Chapter 4: Painful Numbness (1/3)
Ellie Williams:
Fuck, fuck, fuck... It was all that Ellie could think about it. The heavy blizzard that was falling upon her was nearly unbearable, and all that they could do was push forward before their time ended. All of them, Ellie, Joel, Tommy, Maria, Dina and Jesse were struggling to get to the spot where they stored cars in case of an emergency. All of them, except for the Albino Weirdo that is accompanying them.
How the fuck is he doing that? Ellie asked herself as she watched Fox Boy. Who was walking in an extremely casual manner while they were struggling to get through the heavy blizzard. It's like he's not even feeling the cold. In truth, Ellie was actually terrified because she couldn't even see the way that they were going and could only follow Tommy and Maria, who were struggling just as much as her to move.
Dina was right besides her, with Jesse helping her move as she limped because of her leg. Ellie wanted to help her, but she was in bad shape as well. Her arm really hurts and the stab wound on her shoulder hurts just as much. Something that also really baffled her at the moment though, was the Albino Weirdo, because according to Dina, he is the one with the most injuries right now and is moving like he's unharmed. What's with this guy? Fox Boy was moving with his usual robotic walk, carrying a weird looking assault rifle on his back.
"Hey," Jesse called up to Maria and Tommy, who were right in front of them. "Are you sure we're going the right way?" He questioned since it was hard to see the way forward because of the snow and the darkness.
"Positive," Tommy replied while pointing a flashlight to the left. "See..." He pointed at an abandoned car. "That car has been here for years, we're close."
"Then come on." Joel, who was standing right in front of them with his assault rifle at hand, rushed them because their time was going to be up at any second. "We can't waste time."
"Joel's right, ten minutes left." Maria informed them.
"Shit, we gotta hurry." Dina spoke in response, clearly nervous of what was going to happen.
"Yeah..." Ellie agreed.
"Are you guys sure the cars are in driving conditions?" Jesse asked as they kept moving. "No offense, but according to you, it doesn't sound like anyone inspected those cars since your friend died."
"Only two cars are in driving condition." The one who said that, was Fox Boy, which called everyone's attention.
"What?!" Tommy asked him.
"You are talking about the cars inside of that strange garage, aren't you?" Fox Boy asked as he kept on walking with that robotic walk of his.
"Yes, what of it?" Maria asked him with a concerned face.
"The man that was with me before sabotaged the cars, he also took one of them but he crashed because of an infection." Fox Boy informed them. "He said that he was keeping those cars and he was going to come back to grab the other later."
"Are you fucking kidding us!?" Ellie asked in anger.
"No." He answered like it was a question.
"Why didn't you tell us before that?" Dina asked him.
"Jesse only asked now." Fox Boy replied, clearly clueless about what was wrong at the moment.
"Goddammit..." Maria touched her face in frustration. "Fox Boy," She let go of Tommy and Joel took her place to help him move. "The car that he left intact, is it big enough for all of us?" That was her only question.
"I think so." Fox Boy replied, which gave them some relief.
"Okay," Maria sighed in relief before saying that."Let's go then." She hurried everyone as she went ahead.
"We need t-" Joel was going to say something but he got interrupted by noises that came from afar.
Everyone moved their heads in the direction of the noises, and it didn't take long for Ellie to realize that it was the sound of gunshots. "Is this..." Ellie was about to ask, but someone spoke first.
"They are executing the remaining residents." Fox Boy told them.
Everyone looked at the Albino Weirdo after he said that. Leaving everyone feeling completely overwhelmed with the knowledge that everyone they knew and interacted with on a daily basis was being slaughtered at the precise moment by his people. But one of them stood out. "My... Mother..." Jesse spoke in a nearly broken voice, as he was so overwhelmed by the chaos surrounding them that he didn't have the time to worry about his mother.
Ellie touched his shoulder affectionately as Jesse looked at the direction where the gunshots were coming from with a fearful expression. Dina hugged him from behind as he was ready to burst into tears. "Jesse..." Suddenly, Tommy talked to him from behind. "Your mother..." Everyone moved their heads to look at Tommy, who was still leaning on Joel. "She..." He was clearly having difficulty speaking.
"She's dead, isn't she?" Jesse asked the obvious.
Joel took a deep breath and said. "She was being held hostage at the Tipsy Bison, with a bunch of other people." And by Joel's face, Ellie could tell that something had happened there. "She was... Gunned down alongside everyone inside."
Hearing that, was the last straw for Jesse. As tears started to fall from his eyes before he completely bursted into tears in front of everyone. Ellie immediately joined Dina in hugging her friend as he cried in front of them after receiving the awful news that his mother was gunned down by the masked monsters. "I'm so sorry..." Dina told him in a very low voice as she was visibly distraught by the news as well. Ellie didn't know Jesse's mother too well but she knew she was a good person and hearing about how she was killed also upset her. But sadly, the time for grieving had to be short lived because they were literally in the middle of a blizzard and they will be hunted by the same people that murdered Jesse's mother when the time is up.
"Jesse, I'm so sorry," Ellie said to her friend. "But we have to keep going." She said that while still having her arms wrapped around him.
