CYOA Page 71
Sep. 14th, 2013 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You slowly and quietly creep back toward the vault, feeling your way along the rows of filing cabinets. You thought your eyes might adjust to the darkness -- there's that little bit of natural light coming through the doorway, after all -- but it's too far away to help you much back here. The infected are making their creepy-as-fuck little noises, the clicking and the moaning... no screeching now that they've lost track of you. Good -- maybe that won't serve as a fucking siren to call every infected in the bank to--
Your blood runs cold at the realization that Joel still isn't trying to draw them away from you, which is rather out of character for him. You move a little quicker toward the back of the room and try to come up with a plan along the way. Your fingers finally brush against the cool concrete of the vault, and you feel your way to the sliver of an opening. You pry the circular door open just a smidge more so you can slither inside, then draw it almost-closed behind you. You're afraid to let the door make contact with the... door frame? or whatever it would fucking be called, in case it latches super easily. You think Joel was just trying to scare you about not being able to get out. The door was open, after all, and after so many years, wouldn't someone have pushed it shut from the outside at one point or another? If it truly did lock irreversibly, then that would be that, so... yeah, he's probably just paranoid. PROBABLY.
Now you're scared to turn the flashlight on, because you feel like you have to leave a finger's worth of space by that door just in case, and a Runner could spot the beam, unless you can somehow manage to keep perfectly still (...maybe you should take it off?). But you can't hear shit in here, which means you're probably safe to rummage around and reload without drawing any attention to yourself, and you don't think you really need the light. You move away from the door, just in case the crack lets enough sound escape. Can I make a Molotov cocktail in the dark? you wonder. You're glad to find you have one already made -- that's something! Now, obviously you can't use it in your current location, but you don't intend to invite any of these fuckers inside. You find what you need, and this time you reload your gun and your pockets.
You move back to the vault entrance, stopping the moment your fingers touch the door. When should I make my move? You hold your breath as you hear a very faint clicking sound just outside, like a Clicker is passing by just inches in front of you. If they behave like normal infected, they'll just wander around... some will go back into the hallway... you're really starting to worry about Joel now. You may not have time to stealth-kill a bunch of them. You're not sure you'd be able to hear him out in the lobby area (you don't hear the horses from here...), but surely the infected would hear him, right? Yet there's a fucking Clicker casually walking around in front of you.
Fuck it -- I wanted time to get ready, and I'm ready. I HAVE to go find Joel. You nudge the door open just a little... then a little more... gun drawn, you dare to switch on your light. ...no screeching. Good! You slither back into the room and hit the floor, hiding behind the first row of filing cabinets. You don't dare point the light anywhere but right in front of you -- its natural projection from your backpack strap. That one Clicker is a decent length away from you now that you can move about; you don't see it, but you hear it somewhere off to your right. You're sure that some of the infected have filtered back out into the hall, because you're able to move up easily to within three rows of cabinets to the entrance.
That's where your luck runs out.
One is walking down this way... the other one walking down that way... and whichever way you turn around the cabinets, one of them is going to see you -- and trip over you, so your light makes no difference now. The one on your left -- a Runner -- starts screeching and running toward you. You shoot that one first, and run right back at him because now you have two coming from the other side -- you panic and chuck your Molotov cocktail at them. ...Not that that was a bad thing to do, necessarily, but you might have made more strategic use of it elsewhere. It's a Runner and a Clicker that bear the brunt of it, shrieking and flailing around... catching a third infected, yes!... the flames provide some illumination, but only in that narrow space between the two rows of cabinets, and not much at all once the infected drop to the ground.
"JOEL, WHERE ARE YOU?!" you scream as loud as you can. You're sure you can be heard, even over the screaming infected...
...but there's no answer!
And whatever infected may have drifted back out to the hall... they seem to be returning now, lured by your gunfire and all the screaming. You can't just bolt out the door and go find Joel.
