SURPRISE!

I know Christmas is over but i don't care, I'm gonna say it anyway. Merry Christmas and Happy a New Year to you all.

I told you guys in the last chapter that I had to cut it so that I at least could get something out this year. Well, my boss at work gave me this week off and I've been spending a good part of it in front of my computer, drinking energi drinks (I'm pretty high on caffeine right now) and working like mad to finish this chapter. I'm actually surprised I managed to get this out before the new year.

To the guest reviewer of the last chapter, you make a valid point. I could give you an argument about how Carlos don't trust Ellie and that because she was armed with a gun, he was worried that she would try to kill Pete, Nick and Alvin when they were out in the woods. But I won't. The the truth of the matter is that I had originally planed for her to go out into the woods with them, but I ended up cutting it out of the story. Why? Two reasons. One: I couldn't think of anything interesting to happen. Two: I wanted to get the damn chapter out. So you kan write it down to me being a lazy ass.

With that out of the way, on with the story.


Chapter 4

"Check," Sarah said as she placed her tower three squares from Ellie's king.

Ellie glowered at the chess board in front of her that was now almost completely empty of the white pieces she'd been controlling. "Son-of-a..." she started to say when she remembered her promise to Carlos and stopped herself at the last second from finishing the curse.

"Another win for Sarah," Clementine said from her place on the couch next to said girl. Like the last three times, Clementine didn't even bother to look up from the book she was reading, she could tell how the game was going by the rising frustration in Ellie's voice.

They had moved down to the living room so that they could sit more comfortably. The move was as much for their benefit as it was for Carlos who – to Ellie's annoyance – had regularly come up to check on them every ten goddamn minutes. This arrangement made it much easier for him to keep an eye on them without disturbing them.

"She hasn't beaten me yet," Ellie said stubbornly even though she knew she couldn't win. She moved her king one square to the right.

Sarah answered by moving her remaining bishop so that it was three squares diagonally from Ellie's king and said, "check." Ellie slumped back against the sofa with a groan.

"That's 6-0 to Sarah," Clementine said. She lowered her book and gave Ellie an I told you so look.

Ellie let out another groan, this one louder than the last one. Clementine was right, she had lost. It didn't matter what she did, Sarah would just keep on checking her king when it was her turn until Ellie was checkmate.

Taking her groan as a sign of surrender, Sarah asked hesitantly, "another game?"

Before Ellie could answer, the kitchen door opened and Luke's head poked through, "dinners ready girls," he said.

"We're coming," the trio answered in unison.

All the others had already seated themselves around the table by the time the trio entered the kitchen. Pete, Nick and Alvin had returned several hours earlier with Ellie's arrows, what was left of them that is. The shaft of two of them had been trampled and snapped by the stalkers that chased them yesterday, so now she was down to only five arrows.

"I can probably make new shafts for you," Pete had told her when he showed her the broken arrows. "Once that's done you can attach the old tips and fletching's and you'll have new arrows. They won't be as good as the old ones but it's better than nothing."

Ellie had happily thanked him for the offer and asked if he could teach her how to make them herself, in case she needed to replace any more in the future. Pete had smiled at the suggestion and said that he'd show her tomorrow. Ellie was looking forward to it.

When she had been younger, Ellie had often dreamed that one day a distant relative, who just now learned of her existence would show up at the orphanage and take her away. No one ever did of course. It had been the dream of a naïve child, who didn't know that real life was not like the story's in the books she liked to read. But even so, she had always wondered what it would be like to have someone like that in her life. After her interactions with Pete, she thought she understood what it would feel like now and although she would never admit it out loud, she was starting to feel a bit jealous of Nick for having such a cool uncle.

Ellie had hoped for another cooked meal like the one they got for breakfast when she sat down next to Clementine at the table. What she got was a bowl of porridge. Trying not to let her disappointment show, Ellie took a spoon full of it into her mouth. It didn't taste bad, though she wished she had some cinnamon and sugar she could sprinkle on it. She swallowed and took another spoon full; food was food after all. If it was one thing Ellie had learned since the outbreak in Boston, it was that in this world, you couldn't afford to be picky, not if you wanted to live.

"So, what have you kids been up to?" Alvin asked from the other side of the table.

"Nothing much. Reading books and playing games," Ellie answered for the three of them. "To be honest, I'm starting to get a bit stiff from sitting still so much. I could use some fresh air and stretch my legs."

"It's safer in here." Carlos said, as if that settled the matter.

"Yeah, and it's also getting stuffy and boring in here to," Ellie contemplated saying, but though better of it.

Pete seemed to have read her mind though. "Me and Nick are going down to the river after dinner to check on our fish traps. Your welcome to tagalong if you want?"

"Really?! I'm in," Ellie said, jumping at the chance to get out.

"Can I come to? I've never seen a fish trap before," Clementine asked, she sounded almost as eager as Ellie felt to leave the cabin for a while.

"Sure you can," Pete said.

From the corner of her eyes, Ellie saw Sarah looking at them, a sad expression on her face. Her eyes moved down to the bowl of half eaten porridge in front of her, after a few seconds she looked up at her father.

"Can I go to?" she asked meekly.

"Absolutely not!" Carlos said sharply. Her father's words seem to hit Sarah like a whip, she visibly flinched back and shrank into her chair.

"Sorry dad," she said as if she had just broken something valuable.

Ellie scowled and glared at the doctor. She was sorely tempted to give Carlos a piece of her mind about his stupid overprotectiveness, but she knew it wouldn't do any good, hell, it would probably make things even worse. She wished Sarah would show some damn backbone and stand up for herself and defy her father, at least a little, but that seemed about as likely to happen as it was for Rebecca to be nice to Ellie and Clem.

