Ellie peeks under the brim of her hat, the sound of a couple dozen hooves making footfalls on the highway. Still mid-morning. Everything to plan so far. Almost nothing to be concerned about on this stretch of road outside Jackson, but today is a big day, and she intends to keep things smooth.
It's not Ellie's first time leading a survey, but not far from it. Surveys are only conducted on occasion, as a special type of mission. As opposed to a patrol route, surveys have a certain destination and objective: usually, this entails scouting out a sight for looting. A site that had been previously unsecured, and therefore requires a bit of extra muscle and caution.
In this case, it's a little different, as this survey may lead to an out-of-town development.
There is an old clothing factory on the west end of town, down the highway from Jackson's walls and between hills. Aside from the readily available sites to loot, like hardware stores and such, this side of town has been little touched since Jackson's walls went up. But Jackson is becoming more popular, and clothes in good condition are in higher demand than ever.
Jackson's got spinners for thread, but weaving new fabric is time consuming by hand. There are machines in this facility that could, theoretically, produce much higher volumes. And it should, theoretically, still be connected to the grid.
But it's a big, dark building that's been shut up for a long, long time.
Ellie's leading this particular survey, due to her experience. With her she has Jonah, James, Wallace, and Tara. All capable, despite Jonah's lack of experience.
They are chatting amongst themselves, for now. Suits Ellie fine, as it allows her to keep her eyes clear for threats. This area is well patrolled, but they don't clear buildings they don't need to, and new infected have an unfortunate habit of wandering out of the wilderness and setting up shop in abandoned towns just like this.
That and people.
"...about a half mile," says James. He lifts up his finger as if it was a gun. "Boom."
"Not with a handgun," says Jonah.
"Of course not," says James. "I'll show you when we get a chance, you'll see."
"Ease up," says Ellie, interrupting. They're passing into the outer buildings of West Jackson. "Keep your eyes and ears out from this point. There could be new infected."
"Or outsiders," says Jonah.
Ellie tosses her head. She doesn't want to bring much attention to that, but he was there a couple days ago so it's hard to deny. "Or outsiders."
"Yes, ma'am," says James.
Ellie slips Jonah a sly look over her shoulder. He smiles like a 17 year old.
It is completely quiet as they make their way into town. They travel in the center of the road, going around abandoned cars as needed. The sight lines are in their favor, for now.
They're about halfway through West Jackson when Bartas starts acting up. His ears start twitching and he tosses his head.
This time, Ellie takes it for what it is. She furrows her brow and looks around. A few seconds later, she hears it. Hoofbeats, and they aren't theirs.
Her eyes widen. She only hears one horse. She looks at the sun again and thinks. There are no patrols should be passing this way at this hour. She tries to locate them.
"Who's that?" James ask.
"Shouldn't be anyone else here right now," says Tara. "Unless it's Lucas, but I don't think he'd–"
"Quiet," says Ellie. She signals them to stop.
A few seconds later the horse comes into view. A black steed comes around the corner of a building to their right, traveling down the side street, hanging back in his saddle like he doesn't have a care in the world. He sees them, smiles, and tips his hat.
It's Wyatt.
Ellie's pissed but she's trying hard not to show it.
"What the hell…?" says Wallace.
"Morning, folks," says Wyatt casually as he approaches them.
Ellie sniffs. She doesn't want trouble with Wyatt at the best of times, and as survey leader that goes double. "Wyatt, what are you doing out here?"
"I spied you folks heading out in force and I got curious. Figured I'd come ask what you were up to."
"This is Jackson business, Wyatt."
"Oh, it's secret," he says.
Ellie screws up the corner of her mouth. "Not exactly, but it's not for outsiders. We're on a survey."
"Survey," he chuckles, "I thought you owned this town?"
"This side of town is left wild," says Ellie. "Meaning unsafe."
"Oh," he says as if spooked. "Now that's interesting. Where y'all going?"
"I won't say," says Ellie plainly.
"I'll join you, then," he says.
"No, you won't," says Ellie. "I'll say it again, Wyatt. This is Jackson business."
