a/n~ and here begins episode 5!! please vote for and comment on the chapters if you like the story ♥️♥️♥️
ALSO italics without quotation marks = just sign language
"italics with quotation marks" = the person is speaking out loud but also using sign language.

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     JOEL CAN ONLY REMEMBER a handful of times when he felt genuine, soul-crushing fear. The moments that you'd expect like Sarah dying, the first time raiders tried to attack him and he was alone, when he and Josie were ambushed and he almost didn't save her, and sadly too many more to count.

But because each moment was so different, nothing could've prepared him to open his eyes and see Josie with a gun pointed at her head again.

Any sleepiness he felt goes away instantly. He looks to the little boy holding a gun at him.

"Eyes on me. Eyes on me. We don't wanna hurt you. We wanna help you. You don't have to worry about what to say."

"You don't wanna hurt us how about you get that gun away from her?" Joel motions to Josie. "Point it me, I'm in charge."

Josie looks to Joel who slowly shakes his head, silently begging her to stay quiet. Inside though, she's furious at him.

"I don't know what the next step is with something like this, but if I lower my gun, we didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us. Right?" The older boy hesitates before listening to Joel, pointing the gun at him instead.

"Right..."

"That's a weird fuckin' tone man."

"That's just the way he sounds he has an asshole voice. Joel tell him he's okay." Ellie is starting to panic. If there were no guns involved, Josie might've laughed at what she just said.

"Everything is great."

Josie speaks up for the first time. "He's telling the truth. You have guns aimed at us, you're the one that holds all the power. But yes if you don't hurt us, we don't hurt you. Right?" She looks at Joel, who's expression softens juuust a little as he nods.

"Alright. I'm gonna trust you."

They watch as the older boy signs I'm going to trust him to the younger boy. Josie knows Joel doesn't understand, but is unsure if Ellie does.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Josie notices the way the little boy watches the older one, clearly having a lot of trust in him.

"But if either of you guys try anything," he waves the gun around, "yeah?"

Joel asks if he can sit up, and the older boy says yes. As if to say 'look what'll happen if you try something', his gun points to Josie again.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Henry. That's my brother Sam. I'm the most wanted man in Kansas City. Although right now, my guess is you're running a close second."

After the guns are put away, Josie can tell Joel's upset, despite Henry and Sam especially, being so young. But wanting to keep the peace, Josie suggests they all sit down and eat.

Henry mentions that they don't have any food left, but Ellie offers to share. Josie can tell that Joel isn't happy about that either.

Josie sees Sam has finished but is watching his brother eat, so she waves her hand until he looks at her.

Do you want more? She pulls something out of her backpack and holds it out to him.

Not used to speaking to anyone other than his brother, Sam's face lights up as he nods yes, and grabs the food from Josie's hand.

You know sign language? He asks.

Josie smiles, I learned in school a long time ago, then taught myself the rest.

Joel stares at the woman sitting next to him. "I didn't know you knew sign language."

A shrug, then a wink to Sam as she signs you never asked if I knew it.

"Can you ask him how old he is?" Ellie asks Josie.

"If you want to ask him something, you can ask him and I can translate," Josie speaks to Ellie, then turns to Sam. How old are you?

Eight.

"He's eight."

"Cool. I'm Ellie."

Henry signs her name, then Sam smiles at Ellie, and looks at Josie next.

What's your name?

"I'm Josie, and this grumpy man," Josie briefly leans on him, "is Joel".

"Look, you ate, we didn't kill each other, let's call this a win-win and move on."

Henry dusts the crumbs off of his hands, "well I'm betting y'all came up here to get a view of the city and plan a way out. And when the sun's up, I'll show you one".

Josie and Ellie both turn to Joel. Ellie is wondering what he's thinking, but Josie already knows he wants to say no. Even if he did trust them, he hates traveling with more than 1 or 2 people because there's a bigger chance your group will be spotted.

There's an awkward silence as they all sort of just sit around and wait for the sun to come up. Josie wants to ask Joel what he wants to do just to make sure she can be on the same page and back him up, but there's no opportunity to talk to him alone.

