THE
LAST
OF US
III

A/N- Thanks for the support guys, glad to see you're all still with us. (I can just feel the love you all have for Rylan right here ;) Nah Just kidding) One more thing, check out RIPtitanic's stories, been a big help with this too.

Chapter 10: The Rift Is Made

Terry couldn't believe his luck, or at least lack thereof, as he and Bill were wrestled into what would have originally been the train's dining car. They were already way behind schedule as it was but now some one-armed nutcase was holding them hostage on their own train for fuck's sake!

Terry struggled with his bonds only to experience excruciating pain as the rope dug further and further into his skin, refusing to relent. He sighed, glancing over at the semi-conscious Bill.

"Pst. Pst...Bill?" He whispered, knowing that there was absolutely no way in Hell Gilroy would have left them unguarded. Bill let out a pained groan, letting Terry know he was listening.

"What?"

"We need to get out of here. If I can get out of these ropes, I can take down the guards."

Bill grunted, apparently lapsing back into his subconscious. Terry rolled his eyes. Looks like it's just me then, he thought. His eyes flickered back and forth, searching the room for anything he could use to escape. A glint of silver caught his eye. A steak knife. Terry flopped onto his stomach, dragging himself across the floor on account of his hands and feet being bound tightly together. Just as he was about to reach for the knife, the door of the car was kicked open. The guard sauntered into the room, briefly casting his eyes on the snoring Bill before noticing Terry huddled in the corner of the room.

"Ah, so what? You thought you could try and escape? I don't think so." The guard chuckled to himself.

"My muscles were getting stiff from sitting in the same way for so long, I wanted to stretch." Terry replied darkly, staring into the eyes of the one man that currently stood between him and freedom.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" The guard laughed again, swaggering over to Terry and grabbing him under the arm before hauling him to his feet.

"Not really, I just needed you to come over here!" Terry snarled, as in one fluent motion he plunged the steak knife into the young guard's chest. The man screamed, slumping to the floor, blood appearing at the corner of his mouth while his shirt already glistened with it.

"Y-you tricked me!" He uttered before the life drained from his blue eyes. No matter how many times Terry had had to do that, he knew it would never get any easier. Especially when thinking about the life that kid could have led, the family he could have had if only the group could get this blasted train to its destination, if they could find the cure. Terry knew this feeling well, it happened every time he took another life. Survivor's guilt. Another face that would loom out of the darkness at him while he slept. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Terrance tore his eyes away from the lifeless body, scrambling over to Bill.

"Bill, the guard is down, I've got to go and find the others." he muttered, gently shaking his sleeping companion back into consciousness.

"Huh? What? Where are the rest of the guards?" Bill questioned, his voice hoarse.

"I think Gilroy only left this one, if I'm lucky the rest of 'The Imperial Fleet' are off somewhere else." Terry grinned at his own Star Wars joke, he missed that saga so much.

" Well I ain't letting you go by yourself." Bill stated as he tried to pull himself up onto his feet but sank back to the floor with a growl as the pain engulfed him once more.

"I'm sorry, Bill, but you'll just slow me down." He peered down at his bloodied foot still fresh from when Gilroy shot him earlier. "You can't run on that foot yet."

"Fine, but be careful, we don't know what this bastard is capable of..."

"I think we got a pretty good idea man." Terry smiled triumphantly nevertheless though, sprinting out of the dining car and jumping off the train. He strained his ears, his hearing well adapted after twenty-four years of living through this hell. What was it Ellie said? Endure and survive? Something like that, he was sure of it. As he listening, he heard the bellowing and screaming of what sounded like hundreds of men coming for nearby. Terry dashed in that direction, not seeing the other figure cross his path until it was too late and the pair collided, tumbling to the ground.

"Ah, fuck!" A female voice piped up. Terry looked up, catching a glimpse of auburn hair and vivid green eyes.

"Ellie! Are you okay?" He asked, pulling her to her feet.

"Yeah, I guess. Have you seen Joel and Rylan?" She panted, dusting herself off.

"No, I thought they were with you?"

"E-Ellie, s-slow down." The pair span around to see Yang jogging towards them, evidently struggling to keep up with Ellie's fast pace.

"Oops...sorry, Yang." Ellie smiled sheepishly.

"Wait, so none of us have seen Rylan, Joel or Abe?" Terry groaned, the exhaustion of the day setting in to his already aching muscles.

"No but I think we can guess where they are." Yang replied, gesturing in the direction of the ear splitting roar.

Terrance approached the Asian girl with a plan in mind. "Bill's going to need some help, he's back at the train." He pointed behind him. "Fix up his foot if you can and get the steam rolling."

Ellie nodded in agreement. "He's right, we gotta make a fast fucking getaway from here." Ellie knew looked out towards the desert and wished that the other women from the vault had followed them. But they were gone before she could promise them sanctuary away from this city. She sighed a sad sigh.

