Chapter Four:

Resistance

*Nick*

I watched as the birds flew by overhead. We had just gotten to the city and already I had a very uncomfortable feeling about this place.

"Welcome to Philadelphia", said Dr. Barkley as we stepped through the entrance, leaving our truck at the gate.

"Yippee", I said with sarcasm as we walked through the abandoned streets, the buildings looking almost haunted with how dead and ghostly everything was.

"Kind of creepy isn't it?" asked Coach as he came up beside me.

I nodded.

A memory of a cemetery came to mind, a cemetery and a girl crying beside me as I wrapped my arm around her. Had I not heard her name, I wouldn't have recognized her. Ellie…

I looked up at the sky, wishing she was here now.

I could remember what she looked like and I could remember her name. I knew she was my fiancée because I could remember my proposal to her on that wonderful night we shared listening to the rain. And yet…there were so many memories I knew I had with her that I couldn't seem to remember.

"Ellie", I whispered out loud, "Where are you?"

*Ellie*

I looked up at the sky as we drove.

The storm clouds over head reminded me of a time I was on a boat with an older man. The old man seemed familiar and his face struck me as someone who had been through a lot. I knew I should know his name, but like everything else right, it just wouldn't come to me.

"Ellie, you alright?" asked Hunter.

I glanced over at him and nodded.

"Just thinking about things", I answered, "I wish I could remember him."

"Him?"

"My husband", I said as I showed him the rings on my left hand, "I assume I am married if I had these on."

"Perhaps he died in the first outbreak?"

As though someone had shoved a baseball bat into the back of my head, I cried out when a memory pressed forward.

"Ellie!" yelled Hunter and Rochelle when I gasped in pain.

I could see a young man smiling, laughing with me. I could see him as he went with me to several different events and then I watched as that same smiling face turned gray and bloody. How he died in a hospital room only to walk like the living soon after, his hands outstretched towards me.

"Ellie", he whispered, his voice so familiar.

"Ellie!" screamed Rochelle.

I looked up at her in surprise. She stared at me as she grabbed the hem of her green scrubs and lifted it to my face. I was surprised when I looked down and saw blood.

"Stark", barked out Hunter.

Dr. Stark opened the back window and peered in. He took in my bloody nose and the concern coming in large quantities from Ro and Hunter.

"She started having a nose bleed after she gasped in pain."

"Was it a memory?" asked the doctor.

I nodded as I pictured the memory again in my head, this time, it didn't hurt.

"It was probably a suppressed one. More than likely your mind was trying to protect you and some memories you may have remembered perfectly before the sedation, were thought to be to harmful to you according to your mind after sedation."

"Will that pain happen every time?" I asked; a little worried about feeling that again. I felt light headed already after having remembered that and I didn't even know the man's name.

"Probably not; only if you happen to remember another suppressed one. I would say those will be your toughest to uncover."

I nodded, not exactly thrilled with the news.

"I wish I had a name for him", I said as I shook my head in confusion, "I feel bad I can't even remember my lover, whether dead or not."

"You will Ellie", said Rochelle with a slight smile, "Just as I will."

I nodded and wondered if the man I had seen in the memory was my husband or if it had been someone else I had cared about deeply.

All I knew was what I felt and what I felt was a deep sense of pain, longing, loss, and total confusion.

"I hate this", I whispered.

A gentle arm wrapped around me and I glanced up at Hunter in appreciation.

"It will be okay", he said, "I am sure whoever he is your trying to remember, it will come back to you when the time is right."

I nodded, hoping he was right.

*Nick*

As we walked through the city, I had the strange feeling that we were being watched. I didn't see any zombies, which I thought was also strange.

The words she had spoken about resistance came to mind and I had a bad feeling that we had walked straight into their territory.

"Dr. Barkley, I don't think…"

The sound of several weapons cocking froze me in my warning.

We all stopped walking when we heard the sound of several pairs of feet crunching gravel beneath them as they strolled closer to us.

"I suggest you keep your weapons where we can see them", said a voice.

I raised my weapon a little higher and noticed Sophia leaning back towards me, her arms wrapping around my leg in a need to feel protected.

"Look, we don't mean any harm", I said, "We have a young girl with us, please, don't shoot us."

Two men stepped in front of us. I could see they were pretty young. One was around my age, maybe slightly older in his mid to late thirties. The other looked to be close to around twenty-five or a little older.

"My name is Lance", said the older one, "This is my brother Seth."

The younger nodded to us but didn't say anything as he kept his weapon trained on my chest.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Dr. Barkley", said the female doctor as she stepped forward, "This is Dr. Weston, Mr. Dean, Mr. Griswold, and Ms. Douglas."

The man ignored her as he looked at me.

"Who are you", he asked again.

I noticed Dr. Barkley frown in outrage at him having ignored her.

"Name's nick", I finally said, "That's Coach, the girl is Sophia, and the two are doctors from CEDA."

The man nodded, happier with my explanation then the doctors.

"We don't much care for CEDA employees", he stated with a slight among of venom.

"We aren't CEDA employees", I said quickly, "Coach and I were…prisoners. The doctors worked for them but they were thrown in prison as well after some guys from DC came and took over the fort."

The man listened and seemed to believe me.

"We did get word that the fort had been overrun by infected. I also had heard before that, that the commander of the fort had changed."

"Not by our standards", Dr. Barkley stepped forward, "That DC dog figured that out and threw us into cells without a key because of it."

"I see. Well it only proves our point that the government is corrupt and has a hand in this entire infection."

"You think the government caused the green flu?" I asked surprised.

"Yes, but this is not the place to speak of things like these."

He motioned us with his hand to follow him and his men. I noticed they still kept their weapons pointed at us, but they seemed slightly less nervous about us.

He led us through the empty buildings of the city, several corpses of infected lying around where they had no doubt 'cleared them out'.

"Our place is this way", he said as we walked, "we had to make sure you weren't government spies before we went out to meet you."

"You treat everyone like this?" I asked.

He smirked back at me that reminded me a lot of a guy wearing a black leather vest, but the memory was cloudy at best, so I ignored it and kept walking with him.

"Pretty much", he answered, "We can't afford to not be cautious."

We went down a set of stairs when he stopped at a door.

"Now wait here a moment", he said and stepped inside closing the door behind him.

A few moments later the door opened again and Lance and another older man stood there. The older man was familiar and he looked at me in surprise upon seeing me like he had recognized me.

"Nick" the man said with a wide smile.

"You know him boss?" Lance asked in disbelief.

"Of course", the man said with a smile still plastered on his face, "Nick here used to work for me at the gambling hall, didn't you Nicholas?"

A memory of a bald man offering me a drink came to mind. Shortly after that memory I remembered another one, a riverboat casino where… I grimaced at the end of the memory, the creature eating that woman.

The older man looked confused when I didn't respond.

"Nick?"

"He can't remember things very clearly right now", said Dr. Barkley stepping up beside me, "He was…sedated for over three months."

The old man's eyes widened as he stared at me.

"Well we will see if we can't help get some of those memories back", the man said with a smile, "Now you folks must be tired, please come in and rest. We have much to talk about."