She cracked her eyes open slowly, the dimmed yellowish light of the ceiling lamp beginning to course through the split in her eyelids. She could still taste the girl on her tongue, and she ran it around her mouth, cherishing the stimulus and the feeling of ease it gave her.
She rolled over slightly, without raising herself, and let the blankets slip from her shoulders. She looked around the room, her groggy eyes absorbing the faded pictures of punk rockers and spaceships. The place felt like it could be a home to her. She felt as if she could make a home for herself here, with Ryker and Olivia and Rat and the others. She didn't want to go... but she got the overwhelming sense she would be made to soon, anyway.
The elder girl had moved from her spot on the bed next to her, the quilt thrown messily away and the under-sheet still heavily creased from where she had lain. She saw that she sat at the foot of the bed, quietly wrestling with a pair of thick, black combat boots. She noticed she was wearing a grey tank top with a bandoleer and thick, armoured cargo pants, and saw beautiful golden locks falling past her shoulders, coming to an end in the small of her athletic back.
Rider apparently heard her.
"Hey." She heard the elder girl say quietly, without turning around.
She leaned up to a sitting position, and let the duvet fall away from her abdomen, where she sat naked beneath. She had no problem revealing herself to Rider; she was the one of the only people she felt truly comfortable around.
"Hey." She heard herself reply, as she felt her face pull into a grin.
She watched the elder girl turn around, and look her over.
"You're beautiful." She said, smiling. "Has anyone ever told you that?"
"No." She made herself reply. "Thank you."
"No problem." She watched the blonde girl grin warmly at her, and then collect her lengthy hair in her hands. She marveled at the colours reflecting in her golden locks as she watched Rider neatly round them, plat them, and tie the plat into the side of her fringe. Suddenly, the mass of loose hair that had hung down only moment ago was contained in a tight, breathtaking bun. Ellie thought she looked stunning, but the hairstyle still pulled up red flags in her mind.
"What're you doing that for?" She asked courteously, unsure what the elder girl's motives were.
"Hair gets in the way in combat."
"Combat?"
"Yeah." She heard the elder girl say with a tinge of apprehension as she watched her stand up from bed and slowly traipse her way to the other side of the small apartment. She watched her arrive by a large, tramping backpack, which was empty, and begin stuffing cans of food and parts of a trauma kit from a pile beside it into the pack.
"Turns out I was right about what they were planning last night." She heard Rider say as she packed the bag. She glanced to the right of the elder teen, and saw an identical bag, and a large pile of what appeared to be combat clothing.
"The prison?" She asked, fearing she already knew the answer.
"Yeah." Rider confirmed. "We're following the lead on Dove."
She sighed, sat up, and resting her head in her hands, tried to shake the morning grogginess from her brain. She had slept heavily the previous night, and with Rider next to her, hadn't woken up out of cold or nightmares. She thought it was the first night in a long time that she'd actually slept straight through.
"When do we leave?" She asked, trying to grasp the situation a little more.
"I don't know." Rider replied as she packed hurriedly. "They were leaving that down to Rat and the others in the Ops room. I think they're almost done with the plan and the contingencies."
"Multiple contingencies?" She asked, surprised.
She saw Rider pause for a moment.
"Yeah." The elder girl admitted. "There's a lot of things that could go wrong, or different. Either way, they'll be calling us soon."
"Right." She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. "What's the time?"
She watched Rider check her wristwatch.
"Ten thirty-five." She resumed packing. "We should probably go and-"
Rider was cut off as there was a loud, yet friendly-sounding knock on her door. She watched the elder girl place the items in her hand gently down on the floor, and walk elegantly to the small, wooden door. She saw her hover next to it as she spoke.
"Who is it?" She asked bluntly.
"Delivery service."
She watched as Rider grasped the handle and open the door without hesitation. She saw the small wooden pallet slip open quickly, and Adam's large figure step into the apartment, his arms carrying a payload of what appeared to be weapons. He had changed his outfit from the previous day, she saw; where he had worn old jeans, workman's dog boots, a white t-shirt and a sun-faded brown bomber jacket, he was now decked out in what she believed to be the underclothes for a full suit of tactical armour, of which there were more layers to don yet. She saw his hair and beard were still long and ragged, clinging to his pale face.
He moved into the centre of the room, bulked up even more than usual by his clothing, and turned towards the backpacks. She watched him place the guns down with a clatter, and yanked the blankets up around her bear breasts as he swiveled around and looked straight at her. She blushed out of shame, and wore a look of guilt.
He simply stood there for a moment, perplexed, until a knowing smirk creased through his rugged beard. She watched him nod at her courteously, and then turn and kneel to attend to his weapons.
"I wouldn't let Joel catch you like that." She heard him say as she watched him fiddle with a shotgun.
"I'll admit, I'm glad it was you."
"I'll take that as a compliment." He joked, not turning to her as he answered.
She paused for a few seconds.
"You wont tell anyone, will you?" She then asked him with a surprising amount of desperation in her voice.
Rider reached his side, and also wore a look of suspense.
She saw him turn his head to her, and smile.
"Not a word." He uttered. She immediately felt relived, and Rider looked almost as happy as she was that he'd guard their secret. He fiddled some more, and then stood and walked past Rider to make his way to the exit.
"Meet us in the Operations room in twenty minutes." She heard him command as he walked out.
She moved to raise herself from the bed, and take the naked stroll across the room to her new clothes. She didn't make it half an inch before Adam came back in through the door and she jumped back under the covers, yelping.
"I almost forgot." He said, coming to a halt just in front of her. She watched him undo his jacket a fraction, slip a gloved hand in, and slide the gleaming .44 Magnum out from inside the black ballistics fabric. He took the gun by the barrel, and offered her the hilt.
"That's yours, Annie Oakley, remember?" She nodded and clasped the hilt with a free hand. The familiar and safe weight of the heavy pistol felt good in her grip. She smiled at him, then watched him turn and exit.
"Twenty minutes, okay?" He spoke as he left.
"Yeah." She heard Rider reply as she shut the door behind him.
The two girls made eye contact for a moment.
"Fuck..." She said, struggling not to laugh. "Talk about awkward."
She saw Rider struggling to suppress a smile as well.
"Like you said." She spoke between chuckles. "Coulda been worse than him."
Confident any more surprise visitors were unlikely, she threw the covers off and walked across the room on bare feet to where the backpacks and her clothes lay. She noticed Rider following her with her eyes the entire way.
She reached her clothes, and began sorting through them slowly. There were thermal underlayers, windbreakers, thick combat pants and a padded jacket, sturdy, black boots, that whilst they looked old as hell were surprisingly clean, and a heavy vest with a plate of metal in the front, sides and rear. There were also miscellaneous objects, she noted; a set of belt pouches, a bandoleer identical to Rider's, and a strange looking pair of goggles with the letters 'NV' crudely written on the side. She slipped them over her head briefly, wincing as the rubber headband pulled her hair. She flicked the goggles down over her eyes. They had no battery, and wouldn't light up, but the room laid out before her filtered in hues of green through the coloured lenses.