"Y..yeah..." Jesse spoke in between sobs. "Let's keep moving." He said it while wiping the tears off his eyes. "There will be time to cry later."
Dina just nodded in response to what he said.
"Come on, Maria is probably waiting for us ahead-" Joel spoke to them but was interrupted.
"Where is the kid?" Tommy asked.
Ellie, Jesse and Dina all moved their heads to look at the spot where Fox Boy was, only to realize that he wasn't there anymore. "Cute Boy?!" Dina called out for him.
"Will you stop calling him that!" Ellie lost her patience with the nickname that her girlfriend gave to the Albino Weirdo.
"Fox Boy?!" Jesse also called out for him.
"Did he just leave us?" Dina asked as she searched around for the masked boy.
"No, he went ahead." Joel pointed out while pointing at some footprints in the snow that definitely belonged to him. "And we should really be doing the same." He signalled the trio to move as their time is almost up. "Come on, Tommy." The brothers started to move ahead as the blizzard fell upon them.
The three friends followed them soon after, with Jesse retaking the task of aiding Dina due to her injured leg with Ellie being right beside them.. As they followed behind Joel and Tommy, Ellie heard Dina speak to her. "For the record, I'm not stopping." She told Ellie.
"What?" Ellie asked in confusion.
"Come on..." Jesse immediately interrupted the conversation so they could focus on the task. As they now arrived at an area that seemed to be the place they were looking for. "What is this place anyway?" Him asking that is something surprising since out of the three of them, Jesse is the one that has been living in Jackson the longest.
"According to Maria, when the Jackson community was getting started, there was a small group of people that weren't exactly up to the idea of being a part of a large community." Tommy explained as he struggled to move with his brother's help. "But the place was secure so they didn't want to leave, so they found a middle ground and Maria gave them permission to build some houses next to the city and contributed in any way they could." He explained as they arrived at an area that seemed to possess several custom built houses. "But, in the end, they changed their mind when it started to grow into what you guys see today..." He immediately stopped talking after saying that and made a sad face since, what they see today is the scenario that was more frightening than a town infested with infected.
"What about this place with the cars that you were talking about?" Ellie decided to ask to both change the subject and to get more info about that.
"One of these people was a very skilled mechanic, he agreed to fix their vehicles in exchange for food and water." Tommy explained to her. "Maria said that they had other mechanics but this guy was a professional one which made a whole lot of difference." They moved past several custom built houses and were able to see a warehouse from afar. "That was already here before, I think it was a storage warehouse for cars." He pointed at the place that they were looking for. "So, he kindly built a mechanical shop around it to fix cars." He pointed at an area right besides the warehouse. "But, after they switched to using horses, it kind of got abandoned." The injured man finished his explanation.
"What happened to the guy?" Dina asked him.
"He killed himself." Tommy revealed it to them.
That information was a little depressing but they were already on an all time high of depression at the moment, so they simply ignored that. Eventually, they arrived at the warehouse where the vehicles were stored, with Maria standing in front of the door. "What are you waiting for?" Joel asked as she was standing in front of the door.
"It's locked from the inside." Maria explained to them. "And the overhead door won't open without electricity, not from outside at least."
"Then what are we going to do?" Ellie asked in confusion.
Maria signalled them to wait. Then they heard a noise coming from inside, and after hearing for a little bit, the door opened, startling everyone for a second, until they saw who opened that door. "Why did you run off like that?" Dina asked since the one standing on the other side of the door that was just unlocked was Fox Boy.
"I locked the place from the inside the last time I was here." Fox Boy explained to Dina.
"Come on," Maria signalled them to get inside. "And thanks." She told Fox Boy.
"You are welcome." The masked boy said in a happy voice.
Joel and Tommy passed through the door afterwards. With Jesse and Dina going after and Ellie being the last one to get inside. The place was a large empty space that was dark as hell, but she could see the cars around and it was a gigantic waste that they were all sabotaged. There were four separate lines that were composed of five cars each, so there were twenty cars inside of that warehouse, which only made it worse. Moving her head however, she actually noticed that one car was missing in the front of one of the lines, which was probably the car that Fox Boy mentioned earlier. So there are nineteen cars inside instead of twenty.
"So, which one is that car that is working?" Jesse asked Fox Boy, and everyone moved their heads to look at him because they needed to know that.
Fox Boy didn't respond, he simply moved with that robotic walk of his towards the cars. After passing through the most visible ones, Fox Boy arrived at the back of the garage and pointed at one of them. "This one." He said to them while pointing at one of the cars.
All of them decided to move to see what car he was referring to, and once they arrived, they saw that it was a desert colored SUV that seemed to have gone through some strange looking modification that Ellie couldn't quite describe. "A Chevrolet Blazer, you had one of those." Joel spoke to Tommy.
"Worst car I ever owned." Tommy spoke with a chuckle. "I never thought that I would be glad to see one of those again."
"Ummm..." Ellie moved her head to look at the number of cars that were blocking the passage of the car that they were going to use and asked. "How are you going to..." She highlighted the cars in front of it.
