Chapter 2: Town Shrouded in Masked Shadows. (1/4)
Joel Miller:
"So, what's the plan?"
Once daylight arrived and the blizzard ceased. Joel took a few volunteers and went to the safe post where Jesse took refuge alongside the invader, Fox Boy. Everyone pretty much spent the night speaking with Jesse, in worry of him falling asleep and being attacked by this Fox Boy. So they hurried to go pick him up once it was time. It took them two hours to get there and they had to deal with some infected. Upon arrival, they found Jesse, sleeping on a bed there and the masked individual sleeping on the floor in a fetal position. Joel subdued Fox Boy himself and tied him up to take him to Jackson. Jesse told them to go easy as he wasn't hostile, but Joel preferred not to risk it.
The safe post was mainly used by Cedric, a guy who was two years older than Jesse. And while there, the place turned out to be some type of disgusting man cave built by him. Joel didn't bring Cedric along because he didn't want him trying to hide anything in the place. But what he found there angered him. Apparently, Cedric had a collection of pornographic content like magazines and movies, but what really angered him, was a box filled with woman's underwear that he could tell that he had stolen from the woman in Jackson and Jesse was infuriated as one the ones he found was Dina's. And Joel sincerely hoped that none of them were Ellie's, otherwise he might hurt Cedric, a lot.
It didn't take very long for them to return to Jackson, they made a stop to recover Bonnie and Chad's bodies on Jesse's request. Once they got back they were instantly greeted by Ellie and Dina, who hugged Jesse as they were worried about him.
Joel told the volunteers to take Bonnie and Chad's bodies to be prepared for a burial. Jesse left with Ellie and Dina, as they probably wanted to see if he needed to talk about what happened. Leaving him with the prisoner, Fox Boy. Who didn't really struggle or say anything the entire trip. All he could do was take him to Maria, who locked him up in a cell in an old police station that, according to her, was never actually used.
Joel and Maria were in a room next to the cell, discussing how they should proceed.
"Honestly, I have no idea, we know that he's from a group called Normandies and that this group is apparently planning an attack on us." Joel replied to her question. "But I don't think he can help us in any way, this kid seems clueless about their plans."
"Why would they send him then?" Maria couldn't understand that part. "They clearly sent him here to try to figure out our weaknesses or something like that, but why send a clueless kid to do it?"
Joel was wondering that himself. He shouldn't underestimate him because he would have definitely killed Joel if it wasn't for Ellie. He looked to the empty desk that was in front of them, where he placed Fox Boy's belongings.
The first thing that called his attention was the sword that he carried. It was a single-handed, double-edged blade, it was relatively broad and the length was longer than a machete but shorter than a baseball bat.
The second thing that called his attention was his gun. It was a Walther P38, a peculiar choice for a weapon in Joel's opinion.
Then there was his backpack. It was a bland looking dark colored backpack Joel decided to open it to see what it had inside. He pulled out the things inside and placed them on top of the desk. The contents were a Melodica, a very damaged stuffed bunny, a book and an old video camera.
"Does it still work?" Maria asked Joel. "It could give us an idea of what we're up against."
Joel grabbed the camera in order to check. But it didn't turn on, after inspecting a bit, it turns out that there are no batteries on. "I don't know if it works or not, but it's out of batteries."
Maria then grabbed the camera from Joel's hand to check it.
Joel inspected the rest of Fox Boy's belongings as Maria inspected the camera. The melodica was in a pretty good condition, the instrument always fascinated Joel, but there was no replacement for his guitar. The stuffed bunny was in pretty bad shape, one of the eyes was missing, there were rips on it and it was relatively dirty. The book was the most strange item, The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain, a strange choice in Joel's opinion.
"There's nothing wrong with it, it only needs batteries." Maria told Joel after inspecting the camera.
"I think I have some spare batteries in my house, we can use Ellie's TV to see." Joel suggested, there was no point in questioning Fox Boy at the moment, it was better to ask questions after they check the camera out. "Are you gonna inform anyone about this?"
"Not yet," Maria answered his question. "I don't wanna cause a commotion." She explained to her brother-in-law. "Let's first figure out what we're dealing with, I'll inform everyone after."
"Good call." Joel agreed with her.
Maria then took a look at the door, seeing Fox Boy inside the cell where they put him. He was sitting down on the bed, hugging his knees, staring at the wall. "What do we do with him?" She asked Joel.
"Ask someone to keep an eye on him, it doesn't look like it, but this kid is dangerous." Joel answered her question.