With Sarah's poor attempt to join the fishing expedition crushed, Carlos turned to face Pete. "Pete, I don't think this is a good idea," he protested. "It's dangerous out there."

"So, what do you want to do Carlos? Lock them inside here forever?" Pete asked. He didn't wait for the doctor to answer before he continued. "I've seen them both in action and they are lot tougher than they look, besides, me and Nick will be with them. They will be fine."

"You did not seem to think so this morning," Carlos countered.

"I agreed with you earlier because there was a small chance that we might run into the lurkers that cornered them yesterday – which we didn't by the way – and that I thought they could use some more time to rest, they slept in a shed in case you had forgotten. They are rested now, and this isn't like going into a lurker infested part of the woods. We've been to the river hundreds of times without any problems. They'll be fine."

"That might be true. But even so, I do not like it."

"And when was the last time you liked anything Carlos?" Luke asked with humor in his voice and a wry smile on his face.

"This is not a joke," Carlos snapped, his tone dead serious. He gave Ellie and Clem a quick sideways look that Ellie couldn't read before focusing on Luke once more. "I am trying to keep them safe and alive and the easiest way to do that is for them to stay in the cabin."

"It's not up to you to decide what the girls can and can't do Carlos," Pete said, now sounding irritated. "As a doctor, you have a lot of say in this house, but you're not the leader here."

Luke nodded in agreement. "You can't unreasonably demand that they do everything you tell them to do Carlos."

Feeling that she couldn't let the others do all the talking for her and that she needed to add her own voice to the argument, Ellie said with perhaps more irritation in her voice then she had intended, "Yeah, you can't order me around. You're not my fucking dad."

"Luckily for you," Carlos said. "If you had been my daughter, you would have been grounded in your room this instance for speaking like that."

"If I had been your daughter, I'd probably been as blind and helpless as Sarah is," Ellie almost said, but she bit back the words before she could utter them. Her lack of backbone, ignorance and anxiety problems notwithstanding, over the short hours they had spent together, Ellie had come to like Sarah and did not want to hurt her feelings. "But you're not my dad or the one in charge, so you can't stop us from going," Ellie said. "Who is the real leader here anyway?" she asked as an afterthought.

"That would be me." Pete answered.

"In emergency situations, yes. Which this isn't," Carlos countered. "Otherwise we vote as a group."

"You're not seriously suggesting that we vote on this?" Luke asked, clearly thinking that the idea was ridiculous.

"Luke's right Carlos," Pete said, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Your blowing this completely out of proportions. The girls can come with us to the river if they want and you're not going to stop them."

Carlos and Pete locked eyes for several seconds before Carlos broke off and looked around the table at the others. If he was looking for support, he found none. Alvin did not meet his gaze but continued to eat his food as if nothing was happening. Maybe he was tired of hearing all the bickering and hoped that by staying silent this would be over quickly. Rebecca did not seem to care one way or the other. Perhaps she hoped that something would happen out there, and that Clem and Ellie would die and be out of their hairs. She sure as hell had made her feelings about them staying in the cabin abundantly clear.

When Carlos finally turned to Nick, all he got was a "If they want to come, let them come. I got no problem with it."

Seeing that he was outnumbered and without any support, Carlos took a deep breath and slowly blew it out his nose. "I can see that there is no point in arguing about this any further," He said with a disapproving scowl. "I wipe my hands of this. Do what you want."

Ellie couldn't stop herself from smiling smugly at this victory over Carlos. It was perhaps a bit petty of her to do so, but after having both Clementine and Pete agreeing with him against her during the shed and breakfast arguments, a small part of Ellie had started to fear that he would continue to try and dominate her actions and movement like Spears and his military had tried to do in Boston, until she couldn't so much as take a shit without his permission.

The rest of the dinner was thankfully uneventful. Pete, Nick, Clem and Ellie left the cabin less than an hour later, after gathering up all the weapons and ammo they would need as protection for the trip. Pete and Nick had both armed themselves with a rifle each. Ellie had taken her bow and gun and although she had loathed to do so left her trusted backpack behind, both as a sign of trust and also because Pete had insisted that she wouldn't need it. When she had protested and said that without it, she wouldn't have anything to have her arrows in, he had converted a small camping sack from the closet into a makeshift quiver that now hung diagonally on her back. Clementine was the only one in the group that was unarmed, something that Ellie was planning to rectify shortly. Before they had left, Carlos had made another fruitless attempt to convince them to stay in the cabin, or more precisely he had tried to convince Clementine to stay. He had come to the conclusion that Ellie was a lost cause and not worth wasting air on.

Ellie had waited until the four of them were out of eyesight of the house before she handed over her gun to Clementine. If Ellie had given her the gun in the house and Carlos had seen the exchange, he would no doubts have kicked up a storm about it. Clementine took the weapon and stuffed it into the back of her pants, grateful to have something to protect herself with. Whiles Nick had given them a worried sideways look when he saw what Ellie was doing, he didn't say anything. Neither did Pete for that matter, but then again this wasn't a big surprise, since he didn't have eyes in the back of his head. Ellie had a feeling the even if he had seen it, he wouldn't have cared.

The small fishing expedition had only walked for a few minutes when Nick suddenly stopped. "Hold up. I need to take a piss," he said and stepped off the path, through some bushes and into the forest. Pete, Clem and Ellie watched his retreating back.

"Shouldn't he have gone before we left the cabin?" Clementine asked.

