AN: Hello! Okay, stuff and things:
First off, sorry for the incredibly long wait. School, hobbies, and attempts at a social life have been keeping me pretty preoccupied, and I've been trying to work on my own novel as well, so I've barely had any time to work on my fanfiction. However, the wait for the next chapter will be shorter, as it is already written, but it still has to be edited. And it's, like, over 18,000 words, so that's going to take a while. But it is written, which certainly helps things along. I was originally planning to put all of winter in one big chapter, but it ending up being 27,000 words when I finished, which is too long for a single chapter, even by my standards.
Secondly, in response to those who asked whether the story would be following the plot of the main game, your timing is kind of funny, because this is the first chapter where the story really veers away from the original plot line. See, I really only like to change things if it's absolutely necessary (plus, when I decided to have the story merge with the original plot line, I mainly did it so I could focus on how Ellie's development would differ with Riley being there, along with how Riley would interact with Tess/Joel), and up until this point there hasn't been any need to change things. The characters balance each other well, and I haven't seen any need to steer them away from the original plot, because I think, with this particular combination of characters, they would've ended up in similar places to the ones they did in canon. However, this only really worked because I had the four of them together. Had it just been Tess and Ellie and Riley, Tommy's wouldn't have even needed to happen, because Tess wouldn't have felt the need to try to get rid of them like Joel did. And had Tess not been there, Ellie and Riley probably would have split ways with Joel long before they even got to Tommy's because Riley would never have been particularly fond of Joel, and would've convinced Ellie to leave. So, with the dynamic the four of them have, things have flowed pretty smoothly within the structure and events of the main plot.
However, winter is the first place where I feel like things needed to be changed, due to the nature of David's character, and the development of the girls' characterization.
Anyway, rambling over. I hope everyone enjoys the chapter. Oh, and before I go any further, I think I should probably mention that the next chapter is going to be really, really rough. Like, the darkest thing I've ever written, and the most upsetting since the chapter where Ellie got bit. It doesn't cross any lines that the game itself didn't, but the content is a little more severe in comparison to what Ellie went through with David in the game, and his intentions are a little more strongly implied than they were originally in the game (mostly due to Riley being a little older than Ellie, and being faster to catch on to what sort of person David is). There are multiple scenes of torture and graphic violence, though I doubt that will be an issue for anyone who played the game. Either way, I thought it'd be worth mentioning.
Without further ado, enjoy.
Joel's breath left lingering puffs of mist on the frozen air as his chest rose and fell heavily, a sheen of sweat visible on his wrinkled brow. Ellie would feel her own breath catch in her chest whenever his halted, her muscles tensing until he finally exhaled. Sometimes he would twitch in his sleep, or mumble something incoherent, shifting beneath the blankets they'd piled on top of him, but otherwise he remained still.
"Worrying isn't going to help, Ellie."
Ellie glanced up at Riley, who sat against the wall behind her, her knees tucked to her chest. They held each other's gaze for a moment, and then Ellie looked back at Joel.
"So what the fuck am I supposed to do?"
Riley sighed, unable to come up with an answer. She wiggled her fingers inside her pocket, trying to shake the stiffness from them. It did little to help.
Her eyes moved to where Tess slept, her injured leg propped up on a torn pillow. With the help of the meds Tess had stored in her backpack, along with the supplies from first aid kit they'd found for Joel the week before, her leg had been healing nicely, though walking was still difficult. She'd slept frequently at first, the pain medication leaving her woozy, but had been up and about more as time had gone on. Unable to help with much, she often kept watch over Joel while the girls scavenged in the nearby houses for food. They'd found practically nothing in the week since they'd arrived, all the cabins having been picked clean. There wasn't even much to find in the way of clothing.
However, they'd come across a barn about a half-mile away with some hay that, though rather musty, was still in decent enough condition that the horses could eat it.
Thank God for small favors.
"When do you wanna go out next?" Riley asked after a moment, eyeing the window. Past the grimy curtain, snow flurries fell like powdered sugar from the dull sky, framed by the browned remnants of vines that'd overtaken the window frame.
Ellie followed her gaze, her stomach growling beneath her sweater.
"Soon," she muttered. "But where the hell do we even go? There's nothing around here."
Riley shrugged, examining a tear in her jeans. "We could go hunting. You've got your bow."
"I don't know how to hunt animals."
Riley snorted. "I'm sure it's easier than people."
Neither of them spoke for a moment, and then Ellie sighed, standing up and crossing the room to huddle against the wall beside Riley, their arms brushing through their coats. She stretched her legs out in front of her, scuffing the heel of her sneaker against the worn floorboards, and sighed.
"When Tess wakes up we can ask her, I guess."
Riley nodded, shifting so she could wrap her arm around Ellie's shoulders, pulling her against her side.
Ellie nuzzled her head into Riley's shoulder, tossing an arm around her waist and wriggling closer to her.
"In the meantime," Ellie yawned, "I'm going to sleep."
A glimmer of a smile crossed Riley's face, and she rested her chin on top of Ellie's head, taking her hand in hers and trying not to notice how cold her skin was. "Fine by me."
Tess woke a few hours later, and proceeded to mutter at the girls for not waking her sooner. Eventually, she got over it, and turned her attention to Joel.
"How's he doin'?"
Ellie shrugged, burying her numb fingers in her pockets. She could feel a hole in one of them, and began to toy with it absentmindedly. "No change."
Tess frowned, the dull light pouring in from the window harshening the expression. She rubbed a hand over her brow, sweeping her hair back out of her face and over her shoulders, where it spilled across the red flannel of her jacket like a tangled waterfall.
"He's going to need antibiotics. Stitching him up ain't gonna cut it."
"Well," Riley said, picking her backpack up from the floor, "Me and Ellie are going to head out for a while and see if we can find something to eat. Maybe we can check out some new places, see if there's anything we can use."
Tess narrowed her eyes. "Where?"
"Just out into the woods a little ways. We'll stay close."
