Chapter 14

It was a sunny summer day. The birds were singing their songs while a warm breeze, carrying the smell of dry earth and sap, was causing the tree's leaves to rustle.

This solemn, quiet scenery was only broken by a crying blond girl who was full of dirt and dry leaves, holding her injured leg.

"SARAH!" chimed a male voice through the woods, coming closer to the girl's position.

"DAD!" she yelled back, followed by intense sobs. The young girl was sitting at the side of a slope, her leg being caught under a big rock. "I'M HERE!"

The rustling of dry leaves became louder as a tall man in his early thirties approached.

"Sarah!" he called out in relief and immediately embraced her tightly. "Oh my baby-girl, are you alright?"

"My leg," she groaned with a brittle voice. "My leg is stuck!"

"You sure it's just your leg?" her father surprisingly asked, making her frown. She looked down on herself and saw that her clothing had changed.

She wasn't wearing her pink unicorn t-shirt anymore, but a white, with blood covered top. And instead of her blue shorts, some black pants. Her leg wasn't actually hurting anymore, but her chest and left arm did.

"Looks pretty serious, kiddo," her father mentioned with a worried expression, which caused Sarah to scoff. She wasn't her younger self anymore, but a grown-up woman.

"Yeah… Would love to say that I already had it worse, but… Fuck!"

"Damn, look at you! You've become a really good lookin' woman…" he remarked, giving her a proud look. But again, she simply scoffed and shook her head.

"Oh my god, stop the bullshit, dad! I'm a fuck-up. Just look at me! I'm nothin' to be proud of. I did so much shit since you're gone. Anna, uncle Tommy and now Ellie…"

"We all make mistakes, Sarah," he replied and sat down onto the boulder, where Sarah's leg was stuck under. "You remember this day?" he then asked and his daughter answered with a nod. "That day I fucked up pretty hard. We were hiking this dangerous trail. The guy at the gas station had warned us that it was in bad shape after the last storm. But I didn't listen, and you ended up at the hospital. That night, I drank an entire bottle of whisky just to numb the guilt. We had lost mom just a few months ago and on this day I had almost lost you too. I…"

"I never blamed you for this," she replied with a soft smile, softly touching her father's hand. "It was an awesome adventure. You remember all the signatures and pictures I had on my cast? I was so proud of this annoying thing. I didn't even wanna get it taken off."

"Then why are you blaming yourself for things that are happening around you?" he asked back. "Sure, we all make bad decisions, but that's what makes us human. You agreed to take care of a girl in need, even though she was reminding you of her mother. You helped strange people on the way. And now you tried to help again, though you won't admit it."

"And how did it end?!" she blurted back, new tears emerging from her eyes. "People died and Ellie's in danger! People always die around me."

"That's not true, and you know it! People die, no matter what we do, because they're meant to die. It's out of your power to influence who's dying and who's not."

Sarah began to sob again as all the people she had lost came into her mind. Her mom, her dad, Anna, Carla and soon Ellie…

"It's a harsh world out there," Joel then said, his gaze fixed on a point on the horizon. "I dunno what I would've done for survival. Maybe I would've become a hunter, who knows…"

"No fuckin' way, Dad!"

"Language, kiddo!"

"Oh fuck you, you're dead."

"Yes, I am," was his plain answer, before he leaned in and gave his daughter a soft kiss on the forehead. "Your journey's not done, kiddo! Not yet. You still have a lot to do. Maybe it's time for you to become what you have been running away from, 6 years ago."

"I miss you, Dad!" she said with shaking lips, trying to reach for her father again, but he was gone. And all that remained was darkness and a fading voice.

"Stay strong, baby-girl! Stay strong!"

Sarah slowly opened her eyes, fighting the obscurity that wanted to force her back into the realm of eternal sleep. Orange light of the evening sun was seeping through the boarded windows, blinding her at the beginning.

She groaned as she wanted to move and the pain bound her to the place she was sitting. So, she stopped and remained in her position, catching a breath and assessing the situation.

First she checked the stabwounds at the side of her chest by lifting her top. Thanks to Ellie's small switchblade, they were small and also right beside each other. Knowing the anatomy of a human body and not feeling any excessive pain, she knew that no vital organs had been injured. A few stitches and a patch would be enough to fix it. Next, she checked her left arm and felt two wounds. The bullet had gone straight through it. Another few stitches and patches and these would be done as well. She just had to find the right supplies, which were possibly still accessible in this house. There was no chance that Sabine had taken it all with her.

