Chapter - 7 Graduation
Disclaimer: This chapter contains detailed descriptions of violence
The grey-coloured device often labelled as a 'scanner' had the utility of identifying people who had contracted the infection. It was a really trustable piece of equipment but he knew better, every device could malfunction from time to time giving out false-positive and false-negative results as well.
His gaze was shifting from the scanner lying in his hands to the girl sitting beside him. He noticed the death glare his younger partner was directing towards her, he noticed the cautious look she sported toward the girl as well.
"Is it true? Are you really infected? " he finally asked the question that had been floating in the air all this time.
As he observed her, he knew what was spoken had been correct. There were clear signs of nervousness from her, her hands were fidgeting lightly, she was biting her lower lip a bit and her expression showed flusteredness as well. It was as good as any verbal confirmation.
"You can't lie. Tell them the truth, no point in doing this the hard way." The guy sitting across her suggested as he rested his jaw on the knuckles of his hand.
*sigh* A look of resignation rose on her face. "Yes, I am infected. But it's not any scheme, it's not any trick. Marlene does not want to kill you. She didn't bring this up in your negotiations because even insane folks would have never agreed to smuggle out someone who's infected.
But you have to understand I am not like the other infected." her voice carried an apologetic tone
Joel flinched as he heard her confession, Tess had already drawn out her gun but she did not aim it at her. She just held it in case she had to use it.
"And how can we trust anything you or what your friend has said? Believe it or not, I am that insane guy that would have smuggled out an infected person for the right motivation and for the right pay. It's only later on the person loses their brain and themselves entirely. I can respect and carry out wishes for an infected who's a human. After all, it's basically their final request.
So don't go out throwing blanket statements. What I can't get behind is manipulating me. Your words hold no merit to me." He was awfully calm considering she had admitted she was infected.
'I'd take it. This was significantly better than any best-case scenario I had in my mind. I have to tell them the truth... I have to. They're the first person after Marlene who might just get it.
"Well, I am not, J! Didn't you hear her she's infected. She's INFECTED for heaven's sake. What are we even doing here? Look, I have done a lot of stupid shit but this is insanity! " she was displeased to put it lightly by his nonchalant manner of reaction.
Joel's attention was divided between the conversation itself and observing her. More specifically he was looking out for any spontaneous infected behavior from her. "Tell me why did you keep quiet about this? What the hell were you thinking you should have informed us back when you found out."
"We had no time to lose in those situations. In addition, I was always keeping an eye on her. I would have handled her anytime the moment I evaluated her condition was starting to go down. Either way prior warning or not you would have killed her as well if she started to turn and there was another reason that made me withhold this information temporarily."
Ellie quietly listened while they conversed. It was important for her to intervene but she wanted them to get out their initial responses so that they could actually process what she had to say and not merely discard it. Her life depended on it. They might actually kill her or leave her if they did not put proper emphasis on her words.
"And what other reason it might be? " Tess enquired.
"The timing. It doesn't make sense. The timing is off."
"How is it off? Weren't you the one that suggested Marlene had to do it this way?"
"No, I am not about talking Marlene here. I am talking about her. She's infected but her timing is off. Think about it why isn't she losing her head already and I mean that literally? Besides her irritating personality, I can't find anything erratic about her. Normally 8 hours in, an infected person looks like a drug addict who's done all the drugs in the world at once, coughs out blood, suffers hallucinations, mass paranoia, and significant loss in weight. 10 hours in, they lose a lot of motor controls, 12 hours in they're hardly human. 16 hours and they've officially been turned.
This is what's bothering about the crux of this matter. What's the trick here? Did she get false positives multiple times? Is Marlene tricking us into thinking that she's infected but she isn't and instead of eliminating us she wants us to handle her? Maybe her target is the girl but she's too high profile so she is manipulating us into doing her dirty work. I can't figure out what's the truth here."
Both Tess and Joel were surprised by how in-depth he had analyzed the situation. They were relieved as well regarding how he had assessed possible threats to the group. They were racking their brains as well for the possible correct answer that fit all they now knew.
'This is it. I have to use it. It's a lifesaver that he's so sharp on the uptake.'
"That's because it's none of it. It's none of those possible situations you have been running in your head. " she clearly commented but was still a bit nervous for even her own liking.
"Then tell me, miss infected. What's the actual situation here ?"
"I am immune. I AM IMMUNE TO THE CORDYCEPS INFECTION."
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Frozen. Everyone's expression was frozen in utter bafflement. Everybody just stared at her as if she had grown another head.
*hahahahaha...haha...* " I swear the hunger is making me hear things that weren't said. Hey, Joel what did she say actually? I misheard her, I heard her say she was immune to the infection. (✿ㆁ△ㆁ). "
"Tess, she did say she's immune to it. Don't delude yourself. Although it might easily be her deluding herself. J, you said she isn't experiencing any symptoms pretty sure delusion is one of them." Joel spoke seriously.
