AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know it's been a long time and I'm really sorry, but I just get so busy around now. Still, I was receiving a lot of messages and a few reviews asking me when more was coming, so I decided I should start. Since I don't want to stop the story from progressing, I'll keep posting chapters, and they'll all be around this length of 2,000 words. There's a pretty simple reason for this: it takes me half the time to make four two-thousand word chapters as it does to make four four-thousand word chapters. They'll mostly be filling up the gaps of the journey they take to Boston - no spoilers, but yes, they will reach Boston. They have to. Whether both will make it out of Boston alive remains for you to see, doesn't it? In any case, the story is pretty straight-forward. I hope to build up more of the world too. We never find out what's happened to the rest of the United States, so there's the chance for that here. Something else that I haven't seen touched on is what happened between Joel and Tommy when they were going to Boston. Since the duo are more or less using the same route, I'll have Joel be telling Ellie all about that. Happy reading!


JOEL


Doors clanged, shaken to the very hinges by the gusts that drove through the small town's streets. Joel reckoned they were somewhere in Mississippi, maybe further north. He'd forgotten the names of a lot of the states, and road signs weren't common they way they'd come. They'd crossed in off the major roads and stuck instead to the railway lines that ran north-east. Following the roads was the surest way to get killed, and he couldn't be sure that small sprouts of hunters were dotted along the major highways. It'd been his call, the direction they'd taken, and for the most part, he'd been happy with it until now.

"We should've kept goin' north. Comin' here was a bad idea."

Ellie's eyes were set in the distance, at the grey wall of wind. "What'll we do?"

"We need to get in a buildin' before it gets here."

"Or?"

"Or it'll probably kill us."

"Damn. Outside sucks."

Joel smirked. "You ain't the first teenager I've heard say that. Come on. See that farmhouse up ahead? If we make for there now, we should be alright."

She nodded and they made their way across an overgrown field towards the rising red farmhouse in the distance. It was a small place, mostly, but if a storm was coming, no doubt they'd had them before in these parts, so they ought to have a storm cellar. That was the best place for them. The wind was picking up around their feet as they moved quickly through the heavy growth, scattering loose dead corn. The leaves were slapping against one another hard, making loud noises. In the distance, something metal snapped. Another casualty of Mother Nature.

"What is it?"

"Hurricane, by the looks of it. A great big wall of wind. Usually they gave 'em names."

"Can I name it?"

Joel laughed loudly, but even still there was doubt in him that Ellie had heard it. The wind was tearing things up quickly on the other side of the town, and in the distance a flash of light followed a few seconds later by the deep roll of thunder signalled that it weren't far off. Still, she was grinning like a maniac when he looked around to make sure she was alright, so she must have heard something.

"There's no way in hell I'm lettin' you name the hurricane."

"Is this about Callus?"

"It was a stupid name for a horse."

"I'll come up with something normal for this one."

"I doubt it."

Joel stumbled when they found their way out onto a path that the plants had been unable to burst onto, a small but effective barrier dug long ago by the farmer managed to keep them from rooting through. "Here," Joel said. The rustling sound of Ellie pushing her way out was completely muted by the roars from behind them. Closer, Joel thought. "Come on. Run."

They ran as fast as they could, behind them Joel was vaguely aware of things battering together, noises louder than he'd ever heard before, louder than the scream of his heart when Sarah died, louder than the silence when Tess told him she was marked for death, louder than the screams of a quarantine zone made desolate by brutality long ago. Rushing and screaming and twisting louder than all that had come in Joel's life – and it was following them.

He looked over his shoulder and regretted it at once. Behind Ellie he could see it: the great, immense twister, cars pulled up around it like blue and red and yellow and silver moons, being made into twisted compressions of metal, shards that threatened to kill them… Only then did Joel truly gauge the intensity of the threat.

"Holy shit," he muttered. "Ellie, c'mon, we gotta go faster. Now. Run. Run!"

They sped up and managed to reach the cellar. No chains bound it and the door came up easy. The red paint had long since stiffened and worn off, though remnants of it remained in peels and drabs. "In," he said and let Ellie in first. Behind them it was so big, all the way up into the clouds and twisting them too. It would destroy the farm house, he knew at once. It'll destroy this house and we might get trapped in here.

