I think I fell asleep for a couple minutes. To be honest, I don't remember. I heard Joel mutter something and then I woke up. Ellie noticed it too.
"You mumble in your sleep," she said to him as he sat up. "I hate bad dreams."
He sighed. "Yeah, me too." He stood up and began to walk to us, clearing his head.
She turned to me. "You know, I've never been this close. To the outside." It was close. Litterally, it was right in front of us.
"Look how dark it is," She continued.
"How dangerous," I muttered. Joel walked over and turned on a lamp.
Ellie looked at me. "Can't be any worse out there. Can it?" I shrugged.
Joel turned around. "What on earth do the Fireflies want with you?" Ellie looked at me and I shook my head slightly. Joel can't know. Not yet.
Suddenly, Tess walked through the door. "Hey. Sorry it took so long. Soldiers fuckin' everywhere." She ruffled my head. "Good to see you 'gain, kid." I smiled and pushed her away playfully.
Ellie asked, "How's Marlene?"
"She'll make it." She turned to us. "I saw the merchandise. It's a lot. Wanna do this?"
I nodded. "I'm in." Joel nodded.
"Let's go." I grabbed Ellie's arm and pulled her. She didn't really argue. I think a connection between the two of began at that moment. I realized she and I are the same age difference as Sarah and I. Coinsidence?
We walked to the next room. Joel asked, "Don't you think it's a bit strange that they're having us do their smugglin'?"
Tess replied, "Marlene wanted to do it herself. We weren't their first choice, or the second for that matter. Max was but she couldn't ask her without asking us, so she tried other options. She lost a lot of men. Beggers can't be choosers."
I folded my arms. "I'm taking it as a compliment."
Joel sighed. "Yeah, let's just hope there's someone alive to pay us."
"Someone'll be around." I think I was the only one out of the three of us who actually wanted to help Ellie and Marlene. The others just wanted the guns.
Me too, but after finding out about Ellie, I really want to help this girl. We pushed past a bookshelf and started a generator in the next room. It worked a lift.
I pushed the button. "Who's waitin' for us at the drop off?"
"She said that there's some Fireflies that have traveled all the way from another city," Tess replied, "Girl must be important." She looked at Ellie and Ellie looked awkward. "What is the deal with you? You some big-wig's daughter or something?"
She replied, "Something like that." I nudged her and winked. She smiled and we got off the lift. "How long is this all gonna take?"
I replied, "If everything goes as planned, we should get you to them in a few hours. But then again, this is Boston so who knows? Ellie," I stopped her before the crawl space. "Once we get out there, I need you to follow our lead and stay close. Got that?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Of course." We crawled through the space. "Maybe you should give me a gun," She suggested.
I laughed. "Maybe. But I'm assuming you don't know how to work one. Just say close to me and keep that blade of yours handy."
"Alright." We began climbing a ladder and Joel pushed back the ceiling. A board moved and Joel scouted ahead.
He said, "Hold up. There's a patrol up ahead."
I replied, "Is it close enough for me to hit?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. And with all this rain, you won't be able to hit anything. Alright, we're good. Come on up." He climbed out and the rest of us followed. We stepped outside.
I sighed. "You were right, Joel. This rain ain't gonna do us any good."
Ellie's eyes widened with amazement. "Holy shit . . . I'm actually outside."
"Yeah, well, let's get past this and then you can be excited." She smiled and I winked. We walked through the rain and climbed through the inside of a truck, keeping us dry for the moment. That's when it went downhill. Joel stepped out on the other side and some soldier hit him in the head with the blunt end of his gun. He fell to his knees and the soldier pointed the gun at us.
"Don't do anything stupid," She said (first time I saw a female soldier). I placed a protective hand over Elle and looked at Tess. We placed our hands up and moved out into the rain again.
"Turn around. On your knees." We obeyed and we kneeled – first Tess, then Joel, me, and finally Ellie. "You scan 'em. I'll call it in." Ellie's eyes widened and she looked at me.
What will we do? She mouthed to me.
I replied, I'll take care of this. And took a deep breath. I'll take the soldier out before he reaches Ellie. Then he won't scan her.
The other soldier looked at us. "Put your hands on your head."
We obeyed and I heard the female officer say, "This is Ramirez at Sector Twelve. Requesting pickup for three stragglers. Understood." The male officer went up to Tess and checked her.
She looked at him. "Look the other way. We can make this worth your while." I shook my head.
"Shut up," He muttered and moved on to Joel. "I'm getting tired of this shit." He checked Joel and moved onto me.