Chewing her lip, Tess turned her eyes toward the window. "I don't think that's a good idea. If you get lost—"
"We'll be fine," Ellie insisted. "We'll take Callus, and make sure we're not gone long. I mean, we've gotta find something to eat. We ran out of canned stuff yesterday."
"Well, I can go with you—"
"Tess, you can barely walk. Besides, some needs to keep an eye on him." She nodded at Joel's sleeping figure, and Tess just sighed.
After a minute she crossed her arms, fixing the girls with a stern stare. "I want you back by sunset."
"Not a problem," Riley said. "I don't want to be out in this shit any longer than we have to, anyway."
"Well," Ellie said, pulling her backpack's strap over her shoulder, "I'm gonna go tack Callus. Ri, can you get my bow for me?"
Riley nodded. "Way ahead of you."
Tess hobbled over to the wall, picking up the crutch the girls had made for her, and then leaned on it, her eyes on Joel.
"Hang in there, Texas," she murmured.
Once Riley had grabbed Ellie's bow from their bedroom and had tucked a few extra rounds for her gun into her pocket, she jogged out to meet Ellie in the garage, where the horses stayed.
Betsy pawed unhappily at the concrete as Ellie led Callus out into the snow, nickering to him anxiously after he disappeared from sight.
Riley gave her a firm pat on the shoulder, scratching gently at her coarse coat.
"We'll have him back soon," she said, before adding in a louder tone, so Ellie could hear, "hold your horses."
"That was horrible," Ellie called.
Riley snorted. "Whatever."
Tess appeared in the garage's doorway, just as Riley was readying to close the outer door.
"I mean it, Riley. Sunset."
Riley nodded to her, pulling her hood up over her head. "We will. Don't worry."
Pulling down the garage door and leaving it to slam closed behind her with a metallic thud, Riley jogged over to Ellie and Callus, accepting the hand up Ellie offered and climbing into the saddle behind her. She wrapped her arms around Ellie's waist, cringing at the chill in the air as Callus picked up a steady trot, the snow crunching beneath his hooves.
"You think it's weird we haven't seen any people around here?" Ellie asked, eyeing the vacant cabins around them, their dark windows staring after them like hollow eyes. "I mean, not even infected."
Riley narrowed her eyes as a bird took to wing from the top of a chimney, the flicker of motion making her jump. "Maybe there's nothing out here anyone's interested in."
"Maybe," Ellie said, shrugging noncommittally.
Neither of them spoke for a while after that, as the cabins became fewer, and trees took their place. Before long, the forest engulfed them entirely, thick pines and barren oak extending endlessly ahead of them, their branches laden with snow, a blue haze twining between their trunks. The terrain became less even, dimpled and rutted and thick with rocks, causing Callus to, more than once, lose his footing.
All that could be heard was Callus's labored breaths as he trekked through the thick snow, along with the almost lonely-sounding bird song that cut between the skeletal branches. The snow around them was unblemished, apart from where Callus had churned it with his hooves. The world seemed to be slumbering, cool and silent. Or dead.
It was just as Ellie was about to suggest that they turn back and see what else they could find in the cabins that they saw the rabbit dart from behind a boulder, leaving blots of gray in the snow behind it.
"You see that?" Riley asked, nodding after the rabbit.
Ellie nodded silently, knotting Callus's reins and draping them over the horn. She pulled her bow from her back and then nudged the gelding forward with her heels, her eyes trained on the rabbit's tracks.
They spotted it, a few yards away, ambling up a hill. Ellie notched an arrow and aimed it, taking a breath to steady herself before letting it fly.
The rabbit fell to the ground promptly, crimson blood fanning out behind it in the snow, and an arrow protruding from its head.
"Ow," Riley said, wincing. "Nice shot, Katniss."
Ellie glanced back over her shoulder at her, eyebrows raised.
"Now who's the nerd?"
"Shut up, and go get your rabbit."
"You said you read that book four years ago."
"I just have a good memory."
"Nerd."
"Ellie."
Ellie rolled her eyes, waiting for Riley to dismount before clambering down after her.
Riley led Callus behind them as Ellie went to fetch the rabbit from the snow and pull the arrow from its body. She had turned to tie it to the saddle when Riley tapped her on the shoulder, nodding meaningfully to something behind her.
Ellie glanced back, her eyes widening.
About twenty yards from them was a buck, standing almost half of Callus's height. It ambled along, mindless of them, steam rising from its damp nostrils, a dusting of snow covering its earthy coat. A moment later it disappeared, rounding the corner of a rock outcropping and springing down a ledge.
Riley raised her eyebrows, and Ellie nodded quickly, tethering Callus to the nearest tree and then lifting her bow again and notching the arrow. Together, they started after the deer, placing each footstep slowly and deliberately as they crept down the gully the deer had disappeared into.
It took a moment to spot the buck, his coat lost among a sea of white and brown. However, they did find him, his antlers brushing the snow as he chewed at a patch of brittle, browned grass.
"Can you get him from here?" Riley asked, eyeing the expanse of snow and scattered trees and rocks that stood between them and the buck.
Ellie just lifted her bow, pulling the string back to the corner of her mouth and trying to steady the shivering in her sore fingers. After a moment, she let the arrow fly, and a breath later they heard the deer cry, startling forward and then lurching off across a frozen stream and up a ledge before disappearing from sight.
"Jesus," Riley breathed.
Ellie just smirked in response.
Without a word, she jogged down ahead, Riley on her heels. They skidded through the snow, the cold air prickling their faces and hands, and then slowed down as they met the ice. There was one splotch of blood in the snow not far from their feet, about the size of a quarter, and then another a few yards ahead, the crimson stark against the otherwise unblemished white. Along side the blood were hoof prints, the snow beneath them browned and muddied. They followed the tracks silently, glancing around them as they went. Snow started to fall once more, thick flurries that got caught in their hair and stuck to the fabric of their coats like spider webs.
