A sparrow chirped, and happily jumped around the branches and infrastructure of a towering, moss-jacketed tree, flitting carefully, thriving and revelling in its habitat and the cool morning air. Golden streaks of sunlight lit the dust in the air, creating a sheen of iridescent natural beauty that hung over the sparrow's wooden kingdom. Her belly was empty; she needed supplement for her young, who one day soon, would depart from their improvised nest and fly off into the world, to start over and raise chirping little chicks of their own. The cycle of life continued, and in the downfall of the human race, was stronger than ever before.
The sparrow flitted down gently to the floor, almost lost in the long and dew-soaked grasses that carpeted the ground. She hopped around deftly, her little feet propelling her to the side of a small human, stationary, curled up in a strange material that wasn't from the forest.
Ellie cracked her eyes open and the sound of the little bird, and looked his tiny form over absently. She yawned lightly, rubbed her eyes with her hands, and looked again. The little bird was still sitting in front of her, its head tilted slightly to the left, expectantly. It chirped, and her brain took a double take, almost unbelieving of the sight before her. She froze in realisation as not to frighten the small creature, and smiled at it.
"Hey, little guy." She said affectionately, in awe that the tiny bird had gotten so close. "What're you here for?"
The bird hopped closer, chirped, and then pecked lightly at the floor. After its gesture, it stood back up, and tilted its head slightly, once again waiting expectantly.
"Oh, you want food?" She moved very slowly, and gently drew her backpack around and sat it in front of her. The bird watched quizzically, and let her continue. Ellie reached into the depths of her backpack, past a spare magazine, two full chambers for the .44 and her share of venison jerky before her hand came to rest of a small, sealed plastic bag. She drew it out, gently threading it through all the other items, and showing its contents to the little bird. It reacted, moved towards her, jumped on her backpack, and chirped again. She was amazed at how eager it was to meet her.
"Nuts." She said, wrestling open the bag of assorted nuts and seeds. "Old ones, though, but they don't go off. I was gonna save them, but... ah, what the hell."
She drew a handful of the roasted nuts out and scattered them around the down-trodden grass where her backpack had been. The sparrow chirped in thanks, hopped down off of her backpack, and eagerly began scooping up the nuts and swallowing them, in order to store them for her young.
Ellie's euphoria of nature was destroyed when a large pebble landed by the bird, and it immediately flew away in fear, leaving her behind. She watched it sadly as it rose back up into the treeline.
Buck sniggered, shot an mocking grin at Ellie, and then turned around on the rock she was sitting on, poking the embers of the fire with a stick held in her one free hand. The other was lashed to a young tree, by the rock, with a large number of plastic cable ties; there were too many to count, and all of them had been wound tight.
She sat up in her sleeping bag, and her eyes wandered wearily over to the large pine where the surly girl had been bound the previous evening. The rope that'd been used to restrain her had been cut through, the restricting knot still perfectly tied. She saw the rope was fraying where it had been severed, pinning its breakage as an escape instead of a release. Sure enough, by the pile of gear in the middle of the camp was a knife she didn't recognise.
The only other person awake was Adam. He sat across from Buck at the fire, not taking his eyes away from the youth. He had lacked sleep, obviously; he wore a blatantly displeased expression, and his eyes carried fatigue that suggested a sleepless night of running through the woods, trying to hunt Buck down. She didn't doubt that he would've succeeded; a military professional could easily chase down an underfed teen with an attitude almost as bad as the subject matter of her tattoos.
In his hands, the British Army camouflaged carbine rested. He sat tensed, unmoving and silent, ready for anything that Buck could send his way. While the Scotsman was exceedingly unimpressed, Ellie could tell that the ruffian was loving every moment. She sat their with that stupid, mocking grin, the very look that made you coil up in annoyance just at sight. Personally, she would never cross Adam, but this new girl seemed to enjoy nothing more than winding the veteran up.
