There were silhouettes following her.

She couldn't see them, but she knew they were there. Their presence bore into her conscience, and she only received messages of hostility.

The footsteps they made grew closer, then faded again, warping any sense of distance she tried to calculate. She sometimes thought she had outrun it, only to be shocked all over again when they appeared right behind her. They grew and raged, shrunk and whimpered, and continued to press after her. They yelled and hollered behind her.

Then she managed to deduct some of the things they were saying.

She couldn't place the words at first; they were almost non-existent, yet so real at the same time. Her brain soaked them in, but struggle to process them and put meaning behind them. She concentrated on what she was hearing, and the shouts became clearer.

"... They're headed to pediatrics, after them!"

"There, I see them!"

"Go, get the flank!"

"Get back!" A voice closer to her responded in desperation.

"There's nowhere to run!"

"He's in my sights!"

"I SAID GET BACK!"

A succession of loud bangs cut through the air, and a volley of bullets flew towards her face.

She woke with a sharp jolt, and hit the side of her head against the window of the car.

"Aw, motherfucker!"

Looking in the window, she saw she was in a horrible state aesthetically. With her unkempt red mop of hair, a dirt-clad face, arms caked in burgundy blood, and the burns on her face and arms from the fire in the compound, she looked like a dirty vagabond. Or a hobo. She sighed in frustration, and sat up properly in the seat.

"Bad dream?" Adam asked, flicking his goggles up to look at her. It was almost as if he had read her mind. She saw that the area around his eyes was discoloured, and as such was a dark purple – he obviously hadn't slept since they departed from the hunting lodge.

"I just… slept heavy." She replied, holding her arms together. She was covered in a thin film of ice-cold sweat.

"Have you slept?" She asked.

"Nope." Came her reply.

"Goddamn. How long have we been driving?"

"About 8 hours, on top of the 7 it took us to get to the lodge. Doesn't matter anyway, we're almost there. I've missed this place."

She gazed out the window, but there wasn't much new to see. The scenery was similar to how it was at the lodge; pines grew tall, dominating the tops of the forest. Darkness had overwhelmed the plantations, and she calculated it was very early in the morning. Adam was driving with the lights off, and this allowed her surprisingly good vision. She looked over the fields of pines, and occasionally they relented to reveal a ruined farmhouse or ranch.

She looked up, and was amazed by what she saw. The night sky blazed, with thousands upon thousands of little white and yellow beads shining brightly. They almost hurt her eyes when she looked straight at them. Despite the light provided by the stars, the moon was nowhere to be seen, and was masquerading behind the soaring evergreens.

Adam had flicked his goggles down again, and he looked hilariously comical. She couldn't get past the humour of the gigantic black binoculars strapped to his head by a minimalist piece of fabric. She chuckled slightly, and eventually burst out laughing, unable to contain herself. He looked like a super villain from one of the comics she'd read.

He grinned, and then responded.

"What's so funny that it's got you in stitches?"

She tried to tell him between guffaws.

"I'm sorry, it's just – oh my god. You look like a friggin' evil genius. All of them had goofy goggles. What even are those?"

He responded with a gentle chuckle, obviously happy to have someone to take him away from the boredom of having to stay awake alone. Joel wasn't exactly talkative at the moment.

"If you must know, they're Infared goggles, so I can see to drive without lighting the car up and letting anyone know we're here. Plus, they look awesome. I just need the vampire cape, and we're all set!"

"You gonna play the piano all dramatically, too?" She said between chuckles, though a wide grin.

"You know it. Might even invest in a midget that looks just like me."

She laughed out loud at that one, and the two sat there giggling for a while. She leaned back into the leather set, enjoying a comfort that was rare in this new world.

She hadn't known what to think of Adam, but his first impression was a good one. No one had a sense of humour anymore, and her wise-cracks and puns went amiss on everyone she came across. She had a feeling he would appreciate them, and even counter them. He was almost like a big brother – funny and caring, but with the capacity to be strong and selfless.

She knew that even though she met someone decent, she couldn't get too attached.

We're the only two that matter. Joel had told her once. Anyone wants to come with us, fine. But if it all goes south, we stay together, and move on. No matter what.

She knew nothing about Evelynn, but she hoped deep down that Joel wouldn't take that attitude towards Adam.

She took to scanning the terrain again, trying to ignore the cramping in her legs and back from the journey. The highway they'd followed had changed from durable, four-lane asphalt to a single-lane tarmac road that was in a much worse state. Still, with Adam's adjustments to the coupe, the journey wasn't an uncomfortable one, just a little jumpy. The car was almost silent as it rolled over potholes with ease.

