Numerous high-powered guns fired at the group, coating the truck's body with bullet marks and sending Cutter, Chloe and Sully diving for cover behind the rim of the truck's rear storage area. Nathan Drake shoved Ellie down off of her seat and under the dashboard, himself ducking down as far as possible while still driving. 

"Somebody get in here and take the wheel!" yelled Drake over the tumultuous racket. "I'm gonna go get Joel!"

"You got it, kid!" called Sullivan. "Cover me!" he shouted to Chloe and Cutter, who began firing at the nearest trucks that were by the driver's side of the vehicle. Most of the other vehicles also had open-topped storage areas, and the duo rained bullets down on the mercenaries that were perched in them. 

Sully manouevred his way to the driver's side door, flinging it open and propelling himself inside. 

"I got it covered," assured Sully, switching places with Nate. 

"Here goes nothing," said Drake, taking a deep breath before swinging himself onto the front of the truck. 

"Keep it steady!" he yelled, crouching precariously. 

"You want steady, then quit blocking the windscreen and you drive instead!" replied Sullivan. 

Then suddenly a string of bullets flew just over Nate's head, smashing the windscreen to pieces. 

The owner of the gun, Eddy Raja, cackled wildly from his position at the rear doors of the lead car. 

"Nowhere to run now, Drake!" he proclaimed delightedly. "Your luck has finally run-"

"Out," finished Joel, looming up behind Eddy and shoving him hard, sending him flying out of the vehicle and onto the ground, where he narrowly avoided being hit by a passing truck. 

Nate turned to Sully. 

"Can you see out of the windscreen now?"he grinned innocently. 

Sully ignored the inappropriate quips, and stamped down on the accelerator, taking the truck right up towards the front car, and stopping just before a collision. 

"Joel, come on!" called Drake, indicating for him to jump. 

"Joel!" yelled Ellie from the front seat, shouting encouragement until Sullivan pushed her down again. 

Joel took a few laboured steps back, wracked with pain from his extensive injuries, and ran forwards as fast as he could. 

Meanwhile, Gabriel Roman, who was sitting three metres away in the passenger seat, yelled at his driver. 

"They're right behind us! Get us out of here!"

The car pulled forwards as Joel reached the gap, which was suddenly expanding rapidly. 

"Shit!"he exclaimed, throwing himself forwards and crashing onto the front of the truck. Nate extended his hand, but Joel slid away down the bonnet. Drake dived forwards, grasping hold of the other man's arm. Joel's feet dangled just above the blur of the forest floor below. They both cried out as Nate heaved Joel back up onto the front of the truck. 

"Don't scare me like that!" said Sully. 

"Well, hey, a heart attack could hardly make you drive any worse," retorted Nathan. 

"I got a gun right here, Nate, and I need you out of the way so I can see where I'm going. So don't tempt me," he smirked. 

Nate turned to Joel. "Just climb over the top of the truck and get in the back with the others. So long as you stay down, you should be fine."

"What're you doing?" inquired Joel. 

"Uh..." Nate paused, as streams of gunfire flew all around. 

"This!" he suggested, leaping onto an enemy truck that had just pulled alongside. 

Joel stared in shock. "Get in the back, lie low. Sounds good to me."

Nate ripped the machine gun from a mercenary's hands, and knocked him to the ground with a powerful swing from the bulky weapon. Another man grabbed him from behind, and Drake headbutted him, before tossing the assailant over the edge of the truck. 

"That all you got? Who's next?" he said. 

 "I could keep going all- oh crap!" he yelled as two muscle-bound men jumped across from another truck to join him. 

"Hi fellas," greeted Nate, leaping forwards and punching the nearest brute in the face.  "Aghhhhhhh, that hurt, that hurt, that hurt," Drake moaned as the soldier remained unaffected. 

"Come on guys, two on one?" he questioned. "Pretty cowardly way to fight."

The two men charged forwards, each delivering a huge punch that knocked Drake aside like a rag doll. 

"I like your style," slurred Drake, staggering to his feet. "Sully! Little help here!"

"Goddamn it, kid! Can't I leave you alone for two minutes?" cried Sullivan.

Looking into the side mirror, he could see that a truck on the opposite side of Drake was engaged in a firefight with Chloe and Cutter, meaning it was down to him. 

"I know how to drive," offered Ellie. 

"You know how to drive?"

"Well..."

"Screw it. Take the wheel," relented Sully, flinging the door open and readying himself for the jump. 

"You know, I always say I'm getting too old for all this. But I guess there's no age I could get to where I'm not still always saving his ass," he said. "Yippee goddamn ki yay!" 