She also doesn't want to raise any suspicion with Henry by asking Joel to speak privately in the hallway.

After what feels like a lifetime, but was really only another hour, the sun comes up. Henry leads them to a big window.

"Welcome to Killa City."

"No FEDRA," Josie whispers at the same time as Joel, who speaks at a much louder volume.

Henry looks back and forth between the 2 of them. "Not as of ten days ago, no."

"We always heard KC FEDRA was—"

"Monsters? Savages? Yeah, you heard right. Twenty years they raped and tortured and murdered people."

Finally turning to Henry, Joel asks the question that's been at the back of his mind since he first saw him.

"You're not FEDRA." It comes out more like a statement.

"No. Worse. I'm a collaborator."

Joel shakes his head, fully prepared to tell Josie and Ellie they're leaving right then. "I don't work with rats."

"Yeah, you fucking do. Today you do, 'cause I live here and you don't. That's how I followed you here. I know this city, and that's how I'm gonna help you get out."

Josie approaches, after making sure Ellie and Henry are occupied. "You said you're the most wanted man in Kansas City. Why would you wanna help us?"

"You just answered your own question. And I saw what you did. The way you guys killed those men. Now, I know where to go. But I don't know how to make it through alive. Not if it's just me and Sam."

Joel speaks again before Josie gets a chance to. "You seem capable enough. You're armed."

"You're wrong, and wrong. Never killed anyone. And pointing an unloaded gun at you was the closest I've ever come to being violent. So that's the deal. I show the way, you guys clear it."

"Do you even have any bullets on you? If you had to would you actually be able to use either of your guns?"

Henry's pause has Joel sighing. This would mean 2 unarmed people who can't defend any of them.

"Joel, we need them."

Although he knows she's right, Joel is nothing if not stubborn. He still wants to say no, and go at it just the 3 of them like originally planned.

"Please."

Joel gives Josie a small nod, then turns to Henry. "So how are we getting out?"

Henry draws a sort of map and explains more about what highways lead where, and about a woman named Kathleen, who's apparently the leader of the resistance. As he points to each spot on the map and shows them where people are standing guard, Josie's hope begins to dim.

How do we get across? Henry asks Sam.

Sam writes on his little board, then shows them all. Tunnels.

Henry then begins to explain the route they'll take, although it sounds like a long journey and Josie already knows she won't remember everything.

"Sounds good," Josie begins to feel like okay, maybe they can do this.

"Yeah, a little too good. You know the exact route, the hell do you need us for?" Joel crosses his arms.

"I— you guys noticed anything strange about the city? I mean other than all the strange shit you've already seen?"

"No infected?" Ellie guesses.

Henry nods. "Oh there's infected but you're kind of right. There's no infected, on the surface, that is. FEDRA drove them underground fifteen years ago and never let them come back up. It's the only good thing those fascist motherfuckers ever did."

"So you want us going into an unknown tunnel, to what, get ambushed by a bunch of infected?"

"Not exactly. Everyone thinks that it's full of infected. Including Kathleen, which means we won't run into any of her people. But you see, what I know is, it's empty."

"You've been down there?" Josie is a little skeptical.

"No. But the FEDRA guy I worked with said it's completely clean. They cleared it out three years ago."

Joel scoffs, and is mentally preparing himself to have a tough conversation with Josie, in which he'll tell her he doesn't want to risk their lives on a gamble like this.

But Henry senses his hesitation. "You can handle them."

"And what if there's more?"

"Or one of those blind ones that can see like a bat?"

"Wait. You guys ran into a Clicker?"

Ellie nods. "Two of 'em."

"And you're all still alive. See? You're the right people. If it does get bad down there, we just turn around and run right back out the same way we came."

"That's your great plan?"

"No. That's my dicey-as-fuck plan. But as far as I can tell, it's our only shot."

Sam taps on the table. What are they saying?

"They're saying they're going to help us escape."

Joel turns to Josie, who's lost in thought. "Josie?"

This, Josie is still getting used to. Before, Joel and Tess would always discuss and come up with the plans, and Josie was always content to just follow wherever they wanted to go. She said as much, so the 2 would usually only ask for her vote if they disagreed and needed a tiebreaker. Rule was, whatever she said, they did since neither would budge.

