A/N: Alright, now that we've got all that mush and fluff out of the way (I kid, I kid) it's time for something a bit different. I definitely plan on ending this fic with a bang, so I hope you're ready for it. More I think about it, the more likely this is to go over 15 chapters, so be happy everyone, the end isn't as near as you first thought! I don't want to say much more about this, so just go ahead and read it! Oh, and I apologize ahead of time. You'll know why.
DISCLAIMER/LEGAL MUMBO-JUMBO: I do not own The Last of Us, it is Naughty Dog's property.
CHAPTER 13
BREACH
"Earl! Earl, you there?" Tommy barked into his radio.
A voice crackled on the other end. "Yeah, I'm here. That damn turbine went down again, Houser and I are on it now."
A look of relief spread over Tommy's face. "Alright, good. Few of us are comin' up from Jackson to look into it."
"See you in a bit," Earl replied before a short bark of static ended his transmission.
The five of them rode at a comfortable pace. The knowledge that the men stationed at the dam were alright helped lift some of the apprehension that had been pestering Joel and Ellie. There had been no sign of duress in Earl's voice.
It was more than an hour's ride to the dam, even traveling at an easy gallop. Tommy was leading the group with Maria just behind him, followed by Joel and Ellie, who rode side-by-side, and Lakyn, who brought up the rear with the huge black rifle slung over her back. Everyone had relaxed just a bit after hearing Earl's voice on the other end of the radio.
They were quiet for the rest of the ride. Joel snuck a glance back at Lakyn a couple times as they rode, something that didn't go unnoticed by Ellie, and she gave him a sideways smirk. The road through the woods curved, and around the next bend the south gate of the dam came into view.
Ellie could make out figures on the tops of the guard towers just beyond the walls, vigilantly watching the surrounding area for movement. When the riders came into view, a few of the men checked through their scopes to see who it was, and upon seeing Tommy called down for the gate to be opened. The five of them rode through and dismounted, and the guards shut and locked the gate behind them.
Earl strode up to greet them. "Afternoon, everyone. Tommy, looks like turbine two is on the fritz again. Houser's pullin' the shield off of it now."
"Turbine two… the problem child. Alright let's go take a look. Steve here?"
"Yeah, he's in the control room," Earl replied.
"Good," said Tommy before turning back to the group. "Lakyn, you know where I want you." She nodded and took off toward the sniper's nest at the top of the turbine building. It was the highest point within the power plant. Tommy turned and raised his voice to address everyone in the surrounding area. "Alright everyone, we're gonna try to get this turbine back online fast. Keep in mind that the electrified fence will be down here and in Jackson as long as the turbine is down, so stay sharp and call out anything suspicious."
Tommy beckoned for Joel and Ellie to follow him to the turbine building. Once inside, he led them to a room with a shelf lined with radios on their chargers. He snatched one and tossed it to Joel.
"You and Ellie take the overlook on the bridge on top of the dam… you remember, that section we crossed when we fir-"
"I remember," Joel cut him off, turning to leave and pulling Ellie after him. "Let us know if you need anything. C'mon, Ellie."
The two of them walked to their post on top of the dam. The afternoon sun began to slip behind clouds that had drifted in from the west, and a slight shift in the wind indicated to Joel that a storm could be rolling in before nightfall. He and Ellie stood, leaning against the railing of the bridge, scanning the grounds of the hydroelectric plant. Occasionally the silence was broken by chatter from the radio on Joel's belt. All of the people working to get the turbine back online were in the same area, so most of the radio chatter was guards checking in with a report.
"North end report," Tommy's voice crackled over the radio.
"Clear."
"South end report."
"Clear."
"Bridge report."
Joel picked the radio off his belt, depressed the button and held it to his mouth. "Clear."
"Crow's nest report."
"Clear," Lakyn's voice answered.
"Ten-four. We shouldn't be more than another hour or so. Thanks."
Joel went back to scanning the grounds. Ellie rested her elbows on the railing and did the same. For the first time in a very long time, the silence between them was rather strained. Neither knew where to go from here, as they knew there had been a shift in their relationship. Joel realized he would have to regain some of Ellie's trust, and she knew she'd have to let herself move on after the failed mission with the Fireflies and somehow learn to forgive him.
"So…" Joel began, unable to bear the silence any longer but unsure of what to say.
A voice on the radio bailed him out. "Tommy." It was Lakyn.
"What is it?"
"I've got movement on the north end. Something's coming down the road."
Joel tensed and tightened his grip on the rifle. Ellie looked up at him with concern in her eyes.
"North end, can you confirm?" Tommy's voice asked.
"Ten-four. It's a vehicle, moving slow. Pretty big," north end responded.
"Looks like a military cargo truck to me, one of those beefed-up box trucks," Lakyn's voice added. "It's… what the hell?"
"What? What's goin' on?"
"It looks like it's… backing up."
Ellie was about to say something but Joel hushed her, listening intently for more transmissions.
"What do you mean, backin' up? Like... retreatin'?"
"No, it's coming down the road backwards."
"Crow's nest, do you have a visual on a driver or a clear shot on anything?"
A moment of silence passed, presumably while Lakyn checked through the scope. "Nothing visible in the side mirrors. Box on the back is too big to see anything else."
"How about the tires?"
"Rear overhang is too long, got no visual on them," she responded.
"North end, how about you guys?"
"There's steel plates welded over the wheel wells and covering the tires. We've got no shot."
"Alright, hang tight I'm on the way," Tommy responded.
"Hur- oh, shit!" yelled the guard from the north end.
"What?"
"Truck just floored it! It's comin' fast! Look out!"
Ellie looked up at Joel. "What do we do?"
