Ellie didn't remember drifting to sleep. It felt like no time at all had past when she was awoken by the sound of hurried footsteps and someone shouting. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she sat up and saw Carlos and Nick running for the doors, weapons clutched in their hands.

"We're under attack!" The thought drove the drowsiness from her and kicked her heart into high gear. She jumped off the sofa and ran to collect her own weapons. From outside came the sound of howling wind as well as a loud incessant swooshing noise she couldn't identify. Alvin was in the process of arming himself when she got there. "What's happening?" She asked as she grabbed her rifle and swung it onto her shoulder.

"A storm," Alvin answered. "It sounds like it's making that damn wind tower spin out of control."

Alvin said no more, but then he didn't need to, Ellie understood the situation well enough. If they didn't stop the tower spinning, the noise it made would draw every stalker within earshot straight to them. Shoving her now almost fully loaded gun into the back of her pants – Luke had found some 9mm ammo two days ago – and stuffing what little extra rifle ammo she had into her pockets, she ran for the doors.

The moment she got outside there was a loud boom and all the lights flickered and died. "That's not good."

Thankfully, the moon shone bright this night, so even with the lights gone Ellie had no problem spotting the group gathered around the base of the tower. She felt a few flakes of snow land on her face and the wind pulling at her hair and clothes as she ran past the ice rink that took up much of the space in front the lodge. Just as she reached the others, Kenny and Luke ran off into the forest.

"Where are they going?" She asked Nick and Clementine, who was standing at the edge of the group. The sound from the spinning propeller had become nearly deafening, forcing her to shout.

"Transformers blown. They're going to see if they can fix it," Nick answered.

Carlos and Sarita had open an oval door at the tower's base. From what little Ellie could see thanks to the red light over the door, the inside was full of electronic boxes and switches. "Does anyone know how to do this?" Carlos shouted over his shoulder.

"Leave it to me doc," Mathews called out in answer. With a lit flashlight in hand, he pushed his way to the front. "I'll have this thing shut down in a jiffy."

"Good, we'll cove-Ellie?! Clem!" Carlos exclaimed in surprise when he noticed that they were there. "You two get back inside, it's not safe out here."

Was he serious? Ah who was she kidding, of course he was serious. The guy was a fucking mother hen. "No way. If shit hits the fan your gonna need all the guns you can get out here."

"She's right. We don't know what's coming," Nick shouted, cutting of any response from Carlos.

Carlos nodded. Even in the dark Ellie could see the hesitation and worry written on his face. "You two stay close to me and watch each other's back." With that said he pulled out two handguns and gave one of them to Clementine. They then formed a half circle around Matthew, weapons raised, bullets chambered, and hammers cocked.

True to his word, Matthew had the wind tower shut down within the span of just a few seconds after they had formed the circle. "There we go, problem solved."

Above them the swooshing sound of the wind blades became quieter and quieter until it had ceased all together, leaving the wind and swaying trees as the sole source of noise in the night. For a few moments after the tower had gone silent, Ellie dared to hope that they were in the clear. That hope died when distant moans carried on the wind reached their ears. She felt her heart beat faster in her chest and tightened her grip on her gun.

"Do you guys hear that?" Nick asked.

"Yes, but I wish I didn't," Matthew answered.

The first stalker broke through the tree line less than half a minute later followed quickly by another and then another. Ellie looked around her and saw at least ten more humanoid shapes stager out of the woods further apart from the others. It seemed that a small herd of the dead had been drawn by the wretched tower.

"There are several more behind us," Sarita warned.

"We don't have much ammunition," Carlos said. His eyes darting back and forth, trying to keep track of the oncoming foe.

"Then we better make every shot count," Matthew said as he took aim and fired. The back of the closest stalker's head exploded in a shower of brain matter and stinking fluids. Before the ejected cartridge had hit the ground the rest of them opened fire and the air became thick with the smell of gunpowder and the stench of putrefaction.

Ellie first two shoots felled two of the nine stalkers shambling towards them, the remaining walking corpses collapsed under the concentrated fire from the others. With their front secured for the moment, Ellie scanned her surrounding for her next target and saw a stalker on her right that was about thirty feet from the group. Far to too close for comfort. She took aim and fired. Her shot was too low, and the bullet hit the jaw instead of between the eyes. Even though she hadn't hit where she wanted, it still had the desired effect of dropping the stalker. It didn't rise again.