After thinking it over for a minute, Josie nods. "He's right. We saw how many people were on the two trucks that drove by us. I think underground is our only shot."

They go over the route again, and once Joel is as comfortable as he can get with it, the 5 of them head back out.

Josie wasn't ever able to find a battery for her flashlight, so she sticks close to Ellie. She would've gone to Joel again, but she was secretly furious that he was so quick to offer up his life for hers, when he told Henry to point the gun at him instead. It reminds her of how he did the same thing when she first met Bill, but this is different.

Joel watches Josie, wondering what has her upset. She isn't showing any visible signs of it, which is why no one else suspects anything, but he can tell. It's in the way she has been quiet with him since they first met Henry and Sam.

Before they actually start to walk down into the tunnels, Josie gives Henry a few bullets for his gun. And for the first time since leaving the Boston QZ, she pulls out her bow and arrow.

Down to the tunnels, Joel takes the lead. Josie follows directly behind him, with Ellie, Henry, and Sam following in that order.

Henry points out that he was right and his plan is good, since he can shine his flashlight down the long hallway and they don't see any infected. Joel quickly shoots that down, pointing out the fact that they haven't been down there that long. Hearing that, Henry turns to Ellie.

"Your dad's kind of a pessimist."

"He's not my dad."

"I'm not her dad. Just point your lights forward, and be ready to run."

When they get to a door with a hallway covered from floor to ceiling with colorful kids chalk drawings and paintings, Josie lowers her bow and arrow, wanting to open the door.

"Wait," Joel steps forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. She nods and steps aside.

"This must've been a sort of classroom, or daycare." Josie walks around on her own since the lights are on.

Joel nods. "Heard about places like this. After Outbreak Day, some people just went underground right away. Built settlements."

FEDRA school didn't teach Ellie that, so this is the first she's hearing about anything like that. "What happened to them?"

"Maybe they all got infected after not following the rules."

Sam and Ellie settle down at a table as they both bond over a comic book that Sam found.

Setting her backpack on the ground, Josie takes a seat on the floor. But she doesn't let herself get too comfortable, since judging by Joel's body language, he wants to leave soon.

Ellie must look at him and see the same thing. "Come on man, can we stay here for a little while? There's actually shit to do."

Mostly because of how happy Sam looks, Henry agrees. "Safer in the shadows when we pop back out on the other side. Couldn't hurt to wait the light out, at least for a little while."

Joel is about to say they don't have time to wait. But he looks at Ellie and sees her having fun with Sam. And he looks at Josie and sees how exhausted she is. She ended up laying down with her head on her backpack, and was fast asleep. "Fine."

While Josie remains asleep, Ellie and Sam play soccer in front of a makeshift goal, while Joel and Henry sit at the only table big enough for adults.

Joel breaks the silence. "If you were collaborating to take care of him, I shouldn't have said what I said. I don't know your situation. And I'm not saying they should let it go, but... all things considered, seems kinda cruel, to send a whole army after you for that."

Henry admits he lied to Joel, and that he had, in fact killed someone. He told him the whole story, ending with the fact that the man he got killed was Kathleen's brother.

"I am the bad guy because I did a bad guy thing. But you get it. You may not be her father," he points to Ellie, "but you were someone's. See, I could tell. And you've been glancing at her," this time he motions to Josie. "Every couple of minutes. When you look at her, or when you're talking to her or even listening to her, it's the only time you don't look angry. She's someone special to you, and I bet theres not a whole lot that you wouldn't do to keep her safe."

Not even meaning to, Joel looks over at Josie. She'd just woken up, and was slowly stretching and yawning. When she looked around and made eye contact with Joel, she gave him a small smile. As upset as she was, she'd save that conversation for later.

Joel wants to leave, and he wants to do it now. They've waited long enough, and every minute wasted is another minute away from Tommy where something could be happening to him. But then Josie pulls up a chair, sitting close enough to Joel that if he chose to, he could put an arm around her.

Fine. Maybe they can stay a little while longer.

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a/n~ heheh man is whipped.