He looks down his nose at her for a few seconds, sucking his teeth. He smirks in his customary way, looking down so his hat obscures the rest of his face. "Well," he says, "I'd hate to get in trouble." He nudges his horse and they start walking past in front of the group. "Perhaps our paths will cross again."
"Perhaps," says Ellie, watching him carefully.
He makes his way down the street opposite where he came. Ellie gestures with her head and they all start moving again.
"That was a little…" starts James.
"Tense?" offers Tara.
"Yeah," says Wallace. "Ellie, you know him?"
"Wouldn't say that," says Ellie. That encounter gave her a bad feeling. But then again, every encounter she's had with Wyatt has given her a bad feeling.
On the last half mile of the trip, they do encounter the sounds of infected. They do not have all day to spare, but they do make time to clear out three runners and a clicker from two different buildings, with minimal issue. The team respects her, and they follow orders, which is good.
"How much we gonna clear today?" asks Wallace, rubbing the residue from the end of his gun with a cloth.
Ellie is climbing back on Barthas. "Not too much. We have one objective, and I see it, right down the hill."
"Oh, that building," says Tara. "I was wondering."
"You been in it?" Ellie asks her.
Tara shakes her head, curly black ponytail wagging in the wind. "No, just seen it many times on Feather route. Particularly derelict looking."
"Particularly," says Wallace.
"Come on," says Ellie.
They make their way down a sloped road to the factory property. There's a small plot of grass on the other side of a collapsed chain link fence that's grown all through with grass and young trees. The building itself is three storeys tall, all red brick with little person-sized windows every ten feet or so. All the windows on the first floor are boarded, which says a lot.
Down along the side there's a couple sliding doors, and a long stretch of wall. Looks like the truck docks are just around the corner, judging from the dilapidated semis rotting in the lot.
Ellie walks them over the collapse fence and through the waist-high grass toward the sliding doors. Barthas is acting up again, eyeballing the building. It's faint for now, but she can hear the infected already. There's a few in the building. Probably been sealed for some time.
But that's what they're here to take care of.
Ellie has them tie off their horses to a half-fence rail that's still intact. At this point the others can hear the infected and have quieted down.
Wallace is watching the building, chewing his lip in thought.
"Masks on," says Ellie.
Wallace looks at her and nods.
Once their masks are secured, Ellie walks over to the roll-up door and bends down, working her fingers underneath it. She gives it a hard tug. It only gives an inch. She tries the other one with the same result.
"Still locked after all this time?" says Tara.
"Building like this isn't very attractive for looters," says Ellie. "High risk, and the reward is just a bunch of mechanical parts. Maybe some basic first aid."
"The parts are what we're here for, though," says Wallace.
There's a man door next to the roll-ups. Seems to have a simple cylinder lock. Ellie gets her lockpicking kit off of Barthas's saddle. She works at the lock for about fifteen seconds and it slides open. She turns the handle and the door comes ajar. She looks at the team.
"Once we go in here, it's quiet and ready."
They nod.
"Infected can come from any direction. You know the drill. Stick together, aim as one. Kneel if you're in front. We only retreat when I call it. And we stick together, got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," says James.
"Yes, Ellie," says Jonah.
"Safeties off," she says, yanking the old metal door wide.
Just as she expected, she's met with a haze of spores. She clicks on her flashlight and illuminates the room. It's a small receiving area, stacked with loose pallets, an old forklift. The larger factory floor can be seen off to the left through a couple of truck-sized openings, but it's dark for now.
There is one runner in the room, gibbering in the opposite corner. They don't make much noise, but there are now five flashlights casting light everywhere, and the runner jerks back and forth a couple times, until he sees them. He cries out and charges.
Ellie holds up her fist, meaning 'don't shoot.'
The runner is rasping and hacking all the way to them, making a decent sprint. Ellie holds her gun in her left hand, retrieving a throwing knife with her right. When he's within fifteen feet, she throws it.
It sinks into his eye socket and he collapses to the ground.
Jonah lets out a breath.
"Damn," says James.
"Speak low," says Ellie, retrieving her knife and wiping on the rag on her belt. "No need to go loud yet."
