Chapter 1: Devil in a Mask (4/5)

Fox Boy:

Keep walking. Fox Boy told himself as he kept moving forward.

After his confrontation with those two, Fox Boy had to make an escape through one of the boarded windows of that factory. The fall was painful but luckily , he fell on some snow that made his landing a bit less damaging. But now he had to go back the way he can, with a blizzard still going on but it wasn't as strong as early. He managed to escape that encounter with minor injuries, though he did feel the impact of the bullets on his back.

One bullet, it's all I have left. He thought. Fox Boy looked at the sky seeing the snow falling quickly and feeling the cold wind passing through him. Snow is so pretty. He thought as he stopped.

Suddenly, he started moving forward again. Though he could barely see what was in front of him due to the wind.

Those two won't be following me, at least not until the storm stops. It was pure luck that he escaped those two, though that man could have killed him on the spot. Which was something that he didn't really understand why he didn't. While he was trying to understand that, he ended up hearing a noise. Fox Boy recognized the noise. A horse? He thought in confusion as to how exactly would a horse be running around that area, especially with that blizzard. Following the noise forward, Fox Boy saw the blocked path that he crossed to get to the factory. And on the other side, he saw a horse struggling to try to break free from a rope that was keeping it into place. The was another horse there, but he was laying on the ground.

He approached the two horses in order to check on them. Both horses were brown but the one standing was larger than the one on the ground. Fox Boy took a closer look at them. This one is dying, but... Was it because of the cold? He wondered as he extended his hand to touch the horse's head. "Forgotten in the cold, alone." He spoke to the horse. "Just an animal that no one will even remember tomorrow." He looked at the horse's eyes. "I guess you and I... Are destined to share the same fate." I wasn't the first one to wear this mask, I'm just a replacement. He thought sadly. And when I die, I'll just be replaced too. The horse then made a sad sound. "I guess that girl was the one that rode you." It was just a guess. "She'll probably just get another horse after you die." He caressed the horse's head. "Just like they'll just get another Fox Boy when I do." He grabbed his gun and pointed at his head. "The worst part... I'm actually looking forward to it, because I hate being Fox Boy." Then he pointed the gun at the horse's head. "But... Will someone be there to put me out of my misery," He then stood up from the ground and walked towards the horse standing. He caressed that horse too, before he climbed on top of him. "Probably not." He spoke out loud before shooting the horse in order to put it out of it's misery. Before he galloped away on the other horse.

Ellie:

"Aaaahhh! Fuck!" Ellie cursed in pain as her arm hurted.

"Stop moving it." Joel told her.

After the masked guy jumped through the window, Ellie quickly ran to check on Joel. Luckily, he was just unconscious and quickly woke up. They decided not to pursue him due to the blizzard outside. But now they had to wait, and the wait was agonizing for Ellie due to the pain on her arm. Both of them were sitting down in that room where they fought a masked guy, waiting.

"How did he knock you out?" Ellie asked, as she was still in disbelief on how the guy did it.

"I underestimated him," Joel admitted, which surprised Ellie as Joel was one of the most paranoid people she knew and he would never let his guard down like that. "He was just a kid, I could tell that he was around your age or younger."

"How?"

"Height, frame and voice." He explained. "He had a boyish voice, too boyish to be honest. He was around your height than you but I think it was because of the boots. And he was very scrawny, probably underfed."

"What was with the mask?" It was Ellie's question. It wouldn't be strange if he was wearing a gas mask, which is basically a necessity to have. But that mask...

"No idea." He replied. "Honestly, I don't even think that capturing him will do us any good."

"Why?" Ellie was confused.

"He... Didn't seem to know why he's here to begin with, he sounded very confused when I asked him those questions." Joel explained.

"Yeah, I noticed that too." That surprised her. "He was so fucking weird."

"I think finding weird people is the norm nowadays.," Joel replied and she nodded in agreement

"So, should we just let him be?" Her arm was broken because of him, but she understood that he was just defending himself against two people that he didn't know.

"Maybe, but it would be better for us to at least try to get some information out of him." Joel told her.