Taking a deep breath Ellie shouted, "if they get to close, kick them in the legs. They have shitty balance, just be careful that they don't fall on you." If the others heard her or said anything in response Ellie didn't hear it over the ringing in her ears and the roaring gunfire. Ellie fired two more shots and felled another stalker. When the fifth and final cartridge flew out Ellie shouted, "reloading! Cover me!"

Ellie took two steps back, dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out several rounds. Ellie slotted the five rounds needed into the rifle with little difficulty despite the darkness and pushed the bolt back into place.

"Thanks for the training Sarge," she though as she took aim at the first stalker she saw. She imagined seeing drill Sergeant Holloway's thin scowling face superimposed onto the stalker's gray emaciated one. She pulled the trigger. "And fuck you all the way to hell you loud-mouthed-son-of-a-bitch!"

"I'm out!" Clementine screamed.

"Here!" Ellie pulled out her gun and tossed it to Clementine, who caught it.

"Thanks!" Clementine took aim and blew a hole in the eye socket of a female stalker. The bullet continued on out the back and lodge itself into the head of the stalker behind. Both collapsed like sacks of bones.

"Nice shot," Ellie commented before firing a shot of her own.

Despite the large numbers of stalkers they were putting down, more just seemed to keep coming. They were thankfully widely dispersed, but they were closing in from almost all directions which made it impossible to keep track of them all. As Ellie scanned for her next target, she saw that the group had also lost its cohesion. Ellie heard the distinct sound of Carlos's gun firing behind her, still watching their back. Matthew and Walter were staying close together several feet to her right and were quickly pulling back towards the lodge. Nick too was in a fighting retreat further to her left. Ellie had no idea where Sarita was, hopefully she was safe.

If Ellie and Clem didn't pull back to, they would be surrounded by the dead. Ellie was about to shout this to Clementine when something sticky splashed onto her neck. She whirled around just in time to see a stalker collapse in a heap on the ground, its head a bloody mess. Carlos was standing several feet away, his gun aimed at the spot where the stalker had been a few seconds earlier.

"Run! Get to the lodge!" The Hispanic doctor shouted, firing all the while at the stalkers approaching from his right.

Ellie was about to comply when she saw movements in the dark over Carlos's shoulder. "CARLOS! BEHIND YOU!" she screamed.

Carlos spun around and fired point blank into the grey rotten face, turning it into a bloody ruin. He stared down at the now limp body, his breathing fast and his hands shaking from the fear and sudden rush of adrenaline in his veins. He rubbed his face on his sleeve, wiping away the blood that had splattered onto it. The girls rushed up to him.

"Carlos are you okay?" Clementine asked.

"I'm fine. Go, I'll cover you." Carlos fired and downed two more stalkers.

Ellie tugged Clem good arm to get her moving and together they ran for the gap between the ice rink and a rusted yellow truck towards the lodge. As they drew closer, a skinny stalker with long brown hair and dressed in a faded red t-shirt and jeans shuffled out from behind the truck. The dead man's entrails dangled out like ruptured fleshy tubes through a large hole in his shirt that looked to Ellie's eyes like it had been made by a shotgun.

Despite the threat in front of them, Ellie did not slow down. She gripped her rifle with both hand but did not raise it to aim. "Don't stop. Stay close to me," she shouted back to Clementine. Ellie reached the gutted man within seconds and using her momentum to her advantage, she ducked in under its reaching arms and jabbed the butt of her rifle upwards into its jaw. The head snapped backwards with a sickening crunch, dislocating the jaw and toppling the stalker onto the ground. Before it had a chance to get back up Ellie pulled out her knife and with both hands stabbed it into its skull. She twisted the knife loose and ran on.

As she rounded the edge of the rink, she saw Nick, Sarita, Matthew and Walter at the opposite side. They were standing in a row between the ice rink and the lodge, firing at the heaviest concentration of stalkers so far. The dead were pushing them back. Seeing the danger, all thought of running to safety left Ellie's mind. It would not be safer inside for long if the others couldn't stop the dead here.

"We got to help them, Come on!" Ellie shouted.