Ellie simply shrugged, why Nick hadn't taken a piss before now was not a question that she considered worthy to waist brain power on.

"When you got to go, you got to go. Come on," Pete said and started walking again.

"Shouldn't we wait for him?" Clementine asked.

"He'll catch up." Pete said without looking back.

Clementine threw a look in the direction Nick had walked off in. "Hey, I'm sure he'll be fine," Ellie said, putting as much reassurance as she could into her voice. She placed her hand on Clem's shoulder and lightly squeezed it. "He knows the area and I'm sure Pete wouldn't leave him if he thought it was dangerous." Clem hesitated for a second, then she nodded in agreement and the two of them followed Pete.

"I heard you two got an earful from Rebecca this morning," Pete said when they caught up to him. "Once she gets going there's no bringing her back."

"She started it," Ellie muttered, not really wanting to discuss the matter.

Pete looked back over his shoulder at her. "And you didn't egg her on at all?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ellie huffed and refused to meet his eyes. Pete smiled and said, "Rebecca's bark's worse than her bite. I know it's hard but try not to let her get to you."

"What's her problem anyway?" Ellie asked. "She's acting like a total bitch."

"She got a lot on her mind lately," Pete answered. "Bringing a baby into a world like this? And with everything else that's going on its no wonder if she's a bit hissy. It doesn't help that she was a bit hotheaded and stubborn to begin with. Kind of like someone else I know." He gave Ellie a sideways look, the corners of his mouth turned up in a small smile.

Ellie felt her cheeks heat up in anger when she realized he was referring to her. "I'm nothing like Rebecca!" She snapped.

"Of course you're not," Pete said sarcastically and his smile grew wider.

"How far is it to the river?" Clementine asked.

"It ain't much further," Pete answered. "Let's hope the traps caught something, it would be good to get some fresh fish on the table."

"I don't like fish," Ellie muttered, still angry at being compared to Rebecca.

"Now that's something I did not expect to hear. A girl who grew up by the ocean and don't like fish." Pete said.

"Just because I lived most of my life by the sea, doesn't mean I have to like fish," Ellie countered.

"Well that's true," Pete admitted with a small chuckled. "You know, when I was a kid, I hated to eat potatoes. Which was a problem since potatoes was on the menu several times a week. I used to complain to my mom about it all the time, but she said that she would not cook one meal special for me every day and that I would eat potatoes until I learn to like them. And in the end, that's what happened. Now don't get me wrong, I can't force you to eat fish if you don't want to. I'm just saying that it would be better for you in the long run if you do. God knows we can't get deer meat every day."

"I know," Ellie conceded with a small sigh. "You can't be picky in the apocalypse."

"Attagirl," Pete said encouragingly and clapped her lightly on the back.

On Pete's other side came an audible click sound that immediately drew their attention. The noise was made by Ellie's gun that Clementine had pulled out. She had pulled back the slide to check that there was a bullet in the chamber. Seeming satisfied with her finding, she de-cocked the hammer, then made sure the safety was on before pushing the gun back into the back of her pants.

"I was just checking," she said when she noticed that the two of them were watching her.

"Well you seem to know your way around a gun. Did anyone teach you how to shoot with that?" Pete asked her. "By that I mean taught proper. Any idiot with a finger can shoot." Pete said the last sentence with disdain.

"Like you're nephew," Ellie thought.

"Yeah, but only a handgun, not a rifle!" Clementine answered.

Pete nodded. "Well, that makes sense. Less kick. If you tried shooting with this." He gestured to his rifle. "It would probably knock you on your ass."

"I could handle it," Ellie said confidently.

Before the outbreak in Boston, Ellie and several of the other kids had gotten their hands on a bb rifle. Ellie was very good with it, so good in fact that when she got her hands on a real rifle after the outbreak, she thought she could use it no problem, boy was she proven wrong. The recoil had hurt a lot more than she thought it would and she had ended up bruising her shoulder badly. After that, she had not used a rifle again until she was put in the military school, where she learned that she had been holding the damn thing wrong. After some proper training, she became one of the best in the class, which was probably one of the reasons the instructors had hounded her so much about getting in line and follow the rules. They did not want a future military trained rebel fighter but a loyal soldier.

"I have no doubt you could," Pete said. "You know, Nick was about Clementine's age when I took him hunting for the first time." He stopped in the middle of the path. "We came across this beautiful 13-point buck just standing there on the ridgeline. The boy takes the rifle." Pete raised his own rifle as if the 13-point buck was right in front of him. "He lines up the shot just as I taught him…then he starts whining." Pete lowered the rifle and shook his head. "He turns to me and he says, I can't do it Uncle Pete, I can't shoot it. Please don't make me shoot it."

"I think it's sad," Clementine said sympathetically.

Ellie wasn't sure what she felt about it. If that deer showed up in front of her today, Ellie would have shot it without a second thought. But If the outbreak hadn't happened and she was twelve years old, and in that situation, maybe she wouldn't have shot it either.

"Hey!" Nick's voice called out from behind them. The trio turned to look at him. "Why didn't you wait?" he asked when he stopped in front of them, slightly out of breath from running.

"You want us standing around watching while you piss on a tree? You know where the river is boy." Pete answered, his tone dismissive. With that said, Pete started moving again and the others followed. "Anyways, so I grab the gun out of his hands before the big buck runs away when bang! The gun fires. Boy nearly gut shot me," Pete said, picking up the story where he left off.

"That sounds familiar," Ellie thought and looked back over her shoulder at Nick, whose face was now as red as a tomato. Whether it was from embarrassment or anger, Ellie couldn't tell.