"Cool." She said.
She heard Rider chuckle from behind her.
"You might wanna put pants on before those."
She thought it was a decent idea as well. After flicking the goggles up but not taking them off, she donned her underwear, slipped her bare arms underneath the pile of clothing and padded across the room to Rider's on-suite. She opened the door to the tiny bathroom, and stepped inside. The place was improvised, she saw; obviously, operating rooms weren't fitted with toilets. Despite the clear do-it-yourself nature of the construction, it was well-built, and impeccably clean, with a laminated lino floor that was cold beneath her bare feet.
She felt a shiver shoot up her; the temperature in the bathroom was a few degrees colder than the room she'd spent the night in. She gazed at herself in a mirror that was plastered on the wall as she leaned on the sides of the sink. Her body was thin, that much was obvious, but in recent times she had noticed herself gaining a certain athleticism that she had lacked at Tommy's. During the two years they had spent there, she and Joel had both softened to a degree; she only truly noticed how much now. However, her strength was returning, and more so than before. The loose skin she had had starting to gather around her waist and stomach was gone, and there were now only lines of definition on either side. She could see her ribs through her chest, and that annoyed her somewhat, but she knew her recent diet hadn't particularly allowed for weight gain.
She slid the combat pants over her legs first, buckling them firmly around her slim waist. They sat properly, and well, but were the heaviest pants she'd ever worn; she wondered about their weight affecting her movement, but placated those worries when she noticed pocket after pocket down the side that were sure to come in handy. Thick, woolen socks were next, followed by the boots, which gave an extra inch to her height.
The weather above ground would be hot, especially in the sun, she knew, so she forsook the three layers of upper-body clothing and merely slipped on her white tank top from the previous night. She debated wearing the vest that had been provided - the armour was nowhere near as sturdy as Adam's, containing strips of Kevlar instead of plates of steel alloy – and dropped it to the ground with a dull thud, deciding to give it a miss this time.
She scooped up another item that she had brought in with her from the pile; a large leather strap, designed for encircling a torso, with a shoulder-pad like Rider's bandoleer and a pistol holster stitched carefully to it. She placed it on her person, then adjusted and buckled it so that the holster sat just below her sternum. She wrapped her hand around the hilt of the Magnum again, and brought it up to her face. Flicking open the chamber, she saw it primed with six gleaming, new rounds of .44 calibre. She flicked the chamber back in and slid the large handgun into the holster. She thought to remind herself to ask if there was more ammunition than that.
The jacket came last, and she threw it over her shoulders, leaving the front unzipped. It was almost twice as heavy as the pants, with shoulder and elbow reinforcement, and lighter padding on the chest and back. She felt solid, protective plastic tracing a line down the back of the jacket where her spine was located. Without the zipper done up, she felt instantly warmer, and sighed a little at how she'd just have to deal with the heat of the sun.
She picked up the items she hadn't used, glanced at herself in the mirror one last time, and headed back out into the apartment, shutting the door carefully behind her.
"All done?" She heard Rider ask as she walked back around to the bed.
"Just about." She replied. "What do you think?" She gestured to her clothing.
"Nice." Rider replied with a wide grin.
"Thanks." She glanced down briefly, rubbing her arm with her hand. "How much time do we have?"
"About ten minutes." Rider replied, standing up from her seat on the bed and moving over to the pile of weaponry that Adam had brought in a few minutes previously.
"We pick what we want here." The elder girl said, sorting through the guns. "We get the ammo and reserve supplies on the way out."
"Why the camping packs?" She asked, motioning forward towards Rider.
She saw Rider stop what she was doing and glance up at her.
"We don't know how long we're gonna be out there for." She saw the elder girl sigh. "Better to have it and not need it, right?"
"Yeah." Ellie said, moving across the room next to her, and kneeling down by the pile of weapons. "What've we got here?" She asked.
"Most of these are handmade." Rider answered her, as she watched the elder girl pick up an example from the pile. It was rusted slightly, and cobbled together, but she thought that made it look even more menacing. "Adam managed to get into the armoury early and score us a couple of the military-grade guns."
"Like this?" Ellie slide her hand past a bunch of rifles and shotguns, and pulled up a smallish sniper, which she saw had a magnification scope on the top attachment rail. She pulled it up, and sighted the scope. It didn't magnify as much as she would have liked; she glanced to the side of the optic, and saw the word 'ACOG' written next to a big '4X'.
"Yeah, like that." She saw Rider collect a homemade carbine, relatively small and compact, in addition to the matte-green military-grade pistol she'd claimed earlier. "This ought to do me."
"Me too." Ellie raised herself from her position, and slung one of the large backpacks over her shoulders, nestling the sniper in her arms.
"We ought to go." Rider said as she watched her do the same. She followed the elder to the door, and through it after she opened it up. She moved out into the hallway of her own accord, as Rider shut the apartment and locked it shut behind her. Once she was ready, the two moved down the hallway together, towards the Operations room.
She saw that everyone left in the ward was mobilising. She saw men and women of different ages and races scurrying backwards and forwards down corridors, bustling past them, in and out of apartments, conversing with others or carrying goods. Three men moved past her and Rider, wearing the oddest combat gear she'd ever seen. One of them wore the same underlayers as Adam had, but the other two had their top layers equipped. She saw thick, baggy jackets and pants, and the exterior of the arms and legs were patterned with small, square steel plates, which were stitched into the fabric, and looked to her like patches of scales. They wore metal shin-braces as well, and she quickly saw her own reflection in the polished but dented metal surface of their full-face combat helmets. She lost sight of them as they pushed past, out towards Gate one.
They rounded a corner to the corridor that housed the cafeteria and the armoury. Glancing in from where she was, she noticed the armoury was all but empty, as opposed to the day before, when it had been full to bursting with weapons and ammo. She followed after Rider, until she saw a large woman move in rank next to them.
"Morning, girls." She heard her speak, confirming her identity as Olivia when she turned her head to look at her. She saw the woman wore the same weird, scaled armour, but neglected the helmet, her black boy-cut hanging loosely. She carried a large assault rifle in her arms, which Ellie noticed was military-grade.
"Hey, Olivia." She heard Rider reply as they briskly walked past the cafeteria. "Any word yet?"
"Not yet." Olivia replied. "You two are kitted out well." Ellie saw the stocky woman turn her gaze to her. "M40A5. Nice. Do you know how to use that thing?"
"Of course I do." Ellie replied defensively. "I wouldn't have picked it otherwise."
She watched Olivia pick up her pace, walk in front of them, turn to face them, raise her hands and walk backwards through the double door.
