Andrea's P. O. V
—The next afternoon—
I waited with Dina until Ellie's done with saying goodbye to Joel at his grave. I looked to a few graves next to his and saw that he's between people that are considered "Heroes of Jackson." I read the other two names but didn't recognized them. Liam Harrington and Kevin Leroy. They must've did really good things to be considered a heroes in this world. And now Joel joined them. -"And how about you? How are you handeling it?" Dina asked me all over a sudden. I looked at her with sad eyes. -"Same as her I guess. I mean how well can you take the death of your father?" I told her and our eyes drifted back to Ellie. -"Yeah. Of course. Stupid guestion, sorry." She apologized. Ellie walked to us and grabbed Dina's hand. I tried to not look. -"Ready?" Dina asked her. -"Yes. I just need to pick something at Joel's." She said and Dina nodded. We got walking outside the cemetary and Dina filled us out on some words traveling through Jackson. -"Maria put the stables on lockdown. Looks like Tommy took one horse." -"Fucking Tommy." Ellie replied. -"Well. Looks like we're going on foot." I said. -"Maybe we can figure something on the way. Car or horse or something." Dina said. -"You two can still change your mind. I just don't want you to feel like you have to." Ellie said and Dina suddenly stopped her. She put her hand on her cheek. -"Ellie, where you go I go. End of story." -"She stole my line." I added. And so we went to Joel's old house, my house........I'm never going to get used to that.
When we arrived at the door Ellie stopped her hand at the handle, she was shaking a little. -"Are you o-" Dina interupted me. -"Hey, what do you need? I can go get it." She offered. -"It's fine. I wanna do this." She replied. -"Okay." Dina stepped aside and we waited until Ellie opened the door and followed her. -"I'm gonna wait downstairs." Dina said. -"Thanks, it'll just be a second." Ellie said and we went upstairs. Ellie went for something to the bedroom but I imidietly went to the our workshop. It was just an empty room we use as workshop. I looked around it and saw a lot of Joel's work. And some of mine too. Then I saw my unfinished guitar. Shit. We never finished it together. Now we never will. He said he'll help me with the cover. It was suppose to be Ellie's birthday gift. -"Hey. I got what I came for. We can go." Ellie came in the room and I quickly brushed away my tears before turning around. -"Yeah, okay." I replied. -"Ellie! Andrea! Can you come down here?" Dina yelled at us from down stairs. -"Right on cue." I said. -"Is everything okay?" Ellie yelled back. -"Just.....come here." She sounded weird. We better go see what's up. So we both slowly made ourway downstairs.
Maria waited there for us. Dina was sitting on a chair by a table and Maria was walking back and forth, holding a piece of paper. When we arrived downstairs I opened my mouth to say something but Maria imidietly started reading a note in her hands. -"Maria. I'm headed to Seattle. I wish I could let it go, but I can't. I have to bring these people to justice. Ellie and Andrea are going to try to come after me but stop them. Take their guns. Lock up the horses. Maybe lock them up. Buy me some time so I can end this. Love you always, Tommy." She put her hands on the table and leaned on it. Looking Ellie deadly in the eyes. -"He's gonna get himself killed." Maria said like she's blaming us for his actions. -"He shouldn't have go alone." I said. -"So what? You're gonna lock us up?" Ellie asked her. -"I'd prefer if you stayed-" -"Not gonna happen." Ellie interupted her. -"I'd prefer if you stayed. But I know you better." She said the full sentance. Then she looked at Dina. -"You coming with them?" She asked. -"Yeah." She said not thinking twice about her answer. -"Okay. I'll tell someone to let you out with two of your horses. We can't afford to give three in these times. And grab some ammo too." She walked around the table and headed for the door. I grabbed her by her sleeve. -"Thank you Maria." I said. -"You should go. You're losing light. And bring my idiot of a husband back in one piece." She said -"Of course." I replied and she went to arrange our horses. -"I'll go pick my bag. I hid it near the East gate, figured we might want to slip out that way." I said. -"No. I can go pick it up. I left mine there too. You can go prepare the horses and Ellie can get us guns. And we meet at the stables?" Dina said. -"Okay." I left to the stables.