Ellie groggily stood, shimmied out of her sleeping bag, and stretched. Her entire body ached from the intense tramp the previous day, and a couple of vertebrae clicked, sending a cringe across her face. She scooped her backpack off of the floor, careful to protect the camera, and slung it lazily over her shoulders. On glancing around the camp, she noticed it was just after daybreak; the sun hung low in the sky, and the pink and orange tinges of dawn had all but disappeared, giving way to the cool and crisp blue tinge of morning.
She slowly began to walk over to the fire, and glanced around at her surroundings, trying to rouse herself from the effects of deep sleep. Joel and Evelynn were still out, as usual; the two were always the later ones. Ellie had been having trouble with the pains her body was under from the stress, and often stayed awake trying to put off the aching, but she knew Adam was different. Once again, she saw he wore a faded black, tattered singlet, exposing his tattoo of respect to the lost. She wondered if he was the same as her, and whether he saw their faces swimming before him at night, almost close enough to touch, before they screamed and he's yanked out of sleep, left sitting in an eerie and cold sweat.
She bypassed Buck entirely, and sat down next to the Watcher, resting her weight on the cool and strong stone.
"Sleep well, princess?" Buck inquired, that same look staring jestingly at Ellie.
She ignored the jab, simply not acknowledging the mockery the other teen posed. She spoke instead to Adam.
"She get out last night?"
"You bet I did, sister." Buck interjected. "You're knots aren't so special when I have a knife, are they Scotty?"
Adam shot the girl an angry glare. "Yes, she did. You'll be pleased to know I employed the tackling tactic again."
Ellie chuckled, loving the thought of the huge man tackling the obnoxious youth and giving her a taste of her own medicine.
"Speaking of that tackle, how's your back? I sure got you good." The Scotsman asked Buck, now taking the role of sarcastic mockery.
Buck only grinned that same, horrid grin, and brought one of her thousand spare responses to her mouth to be viciously spat out.
"Better than hers." She gestured to Evelynn. "The men that put me on mine actually have dicks."
"I suppose I asked for that." He said, sighing in distaste. He turned his attention back to Ellie. "She got out of the ropes sometime around midnight. I was awake at the time, on the side of the lake. Heard her rustling through the bushes. She didn't get far, don't worry."
Ellie took his story as truth, staring into the lightly pulsing red embers littered throughout the seared black charcoal of the fire.
"How's Evelynn?" She asked, surprised that she actually cared about the state of the woman who'd willingly infected Joel.
"Between you and me?" He leaned in close to her. "Not good. She's coping, but there's no way she can handle much more of what we did yesterday. Besides, if we don't get her some help soon, the bone is going to be the least of her worries. If that puncture in her leg gets infected, well... it won't be long until lights-out."
"Shit, that bad?"
"Not particularly. No different to any normal injury like that."
"So we should probably avoid the ridiculously intense hikes, huh?"
"Might be an idea, yeah."
"Oh, thank god."
Adam chuckled lightly at her attempt to lighten the situation. She could see the stress in his eyes, and the lines in his face; he barely slept since Evelynn had gotten injured, he was always protecting, always vigilant, always watching. Despite his tension, she could see that he was also relieved to put an end to their inadvertent journey and sleep on a proper bed, without the constantly dragging weight and disorientation of a hiking pack.
"What's for breakfast?" Ellie asked optimistically, despite already knowing the answer.
Adam leaned backwards slightly, casually flipped up the flap of his hiking pack, rummaged around, and pulled out a plastic bag, containing a blackened, rubbery and dry amount of meat.
"Jerky with jerky and some jerky on the side." He dispassionately joked.
"Oh, yippee."
"You gonna give me any?" Buck asked. Ellie noticed her face had changed; the mocking and smug grin had been wiped away at the premise of food, to be replaced by vindictive and genuine desire. She almost thought the foul-mannered teen was going to start drooling.
Once again, Adam took his chance to wear her shoes. He drew two pieces out, handed one to Ellie, and chewed on one himself.