They haven't garnered wider attention yet, but at this point, it's hard to miss the moans and clicks coming from deeper in the facility. Ellie takes a couple breaths, then she gestures for them to follow her.
They pass through the wide opening onto the larger factory floor.
It's dark as a tomb in here, the only light is their flashlights spraying a glow through the clouds of spores. They can see maybe twenty feet in front of them. Atop the concrete floor of the factory, there are row after row of industrial machines. Ellie doesn't know how they work, but their stacked with thick, heavy looking spools of thread. A lot of them are white, but as they move down the line they can see more and more colors. The spools are covered with dust, but you can still see bright greens and saturated pinks on top of the machines.
"Whoa…" says Jonah quietly.
"This is legit," whispers Tara.
Ellie holds up a hand that says 'careful.'
Due to the low visibility, Ellie can't make out how many infected are in the room, which she doesn't like at all. As they pass one row, though, she sees the back of a clicker within the twenty feet.
Shit.
She can't leave this one, it's too close. She reaches for her switchblade, then stops. It's not that she couldn't dispatch it silently, but that's dangerous for most and would set a bad example for Jonah.
She looks at Wallace. He's good with a bow. She gestures.
He pinches his brow, then seems to get what she's getting at. He pulls the compound bow off his back and stands up. He takes aim, and lets an arrow loose with a 'snap.'
The clicker actually stiffens at the sound, then a few milliseconds later the arrow plummets through the back of its skull, and it collapses to the ground.
None of the other infected react. Ellie nods. Good.
They make it to the end of the factory floor. On the way, they pass a staircase, then a massive freight elevator that looks like it could handle several pallets at a time. It also has a security gate which looks beefy enough to keep out most infected. Not a bad fallback.
Ellie scrunches her cheek. They have two objectives here. Assess the safety of the site, and verify if the power is still connected to the Jackson grid.
Safety of the site is pretty fucked, and it already looks like they need backup. But that can be dealt with later. She wants to verify the power situation to see if it's worth it in the first place.
"James," she whispers.
He creeps toward her.
"Start taking notes."
"Notes? On what?"
She gestures to the sounds of infected out on the floor
He screws up his face. "Aren't we just gonna…?"
Ellie shakes her head. "Too many." She points to the stairs behind them.
They're gonna check the electric situation and get the fuck out of here with a rough headcount.
She stalks past them, gesturing for them to follow. They make their way back to the stairs and ascend. She can't help but notice that there are no barricades here, no makeshift bunks or stashes, no signs of looting, even. They might be the first people here since the outbreak. Not a great sign.
On the stairwell landing this is a skeleton with its clothes ripped apart. So there was violence here.
"Shit…" says Jonah.
She gives him a sharp gesture to be silent.
They climb to the second storey landing. The windows are mostly unblocked on this floor, but they're covered with dust, the floor is huge, and the spores are thick. It's still mostly dark in here.
The machines are different on this floor, but arrayed in the same fashion. These ones have tons of spools, and sheets of cloth feed through two massive rollers onto a bolt at the end. Aside from the dust, they look untouched. That's good, at least. But the number one concern is still their safety.
They start by going left. They get to the end of the floor and instead of those giant doors, there's a man-door leading to what looks life offices. Closed space, few exits. They are not fucking going in there.
They go back to the stairs and climb to the final floor. Looks similar to the first two. It's slightly brighter, since their are semi-opaque skylights in here. The machines in this room go all the way to the twelve-foot ceiling. Multiple different spools are hooked up to the same machines, feeding through to make some kind of fabric together.
"Lot of infected, but this is looking pretty good," says James.
Ellie just shakes her head. She can see a couple infected in the distance on this floor. She can't hear clicks, but she can see the outlines of clickers and what could be runners or stalkers. Bad news. Once again, too many to take on.
There's a tap on the stairwell.
Ellie frowns, no one should be hanging that far back. When she looks, she sees that all five of them are still together.
And on the third to last step crouches Wyatt.
First, she's shocked. Then she's furious.
She tries to control her breathing as she crouch-walks over to where he's squatting. "What the hell are you doing?" she asks him.
