This chapter is bit violent and perhaps disturbing. When I played the Winter chapter in Last of us. I found the idea of David and his group interesting. In a world like in Last of Us, everyone has the potential of being crazy and evil. So I am going write a darker version of that chapter. Enjoy.

My head is swimming. My entire body is tingling madly. I feel something freezing clutching to my wrists. I am unable to move an inch. I am shivering, coldness hugs my skins like a vice. When I open my eyes, my vision is blurry, I can barely make out anything. I am disoriented, I feel my body swirling.

When my vision regains, I see my surroundings. A dank and dim basement. Six feet away from me is a stone staircase with a steel door at the top. The room terrifies me. It is wide with a high ceiling. There are no windows. One dim light is flicking off and on. I see and smell blood. In the corner of the room is a lab table and chop saw coated in blood. Human limbs are scattered on the table. I open my mouth to release out a voiceless scream when I see two dead corpses. One is dismembered and the other one is positioned, leaning on the wall at the edge of the room. This one is white pale, it is a female, a woman dressed in a white gown who appears to be in her late 30s, she has straight black hair that is knotty and unkempt. Her eyes are shut and her skin is battered. Her face is covered with darkened blotches. Countless bruises are marked onto her. Her neck catch my eyes, red imprinted hand marks on her throat. Eerie silence fills the room. I see my groups, all chained up to the cemented walls.

Rusty, dark cuffs trapped all of our wrists, we were attached to the walls by the wall chains. I am baffled. All of us are on our knees, weary and exhausted.

I shake my head viciously to snap me back into reality. I feel like I am dreaming. This feels like a nightmare. I am just confused. I turn my head to see Teddy next to me. She is awake, but doesn't appear to be hurt. An alert Daphne is far away from me and is across the room with Red and C-101.

"F...Faye…" Teddy mutters weakly. I turn my head to her, she is staring directly into my eyes. My healing factor is working, I feel my strength gradually returning. I think of the horrors I saw and I want to distract her from seeing it. I have no idea how long I've been out and how long Teddy's been awake.

I put on a stone face for Teddy's sake. "Stay calm. We're fine." I tell her. Teddy begins to cry, she begins to tremble, her entire small body is full of fear. "I….I...want to go home." She weeps brokenly.

Hearing her voice like this makes me flinch.

"We are going to be fine." I reassure her in a firm voice. "Stay calm."

Teddy keeps uncontrollably crying. "Are we going to die?" She asks me with big eyes.

"No. No." I say, not knowing if I am lying or not.

"FAYE!" I hear C-101's voice call out to me. "You awake?"

I turn my head to him. "Yes." His eyes are wide with confusion and alarm. His hair is matted and unkempt. Red is naturally composed, but still appears perplexed.

"That bitch drugged us! Those people are crazy!" My fear only increases when I hear the tone of C-101's voice. His voice is shaky and small like a child.

"Faye, I saw something in one of those rooms!" C-101 expresses. "This….this...we shouldn't have come here!" I know what is he talking about. C-101 is struggling to stay calm. His eyes are frantically darting left and right. "Faye, there are limbs in this room!" He gasps.

"I know." I whisper.

"What are we going to do? Fuck!" C-101 moans miserably.

I begin to tremble, unable to control my fear any longer. "I...I...don't know…" Then as if one cue, the basement door fly open.

Me and C-101 stops talking instantly. It is dead silent. My eyes automatically look upstairs to see Paula and Lisa walking down the stairs. Paul was in front of Lisa, his eyes are empty, devoid of any humanity. He towers over Lisa and I barely see her. His facial expression is blank, no emotions seems to exist in him.

Paul is dressed in dark casual clothing, still wearing his gray coat and boots. Once Paul gets the last step, I get a good look at Lisa. Her appearance frightens me the most. The once kind and sweet woman with the maternal nature drastically changed. Her blue eyes are soulless, no light within them at all. Her face is cold and emotionless. The couple seems to be equal clones, both evil and hollow. Neither of them appeared to have any stroke of humanity within them.

Lisa looks at all of us with a blank expression. There is no compassion or empathy. I could only look at her, speechless. Paul then smiles devillishy, he appears happy by the misery he and his wife inflicted on us.

C-101 struggles to muster out words. He seemingly begins to choke on his words. "I….I….I….what….are...you going..going to do?" His voice is high pitched, cracking and squeaking.

