A/N: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF LAST OF US OR YU GI OH 5DS! ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE CREATORS OF BOTH!

Chapter 11: Infected

At the bottom was a building which they entered and were able to lock up just as night began to creep over the sky. As promised, there was plenty of food and they each ate.

"You can't be serious," Henry stated laughing as Yusei spoke about a little mission he did as a Firefly.

"Dead serious," Yusei responded.

"I can't believe it. A newbie recruit at the time, and with the leader killed, you took command over the entire squad. And they didn't question it?" Henry responded.

"They did question it. But only for a couple minutes," Yusei answered. "During training, they watched me a lot. See what I could do." He scoffed slightly. "Marlene was the first who saw me as leader. She asked me to help her lead a squad the morning of a mission. I told her I wasn't ready, reasoning that I had only just got out of training and had only done a couple scouting missions. I joined that mission as my urging and she accepted my reasoning, respected it. And when the time came for me to help the squad? It wasn't my idea to make me the leader of it. It was actually Josh Scheffler who suggested it. He convinced the others to give me a chance."

"How did he know you were the right choice?" Henry asked.

"He and Marlene were pretty close. They told each other a lot of things. Things I don't even know," Yusei replied. "Marlene had told him that if something went wrong and the leader of the squad was killed or injured too badly, to get me to lead the squad and get them out of there. I didn't know she told him that until after he explained it to me and the squad when he tried to convince them. With that in play, they just gave in. I got them out safe and Marlene convinced me to take the job as her second in command ever since. If she needed someone to do things that others couldn't, she went to me."

"So, where are the rest of your Fireflies? You usually don't travel alone and I know these guys aren't Fireflies," Henry asked.

"We were in the Boston QZ getting supplies. On our way out, Marlene got shot and need to go get help from a guy she knew," Yusei began. "She ordered me to get to the Capitol Building where some Fireflies would be waiting to help me get to the Salt Lake City base and I reluctantly went there. On my way to the Capitol Building, I ran into these guys. Old friends of mine. They didn't give me a choice on going anywhere on my own since then. Of course, when we reached the Capitol Building, looked like either Infected or military had caught them and killed them. Probably both. I've had to find my way here with these guys ever since."

"Facing hell while at it," Henry responded giving a soft laugh. "You know, you really have a tendency to get yourself into these sort of things."

"How would you know that?" Yusei asked tense.

"Oh, come on. People always talk about the king and queen Fireflies. Those who get helped by them tend to join and try to explain to others what they're really like," Henry replied. "They especially talk about how sometimes the king Firefly will hold his troops back from killing someone if it isn't really needed. Let's them join once in awhile. Like that Rylie kid."

"You knew, Riley?" Yusei asked.

"Hell yeah, I knew her. She helped me a few months ago from some Runners," Henry responded. "I'm a bit shocked you recruited her so young."

"She didn't give me or Marlene much of a say. Of course, her determination and persistence impressed up and we thought she would make a good Firefly," Yusei explained.

"What happened to that kid anyway after that?" Henry asked.

"She got bitten by a Clicker," Yusei answered shocking all of them. "She didn't want to turn, so she killed herself to avoid it."

Luna stood up and said, "I'm going to go check on, Sam. He hasn't shown himself in a while."

"Same," Leo agreed.

"Alright," Yusei agreed. "And be sure to get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow." They nodded and walked into the other room. Yusei turned to his other friends. "You guys get some sleep too. You'll need your strength." They nodded slowly and walked into the next room to sleep for the night.

Once they were gone, Henry said, "You know, I don't think my group's coming."

"Yeah," Yusei agreed, remembering what the man told him before about the group he was separated from.

"Worst part about it all: Explaining it to Sam," Henry added.

. . .

Luna and Leo walked into the room where Sam was looking at cans of food. "Hey, Sam," Leo greeted.

"Oh, hey guys," he responded.

"What're you doing?" Luna asked.

"Taking stock of all the food we found today," he answered.

"Huh," Leo responded.

"And how are we doing?" Luna asked.

"Did Henry send you?" Sam asked.

"No," Luna answered. "Why would Henry send us?"

"To make sure I'm not screwing up somehow," the boy answered bluntly.

"I'd say we did pretty good back there," Leo assured.

"Especially you," Luna added. "You used that gun pretty well."

"Speaking of which, can you give this back to Yusei?" Sam told Leo handing it over. "I'm sure he wants it back." Leo nodded and walked out with it. Sam then walked over to the window and looked out at it.

"Is everything alright?" Luna asked.

"Everything's fine," he answered.

"Okay," Luna gave in, not wanting to push. "Have a good night, I guess."

Sam then asked making her turned to him, "How is it you're never scared?"

"Who says that I'm not?" Luna replied.

"What are you scared of?" Sam asked.

"Let's see… some bugs, Infected, and… being by myself," Luna replied. He looked at her slightly shocked. "I'm scared of ending up alone. Leo and my friends have always been there to support and help me. I don't know what would do if I ended up alone." She then slowly asked, "What about you?"

He looked down before answering and gesturing out of the window, "Those things out there." He then slowly asked, "What if the people are still inside?" Luna looked at him slightly confused. "What if they're trapped in there, without any control of their body? I'm scared of that happening to me."

"Okay, we're a team now," Luna told him. "We're going to help each other out. Besides, they might still look like people, but that person is not in there anymore."

"Henry says that, 'they've moved on'," Sam responded. "That they're with their families. Like in heaven. Do you think that's true?"

Luna thought for a second. "I go back and forth. I would like to believe it," she answered.

"But you don't," Sam retorted.

