𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞

- CHAPTER THIRTEEN -
BIG BAD BLOATER

"THEY'VE BROKEN THROUGH!" Joel shouted as they legged it out of the room and into the school hallway, slamming the doors shut behind them

"Bill, what the hell do we do now?" Kathy asked in a quiet voice when she caught sight of a runner at the end of hallway. It hadn't spotted them yet.

"Let's um...We'll sneak out the back." He made a plan on the spot, not sounding very confident in it.

"You three, follow me. I'll get us out of here." Joel promised, taking the lead as they crept along, trying to avoid any attention from the infected.

"Oh, now I'm full of confidence. Thanks, Joel." Kathy quipped back sarcastically, just passing by some lockers.

They were in what seemed to be one of the main areas of the school, green lockers for students scattered across the walls, with banners hanging above the main stairs. The entrance branched off in three directions, one of them blocked with a gate and the others were barricaded with infected. There weren't too many, but she was sure there were more up the staircase. And shuffling around in the dark would make it easier to perform sneak attacks.

Joel did most of the work, it was becoming a habit really, not that Kathy minded. She enjoyed taking it easy for a little while as the smuggler protected them. It was sort of comforting, in a way. Knowing that Joel would keep them safe. She knew it was because of Ellie, but it was nice having someone look out for her.

She was just so used to doing everything herself and sharing some of her load with Joel gave her some time to breathe. And to be completely honest, watching Joel's muscles clench when he strangled a runner was quite attractive, so she enjoyed letting him lead.

After they killed the infected in one of the science rooms, Joel peeked his head around the corner and told them, "Looks like there's a path down this hallway." He threw a molotov at the three infected, and they screamed as they burnt to a crisp.

Kathy sent him an approving grin as she passed the crispy corpses. Okay, so she might have a problem with enjoing molotovs a little to much, but surely that was a good thing in an apocalyptic world where everything was trying to kill her.

Joel approached some double doors, that were blocked of on the other side by some gym equipment. He shoved his weight against it, but it only budged a little, "Help me open this."

Kathy shrugged and moved so that she was next to him, adding her weight as well, "Ready?"

Together, they bashed against the door, it budging open little by little every time they slammed their bodies against it until there was enough room to slide through.

Joel pushed the barricade back against the door after they slid into the gym, "C'mon."

"Shit. There's more on the way. Barricade the doors."

"What did you think he was doing? Limbering up?" Kathy remarked, her hands on her hips.

Joel stepped back after the door was barricaded once again, "This ain't gonna hold them for long."

Before Kathy could make another witty reply, the doors on the adjacent side of the gym started to knock loudly. There was something big on the other side. "That doesn't sound good." She groaned.

The doors slammed open, revealing a bloater on the other side. It looked like a Clicker, just fatter and stronger, more armoured and it could throw toxic dandruff at you. Which could infect you if you inhaled too much of it. They were hard to kill, even with the powerful shotguns they had. You'd need at least three molotovs to kill them in a few blows and Kathy only had one.

"Oh shit." Kathy gulped, diving out of the way of one of those dandruff clouds the Bloater had just thrown at them.

"What the fuck is that?!" Ellie exclaimed, staring at it with wide eyes. She'd never seen one of those before.

"It's a goddamn bloater!" Bill cursed as it threw another one.

"A what?"

"Ellie, take cover. Me and Joel have got this." Kathy told her, whipping out her one molotov and throwing it at the bloater.

It hit directly on the chest and it screeched, thrashing about as it's armour burned away bit by bit. As it flailed about, runners jumped down from the bleachers, probably coming in through the windows.

"What the fuck is it throwing at us?"

"Just stay away from it, Ellie!" Kathy groaned as she wacked a runner in the head with her nailed bat that she'd picked up in the science classroom. It broke after a couple of uses and she dropped it on the ground.

"We gotta get up there!" Joel shouted, referring to where the runners came from. The bloater was chasing him, now charred but still very much alive and still throwing shit at them.

"We can't climb up there with all the infected around!" Bill retorted, shooting the bloater with his shotgun. Joel threw another molotov at it, but once again, it was still kicking.

Kathy whipped out her own, aiming for it's head. The kickback of the weapon was strong and it hurt her shoulder, but with every shell that Kathy, Joel and Bill hit it with, the more armour broke away from it's face. When most of the boney armours had cracked away, one well aimed bullet from Kathy's pistol had killed it dead.

"There." She breathed, kicking it's body. Whether it was to make sure it was dead or because she was angry at it for wasting all their ammo, she didn't know.

"Geez...what was up with that big guy?" Ellie asked.

"He's been infected for a long time. We call them Bloaters." Joel informed her.

"Bloater." She breathed out heavily, "Okay. Got it."