"You guys are the worst. The absolute worst. (✿╬ Ò﹏Ó)" she stomped her foot and pouted like a little child as she saw nobody believed her words.
"Look...I'll show you." she rolled her sleeve, there was a nasty bite mark on her right arm. The wound looked stitched but there were small blisters around the bite mark.
"It's 4 months old. " she extended her arm so others could have a clear view. "It's a 4-month-old bite mark. I never turned. I don't know how that's possible but I am immune to the infection."
Another abrupt wave of freezing silence emerged after her last statement. This time nobody even tried to play it off as a joke. Her statement had turned out legitimate and as if a monster rearing its ugly maw it had transformed the situation into something intensely serious and dire. The possibility she could have been immune was something no one could have considered in their wildest dreams.
"Can it be? Can it be..." Tess was pacing back and forth repeatedly uttering the possibility of this under her breath.
Joel took a seat and placed his hands on his face. "It doesn't make sense. I can't buy it. This is ...IMPOSSIBLE. Millions of attempts by the largest powers couldn't find the solution and you're telling me a walking example is sitting right beside me." his voice was laced with confusion, self-reasoning, acceptance and suspicion. She had thrown everyone for a loop. No one could correlate her answer with the reality they knew of.
She looked at the guy who had forced her hand, she couldn't determine whether he was taking it better than his comrades or worse. His face was a portrait of seriousness, the frown on him was indicating suspicion but his glare towards her had changed. It was more earnest than the previous cold uncaring one. He was alternating between looking at the ground and towards her. His foot tapped infrequently.
"What should we do? I can't make out what is our plan of action here. "Tess had stopped at some point and took a seat near J.
"Ellie, assuming you're telling us the truth which I am inclined to believe you are. Thanks to his indirect proof that your behavior was too far off the typical infected and if Marlene is not deceiving us. What was her plan? Let's just say that if we deliver you to the Fireflies as promised, what's the bigger goal here? "
"Too many if's for my comfort." Joel sneakily added in.
"Thank you for believing me, Tess. I promise you Marlene is not tricking you guys. I stayed with her for 3 months within that duration she made some medics from her camp run some tests on me. They did some preliminary level of test cases that were possible with the limited level of equipment they had.
They checked whether blood transfusion from me spread the infection. It turned out negative.
They did a spore tolerance test on me. They said that was the most shocking test. Apparently, I breathed in enough spores that could infect thousands of people. Still nothing.
They also did something called 'clicker poison'. Honestly, initially, I reacted badly to it. I fell ill But in the next run and the consequent runs where they increased the dosage. I was still totally fine.
That's when she knew and I knew that this was real. Marlene intends for me to be moved into the secure home base where they have the best possible medical equipment.
She says I am the best chance of saving humanity. I don't know how true that statement is but I trust her. I trust her words that I might be the key to a cure. " her voice was gentle as if filled with hope, there was determination reflecting in her eyes.
'She's telling the truth or what she was made to believe. There's no deception on her part at least.' Joel ruminated about the words spoken to her.
"Explains why she tasked her to us. She waited, running tests and confirming her immunity but then she was left incapable. The fireflies caught too much heat and we were the only viable options left to her. " Joel addressed his thoughts towards their younger partner who had yet to speak a word from the moment she had claimed she was immune.
"Also explains, why she tricked us. She can't exactly go around telling everybody she meets that the girl under her guardianship is a possible cure to all the shit that has ever happened to humans. She'd be attacked relentlessly, abducted and treated like a piece of sample. " Tess joined in Joel's explanation.
"I feel we have to do this job. We aren't exactly selfless but this changes things. Danger or not our actions could change possibly everything the future holds. I vote we carry this job as promised." she spoke earnestly.
"As much as I want to say I don't believe the girl. My analysis of her is pointing out that she has spoken of what she knows. I also vote to finish this job albeit we should be cautious of a possible trap.
It might just turn out Marlene intends to silence us once we deliver her the girl but it could easily be she intends to do nothing. After all, we are her benefactors in a sense as we helped her out on her down low. What's your thought?" Joel addressed him.
*sigh* "It's pretty much decided then. What's there left to think? I got to ask her somethin' then we're good to go."
Ellie nodded upon hearing him. Inwardly she breathed a sigh of relief. It was clear they believed in the facts of the matter and weren't keen on eliminating her just out of paranoia. She was ready for his question.
"Tell me, which infected bit you ?"
She felt a little uncomfortable at his line of questioning. The person who bit her was a sore topic for her. She wasn't expecting him to ask about that.
"I don't care who bit you. I am asking what stage of infected bit you." he reconstructed his question better as he saw her flinch a little.
"Newly infected. She had just turned when she bit me."
"Hn. I see.
