The Crash of Worlds - The Last Of Us

Part XII - I Don't Feel Well

- 2005 -

It'd been two years since the outbreak, and two years since he lost them all. Now fifteen James lurks in the forest like an animal, hunting and killing to survive. He found an old boat house that he'd taken refuge in. He attached bells to the doors and windows, just in case. However they never rung, nobody ever found him in there.

He spent most of his time reading, the boat house had a bin full of books and tons of other nonsense a family had surely stored away in there. Must've been a doctor in the family because all the books were about medicine and clinical nonsense. He spent a lot of time reading about it, knowledge that he really didn't need.

Following a brief stint of eating only berries and mushrooms James went out to hunt something. His father had taught him how to hunt jackrabbits and about everything else besides a deer. It's a damn shame too because Washington had hundreds of the bastards. But to kill one felt like an insult to his father, he couldn't bring himself to do so.

He'd seen a man with a good hunting rifle one day in the forest and without much besides the idea of he wanted it, he killed the man. Sneaking up behind him and stabbing him in the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord as the stranger fell to the floor.

A bit of crying and some looting later, James had a hunting rifle, a revolver and a horrific guilt. At fourteen he had killed someone. Which is just as disturbing as it sounded, he almost wished the man put up a fight so he could lie to himself that it was defensive.

Besides deer James saw black bears, raccoons, squirrels, elk, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, coyotes, mountain goats, beavers, otters, grizzly bears, wolves, and moose's.

Coyotes tasted terrible, but everything else was surprisingly pretty good when cooked right. James saw a black bear once and he did what his instincts said and shot the thing right between the eyes. There was so much meat he couldn't even finish it all. It was good too.

So with nothing but hope and rifle he set out to find something big. Mountain Lions he's only seen a few and grizzly bears might be a myth for how he's literally never seen one. So he set his mind on the ever available black bear. Often he found them scratching against trees, or catching fish with just their teeth in rivers.

He was pretty hungry, in fact he was getting desperate enough to eat a skunk. However as he snuck around in the woods, out of nowhere he had a bag placed over his head. He thrashed and kicked around violently as he was bound at the wrists and ankles.
"Put me down you piece of shit!" He screamed as someone lifted him up onto their shoulder.
"Shut the hell up." A man's voice echoed out before James was harshly thrown into the bed of a hard metal truck.

He doesn't remember much beyond that as he fell asleep, a sharp pain at his wrist told him he'd been drugged.

James awoke in a cabin, tied to a wall and gagged. He looked down to see himself completely nude and began to panic terribly, frantically looking around for any sort of threat.

However he didn't get much of a choice when the door suddenly swung open. There stood a man, also nude. The stranger was so tall he almost touched the top of the door frame with his head.

James mouthed the words "who are you?" But to no audible expression. The unknown cloth stuffed in his mouth kept him silent.
"Are you going to behave?"

...

James started to cough, more violently than
before. In fact he coughed so much it hurt to breathe, and just as he started he fainted. Falling to the floor.

He awoke to find Joel, shaking him awake as James tasted blood. The metallic liquid filling his mouth.
"James? James what happened?" Joel asked, scanning his face for any imperfections.
"I don't know..." James mumbled, suddenly feeling the need to cough again as he raised his elbow. Joel's heart sunk.
"What hurts?" Joel asked,
"My," James coughed, "Chest. I-I'm okay."
"Did you get bit?"