Reviews:
coduss
Glad you like it. Hope you continue to do so.
Bgrim8633:
Happy to hear that. I hope it lives up to your expectations.
gamerAssassin:
I agree. I played them so many times that I could probably quote each line from memory.
A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.
Chapter 2:
Joel's Past Catches Up
After the group experienced the horrifying sight of their home drowning in a sea of flames, they abandoned their car and started towards the walls on foot to hopefully remain undetected by whoever attacked it. Alan took the lead with Joel and Amir behind him to his left and right respectively. Ellie stood between them and Steve brought up the rear. They managed to make it to the wall without being spotted and found a hole blown in the defenses. They took cover against buildings just before they came to the first open area. Alan used his powers to activate his thermal vision and spotted one man in the area. Judging from the fact that he wasn't rushing to help put out the fires and that he was surrounded by corpses, Alan figured he was one of the invaders.
"Wait here," Alan whispered as he moved out from cover to make his way to the guy while he had his back to the stalking infected. Alan put the man in a headlock, making his chin touch his chest, before pushing more on his head, snapping his neck and consuming him. He took the dead man's form and walked back to his team.
"W-what the fuck? H-how did you do that?" Amir asked.
"Let's just say that I've got some very…unique abilities. One of which involves absorbing a person and gaining his form, memories, and skills," Alan said.
"So what'd ya learn?" Ellie asked as Alan changed back to his original form.
"He was a part of some group called the 'Fireflies.' Does that mean anything to any of you?" Everyone's eyes widened in shock, "I'm guessing that's a yes," Alan said.
"Yeah, Tommy used to be a member of their group, but left years ago!" Amir said.
"We've got some history with them, too," Ellie said, "But none of it really explains why they're attacking us."
"That guy didn't really know most of the details. He just knew that they were looking for someone that their leader will be able to recognize. He didn't know the person's name, just that he supposedly took something that was said to be the 'last hope for humanity,'" Alan said, "The leader's words, not his."
Alan noticed a slight grimace from Joel when he said this, but it was only there for a second and no one else seemed to notice. Ellie, however, shot Joel a questioning look. The blacklight infected figured he'd ask about it later, since he was clearly missing something.
"So, where are the rest of them?" Steve asked, looking suspicious at Alan, as well as the two newest members of the community, Joel and Ellie.
Alan pointed down the road, "They're all that way, holding the hostages including the leader of this place."
"They have Tommy?" Joel asked, worried.
"Yeah, it appears they want him to tell them where the one they're looking for is hiding the thing he stole, whatever it is."
"We gotta save him!" Ellie insisted, despite no one arguing the fact.
It was decided that Alan, in the form of the deceased Firefly, would walk down the road while Joel and Ellie would take a path through the buildings to the left while Amir and Steve did the same to the right. Joel was moving as silently as he could with Ellie staying right behind him. They found a couple of Fireflies watching from inside one of the houses they passed through. Joel strangled one of them while Ellie jumped on the back of the other to stab his chest several times with her butterfly knife. They managed to reach the center of town without being spotted, but after that, things got more difficult.
Tommy was kneeling in the middle of the large square, his arms tied behind his back, with his now pregnant wife, Maria, along with three others, all in the same condition. One of the Fireflies, a larger man with a scar that went from his top lip to his chin, was standing in front of Tommy, yelling at him. The humans in Alan's group made their way into buildings, taking out the snipers guarding the area and taking their rifles. Alan, in his Firefly disguise, made his way closer to where the hostages were being held.
As he got closer, he could make out the words of the leader, "…ell are they!?"
"I told you already! They left months ago!" Tommy said.
The leader pistolwhipped him, cutting his lip and making Tommy spit out some blood, "Don't fucking lie to me! I know they were seen here just this morning!"
"I don't know where you heard that, but it's wrong! They're long gone!" Tommy insisted.
"Alright, if that's the way you want to play it," the leader said before he moved his gun and killed one of the hostages with a single shot to the head. The hostages howled in anger and horror at the cruelty.
