Level 1: Broomfield; Experience Points: 999,999

**Preface: Joel, Ellie, and Troy [Umbrella's BOW] try to work as a team, going through the town of Broomfield, CO. Joel needs to motivate Ellie to work through her fear as they are overwhelmed with waves of infected that are coming from a recently fallen FEDRA installation. Joel doesn't want Ellie to work with Troy. Ellie begins to see that Troy is a violent sociopath, but she still can't comprehend it(Joel had known this from the start).

Trigger Warning; Joel fails to protect Ellie-I've put this in italics with a brief forewarning. Violence and gore descriptions.

They walked alongside East 120th Pkwy, which was more of a highway than a neighborhood street. When they hit the neighborhood, it became clear that some group- military, more than likely-had recently secured this wide, potholed road.

Along each side of the highway were very deep, wide trenches. The trenches were filled with branches and dead bodies. On the outer edge of the trench was circular barbed wire. There was a cement blockade along the right side of the highway.

Before-in the tall grass- Troy had managed to stealthily kill the infected. Now however, as they finally reached the neighborhood, he was out in the open.

Troy motioned for them to wait, while he dug up something on the side of the road. Ellie stretched out her sore legs, placing her backpack with the attached sleeping bag onto the ground. Joel was looking around and down the street with worry. There were naked, infected fungoids as far as the eye could see.

Troy slammed the metal container open flat and plucked out a flamethrower by the handle. He awkwardly placed it on Ellie's feet. She exclaimed softly in pain and pulled her feet out. Joel bit his tongue hard in anger, and quickly took the flamethrower out. He tested it out on the trenches filled with branches.

"Joel can I try it?"

The fire lit up along the trench, slowly, but the misting rain kept it from burning steadily. Troy was standing over him, while he did this, moving as Joel moved. Ellie was gasping in wonder at the powerful heatwave spouting about 8 feet out.

"No Ellie. What he wants is not important because what you need is to keep up your strength. This thing is gonna weigh you down fast-it's fucking heavy."

Joel went back to the container and put the flamethrower back, neatly closing it.

"But I want to try it too Joel!"

"Like I said, Ellie, you need to stay alive and sometimes that means thinking a bit more about the path you're on and how much its gonna affect you. I thought your feet hurt."

He went back to the middle of the street, motioning for Ellie to also get far away from the container. Troy's eyes were now open, looking at the container. He clicked softly at them.

Troy plucked up a torso and pointed to the flamethrower.

"It's too heavy Troy. I'll stick with the pistol."

Ellie said, "Aaah man! That's such a cool flamethrower though. Come on Joel- I'm just gonna pick it up for a moment."

She tried to walk over to the flamethrower-but Joel held her back. "Ellie, if he looks at you things are gonna get real bad real fast. Don't."

That stopped her cold as she said, "Oh."

Troy got up quickly, turned away and let out a deep, quick scream of rage. He flexed his arms and stretched his palms out. As he walked, infected were squeezing their heads between the concrete walls and dropping into the trench on the left. He went over and quickly stabbed their heads, pulling them apart over the fire and dropping them. He stepped back towards Joel a few paces and kneeled.

Troy coughed and then clicked five times. He turned his head to the side expectantly.

Ellie hopped over the trench and grabbed some bricks that fell from the neighborhood wall. Then she hopped back on over to the road.

"Forward!" Ellie said confidently.

Every move that Troy made was slow, deliberate and meticulous as he walked in front of Ellie. The infected were huddled on the street, still unaware of them as the group closed in. Troy's red eyes were open as he scanned for still bodies on the street. He crouched next to a cluster of 5 and they launched themselves at him. He kicked them into the pavement as he worked on each one diligently.

Troy absolutely was slicing at the infected necks, but he wasn't killing them.

He would deftly slicing upwards under their chins, removing their lower jaw, and then afterwards, slicing off their claw. Leaving the rest intact, and moving on to the next. When he was done, they would wriggle back up in his wake, and move again while Ellie and Joel struggled past them. He was enraptured in his own work, and no amount of biting and clawing was taking him out of his reverie.

"Troy!" Ellie grunted as one toppled on her. "You're supposed to stop them!"

Troy was now crawling only a few feet ahead of Joel and Ellie. He wouldn't let any infected pass him until he had done his surgery on them.

Ellie signed to Joel as he shoved his knife through the upper palate of an infected that had put its head onto the raincoat protecting Ellie's shoulder.

'why'

"He's not a teammate, Ellie. You can tell he only works alone." Joel said as he helped Ellie.

She pushed two of them down and slammed her knife into their foreheads.

"Troy what the fuck did I hire you for man?" Ellie complained. He cocked his head back at her as another group of 50 started rushing onto the road just ahead of them-on the side without the concrete barrier. He seemed to remember what Ellie meant because his head jerked up as if to say, "Oh yea."

Now his movements changed and he was no longer toying with their jaws. He was cutting their legs and then killing each one in a new and novel way.

"Hey Ellie." Joel said, as Troy now sliced effortlessly through the groups of attackers-leaving them finally free to hustle forward on the road.

"What!?" She was wiping the sweat and water from her face. She turned towards him on the street, behind her.

"You ever heard of Murphy's law?"

