AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's been a little while. Sorry it took so long for this update, but it took a little while to write. I initially wrote the entire chapter as a Joel chapter, but then decided it didn't fit. You'll be sick of Joel by now, so here's the next chapter from Ellie's perspective. I generally use Joel when I'm trying to capture a particularly dark side of something, whereas Ellie tends to reflect on the light. There's a recurring motif of moonlight used in this chapter that I think sort of shows that Ellie is always looking for the light, whereas in Joel's chapters the light tends to bother him, in the last making him stuffy and uncomfortable. So yeah, this is a very paced chapter. A lot lot lot happens. If you paid very close attention to the game, then there's something in there for you. If not, it's just another character, and I tried to develop him like I would with any others. Thanks for all of your support this far, it's great to get so many positive reviews, and to hear from you all. Make sure to tell me what you're enjoying here.

ELLIE II

"Stop," said a voice, calmer than the others. The noise levels fell and the door became limp. If Joel and Ellie were to slam it hard enough, it would lock again. Joel lessened his grip on the door, and Ellie did too. Sometimes she knew she emulated Joel, but mostly Ellie was unaware. The resemblances were common, however; she even dressed the way he did these days. "Let me through," it commanded. It was a smaller voice, but it had some authority, and the men outside seemed to listen. Ellie snapped one of her arrow in half, sticking the half with the arrowhead down her jeans. It was uncomfortable, but necessary in case one of them tried to beat her. She pulled down her shirt over it.

"What's going on?" Tommy asked, voice lowered.

Joel said nothing, listening. He switched his rifle out for his 9mm; Ellie readied an arrow.

"Hello in there," said the voice. "I'm gonna come in. I'd prefer it if you didn't shoot me, thank ya." Without any other words, the door opened a little more and Joel let go. He backed off, pointing his gun at the old man who entered.

"What do you want?" Joel asked. Ellie looked back to the old man. He was old; at least fifty. Ellie hadn't seen many old people, so when they did come around she knew their age pretty well. He would have no hair on his head at all if not for the tufts of white that sprouted around lower sides of his head. His skin had blotches of brown and yellow on tanned white skin.

"I don't think you should be in any rush to leave this room. My friends outside do not like you very much," he said. Ellie saw shadows on the door frame, heads craning to see in. The old man placed his hand on the hatch, and pushed it hard. The shadows bounced away, and the door shut. "It's probably best we speak quietly."

The old man considered each of the party individually. He looked longest at Joel, and then Ellie, and only gave a passing glance to Tommy. "It seems to me," the man said, "that you guys know your way around here. Or at least one of you does." Nobody looked at each other, though the old man's head moved, looking at each one of them. "Come on. Speak up."

"This place was mine," Tommy pitched in. His voice was strong. Ellie wondered if this was the voice he used when he was commanding the settlers. She thought he'd lost the ability to stay strong when Maria did. Still, his tone was shaky. Joel should have spoken up. "I ran this place, providing electricity to my settlement."

It seemed Tommy no longer cared about the settlers enough to safeguard their existence. I'd be pretty pissed too. In fact, Ellie had been pissed.

"Is that so?" said the old man. When he spoke, his white eyebrows seemed to draw a line across his brow, which matted into red and white rolls of skin. He wore a blue denim jacket and jeans, and his chest puffed out in such a way that Ellie thought there was probably a fair amount of fat hidden beneath whatever bulletproof clothing he was wearing. "The little town on the Snake?"

"Yeah. We left them."

"You say that as though you don't like them, boy. I'm led to believe you did not leave, so much as you were forced to. Something bad happen? Ah well," he said, nothing giving time for anybody to answer. He didn't want an answer, Ellie reckoned. She wanted to speak, but Joel was giving her a look that said she should not. "It's nice to meet you folks. You've got a little girl you haven't eaten, so that bodes well for your morals. Sadly you killed a lot of my men. That complicates things."

"Who are you?" asked Joel, finally speaking. His gun was readied, though lowered. There was something tense in Joel's face that Ellie knew from experience was worry. She was worried too.

"The name's Ish." Ellie wasn't watching this Ish, she was watching Joel, and his jaw locked and his eyebrows were lifted. He seemed to know this man. "I lead the merry bunch you guys have already come into contact with. Ish and the Merry Men. Almost a folk group."

"Well, Ish," Ellie finally said, realising that Joel's reaction to this man's name – maybe he knew someone called Ish – was not important. "How about you go FUCK YOURSELF, and let us go?"