She yawned, and he followed suit.

"Now you've got me doing it." He said lightly.

"Not surprising, given how long we've been driving. Are we almost there?"

Adam moved over to her slightly, and pointed at a hill to her left.

"There it is."

She was befuddled.

"Wha-what? There's nothing there."

"Exactly." He chuckled, satisfied that the camouflage he set up had served its purpose. "Don't worry, it's there."

She was curious as to where on earth they were headed, up here in the mountains.

"What are you holed up in out here?"

Adam laughed a little. "Funny you word it like that, actually. Evelynn and I found an abandoned mining facility up here. It was small-time, but it was more than large enough for two people. The place had basic facilities like bunkrooms and kitchens, but on further inspection, we found it had a small hydroelectric system hooked up to an underground stream. It has three turbines, but they're loud as all hell, so we run one for 24 hours every week or so, and it gives us more than enough power."

She hadn't seen working electricity in what seemed like a lifetime.

"Wow, seriously?"
"Yeah. They were pretty dilapidated when I found them, but I fixed the one we use. The place had been abandoned a few years before the shit all went down, so there're no infected there. Never have been."

"Huh."

The car purred and revved slightly as they exited the B-road and made onto a small concrete roadway that approached and ascended the hill Adam had pointed out to her. Gradually, the grass and roots of trees had grown under and penetrated the concrete, splitting it into ragged chunks that were now being covered in a thick and vivid green moss. Vines and crawling fauna hung off a rusted chain-link fence that had once been the boundary to the site. The gate was long gone.

From afar, the entryway was completely camouflaged, just another blue-black hill jutting from the ground, with everything bar the entryway of the road being obscured by pines. The trees looked young - they were tall, but dwarfed by their peers in the thicker forest. It was obvious to her now that they had been planted at a later date. They couldn't be more than a decade old, compared to the others, which were at least 20 years their elder.

The roadway continued for around five minutes, until they plateaued out around halfway up the hill. She could see now that there had originally been a large set-up of buildings here – all of which had been carefully disassembled, and only their grey-green concrete foundations remained, large chunks of artificial creation in a midst of natural beauty.

Adam pulled the car to a halt, and removed his goggles. Upon grabbing a flashlight from the glove box, he exited the car and walked towards a cliff that erupted out of the plateau and continued up about another ten meters. The beam of the flashlight cut through the darkness of the night, illuminating the wall. She saw him approach the cliff face, and realised that there was a camouflaged net that covered a small cave. The cave in question was dwarfed by its neighbour – a large, manmade concrete opening led into a black abyss.

Adam put the flashlight between his teeth, and pulled the net up, placing it over a metal bar that he'd installed just above the mouth. He illuminated himself, then turned to the car beckoned Ellie forward.

She was unsure what he was getting at, until he gestured in a way similar to using a steering wheel.

"Wha – You want me to drive this thing?" She shouted out the window.

She saw him nod.

"Alright…" She said, shuffling into the driver's seat, trying to make the best of the situation. "Thank-you for flying Air Ellie, we hope you have a safe trip… and that your pilot can actually fucking drive this thing."

Despite the quiet and well-maintained noise the engine made, the thought of driving the beast that Adam had had speeding at nearly 120 miles per hour for most of the way here made her a little apprehensive. She had popped a clutch a few times, and driven a pickup for a while, but her experience wasn't exactly in-depth.

She huffed in annoyance at how she couldn't reach the pedals, and searched for a lever. She found it, and heaved the chair forward quite a way.

"Regrettably, your captain is short as hell." She said to herself, trying to abate her apprehension with humour.

She gently pressed the accelerator. Adam had left it in first, thank god. The car edged forward, and she gently steered it into the cave, stopping when Adam tapped the side of the car. She got out to find him opening the door and picking Joel over his shoulder.

"He okay?" She asked, not having checked up on him in a while.

"Yeah." Adam replied, happier than she thought he'd be, having suffered from aggressive interrogation and sleep deprivation. "He's in damn good hands now. C'mon, it's this way. Grab the flashlight."

She hesitated slightly as he moved towards the black hole in the cliff face.

"What? You mean in there?"

"Yeah!" He extended a hand to her. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe."

She hesitated again for a moment, but took his hand. They walked into the abyss, and she clicked on the flashlight. The cave was a lot colder than the outside, and the outside wasn't exactly a tropical paradise. She shivered and wrapped her jacket more tightly around herself as she walked forward. Stalagmites were abundant, and water was dripping from the ceiling, giving an eerie feeling to the place. There was a crisply cut concrete path that stood out from the raggedness of the rock, and they descended together, with Ellie taking point.

