The man climbed up behind her with a grunt, folding his arms over his chest. He focused in on the kid now, and Willow saw her swallow out of the corner of her eye.
"Now," he grimaced, looking away with a resigned exhale. "You gonna explain what the hell is goin' on with you?"
"Marlene," the girl was out of breath, exhausted. "She said they have their own little quarantine zone, with doctors there still looking for a cure-"
"Oh yeah," he interrupted with a scoff. "I've heard that one before."
"-and that whatever happened to me is the key to finding a vaccine."
Willow's heart stuttered, then restarted. A vaccine?
"Aw, Jesus." The man tilted his head up, as though in disbelief.
"That's what she said."
"Oh, I'm sure she did." His sarcasm was overt, and the kid immediately shot back at him.
"Hey fuck you, man! I didn't ask for this."
"Me neither." He gritted his teeth before rounding on Willow. "And you. The hell do you think you're doin' in the trenches at night, wearin' a goddamn pair of pajamas?"
She was startled, and her tongue went limp in her mouth. Fuck, not again. Say something. Say anything.
"I- I was," she cringed at the sound of her own voice. "I was, uh-"
"Thanks, by the way," the girl interrupted Willow's stuttering, shooting the man a glare. "For not letting him shoot me back there."
The man's eyes tightened and he turned his head sharply away, but stayed silent.
"Same to you," Willow whispered back, unable to muster much volume. "For not leaving me behind."
They shared a shaky half-smile, which seemed bizarre given the circumstances. The man took a step toward Willow, and she took a step back.
"Do you even understand what is out there?" Again, where there could have been anger in his eyes, she saw a flash of desperation.
"I do." Her reply was shaky and they both knew it. She set her jaw and didn't back down, anger loosening the words from her lips. "And what about you, then? You're clearly not her father, so what's a strange man doing smuggling a little girl out of a fucking Quarantine Zone?What are you planning on doing with her?"
"It ain't like that," he honestly looked taken aback. "I was-"
"He's taking me to the Fireflies." The girl finished for him.
All the breath left her chest at once. Fireflies?They were legends in the hospital. Liberators, freedom fighters. They were basically myths. She'd heard about them only through second-hand gossip, and most of that was probably lies. But this man… he knew them? He was taking this girl to meetthem? It seemed too good to be true, and her immediate instinct was to distrust it.
But… the kid had mentioned someone named Marlene. And she could've sworn she'd heard that name before, whispered by a FEDRA guard. Whispered in fear. When you're lost in the darkness…
"Fireflies," she spoke the word on an exhale. "You know where they are?"
"Look," the man shook his head, rubbing a hand through the salt and pepper of his beard. "This ain't a good idea. I have to take you back. Both of ya."
"No!" Willow and the kid spoke in unison.
"If you take me back, you don't get your battery." The girl spoke with her hands on her hips; obstinate.
That's what he was doing this for? A battery, like in a car? The man squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head again. He mumbled something she couldn't quite make out with his voice so ragged, and the low roll of his accent. Something that sounded like, 'can't believe 'm doin' this.'
"What's your name, anyway?" The girl was speaking to her again; casually, like they already knew each other.
"Willow."
"I'm Ellie, he's Joel." she gave a lopsided smile, voice trailing off into her next sentence. "So… you gonna come with us then?"
"Ellie." Joel's voice was hard, but she brushed him off with a 'pfft.'
Willow expected more resistance, or more discussion. Maybe an argument. But he just turned his back on them, gazing out over what used to be Boston. He gestured with one hand, pointing to something just visible between the collapsed ruins. A golden-domed building loomed on the horizon, which was beginning to lighten with the promise of dawn. The rain was finally starting to slow, and damp cement shimmered beneath the parting clouds.
"There's the capitol building. S'where we're headed."
He jumped down from the sloping rooftop, landing on the street below, and did not look back to ensure they were following before setting off. Ellie and Willow exchanged a hesitant glance, trailing along after.
