Sorry about the wait, I had a minor case of writers block, than my computer decided to throw a fit and stop working for a bit. The thing is, I try to update once within a week but it's no guarantee. Anyway, on with the chapter! Enjoy.

A/N: This chapter is probably my darkest yet with some pretty nasty violence and such. Though if you've already played TLOU, this shouldn't bother you that much.

Ellies POV

"Kids get your heads down; we got three hunters with shotguns standing in the middle of the damn road."

I'd just got finished gushing about savage starlight to Jake when I heard Joel say that. I looked out the window. About thirty feet ahead there was three guys facing us by the side of the road with shotguns aimed towards truck.

"Why don't we just turn the hell around or speed by them?" Jake said looking at our three strangers.

"Wouldn't help, their too close we try to drive away or past them they'll blow a hole in the damn engine." Joel said. I looked at out the window; they were slowly walking down the road towards the truck, shotguns aimed directly at it.

As they approached the truck one of the fuckers yelled "You can try to run us over but I gurran-fucking-tee that I'll blow a hole in your faces before you do that."

Jake whispered "That doesn't make any sense, why would they blow a hole in the engine if they wanna loot it?"

"The truck's expendable, they probably want our food and bullets." Joel said with a matter-of-fact tone.

When they finally got to the truck the main guy left the two others at the hood of the car, I'm guessing he put them there so if we decided to bail, they would stop us. So that left one guy coming up to talk to us. Perfect.

"Out. Now. If you do anything other than that I will fucking end you." The asshole told us, while waving his shotgun in an intimidating fashion.

We all filed out, hands behind our head, it reminded me of back in the zone when I was escaping with Joel and…. Well you know. I was particularly disgusted by the look of one of the assholes when I walked out, eying me with a look that made me uncomfortable. The main guy started looking through the truck pulling out our backpacks, most of our food and some miscellaneous items.

He ran back through our items, stopping at Joel's bag. He smiled as he tore open the bag, emptying its contents out on the pavement. "Looks like we fucking hit the jackpot guys." He smiled, once at me and then at his friends.

"Ammo, food, motolovs, and bombs." One of the other fuckers thought out loud as they rummaged through the pile.

I was a little off put on how they were paying so little attention to us. I mean we're their fucking captives! A little attention would be nice. I don't know, I'm just anxious. Me and Joel have been in bad situations but from experience there's nothing worse than being left to wait.

Finally they walked over to us, they stood near Joel looking us over one more time before they finally spoke. "Here's the deal asshole, we're gonna take your supplies and the girl than we're gonna turn you around, set you loose, and if you take one step back towards us, I'll fucking kill you."

My mind went completely blank for what felt like forever. No, just fucking no. Thoughts on what would happen to me raced through my mind. It sent shockwaves through my body and I felt like I was about to throw up. I refused to think any further, I looked to Joel for support.

His attention never left the motherfuckers who we're holding us captive. "The girl?" Joel asked them looking for some explanation, I have no idea in fucking hell on what he's trying to do but I just fucking hope he's got a trick up his sleeve.

"Really hard to find women now a days. Most of them are taken." He smiled at the last part. That fucking asshole.

"I see." With that he took out the pistol he had hidden down his jeans and shot the fucker right between the eyes.

"The truck!" Joel shouted as he ran for cover, motioning us to follow him. The other two were too taken back by the sudden death of their leader to do anything.

Jake and I ran towards the back of the truck, Jake picking up the iron pipe Joel gave him. When we got to the truck, the two fuckwads have gotten over the tragic death of their precious leader and were taking cover in the other end of the truck. One of the guys pulled out pistol and started trading shots with Joel. Jake kinda sat there not sure what to do. He held the iron pipe like a baseball bat and occasionally looking over the back of the truck at the guy who was firing at us.

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind, a meaty arm wrapped around my neck and something cold was pushed on my head. It took me a few moments to realize what was happening, I figured while we were preoccupied with asshole number 1, asshole number 2 snuck up on me and took me hostage. I saw the surprise on Joel and Jakes face as they realized what had just happened.

Asshole number 2 spoke "Don't you move motherfuckers or I'll blow the little la-"Jake suddenly swung the metal pipe he had at the fucker who was holding me hostage.

"Fuck!" he yelled as the pipe smashed on his fingers with a satisfying snap, I didn't waste any time as I broke his grip and ran back towards Joel. Jake on the other hand had already struck the guy to the floor and was in the process of making mash potatoes out of the fucker's brain. This wasn't light taps on the forehead or punches, this was a metal pipe demolishing his skull with every swing, his brain was literally a pile of mush on the ground now.

Jake dropped his pipe as he sat down, his back to the truck looking over what he had done. Suddenly the other asshole ran across the truck with his shotgun, turning the corner I saw his eyes dart from what's left of his friend to the bloody pipe on the ground. Joel took the moment of hesitation and kicked the guy to the floor and shot a bullet through the guy's forehead.

I took a deep breath as I realized it was finally over. Jake literally getting sick of looking at the body for too long, went off to the side and threw up. Joel said nothing as he looked over the scene than went over to pack his backpack and started packing his stuff back in. I looked at Jake as he finished throwing up and walked over to us, not bothering to pick up his pipe.

"You need a minute?" I asked him concerned for his well being, I mean there isn't a whole lot of kids around my age anymore.

"Yeah I'm fine it's just…. His fucking brains, were just… everywhere." He said, running his hands through his dark red hair.

"Thanks, for saving me." I said, hoping that would cheer him up.

He gave me a weak smile, as he went to go pick up his backpack and pipe. I walked over to Joel as he was scavenging the bodies for supplies. "You think they would've…." I didn't have to say more, as he hugged me in comfort of what came so close to happening. After that was done, we all said nothing as we packed up the truck and took off, leaving the carnage behind us.

That's chapter 5 everyone.

Took me a bit to find out how I wanted to approach this chapter in terms of character progression. The University is coming up the next chapter and I'm doing some changes to accommodate there being three people. Some things won't be mentioned, some things may happen to different people and we all know what comes after the university, David. That'll be an interesting chapter to write. Also I'll be going on vacation for a while next week, so I'm gonna try to get another chapter up before then but like I said its no guarantee. Any and all reviews appreciated.

Until next time

-Jogman