"There is enough space to push them out of the way." Jesse pointed out. "But, how are you going to get that door open?" He asked them as he pointed at a large garage door that was the only way to get the car out.
"There's a manual chain that we can use to open." Maria responded to him as she inspected the car to see if everything was in place.
"The chain is broken." Fox Boy spoke afterwards.
Everyone moved their heads to look at him again. "What?" Maria asked.
"That man pulled the chain too hard and it ended up breaking it." Fox Boy explained. "He said that it was fine because he could use the generator to power up the place and get the door open when he came over next time." He added.
"What generator?" Maria asked him.
"We stayed in a house that had a Generator that powered up the place." Fox Boy explained to Maria as he stood in front of the door that led to the driver's seat. "We had to leave it there alongside the gas caddy because he crashed the car."
"Gas caddy?" Tommy asked.
"The small group that I was ordered to accompany travelled here in a Humvee that was granted to them by Reaper with a gas caddy that held fourteen gallons of gasoline." Fox Boy explained to the group.
They all looked at one another, probably with the exact same in mind. But Dina was the one that ended up asking. "Cute Boy," While annoying Ellie with the nickname that she gave to the masked boy. "This house where you left the generator and the gas caddy, where is it?" She asked him.
"The first house we passed through when we arrived in this area." He answered Dina's question.
"And why didn't you mention this before?" Ellie asked him in clear annoyance because they could have got it before going there.
"None of you asked." Fox Boy responded casually like he really didn't understand the problem there.
"Are you serious?!" Ellie was definitely annoyed by how casual he is about all of this.
"Ellie," Dina immediately called her out. "Technically, he's right, none of us actually asked." She pointed out the obvious.
"Dina, we're on a pretty fucked up situation right now and any second we lose here, could cost our lives." Ellie argued with her.
"You're right, but now is really not the time to argue, Ellie." Joel ends up telling her as he opens the door of one of the cars in order to sit Tommy down.
"Yes but-" Before Ellie could reply. they all heard a beeping noise. Moving their heads, they noticed that it was coming from Maria's watch, and they all assumed that meant something awful.
"Time is up, isn't it?" Tommy asked as recovered his breath from the laboured movement that he was forced to do to get there.
The face that Maria made after hearing that question was answered enough to everyone. But then, she took a deep breath and said. "You wanna come with us, you gotta do us the favor of getting that generator and the gas caddy for us." To everyone's surprise, she said that to Fox Boy.
"Yes ma'am." Fox Boy instantly replied to Maria's request without any type of objection.
"Wai-" Dina tried to argue, but it was immediately shut down by Jesse, who shaked his head to signal her to not interrupt Maria.
"Okay, I don't think you can bring the two things by yourself, so either Joel or Jesse has to go with him." She informed them.
"Wait, what?!" Ellie immediately yelled to protest.
"Ellie," Maria immediately responded to Ellie. "You, Tommy and Dina are injured and I really won't be of much help because I ain't exactly what you would call physically strong." She listed the reasons why it has to be Joel and Jesse. "And I can't send the two of them because we gotta get these cars out of the way and Tommy definitely can't help us.". Ellie was forced to stop talking because she sadly saw the sense in her words.
Joel, who was kneeling down in front of Tommy, stood up and spoke. "I'll go." He made the decision. "Jesse, help them get the cars out of the way, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"I'm on it." Jesse nodded and Dina decided to stop using him for support.
"We had to hurry." Dina said as she placed her hand on the nearby wall to support herself.
"Be careful." Tommy told his brother.
"Always." Joel responded.
"Joel, watch out, his people could come after us at any second." Maria instructed him in visible worry.
"I'm aware of that, which is why we need that car ready to speed out of here when we get back." Joel reminded her, which was basically a subtle way to tell her to get started in getting the other cars out of the way. She took the hint and nodded before signalling to Jesse to help her.
"Take care, Joel." That was the only thing that Jesse said to him before moving to help Maria.
Joel then moved towards Ellie, who immediately hugged him afterwards. "Those crazy bastards may be coming this way, so please hurry." She told him in deep worry.
"I'll be back as fast I can." Joel then pushed her away and held her by the shoulders. "If something happens, don't hesitate to run, I mean it." He told her that while staring into her eyes.
She really didn't like what he was insinuating and was about to rebuff, but then. "If the guys with featureless masks show up, try to avoid them, they are no joke." Dina instructed Joel as she approached them and touched Ellie's uninjured shoulder for support.
"Honestly, I'm more concerned with the possibility of one of those four showing up." Joel was obviously referring to Reaper,Ghost Head, Venus or Jester. "Come on, kid." He signalled Fox Boy to follow him.
Fox Boy approached them, and to both Joel and Ellie's surprise, Dina limped a bit and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. "Thank you for doing this, and please be careful." Ellie did not like what she was seeing, at all, especially with how tightly the Albino Weirdo was hugging her back. "Umm... Am I hurting you?" She asked, and that was definitely because her torso was pressing against the area where that creepy woman carved him up.
"Yes, your chest pressing against the cuts on my chest." Fox Boy confessed despite the clear lack of care about it.
