THE
LAST
OF US
III


A/N- It's been too long, too much of an injustice to you guys. I'm so so sorry that it took this long to come back to this story. But I'm back now and with some help with fellow author RIPtitanic. We're going to finish this story for sure, and complete the trilogy of The Last of Us... finally.


Chapter 9: Sin City

"Salutations gentleman." And with this man he had Bill held at gunpoint with a revolver to his head. "My name is Gregory Gilroy, I believe we need to have a talk." He smiled a toothy grin at his own smugness. "I apologize about our little welcome wagon."

"Let him go!" Joel demanded even though he knew that was a useless attempt. Holy crap, it was now that Joel noticed that Mr. Gilroy only had one arm! He was missing his left one, and his right hand had the gun.

Gilroy shook his head at that. "You realize that you are in no position to make any requests? Do not be so crude."

*BANG!*

"GAAHH!" Bill yelped and nearly keeled over in pain as Gilroy's bullet made a hole in his foot. "Goddamn you! Son of a bitch!"

"Stop!" Joel motioned with his hand. The echo of the of the gunshot still keeping everyone on edge of someone else pulling the trigger. "What do you want?!"

Gilroy continued to smirk at his own feat. "Only I can be crude here if I so choose." He then pushed Bill hard enough to stumble and fall on his belly and then roll onto his side, coddling his injured foot. "Please be cooperative, it'll be easier on the both of us."

Abe then spoke up, stepping forward while his hands were still raised in surrender. "Listen man, Greg... -uh Gilroy I guess now." He stammered until he regained his composure. "You know you're sacking the holy savior of trains here right, I mean-" He looked back at Joel in support who was at a lost for words and eyeing every single rifle pointing at them right outside the stationary exposed boxcar they were in. "We're trying to save the world here, right Joel?"

Joel nodded in response, fantasizing about going Rambo on all of their asses. But he wasn't Rambo, sometimes he wished he was, but this was not a movie. Gilroy addressed them. "Abraham... save the world? Well, what about this one?" He then looked at his men and shouted at them. "WHAT ABOUT THIS WORLD?! Where we are KINGS here?!"

*YEAH! YEAH!* HOO-RAH!* They all cheered proudly.

"You hear that gentleman?" Gilroy declared to them. "Why would you want to tease your countrymen with false hopes of achieving the return of the Old World? We've long since abandoned that foolish ideal, too much has happened now. It is time for a new order with us at the top. To just let nature take its course, and let us take your course with us now."

"Fuck me." Abe sighed in defeat while he shrugged his shoulders and raising his hands in surrender. "We're dead, at least not yet." He said flatly.

Joel turned to him. "Whaddya mean, 'not yet'?"

"You'll find out in good time, sirs." The one-armed man stomped on Bill's body with his boot, and the overweight man grunted in pain as a result. "You hear that friend?"

"Leave'em alone." Bill begged from underneath him, coddling his bleeding foot. "Just let them leave."

"Tsk tsk tsk, I believe you all should know what comes next." Gilroy gave a glance towards Joel then ordered all of his men. "Storm the train, take everyone away, NOW!"

Abe, Bill, and Joel only watched on as dozens of men climbed on, and they were powerless to stop them now.

Meanwhile down a couple of boxcars...

Ellie cowered behind the overturned gurney, silently praying for Joel's swift return. It had been about ten minutes since he and Abe had journeyed off in search of Bill but neither of the pair had returned. Ellie felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Something was wrong. She sighed.

"They should be back by now, I'm gonna go check on them." She stated, springing from her crouching position behind the gurney before feeling Terry's large hand yank her back down.

"No, you're not going anywhere. If there is a problem, I will go but I'm not letting you endanger two lives by rushing into a fight." He said, sending a pointed glance towards her stomach. Ellie mumbling something under her breath that Terry didn't quite hear but she immediately sat down with a huff and crawled over to where Rylan lay, still unconscious.

Terry smiled slightly at the sight of the small family, moments like these where what he missed most from before the outbreak. Tearing his gaze away from the young couple, he moved swiftly towards the door, his hand moving to the gun tucked into his waistband. Just as Terry reached for the handle, the door burst open and an object flew past his head, landing with a metallic clang. Terry spun around just in time to see a white vapor engulf the room. This was the last thing he remembered before everything faded to black.

