by Misty Vixen
“Fuck!” he snapped as he turned around and saw that some had begun to climb up the back. He aimed and fired, trying to be careful of the solar panels. He believed they were encased in some pretty tough stuff, but these were close-range bullets and solar panels were far, far too precious to risk fucking up, even in these desperate times. He put three rounds into the screaming mouth of the nearest stalker, blowing its head off its neck, then turned and shot another one in its misshapen cranium. It flopped back off the building, but more were climbing up.
“More are coming!” Ellie screamed.
Behind the ones now coming at him on top of the structure, he saw even more of the creatures emerging from the treeline back there.
This was it. He was probably going to die here.
He was probably going to have his guts ripped out, his skin torn open, and he was going to be eaten alive and screaming.
What a really fucking awful way to die.
But he wasn’t going down without a fight at least. David pumped the nearest fuckers full of lead and drained his submachine gun for the last time. As soon as it began clicking, fresh out of ammo, he dropped it and whipped out his pistol. He shot a stalker in the eye as it leaped for him, then turned and put two rounds into the face of another one.
As he emptied his pistol and quickly began to reload, a sudden thunderous crash of many assault rifles firing off sounded. He saw a great many flashes coming from the north. There had to be a few dozen rifles firing, given the sound and number of muzzle flares. They were all hidden within the treeline. Whoever they were, whatever they were doing, he really didn’t give a shit right now, because they were probably going to save his ass. Although it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t keep this rooftop clear of stalkers.
He finished reloading and quickly killed off all of the others he could see. Cait joined him a few seconds later, and together, they put down those that had managed to make it up onto the roof. As they helped Ellie kill off the remainders, a spray of automatic fire suddenly cut their way, flying overhead. All three of them dropped flat.
“Watch it, fuckers!” Ellie screamed, though he doubted they could hear her. He could barely hear her with all the shrieking and gunfire.
It lasted for what felt like a really long time, and they never seemed to run out of ammo. He heard several shotguns go off, and twice something exploded. What had to be a grenade. Where the fuck were they finding grenades? Who the fuck was this exactly? They had to kill a few more stalkers that had managed to get close enough to crawl up there, but for the most part all the others were either killed right away, or reacted to the new threat and began bounding towards it, and were then subsequently killed by the hail of gunfire.
Finally, after awhile, several minutes at least, the gunfire stopped, and they were still alive, and a tremendous silence fell over the clearing.
“Who the fuck is that?” David whispered.
“I think I know, and we might be in trouble,” Ellie replied quietly.
They slowly got up, and David saw several figures emerging from the trees. They walked among the field of dead stalkers. Occasionally, a gunshot would ring out as they found a survivor. As they began heading right for the building, David felt a fresh wave of cold fear as he saw that they were all wearing matching camouflage uniforms.
“Shit,” Ellie muttered. “I knew it.”
“Who is this?” David whispered.
“Lima Company,” Cait said softly. “Ex-military. Back from when there still was a military, I guess. Or so their leader says. Fuck.”
“Are they...violent?” he asked uncertainly.
“Not exactly, but they take what they deem necessary, and they police themselves, largely. They have been known to help people out, but they’ve also come down very hard on some people who didn’t deserve it. There’s a good fifty or sixty of them, all trained soldiers. Shit.”
“What do we do?” David asked.
“Just stay quiet. Follow my lead,” Ellie replied curtly.
She walked up to the northern edge of the building, and David and Cait joined her, standing to either side of her.
“Is that Ellie I see up there?” a deep voice called out.
“Yes, Stern,” Ellie replied, sounding annoyed.
“I believe I’ve told you before, it’s Colonel Stern.”
“And I believe I’ve told you before you can shove that up your ass, you pompous fuck,” Ellie snapped. David tensed. Wow, she had guts.
The man, Stern, laughed. “You know, Ellie, I just saved your ass. You could at least employ some tact,” he said.
She sighed. “What do you want, Stern?”
“I’ve been meaning to grab these solar panels for awhile now, and since we just happened to be in the neighborhood, I thought we’d knock it off the list.”
“I found them first,” Ellie said, stepping closer to the edge. A few of the soldiers raised their rifles, but Stern waved them back. There were almost thirty of them, David saw. They stopped about thirty feet short of the building. Stern walked ahead of them and came to a stop about fifteen feet away. He was tall, built, and handsome. He sure looked like you’d expect a leader to. His head was shaved bald and he looked to be in his forties.
“Dibs might work among you and your kind, Ellie, but that’s not how things work with me and mine. I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist.”
Ellie raised her pistol, aiming it right at him. David felt his heart start hammering again, but found himself raising his pistol as well, as did Cait.
All of the soldiers immediately raised their rifles.
“And I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist that you fuck off, I need at least one of these,” she said.
Stern stared at her for several seconds. He looked...impressed. Well, this was an impressive move, if a suicidal one.
“Ellie, I have always said that you have a hell of a lot of guts. Probably more than most of my men, if I’m being completely honest. Sometimes, guts is enough...but not now. There’s no possible way you can win this, Ellie. I know you’re bluffing. Don’t be an idiot. I genuinely do not want to have to kill you and your friends...but I will.”