Summed up, her wounds weren't that bad, the sudden blood loss and shock had just weakened her too much, which had been good luck or otherwise Sabine would've killed her.

Counting down from ten to zero, Sarah wanted to focus her strength to finally get up and take care of her wounds, but stopped at four as she heard voices from outside the house.

"...-etting dark, babe. We should look for some shelter."

A female one.

"You're right, honey. This one here looks good."

And a male one. Probably two hunters.

Swiftly and trying to ignore the pain, Sarah picked up her pistol that was lying two feet away and checked it. She still had two rounds in the gun, plus a bunch of spare magazines. But sadly, she just remembered that they were in her backpack upstairs and not on her. A big mistake and sloppy behavior!

The front door slowly opened, accompanied by screeching hinges. Obviously, Sabine hadn't locked it, which would now serve to her disadvantage. She stayed hidden behind the counter, gun ready and hoping that these two hunters were just sloppy at their job of searching houses.

"Seems clear," the male one, called Babe, called out to his partner, Honey.

She heard their footsteps on the wooden floor, slowly inching forward. The front door was being closed again and this time locked. She was trapped, without the chance to leave without getting noticed.

"I'm gonna check upstairs!" Honey called out and headed for the stairs. This would only leave Babe to check the lower floor. A perfect opportunity! However, Babe stopped approaching the kitchen and instead slumped down onto the old sofa. Sloppy as predicted!

"Honey?!" he then called out and waited for her to return.

"Someone has been here shortly," she reported. "There're fresh bandages and a packed backpack upstairs and…"

"They're not here and probably over the hills and far away. Fuck 'em! Now come here and relax, Honey!"

Sarah heard the woman sigh and put something heavy onto the couch table, probably a rifle. Silence followed and in some way, Sarah hoped that they would fall asleep and she would have the chance to hide someplace else. But to her surprise, something entirely different happened.

"Honey," Babe hummed, followed by the sound of a zipper. "Mr. Studd needs some attention."

"No-fuckin'-way!" Sarah whispered to herself as she heard a playful giggle, followed by slurping noises and a soft groan.

Knowing that Honey and Babe were very busy at the moment, Sarah cautiously lifted herself up a bit so that she was peeking over the counter. She saw both of them on the sofa. Babe was sitting relaxed against the seat rest, his head leaned back while Honey was also sitting, but had her head in his crotch, bobbing up and down.

There was no better distraction than sex! Sarah knew that and decided to wait until they would go further. And indeed, they did a few minutes later.

Babe was a man in his twenties, lanky and unkempt. Honey, however, was quite the contrary, being a very curvy woman of a similar age who was taking more care of her body than her partner. In a way, she was beautiful and Sarah had to agree that she enjoyed watching her. Still, they were the enemy and she had to take care of them.

Honey was just riding Babe wildly, her back towards Sarah's position and her body blocking her partner's sight, so that she decided that it was time. Doing noise-discipline, the two lovers kept their moaning at a low level, forcing Sarah to be quiet and cautious as she got up and approached them.

Eventually, she was standing right behind them, her gun aiming at Honey's head as she whistled in order to get their attention.

"HOLY FUCK!" Babe exclaimed in surprise while Honey screeched in shock and rolled off her partner's erected penis. Both were then looking at the blonde with dilated eyes, slowly raising their hands.

"P-please…" pleaded Honey and began to shed tears as she gazed into Sarah's merciless glare, fearing for her life. Hunters weren't just hunters, so much Sarah had learned these last days. They were, surprisingly, humans as well. Yet, while some were just completely insane psychopaths, others were normal people, trying to survive. So far, these two seem to apply to the latter category.

"Get up!" she barked, holding the hunter-couple at gunpoint. "You!" she then said towards the now standing naked woman. "Get two chairs! You got cuffs? I know that you fuckers love cuffs. Get 'em, too! And hurry, or Babe's gonna lose Mr. Studd!"

The curvy woman complied right away with a nod, carrying together the ordered goods. Sarah then also commanded her to bind her partner's hands behind his back after he was seated on one of the chairs, and the same was eventually done to her by the blonde, who then sat down on the recliner right in front of them with a loud sigh and watched them both with a stern demeanor that made them both feel uncomfortable while she gathered her strength and fought her dizziness.

