We all finally make our way to the front of the school after making it through the infected that was on the way and the four of us hide behind a car as Joel peers over the side, figuring out what to do, "We're gonna have to take them out." He said as he took off his backpack and pulled out one of the bombs Bill gave him and without warning us, he tossed it where a few of infected were and an explosion sounded as it hit the floor.
I flinched away at the noise as it rang through my head before looking back over to the infected to find that they had been blown to bits and that it also alerted all the other infected in the area. I turn back around to Joel and give raise my eyebrows, "Great job." I say a bit too sarcastically as Joel pulled the bolt action rifle from his back, shrugging.
Bill and Joel stand up from their position and start shooting the infected. I take a deep breath and pull my gun from my thigh halter, shoving Ellie behind me before standing up and firing as well. I gripped my gun hard as the pops sounded all around us as we made quick work of them. Bill handed me more bullets when I had run out and I was surprised when he didn't make a comment about wasting rounds.
The last shot sounded, and I put away my gun, "Everyone good?" I asked and Ellie gave me a thumbs up as she stood from her crouched position near my legs.
Bill spoke up, "That was easier than I thought it'd be. They must be holed up somewhere else." He says and my face drops at his statement. He was the one worrying about doing this in the first place and now he's fine with it.
"Well, let's not test our luck. How do we get inside?" Joel asks as we make our way over to some old buses that are surrounding the school.
Ellie points up to one of the buses, "Someone left a ladder on this bus. Here, get me up there and I'll drop it down to you." She runs up to the end of the bus.
Joel doesn't hesitate to take up position with her, offering Ellie his hands and she climbs up, "Don't get killed up there." Bill comments as he checks our surroundings.
"Thanks Bill." Ellie retorts back sarcastically and I watch as she picks up the ladder before lowering it down to the ground. Bill going up first and Joel last.
"Okay, we just need to get to the hood of the truck." Bill sounding hopeful as we drop down to see the military truck protruding from the side of the building, just where he said it would be.
It didn't take long for infected screams to reach our ears, clearly hearing our gun fight from earlier, "Shit! They're coming, move it everybody!" Bill yells and we all make haste to the door, "Alright, we're gonna get in quick, we're gonna get the battery, we're gonna get the hell outta here." He says rushed.
Joel doesn't go to the door but runs around the building, opening a window for us to climb through as the infected make their way through the fence, "Go, go, go you two go!" Joel yells and ushers us towards the window, but Bill pushes his way through first and I make Ellie go after him and Joel after that.
As I go to climb through, an infected grabs ahold of my ankle and I let out a squeal as it tries to pull me back; I grab onto the windowsill, "Joel!" I yell.
His head whips to me, his eyes widening as he lunges for me, grabbing my hands and tries to pull me toward him. Bill suddenly comes up behind him and aims the shotgun at my head, "Get down!"
I quickly lower my head, the bang of the gun rings in my ear and I fly forward while Joel falls over, taking me with him. I land on top of him and heave out some breaths as Joel does the same and I look up to meet his hazel eyes staring at me, worried, "You alright?"
I give him a nod, "Yeah, I'm fine." And my stomach flutters at being flushed up against him and I wonder if he feels it as well.
I shake my head, rolling my eyes at the thoughts and roll off him, standing up. I extend him a hand and he takes it without question, hauling him up to his feet. I see Ellie give me a questioning gaze and I nod her way, "I'm okay."
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.
I grab onto Ellie's arm and pull her towards the back of the room, grabbing onto her shoulders to look down at her, "Stay here!" I yell and she nods as I come back out to see Joel and Bill up close and personal with the thing, shooting it with their shotguns.
I pull my handgun out to help and start popping off shots in their direction, careful not to shoot them, but I'm a good shot. My hits land and I start to wonder if I'm doing any damage as it suddenly stops and pulls something off itself and throws it at Joel and Bill.
I stop my shooting and call out to them, "What the fuck is it doing!" I yell as it goes to do it again and I watch in horror as it throws it my way and I toss myself to the side landing on my stomach as the ball of spores hit the wall behind me.