"Right, just down here. There should be a room that's half fallen away."

They walked for about five minutes, going down. Sure enough, they found the room in the lower part of the cave. Adam said that it used to be a gateway, or a checkpoint, used to scan miners for chemicals and other toxins after they came up from. Almost half of the room had collapsed in under damp-rot, but the rubble had been moved into hole where the cave dramatically veered to the left.

"Hey," she asked, aiming the flashlight down the cave to the left, and noticing it had been bricked up by cinder blocks. "What's down there?"

"No clue." Adam's voice replied quietly, just next to her. "That was walled up when we got here. Haven't had the need to go down there."

"Do you ever want to?"

His voice grew quieter as he walked away from where she was standing, back into room.

"Nope. We've never seen any infected here, but I have no idea how deep that tunnel goes, nor if there's anyone in there."

She heard him gently place Joel down on the floor.

"Come over here and help me with this, please."

She walked over to him. Standing next to him, and slightly taller than he was, were two sturdy metal cabinets placed next to each other. When illuminated, it was obvious they were covering a large, wheel-clamped door, but in the darkness, it would go unnoticed.

They heaved one cabinet out of the way, then the second. The door that was pressed into the wall was like something out of a sci-fi - it looked like an airlock, or a door on a submarine. When she asked Adam, he said that that was basically it. If there was a gas leak or chemical explosion in the lower reaches of the mine, they could seal the lock and stay in the bunkrooms until the air had cleared, or until rescue arrived.

Adam opened the first door with ease, despite it being very stiff. It swung inwards, and he gently picked Joel off the floor and placed in inside the small room. A second door was placed in the back wall of the tiny room, identical to the first.

Ellie stepped inside, and Adam pulled both the cabinets back in front of the door, stepped inside himself, and sealed the door behind him. He picked Joel up deftly, and held him in his arms. It looked unusual to Ellie to see her father-figure in such a vulnerable state.

"Right, you'll have to get that one. Sorry."

"It's fine." She said, gripping the wheel that jutted from the front of the door.

"Lefty loosey, righty tighty." Adam said humorously, almost chastising her.

She chose not to respond, and turned as hard as she could. She strained, and made no progress. She tried a second time with similar results. On the third attempt, the wheel budged, and there was a loud clang as the bolt in the door shifted. She pushed gently, and it swag open, revealing the atrium in front of her.

There was a large, roomy cave, with a path veering off to the left that led to another door like the ones they just emerged from. The floor would originally have been all concrete slabs, but some had been removed in order to reveal a stream that flowed calmly through the middle of the ground, in from one wall and out the other. The whole place was lit by industrial lights that gleamed from their bulbs, forcing her to cover her eyes as she adapted to the brightness. Before her, there was a small, improvised metal bridge over the stream that allowed entry to the bunkrooms. Like the previous room, a lot of the complex had been removed, and the front rooms lay exposed.

Adam came through the door, and shut it lazily with his foot.

"Lights are on." He said optimistically. "Let's hope someone's home."

He took point, and trudged forward with his worn hiking boots reverberating off the stone floor. She could see a slight arch in his back where he was fatigued. Despite his height and build, holding Joel for such a long time had taken its toll.

"Evie?" He said as he walked over the bridge, into the first of the half-deconstructed concrete rooms. "Evie?" He said again, raising his voice.

In one of the rooms further back, something clattered to the floor.

He gently nudged open the door into another room, and quietly inquired again.

"Evie?"

He stepped backwards a few paces. The door opened fully, and a tall, slender woman with long black hair emerged. She was dressed plainly, in olive-green khakis and a white singlet. On her left arm, she wore a mass of colourful and beautiful tattoos. She slowly walked up to him, and placed her hand on his face.

"Adam." She said, tearing up. "I… It's been over two weeks. I thought you'd…"

"I know." He replied. "I almost thought that too."

It was then she noticed the wounded man he was carrying.

"See you've made a couple of new friends, Mr Watcher." She slowly took her hand off his face, and turned to face Ellie.

"Hi there." She said, surprisingly casually. Her accent was from the same area as Joel's. "I'm Evelynn. Don't worry; we can get your buddy fixed up."

"Ellie."

