Chapter 3: Escaped or Captured

A/N- Just a clarification: Rylan's name is pronounced, RYE-lan, not Dylan with an R. I intentionally made it so that his name is close to Riley's, that's why Ellie sort of opened up to him. And I'll explain Devlin's new Firefly war power next chapter. Anyway, let's get on with it!

Ellie and Rylan continued to stare at the sunset, with a 'then it dawned on me' pun thrown in there somewhere.

But it wasn't until they heard distant gunfire near the dam that their harmonious trance was broken. "What's with all the shooting?" Rylan wondered. "Infected?"

An awful feeling rose in the pit of her stomach as Ellie's mind wandered to dark and dreadful things, especially with the presence of that Firefly that Tommy had held captive.

"It doesn't sound good, whatever it is... we should probably head back." Ellie stated in concern as her green eyes locked on at the dam in the distance.

"ELLIE!"

Ellie didn't even realize that it was Rylan that shouted her name, because little did she know that a platoon of Fireflies armed to the teeth had made their presence know, coming out of the woods right behind them!

Rylan had haphazardly dived at Ellie, grabbed her, and threw them both off the cliff they were on as the enemies behind them started emptying their clips!

The sounds of whizzing bullets only lasted a second as the two kids fell, rolling and tumbling as Rylan covered her with his body. He was taking the full force of the slamming against the slope as they were descending!

It was loud and it was rocky, Ellie didn't know which way was up, her hands and face were getting scratched and bruised, and she clearly heard Rylan's grunts of agony and pain with each impact while still holding onto her!

She didn't know how far they fell, but they both finally came to a stop on the soft grass below, a small field with a line of thin trees which was the boarder of the house residences of Jackson.

Ellie carefully tested her body, to see if anything was broken or damaged, other than some skids she felt on her knees and wrists, she was okay. But Rylan...

"Rylan? Hey... come on!" Ellie pushed him to wake him up. Why did he do that for her?!

He wasn't waking up... he wasn't responding, his eyes were shut...

Ellie tried shaking him again only to have the dirt beside her explode as the bullets embedded themselves in the earth!

"Fireflies?!" She yelped as she saw a platoon at the top of the cliff, aiming their weapons at her!

She had to run... she had to run now!

Like a bat outta hell, Ellie turned heel and ran for the tree line, abandoning Rylan's body and miraculously dodging the assault rifle gunfire that was still missing her!

She made it past the trees which provided the cover to hide herself from that squad of soldiers, but when she made it out on the other side to the street... That was when she realized the shit had hit the fan...

Jackson was chaos! She could hear gunfire all around her. Families were scrambling into their houses and Firefly soldiers were all over, trying to take over the town!

Ellie had walked into a warzone...

"Gotta get back to the house!" She told herself. "Gotta find Joel!" She knew he would go there to stockpile and get ready to fight or flee.

But before Ellie could take another step, an Armored Personnel Carrier drove around the corner of the adjacent house that was next to her, and it aimed its mounted machine gun right at her...

"Oh fuck..."

It seemed this was all Ellie would be doing today, running. Her mind raced trying to decide where to run to... there was a ditch in front of her! It looked like a moat from one of the fairy stories she used to read but there was no water!

That was as good as she was going to get, because the armored carrier started firing it's machine gun at her! The heavier bullets were licking the ground right behind her, sparks were flying off the paved street as Ellie dived for the moat. She tumbled some more now below eye level of the vehicle, and out of sight!

Ellie quickly recovered herself and finally realized that she was in a canal leading towards an open drainage pipe encase of flooding. She was covered in mud and muck and the sides were too slippery to climb back out. So she turned on her heels to notice the grated tunnel where the water would drain out of, and she headed for that!

Ellie could hear men clamoring above, unsure as to where she was. Morons...

"Fuck it." Ellie decided as she barely squeezed herself through a rusted out open hole in the metal bars, and soon she was wrapped in darkness, with only the light at her back.

Slightly crouching, her feet splashed with every step as Ellie blindly made her way down the tunnel as the war invasion above her raged on...