"Really? Joel?! NOW?" She was hyperventilating.

"Yea Ellie do you know?"

"Of course, I fucking know." Her body was heaving from all the weight she had just shoved off of her.

"Well have you heard of Cole's law?"

"Everything will go sideways and back up?"

"No Ellie, it's…it's thinly sliced cabbage and mayo."

She went still, staring at him hard. Then, she fell heavily atop a body, laid down beside it on the wet road, and was crying with laughter.

Troy's tongue burst down through the skull of an infected and wrapped around its spine, cracking it apart and tearing it out. His palm swiped the group of infected into a gooey, sporey mess onto the concrete wall that cracked and toppeled over.

Her laughter had put the infected into a frenzy on the street and now they were all rushing to kill her. They were appearing between buildings and popping up out of the huge puddles of water in the potholes of road.

Troy roared, and Joel and Ellie huddled together in the middle of the road, with the dead bodies around them, absolutely still. They were just at the end of the apartment complex's brick wall.

Ellie couldn't help but giggle just a little bit as the infected started to meander in the opposite direction of Troy's roar.

Five bloaters were untangling themselves from a pile in the field just ahead.

They must've heard Ellie because they were making their way toward them.

Behind Ellie, a couple of infected had toppled their way through the flames and over the trenches to attack. Troy walked behind Joel and Ellie. He swiped the mass of bodies easily off the road, one by one.

Ellie threw a brick as hard as she could, off to the side-as a distraction. But the bloaters were not easily dissuaded.

Troy punched one's head and it was knocked hard into the ground, creating a small crater. Mud flew up and out into the air. The other bloater slammed Troy. Troy's balance remained concrete. Troy's rhythm was easy to discern, his moves were well practiced and rehearsed; to allow a certain amount of punches before dodging; to allow a slight give and then to push only so much.

His closed fist smashed into the torso of the bloater, creating a very large dent. He pummeled it down into the ground, flattening its armored fungal platelets. Then he cut all of of their ankles quickly so they could not get up. He cracked their elbows out, leaving them mostly immobile.

He trudged back to the road. Ellie hated being in such an open area. She wanted to be up top, sniping them all down from above. "Troy" She whispered.

"Ellie I can hear you." Joel said right next to her.

"Joel there's a big metal chains with a pulley behind the concrete wall-I was thinking Troy could grab it and throw it onto the building and I could hop up there…you know? Safety?"

"No Ellie, we stick together here; you and I need to move as a unit so Troy doesn't mistake us for one of those." They waited for Troy to kill the onslaught.

The rain had extinguished the fire in the trenches now.

The whole street was now writhing and leaping towards them. Joel put his hand to his forehead anxiously, as if he was checking a fever. Then he grabbed Ellie's arm to direct her attention towards him and behind.

Now Troy was moving faster as he became caught up in his own games. He was still methodical, paying intimate attention to each infected. Even as the other infected swarmed him, he was capturing them all. His strange joy was captured by the inevitability of death in his movements; there could be no chance of escape for even one full second, and no honor in the manner of his slaughter.

Troy punctured six bodies, lifting them up as he also stood. They still kept moving, and as he brought them to his mouth, he rolled his head and screamed. Then he tore them in a downwards motion with his other claw, completely shredding through their entrails. Down, down, their legs. Something from one of the bodies fell onto Troy's palm and then rolled onto his arm, a black jelly. It fizzed and as it seemed to burn into his skin. He started skewering them all rapidly as they tried relentlessly to bite his impenetrable skin. Their clicking noises were being silenced en masse.

Ellie and Joel sat back-to-back, "Well at least we prepared as a team." She said. She had to remind herself to take a big breath because somehow her body had not automatically done that. Why did Ellie have to double check her own body's autonomous system at a time like this? It was infuriating.

They were waiting patiently for Troy's signal; Ellie looking back at the emptied road, while Joel looked at the screaming crowds ahead.

Ellie began to strike up conversation. "Ok so let's pretend that I have a future for a moment Joel. Just for a moment."

"Ok we can pretend that. Ain't no harm in pretending, long as you know when to stop."

"Right, right…asshole. So in this pretend future, I have a business."

"Sure thing Ellie." All the guts were flying and then sticking to Troy's onyx skin, sliding around it in the rain. Joel looked back to the sides of the road now.

"So what the fuck is a fucking business, Joel!?"

Joel replied, "A business creates value, you know, with goods or services. We've passed so many of them along the way Ellie. You've been inside malls, restaurants, markets. You've even been in the back of them, where the customers never go. You never thought about this? So pick out a store that you liked. I can tell you how it used to run, I was there for all of it."

"You think I fucking thought about business when I was shooting infected at the..the...hotel lobbies with the pond scum and pianos and shit?! Oh let me just guess how much money people made at the Marcus Music Store from vinyl records while I try to stab a motherfucker and live. They're just…there. You know? Well what the fuck did you do Joel? How'd you rake in that dough?"

"Ellie you know I told you not to ask about me."

"OK. I was just-ok; let's just sit here and listen to them scream as their guts are being torn apart -that sounds GREAT Joel."

Listening closely to those screams, those loud screams; maybe Ellie's perception was more in on point than Joel, because he could sense a certain despair in them when he actually paid attention.

