Collision

Chapter Seventeen

~Chapter Seventeen~

Ellie's P.O.V.

I couldn't believe her words, so I asked Michonne to repeat them again.

"It's Joel and Harvey."

With that, I looked towards the direction she was pointing, grabbed my backpack, and ran. Ran until my legs were hurting. Ran until my legs felt numb.

Through the thick forest, I yelled, "Joel? Joel, please! Please, answer me!"

After a couple of minutes of screaming the same sentence over and over again, I heard a silent reply not too far away.

"Ellie?"

My eyes went wide as I looked around to find the direction of the voice. It was hard to locate anything in the forest, everything was just a distant echo.

"Joel, where are you?" I yelled, hoping my vocal chords wouldn't burst with exhaustion.

"Ellie! Ellie, I'm right here!"

East. The voice was coming from my right. I turned to that direction and just as I was about to run, a large figure pushed past the bush and into my view.

In an instant, I crushed the man in a hug, enveloping him in my arms.

"Fuck you for scaring me like that. Don't ever tell me to leave your side again," I croaked, wetting his plaid shirt with my tears. He patted my back, letting me know it would all be fine now since we had each other again.

"Is everything alright?" A gruff voice asked behind me. I turned around to see Rick making his way towards us, the baby now in Michonne's hands.

All of a sudden, Joel walked towards Rick's direction, and in the blink of an eye, his right fist came slamming into Rick's cheek. As Rick took the blow, Joel staggered backwards, aware of what he'd done. "That's for leaving us without hesitation."

"The hell are you trying to do?" Daryl yelled while aiming his crossbow at Joel. We all turned to the raised weapon and I walked in between him and Joel.

"It's okay, I'm fine. That was surprising, but understandable," Rick stated, gaining a confused face from the redneck. Rick put his hand on the crossbow, letting Daryl lower it. "He's no stranger to us, don't worry."

"I need an explanation here," Daryl stated, struggling to bring down his weapon.

And that's what we gave him. After explaining everything, from the day we met Rick, Michonne and Carl, to the day Joel and us separated, Daryl nodded his head. Eventually, we went back to our own routes, trying to find a safe place.

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"Walker up ahead," Michonne warned, her whisper barely audible in the abandoned forest surrounding us. Rick crept up to the infected, slowly limping in front of us. He slowly, but surely, grabbed his pocket knife and sunk it deep within the infected's head, causing it to fall to the ground. Taking back the knife, he wiped his bloody hand on his ripped jeans giving it a faint red streak.

"How many has that been now?" Joel asked, his voice booming with gruffness.

"Seventeen, not counting the one freshly killed," I informed, following them from behind.

"That's not normal. Usually, there'd be one or two here. Especially since it's so abandoned. The sign of freshly killed walkers means that someone's been around. They might still be here," Daryl stated, hinting at us to be more cautious.

"Who would be around here except us? Especially when there are no resources whatsoever," Carl exclaimed, still walking by my side.

As we pushed through the prickly forest thinking rhetorically for an answer, Daryl stopped walking and looked up in awe. We followed his steps and did the same, our breaths being taken away from us as we gazed at the obstacle ahead.

In the midst of the green trees and bushes, there was a tall gray wall, almost three stories high. It wasn't only a wall, it looked to be part of a whole building with no windows or doors.

"What is that?" Michonne mumbled, slowly taking out her katana, cautious of dangers up ahead.

"I don't know, it doesn't look like a house or a prison. Hell, it don't even look like a building. It's just a box of some sort from down here. I wonder if there's an opening up there, or if it's just covered up with a concrete roof," Daryl spat, clearly not amused with what was in front of him.

"Let's circle around it, maybe there's something that'll give us a clue as to what is this thing," Rick ordered.

"It could be dangerous," Joel hinted, still feeling the walls and paying attention to every detail.

"Listen, this could be a wall to prevent walkers from getting inside. If that's the case then there are most likely going to be people within these walls. The only thing we need to figure out for ourselves is if those people are going to be humane enough to let us in with killing us or eating us first."

With that, Joel and Rick took lead, guiding us around the walls. Daryl, Michonne and Harvey took watch from behind, looking around to see if there would be any people or infected.

After what felt like an hour of walking next to the same wall, we rounded a corner and ended up in front of a gigantic gate. It was almost the size of a football post, with two doors closed and three latches covering the top, middle and bottom.

"There's definitely people in there," Daryl hissed.

Rick walked up to the large metal gate and pushed, not even moving it slightly. Whatever or whoever was behind these walls, surely didn't want to be exposed.

Eventually, Daryl, Joel and Harvey joined Rick in trying to pry open the gates with their bare hands. Carl and I stayed back whilst Michonne held Kenzie tight in her arms.

Out of breath, the four men walked away from the latches, giving up.

"Are the four of you done the strenuous task of trying to access the inevitable contents that are secluded beyond these robust gates?"

All movement stopped as our eyes widened, desperate to find the source of the voice. Looking left and right was no use. There was no one near us, and the voice couldn't have boomed from meters away. 

"Don't aggravate yourselves trying to find my location. I am nowhere near you, although there have been speakers implanted around to let my voice be acknowledged."

"Who are you?" Rick yelled, spinning around with confusion. He didn't know where to speak, or who he was speaking to. Neither of us knew.

"Questions are also not in my favor. The next person who utters even a single sound will get executed by my lovely snipers found at the top of my gates. Now, anyone care to speak?" The voice gave a chilling tone, as if daring us to face our deaths. We looked up to find five sharpshooters, all lined up and staring into their scopes at us. They were wearing black masks to conceal their faces, causing us not to be able to recognize them.

No one said a word as the voice spoke again.

"Welcome to The Undead Labyrinth."