Eventually, they spotted the deer. It stood between two pines, its form hunched and its head turned to gnaw at its injured side.
Ellie notched another arrow, taking a few slow steps forward. She clambered up onto a small boulder, knocking free chunks of frozen snow as she climbed, and then aimed her bow. This time, when she let the arrow fly, the deer darted away, the arrow having flown over it.
"Shit," Ellie hissed.
"Don't worry about it," Riley said, jogging up to join her. "We can catch up with him. He's already injured."
"Yeah, but we're already really far from camp."
Riley shrugged. "We'll be fine. We can just follow our tracks back if we have to."
Ellie nodded, assuaged, and started off after the deer once more.
They followed the buck's splattered blood and erratic hoof prints for a few minutes, eventually find him kneeling down by a boulder, his nose brushing the snow. This time, when Ellie shot, it landed. However, the deer lurched to his feet once more and then stumbled off, heading away into the trees, his movements wild and uncoordinated.
"How is it not dead?" Ellie demanded, staring incredulously after the deer.
"C'mon, let's just catch him. He'll probably collapse in a minute."
Their feet already numb in their shoes, they ran down the hill and into the gully the deer had run to, noting with relief the larger and more frequent splotches of blood that had been left in the deer's wake.
However, the tracks continued onward, past where they'd seen him disappear. They followed them downward, past boulders and trees, looming crags on either side like ancient walls, and, finally, to a rotting split board fence. The railing had collapsed in some areas, the barbed wire that had once topped it sagging and half-obscured by the reedy grass.
"Oh, shit," Ellie breathed, as she looked past the fence.
Below them was what appeared to be a barn, the roof patchy and rotting, the wood worn and aged. The place looked utterly uninhabited, but there was something about it, something in the desolation of the place, that gave them both pause.
"That looks… inviting," Riley muttered.
Ellie snorted. "Not creepy at all."
They glanced at each other, both their faces flushed from the cold, and then back down at the barn.
"Well, might as well get it over with. We've come this far," Ellie sighed, hopping over a broken railing in the fence. Riley followed her, and together they descended the short drop from the rocks, both pausing once they hit the ground. The deer had certainly come through, as blood was mixed into the snow and mud, producing a color that was unsettlingly similar to that of rotting meat.
Feeling an increasing sense of unease, they walked on in silence, finding the barn, as they had suspected, silent and empty, the smell of decaying wood hanging in the sharp air like a pungent shadow.
"Oh, there he is," Ellie sighed, as they spotted the deer, its carcass lying limply in the snow, steam rising from the blood that coated its neck.
Ellie walked up to the deer, crouching down to pull her arrow from his carcass, while Riley glanced around apprehensively, her eyes falling on the numerous abandoned buildings that surrounded them. They appeared to be in the middle of a street, a lonesome stop sign leaning crookedly at a nearby corner. The buildings were nondescript – factories, maybe, or something of the sort, with metal machinery visible in the distance. Power lines hung overhead, their poles standing defiantly among the wreckage that surrounded them.
As her gaze swept back toward Ellie, she noticed flicker of motion, just behind a large oak tree a few yards away, and her hand jerked to her gun instinctively, flipping the safety off as she pulled it free.
"Ellie," she hissed.
Ellie stood up immediately, notching the still-bloody arrow into her bow and turning in the direction Riley was looking.
"Who's there?" she demanded.
There was a moment of silence, and then a figure stepped out, followed by another.
The first was an older man, about Joel's age, with dark hair, and a mustache and beard. His features were sharp, almost gaunt, like a starving wolf, and he wore a heavy coat that hung loosely from his rangy frame. The other man was younger – probably in his twenties – and even less friendly in appearance, his eyes dark and mistrustful beneath his beanie.
"Hello," the first man said, lifting his hands by his head and eyeing their raised weapons cautiously. "We just want to talk."
Ellie just lifted her bow slightly, and then shot a questioning glance at Riley.
"What do you want?" Riley asked, after a moment of hesitation, resting her finger on the trigger of her gun.
The man looked both girls over with something akin to amusement for a moment.
"Uh, the name's David. This is James." He gestured toward the boy at his side. "We're from a big group – women and children, all very hungry."
Ellie and Riley exchanged glances, Ellie raising an eyebrow skeptically. You buy it?
She could read Riley's response as clear as day: hell no.
Well, two could play at that game.
She turned back to David. "Uh, so are we. All very hungry, too."
David looked slightly skeptical, but nodded anyway, and then glanced toward the buck lying limp in the snow.
"Well, we were hopin' to trade you for some of that meat there. What do you need? We've got food, weapons, medicine, clothes… whatever you could ask for."
Ellie glanced at Riley again, and then they turned back to David.
"Medicine," Riley said. "We need antibiotics."
David looked satisfied, taking as step forward, and gesturing back over his shoulder. "Well, that's no problem. We got plenty back at camp. You can follow us—"
"No—"
"We're not following you anywhere—"
The girls voices overlapped, both sounding more anxious than intended. There was a moment of silence, and David's hand fell back to his side.
Riley cleared her throat. "You can bring it back here."
"And then we'll give you the whole deer," Ellie agreed, gaze flickering between David and James.
David considered it in silence for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the girls once more in a way that left them both uneasy. James just stood stiffly by the tree, looking sour-faced and uncomfortable.
"And if you bring anyone back with you—" Riley began.
"—I'll put on right between your eyes," Ellie said, nodding at the point of her arrow.
David considered them for a moment, his expression like that of a wolf that had just spotted an easy kill.
He looked at James once more. "Go get two bottles of penicillin and a syringe. Make it fast."
James nodded, jaw clenched, and turned away, disappearing behind the nearest building.
The three of them stood in silence for a moment, the girls exchanging glances warily. Ellie wiped at her nose with her cracking knuckles, readjusting her fingers on her bowstring. Riley shifted on her feet in the snow, wiggling her numb toes inside her boots.