Joel was old, but he wasn't that old. He still had a fire in his belly, the fire of a survivor. In the house where he and Ellie resided for three months, he stuffed his backpack with as much ammo, medicine, and food as possible.

He knew Ellie almost better than everyone, she was smart... she had a mouth on her, but she was smart. Joel remembered talking to her in case if anything bad happened, they would meet up in an old hunting cabin tucked away in the mountains about a day or two's hike away. No one knew about it but them, so he was going to search Jackson for her first and then go to the cabin if he came up short.

"Come on!" Joel grunted as he grabbed the last can of beans and slung on his backpack which was chock-full of weapons. "Gotta make my way outta here."

The question is how? Front door wasn't an option so he went out the back door to his backyard. He could hear the gunfire like it was right next door, hell it probably was right next door...

Joel was racking his brains as to how to get out of here. He didn't have a car; a horse wouldn't work because you know... horses can get shot too...

Looks like he was going on foot... Joel hopped the far fence and into the next property across, and he was about to sneak around this garage when he stopped himself hearing a stick-up.

"Hands in the air!"

"Wait! Please! Don't shoot!" A man's voice.

The lone Firefly soldier pointed towards the open garage, he couldn't see Joel. "I said... get your hands in the air!"

"Please just let us go!" It was a woman's voice that was begging now; there were at least two people in the garage.

He suddenly heard the Firefly's walkie-talkie radio go off in waves of static. "-The-girl-isn't here-in-Jackson! Copy!"

Looks like it's time for Plan B. Joel made a decision and came out of his hiding spot and fired three bullets at the Firefly, all hitting their marks in his chest and head... he fell dead...

Joel turned towards the garage and saw a young blonde couple next to something that was under a tarp. Their hands were still up, a mixture of shock and disbelief on their faces.

"Uh... hey. How you doing?" Joel put his weapon away to calm them down. "I'm Joel... your neighbor, I guess."

The man and woman looked at their savior with gratitude and happiness in his presence. They both didn't look older than 30, and they both wore jeans and blue shirts. The guy was long-sleeved while the long blonde-haired girl was short-sleeved with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath.

She cried. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

They both had blue eyes as they advanced on Joel, each giving him a hug to their affection and to his very clear displeasure. "Uh... you're welcome, not get off."

The man beamed as they released him. "You are by far the best neighbor we have ever had! I'm Brad, and this is my fiancé Claire."

"Brad and Claire. Got it." Joel nodded, these were good people, just caught up in the middle of all this...

Brad went on. "Listen friend, we were just about to get out of here, and since you saved our lives and you seem to be in a bit of a rush... we would like to return the favor!"

Joel was at a loss for words. "What? Look, you two better just get on outta here before-!"

He was cut off when Claire lifted the tarp off, reveling an antique basically... a Harley Davidson Motorcycle... oh god did that bring back memories...

"We were going to try to use this to escape." She brought him back to the present.

What was weird for him though was that there was an attached sidecar on the right side of the bike. "Come with us, I bet you want to leave Jackson too, with the way you're packed up."

It could work... what other option was there?

And come on, it was a Harley.

"I'd be much obliged, thank you. You uh... know how to drive it?" Joel inquired.

"Not a clue!" Brad smiled. "We just found this in here last week caked in dust. But I bet a man of your... wisdom would know." Was he calling him old?

"It's like fate." Claire grinned while she tossed a helmet to her fiancé and one for herself. "Let's go!"

"Alright." Joel agreed as he quickly hopped on the driver's seat, keys still in the ignition.

Whoever lived here before these guys, they maintained the parts somehow... but now was not the time to think it through.

Brad sat in the sidecar while Claire sat in the back seat behind Joel. She wrapped her arms around him to keep steady as the machine sprang to life with a loud sputter and the motor roaring!

"Hold on tight!" Joel advised as he let the kickstand up and drove forward with the two of them.

Onto the street now with the bike, they had to make it to an exit. The nearest place would be the dam's front doors, more than likely busted open from the Fireflies.

