"What was that?" Ellie asked. She and Joel both heard the loud explosion, even felt a small amount of the shock wave that came from it.
"I don't know, kiddo. Probably the Fireflies and the military going at it again. C'mon, let's keep moving."
"Are you alright?" Michael groaned.
"Yeah..." Naomi replied, weakly. She opened her eyes and froze, feeling herself heat up in embarrassment. Michael was on top of her. Their bodies were intimately close. Their chests were pressed together, pelvises in contact with each other, his legs were between her's and his lips were so close to her lips that they would touch if she moved even the slightest.
Michael realized this too when he opened his eyes. "Well. This is awkward." He said, chuckling.
"Could you get off of me?" She asked quietly.
He smirked before pushing himself off of her. "I kind of liked it down there." He said, holding out a hand to her.
She took it and pulled herself up, wiping away the dust and the small rocks that were on her. She didn't reply to his comment, nervous that her voice would betray her.
He was amused by her reaction. Her guarded emotions showed whenever something like that happened to them. He might do it more often just to see her get all flustered.
"Let's go," she finally said with a clear voice.
"Where are we headed?"
"We have to restock on supplies, right? The next best stop would have to be one of Joel's clients, Bill."
"Do you know where he is?"
"Yeah, about thirty miles north from here. We should hurry while the sun is just beginning to rise. We can make it there before sunset."
By the time they made it to the outskirts of Bill's town the sun had begun to set. Naomi checked the soil, noticing that there were fresh tracks. One set of prints that closely matched Joel's shoe size... and the smaller set that had to be Ellie's.
"Joel and Ellie were here not too long ago." Naomi said. "We can probably catch up with them if we hurry."
"So tell me about Bill." Michael said as they jogged into the town.
"Well... he's sort of..." she had a hard time finding the right words. "... not in his right mind. Like he's-"
"Crazy." Michael winked.
"Something like that." Naomi giggled.
Evidence that Joel and Ellie had come through the town were everywhere. Planks already placed to cross large gaps, open gates that were originally locked, corpses of Clickers and Runners, even missing parts of a structure due to a bomb of some sort.
"Lot of destruction those two caused," Michael chuckled as he lifted up a chain cranked door for Naomi to get under.
"Well Joel is not known for his subtleties." She said, holding the door for him. When he got through, she let it go and it slammed shut. That was a mistake.
Bill liked to have infected in his town to keep hunters away from it. All kinds of infected too, thankfully no Sirens or other "extremely dangerous" infected.
So much for subtlety.
Naomi and Michael quickly ran into a building that was nearby and barricaded the door shut as infected pounded away at the metal door, shaking the entire foundation.
"We need another way out." Michael said as he tried to keep the barricade from being pushed back.
"This way," Naomi said as she pried open a window with a crowbar. As soon as Naomi was on the other side, Michael bolted into a sprint and dove through the opening, the barricade collapsing behind him. Naomi slammed the window shut before the infected bursted through the door. Before they got to the window, Michael and Naomi were already gone from the vicinity.
They took a moment to catch their breaths in an abandoned bar that had steel doors.
"Bill should be around here somewhere." Naomi said, swallowing her saliva in an attempt to moisturize her dry throat.
"I hate to break it to you," Michael began as he straightened his posture. "But I don't think Bill is alive considering how many infected were back there."
"You sure about that?" Michael heard the pumping of the shotgun before he felt the barrel against his back.
"Hello, Bill," Naomi smiled. It astonished Michael that she was smiling even though there was a shotgun threatening to end his existence.
"Hello, Naomi. Always a pleasure to see you." Naomi was the only person who Bill liked. According to him, she was the only one who had some manners. "Is the pretty boy Firefly with you?"
"Yes, the pretty boy Firefly," she winked at Michael, "is my companion."
Michael relaxed when the shotgun was no longer against his back. Bill had holstered the gun behind his back. "I just saw Joel earlier. He had a girl with him."
"Where are they?" Naomi asked.
"Sorry, kiddo. They left about an hour ago in a pickup truck I helped them fix."
Naomi sighed. They were probably really far ahead of them. How were they going to catch up with them?...
It was like Bill read her mind. "I have a car in the garage that might work for you. I was thinking about letting Joel use it, but that little brat put me in a sour mood that I didn't want her touching it." Bill said, leading the way.
Naomi giggled, "she can be like that at times. But at least you gave them a truck to use."
"I thought I was being too nice too them. Besides they almost got me killed helping them." Bill muttered.
"Here we are." Bill said as he closed the garage door behind him. They were in an abandoned mansion. Inside the garage was a car that was covered. When Bill unveiled it, Michael gasped.
"How the hell did you find this?!" He exclaimed. It was a jet-black 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. From the looks of it, it was restored. The paint job was magnificent and even the leather interior was spotless and looked like it didn't age a single bit. The tires were the best quality possible. Looking under the hood, Michael wanted to faint. Under the hood was an L89 Aluminum Head 396 engine. It had dual carburetors to pump gas into the 376 hp engine.
"I just found it in this garage. Untouched," Bill began. "But the battery is no good and needs to be replaced. And I just gave the one battery that still worked in this town to Joel."
Michael opened the caps on the battery in the Camaro. "Doesn't it just need distilled water?"
"Good luck trying to find that around here. It's probably turned into my piss from drinking it." Bill laughed.
"So this car is useless?" Naomi said.
"Pretty much, unless you guys are willing to get the last gallon of distilled water in a store nearby. It's been surrounded by infected. Not impossible to get through, but one of the infected sons of bitches creeps me out."
Naomi and Michael looked at each other then at Bill. "What did it look like?" She asked.
"Well it had these sword looking blades for arms-"
"Siren." Michael and Naomi said simultaneously.
"The fuck is a Siren?" Bill asked. Naomi explained their encounter with a Siren recently. "Holy shit," he said. "An infected son of a bitch that can think?"
"We don't know if it actually can." Naomi said.
"We blew it up instead of trying to observe and learn." Michael pointed out.
"Well if what you say is true, then let's just blow the fucker up." Bill said.
"I agree." Michael said.
"What about the other infected you mentioned?" She asked.
"Other than one Bloater and a few Clickers, it shouldn't be a problem if we have a well thought out strategy." Bill said.
"Well, let's go then." Naomi said.