CYOA Page 42

[lumy12]

Page Forty-Two

"Joel Miller, you get back here right now and let me look at your fucking arm!"

Joel looks up from the body he's just started to search; he seems quite taken aback by that. "Yes, ma'am."

You're pretty sure he secretly likes it when you boss him around. You order him to sit on a large rock at the base of the hill that places his arm at the perfect level for you to work on.

"Can you like... pull your sleeve down enough for me to... here, let me help--"

"I got it."

He unbuttons his shirt enough to peel it back from his right shoulder and expose the wound that worries you. The sleeve has a huge gaping hole in it, too... he'll probably convert the shirt to a short-sleeved one when you get home.

"Oh... looks like it stopped bleeding," you observe.

"Told you it wasn't serious," he grumbles.

"...and I don't think it needs stitches."

"No, definitely not," Joel agrees.

"I'm still going to disinfect it," you warn him.

" 'Course you are. You like makin' me squirm."

"No, I don't want you to squirm. I want you to hold still..."

Joel grits his teeth and makes a soft noise that might be classified as a grunt, but he lets you do your thing with the alcohol. "Good boy," you praise him as you affix the bandage. "Now let me see... maybe that one on your cheek--"

"It's fine. This was the worst one, an' it wasn't even that bad, see? If you're done bein' Nurse Ellie, I'd like to finish up here now." Joel tugs his shirt back up.

"Yeah, okay, I'm done. And you're welcome."

"Thank you," he replies, but of course it's perfunctory now since you had to prompt him -- plus, you hear an undertone of sarcasm that sort of cancels out the gratitude anyway.

"Hey, you're lucky I was here to--" You see movement in the corner of your eye that arrests the thought -- Joel sees it, too. You both scramble for your weapons.

"Joel! Ellie!"

You squint at the figure down the street, on the other side of it... he's waving to you... is that...? You don't need the binoculars. "Joel, I think it's Danny! DANNY?!" you holler to the man.

"Yeah, it's me!"

You've accomplished your mission! You start running toward him. He seems to be hobbling... he's definitely injured. As you get closer, you note that he doesn't seem to be in too bad of shape, other than his right foot, which is shoeless. "What happened?" you ask breathlessly, pulling up in front of him.

"Ran into some infected... did you two really just kill all those things?"

You nod proudly. "It's kind of our specialty."

"What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Looking for you, actually! Hey, where's your horse? Lady, right?"

"She took off yesterday. Can't say as I blame her, considering. All those infected... anyway, I'm lucky I only twisted my ankle when she threw me. Sprained, I think, not broken. Swelled up too much for my shoe, though..."

"Do you have water?"

"Sure do, but thank you."

"Okay. Let's sit down... over here, I guess..." There aren't any nice places to sit on this street, so you opt to sit with your backs against a store front. You help Danny hobble over there and ease him to the ground, then sit beside him, on his left. By now, slowpoke Joel has caught up to you, and he takes a seat on your other side. You repeat what Danny just told you about the horse and his ankle. "Oh! How's your mom?"

"She didn't make it," he says quietly. "Died at the hospital. I'm glad I got to be there with her, at the end."

"Oh shit... I'm sorry," you reply, and Joel mumbles something along those lines as well. Joel's theory was right! Fuck, he's going to brag about that later. ...but you shouldn't even be thinking stupid thoughts like that right now, and you're ashamed that you did. "That sucks. It must be... that just sucks."

"Yeah. And then these infected... I don't know where they all came from. Few weeks back, whenever it was I came through here? I remember seeing some that were... you know, asleep? At that gas station there. I just rode right on by. No issues. Lady didn't even mind 'em."

"But you didn't kill them," you add.

"No. Didn't wanna maybe stir up the hornet's nest, if there were other sleepers around here."

"That's why you don't-- ohhh. You'd have to shoot them. Right?" You sometimes forget that not everyone has the arsenal you and Joel have; most Jacksonites carry guns, maybe knives... but not bows and arrows so much. It's impossible to kill quietly with a gun (for you guys, anyway; Joel has told you about silencers, but that sounds like science fiction to you). "No knife? Or shiv? Anything sharp?"