Ellie just nodded, before resting her head on Joel's shoulder. He hugged her in response, which was nice as it was pretty cold. Her arm really hurted and it was very frustrating to her that this happened when she finally returned to patrol duty. More time in bed recovering, and I can't even play guitar this time. She thought in deep annoyance. But, in compensation, I get to be with Dina without worrying about getting her sick. She quickly thought about a bright side to this.

An hour or more has passed, both of them just sat there quietly, waiting. Ellie stood as still as possible so she won't feel more pain on her arm.

"Joel!" Suddenly, they heard a voice coming from outside.

"Ellie!" They heard another voice.

Both recognized the voices and quickly stood up and decided to check the window. Luckily, the blizzard calmed down and they could finally leave. They looked down and noticed two familiar faces. Dina and Tommy. But something was wrong.

"Tommy is bleeding." Ellie told Joel as she saw it.

"What the hell happened?" Joel asked before helping Ellie walk. "Slowly."

"I know," She replied while still holding her arm in pain. "Let's just get out of here."

Joel nodded before leading Ellie towards the exit of the room and later towards the exit of the factory.

"Ellie?" It was Dina's instant reaction as soon as she saw her girlfriend holding her arm in pain. "What happened?" She asked before rushing towards her.

"We found Fox Boy, and he pushed Joel and I down some stair- Aaaaa!" She tried to explain before yelling in pain. "I think my arm is broken."

"Shit." It was Dina's response.

"Tommy, what happened?" Ellie heard Joel asking Tommy. She moved her head up to see and noticed that there was a cut on his left arm.

"I think we also bumped into this Fox Boy." Dina answered his question.

"What?" Joel asked her.

"We were..Ahhh!" Tommy was obviously in pain and his arm is probably gonna need stitches. Joel quickly approached his brother to check the damage.

"Me, Tommy, Jesse and a few others came looking for you guys." Dina started to explain. "While we were coming here, some guy with a mask came out of nowhere riding Joel's horse and sliced Tommy's arm with a sword." She explained.

"Shit, this is way too deep." Joel told him regarding the cut. "We gotta get back to have this and Ellie's arm treated."

"Wait! What about Fox Boy?" Ellie quickly questioned.

"Jesse and the others went after him. We recognized the horse and decided to see if you two were okay." Dina clarified.

"They can handle this then," Joel stated. "Come on, we gotta get you two back to Jackson."

"But-" Ellie tried to argue but was interrupted.

"But nothing! You're injured and so is Tommy, you two would just get in the way in this state." Joel was quick to input. "You shot him in the shoulder, Jesse and the others can handle an injured guy."

Ellie opened her mouth to argue again, but quickly closed again as Joel was right. Dina touched her okay arm and nodded at her in agreement with Joel. "Okay, let's go."

"Come on, keep applying pressure on it." Joel told Tommy as his left sleeve was covered in blood.

"Come on, babe." Dina told her.

Ellie chuckled. "I thought we agreed to stop with the"darling ","babe " and"cutie "."

"You decided that, I didn't, cutie." Dina told her with a smile, that instantly helped Ellie forget the pain on her arm.

Fox Boy:

Dammit, I had to leave the horse behind. Unfortunately, the moment Fox Boy took that horse. He accidentally ended up bumping into more. Five to be more precise. He recognized one of them, a girl with black hair tied back in a ponytail that he saw earlier.

He didn't have any ammo so he used his sword to attack. He managed to injure one of them by slashing his arm. But the rest started to chase him. Only three luckily, as the girl probably stayed back to aid the guy.

The masked boy had to ride as fast as he could to try to outrun the ones chasing him. But he was in s clear disadvantage due to his lack of knowledge about the area. Eventually, however, Fox Boy was able to trick them, by sending the horse down a road while he took refuge inside of a building. They will probably notice eventually that he wasn't on the horse, so he will have to be quick.

I need to remove this bullet from my shoulder. It was his thought as he entered the building. On the inside of the building, there was a strange open space around the main hall. With lots of furniture and electronic devices around. Though, it doesn't seem like anyone has been inside this place. "Hello!" Fox Boy yelled in order to check if there's any infection around. He takes the silence as a yes.

Fox Boy then walked past the furniture until he found some stairs. There was probably a room or a office upstairs. And by the lack of signs that anyone has been here in a while, he was hoping to at least find something to help him tend his wound.

