Chapter 20

The grip was strong, yet not nearly as intense as from an infected. No, it was a normal human one, but still, Sarah took it as a threat and let her experience kick in.

She felt that her opponent's stance was very unbalanced and unprepared for any resistance.

This whole analysis happened within a second and got directly followed by the counterattack. She took a strong hold of the attacker's arm and threw them over her shoulder, yet since it was pitch black, she couldn't let another attack follow and stuck with to keep her opponent on the ground, trying to choke them.

"S-Sarah… I-it's me…" chimed Matt's raspy voice from under her, letting the blonde stop immediately.

"Godfuckin' dammit, Matt!" Sarah whisper-yelled, letting go of her friend and turning on the flashlight on her jacket which let him close shut his eyes as the light blinded him. "I could've killed you!"

"Sorry, I know," he replied and slowly got up. "But I wasn't sure if it was you, so…"

But Sarah just scoffed and sat down against the next wall before taking a look around the cramped room that was full of old technical devices and cables. All covered by dust and rust. They were trapped inside this small building, forced to stay put as long as the outside was roaming with infected. She could still hear them through the metal door. Lucky for them, the infected hadn't caught her scent when she had chosen this small building as a shelter.

"So, what now?" Matt asked, sitting down close beside Sarah, which caused her to scoot aside a bit, without another comment, as she felt her personal space invaded.

"We wait," she then replied with a shrug, wrapping her arms around her drenched and cold body. "As long as the Cordies are outside, steppin' one foot out there's suicide. We wait 'til dawn and then head back to the others, regroup and decide what's next."

In reply, Matt only hummed and gazed into empty space, obviously pondering while Sarah just leaned her head back and tried to relax and ignore the coldness.

"Uh, you want…?" the engineer began to ask, getting interrupted harshly right away.

"No, I don't want your jacket and cuddling is off the books anyway."

"Why're you behaving like this?!" he returned with some agitation, sitting up a bit. "Before you left we had somethin' good going. And now…? Listen, I actually don't care why you left. You had your reasons and that's fine with me, but behaving like a total bitch… You really think I deserve that?"

Sighing deeply, Sarah opened her eyes again and rolled her head to the side so she could gaze right at him.

"Don't make this just about you, Matt. I pissed off a lotta people when I bailed seven years ago without a word, not just you. A long time that changed a lot… Especially me." She then exhaled deeply again, her voice and head dropping. "I know what you want and I tell ya that you won't find it with me. I didn't come back for you or to continue the life I left behind. I'm a new person with a new life. For my son, I'm dead. For you 'n' the rest, the old Sarah's gone. That's it."

"You can't just leave your past behind and burn all bridges, only to show up again and think that people feel the same," countered Matt, though he didn't sound infuriated anymore. "People loved you, Sarah. We were happy to have you. You helped so many and…"

Right in contrast to him, Sarah's anger increased with every word, until she was the one who whisper-yelled. "Stop bawlin' like freakin' baby 'n' get a grip! Things change. Life isn't a fun house. You either accept that or you can go and fuck yourself!"

Wanting to signal that the conversation was over, Sarah turned demonstratively away and finally mentioned "We should conserve battery," before she turned off the light, dipping the whole room into darkness again.

Now being robbed of her optical sight, her other senses increased their work, especially her hearing.

She heard the rain increasing and decreasing again. Heard the infected outside. The dripping of water somewhere. Matt's steady breathing. Her heartbeat. A bang in the distance…

A bang?!

Once again, Sarah sat up and listened into the darkness.

Yes, she heard multiple bangs or, respectively, gunshots. Not far away. And then the screams of the infected around the building she was in followed.

"Fuck!" she hissed and put the flashlight back on. "The others are in trouble!"

Not waiting for Matt's reply, Sarah swiftly left the small building, the engineer following her right away. The rain hadn't stopped, which was good for covering their presence. Left and right, before and behind them, the infected ran towards the shootout, ignoring the two humans.

