Big Daddy, he's SO FATHERRR
Preface: Ellie and Joel have been joined in a mall by a strange Tyrant infected creature calling itself Troy. [They don't know it's a Tyrant, but now, dear reader, you do.] They're in Colorado, headed to an airport bunker.
Current Objective: For Joel to teach Ellie relationship dynamics that will keep her alive; and also to keep his stuff together-for Ellie's sake.
Further background: Now Joel has to figure out how to keep them both alive and in one piece with this predator here. The Tyrant is 9 feet tall, with espresso coffee bean skin and sabre claws attached to his palms. He doesn't wear a shirt, but he does wear custom military cargopants. He has thick talons on his feet. Joel knows [but won't consciously admit to himself yet] that a pistol isn't gonna kill this thing.
Ellie and Joel hustled out of the parking lot. Troy dropped to all fours and walked up and down the cars around them. He would peek under them at times. Joel and Ellie saw him poke his claw through a broken window and drag out a fungoid creature, slightly so that it was hanging out.
Joel switched to the other side of Joel as they walked past it, a huge hole in the center of its face.
"How many times did he kill me in there Joel?" Ellie asked, panicking slightly.
"I lost count." Joel looked behind them instinctively, as Troy paced the grass at the edge of the parking lot slowly. They heard him giggling.
"He was definitely counting." Ellie said. She saw Troy nodding and start to traipse towards the lake.
The land was flat, and so visibility was quite good, even with the large trees spotting everywhere.
"Your brain is still developing…all the way up until maybe 25? Something like that" Joel said. "So you couldn't have known Ellie, not yet, you see? He was trying to teach you about being ready to act every time someone tries to make a move. Gotta keep your grip locked, Ellie."
"Joel the problem isn't me. It's the pistol grip! It's not made for me! I could've done sooo much better if there was a pistol made for my size."
"Well nothing's made for you ok and you have to make it work. You have to work harder but you can do it just as well-understood?"
"Joel did they just ignore the entire female populations loud protests for hundreds of years making these weapons?"
"I mean, supply and demand Ellie; you can't just demand something and not buy it. It's a business that responds to buyers."
"I'll just stick with the knife Joel. That's what I should've done, isn't it?
"…Yes." He said mildly. He sighed. Ellie could tell there was a lot more behind that sigh, but she appreciated his reserved candidness.
Ellie said quietly to Joel, "He looks more infected than an infected person…like it's a terminal stage 10 cancer instead of how people usually die at stage 3… those claws are fucking swords!"
"Well Ellie, maybe you'll end up turning into a giant mushroom too when you grow up."
"Joel!" She laughed.
"A psychedelic walking mushroom Ellie. Tripping everywhere."
"Joeeeeel!" She laughed harder.
"Hey Ellie, you ever heard of the opossum?
"A possum? Uh…I don't remember-what's it look like?"
"It looks like this." He froze in place, his mouth open to the side, staring dead ahead.
Ellie laughed hard, bending slightly with her hands on her knees. "Your face! Joel your fucking face!"
"You do it Ellie, show me." She laughed and rolled her head sideways, staring up at the sky. Her arms curled up playfully.
"Wow you're an ugly opossum." Joel smirked at her.
Troy licked his lips, far ahead of them. He circled around to the back behind them, patrolling.
They walked alongside a lake, mile after mile, on an overgrown sidewalk. Joel focused hard on keeping Ellie quiet and busy.
He opened up her palm and then showed her his own palm curling slightly. Then he drew into the mud with his hand, "E". He held his other finger to his lips. He quickly wiped the mud as they continued onwards.
Then he motioned for her to do the same. She waved her E in the air above her slowly. He nodded. Then he showed her L, and drew it in the mud with his finger.
In this way, he taught her to sign, as they quickly walked with Troy none the wiser.
She giggled as he signed, poop, into her hand. Then she realized how long they had gone without a break, and that she needed some water.
"Joel we have got to stop here to take a drink. I'm thirs-."
Troy was next to them in an instant, blocking them from going towards the lake. He pushed Joel easily onto the ground. Then he slowly got into a kneeling position, laterally to them. Joel withdrew his gun and pointed up at Troy.
