L4D2: The Light at the End of the Tunnel (mandii/malo)

T

TheMandii

Super-Earth
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Deltona, Florida; June 12th; 12:43 PM


A rustling could be heard behind a kitchen counter, a closer look would reveal a young brunette searching the cupboards as quietly as possible for something, anything, to sustain her. She got up to check her surroundings once again, and through a gap in a board-covered window she spotted a familiar figure, a figure whom she'd dreamt about since their last encounter. Over, and over, she imagined seeing him again, having convinced herself that she wouldn't.

"Holy shit, I can't believe it! Ellis??" Zoey had found refuge in a small, surprisingly empty restaurant in a small neighborhood just outside of Deltona's limits, scavenging for food after having been separated from Louis and Francis for what felt like weeks. She crept up to the boarded up window, spotting the handsome southern boy across the street, alone, armed to the gills. He must have been alone, too.

She opened the door carefully, cautious not to mess with or move the chime in the doorway, then cautiously closing the door behind her.

"Ellis! Over here! It's me, Zoey!" She waved at him, trying not to yell entirely too loudly.
 
Ellis had been alone for weeks, he had departed ways with Coach & Co.
He was sporting a hunter rifle, a baseball bat, a few grenades and pills. He had been scratched a few times and he had run out of food and water since the day before.

Ellis arrived Deltona, it was also deserted, he began wandering through the streets, aimlessly.
Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice, could it be...? Yes! It was Zoey, Ellis smiled in excitement, he hadn't seen her since the bridge incident.
He ran towards her and hugged her.
"Hiya' Zoey, it's been a long time, how have ya' been?"
 
Zoey hugged him back, So happy that she hadn't been dreaming the whole encounter. "Oh, man, Ellis... I've been okay, except I lost track of Louis and Francis.... They had an argument after Bill died and it hasn't been the same..." She looked sad. "We got split up by a horde and a couple of tanks a few hours from here. I tried to look for them. I waited as long as I could but the town we were in was going down in flames and I was low on ammo." She opened the door. "There's a little food in here, can't say it's much, but the building is empty and I've secured the entrance ways." Zoey lead him into the building.

"I was thinking of making camp here. Most of the streets I checked in this town were fairly empty. It's surprising, but I guess the whole world can't be completely overrun in every town there is." She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, sitting on the counter. "So why are you all by yourself, Ellis?"
 
Ellis erased his smile when he heard Zoey's story.
"Well, after we got away in that car, however a few miles later a tank destroyed the car we were in. Running out of ammo they decided to head to New York, but i insisted in going to Florida. We had an argument and the went to NY." he said quietly.
He then put his weapons in a nearby table. "I'm still packing quite a punch of ammo, i tend to use mah' bat." he laughed.
Then he smiled again. "Didya' miss me?"
 
She heard his story and frowned a little. He could have been killed! But then again, she could have too. Zoey took a quick glance at his inventory. Between the two of them, they could make a great team. She had several pipe bombs, a couple of health packs and an adrenaline shot. Her Uzi was almost out of ammo.

Upon his question, she smiled back. "I... I really did miss you, actually." She blushed a little. "I couldn't help wondering if we'd see each other again. I know that my group's plan was to get to the Keys... Maybe we should go there."
 
"Yeah, i also missed ya'. Also, going to the Keys is not a bad idea (sorry for my ignorance, but what is the keys?), we have quite an inventory to make ourselves up. The only thing i need is a bathroom, a glass of water and something to eat please, i'm starving. I haven't eaten in 24 hours and it drains my strenght." he said as he got up and stretched.

He was infact really happy he was with Zoey again, the team showed some sign of splitting up when Bill died.
 
(The florida Keys are a set of islands off the bottom of Florida, in the L4D comic that Valve released said that the L4D1 group was trying to get to the Keys because they heard that there's no infected there)

Zoey nodded and handed him one of her canteens. "Here, don't drink it all at once." She rummaged around in her backpack to produce a somewhat old piece of jerky, but still good enough to eat. "Here. Hopefully I can scrounge up something good here.." She turned back to go into the kitchen, looking in every cupboard and every shelf, she found a jug of water, but nothing else that was edible. "Well, so much for finding more food."
 
(Thank you, now i remember. I just didn't know they were called the Keys, i just knew that they were trying to cross the bridge in The Sacrifice to get to a Infected-Free island.)

Ellis drank a small sip of water, they really needed to save water incase of something. Then he ate the jerky Zoey gave him.
"Well, uhmm, that will help fo' a couple o' hours i think." He then walked to a window, it was completely blocked by wooden planks but there was a slight crack in one of them, big enough for one to see through. "This city is kind of deserted. I haven't seen a single zombie in days."
 
Zoey stood next to him. "It's a little unsettling, isn't it?" She sighed a little, leaning against the wall next to him. "Maybe we can find an empty house to stay in. I haven't seen a real bed in god knows how long."

It was true. She had been walking for days, almost aimlessly, doing her best to avoid the zombies, to remain unseen with her low reserves of ammo. Now that Ellis was here to help her with her previous problem, they could move on, hopefully to find a better life, a safer life, on the Keys. What would they do then, she wondered? Would they stick together, would Ellis go off on his own? She found herself almost hoping that they'd never reach the keys, so they could be together longer. Her selfish thoughts disturbed her. Sure, she'd had a bit of a crush on Ellis, but did that warrant prolonging their suffering?
 
"Yeah, maybe we can!" he said in an optimistic voice as he glanced around, looking for a safe empty house, every one of them looked overrun.
"Let's go and have a walk, maybe we find one that looks decent while we walk" he whispered. He packed his guns back and waited for Zoey on the door.
 
