Review:
coduss:
Yeah, those Blackwatch a-holes would do something like that, so it's not that suprising. Anyway, I'm glad you like it.
SpectorChris:
Glad to hear that. Hope you continue to enjoy it.
A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.
Chapter 3:
Blackwatch Appears!
A few hours after Joel, Ellie, and Alan left Jackson County for the last time, they were driving south towards Colorado, since the way directly east was cut off for auto traffic. Joel and Ellie weren't in the highest of spirits considering their exile, which was why Alan was driving.
"This sucks," Ellie muttered.
Joel sighed, "I know, Ellie, but there wasn't any choice in the matter."
"At least they gave us supplies before essentially kicking us to the curb, baby sister," Alan said.
"Psh, yeah, I guess," Ellie said, not thoroughly convinced before changing the subject, "So where are we going anyway?"
"We're taking these backroads to Denver and from there, we'll hopefully find a road east," Alan said.
"We're going into a city? Is that a good idea?" Ellie asked.
"I don't know the roads around here, so unless you two know some backroads that we could use to go east, the city's the best option," Alan explained.
Joel nodded, "Guess we don't have much choice then."
They continued to drive for about twenty more minutes before Alan suddenly slammed on the brakes and turned off the road before shutting off the engine.
"Alan? What is it?" Joel asked.
Alan didn't answer, but instead stepped out of the car and started looking at the sky. Joel and Ellie looked up where Alan was staring. For a few seconds, there wasn't anything that the two humans could see, but after a few seconds, they could hear helicopter propellers. Alan quickly moved them back under the tree cover just as three military-grade helicopters flew overhead.
Alan saw the symbol on the sides of the helicopters and growled, "Blackwatch."
"What's going on, Alan?" Ellie asked.
"Things just got a whole lot more complicated," Alan said.
"I gathered that much from the military choppers," Joel said, "That's never a good sign, but you actually look scared."
"Did you see that symbol on the helicopters?" Alan asked.
"Yeah, so? They're the same symbols all of the soldiers have," Ellie said, confused.
"Wait, what? You mean they're the ones in charge?" Alan asked, in horror.
"Who are they?" Joel asked, really not liking his tone.
"Blackwatch. The ones that turned me into a monster, froze me in that tube, and all manner of horrific acts in the outbreaks in Manhattan," Alan said.
"Geez, I had no idea they were this bad, though I guess I shouldn't be considering some of the things I've seen them do," Joel said.
Alan just nodded and they got back in the car. When Alan pulled back onto the road, he stopped the car, staring down the road in the direction that they had been driving earlier.
"So, what should we do? Judging from the memories of that dead Firefly, Blackwatch troops aren't exactly friendly towards anyone not in the quarantine zones."
"Well, we don't exactly have much choice, so we're going to have to go into the city," Joel said, "We'll need to be careful, but one thing is worrying me though."
"What's that?" Ellie asked.
Joel looked in the direction the helicopters flew from, saying, "They came from the same direction as the settlement. I'm worried about what might have happened to them."
Forty Minutes Earlier-In Jackson County
Tommy was not in the best of moods. First, he was forced to kick out Joel and Ellie, along with that guy that helped them. Now, some government soldiers pushed their way into the settlement, demanding to speak with him.
"Are you the one in charge of these people?" the soldier in charge asked Tommy when he arrived.
"Yeah, what can I do for you, sir?" Tommy asked, knowing that it's best to be polite to the soldiers.
"I'm looking for someone. Have you seen this man?" the leader asked, pulling a photo out of his vest pocket and showing it to Tommy, who was shocked to see that it was Alan, though he did his best to keep it from his face.
"Never seen him before," Tommy said.
The leader narrowed his eyes at Tommy, not believing him for a second, "Are you sure? This man is a criminal of the highest degree. He's a mass murderer, a terrorist, and a saboteur. Anyone protecting him will be considered an accomplice and will be taken into custody."
"Sorry, no idea," Tommy said, trying to stay emotionless.
The leader growled, "Fine. Sergeant, take everyone here into custody. Anyone that resists, you have permission to treat them as hostile."
"You can't!" Tommy insisted, horrified.
"That's where you're wrong," the leader said, "I have the authority to do whatever I wish if it means bringing this man down. If I wanted to burn this pathetic settlement to the ground, I'll be well within my right."