"How old do you think he is?" Maria asked in curiosity.
"He's probably around Ellie's age or younger." Joel theorized by his voice and size but he wasn't completely certain. "We should give him something to eat, he's no use to us if he collapses."
"Yeah..."
Ellie:
"Then I fell asleep on the bed as we waited for Joel and the others."
As soon as Joel returned with Jesse and Fox Boy, both Dina and Ellie decided to check on him in worry. They pretty much dragged him to Ellie's home and after some convincing, he told them what happened. Jesse spent the next few minutes, sitting on Ellie's bed, telling them everything.
Both girls were genuinely shocked when Jesse told them about the infected baby, and they could tell that it messed with Jesse quite a lot. Dina was sitting beside him and comforted him the best she could.
"No offense or anything, but..." Ellie couldn't help but comment. "Were you fucking crazy to fall asleep right next to that guy."
"He could've killed me whenever he wanted as soon as we arrived, he had more than one opportunity." Jesse pointed out to her. "I think he felt gratitude because I saved him or something like that."
"So... What was this Fox Boy like?" Dina asked as she was the only one of them that didn't get a look at him.
"He was wearing a kitsune mask, like in those Japanese anime that we used to watch." Jesse explained.
"He looked like those serial killer guys from those movies we used to watch together." Ellie added.
"At first, but once I heard his voice and saw him shirtless, that changed." Jesse decided to input, which confused the girls.
"Umm... Why did you see him shirtless?" Dina asked in confusion.
"He had to remove a bunch of stitches that were in his torso." Jesse explained.
"Eh..." Ellie cringed since she always hated doing that.
"Yeah, once he did though, I saw his torso and..." Jesse seemed to be trying to find the right words to use. "He was like... Super skinny, hell he was thinner than the two of you together." That genuinely surprised them as Ellie and Dina are pretty thin and it kind of shocked Ellie that a guy that's thinner than her, managed to knock Joel out. "But what shocked me was the scars. There were bullet wounds, cuts, dog bites and even burn marks." Jesse explained to them.
"So?" Ellie asked, not knowing where he was going with this.
"So, at first I thought he was a grown man or something but, I honestly think he's around seventeen or eighteen years old." After Jesse said that, it surprised the two of them.
"Wait, what?" It was Dina's response. "What makes you think that?"
"His voice, his height and the fact that it felt like I was talking to a child, seriously, he took everything I said literally." Jesse pointed out to the two of them.
"I heard his voice through the radio and it did sound..." Dina didn't seem to know how to describe it.
"High-pitched and he had a weird accent." Ellie decided to answer for her. Then she remembered something that she was meaning to ask. "Also, why did you call him albino weirdo?" She asked due to not knowing what exactly is an albino. "What's an albino?"
"An Albino is someone with Albinism." Dina started to explain to her. "It's a genetic disorder."
"He basically lacks the thing that gives the color to our skin,hair and eyes." Jesse told her. "His skin is super pale and his hair is white."
"Does it do something to the person's face?" Ellie asked in curiosity as she was still curious about the mask.
"Not that we know of, but... I don't think it's why he wears it." Jesse pointed out.
Dina was about to say something, but it was interrupted once they heard the front door being open. "Ellie." Suddenly, they heard Joel calling her.
"We're here." Ellie responded to him.
A few seconds later, both Joel and Maria entered the room.
"Did something happen?" Ellie asked the two of them.
"No, nothing." Joel assured her. "We need to use your TV to check on something we found on Fox Boy's backpack."
The TV that he was referring to, was an old TV that he got for her so she could watch some movies and old TV-shows with it. Ellie stood up from the bed and went to turn the TV on.
"What exactly did you find on his backpack?" Jesse asked him.
"An old camera, hopefully, there might be something on it that could tell us something about Fox Boy's people." Maria spoke before approaching the TV with the camera. "Joel, those batteries..."
"Hold on a bit." He told her before he left the room to probably go search.
"What happened to Fox Boy?" Dina asked.
"Joel and I left him in a cell with Cedric guarding him." Maria informed them, but Jesse seemed surprised.
"What?!" It was Jesse's reaction. "Why him?!"
"Because I plan on having a very serious talk with him about filling a safe post with pornography and stolen underwear as soon as we're done here." She replied dryly.