He holds up a finger to say 'quiet.' "Just taking a look around, Ellie."
"Then you noticed all the infected on the way in."
"I did."
"Wyatt, I am leading this team. They are under my protection, I can't have you pulling this shit right now."
"Pulling what? I'm just helping out. What are you here for anyway?"
Ellie'd be a liar if her instincts weren't telling her to just kill him, right now.
Instead, she takes a few more breaths. "We're looking for the electric room, then we're getting out of here."
"You missed it, then," says Wyatt.
Ellie scowls.
"Follow me," he says, turning to move back down the stairs.
"What the fuck is he doing here?" asks Wallace.
She turns and just shakes her head. After a second, she gestures for them to follow.
Wyatt leads them down to the second floor, where he goes right past the freight elevator. Ellie frowns, but it's still clear of infected on this side of the room, so she follows him.
Before they get to the end, she notices a dead stalker bleeding out at the end of one of the rows. Fresh, obviously.
Wyatt is crouched by the far wall, next to a door, he taps on it lightly. Ellie gets a little closer. The paint on the door reads 'ELECTRIC MAIN.'
She frowns. It's almost certainly locked and it will probably be harder to pick–
She pulls the handle to check and the door cracks open.
Wyatt raises his eyebrows.
Ellie ignores him and pushes the door open, scanning the room. There are no infected in here. Not many spores, either. Just two skeletons couched together in the back. Looks like they held out to the bitter end.
She gestures for the rest of them to follow her.
Once they're all in, they close the door behind them. The room is medium sized, probably twelve by twenty feet. It's lined with heavy duty cabinets for routing the power through the facility. There are countless switches with labels on them. Half of them have peeled off and the other half don't mean anything to Ellie.
They try flipping a bunch of the switches, but nothing happens. There's even one reading 'electric main lights,' but when they flip it off and on, nothing changes in the room.
"All dead," says James.
Ellie frowns. Could be. A device at the end catches her eye.
It's a cabinet all its own, with a massive lever. If that's not the main breaker, she doesn't know what is.
"You know what's gonna happen if you pull that?" Wyatt asks her.
"No," admits Ellie. She sighs. This is the only way to complete both her objectives, though. "If it makes noise, we'll turn it right back off."
So as not to give them the idea she's unsure, she grabs the lever and yanks it.
It's stuck.
She pulls a couple more times, but it's held fast. Seems like something mechanical is holding it in place.
She frowns. Safety mechanism, probably. Shit, maybe they should have brought an electrician.
"Maybe this?" says Wallace. There's another straight lever on the left side of the machine. He pulls it down, and it moves, but nothing happens. Its own tension pulls it back into place.
"Dead to time, looks like," says Wyatt.
"What's this?" says James. He picks up a loop with weights on the end.
He looks at Wallace, and they seem to think the same thing. Wallace takes it, and hangs it on the left lever. It's heavy enough to bring it to its lowest position.
"That still doesn't–" starts Tara.
James pulls the larger lever, and it gives a little. He pulls harder and it throws over into position, almost knocking James over.
There's a loud vibration that buzzes through Ellie's legs. Then there are some clacks and a symphony of whirring sounds slowly rises from outside the room. The fluorescent bulbs in the electrical room sizzle on, casting cold white light on them all. Scattered explosions of dirty bulbs outside the room indicate the same thing is happening there.
"Throw it back," Ellie says at normal volume.
James's eyes are wide. He grabs the big lever and pulls on it, but it sticks. He pulls again with both hands but it doesn't work.
The infected outside start sounding off.
"Move the thing!" says Tara.
Wallace pulls the weights off the other lever and it snaps back. James pulls the main lever again, but it's clearly stuck.
Then, a klaxon alarm starts sounding, in short, dreadful bursts. The building comes alive with shrieks.
"We got to get the fuck out of here!" says Wyatt.
Ellie's mind is racing. They cannot stay in here or they will be trapped. She moves to the door, cracking it open.