Ellie's P. O. V
Just when Andrea left Dina turned to me. -"So. This definitely made our way easier." She stood up from her chair and smiled at me. -"Well, I should probably go for the bags." She said and started walking away. I pulled her back to me by her hand and gave her a long kiss. Then we pulled away, my hands stayed around her waist and she was holding theirs around my neck. -"Thank you for coming with us. Really, it means a lot. But you don't have to. I said it once before and I'm saying it now. I'm not forcing you." I whispered to her. -"And I said it before, and will say it again." She also whispered and tucked a small lock of my hair behind my ear. -"Where you go I go. End of story." Then she gave me one short kiss and we pulled away. -"I'll see you at the stables. And you better move that sexy ass. Andrea's waiting for us." She said and walked out of the door. Well.......I'll be back soon Joel. And they'll pay for what they did. I left the house aswell.
After I went to our armory for some weapons and armor I went to the stables where Shimmer and Frost were already ready and waiting. I saw Dina waiting at Shimmer and I walked to her. -"Hey. Where's Andrea?" I asked and she just nod her head to where she was looking. I looked there and saw Hannah saying goodbye to Andrea. -"Are you sure about that? Don't you want me to come with you? Your back hasn't fully healed, I don't approve of you taking such a risk. Do you have enaugh bandages? I can get you some more if you want. And what about-" Andrea stopped her. -"Hannah. I'm fine. And I don't want you to come with us. Too much work to keep you alive." She smiled. -"Excuse you? One day I'll show you how I kick someone's ass." She smiled back. -"Yeah, I'm sure you will. Goodbye Hannah." Andrea hugged her. -"Bye, sis. Be safe." With that Andrea walked to us. -"Ready?" She said. -"More then ever." I replied and we got onto our horses. Dina rode with me and Andrea got on Frost alone. The people opened the gate for us and we rode out. I looked back once more. Maria was standing at the gate. She nodded at me and I nodded at her. We have to get Tommy back. Then we rode away.
—few weeks later—
Andrea's jacket
Andrea's pants
Andrea's boots
Andrea's backpack
-"So. How lost are we?" Dina asked. -"We're not. Right Andrea?" I looked at her for assurance. -"Girl. We could be heading towards Detroit and I wouldn't know. I'm following you." She replied. -"Really helpful." I said. -"Um. I know it's probably not the best guestion. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. What was your first kill like?" Me and Andrea looked at each other. -"It's fine for me. And I remember it well. A guy was on top of Joel and he was holding him under water. Joel couldn't get to his gun. Without thinking I grabbed the gun and blew the guy's head off." I told her. -"Wow. How old were you?" She asked. -"Fourteen. And what about you?" I asked her in return. -"Uh. Does infected count?" -"Nope. Only the sane ones." -"Then it was when I was ten. Some guy was on top of my mom. I just stabbed him." She said it like it was easy but I bet it wasn't. -"Well. You got me beaten." -"And what about you Andrea?" Dina asked Andrea who was riding just behind us. -"Um..... I. My first kill was back in the QZ. I killed a guard there. When I was running from another guard when he saw me getting out of my room after our bedtime. I ran into scaffold and a bunch of bricks fell right onto another guy under it. It crushed the guy and there was not a damn anybody could do about it. But I know if I just obeyed the rules for once, he might still be alive." When she was done telling her story nobody said anything for a while. Damn, I had no idea. -"Andrea, it's not-" Dina tried talking but Andrea wouldn't let her. -"I know what you wanna say. And don't even bother. It is my fault. And I've come to peace with it. It is what it is." She said quietly. -"I'm sorry." I said and we continued our way in silence until we arrived at a big gate.
