Reviews:
SpectorChris:
I'm glad you're liking it, though you're probably going to hate me by the end of this chapter. Anyway, it wouldn't really be fair of me to ask my readers to take the time to review my stories without me at least letting them know that I'm reading them and taking their suggestions into consideration.
Moody Shadow:
Glad you're enjoying the story.
A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.
Chapter 5:
Out of the Frying Pan
"Seriously? There are Fireflies out here?" Ellie asked, exasperated.
"Considering our luck, Baby Sister, it doesn't surprise me in the least," Alan said, looking around with his thermal vision, "At least there doesn't seem to be any nearby."
"Well, we should keep an eye out regardless. The last thing we need is to walk right into an ambush," Joel said.
Alan nodded and he moved to lead them down the path. About three minutes later, they reached a chain-link fence blocking their path. Alan summoned his dual sword arms and slashed the fence twice to make a triangular hole. He kicked it down to let them into the group inside.
"You think that they're here searching for us?" Ellie whispered.
"I doubt it," Joel said, looking around at the makeshift buildings made of wood, concrete, and scrap metal that were built in the fenced-in area, "There's no way that they would build buildings like this unless they were planning to be here a good while," Joel whispered.
Alan held up a hand to silence them and pointed around the corner. The group leaned up against the wall while Alan peaked around the corner. He saw a pair of Fireflies walking towards them and talking to each other. The trio quickly moved into the building and hid to ensure the passing Fireflies didn't spot them. The intruders overheard the Fireflies talk as they passed.
"Hey, did you hear about that attack one of the other groups did on that settlement to the North-west of here?" one of the guards asked the other.
"Yeah. Not sure how I feel about that. I mean, aren't we supposed to be helping these people and going after the government?" the second asked.
"Usually, yeah, but I heard that they were protecting the guy that killed Marline and took the cure for all of this shit. To get that bastard, we should do whatever it takes!"
"Damn, I hadn't heard about that. In that case, I can understand it, but did you hear the stories coming out of that fight?" the first guard asked.
"No, why? What did you hear?" the second guard asked.
"I heard our guys managed to get the town under their control, but then some kind of monster attacked 'em and slaughtered most of the guys attacking the settlement," the first said.
"A monster? Was it some kind of infected?"
"I don't think so. From what I heard, it didn't attack the people of the settlement. I heard it had all kinds of weird powers, like I heard it was able to actually turn into one of our guys," the first guard said.
"Wait, seriously?" the second guard asked in astonishment, "D-did they kill it?"
"I heard that Blake, the guy leading the attack, hit him with a pointblank grenade launcher, so he should be gone for good," the first said before the guards moved too far away from the trio for them to keep listening.
"Guess our 'fame' has even spread this far," Alan whispered to his companions.
"Looks like it," Joel whispered, "We should get out of here as soon as possible."
Alan nodded and he carefully opened the door to check and see if there were any other guards outside. Seeing the area clear, Alan gestured for the two to follow him as they walked out of the building.
The group headed to their left out of the building, due to it being the only way open to them that seemed to be free of Fireflies. They carefully made their way down the path, doing their best to keep as silent as possible. They were about to come upon a main road when Alan's ears perked up and pushed the group inside a larger building.
Just as they closed the door, a pair of jeeps and a pick-up truck drove up the road at a dangerous speed.
"Looks like we found the way out of here," Alan said, "We can probably steal one of those vehicles to get us out of here."
"I'm worried about why the drivers seemed to be in such a hurry," Joel said.
The others nodded in agreement before they started moving through the building. The trio froze before they turned a corner and found two Fireflies with their backs to them. Joel and Alan looked at each other and simultaneously moved to take them down. Joel grabbed one, wrapping his arms around his neck to slowly choke the man to death, while Alan stabbed the other in the back with his claws. The two were so focused on silently taking down their targets that they forgot to watch the doors on their right and left, which proved to be a mistake as one of the doors opened up behind the two men to reveal a third Firefly guard.
The third guard's eyes widened in shock at the sight of the two men either standing over his dead comrade's body or strangling the other before taking a deep breath to yell for his back up, but Ellie stopped him from doing so by jumping on his back and stabbing him repeatedly with her switchblade.
Hearing the guard behind them drop, Joel and Alan turned to Ellie, who groaned and stood up as she pulled her blade from the dead Firefly.
"Damn, you alright, Baby Sister?" Alan asked, worried about the young girl.
"Yeah, he didn't know I was there, so I didn't get hurt," Ellie said, wiping the blood off of her hands and pants.
"That's good, but not what I meant," Alan said, much to the confusion of the young girl, which showed on her face, "It's not easy to kill someone even in self-defense. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, really. It's…not the first time," Ellie said, putting her switchblade back in her pocket, not meeting Alan's gaze.
