Writing this chapter did take a while, but I hope it is worth it. 'Cause of life, and a new book to read. Thanks for the reviews, and all that. Enjoy!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

How Many Infected?

He wanted to shoot him. The kid had left them to die. Were Tess not resourceful enough to run for the shutters, the humvee could have killed them. Speaking of Tess, where was she? The last Joel saw of her, she jumped off the bridge with Ellie. He had woken up, got into a bit of a fight with Henry, and she was gone. They split up from Henry and Sam.

"Where is Tess?" Joel asked Ellie.

"She was awake when I came around," Ellie replied. "She went further down the beach."

Joel walked down the beach, ignoring the rusted rotten boat marooned on the sand. He found her sat on a rock at the very end of the beach, staring up at the stars. Quiet and a touch desolate. So very un-Tess like. He sat down on the sand. Unnoticed to them, Ellie crouched down near the surf, pretending not to listen.

"You alright?" Joel asked.

Tess nodded, breathing in the warm sea salt scented air. "I've felt worse." Her gaze lowered from the stars, down to her sand dusted hands. Moments before they had happened upon her, she had clawed her fingers through the sand just for something to do, other than think about the city she had left behind for a second time. She brushed her hands together, in a failed attempt to wipe the sand from them.

Joel reached over, took her hand, rubbed the sand from it with his own. Wiped the sand away on his pants—something would wash it off eventually. Did the same with her other hand. "This whole crusade will be over soon."

"I'm not so sure. Joel, I can't shake the feeling this is my last stop."

"Our luck ain't running out yet."

Tess, pulled her hand free from his, pointed a finger towards the bridge they had jumped from. "In there, we killed more men, than there were guns Marlene is prepared to pay us. Even if our luck holds out long enough, we are going to have pass through there to find our way back to Boston."

"Tess... this is just a job."

"Is it? You sure?"

"Guys," said Ellie, sitting down on the sand opposite them. "We're not going back are we?"

Joel looked to Tess, who had gotten lost in the view of the horizon once more. "Ellie—."

"We push on. Get this over with." Tess stood, breathed in that fresh sea salt air once more. "Moment of doubt over."

Joel moved from the cover of the low wall, to the next. He froze at the sound of a gunshot.

Something was firing at them from the window at the floor above. All the runners charged to the window, clawing at the boards. Joel saw his chance. Raising his el Diablo, looking through the scope, letting the head of three runners cross through the crosshairs, and each receive a bullet. Even though he was fully against it, Joel had no choice but to arm the kid with a shotgun—and a good job too. A runner charged towards them, and was blasted back with a single round. The spoils were a deactivated nail bomb, and a box of ammo for the El Diablo.

"Joel!" Annalisa called, throwing the ammo to him.

He caught it, reloaded. Annalisa covered him, by activating the nail bomb and hurled it at the worst cluster of the runners. The explosion wiped out four of them. Allowing them to move down onto the deck, and into the bar gazebo. There was another kid hiding down there. A ten year old Hispanic boy, with hazel eyes. Scattered around his feet were tin cans, bags of nails and broken blades. He had already made a few nail bombs. Annalisa giggled at the sight of him, and hugged him.

"Keep them bombs coming," Joel said, snatching up one of the bombs—the kid didn't object.

The three of them worked out an effective pattern of attack. The little boy, who was named MJ, had made half a dozen bombs already. Joel threw one to lure runners, and obliterated them. Annalisa handed him a bomb the moment he threw one, while MJ mixed up more. For a brief moment, as their supplies of bombs ran low, they thought they had finished off the last of the runners, more came, bringing with them a whole pack of clickers.

"Kids, in the lodge," Joel told them.

MJ slipped all the bombs into his backpack, slung it over his back. The three of them ran to the side of the large house. The gates were locked. Joel noticed a small window. Told the kids to climb down, and find somewhere safe to hide. He pulled a dumpster towards it, to block it off; had to stop, and kill a clicker with the El Diablo. Inside, MJ and Annalisa ran up the stairs, into a beaten up abandoned restaurant of sorts. Saw a giant hole in the roof. Annalisa grabbed a bomb from MJ's backpack, and threw it up and out the lodge. The explosion both killed two runners and a clicker, as well as got most of the infected off Joel's back.

Joel pulled the second dumpster into place. He run around the house, climbed up and over the wall into the restaurant with the kids. The three of them ran out through the doors, around the bar. The windows were blocked off by furniture. Everything blocking the stairwell was gone. They could have run upstairs, but it would cut off any chance of escape. Or thin out the hoard of infected. None had gotten inside yet. Going up there would be creating an issue where there was none.

