CYOA Page 171
Sep. 12th, 2013 06:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12"Let's go find him," you decide. "I don't wanna spend the rest of the night worrying about it."
Joel nods. "Slow an' careful, now. How 'bout we don't even use our lights."
"Too easy for him to snipe us," you agree.
"Exactly. I think once we get away from the fire, we'll find it ain't as dark as it looks."
Which doesn't sound like it makes sense, but you know what he means. The moon and stars will light your way enough. And if you're moving slowly, it won't hurt too bad when you stumble or run into a tree on occasion.
...although, after the third time of cussing under your breath, Joel turns and gives you a Look. You can't even see it, but you know he's doing it! "Sorry!" you hiss. "So I'm a klutz, okay? And I can't see shit out here."
"Stay close to me."
"I am!"
But you stick closer... and it certainly is easier when you're nothing but his shadow, letting him clear the way for you.
And then of course it's super funny when Joel finally trips on something! He shushes your laughter -- in the interest of being stealthy, of course. Certainly not because of the blow to his fragile ego!
"There's no one out here," you point out. "This is a waste of time. Maybe we should--"
But then Joel switches on his light -- and shines it right on the mystery person! It's a guy... maybe Joel's age? Give or take fifteen years? (okay so you're not that good at determining old people's ages) He's like... a three-second sprint away, only with some brush in between you.
"Don't hurt me -- please!" the man calls out, dropping to his knees and raising his empty hands in the air. "I'm unarmed... and I'm hurt! I need help! I'm weak... I haven't eaten in days, man... days..."
Joel keeps the shotgun trained on him. "So you figured you'd help yourself, is that it?"
"Help myself to what? I didn't know anyone else was even out here."
The guy sounds sincere to you. "He is really far away from our camp, Joel," you reason.
"Not that far," Joel growls. "He was closer... moved out pretty quick for someone who's wounded and weak."
"I don't know what you're talkin' about, man... I've been here... my leg..." He winces, and lowers his hand to--
"Keep your goddamn hands up where we can see 'em," Joel barks at him, and the man raises it again.
You feel sorry for the guy. You holster your gun; you probably wouldn't yet if you were alone, but Joel's gun is enough of a threat that you feel invulnerable. "We should help him," you declare.
"Thank you, missy! Thank you!" the man gushes.
Missy? "Ellie," you inform him. You start moving toward him -- or, rather, toward the end of the shrubbery.
"Isaiah. Pleasure to meet you."
"Get back here, Ellie," says Joel, with a warning tone in his voice.
But you know he's just paranoid about everyone; the guy seems harmless to you. Isaiah doesn't look all surly and rough like the asshole hunters you're used to dealing with. Or used to be used to dealing with, on your first trip.
"How'd you hurt your leg?" you ask Isaiah. You decide you like the name. It's almost too pretty to be wasted on a guy.
"Got shot. Three days ago."
"Ellie, don't go back there," Joel warns you again.
"What's he gonna do -- shoot me while you're pointing that thing at him?" you scoff. You're on his side of the bushes now. "Besides, I don't see a gun."
"They took it," Isaiah replies. "The assholes that-- sorry. The men that shot me."
You cuss way more than Joel does, but you doubt anyone's ever apologized to him for cussing! That little remark ought to earn the guy some points with Joel; after all, bad men don't give a shit about using bad language in front of girls, do they?
There's something else you don't see, though: blood. Ripped pants. You can't even tell which leg is wounded. Maybe... it's the BACK of his leg?
"Come here and help me up, would you?" he asks, smiling at you and extending his hand. You're two steps away from him.
"Ellie, I mean it -- come back around on this side," says Joel. "Now."
You notice Joel's moved closer, too. You glance between him and the man on his knees. Yeah... something's not right here...
"Please..." Isaiah does look really pathetic, though...
But in the end, you trust Joel, and you don't know shit about this guy.
You turn around to go back to Joel, and immediately a shot rings out--
"What the fuck!" you cry, startled.
Joel shot the guy!
"Ellie, move--"
Without even turning back to see what's going on, you move your ass -- and another shot rings out, but this one doesn't startle you. Joel wouldn't have told you to move if his first shot had been good.
At the edge of the bush, you turn around, your own gun drawn again... and you're surprised to see the way Isaiah fell. He's much closer to you than you would've expected. "Uh... you got him this time," you tell Joel, wincing at the grisly effect Joel's bullet had on the man's head.
He joins you on the other side of the shrubbery and gives you a quick side-hug. " 'Soon as you turned away, he was lungin' at you. I couldn't risk it."
You get it; you don't like firing too close to Joel, either. Even people with excellent aim can miss, especially with a moving target. His first shot was just meant to arrest the man... to put more distance between you. It was much lower...
"You shot him in the ass?" you marvel.
He moves in to loot the body -- which, you've now noticed, is sporting a pistol tucked into the back of the man's pants. Joel sets the gun aside. "Only grazed, I think. If you had just listened to me--"
"I know, I know -- I'm sorry! I knew something was up with him when I didn't see anything wrong with either of his legs."
Joel nudges the guy over with his boot. "I know you did. I could tell by the look on your face."
