CYOA Page 43

[lumy12]

Page Forty-Three

You can see Joel reeeeally just wants to leave, and you suppose there's nothing to be gained by exploring the cave now. But you sigh loudly like you're giving up the most awesome thing ever just because Joel wants you to -- then maybe he'll feel guilty, which may lead him to feel inclined to "make it up" to you. You like that. A lot!

"Bye, kid," you toss over your shoulder while mounting your horse. You look back once you're on your way and see that he's watching you -- until you catch him doing it. Then he retreats to his cave.

What a creepy little kid... You wonder if he's important to anyone. How could he be, if he's alone in the world? You feel sorry for him. You didn't feel any kind of emotional connection to him... your heart shouldn't weep over this. But something about it is bugging you. Sticking with you. You try to put the whole thing out of your mind.

Late in the afternoon, Joel halts for a map check. He stares at it for a few moments, then shakes his head. "Don' know why I keep lookin' at it -- it don't change."

Uh-oh... "What is it?" You bring your horse alongside his and lean over to see what he's looking at.

He swings it over between you so you can see it better. "Remember I mentioned there's gonna be a detour off the real map?"

By 'real map,' he means the one that this was copied from -- published decades ago, before the world had gone to hell. Hell had altered some of the landscape. "Yeah. You said the bridge over the river is out?"

"Right. But there's another one... in here... that we can use. Or we could, if we decide to go that way..."

"Why wouldn't we? That actually looks better than the highway bridge. It's a more direct route."

"It is, but rumor has it that some hunters have taken up residence there. They don't seem to be there all the time, though. Or maybe the park is big enough that they don't always take notice of people passin' through it. Remember the dude that was comin' home but ended up turnin' around an' goin' right back to the hospital with a bullet in his shin?"

"That was here?"

"Yep. He came home 'round this way here instead... took a bit longer, but he wasn' gonna mess with them hunters. Next trade run, they brought bombs an' shit... figured they'd clear the route... nothin'."

"They were gone?"

"Apparently. I don' know how thoroughly they checked the place out, but they said there were no dead bodies in there... no proof positive that anyone had been there recently, either."

"So... Jed was lying about getting shot in there?"

"No. Well, sure, he could've been, but maybe they've just cleared out since then. Or they had to go hunt for food or somethin'. It does seem like an ideal place for assholes to plant themselves since they know anyone goin' along the highway here will have to detour at the bridge. Last person to travel up here was Danny."

"Oh shit... no wonder Layla's so worried! I'm surprised she didn't say anything to us."

"She don' know. No reason to worry her. Seems it's bein' treated as need-to-know only."

"Wait -- so how did you know about this and I didn't?" you ask, suddenly annoyed. You like to think you're more popular in the gossip circles than reclusive Joel, for fuck's sake.

"I'm tellin' you now."

"No shit! But how long have you known?"

"Since the boys came back from there."

"What, like... two months ago or something?" You think it's funny that Joel calls them 'boys' when that group was all grown men -- and two of them were close to Joel's age, even. You know it's some kind of camaraderie thing, but still.

"I don' know. Whenever it was."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Joel chuckles. "There was nothin' to tell. 'By the way, Ellie, did you hear that Bruce's convoy was gonna kill some guys, an' then they couldn't?' "

"Well, yeah! Why not? Who told you in the first place?"

"I don't remember. It don' matter -- the point is, we have to decide which way we're gonna detour. See the little question mark I added there?"

"That's a question mark? It looks like... a number seven." Ian, the map copier guy, has much neater handwriting than Joel. "Why did he put 'water' right over the 'park'? The river's already labeled."

"Because it's a water park." Joel looks amused. "You never heard of those, huh?"

"Nope. Let me guess -- it's a park with a pond in the middle of it."

"Not exactly. It's like an amusement park--" (you do know what those are) "--but with water rides... slides an' things... maybe a big pool where they make fake waves. Most of 'em don't get built practically on top of a river, I don't think, but the guy that built this one did it for his grandkids. He lived real close to here."

"One guy could build something like that?"

"A filthy-rich one could, sure. He owned all the land around here."

"Wow." You understand the concept of rich and poor, but they meant something different back in Joel's day. And the 'filthy' doesn't refer to dirt, or even 'dirty money' -- it's just an obscene level of richness. Joel says he's richer now than he was by the old standards; he was somewhere in the middle before, more towards the low end, but everyone in Jackson now is rich. You, however, have seen movies with rich people in them, and your lives are nothing like theirs, so you like to say the whole world is poor now.

"Bet those grandkids were spoiled rotten," Joel remarks.