"You fucking don't…"
Troy raised up one sabre claw to his own face in a motion to wait, and took his backpack into his other clawed hand. He ripped the Velcro and opened it up. He stabbed into the backpack bringing out the magic pad. His claw had punctured through the hole at the top of the pad, which had been filled with rubber. He used his other claws to balance the back of the pad. Still kneeling between them and the lake, making sure that they were still just out of his line of sight. They waited patiently.
He held the tiny magnetic pad up and out in front of him. Then with playful gusto, he started scribbling on it.
POISON
Then he held it out to his side; moving it slowly around; like a messenger of olden days preparing to shout a decree into a crowd.
"You don't have to fucking knock him out just to tell him something. That defeats the whole purpose!" Ellie shouted angrily. She tried to push his side, but he shoved her down with a hairline of a movement, in a very knee-jerk manner. Ellie felt like her vision blurred as she skid hard, and hit her head on the ground. When she tried to get up, the ground seemed to teeter. She stumbled and sat back down, holding her head.
Troy plucked out two bottles of water from the Velcro pack, the magic pad hanging forgotten. Then, with a couple of heaving breaths, and a hard head smack onto the ground, he turned his gaze at them for only one full second. His eyes were wide, but mild-even though they were bright red. He threw the bottles. His aim was impeccable, and the bottle smacked Joel and Ellie in their faces. Both bottles were punctured just below the cap, so that they were spewing large streams out. Quickly, he turned his head away again, getting up and starting to walk slowly.
Ellie and Joel looked at eachother. Troy had somehow known about this and saved them. She shrugged and tried to walk just behind Troy, onward along the side of the lake. She had her hand around the top of the water bottle, trying to stimmy the leaking while she gulped. She ignored Joel saying her name plaintively.
"What else do you know Troy?" Ellie asked curiously. The pang in her head was bouncing around the back to the front, and to the back again.
Troy stopped suddenly, reaching his arm behind him to where Ellie was. He pushed her backwards with the side of his claw-the one that was still stuck to the magic pad. It was just as hard as last time, and Joel caught her as she tumbled along in the dirt. His water bottle lay forgotten on the ground. They sat down in the mud as Ellie recovered herself from such a fast event. Joel held Ellie in his lap with one hand, and cocked his gun with the other.
Joel pointed his gun at Troy. Troy got back down into a kneeling position. Then he seemed to forget himself and crawled animalistically over next to them, ducking below Joel's aiming gun. Only to press it against his forehead a moment later. It looked like a joke of a toy out in the daylight now, and Joel didn't want to fuck up one chance to kill this thing now-with Ellie in his lap. Troy's one claw was up a bit, the magic pad hanging from it. He hovered just over them with his eyes shut, while Ellie stared hard at Joel, ignoring Troy.
"Joel you can't just kill him for knocking me down."
"Twice." Joel said staring at Troy angrily. He noticed how Troy's throat tightened strangely-instead of down, it was tightening sideways. "And we don't have any medical care if you get a concussion. Can't afford to get hurt out here-or anywhere."
"We get it Troy, the water is poisoned." Ellie said, one eye shut tight in pain. Joel's gun was still moving with Troy's head as Troy got onto his elbows, eyes shut-now at eye level with them. He was chittering loudly, like those clickers. But he was patronizing them. Joel lowered his gun as Troy backed up a step, head cocked sideways dreamily. Joel inspected Ellie's arms.
"You got any first aid, Troy? Ellie's got some scrapes from you pushing her-twice." His tone was dangerous, accusatory.
Troy let out a quick, nervous, somewhat human laugh. His eyebrows were raised at Joel-with his eyes closed, in an expression of being impressed with his firm directness. His arms trembled noticeably; but he used his foot to wrangle his backpack and ripped it open. He looked inside and plucked out a thick metal kit. He put it on the ground. It had a red cross emblazoned onto it. Then, after packing up his things into his backpack, he moved away slowly in his crawling position, then got up and walked a good distance ahead of them. He crouched down and listened, swaying his head dreamily.
The kit had never been used before, but it had dried blood on it. It appeared that the blood had spattered and then been licked. It had swabs, bandaids, and even medications and needles.