He looked ahead, seeing the intimacy of Troy's violence, and decided to humour her.

"I was a contractor."

"CONTRACTOR." Ellie said, like a WWE wrestler announcer. She got up and started punching the air animatedly.

"Ellie! Sit on down lady. I wasn't-"

"Joel the CONTRACTOR verrsusssss…MILEEENA…FIGHT!"

"No I wasn't a wrestler that wasn't my…my stage name. I signed contracts to perform labor for companies. A contract-a written and signed agreement to do a list of things."

"So were you your own company then or something-did you sign in bloooood?"

"Yea, I worked by own rules, I was my own boss. And the work I didn't feel like doing, I'd give out to a sub-contractor. My brother Tommy." Joel chuckled to himself.

"You treated your brother like sshit didn't you?"

"Naah nah, Tommy enjoyed the gritty work. After his tour he wasn't good for much else."

"What you mean?"

"The war, he fought in the war. These FEDRA guys never fought, they're just leftovers of the paperpushers for government. Tommy is a trained soldier, you'll like him Ellie."

Ellie caught the word in her mind and held it. You'll… you will

Troy was now slicing through legs so fast Joel couldn't see his palms anymore, just a wave of falling creatures, and another wave again. He would punch through their bodies with his feet and stomp their limbs. There was a cacophony of crunches and clicking screams-but not one of them made it past Troy. He kept jamming his claws into the downed bodies and then moved around on all fours. He grabbed one infected with one palm, and then slammed it into another onto the ground.

Ellie wondered then; if she didn't have a future, how could she ever hold value? How long should she pretend to be...a business?

Troy's onyx skin shone with splattered red blood, and his hulking mass was breathing a bit heavily. He clicked five times, and waited about 100 meters ahead of them now.

Joel asked Ellie.

"Boss, can we move?"

Ellie felt nauseous now-because pretending herself to be a business lady was, somehow, incredibly, physically, painful. It was exhausting to try and switch reality. Could she hope? Or should she? She knew, as she contemplated such things, that one of the infected could be upon her before she could aim properly for the head.

"FORWARD." She demanded. She tried to move behind Joel but he grabbed her and forced her to walk beside him. "Gun out, Ellie. Listen." She thought she saw something jumping down and she tried to shoot at the top of a shop-but her pistol got stuck. She elbowed Joel.

"Ammo." He said.

They could already see more things coming from between the buildings in the distance, onto main street. Troy let out a roar. Even as he jumped slightly to pummel the oncoming infected, he still was dragging some on his clawed feet.

He crawled along cars, up and down the street a few feet. His voice calling out with that strange vibrato clicking, and he was making a cacophony of noises. He crawled beside them, around them, laying down in the prone position beside Joel.

Joel and her knelt down on the street, as he took her gun. "Look, Ellie." He ordered, as he pulled at the barrel with a bullet stuck hanging out.

Ellie was checking out the top of the buildings behind and around them, worried about those bear things. She remembered when Joel had first saved her, how much she'd enjoyed the feeling of retribution by his hands.

Now, this scene of carnage in front of her was another apocalypse of a fallen society.

A voice-her voice-told her, "You are witnessing the final devastation of your species." It didn't bother her to hear it. When would it bother her, and how? Would she scream, or would she cry? Could she perhaps schedule in a time; tell it to wait for a particular moment, when she felt 'ready?' And could she actually control how much and for how long it did bother her? Maybe she'd even lose the capability to remember.

She wished she hadn't seen such brutality play out so closely.

Her mind was whispering that Troy wasn't a killer, even though it didn't make sense. That he was something worse. She didn't consciously heed this thought, but subconsciously it was affecting her. She was losing her confidence. She didn't want him near her anymore.

Ellie kneeled back on the ground, looking at Joel nervously. He touched his ear and she nodded. Another five clicks came from Troy's lips. Joel pointed her pistol back down and gave it to her, fully reloaded. She grabbed it hastily. Joel put his arm on Ellie's shoulder and shook it lightly. His eyes slowly rolled around, signaling for her to move them forward. She pointed at him with her index finger and then moved her finger in a circle-indicating he needed to double check.

Joel stood up and checked, then kneeled with her, and nodded at her.

"Forward!" She shouted desperately, with her eyes closed.

Troy jumped in and out of a shop window behind them with another writhing half-body. He went on to the front of them.

Joel grabbed her shoulder lightly and forced her to move along the street, to the side of the bodies. Her lids were mostly shut, so that she only saw shadows. "Come on Ellie, we gotta get through this." Joel shot at the shop beside them six times and pulled Ellie backwards then.

"Joel is this base even fucking safe?! I mean all these infected are coming from that direction…is Troy lying?"

"AMMO" He said, projecting his voice commandingly.

Troy dragged a struggling creature back over to Ellie and pinned all of its limbs so that only its head was able to move freely. It was snapping like a crazed dog, roaring and wriggling. He used his other arm to plop his pack down next to Joel.

Joel moved Ellie away from Troy. "Troy. Give Ellie a moment-she needs to prepare. Just hold on a second." He dug through the pack and picked out the ammo quickly, expertly feeding it into his mag and reloading it to his pistol.