The stretch of the buildings over her made her dizzy, and honestly a bit sick. She tried to keep her eyes mostly on the ground, because every time they wandered up to the sky she stopped breathing. It was like a living thing hovering over her head, with a gaping mouth and jagged edged skyscrapers for teeth. Even now, with her gaze firmly on the street, she felt like she was being watched from above.
Keep it together, Wil.
After another half hour of walking, she could feel the slide of the heavy boots beginning to chafe her feet. She ached, and her body called out for rest, but she wasn't about to be the first to request a break. Ellie looked like she could keep going for hours, and Joel barely glanced at her enough for her to get a read on him.
His eyes kept flicking to Ellie, though; detached caution warring with something else in his expression. It put Willow on edge, how he seemed unable to go very long without looking at the girl. Of course the situation was strange enough to be wary, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else at play.
She didn't like it. Her experience of men was limited, but… she shuddered as the potential reasons for his interest in the child flashed within her mind. Protectiveness flared inside her again, and she started speaking without quite deciding to. Best to keep his focus on her, not Ellie.
"How do you know the Fireflies?"
His gaze barely lifted to her before refocusing on the road ahead.
"You can find a Firefly in any dark corner of the QZ," his words were clipped. "Anywhere people are desperate, and stupid enough to buy what they're sellin'."
Willow's brow rumpled at that. It didn't fit with what she knew of the rebel group.
"I thought the Fireflies were a symbol of hope."
"Right," he gave a single, dark chuckle. "Like I said; desperate people'll believe anything."
Who did this guy think he was? He was clearly no Firefly, and he wasn't with FEDRA. Just some no-account smuggler, who apparently knew better than all the people putting their hopes in the resistance movement.
"Oh, sure," Willow stressed the word, unable to resist an eye roll. "And you're smarter than everyone else, right? Sounds like bitterness to me."
He made a sound like pushing all the air out of his lungs, not looking at her. This was going great. She wasn't even a confrontational person, usually. She'd stunned herself a little, speaking like that to a relative stranger, but his attitude was infuriating. He had so much freedom, and no appreciation for it.
Ellie was wandering ahead slightly, staring up in awe at the remains of offices and apartment complexes. She was so busy looking up that she failed to watch the ground ahead of herself, stumbling on the edge of a crater that eclipsed the road.
She would've toppled in, but Joel was ready. He caught her with one arm, pulling her back a few steps and steadying her before dropping his hand like she'd stung him. His jaw was tense when Ellie asked,
"Holy shit… what happenedhere?"
"Military." He glanced up at the kid briefly, and there was so much emotion in his look that Willow was stunned. Then it iced over again, like it had never been there. "Bombed the hell out of the area around the Quarantine Zones."
"Oh." she pursed her lips, clucking her tongue. "So, did it work?"
"For a while." He sighed, heavy. "Just- just keep close and watch your feet, alright?"
A sound echoed off the empty street. Not nearby… but not exactly far. A sound like a death rattle, carried on an unholy screech. Joel's head shot up, and his eyes flashed to Willow's. An unspoken question she didn't have the answer to lingered there.
"What was that?" Ellie's tone wavered, like she was trying to be braver than she really was. His lack of reply was not exactly reassuring.
They continued in an uncomfortable silence, all three of them focused on the shells of homes and shops that watched them with empty windows. When a stray bit of rubble toppled from a dilapidated roof, Joel's rifle whipped around faster than Willow knew he could move.
This threat was serious, then. The soldier hadmentioned clickers. Just the thought sent chills skating down her bones, and she could feel panic darkening the corners of her mind. She forced a slow inhale and asked,
"What do we need to know?"
He spun towards her, eyes wide, hands gesturing for her to be quiet. She inclined her head, nodded, and continued. Quietly.
"If we're about to face some kind of monstrosity, we should probably know how to deal with it, right?"
She couldn't sustain eye contact with him. His gaze was tumultuous, early dawn illuminating the worry lines that creased between his brows. Finally, a muscle ticked beside his eye and he grimaced.
"Alright." His whisper was rough, clipped. "Clickers ain't like regular infected. They're tougher, faster, and a whole hell of a lot meaner. They get their hands on you, they willtear you apart."
