CHAPTER SEVEN

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          THE SHRILL SOUND OF THE GUNFIRE WAS ALMOST DEAFENING THAT THE THUMPING OF THEIR FEET WENT UNNOTICED BY THE GUNMAN. Ellie was struggling, hitting the man against the arm with all her might but he wasn't budging. The brunette caught up with them easily, having the advantage of not hauling a teenage girl in her grip. Lucia barricaded the door the moment she was through, ramming a piece of wood through the handles.

"I can't believe you did that." accused the teen, absolutely livid when Joel dropped her arm. "What the fuck?"

Joel didn't acknowledge her as he adjusted the shotgun in his hands, body language tense as he glanced around the corridor. There were screams coming from the entrance of the building and there was no way Tess had survived the ambush, Lucia just hoped she had managed to take down a few of the bandits in the process.

"We just left her to die." Ellie rambled on, pacing back and forth with trepidation.

"Ellie," snapped Lucia and the teen gaped at her in disbelief. "not now. We need to get the fuck out of here before they find us, and fast."

"This way." glowered Joel, though the anger wasn't directed at either of them specifically. "We go upstairs. We can probably get out from there. Just keep pushing forward."

Lucia shot the teen another warning glance before following after the smuggler without hesitation, getting out of the building alive was her main priority. The gunfire had seized but the shouts were still prominent and the three of them hurried down an unfamiliar hallway and up a spiral staircase.

Their steps echoed throughout the empty space and Joel held out his hand, crouching down as he led them to the upstairs area of the main entrance.

The bandits, whoever they were, were visible through the cracks of the balcony and Ellie smacked her hand over her mouth when she spotted Tess laying in a pool of her own blood, gun kicked away from her.

"Oh, shit." she trembled, her green eyes had widened at the sight.

"Shh," Lucia murmured, taking a hold of her wrist in an effort to comfort her as they hid behind the railing. There were about five of them, as far as she could see and they were heavily armed. Her breath hitched in her throat for a moment as the horrors from her days with her brother coursed through her veins.

"Jesus," expressed one of them, lowering his weapon slightly. "the bitch took out Lars and Felix."

"Search the building." said another. "She couldn't have been alone. Kill everyone you find."

From the corner of her eyes Lucia saw Joel move and she peered up at him. He held his forefinger in front of his lips and jerked his head toward the room on their right. It was about thirty feet away but they could make it unseen. Follow me, he mouthed and she gave him a single nod.

"Come on, kid." The brunette tugged on her wrist and Ellie followed after the two adults with a dejected frown.

The smuggler shut the door when all of them were inside, shoving a chair against the handle to barricade it. The room was empty apart from the furniture that it housed before the end of the world. Lucia tried the windows, but they wouldn't budge while Joel tried to door on the other side, but he didn't have much luck either.

"They're gonna be here soon." warned Ellie, eyeing the door cautiously. "Maybe if you give me on of your guns -"

"No." "No." Lucia and Joel interrupted her at the same time and they blinked at each other.

Lucia was the first to tear her gaze away and stalked to the door he had just tried to pry open, and sank to her knees. The woman seized the badly made shiv she had stolen from the apartment in the QZ from her bag and jammed it between the door and the lock, giving it a hard smack with the palm of her hand.

"That is not going to work." huffed Joel with a shake of his head.

Lucia sneered at him in annoyance and gave it one more strike, shattering the makeshift weapon in the process. Joel tightened his upper lip with displeasure as if to say 'I told you so'. Lucia got back to her feet and gave him a sly grin, pushing at the door with her foot. It swung open and Ellie trudged to her side, impressed.

"Just go." grunted Joel.

It was another corridor they had to walk through and another set of stairs until they were back on the first floor, this time on the right side of the building. There was no sign of the raiders as they passed multiple offices. Their backs were pressed against the wall as they advanced forward.

"Joel," whispered Lucia, but he didn't seem to hear her and she had to tug on the back of his jacket to get his attention. He turned his head and stared at her and she nudged her head toward the open window on the other side of the hall. "we can go that way."

The smuggler followed her gaze to see that the window let to the front of the building. It was their best shot to get out of the situation. He inclined his head and Lucia was the first to pull herself over the window sill and jump to the tall grass below.

Ellie hoisted herself over the threshold next, followed by Joel and he swore underneath his breath once his boots hit the ground. He held onto his knee for a second while scanning the surrounding area with his dark eyes.

"You alright there, old man?" Lucia cocked her head to the side, observing him for a moment.

The brunette would be six feet under if his glare was able to kill her and before Ellie was able to get to her full height, he pulled her back down. There were two men guarding the front of the capitol building, automatic rifles held stiffly between their hands.

"See that there?" he voiced, pointing between the two woman to the other side of the flooded street. "The entrance to the subway station? We can make a run for it. We hide behind the cars."

"That'll never work -" began Ellie, but clenched her jaw when he shot her a scowl.

Lucia kept her gaze on the two strangers, trying to figure out where they'd walk to next. When both of them had their backs toward them she shooed Ellie from their hiding spot and they quickly made their way toward one of the cars to crouch behind.

"That was good." she praised, nodding at the teen. "One more."

Joel peeked around the back of the car, hand up to signal for them to wait. "Go."

Lucia was the first to move and squeaked when a bullet whizzed past her head through the water and onto the concrete below. Ellie was already behind the next car, only steps away from the subway station. Joel was shooting, fury evident on his face and soon so was Lucia, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

"Run!" Ellie tried, hiding near the entrance helplessly as she watched bullets ricocheting against the metal of the cars. The teen held her hands over her ears to diminish the shrill sound.