The three of them ran towards the lobby. They heard the voice of a man ahead, talking to someone else. Joel ducked behind the bar, and the kids followed him.

A dank disgusting grungy sewer pipe stretched on ahead of them, and the smell was like death. Nose wrinkling, stomach wrenchingly repulsive. It made the tunnel back in the zone smell like air freshener compared to this.

"How did you all end up meeting, anyway?" asked Henry.

"We go way back," Joel muttered. Sooner this job was over the better.

"Oh, you're married?" Henry muttered, sounding more like a stab in the dark question than a statement of fact.

He received from both Tess and Joel a simultaneous "No."

"Oh, right. Who is these days," Henry replied. "But, you are together? Traveling with your daughter, right?"

"Okay, Henry?" said Tess, moving a little closer as they came to a stop at a fork in the tunnel. "Joel and I; we're not married, together, or any other stuff you want to throw around. Ellie, not our kid."

Further back, Sam and Ellie had already filled each other in on where they were from. Sam had told her about Hartford, and that the other members of their group are probably dead. Ellie mentioned Marlene. Unsurprisingly the kids were getting on with each other, than the adults. Each one focused on their goals. For Henry, keeping his brother safe at all costs. Tess had to cling to the job, that after all her years of making bad choices, this might in some way redeem her. For Joel, well, he was surrounded by a kid he never wanted to be saddled with, a man who he didn't trust one bit, a partner who for a glimmer doubted her part in this, and a boy who was entirely innocent in this. He had to focus on the job, and the payment that came with it. Keep in the mindset of a smuggler. Do the job, trust no one until the payment is handed over, and ask no questions.

First a crack of a twig, stamping footsteps in the snow. A loud booming groan. Bursting through the trees, ripping a low branch off and tossing it aside, a big bloater came at them from one direction, and another from across the clearing.

"Fuck!" Ellie shouted. "Bloaters!" Probably not the best move, considering that it caught their attention.

"Run!" Josh hollered at her.

They ran as fast as they could, trying to put as much distance between them and the bloaters stomping after them. Clicking came from behind them. Could this get any worse? Apparently it could. A ski-lodge loomed ahead of them. The place swarming with infected. Ellie was low on ammo—most of it was spent ridding them of a pesky pack of runners further up the mountain. Even Josh wasn't accurate enough to shoot them and run.

They reached the doors of the ski-lodge, a Hispanic man with a soul patch pulled the door open, letting them slip in. He frantically tried to push a large china hutch in front of it. Josh threw his weight at the cabinet.

"Milo, where is MJ?" said Josh.

"Distracting them on the other side of the house," said Milo.

Ellie left them to block off the door, looking for somewhere to make a good sniper's nest, and thin the swarming pack of infected virtually bearing down on them. She let out a scream of alarm, as she charged around the bar and collided with an almost fifty surly old man stuck with babysitting two kids.

"JOEL!" said Ellie, clinging to him. For a moment back there, she feared the infected had killed or worse bitten him.

Joel gave her a one armed hug, relieved history hadn't repeated itself. "Take the kids upstairs. Keep them safe."

"Kids?" said Ellie, surprised.

Annalisa jumped out from behind the counter. "Me and MJ!"

The instant Joel released her, Ellie ran for the stairs, with the kids following her. Roars of infected were moving around to the other side of the house, away from them and towards the doors Milo and Josh were in the process of blocking off. Ellie had to come up with a plan fast, and it had to be good. Most of the walls were gone, possibly chopped down to provide lumber to board up the windows. Only one room was semi-intact on the far corner. The door mostly obscured, leaving only a crawl space for a child. MJ crossed the now open plan floor, slipped into the room.

"Awesome! All my supplies are here," MJ said. "Loads of ammo."

Ellie prepared her rifle. "Right, I'll shoot…"

Annalisa grabbed the gun from her. "I'll shoot!" she insisted.

"No, we don't have time to argue…" Ellie informed her, attempting to wrestle the gun away from the little girl half her age.

Annalisa pulled the gun away from her, flung it into the crawl space, and headed in after it.

Attempting to crawl in after her would waste time they didn't have. Ellie had no choice but to let Annalisa handle the rifle.

"MJ, what supplies do you have?" said Ellie.

"Nail bombs. Stuff to make 'em. Got some stuff to mix up molotovs, but..."

"Keep them coming," Ellie told him.

"Bloaters?!" said Milo, shooting Josh a glance that implied dude, seriously? "That isn't funny, bro."

"I'm serious…" Josh turned away from the door. "I have to get to my daughter. She is upstairs, and I need to protect her."

Joel shoved a gun into his hands. Pulled the gasmask from his rucksack. "So is mine. The kids are fine. Best place is here, making sure none of those things get to 'em."

