Broken Without You

Chapter 5

The woman actually flinched at the noise and looked up at the sky, and you used her distraction to your advantage and quickly sprung to your feet, tackling her to the ground.

Her head slammed back against the road, dazing her for a moment. But a moment was all you needed.

You quickly grabbed her pistol from the holster on her hip and shot at her three men, killing them before they had a chance to raise their guns. Their bodies fell to the ground, blood mixing in with the rain on the bitumen beneath them.

"Say hi to Kathleen for me." You said, looking back down at the woman laying on her back below you.

Her eyes were still dazed. The hit to her head doing more damage than you realised, but it didn't matter because a second later, you squeezed the trigger and finished the job.

You stood up, dropping the gun down on her chest and picking up your AR-15 from the ground before you took off running in the direction of the river, hoping Ellie and Joel had already made it across.

Rain was coming down harder now, the sky getting darker and darker by the minute.

It wasn't long before you reached the river. It's loud splashing and ripping current the first things you noticed. There was no way you'd be able to swim across to the safety of the woods on the other side, not with how fast the water was flowing. You had to go to the bridge to cross over.

You followed the river downstream, staying hidden down along the edge of the riverbank. The main road of town was up higher, so any remaining resistance fighters wouldn't see you unless they looked down.

However, as you reached the bridge, you realised that it was broken.

The middle of the bridge had completely collapsed. Cement debris sticking out the water below. It was uncrossable. It was useless. Shit.

"Over here. Come on!" A voice suddenly shouted.

You ducked down under the bridge and quickly raised your rifle, getting ready for a fight. But, when you spotted the group of resistance fighters running down the main road towards the bridge, they weren't looking at you. They were looking at something or someone already on top of the broken bridge above you. And you had a sinking feeling that you knew who they were looking at.

"How many bullets do you have left?" You heard Joel's voice ask from the bridge.

Shit. They were cornered on the bridge.

"They're gonna kill us." Came Ellie's panicked response.

"What other choice do we have?"

"We jump." Ellie suggested.

Hell no. That was a terrible idea. Not with that fast current and not with all that debris from the broken bridge down there.

"No, it's too high and you can't swim." Joel responded.

"You'll keep me afloat-"

"Ellie."

"No time to argue."

"Ellie!" Joel shouted desperately and a second later, you heard something splash into the water behind you.

Oh, God, that wasn't Ellie, was it?

You quickly turned and your stomach dropped when you saw the little girls head bobbing up and down amongst the waves and fast flowing current.

A second later, Joel jumped too, and you watched his body fall into the water with a loud splash.

"Shit, they jumped. What do we do?"

"I ain't swimming after them. Let's just go back to the boss and see what she wants."