He swerved and leaned carefully, with the sidecar attached, turning corners would be tougher. Soldiers and Jackson residents alike were awestruck at the loud motorcycle before them as it zoomed by, closer and closer to escape.

Joel looked off to his right to see Brad had pulled out his gun, and he fired at anyone who was in their path or looked like a threat. Claire still held on tight and they rounded the last corner to be in the courtyard which lied behind the dam's front entrance, and sure enough the gates were bashed open. Quick enough to avoid any more gunfire, but slow enough that Joel had locked eyes with the man who was in charge, wearing his black trench coat...

No mistaking it, in the split second they glared at each other, they already knew who they were. And then the three of them zoomed by, leaving Jackson in their wake and into the wild...

"Is everyone alright?!" Tommy called out to the people below who took refuge on the lower levels of the large room which held the turbines while he and Maria were outside his office door.

"Tommy, what do we do?" Maria tried to find comfort in his eyes.

"I'll think of something." He replied. "As long as Joel and Ellie got out safe, they should leave us alone."

"Did you not see what happened out there?!" Maria shouted at him. "He killed all of those hostages without even batting an eye! What makes you think he won't hurt anyone else?!"

"Then what do you suppose we do?!" He lashed back. "Fight?! He has the numbers, the guns, and he's already kicked in the front door. If we fight, we die! If we surrender, we might live. I know him... he's a ruthless motherfucker and this is our only chance... I don't want to lose you, Maria... or anyone else..."

He caressed her cheek and pulled her into a quick kiss. "So we just give up?"

"For now. But this is so we don't let anybody else die." Tommy consoled. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry. You're right..." Maria finally agreed. "Let's just hope Ellie and Joel got away."

"I'm with ya."

Then the entrances suddenly burst open and Fireflies began to flood the room...

Ellie crawled out of the pipe on her hands and knees on the other side.

She made it... "Shit..."

She came out more downriver of the hydroelectric dam, she could still see it, so she needed to put some distance between her and Jackson. Joel said if they ever had to leave and they somehow got separated, they would go to that cabin they found a while back and low lay there.

Ellie got her water bottle out and filled it up in the river, and also she quickly splashed herself to get most of the mud off. She put away her water and took off her backpack to see what she had. Her gun with a couple of clips, her switchblade, three protein bars which she'll save for later, and a blanket... not exactly survival mode, but she will have to make do...

"Alrighty then... which was is East?" Then she remembered the sun and looked up in the sky, looked like ten o' clock now...

She waded herself through the river which was waist-high, and came out onto the other side and quickly found the hiker's trail.

After maybe five minutes of nature sounds and walking, Ellie's stomach began to gurgle... "Damn... didn't even eat breakfast..."

She went off the beaten path to try to find some food nearby. Ellie didn't have anything for hunting so berries and fruit would have to do, if she found any...

After a moment or two of scavenging near a cluster of bushes, Ellie noticed a bush that had some scrumptious looking blackberries. She was walking towards it when her attention was caught on a cute little bunny rabbit that hopped his way out of some brush a few feet away.

She was real hungry for some meat right now, so much so, maybe she could kill it by shooting it?

If only she had her bow.

Ellie took out her gun and loaded it, clicking the safety off and aiming it at the rabbit. "I'll only use one bullet..."

Suddenly...

SWOOSH!

The little bunny was impaled by an arrow through the neck, its life snuffed out for a meal...

Ellie jumped as she swerved around to look for the culprit. "Jesus... Get the fuck out here! I have a gun!"

"You really do have a mouth on you, don't you?"

Carrying a black crossbow in his right hand, Rylan revealed himself from behind a tree and claimed his prize, "You do know that guns scare away any other animals around," He lifted the arrow out of the rabbit and cleaned it on his jeans. "A rabbit's hardly a meal."

"Rylan?! What are you doing here?!" Ellie wanted to tell him off but she was too astonished. "I thought you were..."

"Depending on how you fall, you can stick the landing, but you sure didn't make it easy on me..." Rylan smirked as he set down his crossbow and pulled out his large hunting knife.