Ellie did not bother to check if Clem were behind her, she knew that her friend would follow. Ellie took up position next to Nick and started shooting, Clem joined her side followed a few second later by Carlos. Ellie noticed that the doctor was using his rifle now; his gun must have run out of ammo. It didn't take Ellie long to see that they were not in a good position. Even though the group felled a stalker with almost every shot they were slowly being forced back in order to stay out of arms reach of the walking corpses.

"I'm out!" Clementine shouted. Ellie wished she could give her more ammo, but she had none.

"Then get inside," Carlos ordered. Hesitating, but unable to do anything else to help, Clementine obeyed.

Ellie ejected another spent cartridge and cursed when she found her rifle empty again. She felt her guts twist in fear and her heart pounding to get out of her chest. "Shit! Reloading!" she shouted, a barely noticeable tremble in her voice. She shoved her hand into her pocket and forcefully pulled out the last bullets she had. Several of the precious rounds slip between her fingers and disappear into the darkness around her feet. "Fuck!" she cursed but didn't waste time looking for them. With trembling fingers, she started to reload, all the while glancing up at the oncoming dead. Within a few seconds they'd be in arms reach.

Before she could insert the last bullet, the air was rent by a rapid series of bangs. Carlos shouted something and before Ellie fully understood what was happening, she was roughly pulled to the ground. Ellie managed to see the foreheads of several stalkers explode outwards in a shower of gore before a pair of arms wrap around her tightly in a protective embrace and her face was pressed against warm fabric that stank of old sweat and rotting blood. Ellie twisted her head in hopes of seeing what hell was going on, but all she saw was the dark night sky, the unmistakable flashes of gunfire, falling snow and the shirt of the one holding her.

"Carlos," she realized, no one else in the group had a shirt like that.

Although unable to see the action, Ellie's other senses gave her a good enough picture of what was going on. Through her left ear she heard the dhak, dhak, dhak of several machineguns and the bullets that whistled through the air over their heads. The ground vibrating softly under her, each vibration coming at irregular intervals and strength. In her mind's eye, Ellie saw the stalkers fall in droves, great holes bursting open in their heads and spraying the ground with the rotten content.

Ellie's body froze up. She was afraid, no terrified. The noise, the flashes and the falling bodies, it was like she was back there at the convoy during the attack, the only thing missing was the screams of the wounded and dying. She felt the same discomforting sense of powerlessness in that moment as she had when she hid behind one of the trucks and later when she ran away. Her heart was beating so fast that her chest hurt, it felt like she had a runaway train under her ribcage that would explode at any second. She shut her eyes and, in her fear, prayed that no stray bullet would hit her or the others. It was a useless act she knew, there was no god, at least no one who cared.

It felt like minutes past before the fire ceased, but in reality, it was probably no longer then fifteen seconds. Even after the noise had died, she remained unmoving, keeping her eyes shut and did not open them until she heard Carlos's familiar voice.

"Ellie!" He shook her lightly. "Ellie! Ellie! Are you hurt?" He looked almost as afraid as she felt.

"No…no, I'm…I'm fine. You?"

"Unharmed," he said with relief.

"What about the others?" She jolted up into a sitting position and threw her head franticly back and forth. Motionless stalkers lay all around them, many of them heaped upon one another, all of them with large holes in their heads. The stench of decay made Ellie's nose wrinkle and she almost gaged. To her great relief she found that they all had taken cover when the firing started and seemed as unharmed as herself.

"Is everyone alright," Sarita asked as Carlos helped Ellie to her feet.

"A few bruises, but we'll live," Walter answered. He smiled and patted Matthew on the back.

"Where the hell did that fire come from?" Matthew asked.

"From them," Nick said, his tone dark.

Four shadowy forms were walking towards them from the direction of the forest, guns raised and seemingly aimed straight at them. Fear rose up inside Ellie again and her instinct screamed at her to get her rifle. She started for her weapon, but Carlos gripped hold of her. She tried to break loss, but he held her firm.

"Ellie! stop it! They'll shoot you dead before you could even pick it up!" He whispered urgently. He pulled her behind him and gestured for the others to join him.

By the time Nick and the others had gathered around her in a circle, the new group could be identified by moonlight to be composed of three men and one woman. A few seconds later they were close enough that Ellie could make out their faces.

"Oh shit," Ellie murmured.

"Fuck," Nick muttered.

"You know these people?" Matthew asked.