"I hate to interrupt your little biology lesson, but can we get the fuck outta here? Please?" Bill scolded.

Kathy let out a chuckle, "Sure, Bill. Sure."

"Let's get on top of these bleachers. Gimme a boost, Joel" Bill called out to the smuggler who had searched the gym for supplies. He help Bill up and then handed Kathy some ammo when it was her turn.

She smiled at him gratefully and took it as she placed her foot in his hands. "Thanks, princess. Enjoy the view."

He huffed at her comment and hoisted her up. She and Bill then pulled Ellie up when she noticed some infected drop down into the gym, "Joel, behind you!"

"Son of a bitch!" Joel cursed, spinning around to face the threat. They watched as Joel shot them down one by one, he seemed to have it handled.

"I fucking hate those things!" Ellie groaned when he killed them all.

"You and me both, kiddo." Kathy replied, not realising that her hands were shaking. She'd been worried about him.

"Alright, you got 'em. Let's go. Come on up." Bill called out to the other man and pulled him up. They ran along the bleachers, climbed out the open window to the outside and through a torn gate that took them out of the highschool area. "We're sittin' ducks here."

"There's another ladder over here." Ellie spotted and they went straight for it.

Joel stayed at the back, shooting the infected that chased them, "Keep going! I'm right behind you!"

"You fucking better be!" Kathy retorted, swinging her leg over the fence and jumping over. Joel climbed over a second later and Bill pushed the ladder down with a rake so that the infected couldn't follow.

"Inside the house. Now!" Bill commanded, staring back at the fence that had infected pounding against it as they rushed inside, He slid the door shut behind them so that they could no longer hear it.

"So, that worked out well." Ellie remarked, the sarcasm evidently dripping from her tone. She noticed the tension between the three adults in from of her and awkwardly said, "Okay, ah. I'll go check out this side of the house."

Once the teen was gone, Kathy turned to Bill, "What the fuck happened?"

Joel nodded, "Bill?"

"Someone had the same idea. They stole my shit." Bill replied angrilly.

"Well then what the hell is plan B?" Joel asked, his voice raised.

Bill matched his tone, "You ought to be thankful you're still drawing breath. That was plan A, B, C, all the way to fucking Z. And furthermore, tell Tess that she can take this job-"

"Shut the fuck up, Bill!" Kathy tried to cut in, she knew how touch Joel was about his fallen friend, but she was ignored by both men.

"Don't you bring Tess into this!"

"-she can shove it right up-"

"This has nothing to do with-"

Bill stopped arguing, staring over Joel's shoulder, which caused Joel to stop too and turn around with Kathy to see what he was staring at. There was a man, hanging by a rope around his neck, dangling from the ceiling with a red hawaiian shirt on. By the looks of him, he'd been dead for a while.

Kathy had seen a lot of death and grief in her time that hadn't really bothered her, but the way Bill was staring at the hanging man brought up the memory of how she'd found her brother. And it hurt her to see Bill have the same look on his face that she'd had all those years ago.

"What? Do you know this guy or something?" Joel questioned, glancing between Bill and the body.

"Frank."

"Who the hell's Frank?"

"He was my partner." Bill told them as he unsheathed his machete and moved closer to the rope that was holding up the body, "He's the only idiot that would wear a shirt like that." He cut the rope and the body of Frank tumbled to the floor. "He's got bites. Here and..."

Kathy placed a comforting hand on Bill's forearm as she stared down at the floor, "I guess he didn't want to turn so he..."

"Yeah, I guess not." Bill pushed her hand of gently, which was a change, he must've really been hurt by this man's death. "Well, fuck him."

Their heads shot up when they heard a car starting and they rushed to the source of the noise. Elle was in the garage, sitting in the driver's seat of a truck with the biggest grin on her face when she realised they had joined her, "Look what I found. It's got some juice in it."

Bill went to the front of the truck where the hood was propped open. His face contorted from confusion to anger when he noticed what was there, "That's my battery. That fuckin' asshole." He shut the hood and looked at Ellie, "Get out. Get out."

Ellie hopped out of the truck, "Okay, geez."

Bill swapped places with her and turned the key, "The battery's drained, but the cells are alive."

"Meaning?" Joel prodded.

"Meaning we push it, get it started and the alternator will recharge the battery."

"Is that your guess?"

"Look, you wanted a plan B. This is as good as it gets."

"What're you thinking?" Ellie asked as Bill walked away to check out the rest of the garage.

Joel traded a look with Kathy and then sighed, "Thinkin' you drive and we push."

"That's good enough for me." Kathy smiled. Finally, something was working out for them.

❝IT'S NO SURPRISE TO ME, I AM MY OWN WORST ENEMY❞