Junkyard

A few days of travel passed after Ellie's nostalgic visit to the farm where she lived with Dina (final scene of The Last of Us Part 2). Unfortunately, she followed the path on foot, having lost her horse in an onslaught of runners the night before. At that moment, she was walking along a dirt road surrounded by green vegetation up to her waist. The sky was clear, and the sun smote in hellish heat. Ellie used the back of her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead and huffed tiredly.

"Come on, it's supposed to be here somewhere…" she grumbled to herself.

She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a canteen. She unscrewed the cap and turned it in her mouth enthusiastically. A measly three drops fell on her tongue, serving only to make her thirstier.

"Are you kidding me?" Her arm dropped as she stared at the sun. "You could spare me a little, right?"

Forty minutes of more walking, and finally Ellie began to see a spot ahead. Dozens of piles of cars piled on top of each other on a lot surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire.

"Finally! Must be that junkyard Tommy mentioned. He said not to come this way, but saving a week of travel is saving a week of supplies" she thought to herself as she searched for an entrance. Ahead, at the main gate, was a large barricade outside. "Well, whatever's in there, they don't want it out. Better not draw attention."

She climbed the barricade set up by furniture and large pieces of corroded metal and dry wood, until she reached the top and stood in front of the barbed wire. Then she took off her red plaid shirt, tied at her waist, and positioned it to form a passageway between the barbs. As she was passing, her weight against the barricade strained the rusty fence, causing it to bend and throw Ellie off balance. A muffled scream of fright erupted as Ellie hit the fence, hanging upside down, her leg tangled in one of the wires. She looked around worriedly, looking for any suspicious movement, but everything remained quiet. She sighed in relief. She noticed his pants ripped from knee to heel, caught at the end next to her black All-Star. She used one hand to lean on the railing while the other helped unhook his pants.

"Fine, my pants are gone," she grumbled, staring at the damage. Then she looked at her blouse torn on the wire. "And my shirt too!" She took her knife and cut her pants into shorts. "At least it will help with the heat."

She turned to face the place. A wide space with a dirt floor and orange sand, dozens and more dozens of cars randomly scattered in piles and piles. The absence of vegetation left the air dry, and the sun reflected on the metal plates of the cars warmed the environment as if it were a forest of giant magnifying glasses. A few narrow aisles between the cars formed labyrinths that led to the fence that encircled the grounds.

The silence was deadly.

Further on, a small house, apparently the reception of the place in times before the pandemic. The windows were, in fact, large dirty stained-glass windows, one or two broken giving a view into the dark room inside. She entered one of them. Shards of glass on the floor burst as they met her feet. Automatically, there was a kind of grunt, but she couldn't identify the direction.

"Calm down, Ellie, it could have just been a mouse," she told herself, trying to reassure herself.

Carefully, she placed her other foot on an unglazed ledge. The inside consisted of benches, seats, and chests of drawers with magazines on top.

"I don't believe it!" Her eyes widened at the sight of a 10L half-gallon of water, leaning over a drinking fountain. She hurried over to it, putting her mouth under the faucet and opening it with pleasure, letting the water flood her insides. For an instant, she forgot about the dangers around her and reveled gloriously in deep gulps.

After quenching her thirst, she began to fill her canteen. By the constant flow of water, an air bubble burst inside the gallon, echoing in the room. At the same time, Ellie saw a figure passing outside the window.

"Holy shit! Why is it never just a mouse?!" she whispered.

Carefully, she put away her canteen and took Joel's revolver. She approached the window and peered slowly but saw nothing.

"Okay, I have to get the hell out of here, I just need to find some supplies."

She went back to exploring the place. She opened a dresser drawer. At first, she found rags; in the second, sugar and in the third, explosives.

"Good! The good thing about these dangerous places is that they always have plenty of supplies. The bad thing is that there are a lot of infected too", she thought as she put away the finds. "I've already pushed my luck a lot, I need to find a way out now".

She headed for the kitchen. The floor was smeared with blood and the cabinets full of fungus, leaving the air thick and damp and stuffy. Despite the sun outside, inside was uncomfortable dark, with only the occasional ray of sunlight passing through bullet holes in the wall. Through a half-open door, she spotted a small bottle of alcohol, squeegees and brooms. In the background, she heard light, muffled breathing. She held her gun in one hand and used the other to carefully open the door.