Getting his gasmask seemed to be the best idea. The bloaters had reached the ski-lodge, and begun hurling pollen sacks through the gaps in the first floor boarded up windows. All three of the men had to put on a gasmask. Found a vantage point. Milo volunteered to lure them back around the house. Apparently there was a snowmobile around there, that would create a good distraction. His exact words were, "That snowmobile around that back… she'll look beautiful in flames. I'll distract them."

Before he could move, something flew out the window upstairs, and collided with one of the bloaters' head, exploding. The big fat thing stumbled, giving Joel a chance to shoot it with the El Diablo. Josh took a shot at the other. The noise was enough to give Milo a good head start. One bloater was felled by the shot of a gun coming from upstairs. Joel focused his shots on clickers and runners.

The sound of a mighty boom shattered the air. By the sounds of it, more than just a snowmobile had gone up in the explosion. Smoke choked the air at the back of the lodge. All the infected ran towards it, followed by many screams, and they fell silent. Joel ran towards the rear of the house, hoping that nothing had happened to the kids. He stopped to look out the window. Most of the infected were dead. Caught up in some explosion. Milo stood near the bar.

"My bad…" he muttered. "I sorta forgot that I buried a car in the snow…" Considering the fact that he was sort of apologising for a 'screw up' he looked pretty pleased with himself. Extremely proud of a job well done.

"It did the job," said Joel, shrugging.

"GUYS! GET UP HERE!" Ellie shouted.

Instinctively, Joel charged up the stairs. There were four clickers between him and Ellie. The younger ones were nowhere to be seen. Ellie was frantically trying to squeeze herself into a crawl space of a room in the far corner. A nail bomb flew out the single room, landing in the middle of the pack of clickers. Joel dashed back down the stairs, to avoid the explosion that killed three of the infected. The last ran towards Joel, following the sound of his hurried footsteps.

He came to a stop at the bottom, turned around and shot at it. Another shot came from above, finishing it off. Everything was silent. Nothing moved, aside from the group gathering in the lobby. The younger ones were tasked with gathering any supplies they could find. Ellie insisted on helping the men collect the bodies of the dead infected, dragged them out the lodge and piled them up in a heap. Joel stayed out in the cold, went inside to keep warm and prepare food. He looked in through the window, watching them laugh and talk.

Sitting with them was something he couldn't do. Being alone out in the cold suited him. Focusing on burning the bodies of the infected, standing in the warm glow of the fire. He saw her stood near the fire, holding up her hands in an attempt to warm them. A redundant gesture, as she was imaginary.

"Why does she remind me of you?" Joel muttered.

"The kid?" Tess replied. "Joel, think on that one. For the last ten years of my life, we never spent more than a day apart. My last day, you were there for every minute of it. How could I have met her without you knowing?"

"I didn't think that through," Joel admitted.

"I got that, loud and clear."

Sitting in the lodge, away from the bitter icy cold was better than the alternative. Ellie wanted to go out and help Joel, but he seemed like he wanted to be alone. Focus something other than the obvious divide between them. Since they had met Annalisa, Joel had changed again. Run to her side whether she needed the help or not, as if he were desperate to stop some impending doom.

"What is wrong with the old guy?" Milo asked, stoking the fire with a poker.

"He just likes to be alone," said Ellie, trying to be as vague as possible.

For a while, she watched Annalisa and MJ play their games. Their respective fathers had given them a pistol each—minus the ammo clip of course. Annalisa crept around. Stood with her back flat against the wall, waiting. Listening for MJ to creep by. As soon as she got close, she would point the gun at him and shout "YOU'RE DEAD!" They talked and pretend shot each other for ten minutes, until Annalisa came running to the adults, crying that MJ had thrown a tin can at her. Josh gave her a hug to calm her down, and dry away her tears with his sleeve.

"Anna," said Milo, checking a nearby can. Deemed it empty and mostly clean. He handed the can over. "Here, get him back."

Annalisa perked up. Taking the can. She tossed it across the room, shouting, "Oh, MJ!"

A groan of pain coming from across the room announced the can had found its mark. To avoid the revenge hit, Annalisa ran away from the fireplace, to find somewhere to hide.

"You actually let someone hurt your son?" asked Ellie, seriously doubting Milo's skills as a parent.

"A can won't do him any harm," Milo insisted. "They're just playing."

For a moment, Ellie considered telling them her suspicions. Ask for their advice. Both of them had lived during Joel's time. Known what it was like to live a normal life, and lose it all having to cling to the people they loved to survive. Not everyone they knew could be alive, that was the world they lived in now.

"Josh, Milo… I need some advice," said Ellie, deciding to just go for it.