I cough and try to catch my breath as I see Joel's feet appear next to me and he hauls me to my feet, making me face him, "I thought I said to take cover?" He yells over Bill's shooting.
"I can see why." I choke out, still catching my breath after landing on my stomach.
His eyes dance over me, worried, "You alright?"
I swipe my legs of imaginary dust as I look up to him, "You like to ask me that, don't you?"
He actually gave me a small smile then, "You seem to like trouble." And I can't help but smile back.
We hear Bill asking for us to hurry up and I turn to Joel, "Go, I'm fine. I can handle myself." I wave him away, but he looks at me reluctantly and I give him a little shove, "Just go kill that thing." I say again and he nods before running off to Bill.
I turn to some runners who have entered the room and make quick work of them as Bill and Joel work on the bloater. After a couple of minutes, I hear a broken roar and I turn around to see the bloater fall to the ground, dead, and I let out a sigh of relief.
I walk over to get a look at it as Ellie walks over to stand next to me, "Geez, what is up with this big guy?" She asks the boys.
"He's been infected for a long time. We call them bloaters." Joel answers her.
"Bloater... Okay, got it." Ellie says, grossed out, her nose scrunching up together.
"I hate to interrupt your little biology lesson, but can we get the fuck outta here? Please?" Bill says annoyed, standing next to some bleachers.
I nod and give Ellie's shoulder a pat as I look over to where Bill's standing, "Let's get on top of these bleaches." I say to no one in particular and walk over to them, "Joel, gimme a boost." I look at him expectantly.
He nods and walks up to lean against the wall, but of course Bill is there first, and Joel doesn't hesitate to lift him up. Ellie goes next, grabbing onto the top and pulling herself up.
Joel waves me over and I quickly take position in his hand before he throws me up and I latch onto the side, pulling myself up and turning around to extend a hand for Joel, "You're next." He jumps up and grabs onto my arm, pulling him up enough for him to grab the ledge before he hauls himself up.
We turn to see Bill already making his way out the window and we follow him out. Jumping back down outside, we hear groans of infected near us, but they haven't spotted us yet.
"We're sitting ducks out here." Bill says, "This way." And he starts to take off in the direction of some houses seeming to know where he going.
We jog until we find another ladder leaning up against the fence and we all scale it, dropping down onto the other side, finally escaping the infected for now. I move into the house, spotting a dead body hanging from the ceiling but make nothing of it as Ellie comes in behind me as Bill slams the glass door shut, "So, that worked out well." Ellie says and I grimace out how Bill's gonna react.
But Joel gives her a pointed stare, not in the mood and she blows air out of her lips, "Okay, ah, I'll go check out this side of the house." And she quickly walks away before Bill has a chance to say anything.
When she's gone, Joel turns to his friend, "Bill?"
"Somebody had the same idea. They stole my shit."
Joel starts to pace, "Well then, what the hell is plan B?"
"You ought to be thankful you're still drawing breath. That was plan A, B, C, all the way to fucking Z!" Bill yells.
They really start to get into a heated argument, and I roll my neck annoyed at them.
"And furthermore, tell Tess she can take this job-"
"Don't you bring Tess into this!" Joel yells, pointing his finger in Bill's face.
"-she can shove it right up-"
"This has nothing to do with-"
I roll my eyes at them. Men.
The argument stops all of a sudden as Bill's eyes land on the hanging body that I saw earlier. Joel whips around to the body, "Jesus." He whispers and looks back to Bill, "What? You know this guy or something?" He says back to him as he approaches the body. I stay back, not wanting to get involved with their little hissy fit.
"Frank." Bill says and my stomach drops.
Joel's arm waves out to the side, "Who the hell's Frank?" He says a bit too harshly, clearly not putting it together.
Bill takes in a deep breath, "He was my partner." Joel goes silent and looks back to me, Bill grabbing his machete from his back, "He's the only idiot that would wear a shirt like that." And he walks over and cuts the rope, the body falling to the ground. My hand claps over my mouth, tears forming in my eyes at seeing the body slam to the floor and it doesn't help that Bill is mourning him. Yeah, I don't like Bill but that doesn't mean this situation isn't awful.