Fear spiked in her chest, the edges of her vision wobbling a bit before clearing again. Breathe in. Breathe out.She wasn't even sure whether to believe him; it wasn't like he was terribly invested in keeping her alive.
"So," she struggled to keep her voice even, to hide the anxiety that was wrapping around her ribs. "How do we avoid them?"
He studied her for a beat longer than was comfortable before saying,
"Stay quiet as you can. They can't see, but they can hear. N' stick close to me; we wanna get to higher ground, scope out our way forward."
He turned and continued on without another word. Willow shot a glance to Ellie, who was nervously checking every window for signs of movement. Some of the windows they passed still had glass in them, and she caught sight of herself in a dirty reflection as they meandered by.
She was completely covered with mud. It coated her bare legs, smeared across her face, and clung to her hair in globs. The long white strands she usually kept tied back had fallen loose; the elastic must've snapped without her noticing. It hung past her shoulders in tangles that would take ages to comb out. Past the mud, the only pigment to her skin was from the blood that pulsed beneath it.
She'd been born that way. Under the open sun, her papery skin burned like candle wax. Her eyes, which were pale but not quite blue, watered profusely in bright light. And her vision was no better; catching lights in the dark and bending them out in distracting rays, and blurring significantly past about a dozen feet. It would be full daylight soon, and all she could do was pray that it would come with heavy cloud cover.
Joel led them into the crumbling husk of a tower. The whole thing was crooked, bent at a sickening angle and only supported by another building next to it. Inside, a pond had formed instead of a floor. They had to creep around the edges to avoid soaking their shoes.
Grass, algae, and ivy grew lush and pillowy from every corner. A half-eroded set of stairs jutted up from one side. They looked… theoretically still able to hold a person. They creaked ominously as he stepped up onto them.
The strange angle of the building made climbing the stairs a somewhat nauseating affair. Willow had the urge to hold her breath with every step she tested her weight on, sure she'd go crashing through. She must've made some kind of a sound by her fifth step up, because Joel's head tilted toward her a fraction.
"You'll be alright, it's stable. I've come through here before." His voice was still gruff, but there was something almost warm about it. Almost.
They continued in silence, listening with tense awareness for anything outside of their own group. The sound of her heartbeat seemed to grow louder, like that alone could give her presence away to a monster hidden in the dark. The ascending floors were wide and echoey, with geometric corners and the skeletons of cubicles breaking up the space. The weak light was barely able to filter through the overgrown windows, casting the interior in hazy grey-green shadows.
The farther up they went, the more she felt the tilt of the building. She avoided glancing out windows; not wanting to see how far the drop was, or the sky behind it. They had to venture out across the office floors to get to each staircase, with debris clogging corridors and occasionally blocking their way. It was tedious, not to mention exhausting.
It didn't take long for her abs and thighs to start aching from the climb, and she felt the distinct burn of blisters forming on her soles. Her breath was beginning to huff out in little wheezes, that she tried her best to stifle. There weren't exactly a lot of opportunities for exercise in a ten-by-ten hospital room, and she was beginning to realize the disadvantage that granted her.
They had to be at least eight floors up by now, and a breeze rustled against her skin where the wind whispered through shattered windows. It was almost peaceful, and for a moment she forgot to be afraid. It was probably inevitable. Try as they might, three people couldn't move silently through a collapsing ruin.
Ellie's hood caught the handle of a precariously tilted filing cabinet on their way past. The drawer slid open with a horrible metallic screech, and then crashed to the floor. The sound echoed off every wall, lingering on the air for long moments after the impact. None of them dared to move. Ellie's face was frozen in an apologetic cringe, and Willow had the impulse to squeeze her shoulder in reassurance.
Then, they heard it. That inhuman shriek, and hollow clicking. Fuck.It couldn't be coming from more than a floor above them, and it was moving. Fast. Willow's eyes flicked to Joel's just as his hand wrapped around her wrist. Her body reacted before her mind could, wrenching herself free from his grip and stumbling back. His look was both confused and irritated as he mouthed the word 'hide,' and dragged Ellie into a crouched position behind a desk.