After a minute, Riley's eyes darted to the rifle on David's shoulder, and then she glanced at Ellie, who nodded in agreement.
"We want the rifle, too," Riley added.
David frowned, but carefully slung the rifle over his shoulder and held it out toward Riley, who only glanced at Ellie questioningly. Ellie hurriedly slung her bow over her shoulder, Riley keeping her pistol trained on David, and then took the rifle and turned it on him, quickly sliding the bolt back and checking that it was loaded.
"He's going to be gone a while – mind if we take some shelter from the cold?" David asked hopefully after another minute of silence had passed, nodding toward one of the buildings, this one with sloppily boarded up windows, and a large metal door.
Ellie and Riley glanced at each other, and then Riley nodded.
"Bring him with us," Ellie said, gesturing toward the deer.
David obeyed, grabbing the deer by the antlers and dragging it toward the building, the carcass leaving streaks of blood and dirt in the snow.
Once inside, he dropped the deer in the corner, and then walked toward one of the cabinets in the room, pulling it open and digging inside.
"What are you doing?" Ellie snapped, her finger moving to the rifle's trigger.
He glanced back, looking slightly perplexed. "…Gatherin' a bit of wood, so we can start a fire. We stored some out here, last time we were around."
He paused. "Y'know, their ain't no reason to be so nervous. I don't mean ya any harm."
Riley just snorted. "Whatever you say. Just hurry up."
They watched him pluck a few sticks and sawed-off branches from the metal shelves and then carry them to the middle of the room where he piled them up neatly, pulling a bit of paper from his pocket and lighting it with an old, worn lighter. It took a few moments for the branches to catch, but once they did the warmth began to leech out into the room, drawing the girls to settle near it, sitting down shoulder to shoulder, their weapons resting in their laps.
"Tess is going to freak out if we don't hurry," Ellie muttered to Riley, lifting her numb hands up in front of the tiny blaze. She could barely feel her fingers, and her toes weren't much better off.
"Well, she'll get over it once she sees what we got," Riley reassured her.
David watched them thoughtfully, his gaze still heavy with that unsettling curiosity, the intense watchfulness.
"You know, it's not safe for two young girls to be out here on their own," he said, his tone insistently friendly.
"We can take care of ourselves just fine," Riley said coolly.
"It certainly looks like it," he chuckled and smiled – something he was doing far too often for either of the girls' comfort. "What are your names?"
Ellie and Riley exchanged glances again.
"Why?" Ellie asked curtly.
David chuckled. "Just wonderin'."
Riley narrowed her eyes skeptically. "I'm Riley. She's Ellie."
He nodded. "Pretty names."
Neither of them said anything in response, Ellie letting out a breath in a puff of mist. She shivered, and Riley leaned into her slightly, causing Ellie to huddle a little closer, their sides pressed together. Ellie suddenly found herself ardently appreciating Riley's presence, warmth rushing through her. There was something reassuring about just having her within reach, especially with David's hungry eyes weighing on her.
David watched them for a moment, a look of revelation crossing his features, only to be quickly dispelled by a screech in the distance.
"Shit," Riley hissed, jumping to her feet, gun in hand.
Ellie joined her a breath later, hoisting her rifle up to her shoulder. "Infected?"
David lunged to his feet beside them, and the trio turned in tandem to stare at the door.
There was a thudding outside, and then a figure stepped into the doorway. It stood still, crisp puffs of steam falling from its bloody jaws, and clicks rattling from its throat. It twitched its head from side to side, disturbing the grimy snow that had settled in between the fungal growths there.
Riley shifted on her feet, and the clicker started for her, only to be shot down by David a second later with a pistol he had produced from his belt. The clicker hit the floor with a thud, and he strode over to it, his teeth bared, before shooting another round into head, silencing it and splattering blood across the muddy floor.
"Of course you had another gun," Riley muttered.
David just shrugged apologetically.
They could hear more shrieks in the distance, coming from all sides.
"Riley—" Ellie began, glancing at her.
"I know," Riley breathed. "We've got this. It'll be fine."
"You two done this before?" David asked.
Both girls just glanced at him incredulously.
"Alright, then," he muttered, slamming the metal door.
The three of them stood stiffly in the center of the room, listening as the wails outside grew louder, flickers of motion appearing between the trees that surrounded the building.
"We'll take this side," Riley said, gesturing to the right. "You handle the other side."
David gave a nod, turning his attention to the left.
A moment later a runner reached one of the windows on the girls' side, slamming its fists into the rotting boards. Ellie shot it in the chest with the rifle, the bang covering the screams of the other infected. A clicker followed, and Riley shot it in the shoulder, sending it reeling backward.
There was a crash to their left, and the girls saw a runner busting through the rotting plywood on a window, falling into the room only to be shot by David a moment later.
Shattering wood drew their attention to the right once more, and they turned to see a runner and a clicker climbing into the room, more on their heels. The girls managed to take them out with ease, the corpses collapsing to the floor and ending up trampled by the next few infected. With a bit of haphazard shooting and a dash of luck, the girls managed to take out the next wave without a problem.
Ellie went to finish off one of the runners, this one the last of the group it had arrived with, and her rifle only clicked dully in response.
"Shit, I'm out," she hissed. She dropped her rifle to the concrete and pulled her bow from her shoulder, notching an arrow into it with shaky hands.
"It's fine, I think we're knocking them out," Riley said, her gaze bouncing between the windows near her. Blurs of motion could be seen outside, but none of the infected had reached the building.
They heard David yell, a runner having broken through when his back was turned and grabbed him, knocking his pistol from his grip.
"Go help him – I can handle this side!" Riley said, waving Ellie toward David.
Ellie nodded, dropping her bow and jerking her switchblade from her pocket with her free hand and running to stab the runner in the back as it clawed at David. She stabbed it once more in the neck, the dark blood sticking to her fingers, and then dropped it to the ground.
"Thanks," David gasped. "You girls really seem to know what you're doin'!"
