Chapter 8

Obscuritywas surrounding her, only broken by the few sunrays that were following her through the gap.

Cautiously, Ellie pulled herself further along the rusty steel cable, deeper into the darkness. The air was stale and smelled of metal and dust. As her eyes slowly began to adapt to the absence of light, she saw first shapes of machinery and internal structures, but no details.

With another bunch of draws, she eventually reached the end of the cable which was on a pulley, in case the cable needed some more tension. The construction was fixed into the concrete of the docking station for the platform, making it easier for Ellie to climb onto it to undo the safety catch and then climb down, where she undid the rest of the harness.

Still unable to see that much, she activated the small flashlight that she had stored in the pocket of her jeans and clipped it onto her hoodie. She let the light cone sway through the dark hall, in which brightness she could see a lot of flying dust. No, not dust, but spores! The whole room was full of them, originating from a pile of calcified bodies in a corner that were covered by the fungus which was spraying spores continuously into the environment.

Then, she heard an eerily croaking that was echoing through the vast metallic structure, followed by some quick footsteps.

Stalkers! And they were already aware of her presence.

But how? What had she done wrong? Had it been the metallic clicking of the safety catch as she had undone it? The click when she had activated the flashlight? Ellie didn't know and eventually it didn't even matter.

"Fuck!" she gasped and drew Sarah's pistol. She was hunted now and pondered about what her options were.

She could put on the harness again and get back onto the platform, but then they would be stuck again. Or, she continued the mission, risking getting killed by the infected, but then also having the possibility to open the gate and let Sarah and Carla in, who also could help her.

With a determined nod she decided to keep going, holding the gun up and in a tight grip.

While she had fastened the harness on her young body, Carla had described to Ellie where she could find the controls. Both buildings could be powered through a power cable inside the steel cable via one generator. A great idea, yet only if it worked and the fuses weren't broken. Everything was in a small control room, not far away.

Cautiously, she made the first step, always trying to stay aware of her surroundings. Ellie knew what Stalkers were, she had learned that at the academy. They were the second evolutionary stage of the infected, and a bit different from the first one, the Runners.

Runners were mostly headlessly charging at their victims as they were simply driven mad by the pain the Cordyceps fungus induced while infecting the brain.

Stalkers, however, were fully under the influence of the fungus. Their visibility being handicapped and having no echolocation like Clickers, they were hiding and lurking in the darkness as soon as they were hearing a sound, awaiting their prey to be close enough to charge at them. Nonetheless, the madness was still present, causing them to croak from time to time like little children who were playing hide-and-seek, playing with the seeker by inducing those noises. Or maybe it was the first development of the echolocating system.

Another cackling echoed through the hall, causing Ellie to turn around on the spot. A shadow rushed through the cone of light, vanishing behind a crate. Her breathing was fast and her senses sharp as adrenaline was running through her body. Some more steps sounded from the right, now closer than before, then some more from behind. Again, she was spinning around and then again. She was surrounded and an attack was imminent.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" she gasped, seeing only one way to escape this trap. Running head on for the control room and get that gate open.

She started to sprint. Her foot was still sensitive from the injury, but the adrenaline rush helped her to suppress the pain. From the corner of her eye she could see a figure, lurking behind some old, wooden crates. A Stalker!

As soon as the young red-head was close enough, it jumped out of its cover and charged at her with a loud screeching sound.

Having awaited the attack, Ellie raised the pistol and shot at the creature in full sprint. Of course, the first shot missed, since she had no experience with shooting guns whatsoever, let alone while moving. The second shot hit the infected's chest and the third its leg, causing it to stumble, but not to stop. Panicky, the young girl emptied the entire magazine to no avail. And though the hits had weakened the Stalker, it still managed to jump and grab her leg, bringing her to fall.

As she hit the ground, the pistol slipped from her grasp, sliding over the ground and vanishing in the shadows.

The Stalker, who used to be a woman, wearing a rundown FEDRA uniform combined with casual clothes, was still alive, trying to crawl closer to Ellie, who kicked continuously into the creature's face, keeping it at a distance. But the situation got even worse as another Stalker left its hideout and sprinted towards the struggling girl.

The situation was desperate. She was stuck and would soon be attacked by another foe, and had no weapon to defend herself, except from her mother's switchblade. Lacking any other option, Ellie pulled the knife from her pocket and unfolded it with a click right in time as the second Stalker had reached her.

Instinctively, she raised her unoccupied leg so that the second stalker landed on her foot and got stopped only a handful of inches from her face. She then rammed the blade into its, by the outgrowing fungus already deformed head, killing it for good, and then kicked the body away. The first creature, however, had used the chance to crawl closer and bite into Ellie's leg, causing her to groan. Furiously, she sat up straight and stabbed its head repeatedly until the pressure on her leg was gone and the infected didn't move anymore.