The room outside is a nightmare. A fraction of the fluorescent lights are working, some have exploded and are sparking, the rest are flickering on and off, making visibility worse than ever. An orange strobe light is spinning near the elevator dock. The alarm is blaring from that position, and infected are moving toward it. If they are going to get out they have almost no time.
She makes a decision.
"Weapons out, follow me, do not stop except to fire."
She throws the door open and the shooting starts almost immediately.
She puts two shots in a stalker's head in one of the rows ten feet from them. She doesn't stop moving. She hears more shots ring out behind her. Infected scream in alarm.
She continues moving along the wall. Infected silhouettes disappear in and out of the flashing lights.
The clickers are disoriented by the sudden racket, and she sees two of them flailing in place. A gang of runners spots them, however, and they actually bowl over a clicker on their way to them.
Two are running up a lane directly toward Ellie. She fires two shots that hit one in the chest and another in the belly. Then she sees movement out of the corner of her eye. Three more are trying to take a direct path to them, clambering over machines.
While the others fire upon the charging infected, Ellie turns and shoots the closest climber in the head, he goes slack. The other two are jumping at her, but the machines are covered with screws and cogs and other mechanical parts, and their clothes keep getting caught. They struggle against them, but without success. She times her shots, shoots another one in the head and the other in the shoulder. It spasms, slamming its own head against a pylon, then goes limp.
She immediately starts moving again. The freight elevator security gate is half open.
"Get in!" she shouts.
They all file in behind her while she holds the gate. As they do, Ellie can just see through the flashing light a stream of infected coming from the offices at the end of the floor–exactly what she was afraid of. Once the others are in the elevator, she yanks it toward the closed position. It's rusted, and it makes a squeal, but it does latch closed with a clang. James is by the controls. She looks at him. "Take us down!" She has to shout to even be heard.
He looks at the machine for a second, then throws a lever down and smacks a button. The entire platform heaves, then a deep whirring starts up and they begin to move upward.
"James!"
"I don't–oh, I, fuck!"
As the platform rises, they see infected coming their way, toward the klaxon and the sound of the elevator.
"That's a bloater!" Tara exclaims.
"Quiet!" says Ellie. She watches them mill below her. "There will be more."
Between floors, it's dark, with only an orange service light illuminating them, then the third floor begins to come into view, along with the ankles of at least a dozen infected.
"As soon as we're in position, take us down," says Ellie to James, surprisingly cool.
He's shaking, but he looks at her and nods.
She catches a glimpse of Wyatt behind his mask. He doesn't look scared. Instead, he's got wild eyes and an insane smile.
As the elevator gets into position, it locks with a deep boom, and all the infected turn toward them.
The security gate automatically releases with a snap and a rattle, retracting.
Wyatt jumps forward and grabs it before it can open more than three feet. The infected charge against it all at once with a chorus of wails. It bows and protests under the strain.
"Fuck!"
"Shoot! Shoot them!"
Ellie positions herself to shoot at the opening, where two runners quickly try to get through. She unloads her entire 9mm into them, and when it starts clicking she holsters it, draws her revolver, and puts a killing shot into the second one's head. Another runner muscles around the gate, trying to get past the dead ones.
"James!" shouts Ellie. "Down, now!"
"I can't!" shouts James in fear. "The gate has to be closed!"
More are coming.
"Molotovs, now!" shouts Ellie.
"Are you fucking kidding!?"
"Now!" she roars, kicking the pushing runner out from the opening. She blasts him twice in the chest with the revolver. She bends down to start moving the downed infected which are keeping the gate from closing. Wyatt is still struggling to hold the security gate in place.
She hears the pop of glass breaking and feels a painful surge of heat on her arm. It has to be worse for Wyatt. The infected start shrieking as the flames climb over them.
She manages to shove one of the dead runners out of the way, but now a clicker has felt its way to the opening. It glances Wyatt's shoulder with a blow that could break bone, and he flinches.
She drops the revolver, pulls the shotgun over her shoulder, pumps a round, lodges it between her shoulder and the clicker's chest, and pulls the trigger.
The explosion is deafening in the confined space, but the clicker goes flying back into the machine on the opposite wall.
