The Last of Us

Chapter 5: I Owe You One

I've only heard the sound of a car crash once, and it was terrible. The tires screeching and the sound of the metal being distorted, mangled and torn apart by the impact made me cringe. Even the sound of the tiny shards of glass tapping against the road gave me the same feeling of nails scratching against a chalk board.

As I opened my eyes one last time, to take in the scene that seemed to have been taken right out of a horror movie, I watched as the large and clunky old truck came roaring and crashing into the base of the tree. The back door of the trunk caved in and the back window collapsed as it took out about 5 goons and then smacked into the tree. The tree shook violently and threatened to toss me out.

The powder white snow that sat on the large branches of the tree now fell softly down onto the roof of the truck and onto the bloodied undead flesh of those goons that laid under the terrific weight of the truck. I tucked the pitol into my belt and climbed down into the now opened trunk of the car. I crawled in safely and Samantha who sat in the passenger's seat turned around towards me. "Next time you want to off yourself, just do it. Dont wait and give my dad the chance to feel sorry for you and get all generous. You could've gotten us killed." She blurted out angrily. "I'm sorry." I said flatly, still trying to pull my wits together.

I turned away from her in shame, and the car began to move foward again, The goons continued in pursuit of us, but their slow paced limps had no shot at catching up to us. I looked behind the tree and saw that I had left the duffle bag behind. I felt along my back and noticed all I had managed to get away with was my camping back pack. I told myself that it was better than not getting away with anything. I clutched the seats behind me to make sure I didnt fall out of the trunk which was wide open after the crash.

Before we reached the paved road, the snow kept us from moving the truck quickly which gave me a chance to get a closer look at a horrific scene. The goon that had taken the front of the force of the crash was split in half completly. The spinal cord, along with it's intestines we're displayed across the snow as it's upper half continued to crawl after us, relentlessly as it left it's lower half behind.

I felt badly about calling this particular goon and "it" but at this point, I couldn't tell if this was male or female. It just looked like a gory mess, something out of movie or comic book, or anything that wasnt part of my reality until today. Even though I couldn't bare to look anymore, and I was on the brink of hurling, I couldn't keep my eyes away. It was as if I was almost hoping a director would call cut, and these goons would stand up straight and wipe their make up off.

Almost as if an angel came to quickly pry me away from the dangerous scene, Linda called me again. "Bobby, don't you dare do what I think you're going to do." She screamed into the phone. "Don't worry, a couple of friends helped me out. We're actually on our way into the mountains now. Where are you?" I asked. "I'm almost there, we're looking for a good cavern in the mountain to stay in. Actually we just found one now, its right off the road, i'll leave a pink ribbon on the tree outside so you know where we are." she replied. "Okay, i'll see you soon. Be safe." I said, "you too." and then she hung up.

"Guys, my friend and her parents found a hiding place up in the mountains, we can stay with them" I said outloud to Jack and Samantha. "Do you know where, kid?" Jack answered me. "Just follow the highway, she left a sign for us." I told him. "She? Your girlfriend?" Sam said, sounding slightly alarmed. "No, shes just a friend." I answered in a confused tone. "Oh... Okay whatever." Sam answered bluntly.

I unzipped my back pack and checked inside, forgetting what I had backed in here. It was mostly clothing, and other necessities like dried and canned food. Since it wasn't enough to sustain us for very long, I hoped desperately that Linda and her parents had brought along more supplies than we did.