Firefly

Forty-Two

The Neighborhood 

After leaving the tunnels we came out to a neighborhood outside the city. We were almost home free. Ellie and Sam were walking ahead of us adults, who were talking about our old lives. “I remember when everything first happened; when they started to evacuate places,” Henry said. On the side of some houses people had spray painted messages, it was for the people who were going around looting and breaking into people’s homes to steal whatever they had. It was a warning to let them know that if they tried, they would regret it. “Yeah, I remember how everything was chaotic and out of control,” I said. We walked through the houses that hadn’t been boarded up to look for anything useful. To nobody’s surprise we didn’t find anything. We rounded the corner to the lower part of the neighborhood to see the road was blocked off and we would need to go through one of the back yards. 

“What is this?” Ellie asked. Sam picked up the little pad he had around his neck and began writing before showing it to Ellie. “No way. Joel?” she called, looking back at us. “Did they really drive around in this and sell ice cream?” she asked. He nodded his head and hummed, “Sure did. They would drive around neighborhoods like this and play a creepy song that would have all the kids, even adults coming out to buy ice cream,” he told her. She looked over at me to confirm that he wasn’t just pulling her leg, and I nodded my head. “It’s true and the ice cream was always so damn good on a hot day.” 

We moved past the truck and walked between two houses, down a few steps and into the lowest part of the neighborhood. Henry asked where we were going from here, which Ellie told him and then suggested that he and Sam could come along with us. Joel did not seem too happy about that, but I didn’t see a problem with it. Henry didn’t seem to be a bad guy, he was just trying to protect his little brother and give him the best life he could. Joel was about to say something when a gunshot went off. We were quick to duck behind a car just as another went off. “Is someone fucking shooting at us?” I asked. Joel looked up over the car to the house at the end of the street. “There’s someone on the top floor of that house, with a rifle." 

Henry had made the decision to try and run with Sam only to be shot at. He was quick to come back and duck behind the car again. "Okay, I'm going to go up there." I looked at Joel like he was crazy. "What? No way. You can't go up there by yourself, Joel. I'll go with you," I said. He shut that down real quick though. "No. I want you to stay here with Ellie." I didn't argue. I knew I had to stay with Ellie, because if something were to happen it would be up to me to make sure she got to where she needed to go.

While Joel made his way to the house. Of course on his way there we hadn't noticed there were others hidden around the neighborhood. "Maybe you should go with him," Ellie said. "Joel will be fine, trust me. He doesn't need me to help him," I told her. It was true he didn't need my help, he was able to take those other men out easily enough as he made his way to the house at the end of the street. 

I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer to me and peaked around the car. There were a few more gunshots until I saw Joel standing in the window. He gave me a sign that everything was clear and we got up to get ready to move. 

The four of us stood up and started towards the house when Joel started to yell at us. I couldn't hear but I could hear the sound of a vehicle. When I looked up at the house Joel was waving his hand to signal for us to hide and he was still yelling. "Get down! Now!" I pulled Ellie with me behind another car, Henry and Sam close behind us.  The woman who was looking for Henry and Sam was here and she wasn't alone. She had a small army of people with her. 

She wanted Sam, i didn't know exactly what for but it didn't matter at the moment. Henry decided to show himself, which wasn't good enough. She wanted to kill a child, that unsettled me, and I needed to hold myself back from doing something stupid. When she and her little group of people came charging in, Joel had shot at them. Of course he had good reason to shoot at them. They were shooting at us while we were trying to run. 

He hit the driver of the lead truck, which crashed into one of the houses, and caused a fire to start growing. Everyone was now watching as that truck started to slow sink. Henry was right about FEDRA chasing all the infected underground. What he wasn't right about was them getting rid of all of them. When the ground gave way under the truck there were only a few seconds of silence before the howls of the infected echoed through the night air. 

Clickers started to slip out of the giant hole in the ground, gunfire erupted, people were running to get away. Then it happened, a bloater crawled out of that hole, a huge one at that. My bones felt like they were shaking when it roared and stomped towards the man, the woman who was after Henry, was standing behind. He begged her to just run and she did. 

I told Ellie to make a run for it while we had a chance. Henry had Sam  as they tried to hide from the clickers. While Ellie and I made a run for it I caught a glimpse of the bloater ripping the man's head right off his shoulders. Joel was up in the house taking out any infected that got too close to me and Ellie. Clickers were getting a little too close for comfort. I helped Ellie into an open window of a van and started to take out any infected that got close. 

I looked around for Henry and Sam and when my eyes landed on them my feet took over. They were both trying to crawl under a car to get away from two clickers. Kicking their feet at them as they scooted further under the car. Joel was right there the whole time, taking any infected out that got too close. I grabbed the clicker going after Sam, gripped my knife in my hand, and shoved the blade into its head. I took care of the one trying to grab Henry when Ellie came up beside me. 

Once Henry and Sam were on their feet we ran towards the house, dodging infected as we went. Joel shot a few more infected and then met us outside. We were almost there when the woman after Henry stopped us. She was going to say something when the sound of clicking caught our attention. There was a little girl, or what used to be a little girl only a few feet away. It only took a few seconds before she was punching on the woman giving the five of us the chance to run.