"So how much longer are we going to wait," Ellie asks for what feels like the 10th time in the past 5 minutes.
"When Joel gets up but I swear to god if you don't stop asking you're gonna leave her with a few scars you didn't have before," I threaten taking my knife out. Tess walks over smacking me on the back of the head and taking the knife at the same time. When I recover, I tie the sheath to my wrist and position it to slip into my palm with a shake of my wrist.
"No cutting up the goods kid," she says before tossing it into the wall. As this happens Joel wakes up from his nap.
"Let's go," he says leading us through a crack in the wall. I yank my knife out the wall and follow. We take a lift down and emerge into a house which leads outside the wall.
"Gimme a boost," I whisper. Joel clasps his hands together and holds me up just high enough to peak out through a small hole. I shake my head and Joel cusses.
"We can't do this there's guards everywhere," Tess says with her head in her hands. Ignoring the adults I push the door covering the area we're in up and climb out. They follow quickly.
"Just try and follow me," I say before crouching and running from shadow to shadow. We reach an old trailer and begin to walk through. Joel takes the lead and is pistol whipped as soon as he reaches the other side. I put my hands in the air and shake my hand to slip the knife out of the sheathe tied on my arm and into my palm.
"Look we don't want any trouble," the old man says drawing the guards gun onto him. I quickly throw the knife and hear a sickening "THUNK," as it lands in the mans throat. I squeeze my eyes shut trying to block out the image as Joel and Tess handle the other guard.
"Holy shit." Ellie says. I crack my eyes open and glance at her to see an astonished look on her face. I take a deep breath before grabbing her hand and pulling her along as gunshots ring out behind us.
"Just follow me," I shout leading the others through the old sewage pipes. It feels like it takes hours but we eventually get past all the guards and emerge into the remains of a highway.
"I wonder what this must've looked like before," Ellie whispers as I try and look around for supplies. The others continue until they reach an abandoned office building.
"Was just another work place," Tess says as we follow Joel inside. As we walk I notice a corpse with fungus growing out of it blocking a doorway.
"Heads up," I say pointing to it.
"Shit kid keep an ear out for clickers," Tess says as Joel yanks the body off of the door. I nod and start looking for ammo.
"So what's a clicker?" Ellie asks as she follows me. I sigh and ignore her. "What's a clicker?" she asks again. I pretend like I didn't hear her and continue looking for ammo. "Listen up asshole," the redhead says grabbing my shoulder. "I don't fucking care if you don't want to be friends fine but if I'm asking a question the least you can do is fucking answer!" she shouts causing a loud echo. Almost immediately a chorus of a small clicking noise arises from farther inside the building.
"That is a clicker," I say pushing her hand off my shoulder and walking away.
"Holy shit," she whispers. I give her a dry laugh and continue looking for ammo. "So umm how bad is a clicker on a scale of not bad to holy shit," Ellie asks.
"I don't know maybe a ' I'm pretty worried'," I sigh. " Look a clicker is basically an infected that has been infected for so long that fungus has grown over its eyes so it's mutated to use echo location. The key to getting rid of them is to stay as quiet as possible and use bottles to draw them away from you," I explain. She stays quiet for the rest of our search. "Hey Tess we found some supplies so we have some shivs and a few more medkits," I say leading Ellie back to the others.
"Good work but we have to get to the Capitol Building by dawn," she says.
"Shit, it's close to midnight," Joel says as he bust open the door and we trek deeper into the building. We pass through some more offices and gather more supplies. As we continue walking Ellie doesn't notice a bottle on the ground and kicks it. A chorus of clicks arises once again. I listen closely and hear the soft thuds of footsteps coming towards us. I tug Joel and Tess's sleeves and crouch behind a desk. Ellie scrambles to keep up as we begin looking for bottles or bricks to throw. I search a desk close to the door. Suddenly, a clicker rushes into the room and stops for a second. I freeze as it starts to jerk a couple of steps and begin clicking. I reach blindly and grab a brick off of the floor. I carefully move so I can see out the door and throw the brick at the wall. The clicker whirls around and sprints to the sound. I sneak behind it and stab my knife into its head.