Steve, however, wasn't going to allow himself to be taken in for someone else, so he hastily said, "Wait, I'll tell you what you want to know!"
"Shut up, Steve!" Tommy ordered, only to receive a rifle-butt to the back of the head, making him drop to the ground.
"Tommy!" Maria shouted as she dropped to his side to check on him.
Steve ignored them and continued, "He went with two others, a man and a girl, to New York. He would need to go south before he could head east, since the roads east are blocked."
The leader nodded and ordered, "Sergeant, get everyone back to the choppers. We need to move out!"
"General Rooks, sir, should we still take them into custody?" the sergeant asked.
The general looked back at the residents of Jackson County before saying, "Leave them. We have more important things to worry about than them."
With that, the Blackwatch troops headed back into choppers to chase after their target.
Flashback End
Alan was driving closer to the city before pulling over and the group grabbed their supplies before moving into the city. They moved through the abandoned streets, making certain to watch for any ambushers hiding in the vine and moss covered buildings. They moved through one of the buildings when they saw the helicopters that had passed overhead. They were landed in a four-way intersection and the soldiers were standing around, receiving their orders, but what frightened the trio most was the many corpses of hunters littering the area.
The three hidden watchers knelt beneath the window to listen to them.
"General Rooks, sir, all hostiles have been neutralized, but there has been no sign of the target," one of the soldiers reported.
"Keep searching. I'll not allow another Heller running around! We've heard that there's a man and a girl with the target. Capture them if possible, but if they resist, you have permission to use lethal force," Rooks said.
"Yes sir!" the soldiers replied.
The soldiers spread out to continue searching for the three.
"We better stay hidden. They'll likely shoot on sight," Alan whispered as they moved through the building, staying crouched to keep out of sight.
"Who's this Heller person?" Ellie whispered as she followed Alan and Joel through the building.
"He worked against Blackwatch in the outbreak that I got infected in. I heard his name a few times before and after I got captured. From what I heard, Baby Sister, he caused them some serious trouble," Alan explained.
The trio kept moving until Alan stopped them. He pushed them back into the shadows and put a finger to his lips to keep them quiet. Joel used his heavily trained sense of hearing to try and figure out what was wrong. For a few seconds, he heard nothing, but after some waiting, he heard a pair of soldiers approaching.
"Hey, are the stories about these prototypes true?" one of the soldiers asked.
"The fuck should I know?" the other asked rhetorically, "I've only heard the stories, same as you. All I know for certain is that the general is nervous about this guy and trust me, that's cause enough to be worried."
The three waited for the soldiers to pass and the sounds of their footsteps faded before they quietly moved out of the shadows.
"Why didn't you take 'em out?" Joel asked.
"When they don't call in, they'll send a larger force and I can't protect you against that many. There's no way that you'll be able to avoid that force. Not from these guys. They're trained to hunt down people and they will find you if you run and hide," Alan said.
Joel nodded in understanding, "So, how did you know they were coming? I couldn't even hear them."
Alan pointed to his eyes, "I can alter my eyes to see body heat. I could see them through the walls."
"Damn, that'll come in handy," Ellie said.
"Glad you think so, Baby Sister," Alan said, "I'll take the lead to make sure we don't walk into any patrols."
The group moved down the steps, making certain to stay as quiet as possible. They found a map of the building telling them that there was an entrance to the sewers in the basement, so they decided taking that route, since the streets would be equivalent to suicide. They got to the fourth floor before they found the stairs blocked.
"Shit, we've got to find another way," Joel said.
"Hey, guys, let's try in here!" Ellie whispered, pointing to an elevator door that was partially open.
"Let me give it a shot," Alan said, before turning his hands into his claws and stabbing them into the small gap between the doors to begin prying them open. The doors were so rusty that he actually had to put some effort in getting them to open and when they did, it was with a loud scraping sound. Once it was open, Alan looked inside to see that there was a ladder leading down the shaft. He turned to Ellie and said, "Alright, Baby Sister, you go down first. It'll be least likely to break under your weight."
"Right," Ellie said, still unsure as she began climbing down the ladder.