"Oh, sorry..." She tried to pull away, but Fox Boy kept on hugging her. "Ummm..." She noticed that he didn't want to separate yet, so she giggled and patted his head. "Come on, I don't want to be the reason why you are feeling pain." Hearing that caused him to separate himself from her immediately.
"Sorry..." He immediately apologized despite the fact that he was the one feeling pain due to the hug.
"Come on, we gotta get moving." Despite the clear awkwardness in regards to Dina's sudden closeness to the Albino Weirdo, Joel decided to focus on the task.
Fox Boy nodded and moved towards the door with that robotic walk of his, passing by Joel and Ellie. Joel gave Ellie one final look and nodded before he also made his way to the door. Just like that, Joel and Fox Boy passed through the door and made their way to the house where the generador and the gas caddy were located. Leaving the two girls by themselves. Once they were out of sight, however, Ellie turned to stare at Dina with a face that indicated that she was upset.
"What?" Dina asked her.
"What is this shit, Dina?!" Ellie asked her in visibly annoyance . "Since when did you get so close to that Albina Weirdo?"
Dina frowned in response. "Since he literally saved my ass from those masked freaks three times, tended to both mine and my girlfriends wounds and is literally risking getting turned into one those fucked up infected for helping us, because that's what he told me was would happen to him if he gets caught for helping us." The girl with an injured leg started to list the reasons why to her girlfriend. "And don't fucking call him Albino Weirdo, that's rude as hell, Ellie!" She was clearly mad about that nickname.
"Well, stop calling him "Cute Boy" and I'll gladly stop!" She was equally mad about that nickname as well.
"Hey!" As the two girls argued, someone called them. Moving their heads at the same time to see that it was Jesse. "Are you two insane?!" He asked them in frustration. "There's an army of masked psychos after us and you're arguing about that!?" Their friend reminded them angrily about the fucked up situation that they were currently in. "Dammit! Help us move the cars!" That was the last thing he said before moving to help Maria, who was struggling to push a red car to the side, with poor Tommy watching everything since he was in no condition to help.
Ellie and Dina looked at one another, before they both seemed ashamed of what they just did. "Sorry." Dina apologized first.
"Me too." Ellie apologized as well. "Come on." She signalled her towards the cars.
Joel Miller:
"Is that the one!?"
After leaving the garage, Fox Boy and Joel Miller made their way towards the house where the generador and gas caddy was located. But that was much harder than they expected since the blizzard outside got much worse and Joel knew that it would only get worse and worse as the night went on. So they moved with relatively more difficulty, more Joel than Fox Boy, since the Albino boy seemed to be barely affected by the cold environment.
"Yes."
The two of them passed all of the custom built houses that were around the area until they arrived at the house that they were looking for. A house covered in snow that had a car crashed on the side of it.
"Is that the car that man took?" Joel asked with a yell as the wind made a lot of noise.
"Yes." He responded bluntly.
"What happened?" Joel asked in confusion, because he really doesn't understand how he could hit the car from that type of distance from the garage.
"An infected stage one showed up in front of the car and forced him to turn drastically, but the car slipped and he crashed." He explained as he moved with his strange walk towards the house.
"Talk about bad luck." Joel joked in a low voice as they reached the house.
"This way." Fox Boy signalled him as he opened the front door and allowed Joel to enter first.
Joel simply passed through the door to get away from the blizzard. The whole house seemed to be empty, with no furniture whatsoever, but there were some empty cans of food on the floor, some empty shotgun shells and some leftovers of what seems to be homemade cigarettes that probably belonged to the man he killed. Fox Boy entered right after him and closed the door behind them.
"Where is the generator?" Joel asked him.
"It's downstairs, in the basement." He responded bluntly. "The gas caddy is upstairs."
"Get the caddy, I'll get the generator." Joel instructed him. "Hurry up."
Fox Boy just nodded before he made his way upstairs to grab the gas caddy. Joel, on the other hand, made his way to a pair of doors that were located in a narrow corridor that led to the kitchen. But the way to the kitchen was blocked by the nice looking car that crashed into the house. It was a Chevrolet Camaro 1980 in the color green, a really nice looking car that only someone really stupid would want to drive in the world that they live in right now. Opening one of the doors, he saw that it was a bathroom that had a damaged bathtub, a broken sink and a dirty toilet. Closing the door and moving to the next one, Joel saw a set of stairs that lead down. Wasting no time, he made his way down, using a small flashlight that he had on him to illuminate the way. Just like the rest of the house, the basement was completely empty, except for what he was looking for, which was the generator, an seemingly all-purpose generator, which was precisely what they needed at the moment.
