to do now, especially without the truck.
She felt a thought come into her head, but figured she should say it when they had a plan of what they were going to do next.
"Where should we go now?" she asked, feeling confused.
It now seemed that they were stuck in the city.
Joel looked like he was about to answer, but stopped when shouts came from inside the store. She saw Joel glance back at the store, then starting to lead her quickly away from it.
"Can't we take them?" she asked, glancing back at the store and seeing more people.
"There's too many right now," Joel explained, shaking his head, "We need to head someplace else."
Ellie's gaze fell on something in the distance. After taking a few moments to examine it, she saw that it was an old garage.
"What about that?" she asked, pointing towards the garage.
She saw Joel glance back to make sure that no one was following them; he then nodded.
Their course changed to the garage, and Ellie remembered what she had wanted to say earlier.
"I'm starting to think we are destined to walk on foot across the country," she stated, and continued when Joel gave her a questioning look, "We only got to travel on horses for an hour, and now after seven hours the car is gone."
"It's possible," Joel commented after a moment, shaking his head in almost disbelief.
When they got to the garage, Ellie realized that the door was locked. She frowned slightly.
"What now?" she asked, turning towards Joel, who had a calculating look on his face as he examined the garage door.
"If I lift it up, then you can unlock it, right?" he asked, and Ellie was reminded of their attempt at that back at the safe house.
"Yeah, I guess," she answered with a nod, and started to walk forward.
After a few moments of just standing in front of the door with Joel doing nothing, she sighed, knowing that he wanted to tell her something.
"What is it?" she asked, glancing at him.
"This time, you need to unlock the door as fast as you can. Those men might find us soon if not," Joel explained, and then added, "No laughing this time either."
"Alright," she agreed, and then continued when he gave her a skeptical look, "I swear I won't laugh."
Joel shook his head, almost as if he didn't quite believe her.
He then walked over towards the door, lifting it up enough for her to get inside. She quickly saw the lock on the door and crawled over towards it.
"It's unlocked!" she shouted once the door was able to be opened from the outside.
She pulled her legs inside so that Joel could close the door.
Ellie couldn't see anything for a moment, and then Joel opened the door, letting the light back in. He closed it part way so that they could still see.
She looked around the room, seeing lots of dead bodies lying on the ground.
Joel muttered something which made her look over at him.
"See, this could have been us," he said angrily while motioning towards the dead people, "I knew I should have turned the truck around."
Ellie guessed that his original plan had been to try and find a route outside of the city.
"We survived," she said, starting to walk over towards one of the bodies.
A question then entered her mind.
"How did you know?" she asked, turning around to look at Joel.
He gave her a questioning look, making her confused.
"About what?" he questioned.
"The ambush," she answered, tilting her head a bit.
Joel didn't answer for a few moments; making her wonder if she had asked him another 'annoying' question.
"I've been on both sides," he answered finally, making her eyes widen for a moment.
"Oh," was all she could say in response.
Ellie turned around so that he hopefully couldn't see her surprise; instead she focused on all of the dead bodies around the room.
"The hunters lure all the people to this area and ambush them," Joel explained, making her nod.
"That's a lot of people that don't make it," she whispered, feeling somewhat grateful that they hadn't met the same fate.
She heard Joel sigh, and glanced over at him, wondering if she should ask what was on her mind.
"So, did you, uh, kill a lot of people?" she asked; her question coming out softer than she had intended it to.
"Check the room, and then we'll get going," Joel stated, ignoring her question.
She sighed, looking away from him.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," she answered, walking over towards one of the dead bodies and bending down, looking for anything useful.
"You can take that any way you want," Joel stated, sounding angry.
That was most definitely an annoying question, she thought with a sigh, finding more bullets and some bandages.
She slipped the things she found into her backpack, intending to give them to Joel later if he needed them.
Ellie stood up when she was done and walked over towards Joel. She saw another door that most likely led outside.
Let's just hope that it leads us away from the hunters, she thought, seeing Joel start to walk towards the door.