The two men were so focused on making certain that Ellie was doing alright that they both failed to keep an eye on their back, which proved to be a mistake as a soldier came up behind them.
"Target sighted! Engaging!" the soldier shouted as he raised his rifle and fired a grenade straight at Alan.
Joel dove out of the way, but Alan took the grenade right in the chest, knocking him into the shaft and slamming into the opposite wall. He fell straight down the shaft to the basement, slamming into the concrete ground four floors down.
"Ow," Alan groaned as he got up to his feet and looked up.
The soldier moved into the entrance and began firing down at Alan, while Ellie, who was still on the ladder, pressed as close to the wall as she could to avoid being shot. Joel managed to sneak up behind the soldier and hit him hard in the back with a pipe, causing him to fall down the shaft and, not being as durable as Alan, died in the landing. Ellie started climbing down the ladder again, but the sound of tearing metal froze her in place again. The ladder, extremely rusted and damaged by the grenade, began to give way, tearing free from the wall and taking Ellie with it. Alan jumped up and grabbed Ellie in mid-air before landing back on the ground with the girl safe in his arms.
He placed her down and said, "Baby sister, wait here. I'll go and grab Joel before coming back d-" he was interrupted by a loud scraping sound coming from above them. He saw that the brakes that were holding the elevator car five floors up starting to give way. "Shit!" Alan shouted as he grabbed Ellie to put her on his back before jumping onto the wall opposite the door and using it to kick off as hard as he could to smash through doors seconds before the elevator car smashed down where the two had been a second ago. He let her down to her feet and turned to her, "Are you alright, Baby Sister?"
"Yeah, but what about Joel?" Ellie asked, worried about the one that had taken care of her for so long, despite his recent admittance of truth.
Alan looked up, using his thermal imaging, to look for the human man, "He's fine," he said, spotting him moving through the fourth floor, "We should keep going and try and meet up with him later."
Alan led her into the dark, using his altered eyes to see in the dark and Ellie used her flashlight. The darkness and quiet put the two on their toes, worried about possible attacks from both soldiers and clickers. The two continued their walk through the dark basement tunnels, moving towards the entrance to the sewers. They'd planned on waiting there for Joel, but before they got there, they froze, hearing what sounded like human-like groans.
"Shit, runners!" Ellie whispered, moving to stand closely behind Alan and pulling out her pistol.
Alan put his hand on top of the gun to get her to lower it. When she looked at him in confusion, Alan explained, "We don't want the soldiers hearing the gunshots, so save those for any that I might miss."
Ellie nodded her understanding and prepared for the fight. Alan moved first, stopping just before he got around the corner to lean around it and find that they were about to reach a large chamber where nine runners were waiting for them. Alan knew he couldn't risk them hearing him, so he used his own deductive skills to examine them. He first noticed that they lacked the fungal flowers that the clickers had, which meant they had the ability to see, making it possible that Ellie would indeed come under attack even if she kept quiet. Also, judging from the name that Ellie gave them, they were likely faster than the clickers as well.
'Gonna have to take them out fast,' Alan thought, not willing to allow the little girl to come to harm.
He charged around the corner, gaining the attention of the runners instantly. Alan already had his claws ready to bear against the Cordyceps infected. Copying a move he remembered from an X-man movie, he leapt into the air at them, his arms wide before he used gravity and momentum to bring them down on a runner and slice it to pieces. He spun to cut three more in half before stabbing another in the head.
Two of the runners started charging at Ellie, which Alan noticed instantly, but when he moved to go to her aid, one of the runners jumped on his back and took a big bite out of his neck. Ellie, not being the marksman that Joel was, fired her gun at the charging runners and the first shot went wide, missing the closer one completely. The second shot hit it in the shoulder and the third hit it square in the forehead.
By this point, Alan had killed the one on his back by growing spikes out of it and cut the head off of the last one's shoulders. He moved as fast as he could to get the last one that was attacking Ellie before it reached her, but as fast as he was, he knew he would make it in time. Just before the runner grabbed Ellie, who was forced to reload her pistol, a single shot from Alan's left hit the final runner. Ellie and Alan were surprised to see who it was that fired the shot.
"Joel!" Ellie shouted, happy that her longtime protector finally made it to them.
"How'd you get down here so quick? I figured we'd have to wait for you for at least a few minutes," Alan said.