"Just asking. I get the hunch we won't be able to afford missed shots."
They emerged into the Operations room, which was full beyond capacity. There were eight men, she saw, who were all armed and combat-ready. Ryker was one of them, and she saw him smile at her as she walked in. They wore urban tactical gear, with beanies and Kevlar vests. She was impressed at how they were all almost identically uniformed. Whilst this, she couldn't help but think they looked like red-rings instead of the free men Adam had preached about.
Upon looking around the room, she saw more familiar faces. Blufor was there, wearing a similar get-up to the other men, except she noticed he had added a large, deep-green, waterproof trench coat to the outfit. She saw he was leaning over the planning table with Rat, who was dressed almost as lightly as she was. Perhaps he valued speed in movement as well. Joel and Adam were there too, both wearing that odd, steel-scaled armour. Neither of them had helmets like the other men she'd seen, but wore metal neck-guards in addition to their protective jackets. She thought they looked huge normally, but in their kit, both of the men appeared gargantuan.
She saw Adam look up and notice her, Rider and Olivia.
"They're here." She heard the Scotsman say aloud.
"Just about time, too." Rat spoke. She saw him look up from the table. "We need you three for briefing."
"Okay." Ellie said, taking a step forward. She felt Rider move up beside her, but the elder girl remained silent.
"We've mobilised." Rat began. "Thanks to Chriss, we now, at least, have a place to assault. There are no guarantees there will be anything there but infected and cobwebs, but it's better than nothing."
"What've you planned?" Rider asked.
She saw Rat turn his head towards Joel.
"You had the idea." The leader spoke to her protector. "Why don't you tell them?"
She saw Joel nod at the leader, and move, somewhat awkwardly in his new gear, to take Rat's position at the table.
"Rat told you we're assaulting the prison, and we're doing just that." She saw him look around the room, making eye contact briefly with everyone as he passed them over with his vision. It was odd to see him leading in that manner. "A front on attack would be a suicide mission. If we ain't gunned down by the last two red-rings, we'd get chewed to pieces before we get through the gates. So here's what's gonna happen."
She saw him stand up from leaning into the table, and walk slowly around to Adam as he talked.
"We're doin' a simple pincer attack. Twelve men in each team, which'll round off everyone here nicely."
She watched him rest his hand on Adam's shoulder.
"There'll be two team leaders, Adam, and myself. We'll stay in contact as much as we gotta. Other than that, radios are off. One group goes for the prison up top, the other takes the subway. That way, if we meet resistance, it's likely one of us is gonna get in."
She looked around the room, as the men and women present nodded approvingly, and Joel continued.
"From there, we find Dove, and anyone else they got locked up in there."
She saw him double around, and scoop a huge, heavy-looking gun mechanism, attached to what appeared to be a gasoline tank, and nestle the weapon in his arms.
"Most people are gonna be armed pretty lightly, but we aren't too sure what we're gonna find down there. So, there'll be two heavy units per squad. One flamethrower, one rocket launcher. These units, which include me and Adam, are gonna shout like hell before we fire anything, so you better get your asses clear or you'll be going up with the infected."
She glanced around the room again. More nodding, and more silence.
"Rat's going solo, running recon. If he sees anything he don't like, we all pull out. Yeah?"
"Yeah." She heard Olivia, Ryker, and a couple of other men reply in unison.
"Then, what're we waiting for?" She watched Rat double around, pick up a sniper rifle much larger than hers, and move towards the doorway. "Teams to their respective gates." He said as he left the room, members of the band of mercs in tow behind their leader.
She threw the sniper rifle up a little, catching it back in her arms and feeling its weight. It was comforting, but not to the same level as the Magnum, and she could feel the familiar feeling of fear rising in her stomach.
She almost didn't notice that Joel had approached her.
"You ready, kiddo?"
"Yeah." She replied. She looked up, and made herself meet his gaze. "But, I thought you said you didn't want us getting involved in anything like this, I-"
"Ellie, it's okay." She heard her protector say, cutting her off. "I realised I was wrong to try and control you like that." That statement took her aback. She wasn't sure she didn't want Joel controlling her.
"You're more than capable, now." He continued. "Hell, you're practically looking after me."
"If you say so." She replied, still looking into his aged eyes. She could noticeably see the tiny streaks of yellow in his irises. "So, what team are Rider and me?"
"Two." Joel replied, smiling. "You're with Blufor and I. We're gonna keep you safe."
"Good." She said thankfully, smiling tenderly and looking down at the floor.
"I'm scared, Joel." She admitted to him.
"That's fine." He said, kneeling to her height, an awkward movement in his thick armour. "'Cause I am too."
"We're gonna be all right, aren't we?"
"We're gonna be fine." She heard him reply. "Once we've got Amber, we're gonna leave this shit of a city behind. Just a little bit more, okay?"
"Okay."
She watched as Adam walked behind them, and placed his arm over Joel's shoulders as he stood.
"See you on the other side, big guy." She saw he was carrying a large machine gun in addition to the RPG slung over his back. "Keep in touch, okay?"
"You got it." Joel replied, as she heard him slap Adam on the back. "Stay safe."
"Will do." She saw the Watcher turn away from them, and move out the door, marshaling his men. "Team One, to the gate!" She heard him shout down the hallway.
"Looks like it's that time." She heard Blufor say, as he approached from behind Joel, an assault rifle in his arms.
"Looks like it is." She watched Joel say to him, sighing slightly as she saw him mentally preparing. After a few moments, she saw his business face slip on, and any trace of a smile that'd been there before had vanished, to be replaced with a determined scowl. When he finished collecting himself, she began to follow him out, with Rider and Blufor in tow. She noticed Olivia walking behind her, the large woman's heavy footfalls distinguishable from the others. She hadn't seen Ryker, though; she guessed he had gone with group One.
"Group Two, to the gate!" She heard Joel bellow down the corridor. A handful of armed men and another woman exited from apartments and the armoury, and walked towards Joel. She saw him nod at their arrival, then turn and begin walking down to Radiology. She assumed that the other people in the team had already had their briefs.
She listened to the atonal chorus of combat boots as they strode down the corridor. There were about twelve men with them – Joel's estimate had been right – but they had passed two or three who had stayed to hold down the fort in the Ward. She hadn't seen Martha gearing up, either.
She felt an odd feeling as they passed the rooms that held the five identical, huge metal safes. It was a feeling of unease, and it set her on edge; not horror, but something very close to it. She still remembered the look on Chriss' tortured face after the door had been swung open, and how the blood had been pouring out of her ears.