"Alright, this is how it's gonna be," Sarah eventually said after a while, her sight shifting between the two still naked people. "I ask a question, you answer. Very simple, even for you fuckers. Understood?"

Once again, the two hunters agreed with a nod, very much to Sarah's pleasure.

"Okay, Babe and Honey…"

"My name's…"

Before Babe could even protest, he got an old, handmade ashtray that had been on the couch table, thrown right into his face, which caused him to cry out in pain.

"Why does everybody say that they understood the rules, but then fuck it up right away?!" exclaimed Sarah, shaking her head and sighing loudly. "Do I look like I actually give a shit 'bout your names?! You're Honey and Babe, period! And if you interrupt me again, I'll cut off her tits and shove 'em down your throat!"

Being entirely intimidated by the blonde, Babe shut up right away, giving her a sour expression, while Honey started to cry.

"Now, you both will tell me everything you know about Sabine! Who she is, what she did. Just everything."

"Sabine, Terry's joytoy?" Babe replied, blood dripping from his forehead. "A wacko, a freak! Totally bonkers! Got sold to us by her own father, never got over it. She always bonded with our prisoners, mostly young girls, earned their trust. Brought them into her room. Probably fucked 'em, I dunno. Terry allowed it as long as she played ball and he got his share."

"Why would she do that? Earning young girls' trust and keepin' 'em in her room? She told me she's a loner."

"A loner…yeah, sure," Babe scoffed, spitting some bloody saliva onto the floor. "She didn't have any friends, because she murdered 'em all the time. Whenever she got tired of one of her toys, she either killed 'em or let 'em starve to death so that they wouldn't complain anymore, and then still kept 'em as friends in her room until they were rotting. Some even say that she kept on fuckin' the corpses."

Sarah stayed silent while she listened to the hunters story, her worries for Ellie increasing with every word. Sabine was a maniac. A mad person. She didn't know how much truth was in the hunter's words, since she didn't trust them either, but every story, no matter how much bullshit it contained, also had a true core.

She leaned closer, her face grimacing as a stinging pain went through her body. But she got it quickly under control. Still, it got noticed, which gave Babe more courage than he should have.

"Okay, listen closely, you two…"

"No, you listen to me, bitch, 'cause you aren't lookin' that hot," heinterrupted her angrily, fighting his bindings. "If you don't let us free right now, I'll rip open your ass and…"

Right away, his bold attitude got rewarded by a hard kick on his kneecap, causing him to cry in pain again.

"You think I give a fuck about you or what you say, huh? I don't even give two shits 'bout that stuff you stole from me. Because all I wanna know is, where can I find this psycho-bitch?"

"How the fuck should I know?" Babe blurted back, fighting his cuffs again, effortlessly. "I was glad not to be around her."

"Then why hunt her if you want her gone?"

"Because she killed Terry and stole a lot of valuable spare parts. We want 'em back! You and this lil' red-head pussy are just a bonus."

"Spare parts… For which model?" Sarah kept on interrogating urgently as she felt that she was having a lead.

"Ford. But why's that important? You don't even know where to look."

"A farm…" Honey suddenly said with a brittle voice, causing the other two to look at her. "We…we used to be friends. At least…I thought so."

She paused for a moment, releasing a shaky breath.

"When she was new, she spent alota time alone, crying. I…I felt sorry for her. Tried to comfort her. We talked…for hours. About our childhood, our families, our dreams. She wanted to live on a farm…together with me, nobody else. A dream we began to create together, until… Until she was becoming more and more creepy. Her fantasies were getting darker and darker. Every time we met, she got more 'n' more touchy, wanted to spend every minute with me, but I… I refused, and she got furious and-and wanted to bind me to her bed, saying that we belong together, forever. I… I just ran away and avoided her. I found other friends, who protected me. I'm just glad that she's gone."

Sternly and highly focused, Sarah had listened to every word and was now processing them in her mind. She knew Ellie's strong and stubborn character, and quickly realized that, mixed with Sabine's psychosis, it was a deadly composition. She needed to find them, quickly!

As soon as she was back from her inner thoughts, she gazed deeply at Honey, assuming that she was the only one willing to help.

"Okay, Honey, listen…"

"S-Samantha…"

"Yeah, whatever… I need your help and, in return, I'll let you two go and promise to hunt down Sabine and make sure that she'll remain nothing more than a bad dream."