Ellie was shaking her head profusely no. "MM-nope. Nope. Joel I'm fucking done! It's too close, it's too much." Ellie had just shivved five of these new infected-but they no longer had mouths. This one was rabid, moving quite fast still, and biting loudly. These creatures were much more deadly.

"Ellie, just shoot it in the head. You have to do this. You're in it. This is how you survive. So get your gun up. Ellie get your gun up."

She put her knife in her pocket and aimed her gun at a barbershop shop beside Joel.

"Ellie, you can kill it, and you must kill it-so that you know that you are capable of killing it."

Troy was dragging the body over to Ellie's side from behind.

"I mean I could do it…10 minutes ago but I can't do it now for some reason…I don't know what's wrong with me."

"TROY I SAID WAIT GODDAMNIT!" Troy made a vibrating clicking sound of impatience. The creature was moving itself up his claws and snapping.

Troy began crushing its head into the pavement with a small shove of his other palm. It splattered with a quick loud crack. Ellie grimaced hard, she turned her gun to its ruined flat head and shot it. The gun recoiled heavily and she closed her eyes. She concentrated hard on Joel's breathing as they walked together, with her slightly ahead, down the street. She didn't want to see the mess of dead bodies at her feet, still on the road. So she squinted against her better judgement, looking up and ahead.

All the screaming and the frantic monsters was making her muscles ache as she held them taut, trying to remain prepared for any movement.

She fell into a pothole and yelled frantically,

"Joel help! Joel I CAN'T SWIM!"

The pothole was deep enough to be a tiny lake. She flailed about in panic.

"I gotcha Ellie!" But Troy manuevered in front of Joel, giggling down at her. His nine-foot-tall figure kneeled down, getting his bloodied face right up to her.

"Help!" She saw his crazed orange red eyes then, staring merrily down.

"Troy you need to move right FUCKING now!" Joel screamed.

Troy moved and Joel lifted Ellie up.

"Why didn't Troy help me? Whatdafucccck?! I asked for help." She was shaken. Not only from being submerged in all of her clothes, her backpack and sleeping bag included, but also from such a cold gesture.

"Troy you can't do that to Ellie. Ever. Understand?"

Troy shook his head no. He was bent over, one palm on his knee, the other covering his mouth, laughing even harder.

"If you break trust, Troy, you can't build it back."

"Apologize motherfucker!" Ellie demanded.

"Ellie, he can't apologize. You can't expect that from him, he's a soldier. All you can do is set the boundary so he understands that when you need help HE NEEDS TO FUCKING HELP." Joel screamed it at Troy in a rage, then he calmed himself down.

"Troy!" Joel called to the leaving figure. "Troy, Ellie got one today-that's enough. Ok Troy? It's enough for today." Troy waved his claw down behind him at Joel and kept on leaving.

"He can't say sorry Joel? He physically can't write it-is his fragile hand gonna break?! How are we supposed to work with him if he doesn't know basic concepts like this, and you know, like…helping people that specifically scream 'HELP'?" Ellie was very nervous now, watching Troy's muscles twitching with murderous intent as he faced away from them both. How long before this infection completely overtook him, and who could survive him when it did?

The road ahead was clear of crowds now. The stores were more or less obstructing further mass invasions. Troy had wiped out a few hundred in such a short amount of time.

He tore off a car door and began banging it on other cars. There was a minute of silence and then a croaking roar as footsteps rushed onto the street. The creatures jumped and tried to spear his body. He slammed them all furiously into the ground over and over again while they kept on moving. Then he started picking them up one by one, and stripping their limbs from their bodies in midair. He flung their limp dissected bodies to the sidewalk. The bodies stopped moving by the time Ellie and Joel walked gingerly over them. Troy then knelt and waited for them at the two-way intersection, with his claws perpendicular to the ground.

"Forward!" Joel ordered. Ellie was too distraught, and they needed to go because she was dripping wet and at risk for getting sick.

Troy got up and walked just a few feet in front of them. They reached an empty four way intersection together. There were books or something that should've been books all along the road now. A sign, strewn on a crosswalk, said in red "LIBRARY". Ellie thought she heard a chicken clucking nearby.

On the left of the road was a large field of mushy grass and water laden infected, sloshing around. While on the right was the remains of a large library.

The place where this building used to be, had the telltale signs of multiple bombings. Joel's perceptive eye saw the glint of hair width wires around the building. There appeared to be a crater in the middle of the building, and the walls had all fallen or crumbled into sharp remains. The bookshelves created a labyrinth, and yet, in the middle of the crater, they could hear a woman. As they walked past the building, they saw flashing glimpses of her. She was huddled between two bookshelves that were balanced against each other, a kind of makeshift ceiling of protection. Joel saw the subtle glint of barbed and dripping spikes along the perimeter, but Ellie was not so perceptive.

The woman was motionless in a praying position, and she wore a filthy ragged long sleeve with khaki cargopants. She was easy to hear. She was saying "I was." over and over again. It sounded like the wind going through the grass.