"You did well to get back here in one piece, Ellie. I trust Adam wasn't too much trouble." She smiled warmly at Ellie, then turned back to Adam and lowered her voice. "It's been chaos since you've been gone. I had a scare the other day. There were some people walking through the forest on the hill to the north, right by us. The fucking generator was on at the time. I sat in the base for 3 days, just holding your shotgun. Now, some guy has been radioing, asking for you. I haven't replied."

She leant forward, and hugged him tightly over Joel.

"Fuck, I've missed you so much."

He chuckled thankfully, revelling in the warmth of the embrace he'd missed for just over a fortnight.

"I've missed you too. But we've got all night to talk. This guy doesn't have that luxury."

Evelynn drew back, surprised that she'd let her girlish side overwhelm that of her professionalism.

"Oh, right. What's his name?"

"Joel." Ellie blurted, more desperately than she'd intended.

"Well, Joel's going to be just fine. Adam, bring him through, please."

"Right. Ellie, you should go and rest. My room is just through-"

"No!" She said, the desperation appearing in her voice again. She lowered her tone, and quietly said:

"I go where he goes."

Adam stood there, contemplating. Evelynn chuckled, and shoved him lightly on the shoulder.

"Let the girl watch, Adam. It's not like it's a vasectomy."

"Evelynn-"

"What's a vasectomy?" Ellie asked, baffled.

"Relax, girls." Evelynn countered jokingly, laughing. "I'm just fucking with you. C'mon."

They walked through one door, then another. The room they entered next was a full medical set-up, with life-support, a proper bed, and a huge array of medical equipment that wowed Ellie the moment she walked in. Even Adam looked surprised.

"You've been cleaning." He said.

"Yeah." She countered, gathering syringes. She stuck one in the top of a bottle and drew out some of the translucent liquid as Adam gently laid Joel on the table. Evelynn put on a medical mask, and sat down next to the table. "Well, when your boyfriend's gone missing, you need something to calm your nerves."

Before she could start, Ellie interrupted.

"How'd you manage to get all this stuff up here?"

Evelynn turned to faced her, and answered with an anecdotal response.

"A lot of time, and a lot of gas."

The response didn't set her at ease in the slightest; she cared deeply for Joel's safety, as much as he cared for hers.

"Are you sure she knows what she's doing?" She said, not really directing the question at either of them, but more thinking out loud.

"Of course." Adam said, taken aback a little by the bluntness of Ellie's query.

Evelynn turned, and looked at her. She responded, with more seriousness this time around.

"I may be a practical joker when I want to be, but I went to university. I know what I'm doing."

"Evie is phD in Biochemistry and Human Biology. She studied for eight years, and spent two in the Marines as a Medicinal Officer."

Ellie wasn't convinced, and Evelynn could tell.

"Do you want to come and sit by him? You can help, if you like."

After a moment of hesitation, she gave her reply.

"Okay."

She moved cautiously over the concrete floor, pulled over a small metal chair, and sat down next to the bed. Joel was still asleep, and he looked more peaceful than she'd ever seen him. The creases in his forehead and between his eyebrows were ironed out, and he looked calm for once in his life.

Evelynn handed her a medical mask, and she slid it over her hair and down to cover her mouth.

Adam walked up beside Evelynn.

"Have fun, Dr. Stroud. I'm gonna go get cleaned up."

"Alright." She said, and lifted her mask to kiss him. "Don't you go running off again."

"Yes ma'am." He said politely, and took his leave from the room.

Evelynn put on a pair of thin, plastic gloves, and began to unwind Joel's tourniquet to begin her examination.

"Huh, that's lucky. I didn't expect the wounds to be so… clean."

"We doused them in vinegar." Ellie retorted. "Before we left, I mean."

Evelynn had removed Joel's damp tourniquet, revealing the two three-inch long pink crevices in his stomach. She had already sterilised and prepped all of the equipment she was going to use. If Ellie hadn't been convinced by Adam reinforcing Evelynn's qualifications, she was now swayed by the sudden change of personality she'd displayed. The Joker had taken a back seat, and the Doctor now held the reigns. Ellie had never seen a professional surgeon in action; they'd put her to sleep when she was with the Fireflies. She was thoroughly inspired, and she said as much to Evelynn.

"I don't know about professional surgeon." She replied idly as she concentrated on threading a tiny thickness of black wire through the top of a pristine silver needle. "More like science major playing around with syringes and seeing what happens. But, thanks. It does mean a lot." She placed the threaded needle gently on the silvery metal tray that she'd positioned on a small table to her left.

She leaned over his body, and gestured towards the wounds.

