Chapter 19
It was raining cats and dogs. Big drops were falling from the branches and leaves of the trees down on Ellie and Dina, soaking them despite the roof of the forest above them. Darkness was all around them, making it almost impossible to spot the next tree trunk that wasn't enlightened by the flashlights.
Cautiously, Dina was guiding them through the thicket, avoiding any patrol routes so that they wouldn't get caught outside the walls. Leaving Jackson hadn't been the hard part since the older girl knew some sneaky ways to exit premises without being spotted. But now staying undiscovered was another topic, whereas the bad weather was helping their efforts.
"How far is it?" Ellie said through the loud pitter-patter of raindrops, almost stumbling over an exposed root.
"Not far," Dina hissed back sharply and took a look around. "Just keep quiet! Clicker-activities have increased lately, plus that a patrol went missing two months ago around this area. Chances are high that the Cordies got 'em."
Right on cue, an infected's scream chimed through the night, followed by countless others.
"Shit, sounds like one of 'em red-zones," the young teenager mentioned dryly, earning her a suspicious frown from her friend.
"Red-zones? Bullshit! You've never ever been that close to one of those cities."
But Ellie simply shrugged, returning "Occasionally. The Fireflies hide their stashes close to red-zones, so…"
"Fireflies?!" Dina exclaimed, frowning again at her. "Don't tell me you're one of those assholes."
"Nah, not really. Though, my mom and Sarah used to. Anyway, why don't you guys just clear the Cordies out step by step? It's not that hard to waste those fuckers."
"Not that hard?" Dina scoffed back, shaking her head as they kept on going. "Have you ever killed a Cordy on your own, anyway?"
"A few…" Ellie replied cheekily with a shrug. "And even some peeps."
"Wow, now look at that girl. Red-zones, Fireflies, killin' Cordies 'n' people. So, either cute 'n' dangerous…or just full of shit."
"Fuck you!"
Both then chuckled in unison upon their little exchange of words until they saw a light in the distance.
"That's it! That's the shelter!" Dina mentioned and both increased their pace until they had reached the lodge. Once they approached the door, Dina knocked in a certain rhythm, which must've been some sort of code, since the door got opened without any hesitation by a young man with Asian look, who gave both of them a quizzical gaze.
"What the hell are you doin' here?" he asked and - to his surprise - got taken into a tight embrace, which silenced him, but not his colleague.
"Dina, what the fuck?! You're not supposed to be here. And what's with this kid?! Are you fuckin' nuts or just plain stupid?"
An argument between the three guards was about to start, but Ellie couldn't care less. She pressed past them into the lodge and looked around, saying "Where's Sarah?"
It wasn't the remaining civilians, who were only quizzically ogling her, that were giving her an answer, but Jesse.
"She went with Matt to scout for the Cordies' nest. But that was hours ago. We dunno where they are. The plan was to meet here again and wait for dawn, but…"
"Then we need to look for them!" Ellie threw in, only to get chided by the, to her unknown, other guard.
"Are you crazy, girl? If it isn't enough that you and Dina broke several rules, you now wanna get us all killed, too? You stay here! We all stay here! And tomorrow, we'll go straight back to town and discuss this shit and any further steps with the council."
The guard was already about to grab Ellie by the arm, but she simply took a step back, yelling "Go fuck yourself, asshole!"
Dina also realized that the infuriated red-head was already reaching for the pistol behind her back and stepped between the two, whereas she was taking Ellie's side.
"Mike, if we wait till dawn and speak with the council first, they're both as good as dead."
"If they aren't dead already," Mike blurted back and stepped into the doorframe, blocking the exit, back towards the outside. "Matt's not here, which means that I'm calling the shots now, and I say we stay here and wait 'til tom-..."
Out of nowhere, the loud scream of a Clicker echoed from outside and Mike only managed to turn around before he got tackled to the ground by the creature.
Chaos broke out. The mechanics began to panically scream and tried to run away like headless chicken, while Dina and Jesse were being startled and jumped back. Only Ellie managed to gather her wits within a second, pulled out her knife and attacked the Clicker by stabbing it into the with fungi overgrown head repeatedly.