"No you couldn't," you scoff. You're sure you didn't let any surprise register on your face!
He turns his head to smirk at you. "I could. You're real easy to read, kiddo."
Shit... you really need to work on that. Unless-- "Only because you know me so well," you counter. Yeah, that's it!
"Maybe," he agrees, but you're sure he's just being nice.
"That was kind of stupid of him to go for me, though, wasn't it?"
Joel shrugs. "Nah. He knew I was gonna shoot him anyway. He didn't have a choice."
"Were you going to? Before he did that, I mean."
"Not just yet. Prob'ly would've waited 'til I caught him in a lie by findin' this gun... which is a beauty, by the way." His search of Isaiah's pockets complete, he now turns the gun over in his hands. "It's a Colt... 45... see the color? Military. Camouflage for some--"
"But what do you mean 'he didn't have a choice'?" you interrupt impatiently. "I was trying to help him. And he had to know you'd shoot him if he tried to hurt me."
"If I was in his shoes? I'd hope I can get my gun to your head real quick before the other guy can get a good shot off. Then the control shifts from him to me."
"Like a... hostage thing?"
"Yes. But when you didn't come close enough, an' then started to leave, he got desperate."
You frown. "Okay, so he lied about having a gun. That doesn't automatically make him bad. He was probably trying to save his ass -- like, thinking you wouldn't shoot him if you thought he was unarmed."
"Oh sure. Then he was just tryin' to give you a friendly hug, right?"
You roll your eyes. "Obviously he was... bad enough. I'm just saying. I think it's possible that someone would lie for that reason."
"They'd lie about bein' hurt... for the same reason? Makes 'em seem less threatenin', right?"
"Yeah, I guess. Why not?"
"But you felt uneasy about him when you saw he was lyin'."
"Well, yeah..."
"Give your gut some credit." Joel chuckles. "Years ago... I would've jus' shot him on sight."
Usually when Joel says 'years ago,' he's referring to his days as a hunter. And he was a hunter (at least for a time) with Tommy, of all people -- Mr. Nonviolence. You still can't wrap your head around it. "So... you think we're rubbing off on each other?"
"Little bit. Yeah." He passes the gun to you. "Here. Merry Christmas."
You laugh. "Uh... Christmas is months from now?"
"Then... happy birthday."
"That was months before now! Okay, whatever... are you sure you can part with this thing? Sounded like you were falling in love with it," you tease.
He gives you a Look -- one you can actually see this time. "It's a gun."
"Not just a gun, the way you were raving about it!"
"It's a nice weapon. Expensive. Looks like it's in pretty good condition."
"Don't you wanna try it out first? Test it?"
"You can try it out. In a low-key situation... or maybe target practice back home. ...Do you want the thing or not?"
It does feel nice in your hands. And you've never seen such a cool-looking gun before; it's beige, with a multi-colored grip... not the ugly greens you think of when you hear the word 'camouflage.' "I'll keep it. You can love it from afar, right? Have a long distance affair with it?"
He snorts. "I'll pine for it day an' night. Come on, let's get back."
Pine? Ha! Joel says some of the weirdest things.
Getting back to camp is much quicker with your flashlights on, and with no further need to be stealthy. Your fire is still blazing pretty strong.
Joel walks up to it... squats... and shakes his head, chuckling.
"What?"
He stands up, turns around, and shows you -- your sausage-laden stick! That you completely forgot about! You must've just absently dropped it in the fire when Joel got spooked and you guys decided to go into the woods. Now it's an unappetizing, completely-charred black log. "Done enough for you now?" Joel quips.
"Oh... I guess so," you reply airily; you're hungry enough to eat anything! You reach for the stick.
But Joel jerks it away. "I ain't lettin' you eat that."
"What? It's fine! Joel, I'm starving--"
Impervious to your pleas, he actually pulls his arm back... and chucks the thing into the woods! Like, really hard!
"Joel!" You punch his arm.
He just laughs. "I'll make you another one."
"We don't have any more!"
"There's one more."
"There is?"
"...or there's somethin' I can stick on a stick in there..."
You sigh. "Such a waste. I should go find--"
"Oh no you don't. Some animal can eat it. See? Not wasted."
You pout about it a little more, but you don't really care that much; it's just fun to play with Joel. You hadn't realized how much you've missed him lately. Missed this... just hanging out and stuff. It's different from hanging out with your friends. Not better, necessarily, but... well, yeah, in a way, it is better, because most of your friendships are... more shallow. And the one that isn't is a little awkward because you sort of have a crush on her and haven't figured out what to do about it yet. And some people back home... seemed cool at first, but then you found out they weren't really.
But Joel is... Joel. He's your rock. He's the one you care about the most, the one who cares about you the most. More than anyone ever has in your whole life. Your comfort level with him is leagues beyond what you feel with anyone else. You watch him rummaging around in one of the food bags, searching for something he can cook for you. He's doing it because he wants to make up for your fuck-up. You feel a surge of affection for him, and vow to make more time for him when you get home.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2020-12-14 12:42 pm (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2020-12-14 01:37 pm (UTC)