The four were met with a small river surrounding the capitol building.
"Um... just so it's out there. I can't swim." Ellie said. Tess turns to her,
"Looks like it's shallow on the right side, follow me." Tess said. Ellie followed close behind her.
"I'm glad Marlene hired you guys."
"What do you mean?"
"I know you guys are getting paid for this but, I'm trying to say thanks." Ellie said.
Tess smirks, Walter smiles while Joel rolls his eyes. Joel proceeded to open the door to see bodies of who they were supposed to meet.
"No, no, no ,no!" Tess grunted as she rushed over to search for them. They were all dead.
"What happens now?" Ellie asked. Walter starts thinking while Joel walks over to Tess who was still searching for the fallen Firefly.
"What are you doing Tess?" he asked.
"Maybe they, Ah, maybe they left a map or something to let us know where they were going." She said in a rush with panic in her voice.
"How far are we gonna take this?" Joel asked.
"As far as it needs to go!" She argued. "Where was this lab of theirs?" Tess asked Ellie.
"Oh, she never said. She only mentioned that it was someplace out west."
"Tess, what are we doing here? This is not us." Joel said
"What do you know about us?! About me?" She countered.
"I know that you are smarter than this."
"Really? Guess what, we're shitty people, Joel. It's been that way for a long time."
"No. We are survivors!"
"This is our chance-"
"IT IS OVER TESS!" Joel yelled, Walter jumped at Joel's tone. "Now we tried. Let's just go home."
"I'm not... I'm not going anywhere. This is my last stop."
"What?" Joel asked.
"Our luck had to run out sooner or later..." Tess said.
"What are you going on about-" Joel reached for her but she pulled away.
"No, Don't! Don't Touch me." Sorrow fell upon her.
"Holy shit." Ellie said, everyone turned to her. "She's infected." Joel turned to Tess with a look of disbelief.
"Joel..."
"There's no way." Walter said, moving forward a little bit.
"Let me see it." He said softly.
"I didn't mean..."
"Show it to me!" he shouted. Tess yanked back her collar to show a nasty bite mark on her neck.
"Oh Christ.." Joel gasped, Walter stood there in shock.
"oops, right?" Tess said, She walked over to Ellie.
"Give me your arm." She grabbed it and pulled back her sleeve to show that bite mark, "This was three weeks ago, I was bitten an hour ago and it's already worse. This is fucking real, Joel! You have got to get this girl to Tommy's. He used to run with this crew. He'll know where to go."
"No, no, no, That was your crusade. "I am not doin' that." Joel argued.
"Yes you are!" Tess moved closer to Joel with a softness in her voice, pleading.
"Look, there's enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me. So you get her to Tommy's" Tess said. They jumped by the sounds of trucks coming into the area. Tess ran to the window.
"They're here, I can buy you sometime, but you need to run." Tess said to them.
"You want us to just leave you here!?" Ellie asked.
"Yes." Tess said.
"There's no way that-" Joel says but she interrupts him.
"I will not turn into one of those things." Tess says looking at Joel directly. "Come on, make this easy for me." She begged.
"I can fight.." Joel says but she pushes him away.
"Just fucking go." Tess demanded.
"Ellie, Walter." Joel calls out.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean this." Ellie apologizes.
"Get a move on." Joel demands. Joel and Ellie walk on ahead while Walter hangs back. Walter gives Tess a goodbye hug.
"Goodbye Tess." Walter says while tears roll down his cheeks. Tess hugs back and cups his face.
"Stay strong." Tess says. Walter nods, after letting go from her embrace, he runs off. Joel, Ellie and Walter slammed the doors behind them.
"What the fuck! I can't believe we did that." Ellie said.
"Stop." Joel growled.
"But we just left her to die." Ellie said
"STOP. Stay close to me we gotta move." Joel screamed and walked off.
"Lead the way Joel." Walter said. "Stay close Ellie." They begin to get moving.
They were out of the building, getting past the soldiers using almost half of the ammo. Just when things were looking up for them however when they made it outside they ran the moment they saw the mounted machine gun truck opening fire on them. They retreated into the old subway system, the place was filled with spores, and the guys rushed to put on their gas masks. But Ellie was breathing like it was clean air.
"How the hell are you breathing in this stuff?" Joel asked.
"I wasn't lying to you." Ellie replied.
Joel managed to take out the only two guards in the area before moving on.
"Hey I can't swim." She said. Walter turned to her.
"Let's walk through on this side, it's much more shallow." He replied. Joel dived into the water and moved under the wrecked train cars to the other side. Walter and Ellie walked on a shallow path to move across to where Joel was.
Joel brought over a wooden pallet.
"Ok, hop on." he said.
"Really?" She scoffed.
"Ellie..."
"Okay, Okay." She said before jumping on. Joel led the pallet over to the other platform, where Ellie jumped up and lowered the ladder. The three leave the polluted subway drinking all the fresh air from the outside.
"Listen about Tess." She paused because she was embarrassed so she looked down. "I-I don't know what to say."
"Here's how things are gonna play out. You don't bring up Tess. Ever. Matter of fact why don't we just keep our histories to ourselves." Joel continued, "Secondly you don't tell anyone about your condition. They'll either think you're crazy or try to kill you. And lastly you do what I say, when I say it. We Clear?"
"Sure." She said
"Repeat it." He ordered.
"What you say goes." She still kept in eye contact with Joel.
"That goes for you too boy." Joel said while looking at Walter.
"Yes sir." Walter replied looking down.
"Now, there's a town a few miles north of here. With a fella there that owes me some favours...Good chance he could get us a car."
"Okay." She mumbled.
"Let's get a move on." Joel ordered. Joel, Ellie, and Water began their journey.
"There we go." He said. The three arrived at the town of Lincoln, Joel pointed to the town's water tower. Joel led the three through the woods, Ellie was in awe at the sight of the nature of the woods.
"Man." Ellie said in awe.
"What?" Joel asked, Walter looked.
"Nothing, it's just… I've never seen anything like this, that's all." Ellie replied.
"What the woods?" Walter asked while gesturing towards the scenery.
"Yeah, I've never walked through the woods. It's kinda cool." Ellie said, Walter snickered, while Joel proceeded walking ahead. As the trio walked through the woods. As they climb over the fence Joel can see smoke in the distance, a camp fire maybe.
"That you, Bill?" Joel mumbled.
"Where do you usually meet him?" Ellie asked.
"Not the same places."
"You never been here have you?" Walter asked. Joel sighed in defeat.
"I know this is where he lives but... no I ain't never been here, personally."
Ellie stepped forward, "And that smoke, you think that's him?"
"Shure's hell better be." Joel replied.
The place was a ghost town, untouched, although some places were ransacked probably by Bill or some scavengers. Bill was a business partner of Joel and Tess, he supplied them with pills, food, ammo but what Joel really needed at this point was a car. Joel, Ellie, and Walter scavenge a small area for supplements, food, or ammo of sorts, but some places were picked clean. Ellie's attention was drawn to some garden ornaments lying around.
"Hey look. Gnomes." She chuckled.
Joel rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Those are gnomes."
"Man, I had an art book filled with these. I always thought they were super cute. Not fairies though. They creeped me out." Walter looked at the fairies.
"Dear God." Walter said.