Sorry for the huge delay, dudes! I have some more ready to be spell checked, and I'll be uploading them as soon as I get to do that. Thanks for your patience, enjoy the incoming changes!

Chapter 25

After what felt like hours to Ellie, she heard the door open again. This time she was not thinking about Andy or anything else, but concentrating on what was happening around her. Once the door slammed close, she squeezed the pistol with both of her hands so strong it could not drop due getting scared. She bit her teeth together, hoping that it would be Joel. Ellie could not ask that out loud, since she could expose herself to the ones searching for the boy and his mom.

"Ellie?" she heard a familiar whisper once the person got upstairs, and she sighed from relief. Soon after the whisper, Joel showed up at the door.
"Oh, fuck…" Ellie whispered, lowering the gun and releasing her grip a notch. She could finally breathe again.
"Has anyone come here?" Joel instantly inquired, and Ellie frowned her face for an answer. Joel didn't start spreading his stuff on the armchair like usually, but checked his sniper that leaned against it while putting his revolver back to it's holster. Ellie swallowed and lowered her gaze for a while.

"Actually.. " she started, lifting his chin and observing him as carefully as ever. She instantly got his attention.
".. a boy. He visited downstairs with his mother, and it sounded like someone was following them".
Joel listened, grabbing the sniper with both of his hands.
"Downstairs? Why the hell didn't they come up?" he asked while loading another round into the base. Ellie frowned again, for she couldn't be sure.
"They talked about something and hurried out. They must have seen our stuff and thought it was... well, whoever it was following them" Ellie explained what she had heard and shrugged after talking. She looked at Joel while he obviously thought about his next move.
"Did they sound, uh… threatening?" he asked after a moment of silence, frowning his face as he spoke.
"Not exactly. Actually, the boy sounded like a real mama's boy" Ellie scoffed while thinking of it. She didn't hear the woman talk much, and she didn't get a clear picture of her.

Joel was quite confused, but he was putting it all together. He did not know any of these people, but he sure as hell didn't want any of them visiting the cabin again. He would have to…

"There they are!"
They both turned their heads at the window, and Joel approached it with quick steps, letting the rifle hang by one hand. Ellie scoffed, as she couldn't jump up and run to the window, too.
"Get the bitch!" echoed a shout once Joel reached the window. He gazed his eyes out of it, trying to locate the shouter. Ellie was getting frustrated.
"Fuck.. what is it?" she asked curiously, trying to see anything. Unfortunately, the bed was too low and all she could see through the window was the sky.

Joel observed their surroundings through the glass, and he soon caught the first person running towards the cabins of number six and above. It was a man, who soon got followed by three other men, all running. They were all armed, and one of them had a huge machete in his hand.
"Joel!" Ellie lost her temper, starting to crawl down from the bed. Joel instantly reacted to this, turning at the girl and walking towards the bed.
"Hey, whoa" he stopped her, lifting his hands to deny her from moving any further.
"I want to see!"
"Just a group of men rushing towards cabin six" Joel explained right away, stopping Ellie in the middle of her progress. She frowned her face lightly, then looking up at him. After a short while she opened her mouth.
"You gonna do something?"

Joel sighed, stopping to look at the rifle. He did have plenty of bullets, and all people near them should be considered as threats.
"I can't shoot them from here, it would gather their attention to you" he wondered out loud, knowing that it would be too early to move with Ellie.

"They're probably eventually gonna come in here too, so I better do something before they do. I should be able to handle them while they focus on those other people"
Ellie's eyes widened once again, and she went into the frustration mode in a flash.
"You're leaving again? No way! I…"
"Ellie, Ellie listen to me!" Joel ordered the girl to stay quiet, and she did.
"I ain't letting any of them come this way, okay?"

The same look he gave her made her stay quiet. She scoffed, turning her head at the gun she had dropped onto the bed.
"But when you come, you better give me a clear fucking sign! You scared the shit outta me when you came in the last time"
Joel nodded, frowning his face a bit.
"I'll, um… I'll knock on the front door, OK?"
"Okay"

Joel checked that he had everything, hanging the rifle back to his shoulder. He held onto his revolver while turning back at Ellie after reaching the bedroom door. She looked back at him with a serious gaze.
"You better come back" she shook her head, sighing deeply afterwards. Joel furrowed his brows, nodding to her words.
"I better"

Again, Ellie was left upstairs with the pistol as her protector. Joel headed towards the cabins with higher numbers again, but this time he had a different objective. He walked on the other side of the cabins not to be seen, and held the revolver by one hand.