"Then pick up the boys and make it snappy!" Yang shouted as she sprinted towards the direction of the train, not wanting to waste a second. Terry turned to Ellie, giving her a confiant stare now. Telling her to go back now would be futile, what with both Rylan and Joel's lives on the line as well as Abe's.

"You ready?"

She clenched her fists. "Let's go!"

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 have 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. "Now this is an interesting turn of events!"

"C'mon boy!" Joel exclaimed as he swung his tomahawk laterally, forcing Rylan to take a step back and raise his blade. "Show me you're man enough!"

The young man gritted his teeth in response, and he tighten his grip on the machete. "Goddamnit Joel! I am NOT trying to take her away from you!"

Joel was on the offensive, and Rylan was on the defensive, avoiding and evading any blows or attacks that the old man had in store for him. He may not be as strong as Joel, but he was slightly quicker, and his reflexes weren't as dull. Circling and each other and keeping their sights on one another at all times, the two opponents were both on edge, just daring to attack the other.

The crowd's chants and cheers were declining, neither of them had landed a faithful blow yet, but truth be told, Joel was studying Rylan's stance the way he fought, and how to plan his next move. He had farther reach than with his weapon, so the only solution to this was to get up close and personal. Joel placed his tomahawk through his belt loop and balled up his meaty fists, like a bull getting ready to charge. ...And he did.

Rylan's eyes widened and he gasped when he was met with Joel only a couple feet in front of him. Upon only reflex, he swung his machete down, but Joel stopped the blade only inches from his shoulder by grasping the handle where Rylan's hands were. "Joel... stop-"

To add more insult to injury, Joel had head-butted Rylan in the face forcing more blood out of his nose, and forcing him to release the machete and fall to the ground and onto his back. "You can't fight for shit..." His nostrils flared down at him, and his voice dripped with anger. "Shoulda been you under that rock instead of Tommy!"

The adrenaline had finally hit both of their brains now, survival instincts fully turned on now. Rylan despised the thoughts that were being enthralled in his mind, but in this case, he acted upon them. Feigning weakness, Rylan looked away from Joel only for a moment so that he could grab a handful of dirt and throw it in Joel's face.

*cough* *cough* In his eyes and mouth, Joel was blinded by the dirt that got into his eyes and he had to force them shut. In darkness now, he swung the machete blindly in front of him, hoping to hit something, but by the time he could peek his eyelids open, he felt the weight of the young man's body tackle him from behind, and the force was enough to knock him on his belly and drop the machete. Shit!

"Don't you DARE blame me for what happened to Tommy!" He heard him say from on top of his back. "Don't you fucking put that on me Joel! What happened to your brother was an accident!"

"Get off of me!" Joel barked as he felt Rylan pin him to the ground and wrap his arm in a sleeper's hold. "Get off now!"

Rylan then got closer so that he could stealthily whisper something into the old man's ear. "Just play dead, okay? I have a pl-!"

But the one-eyed brunette was just short when the bearded man beneath him was able to grab his neck with his burly fist, it being so close because he was trying to relay a message. Joel pulled with all of his might until Rylan's bloody face was forced into the ground, and Joel had enough room to push himself off the ground and flip them both over now.

Rylan was on the bottom now, and Joel was on top now. The old man flipped himself around and got up on his own two feet. He delivered a hard kick into the brunette's ribs, and the result was that Rylan groaned in pain and turned right back on his back. His face was caked in dirt from the ground and blood from his own face, and he probably had a couple of ribs cracked now. "Y-you..." He weakly stated as most of his face was pretty numb now. "...J-joel, Ellie... Ellie wouldn't want this..."

Joel wiped away the remaining dirt from his face, now his vision was clean as he un-holstered the tomahawk from his belt loop. He looked down at the boy he was supposed to kill, he thought about how he just came into their lives and made Ellie fall 'in love' with him, and how he was 'immune' as well. It infuriated it!

And Joel used the fury to carry out the deed. The crowd above him cheered, they wanted to see blood, as did Gilroy who was smiling wickedly from his throne. The old man raised the tomahawk like an execution's ax, and he saw Rylan's body shift...

Everything seemed to slow... everything felt... so... slow.

Joel's tomahawk was descending to dive into Rylan neck or chest or wherever it would land, but Joel was stunned to see Rylan reveal that the machete was underneath his body and held in his right hand. The one-eyed brunette swung upward and collided with the tomahawk's blade with his own. The longer weapon then slid down the hand for the steel to be met by Joel's fingers, and with how sharp it still was...

...it was like cutting through butter.

"AHHH!" Joel reeled back and coddled his bleeding right hand, switching his weapon over to his left hand now. Thank God that the clean part of the blade had cut him and not the part where the Infected where cleaved with. Joel examined the damage and saw that his right ring finger was mangled, but his pinky finger was just gone. "Son of a-!"

