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

Chapter 37 - Joel

I really did hate it when she did shit like this. I watched her go and duck behind a few more cars and waited for her to be at a safe spot before I took off in the opposite direction. She was right. The sniper couldn't keep his eye on the both of us. As I advanced further down the street, I'd duck behind the houses that were around. The sniper wasn't alone. I quickly found that out when another hunter popped out from behind a brick wall. I reacted with my gun and the asshole was down. I looked across the street to see if Beth had run into the same problem I had. With two bodies on the floor, I knew she had but she had won. That was my girl. Yeah. She was my girl. She was still as much my wife as the day everything change. I shook my head. Now wasn't the time to have my mind elsewhere. I kept moving. I could hear the sniper fire shots. My heart would stop with each shot. I really hoped that Beth wasn't on the receiving end of any of those. I didn't have time to think too much about it cause there were some more hunters headed my way. Before they could reach me, two of them went down after two shots rang out. I looked across the street to see Beth aiming her gun at the others that continued coming my way. It didn't take long for them to go down as well. I kept going until I reached a fence. The sniper was still shooting but I figured he had his eye on Beth. I used that as an opportunity to hop the fence and look for the house the asshole was set up in. Some other shots were fired along with the sniper's shot. The others must have been helping Beth keep the hunters busy. I ran toward the back and went to the second house where I heard the sniper shots loudest. I took out a hunter that was keeping watch and made my way upstairs. The firing had stopped and it wasn't hard to assume that the sniper knew I was now in the house. All the more reason to stay alert. I made my way up the second floor and then the third. I could see the rifle from where I stood and I went for it. As soon as I entered the room, the asshole came out from my right side with a knife in hand. I quickly knocked it out his hand, punched him in the gut then drove the knife into his abdomen repeatedly until he was no longer breathing. There was then some more shots that I heard and I hurried over to the rifle. Looking through the scope, I saw there were more hunters that had emerged and were trying to corner Beth and the others. I loaded some bullets and ended up taking care of most of them. I sighed in relief when I saw that they were all fine.

"Thanks, Joel!" Ellie called out giving me a thumbs up.

I was about to head back down to them when I heard some clicking. Two clickers emerged, going after Henry and Sam.

"Henry!" Sam shouted.

"Shit," I said.

I quickly aimed the rifle at the one that was trying to get at Sam and fired. I watched Beth help Sam up and Ellie help Henry. They were okay. The clicking wasn't over though. More and more infected made themselves visible and were heading toward Beth and the others. I took out some of them but in the end, there was too damn many.

"Oh Christ," I said.

I took the rifle with me and headed downstairs. Beth and the others had made their way inside the house.

"You're okay," Ellie said.

"Still here. Anybody hurt? Beth?" I asked.

"No. We're good," Henry said.

I looked at Beth. I needed her to reassure me that she was okay.

"We're all fine," she said confidently.

"Alright. I think it's time we quit this place. C'mon," I said.

We all headed out the back and ran toward the fence. There was a loose slab that I quickly noticed and had everyone go in through there.

"We gotta find a place to hole up for the night," Beth said.

"Yeah," I said.

"Look. There's some apartment complexes down that way," Henry said.