The Both Of Us | Zelink X The Last Of Us

Chapter Four

Zelda's pov

Daddy, don't leave me!

My body jerks when I wake up. I'm somewhere unfamiliar and I'm laying on the hard floor instead of my bed. I blink slowly at the sunlight pouring into the room. I'm not in the zone anymore.

"I was about to wake you up, princess," Impa says and I flip over quickly. I was hoping this was all a bad dream. It's unfortunately very real.

Link and Impa are sitting next to each other eating. I'm not exactly hungry but I'm going to need energy. I get some jerky from my bag and nibble on it. I'd brought the rest of the food from my apartment which wasn't much: a few pieces of jerky, a can of peaches, two cans of baked beans, and a pack of very stale Pop Tarts. I had enough ration cards saved to get a lot more but I left the day before I was planning on going to the pantry. I wish I'd known I was leaving. I could've given my cards to that woman who had a baby yesterday. Now they're useless.

I scan the building I'm in. It looks like it used to be a bookstore. There's scattered books on the shelves and torn pages littering the floor. I used to enjoy reading. I only had a few books in the zone but I left those behind. Just another reminder than the life I used to know is gone. It's almost comical that I've been dragged from the comfort of normality twice now. I wish I could warn my old self to not get too comfortable with life. I wish I'd known how fragile comfort is. 

Link slings his rifle back over his shoulder and stands up. "We're leaving," he says as he turns for the door. He doesn't talk much but I'm glad. His words are sharp and make me uneasy.

I have to squint my eyes when I step outside. There's no clouds and the sun is beating down. If you only look at the sky, you wouldn't be able to tell how desolate everything is. It's when you look back down you realize how trapped you are.

In the daylight, I can see how destroyed the city is. We have to switch streets often because of the craters and debris blocking our path. Large cities were bombed after the outbreak in a final ditch effort to slow the spread. Anyone left outside of the quarantine zones were stuck in the shellings. I still remember it. I'd hide under my cot and cover my ears until it was over, only for it to repeat days later.

Link stops abruptly and reaches for his rifle. He points to his left and I see it. In the alley ahead, there's dead bodies and infected feeding on them. Bloody and decaying. In the silence, I hear the faint whimpering noises and the sickening squelch of human flesh as it's torn from bones. I've never seen a fully turned infected before and now I'm staring at a swarm. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end and my chest constricts. They're so close I can smell them.

Link keeps his gun pointed at them while Impa searches for another route. There's a broken window behind me and I take the slowest steps I can towards her. I lightly tap on her shoulder and point to the window with a shaky hand. Link notices and starts backing up. I follow Impa through the window, doing my best to step over the broken glass. A shard crunches under my foot and one of the infected lifts its head, listening. Moving carefully to not draw any more attention, I make it through the window.

The inside of the building is dark with only the single broken window to provide a little light. It looks like we're standing in a lobby of some sort and the air is thick and musty. Worn out pamphlets are scattered on the floor and my gaze travels up the huge skeleton towering over me. A dinosaur. We're in a museum. My mother used to take me to museums. I loved to look at the dinosaurs and I was amazed at how they were frozen in time. Now everything is somber reminder of what life used to be.

Link turns on the flashlight strapped to his shoulder, slightly illuminating the room. Impa has her gun drawn as well and we start moving towards a dark hallway. I almost scream when Link's flashlight reveals a growth on the wall with an infected trapped in it. My breath catches in my throat, keeping me silent. I back away, getting ready to run when Link grabs my arm. He pulls me close to him, almost completely against his body and leans down, leveling his mouth with my ear.