Joel kept his head straight and only dared to side-eye the woman, as he sped up his pace. "Come on Ellie, hurry up." He said gruffly, trying to tug her along. Ellie remained stuck in place and was watching Troy navigate through the rubble to get to the woman. Ellie was completely fixated on her. A hen was encircling her and clucking protectively. This woman was either 20 years old or 60 years old; it seemed the light from the clouds was playing tricks. Troy grabbed the woman's arms and dragged her very slowly around and deliberately over the sharp remains of the brick walls and then the shredded wooden shelves, back to the street. The hen pecked at his legs, following along and hopping up and down. The woman screamed over and over again in unimaginable pain. Troy was moaning, making a wanton vibrating noise. A split tongue was protruding just the slightest bit from his lips, with two thick canine incisors on each tip.

Joel and Ellie were both shedding involuntary tears at the god-awful sound. Ellie started yelling at Troy, "Stop stop stop! Leave her alone!" But Troy never listened. There was a long and softly pronounced bulge in Troy's cargopants that only Joel noticed.

"Joel tell him to stop!" Ellie screamed up at Joel. Joel was shaking his head no, trying to corral Ellie into his arms to face away.

Trigger Warning; violence against the characters are in italics

Ellie ducked around Joel and bolted over to Troy. She got in his line of sight. She shook her head vehemently in his face, "DROP HER TROY!". His tongue disappeared before she could notice. His eyes faintly registered her motions. She finally saw his eyes, even though they weren't quite looking directly at her. She was horrified down to her core, and she froze. Her eyes went dark, as she screamed in unimaginable pain.

With his dark red pupils now focused on Ellie, his palm undercut her legs, making her fall onto his hand. He clicked at her in furious frustration, choking back a roar. He tossed her up, a few feet in the air. Then he tried to catch her a few times lazily on the way down without closing his palm. After she fell, gently, he flipped his palm to face downwards. He purposefully looked over to Joel, who was trapped to watch. Then, Troy jammed his claws around her body multiple times, digging into the dirt, and cutting her sides. She was immobile, eyes shut tight. Joel almost fainted, falling sideways.

Troy's body shuddered violently as he stopped dragging the woman and held her up a few inches off the ground. He let go of one arm of the woman, laughing like a schoolboy. She hung limply.

"Drop the BODY TROY. DROP THE BODY." Joel shouted.

Troy's claws left Ellie and his arm returned to his side. Still, he squeezed the woman's arms slightly as his head danced gayly. She yipped like a little mouse. The change in her cries was noticeable. Troy cocked his head towards her, and let out a surprised cough, as if it was the cutest thing he had ever heard. He continued to pulsate his palm, over and over again. The woman's cries were becoming weaker. Ellie was shaking hard now in fear, and covering her ears from bombs that weren't there, to also try and drown out the weak cries of pain from the woman high in the air.

Joel rushed over to Ellie and yanked her back to the middle of the street, cradling her hard against his trembling body. He was watching Troy. Gradually she wrapped her arms around him weakly. "I'm fine, I'm fine!" She finally said firmly. They both took cover behind a car on the other side of the road. Joel's face was going between rage and fear as he hurriedly bandaged up Ellie's side.

Troy knelt down with his prominent bulge, his head jerking in the direction of Joel and Ellie three times. With his closed eyes, He finally dropped the woman onto the road. Then he got up and walked away into a store shaking his head and breathing hard. They heard things breaking. The hen now tried to jump into the woman's lap as she kneeled over. It was clucking loudly now.

Ellie shook her head and pushed Joel away. She ran back to the woman. The woman's back was bleeding and scraped up with tiny shards ofshards of wood and asphalt. But the woman was oblivious to all of it. Ellie propped her into a sitting position and offered her water. The woman looked very young to her. She had a very petite frame. Her hair was white and long, gnatted with dirt. She smelled awful.

"I was, and I'm no longer." The woman babbled between sips.

Joel crouched next to the woman. "Ellie, give me your knife, and look away. I'll put her out of her misery." The woman went silent and her hands shook. The woman was looking through him. He shook her and said urgently "Hey! Hey hey! Look!" But she didn't see anything; her gaze was moving to watch figures that weren't there.

Troy went back out near to them, paced back and forth, placed his pack down beside his torso, and then laid down spread eagle on the road covering his head, focusing on his impassioned breathing.

"Wait Joel. Just wait." Ellie's heart hurt so much-from almost…from something. "She didn't deserve that. I'm real, I'm Ellie. What's your name?" Ellie opened her water bottle and put it to the woman's mouth. She still saw red eyes, even as she remained focused on the person in front of her. Her panic was still weighing her down.

"For Christ's sake Ellie!" Joel grumbled, his hands still shaking badly. "She's gone. Let her be." He had to direct Ellie's hands up to the woman's mouth, because she couldn't perceive exactly where it was at the moment.

Ellie shook her head no, as the tears fell freely. The woman's rib cage expanded as she sighed with pleasure from the water. Ellie grabbed the woman's hand and signed her own name into it, closing it. The woman blinked hard. The hazel eyes of the woman peered at Ellie. 'I know.' She signed. Her emphatic movement for each letter was so sharp, that Ellie wondered if she was even hurt. It cut apart the iron panic constricting her lungs. The woman put her hand up to Ellie's face, feather-light, touching it briefly.