A crazy idea hits you -- crazy, but you have to try it! You need something you can throw -- something that will make noise. The room is woefully lacking in such things. You briefly consider yanking a shoe off the infected you just shot, but you don't think that will be loud enough. Oh! I have a bottle in my backpack! You were going to use it to make another cocktail, but you won't need to, if this works... Ugh, if only they were all coming at me from the same direction!
But you did buy yourself a little bit of sneaking time... you've killed four. That Clicker who walked by the vault earlier was a little late to your barbecue so it's unscathed and somewhat close to you... there might be Runners behind you... you think? ... As quickly and quietly as you can, you retrieve the bottle from your backpack while weaving through the cabinets, heading toward the back of the room. A Runner catches sight of you -- too early! You shoot it twice and it goes down.
Now the clock's ticking again! You hear multiple screeches (fuck, does that send shivers down your spine -- and not in the good way). You run to the vault, yank the door open a little more than halfway, and throw your bottle as hard as you can toward the back wall inside it. Then you scurry over to the nearest cabinet you can duck behind, and remove your flashlight so you can angle it properly; you shine it directly on the entrance for them (which should help the Runners navigate the strange circular door hole, right?).
One Runner rushes in... another... a Clicker stumbles through... you can hear them squealing and squawking and moaning in there, likely running into each other in confusion... you probably only have another few seconds before they start to figure out that the glass was not broken by prey cornered inside the vault. Dumb motherfuckers... you counted five going inside, and now there's one standing right at the entrance like it's deciding whether it wants to go in or not. Go!!! you mentally urge it.
It doesn't heed your wish, so you shoot it, but only once -- because now that it's wounded, you can just shove it inside. Two more are about to burst out of there, and your shove delays them just enough for you to--
SLAM! that door right in their faces. "Take that, bitches! Haha!" you actually yell out loud. You lean on the door hard... as if doing so might help to hold them inside. Ha! You hear them thumping on the door like they're trying to break through, but the door is so thick you can't even feel the impact of their strong bodies. You experimentally turn the steering wheel handle -- except you can't; it's apparently in a locked position.
In all this excitement, you quite forgot that you didn't necessarily lure all of the infected in the room into your little trap. You remember this when one of them fucking grabs you -- grabs you! I should've been more careful! And you don't have your knife out, can't get to it-- luckily, it's a Runner, or you might be dead already. You're not strong enough to break free of its grip (God how you wish you were Joel sometimes), but you do manage to wriggle your gun arm around (thank God you didn't drop it the way you dropped the flashlight) and fire a bullet directly into its gut. It releases you--
--but there's another one right fucking there and you shoot it -- then yet another-- and you have to shoot them multiple times unless you can get a good head shot-- you're going to have to reload, and you don't have time! --and Oh my God IS THAT JOEL?! You see a light shining in from another direction-- you know it's not yours! And you hear gunshots -- it has to be him! You try to scream for him-- you're struggling with all your might to free yourself, and you've dropped the gun now... and just when you're hoping that maybe you'll have another bite scar to cover up but still get to fucking live, you successfully break free!
Because Joel is now beating the shit out of that one (he probably could have just shot it in the head, but you guys prefer not to shoot infected that are perilously close to the other), and you're so thrilled to see him -- and see him fighting, like he's not hurt! -- that it takes you an extra couple seconds to get your wits about you and find an enemy to kill. There aren't any in your immediate vicinity... you watch Joel smash the Runner's head into one of the metal cabinets, and it makes the most sickening sound... is that all of them?
No! Joel shoots one approaching from his other side.
...and that, apparently, is all of them, because he immediately relaxes and turns to you.
Turn to page 133.
Carlos
Date: 2021-06-08 12:42 pm (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2021-06-08 01:46 pm (UTC)RE: Re: Carlos
Date: 2021-06-09 05:13 am (UTC)Re: Re: Carlos
Date: 2021-06-09 12:12 pm (UTC)