"I ran a quick assessment based on cross-references." She said quickly, coming across as a typical science-type. She angled her head up to face Ellie, and looked into her eyes inquisitively. Evelynn had beautiful blue eyes – the colour of the midday sky, or a tropical ocean, glassy and bright.

"And I deducted that the wounds – looking like they were made with a hunting machete – steered conveniently clear of his intestines, with one grazing a kidney, and the other penetrating his appendix."

She sat back in the chair, and slid her mask down onto her throat to talk.

"This scar here though – from another laceration, I assume? – how did he respond to that?"

Ellie cautiously replied, trying her hardest to avoid mentioning her scare with the cannibals, and her horrific encounter with David.

"He… he fell. He fell onto something, I never saw what."

"I meant, how well did he carry the wound, and how did you treat it? I take it you were with him at the time."

"Yeah, the whole damn time. He tried to pretend it wasn't there, to walk it off and be tough like he always does. As for treating it? Well… I dunno. I just rammed him full of antibiotics, and luckily he woke up just in time to get me away from-"

She remembered.

You can try beggin'.

"…to get me out of some… trouble, I was in."

She wasn't ready to reveal that story to Evelynn, or Adam; no more than he was willing to discuss his loss.

"Well, whoever stabbed him wasn't very strong." Evelynn stated, forever the optimist. "A machete like that should've gone straight through him."

"You're saying that he was lucky?"

"I'm saying that he was incredibly lucky." She stood and walked over to a nearby counter, almost as clean as her metal tray of implements had been, glittering in the high-powered lights of the room, and gathered more equipment.

"Anyone can survive on one kidney, and the appendix became useless ages ago. There is deep tissue damage to his abdominals, but nothing that can't be remedied and worked around." She fiddled and faffed with implements, organising various items and bottles onto another gleaming metal tray. "That being said, he won't be doing sit-ups any time soon."

She giggled slightly to herself, and wandered lazily back over to the operating table, moving the first tray to the side and replacing it with the one she had organised a moment ago. She placed a couple of plastic and paper patches connected to multi-coloured wires to Joel's forehead, heart, and left wrist. Following this, she flicked a small black button with the heel of her boot, and the machine behind her came online, next to where Joel lay. The lights on the ceiling flickered a little, and then levelled out, adapting to the change in distribution of electricity. The machine beeped softly every few seconds.

"Hear that?" She asked Ellie, a wide smile on her face. "That's him. He's alive."

Ellie returned the smile, relieved that she could finally feel certain that he would pull through this calamity. She placed her hand gently on his forehead, and whispered gently to him.

"C'mon, big guy. You've had worse." Then she added, "I miss you, Joel."

Evelynn still wore the genuine smile she donned a few moments before. She gently took hold of Ellie's wrist, and moved her hand from Joel's forehead and back into her lap.

"I know you miss him, Ellie. He'll be okay, though, don't worry." She paused slightly, and then continued. "You might not want to be here for this next bit, though." She drew her mask back up over her mouth and picked up a long, silvery-white and razor sharp scalpel from her tray.

"Wha… why not? What're you doing?"

"The kidney should heal, but his appendix has to come out. If I don't remove it now, it'll get all infected and become a severe problem later. And later might not be in a room with a full laboratory set-up."

Surprisingly, Ellie felt the need to adhere to Evelynn's advice. It was a peculiar sensation, as she was more than conditioned to be comfortable around dealing with blood and gore – one had to be, surviving in this world, where every day was just another chance to be eaten, or shot. She didn't know why she was so repulsed at the thought of seeing Joel being operated on, but it just frightened her, in a deep and almost primal way.

Evelynn was awaiting her answer, with a scalpel in her right hand and a syringe full of liquid in her left.

"Adam's room is through the door there, and through the next room, if you want to go talk to him. I might be a while; I need to do this carefully." She gestured out through the metal door they entered from, to another one, in the adjacent wall.

"Okay." She said, getting up from her seat and walking slowly towards the door. She turned back and left Evelynn with a final spoken thought.

"Please do everything you can for him."

"Of course." Evelynn smiled warmly. "Of course, I will."

Ellie turned away and walked out the door, mulling over what she had just seen with apprehension.

Around the iris of Evelynn's bright blue eyes were tiny streaks of yellow-green, almost entirely unobservable by anyone who wasn't looking for them. She'd thought she'd seen the same with Adam, but his eyes were green, so she'd need to get a closer look. That tell-tale callsign had been burned onto her subconscious at a young age, always being a thing she prioritised when meeting new people.

Dilated and yellowed pupils were a characteristic trait of subjects infected with Cordyceps.