'Got Your Back' A Gabentine Story?

Chapter Fourteen A Desperate Run

832 Words

It was mid morning before Gabe woke. His ankle as still swollen and hot. He opened his backpack and grabbed an energy bar. "Only two left." Gabe thought.

"Well now what do I do?" Gabe thought munching on his bar, "My ankle is fucked. I'm not going to be able to move much and those men know I'm out here. If they saw me they'd catch me pretty quickly." Gabe finished his bar and threw the wrapper in his backpack. "I should lay low for a while until my ankle heals a bit." Gabe thought pulling the map out.

He studied it. There was a bunch of red lines leading up to towns. Most of them were circled and had an 'x' through them. Richmond had a red line leading to it and it was circled but not 'x'ed. "I bet that the 'x' means a town they conquered. They've taken many....but Javi is smart and he can hold out until Clem gets reinforcements." He thought of Clem for a minute before shaking his head and looking at the rest of the map.

I'm gonna need a route to the stream to catch fish." Gabe thought, he guessed he was close to it. He checked the map for nearby snipers. "Looks clear, there aren't many snipers this far south."

Gabe looked north on the map and saw several sniper nests.

There was writing in the top-right corner of the map.  'Don't enter a sniper area without the yelling the password at least from a hundred feet away unless you want your head blown off!'

Gabe shrugged, he didn't have a clue what the password was so he was just going to avoid them all the more.

He was about to put the map away when his eyes saw Tyler's Hill to the west of him. "Clementine..." He thought staring at it. His brain felt like it was really close to putting something together, "C'mon what am I missing?" Gabe thought trying to figure it out.

He looked around Tyler's Hill and his heart stopped. A sniper nest was located a few miles north of the hill. "The McCarroll Ranch is up north! Oh Shit! I gotta get to Clem!" Gabe panicked and began to descent the tree.

He steeped down and started to run when his right ankles throbbed and Gabe fell in pain, "Fuck! I need to get moving now!" Gabe said getting to his feet again, his ankle screaming in pain. He limped ahead,the pain getting worse with each step, "Where should I go? To the hill or should I try to cut her off before she reaches the Sniper Nest? I should try to get in front of her,in case she already set out,and stop her before she reaches the Sniper Nest." Gabe thought, turning north-west and falling again. "Fuck, Gabe! You need to run or you won't make it!" Gabe said gritting his teeth and trying to run.It was torture.

Gabe remembered that the map had said that if the person didn't say the password the sniper would 'blow your head off'. "Shit, shit, oh shit!! Clementine's in a life or death situation and it's down to me. I wish it was anyone but me, anyone could do better then me." Gabe mentally slapped himself, "Well it's down to you to save her! So stop thinking like that and MOVE YOUR ASS!"

Gabe plowed on, each step making him want to stop,each step causing him more pain, each step tearing at his mind, until it was consumed by pain.

"Just stop!" It begged, "You're going to kill yourself!"      "Rather me then Clem." Gabe said, his teeth grinding at each other.

Gabe struggles forward for hours, His body was crying out to him in agony and he fell several times. Every time he fell or slowed,an image of Mari being shot by a sniper from behind, flashed into his brain. "I won't let that happen to Clem! Not again! NOT AGAIN!" Gabe would tell it as he got up or sped up again.

Finally in the late afternoon Gabe fell and he couldn't help yelling, "Fuck! Son of a- arrr! Shit!" Gabe's ankle had had enough. It was screaming at a torture level of pain and it was giving off enough heat to melt an ice block. The pain began to make him black out again. "No,No,NO! I can't give up now! I'm so close to Clem!" Gabe said ,his vision blurring. He managed,through gritted teeth and strong willpower, to get back on his feet. His ankle instantly gave out on him as he tried to put weight on it. He fell back to the ground, this time the he couldn't move and he felt his mind slow, "No! I-I have to g-get t-to-" Gabe thought before his mind shut down and he passed out.

Gabe had no idea how close he really was.