CYOA Page 58
You trust Joel to take care of himself; he'll catch and kill that guy, and if there are too many more of them, he'll hide or retreat or whatever is the smartest course of action.
The rain isn't so intense now. Barely more than a light mist, with no winds to speak of. "Suuuummmmeerrrr!" you call to Joel's horse from the mouth of the tunnel. You flash your light around and don't see her anywhere. Shit!
You mount your own horse and start searching in the direction you came from. If you were a horse and you got scared, you figure you'd probably head back in a direction that you know is safe. You have no idea if horse brains work that way, but it makes sense to you. You don't want to go too far away, though, so when you still don't see her after a minute, you start circling back, venturing farther... um... south, you're pretty sure. But instead of making a full circle (er, rather, half-circle), you cut back toward the tunnel again and see if Joel is back yet.
He's not.
"Joel?" you call out. I would've heard gunfire from where I was, wouldn't I? It's not even raining much now...
You don't hear Joel, but you do hear a horse neighing, off to your left. You take off in that direction, threading through the trees... Oh! TWO horses! One is Joel's. "Did you make a new friend, Summer? Hey, new horsey... aren't you pretty... it's okay... I'm a friend..."
The horse doesn't seem afraid of you; it just looks at you. Curiously, you suppose. You approach slowly, and it lets you stroke its nose. Must not be wild. You need to get back to Joel, though, so you can't spend time getting acquainted. You take Summer's reins and tug her along with you, until she follows on her own. The other horse is following, you're amused to note. "Look what I found, Joel..." Ha -- he'll be so surprised.
The rain isn't even a drizzle now, so you loosely hitch your two horses to a tree just outside the mouth of the tunnel, and head in to find Joel. "Joel! Are you okay?"
"Ellie, go back!"
You're thrilled to hear his voice, but worried because he's clearly not okay. Fuck going back! What does he expect you to do -- wait and do nothing? You're almost out the other side of the tunnel. You have the rifle on your shoulder, but you're not familiar with it... not even sure it has bullets left in it... so you point your trusty 9-millimeter ahead of you.
"Come here, girl, if you ever wanna see your friend again," a creepy-calm voice drawls from around the corner. Where Joel is!
You move very slowly around the corner and... fuck!
"You were right," says another man. "Keeping him alive paid off."
"I would've found her, either way," scoffs another.
There are two big men, each holding one of Joel's arms, while a third points a revolver at Joel's temple. Joel's face is horrifically bloody, and it looks like he would sag to the ground if the two guys weren't holding him. You hope like fuck that Joel is faking how hurt he is, because it looks really bad. He's got a huge bruise on his head, and his left eye is all swollen... The guy with the gun doesn't have any bruises, but the other two look a bit roughed up, you're glad to see. None of these guys are the one you saw running away in the tunnel, though, and you don't like not knowing where he is.
You quickly take in your surroundings. Joel's still wearing his backpack, but his weapons are... sort of scattered around behind him. Mostly behind the guy with the gun, though. You're scared shitless for Joel, but you also want these guys to think you're a scared little girl who won't kill them the first chance she gets; you need to use your enemies' underestimation of you to your advantage. "Don't hurt him," you say weakly. ...Can I kill the one with the gun before he gets a chance to shoot Joel?
"Too late for that," the guy on the right says, laughing like he said something hilarious. "But we'll let him live if you do what we want."
You don't believe that, but you'll play along. "Anything! Just leave him alone. Please."
"For starters, drop that gun and kick it over here."
Yeah, that sounds familiar... You hate to do it, but what choice do you have? If you fire it, they'll kill Joel without thinking twice. You comply.
"Now take that rifle over to the edge there."
Well, that's a strange request... You didn't even notice that you're dangerously close to a cliff. You scoot over there slowly, puzzled... until you get to the edge and understand what they want you to do.
"Lower it down to Mick there so he can climb on up."
It's the guy from the tunnel. He's on a ledge, so he's not in immediate danger of falling. He's all bloody and filthy; you wonder if Joel pushed him down there. "I... can't. I'll fall down!"
"You'll be fine."
"I'm scared of heights!" Not even a total lie. Everyone's afraid of falling off a cliff, right?
"Give it here, then." The guy on the left drops Joel's arm. One small victory...
...but he's about to take the rifle from you, and then you'll be facing two guys with guns in their hands. Real smart, Ellie... THINK! "We have rope! Rope will work better."
The guy yanks the rifle strap over your head. "We've done it with the rifle before."
Now that you've been disarmed, the other guy lets Joel drop to the ground, and the pistol guy quits aiming at him. ...Is Joel unconscious? Looks like it... "Have you done it in the rain and the mud, though?" you challenge the asshole. "It's real slick... your friend is hurt, and the rope will be easier to climb. I'll go get it."
The rifle guy grabs your arm before you can even turn around. "Heh -- I don't think so. Just tell me where it is."
You think quickly. If you go with the guy to fetch the rope, you'll have isolated one of them... while he's distracted with unhitching the rope, you can slit his throat with the knife they don't realize you have in your pocket. Maybe Joel has been biding his time... and he can handle two guys who think he's unconscious. But Joel is really beat up... maybe it would be better to send the guy for the rope, leaving you and Joel one each to dispose of, then you can ambush the rope guy when he returns. Plus, you kind of don't want to leave Joel alone with these pricks...
No guarantees that any of that would go according to the plan in your head, of course -- and Joel might be too out of it to help you at all. You've just got to try something!
If you go with the guy to 'show him where the rope is,' turn to page 112.
If you stay with Joel, turn to page 115.