Okay, let's get you out of here. Joel thought as he grabbed the generador and lifted off the floor. It was considerably heavy but nothing he couldn't handle. Now, I need to get this back to the garage and- As Joel planned what they would do once they got back as he took the generador upstairs, he heard the noise of the front door opening again. "Huh?" And he knew that I wasn't Fox Boy who opened as he saw several lights illuminating the house. How did they find us so quickly?! Joel thought in deep worry since he could already tell that it was those armored soldiers with featureless masks. Who am I kidding? That man with the gas mask probably told them to follow us and attack once the time is up. Joel concluded as he turned off his flashlight, placed the generador beside the stairs and took position to shoot them with the assault rifle. Fox Boy said on the way here that this gun won't penetrate their armor but the masks will penetrate the masks if I shoot enough times at close range. Sadly, that was easier said than done, and he regretted not grabbing the shotgun that had armor piercing rounds but he feels more comfortable in knowing that Jesse has it and he could use it to defend everyone else if it needs to be.
All that he could hear from upstairs was the sound of footsteps coming from above. They were very soft footsteps that were meant to be quiet but the poor condition of the floor made them audible. Eventually, Joel saw the light illuminating the basement from the door, taking a deep breath, Joel prepared himself to open fire the moment he made his way down. Slowly, he could one of them descend down the stairs with an MP5 that had a flashlight attached to it. His trigger finger was ready and he just waited until his head was on sight. But the moment he got into the middle of the stairs, shots were heard from upstairs. It was the sound of a shotgun that definitely came from Fox Boy. The armored soldier moved his head to look upstairs, which gave Joel the opportunity.
So he started to open fire at the man wearing armor, while taking steps forward to close the range. Unfortunately, moving and shooting doesn't do good for the aim, so Joel ended up landing more on the armor than the mask, but once he got the distance, it was good enough to get a clear shot on the mask. However, the masked soldier blocked his head with a forearm which protected from the bullets and due to the close distance, he was able to grab the barrel of the assault rifle and push it out of the way while simultaneously launching himself at Joel from the stairs with the two of them falling on the floor afterwards. Joel immediately tried to stand up to get aim, but the armored soldier immediately tried to draw his handgun to shoot Joel, and the old man immediately reacted by launching himself at him and pushing him into the floor, thankfully with the handgun falling off his hand as a result of it. Wasting no time, Joel attempted to get on top of him in order to pull out his own handgun and shoot his head with it, sadly, when he attempted to mount him, the armored soldier grabbed the sleeves of his coat and pulled them over his head and brought them in a circular motion towards his knees. Which pulled Joel forward making him fly over him and ending up on the floor with the armored soldier on top, mounting on to Joel. The moment he got on top of Joel, he pulled out his knife and attempted to stab Joel with it, with Joel desperately grabbing his wrists to try to keep the knife from stabbing him.
The struggle was futile, because the armored man was stronger than Joel and he easily pushed the knife closer to Joel's neck. Ellie... He thought about Ellie desperately as the knife was about to reach his neck. I'm sorry... That was his last thought as he closed his eyes and accepted his fate.
"Ahh..." Until he heard a grunt coming from the armored soldier.
Opening his eyes, he saw that a pair of hands just grabbed him from behind, with one hand pulling his head back and the other stabbing him on the throat with a knife. He saw that it was Fox Boy, after he pushed the man off of him. "We must go, there are more outside." He spoke with that strange accent of his that Joel couldn't figure out what it was.
"Mnnrrr..." Joel grunted as he stood up from the floor and regained his breath. That was really close... He thought in deep frustration as he grabbed his assault rifle from the floor.. "Got to carry that thing, so you're gonna have to cover me." He instructed the Albino Boy, who had the Gas Caddy wrapped around his backpack somehow. How is he carrying that thing? Joel asked himself since he was sure those things are supposed to be considerably heavy.
Fox Boy simply nodded in response before he pulled out his assault rifle from his back. And moved towards the stairs to secure the way. Joel took another deep breath before moving to grab the generador. This is not going to be good... He thought since carrying the generador all the way to the garage with a blizzard and those armored soldiers outside was not going to be easy. "Way is clear." Fox Boy spoke in his soft voice. After hearing that, Joel took the generador upstairs with a bit of difficulty while Fox Boy aimed at the front door, where the corpses of two more armored soldiers could be seen. "They're in front of the house, we must leave through the backdoor." The albino boy informed him.
Joel heard what he said, and immediately moved to get past the car that was blocking the way to the kitchen which led to the back door. Placing the generador on top of the car hood before he jumped to the other side and pulled out of it, making his way to the kitchen. Fox Boy moved and also jumped over the car hood. But then the boy wearing a mask started to hit the windshield with the butt of the assault rifle in order to break it before grabbing the pump of the gas caddy and filling the inside of the damaged car with gasoline. "What are you doing?"
"A warning." He spoke as he pulled out a grenade and dismantled it right in front of Joel, before he tossed the outer shell to the living room, and placed the fuze system inside of the car after pulling the safety pin ring. Once he did, he moved towards the back door, passing by Joel and opening the door slowly with his assault rifle ready. Joel then moved his head to look at the car and he noticed that the car was now on fire. A warning... Oh yeah, the others probably don't know that they are here already. He now understands what the Albino Boy was doing. If the house catches on fire, they might be able to see it despite the heavy blizzard. "Joel, we must go." He called him as he passed through the back door.
Ellie Williams:
"What the hell?!"