"I... don't feel comfortable killing them that way. Getting that close to them. I've never actually... I'm not as good at it as you two."

You feel a surge of pride at that, even though you already know you're good at it. And Joel doesn't even need a weapon -- he can strangle them with his arm! You so wish you could do that.

"Anyway," Danny continues, "this time around, I had to shoot a few... defensively... then more started comin' from down the road... realized I wasn't gonna be able to get all of 'em with the number of bullets I had left, and I knew I couldn't run, so I had to try and ditch them as soon as possible."

"So you've just been... hidin' out?" asks Joel.

"Yep. First in a closet, in that store down there--" --he gestures down the street-- "until I felt like maybe it was safe enough to come out... that they'd moved on. A good long while. Then I moved to an office in the back that was a little more comfortable."

"So you were just waiting for your ankle to heal up to head back." You say it more like a statement than a question; why else would he just hang around a little town full of infected?

"...Yeah..."

"You were gonna wait until it heals up good enough that you can run on it?" asks Joel. "It ain't even wrapped up, or... what if it's broken? You bring enough supplies to wait it out?"

You know that tone; Joel doesn't believe everything that Danny's telling you. But you're not sure why.

"I can ration," Danny answers. "What other choice did I have?"

He sounds sincere enough to you. "Let me see your ankle. We have supp--"

"No, it's fine, thank you. It's just a sprain. Pretty sure it's not broken."

"Well... let me look anyway?" You scoot forward and start to position yourself in front of his stretched-out legs. "It should at least be wrapped."

"I said no!" He rotates that leg so the right side of it is touching the ground. "Don't touch it. It's... ...tender."

Man... and I thought JOEL was a baby about getting fixed up! "I won't hurt it, I swear. I'm a good nurse. Isn't that right, Joel?"

Joel doesn't answer; you see that he's watching Danny's face. Intently.

Danny crooks the leg so he can better guard the gimpy foot from your prying hands. "Don't waste your time."

Okay... why is this dude being so weird about his fucking foot? "It's... no trouble. Really."

"Why don't you want her to look at your ankle?" Joel asks, accusation in his tone.

"It doesn't-- it's fine, it will heal fine on its own. That's all."

"Bullshit," Joel snaps at him. "It ain't fine, an' there's somethin' you don't want us to know. Out with it."

Danny closes his eyes, wincing like he's in pain... but you haven't even touched his fucking ankle. He seems to be... collecting his thoughts or something, which is probably why Joel doesn't keep pushing him to talk. Finally, Danny says, "Fine. You're right. And I was going to tell you anyway... just... not this soon. The ankle... it's not the thing I don't want you to see."

Before he even finishes extending his leg and hitching up his pants leg a little, you know what you're going to see -- you know it before Joel, even. Oh fuck... I'm right... oh my God... he's infected! The bite is above the ankle toward the back, and the Cordyceps is spreading up his calf. You gasp when you see it, and Joel (who can't even see it from where he is) leans forward to yank you backward -- like it's going to jump off his leg and glomp onto you or something? (Even if it did, you're immune, for fuck's sake.)

"When?" asks Joel. He keeps his hand on your shoulder.

"Just a little while ago... couple hours maybe... please. I need to get home. I need to see my family before I... before..." He chokes up a little.

You feel sooooooooooo sorry for him. He's got two little kids... a wife... "Maybe you're immune. Some people are! There's still hope."

"Immune? To the virus? I never heard of that."

"It's true." You know Joel is trying to signal to you to shut up, but you don't care. "I'm immune. See?" You peel back your sleeve and show him. "This is two years old."

Danny looks shocked, understandably. Joel is sighing and muttering. You turn and glare at him. "What? If he's infected, he's... I mean, there's no sense keeping it a secret."

"Two years?" Danny repeats incredulously. "Two years, and you haven't turned yet."