But the danger was far from being over, and Ellie, who was already exhausted and breathing heavily, would've loved to kick back a little and take a break. But that was out of question since there were even more Stalkers, who were closing in, their cackling sounding from close by.

The with blood spotted switchblade still in her hand, the young girl got up and sprinted towards the control room, which was on a platform. The Stalkers were still on her heels, scurrying from shadow to shadow.

Though her foot hurt like crazy, Ellie increased her pace and managed to reach the metal stairs. She took two steps at once, focusing entirely on reaching the room. Right after entering it, she turned on her heels and wanted to slam shut the cheap, wooden door, but got hindered by a Stalker, who had managed to get its arm into the gap. The pressure against the door was immense and closing it was impossible as long as it was blocked by the arm. The only solution that came into the young girl's mind was to quickly step away from the door, causing the Stalker to get overwhelmed by the sudden lack of resistance so that it stumbled into the room and fell to the ground.

Ellie reacted right away and used the element of surprise to jump directly onto the creature and ram her knife into its skull. More steps on the metallic stairs could be heard as the other Stalkers wanted to attack. Again, Ellie reacted quickly, sprinted towards the door and used the momentum to place a violent kick against the leading Stalker's chest, sending it flying backwards down the stairs again, taking the others with it.

Finally she was able to close and lock the door, keeping the infected at bay for the time being.

Quickly, she searched for the gate controls, enlightening the control panel with her flashlight, and found the right buttons fast. However, as much as she pressed them, they didn't work and the gate stayed shut.

A hard hammering against the door let her spin around. The Stalkers were continuing their onslaught, causing the thin wooden barrier to shake heavily.

Realizing that the door wouldn't hold them off for long, Ellie looked around and found a metal shelf, which she wanted to drag in front of the door. However, it was bolted to the ground, making it impossible to move it.

"Fuck, no!" she cursed, which was answered by another barrage of hits against the door.

Knowing that her time was running short, Ellie tried to focus on opening this damned gate. By a hunch, she assumed that there was no power reaching the controls, so she looked around for a fuse box, finding it on the wall close by. Though she didn't have any idea what a broken fuse looked like, she still needed to find replacements, finding them in the metal shelf. An entire small cardboard box, full of them.

Another hard strike hit the door, causing the wood and glass window to show some first cracks.

Quickly, she pulled out all the old, ceramic fuses and replaced them with new ones, one by one. With the last one, the control panel finally came to life. But before Ellie was able to walk back to the panel and press the right button, the window shattered into a thousand pieces as the door gave too much in to the constant onslaught.

"Shit!" she cursed as she had to make the decision to firstly open the gate or to defend herself, her sight constantly switching between the broken door and the controls. But as one of the Stalkers climbed through the now open window, the young girl knew that the time for further thinking was over.

The knife still ready in her hand she wanted to leap for the button to open the gate, but got attacked by the Stalker, who was way more agile than the other ones before. It avoided her defensive attack and then tackled the poor young girl to the ground, where she tried to get rid of that monster on top of her. But it was way too strong. Desperately she looked with teary eyes at the console that was now out of her reach. And the situation got even worse as the knife slipped out of her sweaty hand during the struggle.

She was alone and almost defenseless. Soon, her strength would fade and the Stalker sink its teeth into her flesh. She wouldn't die of the infection, no. But bleed to death. And the whole situation got even more dire as the door eventually gave in as well. Now the other Stalkers would attack her as well and there was nothing she could do about it, only to close her eyes and await her end.

Surprisingly, the attack stopped and the heavy body got lifted from her, and as she opened her eyes, she saw Sarah, wearing a gasmask and having the struggling Stalker in a chokehold. Repeatedly she rammed her combat knife into the creature's head until it went limp and she tossed it away like a piece of garbage.

Both looked at each other for a long moment, breathing heavily.

"You okay?" Sarah asked, her voice muffled by the gasmask, and all Ellie did was to jump up and embrace the blond woman in a tight hug, sniffing into her shoulder out of relief.

"How did you get in?" asked Ellie, after breaking the contact and now realizing the blonde's hands and legs were covered by bleeding scratches.

"Well," she returned while timidly averting the girl's gaze. "I heard the gunshots and knew that somethin' was off, so I followed you. And, uh…yeah. Carla was right 'bout the razorblades and the cable. Now, c'mon, let's finish the job!"

Realizing that Sarah didn't want to deepen the topic, nor discuss her new injuries, Ellie went over to the controls and finally opened the gate, raising it high enough that Carla could bring in the platform.