Anything. Just the cleaning utensils propped up against a musty wall.

She sighed in relief.

"Great, alcohol. Now I can make a medical..." Before she could finish the thought, an infected broke free from the fungus wall.

He jumped out from behind the cleaning supplies and hit Ellie, knocking them both to the floor. The infected tried to bite her, but she reacted quickly with a butt to the head, throwing the creature to the side, which desperately ran out.

"Crap!" The voice still trembled with fright. "That might have alerted the others, I have to get out of here."

Outside the house, the escaped infected was now climbing a pile of cars like a giant, grotesque spider.

"How bizarre these things are!" He looked disgusted. "By the way he escaped, I'm sure he's a stalker." She looked around, futilely looking for a way out. "Well, looks like I don't have a choice. From up there, I can get a better view and find a way out of this junk pile."

The stalker has already disappeared from her view. Ellie began to climb a large wall about seven cars high and about nine on each side. They were dented and quite rusty, and as if it wasn't enough to watch out for the broken windows, she still had to worry about the bodywork cooking her hands. The climb was more tiring than she'd imagined, and there were still two cars to the top.

"I don't like this silence, after the stalker's attack, the other infected should have been warned by now." Ellie analyzed the situation. "Maybe it's an ambu..."

She felt a grip on her leg, pulling her hard. She landed on her back on the rusty burgundy hood of the Corsa she was in. From the driver's broken window, she spotted a stalker pulling at her leg and screaming menacingly with its rotten, sharp teeth trapped in a dark gum reeking of slurry and carrion.

"You son of a bitch!" Ellie screamed and grabbed her knife, but before she could reach him, she felt her hand being held by another stalker on the far side, underneath a fiesta. "Shit, let me go, you bastards!"

She heard another grunt from the car beneath her, another stalker that came out upside down, its claws denting the car's metal like a foam mattress.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" She shook herself in desperation, eyes wide looking for a way out.

Ellie landed a good kick in the face of the infected who was holding her leg, freeing her. With her free hand, she took out her revolver and butted the infected man who was holding her hand in the head. The blow was so strong it knocked him off balance, taking him off the pile of cars to the ground. Unfortunately, behind him was another stalker.

"Fuck zombies!" She fired at one of them, hitting him in the chest, delaying him a few seconds. She looked around and found herself cornered. Out of options, she got into the car she was in. She looked out the window, three stalkers approaching with speed. She turned and tried to open the car door on the opposite side, but it was stuck.

"Come on, fucking open it!" She picked up momentum and shouldered a shoulder, but the door didn't even budge. "Damn it! Think, Ellie, how do I get out of here?!" She opened the glove compartment in hopes of finding something useful, but it was empty.

One of the infected came in through the back window and screamed trying to grab her. His bent, fetid fingers even scratched Ellie's sneakers.

"Not my All Star!" she screamed and took three shots to its head, blasting it to pieces.

Ellie smashed the window glass with a thump using her revolver and quickly slipped out. Her upper waist was already out of the car, but her legs were held up by another infected who had just entered. One of the splinters from the window pierced Ellie's waist, and she groaned in pain. She pointed the gun at him, but before she fired, a lurking outside, on top of the car Ellie was in, jumped on her. The force of the impact pulled Ellie and the other infected out of the car and the three of them tumbled down the wall. They rolled clinging to each other, between screams and grunts, bouncing between cars until they hit the ground in a big impact, knocking each one to one side.

Ellie lost her breath. She drew in a desperate breath, coming air and dust, choking her even more. Her cough came dry and tasted like blood, her throat burned as if she'd been drinking crushed glass, while her hearing hummed from the fall, leaving her disoriented. She felt a sharp pain in her back from the impact and a sharp sting in the rip in her waist from the splintered glass in the window. She looked around for enemies, her vision blurred and whirling, but it softened over time. She spotted the two infected fleeing behind other cars. She brought her hand to her bleeding waist and pulled it out, groaning in pain, the shard of glass stuck in her belly. She sat behind some tires piled up for cover and grabbed her backpack. With alcohol and rags, she improvised a bandage on her wound. In the background, silence again.

