The Last of Us

Chapter 7: Trust is Hard to Come By

I packed my stuff quicker than everyone else did, mostly because I didn't have much with me. The empty pistol was in my bag along with extra clothing, some cans of food and my cell phone. The revolver was tucked in my belt, and I touched it every so-often just to make sure it was still there. Everybody loaded their belongings into the cars and then we got into them.

The cars all started up at the same time, and it seemed as if the cave roared to life like a gigantic monster. Margret drove the SUV that Linda and Jerry were in, Jack drove the pick up that Samantha and I were in, and Hank drove the jeep with Thomas. We all headed back down the mountain in a single file. We moved slowly, purposely to conserve what little gasoline we had left. By the time we had reached ground level and were back on the road, the sun had gone down completely and the moon was out.

It was a crisp, cold night and would have been a pretty night in a more normal situation. The streets were littered with abandoned cars, trash, and worst of all dead bodies. Goons shuffled around aimlessly, not presenting much of a threat to us, so we did not bothering taking any of them out. Our truck ran out of gas, and was just rolling on the brakes when we finally reached the gas station about 7 or 8 miles from our destination. We lined up our cars and got out to fuel them. Samantha, Jack, Hank, Thomas and I all took out our guns and kept watch while Margret, Jerry and Linda fueled the three cars.

I felt an odd sense of fear from breaking the law as we stole the gasoline. But I knew that we could use this gasoline, and besides its not like anyone around here was going to be using it. I watched a legless goon, drag itself towards us at a snail-like pace. It was a gruesome sight as I noticed its fingers had been shaved down to the nub of the bone from dragging itself on the asphalt and concrete. A large tire track across the back of its bloodied shirt also revealed that this particular goon must have pissed somebody off.

Linda filled a few more cans and large jugs with gasoline and Jerry loaded them into the truck and we were back on the road before we alerted too many goons. Though they were extremely slow, in large groups they would be impossible to escape.

We drove down the long road for a while, and everywhere we passed it all looked the same. Burned down houses, littered streets, mutilated bodies both dead and undead. In the back of my mind I continued to tell myself that it was all a dream, and that I would wake up soon.

Samantha cleaned her gun profusely, almost obsessively. "Sam, whats the matter?" I asked her quietly. She was sitting next to me in the back seat because the passenger's seat was holding our bags and a couple of rifles. "I'm just nervous about this place. What if nobody's there? What are we gonna do?" She whispered to me, so her father wouldn't hear. He had turned up the radio, trying to get some information from the emergency broadcast.

"Sam don't think like that, we're gonna be fine." I said reassuringly. She rested her head on my shoulder and yawned. I awkwardly patted her back trying to be as friendly as I could and I wondered if Linda could see this from her car. Jack looked through the rear view mirror and I quickly removed my hand from her back, and looked out the window as if I hadnt realized she was leaning on me. He chuckled and I blushed dramatically.

The jeep and the SUV ahead of us slowly came to a stop, indicating we had reached our destination. Samantha loaded her rifle, as did Jack once he turned the car off. I opened the revolver to find 6 bullets inside, But these were the only 6 I had so I had to be conservative.

We all got out of the cars, and left the doors slightly open for an easy getaway/escape route. There was a dark building in front of us, with very large windows instead of walls. I found this odd but I didnt care if this was our safe haven. I couldn't tell if the blood smears on the window were from the inside or the outside, but I hoped with all of my heart that it was the latter.

Hank and Thomas tried to make contact with whoever was inside, using their car radio. They didn't get anything but static, and as some goons caught sight of us and began to make their way towards us, we had to make a decision about entering the building unannounced or not.

The pack of approaching goons had now doubled in size, and we weren't going to be able to get back to the highway in time without attracting an entire hoard so Hank kicked in the front door and we all rushed inside. Thomas and Jerry quickly turned and closed the door again, then they dragged a nearby table in front of it to ensure that it couldn't be breached by the oncoming goons.

The inside of the building was pitch black, illuminated only by the light of Jack's key chain flashlight, and Linda's cell phone. I cleared my mind and focused my energy and holding my gun steady, and seeing as much as I could with the limited light. The tiled floors were covered in blood, but there were no bodies around here. We approached the front desk where a young blonde woman sat, a bloodied and gory mess.

She wore a pencil skirt and white button up shirt. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders, and she looked to have been just another one of us until I noticed the small, round bullet hole in her forehead. Even worse than that was the exit wound in the back of her skull. It seemed as though she was missing the back of her head, and the trail of blood and brain matter that had splattered against the wall behind made me gag.

Jack tried the front desk's phone, but he only got static and he cursed at it as we began to move on through the first floor. Everyone was on high alert as we finally made it to the staircase and I slowly opened the door. The lights were on in the stairwell and it was relieving to know that we could at least see better now. We began our accession to the roof, where Hank and Thomas believed any survivors would be, or at least some left over equipment from when they had been dropped via helicopter.

Our trip up the ten flights of stairs was much easier than I thought it was going to be and I was glad to find no signs of blood, guts or goons anywhere. The top floor had a large metal door leading out to the roof and it was bolted shut. This looked promising, regarding actual people being just outside the door. We banged against the door and yelled loudly through it at whoever was on the other side. The knob of the door turned slowly and opened wide. A girl in a short pink dress lugged the door open and surprised us all. Her make up ran down her cheeks showing that she had been crying, and she rushed us all to the roof and quickly locked the door behind us.

We all turned to look at her, and she faced us with an angry look on her face. She pulled out a pistol and held it up to us, "Any of you infected?" she almost hissed at us. "No, none of us are." Margaret said with a shaky voice. "I don't fucking believe you." She cocked the gun back and stared me dead in the eyes...