Ellie and Jesse were moving a car to clear the way for the working car to go. But they were interrupted by the sound of Tommy's voice.
"What is it?" Dina, who was breaking the windows of one of the cars, asked.
"One of the houses is on fire." Tommy, who was standing by the door that they used to come in, informed them.
"What?!" Ellie immediately ran towards the door to see what he was talking about. From a distance, despite the heavy snow blocking their vision, they were able to see flames from a distance. It was hard to actually see but it was obvious that something was wrong. "What the fuck happened?!" Ellie asked.
"Maybe," Maria also got close to the door. "They're warning us." It was her theory.
"Dammit!" Tommy said as he held his sniper rifle and got into position by the door. "Hurry up and get the rest of the cars out of the way!" He ordered everyone as he prepared himself to take a shot if he needed.
"But, what if Joel needs our help!?" Ellie asked him in worry.
"Running out in this blizzard with those armored psychos out there will be suicide, Ellie." Jesse told her as he kept on pushing the car with difficulty. "Joel can take care of himself and Fox Boy knows how to handle his people, so the best we can do now is focus on our own task, now come on!" Her friend bluntly told her as he pushed the car out of the way and moved to the next one.
"Jesse is right, Joel will be alright, now go help them." Tommy told her as he placed his eye on the scope to aim.
Despite her frustration, Ellie decided to obey them and moved back to help Jesse move the cars.
Joel Miller:
As the house quickly catched on fire, Joel and Fox Boy were able to make their way out by the back door of the house, which led to an empty backyard that had a small fence around it. The snow was stronger than ever now and the way there was a considerable walk, and now he had to carry a heavy object and be hunted by an armed man with bullet proof armor. With only thing to protect him now, is a disturbing teenage boy that clearly had a thing for Ellie's girlfriend. What a mess... Joel thought in frustration as he moved with difficulty behind Fox Boy.
The masked boy moved forward with his assault rifle at hand. Taking slow steps forward, he moved towards the fence so he could pass through. But after taking a few steps forward, he stopped. "What?" Joel asked. But he didn't answer, he just moved his head around slowly to search the area.
...
...
...
...
Until he actually turned to the left and fired the underbarrel shotgun of his assault rifle on the ground. Startling Joel for a second. "What are yo-" Before he could ask him what he was doing, two armored soldiers came out of the ground after he shot. They were camouflaging in the snow! Joel realized as he saw blood coming out of the spot where Fox Boy fired. The other two were right besides the one that just got shot, the one that was the nearest to Fox Boy tried to fire his submachine gun at him, but Fox Boy immediately closed the distance and used the tip of his assault rifle to smash the submachine gun to the side before placing he grabbed his arm held bent against their back with his hand forced upwards towards the neck applying pressure to the shoulder joint. The other armored soldier tried to open fire but Fox Boy placed his assault rifle in the back of the neck of the armored soldier that he had put it into some type of shoulder lock and opened fire before the other one could. To Joel's surprise the bullets on Fox Boy's assault rifle seemed to be enough to penetrate their armor, since the armored soldier dropped dead after a few shots. After killing the other armored soldier, he kneed the one that he was holding in a shoulder lock in the face, before performing a hip toss to throw him on the ground and finished him off by blowing his head off by firing the underbarrel shotgun.
I take back what I said, this kid is probably our best bet to get the hell out of this situation. Joel thought after seeing how easily he took them down when he could hardly take on one of them.
Fox Boy, wordlessly kept on moving forward while moving his head around to search the area for more of them.
Joel followed him, while struggling to carry the generador due to the heavy snow falling on him and the amount of snow on the ground that made it difficult for him to move. Come on, Ellie, Tommy and Maria are waiting. He told himself as he pushed through the heavy blizzard. After a dozen steps, they passed through the fence that was surrounding the backyard, and turned to the right. The way they were taking passed by the back of the custom built houses, while the fire in the house they just came in increased, despite the heavy blizzard. Fox Boy kept on searching around for more of them, which kind of confused Joel as he couldn't understand why they didn't attack the two of them at once or something. But whatever this was, it was good that they were distracted with them instead of the others.
There were five houses that they had to pass by, before arriving at the garage. Moving around slowly, the two of them arrived at the back of the second house, with Fox Boy searching around to see any signs of more of them hiding in the snow. The second house had no fence and no backdoor either, which was a good thing. They could pass by peacefully without having to worry about one of them surprising them by coming through the back door. That was what Joel thought, until Fox Boy fired a shotgun shell into the air and Joel immediately moved his head up to see that there was one of them aiming at them from a window on the second floor of the house. What is this? Joel can't understand why they are trying to get the drop on them instead of attacking the two of them at once. There is something off in this.