"Damn you, you bastard!" Tommy roared, his face contorted in an expression of rage.
"Stop wasting my time and tell me where they are!" the Firefly leader demanded, turning his aim to Maria.
Just then, one of the Fireflies guarding the area noticed the advancing disguised Alan and approached him.
"Hey, Mac, what are you doing here? I thought you were holding the perimeter down the wall," the guard said.
Alan spoke in the consumed man's voice, "Yeah, the others sent me up here to talk to the boss."
The man looked suspicious at that, "Why didn't you just use the radio?"
Alan glanced past the man blocking his path and saw that the leader was preparing to execute the pregnant woman. He knew that he couldn't afford to waste time, so he said, "Ah, fuck it," before driving his fist through his chest. He changed his hands into claws and sliced the head off of another. Joel and the others opened fire on the other guards while Alan leapt at the leader, who rolled back to dodge the attack.
He fired his pistol at Alan, who took the shots, but healed seconds afterwards. The Firefly leader dodged each of the wild attacks Alan sent his way. He rolled back and snatched up a grenade launcher one of the fallen Fireflies dropped before rolling onto his back as Alan launched himself at him again. The leader fired a single shot at the attacking Evolved, hitting him square in the chest with the shot and sending him flying into one of the buildings.
"Fall back!" the Firefly leader ordered as the remaining Fireflies fled the town, but not before he locked eyes with Joel.
As the last of the Fireflies fled, Alan walked out of the rubble of the house he'd been blasted into, dusting off his shoulders, his wound fully healed. He walked over to the hostages before using his claws to cut their binds. As soon as they were freed, Tommy and Maria embraced one another, each glad the other was safe. Joel and the others approached them and Tommy helped his wife up before starting to give the different people orders.
"Amir, you and Jack, go searching for other people to take care of the wounded and anyone else that might need help. Steve and Damian, go gather any of our forces and make sure no clickers managed to sneak in while this shit was going down. Ellie, could you take Maria home for me?"
"Sure thing, Tommy," Ellie said, as she and the pregnant woman headed out to go to Tommy's house.
Once they were out of earshot, Tommy turned to Alan and Joel, "You two need to start explaining a few things. Let's start with how the hell you are able to survive a direct hit from a fucking grenade launcher, not to mention that shapeshifting shit you did," he said to Alan.
"Heh, funny story about that," Alan said before explaining precisely what he was in terms of his powers and origins.
"So, let me get this straight, you're infected by that big, nasty virus back from the New York quarantine and Joel just brought you here?"
"He proved that he was trustworthy, Tommy," Joel said, "He helped us out in the base. Without him, I'm not sure we would have made it."
"Alright, I can accept that, especially since he helped save Maria. Now, would you mind explaining why exactly the Fireflies are so hell-bent on finding you and Ellie?" Tommy demanded.
"That's a bit of a long story," Joel said, waving off his question.
"That's not good enough, Joel," Tommy said, "Not now that they've attacked our home, so start talking."
Joel looked at Alan, hoping to get him to leave so he could speak to Tommy alone, but it was clear that Alan wasn't going anywhere, wanting to hear the story behind these so-called 'Fireflies.'
"Alright, fine. Well, Ellie and I did meet the Fireflies like I said we did, but unlike what I told you, where they had already tried to cure the disease with other people like Ellie, it went completely different. They sedated her and were planning to carve her brain apart to get the cure. They were going to kill her! They didn't even give her the chance to say what she wanted. I couldn't let that happen, so I broke her out, despite the Fireflies doing everything they could to stop me."
"What did you do?" Tommy asked, getting a sinking feeling.
"I killed them. In order to save Ellie, I killed the guards, the doctors, and when she tried to stop me, I killed Marlene too," Joel said, his tone daring Tommy to argue against his choices.
"Jesus, Joel, you killed the fucking leader of the Fireflies!?" Tommy questioned.
"Don't start with me, Tommy," Joel warned, "You can't honestly say that you would have let them just kill her either."
