[ iv. downtown wasteland ]

august 3rd, 2033

➸➸➸

DOWNTOWN LOOMS LESS THAN a mile away yet Tess stops the group from advancing any further into the city with a sudden and sharp demand of the two stowaways.

"So, what was the plan?"

Such a simple question with a more than complicated answer.

Frankly, Lena Ramsey does not know for certain what Marlene's entire plan for Ellie and herself was. All that the Firefly leader had ever disclosed to them what she had thought was considered urgent, in the moment, need-to-know details. Anything beyond the mere simplicities one needed to survive carried too much weight. To know too much information would have put them at an even greater risk while in the hands of strangers. Now, though, beneath the intense glares of the two brute smugglers that corner her once more, Lena thinks that having more to tell would actually keep her safer that she currently feels.

"It's . . . It's complicated, Tess," Lena insists.

"Try me," She challenges. Her dark, beady eyes snap towards Lena's own paled and soaked face, neither women necessarily wanting to bend to the will of the other. "Let's say that we deliver you to the Fireflies, what then?"

Lena hesitates to respond, entirely unsure of the proper answer, and in her silence, Ellie pipes in, "Marlene said that they have their own little quarantine zone," She says. "They have doctors there; still trying to find a cure."

Joel rolls his eyes at the young girl's words. "Yeah, we've heard that before, huh, Tess?" He snips.

Lena's eyes narrow at the bitterness directed towards her niece. "Well, I don't know what you've heard, but considering we got that info from Marlene herself, I would say that it's pretty accurate," She shoots back. In response, Joel tenses at the harshness in her tone yet she never falters beneath his hardened expression. Anger and irritation are emotions that she is very familiar with, and she is sick and tired of feeling it spewed in her face by this stranger. It is about time he has gotten a taste of his own cruel medicine. "Look," She addresses, voice stern and cold. "I don't have the specifics if that's what you're looking for. Neither of us do. All I know is that whatever happened to my niece is the key to finding a vaccine."

"Oh, Jesus," Joel groans.

"It's what she said!"

"Oh, I'm sure she did."

Lena's cheeks burn with frustration but before she can even get the next vengeful word out, Ellie is already beating her to the punch as she points an accusing finger in the taller, burlier man's imperturbable face. "Fuck you, man! You don't get to talk to us like that!" She dismisses. "We didn't ask for this!"

"Me neither," Joel retorts with a scoff. "Tess, what the hell are we doin' here?"

Tess, who has been awfully quiet during the rapid fallout of this entire exchange, dares a sullen look towards her partner. In her silence, her twisted expression of adamant curiosity screams multitudes before she even finally asks the question aloud—the question they are both likely thinking, no matter how stubborn these smugglers are. "What if it's true?" She asks.

Joel's eyes widen in disbelief, in betrayal. "I can't believe—"

"What if, Joel?" Tess repeats, cutting him off. "I mean we've come this far. Let's just finish it."

"Do I need to remind you what is out there?!" He exclaims, pointing an aggressive and firm finger in the direction of the shadowy city of Boston. Lena's stomach twists uncomfortably at the crossness in his snarl as she blinks against the pouring rain, off into the dark of the unknown.

Meanwhile, Tess still hesitates as she reads her frantically speaking partner. Like Lena, even in Joel's angry desperation, Tess does not see fear in his features. The city is nothing new to Joel; he is a smuggler after all. To successfully navigate these shadows is to survive another day. Neither Joel nor Tess needs a reminder of what is beyond the wall. They already know, and Tess focuses on this slipup, suddenly seeing what Lena cannot. With a brief glance towards Ellie, Tess's expression falls when she turns back to her closest ally and her voice softens greatly. "I get it," She murmurs.

But whatever it is that the woman gets, it is still not enough to change her mind.

Then, without another word, Tess brushes past Joel and continues onward toward the city, leading the way even if she is uncertain that others will not follow. Ellie watches her departure closely, then hesitantly looks toward Lena for guidance and with a faint, encouraging nod of the older woman's head, she follows after the smuggler and into the dark. Lena lingers in silence as she watches the pair walk off; she wants to follow but an angry presence behind her keeps her from moving forward.

Don't engage.

Lena's pride gets the better of her when she ultimately turns to look at Joel from over her shoulder. Their expressions collide with a cry of rage and a bitter ignorance that could easily get the both of them killed if they were found under any other circumstance. "You don't have to come," She proposes. "I'm sure that Tess is more than capable of getting us through the city herself."

Joel's glare only deepens, as if that were even at all possible. For a long moment, he does not speak. Lena thinks that he might just ignore her entirely. Then, abruptly, with as much malice as he can muster, he plunges a knife into her heart when he bitterly says, "And I'm sure that you're more than capable of gettin' her killed."

