(Joel)

Joel slowly returned to consciousness. He had been sleeping on the floor for three days. His wrist was red from being handcuffed to the radiator, his back and ass ached sitting on the floor. He was cold and alone in this big empty room. He had been fed though.

Joel wasn't sure why the bandit's kept him waiting. He had come to terms that they were going to kill him but they didn't. He was alone, the only contact he had was yesterday when Jasper talked to him. He had assumed the waiting was a strategy to break him.

God, I think I might be here for a while...

Joel knew that it was breaking him. Not the pain, or the thought that he could be executed at any moment. But the thought of leaving Ellie alone.

Even if she never talked to me again, I wanted to make sure she was alright.

I wanted to be told how she was doing by Tommy.

I wanted to see how she got on in the community.

I wanted to see if she had a family.

And I wanted to tell her what happened.

But I can't do any of that, I have to sit here and wait to die.

Ellie was going to live her life without Joel and that shook him.

Joel was tortured in his mind of the things that could happen to Ellie.

She's gonna' be fine... She's gonna' be fine... She's with Tommy... She's gonna' be fine. He repeated in his head, reassuring himself.

The door opened. Joel looked at the ground again.

Jasper was standing in the doorway.

The man stood and looked at Joel, who was still looking at the floor. There was no fear in him, he didn't look distressed or nervous - he just looked slightly disappointed.

Jasper gave a small exhale.

He picked up the chair as he walked over to Joel and placed it in front of him. Joel kept his stern face looking at the floor. Jasper sat down in front of him.

"Hello."

Jasper paused. "You were looking for someone before we caught you."

Joel never moved.

Jasper slide his hands in his pockets and tilted his head.

"Who were you looking for?"

Worry pierced through Joel like a knife.

Oh please tell me she isn't here!

Joel's eyes moved towards Jasper now with heat of aggression in them.

Jasper saw what he was thinking and used it to his advantage.

"Little girl?" Jasper asked, like he knew her. Joel tried to keep his expression the same. He tried not to let his anger or worry show so they could use her to make him talk. Jasper saw, though. He saw all his emotions. "She's not here, don't worry." Joel could help but show his relief. Jasper's gas mask shifted from his smile. "Daughter?" Jasper asked casually. He was interested.

Joel didn't answer.

"I understand." Jasper mumbled, nodding his head. Jasper understood that he wouldn't want to talk to him about it.

Jasper stood up.

"I'm sure she's fine..." He said as he walked to the door.

Joel looked at him questionably as he left.

Once the door closed again Joel relaxed. He was slightly confusing though. Why does this guy care?

Joel thought that he was just be pretending to be his friend him so he would tell him about the dam but there was sincerity in him. It was like how he used to talk to other dads when he had Sarah. He didn't want to think about it, he was probably going to die. He closed his eyes and returned to his thoughts of Ellie.

(Jasper)

(-...-)

Jasper was standing outside. He was watching his friends move around the camp, fixing things, handing out supplies, talking. His gas mask was strapped to his belt. The cool breeze felt good on the burn mark across his face. He didn't take the mask off often. Nobody had really seen him without it since his accident.

Mick and Kyle appeared behind him. They had been having a quiet argument as they walked up to him.

"Hey, man." Mick said, ending the argument.

Jasper turned around and stared at him, waiting for him to say something. Mick had not seen this much of his face before, it made him uneasy. Jasper kept a careless expression.

"Uh, it's been a few days... You gonna'... Get rid of that guy?" Mick asked. Kyle stood behind him with his arms crossed, looked away.

He asked you to say that...

Jasper stuffed his hands back in his brown bomber jacket's pockets. "Is he a problem?"

"No, but... Why keep him around, ya' know?" Mick waved his arms but tried not to sound threatening.

Jasper didn't answer. He turned around and watched the work that was happening.

"Look, man what is this about-" Mick stopped himself. He saw Jasper's back tense. "I'm sorry, I didn't-" Mick tried to explain but was interrupted. "Mickey... I'll take care of it in the morning."

"Jasp-man, a lot of our guys got killed by this guy." Mick raised his voice but still tried to kept it non-threatening.

Jasper paused for a moment. He removed his gas mask from his belt and strapped it to his head. His naked face was covered by his new face.

"I'm going to do it." Jasper's voice was huskier, there was authority in it. He didn't like to think of himself as any sort of leader but when he really needed to do something, he done it. His friends were scared of him, that bothered him but it did have its uses.

"...Okay, man..." Mick muttered and stepped back.

Kyle moved forward. "Hey listen asshole! Taylor got killed by this guy, I'm doing it!"

Jasper's eye twitched.

"Really?" Jasper had a threatening tone. Kyle tried not to be intimidated by him. "You have no reason-"

Mick put his hand Kyle's shoulder and tried to calm him down. "Just leave it-" "Just leave it? You're such a pussy, Mickey! We can stand up to him, he doesn't run this place!"