Tommy sighed, "You're right, but you still should have told me. Now when people find out about this, especially since Damian, the town blabbermouth, knows they were looking for you and Ellie, they're probably going to come to me to decide what to do with you two."
Joel nodded, having anticipated this already and knowing that these problems would come, which is why he didn't tell his younger brother.
"I'll do what I can for you, but it might be best if you and Ellie stayed out of sight for a while," Tommy said, before going off to deal with the problems.
Joel looked at Alan, who had an intrigued expression on his face.
"What?" the elderly survivor asked.
"It just seems to me like people are making a big deal out of you refusing to sacrifice your daughter," the Evolved said.
"Ellie's not my daughter."
"You both act like it," Alan said, simply, as he started going through the pockets of the dead Fireflies.
"Yeah, I guess we do. It's just I look out for her; take care of her, you know," Joel said.
"Fair enough," Alan said, "She seems to look up to ya, so be careful," he warned before finding something in one of the corpses' pockets, "Hey, nice iPod and it still works!"
Joel smirked at his sudden change from being serious to focusing on the iPod, "Hey, why don't you come to our house? We don't exactly have another bed, but the couch is comfortable enough."
"That's mighty nice of you, Joel," Alan said, before they headed to Joel and Ellie's home.
About five minutes later, Ellie was heading back to the house that she shared with Joel. Despite trying to keep it hidden, Ellie was pissed. First at the Fireflies who were supposed to be the good guys, not raiders that attack innocent settlements! Secondly and mostly at Joel, who Ellie could tell that he had something to do with the Firefly attack. She knew from arriving in Jackson County after the Fireflies, according to Joel, told him they gave up on searching for the cure that Joel had been hiding something, but she'd never considered it'd be bad enough for the Fireflies to actually do something like this. Well, she wasn't going to let this continue. Joel was going to tell her everything!
When she got back to the house, she entered to find her new acquaintance, Alan, lying back on the couch, staring at some papers she'd seen him grab from the Blackwatch base and listening to a device she saw in an old magazine once.
He was singing quietly, "There's a fire inside heeeerrr and it's made her a fiiiighteeerrr. I will let the world burn if it means I'll survive, but the thing I put first is the girl by my side." (A/N: If you're interested, this song is 'A Reason to Live' by JTMachinima. Just search youtube for it.)
Ellie smacked his foot, getting his attention away from the papers.
"Well, hello, there baby sister!" Alan said, moving his feet to let Ellie sit next to him.
She looked over at the papers Alan was looking at, "So, what are these anyway?"
"They appear to be the results of some experiments involving this Cordyceps infection. It looks like they were examining it to see if it could work as a counteragent for the Blacklight virus," Alan said just as Joel came into the room.
"You can actually understand that scientific mumbo jumbo?" Joel asked.
"Well, you eat enough Blackwatch scientists, you tend to learn a thing or two," Alan said, laughing internally at the two's slightly pale faces.
"So, uh, did you learn anything?" Ellie asked.
"Well, for one thing, it appears that the scientists were experimenting on the original strain," Alan said.
"What does that mean?" Joel asked, thoroughly confused.
"Well, it either means that either Blackwatch managed to get a sample at the earliest stages of the infection or… well, the second option is a bit more disturbing."
"Says the guy that eats people," Ellie said, making Alan chuckle, "What's the second option?"
"Well, the Cordyceps fungus has always existed, but it used to only affect insects. We know that it spontaneously did a species jump to infect humans. The second option would be that the species jump wasn't natural and that someone intentionally caused it."
"Why would someone do that?" Joel asked.
"Bio-weapon maybe. I'm sure there are other reasons, but I can't think of them. Regardless, that's not the interesting part."
"What's the interesting part?" Ellie asked.
"The dates on these reports. They're dated two years before the infection broke out."
"What does that mean?" Ellie asked. Joel's face told Alan that he knew what it meant.
"Well, baby sister, it means that the government knew about the infection before it spread across the world and didn't tell anyone, so either they thought it was contained or the government created it," Alan said.
