I really fucking hate snow.

I probably would have hung around the mall for a longer while if I knew it would start snowing this bad. But I left any way, the place brought back too many memories and not the warm, fuzzy good ones either. The screams of the Infected, her shattering pots, seeing the bite marks. Riley...

It had been awful, sitting together and to die, but at the same time kind of happy since they would die at the same time. It never came to be though. Riley turned and I didn't have the heart or courage to put my switchblade anywhere near her.

So I left.

I'd been crying, just waiting for my turn so I could be with her. Eventually it came up in my mind that I was never going to. I'd been waiting for what? Two, three days? Riley had turned last night so why hadn't I?

It was so fucking stupid. Everyone in my life has died because of the stupid fungus. So why did I have to live?

I knew the Fireflies were looking a cure. I could help find if I was actually immune... Just anything so I could feel less guilty for living when others always died.

Marlene didn't take it lightly when I showed up teeth marks on my arm and was even more angry when she found out about Riley. Some how after not turning and biting her face off during the next few days she and the others believed me.

The way she'd been talking about finding a cure, it was like Marlene had lost her pistol and found a fully loaded assault rifle instead. She explained that a group of them would take me to some place on the other side of the country, but needed smugglers to get me out the city first.

Smugglers. Joel.

"Get your head the fucking game Ellie," I said aloud. I really needed to stop all this deep thought shit, It was distracting me from what really mattered. Like how the hell was I going to keep Joel alive. I turned around on Callus. He was still on the sled, but had turned very pale.

I twisted the reins in my hands. The amount of blood that he'd lost... I'm surprised the old fucker was still alive, much less had managed to stand up and walk around for a little bit before falling off the horse. Literally.

Worry clawed at my stomach. I'd been forced to take medical classes when I was at the glorified military orphanage. Sure I could take care of some scratched and maybe small bullet wounds. But a nice rusty piece of rebar straight to gut?

I mentally cringe at the thought. I saw the hunter attack Joel, but didn't shot. They were wrestling each other for control and I didn't want to accidentally hit him. Those thoughts flew out the window when the railing broke. Seeing the tip of the rebar poking out of him, the ripping sound when I pulled him off...

I thrust the thoughts from my head. We needed to find shelter soon since it was becoming a full out blizzard. We'd only trudged about five miles from the mall, but Callus was already huffing from exhaustion.

Slightly panicking, a faint outline of some kind of sign came into sight about ten feet away. Proclaiming some kind of resort, I lead Callus in the directions of the arrow on the sign since on closer inspection it said that the place was less than a mile away. That made standing two inches away the sign worth it at least. I sighed as Callus struggled through the snow.

I was just hoping for some cover from the storm and maybe even a couple of walls to block the cold and wind.

I snorted. Fat chance for the places to be livable if they were still standing.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few houses, and I led Callus into the first garage I found and pulled the door down after us. After getting Joel in the house I paused to catch my breath. Dirty dishes were all over the counter and trash was piled in the corner. The windows were broken so it was still bone-freezing cold, but it was out of the wind at least.

Looking over at Joel, it was obvious he was bad off. He hadn't regained consciousness since he'd fallen off the horse outside the university, and he had still been bleeding while I was stitching him up with the kit I found in the helicopter.

I slid over to him and prepared to look at the wound again. It had been bad enough seeing the ragged holes once, let alone twice. Untying the rope and blanket and pulling up his shirt I looked at it.

It was a couple inches long with my clumsy stitches pulling the edges together, vivid bruises standing out on the surrounding skin. It was still oozing a little, red-brown shit with some other nasty looking stuff leaking out. Reaching out to my bag, digging around in it didn't help raise my spirits. Half a bottle of alcohol and a couple of rags. Shit.

We would need more if I didn't want it to get infected. Not the Cordyceps kind, but just as deadly.

I put some of the stuff on a rag and wiped the area around it. That cause Joel to show some signs of life by moaning and trying to move away.

"Sorry," I murmured. Sitting on my heels one thought kept bouncing around. What am I going to do?

AN: I sadly have experience with impalement on rebar, having taken a piece to my upper thigh last year. I used some of my experiences like with the drainage (that shit really is nasty) along with some shots from the game to help. Hope you liked it and please review.