The next morning Jake awoke in his bedroom to the slight chill of the Jackson winter. He glanced out his window to determine the time and realized he should probably start to get ready for the day of patrols he had ahead of him. He sat up in his bed and looked towards his bedside table where a framed picture of Joel, Ellie and him sat. "Good morning," he said with a slight yawn as he got out of bed. His room was extremely orderly, everything in its place, nothing visibly strewn about. However, his single room was fairly cramped having to accommodate the usual household items like a table, as well as other things like a keyboard. He walked over to it and gently brushed the keys, then looked over to the music stand that was adjacent to it. "Right, I need to practice for the next performance," he thought to himself as he looked at the piece he was supposed to play. He grabbed a sticky note from his table and after scribbling down a reminder for that task he placed it on his fridge. He then moved over to his wardrobe to get dressed for the day. He wore an old brown winter jacket with many pockets, a pair of black jeans and brown winter boots. Beside his wardrobe lay his gear; he briefly inspected each item before equipping them. Strapped to his back was his familiar old sword, a torn faded backpack. Accompanying this, he wore a black pouch on his back over his waist, which contained an assortment of knives, along with a holster for his pistol on his leg. "Let's be on our way then," he muttered to himself. He took one last look at the picture from earlier before heading out the door.
Upon exiting, he was greeted by harsh Jackson winter. He made his way along the snow covered paths. The snow crunched with each step Jake took as he trudged through the dirt paths of town. He saw the people of Jackson casually walking through the snowy streets: children playing, adults conversing freely. It was an ordinary sight but often brought a feint smile to his face. Soon he made his way to where the adults from Jackson would gather before heading out for patrols. "Hey Jesse," Jake greeted as he approached Jesse who was handing out rifles to the others already there "what's the job for today?"
"Morning Jake," Jesse replied and handed Jake a rifle "Joel and Tommy have been at the northwest lookout since the early morning, apparently there's been infected sightings* he explained "we're probably gonna switch out with them. Just gotta figure out who's gonna run the creek trail that I was supposed to. It'll probably be Dina and Ellie. Once they show up that is," he added, trailing off at the end in mock annoyance.
"Typical of those two I suppose," Jake retorted with a smirk as he moved towards his horse and gently stroked her neck and made sure everything was in order.
"Yeah this is just them," Jesse responded with a chuckle "you hear about last night?"
"Was it really so gossip worthy?" Jake asked while rolling his eyes "Seth was an ass; Joel and Ellie had a tiff. What more is there to talk about?"
"You don't care at all? I mean Ellie was your last girl?" Jesse teased.
"We haven't been a thing in years Jesse. We hardly talk and when we do she tells me how much she hates me. It's none of my business anyway."
"What'd you even do to make her hate you so much? You two used to be so good together."
"It's not for me to say," Jake mumbled awkwardly, knowing he couldn't reveal Ellie or his immunity without consequences "besides shouldn't you be the one more upset about Dina? Wasn't it only a week ago you two were together?" Jake teased with a grin.
"Pft, not at all. Dina and I are done," Jesse shrugged off "so both our exes kissed each other. Woe is us."
"You're not getting a kiss from me if that's what you're fishing for," Jake joked.
"My heart is wounded," Jesse replied while faking an injury to the chest causing both to let out a chuckle a moment later.
Eventually Jesse had left to go retrieve Ellie and Dina who were already late. He returned not too long later and briefly went over the scouting procedure before the members of Jackson rode away on their horses. Jake and Jesse followed the route that Joel and Tommy had taken earlier. They found a few stray infected along the way but nothing out of the ordinary, especially not to warrant Joel and Tommy heading out, which the two found odd. Soon the snow started to come down harder and harder until it was a full on blizzard. With the worsening conditions the pair made getting to the lookout post their priority. Once nearby they began to notice more and more infected bodies, with the outside practically littered with bodies, much to the pair's concern. When they entered however they found no trace of either Tommy or Joel. No horses, none of their gear, nothing in the logbook, no note. "This isn't like those two," Jake commented as he continued to search the area.
"Blizzard's picked up so much that we can't see their horse tracks," Jesse stated, showing how bad their situation was.
"What do we do? Wait?"
"Not sure we have another option. Going to look for them won't be easy, most likely a death sentence."
"Damn it," Jake cursed under his breath, frustrated at being unable to do anything "fine, we'll wait."
An hour passed with Jake and Jesse sat holed up in the lookout post with no sign of either Tommy or Joel or of the blizzard calming. Both of their concern were slowly increasing and Jake's patience was running thin. "It's been an hour Jesse. They're not showing we need to do something," Jake declared standing up from his position.
"What do you suggest? Don't forget there's still a blizzard out."
"My guess is they left this place after being overrun by infected," Jake spectulated as he drew a map of the area from his pocket "so what places could they take refuge in?"
"Well there's a town in the middle of the creek trail," Jesse explained as he pointed it out on the map "it's close by so it seems likely."
"Let's go then," Jake confirmed as he put the map away and began making his way to the horses.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Joel and Tommy wouldn't leave without being replaced. Something must've happened and it's been too long. We need to do something," Jake clarified with urgency in his voice. Jesse nodded in agreement and the two mounted their horses and rode away in the blizzard.
After some time of riding Jake and Jesse had arrived at the town they had set out towards, though the blizzard made the journey more difficult. Soon they spotted a light from within a building and made their way towards it. The two entered but saw no signs of people at first, until they continued down into the basement and found more lights on.
"Anybody down there?" Jesse called out.
"Jesse?" Dina called back in surprise.
"Dina?" He shouted to confirm, surprised to hear her voice here.
"Just stay there ok," Dina warned but Jesse continued down the steps.
