ꜰᴏᴏʟ'ꜱ ᴍᴀᴛᴇ || ᴛᴡᴅ

114: ᴇᴄʜᴏᴇꜱ

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One thing Joel had learnt from when he was a child, was that bullies were often their own worst enemy. 

They were very far up their own asses. And once you took a beating silently, and ran off quietly, they assumed they had you. That you were theirs, and they could do whatever they wanted. 

This meant that they had a very easy weakness, most of the time. 

Which was what Joel was using against them, now. 

He still had a large gash across his face. It was why Maggie hadn't let him go with her. He was reckless, and often got himself into stupid situations because he'd get impatient. 

The gash went from between his eyes down along one of his cheekbones, and it was stinging, but thankfully hadn't reopened. But it hurt like hell. It was probably infected. which was nice. 

He heard the sharp thump of a silenced sniper, and followed it. He'd already gotten Hershel to safety, so it was just a matter of time before he tracked this motherfucker down.

Joel had even managed to shepherd the reaper. He'd thrown things, jumped, made noise, ducked in and out of trees, making it all look like accidents. Another good thing about bullies being up their own asses. He was too busy sniffing his own guts to see that it was all fake. 

The problem with bullets going off was that it wasn't at his feet. Which meant someone had done exactly what he said not to do and separated from the group. Typical. 

That, or there was something else in these woods. 

Another shot went off, and he followed it. Who the hell was messing up his plan?

As he ducked under a fallen tree, knife in hand, he heard another shot go off, close. 

But when he found the gun, it was unmanned. 

He knew he was here.

He felt cold all of a sudden, and ducked, the reaper's knife embedding itself into the tree Joel had been behind. He kicked him in the gut, knocking the man back, before pulling knife from the tree. Now he had two. Nice. He wasn't sure if he could dual wield, though. 

"Joel!"

The sound caught him off guard, and made him look back, see Maggie, leg caught in a robe tied high above her, upside down. When did she get here?

But the reaper took the opportunity, grabbing Joel and throwing him at a tree, making his vision go. 

He couldn't see, really. He couldn't feel. Anything but sick. Sick. Sick. Maggie was here. Maggie was hurt. 

Maggie got herself free, and turned to the man, as Joel began to regain consciousness. 

Joel was surprised he didn't hear it. But somehow, a flash of a brown jacket went past him, almost silently, as the reaper raised his knife to Maggie. But the man in the jacket reached the man first, jumping on his back and stabbing him in the shoulder, making him yell, and stumble to the side as the man planted his feet back on the ground, pulling him along with him.

But the reaper tried to pull away, so the man pulled the knife from his shoulder, and in one fluid motion that was so fast Joel hardly saw it, sliced off the reaper's nose. 

His screams echoed through the woods, as the man kicked him in the back of the leg, making him fall to his knees on the forest floor, a knife to his ear, ready to slice that off as a bloody hole where his nose should be spewed over his mouth.