Nick nodded; his face grim.

"Howdy folks," William Carver greeted, his mouth stretched into a smug smile. Carver's three goons surrounded them, whiles Carver himself half circled the group and stopped in front of Ellie. "Hello red. Fancy seeing you here. How's your head doing?"

The sound of his voice was enough to make Ellie's anger rise. "Fine. How's your shoulder? Did the bullet go through it or is it still in there?" Her tone leaving no doubt as to which of the two she preferred.

She knew she had made a mistake the moment the words past her lips. Carver's smile soured and he reached out his left hand towards her. She instinctively took a step back, but surrounded as she was, there was no way for her to get away from him. Before he could touch her though, Carlos stepped in between them, shielding her.

"Carlos," Carver's said, his voice low and dangerous. "Where's Rebecca?" Carlos responded – in the last way Ellie had expected of him – by spitting in Carver's face. "It's nice to see you too," Carver growled and with deliberate slowness, wiped the saliva from his face with his sleeve. The punch he delivered to Carlos's face was so hard that the Hispanic doctor stumbled backwards into Ellie and almost sent them both to the ground.

Carlos let out a gasp and he clasped his jaw. A trickle of blood rand between his fingers and his cheek was rapidly turning red. Carlos was not the only one hurt by the attack. A grunt of pain escaped from between Carver's clenched teeth and his face was contorted in a mixture of anger and pain. His left hand moved towards his right shoulder but froze mid motion and lowered to his side.

"DAD!"

Ellie hadn't heard the lodge door opening as she helped steady Carlos, but she did see the figure running straight towards them clearly enough.

"Sarah, you fool!" Ellie thought when Sarah – tears in her eyes – rushed up and hugged her father.

At the sight of her Carver's eyes narrowed, then turned towards the lodge. He raised his left arm and pointed. "Inside."

One of the goons – a man in his thirties with light brown hair, goatee and dressed in camo clothing – jerked his weapons, a clear signal that he wanted them to move. His demeanor reminded Ellie a lot of some of the soldiers in the QZ, ill-tempered and with a bloated sense of authority. She instantly hated him.

"It's you," Walter said, sounding stunned. He gazed wide eyed at the woman that was now pointing her gun right at his guts.

"They know one another?" Ellie was confused. How the hell did Walter know one of Carver's goons when they hadn't even heard of Carver before today?

The woman seemed momentarily uncomfortable but recovered her severity quickly. "Move," she said with a thick southern accent. Walter obeyed, and the group walked towards the lodge.

"Had Walter helped her before perhaps? Was that how he knew her? Or did he meet her recently? Or did they know each other from before the outbreak?" Ellie didn't know and there was no possibility for her to ask at the moment. "It doesn't matter Ellie. You have a bigger problem to deal with."

She glanced backwards at the southerner. She was a thin woman with a long thin face that looked to be in her thirties. She was dressed in a green shirt, brown vest and blue jeans. Like Ellie, she had freckles running over her nose and red hair setup in a ponytail, although her hair was a brighter shade then Ellie's own. With everyone's backs turned to her, the woman let her sever expression slip. It was only for the briefest of moments, but Ellie swore she saw guilt.

The last member of Carver's group opened the doors and strode in as if he owned the place. The man seemed to be in his mid-twenties. He had long black hair that was mostly hidden by a brown benne and a tuft of beard under his lower lip and jaw. He was dressed in a dirty white hoodie, dark brown jacket and blue jeans. Unlike the rest, he didn't express much emotion at all. Other than keeping an eye on their prisoners and his surrounding, Ellie would say that he was bored. That changed quickly when the group had climbed the stairs.

"Take one more step Johnny and you're dead," Pete called out.

Pete was standing behind the hearth. The light of the fire dancing over half his face, leaving the other in shadow. What was visible though was chiseled into an expression as hard and cold as stone. In his hands he held a gun that was pointed at them. Ellie wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but it looked like to her that the gun was shaking.

The group halted. Johnny dived behind a pillar whiles the woman took cover behind another. The camo man placed himself behind Ellie and the others and used them as human shields – the fucking cowered. Carver was the only one who didn't take cover.

"Pete, it's nice to see you alive," Carver said sarcastically. "Though you seem a bit unsteady. Is old age getting to you?"