"Shit," Ellie said in horror at the prospect. Sure, the government worked to train her when she was in the orphanage and they weren't exactly known for their subtlety or moderation, but still the idea that they were the cause of all of this was too much. Just when she accepted the idea, Ellie turned to Alan, "Hey, would you mind giving me and Joel a few minutes?"
"Sure thing, baby sister," Alan said as he decided to go for a walk.
Once he left the house, Ellie turned to her guardian, "Okay, Joel, start talking. Why are the Fireflies coming after us?"
"Look, Ellie, I don-"
"No, Joel. No. No more lies. No more secrets," Ellie said, "Tell me everything and I mean, everything."
Joel sighed and told her everything that had transpired between him and the Fireflies ending in the death of Marlene, the woman that had looked out for Ellie until she left the girl in Joel's care. Ellie wasn't happy.
"What the fuck, Joel!?" she shouted pushing him. "How could you not tell me this? Why the fuck did you lie to me?"
"I wanted you to remember your friend Marlene as she was before she tried to…do what she did," Joel said.
"Bullshit! I told you no more lying! You were worried that I'd suddenly get suicidal and let the Fireflies cut me up!"
"Maybe so. I was worried about losing you. I've lost a lot, you know that, and I couldn't just risk losing someone else."
"That's not the point, Joel. It should have been b my/b choice, not yours."
"Ellie, the Fireflies weren't going to give you a choice, so I made it for you," Joel said, making Ellie calm down a little.
"Alright, just no more lying from now on," Ellie said before heading to her room, leaving Joel to think on that.
While Joel and Ellie were talking, Tommy was having to deal with certain members of the community as they got word of what it was the Fireflies were looking for when they attacked, or rather who it was.
"Tommy, we need to get them out of here. Having those two here brings danger to all of us!" Steve said as other members nodded their agreement.
"We can't just throw them to the wolves, Steve," Tommy replied, "They've proven themselves to helpful to the community. We should show a little gratitude for all they've done."
"Look, Tommy, you're right, sure, and I get he's your brother, but if it were anyone else, would you really be considering this?" Steve asked.
"Of course I would. You're talking about tossing people out on their asses when they've got people hunting them!" Tommy said.
"Yeah, I get that, but those same people just broke down our door and nearly wiped us out. If they're still here the next time, what's to stop the Fireflies from wiping us out?"
Tommy sighed. This was going to be a long night.
A couple hours later, Joel, Ellie, and Alan were sitting at what passed for their dinner table, enjoying a bit of dinner, though Alan, as a living virus, didn't eat.
"Hey, Alan, why do you call me 'baby sister?'" Ellie asked.
"Same reason my middle name's really Cogburn. My dad was a big John Wayne fan and he pretty much raised me on the Duke's works."
"The Duke?" Ellie asked, not knowing who Alan was referring to.
Alan gave Joel a look as if to ask if she was serious and received a nod in response.
"That's just a real tragedy," Alan said, shaking his head in disappointment, "The Duke, John Wayne, was an actor, one of the best in my opinion."
"Guess I'll never get to see any of his stuff."
"Never say never, baby sister," Alan said, smirking, "You never know what can happen after all."
Just then, someone knocked on the door and Alan answered it to find Tommy, who had a very serious expression on his face. Alan let him in and he made his way to where Joel and Ellie were.
"Tommy? What is it?" Joel asked.
"I'm sorry, Joel. I did what I could," Tommy said, his face one of deep depression and failure.
"What happened?" Ellie asked, as Joel got a sinking feeling in his gut.
"They're kicking you three out. There's nothing more I can do," Tommy said, "I'm sorry."
"How long do we have?" Joel asked.
"Twenty-four hours. You can take supplies, weapons, and a car, but you have to be gone in twenty-four hours."
"But, where will we go?" Ellie asked.
"I think I've got an answer for that," Alan said, "You could come with me."
"Where are you going?" Joel asked.
"Where I can hopefully find more information on what Blackwatch was up to; the place where I know they, at least at one point, had a presence: the city that never sleeps, New York City," Alan said.
A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.