Disclaimer: I do not own any character of (The Last of Us) TLOU is owned by Naughty Dog, Sony, and their creators.

A/N: Hi, thanks for reading the story. I just what let clear that this is an adventure story with a lot of violence, fights, and bad language. That been said I also want to say that the name I use for the man that Ellie and Joel found in the gas station was Tomas. I was no sure if that is the correct name so I will change it to Thomas. I think both are correct but I prefer to use this one. I said this here because I posted a few chapters with Tomas and you will notice the change in the following chapters. now with no more delay let continue with the story.

P.S: Sorry I post this chapter late but I was in the hospital with my mom

Chapter 9: Getting out of trouble

Joel shot again at the hunter that was moving behind the big pile of wood. He hears the shooting from inside the building so he knows that he needs to help Ellie and taking down this guy is taking too long. Joel checked his shotgun as soon he shot at the guy again, then noticed that it was out of bullets. Shit! I need to end this fast… I can't waste more bullets on- he stopped as soon he saw smoke coming out from one of the windows of the building. Okay… time is up. Joel takes out his favorite gun. It was a magnum 44, the kind of power he needed to take the hunter down. He checks it and sees that it is full of bullets, so soon he is ready to move, he hears the sound of footsteps coming from the forest on the other side.

"What the hell?" Joel hears the hunter scream and soon after that, he hears him shooting but not at him.

Joel took a look from behind the car and saw a horde of infected coming out of the forest and starting attacking the hunter. Okay… that is not good. He said moving away from the car and ran in the direction of the building.

Soon he got to the entrance, he saw the old man and his boy interchanging bullets with another hunter. But soon the hunter saw him and started to shoot at him too. Joel hides behind a wall as the bullet passes close to him. "Listen to pal… we don't have time for this right now, a lot of infected are coming this way so if you want to live is-"

"Fuck you!... you kill one of our people and for that, you will die…" he said before shooting at Joel again.

"Have it your way… Hey boy take you, grandpa, to the other side of the building and hide." Joel said before running to the side of the building and out of sight of the infected that were now coming that way. The boy hears the sound of the infected coming and quickly moves away with his grandpa.

The hunter shot at them as they went to the other part of the factory, but stopped when he saw a few clickers and a lot of infected enter the building. "Shit!... he wasn't lying..." The hunter gets up from his hiding place and starts running in the opposite direction while shooting at the infected.

Ellie and the girl were with their hands up in front of the hunter boss. He has his gun pointing at them. He looked at the young girl first. "You made me chase you all the way here and I can give you credit for making this hunt an interesting one," the man moved closer to the girl and smiled. "But playtime is over… I wish I had more time to make this more fun… but time is running out," he said as soon he saw the smoke coming from inside the room.

Ellie moved forward and stood in front of the girl. "Listen… you can do whatever you want with me, but let the girl go… she is just-Ahhhh," Ellie screams in pain after the man moves closer to her and hits her in the face with the gun.

"When I tell you to talk… you talk… you little bitch." he pushes Ellie to the ground and points his gun to the girl. "Yes, I know she is just a girl… and I like them like that… it's more fun when you teach them everything," he said looking at Ellie's bloody mouth and face.

"If you think… that you will get away with this you're wrong," said Ellie wiping the blood from her lips.

The man put a grin on his face. "Ahhh… brave to the end… I like that. I wish you would accept my offer. It was going to be fun to have a girl like you with us… but it is too late for that now." he turned his head and looked at the girl. "You!... you're coming with me, but before we go… I want to know… what happened to my brother?" The fire was spreading fast and the building was getting cloudy with smoke. "I know he was chasing you and I don't see him here… so where is he?"

Slowly Ellie moves her hand and goes for the swift blade that she has hidden in her pocket. The man continued asking the girl about his brother and soon he was distracted enough. Ellie takes out the knife and stabs him in his leg.

"Ahhhhhh!" you bitch!" he screams in pain as soon he feels the knife go into the back of his leg.