Climbing on the stairs was a relatively difficult task, as there was furniture on the stairs as well. Did someone did this to block the path? He thought in curiosity. Once he arrived upstairs. He noticed a lot of snow there, which was evidently caused by the very big hole in the roof. What the? What made this? Fox Boy wondered as he didn't see anything around that could have made a hole that big. He then looked around again, and noticed that the damage was only above. Okay, why is the roof the only damaged part? It wasn't important, but he couldn't help but wonder. "Ahhh!" His moment of wonder however, was interrupted by the bullet on his shoulder.

The one wearing a mask decided to check the room to see what he could find. There were several doors upstairs, each of them seemed to be a room. Unfortunately, they were mostly empty. But one of them, luckily, had a wooden cabinet on it.

Please have something. He begged before opening it. Figures. There was nothing useful there. There probably was something useful there once but someone already took it. He sighed before closing the cabinet.

He left the room and saw that there was only one left. If there was nothing there as well, Fox Boy is done for. He took a deep breath, as the pain on his shoulder was getting worse and he didn't know how much blood he lost or why he was still standing. Moving towards the last door, he put his hand on the doorknob, and opened.

Fox Boy wasn't someone that regretted doing things, but honestly, he definitely regrets opening the door.

The room wasn't empty, but what was inside wasn't dangerous. There was a bed, a mirror and a wardrobe. There was a man and woman, on top of the bed, holding hands. No... There the decomposed corpses of a man and a woman on top the bed, holding hands. A horrifying sight, but not as horrifying as what's besides the bed. Besides the bed, there was a cradle. Fox Boy couldn't see what was inside of it. Please don't. It was his instant thought. Part of him, just wants to turn around and close the door and pretend that he didn't see it. But another part, needed to know if... His hands were shaking and he had trouble breathing. But either, he moved forward, slow as humanly possible.

But once he got there...

...

...

...

...

...

Fox Boy was paralyzed. As what was inside that cradle, was the most horrifying thing he has ever seen. Unfortunately, his fear was true. There was... Something that used to be a baby on that cradle. A dead baby that has been dead for a while, once he saw it, he became paralyzed as memories flashed before his eyes. Unfortunately memories that also involved a baby.

"Don't move!" He heard someone yelling from the door. Probably one of the people chasing him. But unfortunately, he couldn't get his eyes off that cradle. "Put your hands up!" He yelled at Fox Boy, but he ignored him.

"Jesse?" He heard another voice.

"He's here!" The one named Jesse responded. "I ain't gonna ask again!"

Fox Boy didn't answer, all he could do was stare at the horrifying thing. There were maggots crawling over it and his skin was rotten, but even with something so horryiging, it looked so peaceful. So the best that he could hope for, was that it died in peace.

"Freeze asshole!" Another voice came from the door.

After a pause, with the ones carefully pointing their guns at him. Fox Box made a request. "Do you think it suffered?" He asked them as he continued to look at it.

The three looked at one another confused, before one of them took a step forward.

"Jesse, watch out." One of them told the one approaching him.

"Who?." The one called Jesse approached him. "What are y-" Whatever he was going to say, he stopped as soon as he saw what was in the cradle. "Jesus..." That was his response after he gasped.

"Jesse?" A girl standing by the door asked. "What's wrong?" She asked as she tried to approach them.

"Stop!" He quickly replied. "Don't come any closer!" He ordered her.

She obeyed and stayed back but she looked confused. The other guy also looked confused.

"Fuck, fucking... Fuck.." Jesse could only look away as he couldn't stand the sight.

The moment he did, the other two realized what was going on. "Please tell me that it isn't what I think it is." The girl practically begged. But Jesse only gave her a sad look. "Oh my god..." The girl spoke with pure horror in her voice.

The other guy's horrified expression also contributed.

Jesse just covered his mouth and looked away.

A very long pause happened as the one called Jesse was frozen in place just like Fox Boy, not exactly knowing how to process that horrendous sight. But after the pause dragged on for too long. Fox Boy had enough.

He extended his hands to grab the dead baby's body and gently picked him up. With the other two watching as it did, both looked away as they couldn't stand the sight. But Fox Boy gently took the dead infant towards the bed where both the man and the woman were, since he could only assume that they were the baby's parents. He placed the dead infant in the middle of the two, before he turned around and moved towards the door.

