The train continued throughout the night not stopping once as it rolled through the countryside at a reasonable speed after all it was being pulled by a freight train and at least the speed was constant no traffic to worry about it was as good a time as any to try and relax, the train used the freight lines as most public railways were blocked with the initial rush of evacuating people. As morning came the food trolley was pushed through each carriage giving out food which was the last meal to be given out before the train reached its destination, Joel woke after being prodded he stretched whilst looking around catching a glimpse in a window of what appeared to be Tommy surely it couldn't he closed his eyes gave them a rub and reopened them but to his surprise Sarah head was in the way giving Joel a little scare.
"You gave me a scare" said Joel as he had a deep yawn
"Stay still" murmured Sarah as she leaned over the table towards the now confused Joel before swatting him in the head with a rolled up newspaper
"Got it" she said as she slumped back into her seat
"Dam it I'm already awake" replied Joel
"There was a bug on you" Sarah said with a large grin on her face
"I'm sure there was" said Joel as he returned her expression with a look of slight amusement
As Joel and Sarah began to eat Joel glanced back at the window but saw nothing convincing himself he was just tired and returned his full attention back to Sarah who by now looked as if she was planning some other practical joke.
Throughout the day there was not much amusement to be had on a train so Joel and Sarah made up small games such as making a makeshift goal out of straws and flicking rolled up pieces of a tissue into it took up much of the time and when that lost its amusement Eye spy was good one as the scenery changed regularly.
The sun rolled over the sky and began to touch the horizon the mood within the train had changed dramatically as people had begun to talk to one another and it seemed as if the train was alive, lights turned on within the carriage by now there could only be perhaps another couple hours to go and they would arrive.
The sound of what could have even been laughter was heard on the train it seemed as if the closer they got to Boston the better things were getting until the lights in the carriage started flickering before dying people looked around panicking looking around and a brief shaking sound and a loud clank were heard.
"Dad what's going on" asked Sarah
"I don't know just stay there" replied Joel as he got up to have a look
Joel pushed his way past bags that had became dislodged from overhead storage and made his way to the door between carriages and looked out the window and to his horror saw the rest of the train disappearing down the track, the end carriage had detached itself now slowing down whilst the rest of the train disappeared into the distance, not knowing where they were Joel returned to his seat.
As Joel sat down just the look on Sarah's face let him know questions were about to be coming at him and before she could open her mouth Joel quietly said.
"The carriage detached"
"Wait what. You mean like the train no longer towing us" Sarah quickly replied
"Yes now grab your stuff it looks like we're walking" said Joel in a harsh tone as he crushed a plastic fork he used for breakfast into nothing more than shrapnel
The other people on the train had no idea what had happened some forced open the door and left others thought the military would come back for them but the noise the train made as it passed through might have been enough to attract the infected and Joel was not going to take that chance.
"Where are we gonna go" asked Sarah
"We will follow the tracks it should lead us a town I guess" replied Joel
By now the sun had set and darkness had reclaimed the land, Joel Sarah and some of the others managed to follow the tracks into a nearby town but shrieks of infected caused chaos amongst the survivors and this only served to draw the infected in. Joel and Sarah ran hiding in a crevice in the old train yard cries had begun to ring out as the others were set upon with so many people to choose from the infected went berserk flailing everywhere with this sound Joel had not heard before there was a clicking sound as some infected with much more erratic movement passed by it looked right at Joel at which point he could see it had no eyes it was blind using echolocation to move it soon began to charge at the others whilst all Joel could do was tell Sarah to keep quiet as he covered her ears to spare her the cries of people being slaughtered. As the night dragged on with little sound the horde of infected slowly split up moving away and by the morning the sun showed where the massacre had occurred as red smears were all over the tracks as well as on walls and gravel. Joel and Sarah had got no sleep that night as they were to alert to the possibility of infected finding them.
"It looks like they're gone now but stay quiet just in case" said Joel as he stepped into the open
"What were those things their heads it looked like something had sprouted from it" asked Sarah
"Well it probably did anyway no time for that lets just find a way out of this hell hole" replied Joel
The two of them then begun to stroll down the main street of the town it had long been abandoned, noticing a dead police men propped against a door Joel took his 9mm handgun and pocketed it as it was the only weapon they had been able to keep after going through the checkpoint onto the train but they did manage to sneak on a couple knives but against infected you could do a lot better. After a while longer of looking around Joel had noticed that much of the area was fenced off with odd obstructions.