...


...

Ellie woke with a start, her head throbbed and her throat scratched with every breath. She tried to push herself up into a sitting position but was overcome by a wave of nausea that forced her back onto the floor.

"Don't move, it will take a while for the affects to wear off." Yang whispered, her voice strained.

"I don't understand, what the fuck happened?" Ellie exclaimed, taking in her new surroundings. They sat in a what appeared to be a large casino vault, judging by concrete walls and huge, studded metal door with only one window set into the wall high above them covered by bulletproof glass. Straw littered the floor, indicating that the vault had been in use as a cell for quite some time. That was when Ellie suddenly realized that the pair where not alone, five other women sat at the other side of the vault, all of various ages. Ellie felt a pang in her chest as she saw one woman cradling her daughter, who must only have been about fourteen, as tears cascaded down the young girl's face. Yang saw Ellie staring at the women and cleared her throat, drawing the attention back to her.

"That bastard, Gilroy..." The Asian girl snide. "He and his goons locked us up in here. He took the guys somewhere else I think, if he hasn't already..." She trailed off, seeing the expression on Ellie's face.

"What is he gonna do to us?" Ellie mumbled, curling into the fetal position.

"I don't know, Ellie, I just don't know." Yang replied, solemnly. "But it can't be anything good."

Ellie lay on the hard ground thinking of possible ways to escape, she knew she couldn't stay there and she sure as hell wasn't going to let that pervert lay his hands on the girl opposite her. She thought back to her narrow escape from David when he had tried to... no, she wasn't going to let that happen again. She groaned as she finally managed to punch herself up into a sitting position.

"We can't stay here, Yang, we have to escape and find the guys."

"I know, Ellie, but what can we do?" Yang asked, an exasperated expression creasing her face. "It's not like we have a lot of options from in here."

"I don't know but I have to find Rylan, I have to tell him a-about..." She wavered as sobs racked her body. "I'm not ready to be a mom anyway, I'm only eighteen for fuck's sake, and there's no way I can do it without him."

"Abe stole some files before he left the Fireflies, files on all of you. I've read them and from what I can tell, Joel isn't exactly the type of person to give up without a fight and even though I've only known you and Rylan for a short time, I've seen the way he looks at you, he loves you. I have no doubt that they will do everything they can to find us and everything will work out for the best." Yang reassured her. Ellie felt anger surge through her veins.

"How do you know?! I didn't even think I'd survive this long, what if it's finally over? Don't fucking tell me that everything will be okay because you don't know shit about what's gonna happen to us!" Ellie screamed, jabbing a finger at a terrified Yang before clambering to her feet and slamming her fist against the wall in frustration.

"I-I know you're upset but you need to calm down, sudden outbursts of stress and anger are not good for your child." Yang stammered in a feeble attempt to console the red head.

"I don't care! It's not like I asked for this shit. I can barely look after myself, how the hell am I supposed to look after a kid too?" Ellie bellowed, tears falling freely down her face. She fell to her knees, resting her head on Yang's shoulder for comfort. Yang was briefly taken aback by the interaction but swiftly embraced the weeping teenager. Mood swings, she thought...

Eventually, Ellie's sobs disintegrated into quiet sniffles and finally faded completely. She quickly lifted her head from where it had been lying on Yang's shoulder, grinning in triumph.

"That's it! I know how to escape." She grinned, leaping to her feet. "Come on, if you wanna get out of here, you need to fucking do something." She whispered to her fellow prisoners, aware that making too much noise would alert the guards to her plan.

"Ellie, what the hell are you doing?" Yang questioned, astounded by the girl's immediate transformation. Ellie spun around to face her, a devilish smirk plastered on her face.

"You'll see!"

Ellie collected as much straw as possible, encouraging the others to do the same, before collecting it all into a large pile in the center of the room, exactly in the spot where the sunlight bled through the window, lighting the room.

"Right, now I need some glass. Does anyone have a bottle?" She interrogated. An awkward silence descended over the room, Ellie's smiling instantly fading.

"I have my reading glasses if that helps." Yang blurted out, conscious of all eyes in the room directed at her. Ellie beamed.