Both Ellie and Dina looked at one another at the revelation of what Cedric kept on the safe post. Dina however, looked at Jesse and seemed to wanna ask him something but was too afraid to do it. Jesse noticed and just nodded at her in affirmation, which caused Dina to stick her tongue out in disgust. Then Ellie remembered that Dina did complain about her favorite panties going missing and she felt a sudden urge to hit Cedric as there were some horrible images on her head of what exactly did he use it for.
Luckily, the disgusting images were interrupted by Joel coming back to the room. "Here." He handed the batteries to Maria.
Maria then put the batteries on the camera and prepared to play whatever recording it had.
Joel stood there with his arms folded. Jesse and Dina both watched from the bed they were sitting on. Maria was kneeling down in front of the TV with the camera at hand to play the recordings. Ellie sat on the floor to get a better view.
With that, Maria started to play a recording from the camera. The recording was strange, it showed someone holding the camera while running in a dark corridor, breathing heavily, with rain dripping from the roof. "CARLTON!" A man with a roughing voice called someone's name in desperation.. "WHERE ARE YOU!" He yelled desperately as he ran down the corridor searching for whoever is this Carlton. Where is this place? Ellie thought as the recording went on. Very loud gunshots could be heard in the recording, which was probably the cause of this man's desperation. As the man kept on running, he finally reached a destination, a big room that resembled a storage room. The room was filled with strange wooden boxes that looked rotten, the place seemed abandoned. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" The man kept cursing out loud. He then searched the room using the camera, until he saw something from afar. After zooming the camera, it showed that it was someone on the floor. "CJ!" It was the one that he was looking for. The man holding the camera ran very quickly, passing through the wooden boxes until he arrived at the guy named CJ. "NO,NO,NO,NO,NO!" The guy spoke once he got close enough to him. "No, brother, please wake, please..." The man spoke while trying to shake the other man awake, apparently they were brothers. "NO! NOOOOOO!" The man yelled in agony, once it was clear that his brother was dead. Suddenly, the man dropped the camera, and apparently hugged the dead body. The camera fell and pointed in the opposite direction, but they could all hear him crying. Unknowingly to the man however, there was something hiding in one of those boxes as they all saw him coming out of it. The one coming out of the wooden box was Fox Boy, who slowly sneaked behind the man with a gun at hand and once he was close enough , he grabbed the man from behind and proceeded to choke him. "AAHH!" It was the sound the man made after Fox Boy wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him towards the ground and started to strangle him. They had to watch as Fox Boy chokes the man to death.
"Oh man." Ellie couldn't help but say it. Dina looked away and Jesse cringed as he watched. But both Maria and Joel had stoic looks.
Soon enough, the guy in the recording stopped moving but Fox Boy kept choking him, probably to make sure he was dead. After a few more seconds, Fox Boy pushed the dead man off of him and sat up. He sat there for a bit, apparently regaining his breath. "Mi dispiace, ma non posso lasciare in vita nessuno." Fox Boy said something to the guy he just killed.
"What did he say?" Jesse asked in confusion.
"I think that's Italian." Dina answered him. "But I don't know what he said."
Fox Boy then moved his head to the left and saw the camera. He reached and grabbed before staring at it for a bit. Then the recording ended.
"That... Wasn't exactly very helpful." It was Ellie's response to what they just saw, and the image of the man begging his brother to wake up was hard to watch.
"It's just the first recording, there are more." Maria informed them before she started to play another one.
The second recording started to play, it showed a place that resembled a kennel with several cages on. Although it was actually pretty strange, the place seemed to be functioning but there was no dog around or even a bark to be heard. As the person holding the camera, which they assume it's Fox Boy, walks deeper into the Kennel, they finally see something, from afar, they seem like animals with collars on. But to everyone's shock, once Fox Boy got close enough, they saw the things wearing the collars weren't animals.
"Jesus Christ!" It was Maria's reaction to what they were seeing.
Joel widened his eyes in surprise.
"What the?!" Jesse spoke in shock.
Dina gasped and covered her mount.
Ellie only opened her mouth in shock.
The things wearing the collars were a group of boys who didn't look older than ten years old. They all looked the same as they all wore the exact same outfit, which was some strange looking brown rags and they all used strange metal masks that covered the upper half of their face. Fox Boy approached them with the camera and they were able to see them up close. The poor things looked thin and unhealthy. "S'il vous plaît, ne mourez pas, Jester vous apportera de la nourriture bientôt." Suddenly, Fox Boy told the kids something in another language that caused them to look at him. And out of nowhere, all of the children tackled him into a hug.
"Oww..." It was Dina's reaction to the children hugging him. "Does anyone know what he said?"