Bill looks down at the body, "He's got bites..." His voice cracks, "Here. And..." He points down with his machete, but he can't continue as he tries to hold back tears.
Joel looks over to him, an apologetic look on his face, "I reckon he didn't wanna turn so he..." He gestured to the ceiling.
"Yeah, I guess not." Bill says quietly but he looks over to me and quickly puts on a steel face, "Well, fuck him." He says, his hands coming out to the side shrugging.
The sound of an engine spluttering pulls all our attention to the other room and Joel looks at Bill before taking off in the direction of the noise. We follow and come out into the garage with Ellie sitting in a pick-up truck, "Look what I found." She gives us a big smile and I look at the truck in disbelief, "It's got some juice in it."
Bill walks into the room and makes his way over to look at the engine. He peers into it, "That's my battery!" He exclaims, "That fuckin' asshole." He says and my brows furrow at his reaction, not expected.
He pulls the hood shut and points at Ellie still in the driver's seat, "Get out." He walks around, but Ellie doesn't move, "Get out." He says again.
"Okay, geez." She says and hops out.
Bill replaces himself in the seat and turns the key over, the engine spluttering, "Battery's drained but the cells are alive." He says and gets back out.
"Meaning?" Joel asks.
"Meaning we push it, get it started and the alternator will recharge the battery." He states and makes his way to the front of the car again.
"Is that your guess?"
Bill throws his arms out to the side, "Look, you wanted a 'Plan B.' This is as good as it gets."
I finally come forward and speak up, looking to Joel, "What're you thinking?"
He looks over to me before pointing to the driver's seat, "I'm thinking you drive, and we push."
I nod and Ellie gets into the passenger seat, but Bill behind us leans down, looking at things on the ground, "Jesus... that's more of my stuff." He says annoyed and turns to Joel and me, "You should probably search the house. I'm sure there's more supplies that fucker stole."
My eyes widen at his language towards his old 'partner' and turn to Ellie, "Just stay here, okay. Try rest up a bit while you have the chance." She nods and I make my way back into the house, making my way up the stairs to look around.
I go into one of the bedrooms, my eyes landing on the bed, and I realize that we haven't slept in a couple days. We're gonna have to soon. I pull my eyes from the bed and go over to look through the draws, trying to find something useful. I find more alcohol and bandages putting them in my bag and reminding myself to give them to Joel.
As if he knew I was thinking of him, he appeared in the doorway leaning up against the frame, his ankle resting against the other. I side eye him as he watches me finish looking through the draws before I finally turn to him and gave him a smile, "Hello, I was just thinking of you." I say as if I didn't know he was standing there the whole time, and he tenses, making my eyes widen at what I said. I probably gave off the wrong idea, so I quickly pulled off my bag, pulling out the alcohol, "I found this for you." I say, holding it up.
He looks to my hand but doesn't move from the doorway as his eyes fall back onto mine. I freeze as he takes a step into the room, the air going taut between us.
I gulp as he slowly moves over, the butterflies making their appearance again as he comes to stand in front of me, softly grabbing the bottle from my hands, his fingers grazing mine. His sudden touch sends a jolt through my body, and I accidently drop my bag.
I look down at my bag, sad on the floor, and close my eyes at what I just did. Great. Way to go, Clara. He doesn't speak up as I look back up at him, "Sorry, didn't mean to do that." I whisper, but he still doesn't say anything, his hazel eyes burning into mine and that's when I see it. The lust accompanied by restraint. It's small but it's there.
The new information makes me shuffle on my feet, "Um... I hope my bag didn't land on your toes." I yell at myself internally at how stupid I sound, and he takes a step forward, making me instinctively take one back as well, my back hitting the wall, but I still don't run. Shit.
He still doesn't say anything as he sets down the alcohol bottle on the dresser next to us and I speak up again, "So... did you... uh... find anything useful?" I start to stumble on my words, his gaze still burning holes through me like he's having a mental battle in his mind.