Pete didn't respond, though from the way he was leaning against the hearth it was clear to Ellie that his foot was still to injured to support his full weight. "He's probably also in a lot of pain."

"Drop the gun," Carver commanded.

"I don't think so."

Ellie's eyes moved between the woman and Johnny. Both were aiming their weapons at the hearth. Ellie had seen the devastating aim the two had, there was no way for Pete to win a firefight against them. If he didn't drop his weapon and surrender, they would kill him.

"Then go ahead. Pull the trigger." Carver said confidently. He stretched out his arm, as if welcoming death.

Ellie's heart tightened in her chest. A part of her hoped that Pete would take the shot and end the fucker, another dreaded the consequences that would come with it. The tension in the air felt so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

"I got to hand it to you Pete," Carver chuckled after several second's had passed. "You have one hell of a poker face. But I know you. You won't risk your nephew's life just to kill me." At those words the man with the camo clothes aimed his gun at the back of Nick's head. "You have a bad hand, Pete; you can't bluff your way out of this one. So, lower the gun or Troy start shooting."

Pete did nothing for several seconds, then his cold mask cracked and revealed the pain and despair it had been hiding. Slowly, he lowered his arms and dropped the gun onto the floor. At a gesture from Carver, Johnny moved forwards to pick it up.

"Weak, so fucking weak. Sheep," Caver said after the man had acquired Pete weapon and dragged him over. Carver took the gun from Johnny, inspected it then glanced at Ellie. "Never thought I'd see this again. I've been shot by this gun ones, it won't happen again." Carver whacked the weapon handle across Pete's face, sending the older man and several of his teeth to the ground with a howl. Sarah screamed and hugged her father.

"Motherfucker!" Ellie cursed.

"Leave him be!" Nick shouted.

They tried to move forward to help Pete, but Johnny aimed his gun at them and ordered them back.

"Sheep," Carver muttered again.

Ellie felt a surge of hate whelm up inside her. Bad enough that Carver had tried to kill her and hurt Carlos and Pete, now he was degrading them all by calling them sheep just because they weren't cold hearted bastards like him. She felt an urge to pull out her knife and stab him in the throat. "Let's see who's the sheep when you're bleeding out on the floor you piece of shit." The only thing that stayed her hand was the knowledge that it would be suicide for her to do so and there was no telling what would happen to the others.

At a gesture from Carver, the prisoners were herded towards the counter where Walter had cooked dinner not so long ago. The goons proceeded to tie everyone's arms behind their backs one by one with zip ties and forced them onto their knees. The red-haired woman emptied Ellie's pockets and confiscated her knife before zipping her wrists together. She forced Ellie to kneel between Sarah and Pete. Ellie immediately tested her bounds and found that they were not so tight that it would strangle her blood circulation, but hard enough that she wouldn't be able to get out without hurting herself.

"You okay?" Ellie asked Pete, her voice lowered into a whisper so as to not be heard by Troy who was nearby.

Pete let out a pained groan as he raised his head. Despite his bad leg, the bastards hadn't shown him any mercy and forced him to kneel just like the rest. He turned his head to face her. He looked terrible. His left cheek was swollen by an ugly bruise and blood trickled down from his nose and spit lip to his jaw and dripped down onto the floor.

"I've been better," The old man whispered back. "Don't worry about me. We need to focus on finding a way out of this."

"I don't see how. If we try to free each other they'll see and even if we could get lose, they'll gun us down if we attack."

Pete grunted in agreement.

"Remember, deep breaths," Carlos said from Ellie's right. He hadn't yet been tied up and was using his limited freedom to keep his trembling daughter calm. Sarah was handling the situation admirably well Ellie thought, considering how shitty it was.

"Hey, you two!" Troy snapped. "If you don't shut up right now, I'll smack the teeth out of your yapping mouths!"

"Fucker."

Ellie looked to Carver to see how he reacted to this and found that he wasn't even paying attention to them. His gaze was roaming around the lodge before they settled on the upper floor. His face contorted in anger. Marching forward, he grabbed Carlos by the arm and dragged him back to where he had been standing. He punched the doctor so hard that the air was knocked out of him, and he collapsed onto his knees clutching his stomach.

"DAD!" Sarah screamed, her voice cracking with fear.