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That's all. We'll get you where you need to go. We're done here. Tess make sure to squeeze that Queen firefly's pockets dry. Technically, it's still sabotage she misled us and lied about the priority and value of the consignment.
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Let's go short rest is over. " Tess dipped her head in agreement and then the group moved out. Him in the front, Tess behind him, then her and Joel in the rear.
They climbed the broken bridge. As Ellie was climbing up she noticed an utterly rusted board. The green color had turned almost brown, she saw what looked like a '93' on it.
"Why is there a 93 written on the board ?"
"It's a route board." Joel commented offhandedly as he helped her climb up.
"What's a route board ?" she asked maintaining small talk. There was so much she always found interesting but alas, she wasn't surrounded by many people who knew how things were before the outbreak.
"Take a guess, the answer is the name itself."
"So it tells which route you are on."
"Yes, before the outbreak we had so many roads that were extremely well connected that folks needed proper markings to find their way about. Now most of the roads like these are broken in places or completely decommissioned."
They stood at the intersection of what used to be a massive connected road which was now bombed to hell and broken at numerous places. Everywhere the eye could go everything was broken, buildings collapsed some were bombed and the rest of it was overtaken by nature. The devastation was almost too much to be even described.
The warehouse-esque building in front of them which was about three storeys high and quite long had been bisected in half horizontally. She could make out the original length because the corner of the building had somehow survived and remained standing. The building next to it on the right side was in a similar situation if not worse. Reduced to half the length with rubble everywhere on the destroyed roads, completely cutting off the path.
The glass facade skyscrapers she could see in the distance were all crashed side by side into each other. The one behind it had fallen over the next which was half collapsed onto an array of other relatively small buildings.
Another glass facade building on their left hand had evidently fallen completely horizontally and then sunk into the busted road, making the bottom part of the building rise into the air while the top part had gone underground. The upper Portion of a clock tower building was resting on it as the remaining part watchfully stood right straight next to it.
She spun around hoping to find any physical structure that was left standing but she couldn't spot any. Complete annihilation was what it was. Everywhere, she could see was just utter ruin, broken, in disrepair and dilapidated.
"The only thing good about it is the greenery. That's about it." Tess commented.
"What the hell? How ?" everything she was witnessing was aiding her to broaden her horizons.
'So this is outside huh? It makes the quarantine zones look like paradise. There's nothing standing here. Nothing left that has not been destroyed in some way. What is this? People came from here? It's no wonder he was irritated when I said living outside with your dignity was better. There is nothing here to "live" in or for, so how could one can? Pretty sure that just watching the landscape and endlessly trying to survive here is enough for many to commit suicide.
This is a dead zone. Is everywhere dead like this place?'
It was the stuff of actual horrors to witness such massive-scale destruction. Combined with the dark hours of the night, the entire area emanated a coldness. It screamed of loneliness and melancholy as it hid its fangs of terror and death waiting for its next prey to come to it, which she felt was them.
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"Yo Joel, where to? I am dead lost. Do you have any idea where to." he asked him as he scratched his head lightly.
"Yeah, let me think. So the original exit would have left us southwest to the quarantine zone and then from there, we had to move in the same direction going west.
But with our minor run-in with border security. I calculate we have gone way east. " He was moving his arms pointing to the directions he was talking about. "Let's head straight towards the clock tower first. We need to make our way through those collapsed skyscrapers in the distance, towards the far right. "
"Good call. Let's go." He jumped into the shallow trench in the front. The group quietly trudged midway their way through the messed-up road. It took roughly five times more than the actual effort and time required.
"Joel ! " he gestured using a sideway nod indicating to boost him up to the surface. He climbed up and helped in pulling up the rest of the group one by one. They entered the building to their left and continued to go in a straightforward manner retaining their formation.
"Uh... why are we going through these buildings? pretty sure we could have simply continued following the previous path. That leads to the clock tower all the same. " she voiced out her question.
"I mean Ellie do you still want to be out in the rain ?" the woman in front of her replied in a benign tone.
"Uh... I get that it's just that we were already soaked from head to toe and this looks like a longer route. If we run into a closed wall then we'll have to look for some opening. Fortunately, everything is levelled to hell so there won't be any shortage of routes I guess." She replied as she maintained her pace.
"Hmm...Reasonable, I guess. Here's some free life-saving advice for you, kid. Don't ever take the road unless you're really forced or the situation is too damn urgent. "
He could feel her incoming question already so he chose to pre-emptively answer it. "Because it's too open. Even if you ignore the possibility of hundreds of potential traps and ambushes by other people, you're still too vulnerable. You could easily be flooded by infected from all directions, an infected horde. You could be sniped or easily spotted. You have no protection in an open space.
The buildings are better as they give some sort of isolation, they restrict off infected and provide passive cover against hunters and since they're numerous, trapping them is a very ineffective method as you can't cover all."