Ellie was beaming at Joel. He wiped the mud off of her arms, then cleaned it with the alcohol swab. He put a bandaid on the side of her forehead. He held up some aspirin.
"Thank you, DOCTOR."
"Are you in pain Ellie?"
"Nah I'm fine." She lied. "This bandaid is really working some magick."
Joel gently turned her arm to inspect it further, while she sat cradling her head. She traced over everything in the kit, relieved. "Can I put this in my pack Joel?"
Joel looked up at where Troy was, beside the lake. Joel nodded.
"Ellie I'm gonna take a leak in the lake real quick." She sat and looked back to where they had come from, resting. So far, she pondered, no real infected to worry about with Troy here. He must've been cleaning up this area for awhile or something.
Joel heard Troy laugh while he was doing his business, and he saw Troy was doing the same thing up ahead. Oh fuck off, Joel said in his head.
"We keep following him." He directed. They walked side by side, alongside the lakebed for almost 7 miles.
"Wh…Joel is he going to kill us if we leave?" Ellie whispered nervously.
"No." Joel said convincingly, "He's sooooome piece of work, but…he's trying to keep us safe. We just keep our distance from him so he doesn't knock us on our asses."
"Yea I don't know what kind of infected he is anymore," Ellie said suspiciously.
"Hey Troy," Ellie shouted, "Did FEDRA poison the water?"
No answer.
"Ellie you gotta keep your voice down, we're in a dangerous place. Something could hear you."
Now that Troy had written that, Ellie paid closer attention. She did see thin black tendrils lazily snaking out of the water a number of times. And there were shapes drinking from the lake-much further ahead of them, closer to the town.
"Let's go Joel, we gotta get to that bunker. I'm so ready to be somewhere safe."
She ran.
Joel drank some water from the already 1/3 full leaking water bottle, and he jogged alongside her.
Troy was no longer walking in front. Instead, he was crouching dreamily, lazily crawling tightly around the side of them fast, every few seconds. This made Joel look behind him.
And that's how he caught sight of a figure on all fours coming at them fast.
"Ellie!" he said tersely, pointing at it. She got her gun out and crouched, turning to Joel. She was taking aim, turning off the safety.
The creature looked like a small hairless bear. It was almost as fast as a cheetah, keeping a straight trajectory towards them. But as it got closer Joel quickly shot it. The creature was unnatural. It was decayed. And still aiming right for Joel. Joel heard Ellie fire a shot behind him. But if it was meant for the being, it didn't deter it from rushing Joel. It leapt up into the air at Joel. He shot 6 more times directly in the large bear like head, and it twisted in pain, falling next to him. He reloaded as Ellie put 9 shots right into its sinuous body. Their guns both clicked empty. Now that it was close, it was easier to take in that it had no eyes, only a very thick bulbous skull and a big, cavernous mouth. Whatever skin it had was dark yellow and red. It was still far from being dead.
Troy's claws jammed up through the creature's mouth as it opened to bite Joel. As he stood there with it swinging, another creature hit Troy in the chest, causing him to step back. Troy reacted too fast for Ellie to tell, pinning the other creatures head down. Even as Troy swayed slightly over from the impact of the second creature, he spread his claws out, shredding the first creature's mouth open and letting the creature fall off, and turned his attention to the one pinned into the ground. Its bear claws were leaving slight scratch marks on Troy's arms. A thin trail of blood eeked out of a small puncture it managed to make in his side. When he threw the skewered head into the lake, he turned his attention to the pinned down creature. He clamped both palms around the creatures skull and crushed it between them.
"What the fuck happened to Colorado?!" Ellie said, stunned and horrified in her crouching position.
Troy got out his pad again, and sat hunched over it. Ellie witnessed for the second time, how painstakingly careful he was when trying to write with a sword of a claw, as a behemoth, onto a child's drawing pad.
He plucked up the pad through the hole up top. Then he showed it to Ellie. Right to Ellie, not to the side, but exactly to where her face was.
NICE SHOT BOSS
She beamed up at his closed eyes and unsmiling face. "Thanks Troy!"
"See! I did get it! I fucking shot it too Joel! I fucking GOT it." And Ellie wondered if Troy had his eyes closed the whole time, a growing fear in her at his insane prowess. He must've heard her shot as it was connecting with its flesh. How did he know which was which? What was where? How could he know, with his eyes closed?