"The only thing I understood was Jester." Jesse told her.
Before anyone could say anything else, a very loud and maniacal sounding laugh came from the recording. Once Fox Boy moved the camera to watch someone entering the room and all of them made confused faces when they saw the person.
"I'm pretty sure that's Jester." Joel spoke up, but it was pretty obvious to them.
The laugh was coming from a weird looking guy, wearing a strange purple and white tunic, baggy purple pants that matched the top and weird looking white shoes. But what definitely called the most attention was what he had on his head, he was wearing a hood that matched his outfit in color that had two long ears with bells on the tips, and on his face, there was a mask. The mask was white in color and there were only two features on the mask, two black holes for the eyes and a toothless smile that only showed a black interior similar to the eyes. Ellie honestly didn't know how to feel about that, because the outfit should be ridiculous, but it actually looked terrifying on whoever this Jester was.
"Je suppose que les enfants adorent jouer avec les chiens, n'est-ce pas?" Jester spoke as he approaches Fox Boy and the kids. "Cependant, je ne me souviens pas vous avoir ordonné de venir ici."
"Reaper vous demande, il veut que vous fassiez plus de phosphore blanc." Fox Boy replied to the disturbing looking guy, who just moved head left and right in response. The children were still hugging him tightly, they didn't appear to be afraid of the one named Jester though.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Without any type of warning, Jester burst into laughter, it sounded forced and strangely childish. The laugh lasted for nearly a minute or two and all that Fox Boy and the kids did was stare at the man without saying a word or even moving. Then he stopped launching instantly. "Je me demande à quoi il va s'en servir... mais je m'en fiche."
"I can't understand a word they're saying." Ellie complained in frustration as she really wanted to know what they were saying.
" Très bien, mais... " Jester turned his back and started to whistle. Once he did, the kids that were hugging Fox Boy, suddenly let go of him and stared at him weirdly. "Vous divertissez mes fils jusqu'à ce que j'aie fini." Jester spoke strangely, before he clapped three times.
On the third clap came. The children that were hugging Fox Boy just a second ago. All roar at him like very hungry animals and in a split second, all charged at him like Runners do. Once the kids tackled him into the floor, the camera fell out of his hand and into the floor, only giving them a sight of Fox Boy's leg, where one of the kids untucked his pants from his boots and lifted revealing his very pale, skinny calf and shin. And to their horror, the boy revealed himself to have sharp looking teeth, that he used to bite Fox Boy's leg. The recording ended as soon as his leg started to bleed.
"OH FUCK!" It was Jesse's response to what they just saw. "The bite marks weren't from dogs." Jesse mentioned early that he saw several dog bites in Fox Boy's torso, but it turns out that they weren't dog bites.
"What the fuck was that?!" Ellie asked as she couldn't believe in what she just saw. Those kids attacked Fox Boy just like runners do as soon as the guy named Jester clapped at them.
"I... I don't know..." Even Joel seemed shocked by what they just saw.
Both Maria and Dina were speechless but looked just as shocked as everyone else.
A small pause ensued in the room. Until Maria broke it. "There's... More..."
Another pause ensued until Joel broke it. "If you guys wanna leave the room for a b-" He tried to suggest that they stop watching but Ellie interrupted him.
"We... Might end up dealing with these people, so , it's better that we know what we're dealing with." Ellie told him, with Jesse nodding in agreement. Dina just left Jesse's side and went to sit next to Ellie. The girlfriends held each other's hand.
"Okay, don't say I warned show kiddo." Joel replied, still sounding concerned.
Maria then played the next recording on the camera.
The recording started oddly, it seemed to be showing a rooftop or something, with several gunshots being heard. As the one carrying, which they assumed to be Fox Boy, walked through the rooftop, strangely, until he found a strange hole on the roof. Once he got close enough, he looked down the roof to check the inside. The place seemed to be a warehouse and there were eight or nine people inside, shooting desperately in a single direction. Suddenly, however, four of them are shot at from the direction where they're opening fire towards it. The upcoming fire caused the group to slightly retreat but it was to no use as the warehouse was closed. So all they could do was fire at whatever they were shooting at.
"Are they shooting at the infected?" Dina asked in confusion as they were wasting too much ammo.
However, it didn't take long for them to get their answer. Suddenly, they got a good view of something approaching the group.
"What? Is that Bloater?" Jesse asked due to the size of the thing.
"Since when do Bloaters carry guns?" It was Dina's response to Jesse's question. Upon close inspection, they saw that the thing wasn't a Bloater, but a person carrying a light machine gun.