"And of course, the buck got away," Pete continued, unaware that his nephew was now glaring daggers at the back of his head.

"What're you going and telling them this shit for?" Nick asked irritably.

Pete stopped and turned to face his angry nephew. "Because you almost blew Clementine's face off yesterday. Seems relevant, I'm just trying to let them know it's nothing personal with you."

Nick's shoulders sagged slightly at his uncle's reproach. "Why are you always giving me a hard time?" he asked.

"Because you are always giving everyone else a hard time," Pete answered, his tone harsh.

"I've apologized already, she accepted," Nick said and gestured to Clementine.

"Yeah, it's fine. He apologized," Clementine said, stepping in in Nick's defense.

"Ok, I didn't know that," Pete said, his tone more neutral but his eyes were still hard.

"You're always trying to embarrass me," Nick said angrily.

"You don't need my help with that. You're doing a good enough job on your own," Pete replied with the same tone.

His face twisted in anger, Nick stormed off down the path towards the river, his shoulder colliding hard with Pete's as he past him.

"Running away again?"

"I know where the fucking river is, old man."

Pete silently stared at Nick's retreating back for a few seconds before he said, "I found that buck later that season. Shot it right in the neck. Brought it up to my sister's, figuring she'd want to freeze some of the meat…Nick didn't speak to me for weeks." Pete's face took on a remorseful expression. "Sometimes you got to play a role…even if the people you love hate you for it".

"I don't think he hates you." Clementine said, putting her hand on Pete's arm and squeezed it gently.

"Clem's right," Ellie said. "When he thought you had been bitten yesterday, he looked really scared."

Pete smiled weakly at that. "Nick's father wasn't there much, and he was a piece of shit when he was." He spat onto the ground, as if the mere mention of the man gave him a bad taste in his mouth. "So, it fell to me to keep him in line. To raise him right. So…I couldn't be the "nice" Uncle Pete that I wanted to be." He said the last part so solemnly that it tugged at Ellie's heart strings and she felt very sorry for the old man.

"You should tell him that," Clementine urged.

"What!?"

"Tell him t-"

"UNCLE PETE," Nick's distressed voice called out in the distance.

Without a word or as much as a look at each other, the three of them raced in the direction of the call. Thoughts and theories raced through Ellie's mind. Was Nick under attack? If so by whom? Stalkers or bandits? But if he was under attack, why hadn't they heard any gun shots? Maybe he had lost his gun or wasn't under attack at all and had only fallen and hurt himself and was calling for help. Whatever the case was, they needed to reach him fast.

It didn't take them long before they spotted Nick standing at the entrance to a clear space in the woods. As far as Ellie could see, he didn't look to be hurt or under attack. Pete was the first to reach him, "Nick are you…" he started to say but stopped mid-sentence when he saw what his nephew was looking at. "Jesus, Mary and Josef," Pete said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Ellie and Clem stopped next to him. Ellie felt her heart skip a beat when she saw the scene in front of her. "What the fuck!" The sight was that of a massacre. Blood covered body's lay strewed all along the entire riverside. Not even the small patch of dry land in the middle of the river was spared from the slaughter.

"What happened here?" Clementine asked, her voice unease. No one answered her.

Pete cautiously walked forwards towards the nearest body.

"Pete, be careful." Clementine urged.

Pete stopped just short out of arms reach from the body and poked it with the tip of his rifle. It didn't move. Pete walked closer. "Full of holes, including the head," he said in both relief and worry.

Having been given the news that the body was not going to get up and try to eat them, the others joined him by the corpse. Using his foot, Pete rolled the dead man over onto his back.

"Oh Jesus," Nick murmured when he saw the state of the man's head and cover his mouth with his hand.

Ellie didn't blame him, if Boston hadn't hardened her, she would most likely be doubled over and throwing up the content of her stomach right now. The man had been shot twice in the head from behind. One bullet had hit the upper left side of the head, and gone diagonally through, leaving a gaping red hole where his forehead and right temple should have been. The mushy and blood covered remains of the man's brain had been sprayed out of the head and now coated the ground. The second bullet had left a gaping bloody hole where his upper jaw and nose should have been.

From behind her, Ellie heard Clementine making gagging noises, no doubt trying to keep her dinner from coming up. Ellie looked back over her shoulder. "You okay Clementine?" Covering her mouth with one hand, Clem gave her a thumb's up with the other. "We should check him. Maybe there is something useful on him," Ellie suggested and moved closer, taking extra care not to step on any of the bits of brain on the ground.

"Who do you think did this." Clementine asked, her voice sounded strained from trying to keep her food down.

Ellie crouched down next to the body, the two bullets to the head had killed him, of that Ellie was sure, but he had been shot in more places than just the head, a lot more.

"I don't know" Pete answered, "but it ain't your average gang of thugs I can tell you that."

"Yeah," Ellie said quietly in agreement.

Ellie was no expert when it came to bullet wounds, but from the sheer number of them, Ellie guessed that the shooter had used an automatic weapon. Ellie felt a cold shiver go down her spine at this revelation. The fuckers that had attacked her and the fireflies had also used automatic weapons.

"Could this have been done by the same group that attacked us?" She wondered.

The possibility that it was the same group was very high, after all, there couldn't be that many groups in this area. But this attack was a bit different from the one on the fireflies. Killing people so that you could take their food, water and ammo, Ellie could understand. She and the other orphans had had to do that more than a few times back in Boston. But they had always tried to avoid conflict if possible. When that proved impossible, they tried to be as conservative with their ammo as possible, one shot to the head or the chest was usually enough to kill or incapacitate most people. The ones that had attacked the fireflies had gone by the same rules, don't waste any more bullets then you must. Whoever had done this however, didn't seem to give a damn about saving ammo.