The creature screeched one last time and then went limp, letting go of its injured victim. But the danger was far from being over, because other infected answered this scream of death right away, and not just Clickers. And while Dina and Jesse pulled their comrade from under the demised Clicker deeper into the lodge, Ellie drew her pistol, knife still in her other hand, and backed away from the still open entrance.
"Everybody, form a circle!" Jesse ordered and everyone, except one of the mechanics, were forming a circle in the middle of the one-story building, guns up and ready.
Another Clicker appeared in the entrance and was immediately greeted by a bullet out of Dina's rifle, which hit it right in the head, killing the creature instantly. The shot, however, triggered the other infected outside the building, who then stormed in from every direction. A Stalker came through the door and was gunned down by Ellie. A Runner crashed through one of the windows and received a bullet from Jesse.
The mechanic who was outside the circle panicked entirely. Screaming out of his lungs he darted towards the now open window in order to escape the madness. But before he even had the chance to climb out, another runner had already charged through the window, right into the mechanic's arms. Both went down and the Runner bit him right in the throat, turning the poor man's cries into a gurgling sound.
More windows crashed as more and more infected were storming the place. Shot after shot echoed through the night, bodies fell to the ground, and still the creatures kept coming.
"I'm out!" yelled Dina over the noise and drew her knife after throwing her gun away. Ellie, who still had some shots left, tried to cover her sector, too, but got then attacked by another Runner from the side. The infected had a tight grasp on her arm and bit deeply into its flesh.
Crying out her pain, the young girl lost her balance and dropped her pistol, leaving her in a bad position. Thankfully, Dina was there right away and rammed her knife into the infected's skull. Sadly, this also distracted her, leaving the defense on her side wide open for another Clicker that was about to attack the curly-haired young woman from behind. But before this could happen, Ellie kicked the Runner's corpse off her legs, got up and jumped right at the Clicker with a loud battlecry.
Again, her blade tasted blood and multiple stabs later, the Clicker was dead as well. But the most eerie thing was the silence that followed.
The onslaught was over from one second to another and the whole floor of the lodge was covered with blood, bodies and debris.
"Is everyone okay?" Jesse asked into the room, knowing very well that this wasn't the case. The two remaining civilians were terrified beyond everything since they had been desperately fighting for their lives, the other one dead. Mike was groaning and squirming on the ground, holding his from the bite bleeding shoulder. And Ellie…?
She was standing above the corpse of the last Clicker she had killed, breathing heavily while blood was dripping from her arm and the blade in her hand.
Knowing that the young girl had been bitten, Dina approached her cautiously and laid one hand tenderly on her shoulder.
"Ellie?" she said with a heavy voice, already mourning her. However, she was very much surprised as the red-head spun around and gazed at her like nothing special had happened.
"I'm good. You?"
Quizzically, Dina's frown switched between Ellie's nonchalant demeanor and the bite wound on her arm. Perplexed, she stammered "Um…I-I'm fine, but…"
Just now Ellie snapped out of it and realized that this person in front of her wasn't Sarah, who knew about her condition, but Dina, a stranger she had met hours ago. With wide open eyes upon the realization, the young girl looked at her arm and then back at the grownup woman. Internally she hoped that in the chaos only she had seen that she had been bitten. So, she covered the wound with her hand and gave Dina a serious glare while shaking her head, signaling her that she shouldn't say anything.
Nodding in return, Dina agreed to this and then checked how the others were doing. After finally closing the door, Jesse and the other two survivors tried to barricade the destroyed windows as best as possible. So, they were busy. Still, hiding Ellie's wound from the others was nearly impossible if it wasn't covered up somehow.
Using the ongoing distraction, she grabbed one of the present lanterns, wrapped an arm around Ellie's shoulders and led her towards the lodge's small bathroom, where she closed the door behind them before gazing deeply at her young friend.
"Okay, Ellie, what the fuck?"
"What?!" she then blurted quietly back and undid her jacket. "Don't worry, I won't turn. But a bandaid would be cool, though."
She tried to play it cool. Tried to act like nothing had happened. Though, it made the impression as if she was simply crazy. The cat was out of the bag. Her secret wasn't a secret anymore. Either Dina would try to kill her right away or would become witness to her immunity anyway.
Sighing deeply, Ellie eventually took off her jacket and sweater, revealing her arm with the healed bite.
"It isn't my first bite, y'know," she said, gazing at Dina. "It's actually supposed to be a secret, but I'm immune. Just don't ask me how 'n' why."
