Gail's Winter - The Last Of Us

Chapter Two

Nick hands Lance a mug of hot chocolate and makes an effort to wrap a blanket around his shoulders. I look around the shed to see that though it seemed to be run-down from the outside, the man had a generator and at most a full gallon of gas.

"You have power," I say, as he hands another mug of chocolate to me. "Not a lot of people have gas to run those anymore."

"Well, I only use it for the occasional cold nights and cooking." He takes his own seat on an office chair. "It's just that I haven't had the time to go hunting all the time... I'm gonna run out soon anyway."

"Oh."

I look back to the path Lance and I took to get here. For a whole day of walking, we've come across a deer and a few hares, but a lot of game was definitely not close enough to the shed. I would've hunted the deer but the only hunting weapon I had was my pistol and rifle.

I take my rifle out to clean the wet snow off. The ice that was frozen on the grip soon melted to leave an intricate K.T. I run my thawing finger over the letters, feeling the indents that the letters made. A small hand grabs onto my shoulder, leaning over my back. My breath hitches a bit.

"Thinking about dad?" Lance puts his head next to mine and touches the engraving.

I lean my head back on his, clasping his hand with mine. "Yeah, I was thinking about dad."

"Well, I think they'll come back to see us." Lance backs away and drinks what's left from his mug.

"Oh really?" I pretend to be surprised. I quickly wipe the melted ice and set my gun down. "We'll see."

There was a lot that Lance doesn't know. 

When Mom and Dad got bitten trying to get into the car and leave the city, they told me to not tell Lance until the very end. To which end that was, I wasn't sure. I think my brother should be kept away from this secret, as it was a promise I made with myself to keep Lance as happy as possible these past two years.

I remember that the autumn seasons were the best since the fungus dies down during that time of the year. Though I've heard the worst from the notes that groups have left before they move to a new location, I think there's going to be an end to this. At least I hope there is. Lance and I have been on the move for a while now. 

Nearly seven months back, the group we were in was on the verge of breaking. One of our gunmen got too confident, and after forgetting to lock the safety catch on his gun, he accidentally shot the gun at unfinished drywall, hitting someone in the arm and sending a whole mob of infected into the building. We lost five that day.

After that the two others that lived felt that it would be better if we went our separate ways. Other than my brother and I, the two that remained was a military couple. They were nice enough to give us each handguns: a Beretta and a M1911. The AKM rifle I had now was from dad. 

The group was the largest at twelve people. Very quickly I was revered for my shots and Lance was respected as my brother. At least learning how to hunt, shoot, and kill was a good trait to show when in a group. I was surprised that people would respect kids my age but it allowed us the things we needed like food and protection. We would always hang out in old houses and motels, talk about the next meal and stories from before the outbreak. Those stories usually got sour by the end. We would have stayed longer if it wasn't for the infected who murdered most of them. I secretly hoped that Nick was decent in surviving. I honestly wouldn't mind an adult around. Who knows, he might have some good cooking skills.

Lance and Nick seem to be getting along. After eating what's left of Nick's food for dinner, he tells us about himself. It turns out that he's the father of the person who owns this place. You can see that the old man longs for his son, he even takes out a couple wallet photos to show us. 

He points to a black and white photo of him and his son, James. "That's from when he was a little boy... must've been around your brother's age back then." Nick looks up and smiles a far away smile towards me, something that Lance teases me about whenever we come across infected. It was then that I knew that James had died. From what? I wouldn't know, and I couldn't push Nick to tell us about something like that either.

After at least an hour of talking about the past, which was mostly Nicholas talking about the ski resort back in the 1970s, we settle down for bed. I figured he was around his fifties since he said he played as a toddler in the lodges they had down the mountain. He seemed okay and didn't have any bites or anything. He asked the same of us anyway. Nick didn't believe that we weren't infected at first, telling us that we'll have to leave. Lance and I had to calm him down a bit. In the end he apologized, saying that it was just James. 

I push my pack under my head and wrap my dad's M-65 army jacket around me. After some rolling around, I finally closed my eyes and slept into the night.

Chapter Two END