"What's the ETA?" He asked the other officer.
"Couple minutes." He cleared me and began checking Ellie. I took my knife out of my sleeve.
I sighed. "Sorry about this." I threw the knife at the soldier's knee and took out my other in my boot. The second soldier was about to shoot but Tess got to her in time. Joel ended the first one and I quickly walked to Ellie. I kneeled to her.
"Oh, fuck," She muttered.
"You okay?" I asked. I could hear her heart pound from here but she looked at me and nodded.
"Thanks," She whispered.
"I promised Marlene I would look out for you. I don't break promises, no matter what." Tess walked over to the scanner and looked at it.
"Oh, shit," She muttered. I looked at them. She threw it to Joel. "Look." He did.
"Jesus Christ." They looked at us. I stood in front of Ellie, a hand at my knife. Joel said, "Max, get away from her. Marlene set us up?" He looked back at Tess.
"No!" I replied, "Look, I know. I knew from the moment we met her. And I still promised Marlene. I don't break promises."
"Why the hell are we smuggling an infected girl? Why did you agree to this, Max?!" He asked, pissed.
She shook her head. "I'm not infected."
"No? So was this lying?" He threw it at us.
"I can explain."
Tess walked up to us. "You better explain fast." I stepped in front of her.
"One more step," I muttered, gun in hand. "And I'll shoot." She tooked a step back, pretty stunned. Tess was my best friend but this . . . I wanted hope.
She pulled back her sleeve. "Look at this." She showed them her bite. It was just as I saw it – old and becoming a scar.
Joel held out his hand. "I don't care how you got infected."
"It's three weeks old," Ellie protested.
Tess shook her head. "No. Everyone turns within two days. So you stop bullshitting."
"She isn't," I said, "I've seen bite marks. They sure as hell don't look like that in two days. And why would Marlene set us up? We ain't done shit to her except ask her for some guns back."
Joel began to walk away. "I ain't buying it."
My face tightened. "Fine, I'll bring her on my own. Wait a couple hurs and then ask for your fuckin' guns back. Win, win. Come on, Ellie." She stood up and we began to walk but we saw a truck come right towards us. My eyes widened. "Oh, shit." I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the ditch.
Joel whispered, "Tess, run. RUN!" They followed behind us and I pulled us along.
I heard the officers get out of their car. "Holy shit."
"I got two dead uniforms. I repeat, I got two casualties in Sector Twelve. Requestig immediate backup."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, great." I turned to Ellie. "Follow me, quickly." We began walking up a hill as alarms began and search lights turned on.
"Take cover!" Tess yelled.
I looked at Ellie. "Alright, Ellie. When I give you the signal, we run. You go where I go and don't go any farther." She nodded and I waited for the light to leave. I nodded and we sprinted past some debris. She kept up with me fairly well and I was scared I could get us both caught. But as long as Ellie did what I did, we should be good. We dove under many pillars and through little rainwater streams.
I said, "Ellie, it's gonna be another sprint. You ready?"
She looked real nervous. "Sure. Yeah." I grabbed her wrist and continued running.
Joel muttered, "Goddammit. They're everywhere." We crawled through a pipe and dropped down.
I took out my gun. "Soldiers. Right there."
Tess sighed. "Well, at least your eyes still work since I think you are probably the stupidest person I know." I rolled my eyes and aimed at the soldiers, looking for us. But Joel's face told me not to shoot. We diverted their lights and weaved through the (gotta agree with Joel) very many soldiers. We dropped down to a waist deep trench but got out fairly quickly. We ran up a hill and found a couple guys in front of us. They talked about the possibility that we were Fireflies. Made sense. We climbed through a very run down building. It had a garage door and we used it to get to the outside.
Once outside, I heard another patrol. "Shit. Another patrol. Everyone down." I made sure Ellie was with me and we crept through the street, avoiding all the soldiers. We got to a pipe and crawled through it. One the other side was the basement of a building.
I sighed as we climbed out of the pipe. "Yeah. This looks right. Stay close." I turned to Ellie. She nodded.
Joel muttered as he walked up some steps. "Well, at least we're out of the rain." I sighed and began wringing out my hair as we climbed.
Getting near the top, Tess asked Joel, "How's it look?"
"I think we can squeeze through here." He shined his light on a hole and we crawled through.
That's when I heard a soldier. "Charlie Squad, report."
