"Well, ain't that a shit sandwich."
It's Jordan, and he's right. They traveled half the morning with no issues. Even with Starbeam they've avoided infected and they haven't been jumped. If these guys are right and the PV operates mainly on the North side of the river, they could be in the clear. Just gotta cross the Sellwood Bridge.
Which is obstructed by an intact FEDRA wall.
It makes sense, since on the other side of that bridge they'd be completely outside the city.
"Well," Jordan continues, looking at Ellie. "Any ideas?"
"Yeah, one. We need to get that gate open."
"Eh," he scratches his beard. He does that a lot. He should just shave it. "Think we could climb around it?"
"No way, dude! And even if we could, Clint and I are not leaving Starbeam."
"Yeah, yeah… It's electric, right? We can see if the generator still works."
"Jordan, lower your voice," says Sarah, "we don't know if this area's clear and generators make noise, if you haven't forgotten."
Ellie lets them bicker over it. She looks at Clint. "Might actually get out of this damn city."
"Looks that way."
"Fucking horse killers."
"Yeah."
"You good?"
"What do you mean?"
"I know you usually eat about a thousand calories by this time of day. Don't want you fainting."
"Please. I'm fine. Wish I still had coffee, though. Too damn cold out here."
The rain has stopped for now, but the sky is gray. It's bitter cold, too.
Ellie sneaks a glance at Jenna. Thomas is trying to explain something to her. She's got this sort of confounded look on her face, hands on her hips.
Ellie doesn't like it. These are good people, they're fine, but they're supposed to be travelling alone. More people isn't a strength right now. It's a weakness. I mean, things could have gone a lot worse if Sarah hadn't opened that door for them, that's true...
"Oh ho ho, we have a live one." It's Steve. He shoulders his rifle. He's looking down the street, the way they came from. Ellie squints. She can't see any infected. "Under a car, huh? Bastards. We're lucky, we walked pretty close to that." He aims for a second, then fires.
There's an ear-pounding explosion as the IED goes off. Ellie gets chills.
"Steve!" It's Jordan. His face has lost all humor. Steve meets his eyes, then seems to get it.
They collectively go still. The only sound is the faint wail of the breeze. A piece of paper blows across the intersection they're standing in at the foot of the bridge.
Then, in the distance, the screams begin.
"Inside," says Jordan, "inside, now!"
"Yah, girl!" Clint slaps Starbeam's hindquarters and she bolts.
Jordan ushers them toward a warehouse on the south side of the intersection. The gates to the loading area are wide open. Steve swears nastily, presumably at himself. One of the loading doors is open, they should be able to clamber inside. Ellie turns and she can see runners through the chain link. A lot more are coming.
They skid to a stop in front of the loading door and start boosting each other inside, two at a time. Jenna and Thomas are first. Ellie looks back. Through the gate, she can see an infected in the street, wheeling around, looking for life. Its eyes lock on her. It sprints her way. Two more see, and follow it.
"Ellie!" It's Jordan. He boosts her up in one smooth motion. She spins, grabs his arm, and pulls him up while Sarah gets Steve. The infected are pounding the pavement, more are following the first three. She can see a ton of runners through the chain link.
"I think it's too high for 'em," says Steve.
The infected start pounding on the dock plate below. One of them jumps, and makes purchase on the lip, scrambling to pull itself up. He's gaunt. Hungry runners are some of the most dangerous infected. Jordan shoots him in the head. But it's too late, the others are jumping up now, and more are arriving by the second, at the dock and through the gate. There are probably two dozen, with more still on the street.
"Close the door!" Sarah shouts over the gunshots, but Steve is already trying. He is giving the chain mighty yanks, but it's not budging. "Steve!"
"It's jammed!" He looks the mechanism up and down. "And damn it I can't tell how!"
"This isn't gonna work, guys!" Ellie is shooting too, but the infected are piling up and climbing over each other. They hear screams from inside the warehouse, behind the pallet stacks.
"Damn it!" yells Jordan. "Ellie, look that way for an exit!"
She spins behind the firing line and looks. She can't see any infected yet, but she hears clicks. The loading area is wide open and empty. At the end of the dock, maybe fifty or sixty yards, there's a man door to a multi-story office bloc.
"I think we can go this way!" she says.
"Shit!" It's Jenna, she's terrified. The infected are getting through, the first one gets to its feet, and more are right behind it. Sarah shoots it in the head, backpedaling. Clint, Jordan, Kate and Thomas are with her. There are infected between them and the others.
"Too late!" yells Jordan. "Shoot while you run!"
Ellie sprints for the door, and she can hear Jenna and Steve behind her. As they go, a clicker staggers its way out of the pallet stacks. It shrieks at them. Then a runner appears, and charges. Ellie manages to shoot it in the leg while running and it goes down. The hungry runners behind them wail horribly. The door is so close. If it doesn't open, they are dead.