"Well these were certainly improvised" mumbled Joel
Looking through several buildings Joel and Sarah were able to scrounge up enough to eat as well as avoiding several sleeping infected it had now occurred to Joel that for some reason the infected were more active at night.
"Right let's cut through here" said Joel as he reached for the door knob leading into a Warehouse and as the door swung open Joel took one step into the room and a loud bang was heard as well as rope zooming through pulley's a small noose laid right around Joel's right shoe and before he could react it shrank grabbing his foot and hoisting him into the air leaving him dangling a few feet off the floor.
"Whoa dad are you okay" Sarah shouted as she ran over to him stopping him from swinging violently
"God dam it" yelled Joel as he looked for a way down
Hearing the commotion one of the infected that clicked walked into the warehouse and preceded to hovel its way towards Joel Sarah immediately drew her knife pointing it in the infector's direction whilst Joel rustled through his things looking for his gun.
"Sarah stay back" yelled Joel as Sarah slowly gave ground to the infected clearly distressed about not being able to do anything Sarah continued walking back until she tripped over a pipe and as the infected bared down on her a sickening crack was heard and the infected dropped to the floor and standing behind was a overweight man with messy shoulder length hair staring back, Sarah stumbled back to her feat pointing her knife at the man whilst Joel found his gun flicking it out of his bag it rolled off his fingers and onto the floor.
"Easy now if I wanted to kill you I would have done it when you two stumbled on in here"
"Who are you and what do you want" yelled Joel
"Who am I, can you believe this guy I am the mayor, the police chief, the bar man and the mechanic of this here town my name is Bill now who the f*ck are you are what are you doing here" he replied
"My names Joel and we got lost on our way to the city anyways Bill you mind cutting me down" Joel asked
Bill picked up Joel's gun then moved over to the rope supporting him and began cutting it
"Dam I need a better blade perhaps one of those exotic foreign blades" Bill mumbled
Joel then fell to the floor quickly regaining his feat and positioning himself between Bill and Sarah.
The sounds of more infected seemed to be closing in on them
"Right follow me you know if you don't want to become zombie meat" yelled Bill as he led Joel and Sarah off into a nearby shop to which Bill had converted into a sort of fallout shelter.
The moment the door closed behind them Bill instantly pointed his knife at the two demanding they tell him if they were bitten and after several frantic moments Joel was able to calm things down.
"So what are you still doing here everyone else has just moved out" asked Joel
"You would not believe the shit people leave behind its unreal im just a man living off of the scraps of others if I had the weapons I would clean up this town more anyway enough about my living the high life where are you two going." Asked Bill
"Boston we hear it's safe" replied Joel
"Safe that place is locked down if it passed gas only dogs would hear it, look if you want stay the night but you must help me out with an... errand tomorrow deal" Bill blurted out
"Okay I guess that fair" Joel uneasily replied
Joel began to feel like he could trust Bill and was able to fall asleep albeit with one eye open at least he and Sarah would have some sleep before another frantic day dealing with the crazed eccentric.
After breakfast the next morning which was good all things considered Bill sat opposite Joel and Sarah and produced a bit of paper from his jacket
"Now listen up I've got an idea how we can help each other there's a police station across town the weapon's locker is full of guns and ammo only problem is the security gate to get in it would take two people to lift it and another to prop it open with something if you help me I'm sure the weapons will help you get to Boston safe what do you say, this is in your interest to you know that side of town is filled with infected so your gonna need more guns to get through it" said Bill enthusiastically
"This is the errand you want me to help with" asked Joel
"Yeah now if we can just get there without drawing attention we're golden" said Bill
Joel reluctantly agreed as from what he had seen of this town they were going to need some firepower to get out.
Approaching the station no infected could be seen as they began to move closer Bill could be heard mumbling to himself.
