Even When the World Comes Down (Sequel to Always & Forever)

Chapter 27 - Joel

I rubbed my shoulder as I looked for a way out of this predicament. The water reeked of rust and other things that had been left here for who knew how long.

"Alright, Joel. Where to first?" I asked myself.

Ellie and Beth were waiting for me and I really didn't want to make them wait too long. If that happened, I knew that would make Beth restless. I had to get back to them. I saw a door just to the left of me that I made my way to. I pushed it open but as soon as I did, there was some debris that fell which caused me to back up.

"Well, shit," I said.

The doorway was now blocked so I had to find another way. There was a gate that caught my eye and I made my way over. When I got closer, I realized that there was no way I could get through it. Maybe there was a way to get under it. I dove into the water and saw there was a way under and so I swam until I was on the other side of the gate. There was a narrow path that I followed until I saw spores. I pulled out my mask and put it on. I turned the corner and kept going. There was then a trail of rats that came my way.

"Oh, shit," I said as I moved out of the way.

There had to be something here. The rats wouldn't have fled if there wasn't. I pulled out my pistol and had it ready. Moving about the space, it didn't take me long to find a door that could possibly lead out. I tried pushing it open but it wouldn't budge. Next to it, there looked to be some sort of card swipe. There was a light on the device that glowed red. There was some cables that I could follow that would hopefully lead to some sort of generator. But if you needed a card to open the door, then turning on the generator wouldn't mean a damn if I didn't have a card. I turned around and made my way down the hall. As luck would have it, the first room that I came across looked to be somewhat of a security office. There were two corpses that sat in some chairs. If this was a security office then these must have been the security guards. And if these were the security guards then they had to have something on them. I searched both of them until I found what it was that I needed to find. A card was still attached to the keys of one of the security guards. Now all that was left to do was find the generator and turn it on. Following the cables, I had reached the generator.

"Okay. Here it goes," I said.

The second I turned on the thing, shrieks were heard all over the place.

"Aw, shit," I said.

I quickly made my way back where I came from. I had to put down two infected before I reached the door. The light was now green and so I swiped the card. I could hear more shrieks coming closer. The door opened and I pushed it open almost as fast as I closed it. There was some banging that occurred on the other side but there was no way they could get to me. I sighed in relief knowing that I was okay for now. Taking off my mask, I made way up some stairs and to a hallway. I checked for supplies in the two rooms that were occupying this space. After that, I could now get back to Beth and Ellie. Right at the end of the hallway was a door that I assumed led out. Hopefully. Opening the door and checking to see what I was dealing with before I went any further, I was satisfied with what I saw. I was now in what looked like a kitchen. I couldn't make my way anywhere else cause I suddenly heard some clicking not too far. I ducked down behind an ice chest to listen to what I could. It didn't take long to hear voices and an end to the clicking. Hunters were here.

"Keep an eye out for anymore infected," I heard one of them say.

Carefully peeking from the side of the chest, I saw there was two in the kitchen. I didn't know how many more were around so I had to do this quietly. When the guy closest to me turned, I snuck up behind him and quickly snapped his neck. I took his gun and stowed it away. The other one was a little harder to get to. I pushed a bottle that was on one of the counters and waited for him to come over and investigate. When that happened, I did the same thing I had done to the first one. Staying crouched, I made my way toward the doors.

"I'm hungry. I should have swiped something before we started our rounds," I heard.

"I have some dried fruit if you want," another said.

I waited to hear more voices but those were the only two. Piece of cake. I made some commotion like I had with the other one and got the attention of the both of them.

"Check it out," one of them said.

I waited until one of them was by the door before I grabbed him and drove my knife into his neck.

"Hey man, you okay?" the last man standing said after a few minutes of silence.

I heard his footsteps and made my way out carefully.

"Yo. What was it?" he asked again.

I crept up behind him and got hold of him. I placed pressure on his neck and held him still as he struggled to get at me. When he stopped fighting, I snapped his neck to make sure he didn't reanimate. I moved to the opened area that was next to the kitchen. There was a way that I could get to the second floor but I had to find something that would get me up there. I looked around for anything that I could use. My eyes spotted what looked like a ladder under some debris. I moved pieces of wood and rubble out of the way until I was able to reach the ladder. I picked it up and carried it toward the little break that I had seen earlier. I made sure it was sturdy enough before I started climbing it. Right when I was about to reach the top, I was caught by surprise by another one of those damn hunters that ended up kicking me off the ladder. I tried to get up as fast as I could but the asshole had reached me before I could. There was a puddle that was a lot deeper than the first glance would have you suggest which was what he used to force me into it. He had the upper hand but there was no way I was going down without a fight. I reached for my gun but it was a struggle. I had managed to sit up and punch him. I caught my breath as best I could before taking hold of my gun but I didn't have time to fire. Next thing I knew, he had grabbed me again and forced me head first into the water. I was able to see that the gun was too my right. If I could just get to it, all this would be over but this asshole was trying his best to not make that happen. It was getting harder to breathe by the second. Before I could see my life flash before my eyes, someone had gone ahead and picked up the gun. The pressure was taken off of me and I sat up and inhaled deeply. There was a gunshot that rang all throughout the room. The guy that had tried to drown me went down and I turned to see who had fired the shot.

"Man. I shot the hell out that guy, huh?" Ellie said.

"Joel? Thank god. I'm so glad you're alright," Beth said kneeling down next to me.

"I feel sick," Ellie said.

Beth quickly went over to her.

"Just breathe, Ellie. You did good," she told her.

What the hell were they doing here? I had told them that I would make my way to them. They could have gotten caught or worse. I stood up and took the gun from Ellie.

"I thought I told you two to stay put," I said.

They both looked over at me with confused looks on their faces.

"Well, you're glad we didn't right?" Ellie asked.

"I'm glad I didn't get my head shot off by a goddamn kid. You let her take the gun, Beth? Are you kidding me?" I asked growing aggravated.

"Are you serious right now, Joel?" she retorted.

"You know what no. How about 'Hey, Ellie. I...I know it wasn't easy but it was either him or me. Thanks for saving my ass.' You got anything like that for me, Joel?" Ellie stated sternly.

"I couldn't get to the gun cause I was busy taking care of infected down by that door. I'm glad she was able to react the way she did. You would have been dead if she hadn't and then where would we be?" Beth asked.

"You two would have been safe," I said.

"You know me well enough to know that I'm not a fan of sitting back and waiting. I didn't trust how long you'd be gone and so we both set out to meet you halfway. Now if you're done being a dick about this whole thing, we gotta get going before more show up," she said.

"Let's go then," I said sarcastically.

"Lead the way," Ellie retorted.

We made our way to the ladder and climbed up to the second floor. And so started the awkward silence that I should have seen coming a mile away.