"Yeah, I climbed around the side of the building to a fire escape to reach the second floor. Took the stairs down here from there. I'm just glad the soldiers were more focused on finding searching for their man back up there rather than looking for me," Joel said.
"Yeah, well, he's probably paste right now, so they'll be searching for a while. We should probably get out of here before they manage to find their way down here," Alan said.
"Probably a good plan," Joel said as the three began to move through the only other door to head into the sewers.
They began trudging through knee-deep sewer water, doing their best to try and forget the disgust about the situation. The trio continued until they came to a gate, which was locked from the other side.
"Can you break it down, Alan?" Joel asked.
"Not without making a pretty loud noise," the Prototype explained, "We should try to find another way," he then noticed a grate on a nearby wall, "Let's try this." He went over to it and pulled the grate off. He looked inside to make sure it's clear before stepping back.
"Let me guess, I have to go through this?" Ellie asked.
"'Fraid so, Baby sister," Alan said, "But don't worry, we'll be right here."
Ellie sighed and began crawling through the ducts before pushing open the grate on the other side of the gate. She pulled the lock open and opened the door.
"Tada!" she joked, making a sweeping hand gesture. The two men smiled at her fun-having antics.
They kept walking until they reached a three-way intersection. The circular room and the two unexplored halls were all filled with crates.
"So, which way?" Alan asked.
"Over here," Joel said, shining a light on a sewer map that was nailed the wall. "It looks like the best way is to take the path to the right."
Before they could move, they heard croaking sounds coming from both of the halls and shadows moving in the dark.
"Any chance they're friendly?" Alan asked sarcastically as he shifted to his claw arms.
"Not likely," Joel said, pulling out his shotgun and Ellie pulled out her handgun.
"So, what are they this time?" Alan asked. He could see the infected well enough and was surprised when it seemed like they were hiding behind the crates and barrels.
"Looks like stalkers," Joel said, "They like to move from cover to cover before charging in close."
Alan nodded in understanding, "Okay, you two get ready. I'll try and draw them out, so you two can take out any that manage to avoid being carved up."
Agreeing with the plan, Joel and Ellie stayed back while Alan moved towards the hall entrances, which caused the stalkers to charge out of the tunnels to attack the Prototype. He sliced the first three with two swipes of his claws. Joel and Ellie fired at the stalkers when they had a clear shot, so with the help of Alan, they took out the last of the stalkers. They took the tunnel that Joel pointed out and reached the ladder that would take them to the street. They came out in an alley and hid behind a dumpster. A pair of soldiers walked past, one of which was carrying a heavy machine gun. Joel and Alan came up behind them and Joel stabbed one of them in the neck with one of his shiv while Alan killed and consumed the machine gunner, taking his weapon. Accessing the man's memories, Alan discovered that they'd found that there was a car nearby that was still working in the garage across the street.
Finding it, Alan began hotwiring the car. Unfortunately, his skills were less than sharp, so he made a mistake and made the car alarm go off.
"Shit!" Alan yelled, as he quickly began to fix the problem and start the car.
When he got it going, Joel took the wheel while Ellie was in the backseat and Alan took the passenger side seat. Joel burned out of the garage, but unfortunately, they had taken long enough that the soldiers had managed to get only a block away. When the car burst out of the garage, they immediately opened fire on it. Joel, using some very skilled driving moves swerved around abandoned cars and old roadblocks while the soldiers fired at them. Their trouble didn't end once the soldiers were out of range, however, as the helicopters chased after them.
Alan leaned out his window to open fire on them, shouting, "Take this, douche bags!"
One of his shots hit the engine of one of the helicopters, making it spin out of control and crash. He hit the pilot of the other in the shoulder, making him back off his pursuit and head back to the soldiers.
Once it got back and the pilot reported what happened to, Rooks ran his hand through his hair and sighed in annoyance. He turned to his communications officer, "Call headquarters. Tell them we need more men and another pair of choppers. Also, tell them to send a couple beastmaster units," Rooks ordered.
The soldier saluted and left to do as ordered. Rooks looked in the direction that his target fled. He wasn't going to let him go his way much longer. No matter what it took, Codename ARES was going down.
A/N: And there's chapter 3! Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.