They passed the interrogation rooms quickly, and filed through the strong metal door that separated the corridor and the delivery bay. She noticed the extra strain her equipment was giving her even more so when they ascended the ramp, and she fell slightly behind the fitter and larger men that advanced before her. Despite that, she felt better than she had in a long time. When she traveled with Joel, and even initially with Adam and Evelynn, it had always been just them. Now, there was a wealth of human life, and it made her feel stronger. Safety in numbers, they say.
She reached the top of the ramp and emerged into the delivery bay behind most of the others. There were two vehicles laid out for them, she saw, already fully prepped and ready for excursion. One of them was Rat's SUV. She saw the dull glint of the fluorescent lights off its black, gloss finish, and large backpacks that had been attached to either side of the car at the rear, lashed on via the roof-rack and the rear wheel-wells. She moved her vision left, and next to it saw a flatbed truck with the biggest tires she'd ever seen on a road car, with room in the bed for people. The machine gun that had originally defended the bay here was instead attached to a stand spot-welded to the vehicle's tailgate.
Joel made for the SUV with Blufor in tow, and she followed them, Rider trailing just behind her. She saw Olivia split off from them, and throw the driver's door of the pickup open, climbing into the seat and starting its huge engine.
She took the shotgun seat in the SUV, next to Joel, who climbed into the driver's side a moment later. She heard Rider get in quietly in the back, and saw Blufor walk in front of them, towards the corrugated door. She sat there watching him as Joel turned the key in her peripheral, and she felt the SUV roar into life, the sound mixing with that of the flatbed and filling the delivery bay. Joel edged the SUV forward slowly, just coming up behind Blufor, who she watched raise the door with nothing but the strength of his arms. He held it up for them, and she kept her gaze on him as they pulled out into the crisp, cool morning light.
Once outside, they stopped briefly, and she felt the vehicle come to a halt with a small jump forward. The flatbed pulled out past them, and she made eye contact with a couple of the men in the back as they trundled past. She didn't know any of them; that alone made her a little nervous.
She heard Blufor open the door opposite where Rider was sitting, and jump in quickly beside her. The door shut again, and she felt the momentum of the car begin to take hold of her as they moved forward, and turned left, into the parking lot of the hospital. She took a few more moments to marvel at the crashed passenger jet protruding out the side of the massive, grey building. She stared at it silently, a tribute to those who died both on board and inside the building. Given what they were about to face, to her it seemed wholly appropriate.
They had left out of the smaller gate, and she saw the flatbed that Olivia was driving wheel around into a parking spot, and felt Joel swing the SUV into one close by. She couldn't see the cars that she assumed the other team had gone in; they must have left a lot more quickly than she had thought.
She saw Joel raise his hands from the wheel, and press a button on his walkie-talkie, which was fastened to his lapel by a thin elasticated strip of fabric.
"Team two leader to Team one leader, over."
She listened attentively for a reply, only hearing silence to begin with.
"Adam here. Radio check. Team two, number two, come in, over."
She hadn't realised the radios were multi-frequency; that was sure to make communication considerably easier.
"Team two, number two, here." It was Olivia's voice that she heard through the small device. Surely enough, glancing over to the flatbed a few spaces away from them, she saw the bulky woman with a large hand on her radio.
"Good." She heard Joel talk into the device next to her. "Team one number two, come in, over."
Moments later, she heard Ryker's reply emanate from the radio.
"Team one number two, Ryker here. We all set?"
"Sure are." Adam's voice replied. "Rat, you there?"
There were a few moments of deadly silence. She glanced up at Joel, who looked back down at her with a worried expression. She remembered Rat having just walked out... where was he?
She heard the radio crackle, and pop loudly. She twitched at the noise, and saw Joel wince.
"Rat?" She heard Adam's voice ask again.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here." She listened to the leader's melancholy voice relay. "Just sat on the damn thing, sorry. I'm four hundred out from the prison, on a rooftop. Looks clear from up here. Ground team, move in. Subway team, be on your toes. I sure as hell don't have eyes underground."
"Copy." Adam replied. "You're clear to go in from the top, Joel."
"Got it." Se heard her protector speak into the radio. "Infected, Rat?"
She waited in apprehension for an answer, as another few moments of silence followed.
"Minimal." Came the reply. "Saw quite a few on my way here, but well inside buildings. Seen nothing overly scary. Yet."
"Thanks." She heard Joel speak. "Out."
She flinched slightly as the radio crackled, breaking the connection with the others. She watched Joel pull the handbrake up again, signal to Olivia in the other car, and pull out of the parking space, shunting another rusted-out car out of the way with the front of the sturdy SUV.
"How'd he get there so quickly?" She asked, not being able to help herself.
"He's got his own motorcycle." She heard Rider respond from the back, meeting her grey-white eyes in the rear-view mirror. "He calls it his baby. Hunk of shit, to be perfectly honest, but it gets him places quickly enough."
She wondered to herself how economical riding a motorcycle in this world would be. She knew it could only take one passenger, and you sure as hell couldn't pack anything in it. Still, she thought it was a fitting match for Rat. He was proving himself to be a bit of a lone-wolf-leader.
She felt Joel trundle the SUV out of the parking lot, ahead of Olivia this time, and wheel it around left, into the street. It veered slightly on its way out, and she heard him curse under his breath as the tyres slid slightly. She nestled the sniper rifle in her lap, and gently edged the small magazine out the bottom of the gun to examine the contents of the clip. There were five medium-calibre shells sitting in the magazine, she saw, and a sixth already chambered. She slid the clip back in, and pushed bolt forward with a dull click.
"We've got more ammo in the back." She heard Blufor say from behind her. "In case you're wondering."
"Yeah." She replied. "I think I'm gonna need more than six rounds."
"I don't know." Joel said, smiling at her over the top of his metal neck-guard. "Adam tells me you can do a lot with six bullets."
She chose not to reply, only smile at him. She didn't not want to reply, but the fear that was building up in her gut held real words back from her mind, and anything she chose to say would be irrelevant or awkward.
She hardly noticed the car journey slip by; her mind was focused on other things, involving her analytically assessing almost every outcome she could think of for how their assault was going to go down. She didn't want to dwell on the subject, but couldn't help it. She did this when she was nervous about something. She felt like a child again; not a woman, like she'd felt the day before. The waiting – she hated the waiting more than any encounter with clickers or bandits – was killing her. They idled past a bunch of shops, newsagents and storefronts, the pinnacle of excitement being when they drove through the middle of the city, right in the CBD, and saw the odd infected dart out into the street after the cars. She swallowed every time it happened, expecting a dozen more to pile out behind it or a Titan to burst open the whole front of a store, but that never happened.
She noticed everyone else sat in silence as well. The only noises she could hear were the thrum of the engine, the heavy breathing in the car, and Blufor constantly sliding the bolt of his assault rifle backwards and forwards with a dull clink. No one had the urge to tell him to stop, though. Even the radio was silent.