Fox Boy didn't seem to notice what Joel had noticed and just kept on moving. With that blizzard falling upon them and the heavy weight that Joel was carrying, he couldn't really help but do the same. So they moved to the back of the third house with Fox Boy in full vigilance of his surroundings. As they passed by the third house, Joel couldn't help but join Fox Boy in looking around because despite his lack of understanding about their strategy, they were still in deep danger. The moment they were about to reach the back of the fourth house. Three of them came out of the corner that separated the two houses. Fox Boy immediately fired at the first one that came out of the corner with the underbarrel shotgun, but before he could fire at the second one, he managed to close the distance and grab Fox Boy's gun, trying to wrestle the gun off his hands as the third one came of the corner and aim the submachine gun at Joel. Joel widened his eyes since there was no time to reach his gun, but before the armored soldier could shot him, Fox Boy pulled out his handgun with his right hand and fired three shots at the head of the one that was aiming at Joel, before letting go of his assault rifle and jumping back to fire more three shots on the face of the armored soldier that he was wrestling with. But the handgun shots didn't seem to have caused any damage other than some considerable impact that apparently caused some disorientation. A disorientation that Fox Boy capitalized on by closing the distance between himself and the one that took his assault rifle and shooting on the throat that apparently was a gap on the armor. Then he put his handgun back at the holster, grabbed his assault rifle and fired at the last one with the underbarrel shotgun.
After that, he just kept on moving forward with Joel following him from behind. "There is something wrong, the Faceless are not attacking us with maximum effectiveness." As they proceed to the fourth house, Fox Boy pointed out the exact same thing that Joel noticed earlier.
"I noticed too." Joel replied to him. "Do you have any idea why?" He decided to ask him.
"No." Unfortunately, that was Fox Boy's answer.
The two passed by the house with no trouble and reached the fifth house. Moving slowly, Fox Boy searched for any trace of the so-called Faceless. The moment he reached half of the way, Fox Boy stopped for a second. Before he could react, one of them crashed through the wall and tackled Fox Boy into the ground, making him drop his assault rifle. "Dammit!" Joel was forced to put the generador down and pulled out his own assault rifle to shoot. However, two of them came out of the hole that was made by the one that tackled Fox Boy, forcing Joel to fire at them while running to the corner where those three that Fox Boy killed came from. As Joel ran, the two pursued him with him running to the front of the house and taking over at the front. He tried to fire from cover but even though the bullets were landing, the armor didn't allow them to hit properly. "Come on..." Joel said to himself in deep frustration as he moved to get inside the house before they reached him. The interior of the house was identical to the first one, but there was furniture inside, which differentiated quite a lot. From the front door, Joel could see Fox Boy struggling on the ground against that Faceless. Taking a deep breath, Joel charged towards the hole on the wall, passing through and shooting at the back of the head of the armored soldier, which worked at close range and killed him. Fox Boy immediately pulled him off of him and crawled towards his assault rifle and immediately aimed at the corner, where the two that were firing at Joel came back and Fox Boy fired at them. Unlike Joel's assault rifle, his had the desired effect and killed the two quite easily. "Let's go." Joel rushed him as he ran to grab the generador.
Fox Boy stood up and immediately searched around for more of them. Joel lifted the generador up and started to move forward. Finally, they passed by all the houses and they could see the garage.
All they had to do now was push forward. "We're almost there." Joel told the Albino Boy as he aimed the assault rifle at the open area that they reached after passing by the last house. Slowly moving towards the garage where everyone was waiting for them. Thankfully, there were no gunshots or attempts to charge at them and their way towards the door was without a problem.
"There they are!" He heard Tommy yelling.
The two of them arrived at the door and fortunately, everyone was okay. "Shit, you guys okay?" Dina asked as she limped towards them.
"There were a bunch of those armored guys outside." Joel spoke as he placed the generador down and tried to regain his breath due to how tired he was.
"Hey..." Ellie touched his shoulder in worry.
"It's fine, I'm just tired." He reassured me as he took a deep breath. Moving his head, he saw that all of the other cars were all of the way of the one they are going to use.
"You got the gas?" Maria asked him. Joel just pointed at Fox Boy, who had the Gas Caddy tied to his backpack. Maria immediately went to grab it. "It's half full, it will be good enough." She said as she inspected. "Jesse, go outside and connect the generator in and run back inside, hurry." She told Jesse as she took the Gas Caddy to fill up the car.
Jesse nodded and immediately grabbed the generador and took outside to connect to the garage. With Tommy guarding him as he moves.
"How many of them are there?" Tommy, who was aiming the sniper rifle outside, asked.
"We bumped into thirteen of them." Joel answered.
"Woah!" Dina was surprised.
"Seriously?" Ellie asked as she joined Tommy while guarding the door with the submachine gun that she had.
"Yes." Joel bluntly responded as he leaned on the wall.
"Did you two kill all of them?" Tommy asked as he inspected the outside for any sign of them.
"Yeah, the kid killed every single one of them." Joel explained, with everyone but Dina looking at him in surprise. "How did your assault rifle do damage to the armor?" He asked in confusion because his had very little effect but Fox Boy's gun seemed to penetrate their armor with ease.
Fox Boy pulled out the magazine of his assault rifle. "M995," He replied while showcasing the cartridge inside the magazine. "It's a armor piercing cartridge." He explained before placing it back on his gun.
"Didn't you have some spare ones we could have used?" Dina asked him as she limped towards him and wrapped her arm around him for support. Which visibly bothered Ellie.