I give up on trying to make him talk and go to walk around him, but his hand comes up to rest on the wall beside my head, blocking my retreat. His own head tilts to the side as he watches my face with interest. Shit, shit, shit. I actually don't know how to feel about this now that it's happening. What could go wrong?
So instead of trying to get away like I always do, I give in and lean up against the wall, now curious about what he's gonna do. His breath hitches as he realizes that I really don't care what he does, and his other hand comes up to graze its way up my arm. A little gasp escapes my mouth and he stills, searching my eyes again and I think that he's about to pull away, but I'm answered by his hand coming up all the way and grabbing ahold of the back of my neck, making my head tilt up to him.
My mouth parts in anticipation as he looks down at my lips, seeming to still have a battle in his mind, like he needs my permission.
So, I bring my hands up to his chest and grab a fistful of his shirt, tugging him roughly towards me, my tongue going out to lick my lips. His eyes snap to my mouth and his eyes flare with desire before finally tugging at the base of my neck and slowly lowers his mouth onto mine.
I sigh a breath of relief when our lips touch, melting into him, his lips soft, hesitant. My mind goes haywire at the contact, and I kiss him back with the same gentleness and I can't help my eyes that begin to tear up because no one has ever kissed me this softly.
My hands are still tied up in his shirt when I suddenly shove him back our lips separating in a gasp as if realizing what we're doing and clearly my mind hasn't decided if it's a good thing, my body reacting on that thought. I'm shocked by my own actions as we both stare at each other processing that this is actually happening. He doesn't retreat but as the seconds pass, I see his demeanor coming back up ready to close me off and I'm suddenly fearful of that.
My feet are moving towards him before I know what I'm doing, and I grab onto his shirt again, pulling him back down onto my mouth. He follows the movement, and we stumble back into the wall, my back slamming up against it causing me to gasp at the sudden jolt. I let him take the lead, feeling that he's still deciding on what he wants to do. So, I just kiss him back, meeting every stroke of his lips with mine as he slowly becomes more eager, faster and the base of my stomach warms at his tongue that slips along my lips, asking for entrance.
I give in immediately and as soon as his tongue touches mine, he lets out a low groan and my stomach floods with liquid gold as I kiss him deeper, wanting to hear that sound again. He pushes me deeper into the wall, his hand tangling in my braid, tugging slightly and I let out a small gasp at his roughness coming out to play. I smile against his lips and let go of his shirt and slowly make my way up into his messy salt and pepper hair, it being soft to the touch, tugging at the ends. My hands were trembling, ignited by a wildfire within, sending shivers down my spine.
He groans again but louder this time, and he suddenly leans down grabbing ahold of my thighs, hauling me up. I answer by hooking my legs around his waist as he pushes himself against me using the wall as leverage, helping him hold me in place and I gasp at his hands that cup my ass, squeezing slightly.
The kiss becomes sloppy, our tongues dancing over each other as I start to grind against his hips, needing the friction, eliciting a moan from him. He pulls back from the kiss and starts to attack my neck with kisses and my eyes land on the bed and all I want right now is for him to throw me over there and have his way with me but, of course it's not the case.
The spell we're in comes to an abrupt stop as we hear Bill calling from downstairs, which makes Joel's head whip up out of the crook of my neck, his lips swollen as he looks me over, shock evident in his eyes. I refrain from groaning as he sets me back onto the ground and withdraws from me, his warmth already missed.
But he doesn't turn around to leave like I would expect other people too. Instead, he tucks my hair behind my ear hesitantly, "You better fix your hair before you come down." He whispers, his voice like velvet before turning away, grabbing the bottle of alcohol and walking out the door downstairs.
I huff out a breath as I lean back against the wall, closing my eyes, my fingers grazing over my lips trying to remember how his kiss felt, replaying the gentle strokes of his hand on my neck, the electric tingle of his fingertips grazing my scalp when he tugged at my hair. The sensation, once so familiar, now seemed like a distant dream, slipping through my grasp like sand.
My eyes open and I tap my head against the wall taking a second to compose myself, fixing my braid like he said and pick up my bag before exiting the room, leaving the tension in my body behind.