"I'm not going to turn. I'm immune."

"Ellie, that's enough," Joel warns, then he turns to Danny. "Let me see it." Danny shifts around and rotates the leg so Joel can see. "How far up your leg does that go?"

"Uh... I don't really know... only a little bit, I guess..." This time, you do think Danny sounds a little shifty. "That is... really awesome, if you're immune. I'm happy for you. But you're the only... I've never heard of anyone being immune before -- it must be a rare thing. I know that... that I'm most likely going to..." He lets that trail off; you get the idea. "I just want to see my family again. Can you two help me get home? Please."

"Yes! We'll help you," you answer, standing up and brushing yourself off. "We better get--"

"Hold on," Joel interrupts you. He stands up with you. "We need to discuss this first. Ellie, over here..."

You don't even wait to get out of Danny's earshot to start the discussion. "What? We're wasting time. We don't know how much time he has left."

"Exactly! He could turn at any moment. And you wanna waltz him back into Jackson?"

You roll your eyes. "He's one guy. There are two of us. We're armed. I think we can handle him."

"Fair enough. To be honest, I don't think he's gonna make it to Jackson. Everyone turns in two days or less."

"Which is why we better haul ass so we can get there before his time is up. What do you want to do? Just shoot him now?"

"That's my first inclination. Yes."

You groan. "That's so... how can you not feel for the guy?"

"I didn't say I--"

"No, you don't care, or you'd want to help him say goodbye to his family. What if it was me? If I was infected... trying to get back to you... wouldn't you want someone to give me the chance to say goodbye?"

The what-if-it-was-me tactic works sometimes... but this time it serves as a launching pad for another lecture. "It won't be you, because you're immune. A fact which we agreed to never tell anyone. Maybe you think it don' matter, if he's gonna turn soon anyhow... but it's just another reason to kill him rather than bring him to Jackson an' let him tell his wife about it. Did you notice his reaction?"

"He was surprised. Who wouldn't be? He--"

"He said 'yet.' You haven't turned yet. There's people who ain't gonna believe you're immune... they might think you've got some freaky... dormant strain of the virus or somethin'. They could see you as a carrier... a potential threat. Which means that at least some of them are gonna wanna kill you."

You sigh. "This isn't the time to argue about this. So we swear him to secrecy. Big deal."
"An' if he decides people in Jackson have a right to know they're livin' with an 'infected girl'? What then?"

"Then... he won't -- cuz we'll tell him the whole story on the way home. The trip, the Fireflies... all of it. We'll make sure he knows I'm not a threat to anyone."

"There's no way to be sure he'll believe that."

"Okay... fine, whatever. You said he's prob'ly not even going to make it home, so it doesn't matter. I say we at least have to try. What if it was you, trying to get home to me? You'd want to say goodbye, wouldn't you?"

Joel frowns. "I don' know. ...No. No, I wouldn't want you to see me... get sick. Maybe his wife an' kids don' need to see it, either."

"They don't have to watch him turn, for fuck's sake. But they can talk to him... hug him... tell them they love him... he can tell them..." You feel tears pricking the back of your eyeballs, and for once, you don't care if you cry in the presence of others; this shit is sad as fuck to contemplate. "I'd want to say goodbye to you... be with you at the end... I'd want to -- tell you things -- " Your throat clenches up and you have to look away.

Joel tugs you gently into his arms and you sniffle into his shirt. You feel his chest heave as he sighs. "I'm sorry, baby girl... maybe you're right. If you really wanna do this... Just think about what I said for a minute, though. My gut is tellin' me we should just... end it for him now."

Joel's gut is right about a lot of things... but Joel is also way more cynical than you are.
You do what he asked, though, and think about what he said...


If you decide you should shoot Danny, turn to page 79 (and you can totally let Joel do the deed).

If you decide you should take him home, turn to page 84.

Comments

Carlos

[(Anonymous)]

Wow... poor guy.

Re: Carlos

[luminations.livejournal.com]

Yeah :(