I stopped. "Shit, shit. I got more soldiers." I leaned down to see a whole in the building, the soldiers probably outside. I motioned for Ellie and we both began to creep through the hallway. It was easier than I thought because they weren't as close as I thought so they didn't see us. We got through and were in the safety of the building again. I looked around and saw a couple tunnels and an open door. This place was in real bad shape. We walked through the open door.
"Are we safe?" Ellie asked.
I shook my head. "No. They're still around." I turned to her. "Look, take a moment to catch your breath." She nodded and I gave her a little smile. I looked around and saw some ammo. I grabbed it and kept it in my pocket. I figured I will give Ellie a gun at some point so better to have some ammo ready for that moment. When we were done with that room, we began walking through the other tunnels.
Joel said up ahead, "Hey, up through her. Through this pipe." We jumped in and ran in it.
I shispered to Ellie. "Stay very close."
She whispered back, "Okay." We dropped down from the pipe to this little sweage drain. The water was waist deep and very cold. We took a couple steps before hearing a truck above us.
Joel stopped us. "Whoa, whoa. Hang on, hang on." We all looked up to see a truck go right by us.
"Jesus," I muttered and waddled even faster.
I started to relax when I heard, "Gather up. They're calling us back. We're returning to the wall! You heard the man. Load them up. Let's go! Let's go!" I sighed in relief and hurried to the next pipe. I opened the gate and we all stepped out to the flooded highway, Tess closing the gate behind us. I looked at the gate while Ellie sat down to catch her breath.
I said, "Alright, they're gone." Tess looked at me and for once, I saw hope in her eyes too. She too wanted to do this but didn't know how to say it.
She kneeled down next to Ellie and asked, "Look – what was the plan? Let's say that we help Max deliver you to the Fireflies, what then?"
Ellie sighed. "Marlene . . . She said that they have their own little quarantine zone. With doctors there: still trying to find a cure."
Joel turned around. "Yeah, we've heard that before, huh, Tess?" I shot him a look and sat down next to Ellie.
She continued, "And that . . . whatever happened to me is the key to finding a vaccine."
Joel rolled his eyes. "Oh, Jesus."
"It's what she said."
He turned to us. "Oh, I'm sure she did."
"Joel," I stated, standing up, "Shut the fuck up. Okay, just because you gave up doesn't mean the rest of have to. Look, if you don't want to take her, that's fine by me. Used to getting around by myself anyway."
"What the hell do you mean by that?" He towered above me but I wasn't afraid. I looked him directly in the eyes.
"You don't scare me. I'm not that girl anymore. You know exactly what I mean." Tess walked over to the two of us and placed a hand on my shoulder.
She looked at Joel. "What if it's true? What if, Joel?"
He looked at her and then at me. "I can't believe – you're buying this crap?" He began to walk away,
"I mean, we've come this far. Let's just finish it." She walked up to him. He pulled her arm and mine. He stood in front of us.
"Do I need to remind you what is out there?" I didn't look at him but walked up to Ellie.
"Come on," I said, "Let's go." She nodded and we began to walk away.
Tess looked at Joel. "I get it." And she too walked with us. Joel sighed and began walking behind us. This guy is such a hypocrite.
I pointed northeast. "This way. If we cut through downtown, we can hit the capitol building by sunrise." I heard Joel mutter something but all four of us climbed the broken highway and up to the street. I looked up to see one of the tall buildings lean to the left. It made me a little nervous but I figured – if it hadn't fallen down now, it probably won't ever.
Ellie looked up at them too. "Holy moley. I guess this is what these buildings look like up close. They're so damn tall!" She looked at me. "So, what happened here?"
I replied, "They bombed the hell out of the surrounding areas to the quarantine zones, hoping to kiss as much of the infected as possible." Suddenly, we heard a loud screech.
Ellie stopped. "Ahhh, what the hell was that?"
Joel asked, "Tess, Max, you hear that?"
Tess nodded. "Yeah. Sounded pretty far away, though." I grabbed Ellie's arm and we continued walking.
"Are we safe?" Ellie asked.
I took my gun out. "Don't worry. I gotcha." We walked to the end of the street but it ended and the ground below was too far. My fear for heights kicked in and I had to take a step back.
Ellie's eyes widened. "Damn. That's quite a drop."
I tried not look down so I looked around. I pointed. "Well, there's the capitol building."
Tess sighed. "Yeah, we need to get around this mess." I nodded and crawled through a hole that led us down.
Ellie asked, "This is the downtown area?"
I shrugged. "It was. Now it's a giant wasteland." We jumped out into the rain and ran over to a slanted building. I helped Ellie in and climbed in after her.