Ellie just snorted. "No kidding."
She turned back to Riley, retrieving her bow and fixing the arrow in it.
"This better be the last of them," Riley muttered, taking a few steps back as she reloaded her pistol. "I'm almost out."
They could hear screams outside, though no infected had reached the windows. The smell of wood smoke and cold and death filled their throats as they tried to catch their breath.
"What do we do?" Ellie asked, picking the rifle up from the floor and putting it back on her shoulder.
"We get the fuck out of here," Riley muttered, her eyes on a door in the back of the room.
"Can you get that open?" she demanded, glancing at David.
David eyed the door, and the nodded. "Yep. Oh, and here—"
He pulled a handful of rounds from his pocket and offered them to Ellie. His fingers brushed hers as he dropped them into her palm, lingering there for a moment before pulling away. She felt a surge of discomfort, stepping closer to Riley as she reloaded her rifle, her fingers shaking and stiff.
David managed to bust the door open with his foot and then the three of them bolted in, the sounds of infected following them like shadows. They ran down a hallway, infected pawing at them through the rotting boards, and then emerged into a cluttered room, David slamming a file cabinet in front of the door to block the way of two clickers that were tailing them.
"Here – follow me," David instructed, heading toward the pair of large metal doors that stood ahead of them across the cramped, cluttered room.
The doors led into a vast, open room, filled with dull-colored steel. Metal support beams crisscrossed the ceiling far above like branches, and collapsing walkways covered the expanse of the building, the ground below them a tangle of broken machinery and fallen beams. David led them up an almost intact metal staircase, all of them breath heavily as they reached the top and rounded the next corner, their clanging footsteps stirring up clickers somewhere further ahead.
"You have any idea where you're going?" Ellie asked.
"Never set foot in this place in my life," David muttered.
"Wonderful," Riley sighed.
They crossed the expanse of the building with ease, bypassing the machinery and clickers below as they dodged from walkway to walkway, sometimes jumping across broken sections, or cutting across the metal piping that ran from some of the machines.
"How the hell do we get out of here?" Ellie asked, as they headed down a walkway that crossed to the next building, the gaps in between broken floorboards revealing open air and a long drop beneath them.
"We'll find a way," David said firmly, as they emerged into another room, this one equally dilapidated, holes in the roof allow milky sunshine to pour in in tandem with the clumpy snowflakes that continued to descend. "There's always a way."
"Okay, wait a second – what were you and your buddy doing out here?" Riley demanded. "I mean, the place is fucking crawling with infected—"
"Watch your language," David said curtly, shooting her a warning glance.
Riley glanced at Ellie, mouthing an incredulous "what the fuck?"
Before Ellie could come up with a response, a runner came barreling toward them from around the corner of what appeared to be some sort of control center. A moment later she was on her back, her skull connecting with a thud against the hard ground, and the runner's weight on her as it thrashed about, straining toward her throat.
Riley had her gun at the runner's head in a moment, and its blood splattering the snow a breath later. Ellie shoved the corpse away, taking the hand Riley offered as she climbed back to her feet.
"Shit – thanks," she panted.
"You okay?" Riley asked, her voice nearly frantic as she looked her over.
Ellie just nodded, rubbing the snow from her hair. "I'm fine."
Riley nodded, drawing in a deep breath. Her eyes turned to David to find him watching them, the expression of interest having settled on his face again. He quickly glanced away when he caught her eye, turning his gaze to the tunnel they'd just come from, where more infected had appeared.
"We need to get the hell out of here," Riley muttered, her gaze whipping around the room. Footsteps could be heard on the roof, the infecteds' screams splitting the frozen air.
"We ain't get out until they're all dead," David said, his voice almost covered by the crack of his next gunshot. "We're gonna have to hold our ground."
"Great. Okay—" Ellie muttered, sliding the bolt back on her rifle, her hands sweating in spite of the cold. "We've got this."
The next few minutes were a blur of motion and sound. Infected rushed in from all sides, pouring in through gaps in the roof and racing down the tunnel, baring down on them almost constantly and hardly giving them time to breathe.
"How many of these fuckers are there—?" Ellie demanded, wincing as the kick from the rifle drove it into her shoulder. The runner she had just downed fell to the ground and writhed, blood bubbling up from its gaping mouth.
"Too many," Riley muttered. She dug a hand into her pocket, fingers brushing her pendant as she retrieved a few extra rounds. "Hey, watch my back for a sec."
Ellie nodded, glancing around them anxiously. By the time Riley had her gun reloaded and ready, another clicker had dropped in through the roof. David took it down with a shot to the stomach, leaving it to thrash in the snow, unable to rise.
More infected came, and the trio continued to take them out, the sound of the screams and footsteps on the roof lessening over time, until it finally ceased entirely.
They all glanced around, listening. Other than one clicker's dying screams – which David ended, driving the heel of his boot into its head – there was a thick silence.
"Where are they?" Riley asked, warily, her eyes scanning the roof.
David glanced around, and then a smile spread across his face. "Y'know, I think we got 'em."
Ellie and Riley exchanged glances, and then laughed incredulously.
"Took long enough," Riley said, tucking her gun into her belt.
Ellie just snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."
"You oughta be happy," David said with a chuckle, wiping the sweat from his brow. "We did pretty good. Not a bad team."
"Yeah," Riley agreed, readjusting her hair in its bun. "I guess so."
The group stood in silence for a moment, catching their breath as the infected on the ground drew their last. After a moment, David tucked his pistol into his belt and then waved them on, heading down into the tunnel. They followed him warily, staying shoulder to shoulder as he led them to a gap in the tunnel's wall that opened out on the surrounding land.
"Hear that?" he asked after a minute, still smiling slightly. "No infected."
Ellie glanced at him and then at Riley, quirking an eyebrow. What's this guy's deal?
Riley shook her head, looking equally uneasy, her hand resting near her gun.