What the hell did this all mean? Had these people been killed by the same group that attacked the fireflies or another one entirely? If it was the same group, then why the hell did they suddenly start acting like idiots and waist their ammo? Ellie mentally shook her head; she didn't know what to make of this. She searched the body, hoping against hope that she would find some clue that could answer her questions. Unsurprisingly, she found none.

Ellie looked up at Pete and the others and said, "he's been picked clean."

"I'm not surprised," Pete replied. "You'd have to be a moron to kill all these people and then just leave their supplies behind."

"What I don't get is why they use so many bullets? I mean look at this." Ellie gestured to the body. "It's overkill!"

"It's a message," Nick said, the muscles in his face tense and his knuckles was turning white from gripping his rifle.

"A message? To whom?" Ellie asked.

"Us." Nick answered simply. Pete made a hmm sound, a thoughtful frown on his face. Seeing the expression his uncle made, Nick continued, "think about it. You're Carver, what do you do?"

"That name again. Rebecca said that name yesterday." Ellie opened her mouth to ask who the hell Carver was, but Clementine beat her to the punch.

"Whose Carver?" she asked.

Uncle and nephew shared a look of uncertainty with each other. Ellie's knees made a cracking sound as she stood up.

"Yeah, who's Carver?" she asked, echoing Clementine's question but with more force. "Rebecca said that name yesterday. She thought that we were working for him. So, who is he?"

There was a short pause, then Pete sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "I suppose that since you're with us now, you should know. Me, Nick and the others used to be part of a community not too far from here. When we joined, it looked like a good fit. We had food, weapons and strong walls to protect us. But as time went, the leader of the community, Carver, became less friendly and more of a…"

"Fucking psychopathic dictator," Nick supplied.

"Not the words I'd use, but yeah."

"And you think he's chasing you?" Clementine asked, she looked around the river side as if expecting Carver to jump out at them from a bush.

"I don't think he is. I know he is," Pete said with steely certainty.

"Why would he chase after you guys?" Clementine asked.

"We stole some weapons, ammo and a lot of food when we left. I'm damn sure he didn't like that. He'd want to make examples out of us." Pete gestured at the bodies along the river. "So that no one else would try to leave his community or steal from him ever again."

"Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me. Jesus fucking Christ," Ellie thought. What the hell kind of mess had they got themselves into, they had ended up in a fucking war between two groups. "And when the fuck where you planning to tell us this? When Carver was knocking down the fucking front door?" Ellie shouted, startling the others.

"Keep your voice down girl," Pete hissed.

Ellie ignored him. If Carver was as dangerous as Pete implied and was in the area, then they needed to get the fuck out of dodge. She reached out and grabbed Clementine by her good arm. "Come on Clem, we're leaving," she said and tried to drag the smaller girl away with her. Clementine was unprepared for the sudden movement and stumbled and almost fell over.

"The hell do you think you're going?" Nick asked.

"Back to the cabin to get my stuff and then we'll get as far away from here as fucking possible," Ellie answered over her shoulder. "If we stay with you, we'd be painting two big fucking bullseyes on our backs."

With a few quick steps, Pete caught up to them. His strong hand grabbed her by the arm and halting her in mid-step. "Look around you, Ellie!" He said sharply, sweeping his hand in the direction of the bodies. "Look at these people! Do you think Carver gives a damn if you're with us or not? If he finds you, he'll kill you and Clementine without a second thought."

"We won't be any safer with you. These people outnumbered your group in case you didn't notice, and Carver still managed to kill them all. Two people can move quicker and quieter than nine." Ellie tried to twist herself loose, but Pete's grip was iron.

"That maybe so, but two people are easier targets to," Pete countered. He let go of her arm. "Besides, you don't have enough food or water to survive out there for long on your own."

Ellie felt her face heat up in anger. It was the same situation again. It was the same fucking situation she had been in this morning when she was arguing with Carlos in the shed, except the alternatives was even worse. Stay and become a target of a psychopath or leave and most likely die of starvation, stalkers or said psychopath.

"Son of a fucking bitch." Ellie muttered in frustration. She let go of Clem's arm and kicked the ground, sending a small rock flying into the river. "Fine. What do we do now?" she asked.

"We check the rest of the body's, see if we can find something." Pete answered. "And be careful. Some of them might still be moving."

The four of them split up and started searching the bodies. Ellie stopped next to the body of a woman, her face frozen into one of fear and pain upon her death. She had been shot several times in the torso and once in the head. Ellie guessed that the head shot had probably been done after her death, since the bullet hole was located smack in the middle of her forehead. Ellie crouched down and started to rummage through the woman's pockets. Like with the man before, Ellie found nothing of use. From the corner of her eyes she saw Nick poke the body of a man just a few meters from her. Thankfully, the body didn't move.

"Ellie, how's it looking?" Pete called from behind her.

"She's been shot in the head," Ellie answer. "And all over," she added in an undertone.

"Nick?"

"Same here."

"Clementine?"

"Same."

"Did any of you find anything on the body's?"

They all answered in the negative. Pete muttered something under his breath that Ellie couldn't hear, though she suspected it was a curse.

"There are more body's out there!" Clementine said and pointed to the other side of the river, earning her a nod from Pete.

"Your buddy Carver is pretty good at ambushing people, isn't he!?" Ellie said rhetorically. "There are no bullet casings on the ground. I don't think these people even managed to fire a single shot before they were all killed."

