Jackson Hole is a ghost town. Falling snow whispers between the boarded-up shops and parked cars, settling on collapsed roofs and cracked pavement. Even the supermarket, a large and imposing building of steel and glass, is dark. Every place where humans used to thrive, from ski shops to fast food restaurants, now stand hollow and devoid of life.
Fear, not cold, prickles on Ellie's neck as they slowly dart their way through the town. The silence seeps around them, every footstep feeling like it could raise an alarm, despite most of their path in the snow being whisked away by the wind. Rachel walks ahead of her, a wool scarf wrapped around her jaw as she hoists her shotgun at the ready, checking for enemies on every block. Liam clings to her leg. Ellie brings up the rear, throwing a protective arm around Dina as they peek around a corner, both of their breaths exhaling in a dense fog with the oncoming cold. Ellie taps numb fingers against the cinderblock wall, shivering.
With the change in weather, getting back to Jackson was more important than ever. If Infected or Hunters didn't kill them, the cruel forces of winter wouldn't take much longer.
"How much further?" Rachel asks, casting a wary glance at the sinking sun, just barely visible against the clouds crowding the horizon. It felt like they had been walking through bright woods and sunshine only a few hours ago. Now, everything around them is slowly cloaking in white as the snow settles
"Not much," Ellie replies. "This road will take us out to the highway, and then… Oh. Damn."
She pauses, breath catching in her throat, watching as three bodies dangle from a busted traffic light in the distance. They sway in the wind, corpses old and grey, but still sending a hot tingle down her spine.
"Don't look, Liam," Rachel says, pulling her son closer to her. He claps his hands to his eyes as she squints at the bodies. "Friends of yours?"
"Nobody I know," Dina remarks.
Ellie shakes her head. Even if she did know them, they were unrecognizable, faces bloated and clothes in tattered rags. "No."
Rachel nods, expression grim behind her scarf. "Then let's get to this town of yours."
They all move past them together. Half a mile ahead of them, a single road curves up to a partially-collapsed on-ramp to the highway, curving around the mountain bend and out of sight. Ellie can see a white Route 191 sign bending at a right angle. A tipped semi-truck lies on the side of the road, its cardboard contents spilled out of the back amongst a small cluster of rusting trucks and cars.
"You can open your eyes now, Liam. Don't look up. Just keep going," Rachel says, pushing her son forward as he stumbles past the traffic light. "We're almost there."
She gives him another nudge, and in that same moment, Ellie catches the thin, near-invisible glimmer of fishing line near her ankles. Ellie reaches for her and shouts, "Rachel, look-"
But it's too late. The pipe bomb strapped to the traffic light pole detonates with a cacophonous blast. The explosion sends Ellie sprawling onto the pavement, the sound of lurching metal wrenching through the smoke and she rolls to the left as the traffic pole comes crashing down in the very spot she had just been, the vibrations rattling through her. She coughs, lungs burning and ears ringing as she struggles to push herself back up from the asphalt, now scattered in metal pieces and body parts.
"Is everyone all right?" she yells, brushing the smoke away from her face. Relief washes through her as she spots Dina, thrown back by the explosion, shoving one of the remaining corpses away from her with a disgusted grunt.
"Peachy," she replies. "Where's-"
"Mommy!"
Liam's cry cuts through the air. Ellie and Dina turn to see him crouched by Rachel, her leg pinned down by the traffic pole. She pushes against the heavy metal pole, stuck under its position more so than its weight.
"Are you okay?" Dina asks.
"I'm fine," Rachel grunts, pushing up against the pole, trying to yank her leg free.
Ellie grips the traffic pole. "Dina, let's see if we can lift this."
With a struggling groan, Ellie and Dina pull as Rachel pushes, the traffic pole lifting by a few inches for her to wriggle out, when a faint rumbling in the distance captures Ellie's attention. A long, brassy air horn wails over the wind, and Ellie nearly drops the pole as she recognizes an armor-plated van, a similar one to the one they had encountered on the train tracks, chugging down the single-lane road into town.