It is a cruel statement, but an even more horrific fact. "You don't know me," Lena insists. The knife only twists deeper into her chest, into her ribs, slicing coldly and messily, as she attempts to remove it.

"I don't need to."

Lena's hands clench into fists as she turns on her heel and storms away.

Never once does she turn back to see if Joel follows, but she hears the wet slap of his boots against the asphalt. At the mere sound of his walking, of his very existence it seems, Lena scoffs and walks even faster, desperate to catch up with the others. Unfortunately, she does not have to go very far and her attempt to escape her own simmering rage slips away like the cold mud that falls from her burning skin in the rain.

"If we cut through downtown," Tess begins, once the four of them are back within quiet-talking distance. She points to a large hanging traffic sign, but Lena can barely make out what it says through the grime that covers it. EAST something. "We can hit the capitol building by sunrise."

"We hope," Joel mutters from the back of the pack.

Lena rolls her eyes but does not say anything. She does wonder if he only says this to get a rise out of her, though. Either way, it does not work. She will not let it. Instead, she keeps her eyes forward and up, watching the city grow taller and taller with each step that she takes closer. Now standing in an intersection that reminds her faintly of a much smaller Times Square, Lena's attention goes towards the two familiar skyscrapers that fall into one another. Never did she imagine in these twenty years of destruction that she would ever be standing underneath them again.

"Holy moley," Ellie coos in awe. "I guess this is what these buildings look like up close."

"Pretty cool, huh?" Lena replies lightly. Again, that echoing tug between a smile and a frown pulls at her features as she watches her niece look around the world in wonderment. If only Ellie could have seen Boston before Outbreak Day. If only she could have grown up in a world that knew light, love, and hope instead of one so devastatingly familiar with darkness, hate, and loss.

Ellie nods her head. "They're so damn tall!" She exclaims giddily, walking with a tiny, peppy skip in her step. Then in the very next breath, her voice turns serious with curiosity. "So, what happened here?"

"Extermination," Lena explains. At least that is what she remembers Anna calling it. And their parents, too, before they were lost to the second wave.

"Huh?"

"It was the military," Tess cuts in. Off to the side, lingering near the remnants of an old sidewalk, Lena sees a familiar FEDRA evacuation notice plastered against the side of a bent, blue bus stop. People living all over the city had received an official copy two days before the bombings, but less than half had actually acted upon the warning. In those early days so many did not take the threat of the outbreak seriously until it was too late. Lena had nearly been one of them, being so young and naïve, and all. "All over the country they bombed the hell out of the surrounding areas to the quarantine zones, hoping to kill as much of the infected as possible."

"Did it work?" Ellie prods.

"To an extent," Tess responds with a shrug. "But I think it did more harm than good."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the Infected will always know how to hide."

As if on cue, mixed beneath the harsh booms of thunder, Lena hears a long, animalistic screech echo on the wind and ricochet off the tall buildings around them. She immediately recognizes the haunting wail of a Clicker.

"Shit," Joel swears and Lena automatically flinches at the acidity in his voice. The man has been so quiet for the past several minutes, lingering behind them as they walked and talked, that for a moment, Lena forgot he was even with them.

Another bloodcurdling screech rapidly follows and the sharp cries pierce right into Lena's chest and she stops dead in her tracks, looking towards the darkness of downtown. She cannot see more than a few feet down the street yet now she knows that Clickers and other Infected alike are already waiting for them.

Instinctively, Ellie inches closer to Lena and all brightness and wonder that had lingered in her expression is suddenly gone. "What the hell was that?" She demands fearfully.

"A Clicker," Lena informs, though she speaks in such a way that she tries to make her response sound more explanatory than terrifying. She has never been good at obscuring reality, of course. She does not know how to soothe people after living so many years by herself, trusting only herself.

"A what?"

"One of the Infected," She clarifies.

Ellie's eyes only widen further with terror and alarm, but before she can begin to spiral Tess reassuringly adds, "It sounded pretty far away."

"Are we safe?"

"For now. But we need to move a bit faster. Come on."

The four of them abandon the street and begin to climb amongst piles of structure rubble, working their way to get a higher vantage point. The path to the downtown area is not easy to navigate in the slightest; there is more brick than asphalt that they walk upon. Bombs have completely destroyed what was once Lena's childhood city. If it were not for the skyscrapers above, even as they threatened to crumble too, the area would be unrecognizable.

Eventually, Lena and the others forgo the street entirely and find themselves standing on the side of a small shop. No, not on the roof—they are literally standing on its side, it is as if a bomb had pushed the building over completely, letting it splay and waste away across what was formerly the street. Lena has never seen such a thing before, but in the moments that follow she suddenly understands why the building is the way that it is.