She was practically dying from stress, when their seemingly endless trip through suburbia subsided, and they turned down a side-street and came into view of a large, practically windowless building set apart from all the others, the courtyard separated from the exterior street by two layers of high, barbed-wire topped chain link fencing. She saw a huge amount of moss and foliage growing from the flat roof of the building, and water poured out of cracks in the concrete surfaces.
"We're here." She heard Joel say rather grimly as they approached the gates. She swerved with the car as he pulled it up into a residential driveway nearby, and watched as Olivia's flatbed pull up next to her and the rest of the men jump out of the back. She was the first out of the SUV, swinging her door open and making for the boot, breathing in the cool and fresh air. It tasted nicer out here than it had in the hospital, she had to admit.
She opened the door to the boot just as the others got out, the cool metal stinging her hand slightly. Surely enough, piled in the back were crates of bullets and grenades. She sifted through the small boxes and magazines until she found two labelled '.44' and one labelled '.308', which contained more than fifteen rounds for the sniper she carried. It'd been a long time since she'd been exposed to such an abundance of ammunition.
Blufor and Rider had already moved around beside her, and she saw Joel head over to her side last. He took a small, metal tank from the trunk, and loaded it into the underside of his flamethrower's structure, the ammo connecting with a tiny clink. She watched him draw an assault rifle he'd stowed from the pile in the back of the car, move the flamethrower to his back and hold the rifle in his arms, then carefully stow three clips of ammo inside his thick jacket.
Another man walked up behind them, and she turned slightly to see he was one of the 'heavy units', with that same, unusual scaled armour. He carried an assault rifle, but she also saw the tube of a more modern looking RPG on his back. The rockets he picked up from the boot were different; there were only two of them, and they were strange, cylindrical, and had the word 'SMAW' written on their sides. She wished that she was strong enough to carry such a weapon; it looked like it'd make mincemeat of any infected; even Rider's RPG had taken a Titan down in one shot.
She saw Joel again attend to the radio on his lapel.
"Team one, in position, over."
"Yeah, I see you." She heard Rat's voice reply out of the small device. "Look to the Smith & Western building, a few blocks back."
She watched Joel turn to face behind her, and swiveled around to do the same. The Smith & Western building was a semi-high rise, and she thought it looked rather out of place in the suburban area. It was next to other tall buildings, she saw, but all of them were minuscule in comparison to the skyscrapers in the CBD.
Surely enough, after a moment, she saw a glint reflect from the roof in her eyes, then again, and a third time.
"I see you too." Joel spoke into his radio, raising his hand, giving a small wave. She imagined that Rat would be able to see it down his scope.
"Good. Adam, you there?"
"Sound and copy." Adam's voice replied. She did think all the military jargon was a little overkill.
"You in position?"
"Almost." Adam responded. "Entering the subway now. ETA to the prison station, ten minutes, barring interruptions."
She heard Joel huff next to her.
"Barring interruptions..." He muttered satirically, sharing her thoughts that it would be highly unlikely there weren't any.
She listened to Joel sigh, and then watched him return to his radio as Olivia arrived next to her, with her men in tow.
"Thoughts?" She heard him ask his radio.
There was a moment of silence.
"Go ahead of us." Adam replied.
"I agree." She heard Rat say. "I've got a line of sight on you, anyway. Move in. Adam, hurry it up."
"Will do. Out."
The radio cut silent, again.
She turned to face the prison, and the large, almostt windowless structure loomed before her. The courtyard looked practically impenetrable; she supposed that much was to be expected.
"How're we gonna get in?" She asked, not to anyone in particular.
She heard no reply, and was about to ask a second time more forcibly, until Blufor shrugged and walked past her, making for the fencing. It only took him about half a minute to get there, and as he did, the others followed suit, interested to see what he had to contribute. She shut the trunk of the SUV and tagged along behind, her nerves high. She watched him grip the chain link and heave himself up, slowly, foot by foot, until he, his gear, and his heavy weapons had scaled the ten meter fence. She saw him clip the front of his backpack through the links, and then lean backward, allowing him to be suspended from it, hands-free. She watched in disbelief as he pulled a large knife from its sheath, carefully cut through three layers of barbed wire, remove a section, climb over, and drop down into the walkway between the two fences.
"Not bad." She heard Joel admit from her left, making a move towards the fence.
"C'mon, it's easy!" Blufor hollered, before she saw him double around and begin scaling the second fence.
Joel went up next, and she waited for him to get a few meters up before she followed. The climb was harder for her; she felt her arms and shoulders straining, and her fingers were in intense pain after having to deal with the inadequate handholds. She paused for a moment at the top of the fence, and then let herself fall, bending her knees as she landed. She stumbled slightly due to the extra weight in her backpack, and winced at the jarring of her feet. Joel helped her up, then started scaling the second fence as Rider landed next to them, and Blufor came down inside the main courtyard.
It took them a good ten minutes to get everyone over. The other 'heavy unit' got his SMAW stuck in the wire, and she and Olivia had to waste an extra few minutes trying to get him untangled. Once they were all safely on the other side, they reconvened. She gazed around the compound. The front doors of the prison were flung open, a hundred meters or so away. She saw rusted out meat-wagons and cop cars, and there were moss-covered jersey barriers strewn intermittently throughout the area, mainly next to old, rotting military Humvees.
She heard Joel's radio crackle into life on his lapel, and saw the rest of the group stiffen. Some of them had moved off to investigate the cars, but she noticed them double around at the sound.
"Team one, in position. Just outside the entrance to the Prison station. Sorry for the delay."
"No problem." Rat's voice replied. "Team two, are you in?"
"Sure are." Joel answered into the radio.
"All right. Engage. Good luck, boys."
With that comment, she saw Joel gesture to the door, and heard a dozen safeties being switched off. She noticed the other 'heavy unit' had taken point, his rocket tube loaded and resting over his shoulder.
He didn't get five meters before there was a loud bang, and the back of his head exploded right by her.
She yelped at the blood spray, just avoiding it, and dropped to the floor.
"Split!" She heard Joel bellow from just behind her. "Find cover, but push up to the building!"
She found cover behind a ruined cop car, the metal hiding her from the unidentified sniper. She heard another loud shot, and saw a second man fall to her right, his head falling open on the concrete.
"Dammit!" She heard Olivia scream from her left. "Where the fuck is he?"
She saw Blufor raise his head above a jersey barrier to her right, and her heart sank as she thought the squadmate had condemned himself.
There was a bang, and he ducked down, just before the bullet skimmed over the top of the barrier. She saw a hole torn in the parking lot mere meters behind him, where the bullet had struck.
"Muzzle flash, in the building, south corner!" She heard him shout across to Olivia. She was impressed by the bravery and precision of his spotting.
She felt the frame of the car she used as cover move as a person landed next to her. She turned her head to see Rider, who'd crashed down next to her, and was breathing heavily.