-"Well well. Turns out you do know where you're going." Dina said to me. -"I told you." I replied and got off Shimmer. -"But how do we get in?" Andrea asked already down from Frost. We started looking around for a way in. -"Tresspasers shot on sight." Dina read the big writing on the gate. -"They are not going to make this easy for us, huh?" Dina said afterwards. -"Hmm. At least it's not gonna be boring." Andrea tried joking but it went cold. She cleared her throat and we continued looking around. After just a few minutes we saw a broken ledder that seemed to lead somewhere up the gate. -"Maybe there's a way to get on the other side up there." Dina said and got under the ledder. -"Ellie, here. I'll give you a boost and you can have look around." Ellie stepped on her hands and they helped each other so Ellie can get onto the ledder. -"I'll come with her. Just in case." Andrea said. -"Okay." Dina nodded and helped Andrea get up too. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. -"Thanks." She said and gave me a smile. I didn't answer and looked for a way around the gate. I saw a billboard that was next to a hole in a wall that looked like we could use to get to the other side. The only catch was the distance we had to jump to get to it. Might be three meters or so. I looked down and I'm lucky I'm not afraid of height because we were really high up. -"After you." I faced Andrea. -"Wouldn't have it any other way." She said and gave herself a headstart before she jumped. When she was in the air my mind was suddenly filled with a tons of scenarios when she failed. But she didn't and I let out a breath of relieve I didn't even notice I was holding. -"Nothing to it. Come on." She told me once she was safely on the billboard. I nodded and just as her I gave myself a headstart and jumped. CREAK! When I landed it was too much for the billboard's platform, it creaked and tilted. I lost my balance but then held onto Andrea who kinda pulled me to her with her hand. Her other hand was holding the billboard. -"Jessus!" I looked up and my eyes met with Andrea's. -"Thanks for the save." I said to her and pulled away. -"Sure." She replied. -"Ellie!" Dina rushed under the billboard. -"Are you okay?" She asked worried. -"I'm okay!" I reassured her. -"Just almost died." I smiled at Andrea. After that we climbed on the other side thanks to the hole in the wall. And luckily there was a ledder that wasn't broken on the other side, so getting down wasn't a problem.
We looked around and found and an old generator. -"Hey. Maybe we can use it to get the gate working." Andrea pointed at some big-ass electrical outlet. -"Yeah. Sounds good." She walked at the other side of fence that was seperating me from the outlet. -"Just throw it over the fence once you get it going." She said and I gave her a small nod. It took me three tries but I got the generator working. Then I grabbed the cable connected to it and threw it to Andrea. She put the connector to the outlet and it gave her a small electric shock. -"Ah. Shit." She shook her hand. -"You okay there?" I asked. -"Yeah. It just startled me, that's all." She chuckled and we went to a building the the outlet was on. We found some monitor. I went to it and had a closer look. It wanted a four numbers digit code. -"Shit. It wants a code. I don't suposse they leave a code written here somewhere. We're screwed." I said. -"Hmm. Not really." She replied and pulled out a map and a piece of paper from a drawer. -"Looks like they're that dumb." She chuckled and handed me the paper. There were gate codes written on it. -"Jeez. They're actually making it easy for us." I said while putting in the code. After putting it in the gate started opening with loud screeching. Dina was quick to follow and when the gate opened enaugh she led the horses inside. Just as Frost walked inside the generator failed and the gate slammed down again. CRASH! The horses got spooked and started neighing. Dina calmed them down. -"Nice work you two. But let's go before anyone shows up. That crash was pretty loud. I'm sure we're not the only ones that heard it." She said and got onto Shimmer. -"Agreed." Andrea said and swiftly almost jumped onto Frost. We rode further into the city.
-"So. Did you find out anything useful?" Dina asked on the way. -"Some note with gate codes and an old turist map. Could be useful." Andrea answered. Then we went around a corner and Andrea imidietly stopped her horse and pointed somewhere. -"Oh shit! Look! Serevena hotel!" Me and Dina just looked at each other. -"Yeah. And?" I said not following. -"Well. There was a writing on the other side of that note. That the WLF moved to a Serevena base. Could this be it?" She explained. -"Why didn't you say something before?" I said. -"I thought you saw the note." She replied. -"It doesn't matter. Let's just get there." Dina said. We were seperated from our destination by a gate though. FUCK FEDRA written next to it. -"So, you got a code for this Fuck FEDRA gate?" Dina asked. -"Yeah it's 5345." Andrea replied looking at the note. -"I'll get the generator and you go put in the code." Dina said and headed towards the generator while Andrea handed me Frost's rein. -"Just, be patient when starting these old generators. They're pretty picky so it might take you a few tries to-" VROOM! Dina started the generator almost imidietly. -"Sorry, go on babe." She teased me. -"Nothing." I replied. Andrea put in the code and the gate opened. I led our horses through the gate. Andrea and Dina followed soon after and got on the horses.
We rode around the Serevena and saw a big wolf graffiti on the building. -"Wolf. Now I get it. WLF." Andrea said. -"Oh, you're right." I agreed. -"Woah! Did you see that?" Dina asked. -"What?" I asked her. -"An infected just jumped the fence." She told us. -"Well if that's true that it's rather wierd." Andrea said. -"I know right. Shouldn't we hear gunshots or something?" Dina agreed with her. -"Hmm. Let's get in there." I said and we all climbed over the fence too and followed the infected.