If anything, the lost shop could be considered lucky given what looms beyond it. As the four individuals move to the far end of the shop's edge, where there should the returning street on the other side, instead there is only a massive black pit. A bomb has hit this place centerfold, digging fiercely into the ground with no mercy for the city. The remains of buildings that once lined the street have toppled into the concaved earth and Lena immediately knows that she is looking into downtown. Or what is left of it.

"Damn," Ellie whispers. "That's quite a drop."

Joel steps up beside Lena and peers out into the dark. In the distance, his attention catches on something, and he raises a hand outward. "There's the capitol building," He reports.

Lena follows his gaze and eyes the golden, dome-shaped government building from where it peeks out behind an apartment complex. She purses her lips at the distance from where they stand to where they need to get to. It is two miles away, at least. Maybe three with all the climbing they may have to do to reach it.

"We need to find a way out of this mess," Tess grumbles.

To worsen their luck, there is no way they can simply cut through this madness. It is an immediate drop off the side of the shop they stand upon, and the fall into the wasteland is at least a few hundred feet deep. But they cannot turn back in search of another street; it will take too much time. Instead, they will have to go around and through the surrounding buildings to reach their destination.

That, regrettably, also means that they will have to go into one of the skyscrapers. In the state of collapse around them, it is the closest building to them that still stands steadily—or so Lena hopes it does.

Lena surprises even herself when she says, "Over here," and walks away from the edge she stands upon and closer to the looming skyscraper that is pressed firmly against the shop's base. From the height they stand on the building, they are level with the skyscraper's second floor. All the lower windows on the side of the building that faces them are shattered, likely from the impact of the collision with the other skyscraper that leans into it. As she approaches, she can see into each and every office room. To her relief, empty spaces look back right at her. There are no Infected—that she can see, at least. The same cannot be said for what may linger beyond each of the doors that lead out of the offices and deeper into the massive structure.

"Good eye," Tess compliments, coming to stand beside Lena. She then looks to Joel who still lingers behind them, the man likely not even wanting to follow Lena's suggestion, and sarcastically asks, "Care to pick the lucky room?"

Joel scoffs but takes point, regardless. With a huff, he pulls himself through one of the shattered windows of the closest office and Lena and the others are quick to follow into the shadowy skyscraper. When she stands upright again, her center of gravity automatically shifts with the awkward angle that the skyscraper slants at and she finds herself leaning forward slightly to keep from toppling back out of the building.

Lena does not like the feeling of standing unbalanced one bit; it makes her dizzy and every creak of the building swaying in the storm's harsh wind churns her stomach.

"This way," Joel says. His hazel eyes sweep carefully across the room, likely searching for supplies, before he leads the three women towards the lone exit that leads out into the hallway. For the briefest moment, the man lingers before he opens the door, waiting to see if he hears any movements beyond. Lena listens, too, for the familiar screech of a Clicker.

When there is nothing to be heard, Joel cautiously pushes on and swings the door outward, only to ultimately freeze at the sight of a freshly mangled body thrown against the hallway's opposing wall.

Lena pales at the sight of all the blood. It pools on the ground in a thick puddle and splatters up onto the walls. Half-eaten organs from a torn-open stomach are strewn across the white, dusty tile and soak into the blue uniform that the deceased body wears. Recognizing the fallen man as an officer from the quarantine zone, Lena immediately sidesteps in front of Ellie, attempting once again to shield her innocent view from the gruesome killing.

The young and stubborn girl does not stand for this type of protection, of course, and quickly peers around the woman's torso, taking it all in. "Holy shit."

"He's been ripped apart," Tess murmurs.

"This happened recently," Lena notes, already looking away from the body with no desire to examine it further. Unlike her sister, who was a combat nurse, Lena has no interest in blood and guts. At least she no longer gets physically sick at the sight of a dead body; she can thank Anna for that, too, with all her ridiculously long overnighters spent studying the technicalities and severities of injuries for college medical exams in their shared bedroom space. At the time, flipping through notecards for a test that she would never take had been the last thing Lena ever wanted to do. Now, in a strangely sick way, she thanks her sister for forcing her to participate.

"Do you think that whatever did this is still in here?" Ellie asks.

"I don't know," Lena answers, though her voice has already dropped. She does not speak louder than a whisper when she adds, "I hope not."

Tess makes a quiet noise of agreement in the back of her throat. "Let's not stick around to find out."

They head for the stairs at the other end of the hallway which are, thankfully, still intact. As they climb, all around them, in the silence, the unsteady skyscraper aches and groans with the wind that pushes against it. In offices behind closed doors Lena can hear pieces of furniture moving, being pushed from one end of the room to the other. At least she hopes it is only desks and chairs that move in the shadows she cannot see through.

"Oh, shit."