"Run!" yell Ellie to the girl while she kicks the man's legs and makes him fall to the floor. She wants the hunter to keep his attention on her and not on the girl. "If you want to know what happened to your brother… I kill him…" said Ellie while standing up and moving close to the hunter boss, but soon she saw him grabbing his gun, Ellie decided to run after the girl. The hunter's boss screamed again and shot at her, but Ellie moved fast and grabbed the girl's hand, and moved behind some wooden boxes.

"I'm going to kill you... you little bitch… Ahhhh!," he screams as he takes out the knife from his leg and drops it to the ground. He shot at Ellie and the girl again but before he got closer. One of the other hunters grabbed him from behind.

"We need to go boss… a lot of infected are coming this way," he said with a desperate voice.

His boss shook his hand and pointed at the place Ellie was hiding with the girl. "I am not going anywhere until I kill that fucking bitch…" he said agitatedly.

The hunter turned around and shot at the first few infected that came closer to them. "No need for that boss… the fire and the infected will take care of them… now let's move," he pulled his boss and ran in the opposite direction. The boss looked back and watched how the fire was getting bigger and more infected entering the place.

That is not the way he likes to see his prey die… he likes to get them first and enjoy torturing them after that. He does this a dozen times with other girls and men… but today he will let nature take care of that because he doesn't have any other choice.

After a few minutes Ellie covered the girl's face and moved away from the place, she did not have any gun on her so fighting the infected was out of the question, so her only hope was moving back where the fire was getting larger and trying to find another way out. The smoke covered them from the infected and after a few minutes, they were all confused. Some of them start running in an indifferent direction looking for their next victim to kill.

Outside, Joel shot a few infected that came after him until his gun got out of the bullet, but as he moved back to where the cars were he found the back with the hunter's guns.

Oh… thank God…I own you one. He opens the bag and takes out a few 9mm guns. Okay, asshole comes to get me. He said while starting to shoot at the infected.

Ellie and the girl were almost out of breath when they found another way out of the room on fire. By then a great part of the place was on fire, so it was difficult to breathe and see because of the smoke. "C'mon... we're almost... on the other side… cough... cough…" said Ellie to the girl while continuing walking until they entered a big room and closed the door. The place was more closed, so there was less smoke there. She moved close to a table and sat the girl in a chair.

"I can't… breathe…" said the girl while coughing.

"Just... wait here… I will use one of the chairs to break the window," said Ellie while moving away and grabbing one of the chairs. Her eyes were red and she barely breathed.

Even so, Ellie walked toward the windows and hit it with the chair. Half of the glass broke, but before she up the chair and hit it again, all went black and fell to the floor.

Soon Joel kills all the infected that were after him, he recharges the guns and grabs the bag. He put it on his shoulder and ran back inside the building. Soon he gets inside he starts to call Ellie. The place was getting on fire pretty quick, so he needed to find Ellie fast. He walked around and shot any infected that came his way.

Soon Joel clears his path, he moves more inside and starts to call Ellie again. The smoke was making it hard to breathe, so he covered his mouth and continued looking for Ellie. He started to get scared as she did not respond to his call. "Ellie!... where are you!" He continued calling her while looking around the place. Soon he gets close to a wall with broken windows, he hears the sound of a car starting up outside. Joel moved closer to the windows and saw the pick-up truck drive away. He knows that they have to be the hunters, but he doesn't have time to think about them. He needs to find Ellie and fast before this place gets consumed by the fire. After a minute, Joel turns around as soon he hears the sound of a clicker getting close to him. So he raised his gun and shot the bastard in the head a few times.

The thing goes down, but before Joel can move a few more infected go out from behind some woodpile and run toward him. "C'mon you bastard… I have plenty of bullets for you too…" he said as he started shooting at them. Soon he kills them all, he starts to call Ellie again. Joel walks more inside the building until he hears someone talking to him.

"Hey… Over here… quick!" Joel hears the old man as soon as he turns around. The place was getting full of smoke, so it was getting more difficult to breathe and see. Joel walks toward the voice since he can't see shit with all that smoke inside. He covered his mouth and nose as it was getting worse. After a few minutes, he saw the old man and the boy standing in front of an office.