It opens. They push inside, and immediately go to block the door, but the first runner hits it before they can latch it. Jenna and Steve push together to hold them back. There's a lot of them.
It's a small room, with stairs up opposite the door.
"Shit, Ellie, help!" says Steve.
"I am," she says. There's a small window above the door with the pane broken out. She reaches into her pack for a Molotov and lights it.
"Are you fucking crazy?" he asks.
She tosses the Molotov through the window, takes aim, and shoots it.
Flaming liquor rains down on the infected, and their shrieking takes on a new inflection.
"Shit!"
"What do we do now?" Jenna asks.
Good question. They are not gonna be able to latch it, and the Molotov probably won't kill all of them. Skeletal hands reach through the crack in the door, scrabbling for purchase.
"Jenna, go to Ellie!"
Jenna hesitates, and Ellie holds out her hand. Jenna comes and Ellie pushes her up the stairs. She looks at Steve. This is bad. He meets her eyes and she knows he's thinking the same thing. Then one of the hands grasps at his.
"Shit!"
He moves back instinctively, and the door flies open. Stinking, burning infected pour over the threshold in almost a heap. Steve falls on his back next to Ellie, at the foot of the stairs. He hits her leg. "Go!"
She slams up the stairs, pushing Jenna in front of her, at the top of the stairs they turn in time to see Steve following behind them, but a runner gets its skinny arm around his neck. He elbows it in the face. One comes in from the other side and sinks its teeth deep into his throat.
"No!" Jenna screams.
Ellie lifts her gun and shoots him in the head before he disappears into the mass.
The runners are feasting, but there are new ones in the doorway, and they see Ellie. "Jenna, move."
Jenna is crying. "No…"
"Jenna!" Ellie pushes her and she turns around, moaning. Ellie keeps her hand on her shoulder as they run deeper into the building. There is faint blue light streaming in through the windows. It's dark. They stop at T intersection, a small kitchen breakroom set into the wall.
"Which way?" Jenna says. She looks so lost.
Ellie flicks on her flashlight. She's about to say 'left' when she sees the runner in the kitchen, looking at Jenna. "Jenna!"
It dives over the counter at her, wrapping its arms around her. Ellie shoots, but it hits him in the shoulder. He bites Jenna in the side. She screeches.
The next shot goes into its head. She hears footsteps behind her. She spins and sees two runners coming down the hallway. She shoots them both in the head. She has one bullet left. She can hear more coming.
Jenna is staring in horror at her bleeding side. Ellie grabs her wrist and pulls her. "Come on! Move!"
They run down the hallway but it's all just offices. They get to the end. There's a window, and it's broken out, but the fall would injure or kill them. "In here!" she shouts.
They push their way into the last office on the right, and go to close the door. The doorknob's broken. It won't latch. Infected are tearing up the hallway after them.
There's a large, metal cabinet to the right of the door. Ellie pushes the door flush, grabs the top of the cabinet, and with every ounce of strength in her body, pulls until it falls in front of the door. She almost pulls her back out. The infected are already pounding on the door.
Winded, she stumbles backward against the wall, sliding down it to a seat, panting.
There's a window. The sky is darkening. She sees a single snowflake drift by.
Jenna is laying there, against the opposite wall, hand feebly covering her bleeding wound. She's twitching. She's crying. Her eyes are pleading with Ellie. The infected are slamming against the door, mindless and angry.
"Ellie…" she sputters.
Ellie can't imagine moving her body. She didn't even get bit. She's just watching this thing happen.
"Ellie this can't happen…" Jenna is begging. She grimaces, tears rolling down her chin. She's so scared. "I can't let this happen…"
Jenna's hand moves to her lower belly. She rubs it, needfully, lovingly.
Ellie is barely there. Her limbs could be cold, rusted iron. But she is there. She is bearing witness. It has to happen, and she says it.
"Tell me I have to."
Jenna doesn't speak. Her teeth are clenched. She's so scared. But her eyes beg her.
Ellie raises her arm and shoots Jenna through the heart.
After the gunshot, the only sound is the rage of the infected. The banging goes on, and on. Virgin snowflakes pass the window in silence. The clouds are dark now. The room is cold. Everything is cold. Ellie's gun is cold in her hand, but she doesn't let go. Ellie has no conception of time. She lays there, watching Jenna slumped against the wall in her eternal rest. Ellie is not going to move her and no one else probably will.
Eventually the infected stop, and it's quiet. And somehow, Ellie finds oblivion.
The restaurant is bustling. Kids are running around, chasing each other and squealing. The air is warm and bright. The long table is full of people, adults chatting and joking and laughing. They're all having a good time. There's a cake in the middle of the table. Ellie is staring at her lap.