Another freshly mangled body awaits on the next floor, much to Lena's horror. It is another quarantine zone officer. One of the man's arms is missing, torn clean from the elbow, and in the space where a fallen hand should lie, there is a bloodied note instead. Joel is the only one that risks the freshness of death as he dips down to one knee and holds the piece of yellowed paper into the beam of his flashlight. A moment of eerie silence passes as he reads.

"Looks like these guys died waiting for backup," He concludes.

"Do you think help ever came?" Lena wonders.

"In this storm?" Joel retorts, crumpling the paper in his fist. "No, I don't."

Lena's eyes drift back down towards the body. What could these officers have possibly been doing this far beyond the zone? Patrols rarely scouted the city unless it was urgent. What had been important enough to push into the darkness of downtown in the midst of an unforgiving summer storm? It could not have possibly been them, could it? Surely, they had been looking for Fireflies. It was the only explanation that made sense. The four of them were not worth risking an entire squadron for.

"Bad news. The stairs are blocked from this level up," Tess announces, ripping Lena from her puzzled thoughts. "We'll have to go across the floor; see if we can find another stairwell."

And so, without further protest, they abandon the dead bodies and the crumbling stairs, and move back into a new hallway. As they walk, Lena finally finds time to retrieve her own flashlight from the bottom of her backpack and holds it high as she treks across the tiled floor. The light is dim with a dying battery, but she cannot see very far, anyways, with two bodies in front of her.

Meanwhile, Joel still leads the way, which is why he is the first to exhale a startled breath upon seeing what blocks the next office door in front of them. "Goddammit," He says sharply, freezing in his tracks. "Clicker."

It is a dead Clicker but a shock to Lena, nonetheless, whose heart has already leaped into her throat at the man's mere surprised words, terrifying her before she can even see the scene for herself. When she peeks around Joel's broad shoulders, she sees that the Infected figure has decomposed to the metal door itself, its body more fungus and mushroom than it ever was human.

Lena Ramsey has only seen few a Clickers in her life, given that she has been locked behind stone walls for so long, but the sight of one is truly unforgettable.

While the Cordyceps infection initially starts in the brain and festers from within—these infection periods are considered the Stage 1 Runner and Stage 2 Stalker stages—a Clicker is what happens when the process begins massively reverting outward: otherwise known as Stage 3. Slowly, after the individual has finally lost their mind during the painful ravages of Stages 1 and 2, the fungus spreads from the host's nose, ears, mouth, and eyes, eventually growing entirely over the individual's face, blinding them. From there, the fungus only spreads further across the rest of the body, covering the torso, arms, and legs with more hardened and adapted fungus, creating a shieldlike defense. This evolution process finishes roughly one year after initial exposure to the infection and by its completion the Infected now essentially looks like a demonic, deadly, and fungal mushroom with arms and legs.

"Geez." Ellie grimaces. "What's wrong with its face?"

"That's what years of infection will do to you."

"So what? Are they . . . blind?"

"Sort of. They see using sound."

"Like bats?"

"Like bats," Tess confirms. "If you hear one clicking, you need to hide. That's how they spot you."

"That's kind of terrifying," Ellie admits.

"It is. But it also makes them easier to kill. They can't see you coming."

"But they can hear you."

Tess chuckles beneath her breath. "Good thing we're quiet."

Joel tears the dead Clicker from the door with a sickening crackle and pop. The fungus turns to dust in his hands when he pushes the body aside, the dried skin untouched after so many years. Lena steps over it carefully when Joel manages to get the next layer of mushroom off the door's hinges, fearful that even in its own death that it could still manage to grab her.

In the next office room, several file cabinets with partially hung-open shelves are pressed against the nearest wall. On the opposite end of the room, where there had once been a wall of windows, now there is no wall at all. Lena can see back out into the rainy city from where she stands within the building, cold but dry. It does not look as if they have covered much ground since they stood atop the sideways building back near the intersection. They need to move faster.

Around them, the skyscraper moans again as distant thunder echoes over their heads. The storm is doing nothing for this unsteady structure. At times, it seems as if the building is mere seconds from falling over entirely, succumbing to the black pit that the four escapees are trying to avoid in the lost downtown area. "Whole building feels like it's about to fall apart," Joel comments as they push deeper into the room. "Watch your head through here."

Lena crouches to duck beneath a set of bookshelves that have been knocked over on their sides and placed atop two desks that face each other. In a way, the white, molded furniture looks like an old barricade of sorts, perhaps used to hold something off. That dreadful perception of the room is proven further when they reach the next doorway into another office space, finding an old desk pushed up against the threshold. Anxiety twists in Lena's stomach as she takes apart the rooms piece-by-piece. Something has happened here, whether it be years ago or hours ago. For all she knows, these very blockades were put into place by the dead soldiers in the hallways behind them. No matter, she knows she will never convince the others to turn back at the mere illness she feels brewing in her uneasy stomach. This is the only way through. Reluctantly, she silently pulls herself over the desk and continues on.