"Well, we better go check on that buck of ours," David added a moment later, nudging Ellie with his elbow. Ellie drew back slightly, shooting him a dark look, which he seemed not to notice.
With a few minutes of walking, they made their way back to the room where they'd left the buck. The fire had sputtered out in their absence, leaving smoke hanging in the room like a veil. David set to work on getting it relit, while the girls settled themselves back down. Ellie wiped down her switchblade while Riley awkwardly loaded her last few rounds into her gun with numb fingers, the fading light that poured in through the windows barely bright enough to see by.
"Fuck, I hate winter," Riley muttered, resting the gun in her lap so she could rub her hands together.
Ellie gave a short laugh. "'Cause you're a big baby."
Riley snorted, glancing at Ellie out of the corner of her eye as she buried her hands in her pockets. "Har har."
Ellie, ignoring Riley's sullen expression, shifted closer to her, leaning her shoulder into hers slightly. She saw Riley's mouth curve up in a half smile, and found her own expression mirroring it.
"I'm guessin' you two've been friends for quite a while," David said, interrupting the silence as he poked at the embers with a stick, trying to ignite the extra kindling he'd gathered.
Neither of the girls answered, their eyes turning from each other to him.
"You certainly look out for each other, at least," he added. "Keep each other safe."
He paused, turning his gaze from the flames to them.
"Not something you see too often – young girls out on their own."
They watched him uneasily for a moment. Ellie felt a shiver pass through her as his gaze moved from Riley's eyes to hers. There was something in his expression that made her uncomfortable, something hungry. She suddenly wanted to leave.
"Y'know, it's funny – I sent a group of men out, a week or so back. Only a few came back. Said the rest had been slaughtered. When we asked them who did it, they told us it was a little group of people – a man, a woman, and two young girls. And the way they described 'em… well, it fits you two to a T."
Ellie felt Riley tense beside her as realization settled over them both.
"You see, I think everything happens for a reason."
"Jesus," Riley breathed. David met her gaze, smiling a smile that showed a little too much tooth.
She and Ellie were on their feet a second later, Riley placing herself between Ellie and David unconsciously, her gun trained on his head.
"Look," Riley growled, "I don't know what the hell you want, but—"
The click of a gun being cocked drew her attention, her voice trailing off as her gaze turned to the doorway. David's companion had returned, pistol in hand and pointed at her. Riley turned her gun toward him, Ellie keeping hers trained on David. The girls stepped closer together, their shoulders bumping.
"Lower the gun, James," David said, his eyes still locked on the girls. He'd made no move to go for a weapon, his hands resting calmly in front of him.
"No way! We're not letting them go, not after—"
"Lower the gun," David repeated.
After a moment of hesitation, the barrel of James's gun dropped slightly, though his posture stayed tense. He kept his eyes fixed on the girls, the loathing in them obvious.
"Now give them the medicine."
Incredulity shot across James's face, but he did as he was told, tossing a brown paper bag toward them. Ellie picked it up quickly, tucking it into her pocket.
"Why are you doing this?" Riley demanded, her eyes darting between David and James. "Why not just kill us?"
"Riley…" Ellie hissed, catching her gaze out of the corner of her eye.
David only shrugged.
"The Lord preaches forgiveness. Besides, you're just kids. It's not your fault," he said, his tone gentle, almost kind.
Ellie could feel her breath speeding up, her palms sweating around the handle of her gun. She dared a glance at Riley to find her standing stiffly, her jaw gritted as she stared down David.
"Fine," Riley muttered, after a moment. She started toward the door, eyeing James. He stepped aside, his expression ice.
The girls backed out into the snow together, their weapons still trained on the men. After a moment of hesitation, they turned on heel and ran, the cold air stinging their faces, feet carrying them toward the abandoned barn. It was when they reached the barn's door, ducking behind the nearest wall, that the shouting began.
"—let them go?"
"I fucking told you—"
The girls glanced at each other, swallowing.
"That sounds like more than two people," Ellie muttered.
Riley shook her head. "Let's just get the fuck out of here."
They bolted, not daring to look over their shoulders. Voices could still be heard, arguing, shouting orders.
"Fuck!" Ellie gasped, as they rounded a corner of the barn, heading for the ledge they'd climbed down before. "What if they follow us—"
"I don't know," Riley muttered, eyes darting over her shoulder. "Maybe they won't."
They slid to a halt at the base of the ledge, and then Riley cupped her hands together, nodding up toward the ridge above them.
"C'mon, I'll boost you, hurry—"
Ellie stepped into her joined hands, grasping wildly at the ledge above her as Riley pushed her up. She managed to grab hold of the trunk of a spindly tree, pulling herself up and falling onto her hands and knees in the snow. By the time she'd righted herself and had grabbed Riley's hand to pull her up after her, she could see a man she did recognize heading toward them through the barn. She quickly hauled Riley over the edge, and they stumbled onward, the snow ahead of them undisturbed and smooth.
"What do we do?" Ellie panted, as they ran down the trail past pines and oaks, their shadows like bruises on the icy ground.
Riley shook her head. "Maybe we can lose them."
At that moment they both stumbled to a halt, gasping for breath, their gazes falling on the ground ahead of them before turning back the way they'd come, where their new footprints dimpled the snow, as clear as a dotted line on paper.
"Son of a bitch," Riley hissed. "Fucking – shit!"
"What – what's wrong?"
Riley just continued to stare at their footprints, her hands clenched in fists at her sides. Ellie followed her gaze, her eyes widening.
"They're just going to track us wherever we go," Ellie breathed. The realization tightened her throat with panic, leaving her dizzy.
"What do we do?" she mumbled, glancing around frantically. Callus was still a good ten-minute run away, if not more. Provided he'd stayed where he was supposed to. They hadn't tied him that tightly.
"I—Um. Shit. I don't know," Riley said.