"Listen to me carefully, cause I'm only gonna ask you ones," Carver growled. "Where is Rebecca?"

"Sarah, look at me," Carlos wheezed. "Everything is going to be okey."

That proved to be one of the biggest lies the man had ever told. Not happy with being ignored, Carver grabbed Carlos by the hair and forcefully pulled him upright. Letting go of his hair, Carver then to grab hold of Carlos right wrist with one hand and methodically broke his index finger with the other. Carlos's howl of pain mixed with Sarah's scream of terror.

"Holy shit!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Rebecca!" Carver shouted, ignoring the anguished cries of father and daughter. "Our baby deserves to be raised in a place of safety."

The hate Ellie felt towards Carver for his cruelty was temporarily forgotten. She stared in stunned disbelief at the man. "Our baby!? The fuck are you talking about? It's Alvin's kid not yours you sick fuck." The guy was clearly deluded, either that or he considered every child in his community to be his which was also fucked up.

"I know you're out there. And Alvin. And Luke. And the girl. If you all play nice and show your faces, then this will be over quickly and no one else needs to get hurt."

There was no answer. The only voice that was heard was Sarah's sobbing pleas for her father to be spared any further harm. Ellie didn't try to console her; she couldn't imagine that anything she said would have any effect anyway. Every second that passed without a response only made Carver visibly angrier. After half a minute of silence he broke another of Carlos's fingers.

"DAD!" Sarah screamed. "Stop! Don't hurt my dad. Please."

"Please stop," Ellie pleaded. But their words fell on uncaring ears.

"The longer you wait the more fingers I break!" Carver shouted.

"Daddy!" Sarah cried uncontrollably, her entire body heaving as she sobbed. "Daddy!"

Again, there was no reply, Ellie hoped the reason for that was that there was no one up there. Ellie strained her ears to listen for sounds of movements from upstairs. If there were any than they were drowned out by Sarah's wailing. Carver grabbed another finger.

"Enough Carver," Pete yelled, his voice so forceful that it made Carver paus. "Leave him be. He's the only competent doctor you know. If you bre-"

Whatever Pete was going to say was cut short by a savage kick to the gut from Troy. The air was knocked out of him along with a mouth full of blood. Pete toppled over face first onto the floor.

"Shut your trap old man!" Troy shouted so as to be heard over Sarah's violent sobbing.

"Pete!" Nick exclaimed.

"You son of a bitch!" Ellie screamed at Troy.

"Leave my uncle alone Troy!" Nick shouted, his voice cracking with both anger and fear.

"Shut up or I'll put one in both of you!" Troy warned. His rifle moving back and forth between them, daring either of them to move or say another thing.

"BILL, STOP!" Rebecca's voice rang out and drowned out all other sound in the lodge like a church bell.

Every head snapped up in the direction of her voice. Rebecca and Alvin were looking down at them all, Alvin's right arm wrapped around his wife's shoulder in a half hug. Ellie scanned what little she could see of the second floor – which wasn't much – but saw no sign that anyone else was up there. Was Clem out of sight or was she hiding? Carver's snarl of anger split into a triumphant grin. He pushed Carlos aside and gestured for Rebecca to come down. With obvious reluctance the couple obeyed.

Troy and Johnny intercepted them at the bottom of the stairs, the former zip tied Alvin's hands and shoved him towards the others while Johnny escorted Rebecca to Carver.

"You alright?" Carver asked. He reached out his hand to stroke her cheek, but she slapped it aside.

"Fuck you Bill," she snarled.

Carver smiled; her snubbing of his affection not bothering him at all. His gaze followed her as she walked to stand next to her kneeling husband.

"You don't want to do this. Please, let these people go," Walter pleaded, speaking up for the first time. Ellie stared at him and mentally shook her head. After seeing what Carver had done, he couldn't possibly believe that begging for freedom would work.

"That's where you're wrong. I want this very much," Carver answered. "Where's Luke and the girl?" No one answered. Carver pointed at the spot where Rebecca and Alvin had been hiding. "Johnny, go check. See if there's more of them." Johnny nodded and headed for the stairs.

BANG

The sound of a gunshot made several people – Ellie included – jump in surprise. The far windows shattered into a shower of glass and Johnny's brain erupted from the back of his head. His limp body collapsed at the bottom of the stairs in a heap. The sound broke the stupor Carver, and the others were in and they dived behind a pillar each for cover.