The one carrying the light machine gun was being shot at by the group, but while the bullets were landing, he didn't seem to be getting any damage from them.
"He's wearing bulletproof armor." Joel pointed out, as it was the best explanation to how he's still standing after being on the receiving end of so many bullets.
Fox Boy then zoomed the camera and they managed to take a good look at the guy. "Ghost Head is angry..." Fox Boy spoke, sounding very frightened.
The guy wearing armor is apparently called Ghost Head. He was an enormous man, she could be wrong, but Ellie thinks that he might be around 8 feet tall. His entire body was covered in a dark colored armor that was clearly covered in blood. The armor looked super heavy but he was moving so easily with it, that was nearly unbelievable. But the thing that called the most attention, was the helmet that he was wearing, it was a hemispherical helmet studded with eight lit portholes. If Ellie had to be trapped in a room completely unarmed with either the three Bloaters or that guy, she would honestly pick the Bloaters.
It didn't take long for Ghost Head to easily dispatch the group by firing at them with the light machine gun, basically wasting all of his ammo by firing without aiming. Soon enough, everyone was dead and he dropped the gun on the floor. But there was something off, Ghost Head approached one of the corpses and stared at it for a bit, apparently waiting for something. Until... A woman appeared behind the man and started to fire at his back. He noticed and turned around, before he approached her, with the idiot woman persisting in firing against him instead of running. She only attempted to run when it was too late, as Ghost Head as soon as she started to run and lifted her off the ground with unbelievable ease and slammed the poor woman hard into the ground. "Zhalko, smert' - podarok takoy slaboy shlyukhe." Just like the Jester guy, Ghost Head spoke in a different language. The woman tried to crawl away from the guy, but it was futile as Ghost Head easily grabbed her by the hair and with a single hand, lifted off the floor by the hair. The woman screamed in pain as she was trying to break free from his grip, but it was useless. Ghost Head just held the woman like that, for nearly a minute, apparently admiring her pain.
The recording suddenly ended.
"Did you guys see that?" Jesse asked them, actually sounding curious. " What kind of armor was that?"
"I never saw anything like that, the bullets had no effect on him." Joel told Jesse, probably surprised by what they saw.
"I wonder..." Maria seemed to have something to say but was reluctant.
"What is it? Joel asked.
"What if... They all have this type of armor." Maria suggested.
"Fox Boy wasn't wearing anything like that." Jesse pointed out.
"I..." Dina decided to add something. "I don't think they really care about his well-being enough to give him this type of protection." She commented, still clearly disturbed by the previous recording.
"Is there any more?" Ellie asked Maria.
"Yes, two more." Maria spoke.
"Let's keep going then." Joel told her.
Maria then started to play the next recording.
It showed the image of Fox Boy, laying on the floor of a dark room wearing nothing but blue boxers and his mask, he was curled up like a ball with only a flashlight at hand to keep him from total darkness. He was shaking, probably because he was cold.
"You weren't joking, he is thinner than Ellie and I." Dina commented upon seeing Fox Boy, who was way too skinny like Jesse said.
"So... that's what an albino looks like?" Ellie asked, curious upon seeing Fox Boy's super pale body and white hair.
Joel nodded at her in confirmation.
Three minutes passed by, with nothing actually happening, until the lights came on.
"Oh!"
"Shit!"
"Fuck!"
Ellie,Jesse and Dina reacted to what they saw on the screen. Basically, Fox Boy was curled up in a ball in what appeared to be a gallery or something of sorts as there were several paintings and sculptures on it. But the sculptures seemed to be made of human flesh and body parts and the paintings seem to have been painted in blood. Suddenly, however, another person entered the gallery. It was a woman, wearing a strange looking white nightgown that looked worn-out and was covered in red stains, and unsurprisingly, she was wearing a mask. The mask was very strange looking, it resembled the face of a porcelain doll that had several cracks on it. Ellie honestly thought that she had the most terrifying mask of the bunch so far.
"Bleib still oder du ruinierst es." She spoke to Fox Boy while carrying a bucket.
Fox Boy just sat there in clear discomfort, but all she did in response, grab his short wavy hair and force him to sit up.
"Halt die Klappe." The woman, who apparently was called Venus, told him in a different language. They couldn't understand a word of what she was saying.
All they could do was watch the recording and see the woman covering Fox Boy in whatever was in the bucket that she was carrying.
"What is that thing?" Ellie asked.