The boy wearing a mask passed through the door, but once he did, the guy and the girl aimed their pistols at him. But he didn't even react to it, he simply turned around towards the one called Jesse and said. "We should just leave them in peace." He told the one called Jesse as he stood in the middle of the room ,clearly still shocked by the scene.

"Yeah..." Jesse nodded and quickly made his way to the door, leaving that dead family behind. "I'm sorry." He told the bodies before closing the door behind him.

Thanks everyone who follow and favorite this story. Sorry for the delay as I'm writing this on a phone since my PC broke.

Questions and Answers:

What was your opinion about Joel's decision to not allow Ellie to be sacrificed? You already express your dislike for Abby, but I was wondering what was your opinion about the whole cure dilemma?

My opinion? The was no dilemma, Joel did the right thing because a cure was a waste of time. And anyone who believes that Abby's dumbass of a father was going to save humanity and Joel doomed everyone by killing him, is a fucking idiot.

First of all, the main problem with the world of the last of us isn't that people are getting infected. Is that most people already were infected during the first years of the outbreak and are now mushroom zombies (that keep getting worse and worse as the years go by. With the Rat King being an perfect example of how bad it can get.) that compose 60% (or close to 60%) of the world's population. And what's left of humanity now fights one another for anything that they can get their hands on.

Now how the hell is a cure supposed to solve that?

Would it revert the ones that became infected back to normal or wipe them out completely? Nope.

Would it make the rest of humanity stop fighting one another and actually work together? Fuck no, actually, they would probably fight each other even more because a cure would become resource. Which would cause more problems than solve it.

Second of all, are we seriously supposed to believe that Abby's dumbass of a father was going to be able to create a cure. Because I wouldn't put much faith on a guy that thinks threatening an armed guy (That could obviously kick his ass without any weapons) with a scalpel is a good idea. But excluding that, I actually wondered something which I don't know if missed anything or not but...

Was there any mention or a file that he had knowledge on the Fungus or at least knowledge on the field of Fungal infections? You know, the type of knowledge that you would require to make a vaccine for it.

If yes: Could he really make a cure by himself, because this doesn't seem like a single man's job.

If not: WHY THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT FOR BRAINS BEING ALLOWED TO KILL THE ONLY KNOWN IMMUNE INDIVIDUAL IN A DEADLY SURGERY?! DID MARLENE SMOKED SOMETHING?!

Third and most important, even if this cure worked (even though there is no such a thing as a vaccine for a fungus.) What makes you think that it would have the desired effect. Seriously, whatever kept Ellie from transforming was probably genetic or an uncommon mutation. And the chances of emulating that with a vaccine is beyond non-existing. At best, it would just remove the current infection but you could get infected again or worse, you would have to keep taking daily doses to keep yourself from transforming. (Like the Zombrex in Dead Rising.)

Both scenarios makes the cure extremely impractical and more trouble than it would be worth it. As in both cases, it would be impossible to mass produce. (It would be impossible anyway as the Fireflies certainly didn't had the means to do that.)

Are you making any changes to the W.L.F and the Seraphs? I wasn't a big fan of neither and I'm wondering if you gonna make some changes on them.

I wasn't a fan of neither.

W.L.F is basically just FEDRA without the understandable reasons.

The Seraphs is just cliché religious evil cult that we saw a thousand of times in movies, games, shows, books etc.

So, yes, expect changes for them.

WTF! LOL!

"the two timing creep that she had an guy-on-guy session with" That was funny.

He obviously put it on the back door, cause I don't there was a front one.

And it was so unfair! No girl on girl action with Ellie and Dina but guy on guy action with Abby and Owen was ok?

Kitsunes masks 3

One of the best in my opinion.

You know I'm digging the serial killer vibes Fox boy gives off I can easily picture him in dead by daylight haha

Also loved reading what you said about how you feel about Abby because now if the same shit goes down I'm looking forward to the hell Fox Boy will put Abby and her friends through

Dead by Daylight is an awesome guy, the hillbilly is my favourite.

Oh, don't worry. Abby's steroid Junkie physique won't help her against Fox Boy.

It seems that Fox Boy is going to have a hard time

Things have to get worse before they get better.