CYOA Page 65

[lumy12]

Page Sixty-Five

"We're only searchin' for a little while, close to here. Got it? We ain't wastin' hour after hour on some wild goose chase."

"Of course we're not. We're hunting a person, not wild geese." Though you do like duck meat, and it's probably similar to that... maybe you should be hunting geese!

Joel just shakes his head. "Can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"She's a threat, and we're eliminating a threat. That's all. She's our enemy."

"She didn't do anythin' to us."

"No -- we did it to her. We made ourselves the enemy. It happens. Joel, weren't you the one always telling me that no one's really innocent? Everyone's just looking out for themselves. It's kill or be killed. Like... just because the guy creeping up the stairs hasn't hurt you yet, that doesn't mean he won't blow you away the second he sees you."

"I hate it when you throw my words back at me," he grumbles (although it's only true when you use them to get your way).

"I know! Why do you think I like to do it?" you reply cheekily.

"Smartass." But you can tell he's not truly annoyed. "This is different. Yes, those soldiers had orders to kill us. Yes, those hunters were assholes. But this woman--"

"You forgot one!" you interrupt him. "Yes, those assholes wanted to avenge their dead. That's her category. We didn't go hunting them, but they started hunting us. Isn't it better to be on the hunting side? Hunter, not hunted?"

You feel like Joel should applaud you for thinking this way. For applying logic that he taught you in the first place. But the way he's looking at you... it's definitely sad, not proud. He seems to be about to say something, but then, as if thinking better of it, he just says, "Let's get a move on, then."

Well, he can't argue with me on this -- it's like arguing with himself! you think smugly. And if you don't find this woman right away, you're sure you can convince Joel to keep searching for her.

At first, it seems like you'll have no problem finding the runaway woman; the horses' tracks and the trampled grass light your way pretty effectively into the woods. Weaving through trees. You can even find two distinct sets of tracks -- and usually that shit looks like a muddled mess to you. But, as Tess once said, your luck has to run out sooner or later...

"Uh... what the fuck?" you marvel at the mass of criss-crossing hoof prints in front of you, with at least five or six trails leading in different directions. More criss-crossing in several other places nearby. "It looks like there was a bunch of them... a confused bunch, I guess, cuz different directions? How recent are all these?"

"Don' know. The trampled grass is recent. If it hasn't rained here in a while..."

"We saw rain earlier." Not personally, but you could see it was raining on the horizon.

"Not real close to here, an' it wasn't some big storm. Could've missed this area. Ground's fairly dry..."

"...but not so dry that the prints don't hold? And not soft enough for the prints to disappear real fast."

"Right." Now he looks somewhat proud of you, and you didn't even say anything all that brilliant. "The grass is the best clue... but it's awfully patchy in this area..."

You've found trampled grass in every direction as well. "So which way do we go? It would be faster if we split up."

"No."

You snort. "Yes it would, but... no, I don't want to, either."

"How 'bout we go this way, since that's the direction we need to be goin' anyhow. We don't find somethin' soon, we just keep goin'... an' get back to our real goal. If we can't track her, she can't track us, yeah?"

"I guess..."

Joel looks up at the sky. "Plus the clouds are comin' in... see, over there... the rain might take care of what's left of it all. An' that's a good thing, if there's more than just her out here to deal with."

"What do you mean 'more than just her'? Like she's with a group?"

"With 'em or without 'em. Either way. People tend to mean trouble."

"Maybe it's just... some wild horses? making all those marks?"

"Maybe."

But you know he thinks it's people riding the horses.

An hour or so later, you find out that he's probably right: you hear shouting in the distance. It's faint, but you think it sounds like kids. Joel looks at you, then wordlessly changes course.

You follow suit. "You think that's her? That she'll be with them?"

"No idea. Let's find out. Be real alert, though... she might be comin' from that direction to go back for her friend."

You follow horse tracks to some kind of vacation retreat place on a lake, and Joel feels certain that this is where the distant voices were coming from. People do like to live near water, and you glimpse some little cabins circling a lake that look like they might be decent to live in. However, you don't hear shit. "Shouldn't the voices be louder when we find them?" you say logically.

"Maybe they were outside, an' now they're in. Look -- the tracks keep goin' here... I bet we'll find shoe prints, too." Joel studies the place a few moments. "I don't wanna leave the horses out here if there's people around... but I don't wanna ride in on 'em if we're tryin' to sneak around, either. Wait here and I'll--"

"No! I'll go in. This is my whole... thing, after all."

"I was just gonna do a little scoutin' to see where we can stash the horses... but I already see a good spot."

You follow his gaze to the parking lot. "Yeah. Behind those big-ass trucks." Someone coming from the cabin area would have to walk all the way over there and around to spot the horses. Still risky to leave them unattended, of course, but you don't plan on being there long.

There are enough large rocks and evergreens around that you and Joel can move from spot to spot with little chance of being sighted. You find no people in the buildings toward the front of the retreat, which isn't surprising -- the cabins by the water are probably more... cozy and habitable. You peek through windows to see if there are people inside; you don't need to enter them.