She grabs the shirt of the last downed runner and with all her strength, lifts him and tosses him back.
With a snarl, Wyatt throws the security gate back into the locked position, dragging the infected who have their arms through the gaps in the fence.
James throws the lever to the topmost position, then hits the button again. The elevator whirs to life.
They all move toward the back of the elevator, away from the flames and the flailing arms of the infected. As the elevator moves down, the security gate becomes a scissor against the upper lip of the elevator.
Infected scream as their arms are shorn off.
"Oh, fuck!" Tara turns around, sounding sick. Wet flesh hits the floor of the elevator.
Now the only light is the amber work light and the residual flames from the alcohol by the lip of the elevator.
The second floor comes into view again. Ellie grabs Tara's arm before she gasps.
There are more than a dozen infected here, agitated, looking around, but without targets. There is a bloater among them, pushing the runners out of the way with ease.
The sound of the elevator is lost in the drone of the machinery and the alarm. They drift down, down, past the infected. When they're on their way to the first floor, a runner makes them and starts screaming, he dives at them but the security gate bars him.
There is a foot of clearance at the top of the gate, and one of the runners gets into that gap just before they leave the floor behind, just in time to be cut in half at the waist.
Tara shrieks in disgust as the runner's torso lands on the floor of the elevator, blood rolling out over their feet. His eyes lol about and he makes disgusting, tonguey noises, then he goes still.
The first floor appears before them, and there are no infected in immediate proximity of the elevator.
"Where we came, as one, be ready," says Ellie.
They land, and the security gate snaps open again. This time Wyatt pulls it back and they all leave. As soon as Wallace gets out front, he turns to the right and unloads a couple shots.
"Only stop to shoot!" Ellie repeats, going left.
The storage area by the rolling doors is still mostly clear. She passes under one of the large doorways and is surprised by a clicker immediately to her left. It whirls and her and swings, and she has to fall to the ground to avoid getting her neck broken. She pulls out her magnum again and blasts it twice in the chest. That stops it for only a second. It goes to fall on her, then Wyatt leans in with a baseball bat and smashes it in the face so hard a chunk goes flying. It was its fungal armor. It staggers for a second, starts to come back, then Ellie takes the top of its head off with her last round.
Wyatt pulls Ellie onto her feet. She's out of handgun ammo and has no time to reload.
"More are coming!" shouts Wallace, firing more shots where they came.
Ellie runs over to the door they came in. There's a red flashing light above it now. She pushes the handle and throws her shoulder into it, but it doesn't move. In disbelief, she does it again, but it's stuck. She looks down. There's a steel panel lower on the door leading to the frame. It reads 'lockdown bolt.'
She stares. There are no visible mechanisms to release it. She looks at the roll up door next to it. She yanks the chain, but it's padlocked. She sees the other one is the same.
Insanely, she considers if they can blow them up.
"Ellie!" shouts Wallace. She can hear the infected coming.
She remember the truck docks. That may be their only remaining option. She looks around the room.
"Ring around the rosie!" she shouts.
"What?!"
A gang of runners and three clickers that she sees are running toward them from the floor. She backs to the corner of the room, leading them on. "On me!" she shouts.
The rest close on her and once they're thirty feet away, she turns and runs around the opposite side of the pallets. Some of the infected pivot, but the pallets are bulky, with only small spaces between them. "Move!" she shouts, and they sprint around the other side of the room. By the time they get back to the far gateway, the infected are further from them than they were before.
Ellie turns back onto the factory floor to encounter a late runner who's as surprised to see her as she it. She turns her shotgun and butts it viciously in the forehead. It crumples.
She barely slows and sprints to the other end of the floor where there's a wide hallway with pallets stacked here an there up the sides. Somehow, it's clear for now.
Then a bloater wanders out from an office door halfway through.
Stopping only long enough to aim her shotgun, Ellie shoots it in the knee from ten feet away. It stumbles and goes down with a crash. Without hesitation, Wyatt steps on its back and unloads all five rounds of his revolver into the back of its head.
The fungal plating stops all the bullets, but the bloater seems stunned.