"Can't believe you agreed to this shit Bill shoulda left them back there but at least you're going to get some guns to keep those hunters away"
"Is he talking to himself, he seems a bit paranoid" asked Sarah
"That's putting it lightly" replied Joel
Upon entering the station it was empty like Bill planned the gate stood before them at the end of a dimly lit hallway a single light lay above the door coincidently the only that worked Both Joel and Bill grabbed the gate and lift with all their might eventually dragging it up to waist level Sarah slid in underneath and pushed a weapon trolley underneath which supported it perfectly.
"Fantastic" yelled Bill who immediately shot under the gate and into the weapons locker
Looking around there were many weapons to choose from handguns, shotguns, rifles and assault rifles it was covering wall to wall.
Joe and Bill looked around the weapons eventually finding a indoor firing range with which to try them out whilst Sarah sat on a table staring off into space.
"You know if you keep going on like this you're going to get you both killed" said Bill
"We've done just fine until now" replied Joel
"Come on if something happens to you, you think that your little girl there knows how to protect herself I saw how she reacted to that clicker earlier" stated Bill
"Nothing will happen to me" retorted Joel
"If it were to happen for the love of god prepare her and for god's sake teach her how to use a weapon, its a miracle you survived this long" Bill snapped back
These words started to sink into Joel as now memories rushed back of other difficult times both he and Sarah were in and he made a tough decision he picked up a handgun and walked over to Sarah.
"Look baby girl I think it's high time I teach you how to use a gun" said Joel
He did what he never thought he would have to do he led Sarah to the firing range and began to teach her some basics like aiming properly and how it generally worked and after a while Sarah began to get it actually hitting the target
"I got it" said Sarah feeling happy about herself
"great job kid now just think each shot fired makes noise it will attract more infected and you will be outnumbered, now this is what you need" said Bill as he reached into a bag which he had brought with him he picked out a Bow and a few arrows.
"It's quiet it works and my god reusable ammunition you have no idea how important that is when ammunition is scarce" yelled Bill
Bill demonstrated the bow with lethal efficiency passing it over to Joel who begun to get the basics and lastly even Sarah had a go which turned into a complete disaster when the arrow ended up in the ceiling.
"Yeah I guess it's only reusable when you can get it back" smiled Joel
Bill and Joel continued practising with the bow something both seemed quite keen on whilst Sarah looked around, there didn't seem to be much just a few guns Sarah hovered over Bill's bag intrigued as to what else he had brought with him peering into the bag.
As Joel and Bill discussed a topic of mutual interest something whizzed between them looking over one shoulder they saw the target with unmistakably a crossbow bolt sticking out of its head looking over the other shoulder they saw Sarah holding the crossbow.
"Sorry" said Sarah as she looked down at her feat
"Nice shot" yelled Bill cutting off Joel before he could say anything
Joel looking back over took in just how much of a shot it was and decided to let Sarah shoot a few more bolts to which Sarah seemed excited, surprisingly she seemed fairly decent at it.
"You know what you can keep that crossbow I only picked it up from a hunting store way back its a scouting crossbow anyway so the draw strength is a little less but you won't see any of these infected running around with armour on will ya" said Bill
Joel wanted to turn it down after all Bill was no better than a stranger to but Sarah had taken a real shinning to it so he agreed much to her delight.
"Right so is that all we need" asked Joel
"Yeah but there is one more thing you may like this station still has a working shower" said Bill
"Your kidding right" replied Joel
Joel's interest peaked and his eyes widened he had not had a proper wash in days and neither had Sarah it was an opportunity that could not be passed up. After showering Bill's paranoia got the better of him after Joel mentioned he should come with them
"Oh no It's people like you that are gonna get me killed" shouted Bill
Bill shoved Joel back and slammed the door shut locking Joel and Sarah in a room then he took a large bag of guns in each hand leaving the station he had almost cleared the weapon's locker out leaving next to nothing left. Joel forced his way out
"Dad what happens now" asked Sarah
"Get everything together" replied Joel
Sarah returned the next moment backpack on knife in pocket handgun at her side and the crossbow slung over her shoulder.
Joel strolled through the locker once more and on one shelf laid a revolver Joel picked it up and spun the barrel round.
"Yeah his will do" Joel murmured as he inspected his new favourite weapon, grabbing his gear as well as a bow Bill had left he and Sarah walked to the Door of the station looking out over the street the sun was high in the sky and with many hours to go it seemed to be time to journey on.