"Fuck, are you all right?" She asked the elder girl, panting, her heart high in her throat.
"Yeah... yeah, I'm good." She managed between breaths. "Told you we'd see him again."
She hoped that the sniper wasn't the adversary that Rider was alluding to.
She decided to act. Blufor had identified the South corner.
She quickly raised herself from behind the car, and saw the scope glint from one of the minuscule windows at the corner of the building furthest away from them. She aimed, and pulled the trigger... only a dull click came from her gun.
A bang sounded, and she yelped, throwing herself back down behind cover. The bullet flew over the top of the car, exactly where her head had been a moment ago. She wondered what had happened... until she glanced down at the rifle, and saw she hadn't pushed the bolt in properly.
"Fucks sake!" She muttered under her breath, scolding herself, priming the rifle again. She heard assault rifles peppering from around her. She glanced at Joel to see him try and lean out, only to have the corner of the jersey barrier he was covering behind break away right by his head, showering him in concrete dust.
"Goddamnit, we're pinned down!" He yelled.
She was about to raise herself to take another shot, when Joel's radio burst into life, fighting against the din of gunshots.
"We've got a contact..." She heard Adam enunciate between assault rifle bursts. "Using a grenade launcher, he's... ...lost two men already!"
"We've been engaged as well!" She heard Joel scream into his radio. "Sniper, singular!"
"Fuck!" Rat's voice echoed out of the radio. "I don't have a visual on him!"
She heard Joel growl in anger, and watched him try to peek again, until another section of jersey barrier was ripped away right by his head, this time a large chunk of concrete sending a gash down the side of his face.
"Joel!" She shouted to him.
"I'm okay!" She heard back, watching him clasp the wound with a free hand.
"Sniper's changing position!" Blufor shouted from her right.
"If you need to move, do it now!" She heard Olivia holler.
She decided it was time to move up, and out of adrenaline, sprinted out from the car and up to a jersey barrier about fifty feet from her, next to a Humvee. She had left Rider sitting behind the cop car before the elder girl could object, leaving a surprised look plastered across her face. She was being driven by adrenaline, now; she wasn't going to let any more of her friends die.
She raised her head slightly, to look through the fogged-up windows of the military car. She scanned the walls of the building for any sign of the sniper... and then found what she was looking for. The skull on the burlap sack popped up to shoulder height in a closer window, and fired a shot at one of Olivia's men, the bullet luckily skimming him and ricocheting off the side of his ballistics helmet. She saw the man fall to the floor with the force of the impact, shake his head, and then recover.
She pulled her body up from behind the cover, and rested the underside of the rifle on the roof. She aimed her crosshair at the red-ring, and pulled the trigger... the bullet fell short by twenty meters.
"Shit!" She shouted, ducking back down.
"He's changed again!" Came Blufor's intel, muffled from behind her.
"Push up!" Joel shouted. She heard the footfalls of the men behind her, and Rider caught up to her position. The elder girl threw herself down hard next to her again.
"Don't fucking do that to me!" She heard her say, panting.
"Sorry!" She replied, not focusing on the elder girl at the moment.
"Anyone have a visual?" Blufor bellowed across the courtyard.
There were a few moments of painful silence, until one of Olivia's men spoke up.
"Up there, top floor, centre!"
Ellie breathed in deeply, and raised her rifle upwards, pointing the crosshair at the top window. There was no one there when she looked, but she raised her rifle to aim with the first mill-dot beneath the crosshair regardless.
She saw the burlap sack appear behind a rifle down her scope. Luckily, he wasn't looking at her; he fired at Blufor, who ducked his head, and she heard him swear loudly as the round skimmed just above the back of his neck and tore through his backpack, destroying everything in it, and ripped out of the bottom.
She aimed at the red-ring, and fired a shot. She slipped and jolted at the last moment, and the bullet smacked into the brickwork two meters to the left of her target. She swore at her ineptitude with the rifle; it'd been a long time since she'd used a decent one like this. She fell behind the car, pulled the bolt back, and the used cartridge popped out the side of the gun and tinkled to the floor.
She saw that Ghost hadn't reacted to the shot and held his position. Maybe he hadn't noticed it among the volleys that the assault rifles were showering him with. She saw him fire again, the bullet striking the metal door right by Olivia's head. The sound of the impact stunned the woman, and Ellie saw her fall head-first into the open.
"Olivia!" She heard Rider scream from next to her.
She looked quickly down her scope to see Ghost pushing the bolt back in, a much larger cartridge leave the chamber of his gun, and then him leaning back into the scope, no doubt training his sight on Olivia.
She took a deep breath, aimed the mill-dot at him, and fired on her exhalation.
There was a brief delay before she saw a spray of blood explode out of Ghost's shoulder, and the sniper fell away from the window.
She'd hit him.
"I hit him." She muttered to herself in disbelief. Then, realising the significance, she raised her voice.
"I hit him!" She shouted to the others.
"Copy, sniper down!" She heard Blufor confirm.
"Move in!" Joel commanded from behind her, moving to help Olivia off the ground, and rush her into the prison entrance.
Ellie glanced briefly at Rider, nodded, and threw herself around the Humvee, bolting for the open doors of the prison's reception hall. She made the run in moments, the first through the door, as the remaining nine survivors piled in after her. She watched Blufor and Joel swing the double-doors shut, then saw Blufor cram his assault rifle through the handles, locking it in place.
"Damn thing jammed." She heard him justify. "Almost killed me."
She watched him draw a 9mm pistol from his belt, and flick the safety off.
She heard Joel issuing into his radio again.
"Rat, Adam, we're inside. Two men down. Can't say who the gunman was."
"It was Ghost." Ellie told Joel, as she met her gaze. "Definitely."
"Ellie says it was Ghost."
"Copy." She heard Adam reply across the frequency. "We've known it was Sal down here for a while. Fucker keeps screaming about how he's gonna flay us all."
She saw that Joel didn't know how to reply to that, and remained silent.
"Casualties?" She heard Rat's voice say from the radio.
"Two with us."
"Two here as well." Joel spoke into the radio.
"All right." She heard Rat reply. "Stick close and fight smart. We don't know where Dove is in there, and we can't... oh, fuck."
The way that Rat swore sent shivers shooting up her spine. She thought she could hear noises from outside...
"What?" She listened to Joel ask, tones of fear rising in his voice. "What is it?"
"I've got a visual!" Rat shouted down the radio. "A shit ton of infected heading your way, they must've heard the noise!"
"Shit, they're down here too! I can hear them through the tunnel!"
"Get up here, Adam, now!" Joel shouted into his lapel.
"Copy!" She could hear assault rifle bursts through the radio when Adam spoke. "Move! Move! Move!"
"Rat, are you okay?"