"I ...I see. I never considered that." she replied in a soft voice. The group halted as soon as the lead stopped. A single glance from him was all it took, suddenly Joel came slightly in front of Ellie, Tess moved up to J's right and pulled her rifle.
"Joel, how many ?" she asked him.
"Roughly 12 maybe 15. Not so sure."
"I'll take care of it. Maintain position. Tess fire as you see fit." He pulled out his machete as he crouched down and picked up a huge rock from the floor in his left hand.
'What the hell is he doing? You have guns, just use them! ' she silently watched as he moved forward uncaringly. She had a suspicion he'd say something cool like "go to hell " to the infected or exchange a few words with his team before he dived into action. But nothing of that sort happened. He continued to move forward silently till he reached the room entrance.
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He stopped as he threw the rock with an impressive swing.
*splash* In a blink of an eye the rock had flown and hit true at an infected's head completely caving it in as it fell to the ground. There was no pause, he had rushed in running as the rest of the infected screeched registering the commotion, recognizing the source and charging at him.
He reached the infected close to the fallen one as he swung his machete completely bisecting it from his left shoulder to the right waist. He hopped back as he evaded a claw from his immediate left. He grabbed the claw using his left hand and turned himself in towards it as he swung his machete in a clean horizontal arc instantly beheading it.
He did not lose hold of its body as he placed himself behind it using it as a shield and effectively blocking a straight claw strike that dug into its fellow infected's body. Simultaneously, J thrust his machete in a straight line piercing the infected's face as it completely went through the other side. He could feel the slight struggle suggesting he had sliced the brain of the infected.
He instantly withdrew the machete and ran to the other end making them chase him. He could not allow himself to be surrounded, constant moving and maintaining distance was key to handling numbers.
*thit...thit...thit...thit* he heard firing as he delivered a brutal back-kick to another one launching it a few paces back. He turned back moving slightly as he received an incoming arm of the infected simultaneously he rotated in the same direction flipping the infected in a judo throw followed by a downward thrust of his machete into it's exposed face.
He removed it and rushed forward as he pierced the infected he had kicked earlier. He delivered a straight leg kick breaking its knee cap and like prior he drove his machete right into its face and retrieved it back as quickly.
He swung his machete in a crescent slash as he cut the entire leg of another one that had rushed him. The machete was in and out of it before it could completely fall on its knees. He delivered a sidekick to the falling body making it fall in front of another infected rushing from the right. It served its purpose as it tripped and fell right into the point of his blade. The machete went up from his chin to right past his skull with no resistance whatsoever.
He flung the machete throwing off the infected as half of its face ripped out. He ran towards the two remaining as he threw his machete into the right one while he crouch-dived a swing by the other. Simultaneously, pulling his weapon out that was lodged into the throat of the one he had aimed at.
He delivered a sweep kick to it as-
*tihit* a bullet went through as the infected went limp and it fell to the floor. He gazed up at the shooter as he rose from the ground, the machete clutched perfectly in his dominant right hand.
His gaze was met back with a questioning look. "What? I thought you were taking your time so I helped you out." His gaze moved from Tess to the two slightly in the back. He nodded slightly, a delayed nod to her answer before he started moving towards the corner that was completely exposed to the rainfall.
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Her irises were flickering as she kept track of his motions. At some point her mouth had gone dry, she could taste fear as she gulped and tried to retain some moisture in her mouth. She could feel some sweat rolling down her forehead, her hands felt clammy and the tingle in her toes was positively horror. How could she not? She was witnessing an absolute slaughter. The guy was killing infected at such a fast pace in an insane manner, one she had never witnessed before.
His movements felt connected bleeding fluidly into each other, his swings were ruthless. His mannerism was imposing. The sheer violence he invoked was deeply disturbing to her.
'What the hell? He is a MONSTER. Who is this? is he the same person who she was bantering with a few hours prior ?...
No! This is the true him. Is the entire rest of the world filled with people like him? Is this what it takes to survive out here? No, it can't be...' She watched silently as the fight started to come to an end. Her legs were void of their strength as she saw his gaze move from Tess towards them.
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"Get over it. This is what it takes.." she heard Joel as he gave her a light pat on her shoulder before he indicated to join the group.
"Is ...it? Is it what it takes ? " she looked up to him beckoning him to answer as she showed no signs of moving.
*sigh* "No, he's just a bit more scary. " he commented before walking forward no longer giving her the choice of selection. She nodded and followed him finding her courage.
"Well, you certainly look rattled." She commented as she looked at Ellie. Her arms were folded as she leaned on a pillar displaying her easiness even after a tense situation. She waved her to come near her.
"Don't worry it happened to me as well. Frankly, Joel's the weird one he never changed his expression. After the fear wears off, you'll feel more safe. After all, he is on our side. We fight together." Tess whispered in her ear as she leaned down.
