CYOA Page 162
"Left," you say confidently. "That's the way we need to go."
"All right. I think... my gut might agree with yours on this one."
"Really? Cool. Your gut must be mentoring mine!"
Joel gives you a you're-so-silly look, and the two of you follow the road to the left. For a few minutes, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Then you start to see dead bodies littering the street, which at least counts as slightly out of the ordinary. Dead Runners, and possibly non-infected humans... no Clickers.
Joel holds his arm out, indicating for you to stop, and he dismounts. You follow suit, but he comes around and tells you very quietly to wait here.
"No! I'm going with you!" you answer, softly but firmly.
He doesn't argue.
It's started to rain. The dark clouds cast gloom over everything, and they've made it nearly dark enough to need flashlights before sundown. You follow Joel over to a construction area in the street. There's like... big vehicles and construction shit laying around, like when this project got abandoned, it got quickly abandoned (not unlike other sites you guys have seen across the country). You don't see anything that looks threatening.
But Joel slows down his already-cautious pace as you approach a... ditch or hole or something in the ground. And then you hear it: infected!
Joel stops as soon as he's close enough to peer over the edge. You have to get slightly closer to see -- and he puts his hand on your shoulder, as if to stop you from jumping in or something (in spite of the little half-wall concrete barricade right in front of you). You would roll your eyes at him, but you're too disturbed at the sight of an infected person crouched over a body, and you hope for the poor bastard's sake that he's already dead. It's too late to save him now.
Joel clicks on his flashlight and shines it down there. It's a Runner, feeding on...
Oh God... You tug Joel backward to avoid drawing the Runner's attention with your voice. "Do you think that could be Danny?" you whisper.
"I need a closer look but yeah, I think that was his tattoo."
You think so, too. But maybe lots of guys have snake tattoos on their biceps?
"I don't hear any other infected around here," says Joel, "but I'm hearin' more wind now than anythin' else... best to be on the safe side. I'll just slip down there and--"
"No! We could use the bow if you wanna keep it quiet."
"We could, but I gotta go down there anyway an' see if it's Danny." He moves back to the edge and shines his light around the... ditch, you would categorize it. You look as well; it looks pretty steep here, like you could slide in easily but might not be able to climb out. However, there's some big-ass pipes a little ways down that you're sure you guys could climb on top of to get out. "Stay up here. Keep a lookout." And he steps over the barricade, to the real edge, before you can protest.
You suppose it makes sense for you to stay up here, but... it makes you nervous any time Joel interacts with infected. You know he's competent and all, but still! The rain is coming down a little harder... the wind feels a little whippier... and a loud-as-fuck crack of thunder nearly makes you jump out of your skin -- it spooks all three horses. When you look back at the ditch, you don't see Joel! "Joel? Joel, are you okay?!"
He makes some kind of reply, but it's unintelligible... carried off by the wind.
"Joel, I'm coming down there!"
When you hurtle over the barricade to the very edge, you can see that Joel was simply too close to the wall of the ditch for you to see him -- but with your momentum carrying you forward and the surface being a bit slick, your skidding halt doesn't keep you from going over! You manage to land on your feet in a crouch-like position, bracing yourself with your hands (and the rain will wash the mud off in no time).
Joel drops the Runner he just killed (strangled, you think?) and frowns at you. "I told you to stay up there -- why would you--"
"I couldn't see you and I got scared for a second, okay? Sorry." Eager to shift Joel's focus away from your blunder (what's the big deal, anyway?!), you nod at the poor soul the Runner was feeding on. "Is it him?"
But Joel doesn't answer; he's listening. And a second later, you hear it, too. Fuck! It was the horses... or me yelling... or even the thunder? No fair -- that came from the sky, not us! Whatever it was, something drew the attention of the infected approaching from at least two directions... and you definitely hear a Clicker--
"Ellie, listen -- I'm gonna give you a boost outta here, an' you're--"
"No way! Fuck that, I'm not leaving--"
"We're too confined in here -- we'd have a better shot of--"
"I said I'm not leaving you!"
And there's no time for him to fight you on this because two Runners have already slipped into the ditch onto the pipes -- a third is about to jump down right next to Joel--
"Stay behind me," Joel cautions (as if you wouldn't just intuitively do it anyway!), and he moves toward the pipes, leaving you the infected looming overhead. You shoot it in the head, and it topples down onto Danny (or probably-Danny)'s corpse. Another one is right behind, eerily lit by a flash of lightning -- you dispatch it in the same manner. Maybe we can make a staircase of corpses and climb out over here??
There's another obnoxiously loud crack of thunder, but it does nothing to deter the horde -- and you do fear it's a horde, not just a few of the fuckers. Now that you have the chance, you pull a few weapons out of your backpack. It's raining so hard you don't even know if you can light the Molotov cocktail-- I'll have a better chance with the nail bomb -- there are definitely more coming on Joel's side, so you chuck it toward the pipes. You don't see how many it kills because now you've got a Clicker slipping into the ditch behind you -- you have to use two bullets on this one -- two more Runners have dropped down in the meantime, but when you glance to your left-- Joel! NO--
There are three infected practically on top of him! He's trying to fight them off... you know he would normally do what he could to break free and run at least far enough away to regroup -- but there's nowhere to run! It would be risky for you to shoot at them with Joel so close, moving erratically... you fire at the only one you feel confident about, but then the Runners behind you are grabbing you--
You twist around and shoot one in the gut, which makes it release you but doesn't kill it. You're jolted by a sharp pain... as the other one sinks its teeth into your neck! You don't really register it but you must have dropped your gun... you're just trying to dislodge the fucker now--
You didn't think you succeeded, yet you fall to your knees, free of your attacker. -Oh -- thanks to Joel... he helped me... but before you can even gather your wits, the wounded one grabs you-- then releases you, as Joel interferes somehow... punches it or something. You fumble for your switchblade... but you can't use it! Not with Joel right there, taking on all the close ones... and you can't go anywhere -- you're surrounded by dirt walls and infected. You could throw it, you suppose, but then you won't have it for defense, and the chances that you'd even kill one that way are slim...
Your world has grown very dark and small; all you can see in every direction is a dark mesh of infected and Joel, Joel and infected... all blurred together-- and suddenly, the truth hits you like a two-by-four: we're going to die. WE'RE GOING TO DIE-- There's too many! An overwhelming number of them, with no escape.
And then your world becomes completely dark: Joel is hugging you... well, not exactly hugging -- more like, pushing you down and covering as much of you as he can. Nooooo -- he can't! "Joel! Joel-- they can't infect me -- let me up and I'll distract them -- I'll keep them away from you-- JOEL!" ...IT'S TOO LATE. The spark of hope you felt at coming up with a plan is extinguished in mere seconds; they're already hurting him, ripping into him... and they're going to do the same thing to you, when they get the chance. They should already be doing it -- but somehow, Joel is staying in place... you're a turtle hiding in its shell. My Joel shell...
This is usually the part in the nightmare where you would wake up... but there's no waking up from this! The terror consuming you now is like nothing you've ever felt before. You can't scream, you can't speak, you can't breathe, you can't think, you can't feel-- you can't fucking do anything and if there is a God, both of you will pass out, like... now. Together.
You and Joel have discussed death before. Specifically, your own deaths. Not a topic you ever relished, to be sure... but if you were capable of processing thoughts right now, you might recall that this was one way Joel had envisioned his death. Not this exact scene... just in general: he said the only way anyone would harm you in his presence would be... "over my dead body."
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