"What?" Alan asked in surprise before looking at Joel, who nodded in sadness. He frowned at that, "I don't like it." With that, Alan continued down the hall with the other two following behind him. He really didn't like the idea of the young girl having to kill humans no matter the reason. He especially didn't like how she seemed to try and make it seem like it wasn't that big of a deal. Alan understood this was a different world than the one he was used to, but that didn't mean that he had to like it.
They came to a door at the end of the path that they were following. There were windows on the wall, so the trio peeked through them to get an idea of what they could expect from the upcoming area. What they found was not a comforting sight by any stretch of the imagination.
There was a secured area that was heavily guarded by a large number of Fireflies with a large gate made of scrap metal and old fence blocking their path. They completely covered the ground-based approach, thus making it impossible for the trio to reach inside the guarded area safely. At least that's what they thought until Alan gestured for Ellie and Joel to follow him. He led them about ten feet back the way they had come from.
"Let's see if we can find a way around the gate from the up there," Alan said, pointing to a hatch in the ceiling, "With any luck, we'll be able to sneak right past the guards."
"Uh, what's to stop them from seeing us?" Ellie asked.
"If we just stay in the middle of the building we're walking across, we should be alright," Alan said, "Besides, something you need to know about people, Baby Sister, is that people never look up, so we should be alright if we just keep quiet."
He reached up to push it open and he leapt through before pulling his two comrades up. They began moving along the rooftop, making certain to stay low and make as little noise as possible while they did so. They quickly, but silently made their way across a scrap metal bridge that connected the two roofs together. Just after they did, the gate began to open as a patrol came out. The trio dropped to prone, so they wouldn't be spotted.
"Hey, Mac, what's going on? You guys came tearing in here like a bat outta Hell and then we get the order to get ready to pack up and leave!" one of the guards said.
"Yeah, we were scouting out east of here when we saw a massive patrol of army soldiers heading this way. We don't know what they're searching for, since I doubt they'd bring the sheer amount of equipment that we saw just to wipe us out, but it's better safe than sorry, so make sure you're ready. We roll out in fifty," one of the Fireflies coming out of the guarded area. The stealth-using trio glanced at each other worried when they heard this. They knew exactly who the military was searching for and time was running out.
Once the patrol had passed, the group started moving again. Unfortunately, Ellie wasn't as careful where she stepped as the elder members of the group were, so when she was following them, the section of the roof she was walking on collapsed beneath her.
She fell through the roof with a loud bang, drawing the attention of the guards inside.
"Who are you!?" one of the guards asked, pointing his shotgun at the fallen girl while three others drew other weapons.
"Ellie!" Joel cried out as he dropped through the ceiling on top of the shotgun-wielding Firefly, using the momentum of his fall to power a swing with a lead pipe that he carried and smash the Firefly's head open.
Alan dropped down next to stand between Ellie and the remaining three Fireflies. He used his claws to disembowel one of them before stabbing the second through the chest. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to kill the third before he unloaded his entire handgun clip into Alan's chest from pointblank range. The Evolved growled in annoyance before slicing off the head of his shooter. The Evolved groaned as his body pushed the bullets out.
He was about to speak when someone started banging on the door behind them, yelling, "The shots came from in here! Come on, let's get in there!"
"Shit!" Alan cursed before he turned to his two allies, "You two keep heading towards that fenced-in area and try and find a ride for us. I'll work as a distraction."
"But Alan!" Ellie said.
"No buts, now go!" Alan shouted before he ran past the two and burst down the door, knocking the Firefly that was banging on it to the ground. "You guys wanna fight, then come on! I'm right here!" Alan yelled as loudly as he could to draw the attention of as many Fireflies as possible. He then charged at them, bearing his claws as he literally tore into the guards.
"Come on, Ellie, we have to go," Joel said, grabbing the young girl's hand to pull her behind him.
They reached a door on the other side of the building and hurried through it. They moved behind cover as some Fireflies blocked their path. Joel pulled his El Diablo and shot one in the head before he had a chance to get into cover. The other Fireflies managed to get into cover before Joel could take them out. Joel moved around to the left to get a better angle on his enemies. Ellie pulled out her hunting rifle to help Joel take down the Fireflies blocking their path. Once the last fell, Joel and Ellie ran past the corpses to find a motor pool that the Fireflies had been using and they spotted the truck. The Fireflies had already started packing the back with various supplies, like food and water.
The man and girl hurried to the truck. Reaching it, they frantically searched for the keys for a few seconds, but not finding them, Joel had to go with plan B.
"Ellie, cover me while I hotwire the truck," Joel said as he pulled out the wires under the steering wheel.
"Got it!" Ellie said, putting her rifle barrel on the hood to steady her aim and keep an eye out while Joel started to tap the wires together in the hope to start the engine.