"Kenny…!" Sarita gasp.

Ellie felt hope swell in her chest. She tore her eyes from the dead body and stared out through the broken window, but it was too dark to see anything.

Troy and the woman moved from cover to cover towards the shattered window. Ellie watched them closely and tried to drudge up whatever information the military had tried – and mostly failed – to drill into her head about what to do in a situation like this.

Whiles the pillars they were hiding behind were thick and would most likely withstand anything Kenny and Luke could throw at them they were not offering as much protection as one might think. Because of the large windows along three of the four walls they were easily exposed to a flanking maneuver. Ellie looked to one of the windows, expecting it to shatter at any second and kill another of Carver's goons. Seconds passed, but the shot never came.

"What the hell? Is there only one shooter? Why? What happened to the other? Did the stalkers get one of them?"

Ellie felt her hope wither. This was bad, this was very bad. If there was only one shooter, he'd have to run around the building to get a better angle after every shot and leave himself exposed in the process. If he didn't kill Carver and the others quickly enough, they were all screwed.

"I can't see him," the woman called out to the others.

Carver grunted in response. He gestured his gun to the kneeling group and said, "Watch them." His two goons obeyed and pulled back to cover them with their machine guns.

Carver marched out of cover and towards the prisoners. He grabbed Walter ruffly by the neck and pulled him to his feet. A sense of foreboding hit Ellie and her heart double its beat as Walter was pushed past her. Holding him in front of himself like a living shield, Carver forced Walter towards the shattered window.

"What are you doing? Let go of him!" Matthew shouted. Then his eyes grew wide in realization. "Wait! Don't do it! We had nothing to do with this!"

Carver ignored the protests. He shoved Walter to his knees and before he could do more than turn his head to look back at the group, the side of his head was torn open by a bullet from Carver's gun. Blood, brain and bone matter splattered onto the floor and Walter's lifeless body hit the ground with a thud.

"NO!" Matthew screamed.

"Oh god," Carlos whispered.

Fresh sobbing erupted from Sarah, and she sank into a heap, her forehead pressed against the floor. Ellie hardly noticed her; she was too preoccupied staring at the corpse of the man that had so kindly let them into his home and shared his food with them. A small pool of blood was slowly spreading out over the wooden floor around the face that was frozen in its last moment of fear. Ellie felt her stomach turn, her throat constricting and tears building in her eyes.

"That's for our man," Carver yelled from behind the safety of one of the pillars. "Now, I didn't want to do this, but you ain't leaving me much choice. So, here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna march another one of your friends out here and I'm gonna put a bullet in the back of their head." His words caused Sarah to wail in panic. "Or you can give up now. Your choice."

There was another gunshot from outside and several splinters of wood went flying from the pillar Carver was hiding behind. Carver shrugged. His eyes roamed up and down the row of prisoners before settling on one. With quick steps he walked over and grabbed Pete by the neck and dragged him to his feet.

"Bastard," Pete grunted.

"No! Carver please!" Nick shouted. He tried to get to his feet, but the woman forced him back to his knees.

Ellie felt her heart stop and her insides go cold. "No, not Pete. He can't kill Pete." But even as she thought it, she knew it was going to happen. "Don't take him!" She screamed.

Ignoring them both, Carver wrapped his arm around Pete's throat from behind and guided the hobbling man towards his place of execution. "You know, I respected you, Pete. I trusted you. Now, I know we had our disagreement, you didn't like where things were going, but we could work around them, talk things out. But instead, you and Luke filled these peoples head with bad ideas, killed one of my men and stole food and weapons. That can't go unpunished."

"Fuck you Carver," Pete replied.

Ellie rose to her feet, but before she could take a single step the butt of Troy's gun hit her in the stomach. The air was knocked out of her, and she doubled over onto her knees. She coughed and wheezing for air, her stomach was aflame and throbbed from the impact.

"Stay still!" Troy warned.

Ellie ignored him and tried get up, but the pain made it impossible for her to even right herself let alone stand. With no other option of stopping Carver open to her, she resorted to the only thing she had left. "Please! Please don't kill him! Please!" she screamed. Tears blurring her vision and running freely down her cheeks. "Plea-"

Another gunshot tore through the air and one of the widows facing the ice rink shattered into a thousand pieces. A spurt of blood flew through the air and Carver fell backwards on to the floor with a thud.