They're all talking but the words mean nothing to Ellie. A piece of confetti lands in her palm.
She looks up, and everyone goes quiet. Someone clears their throat.
There's confetti drifting through the air. There are colorful streamers hung up above the booths. There's a banner. It's a long strip of paper, letters hand painted in many colors. 'This place is for people who are alive.'
Ellie looks. There's a black man across the table. He's older, dignified. He's wearing a suit. He's uncomfortable, and avoids her gaze for a moment. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to say it, but she's going to make him. He looks at her.
"I think you should leave."
Wordless, Ellie gets up, chair screeching on the tile underneath it. She walks to the front door.
The air inside is warm, but through the large glass plates she can see a snowstorm outside, icy and brutal. She lays a hand on the handle and the door does not resist her. She pushes it open, and steps out into the storm.
Clint sniffs. These damn clouds won't let up. Hasn't rained yet today but it probably will. He curses Portland. He curses this whole damn state.
It's been three days since that shit show at the warehouse. Jordan finally took him aside this morning to talk about leaving. They got the generator going and the gate is wide open. Sarah was too far away to hear them, but she stood there with her arms crossed, watching, concern all over her face. Jordan really worked on him. He said this place is a bad memory now and it's wearing on Thomas and Kate. Clint told them to go ahead and go. He's not leaving until he finds out what happened to Ellie.
They found Steve, after cutting down over a dozen runners. Or what was left of him. When they went running into those dark stacks, he was sure they had been the unlucky ones. There were some infected they had to shoot while running, but they had been far luckier than he thought. They went straight to the back of the warehouse and found a man door with a handle, so the infected couldn't just push it open. They went through and latched it, and were effectively in the clear.
They could hear all the infected, but there were none in sight. They jumped the chain link behind the warehouse and broke into the first townhouse they found. They holed up there, and the raging horde never found them. Eventually it got quiet again.
Starting the next dawn, the others had preoccupied themselves clearing the area so they could get the Sellwood gate open and get the hell out of this city. Clint had preoccupied himself with finding Ellie.
She's too tough. Like chewing leather. There's no way she let herself get killed. It's just… Clint can't put words to it, but this is another blow and Ellie had been borderline before it all happened. He has to find her. She can't be alone right now. One day would be too much, he had told himself. Now it's been three.
He had already searched the entire office bloc where they had found Steve, twice. He'd searched blocks surrounding the area and hadn't found so much as a footprint. The dusting of snow they'd gotten had melted by the first morning. He found Starbeam in a courtyard, munching on grass. He'd been so happy to see her. He finds himself wishing he could care for her half the way Ellie had cared for Eddie. She's tied up in the backyard of the townhouse now.
Clint is not Ellie. He doesn't really want the others to leave him. He can't imagine going out there alone. Ellie was the reason he's even out here. Ellie was the mission. Ellie was everything.
He feels the shakes coming on again and he flexes his arm.
There was one room, at the back of the office block. It had been barricaded, hard. He couldn't get in. It kept gnawing away at him, so he started looking for a way in.
He's outside the warehouse. The area's pretty much clear, now. They'd used most of their ammo, and he'd spent a lot of time cleaning his gloves. Up the sheer concrete wall, there's a sloped roof that you could walk on. He can see the window to the barricaded room. It's been slid open.
A rain gutter runs up the side of the wall. He tries a few ways, and in the end he uses his axe to bite into it like a climbing pick. It's difficult and inadvisable, but he actually makes it onto the roof. He finds himself staring at the window, a black square in the wall. He takes a deep breath, and climbs inside.
It's a small room, like all the others. He can see someone slumped against the wall. Hand shaking, he reaches up and turns on his flashlight.
It's Jenna.
He comes over to her, squatting down and inspecting her. His hands move carefully over her, reverently. They'd buried what was left of Steve. He'd have to bring her down too. First he sees the bullet wound. He frowns. That doesn't…
Then he sees the bite mark. And two and two come together.
He looks around. Slowly, carefully. Honestly, he's afraid of what he's going to see, but there's no one else in the room. He stands up. His knees are trembling, then he notices.
The room is covered in dust but there's one place where the dust is all smudged up. Someone had sat there on the floor, across the room from Jenna. He looks, and he can see the remains of footsteps leading to the window.
He knew. He knew this can't have killed Ellie. Nothing can kill Ellie.
He does that thing where he tries not to pay attention to what he's about to have to do, and he reaches down and lifts Jenna up over his shoulder. Her skin is icy cold. He turns back to the window and is about to climb out when something catches his eye.
There's a desk next to the window. It's all covered in dust, except for one thing. A single piece of paper, the color of Ellie's journal.
There's nothing written on it.