She hurried after, throwing herself to the ground and trying to quiet her breathing as much as possible. The open floor plan of the office left them uncomfortably exposed, and she kept swiveling her head to glance behind her. The single set of footsteps rushing above them was joined by another, then another. Oh shit, three of them? She'd never even seen one clicker before.
time to die
Her vision warbled, darkness taking over for a moment. Oh no, not good. She hadn't yet found time to take her medicine; where neither of her new companions would see her, and have questions. Her heart was beating so fast her chest started to hurt, and she worried she'd have a heart attack right then.
there's no one to miss you
The thud of footfalls were tumbling down the stairs now, rushing closer every second. Alright, don't be fucking stupid,she told herself. All you have to do is stay quiet. You're good at that.
It was true. One benefit of her unusual upbringing was learning how to get around without being seen- or heard. Her feet were silent even in the boots as she crept close behind Joel and Ellie. The infected were pounding on the stairwell doors, which must've been locked. She could hear the repeated impact of their bodies against the splintering wood, and the screams that almost sounded human. Almost sounded like agony.
Her teeth were slicing the inside of her cheek, and she tasted blood. She really hoped Joel hadn't been lying to her when he said these things couldn't see. Images flashed behind her eyes of what it would be like to turn. The bloody clamp of teeth on her skin, ripping through. The burn inside her veins as the fungus traveled along her bloodstream, to her brain. The twitching as she slowly lost control of her nervous system.
Would it be like dying? Or would she be stuck, watching as her body ripped and tore into the shaking child beside her. Get a grip, Wil.
The doors buckled, wood groaning and shattering as the creatures burst through. Their complexions were mottled and sallow, skin stretching into strange ridges and bumps that clustered together in patches of fungal growths. Their movements were jerky and unnatural, and some of their limbs hung at wrong angles- like the bones were broken.
They began to spread out, as though searching the area. How smart were they? She wished she'd thought to ask. They moved in spasms and jolts, slowly and then quickly at unpredictable intervals. One lurched in their direction, and from her position behind the desk Willow finally saw its face. Or, what had once beenits face.
It was split open, right through the top lip. Like the fungus inside the thing's brain had burst out, blooming into a giant cluster of fleshy mushrooms. She understood now why they couldn't see; there were no eyes. Its mouth hung open, teeth rotting and black, and it jerked its head back and forth as it moved. It was nearly enough to make her retch, but she swallowed back the bile.
She didn't hold her breath, even when the clicker drew closer. Holding your breath to stay quiet backfires pretty quickly when your body needs air to survive. She kept her inhales shallow, through her nose. Any second, it would be right beside them. If it moved too close and sensed them there, all bets were off. She needed a distraction, and if they couldn't see at all…
Her eyes zeroed in on a brick that lay within reach of her hiding place. She could get it, if she just shifted her weight a little. She was already reaching for it when Joel's hand stretched out toward her, stopping before making contact. His eyes were panicked, and filled with warning. There wasn't time for this. She shot him a look she hoped said, 'trust me,' and glanced pointedly from the brick to the creature. His face was tense with caution as he lowered his hand.
She didn't hesitate, arching her arm back and launching the brick as far as she could in the other direction. It hit something, a crash echoing around the room, but she had already pulled herself back below the desk. Instantly what had been a slow, ominous metronome of clicks shifted into shrieks and roars as the creatures rushed in the direction of the noise. Joel was ready, ushering them away as quietly as possible.
They couldn't move silently, but the commotion she'd caused would cover them for a moment. That was the hope, anyway. They rushed through a door and Joel shut it behind them, edging it closed slowly before allowing the latch to slide into place. Their breaths were suddenly deafening in the small conference room they found themselves in, facing a huge empty frame where a floor-to-ceiling window had once been. A whole city of rooftops stretched before them.