Joel's face mirrored her concern as he nodded. He went over to Troy and seized the magic pad off Troy's claw. Joel's face became passive.
"Troy, communicate to ME, and then I will show Ellie. That's how it has to be. We have an order here, and you need to follow it. Got it?"
Troy let out a snort of disgust. He wiped his grimy palm out on the dirt, getting rid of the brain matter, replacing it all with mud. Then he held his palm out. Joel placed the magic pad on it.
"Joel he was just complimenting my skills. Thanks again Troy!"
"We need to sort ourselves out here Troy. Ellie is the BUSINESS, ok. Ellie's the business and I'm the manager and you're the NEW EMPLOYEE. So…you report to me and I report to Ellie. Ellie, you report to me and I'll report it to Troy. That's how this BUSINESS runs TROY-Ellie."
Troy sucked his teeth loudly, clenching his jaw. He was absolutely still for a good minute. His clicking was a tiny intermittant thrumming, but not quite a death threat. He nodded at Joel and put his pad away into his backpack. Ellie felt herself clenching her fists, seeing his barely contained fury. She nodded at Joel. Her eyes kept shifting up and down between the two.
Joel said to Ellie, "Remember what I said earlier about why your pistol isn't suited for you? Tell me, what did I say?"
"Uh…you said that the people complaining weren't getting any guns."
"I said, Ellie, that the business only responds to buyers. Understand? So the words of the buyer need to translate to profit, for the company, in order to make anything happen. In the business, that's the only way."
"Okaaaay…" Ellie waved her head around cluelessly.
A zombie slumped sideways beneath a tree a few feet ahead of them, making a noise as its clothes rubbed against the tree. It was wearing a FEDRA uniform. Joel inspected it. Looked like a man's ruined face had been bitten halfway off, and its torso had a large bite mark too. There was white micellium where the skull should've been, and mushrooms blossoming up the tree. The man's whole arm had turned into a bony claw. Troy had missed this, or didn't care enough to throw it in the lake. After all, they'd been traveling many miles now with little to no infected around.
Joel saw that its eye was locked on him as he moved, and yet it was immobile. Ellie noticed it too. "It's infected but it's…paralyzed." Ellie said.
"Still alive…" Joel muttered, seeing how it's legs and one arm were still attached.
Ellie shivved its mushroomed skull, then cleaned it on the wet grass.
"Must be the poison in the lake," Joel said to Ellie.
Ellie peered up at Troy ahead…wondering….and at the other clickers on the other side, drinking and laying down.
"Now we know what we're up against when we get to the town." Joel said.
"So…" Ellie said, "We got a cordyceps infected that pierces us with its claw-pinning us-and then transfers the infection with the bite still…got it. We're so fucked Joel."
"Noooo Ellie come on now!" Joel shifted uncomfortably.
"Im only fourteeeeeeeeeeeeen." She was almost crying.
"Ellie. You're a boss-remember? Okay, you have two employees that you manage and a potentially booming business if you can get us through this town alive."
"A BUSINESS JOEL? I don't want-I don't give a shiiiiiiiiit. I just wanna get to the fireflies! This is nuts and you know it. You fucking know it!"
"No I'm serious Ellie, you've got a professional smuggler here-me. AND NOW you got uh…Troy over there. If you can direct us through here, then you've created a a team, a team that can survive and create a PATH. A path that people can FOLLOW. This is huge! And you will know the way. That's biiiig credits."
"That guy…" Ellie said distantly. "But you don't want me to talk to him, and you guys chose the path without me." Ellie crossed her arms.
"You're right, we did…but remember Ellie, you told me to get you to the fireflies. That's your BUSINESS-your main objective as the BOSS-that's allllllllll you Ellie. Right? You want that-not me. Now I'm figuring out how to get there, as the manager. And the new employee is keeping us both safe on the path."
"Well it's a short lived businesssss…"
"Maybe it's not though Ellie, because remember why you want to go in the first place."
She raised her eyebrows as she mulled it over.
"Okay okay, I see it now. Yeah ok, I'm a business…this actually…well I mean this could be really big Joel. Yeah."
"Yes! Yes Ellie! See it now?!"
