lumy12

Page Twenty-Six

No point continuing down a path with no guarantee to lead you where you need to go. It sucks that the highway is so far back -- and that you'll have infected to deal with -- but at least you know you'll be moving in the right direction.

Joel (needlessly) reminds you to be extra alert when you see the mountain tapering more and more, indicating you're almost back where you started. "I can climb this part," you tell him. "I'm gonna go have a look with the binoculars."

Joel doesn't object. "Be careful."

You snort. "I'm just going up here... it's easy."

"All right. Don't holler back to me unless the coast is clear. If there ain't that many of them, we could just ride on through real fast."

"Okay." We probably should've done that to begin with, you think gloomily. Did that last encounter with infected really rattled you so much that you've lost your confidence? You know it's okay to be scared -- that even Joel gets scared -- but the two of you have killed, like... hundreds of infected together. Plus, you're already infected. Of course, it's Joel you have to worry about there. There may be other immune people out there, but that doesn't make it likely that Joel is one of them. You wonder what the percentage of immune people actually is. One in ten? One in a hundred? A thousand?

Joel waits with the horses while you climb the mountain (more like a hill here) with ease. There's a little sort-of-plateau area at the top of this part that makes a good lookout point, and you don't need to get any higher up to see the highway and all the buildings lining it. No one came along and killed the fuckers in the past couple hours (damnit!), and they apparently haven't scattered much because you can still see six Runners in plain sight. With the binoculars, you can see movement in some of the buildings as well. And... fuck, I think those are Clickers...

You shift a little to try to get a better angle to see around a pillar at a gas station. The Clickers aren't making any noise, and you think you would hear them from here, so... at least they're the 'sleeping' kind. Okay, so, how many do I think there are... it's kind of hard to know since I can't see into the buildings that well... shit, is that more on the other--

Suddenly, you're lurching forward, and before you can help it, a yelp of terror escapes you -- which you immediately regret, because although you may have lost your footing, you're not exactly falling off a cliff here, and you might've been able to right yourself unnoticed... not now! You stumble halfway down the hill before your 'brakes' decide to work, and by then, you hear the excited roar of infected who have spotted prey mingled with Joel's voice calling your name. Shit!

Joel can't see you now, and you know he's not going to just hang back and wait for you to return. You might be able to run back up the hill and down the other side to reach the horses; then you and Joel could just haul ass in the other direction for a bit, eventually turning back -- and hopefully finding that the infected have all dispersed on the other side of the mountain. Or maybe it would be better to run down the street in the right direction, luring them away from Joel and giving him a chance to shoot them from a safe distance; most of the infected you saw would be behind you then, and you could find a place to hide for at least long enough to prepare an attack. Or! Maybe you should just start killing them immediately, as Joel is most likely about to do.

All of this flashes through your head in a second. You can't afford to ponder for more than another second, though, or you'll lose the ability to decide anything about your fate. You better decide quickly!

If you run back to Joel and the horses, turn to page 52.

If you run down the street and draw the infected away from Joel, turn to page 55.

If you stay where you are and start shooting, turn to page 57.