It felt like his hand was on fire as his blood drops had landed and mixed in with the dirt as well. Now the two of them had both spilled one another's blood...

"You wouldn't listen to me." Rylan simply stated as he pulled himself up until he was only on one knee. "Sorry... you'll live though Joel, I wouldn't have." He breathed heavily now as he stood back on his feet still wielding his machete.

Joel attempted to find his finger somewhere on the ground around them, but at first glance he couldn't see it anywhere. "Jesus..." This hurt.

Rylan let out a loud sigh and took a small step forward. "Well?" He continued to pant heavily. "Are you still going to kill me?"

The bearded man continued to coddle his loss finger in front of the boy who committed the deed. He decided to answer his question with another question, and he was just already getting tired. "Tch... have you ever heard of a condom boy?" He breathed out.

"Wait, what...?" Rylan's eyebrow rose. "What did you just say?"

Joel was about to clarify and tell the truth, but he was loudly overwhelmed by the increasing volume of the crowd above them. Their jeering and the heckling continued, bored that the two opponent were now just standing there just talking. Joel's words were only drowned out as Gilroy's voice boomed over the others. "Who said you could stop?! A riveting match you have given us thus far, but our appetite for entertainment is not yet quenched!" The regal one-armed man stood up from his throne and walked toward the edge of the cliff he was on. He pointed at them. "Carry on chaps, unless you both want to die? I'm really not that picky!"

The injuries that Rylan and Joel inflected upon each other were stinging and paining them to a degree. They've both been through worse, however this wasn't a walk in the park for them. But it took this much for them to come to their senses, now looking one another in the eye. Joel raised his left hand with the tomahawk, albeit he was raising it much more slowly now. Rylan's eyes couldn't believe that Joel wanted to keep on fighting. "Joel...?"

"NO!" From the top of the quarry, past the men and guards where everything could be seen up there, stood Ellie, along with Terrance.

"Ellie...?" Both Rylan and Joel stared up at her like she was the foothold back to their normal reality where they weren't forced to kill one another.

" 'Bout time, thank you." Abe stated politely as he took the tomahawk out of Joel's hand from behind, he apparently just woken up from being knocked out only moments ago. And now he wielded the weapon as he faced towards the leader of their captors. "Hey Gilroy!" Abe with all of his might threw the tomahawk right at him. "I axing for us to leave!"

Suppose Ellie's sense of humor is genetic...

The one-armed man didn't even realize it at first when the hatchet embedded itself deep into his chest. Gilroy looked down and his eyes widened upon examining the sudden fatal injury. He looked back up to address his men. "K-kill'em..." He barely completed the command as his body succumbed to this blow and his body fell forward.

Everyone watched as Gilroy's corpse slammed onto the arena floor, the tomahawk still in his chest. The man was dead...

And his men roared with frustration as they all began to arm themselves with their guns. Terrance however got the jump on them and opened fire from above as did Ellie. Bullets went flying, but with them on the high ground, the gunfire was drawn away from the three contestants in the arena. Abe, Joel, and Rylan expertly moved up and put their backs to the wall, trying to find a way to climb out.

"Gotta be a rope or something!" Abe shouted over the weapons going off around them.

Rylan looked up. "There should be a rope up there to toss down."

"Ugh, god..." Joel cringed as he wrapped his finger in some gauze that he luckily found in his back pocket. It'll stop the bleeding, but it still hurt like a son of a bitch. "Abe, make a foothold to get the kid up there. He can reach it."

Rylan's eyebrow quirked in surprise. The hostility between him and the bearded man seems to have faded away with this developing conflict, but he still felt wary towards him. "Um Joel, sorry about the finger-!"

"WE WILL DEAL WITH THIS LATER!" Joel roared as he made a gesture with his un-bandaged hand and pointed to Abe. "Get on going, now!"

Rylan flinched at his words and physically reared back in reaction. That intensity, that anger he saw in his eyes, Rylan really believed Joel was going to kill him...

And now...

The brunette stayed silent as he brushed past the old man and approached Abe. They didn't waste any time hoisting Rylan high enough to grab the ledge which led to where the audience sat. The young man remembered that there were about a dozen or so bandits that sat with Gilroy, so there odds weren't very good.

Rylan peeked his head over and got his arms up, he just had to push the rope down and-!

"GAH!"

The one-eyed boy had heard the last sound he ever wanted to hear. He watched Terrance continue his assault on Gilroy's men, but right beside him... Ellie lay next to him behind some rocks, her left side covered in blood!

He blurted out towards her. "ELLIE!"

A/N- With Gilroy dead but a group of his bandits standing between them and escape, will everyone escape alive? Could the life of Ellie's baby be in danger, or even Ellie herself? Will the deep divide between Rylan and Joel ever be mended? Stay tuned next time! :)