She smiled a bit receiving a few words of comfort. 'Frankly, I feel safer with Tess. She's so bright and welcoming.'
"Did you finish ?" She called out to J while her hands were still placed over Ellie's shoulder.
"Don't be impatient Tess and don't move." his voice was partially drowned as he was rinsing his hair in the natural shower provided by mother nature.
"Uh...is he a clean freak or something ? " she asked the two of them in a lowered voice.
*pfft* "No, of course not. You have to get the blood off though..." she replied to her while holding off her grin. Apparently, her oblivious query had elicited a small chuckle out of her.
"He is not a clean freak but he definitely is paranoid. Unfortunately, that is not something exclusive to him. Kid, you can forget to brush your teeth but don't forget to wash off all the infected blood.
Our natural tolerance has been increased but even a drop of blood can make you sick for weeks and if somehow you manage to consume a mere teaspoon of it. Congrats you just graduated from being a human. Your new job profile involves being a host to a friendly infection of mushrooms."
"Did you forget the part where she claimed herself as humanity's miracle and laughed at us, calling us plebs?" A fourth voice had joined their conversation.
"Wait what? I never said that..." Ellie voiced out as she felt upset at the obvious slander of her. She turned to look towards him only to see him thrust the machete in the face of the dead infected and twist it.
Unfortunately, her gaze had fallen to the infected's face which was half humanoid. Half of it was a woman's face and the other half was covered with a weird mutation, fungus growing out of it. Overall, it was a hideous-looking creature and then she had seen dreadful black viscous liquid fall out of it once he had stabbed it.
She closed her eyes reflexively. "Uh...aren't they dead now? What are you stabbing them all over."
Her reply was not met by him as he silently moved on repeating the same process to the next infected body.
"He's being sure. Open your eyes, Ellie. These are things you should get used to as fast as you can. " Tess replied as she placed some pressure in her grip to assuage her anxiousness.
"Always make sure to stab them in their vitals again. Better if you just decapitate them. Sometimes you think you killed them but they have some fight left in them. Remember a decent scratch is all it takes for you to become its brethren. " Joel warned her in a monotonous voice.
She watched him as he moved to another body lying on the floor but this one was different it was still writhing. It was the one he had bisected in half cleanly. 'Even after all that damage, it can still move? They are correct, the infected are vicious and tenacious.' She watched as the machete went into it and came out snatching away any sign of remnant life in the creature.
"Let's move." He called out as he cleaned his blade with a clean rag and threw it away.
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The group encountered similar situations a few more times that were handled in the same exact manner as the first. They finally reached their current assigned destination.
"Woah..." She had to strain her neck to look up. The two twin towers that had collapsed into each other invoked a sense of awe in her. Watching something so gigantic be brought down expressed a sense of power she could not fathom. Everything slightly before the tower had absolutely been wrecked and the rubble weirdly formed a natural ramp towards them.
'What the hell happened here ?' Ellie silently wondered to herself.
"Where to Joel? " He glanced back towards the rear while the middle pack contended with exploring by trying to take in the entire view from where they were standing.
"Where else do you think we can go?" He grunted at the indirect answer he was provided with and continued to move forwards and up the ramp. They saw a roughly 10-floor drop at the top of the natural ramp where the road came to an abrupt end.
'Woah...woah...' Ellie saw a small pebble fall through and disappear into the dark crater. "So how did these buildings go down? They seemed pretty sturdy and too damn tall to collapse with a normal level of bombing? "
"Tomahawk…"
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"What? You know that you aren't audible all the way back right?" ironically her reply also came out in an equally soft voice.
"Aaah…. Whatever. I said Tomahawk, the army used the Tomahawk cruise missiles to bomb the surrounding area. What you see is caused by collateral damage and not directly. Over the years they must have done their routine shelling until they ran out."
"That's news to me as well. I didn't know that, always thought it was caused by the regular shelling. Well, technically it was partially responsible for it. J, do you think they consider Boston quarantine as something special?" Tess asked adding her little nugget of curiosity to the conversation as she followed him into the barely standing half-tilted skyscraper through a broken window.
"Yes and No. Boston is a pivotal QZ. It is a key foothold for recovering everything lost around it. Whether it is Vermont, Maine, New York, or the rest. Plus…"
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The conversation had come to an abrupt close due to the guy in the front who had cut his words short.
'Plus what? Is he gonna leave us in the middle of it?' before she could enquire the cause of the awkward pause she and Joel had caught sight of what Tess and him and been looking at.
The conversation ender was a mangled corpse of military personnel. Next to his body a warning of 'infected inside' had been written on the wall in red.
"Body looks pretty fresh" Tess commented as she angled her head a little.
"He probably wrote that warning in his own blood." Joel contributed his own little observation.
"Yeah…..agreed." He acknowledged both of their assessment as he bent down to search the corpse.