"Oh shit," she mutters. "Shit, shit, shit! Come on Dina, lift!"
"I'm trying!"
The air horn howls again and this time, the alarmed shriek of the Infected answer. Runners, Stalkers, and Clickers come running out of the strip malls behind them, smashing through boarded-up windows and screaming in response to the sound.
"Push!" Ellie shouts.
With a final grunt and shove, Rachel pries herself out from underneath the traffic pole. She backpedals on her elbows as a Runner breaks ahead of the pack, hurling itself mid-air at them like a linebacker tackle. Ellie whips an arrow into her bow and fires, the broadhead shredding through its throat with a misty spray of blood.
"Nice shot," Dina remarks, eyes wide.
There's no time for celebration. Dina helps Rachel back on her feet as Ellie knocks another arrow back, semi-automatic gunfire raining overhead from the van''s open windows, directed at the pack of Infected, drawn to the racket of the airhorn.
Ellie stows her bow and breaks into a wild sprint for the tipped semi-truck on the side of the road. "This way!"
A Clicker reaches for Liam and Rachel kicks her boot into its face, knocking it away as she swoops in for her son, bolting after Ellie, Dina close behind. A second round of gunfire sprays at the next wave of Infected, bullets ricocheting off asphalt and parked cars. One of them zips past Dina and she stumbles as she hides behind the semi-truck, one hand pressed to her bleeding shoulder.
They crouch against the steel cover, hidden for now, noses searing with the metallic smell of blood and ozone. Fiery bullets punish Runner after Runner into the ground. In less than a minute, the wave of Infected all laid dead and twitching behind them. Two pairs of tires screech full-force as the van slams on its brakes at the fallen traffic light.
"They haven't seen us," Ellie says, inching slowly for the cover of an upside-down sedan. If they were stealthy, they could make it up the on-ramp and onto the highway. They could make it. "Follow me."
One by one, they run and duck from vehicle to vehicle, zigzagging their way up the road as at least six Hunters climb out of the van to admire their carnage, the diesel engine still chugging. Their voices carry, whooping and hollering in victory, shooting their rifles at the grey sky.
Ellie watches as they start to spread out, likely to loot the corpses. She creeps around a truck and hunches down in the underpass to the on-ramp. Halfway up, a car is ensnared in the metal guard rail, completely exposing them if any of the Hunters turned around.
"Almost there," she announces in a whisper, pressing a hand to her ribs. They're still painful and swollen, but she ignores their persistent throbbing. "We'll have to be quick. Dina, you're fastest, you go first. I'll watch your back."
Dina's knees shake, forehead shiny with sweat, but she swallows her fear. "Okay."
Ellie looks back at the Hunters. They roll over bodies and fish in empty pockets, cradling their rifles the entire time.
"Go!" she hisses, and Dina sprints right through the Hunters' clear line of sight if they turned around. Her footsteps echo on the slick pavement.
One of them jumps up and turns around just as Dina finds cover behind the truck. "Hey! Did you guys see that?"
"What, more Infected?"
"Maybe. I don't know. It came from over there." He points at the open spot. "Blow the horn, let's see if we can lure 'em out."
The driver inside the van slams his fist to the steering wheel, the amplified horn wailing and dissipating throughout the valley.
"You're seeing shit," one of the Hunters remarks turning back around. "Come on, let's go."
"I ain't seein' shit," the Hunter snarks back. "I know what I saw. Maybe it's some live ones. I saw it. You didn't."
"Hey, take a look around," pipes in a third Hunter, giving the first a light shove. "There's no fucking way anyone else but us is out here. This place is abandoned as shit."
"I know what I saw!" yells the first Hunter, shoving the third one back twice as hard. "I'm not fucking crazy, there's someone else here!"
Ellie leans into Rachel, still carrying Liam. "Go while they're distracted."
"You're sure? What about you?"
"You've got a kid. I'll figure it out."
"All right."
The arguing Hunters begin to throw punches at each other as Rachel runs forward with Liam in her arms. She's about halfway across when the toe of her boot catches the lip of a pothole and she stumbles, Liam crying out.