Pete grunted in response but didn't look at her. His eyes were trained on the far shore. "I think your right. This place has FUBAR written all over it," Pete said and walked out into the river towards the small island.

"FUBAR?" Clementine repeated, "what does that mean?" she asked Ellie, who responded with a shrug. She had heard some of the soldiers in Boston use the word a few times, but she had never asked them what it meant.

"It's means fucked up beyond all reason," Nick said quickly from beside them. "Pete, we should get the fuck out of here now! and warn the others." Nick voice shook slightly as he spoke, maybe out of fear.

Ellie didn't blame him; she was starting to feel more than a little afraid herself. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with Nick on this one. We should tell the others and get as far away from here as possible before Carver shows up."

"We can't, we got to check the rest first," Pete said over his shoulder.

"What?! Why? They'll be picked clean like the others," Nick almost shouted.

"Calm down and think about it, son."

"Calm down?! We got to get the fuck out of here. NOW." Nick sounded like he was on the verge of becoming hysterical.

Having reached the small island, Pete turned to face them. "Jesus Christ, kid, get a hold of yourself," he said in annoyance.

"What if someone's alive, Nick?" Clementine asked.

"Clem, I highly doubt they left anyone alive," Ellie said, gesturing to the dead bodies lying all around them. "They were very thorough. We should go and warn the others."

"But they might have missed someone," Clem countered insistently.

"She's right. If even just one of these folks are still alive, we have to find them. They might be able to tell us who did this and where they went. We got to do this now." Pete's tone brokered no more argument. "Nick, you and Ellie stay there and keep searching the rest. Clem, you're with me."

Seeing that his mind was set and that there was no point arguing with him, Ellie said with a sigh, "roger dodger. Come on, Nick." and walked off towards the nearest unchecked body.

"This is a dumb idea," Nick muttered as he followed behind her. Ellie silently agreed with him.

The search of the remaining bodies went quickly, and the result was what Ellie had expected. None of the them were alive and none of them had anything of use. Ellie's knees cracked when she rose from her crouch next to the body of a man with a shaved head that was dressed in a leather jacket and cargo pants. Ellie thought he looked like he had ones been a member of a biker gang before the outbreak. His corpse, like all the others she had searched, was riddled with holes. Ellie had tried to count the total number off bullet holes in all the bodies she had searched. She had reached sixty something when she checked the previous corpse. At that point however, Nick had cursed loudly. Fearing that they were under attack, Ellie had unslung her bow and looked up in his direction, only to discover that he's shoelaces had come undone and gotten stuck in a tree root. This distraction had made her lose count.

Ellie walked over to Nick, who was crouching over the last body. "Found anything?" she asked. She expected him to answer in the negative and she wasn't disappointed.

"Not a damn thing," Nick answered and stood up. "This was nothing but a waste of time," he growled.

Ellie nodded in agreement. This had been nothing but a waist of valuable time, time they could have spent putting as much distance between them and Carver as possible.

"It's a bit weird don't you think?" Ellie said.

"What is?"

"I mean there is hardly any stalkers here. The noise from the gunshots should have drawn them like flies to shit. So, where are they?" Ellie asked.

Nick shrugged. "Maybe they killed them all or maybe there aren't many in the area."

"I hope you're right," Ellie said and gazed into the forest but saw no sign of any walking corpses.

"Come on. Let's go tell Pete we found nothing. Maybe now he'll see sense and we can leave." Nick said and started walk in the direction of the river.

Ellie was about to do the same, when she saw a pair of legs sticking out from behind a tree a bit into the forest. "Nick! There's another body in there," she called out and pointed into the forest. Nick looked at where she was pointing and let out a sigh of annoyance. Seeing that Nick obviously wasn't in the mood to pick the pockets of another corpse, Ellie said, "I'll go check it out. You can go and try to talk some sense into Pete."

She had barely taken a single step however when Nick said, "I'll come with you."

Ellie looked over her shoulder at him. "You don't have to. I can do it myself."

"We should stick together. Safety in numbers and all that. Besides, Pete would get pissed at me if he knew I let you go in there alone."

Seeing no point in starting an argument over the matter, Ellie said, "fine," and headed off into the forest, Nick following close behind her.

The man was lying face down on the ground with a hole near the base of the neck. At the sound of their approaching footsteps, the man's head had started making noises and move its jaw. The rest of the body however, remained thankfully unmoving. Ellie thought it looked a bit stupid just lying there doing nothing but chewing air and dirt.

"He ain't getting up. Shot took out the spine," Nick observed.

"Yeah, but it can still bite us if we're careless," Ellie pointed out. She pulled out her knife and stabbing it into the back of the skull and twisted it around until the head became quiet.

"He's not been shot up like the others and he hasn't been looted either," Ellie said as she noted the backpack on his back and a rifle lying next to the body where it had fallen.

"Maybe they didn't know he was in here and a stray shot got him?" Nick suggested.

Ellie nodded in agreement; it was as good an explanation as any. "What do you think he was doing in here?" Ellie asked.

Nick shrugged. "Who cares, he's dead. Let's just see if he has something useful on him so we can go."

Nick leaned his rifle against the tree where the body had fallen and removed the backpack from the dead man and started rummaging through it. With the backpack out of the way, Ellie rolled the body over so that she could go through the man's pockets. As she went about this, she tried not to look at the red ruin that was the man's throat. Ellie's search went quickly, although she found several items on the man, most of it were just stuff that had had some sentimental value to him but was of no use to Ellie and the group. She did however make one good find.