"I'm not really sure," Luna answered. "Yusei said that what makes it easier for him to kill Infected is he believes that he is showing those he kills mercy. Like when he kills Infected, he is freeing those trapped inside. But, when I look at an Infected after they turn into Runners, I don't really see much human or the person they used to be in them. So I'm not really sure if they are or not. I want to believe they did pass, but I can't say for sure."

"I… guess I'm the same," Sam responded. "But I… I just struggle to believe it more."

"I'm sure it'll be okay," Luna reassured. "We'll all be okay in the end." She gave a slight yawn. "I'm getting a bit tired. I'll see you in the morning." She slowly walked out.

Sam sat down in the chair again and pulled up his left pant leg and sighed. Sitting there was a punctured scratch mark from an Infected. 'It's too late for me,' he thought.

. . .

The next morning everyone woke up to the smell of food. "That smells good," Leo stated as he and the four other Signers walked out.

"Morning," Yusei greeted and they turned to see him looking out the window and Henry cooking a stew.

"Where's Sam?" Luna asked.

"I let him sleep in for once," Henry answered.

"Alright," Luna answered slowly and Leo nodded.

Henry grinned. "Well, if you want him to join us, you can go wake his ass up," he suggested.

"I'll go do that," Leo suggested and walked off. He soon walked into the room and saw him whimpering and twitching a bit. "Sam?"

"Sam!" Leo exclaimed.

"What in…?!" Jack exclaimed as they moved away from the door. Meanwhile, Leo was pushed back with Sam attacking him, seeming to become a Runner.

"He's turning!" Yusei stated.

He hurried to reach for his gun but stopped and stepped back as Henry fired him back. "That's my brother!" the man exclaimed.

"He's not your brother," Yusei told him, grabbing his gun. But Henry fired and Yusei turned to see Sam fall dead and Leo threw him off. Yusei helped the living boy up, sliding his pistol into his pocket, and asked, "Leo, are you alright?"

"Yeah," he answered panting.

They looked as Henry muttered his brother's name in sadness. Yusei called as he approached slowly, "Henry."

"Henry, what have you done?" he muttered to himself. The others were in a state of shock.

"S… S… Sam…" he cried.

"Henry," Yusei continued to try to calm the man down.

The man pointed the gun at Yusei. "Whoa, easy, Henry. Easy."

"It's your fault," he stated in his lost state. And Yusei could tell that he didn't truly mean it.

"It's no one's fault, Henry," the Firefly tried to calm.

"I… It…" the man muttered.

"Henry, don't. I know what you're thinking and you don't want to do it," Yusei called and the others quickly realized what Yusei meant. The Signer of the Dragon Head took a single step towards him before Henry quickly placed his gun at his head and pulled the trigger. Yusei sighed in sadness and the man's body fell to the ground. "This is what I want to avoid." He looked at Leo. "Come over here, for a moment."

"Why?" Leo asked.

"Yesterday, you held your arm in a weird spot," Yusei told him. "I need to see something." Leo slowly walked over and Yusei pulled up the sleeve to see an Infected bite scarring over, shocking everyone. "When did you get bit?"

"Back in the pipes," Leo answered nervously. "Right after we got separated."

"But that was nearly a day ago," Akiza mentioned.

"And if there is any indication that people turn quickly, Sam is it. He must've gotten hit or something last night when the Infected came overrunning us at the town," Yusei stated. "And that was only a few hours ago."

"So why hasn't Leo turned yet?" Luna asked.

"There are only two reasons that I can think of. One, for some odd reason, it's taking him longer to turn, but that isn't really possible. Or two, he's immune," Yusei answered.

"And what if he is immune?" Jack asked. "What'll happen to him once we get to that Firefly base?"

"Nothing," Yusei answered. "We are going to keep him being immune an absolute secret from everyone, including the Fireflies. They'll have enough with me. Leo just needs to keep that bite mark out of the radar and out of view. If he's immune, then he's in just about the same place as I am with the Fireflies at the moment." They gave a nervous look. "So no matter what happens, keep that mark out of view from everyone. Especially the military and Fireflies."

"So, what're we going to do with these two?" Akiza asked slowly as they looked at the two corpses. "We can't just leave them like this."

Yusei sighed. They quickly buried the two bodies. That's when Luna noticed the injury on Yusei's shoulder hadn't been covered and seemed to be getting red around the edge from what she could tell from underneath the torn fabric.

"Yusei, what're you going to do with your shoulder?" Luna slowly asked.

"Luna's right. What even happened there?" Jack asked.

"A bullet just scraped it," Yusei answered. "Nothing too bad."

"Yusei, it looks like it's getting a bit infected," Akiza stated. "And I don't mean that virus."

"I've had a lot worse damage. I'll be fine," he reassured.

"How deep did it get?" Crow asked sternly.

Yusei sighed, getting a bit annoyed. "Just touching the bone," he answered bluntly. "But it's fine. You don't need to worry about me so much."

"Yusei…" Akiza sighed. "It isn't going to get better if you don't do something about it." He sighed back in annoyance. "What do you have first aid wise?"

"Akiza, I can take care of myself," Yusei replied sternly. "I've been doing that plus taking care of my groups of a minimum of six people for ten months. I think I know when I need to help myself."

"At least wrap it in something, Yusei. So it doesn't get worse," Luna tried.

He sighed again, well knowing they would budge until he did it. He slipped some bandage wrap from his bag and the others noticed it was doused in alcohol. He took off his jacket and wrapped the bandage around the shoulder and injury. He tore off the end and turned to them as he slipped his jacket back on.

"Are we going or not? We still have a long way to the University," Yusei stated. "We need to get moving so any Infected don't get here."

Akiza nodded and summoned her Black Rose Dragon. They quickly boarded it and took off.