She looked down the trail again, spitting another curse when she saw the beams of flashlights bobbing in the trees, their light spilling onto the snow just in front of her feet. A breath later the crack of gunshot sounded, and then Riley was biting back a scream as pain erupted along her arm. She reeled backward a few strides and then ran, her hand clapped against the wound and Ellie on her heels. They rounded the corner of a rock outcrop, putting themselves temporarily out of the gunmen's sight, and then stumbled to a halt. When Riley pulled her hand away from her sleeve, her palm came back smeared with warm blood, and she swore quietly.
"Oh, God—" Ellie started to reach for her, but Riley stepped away, glancing over her shoulder nervously.
"Let's just keep running. C'mon – go!" Riley gasped, her voice catching as she tucked her arm against her side.
She grabbed Ellie's shoulder, propelling her into motion, and they took off once more, their strides eating up the ground as they bolted onward, springing over logs and dashing between trees wildly. Shouts followed behind them for the next few minutes, but eventually began to fade once they had plunged further into the forest, the trees and shadows swallowing them up as the light continued to fade and the color ebbed from the sky.
"You holding up okay?" Ellie asked breathlessly, pulling her flashlight from her pocket and flipping it on, the light reflecting off the snow and shining back in her eyes harshly. She turned it back off, deciding the moonlight was enough.
"It hurts like hell, but I think I'll make it. They just nicked me," Riley muttered, the fabric of her coat grating against the wound, making her wince.
Ellie look unconvinced, but didn't argue. She glanced over her shoulder, squinting through the darkness at their footprints.
"So what do we do? If we go back they'll just follow us straight to Tess and Joel – and Joel's probably still fucking out of it," Ellie said, as they finally saw Callus. His shadowy form danced back and forth anxiously as they approached, the moonlight illuminating the steam that billowed from his nostrils.
"I know, I know. Um – maybe…" Riley hesitated, biting her lip as they stopped in front of the anxious horse. She untethered him, tossing the reins up over the saddle. "Maybe we can confuse them. You could take Callus one way, loop him through the trees some, and then I could run the other way for a while and then loop back. Then we… then we could meet somewhere and just go from there."
"Are you fucking crazy?" Ellie half-yelled, grabbing her arm. "We can't split up—"
"Look, it'd buy us enough time to get back first and warn Tess and get Betsy saddled up. It's the only choice we've got. Otherwise, we're going to get Tess and Joel killed, and we're probably going to end up dead."
"But Callus is fast, we can out run them—"
"If we run him in the snow he'd probably end up falling, and then we'd be fucked. Plus, they'd still follow us straight back. It wouldn't buy us enough time."
"Riley, I don't—"
"Listen," Riley pleaded, grabbing her face in her hands, leaving a smear of blood on her cheek. "It'll be okay – we can do this. I promise."
Ellie stared at her for a moment, lips parted around a protestation, and then she shook her head, reaching up to cup the back of Riley's head and pulling her into a kiss, their cold lips bruising against each other. When they broke apart Ellie slid her hand down to rest against her neck.
"I love you," she breathed, eyes scanning Riley's desperately, for what she wasn't sure.
Riley looked at her for a moment, expression unreadable, and then kissed her briefly once more, before pulling away and resting her forehead against hers.
"I love you, too. It's going to be okay. I promise."
"Just meet me by the last cabin at the edge of town, okay?"
Before Ellie could respond, Riley was running, a hand still pressed to her bleeding arm, her feet sliding in the snow as she disappeared into a gully. Ellie took a deep breath, pulling herself together to the best of her ability, and then ran to Callus, throwing his reins over his neck and then vaulting into the saddle.
"C'mon, boy. Let's get the fuck out of here."
She bumped her calves against the horse's side, spurring him into a jittery canter. Icy branches lashed at them as they went, the murky shadows of the looming trees making it nearly impossible to see. Ellie tried to trust Callus's judgment, allowing him to pick his own path through the forest, down hills and around rocks.
Sometimes his stride would slow whenever she hesitated, her apprehension seeping into him, and she would have to kick him on, forcing herself to stop looking over her shoulder. He obeyed her reluctantly, weaving between the trees with clumsy strides.
A few minutes after setting off, she heard a single gunshot, only followed by more silence. Callus's head shot up, and he veered to the side, nearly unseating Ellie. Glancing back once more, she felt a wave of nausea roll over her. What if—
She chopped the thought short, pressing her hands forward to give Callus his head and allowing him to open up his stride.
Riley was fine. They couldn't have gotten to her already.
She had to be fine.
After running him for a solid minute, weaving between trees haphazardly and lurching over fallen logs, Ellie slowed Callus to a trot. His sides heaved beneath her, his mane sticking to the sweat that had frothed up on his neck. She patted him gently, mumbling an apology.
"Good boy. You're doing good."
Ellie slowed him to a walk, allowing him to catch his breath. He chewed at the bit irritably, slobber dripping to the snow beneath him. She twirled her fingers in his mane absentmindedly, her eyes scanning the trees around them.
It was a few minutes later, when Ellie had decided it was probably safe to turn Callus back toward the cabins, that the next gunshot cracked the silence. This one was much closer than the last, crashing into a tree somewhere to her right. Callus bolted forward, throwing her backward in the saddle.
"Whoa—shit!"
The world became a blur of white and black and gray around her as Callus suddenly lunged to the left, sending her weight shifting to the right, and then bolted again, leaving her to cling to saddle horn as he ran. More shots sounded, whistling past her, over her, behind her. Callus spun to the right, lurching the few strides to the small ledge ahead of them before leaping down, her weight hitting his neck a moment later. Ellie grasped at his mane, bracing her hands against his neck and trying to right herself, only to feel Callus's gait suddenly falter, and the direction of his movement change. A moment later the world was spinning, and Ellie's back making impact with the frozen ground. She lay there for a moment, her chest tight and aching, leaving her unable to breathe. Vision dimmed at the edges, she managed to push herself up on her elbows, her eyes landing on the patch of earth that had been revealed in the hillside beside her, Callus's erratic hoof prints preceding it.
