𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐟 𝐔𝐬

05. Concussion Induced Confidence.

F I V E
Concussion Induced Confidence.

It's dark, the only light being the ones provided by our torches, my feet walk with caution and my heart thumps against my chest.

Just be calm, Bobbie. Cool, calm and collected.

I look around with my torch, holding my gun, my hand getting sweaty with my anxiety. There are paintings of old men, cabinets filled with oddities, benches are tossed over, and veins of long dried-up fungus creep over the floor. I can see models of old buildings, there are signs labelling this 'The Bostonian Museum,' and advertising the gift shop. My stomach leaps into my throat when, as I walk further into the museum, and away from relative safety, I see a body claimed by the Infected.

"Yeah... cooked," Joel says, seeing the body just as I do.

"Oh, finally, some fuckin' luck," Tess replies.

"I guess we should've gone this way in the first place," Joel pulls his torch from the body, continuing to venture further into the museum.

"Oh shit!" Ellie gasps, I turn the corner after her, looking over her I see a man, slumped against the corner of a wall, his head cracked open. The blood is still red, he's dead, but still has colour to him - he didn't die that long ago. "What the fuck did that?"

"Maybe..." Tess starts a sentence and then trails off, her voice losing confidence in her words, "Maybe he was attacked outside and crawled through the doors. The door was open, could've been him. I don't hear anything."

"Who would you hear?" Ellie asks, everyone suddenly getting very stressed. Standing next to a dead body will do that to you.

Everyone, including me, gestures for her to shut up.

"Who would you hear?" She asks, her usually loud voice cut down to a whisper. "Are you saying an Infected did that? Because I've been attacked by one and it wasn't like that."

"Okay, from this point forward, we are silent. Not quiet. Silent." Joel says, looking at Ellie, the instruction mainly for her.

"Wha-" Ellie goes to ask something, but she doesn't even get one word out before Joel cuts her off.

"No. No questions, just do it."

I follow Joel, standing next to Tess, as we begin climbing the stairs, each creak of the wood makes me cringe, no matter how deliberately I step the wood still groans under my weight. We near the top and there's a crash, dust flies off from the roof, giving an ominous warning about the integrity of the ceiling; and a warning that something is up there. A clump of dried fungus sticks to the stairs, and an almost completely wasted away body lays across one of the stairs, we step over it as we continue. As we get higher light begins to filter in from the outside, making the entire thing less scary, each step we get toward our destination makes the chance of a complete disaster drop.

Just as I finally gain some hope I won't be torn to shreds, Ellie steps on the hand of a dead body, it crunches disgustingly under her weight. I shut my eyes for a second, whispering a string of curse words so quietly that no one but me could hear it. The disaster chance just rose. Every noise makes the likelihood increase.

When Joel opens the door, its rusty hinges creak, another increase in disaster likelihood.

The room we walk into seems relatively untouched by the state of the world, it looks like it was left as it was, everything seemingly in its rightful place, the only indication it's been two decades since it was last used is the thick layer of dust coating everything.

Ellie, walks in after Joel, followed by Tess, as I go to walk in the compromised ceiling completely collapses, and a beam of wood hits the back of my legs throwing me to the ground, which, in turn, knocks Tess and Ellie down. Like Goddamn dominos.