The group of scouts rode off at sunset and began exploring the area. They were about ten people, including the new scouts in Jesse and Dina. Just like Ellie and Dina earlier, they went down the path they took just outside the dam. This time, they took a path going towards the river where there was a train yard nearby. They had guessed that the intruders were living somewhere near the area for shelter.

Leading the pack was Joel and Ellie, keeping the pace of the ride slow to conserve energy for them and the horses. Tommy followed behind while the younger ones were at the back. Joel looked at Ellie, who had a different tone in her face than earlier. It seemed that she had been happier the past few hours, indicated by the slight smile on her left cheek that is constantly appearing.

"You had fun?" Joel began.

Ellie got lost in her focus and shook her head quickly before looking at him, "What?"

Joel chuckled at the sight, "I said, did you have fun?"

"Fun in what? Carrying a bunch of boxes in the dam?" She avoided the conversation.

"Come on, Ellie," Joel growled, "How was Dina? It seemed like you two got along just nice."

"It went as okay as it could be. As far as first impressions go, it went pretty good."

"I would say it looked better than good," He let go of the reins and let the horse choose its pace, "It seemed like she changed you a bit."

"Changed? Really, Joel?"

"You seem like you want to look good or smell good when you're with her. I could tell by this morning."

"Fixing my hair?" Ellie argued, "Maybe it's just that I've picked up some new hobbies."

"You usually don't." He pointed out. "I just haven't seen you be like this in a long time."

"Good thing or bad thing?"

"I - it's a good thing. I think it's better for you. I would think you could learn a thing or two from her." Joel stopped to let Ellie speak. She continued to have her head down and be silent. "Does she remind you of her?"

Her head immediately looked to him, "Joel... it's been a long time since it happened. I - I don't know if it does; but I rather not bring it up."

Joel muttered in his rugged voice, "I understand."

"Any further?" Ellie inquired. Joel was speechless while moving ahead, "Um, Joel?"

He shook his head and turned to her, "Yeah... just a little bit further. Just in the middle of the woods."

"Wait, wait. You don't know where exactly in the woods?"

"I've only been to it a couple of times. As well as Tommy but... it was only us so far. We didn't imagine that a crew would be settling down there. Too many damn clickers around here."

"Looks like the cleanup crew is getting sloppy." She joked.

"You do know I'm part of that." He reminded.

Ellie acted proud, showing off dominance by making her body straight to Joel's height, "I do."

"Very cute, Ellie." He chuckled softly.

They reached a crossroads. One was leading to a hill that was overlooking most of the forest. There was a path that started to change color to a more rustic tone. They were certain that it was the way leading to the train yard. They all came to a halt, as Tommy moved to the side of Joel.

"It isn't too safe to get in there guns blazing." Joel acknowledged.

"I think it would be a perfect time for Ellie to teach our new scouts." Tommy suggested, looking towards her.

"M - me? No, no, no, no... I'm not a great teacher." Ellie reminded.

"Didn't you tell us you taught Dina how to ride a horse?" Joel refreshed her memory. "Just bring them up the hill and give them tips." He handed over his walkie-talkie to her.

Ellie forcefully grabbed it off his hand, "Fine." She groaned again.

"We'll meet you in a bit." The rest of the group moved forward to the train yard.

Dina and Jesse approached Ellie, who had a snugged look on her face. Dina moves beside her to stare at her, "Anything wrong?"

"Nothing. C'mon, let's go take a look." Ellie led them to the hill. The forest became more scarce as they advanced to the top. "We'll have a better position if we scouted at the top."

"You've been doing this for a long time, huh, Ellie?" Jesse spoke.

"Three years. Once we came over, it was all work since then." She explained.

"What happened before that? How did you get here?"

"Joel and I needed help from Tommy. We ended up going to Salt Lake City but came back here." Ellie looked around, "Jackson, home."

"You went to Salt Lake City? For what?" Jesse continued.

"Salt Lake City? You haven't told me this part, Ellie." Dina added.

"It was for... I forgot." She quietly looked down to Blair, stroking his right neck, the same place where Callus had gotten shot. "It was a blurry image."

"How could you forget? Wasn't Joel with you?" Dina inquired.

"Look, I would love to talk about it some other time..." They had reached the peak of the hill watching over the entire train yard. She got of Blair and grabbed the dusty binoculars from her bag. "but we have a job to do."

The duo followed Ellie as they crouched on the tip of the hill. The fall was not too dreadful, as there was a slide right beneath them that led directly to the train yard. She used the binoculars and kept on waving it around, looking at the surrounding area.

The territory around was surrounded by a metal walls that were topped with barbed wire on the top. The place was scattered with wooden crates that were old and mossy. They were stuck to the ground, almost looking abandoned. There were train carts that were stopped in the middle of the tracks, with smoke coming out of one. The one thing in particular that stood out was that the place is empty. Just outside the town, there was a gate, which was left open, much to their surprise.