"Ellie," Joel started, but Ish rounded on Ellie. Joel's gun came up but the old man paid it no mind.

"Well, little lady – Ellie? – I can't do that now, can I? My men would be angry. Most likely I'd get a bullet in the head for doing that. They don't like me much already. Too old, they whisper. They're right, course," he said, laughing a little. "I could be your grandfather," he said to Ellie. "Your father," he said to Tommy and Joel. It occurred to Ellie that she didn't know anything about Joel's parents, and he didn't know much about hers. She'd tell him one day. "We gotta approach this with some tact," continued Ish. "I'm gonna take you to my office."

"No, this is a bad idea – we should –" Tommy started. He must've had the same thought Ellie did. Take the old man hostage. But if 'Ish' was telling the truth, and his men didn't value him, then they'd riddle him with bullets as quickly as they would Joel, Tommy and Ellie. Old man isn't stupid.

"No," said Joel. "I trust him."

What are you doing, Joel? Ellie wondered, but she trusted him to do the right thing for her. Always.

"My men will escort you, and you won't like that. I don't either, but they're still my men. They'll take you to the little room I call my office. It's cosy. You'll like it."

"Cosy?" Ellie asked.

"Comfortable," Joel offered. "Sheath your bow."

"We're keeping our weapons," Tommy said.

"That is a no-no," Ish said. "I got out there with they're keeping their weapons and they immediately know my intent is not to kill you. No, you gotta give them to me."

There was an uneasy hesitation in the room, but it was Joel that relented first. Wordlessly, he handed over his weapons, and Tommy did the same. The old man looked then at Ellie. "Come on, little girl," he said. "Do what your dads tell you."

"Fuck you," she said as she handed over her bow.

"The arrows too."

She unstrapped the quiver and gave it to him.

"Lead the way," said Joel.

When Ish opened the door, with some struggle, though nobody offered him aid, the men swarmed like vultures. Their guns were at the ready, ready to kill. Tommy hung back, hesitant and worried, but Joel had some strange faith in him. Here's hoping it doesn't get us fucking killed, she thought. The old men held up their weapons. "It seems they may know more about the settlement," he explained to them. "I am takin' them in for questioning."

Ellie always noticed the voice of men in power. It commanded, it demanded, but there was something about Ish's that didn't. He wasn't really asking, but he almost wasn't telling. She wondered if it left him open to criticism and questioning. These fucking animals would jump at the chance.

There were some grunts around the room, but it was a man who was sitting propped up against the wall who spoke clearly, and to Ish. "You're gonna question them? They killed six of our friends," he said. "Was their loss for nothing, just so you could find some new people to talk to?"

"In my arms, Travis, there are guns and arrows. If you do not wish an arrow slid between your ribs or a bullet lodged in your skull, I suggest that you hold your tongue. I too have lost six men today. I take it that you do not wish to become the seventh. Shut your mouth."

The man stood, dull light spilling over his body. He was tall, taller than Joel, with skin black as coal. He had no hair, and a small green beret on his head. He wore some form of military uniform, maybe from before everything, Ellie didn't recognise it. "Are you threatening me, old man?"

"I am not making a threat. I am making a promise. They come with me. Derek, Lawson, take them to my room. I'll see to them soon."

A man and woman in the crowd gave sharp nods and came forward, rifles pointed at them. In a single file queue they were directed out of the concrete maze. Along the way, there was blood smudged along the walls and on the floor, remnants from what they'd left in their ambitious entrance. When they emerged into fresh air, Ellie recognised where they were. They were headed, she thought, to the small room Tommy had used before. She slowed her pace a little then and walked beside Joel. Tommy was at the back of the pillar, the barrel of a gun at his spine.

"What the fuck is going on Joel?" she asked him quietly, but she was overheard.

"No talking," said the woman. Her assault rifle was directed in the general direction of Ellie and Joel, who walked in front of Tommy. It would take the hunters less than a full clip of bullets to bring them to the floor, if something were to happen. And regardless of Joel or Ellie's safety, Tommy would be fucked.

"Trust me," Joel whispered. I do.

"I said no fucking talking."

The office had not changed. There was little in way of decoration, though Ellie noticed the photo of Maria was missing. She glanced in Tommy's direction and it seemed he too had noticed. The two hunters did not enter the room with them, they stood guard outside. The office only had one window; it was barred from the outside.