'Some ammo…useless gun - the trigger is broken. Let's see… military id - could prove useful….A map? Now we are in business."
"Joel, catch. A souvenir for us by our good friend here." He said as he rolled the map and tossed it back without turning.
'No respect for the dead huh? Firefly or otherwise." Although not accustomed as the rest of the three her sensibility was rapidly adjusting to the callous external stimulus that was being thrown at her reality as if to shatter her very mind itself. She was increasingly becoming numb and coping better with situations. Also, the fact that she held no involvement in this particular death made her slightly more impervious to it.
No words were further exchanged as the group silently progressed at their usual pace cautious of the looming threat. The light from their flashlights was the only source that was dimly illuminating the pathways. They moved down the broken staircase and encountered a seemingly dead clicker that was lying directly against the door. The door frame and some portion of the wall had been smeared in an unidentifiable amalgamation likely made up of blood, spore and other fluids.
"Fuckin gross…What type of infected is this?" Ellie commented while keeping her nose pinched. Tess had turned her head away as well. The horrible stench proved to be a bane to half of their group.
In a flash J, had soccer kicked the head off the corpse as it detached and went whistling to the right and directly out of the window. He then launched another kick at it throwing the body sideways to their left. Rather than opening the door he had cleared he started walking towards the right.
"That was a dead clicker, kiddo, and an awfully rotten one. Fucking smells like Sulphur and rotten eggs." Even he was feeling queasy as he had smelled it a bit before he held his breath. He watched quietly as J returned with a piece of wood in his hand. He took out his lighter and lit it on fire and tossed it towards the door.
They moved back as they saw the flames work their way up before erupting and engulfing the door and the contaminated portion of the wall. While the fire was busy purifying the door the smoke from it had already started to clear up the foul stench.
"At least the smoke is bearable, unlike that horrid smell. I had almost pulled out my gas mask." Tess aired out her thoughts as Ellie vigorously nodded in agreement followed by small nods by the other two. J turned the knob of the now blackened door and jerked it open.
"Clickers five levels down." His gaze shifted back as he waited for further information from the tracker of the team.
"I'd say about 8 of them." He nodded in acknowledgement and moved inside the room. The majority of the rooms were half collapsed due to the fall of support and main beams that had destroyed the floors and now served as makeshift ladders for descending.
They carefully went down to lower floors while maintaining their balance with J holding Tess's hand in case she fell and Joel doing the same for Ellie. The beams were slightly too vertical for their comfort however the group made it down.
*click* *click* *click* *click*. The eerie rattling of the clickers had become clearly audible as they closed in.
"Is it why they're called clickers?" *shhh…*
Her question was met with a harsh indication of silence by the lead as they continued to close in the distance.
"Ellie, speak in whispers. The clickers are extremely sensitive to sound and yes this is why they are named clickers. That weird sound they emit, they use it as echolocation. They're blind. They see through sound." Tess whispered lightly to her as they took cover behind the wall of the room that housed their angry guests.
J, moved very lightly as he peeked from the door frame assessing the situation.
*click* *click* *click*
"They're scattered. " He declared his assessment in a hushed tone as he bent down and opened his backpack rummaging for something.
"Sniper up." He beckoned for Joel as he filled some black dust from a dull green bullet container and some bullets in a piece of cloth and tied it. Meanwhile, Joel had reached him and taken a knee supporting his rifle against the door frame. He pulled the bolt back ejecting the orange bullet from his rifle. He leaned his cheek into the stock and was adjusting the scope since the zoom was preset to maximum range.
"Joel, are you able to locate the cooking exhaust near the stove?" J took out a black coloured wick and inserted half of the length into a compact plastic tube and placed it in the cloth ball such that the exposed part of the wick was outside of the ball. He then proceeded to tie the ends of the formed cloth ball with a strong thread.
"Yeah, I have eyes on it." The sniper responded in the affirmative.
"Good. On my countdown I need you to shoot it. Make enough noise so that all clickers gather around that puddle right next to that stove. Proceed to take them out at your own pace once I rush in. Tess cover the rear and make sure Joel doesn't get blindsided from the back."
He got up and went to the opposite side of the door end and proceeded to take out his lighter. "Okay. On my count…5…4….3…" He saw Joel take a deep breath as he completely honed in. He went perfectly still as he leaned slightly closer to the scope.
"2….1...GO…go…go" *thiik….* *thiik…* *thik…* He fired in a burst of three. Two at that exhaust and the last at the stove. *click*…..*clikkkkk* ….*clllliik*
Various screeches emerged as the clickers began to run in the direction of the exhaust. J immediately lit the wick on fire as he waited two seconds before chucking it right at the puddle. He pulled out his machete as he saw the cloth ball fly into the air with the wick on fire toward all the clickers that had congregated at the stove and were going crazy.