A sharp sway of the building freezes Lena in her tracks once she stands upright again. In this new room there are many abandoned cubicles, all still decorated by their owners from a past life. She does not have time to focus on any of the pictures, though, for she nearly stumbles when a desk chair abruptly rolls back from its desk and knocks against her legs.

"The storm is getting stronger," Lena whispers as she returns the chair back to its former rightful place.

Another groan from the building's structure causes a stressful sigh to slip from her niece's lips. "Totally cool," Ellie tries to convince herself. "Everything is totally cool."

Lena steps closer to the young girl and sends her a calming nod. Ellie's green eyes glisten in the beam of Lena's flashlight, but her composure remains strong. Then she turns her head and looks towards the smugglers who are struggling to open the next door that leads back into the hallway. One shove. Two shoves. Three, and the door finally bursts open—but where there should only be the creak of hinges crying out at the blunt force, the night is torn open with the sharp shriek of a Clicker waiting on the other side.

"Joel!" Tess yelps.

The man falls into the dark hallway and is taken to the ground at the ferocity of the Clicker's attack, but he holds the Infected at bay with two strong hands around its throat. Lena nearly screams at the sight, and she hurriedly pushes Ellie behind her. All the while she grabs for her knife, but while her arms frantically move, her legs do not. She is frozen to the floor, horrifically watching as the Clicker screeches and screeches, desperate to rip Joel apart.

It is Tess who saves the day. Less than three seconds after Joel hits the ground, she is pushing over the threshold and kicking the Clicker firmly off the man's chest. Her pistol is already in hand, though Lena never once saw her grab for it.

With one shot, she blasts away the protective fungal plates that surround the Infected's blistered skull. With the second shot, the bullet shoots right into the Clicker's exposed forehead, cutting it off mid-screech and killing it.

In such confined spaces, the gunshots ring disastrously loud in the narrow hallway and Lena's ears ring painfully as the harsh sound echoes back to her. The cold silence that then follows in the fallout of the attack is nearly more deafening. It is also certainly more nauseating for Lena as her legs abruptly jolt beneath her, her body nearly giving out in the shock of it all. Ellie's hands go to Lena's back, but she can barely feel her niece's touch.

Meanwhile, as Tess still hovers over the Clicker, ensuring it is deceased, Joel clambers back to his feet and nods appreciatingly at his partner. "Thanks," He says.

"It's nothing," Tess shrugs. Her voice never falters; hardened and controlled from years of violent experience.

"That was intense," Ellie huffs. "Holy shit."

She soon releases the tight grip she has on the back of Lena's shirt, steps around her aunt, and then moves into the hallway after the two recovering smugglers. Lena is last to follow, walking softly, with a flashlight dangling limply from one hand and her knife gripped deathly tight in the other.

"We need to keep moving," Tess urges. "We don't know what else could have heard that." She hardly looks at her surroundings before she moves off down the hallway and Ellie chases her shadow, leaving the two other members of the group behind. Now, with only a dead Clicker standing between them, Lena nearly loses her stomach as she looks up to Joel.

She knows that that could have very easily been Tess if Joel had chosen to take Lena's early words seriously. If he had abandoned them to take on the city alone roles within this deadly skyscraper would have been drastically altered. And the difference in the ending? Tess would have been killed due to Lena's inability to act. Then what might have happened?

The Clicker would turn on them, surely. Lena would be dead. Ellie would be, too. Because, yes, while her niece cannot get infected, that does not mean that she still cannot be killed. One-by-one-by-one, without Joel, the three of them would be dead. They would be added corpses to the growing pile that already surrounds them. All because Lena had been too scared to respond, too cowardly to move.

Several times she opens her mouth. Then it closes. Then it opens again. In the quiet, her teeth clench and unclench with each breath. She tries to say something, anything, but whatever words that she wants to say do not come out. So, she merely continues to look at Joel, but he is not looking at her.

"A-Are you alright?" Lena Ramsey finally forces out. Damn her stutter. Damn her fear. Damn that Joel Miller can already sense it, can see it in her face when he finally turns to hold her blinking, terrified green eyes.

"I'm alright," He confirms. Though breathless, there is no tremble in his voice. Rather, it sounds like he has just finished a long workout; a process of something he is familiar with. Suddenly, Lena wonders how many Clickers this man has fought and killed in his jarring life.

But she cannot dare to ask him that, so instead all that she says is, "Good."

And she means it.

