lumy12

Page Nine

You scramble down the hill and see that Joel is now waiting for you. You tell him what you've seen, and that you think the two of you can take them.

"We can, huh?" he muses, looking around -- probably for alternate routes, as you did. "But should we?"

"Yes! We can leave the horses here, they'll be safe." It's hard to aim from the back of a galloping horse, and if you bring them any closer, they may get spooked, or at least draw the attention of the infected before you're ready for it. "We could even pick some off from up that hill, if we go down a little bit."

With you in tow, Joel heads over to your previous vantage point and surveys the scene. "We could... I don't think it's steep enough that they can't climb it, though, so we might not be able to hold that position for long, once they spot us. An' the rocks there... they ain't all that big. Might hide you, but not both of us."

"So if they swarm us, we could just pull back and they'll be too stupid to go around, on the road... we'll have plenty of time to run back here to the horses and get away while they're climbing."

Joel nods. "All right, kiddo, let's do it."

The two of you gear up and creep over the designated hill overlooking the highway to seek the perfect sniping point. There are plenty of suitable spots to choose from. From here, you can see there are two or three more infected than you originally counted... still, it's not bad. You and Joel agree to start with the bow and arrows -- the perfect method for remote stealth-killing. With any luck, you'll be able to get them all with arrows alone, and then retrieve all, or at least most, of the arrows from their corpses.

"Can I go first?" you request, already tugging the bow off Joel's shoulder. You nock the first arrow, choose your first victim, take aim... and let it fly.

You miss.

"Fuck!" you curse quietly.

"It's all right," Joel consoles you. "Take the breeze into account. Down there--"

"I know," you groan, irritated. "I didn't expect him to turn like that. Gimme that..."

On the second try, you hit your target in the back, and the Runner looks around wildly, making that awful screeching noise that they do when they're wounded. Joel has another arrow ready for you, and you quickly finish it off.

"Good job." He actually sounds sincere, but he should be sarcastic.

You roll your eyes. "Three arrows for one? Hardly. Here, take it. You can do better than that. Prob'ly anyone could."

Joel makes a little 'tch' type noise. "You know, I think I actually like it better when you're braggin' about how much better you are than me."

You like that better, too! "It's okay. Just don't suck."

He doesn't. Of course he doesn't. It's infuriating sometimes, how good he is at this shit. He fells his Runner with one arrow, then offers you the bow.

"No, you keep going. Not like we have unlimited arrows."

"Ellie--"

"It's okay, just go!" you hiss.

"Suit yourself."

Okay, so you're being maybe a LITTLE immature right now, you chastise yourself. But it is better to conserve arrows, not knowing how many will stay intact for reuse. A little target practice back home probably wouldn't hurt... since I'm apparently rusty at this, too. Ugh!

You're so busy belittling yourself that you don't even realize Joel is taking an inordinate amount of time to shoot the next arrow. "You hear that?" he says softly.

Now you notice that he's not aiming... he's listening. You strain your ears. "No..."

"Listen. ... ... ... ... There, you hear that?"

That time you heard it: that dreaded clicking sound, and it's not coming from below. "Shit... it's coming from that way." You gesture to your left.

"You bring the binoculars?"

"No, we were only bringing weapons!" you say defensively.

"I thought you had those in your backpack."

You do, sometimes. But for some reason, you stowed them in one of the saddlebags this time. "I didn't think we'd need them here." Great, so I fucked THAT up, too...

"We still might not. It's definitely gettin' closer... an' it sounds like more than one." Joel finally takes aim at the next Runner.

"What should we do?" you ask anxiously.

He mutters "shit" under his breath, and you can't help being just a little bit satisfied that Mr. Perfect's aim isn't always perfectly true.

"Joel, what should we do?" you ask again.

He kills the Runner with the next arrow. "Well, there's four left down there in plain sight. Might be more inside the buildings or behind 'em... you got somethin' you can throw down there to round 'em up?"

You know he means something that will attract any nearby infected with the noise it makes. Usually a brick or a glass bottle, as those are typically plentiful Outside. "No -- do you?" Before he even shakes his head, you notice that the spot on his belt where he likes to keep such items doesn't hold one. "Should I throw one of these rocks?"

"Good idea. Why don't you aim it... right... there -- aim for that black car next to that one there. I'm gonna pick off this guy over here on the end first..."

You search for a rock of adequate size: big enough to make a loud noise, but small enough that you can actually hit the spot Joel indicated. The clicking sound on your left is getting closer. If only you had more visibility in that direction! The hill slopes back downward over there... so hopefully the fuckers will be too lazy to come up here. Right? If I was a Clicker, just wandering around aimlessly, I'd stick to low ground. Like, we never see them climbing stuff just for the hell of it, so...

You select your rock, wind up your arm, and launch it... to echoes of Riley's laughter and "Brick master!" in your head. Even after all this time...

And Riley would've been proud: your rock hits an intact side window of the car, the glass making a very satisfying shattering noise. "Yes!" You manage a fistpump before Joel grabs your shirt and yanks you back behind the (much larger) rock. "What? Not like they can tell it came from up here. And you're still not entirely hidden."

"Just watch 'em for a second. There goes some more... but not too many more... -Here, take this." Joel shoves the bow and two arrows at you. "That's what we got left. I can get four or five with a Molotov if I'm quick..."

You look down the hill in front of you and gasp. "Joel! That one sees us! It's climbing! Wait-- I'll get him--"

Joel lights the Molotov cocktail and chucks it below -- you don't see where it lands because you have to kill the motherfucker right below you now... Head shot! Yes! You would've been really pissed at yourself if you'd missed from this close.

"Damnit... only three," Joel mutters as he readies one of his guns... El Diablo, looks like. "Let's start shootin' 'em -- an' come on down here, 'cause those Clickers must be--"

"Joel, look!" You fire your last arrow at the Runner rapidly clawing its way up the hillside; you manage to hit it in the shoulder, which doesn't seem to be slowing it down much. In spite of what he just said, Joel isn't shooting; he's sliding down the hill towards the wounded Runner with a big plank of wood in his hand.

Joel whacks the thing once or twice, then yells, "Ellie, get down here!"

Alarmed, you look at him -- and he's fine, so you're not sure why he--

"Now!" he shouts.

That's when you realize that the Clickers to your left are suddenly very fucking close -- you see that two of them are like ten seconds away from being right on top of you, and due to the slope of the hill, you can't tell if there are more coming from behind. You do see more Runners pouring out of some type of shed thing low on the hillside, moving toward Joel.

If you head down the hill, you lose the advantage of the high ground, and you'll still have to deal with those Clickers; it's not like they don't 'see' you, in that creepy way they have... but since they can't actually see with their eyes, they won't be able to see the ground sloping downward, which should probably slow them at least a bit? And as a general rule, you like to stick close to Joel in a fight; he might need you, and you can't just shoot the ones he's all tangled up with. Too risky!

With about ten Runners closing in on Joel, and the two Clickers about to tear you apart, you have to fucking decide now--

If you stay on the hill and shoot the Clickers, turn to page 18.

If you go join Joel below, turn to page 21.