"Anything good in there?" she asked Nick when she was finished.

"There's a map, some clothes and three cans of food in here. Other than that, nothing of worth," he replied and slung the backpack onto his back. "You?"

"Only a half empty package of rifle ammo," she answered and held it out to Nick, who took it.

"Good. We've been running low," he said and put the box in his pocket.

Nick bent down and picked up the dead man's weapon from the ground and inspected it. From what Ellie could tell, it looked to be of the same model as the ones Pete and Nick used, but there was one major distinction, this one had a scope.

"It looks to be in good shape. Hardly any wear and tear at all," Nick commented as he turned the weapon over in his hands. He lifted the bolt handle and pulled it back. "Fully loaded," he said when he inspected the chamber. When he was finished with his inspection, he looked at it for a few second thoughtfully, then he held it out to her and said, "here, you take it."

"You're giving it to me?!" Ellie said, astonished that Nick would offer her a weapon that was – as far as she could tell – in better condition than his own and it had a scope to boot. "Why?"

"Because I already have a rifle and so does Pete. It'd be stupid to just lug this thing around when you can use it. You do know how to use it, right?"

"Of course I do. But why are you giving me this one? It's in better condition than yours."

"Well if you don't want it..." Nick said with a small smile on his face and started to pull the weapon back.

"I didn't say that," Ellie said quickly and reached out with both hands and took the weapon from Nick's unresisting hands.

The wood felt smooth in her hands and as Nick had stated, there was hardly any scratches on it. Hell, it looked almost brand new, as if it had been bought at the gun store yesterday. The guy most have really loved his gun to take this well care of it. She pressed the rifle against her shoulder and aimed it deeper into the forest. Closing one eye, she peered into the scope.

"This is awesome," she thought as she looked around, aiming the crosshair at imaginary targets.

"Come on, let's go back to the other so we can get the hell out of here," Nick said, dragging Ellie back to reality.

She lowered her rifle and looked over her shoulder and saw that Nick had picked up his own rifle and was already heading towards the river. "You didn't answer my question, Nick," Ellie said when she caught up to him. "Why did you give this to me?"

"Does it matter?"

"I wouldn't ask if it didn't. So, why are you giving this to me?"

Nick stopped and turned to face her. "Because I know your still pissed off about what happened yesterday."

"Why would I be pissed off at you for yesterday?!" Ellie asked sarcastically. "I mean, you were only trying to kill my friend!"

"I thought she was infected and that she would turn and kill one of us alright! I was wrong! I almost killed a defenseless little girl; do you think I'm proud of that! I acted like a complete asshole!" Nick said heatedly. He sighed, and his voice softened, "I'm just…trying to make things right." he said, then added in a mutter to himself, "goddamnit, I'm not any good at this shit."

Ellie was about to tell him that he couldn't make thinks right between them by giving gifts. That her forgiveness couldn't be bought, it could only be earned over time. Maybe it was the regret she saw in Nick's face that stopped her from saying those words. The guy was clearly remorseful for his actions, he had even apologized to both of them at breakfast even though it was Clementine he had almost killed. Clementine had forgiven him; she had even gone so far as to give him her condolences for what had happened to his mom.

Ellie on the other hand, hadn't accepted his apology and she had not – outwardly – shown any sympathy for anything that had happened to Nick, hell she hadn't done anything but give Nick scorn whenever they spoke. Ellie had not wanted to be a part of this group because she thought that half of them were assholes, now one of the assholes was trying to ease the animosity between the two of them with a gift – a damn good gift too – and Ellie had been about to verbally abuse him for it.

"I'm starting to feel like I'm the asshole here," she thought. Maybe it was time to take a leaf out of Clementine's book and bury the war hatchet…in a very shallow grave…dug in sand…with the handle sticking up and easy to reach. Softening her voice as best she could, Ellie said, "thanks. It's an…awesome gift."

Nick blinked in surprise at her words, then he smiled. "You welcome."

There was a short awkward silence that followed, where neither one of them seemed to know what to say.

"We should get back to the others before they notice that we're gone and get worried," Nick said, breaking the silence and ending the awkward moment.

"Yeah," Ellie agreed and the two headed towards the river, Nick taking the lead with Ellie behind him.

Their short trip into the forest seemed to have gone unnoticed by the others. Ellie looked out over the river. Clementine was crouching down on the small island by some rocks and was looking at something that Ellie couldn't see. Pete was standing on the opposite shore with his back to the river and seemed to be watching the tree lines.

"Probably keeping an eye out for stalkers…or Carver," Ellie thought and was about to head over when a movement caught her eye. Her brow furrowed. There was no wind, so, was it her imagination or was the reeds on the opposite side of the river moving of their own. Ellie unslung her new rifle, placed the butt against her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked.

"I thought I saw something move over there," Ellie answered as she looked through the scope, aiming it towards the reeds.

"I don't see anything," Nick said from beside her.

At first, Ellie saw nothing either, then something large, pale and glistening dragged itself into view out of the water. Ellie's eyes widened in recognition. "Stalker!" she cried out as she aimed the crosshair at the thing that was slowly dragging itself up the shore towards Pete.

"What?" Was the only words Nick had time to say before Ellie pulled the trigger.

The butt of the rifle kicked back hard against her shoulder and a loud bang that made Ellie's ears ring echoed across the river and surrounding forest. The tree's burst into life as flocks of birds left them to fly away from the loud noise. On the opposite shore, parts of the crawling stalker's head exploded, and a shower of blood, brains and skull fragments flew out. The crawling dead man collapsed onto the ground like a marionette that had had its strings cut.