"How's it looking?" Joel radioed in.

"There's nothing. I don't see anybody." Ellie responded.

"Well," Joel spoke in a disappointed tone. "Keep looking, we'll find something."

Ellie glimpsed at Dina and Jesse, speaking to one another while looking outwards into the base. She signalled them to come closer. Once they were all settled together and crouching to avoid being spotted, she handed over the binoculars to Jesse.

"Being a spotter is really easy, all you have to do is look and say what you see. All the important shit first, though." Ellie instructed.

"It isn't that hard." Jesse commented. "All you have to do is look around— which is basically what a spotter is."

"Smartass here." Dina joked.

"Really, Dina?" He said, as he continued to scout. "I still don't see anything."

"What's hard about this? All you have to do is get on a high place and watch over some place."

"It's not about what's in front of you. It's about doing this while also watching your back. Sometimes you never know. You can be watching over a place peacefully and then," Ellie snapped, "you're gone."

"Good point but not a strong one." Dina smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Ellie rolled her eyes while letting her body fall on the side of the tree. She leaned there to rest her back. "As long as we get out of here alive."

There was static signals on the walkie-talkie until it cleared, "Hey, do you see the smoking cart?"

Ellie picked up the device and brought it to her mouth, "Yeah, why?"

"Go check up on it." Joel ordered.

"We got it." She lowered the device and looked to Jesse, "You see any movement by the smoke?"

"Negative." Jesse answered.

"Awfully quiet in here." Dina remarked.

"We got nothing. You can proceed." Ellie told Joel.

She stared off into the entire landscape. It seemed like it was left to rot for a few days. They could see a small group approaching the train carts, who were Joel, Tommy, and the rest. They hit the carts, hoping that all of them echoed inside, making sure it was empty. The noise could be heard from the hill, where the trio were. Dina was ducking beside a laying Jesse, providing some information. Ellie's shoulders were clenched, feeling uneasy with the situation.

"We might need to call it off. The whole lot is empty." Jesse declared. "There's just a bunch of nothing. Crates, flashlights, wood, barrels, some crushed cars - "

"Wait, a flashlight?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah and it's..." He moved the binoculars back to the flashlight, "I - I think it's open. Flashing on a symbol on one of the crates."

"Oh shit." She began to approach Blair behind them. Her heart began to pump rapidly as she tried to get back on the radio frequency, "Joel! Joel!" She repeated continuously.

"What is it, kiddo?" He said.

"Get out of there! The - "

A loud explosion occurred in the distance. It was at the train yard and fire began to spread across the massive fields. Jesse and Dina were shocked, trying to get up on their feet quickly. Large smoke clouds was starting to form around the sky. The duo rushed to Ellie who was getting on her horse.

"What do we do now?!" Dina frantically spoke.

"You stay here!" Ellie ordered, grabbing the reins of Blair. "I'll get the others out of there!"

"It's not safe, Ellie!" She shouted back.

"You need some help!" He added.

"No! You'll only get yourselves in danger!" Ellie three the walkie-talkie towards Dinah. She barely caught it while breathing heavily. Ellie paced the horse to gallop fast, "Tell me what happens!"

She decidedly took a steep route going down onto the train yard. Blair managed to keep his stance, successfully getting onto the path towards the group. The fog in the air started to be consumed of smoke, making it difficult to see where the fight was happening. There was shouting that was occurring that it became impossible to know who it was coming from.

In the distance, Ellie saw the metal gate that the group had entered in. Groups of raiders began to swarm in from all sides, raining gunfire on to the group. The smoke blocked a clear sight on where it was specifically coming from. Ellie dodged bullets, until she stumbled upon the group. She dropped down and ordered Blair to flee the area.

"Ellie! What are you doing?!" Joel scolded, taking cover behind multiple boxes that are almost buried onto the ground. "You're safer up there!"

"Up there?!" She argued while crawling beside him, "I won't be able to help up there!"

"You will be by being safe!" He groaned loudly.

"I hate to break up the conversation but - " Tommy intervened. He had his shoulders rested on the crate, shooting his hunting rifle into the mist. "we have a bigger problem!"

"I'll sneak up on them and once I get the drop - " She proposed until Joel interrupted.

"Don't start it, Ellie. I'll do it." He crouched and avoided the gunfire that was echoing throughout the forest as it hit the empty train carts.

"He is right on that, Ellie. Even though he might be a pain in the ass." Tommy noted, quickly reloading his weapon.

Ellie leaned to him to grab the pistol on his holster, "Tell me about it."

Along with Ellie and Tommy, the rest of the Jackson fighters kept their ground and provided a distraction for Joel. They kept on firing against almost nothing, as the smoke blinded all of them. The communication between the raiders were blurry, almost as if they were speaking another dialect. The bullets that came out of the fog left trail marks, helping Ellie direct the fire to one position.

