The sun beamed in through the broken windows illuminating the petrol station, Joel was woken by the sound of glass cracking underfoot as three burly men clad in tattered clothes strolled in rummaging through shelves with the least bit of care that there could be others in the building. Joel moved over towards Tommy nudging him causing him to look up at him to see him gesturing to stay silent Joel then moved over to Sarah and repeated whilst the men just outside continued searching.

"I wonder if anything is left here" said the largest of the three

"Keep looking I'm sure there's more here than on those guys further up the way You know the ones in yellow with the armbands with some kind of emblem on" the smallest and by far the best dressed man said

"Yeah they had surprisingly little I guess they were running from that quarantine zone that explosion last night levelled an entire section of the wall, Pete and Garry went by this morning they said it had been overrun now by those things" the first replied

By now Joel and Tommy had packed and Sarah was close behind as they communicated purely through hand gestures they waited until the men were obscured behind the shelves and crept out the door hiding behind a long shelf that led towards the door all seemed good as there were large enough gaps in the broken glass to walk on and well timed peeks allowed the group to keep track of all three men but as they got closer to the door this became more difficult and Joel could now only see two men thinking that this must mean that the third man had moved into the office they had used just that night he stepped out into the open. This proved to be a bad idea as a fist flew out as if from nowhere and struck Joel in the side of the face sending him straight to the floor.

"Looks like we got ourselves some live ones here, look over there lads there's two more" shouted the man who had struck Joel

Immediately the other two men responded and if by superhuman strength one jumped clear over a set of shelves tackling Tommy to the ground as the other tried to grab Sarah who managed to weave past him causing a chase to ensue. Joel struggled on the floor with the large man on top who had managed to clasp his hands around his neck Joel's arms flailed around unable to cause much harm just as the man was about to squeeze the last ounce of life from him his hands had found a shard of glass which Joel immediately seized and in one last ditch effort plunged it into the man's neck who immediately loosened his grip toppling over clutching his throat. Looking over to see Tommy who was being pummelled into a corner blow after blow this man had obviously been a fighter before as it showed as anything Tommy tried was useless.

Joel seized another shard of glass and lunged towards the man attacking Tommy but over the corner of his shoulder the man had seen Joel approach and his right arm flew out striking Joel in the face once again knocking to the floor but the glass shard sank into the man's upper arm who then unleashed a yelp. Using this opportunity Tommy positioned himself behind the man and got him into a headlock and with only one arm to resist it Tommy was now winning. Joel lifted himself from the floor looking left he could see Tommy but something caught his eye looking to his right the final man had just managed to knock Sarah down and was now standing over her about to strangle her Joel found himself with a new rush of energy as he managed to spring to his feet run at the man kicking him squarely in the head then gabbing him by his jumper and slamming him into freezer and slammed the sliding door hard rendering the man lifeless, meanwhile Tommy was struggling to bring the last man down who with his remaining good arm had produced a knife and was flailing uncontrollably but the motions got slower and slower and soon the man fell. Joel immediately turned his attention over to Sarah.

"You okay baby girl" muttered Joel as he began scanning for any signs of injury

"I'm okay I'm okay" Sarah muttered back as she climbed to her feat

The petrol station now looked in worse condition than when they had arrived if that was even possible. Looking around afterwards the group was able to find a revolver which was on one of them presumably not used in the fight as the one that had it liked to get his hands dirty and a knife which added to the ones the group had managed to keep from the quarantine zone, Tommy pocketed the revolver.

"You hear what they were saying before about some fireflies further up the road" said Tommy obviously shaken by the events that had transpired

"They said they were dead" Joel replied bluntly

"Yeah but they might have something on them saying where they are going" Tommy retorted

Tommy had not been able to let go of what the fireflies wanted to accomplish he was mesmerized and the event in the petrol station had only strengthened his resolve to see a normal world again.

The group began to walk further up the road and further away from the lives they had known for the past few months. The road was shadowed by trees that blocked the sun they creaked in the wind some even making enough noise that bird's rose shrieking into the sky the walk was silent with no one wanting to talk about the ordeal and after several minutes of walking the trees were beginning to thin as blades of light speared through the trees and into the ground.

Not much further there lay the bodies of two fireflies between them a backpack with trivial items of no value strewn across the floor. Among these things was a map with a large red X and a note that read; 6:30pm area 1 the bomb is in place Don't screw this up. Reading this Joel was shocked turning to Tommy he spoke

"Your firefly friends destroyed the zone"

"What let me see that" Tommy said as he snatched the paper from him

"No this can't be right this must be used to frame the it just can't be the truth why would they do this" mumbled Tommy

"If I were to take a guess it was to send a message to the other zones to show that the military can't defend you properly as long as martial law is in effect sacrifice the few to save the many" Joel said he tried to contain himself at the thought that the people Tommy associates with had cost him his livelihood.

Tommy knelt down and picked up two pendants with the fireflies names on and tucked them into one of his pockets before making eye contact with Joel.

"What were they thinking" Joel barked

"Look your gonna have to drop it for now we have to get going" retorted Tommy

"What are we going to do now" Sarah asked diffusing the situation

"I do not know" replied Joel as he moved over towards what was left of the dead fireflies belongings among them was a map of the USA with red X's denoting quarantine zones and hastily scrawled notes across it. Scanning these notes Joel had in mind it had to be safe it had to be secure so any life he started would not end tragically again

"Boston" Joel murmured

"What" asked Sarah as she looked around as if she had heard something

"It says here that Boston is one of the most fortified quarantine zones" said Joel as he rolled up the map

"Woah Joel Boston's a long way" said Tommy sounding concerned

"Look around Tommy the world's gone to hell and the only way to survive is here we though the zone we were just in but look all that brought down by two men" Joel shouted as he unleashed a kick into one of the fireflies. Tommy silently agreed

"We might even find some of your firefly friends to answer for this" Joel murmured

"Joel for the sake of getting there in one piece drop it for now okay" Tommy angrily replied only to be acknowledged by a turning glare as Joel began to lead them up the hill.

"Come on baby girl it's just like another hike" said Joel as he comforted Sarah

Tensions in the group were running high but for now they would stick together for the greater good...