Paul chortles at C-101. He breaks out into a wide smile. "You little punk, you really believe you're the man of the group. The only boy in a group of females." He chuckles as if this is the funniest thing he has ever seen. He saunter over to the table. "You kids are going to have a fun time here." He remarks.

I look at the dead bodies. "Why? Why?" Is all I could muster. I begin to beg. "Please let us go! Please, we will never come back! Please!" My voice is shrill.

Paul chuckles again. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you." He looks me directly in the eyes. "Yet." He adds in hollow voice.

His gleeful smile turns strange. His eyes has an emotion that I didn't understand, his eyes are locked onto mine. His lips curls and he takes a step close to me. I have no idea what is on his mind, but terror makes me tremble violently.

C-101 springs to his feet and attempts to lunge at Paul. His chain keeps him restrained and far away from Paul. C-101 groans in pain from how forceful he is moved. "BACK OFF! STAY AWAY FROM HER!" He hollers.

Paul smiles widely. He burst out laughing. "Oh, tough man, huh?" He mocks. Paul turns around and makes his way to C-101. C-101 attempts to appear brave, but a flash of fear wash over his face. "An ugly looking bastard like you have a lot of nerve, talking shit to me." He belittles. Once Paul is close to C-101, he swings a hard punch across C-101's face. C-101 collapses to the floor in a heap. Paul chuckles in glee, "Let's see how tough you are." He teases cruelly. He then promptly begins to batter C-101. He punches C-101 repeatedly, C-101 is helpless with his hands bounded. He then begins to stomp his boot onto C-101's chest over and over. Paul grabs a handful of C-101's dark hair and slams his head into the hard floor.

I hear a repetitive sound of Red unleashing and retracting her claws, but with her hands bounded, she is helpless as C-101. She releases out angry screams and shrieks, attempt to attack Paul. But Red is unable to do anything, her chain is too short.

Her screams turns into breathless gasps, she exhausts out her energy, straining her voice.

Teddy is weeping heavily, I see Daphne shaking like a leaf, staring at the scene with horrified eyes. The beating stops after several minutes. Paul chuckles heartily to himself as he towers over a unconscious C-101. His eyes are swollen shut, dark bruises begin to bloom, he has already developed blotches and cuts on his face, his nose is bloody and crooked, his lips is busted, his cheeks are inflamed and swollen.

"Xander!" I shriek with worrisome tears in my eyes. I become bold upon seeing my battered friend. I raise my voice. "Enough!" I yell. "Leave him alone!"

Paul looks at me and laughs. "I like strong women." He purrs. "This world needs tough chicks like you."

I clench my teeth. "Let us go!" I shout.

Paul rolls his eyes. "Nope." He says airily. He becomes serious. The cold look reflected on his face gave me shudders, evil glints in his dark eyes. "You came into my forest. People come into my forest and they all share the same fate," He says menacingly. "All travelers are nothing but preys in my territory. I never had kids before. I want to see how much fun I can have." His eyes dances with excitement.

He takes one step to me with a broad smile on his face. "You're very beautiful, Faye. Has anyone ever told you that?" He remarks. With that, his chilly hand caress my right cheek. A chill run down my spine. Instantly, I want to vomit.

His eyes flick to Red. Red is fiercely glaring at him. Paul is still smiling. "That redhead is quite pretty as well." His voice is wispy and smooth. He disturbs me to the core. I want him to go to Red and I am intrigued to see how Red would react to him. I see Lisa, I forget that she is in the room. She is like the background, leaning on the walls from far away with her arms crossed.

"Why? Why?" I breathe. I am just confused.

Paul smiles at me. "I saw you kiddos running through my forest! Trust me, you're not the only one. Many came here and let just say none of them saw the light of day." Paul gets away from me and heads for the staircase. "LISA!" He turns his head to me and gives me a affectionate smile. "Give the beautiful young lady some soup and water. I'll take care of her friends later. Come on, let's see if we can get more folks to come in." He commands.

Lisa nods and smiles broadly at him. Paul hurries upstairs and into the hallway. Now we are alone with Lisa.

I look at C-101's grotesque body. He is still unconscious and limp. "XANDER!" I keep yelling, hoping he would stir. "XANDER! XANDER! XANDER!" Then I am interrupted by a sharp smack across the face from Lisa.

My cheek is seething with sharp pain. I look up at a furious Lisa. "Shut up, you bitch!" She snaps. "Shut the fuck up or you will have no food!" She threatens.

