CYOA Page 37
You decide to play it safe and wait to see if the threat simply passes you by. It's unusual that they're moving toward you at all; usually they just kind of... wander around aimlessly in one area. Maybe this town is their one area? Because the street was clear before we came in here!
Joel knows some trick to lock the double doors in the front, and he tugs the horses away from there, in case a Runner happens to detect movement through the grimy glass. He tries to soothe the horses, who are starting to get antsy about the approaching Clickers. The horses always respond better to his voice and touch than yours, much to your annoyance... although, you can't really blame them, for what an amazing voice and touch it is! He notes that there are broken windows in the offices in the back, and suggests that it would be easy to stealth-kill them with arrows if any of them decide to climb inside. The horses won't fit through the door to that hallway, so Joel needs to stay in front with them and keep them from making a lot of noise. He seems worried about sending you back there alone, though.
"Please," you scoff. "You think I can't handle arrowing a few infected while they're making themselves a perfect target, climbing in?"
"We don' know how many there are. Maybe you should stay with the horses."
"Well, then I'd have to worry about you being back there by yourself. And I suck at calming them down -- they feel that I'm... tense, or something. Look... if any of the fuckers see me, I'll yell for you. How's that?" And by 'see,' you mean 'detect;' Joel knows this.
"The horses are pretty calm right now... I'll go back there with you for a minute an' check things out."
"Fine." No sense in continuing to argue about it. You lead the way.
The place is as he described... a few dead infected, broken windows... not many good hiding places in those offices. Three of them have shattered windows. There's also a room in the back with zero windows that's so dark you have to use your flashlight -- this is the room with the spores. It's across the hall from the offices, and seems to take up as much space as the others combined. There are desks in there too, but it's mostly filing cabinets. Rows and rows of them. They're not shoved up against the walls like in the nicer office rooms, so you could potentially dart in and out--
"Whoa," you breathe as something catches your eye. It's a vault! Like the kind you see in movies! It's ginormous. Taller than you -- taller even than Joel -- and is clearly a walk-in. The door is ajar... and it has a huge steering-wheel looking thing on the front.
"Don't go in there, Ellie," you hear Joel caution you from the hallway.
How did he know what you were looking at? "I'm not!" you assure him.
"If that door somehow locks, you'll never get out of there."
"I'm not an idiot!" Surely it wouldn't hurt to just look in there, though. The thing is practically begging to be looked in.
"I'm gonna go back up front -- come guard the windows now."
"... ...Okay..."
"NOW, Ellie..."
"Okay! Jeez, I'm coming." Foiled by Joel! He's actually putting his mask on when you come out of the room, like he was going to go in there and drag you out. You pull it off his face and give him a quick kiss. "I didn't go in there."
"Good. Don't. Just guard the windows from back here... We got plenty of arrows. No gunfire unless you're spotted."
"Got it."
"If they see you, they'll prob'ly logjam at that first window... give you a chance to pull back..."
"I got it," you repeat. "Go, before the horses get upset again."
He closes the hallway door behind him... probably to confine the horsey sounds to the lobby. You hear the Clickers getting closer. You're more nervous for Joel than yourself; what if those doors don't hold? What if the infected hear the horses and just bust right through?
You ready yourself with the bow and arrows. Then you wait... and wait... and fucking wait...
You hear a loud crash in the front that has to be glass shattering. "Joel!" you scream without thinking.
A Runner bursts through the hall door -- not the window! -- and you shoot it with the arrow you have ready. But there are others behind it, including Clickers... and more infected coming through the first window-- and now the third--
"Ellie, I'll be right there!"
Joel! You're relieved that he's okay! Okay enough to make that declaration, anyway... You drop the bow and whip our your pistol, firing in two directions to hold them back... make that THREE... as you back down the hall. There are clearly more infected than you had predicted. Fuck!
You can't get to Joel. You just can't. The hall is too narrow to try to run past the infected, and you already have to reload-- you duck into that dark back room; the dark will at least buy you time to hold off the Runners. Right after you enter the room, you shine your flashlight all around for a second, commit as much of the layout to memory as you can in that second, and switch it off. You know a few infected followed you in here, but they don't know where you are at the moment. You need to pull some ammo out of your backpack (why the fuck don't you have some in your pocket?? you curse yourself) but rooting around in the dark for that and then reloading might make enough noise to draw their...
Maybe not in the vault, though? Sure, you told Joel you wouldn't go in there, but it's the perfect spot: you can slip in through that barely open door (which you can fit through but they can't). Maybe you can slowly and carefully pull it almost-but-not-quite shut -- they won't realize that they can yank it open by that steering-wheel-like handle, and you feel like that thick door will muffle sounds from inside...
Still, it's risky. Maybe you can avoid them by sneaking around the filing cabinets until Joel's entrance surprises and distracts them, giving you the opportunity to find your ammo. Where IS Joel, though? It's been like... maybe a whole minute since he said he was coming... You can see, silhouetted in the doorway, that more infected are entering the room. Are they playing follow the fucking leader?! You have your knife, but with ten or twelve infected back here, it's only going to work as desperate defense for a very short amount of time.
If you hide in the vault, turn to page 71.
If you try to avoid the infected until Joel creates an opportunity for you to reload and fight, turn to page 74.