Ellie remained rigid, and so did Cait and David, and then, finally, she slowly lowered her pistol. “Just give us one, Stern. We need it.”
“I can’t,” he replied.
“Please. It’s for the doctors. It’s desperate,” she said.
His expression soured. “The doctors, huh? No. We gave them an opportunity to join us, share resources, we offered protection, and they turned their noses up at us. If they have problems, then they have them. They made their own bed, and they can sleep in it. We need them more. Our goals are bigger, more important.”
Ellie growled, her tail thrashing violently. She was trembling slightly from what had to be raw fury. David prayed she didn’t do anything rash.
“You’re a real fuck stick, you know that, Stern?” she growled.
“You’re welcome, for saving your life. I’d appreciate it if you left my area of operation,” Stern replied.
Ellie tensed, then finally turned back to them. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said, her voice low and furious.
Cait looked pretty pissed, too. David almost felt bad. He was admittedly pretty pissed about this turn of events, and this guy did seem like a fucking asshole, and they had failed in their mission, but he couldn’t stop thinking about that living wave of monstrous stalkers, and how they’d pretty much been snatched back from the abyss of death.
They walked to the edge, and David grabbed his SMG in passing, almost forgetting that he’d dropped it during the fighting, and then they got back down onto the ground. David landed with a grunt, nearly falling over, whereas Cait and Ellie landed pretty easily. He wished he was more graceful, but honestly he was just glad not to have fallen on his ass.
He tossed one more glance at the soldiers, who stared back at him like an army of statues, and then followed the two women out of the clearing.
/>
…
Ellie and Cait didn’t say anything for awhile, and so neither did David.
At this point he was more scared of Ellie than anything else, she looked ready to rip someone’s head off with her bare hands. Her tail was still thrashing more violently than he’d ever seen it. Obviously she and Stern knew each other. They walked until they were decently clear of stalker territory, and then Ellie led them suddenly off the path.
“Where are we going?” David asked uncertainly.
“I need to make a pit stop,” Ellie replied tightly.
He just shut up and kept following. A moment later, they arrived at another, much smaller clearing, that held a little, dilapidated cabin. “Stay here,” Ellie growled, stalking towards it, “I need a fucking minute.”
David and Cait stopped walking and watched as she walked up to the cabin, yanked open the door, then stepped in and slammed it violently behind her. A moment later, he heard her begin screaming in absolute, raw, uncut rage, and something shattered inside.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
“Yeah, Ellie needs to, uh, blow off some steam,” Cait muttered.
“Who in the fuck was that? Obviously that asshole knew her.”
“Colonel Stern runs Lima Company. They’re stationed in an old military base a ways southwest from here, near the lake. I’ve only ever seen it once, and from a distance. They’ve been here for awhile, like two years or something. They established their presence and for the first year or so they didn’t do much, so I’ve heard. Then they started coming out, talking to people, offering support, asking for things in return. Honestly, they weren’t that bad for awhile. But over the past month or two, they’ve gotten, I don’t know, worse. I’ve been hearing stories that they’re demanding more supplies, more stuff, and I think they’re stretched too thin to be of any real support for everyone they claim to support. Stern...wasn’t a bad guy, I feel like.”
“Wonder what happened,” David muttered.
“MOTHERFUCKER!” Ellie screamed, and something smashed into something else.
“Don’t know. I’ve talked to him a few times, when he’s leading a scouting party or patrol or whatever out in the woods or on the road. He’s polite, charming in his own way, but he’s always kind of creeped me out. It’s like...he’s wearing a mask, you know? He’ll stand there and smile at you, say all the right things, in all the right ways, but...” she showed her teeth in a grimace of discomfort, then shook her head sharply, “I dunno, it’s like underneath, he’s thinking about where best to stick a knife in you maybe, you know? He creeps me out.”
“I can see that,” David murmured.
“FUCKING ASSHOLE!” Ellie screamed.
“I think she might have anger problems,” he whispered.
Cait chuckled. “Can you blame her?”
“No, not really.”
There was silence about a minute later, and then suddenly the door flung open and Ellie marched back out. “Come on,” she said, walking past them.
They glanced at each other, then quickly began to follow after her.
…
Ellie seemed to spend the rest of the walk back cooling off, or trying to, anyway. Again, nobody said anything. David felt real concern begin to creep into him as he realized that they were coming back empty-handed. How was he going to get those antibiotics? If he didn’t get them, that woman might die, and he wouldn’t get his gear, and he wouldn’t secure trade with the farm, and his life with Evelyn and April (and now Cait) would be harder. And, fuck, he still had to have an actual conversation with Evie and April about the seriousness of the relationship with Cait…
There was so much to do.
What was he going to do now?
On top of that, he actually did want to help the hospital. It sounded like they really, genuinely needed it. He was still mulling over all this when they finally made it back to the building that served these doctors as both home and hospital.