"Shit…"
She turned to look at the horse, finding him standing nervously a few yards away from her, his head high and nostrils flared, the whites of his eyes flashing. He stepped back and forth, hooves churning the snow, and his loose reins swaying by his fetlocks.
"Easy…" Ellie rasped out, her voice dry and cracking from lack of breath. "Easy, Callus…"
She started to rise to her feet only to find the world swaying unnaturally, the darkness encroaching on her vision growing. Her head throbbed in time with her pulse, and she reached up to gingerly poke at the back of her skull, finding a few drops of blood.
"Motherfucking—"
The cracking of branches drew her attention, and she heard voices above her on the ledge, their words indistinct. Callus reeled a few steps backwards, blowing out of his nostrils.
"Callus – don't—"
Before she could say another word the horse was running, whipping through the trees with her dead rabbit bouncing against his saddle and his mane and tail streaming out behind him.
"Fuck you, Callus," Ellie groaned. She pushed herself up into a sitting position once more, ignoring the way her vision swam, and tried to free her rifle from her back.
She never saw the man approaching from behind her, and only felt the sensation of his gun connecting with her temple briefly before darkness swallowed her.
Riley decided there needed to be a more powerful word than fuck.
Something really satisfying, but equally convenient. Something that could be repeated over and over in times like her current situation, times when fuck alone simply wasn't cutting it.
However, she also decided, the new word probably still wouldn't be enough.
They'd already nearly caught her, right out of the fucking gate. She'd stopped a minute or two after parting with Ellie to try to get her arm wrapped up, because trying to keep pressure on it while running just wasn't working for her. The stop had cost her, she'd found quickly, as hardly half a minute after she'd stopped running she'd seen a flicker of motion in the trees, the glimpse of a figure. She'd shot at it, only for her bullet to imbed itself in a tree somewhere near the shadow.
What had bothered the most of all, however, was the fact that that the figure hadn't tried to shoot back. She'd heard them shooting at Ellie – and missing, she hoped, judging by the number of continuous shots she'd heard – but there hadn't been a single shot at her. And she knew they were following her. She'd fucking seen one of them. After firing her single shot she'd taken off again, but the silence had eventually begun to weigh on her, leaving her casting anxious glances over her shoulder the whole way.
Where the hell were they?
What if they'd found Ellie?
She'd considered turning back, but then decided against it. They were going to meet by the cabin. Ellie would be there. Doubling back would just mean more risk.
Ahead of her, she could see what appeared to be a building, slivers of metal and wood visible through the trees. She jogged toward it, uncertain of what it was, but deciding it would be a decent place to catch her breath, and to figure out where the hell to go next.
Upon closer inspection, she found the building was a cabin, much like the ones near where they were camped. It was dilapidated, the roof falling in and the door rotting off its hinges, but it was a cabin nonetheless. She ducked inside through the open door, settling herself on a sagging couch while she dug inside her backpack for some bandaging. She found nothing, realizing she'd left the last roll she'd found with Tess.
"God damn it."
She fumbled with the zipper of her backpack for a moment, her fingers so numb and sticky with blood that she could barely get them to work, eventually managing to zip it back up. For a moment longer she simply sat there, the light-headedness from the blood loss leaving her slightly woozy.
It was when she was rising to her feet that she noticed the noise outside. She couldn't quite make out what it was – a thudding of some sort – but something about it was off. It sounded deliberate, rather than accidental, the brevity and exactness of it feeling wrong. Almost like someone knocking on a door.
Her hand moved to her pistol. At the most she had three or four rounds left. Not enough to risk shooting unless it was a sure thing.
Gun in hand, she moved toward the window, peering out into the twilight warily. Nothing moved in the shadows of the trees, apart from the occasional snowflake that the breeze disturbed. Silence hung thickly in the air, her own heart beat sounding like a drum by comparison.
Time to go, she decided.
She hopped out of the window and turned toward the right, trying to remember where the nearest road was. There were plenty of them around, she was sure, as they'd studied a map of the area when they'd first started looking for supplies. If she could find one of them, she could probably follow it straight back to the cabins.
Of course, finding a road was a lot easier when it was light outside. The moonlight, though decently bright, was patchy, the shadows of the trees cutting the ground into patches of deep blue and white.
She considered turning her flashlight on, but then decided against it as she remembered the sound she'd heard earlier, and the silent figure that'd been lurking amongst the trees when she'd first started running.
Ellie had probably been right – it'd been fucking stupid to split up. But she hadn't been able to think of anything else. Had they both tried to run Callus home they would've risked having him fall – carrying them both over the unstable terrain had been hard enough for him at a walk. Running through frozen snow in the dark would've been nearly impossible – and still would've left a beeline for the people to follow. Her plan at least gave them half a chance.
At least Ellie would be safer on Callus.
Deciding to continue in the direction that she'd been traveling in when she found the cabin, she headed toward the building's corner, numb fingers wrapped around her guns handle.
She didn't see the figure pressed against the weathered sideboard of the cabin until his hand was suddenly reaching for her arm, snapping out like a striking snake and encircling her wrist, twisting her gun from her grasp. A moment later there was an arm wrapped around her neck, pressing into her throat and cutting of her air, a leg pushing against the back of her knees and shoving her off balance. She tried to slam her hand into her attacker's face, nails connecting with flesh and digging into it. She drove her opposite elbow backward, but the man's grip was too tight, keeping her from doing any damage.
"It's alright," a voice rasped in her ear. "Stop fightin' – I'm trying to keep you safe."
Fear raced like ice water down her spine, making the frigid air feel almost warm by comparison. Her vision began to darken at the edges, her chest aching and lungs burning as she tried to struggle free of the crushing weight on her throat. She could feel herself weakening, her head swimming.
This wasn't happening.
"Stop—" she choked out, as her hand fell, the world rapidly dimming around her.
No—
"It's alright," the man repeated. "Shhh."
A moment later, and the world was completely dark, and only filled with his voice.
"It's all gonna be alright."