Sorry this chapter took so long. University work comes first.
Chapter 9 – Little Pigs
We'd been driving for a few hours along a free way towards Joel's brother's place, taking it in turns to drive the old hummer. It was my shift. Quaid, Joel and Ellie were fast asleep and I was struggling to stay wake. The sky was black and the world was engrossed in darkness. The heavy patter of rain against the wind shield was hypnotic, making myy eyes feel heavy. I was cold, I was hungry, and I was so damn tired. There were the standard post apocalyptic sights to look at on the road: A skeleton in a wrecked car, nature beginning to take back the world, and random stains of blood in quite frankly some impressive places.
I kept driving along the free way, until I encountered a problem. Multiple cars were packed together on a bridge, high above a deep chasm. I looked at the pile up, we only needed to move one car to drive through and it would be possible to try and push it out the way if I took the handbrake off. I decided to give it a shot. I stopped the car in the middle of the road, the headlights pointed directly at the pile up.
"What's going on?" Quaid had woke up, he was sitting in the passenger seat next to me.
"About fifteen cars blocking the way forward. We could try to move them?" I queried, Quaid looked tired.
"I don't like this. Perfect spot for the infected to trap us." Quaid was looking at the cars. He thought something was wrong, and I had to agree.
"I'm gonna go check it out, come with me and keep your eyes open." I grabbed my M1 Garrand and Quaid grabbed his MP5. We both exited the car and slowly walked towards the first car, keeping our eyes open for any movement or any activity. Inside was a body, I unsure whether it he was conscious or dead.
"Quaid, i'm gonna take the handbrake off, keep an eye on him just in case he's infected." Quaid nodded, and stood by the passenger side of the car taking aim at the body. I holstered my rifle over my shoulder and opened the driver's door. I looked at the body. No, it didn't seem like it was infected, but in the early stages can you tell? I took a deep breath, keeping my eyes on the body as I searched for the handbrake.
"Have you found it yet?" Quaid asked me, I heard the impatience in his voice.
"No, not yet." I wasn't going to risk taking my eyes off that thing.
"Are you an idiot? There's only one place it could be." Quaid was still aiming down his sights.
"Well I'm keeping my eyes on this thing!" No way was I risking it, the damn thing could lunge at me any second.
"I'm keeping my eyes on it so just look for the bloody handbrake!" Quaid was tired and impatient.
"Fine!" I decided to relent. I took my eyes off the body and immediately saw the handbrake, and disengaged it.
"I guess you were ri-" Suddenly the body lunged for me and I grabbed at the last second I managed to grab it by the neck.
"Take the shot!" The clicker's teeth were close to my face, inches from my eyes.
"I can't I might hit you!" Quaid was desperately trying to find a place to shoot.
"Take the bloody shot!" I couldn't hold it back for much longer, it was unrelenting. Quaid took the shot, and I felt a piercing hot agonizing pain in my shoulder. I let go of the
"Fuck! You ass-hole!" My left shoulder had an impressive sized hole inside it now, there was a lack of blood oozing out however.
"Told you I'd hit you!" Quaid lunged towards the car and opened the door to help get the clicker off me and started laying punch after punch into it's face. It seemed like we were going to get it off me but the car, it started to roll forward – towards the edge off the bridge.
"Fuck! Quaid, get away from me!" I was still wrestling with the clicker, it's breath stank of blood and gore.
"Dude you're gonna fucking die!" Quaid had the clicker in a headlock, desperately trying to pull the clicker off me.
"Just fuck off and let me handle this!" Quaid let go of the clicker.
With my left arm out of the equation due to Quaid's markmanship skills, or lack thereof, I was forced to make use of just my right arm. Mustering the last of my strength I smashed the infected's head off the steering wheel with as much force as I could produce in my weakened state. My left shoulder was screaming out in tortorous pain. I leapt out of the car onto the road, my legs dangling over the edge of the bridge. I was just in time, a few seconds later and I too would have been in the car that had just fell off the side of the road.
I was sliding down the bridge, only able to grip with one hand I was helpless to hold on. I glanced below and it was at least a twenty four storey drop, no way could I survive that. I attemped to pull myself up with my one good arm but to no avail. Just as my grip was about to fail me, I felt Quaid grab onto me and pull me onto the bridge. We were both shocked and out of breath.
"What in the hell was that?" Joel had stepped out of the car and was standing in front of us.
"Just help me him in the car, we'll explain later." Quaid and Joel helped me to my feet, helping me get into the car.
"Damn, who shot him?" Joel examined my bullet wound.
"Quaid, by accident, there was a fucking clicker." The pain was unbearable, the only thing keeping me from screaming was that it would alert all the infected in the area.
"There's a tool box underneath the chair, get it out." Joel looked under the seat and got the old toolbox me and Quaid had scavenged years before.
"There should be a pair of pliers and a knife in there, hold him down." Quaid gestured towards the toolbox, taking the pliers and knife from Joel.
"Wait! Whoah! We got some fucking morphine right!?" I was afraid, this was not going to be pleasant.
"We used to last time you got shot, gonna have to tough this one out dude i'm sorry it's gonna fucking hurt man." Quaid wiped the knife and pliers with an alcohol swab from the toolbox.
"Hold my hand if you want to, I ain't gone bite." Joel was holding me down and I was desperately trying to shake him off, the old bastard was stronger than he looked.
Quaid explored the wound with the knife, trying to get to the underside of the bullet.
"FUCK!" I was screaming in agony, the knife sending shock waves throughout my shoulder.
"Pipe down damnitt! You want every clicker in the area on this car?" Joel was unrelenting with his grip, pinning me down with an iron fist.
"Got it!" Quaid held the knife in position under the bullet, and grabbed the top of the bullet with the pliers. He pushed the bullet upwards and took it out with the pliers. It was the most painful thing i'd ever experienced and I wouldn't stop screaming until Joel covered my mouth.
Blood was spurting out the wound, all over the car.
"Get those matches out the toolbox." Joel threw the matches towards Quaid.
Quaid lit about ten of the matches, and jabbed them all into the bullet wound, stopping the bleeding.
"I hate you two so much." At least the bullet was out and I wasn't going to bleed to death.
"Thank us later." Joel released his grip on me.