"Why is every fucking action you took working against us?" Ellie said, pushing herself up onto the metal desk that sat in the corner of the room, underneath the window. She peered outside; dead grass and the distant roar of the river. "What's this guy's deal?"

"Just do what he says," Joel said quickly. "When we were in the sewers –"

The door swung open with no indication and Ish entered, cutting Joel off. "Please," he apologised, "don't stop on account of me. I don't mean to get in the way of your conversation." It seemed to Ellie that he was being sincere, but his words sounded so exaggerated – so insincere.

"What do you mean to do with us?" Tommy asked.

Ish didn't say anything. He sat their weapons in the corner of the room, right beside Ellie, almost as if saying go on, take them, and then sat in the wheeled office chair behind another metal desk. He opened the drawer and took out an old unframed photograph of Maria and Tommy. "I thought I recognised you, boy," Ish said, pointing at him. "Seems you were telling the truth. This was your place." He handed the picture over to Tommy who took it without a word. "I gotta keep it for now – I'm sorry. Gotta prove to my boys that you did have the place. Once. How many of there were you?"

"A hundred, a hundred and fifty. Enough."

"A small army these days. How organised were you? Efficient?"

"Very."

"Right 'till the end. The more efficient the group, the better the morals."

"That's bullshit," Ellie said.

"Oh? How so?"

"I met an organised group half a year back. They locked me up in a cage. They were gonna eat me. Cannibals."

"And I bet they were losing their minds in the end," Ish continued. He lifted another photograph out of the drawer. Ellie squinted to see it, but it was blocked by the drawer; he didn't lift it out high enough. Still, he seemed to dwell on it. "When something bad comes, something like winter, like you said, they blame the one on top. They become wild. This leader you speak of, I bet he only encouraged their… primal side. Cannibalism," he said, as though the word tasted foul. "And in the end, the wild ones want rid of the one on top. Like lions they seek the fittest. An old lion's no use… look at me. My authority is shaky at best these days. One of my brothers will get me one day. Slit my throat in my sleep, maybe. It's my job to stop that from happening, yet here we stand. There's no honour anymore, my friends. This is a predatory world, and it's slowing eating itself alive."

The old bastard was right. Ellie had heard them whisper about calling a council to overthrow David. Maybe he isn't such a dumbfuck after all.

"We just want to survive," Tommy said. Joel was behind him, leaning against the window beside the door. It was a high window, Ellie noted, thinking that she doubted anybody could be looking in to read their lips. Maria and her had held their own against a hunter attack in this very room before, and that window had been no fucking use.

"So did these cannibals. So do my boys."

"Cut to the fucking chase, Ish. What do you want?"

"Want? Child, I don't want much. I certainly don't condone the killing of children, if that's what you're asking. No, children are… children are our future." The man's old eyes lingered elsewhere on nothing. Ellie knew the look; it was a look she had seen on Joel, on Tommy, on Marlene, on anybody who had ever lost somebody on this world.

She had seen that look on everybody she had ever known.

"None of you will die here while I keep going, I promise you that." He placed the photo carefully back at the bottom of the drawer and held his hand out for Tommy's. He hesitated at first and then placed it back in Ish's hand, which carefully stowed it away into the drawer. "All my life people have been coming and going. Mostly going, but here I am. I keep on paddlin'. You know the feeling?" he looked to Tommy, who nodded slowly, to Ellie, who looked away, and then to Joel, who held the old man's gaze.

"That your girl?" he asked Tommy, nudging at the drawer with his eyes. Tommy nodded again, and that was enough for Ish. "I'm sorry for your loss, son. I know what it's like to lose someone you love. I do. Susan, her name was. Strong, sure-footed. You'll find that women often rise higher than men in this new world. Funny. The president of damn FEDRA is a woman, did you know that?" A pause. "Course you didn't. Nobody cares about the president of Nowhereville, s'long as they don't take a giant crap on your lawn."

Ellie couldn't hold out the giggle that found its way out, though she did try. Joel smiled in the corner, probably at Ellie trying to stop herself laughing. She screwed her face up in Joel's direction and he smiled again.

"Well folks, it's getting late. Old bones tire quick. I'll give you some time to rest yourselves up, then I'll send you on your way. Secretly, course. We can't have my boys finding out I let you go. You killed my men but you did what you had to. You're carrying something precious," he said, and looked to Ellie. She should have felt crept out, she knew, but she didn't – she felt proud. Joel smiled in the corner again, she noticed. He nodded a little. "Can I ask your names?"