"That's perfect!" Ellie announced, grabbing the glasses from Yang and prancing over to the spot where the sun's citrus rays were most prominent. She turned her back to the window, feeling the warmth on her back. Ellie raised Yang's glasses high into the air above her head and directed the magnified beam onto the pile of dry straw, making it catch alight. Yang stared at Ellie with a look of absolute terror. What the hell was this girl trying to do? Kill everyone? Ellie raised a finger to her lips, signalling for everyone to stay silent before crouching behind the door to the vault.

"FIRE! FIRE!" She yelped, as loud as she possibly could, in an attempt to summon any guards in the vicinity. The door was flung open, revealing two guards who had evidently been guarding the vault from the outside. Ellie lunged at them, stabbing one in the neck with her switch blade before they were even aware of her presence. She tackled the other with precision, aided by the fact that he was still distracted by the body of his friend that now lay in an ever growing pool of scarlet. When both guards were finally dead, Ellie turned to the rest of the group, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

"Okay, that's it. C'mon, we don't have much time!" Without hesitation, the group sprinted for the exit and naturally split into their own individual groups as the scent of freedom filled their nostrils. Suddenly, one thought occurred to Yang.

"Ellie, where were you hiding that switch blade? They took all of our weapons while we were still unconscious."

Ellie just smiled "You don't want to know."


...

*cough*

"You awake now sleeping beauty?"

Rylan lazily opened his eye to see that Abraham was crouched down beside him, looking down at him with curiosity. The brunette gave another hearty cough and sat up, reeling in the fact that his head was throbbing like he was hit by a truck or something. "OW!" His hand jolted to the pain, only to feel that white gauze had been wrapped around his head. Rylan took in his surroundings as well. "W-what happened?"

It was then that the kid realized that him, Joel and Abe were all in some sort of small cavern of some sort, something carved out of the rock that surrounded them. Ahead was the exit which looked like a light at the end of the tunnel. Abe surprisingly offered a hand to Rylan which he took and they both stood up on their feet. "We're up shit creek without a paddle, that's what happened kid."

A few feet away from them, Joel had his back turned to face them, his front towards the light at the exit. Rylan trudged almost warily towards the old man. "Joel? The last thing I remember was you..." He paused, thinking for a second. "... you were coming at me." He felt the wound on his head heat up and tingle. "Did you do this to me?"

Joel was silent for a moment before he turned towards Abe and the one-eyed young man, ignoring the latter's inquiry. "We gotta find Ellie and the others, get on outta here before-!"

*BLLAAAARRRRRG!*

A loud horn-like sound erupted and echoed from outside and into the cavern they were standing in. The sound was so intense and sudden that the three men had to cover their ears, lest it deafen them. The noise partially reminded Joel of the lunch break horn from his construction and contract days back before the Cordyceps. Nevertheless, the noise was followed up with the jeers and cheers of men, presumably the ones that had blindfolded and brought them here in the first place. Chiming in, Abe told both of them. "It's time to put on a show."

"Show? Wait what?" Rylan confusedly stated as he was still at a loss of what was really going on. "Someone mind filling me in, please?"

"Ever see a movie called Gladiator, kid?" Abe asked the brunette, until he realized that Rylan wasn't even born yet when that movie came out. "Ah, never mind. They want us to fight for'em till we die."

Rylan's eyes widened and was about to say something until Joel interrupted him. "That ain't for them to decide when we die." Joel darkly stated as he stepped out into the light, ready to meet their captors. "C'mon."

Abe agreed and followed the old man, and Rylan soon after. Closer and closer, the three of them stepped out of the shadows of the cavern and out into the light where their eyes had to adjust for a moment from being in the dark. And when they took in what they saw, no other questions needed to be asked.

They were at the bottom of a quarry, where Gilroy himself and his men stood about twenty feet up on ledges that encompassed that entire area like a Colosseum. There were other caverns like the ones where the guys where, but they could just hear from inside that it was Infected, not other survivors. The arena in front of them had some discarded weapons like hatchets and bats and other melee weapons. The ground was stained with the blood of other survivors as well...

"GENTLEMAN!"