Entirely befuddled, Dina returned the look, her eyes wide from unbelief.
"Wait a sec," she exclaimed with a scoff like she didn't believe even one word. "You're immune? Like, really immune."
"Yup, got bitten by a Runner, months ago. Nothin' happened. I can even breathe in spores. No coughing, no turning. Just…"
"Shit!" Dina eventually sighed, leaning back against the wall and staring into empty space as she had to digest this information.
"Listen," Ellie eventually said, softly touching the older girl's hand in order to get her full attention as she gave her a deep glare. "Nobody may know, okay? Not even your friends. This needs to stay our secret!"
Nodding after a while, Dina agreed silently to those terms and eventually took a med-kit from the bathroom's shelf.
"C'mon, let's patch up your wound before someone sees it or it gets infected by other shit."
Calmly and cautiously, Dina took care of the bite, her small, soft hands working wonders while Ellie was watching like a hawk. But not out of mistrust, yet because she found Dina fascinating. Those soft hands whose touches felt like tender strokes from an angel. The cute, deeply focused face. Dina was as fascinating as Sarah, yet younger and less experienced. And after she had finished the gauze, she raised her sight and their gazes met for a long moment.
It was like they were caught in their own little bubble as time seemed to have slowed down. Only as it knocked on the door, this magical moment ended abruptly.
"Dina! Are you in there? What's goin' on?" chimed Jesse's quiet voice from the other side.
"Yeah, I'm here with Ellie," Dina whispered back. "She, uh… She cut herself with her knife. Put a bandage around it."
"Listen, we've still got company outside. So keep the chatter to a minimum!"
Being done and wanting to head back to the group, Dina then opened the door, but unfortunately the hinges creaked a bit upon the lack of oil, yet it was enough to trigger a Clicker outside.
The creature screamed and crashed through the darkened window, hanging with half of its body inside and tried to reach for Ellie, who in return, backed away and was trying to reach for her gun, realizing that it was still laying on the ground in the main room.
"Fuck!" she exclaimed and took out her knife. But as she had unfolded the blade, the infected grabbed her injured arm tightly, forcing her to drop it upon the pain and therefore rendering her defenseless.
Clickers were strong. Way stronger than the average male human, let alone females. Fighting against them in hand-to-hand combat was very challenging and only possible if they could be outsmarted and outmaneuvered. Fighting several of them at close range was plain impossible.
The Clicker pulled at Ellie's arm, trying to drag her outside through the broken window. Of course, the others were immediately there, too. And while Dina tried to counter the infected's pull, Jesse wanted to kill it, yet got distracted as new screams and noise chimed from the lodge's main room as another infected broke in.
Right in time, the Asian man turned around and kicked away a Runner that wanted to jump at him, leaving the other two women to fight for themselves as he had to fight for his own life.
During her time on the road with Sarah, Ellie had learned to overcome her fear and face every danger with determination. At the moment, however, she was more terrified than ever before as the pull got stronger and stronger and there was nothing she could do against it. Not even her desperate screams and punches onto the Clicker's head or Dina's help had any effect on the situation. And it got even more dire as another Clicker came into the mix, who was climbing over its companion and wanted to finish it.
Now Dina had no other choice than to let go of Ellie with one hand in order to draw her knife in and repel the other creature. Sadly, it came to a loss of additional grip, which caused the young girl to slip from her grasp and get pulled through the window, along with the two Clickers.
"ELLIE!" she called after her into the darkness outside. And even if it would've been close to suicide, she actually wanted to follow, yet the commotion behind let her turn around.
Jesse was fighting against a Clicker, too. He was pinned down and about to lose the fight, so Dina made the hard decision to help her boyfriend, because, deep in her mind she already tried to accept the fact that Ellie was probably gone, ripped into pieces by the infected.
But there was no time to mourn, yet! She had to help Jesse and this was what she did.
With a loud groan she attacked the Clicker and rammed the knife into its head. But soon, the next bunch of infected flooded inside. Not just one or two, but five Clickers.
They were as good as dead. Only she and Jesse were left and fighting five Clickers at once was not winnable. Still, they wanted to fight till the bitter end.
One last time, the two young grownups exchanged a determined glare before they charged at their opponents.