Chapter 3:

Zak climbed into the passenger seat of the truck and set his automatic rifle down beside his legs after making sure the safety was off. "Alright buddy, let's get movin'." Tony said once he had shut the door and revved the engine. "I ain't your buddy, Tony." Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, that's your problem. But let's at least not fail here, I kind of can't wait to see a world without infected again." Zak rolled his eyes and looked out of the window, watching as they drove past different parts of a destroyed metropolis. He wondered what life had been like in Las Vegas before the outbreak. Tony had told him a bit about it, said it was the place to go if you had money worth losing. And if you had an ambition for attempting to win money.

"You know kid, I think you're a little closed-minded when it comes to our cause." Tony said, not taking his eyes off of the shattered road they were driving on. Zak shrugged his shoulders. Tony shook his head. "I mean, this is a good cause. And we were so damn close. We had the immune kid in our hands and then the smuggler who'd brought her there lost it and killed a huge amount of our guys. Killed our leader Marlene and got away. For the last five years we've been trackin' him down and now we have him. We are about to save the whole damn world." Zak didn't respond to that. Not a whole lot of ways you could. So instead he stayed silent, and stared out of the window at the passing scenery.

"You know what I miss most from before the outbreak?" Tony asked suddenly. Zak looked over at him. "What?"

"Prostitutes. They were fucking awesome man. I mean, women willing to give you a good fuck...for money. All you had to do was pay them and you could have the best night of your life." Zak scoffed. "You're a goddamned idiot." He said. Tony laughed. "Yeah, maybe I am."

"Can we stop talking?" Zak asked. Tony huffed. "You are one boring kid." He muttered, but stayed quiet all the same.

Joel stepped calmly out onto the porch of the house and leaned against it's railing, staring out at the street. It was springtime and the morning weather felt perfect. He inhaled deeply through his nose, enjoying the scent of the fresh Missouri air. Joel stood there staring out at the street for a long time and sighed. He straightened and stretched, popping his back and stretching his neck. He looked up at the sun and guessed it was somewhere around nine-thirty in the morning. At times like this, before the outbreak, he would drive into town and pick up some coffee and meet Tommy at work. God Joel missed coffee.

Joel walked back inside, through the front door and made his way into the kitchen. He opened up the fridge and sifted through it, finally deciding to have some of the eggs that had been brought in from Bertrand's chicken coop. When Joel shut the fridge and stood he found a disheveled looking Devin and a bright looking Lizzie sitting at the table. Lizzie had her bare feet propped up on the table and her arms folded behind her feet. Devin had his head resting in his hands, his eye half open, the other covered with an eye patch.

"Mornin'. Ellie still asleep?" Devin nodded. "Too tired to wake her up." He replied, putting his head on the table. Joel shook his head and cracked the eggs into a pan and turning on the electric burner. "Did ya' enjoy the movie?" He asked, deciding to make small talk. Devin shrugged his shoulders. "Seen it before. Always thought it was pretty good. Had to explain some of it to Ellie though."

"Not much though, right?"

"Right." Joel turned back to his eggs and tended to them, keeping quiet until he'd finished cooking and was sitting beside Lizzie, shoveling food into his mouth. Devin didn't move until Ellie entered the kitchen, looking just about as tired as he was. "What made you two so tired?" Joel asked. Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "I just think we're not morning people." Joel nodded his head. He had to agree with them, he had always been more of a night person.

"Chad and Angel should be back from their hunting trip soon." Joel said, his mind suddenly turning to the thought of having some deer meat to eat instead of the canned stuff they had. He hoped they'd been able to get one. "Yeah, I figured they'd be back by at least tomorrow. They've been out there for at least three days." Devin said, sounding a little less groggy. "Or they're dead somewhere." Lizzie said. Joel looked over at her with his brows furrowed. Lizzie chuckled. "Devin always said my sense of humor leaves something to be desired." She said. Joel nodded his head. "Yeah, it does." Lizzie shrugged her shoulders and stood. "I'm gonna' go for a walk, see y'all later." Devin waved, his head still resting on the table.

Joel finished his eggs and put the plate in the sink before walking to the couch and picking up his boots. "Gotta' run over to Tommy's and talk to him about a supply run. We got plenty of food right now, but we can't bee too careful. You two gonna' behave for Rebecca while I'm gone?" Devin looked up and smirked at Joel. "What could we do that would classify as misbehaving?" Joel sent him a hard glare and Devin laughed. "I wouldn't even risk trying that in here. You'd probably rip my balls off."

"Not probably." Joel said as he slipped his boots onto his feet and headed for the door. "I'll be back soon." Devin waved and looked over at Ellie. "So...you want to go back to our room and-"

"Don't be disgusting." Ellie said, standing and leaving Devin where he sat, laughing loudly.

Joel sat across from Tommy, talking with him as he ate. In between bights, Tommy would tell Joel something really dumb, trying to get him to laugh. Over the last few days it had become something he had took up. Trying to get Joel to genuinely laugh. Eventually he sighed and said; "You remember Sasha?" Joel thought about it for a second.

"That girl you dated back in highschool?" Tommy nodded. "I never did tell you she had a sister did I?"

"I don't think anyone knew she had a sister." Tommy smirked. "Only reason I found out was 'cause she was the next chick I went after when Sasha and I broke up." Joel shook his head. "Tommy, you have absolutely no sense." Tommy laughed. "Yeah, that's what her sister told me after I hit a home run with her." Joel shook his head. "I'm surprised you didn't end up with about twenty kids." Once again Tommy laughed.

"To be completely honest I'm surprised too." This got a chuckle out of Joel.

"Well Tommy, I'd absolutely love to hear more about your 'social life', but I wanted to know what you thought about sendin' some men out on a run." Tommy sighed, and dug in the back pocket of his pants and pulled out a small notepad and flipped it open. He looked down the first few pages. "I think we've got enough food to last us awhile Joel." He said. "And besides, Chad and his girl should be back with something." Joel nodded.

"I just think we should try and get a surplus goin'." Tommy nodded his head. "Well...I been thinkin' about gettin' some more animals to use for food. Only ones we got right now though is chickens. Down in Sikeston I know there's a slaughterhouse. If we could get us some more animals-cows and pigs and such, we could use that slaughterhouse. Maybe in a couple of days we can send a group of people out to see if the slaughterhouse is safe to use." Joel nodded his head.

"Yeah, I can live with that."

"Well you'd better. I don't think you woulda' been able to convince me to do anything else." Joel chuckled.

AN: Howdy pardners! Sorry about the lack of action in these last three chapters. But maybe-maybe it'll start in the next chapter. But did you enjoy this one? Does it interest you that I have portions of these chapters through a fireflies point of view? What's going to happen now that he and his partner are on the road? Will they be in Bertrand soon? Are there going to be any more character deaths (I seem to have a lot of those)? Well you'll just have to wait and see.

And if you haven't taken my advice and checked out The Last of Us: The Series: Season 1, you should go do that.

~Exangellion