"Run!" Joel suddenly heard a female voice shout a few hundred metres ahead, and he quickly picked up the pace to catch them. Whoever it was concentrating on the female and her son would not notice him coming from the different direction. Even so, he started walking more near the cabins as he got closer to the sounds. They were coming from the direction of cabin seven.

"Let the kid go, focus on the bitch!"
As he passed cabin six, Joel suddenly saw the five characters. A woman was lying on the ground, sat on by a man, most probably a hunter.
"You better have a good fucking reason for stealing from us!"
It was the man who sat on her, and he was holding a knife. Joel had to crouch the gap he passed between number six and seven, but as he reached the seventh cabin, he leaned against the wall while observing the ongoing situation. Once he saw the woman kicking and squirming on the icy ground, a battle between two actions started inside his head.

What should he do? The woman was obviously travelling with her son, and the four men were soulless hunters.
"Well?!" the man shouted while putting the knife against her neck. Joel could hear her whine as the blade touched her skin. It was not the helpless kind of whine, but the one that just slips from your mouth while a strange man threatens your life.

While Joel walked towards them leaning against the wall, another voice in his head was representing his past. Why would he help? They were all alone in this cruel world, kicked by someone and always running from one battle to another. If you got caught, you got killed. No-one had helped them, why would they help anyone? They should not get involved.

"Cunt!"
A loud slap followed the shout, and the woman gave out another whine.

On the other hand, he saw the face of Ellie in his head while looking at the situation. She trusted people more than he did, and would probably be telling him to save the woman. Ellie had stopped him from killing Henry two times, and they were clearly trustworthy people until the end. Even though Andy had betrayed their trust, there was something in travelling with a kid that made Joel rethink the situation. If this woman cared about a kid, she couldn't be all bad.

He had to act.

"Grab our stuff back!" one of the hunters shouted at the man pinning the woman down. Joel slowly walked away from the wall and leaned against a huge rock for cover. After he had prepared his rifle, he started aiming it at the second nearest hunter after the one sitting on top of the woman. Even though it wasn't what Joel set the most of his concentration on, he noticed that she was not crying. She wasn't overwhelmingly upset or desperate and she actually tried to fight back the whole time.

"Stop squirming, you bi-"
BLAM
Joel fired the first shot, and it landed on the head of the man standing right next to the hunter with the knife.
"What…" the one on top of the woman instantly turned his head, shook by the fact that his friend's body fell down lifeless.
"Rick!"

Joel was already aiming his rifle at the second closest man, while the woman quickly rushed up from the ground. She elbowed the man on top of him, grabbing the knife hand with both of her hands.
"Oh, fuck!" the man shouted, and the two others were clearly surprised by the sudden shots. Not once did the thought of helping their friend enter their heads.

"Does the brat have a fucking rifle?!" the one at the back shouted, looking around him aimlessly. Neither of them focused on their friend, who tried to fight back at loosing his knife to the woman. She aimed a kick to his crotch the same time Joel fired another one in the head of the less confused hunter.
"Aarrgh!" the knifeman shouted once the woman had overpowered him, and stabbed his throat with the knife. Blood flooded out from the wound as she turned the blade inside him.

"Take… that..!" the woman grunted, biting her teeth together as she leaned against him. The hunter did not fight back any longer, and fell to the ground next to her with odd growling sounds coming out of his throat. The woman pulled the knife out the same time she crawled up from the ground. As the fountain of blood splashed from the dead one's throat, she saw the last living hunter approach her with a huge machete.
"You bitch!" he shouted, and the look on the woman's face suddenly turned more insecure. She wasn't so sure about the victory.

"Those were my friends, you cunt!"
As the man swung the blade behind his head, the female fell on her back as she ran into her bag behind her.
"Shit.."

The bag was on the ground, now between her legs as she had fallen down. The knife dropped from her hand as she crawled a few steps backwards. The man was approaching rather quickly.
"Fuck" the woman gasped, looking up just to see the man's face as he grinned widely.
"Nighty nigh-"
BLAM

Joel had not fallen asleep. He aimed the third one at the last living hunter's head before taking the life out of him. He lowered the rifle to see him drop the machete behind his back and fall to his side on the ground.