➸➸➸

THEY LEAVE THE DEAD Clicker behind and continue onward into the depths of the swaying skyscraper. After searching briefly for supplies in the surrounding rooms, and Tess taking a moment to bandage the side of Joel's head where he unknowingly hit it against the hard tiled flooring in his fall, the guarded group of four moves to the opposite end of the deserted hallway and reach the old remains of what looks to be a tiny office receptionist area.

In the distance, Lena can faintly hear the harsh pounding of fists. Another Infected, likely awakened by the fresh crackle of gunshots. She cannot tell if it is coming from above them or below them. For the sake of where they are heading, she hopes it is below. Regardless, by the persistent rap of rage, wherever the Infected may be, it seems to be currently trapped.

And while the sound startles her, Lena is thankful for it, too. This time she knows with certainty that they are not alone. This time she is prepared for an attack on their group. In the moments they took to recollect themselves, Lena has returned her flashlight back to her bag and now only holds onto her knife. Beside her, Ellie does the same. This time both women are prepared to use them.

"Oh, boy . . ." Joel suddenly grumbles in disgust. Lena idly turns from a wall lined with TVs in the reception room and follows his gaze towards a collapsed staircase that would lead to the next floor. Now, the stairs reach up the wall about halfway. Not an impossible distance to climb, but inconvenient all the same.

What Lena soon realizes, though, is that Joel is not complaining at all about the state of the stairs. Rather, he is looking at the sight of another dead body partially dangling from the upper floor. Its torso and head are angled down towards them, the latter part blasted into by a bullet. A suicide shooting to avoid ending up like his fellow officers.

"Yeesh," Ellie shivers.

"Don't look," Lena advises to her niece as they follow Joel towards the fallen staircase.

He clambers up onto it first, going as high as the stairs will allow. Then he turns his back to the wall and braces against it, locking his hands together between his knees. "See if there's a way through, Tess," He orders.

Tess nods and places one foot into Joel's intertwined palms without protest. With a huff, he then lifts her upward and she grabs onto the ledge of the floor above, pulling herself up with ease. Lena and Ellie inch closer to Joel as Tess rises to her feet and disappears from the edge to look around. Only a moment later, she returns. "It's clear," She announces as she drops back to her knees and dangles a hand over the edge. "Come on up, Ellie."

"Be careful," Lena whispers as she watches her niece approach Joel next. Though Ellie is shorter, she is much lighter and makes for an easy toss to the next level. Lena sighs quietly with relief once she is standing beside Tess, safe and secure.

"Alright, you're up," Joel says. His back is still pressed firmly against the wall behind him, his hands locked and strong. This has no reason to end badly yet Lena cannot help but ask the worst in the silence that now surrounds them.

"You're not going to drop me, are you?"

"Only one way to find out."

Lena rolls her eyes as she exhales a nervous breath and reluctantly returns her knife to her hip. With her hands free, they automatically go to Joel's broad shoulders and she squeezes tightly, perhaps too tightly, fingers automatically digging into his green flannelled shirt, when she lifts one foot into his hands. His palms immediately press in around her muddy boot and she leans forward into the man, letting him lift her up towards the next story. She keeps her eyes strictly upwards when she moves, never allowing them to veer to her right where the dead body still hangs, practically mocking her with an approaching death lest she fall. But Joel does not let her go. He is steady; sure. And as she raises even higher into the cold air, her core tightens with steadied balance when she lets go of his shoulders and reaches upward, allowing her hands to clasp onto Tess's which still dangle over the edge. Now securely in Tess's hold, the woman pulls Lena the remainder of the way up, and soon it is only Joel that lingers below in the empty, quiet room.

Now able to see the second floor of the reception room for her own eyes, she sees that the surrounding space makes up the tiny remains of what was once likely a tiny office café and lunchroom. It is under construction, though—at least it was before Outbreak Day. Several crates and workspaces litter the area where ordinary tables might have once been organized. Tucked away in a far corner of the room is a tiny food bar, but it has long since been barricaded, too.

"Lena, help me out with this," Tess suddenly calls. Lena does not even get a chance to step away from the staircase's ledge before her attention is being drawn back towards Joel who waits, needing their assistance to reach them. With Ellie watching their backs, Lena drops down beside Tess at the edge and leans forward to help. "C'mon, big guy."

Joel has to jump high to reach their dangling hands, but he manages to grab them both on the first try. Tess groans at his lurching weight and Lena cannot help but quietly yelp at the way her body threatens to fall into the floor as she struggles to keep her balance with one hand, all the while helping pull Joel up with the other. He is certainly heavy with muscle. but she is more distracted by how hot his hand is while in her own freezing one. She can feel the bitter callouses scratch against her palm. His grip is so strong; he could bruise her fragile bones if he held on only a tad bit tighter.