"Burn bitches….." he muttered as the exposed wick disappeared and the cloth ball landed on the puddle. *BOOM…..* *boom…* There was a loud bang as the ball exploded and the puddle set on fire immediately setting all the clickers on fire as well.
*CLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK….* *Ye…..byah…* *byah…byah…* The clickers emitted horrible noises as they were being incinerated. They went completely berserk as they ran around some even attacking others. A few of them ran towards the exposed side of the roof towards the rain.
J rushed in immediately as he saw the intensity of the blaze decrease. Like a ghost, he was in front of a burning clicker as he thrust his machete directly into its face and without a missed beat he diagonally sliced it out extracting half of its face. The upward swing transitioned into a downward decapitating strike as he blocked a claw strike of another burning clicker using his left taking it's head off cleanly.
There was no pause as his downward strike turned into a horizontal thrust as he lunged forward at another burning body. It directly pierced its chest. He immediately rotated on his heels twisting the machete as it thrusted upwards from its chest to his skull completely bisecting it into two.
*thhiiik…* *thiik…* *thiik…* *thiik…* *thiik…* He could hear Joel silently making progress as well.
He rolled as he dodged another ablaze body from the direction he had turned to while simultaneously sweeping his machete at it's left ankle completely severing it. He plunged his machete in a reverse grip directly into it's face as the clicker fell due to lack of footing. It all happened in a second, he was already up as he swung his machete diagonally left severing the hand of another clicker and pushing it backwards. He instantly switched his footwork engaging another clicker. He dodged backwards as he slashed his machete upwards realizing the cut was too shallow.
He instantly flipped the machete using his fingers in a reverse grip and converted the upwards slash into a horizontal stab, stabbing it's head. He took a step closer to the body before violently pivoting away generating tremendous momentum. His machete came out ripping most of its head out while the body flew towards the clicker he had previously severed the arm of. Taking advantage of the created impediment he decapitated the remaining clicker.
"It's done." Joel called out as he eased up on his stance and started to change his mags while J continued his routine of getting rid of the blood on his machete and on himself.
"Let's go…
.
What? You got something to say to me?" He posed the question to Ellie as he briefly noticed the minor tremors made by her clenched fist. She shook her head in refusal conveying she had nothing to inquire or say.
"Yeah…Let's move." Tess sliced up the tension by acting as the usual intermediary. She moved forward delivering a playful jab to his shoulder as she leaned and whispered something to him.
"Ease up on her. Don't break her by overwhelming her." Outwardly he displayed no reaction as he proceeded to silently overtake her and recapture his lead position. They gradually made it all the way down.
"Let's take a short water break. My ankles are on fire." Tess called out as she hopped up to sit on a stone slab atop a huge fallen concrete pillar. She beckoned Ellie to come and sit next to her as she patted the empty spot next to her while hinting at her via a head gesture. She extended a hand to her as she helped her up.
Joel decided to rest on a broken desk as he took out the map he had received and began to study it. J sat on a relatively flat boulder directly opposite Joel. He made himself busy by untying his boots and getting rid of any gravel that may have made its way inside.
"Any more down and I am sure we'll find a fuckin bunker or something. " She commented as she sipped water from her canteen and offered it to Ellie.
"Not sure about a bunker but we do have to go through a service tunnel. "
"What type?" He enquired as he moved towards Joel. He bent down trying to look at the map.
"See this…Here this tunnel runs all the way through there. Then we go up here and there's the subway. The subway runs to this museum and there's the assigned drop point couple of streets away. It's a pretty linear path from here." He spoke as he saw J walk away from him while rubbing his eyes.
Suddenly, he caught something that was thrown at him from his left. He lowered his gaze to view the object. It was a water canteen. He looked at the culprit who was making an upset face at him.
"Something is up. What's wrong…?" Tess asked him. Clearly, something had made the bells go off in her mind related to him.
"That subway…" he paused as he drank water.
"Might be a hotspot for the infected but it's still safer. Nothing we can't handle in my estimation." Joel completed the sentence for him as he watched him sit back.
"Hmmm…" he hummed at his response not contributing anything more to the conversation.
"Geez….Just say it. Enough with the antics."
.
'Oh shit. I said it aloud.' All eyes were on Ellie as she fidgeted a bit clearly uncomfortable with a sudden shift of attention.
*hahaha…*"You're not fooling anyone J. Just spit it out."
*sigh* "Yeah…whatever. I had to tell you eventually sooner or Later. Might as well have this conversation now. That subway Joel advised to take will be clear." All three had a look of suspicion as they heard his claim.
"And what makes you so sure of that?" Joel questioned him.
"Isn't it obvious why he is so sure of it? Coz he was the one who cleared it. The real question is why? Would you care to shed some light on that J?" Tess asked in a soft gentle tone but there was something off, although she had an affable smile, the smile was one of the most fakest he had ever seen.
