While Joel and Tommy walked off, Maria showed me around. I paid close attention to every detail, and then in my eyes, I saw this one man's back. He wore a jean jacket and his hair was dark brown and curly. Although I only say his back, he had an uncanny resemblance to someone I know. Bobby. I was about to approach him, until Maria showed me something. A photo of a younger Joel and some blonde haired girl. This picture reminded me of the one in my backpack.

Ellie

Fall 2033


Chapter 7: Deep Waters


Present, December 24, 2030

9:00 PM EST

Underground Subway

It had been two months since Ellie, Bobby, Jeff and Sally first entered the subway and now it was their second time. The first time, they did not stay for long because soldiers surrounded some parts, but now they had the subway to themselves for them to explore for reals this time.

Ellie and Bobby had discovered that pre-apocalyptic homeless people lived in the subways, but what became of them remains a mystery. They left their backpacks filled with stuff however. Ellie wore a pair of black jeans with a zipped up red jacket. She had her trademark backpack weighing on her back. Bobby wore an 'all jean' outfit as Ellie described. He wore a jean jacket and jean pants. Like Ellie, he had a backpack. However, his was made of leather and was stolen off the military.

Ellie searched through a homeless person's green backpack and found almost nothing inside, but the backpack that Bobby searched, had some things inside. Lucky. "Check this thing out Ellie." He shows her something.

Ellie took interest. "What is it?"

Bobby gave her a dumb look. "It's a portable DVD player." He answers. "Back then, when people had no TVs or when they were traveling, they would use this to watch movies. It's pretty cool, and if I can fix it, then we have ourselves a free DVD system." Bobby knew what almost anything was nowadays.

"You think that's cool," Jeff said as he walked into sight, carrying some kind of duffle bag that wasn't his. Jeff wore a pair of khaki pants and a yellow sweater that matched the color of his yellow hair. His backpack was almost identical to Bobby's, except it was not made of leather. "Look at what I got." He holds some kind of paper out. Ellie instantly recognized it as a comic book. "A Spiderman issue number one. These things have been around since 1963...I think."

"Can I have it?" Ellie asked.

"Find your own." He says as he stuffs it into his backpack and throwing the duffle bag away. "Guess what Sally found?"

"What?" Both Ellie and Bobby asked.

"Something that only Bobby can figure out, since he has the most knowledge of the pre-shitty world before us." Jeff then walks away into darkness. Ellie and Bobby put on their backpacks and followed Jeff as he walked to a bench with Sally sitting upon. She wore khaki pants and a blue flannel, unfitting for the winter.

"What is this thing?" Sally asks as she hands some kind of electronic to Bobby. He takes it and examines it as if he was familiar with it. A Nikon Df camera.

"It's a camera." Bobby explains. "Back then, people would use these to take pictures, usually for a special memory or for evidence in some cases. Usually photographers carry these. I have not seen one at all in the outbreak. This is the first one I have seen in person. Aside from the ones that were used to take our mugshots. I made sure my mugshots looked sexy. Attracted some girls."

"I know what a camera is. Does it still work?" Ellie asks, eager to take a picture with her friends. She smiled widely at Bobby and waited for an answer. She looked like a child pleading for ice cream.

Bobby clicks something and a screen lights up on the camera. "Still has some juice left in it. Let's take one quickly before the batteries run out."

The four friends huddled up together, making sure they squeezed into the camera's field of depth. Bobby held the camera as far away from him as his arm could possibly stretch and put on a smiling face. Jeff licked his hand and ran it through his hair. He then smiles as widely as he could. Sally, rubbed her hands through her hair and put her elbow on Ellie's shoulder, who was smiling with her mouth closed.

"On three, ready?" The three friends count backwards from three and say cheese. Bobby clicked a button and a flash struck their faces. When they finished, they gave themselves some elbow room while Bobby reviewed the picture.

It was definitely one for the books. All of them had on their best smiles and they all looked happy. "As soon as we get back, I am printing this photo for us."

"You the man Bobby." Ellie cheers. "You are the maaaaan." She couldn't wait to see the photo printed. She had to keep it as a memento, because in a year or two, both Bobby and Jeff were going to be drafted into the military and Sally will most likely leave the zone after the absence of her best friend Jeff. Ellie had told Bobby that if he is traveling, then so is she. However, Bobby had told her that traveling with the military was not worth it, saying that she is better off out in the world. If all her friends left, then she had to keep the photo to remember them.

But just recently, Bobby promised to leave with Ellie to go outside the zone. Jeff and Sally would go with and they would most likely join a group of bandits, or hunters. Ellie heard about hunters in Pittsburgh. (Little did she know she would actually meet them)

"Ellie, Bobby!" Jeff called out in the shadows. "We got a locked door, you want to help us out?"

Ellie and Bobby wondered what locked door Jeff was talking about and decided to investigate. They found Jeff and Sally standing by a door near the train tracks. Ellie was about to walk on one of the rails, until Bobby stopped her.