Joel, Rylan, and Abe looked up to see Gilroy on some sort of throne among the audience. "Welcome to SIN CITY where only the strongest and smartest can survive." He pumped his only arm and fist into the air and made a signal to someone that was out of their line of sight. "Release their opponents! Let the games begin!"

The three men looked on in horror as what looked like firecrackers were lit at three of the entrances. *Click* *Click* *ROOOAAGH!* And like lions from the den, five or so Infected hobbled out of their holes and onto the arena. "Oh shit..." Joel gasped as he instinctively searched himself for weapons, and he had none, same a the other two.

"Grab somethin' off the ground, anything!" Abraham shouted as he sprinted towards a bat with nails in it. "We gotta defend ourselves! NOW!"

"Oh my god!" Rylan cursed under his breathe as he picked up the only stray machete that was laying on the ground, and Joel grabbed a tomahawk. "We gotta stick together!"

"You think?!" Joel snarled at the boy as the three Runners and the two Clickers charged at the three of them.

The men above took pleasure in the barbaric entertainment, as did Gilroy, watching the fight happen below them. How long will they last? Any longer than the others? Gilroy roared to the crowd. "THREE ROUNDS THEY MUST SURVIVE! ROUND 1 BEGIN!"

*ROOOOAAARGGH!*

Abraham jumped back to avoid the clawing grasp of a Runner, and then immediately lunged forward with swinging his bat in an uppercut motion. He eviscerated the soft fungal-infested skull as it caved in from the wooden bat, but his weapon was barely holding up. One more swing like that, and it wouldn't be a bat anymore. A Clicker and a Runner decided to pincer mover around Joel, and he merely punched the Runner square in its jaw, dazing it before plunging his tomahawk deep into the Clicker's neck. He pulled his weapon back out and chopped down into the other side of the Clicker's neck, killing it instantly. But before he could finish off the Runner that was after him as well, he felt the third Runner tackle him into the ground.

"ARGH! GET OFF ME!" Joel struggled as he kept the thing's bloody snapping teeth away from any of his skin. Inches away from his neck, he felt the body on top of him go limp with a machete in his head. He pushed it off him and saw a familiar hand offered to him. "Thanks kid."

Joel took Rylan's hand as Abe finished off the last Runner, killing it with his bat, but breaking it in the process as well. This left them with one Clicker left, and Rylan took it upon himself to wrap up the round by decapitating the head. It rolled on the ground, as the crowd cheered behind them, and the sun hotly beating down on all of them from above. "That wasn't so hard."

"ROUND 2 BEGIN!"

"That was just the warm-up!" Abe barked as he joined in for the group huddle with Joel and Rylan. He picked up a stray shiv off the ground in the meantime. "Boys, we gotta stick together on this one! We can't let'em separate us!"

*WURROOAGH!*

The three contestants turned their heads to see a roaring Bloater stumbling towards them out from another one of the caverns. The large creature locked in on their conjoined location and tore off a piece of itself to throw a poisonous sac at them. Joel yelled. "SCATTER!"

Rylan and Joel went left, and Abe went right as the sac landed in their previous spot and exploded, sending thousands of spores into the air as a result. The Bloater howled as it began to isolate Abe and charge towards him. Rylan exclaimed. "How do we beat that thing with no guns?!"

"Gimme that!" Joel forcibly took the machete from Rylan's hands and held the tomahawk in the other. "Do you still got a lighter?"

Rylan quickly searched his pockets and then the inside the of his jacket pocket, revealed they didn't find it there. He pulled out his zippo. "Yeah why?"

"We gotta kill it with fire."

Abe was running around the arena almost comically as the audience and Gilroy laughed at his despair from above while the Bloater was still chasing him. "I don't mean to sound cynical, but this fat fuck is gonna kill me! Shit!" He was only inches away from the Bloater's reach, and it growled in frustration as a result of its elusive prey.

*WOOARH!*

Joel dashed towards the Bloater from behind, and quickly enough, he was able to professionally draw its attention away from the old redhead, switching off. Abe was able to meet up with Rylan struggling to light something of use. "Havin' some trouble there son?"

"It's not catching-!" Rylan was interrupted when Abe took the sharp makeshift crafted torch and pulled out his personal flask. He dumped the alcoholic liquid on the end and Rylan quickly lit, now ablaze.