Behind them, a clatter. Clicking, and the surge of footfalls. Joel moved fast; grabbing a crowbar she hadn't even seen from the floor and lodging it into the handle of the door, just before there was a heavy impact on the other side. The door shuddered, the crowbar rattling as it moved.
"That won't hold," Joel was saying. "Hurry up, we're gettin' out of here."
He jumped out the window, and whatever he landed on creaked and groaned like a wounded fucking animal. She watched as Ellie swallowed a gulp and followed, the metallic whine not sounding more promising the second time. Willow edged forward, peering over the side and immediately wishing she hadn't.
A rickety metal platform clung to the side of the building. It was probably once used to clean the windows, but had been stuck here rusting for the past two decades. Below it was a drop of at least fifty feet, and certain death at its base. Oh hell no.Her mouth went dry, hands clenching into fists. She felt the bite of her own nails into her palm as another impact rattled the door. There was wailing on the other side, like the rattling howl of wind through an empty ribcage.
"Come on!" Ellie shouted, her tone edging towards desperate. She looked terrified.
"You ain't gonna fall," Joel's words were firm, though she had no reason to believe him. "But you've got to jump."
She was panicked, and it must've shown in every line of her face. He gave her a look she thought mirrored the one she'd shown him earlier. 'Trust me.'
She didn't, but the door rattled on its hinges again and her breathing hitched. His hand was stretched out to her, and she had no choice, so she took it. It was warm and callused, and much larger than her own. Her feet left the edge of the window sill and she let out a sharp gasp as she tumbled into him.
The platform clattered beneath them, deafening. Adrenaline shot through her, stomach swooping as she thought she'd fall to her death. In that moment, only briefly, her hand tightened around his. When her feet were once again stable beneath her she ripped away from him, perhaps with unnecessary roughness.
Across about a five foot gap, there was the concrete expanse of a neighboring rooftop. The metal platform beneath her seemed to sway in the wind, or maybe that was her own sense of balance abandoning her. Her head swam, and nausea churned in her gut as she watched Joel gauging the distance.
The roof was lower than them. In theory, the trajectory should carry her most of the way. In practice- she thought she might throw up. She clung to the stone wall, even as she heard the wood around the door's hinges start to splinter.
"Alright," Joel rubbed a hand through his beard, backing up a step. "I'm gonna go first."
"Oh man," Ellie's mouth dropped open. "Are you serious?"
Joel jumped, launching himself and easily bridging the gap. He landed on the roof with a fair amount of clearance behind him, turning around and stretching his arms toward Ellie. She looked dubious.
"You're gonna catchme?"
"I got ya. Now c'mon."
She scrunched her nose, sucking in a breath and holding it as she leapt. She landed closer to the edge than Joel had, but didn't need to grab his outstretched hands to steady herself. He let them drop with a tight nod, pivoting to Willow.
Her back was pressed to the wall, palms slick with sweat. She felt the endless drop beneath her; one thin scrap of metal all that stood between her and that long, long fall. She tried to keep her eyes pinned directly ahead, because looking down was out of the question. And looking up faced her with the vastness of a lightening sky that seemed to breathe, like a massive beast salivating in anticipation of her demise.
throw yourself off the edge
it would be easy
it would be fast
She screwed her eyes shut, tilting her jaw up and away from the platform beneath her. The door inside thundered again, and somehow she knew it couldn't take another impact. She didn't want to die.
but you deserve to
She felt her eyes start to unfocus as static and darkness crept into her vision. It was a moment before she even realized Joel was saying something, because her own name cut through the fog of her panic.
"Willow," his voice was hard, his eyes harder. "Come with us or don't, but we're leavin'."
"Like hell we are," Ellie's voice was indignant. "I'm not just gonna leave her here!"
But Joel's gaze was locked on Willow's, and she saw in his eyes how serious he was. He wouldn't put her, a stranger with no practical knowledge whatsoever, over his payout when he completed this job. What was he after again… a battery? Well, fuck. It didn't really matter now.
Either she'd live, or she wouldn't. Without thinking it through, she closed her eyes and jumped. She felt the wind sailing past, stinging her cheeks as shespent a single weightless moment in the air.