Certain that the thing was now dead, Ellie trained the rifle towards Pete, who had spun on his heel at the sound of the shot. With the help of the scope she could clearly see the expression on his face change, first from shock, then anger and finally horrified realization of how close he had come to being bitten.

"Uncle Pete, are you alright," Ellie heard Nick yell over the ringing in her ears.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine," Pete called back, then he said something to himself that Ellie couldn't hear, but she guessed that it was probably a curse. It's what she would have done if their situations had been reversed.

Certain that he wasn't in any more danger, Ellie lowered her rifle and discharge the empty cartridge. Pete looked at her and nodded his thanks. It was a bit difficult to tell without the scope, but Ellie thought it looked like he was smiling at her. She felt her heart swell with pride, she nodded and smiled back at him.

"Shit! Lurkers!" Nick exclaimed out from her right and fire a shot, making Ellie jumped in surprise. She was about to turn and help him when from the left corner of her eyes saw two stalkers shambling out of the forest towards her and Nick.

"Where the hell had they come from?!"

Ellie spun to face the new threat and raised her rifle. She lined up her shot and pulled the trigger. Her bullet hit the first stalker between the eyes and blew out the back of its head. She quickly emptied the cartridge and fired a second shot that hit the other stalker in the left side of the forehead. The second stalker hadn't even hit the ground before Ellie saw more coming out of the woods. Behind her, she heard Nick fire two shots in rapid succession along with a string of curses. From across the river came several more gun shots. Pete and Clem were either helping to kill the ones who were coming from Nick's direction – since none of the ones coming towards Ellie died – or they were under attack as well.

Another shot was fired from the other side of the river, then Pete's voice shouted, "I'm out of ammo."

"Come this way, we have more!" Nick shouted back.

"Son of a bitch…dammit, get your asses over here, all of you!" Pete roared.

Ellie turned her head and saw that the situation on the other side of the river was no better than their own, in fact it was even worse, Pete was alone on his side. Without ammo, he had turned his rifle into an impromptu club and was using it to smash in a stalker's head. It collapsed onto the ground, but more were shambling towards him in an ever-closing circle of death and decay. Clementine was still on her small island, which was thankfully still stalker free. She was holding Ellie's gun in her hands and she was looking back and forth between Ellie and Pete, seemingly torn as to whom she should help.

"I'm out," Nick shouted from behind Ellie, drawing her attention back to the battle at hand and not a moment too soon.

With a burst of speed that stalkers only ever showed when they were in the presence of fresh meat, a pair of rotting hands reached out to grab her. Ellie only just managed to duck under the arms and sidestep out of the way at the last second. She raised her rifle and blew the stalker's head to pieces, spraying herself with blood and brain matter. She did the same to the next one. She pulled back the stock to empty the spent cartridge and load the next bullet, only to see to her dismay that the rifle was out of ammo.

"Jesus! Fuck!" Pete screamed in sudden panic, drawing Ellie's attention. A stalker had managed to get close enough to grab him and force him to the ground.

"Uncle Pete!" Nick yelled. Like Pete, Nick had started to use his empty rifle like a club and was now trying to smash his way through the stalkers that was standing between him and the river. Despite Nick's efforts, he was forced back. There were simply to many of the dead to take on alone and they were now coming from almost all directions at once. Pete let out another scream. "Uncle Pete" Nick shouted in response.

With no time to reload, Ellie slung the rifle over her shoulder and pulled out her knife. She kicked the leg of the nearest stalker, toppling it over onto the ground. She quickly stabbed it in the head and just as quickly pulled the knife out. She aimed her next knife trust at another stalker and with a roar, she buried the blade up to the hilt in its skull. Her kills didn't seem to do shit however to the overall numbers of the things. More just kept on coming.

A gun shot sounded from across the river. Ellie threw a quick glance in the direction of the sound. Pete was still on the ground, but he had pushed the stalker that had downed him off and it was now lying as motionless as a stick beside him. Clementine was standing by his side and was shooting the oncoming stalkers. Ellie saw her down two of them when she felt a strong hand grip her upper arm so hard that it hurt. She whirled around; her arm pulled back in preparation to stab the stalker that had gripped her. She just managed to stop herself at the last second from stabbing Nick in the face.

Nick flinched back at the sight of the knife but quickly rallied. "Come on, we got to go," he shouted and dragged her in the direction of the forest.

"What?! No! we can't leave without the others!" Ellie shouted back at him and tried to wrench herself free from his grip. But Nick was bigger, stronger and his fingers were clamped like iron around her arm, so all her struggling managed to do was slow down his retreat and give herself a few bruises in the process. She looked back in the direction of the river. There were so many stalkers clustered together in front of her now that she could just barely see Clem pushing what looked like a piece of wood against an oncoming stalker, trying to keep it at a distance.

"We can't help them!" Nick shouted. "If we stay here, we're dead!"

Ellie was only half listening to him; another voice was screaming inside her head. It told her to fight her way through the wall of corpses and help her friends. But it became harder and harder for her to see Clementine as more and more stalkers were coming towards her. The dead were coming from all directions and soon they would surround her and Nick. If they did, there would be no escape for them. The logical part of her brain told her that Nick was right, there was nothing they could do to help Pete and Clementine. The terrible realization was like a knife stabbing into her heart. For all they knew, both Pete and Clementine could already have been bitten. With that horrible thought in her mind, Ellie stopped struggling against Nick and let herself be dragged into the forest.


Thank you for reading and Happy new year to you all.