Knowing where the creatures were heading to, Sarah decided to draw her knife and attack every infected on the way in order to thin out the masses, Matt following her example.

A clicker passed her way and she stabbed it right in the head without stopping. Another one appeared in front of her. She took it into a chokehold and sank the blade into its skull again. Now a Runner became aware of her, screamed and charged at her. But the entirely drenched blonde just gave it a kick in the groin, causing the infected to stumble back and fall, before she let another heavy kick to the head follow that killed it for good.

This sort of fighting continued along the entire way to the lodge. It was exhausting and deep inside Sarah just wanted the flood of monsters to finally stop. For some minutes now, the gunfire had stopped entirely, leaving only two options, either everyone was dead or they had run out of ammunition.

But no matter the case, they had to hurry!

Increasing her speed, Sarah eventually reached the hut and witnessed how a new wave of infected attacked, but a certain, very familiar scream then caught her full attention.

Two Clickers had pulled a person through a small window, attacking her as soon as they had recovered from their fall.

"Ellie!" Sarah gasped and sprinted towards her.

Both Clickers were all over her. Barely, the teenage girl managed to place a kick on the first creature's groin, letting it stumble backwards. She then tried to crawl away, but the other Clicker sank its calcified, pointy claws deep into the flesh of her thigh and her back in order to keep her in place for the final strike.

Loudly, Ellie screamed out her pain, losing control over her body as the pain was too intense. The Clicker was about to bite down on the young girl, ready to kill her and only Sarah's loud battlecry distracted it long enough so she could bridge the last distance and bury the blade to the hilt into its head.

Lifelessly, the creature's body fell to the side, finally letting go of Ellie, who was lying curled up on the ground, whimpering and squirming in pain.

"Ellie!" Sarah said with a shivering voice, holding the young red-head.

"I-I'm so sorry!" she replied with sobs. "I-..."

"Ssssh, it's okay. I'm here now!" her guardian soothed and picked her up. But the danger was far from being over. Another bunch of Clicker screams chimed from inside the lodge, followed by some heavy commotion, signaling that a fight was commencing.

Right at the moment, Matt had managed to catch up to Sarah. And though it was hard for her to trust someone else with the most precious person of her life, she gave Ellie into his arms, saying "Keep an eye on her!"

Once freed from the injured girl, she drew her gun and swiftly climbed through the small broken window, from which Ellie had been pulled outside. Her feet had barely touched the ground as she saw a young woman through the door, who was struggling with a Clicker whereas a second one was about to join the fight.

She aimed and killed the second Clicker with a single headshot. A second shot wasted the other one.

The young woman gasped after the attack had suddenly ended and gazed thankfully at Sarah, who quickly entered the main room and saw the whole mess. The other survivor, a young man from their security detail, was also struggling with a Clicker. Another shot later, the creature was lying on the ground as well.

"Shit… Thanks!" gasped Jesse, and once again, silence settled in.

Breathing heavily, yet still full of adrenaline, Sarah's gaze wandered quickly over the entire room. As far as she could tell, all the civilians and the horses as well as one guard were dead. The rest was gathering in the lodge, including Matt, who was carrying Ellie inside.

Right away, Sarah wanted to check on her, but then immediately stopped as the wooden ground under her feet began to slightly shake.

Slowly, she turned her head towards the direction from where stomping sounds were getting louder and louder.

"Fuck!" she said, the word literally dropping from her mouth, right before a Bloater crashed through the wall and let out a guttural scream that let them all freeze in their spot.

Now they were in big trouble. Fighting Clickers, Stalkers and Runners was one thing, but a Bloater a whole different situation. They were tough, almost unkillable and strong as a bear. They were juggernauts. Creatures that had already brought the one or other settlement or QZ to fall. The only option for survival was to run away, but such a Bloater could be faster than it seemed. They would never be able to outrun it, if someone had to carry Ellie. So, Sarah decided to distract the Bloater until the others would be out of reach.