"I think my sister and you girl are in there… but the door is locked from inside and we can't open it." said the boy as soon he saw Joel.

"Okay… move back…" he takes his shotgun out and points to the knob. Lucky for him he found a few shells in the bag he grabbed with the ammo and loaded it. Joel shot two times at the door, making a big hole where the knob was before. Then he kicks it a few times until it got open. Joel quickly walks inside followed by the old man and the boy. "OMG… Ellie!" The room has some smoke on it, but not as bad as outside. Joel walked around and saw the girl on a table, but soon he saw Ellie on the floor unconscious and he ran to her side. "Ellie!" he yells as soon he knelt beside her. Then he put his head on her chest to make sure that she was still alive. Joel got relief when he felt her heart and that she was still breathing.

The old man moved toward his granddaughter who was sitting on a table also unconscious. "We need to get them out… Now. They must get too much smoke on their lungs," he said while picking up the girl and starting walking out of the room.

Joel does the same and grabs Ellie from the floor and gets up. He looks at the boy as soon as he gets on his feet. "Grab the bag with the ammo boy… we can use that," the boy looks at him and nods, then he moves and grabs the bag and follows them.

It took several minutes to get out of the place. The smoke affects all of them, but as soon they go out, they breathe fresh air. They walked away from the building that was now half on fire. Lucky for them the fire kills the rest of the infected that were inside so they don't need to worry about them. They put the two girls on the ground and started giving them CPR.

"C'mon Ellie I know you can hear me… just breathe…" he put his finger close to her nose and put his mouth on her to blow some air inside. He does that a few times until Ellie starts coughing. Joel helps her into a sitting position. "Are you okay? Is something hurt?" he starts asking in a desperate tone.

"Joel?"... cough… cough…" she asked, not knowing if he was real or not.

"Yeah, kiddo is me… are you okay? You get me really scared… I thought that-"

"Joel… I'm fine…" she said looking at him and being happy to see that he was real. He has not called her that much now, so he has to be really scared if he calls her that. It was cute when she was 14 but now she doesn't like it much, because it makes her think that Joel still thinks of her as a kid and she doesn't want that now.

Joel moves forward and hugs her tight. "I thought the worst when I hear the shots from the house… I just want to come as soon as I can..." he said without letting her go.

"Yeah… I was hoping that you would hear them and come to rescue me…" Ellie closes her eyes and smells his essence, something she thought can't be done again. After a few minutes, the girl starts coughing too, so they get separated and look at them.

"Is she alright?" asked Ellie with a sore throat.

"She will be fine… but we need to get her back to the house. This place is going to burn all up, and probably bring more infected or worse, so it is better to get away from here." said the old man while helping the girl to stand up.

"Yeah, you're right... I will get my bike… I think your car is on the other side of the building," said Joel as soon as he got up with Ellie.

They start walking in the direction of the vehicle. "Yeah, I saw that you came on your bike… but I thought you said that you don't have enough gas for another trip… So where did you get the gas?" he said while looking at the boy with suspicious eyes.

The boy rolled his eyes, knowing what he meant. "C'mon grandpa, can we talk about that later… Let's get out of here and go back to the house. I don't feel too well." The old man takes the girl in his arms and both of them walk in the direction of their car. lucky that the hunters left it behind.

Joel watches them walking and talking toward their car, then he looks back at Ellie. "Maybe it would be good if you go with them in their car. I can see that you get hurt and got a lot of smoke in your lungs . So if you don't feel good enough you can-".

"Joel… I'm fine really… besides, I am not going anywhere without you this time… I don't want to be away from you ever again," she said, wrapping his arm with hers and pulling him toward the motorcycle that was behind a few rusted cars. Soon they get there Joel gets on the bike and starts it. Ellie quickly gets on behind him and grabs her arm around him.

Joel looked to the side and said. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah… Let's get out of here… I think we have enough adventure for the rest of our trip." she said while putting her head on his back.

"Yeah… I think we can use some rest after all this." Joel watches the SUV drive away into the road and follows them. He looks back at the place and watches it burn. He knows that some of the hunters got away and that that will be a problem in the future, but he was hoping to be out of this state before they decide to come back. As they hit the highway he didn't see anyone following them, so they probably went back to the small city where they came from.

