Ends With You: Joel Miller

CHAPTER 11

The banging on the window starts up and Ellie turns to Joel, "That's not gonna hold."

"Bill, make it quick!" Joel yells, pointing his way.

They start banging on the door and Joel quickly moves a shelf in front of it as Bill struggles to get the hood of the truck open. I take up position with Joel to hold the door shut, "Please tell me you're done?" He yells, the door shaking us violently.

Bill finally gets it open and stares at it for a few seconds in bewilderment, "It's empty."

"What!" I exclaim and Joel runs over to the truck to look and I force my body into the door harder as it shakes again.

"It's fucking empty!" Bill yells to him.

The infected are getting rougher and it makes it harder for me to hold it in place, "Guys!" I yell over and Joel's head snaps back to me before finding Bill again, "Bill, where to?" He asks as Bill stands there shocked, which makes Joel yell, "Bill! Where!"

He snaps out of his trance, "Anywhere but here."

Joel runs up to me and grabs me by the arm, "Get ready to haul ass. C'mon." He yells and I grab Ellie's arm as he pulls me forward, picking up a run after Bill.

Just as we enter the other room, the barricade falls over and three infected bursts through, "They've broken through!" Bill yells as Joel and I slam the other doors shut behind us, shoving a metal pipe in the door handles.

We step back as they bang on the door, but they struggle as they try to push up against it. Joel adds another pipe to the handles to make sure it's secure and turn around to be faced with a long corridor, "Let's sneak out the back." Bill says quietly as the banging on the door subsides.

Joel turns to Ellie and me, "You two, follow me. I'll get us outta here." And he takes the lead, keeping low as more infected make their way out of the classrooms, their groans filling the empty space, but they don't spot us just yet.

We all follow Joel through the halls, and he quietly takes some of the infected out, "Door across the hall. I bet we can cut through some of the classrooms." Bill whispers and we all filtered in as more infected make an appearance, "There's our way through. Just gotta get through these guys." And Joel whispers to us to stay as he goes over and takes them out quickly before we all move forward.

We all finally make it to a set of double doors and Joel tugs on them, but they only open a crack, so he turns to Bill and waves him over, "Help me open this." Bill doesn't hesitate to help.

"Alright, ready?" Bill asked and Joel nodded before they slammed their bodies into the door, opening them a little wider, sounds of snarls coming from the infected in the hallways, "One more time." Bill grunts out and they did one more push before it swung open.

We were urged through to the school's basketball court as Bill spoke up again, "Shit. There's more on the way. Barricade the doors." The screams fill the room we just vacated as they spot us.

Joel quickly pushes a rack of yoga mats back up against the door and steps back, "This ain't gonna hold them for long." He gasps out.

A bang from the other side of the room draws our attention, "That doesn't sound good." I say as the door flies open, revealing the largest infected I've even seen. It was tall and covered in fungi. It looked like a clicker on steroids.

"Oh no." Bill whispered.

"What the fuck is that?" Ellie exclaims disgusted.

"It's a goddamn bloater." Bill yells as its roar erupts into the room.

"A what!" She yells at him, and Joel calls over to us.

"Clara, Ellie, take cover! I got this." He yells and the sounds of bullets start ringing through the room a second later.