"Food, you see," He began patronisingly, talking through his chewing, his voice slightly muffled, "is earned by doing good things. Like being courteous, saying 'please and thankyou'... and by taking us to places we want to go."
A look of anger flashed across Buck's face.
"I haven't eaten in eight days, asshole."
"You call me an asshole, and eight will become nine."
He shook the bag sarcastically, like teasing a dog.
"Sure you don't want any?" He used Buck's grin, and extended the bag out towards the teen. When she eagerly reached out to take it, he yanked it away again, just before the fingers of her free hand had made contact.
"Fuck you." She blurted.
"Ah ah ah, you don't get something for nothing." He teased.
"What do you want, bro? I'm goddamn starving here."
Adam's business face slipped back on, his former joking interrogation method long forgotten.
"The town."
"Not this shit again... I told you, I'm not from the fucking town."
"I don't believe you." Adam replied.
"Me neither." Ellie interjected.
Buck scoffed, and turned her attention to the sixteen year old.
"Why not, tyke?"
"Your vest, idiot." She gestured to the singlet that Buck wore. "That tag, on the lapel? 2017-63-185. Your birth year, your weight, your height. It's military-grade classification so they know who you are at a glance. It's only been used in quarantine zones, like the big cities. Or towns that want to stay free of infected."
"Huh." Buck said as the mocking grin spread across her gaunt face. "Looks like the little shit has a brain after all." She glanced at Adam. "You got me, big guy. Hook, line and sinker."
Adam huffed, wary of masquerade. Ellie could tell that Buck had admitted to the defeat far too quickly for Adam to be at ease with the information. Still, he didn't question the outcome, and she listened as he spoke to her again.
"Alright, I got you. Now, you work with me, and you'll get your fill of food. Understand?"
"How much?"
He shrugged. "Take the whole damn bag if you want, I don't care." He leaned in to the fire slightly. "I need to get to that town. Today."
"Fine." Buck responded curtly. "We're not too far now. Where were you thinking of going?"
Adam reached into the pocket of his khakis and carefully removed the laminated map of the surrounding area. Still on its surface, scrawled in marker, were hundreds of locations of stashes and buildings, rivers and fresh-water wells. In the near centre of the map lay the power plant, encircled in black ink. Luckily, Adam had the sense to removed the location of the mine before he showed the map to Buck.
"I wasn't sure. I heard southwest." He gestured, and ran his finger along an imaginary line, drawing along orange circles depicting the growing heights of hills. "Although," he continued, "I don't know where. My plan was to move to a vantage point on these hills, and scout from there."
Ellie doubted very highly that the scouting trip was Adam's actual plan; he wasn't the type to come up with only one way of doing something.
"No." Buck stated bluntly.
"No?"
"Those hills are shitty to climb and cold as hell. Your girlfriend won't make the journey on a leg like hers."
"What do you suggest, then?"
Buck leaned over the dead fire and traced another line with her free hand.
"We go around the hills, then down this track in the forest. It's easy ground, and okay to give medical treatment in case your girl's leg goes bad."
"It wont." Adam interjected.
Buck paused, and looked at him, upset at the interruption.
"You gonna let me finish, or what?"
Adam sighed, and gestured in a manner for her to continue.
"So there's an old quarry here, and your town... is here."
She rested her index finger on a clearing in the forest, almost entirely overlooked on the map due to its minuscule size. The original computer writing that'd been on the map had practically faded, but there was just enough left for it to still be legible. There was a solitary black dot, and written next to it were the words 'INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.'
"The industrial area? That seems too obvious."
The cocky teen leaned back against the large rock and yawned mockingly.
"Shit, it's hard trying to get something through your thick skull. You asked me where the town was, I told you. We good?"
Adam hesitated momentarily.
"No." He said, sliding the bag of jerky back inside of his pack. He turned to face the girl again. "We're not good until we get there."
"If you say so, asshole."
He brushed the insult off and stood, reaching into his pack again. This time the search was quicker, and after a few moments, he fished out his fading, brown leather satchel.