Ellie closed the door behind him after he had jumped.

"Okay... concentrate, Ellie. Don't get us all killed."

Meanwhile, Victor Sullivan hung one-handed from a speeding truck. 

"Maybe I am getting too old for this!"

An enormous shadow covered his face as one of the brutes came over to the side and loomed over him. 

"Hi there," he said. "Why don't you pull me up and we can just, uh... amicably go our separate ways?"

The mercenary drew back a fist. 

"Ah. I guess not."

BANG!

The bruiser slumped backwards. "Go help Nate!" yelled Chloe, lowering her gun. 

"Can do," called back Sully, almost jovial from relief as he pulled himself up and charged into the skirmish. 

Chloe turned to Cutter. 

"You still in one piece?"

"Just about. You weren't worried, were you?"

"I was worried I'd lose my meat shield," scoffed Chloe. 

"Well, that's jus-"

BOOM!

A colossal fiery explosion blew a huge crater into the ground right next to the truck. 

A hulking vehicle equipped with a grenade launcher was manoeuvring through the convoy towards them, a sizable squad of heavily-armed men occupying it and itching for a fight. 

"They're just teleporting in now, surely!" complained Chloe. "What do we do?"

"Stay here!" cried Cutter. "We'll be dead in seconds if it's not stopped quickly!"

Without pausing for a reply, he launched himself out of the truck, leaving an anxious Chloe. 

Meanwhile, Nate and Sully had just sent the second brute down to the floor purely by force of numbers. 

"Guess you had the right idea with two against one earlier, pal," panted Drake. "But it looks like things are finally looking-"

"Down!" yelled Sully, diving forwards and knocking Nate to the floor with him, causing errant bullets to fly above them in their hundreds as a machine gun turret unloaded on them. 

A few moments later, the rapid gunfire ceased, and Drake popped his head up to see that the bulk of the convoy was separating them from the turret. 

"Aw, how am I supposed to get over to- well, hello!"

Sully watched, perplexed, as Drake disappeared over the side of the vehicle. There was a scream and suddenly a loud revving sound, and Sullivan peered over the edge to discover that Nate had managed to commandeer himself a motorcycle, and he was now driving alongside him. 

"Get back to the others, Sully," he said. "I've got this."

As the machine gun turret resumed firing, Drake accelerated towards it, weaving in and out of various obstacles in his path. Bullet holes peppered the ground around him as he drove unsteadily forwards. 

"I really don't got this!"

While he was driving, a loud explosion sounded behind him as Charlie Cutter leaped from an enemy vehicle, causing the grenade launcher to blow it up instead and wipe out a portion of their own men. 

Cutter landed on the truck that housed the grenade launcher, pulling out a pistol and firing at the men, managing to kill all but one of them before his gun clicked empty. 

"Oh, shit," he muttered as the mercenary raised his shotgun. 

Chloe flew out of nowhere, slamming into the soldier and knocking him to the floor. 

"Need some help, meat shield?" she asked, with a wink.

"No, no, I had it covered."

"Are you sur- Shit, look out!"

During the fray, a grenade had been ripped loose from a mercenary's belt, and had ended up resting on the floor of the truck. 

BOOM!

Chloe, who was already airborne when the grenade blew up, felt the subsequent explosion of the truck propel her body upwards, and forwards, throwing her into a high arc that sent her catapulting into the back of a passing truck. Despite the agonising landing, she shot to her feet, eyes scanning the rubble and the surroundings for any sign of Charlie. 

"Cutter? Cutter!"

There was no sign of him. 

She looked around desperately. And then she, along with everybody else, was thoroughly stunned as the convoy passed out of the French jungle and into a vast desert. Trees were replaced with sand dunes and the jungle floor was swept away by a thick, strong, yet soft blanket of white sand, streaked orange by the sun overhead. 

And as if this wasn't enough, Drake was caught off guard when a fleet of sleek helicopters materialised above them in sync with the geographical shift. They were confirmed as enemy helicopters when they began to target Nate, who was so distracted that he rocketed straight up a dune, sending him soaring straight into the midst of the low-hovering helicopters. 

Gabriel Roman watched from the lead car. 

"We have them now," he surmised. 

Joel was lying half conscious from potentially fatal injuries; Sully and Ellie were under heavy attack in the truck; Chloe was stranded on her own, surrounded by enemies, and Cutter was missing in action. 

And Nathan Drake was hanging from the bottom of a helicopter. 

"Ohhhhhhhh craaaaaaaaaap!!!!!"