And the way she signed it, Ellie thought that this woman did know. Maybe this woman knew why all these things were here. Maybe she could help them. The dull pain in her head seemed to subside a bit. Ellie rubbed off the blood from her sides with her shirt.

Troy wrenched a car tire off and threw it at an infected, tearing its head from its body and obliterating it, before it could sneak up on Ellie. Then he lay back down again. Joel looked around, not seeing any other infected close behind them.

"Y-y-you know?" Ellie said breathlessly wiping her eyes. "What's your name?"

The woman just shook her head listlessly, going back to her chant.

"I was, and I'm no longer."

Joel let out another steadying breath and said, "She's a living memorial. She knows she's gone, Ellie. She understands that she is going to go. Let me handle this now, and I'll go put her back to where she wanted to be."

Elllie shook her head no. "No. No no NOOOO Joel. She didn't just say it, she fucking declared it." Her voice hitched up a few notches at those words. She gulped and continued.

"She's alive, she's the only person that has been alive in all these long hundreds of miles between the encampments, she's a survivor. She should be dead with all these infected everywhere. We can help her Joel. We can!"

"Ellie she can't walk 6 miles in her condition. She can't even walk two steps."

"Troy can carry her. He wants to help us and if we just-"

"Troy is more than likely going to kill her. He just-" His throat closed. He got up and paced a bit, tearing at his face, and then said, "He's an infected, Ellie he's already got a job he's trying to do. We can't afford to waste time and you know it. Some truths should just fucking die." There was so much rage in that last sentence.

The sun was indeed just starting to go down now.

"I'll fucking carry her then-my pistol keeps jamming any the fuck ways! Don't do this to me Joel. Don't put me through this. The-the-the FUCKING business or whatchamacallit right JOEL?! THE BUSINESS?!"

He yelled back at her. "Ellie there's no value in this, she's gonna fucking get us killed!"

"How dare you." There was a cold fury in her eyes now.

Joel knew there was no persuading her. Troy was still spread eagle in the middle of the road.

"Ellie, breathe." Joel directed, lightly massaging her back in a circle once. She nodded and focused. He couldn't take his own advice, as he saw droplets from her cut side, fall onto the pavement.

Ellie hoisted the woman's arm around her shoulders and began trudging. The woman stepped awkwardly with her but Ellie knew she couldn't go on too long like this.

"Troy!" She yelled, her heart pounding because she was now scared to draw his attention to herself. "Troy can you help carry her?"

Troy ignored her. He crossed his legs.

Joel wiped some tears from his own eyes, that he didn't realize were there. He got his gun out, and checked how many rounds were chambered, switched out the mag with a different fully loaded clip, making sure to chamber a round. "Hey Troy, uh….. I'm coming over."

Joel stood over Troy and kicked the backpack. Troy's palms were hiding his face. Joel projected his voice, so Ellie could hear him. Joel was pissed now.

"Heeeey Troy, Your boss wanted me to speak to you about some…things. Clear up some…misconceptions…We can't go another step forward until I do. Just usual, new employee orientation type stuff."

Troy clicked lightly, once.

Ellie stopped a short distance ahead of them and decided to sit back down with the survivor. The woman was silent, breathing more calmly. The woman hugged her feebly, and Ellie gratefully hugged her back, still shaking from an experience she was refusing to remember already. Ellie was mumbling at her some small words of encouragement, trying to get her to sip more water. Joel had his pistol pointed at Troy's head.

"I know that computer you have is an incredibly powerful, ancient piece of technology. I know, because I was around then, when stupid, rich, powerful people were buying those up so fast they were out of stock for months. Lucky for Ellie, I'm still here to talk to you about that. I still survived all these years until today. I know some important things. And I'd love to chit-chat about those things…in the future…with you. I admit; I don't know how to work that damn thing, hell, I couldn't even turn it on. I know about it though. About computers, printers, programs…But I think you've got that figured out.

Troy breathed out just the smallest little, low, guttural click-so Ellie wouldn't notice. He sat up slowly, with his back towards Ellie. Joel remained balanced low on his knee.

"Ellie and I just picked out our first client-for our BUSINESS. I was just about to fucking kill this person, because I thought she was gone. But Ellie changed everything. I know you couldn't see just how Ellie got this immobile, deranged woman to take a step, to drink, to finally see."

He took a brief, deliberate, celebratory pause. He noticed Troy's claw. It was tracing in a circle on the asphalt, gradually digging in. Then suddenly jamming through the asphalt, only to slowly begin tracing again.

Joel coughed, and took the slightest breath, to keep his voice steady. Even as his hands shook.

"Because you were busy protecting us from things we don't have a chance against."

Ellie rocked with the blank-eyed survivor, soothing herself. "You still are…" she whispered.

Joel continued loudly. "I mean it doesn't matter; because even if you could see, only Ellie can do it. Not you. Not me. Just stating a fact about how awesome Ellie is as a business. Lady. That's all. Ellie's got some skills too Troy. She's not just a good shot."

Troy's claw was plucking up the asphalt, surreptitiously, in front of Joel.

"So that's just you know, the initial, standard, employee orientation to who we are as a business-who runs it. Ellie tells me what she wants, I figure out the best way to get it, I tell you a task to complete…whatever it is Ellie wants, I translate that-for both of you.