"Those pieces of shit won't catch me off guard again!" She looked around, saw a piece of wood next to a beer bottle, and picked them up. She clasped her hands on the piece of wood, as if adjusting the grip. She took a deep breath. "It's now".

She threw the bottle on the floor in front of her, breaking it. The sound attracted one of the infected who ran, thinking he was her prey.

"EAT THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH!" she snapped, landing a hard blow to his head, stunning him instantly. The other stalker tried to surprise her from behind. "No fuck!" Ellie used her still aching waist and turned violent in a blow so hard that the bat broke the enemy's head, which fell to the ground.

The other stalker was no longer stunned and prepared to attack again, but before she could do anything, Ellie used the tip of the broken bat like a stake and drove it into the chest using both hands. She pushed him with the stake until the enemy's body was pressed into a tower of tires. She screamed as she swung the stake, ripping through the infected's chest and heart, trapping his dead body in tires. She turned and walked slowly towards the last enemy trying to get up. She pulled out her revolver and shot him in the head.

"Fine... Enough adventures for today," she breathed. "Now I need to find a way out of here."

She found herself in a small area with the same clay and sand soil, it was surrounded by cars that formed a circle. A few vehicles, piles of tires and empty oil barrels were scattered around the center. Ahead of her was an old-time vehicle compactor with a large van inside. She got closer to analyze it, and even though she didn't have a good view, apparently, behind the compactor, there were shards of twisted grate. Maybe something had broken the grate.

A way out.

Ellie tried to open the back of the van, but it was locked. The side windows were obstructed by the wall of the compactor, which appeared to have started to crush the van but had not finished the job.

"Fine... Now I have to find a way to turn this compactor on. There must be a generator around here."

"I was right, there was one near the control panel." She tried to start the engine, but nothing happened.

"Obviously it's out of gas". She huffed in agreement. "It reminds me of Seattle." For a moment, Ellie traveled back in her memories and remembered her adventures with Dina looking for gas to get to the Serevena Hotel. "Your help is needed at these times, Dina... In fact... I miss you all time..." she admitted, crestfallen and with a smile on the side of her mouth. "Well, one of those cars must have gas, I just need a gallon and a hose."

After a few minutes of searching and several tries on empty cars, Ellie managed to find and fill a gallon with gas. Her dark green tank top was sweaty and bloodstained at the waist. She went back to the generator and filled it with fuel.

"I hope it works." She started the generator, which took the air with its sound and turned on the dash lights. "That is better! Now just find the right button." She scanned the panel and found a blue button with the indication she wanted. "That must be it."

Upon tightening, the large compactor began to move and retract its metal walls. The device creaked a lot from time without use, making a tremendous noise. This alerted any other infected in the region, and their screams in the background indicated that they would soon be there.

"Noisy bullshit. Hurry up!" She clasped her hands anxiously.

The compactor has finally finished opening. Passing through its interior, there were bars preventing exit from the junkyard, but the front of the van had punctured part of it. If she managed to get inside the van, she could get out through the driver's window. However, on the side windows of the van there was also a kind of grille.

"Okay, I just go inside the van and out through the driver's window."

"Aaaaaarrrrggggghhhhh!"

An intense roar came from the direction of the compactor.

"What the fuck was that?! A compactor doesn't make that noise."

The van rocked with an impact on the back door. Another deafening roar, stirring even more the infected screams in the background. With a loud slam, the van's door burst open, revealing a huge bloater sticking out of it. It was about 2.2 meters tall, very fat with mushrooms and secretions forming a crust all over its body. Its cauliflower-like head of blood and fungus revealed a huge, disgusting, feral mouth. He looked at Ellie and took a "fungus bomb" from his body.

"WHAT FUCKIN JUNKYARD!" She ran over to a few gallons of oil. The immense creature hurled the bomb, which exploded in acidic spores on the penthouse where Ellie had just hidden. "A bloater, really?!" She spoke ironically as she took the shotgun from her backpack.

She turned to shoot, but was surprised by the creature running furiously towards her. In a matter of seconds, Ellie threw herself to the side and the bloater ran over the gallons. "That was dangerous," she thought. She then pointed the shotgun and shot the monster in the back which barely moved it, it seemed to have no effect. The creature took a motorcycle beside it and prepared to throw it.

"Please, have gas, have gas…" She twisted as she aimed the shotgun at the bike's fuel tank. "Blow up you bastard!" She screamed and fired.