He searched the rushing water beneath them for a second. "C'mon," he said, taking off toward the north end of the facility.
There were a few gunshots from the north end. A moment later there was a loud metal-on-metal impact from the same direction. The truck had presumably collided with the gate. Joel quickened his pace, looking back to make sure Ellie was right on his heels. Another loud impact came from ahead of them.
"North gate compromised. I repeat, north gate compromised," the guards from the north end reported over the radio.
Joel and Ellie rounded the corner of the building and the north gate came into view. The box truck had sheared the latch off the gate and protruded through the opening. It just sat there, halfway into the compound. There was no movement, no gunfire, just the sound of its idling engine. The north end guards couldn't see much from the guard tower, as the cab of the truck was obscured on the other side of the wall.
"Standby," the guards called over the radio.
There were two loud pops at the top edge of the truck, and pieces of metal that had been explosive hinges fell to the ground. There was a deep, metallic groan and the entire back door of the box truck fell down in one piece, still connected at the bottom edge, creating a makeshift ramp from the floor of the truck to the ground.
There was movement within the truck, but it was too dark inside to make out. There were several shadowy figures, and they began moving en masse towards the newly created opening at the truck's rear. They came into the light, and a feeling of dread engulfed both Joel and Ellie.
"Oh fuck," she said.
Joel snatched the radio. "Everyone on the ground near the north end, get out of there! Get up high! This is some goddamn trojan horse shit!"
The Infected poured out of the back of the truck. There were probably twenty to twenty-five of them total, a roughly fifty-fifty split between runners and clickers. The only bit of good news was that there didn't appear to be a bloater wedged in there too.
There was a deafening crack of thunder that echoed across the surrounding mountains, and Ellie saw the head of one of the runners explode into a cloud of red mist. The runner behind it was suddenly without an arm. It took Ellie a second to realize that the sound wasn't thunder; it was Lakyn's high-powered black rifle. Joel and Ellie opened fire on the pack of Infected, and the lead runners tore off in their direction.
"Shit. Ellie, we gotta move. We gotta get somewhere they can't reach us," he said, eyes darting around, looking for higher ground. He dragged her to the steps leading into the turbine building. She looked back at the north end guard tower in time to see the bodies of both guards topple over the railings and fall limply to the ground.
"They're shooting from the trees," Lakyn's static-laced voice reported. "We lost both of the north end guards." A moment later there was another crack of thunder. "Got one of 'em."
The pack of Infected was spreading throughout the north end of the plant. A handful of runners were hot on Joel and Ellie's trail, followed by three of the clickers. The rest had dissipated, seeking out other sources of gunfire. Joel got to the top of the stairs, turned the handle of the door, and threw his weight into it. It didn't budge.
"Tommy," he barked into the radio before realizing that Tommy had said he was heading to the gate. "Somebody get this door open! North end door into the turbine building! Hurry!"
"Houser, can you handle that?" Tommy's voice asked.
"On the way!" the radio answered.
The runners were at the foot of the stairs, too close to the building to be in Lakyn's line of sight, with the clickers scuffling along behind them. They were trapped. Joel pulled the revolver from his waistband and fired several rounds into the group. Ellie emptied a clip from her pistol into the runners, downing a couple of them. The runners, though dangerous, were manageable, but the clickers were approaching fast, and those always posed a serious threat.
"Houser, move your ass!" Joel yelled into the radio, backing up to the door.
"Gimme a minute, I was on a different floor at the other end of the building!"
Joel fired the last round of the revolver into the fungal plates blooming from the lead clicker's head. He had no time to reload, swapping the revolver for the shotgun that hung at his back. He brought it forward just as the first clicker reached them, and he swung the stock of the shotgun into its face, causing it to stumble backwards. He fired a shell of buckshot into its chest, and it fell to the ground for good.
Ellie slid a fresh magazine into the grip of her pistol, thumbed the switch that rocked the slide forward, and fired into the next clicker. Joel racked a shell into the chamber and fired at the same one Ellie had been shooting at. The plates surrounding its face shattered off as the buckshot tore them to pieces, and the creature fell convulsing to the walkway.
He swung the shotgun around to address the final clicker, but it was too late. It was on him, and he stumbled, falling backward as the beast fell on top of him, gnashing its disfigured jaws. The shotgun fell to the side and slid out of reach. The fungal parasite had granted its host unbelievable strength, and it took every ounce of power Joel could muster to keep its teeth from rending his flesh.
"Joel!" Ellie yelled as she scampered his direction.
He heard her approaching footsteps on the metal walkway as she ran. She recklessly threw her body into the clicker, knocking it off of him just before its teeth made contact. The impact jarred the pistol loose from her hand. Joel slid up on his elbows and then lunged forward, reaching out to her. She was clambering his direction, driven by fear, struggling to reach him while the clicker was still disoriented from the blow. It all happened so fast. Her hand met his just as the clicker raked her leg with the jagged claw-like protrusions growing from its fingers. She yelped as it dug into the flesh of her calf.
Time slowed to a crawl, and everything seemed to happen in slow-motion. Pain leapt from Ellie's eyes as she tried to climb to her feet. Joel was frantically climbing to his own, pulling Ellie along with him, when she slipped and fell. The clicker had pulled itself on top of her legs and was keeping her pinned. She thrashed feebly against its strength as Joel tugged on her arms, desperately trying to break her free. He looked down and watched in horror as the clicker sunk its teeth into her thigh. Over all of the yelling, gunfire, and thunderous cracks from Lakyn's rifle, all Joel could hear was Ellie's scream.
AFTERMATH: PART II CONTINUES
WITH CHAPTER 14