Now; Ellie wants to feel safe again. That's what she's implying. And so nooow. I have to translate that into some tasks for you; some tasks that I feel, are going to complete this…objective." He paused.

"Ellie close your ears sweetheart." Ellie happily obliged. Sweetheart…her muscles eased.

I'm going to walk Ellie over here, and you're going write two simple sentences; and you have to prepare yourself for the answers.

1st is a question; Are you ok? Very simple, ok; you write it out, show it to her, and wait. You don't write a response to her answer. We don't have time. Just nod slowly. Nod, Troy."

Troy jerked his head sideways the slightest bit.

"2nd is just a declarative statement; Ellie is my boss. Got it?"

Troy clucked twice, quickly-overly cheerfully.

"Did you hear that Ellie? Troy wants you to come over so he can talk to you, boss lady!"

Ellie positioned the lady to lay onto her side, the head on top of her own rolled sleeping bag. Ellie looked at the person's unfocused gaze, which for the most briefest split second, focused on Ellie. Then was lost again. Ellie got up, and Joel met her halfway. He squeezed her lightly against his chest in reassurance.

Joel grabbed Ellie's shoulders and gently guided her to the side of Troy. Troy was once again, playing dead, now kneeling with his claws tightly drawn into his chest, downwards, resting on the asphalt. His head drooped down very far, as if he was fast asleep. When he heard them stop beside him, he slowly came back to life. He brought out his notepad from his pack. And, pinning it to the ground, scraped at it with his claw.

SHE BLIND?

Joel gritted his teeth.

"No. Troy." Ellie said, scared. Troy let out a huge sigh of relief, clicking to himself.

Then he glanced sideways and down at Ellie, appearing to remember that they were both right next to him, and he made a joking attempt at a small, scared jump. He chirped out a small click.

He wrote,

BOS, U OK?

And he stared at her, wide-eyed. Inquisitively. It almost looked sincere. Almost. So close. Ellie was fooled as she stared desperately into them. Still, though, she was scared.

She let out a long sigh of relief, grabbing the dangling pad from Troy's unprepared claw. She tracing the jagged words, over and over again, quickly, as he kept peeking his eyes at her. Then she looked up worriedly at Joel.

"Ellie, look deep into his eyes, and simply shout "I AM YOUR BOSS." Just a reminder shout, Ellie. That's all." Troy tightened his closed eyes slowly, his muscles starting to tremble. Then he opened them and stared down at Ellie, waiting serenely, with his eyes wide in adoring expectation.

She took in a deep breath, held it, and then shouted, "I AM YOUR BOSS TROY!"

"Verrrry good Ellie wow! Troy did she sound like a boss to you?"

Troy shook his claw slightly sideways, eyes closed, not convinced. He looked at her again, his eyes halfway closed, an eyebrow raised.

She breathed again, held it, and said, "I AM YOUR BOSS I AM YOUR BUSINESS I AM YOUR GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT. TROOOY." She held the faintest glimmer of authority in her eyes. It was fake, but it was somehow there. Troy's eyes widened in genuine shock as he stared back down at her for a long, brief second. Then he was back to facing ahead.

He placed his palm against his chest in delighted surprise. Eyes now opened as he got busy securing the pad on the ground.

'TEAM?' Troy wrote and tried to give the pad to Ellie, one eye peering at her. Ellie looked up at Joel dutifully.

Joel cleared his throat, lightly squeezing Ellie's shoulder.

"She's your boss Troy, not your teammate. I'm your teammate."

Troy's slightly open eyes were stuck on Ellie, a little too long, seeming confused. Then he shrugged.

On the pad again, he scratched.

REDY? BOS? BNKR?

Ellie spoke out of turn, "Yea but..Troy-just slice off their fucking heads? PLEASE?"

Joel squeezed his eyes so hard it hurt. "Oh wow Troy, straight from the owner of the business HERSELF, not even me."

Troy slumped, then he drew in a deep breath, and tossed his head about somewhat.

K BOZ, CAN DO

Troy tried to look contrite while he held down the pad. But from the way he clamped his mouth, he was peeved. He looked away from Ellie very fast.

"Alright Ellie, no more talkingggggg we got a person to save. And uh, next time," he cleared his throat, "don't get into his line of sight when he's working. Now we know not to do this, Ellie. Right?"

"Ye..yea; don't try to get into his way. Ok. Ok."

Troy plucked out canned chicken noodle soup from his pack, with his claws. He placed it at Ellie's feet.

"Alrigggght!"

Ellie grabbed it and went back to the woman. Troy had punctured the top wide open with the tip of his claw.

Troy got up very slowly and started checking out the scattered trash in front of the shops. The infected were again struggling to pop up about 200 meters ahead, out of a sewage drain.

Ellie got her pocket knife out. She wedged the canned food the rest of the way open. She hoisted the body back into a sitting position. Then she carefully put the can to the woman's lips and lifted it gently, as the woman started to respond when the soup dribbled down her chin.

Joel sighed. "Here, I'll carry her." They started walking again down the main street.

"Joel!" She whispered frantically. "There was nothing in his eyes! There was nothing! He's insane! He was fucking torturing that helpless woman."

