THE LAST OF US: WE HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE

CHAPTER 7: JOEL

Endure and survive.

A heavy weight was lifted off of my chest. Somehow, my brother solved my problems without even being here. I needed to find him, dead or alive. But first, we had a few Fireflies to deal with.

I made sure my revolver was loaded, and walked towards the exit.

"Stay close to me," I told Ellie.

"Got it," She answered.

"Jack," I said. "She's going to be watching my back. I need you to watch hers. Can I trust you with that?"

"Of course," he replied.

"Good," I sighed. "Let's get a move on."

We ran out into the open, where hundreds of townspeople were readying their weapons. Apparently, this town wasn't too fond of the Fireflies either. But that didn't stop the Fireflies. Six of them had assault rifles, and were firing at the civilians.

Ellie, Jack, and I ducked behind a building. The Fireflies didn't notice us as they passed. I grabbed one of the men from behind, and held my gun to his head.

"Get the fuck off of him!" One of the others yelled. They took cover from me.

"Don't try anything stupid!" I yelled back.

"Hey, listen," one of the men stepped out. "We don't want to hurt anyone. We were attacked. We just want…"

"I know what you fucking want," I said. "And you're not getting her."

"I just want to talk, Joel," he said. "My name's Chris."

"Pleasure," I said. "Now go away."

Chris became irritated. "Come on, humanity is on the line here."

"Humanity has always been on the god damn line," I said. "Some of us have survived for over twenty years. We can keep surviving."

"Not forever," Chris said. "I don't know if you've noticed, but the infected are getting smarter. How long before they start carrying guns?"

"It can't be much worse than the people I've had to fight," I said.

"And kill," Chris finished."You took a lot of good lives to preserve your own."

This guy was pretty good at changing subjects. "Have we met?"

He raised his gun to me. "No, but you've met my sister."

"Oh, shit," I said, and ducked for cover as Chris opened fire.

All hell broke loose once those shots were fired. The bullets barely grazed my shoulder, and all the people who lived in the city opened fire. Everyone was forced to spread out in every direction.

A Firefly grabbed Ellie from behind. The firefly pulled out a small needle, and even though Ellie struggled, he injected her with a liquid that made her unconscious. She fell limp as the Firefly carried her away… or tried.

I ran to him, and hooked him in the jaw. As he began to recover, he was met with a boot in the face. Blood splattered from his nose, but he tried to get up again. I shot him with my revolver in the back of his head, and he fell lifeless.

Jack ran to my side as I picked up Ellie.

"We have to get her somewhere safe," I told him. "Keep us safe."

"Got it," he said.

We ducked into one of the houses, and I set Ellie down in a corner. I stayed next to her as Jack and I fired out the windows. I'll give the Fireflies some credit; they know how to avoid a bullet. These were going to be some tough targets.

"Fuck," I heard Jack say from behind me."

"What? What's wrong?" I asked.

"That army of infected…" he said. "They're fucking back."

"Well, shit," I said.

All the gunfire and commotion here must have drawn them back here. Now, on top of being hunted by Fireflies, we were about to be swarmed by infected. This day just couldn't stop getting worse.

"Keep us safe," I told Jack as I picked up Ellie again.

"I got you covered," he promised.

I took off in the opposite direction of the infected. Unfortunately, that was also into the crossfire. Bullets of every kind flew in every direction. The gunfire decreased as the crowd realized what I was running from. The horde entered the already devastated city once again.

Panic broke out as hundreds of people screamed and ran for their lives to escape the army of infected. Again, the runners and stalkers led the clickers and bloaters into the area. A runner managed to catch up to us. As he promised, Jack attacked the thing before I reached me.

Ellie began to regain her consciousness in my arms. Realizing what was going on, she gripped me tightly, but was still too dazed to run on her own.

Jack fired at more infected as they caught up. Surprisingly, he was a pretty good aim. He never missed a shot, conserving his ammo well.

"What the fuck happened?" Ellie said, still in a daze.

"Shooting attracted infected," Jack said. "Long story, keep moving."

"I'll explain later," I said. "We have to get out of here."

At this point, everyone else had started ignoring the Fireflies, and the Fireflies ignored everyone else. The infected began to overrun the town. People ran for their lives, trying anything to get away from the horde.

"Joel, fucking put me down," Ellie demanded. "I'm awake now."

"Yes ma'am," I said, putting her on her feet.

She pulled out her pistol that I gave her a year ago. I told her that it was only to be used for emergencies. I guess this was bad enough to be considered an emergency.

Putting her down also freed my hands to pull out my own weapon for emergencies. I pulled out my modified revolver that I called El Diablo. This extremely powerful weapon had a downside though. Because it was heavily modified to be beyond powerful, it could only fire one bullet before I had to reload.

I shot it at a bloater, and the bullet pierced through its natural fungus armor, killing it instantly. I reloaded, and shot another bloater, also killing it. After that, I decided to swap to my flamethrower, which unleashed a wave of death on the infected.

Jack, Ellie and I held our ground pretty well. But that wouldn't last long. We needed an escape plan.

"Cover me," Jack said.

He turned around and took off his pack. He pushed around supplies searching for something… hopefully a plan for escape. I turned back towards the infected and opened fire. There were still hundreds of them. I still couldn't wrap my mind around how many there were.

"Watch out," Jack finally said, holding a small pouch. He threw it at the ground a couple feet in front of me. The pouch exploded into a cloud of dust, confusing the nearby infected. Clickers began to trip over the dazed runners, giving us a perfect opportunity to…

"Run!" I shouted.

Jack, Ellie and I took off into the woods behind us. I glanced back, and saw that we weren't being followed.

"Nice job, Jack," I said once we stopped running.

"Thanks," he said. "It was nothing, really."

"Well, 'nothing' just saved our lives," Ellie said.

Our brief conversation was interrupted by the sounds of screaming and clicking.

"Come on," I said. "Let's get a move on."

We ran away from the horrid sounds until they began to fade. We reached a higher ground were we could get a view of Tommy's dam. With hesitation, I looked down at the town.

Years of hard work and dedication went into this place. So many people dedicated every fiber of their body to create this sanctuary from the hell of this world. And now, because some damn Fireflies decided to have a shootout, that sanctuary was destroyed. Looking at the devastation, I couldn't even tell where the walls or buildings use to be.

I looked away, unable to stand it any longer. I saw Ellie also welling up with emotion. And even Jack, who had only been there for one day, was full of sadness.

"We've got to get moving," I said. "That horde might head in this direction, and we won't stand a chance."

"Okay," Ellie said dryly.

"Right behind you," Jack said.