When we arrived at the hotel we saw a few corpses of the WLF soldiers and infected already feasting on them. Five runners in total. Two were feasting on a nearby body and three were roaming around the main room. -"So, the old fashioned way?" Andrea smiled at me holding a molotov in her hand. -"You like these don't you?" I said and grabbed a nearby brick. -"My favourite weapon." She replied and waited for me to attract the infected. CRASH! I threw the brick somewhere in the middle of the room and Andrea waited until they gathered. Then she threw the molotov. CRASH! AAAAAAH! Another crash could be heard and not a second after it, screams. -"Oh, how I like this part." Andrea said a little bit like a psychopath. One of the runners ran straight at us and tackled Andrea to the ground. It was still on fire. -"Shit, get offa me!" She yelled. Two more runners ran at our direction and I send one of them my bullet. BANG! Headshot. The other went down with a quick throw from Dina and my knife to it's head. Then I turned around and saw that Andrea has taken the infected out and Dina is already helping her on her feet. -"You're right. This part was really nice." Dina joked. -"Shut up." Andrea chuckled. -"I swear if these fuckers got killed by some random infected." I said. -"Then they'll still be dead Ellie." Dina tried keeping me off this way of thinking. -"I don't think that's justice." But I continued. -"Ellie. Please." Andrea sided with Dina. -"Let's just find out what happened here." She said and so we continued on upstairs. We checked almost every room. -"Look at all those soldiers. They were all shot." Dina noticed. -"Yeah. I'd rather not stick around for long." Andrea said. Then we went to one of the room and imidietly a familiar face met mine.
Andrea's P. O. V
-"That's one of them." Ellie said looking carefully on a face of the guy tied up to a chair. It was clear he's dead. -"Another one here." I said when I walked around a bed and saw another body on the floor. Next to it were some numbers written in blood. -"Tommy did this." I said. -"Yeah. No doubt." Ellie agreed with me. -"What? How can you tell?" Dina asked. -"See these numbers? I bet it's the gate code. Joel told us about this method of interrogation. You make one of them to tell you what you want. But you don't let him say, he needs to write it. Then you ask the other one and if the answers match they're telling the truth. If not...." -"You fuck them up." Dina finished my explonation. -"Right. Well at least we know he was here. And where he went. Let's go." Ellie said and so we left the room back to the horses.
Ellie and Dina got of their horse to start a generator and put the code in once we were at the next gate. They succseeded and we continued. I let them go first. -"It's starting to get dark. I say we put up a camp somewhere and-" BOOM! An explosion went off right under Shimmer when she jumped over some kind of debris. Making Ellie and Dina fall. I froze. It's a trap! I looked to Ellie and she was still shaken from the explosion. Dina fell somewhere besides the road. WLF soldiers were leaving their hiding spots. -"Shoot her!" Someone yelled and I snapped back to reality. I didn't know what else to do then to turn Frost around and ride away. -"Shoot the motherfucking horse, goddamnit!" The soldiers yelled but I already turned to an alley and started riding through the city. It was full of dead ends and so I had to change direction really often.
I finally shook them off and stopped at a nearby house. I got off Frost and hid with him inside. There was a bathtub downstairs that was filled with water, Frost imidietly went to it and started drinking from it. -"You do you buddy." I petted him on the neck and leaned on the wall near him. What the fuck am I gonna do? Well of course I'll need to save them, but how. And where even are they? I should've stayed and fought. I should've helped them! Now they're captured and it's all my fault! Fuck, why am I always this stupid?! Why do I always run?! Ellie and Dina might be already dead because of me. I need to find them. CRACK! I snapped back to reality when I heard someone got into the house through window. Shit. Those WLF are good at tracking. I crouched and listened carefully. Someone was in the kitchen. Luckily there was the living room seperating us. I pulled out my switchblade and started walking towards the kitchen slowly. The doors were closed. I slowly started opening them.
Okay. You're at the end of third chapter! I hate cliff hangers. What about you? Also some of you may have noticed that I cut off a large piece of the game. To my defense that game is increadibly long and I don't want to bore you to death if you know what I mean. Hope you're not mad.
-By Cotudelam