Taylor was Kyle's best friend. He had joined the bandit's with him and he was going to do anything to get revenge on the person that killed him.

"Is this just because he was looking for a fucking kid?" Kyle barked.

Jasper turned to face Kyle. His muscles were flexing and his fists were clenched. Yet Kyle still didn't back down.

"Every time a kid gets involved you get so weird! Just because your angry that you let Jermaine die!"

Kyle couldn't believe what he just said. He tried to keep a brave face like he wanted to say it. Mick was shocked "Oh shit..." Mick muttered as he looked at Jasper. His eye was twitching uncontrollably making his gas mask giggle slightly. He was breathing heavily out his nose.

Jasper walked powerfully to Kyle. Kyle tried backing up before he was grabbed around the throat by Jasper. Jasper had a strong, tight grip on Kyle's neck with one hand while the other was flexing by his side. He was going bright red and his eyes started to water. Kyle had his hands on Jasper's arm, trying everything he could to get him to stop. His throat was being crushed by Jasper's strength and he couldn't talk, he couldn't beg or call for help. Mick grabbed Jasper's shoulder and tried to rock him to get him off. "Jasp-Man! Jasp, get off him!" Mick grunted and tried to force Jasper to let go of him but he couldn't, Jasper was like a solid rock. He didn't even pay attention to Mick, all his concentration was on strangling Kyle.

Kyle's force on Jasper's arm weakened. Kyle's eyelids began to drop half way down his eyes. "JASPER!"

Jasper returned to reality. His head turned to the voice. Zara was standing with a few other bandits looking at Jasper. The look on her face begged him to stop. He looked back at Kyle who was almost passed out. He let go of his neck. Kyle dropped to the floor and began having a coughing fit. Mick bent down to help him. Jasper looked around at the trouble he caused. All his friends were watching him. Jasper looked down at Kyle. He felt no regret. He turned and walked inside.

He marched through the hallways until he reached the interrogation room. He bust open the door making Joel jump slightly. Joel looked at him this time. Jasper took out a shiv from his coat and was heading for Joel.

Joel though it was the end. He was never going to see his Ellie again.

Joel closed his eyes as he imagined the shiv burying deep into his neck but there was nothing.

A few moments past before he slowly opened his eyes again. Jasper was bent on one knee in-front of him.

"Listen." Jasper said with slight stress in his voice. He pulled out some keys and put it in the hand cuff. Joel looked at him puzzled. The hand cuff loosened on Joel's hand. Joel was just about to pull off the radiator when Jasper stopped him. "Say here. Wait until someone comes in here and..." He handed Joel the shiv. "Break out of here." Joel was so confused. "Why are you doing this?" Joel asked. Jasper looked down.

"You have someone to get back to..." He looked back up at Joel and have him a pat on the shoulder. "Trust me, you won't get out of here now, wait until someone comes, it will be later, there will be less of us out." Joel nodded at him. Jasper stood up. "Thank you..." Joel said breathlessly. Jasper nodded and left. Joel leaned over the radiator so his loose cuff was covered by his body. He stuck his outside arm across himself so the shiv was covered too.

Jasper walked in back to his room wondering whether what he did was right. These guys were his friends but he couldn't let another child suffer because of him.

Hard to believe it's been three years, three years of working with these guys...

I can remember when we first met them.

Me and Jermaine had been searching a abandoned shop's upper floor in Logan, Utah. We had been struggling for a while.

I was looking through boxes to find some food, weapons, anything! It was some military store or something. Most of the guns were taken.

I heard gunshots outside. I stopped rummaging through a box and looked at Jermaine. He was standing by the window shaking. "Jasp... There's trouble." He said.

I walked over to him and looked out the window. A few people were defending there truck from Infected. A women was getting ripped apart. I would have just left them but they might have been in some other group and we needed food, maybe if I helped they would help us? I was too desperate to not. There was a Big boy, a few clickers and about eight runners. I looked at Jermaine. "I'm going to go down there, you stay and shoot from here."

"We're going to help those guys!?"

"Yes! If they are apart of a bigger group we could be brought back to the rest. They could have food."

"Jasp, that's a stupid idea! What if they just kill you!?" Jermaine begged me not to go.

"I won't let that happen." I said as I grabbed his shoulder.

He nodded back at me.

"Shoot from up here - you got your gun?"

"Yep."

"Alright, I'm going to go down there."

I was leaving before Jermaine stopped me.

"Jasp, be careful..."

I have him a nod and ran down stairs.

I killed almost all of those bastards. The group didn't kill us. They took us back and fed us, we became one of them. And I've betrayed them...

Jasper lied down on his bed, he didn't want to be awake when Joel got out.