Teddy is silent, petrified by all of this. Daphne began to weep heavily, crying her heart out. Lisa becomes enraged by this. Her emotions seems to be on a flip on a coin. "YOU LITTLE BITCH! SHUT UP!" She roars.

Within an instant, Lisa becomes the superior person in this room. Her blank expression becomes authoritative and ireful.

She smiles evilly. "You never should have come here. Didn't your Mommy ever tell you to never trust strangers?" She teases.

Daphne cries harder in response. Lisa walks over to Daphne. She grabs Daphne by her golden hair, I begin to struggle violently as she proceeds to forcefully smack the helpless girl across the face. "STOP! STOP! STOP! NO!" I shriek. Lisa hauls the girl from the floor and begins to violently shake her like a rag doll.

Daphne instantly cease her crying. She makes out pitiful cries. Lisa snarls like a angry dog and shoves the child into the cemented wall.

"Cry again and you will be sleeping under this house!" Lisa threatens darkly. Daphne doesn't cry again, she becomes limp and doesn't move an inch. She is dead silent.

I want to rip this bitch's head off! "No! NO!" I scream. "I will end you, bitch!" I threaten. Lisa just laughs at me. "Of course," She sneers. "You're lucky," Her eyes are full of spite. "You are lucky you're Paul's newest pet."

"Pet?" I echo.

Lisa rolls her eyes as if I was stupid. "Yup. You and that redhead. Don't worry, you won't last long anyway." She says. Lisa then hobbles upstairs.

It is several minutes later when Lisa returns with a bowl of cold soup and a plastic cup of water. "Eat up." She then proceeds to cruelly toss the bowl of soup at me. The soup falls out of the bowl and splashes onto me. The bowl falls to the floor and breaks into fragments.

For some reason, Lisa becomes enraged at me for this. "Look what you made me do!" She seethe.

Before I could do anything, Lisa becomes violent towards me. She grabs my hair and begins to yank and tear at my face. Her hands becomes hard fists and she begins to punch me.

Teddy looks on with terror in her eyes. I attempt to bite her, but Lisa is nimble and shakes me erratically.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" I hear Teddy boldly shriek. Then Teddy leaps at Lisa and is able to bury her teeth into her left hand. Lisa releases out a shrill scream. Lisa yanks her hand out of Teddy's grip and jerks back. "You little bitch!" Lisa cry. With that, Lisa wraps her hands around Teddy's throat and jerk her violently to the side.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" I muster all of the authority and intensity I could summon. "NEVER TOUCH HER! EVER! FUCK OFF!" I feel no fear anymore. I am ready to rip this woman in shred. I run towards her, but my chain restrains me, Lisa pulled Teddy too far away for me to get to her. Lisa begins to yank Teddy's raven hair, tugging and ripping out Teddy's hair. She shakes Teddy viciously, screaming and yelling out dirty obscenities. Teddy is screaming out in protest, forcefully attempting to escape Lisa's grip. "STUPID LITTLE BITCH!" Lisa gives Teddy a sharp slap across the face and cease the beating. She releases Teddy. Teddy is sobbing brokenly, she curls up into a feeble ball. Her small face is covered in bloody bruises, her hair is knotty and matted. There are red lines imprinted onto her face.

"Do that again and you will regret the day you were born!" Lisa warns.

Lisa glares at me with hatred. "You think you're better than me?" Her eyebrows arches. "You are going to get it!" She turns around to the staircase. "Don't be shocked when your little sidekick isn't next to you tomorrow." She sings. Then she hurries upstairs. The second she is gone, Teddy weakly crawls near me.

I want to embrace Teddy and Daphne. "Daphne, Teddy, are you okay?" I shout.

Daphne is a mute. Teddy is just trembling uncontrollably. "I….I….I...want my Dad…" She murmurs.

….

I have no idea how long we were imprisoned here. It feels like an eternity. I wake up with a foggy head. Since there are no windows, I have no clue if it is nighttime or daytime. I assume it is morning. My stomach is empty and aching.

I look up to see C-101 finally conscious. He was comatose for a long time. His healing factor took it's sweet time. His face is slightly healing and going back to normal.

I remember what he did for me. I did like that he stood up for me. It's good to know he doesn't entirely hate me. "Xander, thanks." I say sincerely.

C-101 is breathing heavily. He doesn't look me in the eyes, his eyes are glued to the floor. "We need to escape from this hellhole." He proclaims. "We're going to die."