After half an hour they arrive at the old man's house. The family parks their car at the back of the house and starts to get out. Joel parks his bike at the front and waits for Ellie to get off before he does the same. After he got out of his bike he saw the old man walking to the front of the house with the girl in his arms. The boy walks beside him, then he moves forward to open the door.

Ellie walks toward the porch and gets closer to them. She looks at the girl and wonders how she is doing as she was with her eyes closed. "How is she?" she asked after a minute.

"She inhales a lot of smoke, but I think she will be fine…" the boy opened the door for them and walked inside the house. Soon all of them go inside the house, the boy closes the door. The old man takes his granddaughter to her room and puts her on the bed.

Joel takes Ellie to the kitchen and makes her sit on a chair there to check the wound on her head. She insists on being okay, but Joel wanted to be sure of that. So he grabbed a clot that was on the counter and opened the water to wet it on the sink. "Joel, I'm fine… you don't need to worry... It's just a little-."

Joel walked toward the table and sat beside her. "Your clothes are a little burnt… and you have some blood on your head... I just need to check that out… okay?" Joel passes the clot on her face to clean some of the blood and the stains ashes from the fire.

Ellie does not even remember the hit she gets on the face by the hunter leader. She was hoping that he dies in the fire or gets killed by the infected, but she did not see their truck outside, so some of them probably went away. "Ohhhh!" The pain got Ellie out of her thoughts when Joel touched the place where she got hit by the gun. "Fuck!... that hurt!"

"And you said that you're fine… You have a little cut on the side… just about your ears. The boy left the medkit in the living room before we went out to rescue you, so will be right back with it." Joel stood up and went to the living room.

When he was gone, Ellie touched the side of her head where the hunter hit her with his gun. Yeah, it hurts more now, than when she got hit… That bastard… I just hope he dies. When Ellie put her finger away she saw a little blood on them. At that moment Joel enters the kitchen with the first-aid kit and sees her looking at the blood on her fingers.

"Yeah, you have a little cut there, but I don't think it is too serious," he walks closer to the table and puts the med-pack on top of it. He opens the box and takes out the thing he needs to clean and take care of the wound. Ellie can take care of that herself, but she lets him do it anyway. She knows how worried Joel must be after they leave the station. Sometimes she can handle herself in a situation like that, but what that man said to her made her remember David… and that was something she wanted to forget forever.

After Joel finished, he notices that Ellie's hands were trembling a little. "Is something wrong… kiddo? Are you sure you're okay?" he asked with a worried tone.

Ellie tries to hold herself as the scared thought invades her mind. She tries not to look at his face and let him read her mind as he always does. The last thing she needs is to worry him more about her old trauma and fears. "Yeah… I'm fine… just a little tired, hungry… and dirty…" she said with a fake smile on her face. "What about you… shit, I never ask you if you're okay…" she tried to get up, but Joel stopped her.

"I'm fine kiddo… so you don't need to worry about me. I just need a bath and a good few hours of sleep. After that, I will be good as new and we can get out of here for good," he said while putting away the medkit and smiling at her. At that moment the old man entered the kitchen and looked at them.

"Are you two are alright?" he asked while walking closer to them. He saw Joel's angry face and knew that he was not happy with what just happened, so he backed away a little. "Look, I know things go bad back there… but I-" he stops when Joel gets up from the chair and looks at him with a mad expression.

"Go… bad? You lying motherfucker bastard… you have some gasoline here and tell us that you use all of it… you just trick me so I can't go back for Ellie and use her to go after you girl… and look what happens," Joel starts to move toward him, but Ellie stoops up and grabs his arm to stop him.

"Joel… don't!" Ellie said with a sad pleading tone. Because she knew what Joel could do to the poor old man when he was like that. "It wasn't his fault… he just trying to-"

Joel turns his head and looks at her. "No!?... you're going to defend him after he almost gets you killed… he lies to us and uses us to get what he wants…" yell Joel while shaking Ellie's hand away from him.