"BILL!" The woman screamed. She received no response from her boss. Carver was as still as a statue and not a single sound escaped from his lips.

Suddenly free from Carver's grip, Pete stumbled a step then turned around and stared down in surprise at the motionless body of his would-be executioner. Ellie couldn't even begin to describe the relief she felt at the sight before her. A short laugh escaped her lips. Pete was still alive; against all odds he had surviv-

Carver's arm shot up like a striking snake and a gunshot tore through the air like a thunderbolt. The area where Pete's jaw and throat met imploded in a grizzly display of gore, and a spurt of blood erupted from his head. Pete's eyes rolled back into his head, and a final gurgling exhalation escaped his lips before his body toppled over and hit the floor next to Walter with a mighty crash.

Ellie barely heard Nick shout of anguish or Sarah's wails of terror over a wordless scream that rose so high that it hurt her ears. It wasn't until she felt her throat go raw and her lungs burning from need of oxygen that she realized that it was she who was screaming. Her heart constricted painfully in her chest. It felt like a hand had punched its way through Ellie ribs and was squeezing her heart to the bursting point. After gulping down a lung full of air she broke down into chocking sobs.

Through eyes half blurred by tears, Ellie looked at Pete's still body. His head lay on its side, mouth half open, eyes rolled up and the tip of his tongue hanging out almost touching the blood pooling around his skull. A thousand needles stabbed into her heart at the sight of him in this state. He had been both caring and stern with her, joking and teasing, like the uncle she had never had. He deserved better than this, he deserved so much better than this.

A grunt alerted her to Carver haltingly climbed back to his feet; his mouth set in a grimace. A hatred she had never felt before towards another human being welled up inside her like an inferno as well as a fury at the injustice of the world that aloud this monster to live whiles two good men lay dead. It branded a single though into her mind.

"I'm going to kill him; I going to see that murdering motherfucking shitfaced son of a bitch dead." The zip ties dug painfully into her skin as the muscles in her arms tightened in anger; Ellie didn't care. All she wanted in that moment was to see Carver dead. "You're gonna die motherfucker."

Unaware of her thoughts of murder, Carver, now with fresh blood seeping from a wound under his arm, marched with quick strids to grab another victim. His gaze lingered unsettlingly long on Alvin – his right-hand flexing as if in anticipation – before moving on, passing Ellie, Sarah and Carlos quickly as if they were not even there and settled on Sarita.

"Please, no! We had nothing to do with this!" Matthew pleased when Carver grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her to her feet and marched her to the broken window. No one else pleaded for Sarita's life, it was pointless, no word but that of the shooters would sway Carver's hand.

"I can do this all night!" Carver shouted out through the shattered glass. "How many more of your friends are gone die before you see that!" He pressed the gun against the side of Sarita's head, his finger tightening on the trigger.

"Wait!" A voice shouted from outside. "Don't shoot! I surrender!"

Carver eased up on the trigger and waited. A few seconds later the double doors open and in walked Kenny, alone, his arms raised in surrender. Carver pushed Sarita towards the woman who led her back to her place. Kenny was quickly tied up by Troy and dragged before Carver.

"Where is Luke?" Carver asked when they were face to face. Kenny shrugged. Carver shook his head. "He finally cut and run, huh? Why am I not surprised? Probably dragged the girl with him." Carver grunted and gestured for Troy to put Kenny with the others.

Kenny cursed Troy as he was violently forced down on his knees next to Ellie, Troy responded to the insults by kicking Kenny in the leg. Kenny grunted in pain and muttered even more insults at Troy. Ellie watched him the entire time from the corner of her eyes. He was kneeling where Pete had been a few minutes before, where Pete would still have been if it wasn't for him.

"It's his fault. Pete, Pete's dead because of him." Kenny and Carver, they were both responsible for Pete's death. Carver may have been the one to pull the trigger, but he wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for Kenny attacking. She hated them both.

Carver was walking back and forth in front the row of kneeling prisoners. He stopped and jabbed a finger at Carlos. "I warned you. I warned you not to trust him, him and Pete. But you wouldn't listen and look what it led to." He turned towards Rebecca and smiled. "But you're safe now. We're going home. As a family."