"Over there!" one of the Hunters shouts, spotting her. "It's that woman and the kid!"
"Get 'em!"
Rifles swing off shoulders and take aim at Rachel and Liam, still running. Ellie slaps an arrow into her bow and breaks her cover. She releases it into the chest of the nearest hunter, who takes an audible gulp of air before sinking to his knees between the popping guns.
"Fuck, it's that other girl!" roars one of the Hunters. "Into the van! Go, go, go!"
The gunfire stops and Ellie sprints behind Rachel and Liam, who finally make it to the semi-truck with Dina. But cover doesn't matter anymore, the van revving like an iron lion, tires screeching and bowling back up the road. Ellie doesn't stop running, following the curve in the potholed road around the bend, the old steel bridge and the other side now in sight. Her ribs hurt and her head is heavy and light at the same time, struggling to breathe, the van ripping up the on-ramp and power sliding around the bend like a hairpin turn.
Fuck fuck fuckity fuck, she panics. There's no way they can make it across in time, bullets cracking at her feet, the armored van and its occupants barreling her towards death.
Dina ahead of her darts off to the side of the road and snatches Ellie's shirt before she runs past her.
"Over here!" she yells, tugging her down to a place where an old rockslide had broken off chunks of the asphalt road. Rachel, still holding Liam, joins them by sliding down the steep, gravel slope. The van screeches to a stop, boots scraping on wet pavement, gunfire opening on them again and echoing in the tight ravine.
"Ahh!" Liam screams, and Ellie looks up to see a spray of blood and Rachel come tumbling down. Ellie rushes forward, catching Liam before he hits his head, his little fists clutching to her tight and tears streaming down his red cheeks.
"Rachel!" Dina cries.
Rachel struggles, but pushes herself up, the back of her t-shirt staining with a growing patch of blood.
"Just a scratch," she croaks through gritted teeth, warding off any pain, reaching for her shotgun. Her whole arm shakes as she loads the cartridge. "Get to cover."
She raises her shotgun and a deafening blast sends one of the Hunters flying. Ellie, still holding Liam, and Dina skirt down the rubble, boulders wobbling under their flimsy sneakers, threatening to jostle free and crush them. Ellie's foot catches and she yelps, Liam clutching her jacket, and Dina grabs her from under the arm. Bullets and buckshot ricochet like firecrackers on the rocks around them.
Ellie ducks behind a car-sized boulder, legs heavy and her knees feeling like they'd blow out if she went any further. She knocks an arrow back, rising to aim at a Hunter clambering down behind Rachel and drives him into the rocks. A second arrow misses its target as buckshot scatters her view with an explosive cloud of dirt and rock.
"This way!" Dina exclaims, climbing over to the outside edge, a gangly spruce forest offering adequate cover to run and hide.
Ellie grabs Liam again. "C'mon, kid, this-"
Her head suddenly explodes with blackness and pain as she's thrown backwards, severed from Liam. She squints through spots of white popping before her eyes, head pounding.
"What the…" She leans over and spits out a mouthful of blood. "What the fuck?"
"I'm sorry," Rachel replies, towering over her and taking Liam's hand. "I can't keep an Infected girl around my son."
Ellie opens her mouth, shocked speechless. Rachel knew she was Infected. How? Had Dina told her? Had she-
"Ellie!" Dina yells, snapping her back to their situation at hand. Rachel abandons them in the opposite direction, dragging Liam along, her shotgun over her bloodied shoulder. They disappear into the thick brush as Dina ducks out from the trees on the other side. She yanks Ellie to her feet, flinching at the bullets whizzing past her. "Ellie! What happened? Where's Rachel going?"
"I don't know," Ellie replies, wiping the blood dribbling from her split lip. "Doesn't matter now."
Ellie abandons her cover, rifle rounds screaming overhead, zigzagging between the dead trees, jumping over visible gaps and tripping into others.
"Into the woods!" a Hunter yells. "Don't let 'em get away!"