"It looks like paint but I don't think it is." Maria responded to her.
Suddenly, she grabbed another bucket and tossed another strange liquid into Fox Boy. Covering him completely with it.
"What the fuck is she doing, an art exhibition?" Dina asked everyone, not understanding the purpose of that.
Unfortunately for Dina, she didn't get her answer. After Fox Boy was completely covered in what appeared to be paint. She pointed at a direction where the camera was located but she wasn't pointing at the camera itself, just the direction. Fox Boy seemed reluctant to go there, which caused Venus to hit him in the head with the bucket, five times. Ellie cringed as it was hard to watch, alongside the fact that Fox Boy barely reacted to it, even with his head starting to bleed from it. Fox Boy then obeyed her and stood up from the ground and walked towards the direction where she's pointing at. Once he was out of sight the woman got a Polaroid camera, then she sat on the exact spot where Fox Boy was and started to take photos. All they could see from that was the disturbing looking woman named Venus, taking photo after photo after photo of something that Ellie was afraid to know what it was simply because of how reluctant Fox Boy was to approach it.
Suddenly a very loud sound was heard from the recording, a very disturbing sound that scared both Ellie and Dina. Made it worse by the fact that Fox Boy came back into the camera's field of vision, by getting tossed into a distance and falling hard into the floor, breathing heavily. The albino boy curled into a ball again and shacked more heavily than before. But Venus kept photographing something that Ellie suspects that it was the thing that just tossed Fox Boy and made that disturbing sound.
Ellie looked at everyone wondering what the hell was she photographing. All of them looked disturbed by the sound as it was obvious that it was infected but they never heard any of them making that type of sound.
"Ist er nicht schön?" Venus asked Fox Boy something in a very happy sounding voice. But the masked boy didn't answer her, he just stayed on the same spot, shaking heavily.
The recording ended as soon as Venus took another photo.
"W-what the fuck tossed him like that?!" It was the first thing that Ellie asked.
"It was obviously infected but not even Bloaters have that type of strength." Jesse pointed out, also worried about that.
"What hell was that thing that she covered him with?" That was Dina's question. "There's no way that thing was paint."
"We gonna have to ask Fox Boy, but right now, there's one last piece of footage." Maria told them, but she was clearly curious herself about what was the thing that made that sound and tossed Fox Boy like that.
"Just start playing then." Joel told her, apparently eager to get this over with.
Maria nodded before she started to play the last recording.
The last recording on the camera started playing and to everyone's surprise. It showed a giant stadium, a stadium completely crowded with people. The seats were completely full with people cheering towards the center. There were five people there, standing on a sand field looking frightened at the giant crowd. Suddenly, the camera moved to the left revealing another masked man. This masked guy was the least weird looking of the bunch so far. He was wearing an all-black combat uniform, with full body armor, a ballistic helmet alongside a tactical gas mask.
"Anata ga taoretara, watashi wa anata no karada o kaifuku shimasen. Anata wa sonobade fuhai shimasu." The one with the gas mask told Fox Boy.
"Daijōbu..." Fox Boy replied to the man.
"Yoi." The man told him before grabbing the camera from Fox Boy's hand. And pointed at Fox Boy, who was covered in mud. "Anata no mijimena jinsei de anata ga shita koto o kiroku suru koto no imi wa wakarimasenga, watashi wa sore o yurushimasu."
"Dōmo arigatōgozaimasu." Fox Boy told him with a bow. "Reaper."
"Ima, shūjin o koroshimasu." The man who Ellie assumes that his name is Reaper, said.
Fox Boy nodded before going away. Reaper was now holding the camera, He moved back to the spot where Fox Boy was filming the stadium. With everyone apparently waiting for something. The five people in the center were all men, they were all wearing strange looking helmets that barely fit their heads and all of them were carrying some type of weapon. One was carrying a baseball bat, one a machete, one a iron pipe, one a sledgehammer and the last one was carrying a kitchen knife. Suddenly, the crowd started to cheer as the only door at the center opened. With Fox Boy coming out of it and approaching the five men.
"Is he gonna fight those guys?" Dina asked in confusion. A confusion that Ellie shared as Fox Boy was completely unarmed.
Fox Boy then approached the ones who were the closest, which was the man carrying a machete and the one carrying the baseball bat. Both looked at one another before deciding to charge at Fox Boy, who just kicked some sand into the face of baseball bat guy, which blinded him for a bit, before he dodge the upcoming attack of the one with the machete, before he grabbed the grip of the machete and pushed the guy's hand off with his forearm, and slicing the guy's throat with his own machete. The baseball bat guy managed to clean the sand off his eyes but unfortunately, he had his skull chopped by Fox Boy, who hit his head with the machete.