"Move!" she roars, jumping over the bloater.
She hears the others follow her. As he passes the office door, she sees another bloater coming, and this one's angry. They are running out of ammo and time.
She runs out into the warehouse space and this room is thirty feet high with more fluorescent lighting bathing the space in sparks and swirling columns of glowing spores like a hellish cathedral. Low pallet stacks dot the area, and there are six dock rolling doors on the far side. She sprints straight for one in the middle.
Before she even gets to it, she sees the padlock. She doesn't have time to see if the others are unlocked. She has one more shell.
"Stand back!" She doesn't bother looking. She kneels and aims at the lock. The shotgun roars and the chain whips with the force of the blow. Ellie feels a searing pain on her shoulder while Wallace yelps from the ricochets.
When the chain finally stills, she can see the fork on the padlock is warped, but still intact. She grabs it, yanking hard, but it doesn't come loose.
Thundering footsteps are heading their way. Ellie turns to see the bloater charging.
"Get clear!" she commands, but the others are already moving.
Ellie doesn't move, she stands there with her empty shotgun while the bloater barrels toward her. At the last second, she tucks and rolls out of the way, and the bloater crashes into the rolling door with a horrendous boom and crack.
Ellie clambers to her feet, someone grabbing her upper arm. She's unhurt, seems like, but so is the bloater. The door he crashed into his concave at least a foot. The chains are swinging wildly, but Ellie can see the now broken padlock dangling from one of them.
A deep, wet burble sounds from across the room.
They all look just in time for one of the other bloater's acid pods to explode near Tara's feet. She shrieks, falling away from the acid mist.
The others start unloading into the other bloater, but the charger is moving toward Ellie and Wyatt. She has to lead it away.
"Come on!" she challenges it, running toward a short stack of pallets.
She and Wyatt run around the side of the pallet stacks, the bloater chasing them roaring. They stop around the back, waiting.
There's a crash and one of the pallets slides five feet toward them so they have to jump out of the way.
Ellie only has one thing left, and it's a nail bomb. She shows Wyatt. He looks from it to her.
There's another noise, and one of the pallets on top of the stack slides off toward them. They both have to dive separate ways to avoid getting crushed.
Ellie looks up from the ground, and the bloater has climbed on top of a pallet, looking for them.
"Right here, you ugly piece of shit!" shouts Wyatt.
The bloater turns toward him. It reaches, finds a hundred pound bolt of cloth, and hurls it at Wyatt like a spear. Wyatt rolls out of the way just before getting his chest caved in. Ellie lights the bomb.
The bloater drops to the floor near Wyatt with a boom. She holds up the bomb. Wyatt sees it, and runs back around the pallets.
"Hey!" shouts Ellie.
The bloater turns around just in time for the bomb to bounce of its chest. It roars again, and Ellie drops right as the bomb explodes, sending a sheet of red mist into the air.
Ellie's ears are ringing, but she uses her other senses, scrambles to her feet, and runs back to the door. The other bloater is on fire, but it is not down. It's swinging at Wallace, who is nimbly avoiding it.
"This way, now!" shouts Ellie, running full speed into the broken door. She bends down, gets her fingers under it, and pulls. It screeches in protest, the bent rollers not wanting to move. Wyatt comes into next to her and they pull together, the door starts to give way. Six inches, a foot.
Ellie strains harder. She hears the others coming, and sees a couple of them go under the door. She turns, and sees Wallace is still distracting the bloater. That's a good way to get killed.
"Wallace, run, now!"
He turns, scared and uncertain, then sprints toward Ellie and Wyatt. He drops down and slides under the narrow opening.
"Go, Wyatt!" she cries.
He looks at her for split second, drops and slides under the door.
Ellie is still straining, but when she lets go, the door doesn't move anyway since it's jammed. She can hear the heavy footfalls behind her, the spewing death scream of the bloater. She drops down, wriggles her legs through first, and turns around just in time to see the swollen legs of the bloater move around her as it slams into the door. The door cries out again, dropping to a closed position right as her hands slip off the dock.
She lands on her back on the concrete below, her pack cushioning her fall, albeit painfully.