Rylan knelled down with a noticeable wince, as he began skinning the rabbit to collect the meat and save it for later. Ellie never liked this part when Joel found food for them, but she learned to deal with it. "How did you get out of there?"

Talking while he was still skinning, "I'm smart, remember? You said so yourself."

"But that doesn't explain-!"

Rylan interjected. "How did you get out?"

"I just sorta ran. I'm lucky like that." She shrugged her shoulders. "So uh... yeah. What do you think about Jackson?"

Rylan finished the skinning and wrapped the meat up and saved it for later in his pack. "Fireflies probably wanted the dam for its power. It's a real good settlement, so I suppose they wanted to move in."

"More like barge in and fuck shit up." Ellie corrected. "What are you going to do?"

He sighed. "I... I actually don't know. Never liked the Fireflies really, just a bunch of terrorists with a pipe dream if you ask me."

"Terrorists?"

"I have seen them target civilians before and now they've done it again. But never a bold like this before..."

Did Marlene ever target civilians? Ellie shook the thought. "Well, I'm going this way-! *GURGLE*" Her stomach growled again.

"Someone sounds hungry..."

Ellie slightly blushed from embarrassment. "Yeah... you didn't hear that."

Rylan turned to her. "You really don't seem all too prepared for a trip through the mountains. You want some company? Where you headed?"

Would it be too much to rope him into this huge cluster that was her life? No, she couldn't ask him... But she will more than likely need him, seeing as he did have more supplies and she had next to none. Oh well...

"Yeah, sure." Ellie nodded, but for the first time she wanted seniority. "But you follow my lead though, anything I say goes."

"Oh? Yes, ma'am." Rylan humored as he held out his hand as a sign of trust. "Together then?"

"Together." She shook his hand, but she quickly let go. "We're going..." She pointed dramatically. "This way!"

"After you then." He followed her as he slung his crossbow over his backpack, both of them ready for a long hike.

Wait for us Joel...

"Dammit!"

"What's wrong?" Claire inquired.

"Outta gas." Joel tried to start it up one more time but to no avail. "Looks like we'll be walking."

Brad got out of the sidecar and pulled his wife-to-be away from Joel so that they could have a private conversation. Joel crossed his arms as he leaned against the bike and surveyed his surroundings.

Trees, trees, and more trees. Middle of the forest had its pros and cons but seeing as how it was about noon, according to the sun above him, a compass would be pretty handy right about now.

"Excuse us Joel?"

The old man turned his attention to the two of them and for some reason they looked like they had a big secret they wanted to reveal.

Brad coughed to clear his throat like before a formal announcement. "We have decided that we want join you. Will you have us?"

A formal request? This was kind of new... "I don't think so." He flatly denied.

"No, we really must insist." Claire chimed in. "We can tell that we would be a lot safer with you than on our own."

Girl you have no idea. Joel rubbed in eyes in exasperation. "You don't want to join me. Just go your own way."

"If you say no, we'll just follow you anyway." Brad grinned. "We're not rookies Joel, it just makes sense. Strength in numbers and all that, and you do look like a big number."

He could shoot them if they followed him but... they were too nice for that and they didn't have to help him out of Jackson...

"Fine, but listen!" Joel knew it would be useless to refuse, he knew these kind of people. "When I say you hide, you hide. When I say you run, you run. And so on in that fashion. Ain't that complicated, now got it?"

Claire and Brad high-fived each other at the new alliance, hopefully Joel wouldn't regret this but certainly he will be annoyed, maybe he could drop them off somewhere along the way?

Claire mentioned this in an attempt to settle Joel doubts. "Just so you know, both of us have killed before, Infected and Non-infected, we're not pushovers."

"Good." He walked off to lead their pack. "By the way, either of you got a compass?"

Just hold on for us Ellie...

A/N- Joel and Ellie have both escaped Devlin's grasp for now, but they are separated and they must fight to get to each other with new friends by their sides. Can Tommy and Maria keep the piece in Jackson? What's Devlin's next move? What do you think of Rylan, Brad, and Claire so far?

Comments, Reviews, favs, and follows will incite a quicker update ;) Until next time!