"Fuck me, I'll be fine! Get Dove and get out of there! I'll pick off as many of them on the outside as I can."
She stared at Joel, who had relented the grip on his lapel radio. She could feel her heart beating furiously in her chest, and tears welling in her eyes. She pushed them back, along with the irrefutable terror manifesting in her gut.
"The fences will hold them for a little bit." Blufor suggested, making his way through the corridor, gesturing for the others to follow suit.
"We're pressed for time." She heard Olivia say to her right, her tone of voice far too calm for the situation. "I suggest we split. Two teams of three, one of four. We'd cover more ground."
"Ghost is still in here somewhere." She spoke, hoping to save everyone from winding up in front of the barrel of his gun. "I only hit him in the shoulder."
"We don't have another option." She watched Blufor grab the railings of a cast-iron bar separating door leading into a cell block, and covered her ears as Joel shot a round through the lock. She saw Blufor pull, easily yanking the thing open. "We split. Joel?"
"Do it. Ellie, Rider, with me."
"Yeah, of course." She said, taking her place by Joel's side.
"All right. Stay in contact, Olivia."
"Of course."
She watched the bulky woman depart with two of her men and the other woman, striding away from them, southwards, along the south end of the cell block.
"You two." She saw Blufor gesture to the remaining two men. "With me, let's go!" She watched them sprint off down the west end of the cell block, following a sign that read 'Station Entry/Exit.'
She pointed out a flight of stairs to Joel, who nodded, and took point ascending up them. Rider followed, and she was last, her legs quickly making the climb, even under the weight of her gear. She could faintly hear the screams of the infected at the perimeter through the doorway... getting back to their vehicles would be an interesting and practically impossible thing to do.
They reached the top of the stairway and filed into a corridor, with Joel shutting the door carefully behind them. The sounds of the infected were cut off, and they were left with an eerie and haunting silence. She looked down the corridor, which stretched for a hundred meters of darkness. She got a better view of the space when Joel illuminated it with his flashlight - there was door after door after door, for the entire length of the space – some had signs dictating routes to other places, some people's names, and some office numbers.
"Better start opening doors." Joel commented quietly.
She walked in front of them both, looking at the dusty metal panels on the door fronts, trying to find one that led to another cell block. There were a lot of offices, a route to an exercise suite, a cafeteria, and up ahead, interrogation rooms...
"Got something." Joel spoke from behind them. She doubled around, and walked with Rider back up to him. She looked up at the door, which read 'ROUTE TO CELL BLOCK B. NO THOROUGHFARE'.
She looked at Joel, and he glanced down at her. His face was apprehension and fatigue. He placed his hand on the doorknob. She watched him turn it, and yank the door wide open.
There was just enough light from the flashlight to make the skull on the burlap sack visible, mere inches away from them.
"Fuck!" Joel shouted. She heard a horrific rasp from his throat as a fist slammed into his neck, and he fell onto one knee.
She saw Ghost emerge from the door, and those empty brown eyes stare at her. She and Rider were frozen in place out of fear. She saw him start moving towards them.
Then, she heard him grunt as Joel's fist slammed into the back of his head, knocking him momentarily to the floor. She watched Joel stagger onto his feet and pass the red-ring, panting like an asthmatic.
"Run, fucking run!" She heard him say as he wheezed and spluttered.
Without thinking, she bolted for the door that paved the route to the interrogation rooms, every muscle in her body screaming to get away from her pursuer. She flung the door open carelessly and began hurling herself down the stairwell a flight at a time. She hardly noticed the pain in her feet and ankles; she was driven by hormones, and all they told her to do was run. Rider kept pace right behind her, and Joel just behind that. Further up, she could hear another set of feet...
She piled through a push-bar door at the bottom of the stairwell with Rider, tangled among the other girl and her fear. Joel came through, and pulled the door shut with a loud clang. The sprinted down a pitch-black corridor... she could only see where she was going every second or so when Joel brought his flash-light up as he ran.
She stepped, and suddenly the floor vanished from beneath her feet, and she fell. The drop was a good three meters, and she landed on her front on a plastic table, crushing it under the force of the drop. Pain ripped through the front of her body, and she heard a loud thud as Rider fell through the same hole, but landed on the concrete floor.
She could hear scuffling from above, and the occasional grunt. It grew gradually closer, until she heard Joel yell out, and crash down next to her a moment later.
She noticed lights flickering in through a reinforced glass window. One of them fell on a nameplate on a door to her right, in the opposite wall to the strengthened pane. She thought it read 'Station Questioning Suite'... but she couldn't tell. She felt an intense throbbing in her head and torso, and black spots surrounded the edges of her vision. She could sense Joel trying to raise himself up next to her. She hadn't heard anything from Rider, further to her side. There was a quiet rush of air, and then the sound of boots landing softly on the concrete.
She moved her legs around, and found Joel's assault rifle. She tried to toss it around in her feet as he raised himself and moved across the room, away from Ghost. She got it stuck up against a broken table leg, yanked it upwards, and flicked the flashlight on, illuminating the room in a bright-white, LED light. She tried to fire the gun at Ghost, but realised a magazine had never been loaded since they entered the prison, and the useless weapon clicked a dozen times before she dropped it to her side.
She watched Ghost approach Joel. She saw her protector double around and swing at him, and Ghost dodge, jabbing his fingers into Joel's solar plexus. He fell to the floor, wheezing, and prone crawled away from the red-ring. She tried to get up and help, but her body wouldn't obey her.
She saw Ghost make the ground up on Joel, and push him to the floor with one foot. When she thought it was all over, Joel twisted his arm back and yanked Ghost's leg out from under him, sending him onto the floor. She watched her protector smack him once, twice, and three times in the back of the head, before he took Ghost's elbow to his face and stumbled backwards.
Ghost crashed into Joel's abdomen, forcing him back against the wall. She watched the red-ring hit him once, hard. She yelped, and Joel retaliated by head butting the bandit, then hitting him with a brutally hard uppercut that tore the burlap sack clean from his head and sent it flying across the room. The red-ring reared backwards, but then she saw Joel fall as Ghost swept his legs from underneath him. Instead of finishing him there, the red-ring backed off, walking back across the room, composing himself.
She saw his face. It was gaunt, and pale, but she noticed the strong definition in his cheekbones and jaw. He was younger than Joel, but youthful, and his eyes were dark blue behind an unkempt black fringe... his expression didn't burn with madness like the other red-rings she'd encountered. Ghost wore a look that resembled begrudging duty more than anything overly sinister.
She saw Ghost pick up the broken plastic table-top, and swat Joel with it as her protector charged in. Joel stayed on course, however, and she winced as he kneed the red-ring viciously in the groin, a loud grunt escaping his bloody lip, which had been torn open by Joel's uppercut. She witnessed Ghost strike back at Joel, hitting him hard across the temple with the broken table-top. Her protector fell to the ground, and Ghost kicked him in the side of the head, finally knocking him unconscious.