Ellie whips a look over her shoulder as they flee. The Hunters pursue them through the forest, darting between the trees, too quick and too concealed to keep track of. How many had she killed? Two? Three? She's lost track, and with a sinking feeling, reaches back to find only two arrows left in her quiver.
"There's so fucking many of them," she pants, grunting in pain and trying to keep her balance, slipping on a mix of dead needles and mud. If they could just make it to the Dam...
A Hunter suddenly lunges from the shadows, grabbing a fistful of the back of Ellie's shirt. The impact throws her to the ground and knocks the wind from her lungs. He launches himself onto her and she rolls to the side to dodge the punch, fumbling for her knife.
"I've got one!" the man shouts, meaty hands pinning her down. "Over here! Over by the-"
The hunter jerks back as Dina tackles him from behind, strangling him with Ellie's fallen bow and wrapping her legs around his torso so that even when he tries to throw her off like a bucking bronco, she doesn't let go. He chokes, face swelling purple as Ellie doubles over. She unlatches the knife from her belt and piledrives it into his exposed stomach. A stream of blood follows the blade as she yanks it out and stabs him again, Dina releasing him as he slumps over. Whether he's dead or not, neither stick around to find out, Dina passing the bow back and running downhill.
"The dam!" Dina shouts. "Ellie, I can see the dam!"
Almost there, Ellie thinks, spotting the frothing white rapids of the Snake River weaving between dark trees and sharp rocks. Not much further…
Dina skitters to a stop at the edge. "Fuck. You can't swim!"
A whole new kind of fear fills Ellie's throat as she glances down at the rabid, swirling waters. She clutches Dina's hand. "Doesn't matter."
"You're not jumping!" Dina screams, yanking her back, and pointing downstream. Hundreds of thick logs are jammed on top of each other, the result of a washed-out forest. On the other side of it is one of the hydroelectric plants for the Jackson dam. Even from this distance, they can make out the lights of the patrolmen, appearing to be heading towards the echo of gunfire. "We can cross over there!"
They've no time to argue. A rifle round shatters the bark off a nearby tree and Ellie fires a blind arrow at the shooter, just emerging from a cluster of firs. A frustrated howl tells her she hit her mark.
They sprint parallel to the river and don't pause when they reach the log jam, timbers precariously stacked like an incomplete Jenga tower. The whole contraption groans underneath them, water spraying between the holes and soaking through their shoes. Ellie struggles to keep her eyes ahead on the opposite bank, watching her footing on the slick logs.
"They're gettin' away!" a man cries from upriver, right where they had been only moments before. Ellie seizes the opportunity, pivoting and knocking back another arrow, sending it sailing for a clear shot of the man's skull. A woman and three more men take his place and open fire on them down below.
Dina climbs over a mass of tangled roots clustered with dark soil and still attached to an enormous white pine. She hauls herself up and reaches for Ellie's hand behind her. Ellie jumps and the logs underneath her give way, clutching Dina's arm and toeing at the wood, finding temporary footholds, her belly scraping the bark.
Ellie's eyes scan the metal scaffolding stretching above the river. Her heart leaps in recognition of the figure standing there and she waves her arms frantically. "Jesse! Jesse, down here!"
Jesse startles and nearly throws himself over the railing. "Ellie? Dina? What the hell?"
"Get us out of here!"
The entire log jam shudders underneath them.
"Trying to!" he yells back, gunfire rippling over the roar of the river. His boots thunder across the scaffolding and he returns with a handful of patrolmen, who take position and return fire at the Hunters. A wild-eyed Joel shoves his way to the front.
"Ellie!" he bellows.
"Joel!" she shouts back, desperate and struggling over haphazard logs to get close to them. "Joel!"
"Hang on, Ellie!" Joel rips a loose piece of rebar from the scaffolding and extends it down to them, the platform too high to reach. "Okay, grab on and I'll pull you up!"
Ellie looks to Dina. "You first."
Dina nods and grasps the rebar with both hands. The entire log jam shifts under them again and the rebar plunks into the river, washed away by the frothing current.
"Shit!" Dina exclaims.