"Trey," replied Joel, almost too quickly.

"Tess," said Ellie.

"John."

Ish nodded slowly. "Of course you are," he says. He doesn't believe us. He's quick. "Nice to meet you three – Trey, Tess and John. I'll show you to your room. Don't expect a five star hotel now."

Ellie didn't sleep. Joel and Tommy did – they had been awake far longer than she had. Her mind was aglow with frantic activity, a hive of questions. Joel had explained his trust in this man, and he joked that it seemed she would never stop asking questions, but the story had stuck with her on a few levels. Kids. She thought of Sam, and Henry.

Joel had explained that whilst exploring the sewer systems he had found notes belonging to some man who signed himself Ish. In those notes he detailed that he had been washed up on a boat and found his way into the sewer systems, where he set up a small base of operations. He came across another small band of survivors – a woman named Susan and her children. They traded for some time and then eventually he offered them refuge with him; they accepted. They built a home together in the sewers, safe from invaders. Joel reckoned they survived for a long time in there. The kids growing. She remembered the sewers well; there had been a nursery, drawings by children, a room that had served as a school. They had built up a life there. Then someone left a door open.

The infected had attacks in hordes; probably waiting for their chance for months. Susan and Ish were separated from the others, Ish thought. A note from another guy – Kyle – seemed to suggest they were split apart, Kyle with the children and Ish with Susan. The infected were near to knocking down the door. Joel reckoned Kyle spared the kids the horror of being eaten alive by shooting them in the head, and then turned the gun on himself. Susan hadn't made it, it seemed, though Joel didn't know how. Ish had escaped, and now here he was. That was why Joel had trusted him – he had a child with him. Ish would not be responsible for the death of another child. Joel had placed a lot of faith in this idea, but it seemed to have paid off. Joel was a good judge of character.

The story had filled Ellie with a dark sadness. Not anger, just sadness. It made her think of the people she had lost. It made her miss them. Moonlight split the trees asunder from outside, and the shadows of leaves danced on the walls, making shapes like ghosts of the past. Ellie closed her eyes.

But she didn't want to close her eyes – she wanted out of the room. She wanted to ask Ish about Susan, about Kyle, about the children. She wanted to see the picture he kept; she wanted her arrows. Ellie wanted a lot of things.

Tommy and Joel slept on the floor of the room, they had given her the one bed, but it really hadn't been much better than the floor. The dam was never built for comfort, it was remade under Maria and Tommy's command to become a fort. That fort was now their prison.

Outside, she heard a clamour rising in the distance. Light stirred outside, red and orange mingled with the white moonlight and the black shadows. Ellie stood up on her bed; the window was a thin strip barely two feet long at the top of the wall, so it took her some effort to get a look. She could see shapes under the flames in their hands, and guns. Fuck. They're coming for us.

"Joel," she nudged him. "Joel!"

He snapped awake. "What's wrong?"

"Outside," she said. "They're fucking coming for us. I know they are."

He stood on the bed and peered out too. "God damn it. Tommy," he said, and gave him a light kick. Tommy stirred, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"I've had a long day, Joel," Tommy said.

"No fucking around, Tommy. We gotta go."

The door was locked, but it was an old door. Joel couldn't pick locks, but Tommy could. "Maria taught me," he explained. "There were so many damn rooms in this place that we couldn't find all the keys. I had the key for this door, but it's in my backpack, in Ish's." He asked for two of Ellie's hair pins, which she kept in her pocket. He used that and a very small, thin piece of metal to rake around inside the lock. It seemed to take forever; he wasn't the best at it. Maria had been the deft hand. He raked around and around, until the pins clicked into place above and the door unlocked. Quietly, Tommy pushed it open. Joel left the room first, then Ellie. They corridor was all silent steel, quiet stone and bouncing moonlight. They walked down the corridor, Tommy guiding them. He knew these levels, and Joel seemed to remember most of them anyway.

They came across Ish's office, but two guards stood outside of it. They faced away from the trio, down the corridor, the door just on their right. Tommy and Joel exchanged a look together and then nodded. They crept up behind them and grabbed them by their throats, pulling them back and strangling them. They struggled for a while until their legs stopped resisting and they fell. Ellie didn't know if they were dead or simply unconscious. She helped Tommy and Joel move their bodies into a room just off the corridor.