"Hey wait a sec Jesse," Jake called to his partner after hearing Dina's words and smelling the burnt weed, piecing together what was going on. However Jesse ignored Jake and made his way to where Ellie and Dina were to find with much of their clothes discarded.
"Turn around, what are you doing?" Dina complained as Jesse arrived.
"Are you kidding me?" Jesse asked in annoyance as he and Jake turned away from the two girls getting dressed "you're supposed to be on patrol," Jesse scowled.
"There's a blizzard outside!" Dina fired back.
"Is that weed?" Jesse asked after noticing the smell.
"Why are you here?"
"People are counting on you! You get that? What we do matters!" Jesse continued to lecture.
"Well then why aren't you at the fucking lookout?" Dina asked annoyedly as she stepped towards Jesse who then turned, thinking it'd be ok to.
"Because Tommy and Joel didn't show up!" Jesse announced which had the two girls more concerned with the conversation.
"What do you mean?" Ellie asked as she got up from her seat.
"We waited an hour at the lookout. Then we went out to look for them when we saw lights. Thought it was them," Jake explained calmly to the group.
"Maybe they just went back to town," Dina stated calmly.
"Without being replaced? No way," Ellie declared as she began to put her bag on.
"Agreed, they're out there," Jake added.
"How much of their region have you covered?"
"Not much," Jesse said.
"Then we split up. Go at it from different sides, we can cover the whole thing in a couple of hours."
"I don't like you riding solo. We don't know what's out there," Jesse said in opposition.
"Exactly. What if they need help?"
"Okay, I'll head west, Dina take south, Ellie west and Jake north. But be smart about it, yeah?"
"Yeah," Ellie replied simply as the group gathered their things and began heading out.
"Don't die," Jake said curtly as he made his way out.
Meanwhile, Joel, Tommy and Abbey rode through the heavy snow fall after having escaped from the horde of infected that were attacking their previous location but with the infected still pursuing close behind. Soon enough the three had arrived where the rest of Abbey's group was; once the horses were inside the gates of the area Abbey's group closed it behind them with the infected trying to force their way inside. Soon after Owen threw a molotov cocktail at the gate to set the infected a blaze. The group then made their way inside. After leaving the horses to one side, Tommy and Joel followed the group further into the house while Tommy made small talk, inquiring about the group and offering them to restock at Jackson.
"I'm Mel by the way," she introduced as she walked towards Tommy and extended her hand towards him.
"Tommy," he replied as he took her hand "this is my brother," Tommy added as he gestured towards Joel.
"Joel," he said simply then observed as all heads in the room turned towards him, their expressions going from soft to deadly at the mere mention of his name. "Y'all act like you've heard of us or something."
"That's cause they have," Abbey spoke up then aimed and fired a shotgun right at Joel's leg. Joel screamed in pain as his leg began to bleed out while Tommy erupted in anger and began to fend off the others in the room, but was quickly subdued. Two of the men then put Joel against the wall at Abbey's order, with Joel futilely struggling against while shouting back at them. "Joel Miller," Abbey spat angrily as she crouched down to be eye level with Joel.
"Who are you?" Joel demanded despite his pain.
"Guess," Abbey replied simply. Joel looked between all the faces in the room but got no information from it.
"Why don't you say whatever speech you've got rehearsed and get this over with."
"Tourniquet his leg," Abbey commanded to Mel as she stepped back, with Mel looking back at Abbey with surprise. "Do it," she reaffirmed. Mel then moved down towards Joel's leg to tourniquet it, causing Joel to curse in pain, while Abbey retrieved a golf club from in the room. "I am gonna kill you, but it'll be slow," Abbey taunted "Before that, I want you to tell him where the other one is. Jake Wilson," Abbey inquired, surprising Joel with her question, leading him to wonder how Jake was involved. "The kid who killed my dad," Abbey demanded angrily.
"Like hell I'd tell you anything," Joel spat back.
"You stupid old man. You're gonna tell me," Abbey threatened then swung the club at Joel.
Jake had been riding in the snowstorm for several hours with no leads on Joel or Tommy's whereabouts. Eventually he had covered his section of their region without coming across any clues. With no results he had decided to loop back and cover his tracks and potentially regroup with the others to see if they had any leads. After riding in the blizzard for some more time he eventually stumbled across Ellie's horse out in the open which didn't help his concern. "Where is she?" He questioned out loud as he came up close to Shimmer. He then noticed a small building down the hill and decided to go investigate, leaving his own horse behind. He drew his pistol in one hand and a combat knife in the other as he cautiously made his way through the house. He found signs that the building was inhabited but it didn't seem like that was the case anymore given how quiet it was. Still he took no chances and didn't lower his guard. He looked through every room, eventually coming to the basement; he slowly opened the door to find Ellie passed out right in front of the door. "Ellie," he called out as he crouched down beside her and inspected her injuries. They didn't seem serious so he looked around the rest of the room and saw Tommy, also unconscious, and Joel in a much worse state. Upon seeing the beaten and bloodied Joel he quickly moved over to him and grabbed his wrist to feel for a pulse. Nothing. He waited for several seconds but felt nothing from the elder man. He grit his teeth and clenched his first before bringing it down and hitting the ground "Damn it," he said at the same time in frustration and anger. "Why did this happen?"
More hours passed that felt like an eternity but eventually Dina and Jesse had arrived as well. Despite hearing the two enter Jake didn't acknowledge them at all, in fact he hadn't moved from his spot at all; staring dejectedly at Joel's body. Dina soon entered and was at Ellie's side immediately, calling her name to wake her. Dina then realised what had happened to Joel and once Ellie began waking she went to get Jesse to inform him of the situation.
"No….no," Ellie forced out between ragged breath upon seeing Joel again. Jake looked back at her briefly with a solemn expression as he saw tears fall from her eyes whilst she lay on the floor bruised and beaten.