He gestured to Joel and Evelynn, who were still silently sleeping underneath the shade of the massive pine by the waterfront. "They had their shots?" He asked, drawing out one of the syringes of inhibitor and gently easing the head into the vein on the underside of his arm. The syringe drained as he pushed the translucent liquid into his bloodstream.
"I made Joel have his yesterday, but I don't know about Evelynn."
"Alright." He said casually, this time slipping the satchel into his khakis instead of in his pack. "She's not stupid, she'd had probably already done it when we left."
He drew a fraying rag from one of the other pockets of his bag and gently packed it in around the leather satchel, and then sealed his pocket's zipper tightly.
"C'mon. Let's wake them up and get on the move. The sooner we lose Buck, the better."
They strode together, only stopping to tread out the final puffs of the fire. On their way past the restrained Buck, she addressed Adam.
"The Eagle's Nest." She uttered, not turning her head to speak to him.
"What?" He replied, confused by her meaning. She sat up and gave him a look that spoke massively about how stupid she thought he was.
"The town, meat sack. It's called the Eagle's Nest."
"Why's that?"
The youth exaggerated the previous look further. "It's just a name, asshole, not some cryptic-ass mystery for you to solve."
Adam once again shrugged the insult off his shoulders, his moral armour seemingly impenetrable and easily deflecting Buck's relentless attacks. They strode past the youth, ignoring her, and arrived at the messy pile of gear surrounded by bedrolls, the thick and tall green grass now pressed and down-trodden. He left Ellie's side, and walked over to the slender woman wrapped in both fabric and furs, quietly kneeling and placing his huge, gloved hands lightly on her shoulders. The woman stirred, and shifted, issuing a yelp of pain that ignited hilarity in Buck. The big man helped her onto her good leg, rested her on the larger of the stones, and began helping her prep her gear.
She moved slowly over to Joel, knelt next to him, and did the same. He stirred at her touch, rolled over to face her, and smiled genuinely.
"Can't be time to wake up already, can it?"
She returned the smile. "Afraid so. C'mon, big guy. Same old same old."
"Walking?" He huffed humourously. "Great."
He managed to rouse himself, and stood groggily to tower over her, as he always did; her vanguard, her protector. Without thinking, she hugged him. He didn't question it, only silently embracing her in return. She felt phenomenal, and almost in denial about being able to hold him again after his incredibly near-death ordeal.
They separated, and remained in silence as they lazily meandered over to the snuffed-out fire, scraping sleep and dirt from their eyes. They had no time to sit down, however; before they got the chance, Adam and Evelynn had geared up, ready for the journey ahead. The only visual evidence that someone had been here were the charcoal-coated fragments of wood and the carpet-like, trampled grass.
The injured woman limped and hopped over to them, almost comically given her characteristic lack of coordination. She arrived by Joel after great effort, greeted him, made a pleasant joke, and slipped her arm over his shoulders to take the weight off of her broken bone.
Adam was busying himself preparing his survival knife; he moved quickly over to Buck, and for a split second, Ellie thought the youth had finally cracked him, and that he decided she was better off dead. The thought was banished from her mind as the knife sliced through the air beside Buck and began sawing away at the tricky and tight cable ties binding her to a nearby sapling. The knife cut through them relatively easily, downwards, the shining sharp blade parting the dirty plastic and releasing the hostage. Before the youth had time to move, the barrel of the carbine was in her face. Ellie drew the glistening .44 from beneath her jacket, just to be safe. She liked the feeling of it in her hands; its bulk, whilst inconvenient, emanated a feeling of power that matched that which it possessed. It made her feel able to defend herself.
"Alright, sunshine." He said to Buck, prodding with the barrel and causing her to stand, still rubbing the ligature markings on her wrist from her lengthy restraint. "Walk with me."
For once in a blue moon, the surly teen chose to reserve her smartass comments. She walked in silence over to where Ellie, Joel and Evelynn stood, and remained still in front of them, the big Scotsman in a shooting stance point-blank behind her.