"You owe me a drink." Abe smirked as he turned heel and headed towards the Bloater and Joel. "Hey ugly!" Abe was almost point blank when the giant Infected turned its attention away from Joel. "Taste this!"

Abraham stabbed the torch into the Bloater's only weak spot around it's fungal armor-like plates: it's mouth. With the Bloater's weight lunging forward and Abe's strength pushing back, the torch went out the back of its head and the fire began to burn and damage it finally. It roared in agony and flailed like an animal, but one swing of it's arm and Abe was knocked upside the head and his body slid in the dirt a few feet now unconscious.

Joel acknowledged that now was his window he had to attack now! Joel sprinted towards the flaming Bloater and delivered the finishing blow: from behind, its fungal skull plating was brittle enough from the fire for the machete and the tomahawk to cleave through into its brain, finally bringing the beast down and Joel stepping back before the fire had burned him too.

Rylan wiped his brow and gave a thumbs up to Joel to which the old man simply acknowledged with a nod. The crowd above them remained silent as only Gilroy stood up and addressed. "No one has ever made it past Round 2... I'd give you an applause but I'm a afraid you'll have to suffice with my one hand clapping." His men murmured among them, curious as to what their boss will do next.

"Where's our people!?" Joel demanded through gritted teeth. "Where'd you take'em?!"

Gilroy chided him. "Make it past Round 3, and you win. I'll escort you to them myself."

"Then bring on!" Rylan put up a guise of confidence, his head was still killing him. He wanted to get back Ellie just as much as Joel. What could be tougher than a Bloater?

"Joel, if I'm not mistaken?" The old man gave him no response. "Turn around, and face your opponent for Round 3 then."

Joel was expecting maybe a Gladiator or Champion of his own men, another Bloater, or another round of Clickers. But no, when Joel turned around only the bandaged Rylan stood there, confused for a moment to what the one-armed man said, but nevertheless figured it out when he locked eyes with Joel.

"A fight to the death. Kill the boy and you can go free with the others. Or let him kill you, it doesn't really matter." He smugly smirked as he shrugged his shoulders. "Or..." He made a hand gesture to two guards on either side of him to raise their guns. "...You'll be shot, and we will keep your women."

"No..." Joel looked at Rylan and then at the weapons in his hands. "NO!" He threw them on the ground into the dirt. "Son of a bitch, I will kill you before you lay a finger on'em!"

"Fuckin' prick! You can't make us do this!" Rylan followed up with some words of his own.

Gilroy yawned. "I can and I will. And if you don't cooperate I'll be sure to whisper into your girl's ear how both of your bodies were riddled bullets. And then I shall ravish her..." He sighed pleasurably. "Now fight you plebs!"

The very thought struck them both to their very core. Joel visually shook and shivered while he looked down at his own hands, examining them like they were new tools to him. Rylan was in despair, in an impossible situation. "Joel, what do we-! OOF!"

Joel had elbowed Rylan right in the face. The blow was so quick and so sudden that the boy didn't know what hit him until he landed on his back, his nose bleeding now. The crowd began to cheer again and egg on the new conflict, praising their leader for the entertainment. "Get up boy..."

Rylan opened his eyes to see a dark figure over him, holding a tomahawk. Joel just stood there as Rylan grabbed the machete off the ground again and defended himself. "Joel. It's me Rylan, look we don't have to do this."

"We don't a choice Rylan." The old man was avoiding the young one's gaze. "...Like it or not, it's you or me." He flared his nostrils and gritted his teeth. "Keeping Ellie safe... I trust myself more than than I trust you."

But Rylan shook his head, fighting the emotions that were inside him. "You won't kill me, we've been through way too much together!"

Joel sighed, as he raised his weapon. "...It's the way it's gotta be."

"No, Joel! Hold on!"

Gilroy announced the commencement. "ROUND 3 BEGIN!" And Joel charged at Rylan with intent in his eyes.


A/N- It's back folks! Now what do you think everyone? Will Joel actually kill Rylan? Can Ellie and Yang find them in time? And where are Bill and Terry at? Submit your theories and await the continuation. :) Stay tuned!