THE WOLVES

"No-one likes a mad woman; you made her like that."

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CHAPTER EIGHT

The Wolves

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Willow and Ellie left the hotel in the early morning, their backpacks swaying behind them as they walked down the alleyway where their horses were hitched. The morning sun bored into their backs, reminding them of the heat that was going to announce itself later in the day. The girls got on their horses and gripped onto the reins, setting off and galloping down the Seattle roads that had not flooded yet. Ellie glanced over the skyscrapers as they walked along the overgrown city, trying to find any sign of life.

The two rode for a long time, the unbearable sun shooting through the skyscrapers and onto their bodies. Despite the fact that the skyline was beautiful, the weather brushing against their cheeks and burning their heads was horrifying. Both Willow and Ellie knew they had to push through, or else they would return to Jackson with no information and completely empty-handed. The older teen looked over to the younger one, smiling softly as they walked across the old Q.Z.

A few yells came from one of the skyscrapers. Willow assumed it was a WLF patrol, so she quickly motioned Ellie over into an underground parking garage. Their horses put up a bit of resilience as the smell of gasoline filled their lungs, but the two humans kept them tame, dismounting them against one of the walls. Willow wiped off her pants, trying to listen for any other signs of life besides infected in the building, but nothing came through her ears.

"Think they'll lead us to the stadium?" Ellie asked, cracking her neck and beginning to walk across the pavement. Just like the rest of civilization, it was completely overgrown. Even though it hadn't been used for years, the parking garage still held the heavy scent of gasoline throughout the whole, large room.

Willow shrugged. "Hopefully." She replied shortly. "They'll have maps at their patrol checkpoints, I'm sure of it." She elaborated, Ellie nodding in response.

They walked in a comfortable silence, making sure to stay on edge and alert. A run-in with any members of the WLF would hurt their mission, they needed to get back to Jackson with something. Willow looked at the elevators, running her palms over the old metal. It was still cold, causing a deep shiver to rock through her spine. Ellie motioned her over to the staircase, the door swung open and the hinges completely broken off.

The stairs were old and ruined, but since they were solid and concrete, they didn't waver under the weight of the two girls. As they reached the door to the above-ground floor, they stopped. Ellie pressed her ear against the wood, hearing nothing echoing through the halls. She crouched down just in case, grabbing onto Willow's sleeve and pulling her down beside her. Ellie held her hand on the doorknob, her other hand gripping tightly onto her handgun as she pushed the door open.

In front of them was a large circular room, completely cut off from the rest of the building. It was decked out with a large desk that looked out a large window, showing off the cityscape of Seattle. Willow stood up, walking out into the room. Ellie looked in confusion, had they just stumbled across a WLF checkpoint without even knowing it? There were filing cabinets pressed against the walls, the drawers still pulled out and revealing a whole stock of food and weaponry.

Willow's voice stopped Ellie's curiosity. "Look at this." She exclaimed. Ellie walked over to the desk, the sun from the windows pouring across her body again. Willow held a piece of paper in her hands, and she gave it to the older teenagers.

'August 6th – It's Ollie and Robin. We got to the checkpoint safely like Isaac advised. Kam's still nowhere to be found. No infected in sight. Scar interference possible.'

"Shit, that's yesterday." Ellie muttered, looking at Willow with her eyebrows furrowed. The girl simply shrugged in reply, her eyes filled with concern.

"This looks like a popular checkpoint, there's gonna be people after us." Willow stated, placing her two hands on the desk and resting against it. The papers littered across the top of it had been ruffled recently, there was absolutely no dust resting on them. "These have got to be the same people they were talking about in the hotel note." She assumed. After her statement, Willow's eyes suddenly widened as she looked out the window, causing Ellie to follow her train of gaze.

Three large, military-sized vehicles were speeding down the roads of Seattle, patrolling the area. Each one had a WLF sticker on outside of the windows, completely covered in mud. Willow dragged Ellie down behind the desk, peeking their heads out to look at the people down below. Gunshots were being fired from each of the vehicles, only to be stopped by arrows. Ellie watched in confusion as more and more strange-looking people with bows began running out towards the WLF attack.

Willow placed her stomach on the ground, crawling over to the window to get a better look. She held her gun in one of her hands, stabilizing herself with the other. "They'll lead us to the stadium." She spoke, pointing towards the trucks.

Ellie followed her, laying down beside her on the concrete floor and clicking the safety off of her own gun as they talked. "How do we get down there?" She asked.

The younger teen stayed silent for a moment, looking down below the skyscraper. There was a large section of the road that was completely flooded, and the WLF vehicles were on the other side of the bank. Willow thought hard, her mind spinning. If the 'government' saw them, their whole mission could go haywire, and their travels would be worth absolutely nothing. She quickly devised a plan. A risky plan, but if they pulled it off they could easily get to the stadium.

"We jump down to the water." Willow started, pointing down to the flooded area that led behind the buildings. "We get into one of those skyscrapers and follow the trucks down the block." She finished, looking to Ellie.