"Here's how this is going to play out." He began. "I need to help carry that lovely lady, there. So does he. Ergo, we're not going to be scrutinising your every move. You're going to take us to this town, no questions asked, and Ellie is going to be looking after you today."
Ellie thought that she'd react in fear or hesitation, fervently questioning Adam's choice, yet the only thing her body did was nod dutifully and click back the hammer of the Magnum.
Buck scoffed. "Or what? You're saying I make a wrong move and she'll cap me like Clint Eastwood?"
Adam sighed, doubled around, lowered the carbine, and placed his hands on the girl's shoulders, speaking genuinely where his mockery had reigned before.
"No. I'm saying that if you get us there, we'll help you in any way we can. Food, medication, weapons. You could even stay with us, if you want. I don't know who you've dealt with in the past, but we're not bad people."
Adam's sudden kindness caught Buck completely off guard, and the inked-up teen simply stood in front of him, baffled, her mouth hanging slightly open in silence. After a few moments, she uttered a reply.
"Uh... okay, I guess."
The Watcher hoisted Evelynn's other flank off of the ground, and the two men stood behind Ellie.
"C'mon then, Sherpa Buck. Onwards."
The teen said nothing, and only began moving towards the treeline. Ellie followed next, the .44 raised and trained on her back. The men and Evelynn came last, grunting and yelping at every step. Ellie dreaded the length of the journey, and only hoped that it was meagre in comparison to the lengthy hike they'd endured the previous day.
After breaching the outskirts of the forest, they walked for almost two hours, although not with any particular difficulty; the terrain was allowing, and mostly flat, soft dirt, with the odd high-climbing and evenly spread tree. She breathed in deeply during the trip, soaking in the cool alpine air and thriving on the bliss of the wind on her face. Buck had remained silent for the entirety of the journey, occasionally stopping to check the direction of the sun and catch her bearings. When Adam had offered her his map, she simply declined, stating that it wasn't necessary, and walked off leaving the Scotsman with a suspicious look plastered across his face.
Shortly afterwards she addressed them again.
"We're almost there, now. Keep up."
Joel sped slightly, onto to be countered by Evelynn, blurting desperately through her pain.
"Fuck, no, not faster, please, I... I just need a rest. A... a few minutes."
Adam stopped for a moment, thought, and formulated a plan.
"I'll wait here with her." He said, finally.
"You want me to go with 'em?" Joel asked, surprised.
"Yep." Adam responded, the two carefully laying Evelynn down to sit on the forest floor. He unslung the carbine from his back and handed it to Joel. "Here."
He grasped the carbine warily in his hands, got a feeling for the weapon, and then slung it gently over his shoulder.
They were about to move off when Buck interjected.
"Hey, no!" She blurted. "You two need to come with us too."
The haste in her tone prompted suspicious looks from everyone.
"Why?" Adam asked through slitted eyes.
"I, uh... because they need to process us all together as we go in."
Ellie could almost smell the bullshit, and the others could too. Despite this, no one managed to issue rebuttal before Adam replied.
"Alright." He said, knowingly agreeing with her false story. He subtly winked at Joel, the tattooed youth remaining oblivious to their careful gesture. "We'll catch up."
Joel nodded knowingly, and walked away, gently shoving Buck by her shoulder to get the teen moving before she had a chance to object again. She loped forward, fatigued, with Ellie and Joel following. She saw he'd brought the carbine down from his shoulders, and held the splinter woodland camouflaged weapon tensely.
They walked a few minutes further forward, eventually slowing their pace in a clearing that turned out to be a large, abandoned quarry. Buck cupped her hands to her mouth and mocked a bird call to the sparrows flying in and out of the tree-line behind. Some of the sparrows replied, and a grin stretched across Buck's face while a suspicious scowl contorted Joel's. The small click of a safety being turned off was heard.