You've ruled out three cabins when you finally hear something -- clearly the wailing of a small child. You follow Joel down a gravelly little path that winds through more cabins... it's like a little maze of cabins, with a fair amount of space between each one. Way more space than between the houses in Jackson. And how cute are the winding little pathways! The streets in Jackson are boringly straight, for the most part.

Joel pauses behind a tree and you nearly run into him. "Joel, look!" you exclaim quietly (yes, you can totally do that). But he's already seen it -- a horse that could possibly be one you saw running away earlier. "Is that one of their horses?"

"Color's similar, yeah... but gray ain't exactly a rare color for a horse," Joel says softly. "An' there's only one..."

"Maybe she brought this one home and took the other one out to go get her friend?" you suggest.

"Maybe. C'mon... the cryin' seems to be comin' from back here... that kid's sure got some set of pipes on him."

You creep after Joel. "Yeah, no shit! And... he's not even outside, I don't think?"

Not outside, no, but the windows of that cabin are open, allowing a strong fishy odor to waft through. You and Joel sneak right up underneath one of the windows (no need to peek inside) and listen...

...to a whiny young voice. "Go get Brandon! He can shut her up."

"He's not home yet -- where do you think I just was?!"

A frustrated-sounding sigh. "She'll calm down in a minute."

"It's been like an hour!"

"You don't even know how long an hour IS. It hasn't been--"

"Why couldn't your stupid mom just drop off Star and leave without coming in?"

"She's not stupid -- she had to tell me what's going on, didn't she?"

"Is Star gonna be okay?"

"I guess? I don't know. You guys -- Mom doesn't know how bad this torture is -- she thinks we're just being babies about it. ~'It's just a phase'~ uuuuggggghhh."

"You know what she should do next time? Leave, and then stay. Like outside. Where she can hear."

"Yeah! Where she can hear it go on FOREVER."

"I wish we had doors."

"The bathroom door works!"

"...That's too mean."

"I wanna see Star."

"SHE'S mean for not shutting up!"

"Jessie, just play with her and she'll--"

"I don't WANNA play with her! I'm sick of her and her stupid crying FACE! Why don't YOU play with her?"

"Because I have to get these all gutted before Mom comes back! Unless YOU wanna do it."

"No way! That's not MY job!"

"Go outside then!"

"Oh -- yeah -- and bring her with you! Haha!"

"Mom said we have to stay--"

"Mom won't even know!" / "She didn't tell ME that!" / "Why can't I go see Star?"

The bickering continues... animated little voices all talking over each other, plus the crying baby, but you feel like you can mostly follow the conversation. Joel taps your shoulder and indicates for you to retreat behind the cabin... probably so you can discuss what you've heard. Since the kids were talking about going outside, you fall back into the trees. And you keep your voices low -- even though the baby girl is crying loud enough to drown out even a screeching Runner.

"How many kids do you think are in there?" you ask.

"I'd say... four, maybe five. Maybe more that weren't talkin'."

"I didn't hear anyone that sounded like an adult."

"Me neither. It's prob'ly two families, since they weren't all referrin' to the lady as 'mom'... but, could just be a large blended family."

'Blended' is like you and Joel -- not blood-related, but family. "I guess Star is one of the horses... but I don't know why he... she?... wouldn't be okay. We didn't shoot the horse! Didn't it sound like they were worried about the horse?"

"It did, yeah. Not sure what to make of that."

"And they mentioned someone who lives somewhere else... that Brandon guy," you recall.

"Yeah. Someone who ain't home, which means there could be someone out here more likely to spot us." Joel frowns. "This ain't very safe, right here -- leavin' these windows open all over... this one back here don't even have a screen. I could just climb right through if I wanted to."

It takes you a moment to realize he's not referring to your own safety. "Maybe no one ever comes back here. Who cares? Not our problem." You realize how heartless that sounds, and you soften your tone a bit. "I mean... they're not your kids, so what can you do about it? Right?"

"Right," Joel says, albeit reluctantly.

"Besides, they sound like a bunch of whiny brats."

Joel chuckles. "They sound like kids."

"I never sounded like that."

"Mm. You were a perfect angel, were you?"

"Of course!" you grin at him.

"I find that hard to bel-- ow!" Joel pretends it hurts when you slug him (you did do it somewhat hard). "All right, calm down..."

You hear the door slam. Both of you hold your breath, just waiting... but whoever came outside doesn't come back where you are.

You look at Joel soberly. "The woman we killed is prob'ly the mother of some of those kids."

"Not necessarily, but yeah, maybe." Joel gives you a hard look. "What seems more certain is that the woman we're huntin' is the one they're talkin' about who came here an' left again, an' she's one of the moms. You still wanna go find her an' kill her?"


If you do, turn to page 122.

If you don't, turn to page 126.

Comments

Carlos

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm... this will be a moral choice, they were going to kill the woman but now that she has children is hard for them to do that.