Blue Through the Grey

“We shouldn’t be out here.” I say to Jo as I hit the ground on the other side of the wall. “Those things are out here.”
She laughs. “Relax, I do this all the time. The infected are out there.” She points towards the forest, which is pretty far away. “We’ll be okay.”
I grab her shoulder, quickly she turns around. Her face scarred, her hair singed. “I don’t wanna die by those things...or the aliens.”
“You won't.” She shows me a pistol hidden in her pants. “Take it if you’re so scared.”
I grab it and stuff it into my bag. “Yeah I’m fucking scared, Jo. We could get trapped in the snow or something.”
“Seriously, Ellie. We’ll be fine. Have some faith in me.”
“I’ve only known you for a week.” I say throwing my hands in the air. “I don’t exactly have faith in anyone right now.”
She huffs and takes off into the deep snow. I have no clue where we’re going.
“Wait up. Jo, wait.” I jog and eventually catch up with her. “Where are we going?.”
“It’s a secret, Ellie.” She smiles.

The snow is extremely deep, deeper than it was when I was running from the Stalkers. I look back at Refugee City and take a deep breath. Leaving civilization is not what I want to do, especially at night. Jo insists that this secret place is well worth the trip out into the void. The moonlight shines on the snow, it’s beautiful but I have to keep an eye out, I don’t think Jo is really watching her back. Every night, I wake up, sweating, and thinking about the men I murdered. I have to remind myself that it was either I die or they do. I shiver, the night brings along deathly cold conditions and here I am, outside of warmth with a girl that I think is somewhat crazy.
‘C’mon. We’re almost there” She says, smiling.
“We’re going into that dark and scary town?.” I toss my bag off and get the pistol. “Just a precaution.”
It’s like no one ever lived in this town. The small buildings are destroyed, and the snow covers most of everything. What am I doing here?
“Just up ahead.” She laughs and starts jogging towards a small tower. She gets to it and starts to climb.
“We’re going up there? Great.” I gulp and slowly start to climb.
I think my eyes are closed the whole time. When I get to the top, I instantly grab onto the railing and squeeze tight.
“Look.” She points in the distance. “We aren’t the only ones alive.”
She’s right. The forest is lit up in a few different areas, our base is lit up, something far away is lit up.
“It’s beautiful.” I can feel myself smiling, maybe there is hope for the human race.
The tower starts to make a weird noise, looking down, I see the infected climbing. Jo brought us here, now we’re gonna die. Great. She grabs the pistol from me and fires downward, hoping she’ll hit one.
“Jo. We gotta jump!.” I scream.
“What?.”
I don’t have time for chitchat, I leap over the railing. There’s no turning back now. I hit the snow hard but it’s so soft. I lay there, waiting for Jo but she doesn’t come. There’s no gunfire, there’s nothing. Something falls beside me, it’s an infected. I jump up and grab my knife. I’m now surrounded by them and they all want to tear my flesh apart. BAM. One down, then the rest. My hand is grabbed and I’m basically being pulled through the snow. I want to believe it’s Jo, but I didn’t see any sign of her when I jumped.
It’s so dark, I can barely see what’s in front of my face. And that’s all I remember.

I awake in a room, not even sure where. It’s warm and I don’t wanna move. Beside me is a girl, making something over a fire. She turns towards be. Beautiful, that’s what comes to my mind when I see her. Long brown flowing hair, smooth skin, sharp blue eyes. She’s bundled in a fur and wears fingerless gloves.
“Hey, you’re awake.” She smiles.
“Where are we?.” I ask.
“A small shelter under the snow. Good for now but it’ll be exposed when the snow melts.”
“Have you seen my friend? She didn’t jump off the tower with me.”
“Yeah. I seen her book it back to your base.” She hands me a plate with some eggs on it.
“God, what a bitch.” I shovel the food in my mouth. “How far are we from there?.”
“Not far. We’re a bit outside that town, it’s surrounded right now. We can head back at night.”
“You’ll take me there?.” I ask.
“I’ll protect you till you get back. But I’m heading somewhere else.” She shows me a map and some pictures. “It’s a base called Ghost. I’m pretty sure it has a large unfriendly alien population.”
“How do you know?.”
“A few months ago, I ran into a guy that told me he fled from there.”
“And what do you plan to do?.” I ask, still shoving food down my throat.
“I plan to blow the hell out of it. By the way, I’m Hannah.”

She pushes away the curtain and makes sure the coast it clear, a few seconds pass and she signals me to come out. The snow is picking up, almost a blizzard. She hands me a pistol and smiles.
“Just in case we get split up. The infected should be stationary during the blizzard.”
I don’t know why she’s helping me, she doesn’t even know me. She know’s literally nothing about me. But something tells me to follow her, something tells me that she’ll keep me safe. We go through the small town, it seems more creepy now. I can’t believe Jo left me out here to die. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I get back. We stand outside the wall but before I climb it, Hannah stops me.
“Ellie.” She says. I’m not sure how she knows my name. She puts a necklace in my hand, a badge with a number. “Find the truth.”
“What is this?.” I ask.
“The truth.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about. I look over the wall and then back at her, but she’s gone. What truth is she talking about? The truth of the aliens? I shake away the thoughts and hop over the wall. I sneak over to my room, open the door and see that all my stuff is gone. Jo is in the bed, sleeping. I smack the barrel of the pistol against her forehead and press my hand against her mouth.
“You left me.” I say, eyes filling with tears. “You just...left. Fuck you.” I bash the butt of the gun against her skull. I don’t look back, I didn’t kill her, I do know that. I hop the wall and head back into the snow. I must find this truth that Hannah speaks of.