"Well Ellie, you caught him at a bad time-he's in work mode. Remember, I'm like a manager. I manage the people belonging to your business, and you manage the business-which is now also…the client. Say what you want to me. To ME. Let me handle him." He looked at her meaningfully.

Her head was spinning.

Troy went ahead and laid down by the sewage pipe in the street. He'd wait for infected to trip over him as they went after Joel and Ellie. Then he'd drag them backwards, and pull their torsos in half. He then finally sliced off their heads and chucked them at Ellie's feet. Ellie and Joel were walking ahead of him on the empty street.

"Joel how do I make him stop it?" Ellie pleaded with him.

"Ignore it Ellie. Just keep walking and you have to ignore it."

But she couldn't. When Ellie came to the conclusion that this was not a threat, or a joke. That it was actually a kept promise, she looked back at him and said, "YES, THANK YOU SO MUCH TROY; THAT'S EXACTLY. RIGHT."

"Ellie-no. NO!" Joel said sharply. But it was too late.

Troy picked his head up and turned it a bit triumphantly and Joel immediately stopped, covering Ellie's eyes. Joel was looking down, and then up. Troy crouched next to him, staring. Joel refused to move forward. For a minute, nothing happened. "He looked, Ellie, before preparing. Now we have to wait for it to pass, because he sees targets but he hears people." Joel explained tersely. She let out a long slow breath of finally understanding the phenomenon she had been witnessing the whole time. Another minute passed. In the sixth minute, Joel was straining under the woman, and when he moved, Troy stomped the asphalt-breaking it, and making the ground beneath them quake.

Joel couldn't help himself. "DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!" But it was too late, because when the ground shook, the woman was shaken loose from Joel's shoulder and she looked around to find him again. Troy sliced through her face once, just a nick and tasted it. He grabbed her roughly away. Joel didn't say anything, but he was shouting it so loudly in his head that he could only see red.

In Ellie's mind, something finally clicked.

Ellie pushed Joel's hand down, and he looked at her in shock.

She watched as Troy slammed the woman into a car about five feet to the side of them. His head obscured the woman's face from view. Troy's one palm was positioned down, encapsulating most of her torso. His wrist was pressing into her neck. He was inspecting the limp body. He got out his magic pad and bopped her with it, listening and then clicking in confused frustration. Ellie caught a glimpse of the woman as Troy was moving.

The woman was staring at her, knowingly for another briefest, split second, and then was dead eyed again. She spoke, as if to a lover,

"Where did you g-" They could hear the woman starting to choke softly.

"You are FAILING your JOB, TROOOY. You are FAILING to PROTECT our BUSINESS." Ellie yelled it.

Then she tugged Joel's hand, and ushered him to kneel and to stare hard at her eyes instead of at what was happening. She shook her head no, ever so slightly, with her eyes wide. She signed

'DON'T SAY IT. DON'T EVEN THINK IT. '

She continued to stare up at Joel as he tried to shake his head and look back at the scene, and then she hit him in the stomach.

'DON'T SAY IT. DON'T EVEN FUCKING THINK IT.'

He dug his hands into his eyes and screamed quickly, silently.

"Boss needs to see you NOW TROY!" Joel commanded with a gulp. Ellie nodded at him in approval, staring hard at him and gathering her courage.

Ellie yelled, "If you don't drop her back here right now, I'm going to demote you to the shitstain mopper in our bathroom!"

Troy came back, letting the body slide down from the car, a trail of blood left behind as it did so.

"KNEEL TROY." She ordered, turning and screaming up at him.

Troy kneeled with his palms tucked behind him facing down at Ellie. He listened to the conversation, eyes closed. His eye muscles twitched.

She lectured Joel loudly.

"Joel, you promised. You promised to protect me. You need to LISTEN to what I say, and RESPECT my wishes. Even, if you don't agree with them." Then she started hitting him and punching him in the gut.

He was still trying to shake his head weakly no. He lay on the ground, and Ellie started kicking him everywhere. She was screaming now.

"YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY JOEL EVERY FUCKING TIME. NO DELAY. YOU FUCKING DO IT. THAT'S HOW YOU PROTECT ME JOEL. And that's how I protect you, Joel." Joel knelt now, hands covering his face as he tried to recover his sanity.

Ellie kept looking at Joel as she addressed the giant in front of them.

"Troy. That's just a body. Do you want me to show you how to save this person? YOU HAVE TO WORK FOR IT, NEW EMPLOYEE." She raged in her voice, at Joel. Because that's the only way she could draw her courage.

Troy's head cocked to the side.

She was no longer commanding, but rather pleading-she was so tired now. "Troy, protect us."

Troy simply nodded. He turned around, got up, and walked away very slowly. His arm pierced another infected that had jumped at Ellie. His jaw opened sideways and he bit the head off. It disappeared into his mouth. Ellie and Joel were too focused on eachother and the woman to notice.

Ellie went over to the womans twitching body on the asphalt, and whispered firmly into her ear,

"I GOT you, lady. I GOT you."

Ellie shook her head slowly again, "Im the BOSS Joel. I'm the boss of you, and the boss of Troy. But…how do I be a company boss? Joel, how does one be. A business?"