Joel felt himself in some sort of visceral pain. He'd just given her a future-something he hadn't even dared come up with for himself. This new sight was hurting him and he wanted it to die so he could just stick to the present. He felt his head start to pound and asked Ellie for the kit so he could take some painkillers. They kept walking on the path.
If Ellie didn't make it, his vision that he was finally opening his eyes to, would be knifed out of his eyes. Straight into his brain. Joel noticed the buildings of the town were now very close.
Joel stopped Ellie again and motioned for her to sit.
"Boss lady."
"Boss Bitch."
"Ellie come on."
Troy slammed onto the ground beside them suddenly. It made the ground shake a bit. He lay down on his back.
They both jumped. And then relaxed quickly.
"I'm the boss." Ellie enunciated boss playfully. Joel carried on now.
"We're hitting the town now. Lots of hiding places, nooks and crannies to look out for Ellie."
"You said it's the main road?" She was looking at Joel but the question was meant for Troy.
"Yeap. Remember how to hold your knife with your pistol? Let me see it."
She sat there, with her arms crisscrossed in front of her, knife under the pistol.
"Good good, but now you need to move with it."
Troy's eyes were closed but his face was slightly turned toward them.
"I'm fucking starving man. Lets just fucking eat first. Last meal Joel?"
Joel opened up a can of chicken soup for her and she chugged it down. She pretended to crumple it up. "ANOTHER!"
Joel got her another one. "Wait Joel what about you? No I don't need another now. You eat it!"
"Ok boss." Joel slurped it up instead, and even grabbed another-chugging it.
Ellie nodded her head approvingly at Joel.
"This ground is so wet it's starting to soak through my jacket. Ugh, lets just get this over with Joel."
"We need to know how to communicate. So just listen Ellie. Troy is the first one. He's been going very far in front, circling around us, and going back out to the front for all of these 10 miles. Now…we have to tighten up our group."
Ellie got out some beef jerky and gnawed on it.
"We got to move, back to back, Ellie-as soon as we see those things."
She nodded hard. "Right right. But uh-"
"ELLIE! I'm talking here! And Troy is going to be running defense right because yes they are fast."
Ellie shook her head, surprised because, well, damn he knew exactly where her mind was headed.
"But what if I shoot Troy!"
"Well that's why we're not just waltzing into town Ellie!"
Troys palms were behind his head, with his sabres spread out. He was perfectly still.
"We're moving forward together as one, Troy in front of us-but when we see an infected, Ellie-you and I are going to stop. Troy, what will you say when you want us to move forward?"
Troy let out five vibrating clicks.
"Ellie we're gonna practice too. Don't worry."
"Hey Joel…can I ask Troy for more water?" She was looking over at his Velcro pack.
"Tro-" Joel started.
Troy tossed his pack next to Ellie, and it sounded like a bunch of heavy things fell within it.
"Dear God this has bricks in it…" in fact it had lots of heavy metal containers labeled food-single pack, ammo boxes, some masks and water bottles. Maybe it even held 100lbs.
"And Troy what will you say when you want us to stay still?"
Troy let out a small roar. Ellie's eyes widened and her mouth went into a grimace. Her hand flew to her heart subconsciously.
Ellie summarized everything, "So basically, we get attacked right? So he yells when he wants us to stay still-no shooting no nothing, and then clicks 5 times when he wants us to continue on."
"Right, and when you run out of ammo you say 'ammo' clearly and loudly."
"Ok but what do I do if I see something coming at us?"
"You grab my arm Ellie, and point it out. Then I tell Troy where it is-and he kills it."
Ellie's mind started to race.
"Maybe Joel we just you know…do it tomorrow? I really-my feet hurt. Uh 10 miles…is a lot for me…and I ran too…"
"I know Ellie I know; you've walked 10 miles, its late…but you'll just prolong the fear, the uncertainty; we can at least get to a house and hole up tonight-let's practice."
Troy jumped up and crawled beside Joel and Ellie, closing up his Velcro pack and throwing it 200 meters in front of them. He had mud sliding down his back, along with some leaves and grass. He clicked five times.
"Ellie, gun up now, and your knife." She and Joel walked forward carefully until Troy let out a small roar as he reached the pack. He jammed his claws into the ground around it several times, picked it up and threw it again.