The tank was punctured, but it did not explode because it was empty. The bloater threw the bike at its prey. Ellie tried to dodge, but the wheel caught her leg, tripping her.

"Fuck! That always worked in Joel's movies." She got to her feet with difficulty. Before she could react, the bloater had already sped towards her. He hit Ellie with one arm, knocking her into a car.

The beat made her gasp and left her mind stunned. Her vision of it whirled along with the pain in her ribs that burned like a smoldering ember, but she didn't have time to whimper as the bloater kept running toward her. She leapt to the ground as the monster crashed into the car in front of her. Crawling to her feet, Ellie backed away from the bloater. The creature pierced the car door with its enormous grotesque arm and, as it pulled, ripped the door off the bodywork.

"Oh, seriously!" Ellie muttered wearily.

The bloater howled and threw the door towards her. Ellie managed to hide just in time behind a bunch of tires.

"Stop throwing things at me, damn it!" she yelled and grabbed her bag. In the piles of cars ahead of her, she spotted three stalkers descending from the top to meet her. On the right, she heard a crackling scream that came from inside a car. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" she repeated anxiously as she mixed the sugar and explosive into the piece of rag she'd ripped from her pants at the entrance to the junkyard. Ready! A diy smoke bomb "It'll have to do".

The bloater ran towards her again, and the rest of the infected were already approaching. She threw the bomb to the ground causing a huge cloud of smoke. She took the opportunity to dodge the monster's deadly onslaught, ran with difficulty to the control panel and pressed the activation button. A siren was activated warning that the compactor was active. The smoke bomb lasted a few seconds, the infected spotted Ellie running to the van and chasing her screaming. She got into the back of the van and, to her surprise, there was a railing that separated the back from the front. To make matters worse, there was a layer of fungus thickening the passage even more.

"FUCK! WHAT NOW?!"

She looked back in desperation and found herself cornered by the crowd of infected thirsty for her flesh. The loud sound of the siren mixed with the angry screams made it difficult to think. She took her shotgun and shot the railing, taking out some of the fungus. The walls of the compactor were almost denting the van. Once again, she threw herself against the railing, finally breaking it. She used the butt of the gun to slash her passage, but before she could cross, she felt a jolt that knocked her to the ground. It was the bloater getting into the van. Its size kept the Infected from entering in droves, but Ellie could see their hands and mouths sneaking around the edges.

She got up in desperation and threw herself through the passage, but before she could get out the front window, she felt her leg trapped by the huge hand of the bloater, which held her through the hole she had just opened. One more bump in the van, the walls of the compactor began to crush the vehicle mercilessly. In seconds, she would be eaten or pressed.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" She picked up her shotgun and aimed it at the monstrous face. She squeezed the trigger, but all she heard was the click. "OH NO!" Her voice came out shaky and terrified.

She took two cartridges from her pocket, but when she went to load the gun, the bloater pulled her hard, causing her to drop the ammunition. The metal of the van's shell bent all over, forming sharp dents, making the place even more claustrophobic and deadly. The creak of metal increased as the walls approached. The screaming siren mingled with the screams of the infected squashed in the back of the van. Through the hole where the bloater's arm held Ellie's leg, blood spurted from the other crushed infected.

Ellie grabbed her knife and screamed in agony as she incessantly slashed at the bloater's fingers. Her face twisted in a mixture of despair, fear and pain... It was as if she knew death was closer than she had ever been. The monster howled as it lost its thumb and let Ellie's leg slip away. The compactor's walls creaked in force, making the van even smaller. Crumpled metal spikes pierced Ellie's arm as she tried to slip through a small passageway to the driver's window, while she whimpered and gasped. She put her hands on the doors of the compactor that was already pressing on her and used the last of her strength to throw herself out.

An intense crashing noise and exploding bodies took over after the doors closed, the siren stopped and then only silence. Ellie was on the floor outside the junkyard, bathed in the blood of the infected and herself.

"Hmph... Gluaaaaarp!" She squirmed, writhing. "Hunnf... hunnf... Holy shit!" She breathed in breathlessly. "I should… haanf… listened to Tommy… haanf… I'll never walk into a fucking junkyard again."

She looked straight ahead with determination.

"I'm coming, Dina!"