It didn't matter – not then. He dove in after Ellie and pulled the slanted storm doors shut, careful not to stumble on the stairs. They started to rattle, less so when the wooden panels fell down, locking them in place. Above, the wind howled and rattled at everything, tearing things from their rightful places. Joel shivered a little, glad to be away from it. In here, not even a thin tongue of wind licked at his face. They were secure. Safe as they could be.

"It smells like shit down here," Ellie said from the bottom of the stairs. Her flashlight was already breaking the dark apart, her eyes no doubt scouring every inch of the place. Looking for spores, Joel thought.

This would be a good place for something to die. Hopefully no infected had thought the same – the two of them hadn't come across any masks yet. If the place were filled with spores further down and they were disturbed, Joel would have to leave. Ellie could stay, of course. She could drink spore smoothies and all she'd complain about was the taste.

"Hopefully that's all it smells like."

"I don't see any spores. Just buckets of solid red. Paint, I think. Looks like whoever was here left in a hurry – they left their paint-brush sitting by the wall."

Joel followed her down the steps and fumbled for a light-switch. A long shot, naturally, but when the his hand felt the plastic of the switch – right in the place where it should be, on the left hand side wall at the base of the stairs – he hoped…

And it paid off. The light flickered a few times, but a deep orange glow filled the room. A magical sight, almost enough to make him forget about the hurricane above them. He glanced around until he found what he was looking for – the wires that trailed, largely exposed and unsealed, to the generator. It was small, but enough to provide light, maybe even – …

… his eyes followed a single around the corner of the room, until –

heat!

He moved over to it, thinking of little else and fumbled with the knobs. It'd been so long since he'd even touched one of the things. "What is it?" Ellie asked, coming over.

"It's a heater, I think," he said, trailing his fingers down the sides for a switch of some sort. "Or maybe it was a heater. Hopefully it's still got a little life in it."

"It doesn't look like it's gonna work."

Joel smirked. "Have a little faith. I thought hope was your thing."

Ellie shrugged and flicked her torch off. She walked around the room, inspecting the walls. There were some photos up that Joel had noticed when the light had come on, but he was too busy to see them. Ellie might have said something then, but Joel didn't hear it. He pushed down on a small button at the heater's base and heard it crack, trying to fill itself. It's working. Water began to trickle through it. It didn't take long for Joel to feel the temperature change at all – the only two temperatures he and Ellie had known for a long time were cold and holy shit Joel, it's so fucking cold.

"Let there be heat," Joel muttered. Ellie soon joined him in sliding their hands up and down opposite sides of the rapidly heating piece of metal.

"How long do these things last? The hurricanes?"

"They can go on for a while, but it'll go on past here within a few hours. It'll rain pretty bad after, but until then we can keep warm in here. Eat some food."

Ellie nodded. "We'll have to turn this off soon."

"We will?"

"Yeah. We can't really risk running out of the fuel. I'm used to being cold – I don't want to be dark and cold."

"You're probably right," Joel said. "Just a little longer, though."

"Hell yeah – holy shit."

Her eyes were locked on the other side of the room, something that made them widen with an emotion he hadn't seen on her face in a long time. Instinctively, his hands came away from the heat and covered his mouth and nostrils as he turned to look. They swept the wall adjacent to them until, after several seconds, they focused on what Ellie had seen. "Oh dear."

He turned back to Ellie and saw the sly smirk slung across her face. "No," he said. "No."

"You literally promised."

"No."

"Joel. Joel. Joel."

"Ellie, Ellie, no. No."

"Come on. Take one for the team!"

Joel buried his face deep in his hands and sighed a long, deep, heavy caricature. When he came up, she was still staring at him expectantly. A quick nod, and she was off. What felt like a second later, she was in front of him, holding out guitar with outstretched arms. Joel took it from him, slowly and hesitantly.

"It's been a long time since I've played," he said, just looking at it. The orange glow from the light made it shine more than it had any right to, even with the thick coat of dust that lay over the body. He pushed his lips together and blew hard, scattering the dust away from him – towards Ellie, close enough for her to scoff loudly.

"Okay."

It took Joel a few minutes to try and tune the guitar, to remember what the notes were meant to sound like. Twisting his fingers into the familiar shapes and placing them on the cold metal strings. "I forget how you're meant to strum the chords some," he said, but even as he spoke, Joel began to play.

And he played on for a long, long time.