Joel was correcting Ellie's hands as they heard Troy click five times.
"We don't shoot near Troy's general direction Ellie, we shoot sideways and behind-anywhere where he isn't." Joel pointed to his pistol and pointed it down.
"Ammo" Joel said. Troy began circling back towards them.
"Joel I'm scared. We don't have armor, we don't even have enough bullets for one of those…things…" Ellie started hyperventilating. "Even if we hit it with 12 bullets…and when they jump so high-"
"Ellie focus. Deep breath."
"OH DEEP BREATH?!"
"You're our boss! You keep us in line!"
"I'm nobody's boss I'm not Joel I'm just not!"
Joel paced restlessly, as did Troy farther ahead, his claws slicing through the slick mud.
"Ok Ellie, I give you permission to tell Troy-to order, sorry-to order Troy, to move ahead after we've stopped. Understand? So. We fight, he clicks 5 times, and then you say 'forward'. So now, you are directing us."
She was pacing now but she looked up at him shaking her head no frantically.
"Ellie for fu-goodness sake! You went to FEDRA school right? Come on you've been trained-for years and years?!"
The rain was pouring a bit hard now for a few minutes.
"To FOLLOW orders not GIVE them!" she yelled at him. She clawed at her memories. Yea, Joel had a good point, and she kind of understood a bit. Her upbringing was certainly orderly, scheduled. But not as clearly militaristic as Joel was implying. She finally let out a big breath. She continued pacing but now her stare was starting to be accusatory, a strange ember growing within her eyes.
"Ohhh there it is! Ok so now I'm the boss that can actually be a boss. JOEL?"
"Yess ELLIE GOOD GOD YES. We've been doing this for months Ellie, you're a pro! You are good at this. Troy let's practice one more time and then…well let's see what the boss says." Ellie smiled proudly. Yea maybe she was.
Troy flung his pack back next to Ellie and she lunged at it gleefully. "HAH! YES Its my turn now!" She pretended to stab it over and over again. She heard Troy giggling next to her and jumped in the air. He opened up the pack and fished out an ammo pack. Then he clicked five times and knelt down. Joel was fishing open the cartridges and reloading fast. "Come on Ellie, load up your mag. Lets go lets go-Troy said we can move forward but now you have to make the decision for the group."
She nodded and focused on her pistol, slowly pulling back the barrel with all her might. "Joel can you reload this, I can't pull the pistol thing back…its sticking or something."
"Yea Ellie here, give it to me. This is the barrel-its got carbon buildup, that's the problem. Gotta clean it later." Ellie thought to herself, yea right. No way would she be ready to do anything after fighting these things.
"Ok Ellie, if the barrel gets jammed, elbow my rib, and I'll shout for ammo. Troy will provide cover while I fix your pistol. I'll re-load it too for you."
Joel divvied up 3 magazines for Ellie, and 3 for him. She put hers in her jacket pocket.
"Ellie put one of those in your backpack." Joel plucked up a bottle, and put the supplies back into the backpack and velcro'd it back together. He took a giant swig while he watched Ellie's chaotic movements. He felt like he was going to explode from so much responsibility.
She did so hurriedly. She and Joel were very uncomfortable with how close Troy was – even though he was dead still.
"Ellie, so…you have to say the word with force. FORWARD. Like that-cuz you're the business, you're the boss and that's how you move the company."
She smiled at Joel nervously, "FORWARD!" She said, moving her hand (holding the knife) like a hammer, turning it into a knife and starting to move-making sure to hold the position that Joel had just showed her. They all walked for a few paces. Troy threw the backpack 100 meters ahead. He let out a small roar and crawled over to it slowly, his claws stabbing around it. Then he clicked five times.
"forward…" Ellie said breathlessly. His roar was just so threatening she had a hard time moving. No one moved.
"Ellie, you have to say it like an order. Right? Bosses order actions, they don't ask they don't suggest, they order. Say it like you're ordering us to do it."
"Ok…so." She got her gun and knife into position. "FORWARD." She directed, a bit softly.
They all moved forward. "Alright, lets get to town." She said determinedly.
Joel sighed "Fuck." He enunciated softly in relief.