"RUUUN!" yelled Sarah, drawing the giant creatures full attention on her. And while it charged at her, the rest of the survivors tried to leave the lodge. Sadly, one Bloater mostly didn't come alone and so a bunch of Clickers entered the fight as well.

Realizing that Sarah would never stand a chance against a Bloater and the Clickers, Dina stopped and let her gaze switch between Ellie, who was lying almost unconscious in Matt's arms, the attackers and Sarah, and then decided to help again.

"Bring Ellie back to town, Matt! We'll help her!" she yelled over the noise and began to attack the closest Clicker. For a second, Jesse wanted to protest that his girlfriend was going back into the fight, but then joined her.

Sarah fired the remaining bullets in her gun at the Bloater whereas most of them didn't even penetrate the thick, calcified fungal plates, yet made the bulky creature even more furious.

It charged again, even ignoring a Clicker in its way as it ran it over. Barely, Sarah managed to avoid the charge by jumping aside, whereas the Bloater didn't manage to control the momentum and crashed through the next wall in its way.

In the meantime, Dina and Jesse had some trouble keeping the rest of the infected at bay. Therefore, Sarah used the chance that she had gotten rid of the Bloater for now and assisted them by attacking as well.

Working as a team, the Clickers had been taken care of pretty fast and the three survivors remained standing victorious. However, the Bloater wasn't entirely gone and reappeared a second later by breaking through the wall again. Unfortunately, it also destroyed a load-bearing element, causing the whole structure to start to crack and creak.

"OUT!" Sarah yelled and the trio tried to leave the collapsing building. They had barely passed through one of the now multiple exits as the walls gave in to the rising pressure. Yet the wall behind them didn't collapse straight down, but fell right onto them, burying them under wooden planks and logs.

After the dust had cleared, Sarah coughed and squirmed out from the debris she was lying under before taking a glimpse at the destroyed building.

It had entirely collapsed, burying even the Bloater under it. At the first sight, Dina and Jesse were nowhere to be seen, until Sarah saw some movement close by. Swiftly, she got up and helped Dina out of the rubble and a few yards away, Jesse managed to free himself on his own.

The young man had almost managed to pull his leg out of the debris as the rubble behind him exploded and the Bloater arose from the ruin. Desperately, Jesse tried to get away, yet the creature was quicker, grabbed the young man by his head and lifted him up, only to tightly grasp his body with the other hand before the monster pulled and severed the head from his body. A fountain of blood sprinkled the legs and the ground beneath the Bloater as - with a satisfied growl - it tossed away the body parts before continuing its way towards the two women.

"NOOOOOO!" Dina screamed as she had to witness her boyfriend's death, already shedding tears of sadness and desperation.

Knowing that they couldn't win this fight, Sarah pulled up the mourning woman and dragged her away from the scene, despite all the resistance she was giving her at first.

Loss was hard. Losing someone you love was even harder. Sarah knew that, Dina just learned that. Now she had to learn to accept it and not to get lost in the labyrinth of self-destruction and vengeance.

They both ran through the woods, the Bloater still behind them. Not wanting to lead the creature towards the settlement, Sarah did a hard turn right, directly down a small slope, pulling Dina with her. And as Sarah had planned, the Bloater still followed their footsteps.

To their surprise, a loud shot chimed and a bullet hit the creature right in the head. It didn't kill it, yet let it answer with an angry growl before it changed direction towards the source and therefore away from the two women, who were watching how the Bloater stomped away, ignoring them entirely.

Both then stood in the middle of the woods, breathing heavily and their bodies shaking from the adrenaline. The rustling sound of leaves chimed beside them and as they turned around, they saw Eugene emerging from the underwood, a rifle in his hands.

"I think this should keep this big fucker busy for a while," he said and while Sarah thanked him with a nod, Dina jumped him around the neck and cried her pain upon the loss of Jesse into his shoulder.