The Last of Us

Chapter 10: Emotions are Overrated

I slowed the truck to a halt, hoping the goons down the road hadn't noticed us yet. Gladly they didn't and I shut the car off quickly. "Get your stuff together, only what you're able to carry." I said to Linda without looking up. She kept her eyes on the horde ahead of us when she answered, "Okay. How do we get around them?"

"I haven't gotten up to that part yet. Let's go." She did as I said without question, and I ran quickly to the side rail on the right side of the road. I hatched an idea and I turned to Linda,

"Give me a piece of your scarf." I said to her and she obliged by tearing a piece off. I then wrapped it tightly around one side of a branch next to me. It was about 2 feet long which was just long enough for me to dip it and roll the scarf top in a small puddle of oil from a leaking car in front of us. Linda handed me a book of matches from her bag and I quickly lit the top of the branch.

It blazed brightly, and I stood up and threw it as far as I could towards the group of goons. I made sure that it landed well to the right of the service road and just as planned, the goons dragged their limp, rotting bodies towards the fire.

"Come on." I said as I grabbed Linda's hand and pulled her back towards our pick-up truck. We both got in quickly and as soon as I got the car into drive, I floored it and we flew by the goons that heard the tires screeching but were too slow to react to us. I glanced at Linda for a second and caught her grinning up at me.

"Bobby, I'm tired can we stop somewhere?" It had been about 4 or 5 hours since we had made it past the group of goons. "Theres no time for that, take a nap in the back seat. I'll wake you when we get to another gas station." I told her in a quiet voice. My eyes were begining to droop, but I forced them open.

The sun had gone down by now, and I was surprised to see the street lights still on, lighting the way for us. I yawned loudly which was the first mistake of a terrible sequence of events. While I was yawning I didn't see a woman run in front of the truck and start screaming and I swerved around her and lost control of the truck.

I knew we were air born when I heard Linda's ear piercing screech from the back seat. It seemed an eternity until we finally rolled and crashed back down to the pavement. I didn't hear the metal and glass shattering on the ground as we were crushed under the weight of the truck. The smell of burnt rubber, gasoline and blood filled my nostrils and I began to gag.

"Linda? Are you okay?" I groaned to her in the backseat. "I'm stuck." She sounded more annoyed then hurt which was a good thing, at least for now. I unbuckled my seat belt and crashed onto my head and that was when I realized the car had landed upside down. I kicked the driver's side window open and crawled out.

When I was finally back on my feet, the world began to spin and I stumbled into the car. I closed my eyes and waited to recover. I struggled to open the back door of the car to help Linda out when I heard a voice in the distance. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I got in your way, I need help"

The woman continued to walk towards me, and Linda had noticed as well because she handed me one of my guns through the broken window. "Stay in the car until I tell you." I told her and she nodded after she broke free from her seat belt.

"Don't move any closer." I called out to her, not needing to raise my voice much because she had moved in on us quickly. "Please help me, my boy got bit." She pleaded between sobs. The limited light from the street lamps made it difficult to make out all of the woman's features, but I gathered that she had long and frizzy dark hair, and she wore a torn nightgown suggesting she was recently in her home.

"Where do you live?" I called out to her, taking the opportunity. "A couple miles back down the road, just off the main road. Can you help my boy?" Her accent led me to draw conclusions about her education or lack there of. None the less, I decided her house was safer than an open highway.

"Linda come on, lets see where she lives." I whispered quietly into the car. Linda had already gathered what wasn't damaged, which included two other guns and a back pack filled with a few cans of food, gasoline and some clothing. She crawled through the window and I slowly helped her back to a vertical base.

"You don't know this lady, and her kid is probably one of those things by now." She scolded me as we slowly paced our way towards the grieving mother ahead of us. "Wouldn't you rather go up against one goon? Who knows how many we'll have to face out here tonight. It's the safest option we have now that the fucking car is done." I reasoned with her, but the pout on her face seemed to be made of stone. "This is on you, Bobby." She snapped at me, "So be it." I answered.

"My husband went all crazy on us, he bit my son right on the neck and then he tried to grab me. I locked him in the shed and I told my boy I would go out and get help. Y'all can help right?" She seemed frantic at this point, which almost made me feel guilty about the lie.

"Yes, just show us the way." I answered quickly, and Linda looked up at me in horror but stayed quiet. The woman walked hurriedly back down the highway with a noticeable limp which I took note of. I scanned our surroundings vigilantly making sure we truly were alone at this point.

"It's just off the road here, five more minutes." She said as she awkwardly made her way off the road and down into the wooded area. Linda seemed to tense up as the woman's home came into view. It looked similar to my house, but I suppressed those memories as we climbed up the creaky old wooden steps of the front porch.

Only moonlight guided us into the house, our here in the woods. The screen door squeaked as it opened slowly, and luckily the electricity hadn't gone out yet as we shielded our eyes from the lights in the house being on. I cocked my gun back and kept it ready in my makeshift holster on my waist. Linda saw that and her grip on my arm became tighter, similar to the way it felt on the first night I was with her.

Blood was smeared across the door of another bedroom down the hall of house. It was difficult to see because of the dark wood finish of the house. The bedroom light was on inside though, and the door was cracked open ever so slightly. There was no sound coming from inside the room which was strike one.

The woman gestured toward the room I was looking at "My boy is in there, hurry go help him he's bleeding a lot." I nodded at her, already knowing my course of action, but I decided to look for more red flags to help justify my actions to Linda.

I walked slowly and steadily towards the room, like an executioner on his way to the condemned. I pushed open the door just a crack and peaked inside. The bedspread was soaked in dark reds and purples, enough to make one cringe. Strike two.

I entered the room and scanned it quickly to find nothing out of the ordinary until I came upon the boy on the far side of the bed. His eyes we're grey, glazed over like Sam's were, only his were still moving. Those eyes fixated on me and his small framed body awkwardly straightened up and the giant bite mark in his neck made its first appearance. Strike three.

Now I don't know about him, his mother, or Linda but here in America when you get three strikes... You're out. So I drew my already cocked gun, and I blew his fucking brains out. I didn't even take my time to aim, this was becoming too business like, and I was beginning to enjoy work. His body dropped to the floor helplessly and the wall behind him was a gory mess of red and pink. His mother's shriek didn't phase me at all as she ran to his side and sobbed uncontrollably.

"Now what?" Linda said quietly as she stood by my side, and for once, tears didn't flow from her over active tear ducts. "We have a place to stay, at least for tonight." I answered unapologetically.

"So is it okay to be the bad guy now?" She asked me, it seemed as though she was enticing me to answer with some sort of passion or fire.

"I guess so, you know how they always say, nice guys finish last. I'm keeping you alive aren't I? Do you still hate me?" I answered with a little more flare than originally intended.

"I don't hate you, I feel safe with you. Even though you seem to have lost all your morals Bobby." She told me as she looked up into my eyes searching for something that wasn't there anymore.

I looked down at her with a small amount of pity, that I soon suppressed. I had to give it to her straight, or she'd never get it. "Morals won't keep us alive in this world anymore, Linda. Besides, emotions are overrated."