The other three were in a safe distance and seemed to be reluctant to attack. Ellie couldn't blame them as she can totally believe that Fox Boy was able to knock Joel out.
Fox Boy just pulled the machete off the guy's skull before he made his way to the others. The one carrying a sledgehammer tried to hit Fox Boy with it, but he easily dodged it and sliced the back of the guy's knee, making him fall down to one knee. But before he could finish the guy off, the guy with the iron pipe decided to attack and managed to hit Fox Boy in the arm, which caused him to drop the machete, then he hit Fox Boy on the ribs, which caused him to stumble back a bit. The guy tried to finish him off by hitting him on the head, but Fox Boy grabbed the iron pipe and stomped on the guy's knee and used the momentum to pull the pipe off his hand and smashed into his head, hard.
The guy carrying the knife just stood there reluctant to engage. That was, until the guy that was carrying a sledgehammer grabbed Fox Boy from behind and held him up. Although they couldn't hear it, it was obvious that he was telling the guy to stab Fox Boy with the knife. The guy with the knife obeyed and started to approach the two, while Fox Boy was struggling to break free from the guy's hold. Unfortunately, the guy with the knife closed the distance but Fox Boy kicked him, which pushed himself and the guy holding him back a bit, which he used the opportunity to try to break free, hitting his face with his elbow and throwing him into the ground with a shoulder throw. Before he lifted the guy's head off the ground and broke his neck.
The guy carrying the knife then stood up from the ground, clearly in pain from the kick he received. But he fought through and decided to foolishly attack Fox Boy with the knife. Fox Boy just dodged the knife attacks with ease as the guy was sloppily swinging it around. Until a wild swing that Fox Boy took advantage of and grabbed his wrist and the back of his neck and swept him using his foot, causing him to fall into the ground. Fox Boy then mounted him and performed a double wrist lock on the arm that was still holding the knife, breaking it. Before the albino boy grabbed the kitchen knife that he dropped and stabbed him on the neck with it.
The recording ended after the crowd started to cheer loudly.
"Okay..." It was Maria's response as she put the camera down and stood up from the ground. "If what we saw in that stadium was their numbers, we're in deep trouble." She didn't even try to hide how worried she was.
"But, how would that amount of people get here?" Jesse asked in deep confusion. "Especially with the repeated blizzards."
"The same way Fox Boy got here, and I really don't care about how, I'm more worried about when." Joel, who sounded as worried as Maria, told Jesse. "Come on, we have a lot of questions to ask Fox Boy." He told Maria before leaving the room.
Maria followed him soon after.
Ellie looked at Jesse and Dina, before standing up and following them too, with Jesse and Dina doing the same.
Fox Boy:
"For the last fucking time, I wasn't wearing those panties!"
After that man called Joel and that woman left Fox Boy alone in that cell. Another person appeared to keep an eye on him. He was around Jesse's age, he had curly brown hair, brown eyes, and was a little overweight with a double chin. He was wearing a blue coat and blue jeans and red shoes. But then Fox Boy found out that his name was Cedric and he was surprised as he didn't understand how those women's underwear fit on him.
"But then... Why did you keep them?" Fox Boy asked, not really understanding what he would use them for otherwise.
"Umm..." He didn't seem to know how to respond to him. "I was... Using them for... Stuff."
Fox Boy was more confused than ever. "What kind of stuff, losing weight?" He asked. "I don't think putting on tight clothes will help you with that."
"Jesus Christ..." Cedric slapped his forehead for some reason.
"Don't need to be sad, there's nothing wrong with being fat." Fox Boy tried to comfort him but the fat boy seemed to get mad at him. "But... How exactly did you fit the beige one, they were really small."
"FOR FUCK SAKE, I NEVER WORE ANY OF THOSE PANTIES!" He yelled at Fox Boy in rage. "I WAS SNIFFING THEM!"
A small pause ensued before any of the two spoke again.
"That's... Pretty gross." Fox Boy replied as some of them smelled pretty bad. "Why would you steal it just to sniff it?"
"Ah, did your mother drop you in the head when you were a child or something?" Cedric asked, sounding angry.
"No... Or at least I don't think so..." Fox Boy has no idea who his mother is so he couldn't know if she did or not.
"Look, just sit on the bed and shut fuck up." Cedric told him angrily.