Lena leans back on her knees as Joel finally reaches the ledge and she scoots back further to give him the room he needs to pull himself up the rest of the way. Achingly, almost tiredly, the three adults clamber back to their feet, step away from the collapsed staircase, and finally turn around to look outward into the quiet room. "Alright," Tess exhales. "Let's—"

None of the four ever realize that the distant banging of the trapped Infected has stopped until it is too late.

"Oh, fuck."

"Clickers?!"

"Go, go, go."

Lena recognizes the familiar click-click-click almost immediately and her blood runs cold with dread. She hurriedly reaches out to grab Ellie just as she hears the heavy and frantic footsteps of an Infected approaching from the open doorway to their right. She barely sees it enter the room before Joel is ushering herself, Ellie, and Tess towards one of the large, occupied workspaces in the middle of the café, and forcing them to all crouch down behind it. It is just big enough to obscure the four of them from sight.

Though Lena can no longer see the Clicker that follows them blindly into the café space, she can certainly hear it stalking nearby. Piercing clicks and sharp snaps of teeth echo in the darkness, as the predator hunts its prey. Goosebumps rise icily on Lena's clammy skin as she leans into the workspace, wishing that she could simply become it; that she could be in any other position than the one she currently finds herself in.

Her heart pumps ferociously in her chest, blaring in her ears, and she cringes as she readjusts her weight from one foot to another, feeling her boot narrowly skid on the dusty tile. The Clicker does not seem to catch this brief noise, to her relief, but it is still steadily growing closer, wandering mindlessly around the room. It would take only seconds for it to find them, and Lena was fearful that their group might not be prepared to battle another so soon.

Yet from the corner of Lena's eye, she can see that Tess is already thinking three steps ahead. Carefully, the woman peeks around the side of the workspace and grabs a brick. She does not hesitate as she raises up from her protected crouch just enough to wind her arm back and throw the piece of rubble across the room where it echoes loudly against the café food bar's locked door.

The Clicker is storming the steel door in an instant, violent arms raised and screeching madly with dominance. In all the chaos of the loud thrashing, Tess speaks to the trio crouched around her, though she is still barely audible, "That's our way out," She whispers, pointing at an area beyond their hiding space. Lena follows her gaze, risking a peek over the edge she crouches behind, and eyes the large wooden barricade that blocks off the main staircase; the very staircase that should be able to lead them out of the building entirely. "Over the scaffolding."

"Okay . . ." Lena's eyes then shift towards the manic Clicker. Now, it is no longer hitting the door, but it is still irritated and clicking loudly. It is still making enough noise on its own that it should not be able to hear them. "Lead the way," She murmurs back.

No one lingers, not wanting to test their luck with the Infected. Lena struggles to keep one eye on Ellie and one eye on the Clicker as she forces herself to push off the workspace, but in the end, she trusts her niece to follow right on Tess's heels. Meanwhile, Lena stays very low to the ground, balancing on the balls of her feet to keep her movements silent as she navigates from one wooden crate to a lone condiment bar, and then finally behind an oddly placed folded table. Never once does the Clicker hear her, still too distracted by the lingering mark of a battered brick against the far opposite end of the room.

With death not so certainly imminent, where she knows that she is not trapped between a rock and a hard place, Lena does not second guess herself as she moves silently through the shadowy café. As a prior thief navigating the pathways of patrols in the quarantine zone, she understands that one can never hesitate in their movements. To hesitate was to lose your way, to reveal yourself without ever truly meaning to. And once you have been seen, it is incredibly difficult to hide yourself again.

Within a matter of minutes, Lena, Ellie, and the smugglers have successfully made it across the room to the exit, unnoticed by the Clicker. Yet even with the finish line now so close, they must still move fast. There is no time to waste with using one another to clamber up and over the scaffolding together. Thankfully, the wooden barricade is low enough that even Ellie can manage the jump on her own, though Lena still gives her an extra boost up and over before following right on her heels. Upon hitting the hard tiled ground, Ellie barely manages to roll out of the way before Lena is dropping down in her once-occupied space, breathless and shaky with adrenaline.

She barely has a chance to regain a sense of her surroundings, to confirm that the Infected is not right on their heels nor are there anymore in the stairwell, before her figure is slumping on the floor, head on her arms as they rest over her knees. She is more than relieved to see an empty staircase looking back at her. The faint clicks of the lone Clicker in the café already sound so far behind her.

"I think that's it." Tess, too, breathes a sigh of relief once she has dropped down on the other side of the scaffold. Joel joins her side a moment later, quiet and tense; his expression is still so unreadable. "Is everyone okay?"

"Other than shitting my pants . . ." Ellie trails uneasily. "I'm fine."