C-101 instantly turns his head to Red. I look at her. Her wrists are bloody from her struggling. Her hands are coated in crimson. I realize how damaging her claws were to herself. When her claws are unleashed, her skin breaks. Her healing factors cares for it immediately, but Red was excessively unleashing her claws, giving her factor a load of healing to do. She has no wounds anymore, but her hands are caked in dry blood. She is drenched with sweat, her red hair is matted, and her eyes has heavy bags under them. She is exhausted to the brim.

C-101's expression softens. "Red, relax with your claws. Your hands looks terrible. I'm sure your claws will do nothing anyway."

Red avoids looking C-101 in the eyes and exhales deeply. She becomes limp and stares at the floor in defeat.

C-101 looks at the floor in dismay. "Damn! I am such a fucking idiot. I should have known some bullshit was up. They were too nice to us. All we did was run into them and they offered us shit! I should have known that was not normal!" He scolds himself.

"This isn't your fault." I tell C-101. C-101 exhales. "It is." He insist.

"Look at us! We are imprisoned in some psycho's basement!" C-101 points out. "I should have seen this coming! Who knows what's going to happen to us!"

C-101 exhales and inhales to calm his frizzled nerves. When he composes himself, he turns his head to me. "What happened when I was out?" He inquires.

I take in a deep breath. "That man, Paul...he..beat you up and he talked to me...called me beautiful and touched my face. It...was...weird...He left and Lisa stayed. Lisa hit Daphne." Tears swells up in my eyes. "She beat her and slapped her and threw her against the wall! She threw food at me and hit me! Teddy! Teddy was hit by that crazy bitch! THEY ARE BOTH INSANE!" I spill.

"We are in deep shit." C-101 whispers.

"How do we get out of here?" Teddy gasps.

C-101 exhales deeply. "I don't know. We're chained up. We can't break out of them. I don't know." He says.

There is a deep and long silence. I think of Laura. The reason why we are traveling in the first place. To find that girl and get to a Quarantine Zone. I think about the two girls I met in the forest.

I wonder if those two girls lured us here somehow. I wonder if the couple were lying about having daughters and those girls were just orphans. So many questions are racing through my mind. The horrible smell of the dead bodies in the room is overwhelming.

I hear footsteps stomping through the house. I hear more footsteps than normal. I hear Lisa's domineering yelling. "BEDROOM! NOW! YOUNG LADY! DON'T FIGHT ME!" She roars. I hear the weeping of a little girl. I hear heavy stomping under a flight of stairs.

I believe they have found another innocent victim.

For several hours, I hear Paul and Lisa talking among each other. Their voices are casual and joyful. Lisa's youthful and childish giggling echoes through the house. It is as if they are a happy family, living a normal life.

I am starving. Everyone is silent, awaiting for Paul or Lisa to arrive.

I then hear shrill shrieking from upstairs. A girl's shrill shriek. I hear another girl's voice, yelling and shouting furiously. I immediately know who this is. The older girl we met in the forest. Kate.

Kate's voice escalates through the house. Her words are harsh and vicious. "NO! FUCK YOU, YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER! YOU CRAZY BITCH! GET OFF OF HER! NO! NO!" She screams.

I hear a heavy thud and Kate screams out in pain. The screaming stops. I hear a deafening door slam and furious footsteps departing.

"I WILL TALK TO YOUR FATHER!" Lisa hollers. The house is dead silent for a few minutes. It is like no one is in the house now. Then I hear Lisa's yelling again. Now she is closer to the basement door. "DO IT! Or I will tell your Father!" Lisa threatens someone.

Then the basement door is jerked open. I see a blank faced Kate with a bowl of soup in her hands heads downstairs to us. She is quiet. Lisa watches Kate like a hawk from the top of the staircase. Kate has blooming bruises on her face as she hobbles down the stairs. I see Chelsy standing next to Lisa, but I can't see her facial expression.

Kate is obedient and gives me a bowl of warm soup. She doesn't look at anyone else. Once she gives me the food, she scurries upstairs wordlessly.

Lisa glares at me and slams the door loudly.

I feel sick to my stomach. I have no idea of what to do. I am helpless. We are all helpless. I decide to rest, my body is exhausted already. No energy resides within me. I close my eyes, scooting close to my Teddy as much as possible.

Next chapter will come soon. Hope this storyline isn't too grim or graphic. Reviews and thoughts. This is just a darker version of the Last of Us Chapter of Winter.