The bloater bellows in rage, its meaty fists pounding the door, but the door holds to its frame.
Ellie is breathing shakily. James pulls her to her feet. She looks around, afraid to find someone missing. But they're all there.
Tara has her masked pulled over her hair, and looks distinctly pale. Jonah's still holding his gun, breathing fast and looking wide-eyed at all of them. Wallace is holding his mask and leaning down on his knees. He just shakes his head, not looking at her. James is stepping away, both hands on the back of his head.
Ellie is vibrating with fear. She's been in a lot of situations worse than that, but these others probably never have, and she's responsible for all of them. She can't quite believe its over. She checks to make sure she still has the rest of her fingers.
Wyatt starts laughing under his mask.
The others stare at him.
He pulls his mask to the top of his head. "Well, that was fucked," he says with a big smile. "It's a wonder any of you are still alive."
A black wave rolls through Ellie's gut. But if he wants her to lose her composure, he's gonna have to try harder than that. She takes a few more breaths, pulling her own mask off. She spits onto the concrete.
"Let's get back to the horses."
Ellie pushes open the door to the stables, pulling Barthas by his lead. Her hands are trembling, she can feel them. She hates when she's like this.
Barthas is watching her but he doesn't resist as she puts him back in his stall and unsaddles him. He makes some noises, but she hushes him and goes about brushing him down. At least she'll get to keep riding him, she didn't lose that.
It hurts in her head and her chest and she presses her fingers into her eyes, fighting back tears.
It had not gone well with Maria.
Barthas rumble-snorts at her.
She looks up with misty eyes and pats his jowl. "I know, I know. I'm just gonna sit down for a minute, okay?"
She pulls the bucket over and sits down in front of him. She looks up at him, one of his eyes half-covered with his luxuriant mane. He's watching her, piecing her out. He knows she doesn't feel good.
"Are you angry with me, too?" she asks him.
He tosses his head and lowers it into her hands, and she strokes him.
"I wouldn't blame you," she says.
He closes his eyes as she strokes his jaw and neck.
"Maria was mad at me," she says.
He snorts softly.
Ellie draws a deep breath, then lets it out. "I got in big trouble today, Barthas. I almost got the others hurt, too. I'm sorry. I should have been more careful.
"Maria was pissed. Right pissed. That's the…" Her face contorts, and her voice wavers. "That's the last survey I'll be leading for a while."
He bubbles gently at her. It's kind. It says 'I'm here.'
But Ellie's voice breaks anyway. "It hurts my pride."
He nudges her, his lips playing at her hair.
She pulls back and looks at him, a tear on her cheek now. "But that's not the worst part," she says. "The worst part is I put Jonah in danger. Tara and Wallace… they can handle themselves. But Jonah is a kid. Not in the body, in the head." She tap hers. "He doesn't know… he doesn't know what it takes…"
She stares off into the distance. "I'm supposed to be the one who protects him." Hurt contorts her features. "I don't wanna go out there with him anymore…"
He whinnies at her, grabbing her attention. Painful thoughts evaporate. Her brow softens a bit and she strokes his jowl tenderly.
"Okay. Okay." She takes another deep breath. This time she frowns. "And you know what else? I'm mad at myself. I'm mad at myself and I've figured out why."
She looks up at his big brown eye. He sees a lot. Of the world, and of her.
"I'm mad at myself cause I screwed up. Because I should have known better than to go in there like that, take those risks, but I did it anyway because I wanted Wyatt to see I could handle myself."
She swallows. It makes a pit in her stomach to even say that. Tears still on her lids, she shakes her head ruefully. "Stupid…"
Barthas snorts.
"And what's worse than that as at the end of everything, when we were standing in front of Maria, Wyatt stood up for me."
Barthas turns to look at her better.
"He said, 'respectfully, Maria, Ellie couldn't have known what would happen when we threw the switch. That it couldn't be turned back off. No one could have.'" Her lips tremble. "I don't think it made a difference to Maria."
She leans in and rests her forehead against Barthas's nose. The words come out pinched and quiet. "Made a difference to me, though."