Cliff walls rose sharply in front of them for almost twenty meters, with large and gaping chunks missing where minerals had been extracted seemingly ages ago. Ruined and rusted-out yellow machinery sat around the place, strewn carelessly aside when the news of the apocalypse had reached the ears of the workers. In some places, the rock had given way, creating gigantic piles of dusty gravel and crushing any unfortunate plant life underneath.
After a few hundred meters, they stopped. Cliff walls surrounded them on all sides.
Ellie tensed, squeezing her hand tightly around the black leather grip of the gleaming Magnum.
"What's the hold-up?" Joel asked impatiently, annoyed with the girl who was simply standing still in front of them, staring at the cliff-face.
Buck slowly turned, that old mocking grin spread widely across her face.
Ellie noticed a small and irritating red light appear in her peripheral, followed by a dull pop.
Joel doubled over as a projectile hit him in the neck. She screamed, fearing he might fall, but the big man only removed the syringe, crushed it in his right hand, and sent a volley of rounds up the cliff-face. The end of a dull scream could be heard after the sound of bullets had stopped ringing around the quarry.
There was a distinct rustling to their right, and two geared men burst out of the tree-line and began hosing the quarry down with bullets. Joel leaped left, landing behind a rock, and hollered to her.
"Ellie! Get down, now! You've gotta-"
She was winded by the force at which Buck collided with her and threw her to the ground. The magnum went flying, its chrome enamelled surface glinting as it careered through the air. She yelped at first, blocking the teen's punches with her forearms. Buck mocked her as she hit her, and Ellie's anger flared. She swiftly brought her knee upwards and slammed it into the elder girl's side, crashing her kneecap into the surly teen's kidneys. Buck yelped, and fell to the left off of Ellie. Now it was her turn.
She rounded and sat on top of Buck, her anger overwhelming her alongside her fear, her fists flying backwards and forwards, furiously. The tattooed teen managed to block a few of her hits, but eventually faltered, allowing Ellie's right hand to crash into her face. Crimson jets exploded out of the girl's nose, and she kicked Ellie off, sending her rearing backwards to fall hard on the dirt and dust-covered ground. She stood quickly, her body ignoring the pain, and drew her penknife, flicking the blade out of the handle. As she turned around to charge, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Buck stood in front of her, Adam's 44. Magnum gleaming in her grip. She wore that stupid fucking smile again, her teeth stained pink by the blood that ran in rivulets from her broken nose. More men piled out of the bushes; she never saw how many, her eyes were focused on the tiny black orifice that the end of the gun. She heard gunfire from both Joel and the men, screams, and two of them fall onto the ground, lost in the high grasses around the border of the clearing. Her attention returned to Buck and that glistening revolver in her hand.
"Not on top now, are you, bitch?" She taunted. "You see, our boss wants you alive, but I'm sure he wouldn't miss one stupid little shit like you."
The hammer on the Magnum clicked backwards, and Ellie swallowed, fear rising high in her throat.
"You've pointed this fucking thing at me all day. Let's see what it does to your-"
A sudden and massive stream of red confetti burst out of Buck's right wrist, with a similar blast radius to a hand grenade in a can of crimson paint, sending her weapon flying. The teen swayed on the spot for a second, staring at her destroyed hand, her mind seemingly in denial of what'd happened, and eventually collapsed to the floor, her cocky mouth now issuing nothing for a change. Ellie turned to her left to see Joel, who'd just managed to loose a round from the carbine before he'd been restrained by two geared-up men of equal size to him, and thrown to his knees, the gun he'd carried being strewn aside to land in the dirt.
A pair of hands grabbed her, then another, and forced her to her knees as well. She barely felt the cool and clean needle sliding in to her neck, and hardly noticed the liquid being inserted until her vision began to blur around the edges.
"Fuck, not again..." She managed, before collapsing to the floor and closing her eyes.
The last image printed on her subconscious was Buck's shocked expression as the bullet had ripped through her hand, sending the Magnum careering across the quarry like a chrome-covered shooting star.