Zoey smiled at him and nodded, gathering up her own things and shoving the jug into her bag. Judging by how empty the town seemed, she didn't think any extra weight would be terrible to carry. "Alright, let's go. I hope we find a nice one..." She exited the restaurant with him and walked down the street with him, quietly, checking every corner, eyes sharp. She was definitely more hardened since all of this happened. Zoey remembered a time when losing the others would have been her undoing. Now she was almost content on her own; as much as she loved Francis & Louis like brothers.

They traversed a few blocks away, most of the houses too run down to call safe, until finally, they found a house that was almost perfectly intact behind a large wrought iron fence. The house was beautiful, a textured white house with brick red spanish tiles adorning the rooftop. It looked as though whomever lived there was at least moderately wealthy. "Ellis, look at this house... I say we check it out."
 
Ellis followed Zoey to a house that looked the one from the plantation.
"Damn, these guys surely have a lotsa' money!" he sad jokingly. Just as he was about to open the gates he noticed that the gate had an alarm system. However, as with every alarm system the power was in the house, meaning they had to open the gate, run as fast as they could from the zombies and turn off the power.

He gave Zoey a small wink. "Shall we?"
 
She smiled at him. "Guess we have to. The fence is too high to climb over..." She held her Uzi at the ready. "I'll open it, as soon as you're inside close the gates and use that chain on the ground to lock 'em out," She pointed to a semi-rusty chain with a padlock on it in the grass near the gate. "Then maybe we can keep them from coming to the house. Hopefully the alarm won't be too loud." She managed to unlock the gate, and of course, the alarm was loud.

She rushed inside the gate's safety and checked the lawn for zombies, which there were none, and checked the windows, in which she only saw one zombie--he was an old man, lumbering toward the windowsill then tumbling out and onto the concrete driveway with a loud thud. "Yep, that must have been the owner! He's done for." She turned finally, to cover Ellis.
 
Ellis nodded, as soon as the alarm went off, he ran quickly inside. He quickly began looking around for the switch, it was in the basement. "Who the fuck has a swtich for the main alarm in the basement?" he thought angrily as he walked down the stairs.
He pulled a switch and the alarm turned off.

He quickly ran upstairs and grabbed the ol' rusty chains, he was expecting to see whole horde, something almost unstoppable, maybe even a tank. But no, that was really anti-climatic. He secured the main gate and the grabbed Zoey, the two ran inside.
 
Zoey had managed to kill all of the approaching zombies on her own. There had only been 7 or 10 zombies total. When they went inside Zoey looked at him, and grinned. "That was surprisingly easy..." She shrugged before looking around. "Hey. How did the house look, any other zombies? I only saw one within the fence."
 
She chuckled. "They are pretty stupid, most of them." She trekked upstairs cautiously, not having checked there yet. Every room she checked, every closet, totally clear. The master bedroom looked undisturbed save for a thin layer of dust on everything. "Perfect." She looked around for another bedroom, but the one she found was clearly for a child. Did that mean that they were going to share the bed? She blushed at the thought. It HAD been a while.
 
Ellis followed her upstairs, that was damned nice house! Strangely enough it was in the middle of Deltona, everyone seemed so average and that in the middle of everything was a huge 'inn, damn! It looked more like a CEDA refugees center than other kind of thing. He approached the room Zoey was in and blushed a bit when he saw the bed, it seemed that they would sleep together.
 
Zoey turned away from the doorway, walking down the hall, not accustomed to being allowed to relax too much. "I know the fence seems sturdy but we should secure the doors and windows just in case." She moved with conviction, moving what she could to block doors and windows. "Can't get too comfortable in this world now." There was plenty of furniture to use, and she did so making as little sound as humanly possible.
 
(I answered to this! You nigga phone.)

Ellis began covering every window he found with chairs, couches or cupcboards. When he was finished he stood next to Zoey. "What now?" he said as he left everything he carried on a table, feeling a lot lightier.
 
Zoey shrugged. "I don't know, I really just feel like resting. I haven't slept in... a couple days." She frowned a little. "Maybe I can shake out those sheets upstairs to get the dust out."
 
"Ok, i'll help ya' if ya' want." he said as he walked with her upstairs and into the room.

(Sorry for my goddamn short post but i feel so goddamn high and can't write correctly, i was just writinb in another website and i was so high i just wrote Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World lyrics. I just don't know why am i feelin so high.)
 
(Lol that's hilarious)

Zoey nodded and walked upstairs with him into the bedroom, where she dropped her bags on the floor and lay her guns down. "Thanks, Ellis." She said as she began to remove the sheets from the bed. "You know what? Maybe there's some in that closet.." She stepped outside of the room to the small closet in the hall, inside were towels, some minor first aid supplies, and, yes, sheets. "Score!"
 
(Yeah i know, i actually fell from my bed laughing this morning when i found out what i had written. Along with that goes a PM to a RP that read "Maccall started blast he riht thru the ghetto, he be trippin." I almost bleed from laughing.)

Ellis helped Zoey with the sheets, they were as dusty as fuck, he started to clean them and put them in the bed. "Ok, i've gotta' go to the bathroom" he said as he ran through the halls, trying to find the bathroom.
When he finally found it he started to pee.
 
Zoey went about her business, making the bed and cleaning up a bit, as much as she could, anyway, and moving furniture to block the windows of the bedroom, especially since they would be sleeping there for the night. It had to be the most secure room. Zoey yawned, kicking off her boots and sitting upon the bed. Perhaps she'd even be able to find some clean clothes later.
 
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