They lifted their guns. "A bit light," said Joel and slid out the clip. "Empty." Tommy did the same and nodded. "Seems Ish was telling the truth about his men really badly needing supplies. Guess the guns are just fear tactics."

She followed Joel very closely behind him as he rounded on Ish's office, back to the wall, listening carefully.

There were raised voices inside the room, and Ellie had to focus very acutely to make out what they were saying.

"… 'the fuck are they?"

"They're just travellers, Travis. Put that damn gun down before you hurt yourself."

"Bullshit, old man. You were fond of them," the man said. Ellie recognised the voice – the voice that had questioned Ish before, challenged him. There was something stronger about his voice now. Ellie crouched down and pushed her head past Joel's legs, looking into the room. Ish was sat on his chair, the man – Travis – stood with a 9mm pointed at his head.

"Look," Ish said, reaching for his drawer. The man's gun hand flinched and he pushed it towards Ish a little, Ish recoiling back. "I'm going to get proof, god damn it, Travis. There's no need for the gun."

"Open it. Slowly."

Ish obliged, pulling it open what seemed like fully. He retrieved a photo, the one of Maria and Tommy. "They held this place before we took it. They offered some information on the settlement. They told me – I let 'em spend the night, they'll help us take the settlement. A fair deal. They got a kid with 'em, Trav." Ish seemed to pull the photograph back towards himself a little, though Travis hadn't finished with it, clearly. He inclined his neck up a little, stretching it towards Ish.

Ish didn't miss a beat, he stretched the photograph tight and slid it across Travis' throat, but not quickly enough. Shots rang out and Ish fell back to his chair, his shoulder glimmering with blood and a burn from so close a wound

"Fuck you, old man." He put a bullet in his head. Ellie jumped a little, fright from the noise mostly. But in retreating back behind Joel's legs, out of sight, she knew he'd seen her.

"Get the fuck in here," she heard. "Get in here."

"Stay here," Joel whispered. He entered the room.

"You. How the fuck did you get out? Did the old man give you a motherfucking key?"

"No," Joel explained. "I picked the lock. Listen –"

"No, you can listen. You killed my fucking friends. You and your little bitch, and the former owner of this proud establishment. Ish said you can get us into that damn settlement. Jackson. That true? Tell the truth now, or you can crumple up, a corpse beside your friend."

"Yes. It's true."

"How?"

"We have a key. Actually, we have a lot of keys."

"How many settlers are there?"

"Maybe a dozen now, but it's got supplies for a hundred and fifty."

"Where's this key?"

"Over there, in the backpack."

There was some hesitation. He wouldn't get it himself, but he couldn't trust Joel to go over. Ellie worried for Joel then, she considered running in, but he'd put bullets in both of them. Tommy worried at her side. He put his finger to his lips. Shhh yourself, useless fuck.

"Get it."

Ellie listened carefully. She heard them, their feet moving slowly. They seemed to round each other, until eventually she heard one of the zips, very slowly, open in the backpack. Something clattered to the floor.

"Keep your hands back from those arrows."

Arrows. She remembered. She lifted her sweater… and then she ran. Before Tommy could say a word, she ran into the room. "Fucking son of a bitch," she screamed as she thrust the broken half of the arrow through Travis' throat. Blood spurted loosely and she kicked the gun from his loosening hand. He collapsed, face-first, onto the cold stone floor.

She looked up at Joel, who was facing her. His eyes lingered on her for a few moments. "It was either him or me," he consoled. She nodded. He lifted the weapons from the corner of the room, and Tommy came in.

"Fucking hell, Ellie," Tommy said. "Nicely done."

Joel threw the rifle to him, and he caught it. He handed Ellie a 9mm. "My bow –"

" – is a lot of help when they don't know we're here, but they'll find us. You need a gun or this won't end well. A bow won't help in a firefight."

She nodded, understanding. Listen to him. She was shaking a little, adrenaline in her blood. Pull yourself together, Ellie.

They took their backpacks back and replenished their ammo clips. Joel and Tommy's eyes lingered on Ish's body for a moment, his old face frozen in a perpetual sadness. Joel reached over to his bloody face and closed his eyelids. Tommy looked at the bloodied photography that lay face-up on the ground. Ellie wondered what thoughts were going through his mind, but he turned away from it and walked off towards the door. Joel followed. Ellie reached for the drawer, wanting desperately to know what Ish sought solace in, sought peace in, but she couldn't. This is Ish's. She didn't want to violate his memories, his physical memories. She wouldn't want anybody to look through her things – not that she really had any.

