Ellie stepped outside into the warm summer breeze. She crouched behind the wall of the house and closed the door swiftly behind her. Checking for infected, she peered around the corner of the house.

Nothing. Phew!

She straightened up and continued walking.

Man, where the fuck is Joel? He said he'd be back in a minute and it's been fucking forever! I should go check on him.

She was talking out loud now. "But he told me to stay here... screw it, I'm going after him," She said decisively and louder than she had meant to.

"Rrrraahckk!"

"Oh shit!" she pulled her switchblade out of her jean pocket and spun around to face the creature. With half it's body encased in fungus and one eye hanging out of it's socket, it looked like something between a runner and a clicker - a stalker, she remembered Joel telling her once. But it doesn't really matter what they're called; they're all just monsters to her.

The creature lunged at her, but with quick feet she leapt out of the way and scrambled behind it. Before it could turn around she leapt onto it's back and rammed her switchback into it's neck. Something was wrong, though. The stalker didn't slow down like they usually did. Her actions only seemed to make it angrier.

It tore her hands off of it with it's claw like fingers and she fell to the ground with a thud.

"What the-"

It leapt on top of her and it was all she could do to keep it from biting her, until-

BLAM BLAM!

The stalker collapsed on her and she shoved it's corpse aside before trying to pull herself up. Before she could, an arm grabbed her and roughly pulled her to her feet.

"Ellie, what the hell are you doing out here? I told you to stay inside!"

She brushed the dirt off her jeans and yanked her arm away from Joel, glaring at him.

"I was looking for you! You were taking fucking forever."

"You can't just run off like that."

"Watch me! You could of been in trouble, or-"

"You coulda been killed." he cut her off gruffly.

"Whatever," she scoffed. "I had it under control."

"Oh really? Cause it looked from here like that stalker was just about to bite you. Again, if I might add," he said, gesturing to the old scar under her sleeve.

So it is called a stalker.

"I had my switchblade in my hand, and I was just about to... oh, fuck me. God dammit."

"What?"

She held up her switchblade. "I had it closed the whole time," she said as she mentally face-palmed. "No wonder it didn't work."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Ellie-"

"Don't Ellie me!" she shouted. "Just... when are we gonna find this stupid town anyway?"

They had been at Tommy's for months now, but every citizen had to do their part. For them, it meant going on a supply run a few towns away.

"I reckon we're almost there," he said turning away from her and towards the road. "C'mon, let's get a move on."