'Oi…oi…what's with that weird smile tactic. Stop it woman, it's scary…... I think I just saw a glimpse of why she can't get married.'
"It was a job."
"For who?" Joel asked in a concise manner.
"For Frank."
"Frank? As in Franklin Rivers? Are you insane? You know exactly who that scumbag is. "She was clearly frustrated and shocked. She proceeded to jump down from her position and started pacing around him in circles. Her index finger constantly rubbed against her eyebrow.
"If I may? J, What's the bigger purpose here? Why did you work for him? You know that guy right? Fuckin filthy power-hungry oppressive right hand of the Defence counsellor. In his case, the rumours are said to be more benevolent than the actual person." Joel joined in the questioning as well simultaneously taking some steam off the conversation.
"He had something crucial so I cut a deal with him. My end of the deal was to handle the subways so I did." He responded to him in his usual calm and monotonous manner completely unfrayed.
"A deal. Oh great...A deal with that SLIMY BASTARD. I thought I was in charge of negotiations! If you really wanted to make a deal with him you could have come to me or what am I not useful to you anymore? Are you leaving the group or what." Tess vented out as she stopped her frantic circling and looked him straight in the eyes.
'Oh shit... the group is imploding on itself. What did this guy do behind their backs? Tess said, Franklin Rivers ? and Joel mentioned him as the right-hand man of the defence counsellor. Doesn't that mean he is a big shot?' She silently observed the situation while trying to decode some of the underlying problems.
"Calm down otherwise eventually you'll end up having wrinkles and grey hair." He responded to her allegation casually as he supported his chin on his knuckles.
'Bruh (✿⊙︿⊙ ) ...Did he just say that to her face?' She felt a bit speechless at the nerve of the guy as she observed Tess's eyebrow twitching. Clearly, she was certainly quite unhappy with the response her genuine concern had been met with.
"Is-is that so...?" Tess's hands were shaking as she made up a fist and raised it to his eye level. Before she could speak or act out on her intentions he intervened again.
"You think too much. It needed to be done and he's too dirty for you to deal with and Joel is just fuckin lazy. "
'Oi...why is it ok for you to throw me under the bus, huh ?' Joel's outward reply was a disinterested grunt as he decided to take the uncalled hit to progress the conversation.
"So what's the end result you were hoping for ?" Tess enquired a bit pacified by his clear-cut answer.
"Your graduation..."
"eh ?" "What?" "huh?" his answer was met with three different exclamations of confusion.
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Additional Reading Navigation:
1. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx – a) stream of 'x' indicates scene break (Narration or Flashback.)
b) Indicates a major lapse in time from a few minutes to hours. It's a dynamic allocation of time. I trust the readers are sensible enough to create practical time frames. As 'within 5 min, within 2 min, within 20 min' every few lines would be just ugly writing (Previously it was ' = ' sign)
2. ... - stream of vertical dots indicates a lapse in time or shift to a concurrent view of a different character within the same time-lapse.
3. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz – stream of 'z' is only meant for text styling. It holds no significance whatsoever besides decorating text or data.
Meta-data about the story:
1. Also, point of clarification: the story characters are strictly modelled after game characters, not the TV series Last of Us. No disrespect to TV series actors but they don't have the grit the game characters did. Game Joel is a beast, he is menacing and he has a severe case of old man strength. Game Ellie is a firecracker, she has a salty mouth and she is extremely feisty. Their personality matches their physical characters perfectly. There is this sharpness in their features which was missing in the TV series actors.
2. Now you know J is an insane fighter. The only thing I will confirm is his fighting style is not the norm.
3. There's a logical deduction in the different tactics he applied. I didn't just describe them to give variation. Pretty sure you can analyze it but in case I'll make sure Ellie enquires about it to provide you with a better understanding.
4. About J's sword technique (since it can be hard for readers to imagine the actual step process). It's highly derivative of sword techniques from Demon Slayer and Sekiro: shadow dies twice.
His move set will be heavily modelled after them coz, in my opinion, they have some awesome sword parries and techniques.
Currently, J is kind of like Tanjiro in season 1 in his sword techniques. Let's just say there are too many that can easily poke holes in his technique. However, the technique should not be mistaken for overall strength though.
5. Place where they are standing when J was asking for directions from Joel initially. : 42.360857, -71.053739 (google the coordinates).
Author's Note of Pessimism(ㅠ﹏ㅠ): I apologize for taking so much time unfortunately I have a lot of work to do. I am beginning to realize how awesome real authors are. As a person who's just a casual writer as a hobby. I am struggling so hard to write stuff. I am completely amazed at how true writers write so much. I suck at writing. It reads like a logical individual statement none of it feels connected and smooth.
Still trying my best. Also don't know when I can get the next chapter up but it would be a small one. I always try to close on some minor suspense.
