A/N: Here's the next, longer chapter with a little bit of action in it, I hope y'all like it!
Over the next few days the three crossed over into Nebraska, which proved to be much colder than Wyoming with snow already on the ground. Abby was appalled when they crossed over to the snow covered terrain to find out that Ellie didn't have winter boots, having left them back in Jackson, opting to wear her canvas sneakers. The group had started walking through Omaha and it was quiet. Too quiet for their liking.
Ellie walked up ahead with Lev walking beside her and looking around.
"If we can make it through this city then we'll be in Norfolk in a few hours."
Abby wasn't paying attention when Ellie talked, too focused on looking out for any danger. The city was big which made it easier for dangers to hide out and wait for them to let their guard down and it made her uneasy. The woman looked to her right to a big building, seeing a bright flash.
"Get down!" She yelled, tackling Ellie and Lev to the ground behind an abandoned police car.
"Jesus Christ!" Ellie says as she and Lev sat up and took cover, looking around and seeing men coming out of the building with their guns drawn, "shit. Hunters." She mumbled, looking around for an escape route.
"Alright. Any ideas?" Abby asks, looking at the other two.
Ellie looked around, trying her best to come up with something until she saw a library on the other side of the square.
"There. That library. It's a sprint but we can make it." Ellie says, noticing the hunters starting to look for them, "okay. Go now." She adds, ushering Lev to go first and then Abby, both starting to run for it and Ellie followed behind.
It wasn't long before the hunters started shooting at the three and Ellie tried shooting at them without getting shot herself.
"Go! Don't stop!" She called, only to be tackled to the ground by a hunter. Ellie struggled as the hunter pressed all his body weight onto her small frame, earning a groan as he pressed right into her ribs, "get off me!" She snapped, barely able to reach for her knife as the hunter started strangling her, about to stab him when a gun shot rang out and the man collapsed.
Ellie pushed the hunter off her as Abby came and helped her up, the two of them running the rest of the way to the library.
"You okay?" Abby asks, noticing the finger indentations on Ellie's throat, trying not to worry for the other girl.
"Yeah I'll be fine. Let's get upstairs and find a way around." She says, going to lead them up the stairs and looking out the window as she heard a hunter order the others to check every building.
"Okay. We need to find a way to get through the city. We should try and stick to alleyways because they'll give us a lot of cover. We need to look for something like a gate or something blocking the exit for the city" She explains, looking at them as she rubbed her neck, turning her head when they heard hunters down stairs.
"Okay how do we get out of this?"
Ellie looked out the window, seeing that they should be able to shimmy along the edge.
"Oh no. That's too high and dangerous." Abby says, noticing the icy ledge.
"Well unless you have better ideas." She says, ushering Lev out the window first so that she could keep an eye on him and Abby in case either of them slipped, "It'll be okay. We just need to get to that apartment building across the way and then we'll be fine."
Abby didn't listen, too focused on trying not to look down, only to fail.
"Oh Jesus." She says, losing her footing and falling into a kneeling position on the ledge, her foot hanging off. She would have completely fallen too had Ellie not grabbed her in time.
"It's okay. Don't look down." Ellie says, helping Abby stand slowly before starting to shimmy along the ledge again, "okay we're going to have to jump across to that fire escape." She adds, noticing a fire escape with the stairs broken off.
"What? No. Absolutely fucking not."
"Have any better ideas? No? Then jump." She says as Lev jumped across, pulling himself up.
Ellie jumped across next, groaning as she landed hard on her stomach before pulling herself up. She was pretty sure her ribs would never heal at this rate or she would have more broken ribs if she wasn't careful.
"Okay Abby. You're last." She says, turning to the older girl, who sighed as she jumped across and Ellie helped pull her up.
"Okay, inside this apartment. Hurry." She says, leading them through the open window and pulling the curtains shut so no one could look in, "okay look for supplies. We need all the ammo we can get." She adds, going to look around with Abby.
"You know I didn't think you were afraid of anything." The nineteen-year-old commented when Lev was out of earshot while she and Abby looked for supplies in the bedroom.
"Yeah. Heights are really the only thing I'm afraid of. What about you? What are you afraid of?"
Ellie shrugged, "Scorpions are kind of creepy but my biggest fear is losing those I care about most and ending up alone." She explains as she found ammo in the night stand and Abby dug through the closet.
"Hey, what size shoe are you?" Abby asks, finding a pair of black winter boots.
"I don't know. An eight maybe? Why?"
Abby checked the size on the shoes, seeing that they were an eight and a half. They'd be a little big but not by much.
"Here. Wear these." She says, tossing the boots at her.
"I'm fine. I don't need boots."
Abby rolled her eyes, "yes you do. Just wear the damn boots."
Ellie sighed as she took her converse off and put the boots on before shoving the converse into her backpack.
"Okay let's come up with a plan. We need to find an exit point and make it through without being seen." She says, looking around the hallway as they left the apartment.
"How do we do that?" Lev asks, walking down the stairs with them.
"Well, we have a few options. Hope we get lucky, use the cover of nightfall, or take one as a hostage and torture them."
"How about the option that requires being inconspicuous?" Abby asks as she opens the door to the alleyway for all of them.
"We can cut through buildings. This way we can stay hidden and take them out quietly." She says, going to start using abandoned cars throughout the street to get to the next building undetected.
Ellie entered a cafe to see two hunters talking side by side, seemingly unaware of their presence. Ellie gestured for Abby to go right while she went to the left, sneaking up behind the two men and she was easily able to grab him from behind and slit his throat while Abby took the other and snapped his neck. Ellie grabbed the ammo that the men dropped before going up the stairs, taking two more men out before going out the window to start along the ledge again.
The three stayed like this for hours, alternating between alleyways and walking along the icy ledges above the hunters, making sure to take out any in their way quietly. They didn't exactly know where they were going, but they did know that they needed to get out of the city before nightfall, especially with an apparent storm coming over the horizon.
"Over there. That's our way out!" Abby says, pointing to an RV that was across the street between two buildings, "Ellie boosted me up."
Ellie nodded and crouched down in front of the RV, cupping her hands so she could boost Abby up.
"Alright. You're next Lev." Ellie says, boosting Lev up next into Abby's outstretched hand.
"There they are!" She heard a hunter yell as he saw them, beginning to shoot at the three.
"Hurry, Ellie!" Abby said frantically, holding her hand out and allowing for Ellie to jump into her outstretched hand, yelping as a bullet grazed her side, not letting that stop her as she and Abby jumped off the RV to the other side of the street.
They were in the clear finally.
"Okay, let's go."
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review!