"I'm ready to get the hell out of this building," Lena mutters. Over her head, gleaming on the wall beneath a layer of dust, she sees a massive navigation sign that signals they are on the 6th floor. Now that they have successfully made it across the skyscraper to the other end of the structure, they need to stop climbing. They get back down to the ground. They need to go back down six more stories.

Fuck.

As Lena rises to her feet once more, she feels the flaring ache in her trembling and tired bones, feels the stiffness of her body continuously fighting the strain of fight-or-flight. At this rate, her heart is at a steady hammering; definitely not calm, but not on the verge of a panic attack.

She does not feel the same fear she felt when seemingly trapped in her own body, watching as Joel was attacked. Though she is still scared, it is a heaviness that already envelops her heart with familiarity. It was as if seeing that first Clicker in the hallway up close and so dangerously personal had awoken something in Lena that had long since been silenced. Within the quarantine zone, she could try to forget that everything beyond it was in ruin. But Lena Ramsey knows this world. She is familiar with the fear, with the adrenaline, with the chaos. She just simply forgot it all for a little while.

"That makes two of us," Tess agrees, ripping the woman from her thoughts. "Let's go."

Unfortunately, they only manage to make it down one flight of stairs before they are blocked on the 5th floor. Rubble has concaved from the inner walls of an office and plunged into the dark stairwell.

"Goddammit," Joel curses.

Ellie crosses her arms tightly across her chest. "Should we go back up?"

"The other stairwell was blocked, too," Lena reminds her.

"Well, what do we do?"

Lena's teeth grind together as she contemplates. They do not have many options left. "We can't go back up. Not with the Clicker up there," She decides. "But maybe there's another way down on this floor. Maybe there's a hole or something that we can just—"

"I have an idea," Tess announces. "But it's pretty fucking crazy."

The woman speaks abruptly from over Lena's shoulder and there is a tinge of hesitancy in her voice. Already, just by Tess's uncertain words alone, Lena knows that she is not going to like whatever has come to mind, and when she finally turns around to listen to her new ally, she halts in horror at the sight unfolding before her. In the dark stairwell, Lena finds that part of the wall behind them has fallen away and in that exposed space, dangling on the outside of the skyscraper, she can see a narrow, rickety platform attached to two cables that is pressed up against the remnants of shattered windows.

Lena's blazing emerald eyes widen in disbelief and her jaw drops. "No . . ."

The last time that this mobile carrier had been used was over twenty years ago by mere window washers. Twenty years of rust, age, and decay adds up and yet Tess is suggesting this is their only option left?

"Tess," Joel gulps nervously.

The wind and the rain from the storm whip loudly overhead, battering harshly on the metal platform. It sways unsteadily, creaking and groaning just as loudly as the actual skyscraper has been whenever hit and jolted by a sharp gust of air.

"Are you serious?!" Ellie exclaims.

"It's the only way," Tess insists sternly. If there is any shake in her voice, Lena cannot hear it, and that only makes her stomach coil tighter. Was this woman insane? "Like you said, Lena, we can't go back. We can't go through; it'll lead to a dead end. That only leaves one choice. We have to go around."

Lena is thinking that her chance at a freefall out of the building would have better results than waiting to die in this swinging deathtrap.

"Tess, wait!"

Tess does not wait. Instead, she exhales one last wary breath before she grabs tightly onto the rusty railing of the carrier, extends a foot into open air, and swings one leg over the side of the metal cage. Joel lurches forward, as if he meant to pull her back into the safety of the building, but by the time he actually reaches the exposed wall that she steps out beyond, Tess is already standing fully footed in the carrier. Joel then immediately steps back once more, putting as much distance as he can between himself and a swift drop, and watches with a horrorstruck expression as his partner tests her weight on the weakened metal.

The harsh rain beats down on Tess and the wind curves fiercely around her body, but she does not bend to the intensity that threatens to engulf her. As she steadies herself, her hands are still clenched on the railings, her grip deadly and her knuckles a blinding white.

"See?" Tess proclaims. "It's not that bad."

Lena can barely breathe, and her stomach has dropped to her feet. Neither Ellie nor Joel moves from where they stand at either of her sides. They are all frozen, watching the confident and mad smuggler woman stand bravely amongst the storm, braced only by a twenty-year-old teetering platform that could collapse and send her falling to her death at any second.

"Just don't look down."

~~~~~~~~~~

did i mention that lena ramsey has a gravely fear of heights? this next chapter is going to be fun. also, slowly but surely our girl is going to gain confidence out in the real world. she's a fighter; perhaps, not the best or the strongest, but when it comes down to it, she will not go down without a fight. i cannot wait for y'all to see that.

anyways, i hope you all enjoyed this newest chapter!! what're you all thinking so far?! what are your thoughts on lena's growing relationships with the other characters?? i appreciate all votes and comments! thank you so much for reading! stay safe and well xx

—B.