"Let's go, Ellie," Joel said.

"Yeah," she said, finally tiring. She wanted to sleep. She wondered if Ish's last thought was of Susan, or of Kyle, or of himself.

They headed off down the corridors that seemed to go on forever. Tommy said they had to leave via the engine rooms, with the fans. Ellie didn't want to go that way, but she hadn't voiced her annoyance. Joel had been almost entombed there last time, and Tommy had said that the gas was still very active and that not being detected was crucial. Ellie wondered if her bow was a maybe a good idea.

The moon illuminated every patch of ground, so they had to rely on cover to get past guards. They injured as little people as possible on the way out, only taking out two more guards in the same way as before. Ellie didn't dwell on it – she never did. It was eat or be eaten. This is a predatory world, Ish had said, and it's slowly eating itself alive.

The whir of the fans was audible from the outside. They seemed to moan as they turned, creaking with age. Tommy had made them live again, but still they struggled to. The three of them, crouched, made their way down a flight of stairs, moving past the fans and trying to get to the back. This, Tommy said, would take them out, and then he had the key to get them out of the dam and run right down the Snake, taking them to the railway tracks that would help them find wherever they were headed next. Ellie had contemplated asking Joel if they could go back to Boston, but she figured he wouldn't want to, so she hadn't bothered. She only wanted to go somewhere Joel was happy to go.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard. "Sweep the area. Shoot on sight."

They stopped dead in their tracks, crouched between boxes and a railing. The moon's slight was barely a sliver in here, only let in through cracks, and Ellie was grateful. They shouldn't see us in this low light – and then she saw the torches. They pierced the darkness, cracking it apart with cones of light that moved as they walked forward.

"There's too many of them, we gotta run for the exit," Joel whispered.

"That's suicide, Joel," Tommy said.

"It's against certain death, they're gonna meet us in the damn middle!"

Tommy struggled with the option for a moment, and then agreed. "On three."

"One, two, three! –"

"THERE THEY ARE!"

Shoots rang out, the cones of light shuddering as the guns they were attached to twitched with fire. These guns aren't just for show. Ellie felt air whisper at the small of her back as a bullet rushed past it, barely missing her, sparks off the railing.

They jumped over boxes, rounding the giant fans towards the door. They were so close, and then the door flew open. They ducked just in time, shouts and bullets ringing out, sparks flying apart. At first Ellie hoped that the two teams would shoot each other up without meaning to, but what happened was far worse.

A plume of flame erupted and Ellie felt the heat on her face as the gas ignited from the generators; eruptions of spewing fire and smoke blowing apart the metal foundation of the place. One slammed down onto the guards and the door they had headed for, blocking it off. Screams and billowing flame mingled into one wrenching sound, high in the darkness. The moon's light burst through the ceiling as it fell apart.

"MOVE!" Ellie heard, and a hand grabbed her, tugging. Loose bricks fell to where she had stood, and Joel stood holding her. "Come on, Ellie, Ellie… Tommy… Tommy!"

They began to run, skirting through explosions and bullets. They continued to fire at them – their lives were slowly being snuffed out by hard flying concrete and metal, but they continued to fire. Their lives were truly aimless. This is a predatory world…

There was a gap in the wall caused by the explosions, though it was the wrong side. The hole took them out into the night, and down a hill. There was a fence, barbed at the top, but they climbed it anyway, their hands bleeding when each of them were at the other side. Explosions sang out from behind them, and screams too. Confusion, rage.

Ellie and Joel and Tommy continued down the hill. The trees began to grow thick around them, but they kept running. Then, at once, Joel stopped and crouched low, and told the others to say the same. He put his finger to his lips and shook his head. The explosions in the night, the music of life, had drawn them in, and the night was alive with the sound of clicking.

AFTER NOTE: Thanks for sticking with me through that hulk. Five and a half thousand words of plot. Hard to write. I've got a headache as I type this. So yeah, who do you prefer - Ellie's chapters, or Joel's? I find Joel's easier to write, but there's something fun about swearing a lot that makes me like Ellie's too. Hoping you're enjoying the story so far. For the first time, there's going to be some damn infected. I want to maintain the kind of tense atmosphere the game created when you were fighting infected. The darkness, which was sort of why the forest became a setting. Anyway, let me know what you're enjoying. Follow, favourite, read and review! It's really incredibly rewarding when you guys actively subscribe and become parts of this new story.