"Don't step on that." Bobby told as he pushes Ellie back.

"Why the fuck not?"

"That's the third rail, it powers electricity throughout the subway. You step on that ballast and you will be hit with over a thousand volts of electricity. Your heart will burst in your chest before you even fall to the ground."

"How do we know the power is still on?"

"You really want to risk it? Plus the military is pretty handy with making fuel. They use fuel when they need to light up a darkened place and given how the military was just down here some months ago…"

Ellie clenched her jaw and nodded. "Good point. So step over it then."

"I advise staying as far away from the railroad tracks as possible."

"Thanks for the fucking advice."


After breaking down a door that lead to a creepy hallway, Bobby and Jeff turned on their flashlights and checked out the place.

"Why do I feel like Jonah about to be swallowed by a whale?" Bobby asks Jeff. He looked as if Bobby said something stupid to him. "He's from the bible Jeffrey. He was swallowed by a whale. Didn't you study your bible, I have?"

"What's the point?" Jeff throws his hands up. "I would like to believe in God, but I don't think I am able to."

Ben scoffs like a teenage girl shrugging off a friend's comment. "Well, to each their own. I believe in God. He is real."

"How can one man keep track of all of us? It's not rational."

"Simple, he has a super telescope to keep track of everyone. He writes down the names of people who have done real bad and then he sends them to Hell. People who have done good will go to Heaven."

While Bobby and Jeff were talking religious, Ellie and Sally were looking through the trash cans like a couple of racoons. As soon as Ellie finished, Sally went digging around after her. Sally felt something squishy and she wrapped her fingers around it. She has no idea what she has because she was pressed against the trash can and she was forced to turn her head in another direction.

When she took out was a plush toy of a red triceratops. "Aww, so cute."

"What's you find trash panda?" Ellie scooted until she saw the plush dinosaur in Sally's hands. Her face lit up with excitement. "Dinosaurs are my favorite!"

Sally turns her head over her shoulder, still holding the dinosaur in hand. "Since when?"

"Since I saw those three movies with Bobby. Jurassic Park. I found the third one with that spino one to be the best of the three. Although I felt if they made a sequel, then they could have done better. They could have made a dinosaur that was every man's nightmare. And every woman's nightmare."

"Yeah." Sally agrees. "You want the plush toy? I know you want it." She holds it out.

As if someone was forcing her, she grabbed the plush toy and stuffed it in her backpack. "Thank you. Now let's go check on Beavis and Butthead. I'm pretty sure they found so cool antiques."

"We all made a deal to each own 1/4 of the things we find down here." Sally reminded. "You already got your twenty-five percent. Now it's time for us to earn our seventy-five percent."

"Whatever you say Lloyd Christmas." Ellie chuckles as she walks back.

"Who's Lloyd Christmas?"


"RUN MAN! RUN!" Bobby shouts as Jeff and he are chased by infected after entering a room labeled 'Do Not Enter'. Jeff made it through the door first and slammed it shut just as Bobby came out. Bobby slammed his own body against the door just as several runners tried to break the door down. "DON'T LET THEM OUT!" Bobby shouts again. Ellie and Bobby arrived just in time to see Jeff and Bobby barricading the door with the infected with their bodies.

The infected managed to open the door and attack Bobby and Jeff. Bobby shoves one of the infected away and takes out his boning knife and stabs the nearest runner in the throat several times, killing it.

Jeff thrusts his hunting knife into the second runner's chest, severing its arteries and killing the infected.

The third one attacked, but both Jeff and Bobby killed the runner. Ellie and Sally stared in amazement at the duo. "Good job Bobby." Ellie cheers. "That was fucking badass." She displayed no fear of the infected. "Now that was something I will admit."

Another runner came through the door and tackled Bobby to the ground. Ellie was the first to take action. She grabs a brick from the ground and smacks the runner in the face just as it was about to sink its teeth in Bobby's neck. The runner's head snapped back and Bobby used this moment to kick the runner off of him. He gets to his feet and kicks the runner in the head hard enough to twists its neck to an unusual angle. "You stay dead."

(Technically, the infected aren't dead.)

"Jeff, how did a group of runners get in here?" Sally interrogated. "I thought this place was totally infected-free."

Jeff shrugged and stammered. "It is, or at least I thought it was. Maybe someone released them down here."

A screech was heard once again. It was coming from the door, and from the path they had originally taken to get here. Ellie stood close to Bobby's side as she heard footsteps. "That does not sound good." Then there was loud roar. The entire group jumped out of their skin. "Wow, that sounded big."

Bobby stared wide-eyed at the silhouettes approaching them from the dark. "Yeah, it's a good thing we don't smell infected, so we are in some pretty deep waters. Let's get of here!" Bobby runs to get his backpack and follows his group as they make a run for it. Not bothering to look at the subway map, they began relying purely on instinct.