"Okay..." Fox Boy obeyed his order before going to sit down on the bed.
Thanks everyone who follows and favorite this story. As always, your support means a lot to me.
Questions and Answers:
Liked the fact Fox Boy is dressed like a serial killer is being acknowledged and while Ellie is creeped out by the mask hope she gets use to it and looking forward to when she falls for the guy under it same deal with Dina haha
I also got a laugh from whole technically being a prisoner Fox Boy was just in his own little world for a bit and did his own thing while the others freaked out over the horde outside and how casual he was about the fact he had a bullet lodged in him and his simple reaction to digging it out
But guessing by all the scars pain means nothing to Fox Boy
Also like how quickly Fox Boy went from kinda prisoner to well not being that
I also could put help but laugh with Fox Boys antics while Jesse was on the radio to the others the fact he hugged Jesse because he was upset was adorable to
Seriously hope despite how the first meeting went and the whole serial killer vibe he's got going the people in the town find Fox Boy to be extremely likeable
Particularly Ellie and Dina of course hope they find our Albino weirdo particularly appealing and easy to like
While loving Fox Boys warm side still eager to see him go full horror movie serial killer mode on Abby and all her stupid fucking friends
Also hope while still gutting and slaying Abby and all her stupid friends Fox Boy and Ellie don't get a empty farm
Really hope Fox Boy, Ellie and Dina get to live happy and content all together on that farm
Their relationship will be very complicated at first but that will change.
Fox Boy had to endure situations that were ten times worse.
His pain tolerance is as high as it could possibly be.
Necessity can change any situation.
Fox Boy is very socially inept, so expect more of that.
Don't count on it, only a selected few will warm up to him.
Dina will, but Ellie will take some time to.
Hope you likrd the glimpse of it during Reaper's recording.
Fox Boy will have worse things to worry about than Abby. As you probably saw what his "family" is like.
Okay, first of all, I finally had time to read this. The fox boy reminded me of Mono in a small nightmare. Love this game but hate the director who wrote the game sucks. I wonder how dangerous the Fox Boy group is. More dangerous than a whisper? Hope you don't kill Abby. I want her to have a good time with Fox. She's not bad, but because of bad Neil Druckmann.
Mono is one of my inspirations for him. Alongside Fester Adams and Stuart Pot.
I hope the recordings answered your question.
My biggest problem with Abby is that she could have worked as a character. They should have used her to explore the consequences of her obsession with revenge after the revenge is taken but instead they make suffer no consequences whatsoever for her actions and act like she's completely absolved because she saves a Mulan knockoff {Yes, Lev is nothing more than a Mulan Rip-off, they literally only replaced the 'pretend to be boy to save her father from dying in a war' with being a transgender. Look I'm all for a good representation as a guy who has a transgender cousin (favorite cousin), but this was not a good one.}
Interesting that our protagonist is albino, that's cool actually.
I wanted something unique for the character.
Fox Boy helped Jesse so it should improve his chances in Jackson slightly. He will likely get blamed for the deaths of Chad and Bonnie. They wouldn't have been killed if they hadn't been out there with Jesse looking for Fox Boy.
On the other hand, someone named Cedric was in charge of that area. Given that Fox Boy and Jesse have found his hidden stash. The fact that its even hidden might suggest that Cedric hadn't been taking his job seriously. If he had then Jesse, Chad and Bonnie might've been better prepared at least. So that might take some of the heat off of Fox Boy.
Maria, Tommy when he recovers and Joel will want answers from Fox Boy. Regardless of what answers he gives, it might take a while for him to earn Jackson's trust. He dropped Joel, wounded Tommy two of Jackson's most experienced fighters, broke Ellie's arm, evaded a whole patrol, stole a horse. He will still be blamed by many for the deaths of Chad and Bonnie. And the minute word gets out that Fox Boy might be part of another group, a large one then there are going to be conspiracy theories going around.
Jesse doesn't blame him and they haven't given the details of the deaths yet.
Truth, Maria,Joel and Jesse will yell at him for it.
Truth.
loved it. this story is looking so good! fox boy probably should have used the opportunity to escape, and he could still do it in the next chapter but if I was in his place, I'm not sure if I'd want to go back to the people that hurt me so much. but he doesn't have anyway to make sure that Jackson would be better than wherever the hell he's from, then again at this point, anything might be better than he's old home
He could have escaped whenever he wanted but... He has his orders.
Cute fox boy attacks again
He's not even trying .