While Ellie and Joel were working on transportation, Alan had already killed ten Fireflies, so he started making his way to the gate he'd seen earlier to open the way through for the truck. He found his path blocked by something he'd not been expecting: a large man carrying a flamethrower on his back.
"Oh fuck!" Alan said as the flame-wielding Firefly fired a stream at the Evolved, engulfing him in flames, making him cry out in pain as his infected flesh burned and sizzled.
"Mess with the Fireflies and you'll get burned, freak!" the large man chuckled.
"Don't piss off an Evolved!" Alan yelled as he charged at the surprised Firefly, while he still burned from the flames. He slashed the Firefly across the chest with his flaming claws. "Bitch," Alan muttered as his tendrils consumed the man, flamethrower and all, healing the Evolved. Suddenly, Alan's arms and back started to writhe and burn, making him groan in pain and driving him to his knees. His arms began to turn black and split while his hands turned into nozzles and two black tank-like cylinders formed on his back. He pointed them into the air and fired streams of flames into the air. "Built-in flamethrowers. Nice!"
Alan switched back to his normal arms and ran to the gate. He wrenched it open and found Ellie was using the truck hood to stabilize her shots while she fired at Fireflies trying to keep them from stealing the truck. Alan might have been impressed by her skill with the rifle if he didn't like the idea of a fourteen-year-old girl killing people.
One of the Fireflies noticed Alan and began firing at him, causing him to block with his arms to protect his face, doing so on impulse despite knowing he would just heal from the assault. All of the shots stopped immediately when a massive explosion occurred on the perimeter, freezing everyone in place.
Then came the shout that chilled everyone's blood, "It's the military! We need to get out of her-ack!"
Alan snapped out of his surprise first and leapt at the Firefly that had been shooting at him before grabbing him and snapping his neck. Joel managed to succeed in igniting the engine, which woke everyone else up.
"Ellie, get in!" Joel ordered as he moved into the driver's seat.
"Uh, right!" Ellie said, hurrying to do as her surrogate father ordered while the Fireflies were still uncertain as to whether they should continue firing at the girl and her guardians or if they should go after the military.
Their answer was chosen for them when Joel slammed his foot on the gas pedal, making the truck shoot forward, heading for the gate at full speed. Alan leapt into the air as the Fireflies started firing at the truck again, though only a few of the shots hit the truck.
The shots from the direction of the military's invasion was quickly getting closer, but what really worried Alan was the fact that, over the sounds of the gunshots, were inhuman roars and cries along with human cries of pain and terror.
Joel drove quickly down the road, heading straight for the perimeter gate. Alan was using his place on the truck bed to keep an eye out behind them. A couple jeeps sped after them, their riders firing assault rifles at the retreating truck.
"Alan, take care of them!" Joel ordered.
"On it!" Alan called as he leapt off the truck to land on the hood of one of the jeeps.
He turned his arms into his flamethrowers before slamming the nozzles through the windshield to shoot the stream into the inside of the jeep, roasting the people inside. He then charged his flamethrower arms to fire a massive fireball at the remaining jeep to destroy it.
With the last of the jeeps taken care of, Alan leapt off the one he was riding to land back on the truck bed. Just as he rejoined his companions three more jeeps came speeding down the hill behind them.
"Fuck!" Alan cursed, as the riders in the jeep prepared to open fire.
Just before they did, massive creatures that were humanoid in appearance and moved on all fours landed on the jeeps either crushing the people inside or ripping them out of their seats and tearing them to pieces.
"Joel?" Alan called.
"Yeah?" he called back keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.
"Drive faster!" Alan ordered as the hunter brawlers chased after them.
"Wh-what's wrong?" Ellie asked, starting to turn around to look at what the problem.
"Don't look, Ellie!" Alan yelled too late as she looked behind them and saw the hunter brawlers.
"What the hell are those things!?" she yelled in terror.
"Big trouble! Now, Joel, put the pedal to the metal!" Alan ordered.
"On it!" Joel said, as he sped straight through the perimeter gate with the hunter brawlers falling behind the speeding truck. Before the hunter brawlers disappeared from view, Alan noticed that they each had metal collars around their necks.
After they didn't see the hunter brawlers for a couple minutes, Alan called to Joel, "I think we're good, Joel. You can slow down now!"
Joel did as Alan ordered as he leaned over to the window to speak to the two in the truck's cabin.
"You guys alright? Neither of you got injured?" he asked.
"I'm alright," Joel said, "What about you, Ellie?"
The Evolved then turned to the girl and just then noticing her pale white face and her clutching her side, blood staining her hand.
"Ellie?" he said, receiving no answer, "ELLIE!"
A/N: And there's chapter 5! Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.