Ellie banged on the door and looked up. A moment later, someone leaned carefully out of the window up above, weapon in hand. It was the younger nurse, what had his name been? P something. Peter, yeah.
“Oh fuck, you’re back...uh, where’s the solar panel?” he asked.
“We didn’t get it. Something went wrong. Open the door,” Ellie replied curtly.
The man paled, then nodded tightly and disappeared. A moment later, the door opened and they walked in past Peter. Donald waited for them in the main room.
“Peter said you didn’t get it, what happened?” he asked anxiously.
“We ran into a fucking army of stalkers, and then we ran into goddamned Lima Company, and they took it,” Ellie replied, starting off pissed and defensive, but quickly reigning herself in. “I’m sorry,” she added.
“This is terrible,” Donald muttered.
“What about Vanessa and Katya? Did they find anything?” Cait asked.
He sighed and shook his head. “No. We spoke with them over the radio, it was a bust. They’re on their way back...what are we going to do?”
Ellie reached up and placed her first finger and thumb on her temples, beginning to massage them, hiding her eyes. “You said you had a generator,” she said slowly as she continued to massage her head.
“Yes, but it’s very complex and broken...” Donald answered uncertainly.
“I know an expert in tech,” she replied.
“You do?”
“Yes. She’s a wraith, so if you want help, you’ll have to get over any hangups you might have about working with a wraith.”
“I honestly don’t care what she looks like if she can help us,” Donald replied.
“Good. We’ll get her then,” Ellie said. She turned around, but David stepped forward.
“Wait,” he said, and they all looked at him. “I know your situation is desperate, but...ours is, too. Can we please have at least the medication? Please? I promise we’ll go and get this expert and come back, it’s just that this woman is very sick and has been for days...”
Donald looked sympathetic, but also very reluctant. David glanced briefly at the others, looking for help, when inspiration struck him. He took off his SMG and held it up. “What if I leave this here as collateral?” he asked.
Finally, Donald relented. “Okay, yes, you have a deal,” he said, accepting the weapon. “I’ll give it back to you when this expert arrives. I...believe you are helping for more than just personal gain,” he murmured.
“We are,” Cait said, “you know I believe in you, and what you and your people are doing here, Donald. We will help you, I promise.”
“Thank you,” he replied softly. “I’m sorry if I’m difficult, it’s been...it’s been bad, for a long time now. It’s so hard to trust.”
“I know. I understand. It’s fine, Donald. We’ll be back, okay? As quickly as we can. Tell me again what kind of timeline we’re working with,” Cait said.
He sighed. “Squeezing everything we possibly can out of what we have left, and turning off every conceivable device that we can, I think we might have twenty hours or so.”
“Okay, we can make that,” Ellie said.
“I’ll be right back with the medicine.”
He and Peter hurried off through the door near the back of the room.
“All right,” Ellie said, turning to face them, “so we get this medicine, run back to wherever you need to go, drop it off, then we all go to Jennifer’s place.”
“Maybe we should split up,” Cait suggested. “You go on ahead of us?”
“No,” Ellie replied immediately, shaking her head. “It’s dangerous and you don’t know the way to Jennifer’s well enough to get there on your own yet.”
Cait sighed. “Yeah, fair enough.”
Donald returned with two slim metal tubes that had complex words written across them in black marker, and a slip of paper. “These are antibiotics and these other pills will help with the suffering likely more than anything they’ve got. Do. Not. Lose. These. Or the pa
per. It gives proper instructions for when to take the pills and how many.”
“I won’t lose them,” David said, slipping all three items into his inner pocket.
“Good. I’ll be waiting...please hurry.”
“We’re already gone,” Ellie said, and briskly walked across the room.
David and Cait followed her out the front door, back into the cold.
CHAPTER NINE
“So who is this woman? Jennifer?” David asked as they began heading back to the garage where Jim and his family were waiting.
“She’s a wraith, and a techie. She’s a goddamned genius, but very isolationist. She’s had...a lot of bad experiences,” Ellie replied. “I traveled here with her,” she added.
“Really? You never mentioned that,” Cait murmured.
“Jennifer and I are very...private.”
“I can tell,” Cait said quietly.
Ellie sighed. “Cait...a lot of shit happened to us, okay? A lot of bad shit.”
“...I’m sorry,” Cait replied.
“It’s okay. I know you don’t mean anything by it. I just...it’s been hard. You...both of you have been very good friends to me. And I do appreciate that, even if I have a very hard time showing it,” she said, slowing so that they could catch up with her on the path back to the river.
“You’re a good friend too, Ellie,” Cait said, reaching out and rubbing her back. “Honestly, you’ve been my only best friend for a long, long time.”
“Oh, but not anymore?” she asked.
Cait sighed. “You just cannot keep your snark inside for more than like thirty fucking seconds, can you?”
“Not really,” Ellie admitted.
“David is amazing, but you’ve been there for me for months now.” She glanced at him. “I hope you don’t take that as an insult, you’re right up there with her.”
“No, it’s fine,” David replied. “I’m honestly glad you like me as much as you do.”