"No, I'm sorry, I only had one magazine of them left and it's the one I just used to help Joel." Fox Boy explained to Ellie's girlfriend as he wrapped his arm around her lower back to help support her.
"It's okay, at least you put it to good use." She immediately told him with a smile.
Before any of them could say anything else, a light came on and illuminated the dark garage. With Jesse running back inside, and Tommy closing the door because of the storm. "Car is ready!" Maria yelled as she turned the car on.
"Come on." Jesse moved to help Tommy stand, with Ellie also helping him.
"Ahhhh..." Tommy grunted in pain as the two helped him move towards the car.
"Here, sit down." Maria opened the door of the car in order to sit Tommy on the passenger's seat. "Dina, now you." She called her, and Fox Boy helped Dina move towards the car and Maria sat her on the back seat. "I'll drive, Joel, press that button to open the door, Jesse, there is some gas left in that caddy, try to fit on the back." She instructed Joel and Jesse as she entered the car and turned the engine on.
"Let me." Ellie offered herself to go open the garage door.
"Nah, sit down, I got it." Joel told her as he moved to open the door, mostly because he was afraid that there were more of them outside. So he pulled out his assault rifle and moved to press the button that was on the door frame to open the garage door for them to finally get out of there. Once he got close, he wasted no time in pressing the button, which made the door open slowly with no apparent problem.
"Joel, come on." Ellie called him.
Joel moved his head back to look at her as she entered the car while signalling him to come over.
...
...
...
But before he could, Ellie, Dina, Jesse, Tommy and Maria, all of them but Fox Boy, made horrified faces while looking at the door. Once he noticed that, he moved his head slowly to see what they were looking at. Only for him to finally understand why the Faceless were attacking him and Fox Boy the way that they were doing. They weren't really trying to kill them, they were just stalling them.
On the other side of the barely opened door, he saw a pair of boots standing on the other side. Joel had an urge to step back, but before he could, a pair of armored hands grabbed the door and forcibly pushed it open like it was nothing.
Revealing the one named Ghost Head. "Your time is up, Miller."
Thanks everyone for reading my story, Happy New Year for everyone if this is the last updated story of the year.
Q AND A:
Dina is just getting more and more attached to Fox Boy, and Ellie, Jesse, Maria, Tommy and Joel are starting to notice it. Ellie is uncomfortable about it which is understandable, one of the leading factors to their eventual breakup I suspect.
Their time is short, little time to gather who else might still be alive and leave the city in less than half an hour. Unless a miracle happens.
Wonder how long it will be before Fox Boy removes his mask?
She thinks he is adorable and she really wants to make sure he doesn't got through any more horrible pain. Dina actually finds it funny that Ellie is unconfortable with it.
More of a tragedy...
When Ellie finally completely warms up to him.
Loved Venus I guess jump scarring everyone but Fox Boy when he opened the door and she was just there
Okay translating the German was a process haha but seemed to me that while Venus mostly said Reaper would be proud over Fox Boy killing those faceless by his own initiative while still having to punish him got the sense Venus herself was a little proud to
Yep still enjoy Reaper
Also with Venus got the impression from her she wasn't so much wanting to just give Fox Boy a new scar tattoo but mostly wanting to see if Dina, Ellie and Jesse would step in at all to help Fox Boy and judging from the remarks she gave them she wasn't impressed and gave them some shit over taking so long
Also Fox Boy still trying to give his customary friendly greeting in his condition hit me in the heart so thanks for that
Quick thing where the hell does Joel get off saying they don't need Fox Boys help after he literally just armed everyone so they would actually survive outside the town
I hope we get a moment to where Fox Boy says every is decent with the weapons he gave them but they are all terrible compared to if he himself was using them
Venus enjoys using fear factor against people.
Exactly, because he finally made a decision on his own.
I'm glad, because he will be an driving force in Fox Boy's story.
That is exactly what it was.
He literally does that with everyone, and it's not an considerable amount of blood loss and some mild hypothermia that is going to stop him.
You have to understand that Joel is simply being careful, because Fox Boy is one of them.
Showing it is better than saying it.
It's an exciting chapter. I feel excited about the events of the story. My favorite was the scene where Venus spoke after the little fox was tortured. It is an indirect insult to the dynasty Now the situation became more tense. time is running out It excites me how they can survive this situation.
-From what I've noticed, the Normandy group doesn't seem to like each other very much. Shows that within the group, there are often internal problems.
-I agreed with Venus when the fox boy immediately decided to help Dinah. While Dinah's group It took several minutes to decide to save the fox boy.
-I think the Reaper might be planning something with Joel's group.
If we didn't meet today good afternoon good evening and good ning too
It will not be easy. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Not quite, the Faceless are practically brainwashed slaves and the Masked Ones serve the Supreme Leader, but all of them have their own way of doing things.
Venus was going to stop the moment they intervene which is why she chastized them for taking too long.
Everything that involves Fox Boy has Reaper's hand on it.
Same!
Essa fanfic faz o meu dia, obrigado pelo capítulo incrível Autor-San!,
De nada, meu amigo.