You understand the general concept of that, too (though you think 'rotten' is probably a bit harsh), even though it's not a thing anymore -- at least not like that. "Lucky little shits."

Joel points at the map again. "What do you reckon those are s'posed to be?" He indicates a mass of scribbles west of the park. "At a glance, I assumed it was just more woods, like these squiggles down here, but see how the lines are kind of... jagged-like?"

"Hmm. Yeah, I see what you mean. They look different from those ones. If it's a mountain... wouldn't we see it from here? We're getting close to this park thing."

"Maybe not, if it's just rock formations... rocky terrain..."

"Or a baby mountain?"

"Hell, maybe it's actually part of the water park. If it is jus' trees... maybe we could cut through there an' find a way to the bridge on that side an' bypass the hunters."

"Sounds good to me."

"Maybe... except you have to wonder why no one else has done it."

"Well, maybe we're smarter than everyone else!"

Joel smiles at that. "Of course we are." He even leans over and gives you a quick kiss.

You smile back. "So the other options are..."

"One other option. If we go east 'til we find the next bridge, we have to come all the way back an' make up all that ground, so that way's out. If we go west, we're at least headin' somewhat in the right direction. That rich guy's ranch is... somewhere in this area here--" --he jabs at the map, beneath the squiggles and jaggedy lines-- "--I think we could find it easy enough. We spend the night there, head to this highway here where the other bridge is at in the mornin'."

"Aren't we pretty close to that?"

"Yes. Less than an hour, I'd say."

"Isn't it a little early to stop, then?"

"A little. But we won't hit the other highway for... maybe three or four hours. We'll have to stop then, an' there's a whole bunch of nothin' in between here an' there."

You know Joel prefers not to spend the night close to a highway. There aren't a lot of people around -- certainly not as many as the Boston area -- but he says if there are people traveling at nighttime, they're more likely to be on the highway than not (because like... at least on the highway, you won't accidentally step off a cliff in the dark or something?), and your horses will attract their attention. However, he also prefers not to spend the night in "a whole lot of nothing;" he likes the protection from animals and the elements that walls provide.

"If we go the water park way, and there's no hunters, do we spend the night there?"

"Maybe. I don' know... I think we could go another couple hours."

"Wow, so that really is the long way around, taking the other bridge... how long would it take to get all the way back up to here? Like a couple more hours?"

Joel shrugs. "Somethin' like that. We'd basically lose half a day, goin' the long way an' stoppin' early. But it ain't like we're on a strict schedule. Which way are you leanin' toward?"

You love that Joel even asks you stuff like that, this time around; you're still not used to it. If you insisted on going east -- the way he said was not an option -- you know he'd overrule you, because it doesn't make sense. He'd probably question your aptitude for this shit, too. He must not care one way or the other... which is kind of weird, actually, since he always wants to avoid hunters...

"So you really don't think there are gonna be any hunters in the park, do you," you say -- a statement, not a question.

"Don' know. If there are, we can try to get around on the 'squiggly' side, or we can retreat."

"Or we can kill them."

"Maybe if there's just a few."

You know that by Joel's logic, it would be better if the place is full of infected rather than a few lousy hunters... infected aren't cunning. They can be more easily tricked. They don't hide from people and then ambush them (er... other than Stalkers, but they're still not very stealthy). You mostly agree with him, except that infected are way stronger than humans. If one of them grabs you, you can't just knee them in the balls or bite their arms to break free (no, you're not always able to do that successfully... but at least you have the option).

Joel looks thoughtful. "Maybe we could wait until nightfall. Stash the horses somewhere, wait for the bastards to light a fire, go pick 'em off one by one."

"Or toss a bomb in there and get them all at once."

"Or that. It's still risky, not knowin' how many there are, where they all are, how well they're armed... it's a non-issue anyway, if the place is empty."

Joel doesn't sound very concerned about the threat -- if he was, wouldn't he insist you go the other way? -- and you're curious about this water park thing. But the other way has its appeal, too... yeah, it's longer, but you'll be camping early, hopefully in a nice big house... with nothing to do for hours before bedtime... you know Joel declared "no fooling around" on this trip, but this would certainly be an exception... I could fucking MAKE it an exception!

Joel squeezes your shoulder. "So what are you thinkin', kiddo?"



If you go to the water park, turn to page 81.

If you look for that rich dude's ranch, turn to page 83.

Comments

Carlos

[(Anonymous)]

okay so crazy kid part is over... Lmk if I miss something from that part.

RE: Carlos

[luminations.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know at the end :)