Ellie quickly moved in front of him to stop him. She knows that if she doesn't do anything to stop him, he will probably beat the shit out of the old man until he is dead. "I know things go bad out there… he was only trying to help his little girl… I bet you will do the same for me or if it was Sarah the one in trouble…"

Ellie knows better than to use his daughter as a reference, but looking at his face, it was the only way to calm him down, or at least she thought that.

Joel opens his eyes wide. "I don't know why you defended him like that after he used us… but that… was… a low blow…" he said with a sad tone.

Ellie knows now that that was a mistake. She knows how he feels when they talk about Sarah. "I know… and I am so sorry… I wasn't thinking right when I said that. But I can understand why he do it and we needed to help that girl before those hunters find her and do horrible things to her…If you only see his face and the things he said you will know how crazy and sick that man was… and… and I can't let him do anything to that girl… so I have to do something… to help her."

Joel tried to understand why she was like this… why she was so worried about a girl she just met. But then he understands what she means and what that man was going to do with the girl and he knows that she was right. So he calmed down a little. "I know we agree to help the girl… but that doesn't mean that he has to lie to us about the gas… you could die out there… and… I..." he stops when Ellie moves closer to him and hugs him.

"I know… but I'm fine now and it was something I have to do… I know it was stupid and… I could die there… but somehow I knew you would show up and save me... so don't blame him… please… I wanted to help her as much as he did," Ellie was crying now in his chest. Joel doesn't understand why she risks her life for these people. Yeah, he doesn't want them to do the things they said to that girl, but they could help them in a different way. Joel put his arm around Ellie and hugged her back. He knows that Ellie wasn't a child anymore, that she was almost 18, but that does not mean that he can let her risk her life like that. Ellie is all he cares about in this world and he won't let anyone take that from him.

After a few minutes of watching them, the old man talks again. "I'm so sorry about what happened back there and I'm really thankful for helping me to rescue my little girl…" he said with a sad tone. "I know that I lied about the gasoline we have here, but if I told you that we still have some, you just go your way and my little girl will be dead by now or worse… I know that that is not an excuse… but-" he was trying to justify his action, but Ellie decided to stop him before Joel reconsidering not to kill him right there.

"How is Molly?" asked Ellie while moving away from the hug and turned around to see the old man and stop him from talking. "Did she get hurt?"

"I don't see any wound… so besides taking in too much smoke, I think she will be fine. She is sleeping on her bed now… and I bet that the experience will shock her a little…" he answered, trying not to look at Joel's mad face.

Ellie moves away from Joel and walks toward the old man. "I know how hard that can be, so she will need all the help from both of you to pass all that. I have an experiment like that myself and I have a lot of help from Joel and others to pass that." Ellie turns her head and looks at Joel.

"Sure… I will work on that. I know I use both of you to help me, but I will keep my promise and give you anything you need for your journey." he looks at Joel now. "I don't have any more gas here as I bet Alex just give you what we have left, but I will give you a map with the location of the location where you can find more," that he looks back at Ellie. "I want to thank you for saving my little girl… I know that you almost lose yours by doing it… but I really thank you… thank you both for that."

"I'm glad that we're able to help… but we need to get back to the road as soon as possible… and continue with our trip," said Ellie while looking back at Joel.

"Oh… yeah your trip to California… well it is a long trip especially on a motorcycle," he said, trying to change the mood of the situation.

Joel walks beside Ellie and puts one arm around her shoulder. "Yeah, it's a long trip but I will be there in no time as soon I get the gas … but since this was a long day… we can use some rest before going," said Joel trying to stay calm, because he was not happy with all this.

"Of course… you're welcome to stay here as much as you need. I will give you ammo, food, and all that you can carry for your trip. We have a spare room that you two can use and freshwater too… you can take a bath while I prepare something to eat." he moves to the entrance of the kitchen and calls his grandson. "Alex! Come here and help me with our guests." Then he turns his head back to Joel and Ellie. "He will show you the room and find some clean clothes for both of you… we have some that can fit you both."

"Thanks… that will be great," said Ellie while looking at the old man