He looped around all the carts, until he was on the opposite end of the tracks. The bullets were flying everywhere. The smoke didn't help either, as the fire began spreading on the front of the line of wagons. He knew they came from a opened gate at the far end of the yard. There was a ladder access on one of the train wagons so he used it. Once he was at the top, there were faint shadows that represented the location of the raiders. He raced across the roof, creating a loud ringing noise that caught the attention of the inhabitants.

"Over there! On the train!" A member pointed out.

"Shoot the bastard!" Another stated.

"Tommy, they're focusing their fire on Joel!" A Jackson member repeated.

Ellie shook her head in annoyance and motioned into standing up, "I had enough of this bullshit."

Tommy wrapped his hand around her arm, "Cut it out, Ellie. We have the upper hand."

"You're willing to see your brother die?!"

"No!" He shouted with a worried look in his eyes, "I don't want him to experience the same thing he did twenty-three years ago."

"How many times, Tommy? I'm not - "

"It's not for you to decide."

Joel continued to manoeuvre around the train until there was too much fire that was focused on him. The group began to rain many bullets to the raiders, forcing them to move back a little. That didn't stop them from continuing to fire at Joel. With all the incoming bullets, he dropped on the floor, and rolled off the train's top. The fall was a drop, making Joel land on his left side, hurting his shoulder and leg.

"Damn." He groaned.

Once he managed to stand up from the fall, there were raiders taking cover near him. He dived beside a pile of chopped wood. The wood blocked the incoming bullets, giving him the breather.

Quickly realizing that Joel was pinned down, Ellie snuck past Tommy and the Jackson scouts to get to him. All the gunfire made it easy to forget where she is. Behind all of the barrels, she peeked inbetween the crevices and counted a dozen gunmen shooting at him.

"Hey assholes!" Ellie shouted to draw out attention. "Come and get some!"

"It's the kid!" A raider swing his assault rifle at her and started shooting.

"Ellie!" Joel called while still hunkered by the wood, "Stay put!"

"Where else can I go?!" She retorted.

He took the opportunity to finally ambush the raiders, grabbing his revolver and picking them off one by one. Suddenly the raiders felt trapped, receiving shots from Joel and the Jackson scouts. In the middle of the battle, they all stood up and started running away from the yard.

"Get out! We'll get the girl another time!" A raider shouted as they retreated. "Open the traps!"

Ellie overheard the shouting from the raiders. The train cart that was directly adjacent from her opened, releasing three clickers that had heard all the gunfire. She fell to the ground in surprise, "Shit!"

"Ellie!" Tommy called, crouching on the ground to maintain balance. He picked one clicker off with his hunting rifle.

She desperately grabbed her handgun from her pocket and aimed it clumsily, missing two direct gunshots to the clicker's head. The two started to come closer, almost looking as if they were going to fall to the ground and consume her leg. Out of nowhere, one of the clickers fell to the ground, dead. Dina had shot it in the back, killing it before it died.

The last clicker dropped to the ground on Ellie's body. She laid her hands on its neck, keeping it away from her face. With enough strength, she managed to grab the gun's trigger and shoot three bullets into the clicker's body, making it wiggle as it tried to stay alive. Finally, Joel came in and kicked it off her, sticking one of his boots on its body to keep it from standing. He finished it off with two bullets into the skull, letting it click for a couple of seconds more.

"Holy shit..." Ellie spoke, wiping off the blood on her face, "Another close call?"

"Too many." Joel expressed with a squinted face directed at Ellie. There was obvious anger inside of him. "You should've stayed up there."

"Bullshit." She uttered. Her attention was brought to Dina and Jesse, who were standing behind Joel. "Once again, I owe my life to you."

"It will never get old, Ellie." Dina replied. She walked over to her and lent a hand. "C'mon, fighter."

She helped Ellie get off the ground, which she thanked by giving a smile towards her.

"You two were good today, got some potential." Joel stated. "I would like to think that we can get you some real jobs."

"Anything would beat scraping horse shit." Jesse expressed.

"Let's keep in touch. You'll be doing some real good for the community in a little while." He nodded. "Now go on to Tommy. We'll catch up."

The two teenagers ran to Tommy, regrouping with him. Ellie was still shaken by the encounter, rubbing her right hand.

"You okay?" He checked.

"Yeah. I'm good." She bit her lip. "Just a little shaken."

He tapped her shoulder, "C'mon, let's walk it off."

They walked side by side, slowly approaching the group who were looting the areas around the gate. They had managed to open two carts on the back of the train, which unlocked rooms that were used by the raiders before. In the corner of her eye, Ellie saw Tommy unload a map. Joel's eyes were focused on the supplies, as Tommy and a fellow friend carried off many cans of food.

"This isn't the end." Joel sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't feel like these bastards are the only ones. There's always a bigger fish."

"Then let's hope the bigger fish doesn't find its meal." She added.