"It's fine, I'll boost you up," Ellie says, balancing on two very unstable logs with her fingers knotted together. Dina places her sneaker in her hands and lays a firm hand on Ellie's shoulder, dark eyes glistening. She's terrified, but not for herself. Dina knew that going first meant Ellie might not make it. So Ellie hesitates and offers her a rueful smile. "I'll be okay. Promise."
"You better be," Dina replies. "I said I wouldn't leave you behind."
"And you won't."
It looks as if Dina wants to say something else, but whatever it is, Ellie doesn't find out. Because right behind Dina she watches as something small and oblong sails into the heart of the log jam, not even thirty feet away.
"GRENADE!" Jesse screams.
"Ellie!"
Joel's cry is the last thing Ellie hears before a thunderous and fiery explosion erupts the log jam in all directions. A colossal wall of water swells and washes downstream with ferocious power and speed, the white rapids breaking through. She opens her mouth to cry out and the water thrusts her off her feet, plunging her down deep underwater.
Ellie inhales and her lungs burn, every fiber inside her screaming, hands flailing and legs kicking. Her hands touch something rough and heavy above her - a log? - and she pushes against it, the current bouncing her up for a brief gulp of air before dunking her back down. She reaches for something, anything, knees knocking against what she can only guess is the bottom of the river bed. Everything just keeps spinning, round and round and round.
And then, her foot catches something, and she kicks, hard, breaking through the surface at long last. Her head ducks under again, but this time, her knee hits something solid, but soft. Blindly, she follows it, her head rising above water and coughing the water from her chest, hands reaching out in front of her and digging into a stony shoreline.
"Dina!" she cries, eyes stinging and blurring into a brown and grey world, staggering onto the river bank. "Dina! Dina!"
She rubs her eyes and glances behind her. What remains of the log jam floats lazily downstream.
"Dina!" Ellie cries out again, panic and tears wringing her throat, when she suddenly spots a familiar shape bobbing facedown amongst a cluster of logs. "Dina!"
Ellie wades her way to Dina's body, shoving the logs aside and lifting her from underneath. She slips and falls and she tries again, thrusting Dina to shore, quickly rolling her over. She isn't breathing.
"Dina! No, no, no…"
Ellie places one hand on top of the other and presses into the spot just below Dina's sternum. She keeps her arms stiff and compresses with her full weight. One, two, three, four, she thinks, just as Joel had once taught her, and just as she was going to save Dina.
"Come on!" Ellie screams at her, forearms weakening with each compression, but she fights it. "Come on, Dina! Please!"
Ellie inhales enough to fill her entire chest, pulls Dina's head back, and expels as much air down her throat as she can. When she gets no response, she inhales and places her mouth on Dina's again, exhaling long and hard, hoping and praying that this was not going to be the end.
Dina's chest gurgles and she suddenly springs up, coughing up water and gasping for air, escaping death. Her eyes flutter open and she finds herself wrapped in Ellie's strong and slender arms, tears streaming down her freckled cheeks and pressing her forehead to Dina's shoulder.
"Where'd you learn to swim?" Dina croaks. Ellie shakes her head, cradling Dina instead, as if the river would take her away if she let go. Dina raises a cold hand strokes Ellie's temple. "Hey, hey it's okay. I'm alive. We made it. We made it, Ellie, and you…you saved my life again."
If Ellie was sobbing out of relief before, something frightening hardens across her face.
"Ellie?" Dina says, blinking rapidly. "Ellie, what is it?"
"I…"
She can barely speak. She had done it without a second thought, and now it cost her. Her grip loosens, her entire body withering and crestfallen.
"Dina, I… I'm sorry," is all she can muster. She hates the way Dina looks at her, confused and glassy-eyed, completely unaware of what was about to happen. She had no idea.
"Sorry? Ellie, I don't understand. What are you sorry for? We escaped. We can go back home, now."
"No, Dina, we... " She sighs and can't look her in the eye. "We can't go back, because… Because…"
Ellie looks to the sky, snow falling and melting on her nose, and closes her eyes.
"Because I'm infected and… so are you."