There seemed to be an awkward feel to the air since she had asked him about his 'life' as a hunter, and she was now regretting it.
"Sorry," she mumbled, feeling at a loss of what to do.
She saw Joel glance at her quickly before opening the door, but he didn't say anything.
They walked out of the garage, and Ellie noticed that they were heading in a different direction.
That's at least good, she thought, following Joel down the abandoned streets.
"What would this city have been like?" she asked, hoping that he would answer.
Joel gave her a glance, before sighing.
"People would be crowding the streets, carrying out their daily lives usually," he answered, making her nod.
Ellie was starting to understand that their common ground seemed to be the world before the pandemic; when one of them didn't feel like talking, they usually referred to that.
"Must have been nice," she whispered, glancing down at the ground, "I wonder what it would have been like to live during that time."
Joel didn't say anything on her comment, and she felt slightly disappointed. He had memories of cities like this before the infection, so why wasn't he open to sharing about them?
"Pittsburgh wasn't just referred to for its football team; lots of cities had those," Joel started to explain, "it was also known for its steel."
"Steel? Like the metal?" she asked, and he nodded.
"If I remember correctly, there actually used to be steel bridges that connected the city over lakes," Joel said, a thoughtful expression on his face, "I'm not sure if they are still standing though, since we didn't cross one on the way in here. We could possibly get out of the city by one of those if we do find one."
Ellie nodded, trying to imagine the city as it had once been. She sighed when she had a hard time, knowing this was mostly because she didn't know what most places looked like without signs of the infection.
She froze when she heard voices again. Glancing behind them, she saw the shapes of a group of hunters a ways back.
"They're following us," she commented, and Joel looked back, narrowing his eyes.
He grabbed her arm and started to lead her towards what looked to be an old pipeline.
"Get in," he ordered, and she followed, instantly not liking the closed space.
Joel got into the pipe a moment later, and she stood up, realizing that the pipe was tall enough for them to walk normally.
Ellie felt water start to coat her shoes as she walked, and she glanced over at Joel.
"Where are we going?" she asked, covering her mouth when she realized that her voice echoed in the pipe.
Joel glanced at her, and she noticed he was trying to make as little noise as possible.
"Wherever this leads," he answered, and then was silent.
She understood why; they didn't want the hunters to hear them.
They walked for a while in silence, and soon came to a concrete hallway that connected to the pipe.
She gave Joel a questioning look, but decided not to ask for now.
Joel suddenly stopped, making her have to stop to avoid running into him.
She gave him a confused look, figuring by now that silent language was better than asking him straight out. Her eyes widened when she heard footsteps sloshing through the water behind them, and she glanced back at the pipe.
Shadows were starting to get closer, and she heard shouts of the hunters when they spotted her and Joel.
"Go!" he yelled, motioning towards a smaller hallway.
She started to run, but then realized that he wasn't following her. She glanced back, seeing him start to pull out his pistol.
Ellie ran back up towards him, pulling on his arm.
"What are you doing? You said that there were too many," she asked, feeling somewhat worried.
The shadows were getting closer, as well as the footsteps getting faster.
"Go!" Joel ordered again, making frustration fill her.
"Not without you," she argued, pulling harder on his arm.
Joel looked at her before following quickly, and Ellie could hear the shouts of confusion from the hunters.
She glanced back and saw a small group start to search the tunnel they had walked down.
Shouts sounded from behind them, and she started to run faster.
Light was streaming in ahead, and she suddenly burst into a small café. Her confusion was brief when she saw Joel burst through the opening in the wall as well.
She saw a block of concrete beside the entrance and started to try and push it. Joel motioned for her to get out of the way, and he then pushed against the box, blocking the entrance from where they had come.
The shouts faded, and everything became quiet.
I figured I would leave it off there since I haven't updated in a few days. Anyways, Pittsburgh is starting to turn out to be a very interesting (and dangerous) city for Ellie and Joel. What do you think will happen next? And will the hunters still be able to find them? Please tell me what you thought in a review!
-AnimeWolfGirl9