The older teenager had a bewildered look on her face, her eyebrows furrowed and the skin above her nose wrinkled. "Are you crazy?" She asked. "They'll see us! And that's a sickeningly long jump!" Ellie yelled, motioning crazily with her hands.

"I don't see any other way we can get over there fast enough to catch them." Willow replied seriously, putting her handgun back in her thigh holster. Ellie sighed, standing up as soon as the gunfire ceased between he WLF and the strange other group.

"Fine, fine." She breathed, holding out her hand. Willow grabbed onto it, pulling herself up onto her feet again. They looked out the window, the sounds of bullets leaving guns and wheels scraping against pavement echoing through the streets. Ellie looked around, spotting a pipe beside the desk and picking it up. She took it, bouncing it in her hand a few times before swinging it behind her head and smashing the window. Chunks of glass fell down to the water, splashing against the current.

Willow gulped and looked to Ellie, taking a step forward and holding her head out into the bare air. One more step, and Willow completely disappeared from Ellie's view. Panicked, the older teenager jumped down as well. The breath caught in her throat as her hair whipped out of its high bun, the hot air suddenly turning cold as it pinched against her whole body. She tried not to yell as she screwed her eyes shut, not wanting to look down.

Windows and stories passed her by, and she tried to regulate her breathing before her body hit the freezing cold water. The temperature was a relief to Ellie, but she soon remembered that her lungs needed the sweet release of oxygen. She opened her eyes under the water, using her arms to swim up to the surface, past the debris. Ellie took a large gasp as her face hit the air, coughing a bit as she wiped the water off of her face.

She looked around, seeing Willow's head bob above the ocean current. It was strong, and it was sweeping them down the river towards where they needed to head. Ellie swam towards the other girl, her arms burning with pain as the current took them away. They continued moving, and Willow craned her neck to look over the roads. She spotted their break point, a large dent in the road perfectly made for a quick escape.

Ellie swam over towards the spot, lifting her hand out of the water and ignoring the numbing pain in her legs as she held onto a piece of the rock. Willow reached out for one as well, but her body was swept away from it before she could grab it. Panicking, Ellie grabbed onto her friend's hand, swearing loudly as the water threatened to pull them apart. She pulled her arm back as much as she good, trying to get Willow to come closer to the rock.

After a few moments of pulling and fighting against the current, Willow gasped, grasping onto the rock and pulling her torso out of the water. Her lungs burned and her legs were in desperate pain from kicking against the stream. Ellie pushed herself up, rolling onto the road and landing on her back in relief. She looked over to Willow, who had done the exact same. Both of them were completely drenched in ocean water, but they were laying behind one of the skyscrapers in safety.

Willow sighed, heavily breathing and attempting to shakily stand up. Her feet threatened to give out from underneath her as she wobbled against the road concrete. She continued, though. Ellie saw her struggle and stood up herself, walking over to the girl and holding onto her stomach and back to try and stabilize her. Willow regained her balance and nodded, pushing her back against the large Seattle building and gathering her bearings.

"Jesus, that was so intense." She breathed, holding her hand against her chest and wrapping the other around her backpack strap. Ellie nodded in agreement, squatting down to the ground and standing across from Willow.

The sounds of engines roaring called out to them again, the water draining out of their ears and stopping the constant ringing. Ellie ducked back against the wall where Willow was, looking around the corner and seeing more and more fighting. She looked back to the other girl. "We need to get into these buildings and follow them before they stop." She spoke.

Willow nodded. "Let's go." She replied, looking through one of the windows and jumping in through the broken glass. Ellie followed shortly behind her, and the darkness of the room startled her. They both clicked on their flashlights and kept close to the windows, looking out every once in a while to see the vehicles leading them to the stadium. Or what was hopefully the stadium. Ellie looked at the bookshelves surrounding them, old and dusty comic books scattered around the store.

She paid no mind to the merchandise as they jumped through another set of windows, ducking down in the alleyway and watching as one of the vehicles passed them again. Willow stood up first, taking her leave into another broken window and scratching her hands against the glass. Her palm began to bleed deeply, but she shook it off, forgetting about the searing pain pounding against her hand as they walked through the strange checkpoint.

It looked like it used to be a restaurant, but all of the tables had been flipped over and used to barricade some of the doors and windows. The WLF most definitely used the buildings around them to take cover during patrols, Ellie and Willow must've been lucky to start looking around when they were in the middle of a battle. Broken glasses and ceramic plates were scattered across the floor, and the girls narrowly avoided them. Who knew who else was in the building?

After a while of hopping across buildings, the vehicles turned onto another street. Ellie and Willow ducked down before looking out the window. Directly across from them stood a large building with hundreds of guards standing outside. Military-grade trucks were being loaded and taken out of the Seattle area. It was where the WLF had been hiding out, trying to build a post-apocalyptic empire all on their own. It was the Seattle Stadium.

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