The red-ring stood there panting, his broken lip spilling blood down his face. He grimly met her gaze. He was about to move towards her when she saw the door that connected the room to a concealed corridor behind open up.
"So, Ghost." She heard someone speak. "What've you brought me today?"
She almost felt sick at the sound of the voice. It was soft, upbeat... and absolutely horrifying.
"No answer?" She heard Happy Sal say, striding into the room as if he were at a family reunion, about to dance with old friends. "That's a shame." She heard him tut. "You don't get out much, do you?"
She looked at Ghost for a reaction, but he simply stood there, brooding and staring at the floor.
She watched as Happy Sal looked Rider and Joel over, who had both been knocked out by their injures.
"He sure is an efficient one, isn't he?" Sal said, approaching her. She gulped as he knelt down in front of her.
She thought he had the most unassuming face for a brutal bandit. She thought he looked like someone you'd see on the street; a baker in a shop, or an accountant on his way to the bank. To her he looked exceedingly average... except for his eyes, with burned with a contorted and malicious madness.
"Here's the thing, sweetie." He said. She could smell a hint of mint on his breath. "You hurt our little Ghost, didn't you?"
She looked past Sal and saw Ghost clutching his shoulder. He moved it too far, and winced, it still weeping blood from the bullet she'd placed there.
"That," He said, pulling a knife, "is a big no-no, my darling."
She quivered and whimpered as Sal placed the sharp edge of the knife under her jawline, pressing the edge in slightly, and grinning straight at her. She thought she heard Ghost move forward slightly, behind Sal.
"Actually, no." Sal decided, drawing the knife back. "I won't kill you."
She watched him stand, stare at her, and cackle loudly. Behind him, she saw Ghost wince again, although this time, she didn't think it was from pain.
"I'm going to flay you!" He spat out the sentence like a fairground clown. She whimpered more, unable to control herself, her bottom lip quivering and tears running down her face.
"Oh, and look!" Sal continued. "Some of your friends are here to enjoy the show!"
She noticed the flashlights outside the window had stopped flickering, and were now focussed, refracting through the glass.
"Why don't you come up and say 'hello', my dear?" She heard him asked her, grinning. When she didn't move, his face contorted horrifically.
"Get up, now!" He screamed at her.
She raised herself, and felt something shift under the skin in her chest. She winced and yelped, but raised herself anyway. She couldn't fight back when Sal wrapped and arm around her throat and pressed the knife to her neck again, taunting the men on the other side of the glass.
She saw Ryker, hammering on the pane with the butt of his rifle, and Adam, who stared in at her for a moment, then raised himself into a shooting stance, and loosed his assault rifle into the glass. She heard the bullets thud against the window, but the glass didn't so much as chip.
"They want to get in!" Sal said happily. "But they can't." Sal said menacingly.
She wept as he constrained her. There was nothing she could do.
She felt the blade of the knife dig in just along her jawline.
"Let's start with the face, and then we'll stick it to the glass after we-"
She heard a horrific gurgling explode from Sal's throat, and the pane of glass was covered in thick, warm blood. It splattered over her face, and she saw it run down the window and drop quietly onto the floor below. His grip on her loosened, and she heard Ghost slide the knife out the back of his commander's throat.
She stayed standing. Through the blood and glass she saw Adam and Ryker, who both stood there, their mouths agape. She could see through the window, now, that they had fallen through to the transit questioning suite in the train station. She saw five other men join her friends on the other side of the glass.
She heard a new voice sound from above her; she couldn't tell where from. It was loud, and authoritative.
"Get on your goddamn knees!" She heard the voice say. The command wasn't directed at her, she knew, but she did so anyway. She heard four pairs of boots drop down onto the floor behind her.
"Ellie." She heard Blufor's voice before she saw him. He came into her vision from the front, and cupped her head in his hands. Her face was covered in Sal's blood, and she smiled at him when he wiped some of it off for her.
"It's okay, you're alright." She was reassured simply by hearing a friendly voice.
But... only two men had gone with Blufor, she thought.
The voice she didn't recognise sounded again, from the back of the room.
"Bring them out here, guys."
She heard the two other men grunt lifting Joel and Rider. She heard one of them swear as Joel woke up in his arms, making him jump out of his skin, but she knew Rider was still out cold. She thought it had been a miracle she hadn't been knocked out by the fall.
"What's the girl's name?" She heard the new voice ask Blufor. It was a female's.
"Ellie." Blufor replied, as she watched him look up. "Her name's Ellie."
"Ellie." She heard the new voice speak again. She thought it sounded odd saying her name. "Come with me, sweetheart. You're in safe hands now."
She did as she was told, quickly brushing past Ghost without raising her eyes from the floor, and past the woman, out into the corridor Sal had come from.
"Get him sorted out." She heard the woman say again.
"Hands behind your back." Blufor spoke, the safety on his 9mm clicking off and raising, transferring his meaning well to Ghost.
She saw Joel had stood up, and was limping over to her, standing in the exit to the room.
"You okay, kiddo?" She heard him ask her the moment he realised it was her he was looking at.
"Yeah, I'm..." She stopped trying to lie. "No, I'm not."
She hugged him, and started sobbing, the memory of the knife bursting out of Sal's mouth in her peripheral still all too vivid in her mind's eye.
She could feel him swaying, his head obviously injured from the fight with Ghost.
"I just... I just gotta sit down, then we can talk, okay? I got you, baby girl."
They walked arm in arm together, behind the two men, one of whom was carrying Rider. She had started to feel awful about them needing to find a way around to the station, until she heard a click, and a door slide open behind her.
The concealed corridor opened up into the station through a set of cabinets, in the wall, she now saw. Ghost was standing by the orifice which he had just opened, staring at her wistfully, until she saw one of Adam's huge hands clamp down on the back of his neck and pull him through, with Blufor in tow, his pistol raised. She watched the two men carry Rider out next, and then she and Joel followed.
"Thank god you're all all right." She heard Adam say, relieved tones in his voice, while she watched Blufor and Ryker reprimand Ghost. "Time's running out. We managed to use our heavy unit's RPG to collapse the tunnel a way back, so no infected will get in down here. I don't know about up top, though. We should meet up with the others, now, and get the fuck out of here."
"Hang on." She heard Blufor say to the Watcher. "We picked up one extra."
She turned to see the new woman walk out the concealed door, and slide the face of the cabinet shut. She watched her turn, and grin at them all, bleached-blonde hair falling in a short and messy bob around her head. She saw she wore camo cargos, and dogtags around her neck.
She heard Ryker take a step forward and speak behind her.
"Dove."
She looked up at Adam, who was beaming from ear to ear.
"No." The Watcher spoke. "Amber."