Lucia's bullet hit one of them in the throat, which distracted the other one for a short moment and before she could pull the trigger again, Joel gripped at her bicep and pulled her into the depths of the subway station.

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NONE OF THEM COULD SEE A HAND BEFORE THEIR EYES IN THE DARKNESS AS THEY RUSHED THROUGH THE SUBWAY STATION, AND NONE OF THEM SAID A WORD. Ellie strode a few feet in front of them, holding onto her flashlight with a solid grip. Even then, it was difficult to see the end of their path, trying not to to trip on the rubble.

As far as the brunette could tell, they weren't being followed by the small group of raiders. There were rumours of a small group, one that FEDRA hadn't been able to get at, but she had never encountered them before on her runs. 

"Ellie, goddamnit." hissed Lucia when the teen disappeared down the hall and into the shadows, cascading them back into inky nothingness. Neither she nor Joel knew what awaited them as they ventured further through the underground. It could be crawling with infected, or things much worse than that.

"Hold up." The smuggler stopped her with a firm grip on her shoulder, eyes adjusting slowly as he continued, "Spores. You have a mask?"

Squinting, she could see the specks of fungus floating through the air not far from where they were standing. Lucia cursed and slid her backpack off her shoulder to retrieve her mask. The rubber band against the back of her head was already giving her a headache when she positioned it against her face. 

The glass began to fog up instantly from the warmth of her breaths, a necessary thing if it meant not getting infected. Joel had taken a step toward the main station, where Ellie had disappeared to. He had been quicker than her, he and Tess had encountered more infected areas than she had. Lucia was always careful to no enter buildings with spores, the mask made her feel claustrophobic.

 before turning his face to glance back at her.

"I don't think Ellie has a mask." she grumbled when the mask was completely secure. 

The woman stepped inside as she momentarily forgot about the teens immunity from the fungus. Lucia swiped her knife at her when Ellie pulled at her wrist but the teen ducked in time, "Jesus, Ellie." scolded the woman when the girl let go of her, after having her pulled down behind the rubble of the vandalised subway station.

Her knees hit the tiles below and she grimaced in pain as Joel suffered the same fate when he entered behind her. Lucia could practically feel his glare on the girl through his mask, piercing the side of her skull.

"There's infected over there." whispered Ellie, peering over the debris. Dust stained her fingers as she held onto the rocks for support. 

"How the hell are you breathin' in this stuff?" demanded Joel, befuddled.

"I wasn't lying to you." she declared, desperation in her voice as she tried to convince him of her condition. 

Joel hadn't bought it before, after twenty years of living in a post apocalyptic world there was no hope in finding a cure. It was always the same story over and over again. Every time there was someone new who proclaimed they could make a vaccine, but none of it ever happened. It was all but a myth these days.

Lucia counted four runners in total, as far as her eyes could see through the darkness. The area was unfamiliar to her, never having stepped foot in any of the underground stations of Boston for this very reason. They were huddled on the left side, near the ticketing area and she guessed they could sneak past them on the right.

"Come on." she uttered, slowly moving toward the trains. 

Joel and Ellie followed her silently and alert as she led them around the debris. The coaches of the train were seemingly empty and she clambered into one, pupils dilated to adjust to the darkness. The path was long, but no runners seemed to notice them. Her ears strained for that familiar clicker noise, but none was to be heard.

Runners weren't blind but their sight wasn't very good and if non infected had trouble seeing in the dark, the infected definitely did too.

"Just up ahead." muttered the brunette, jumping from the coach and onto the platform once she saw light illuminated the end of the station. 

Climbing over the ruins of an old information stand, they got closer toward the exit. The spores had diminished but still clung in the air like an invisible disease, and she was glad not to have seen what had caused them. Fungus grew on the walls and Joel smacked Ellie's hand when she reached for it. 

The woman took the steps two at a time, tearing off her mask the moment she found herself standing underneath the sun.

Lucia took in a deep breath of purified air with a sigh, eyes moving to the older man as he coughed away the dust from his mask. He let himself collapse on a nearby boulder, rubbing the skin of his face with his hands rather roughly. 

"Hey, uh, look," began Ellie, unsure as she fumbled with her switch blade. "about Tess ... I don't even know -"

"Here's how this thing's gonna play out." Joel interrupted her, jaw set as he leaned forwards. "You don't bring up Tess. Ever. Matter of fact, we can just keep our histories to ourselves. Secondly, you don't tell anyone about your ... condition. They'll think you're crazy or they'll try to kill you. And lastly, you do what we say, whenever we say it. We clear?"

"Sure," she nodded, eyes cascaded toward the ground as she flattened weeds.

"Repeat it." he pressed, wanting her to say the words.

Ellie clenched her jaw before her green eyes met his dark ones. "What you say, goes."

"Good," he acknowledged after a moment, a sigh escaping his mouth. "now there's a town north from here, Lincoln. There's a fella there who owes me some favours. Good chance he could get us a car. We can get there by tomorrow." Joel got to his feet and rested his gaze on the woman across from him. "Are you coming or staying?"

This hadn't been a part of her plan. Lucia was supposed to drop the girl off, get her merchandise and leave Boston. But there was no merchandise, there hadn't even been Fireflies and she felt conflicted. Go back to the QZ, go off on her own with no recourses or go with Ellie and Joel.

"Please come." spluttered Ellie, watching her with creased brows. "I know this isn't what you had in mind, but -"

"I can drop you off at the next Firefly outpost." she settled, giving the man a nod to which he inclined his own in response. Ellie let out a sigh in relief and shot her a grateful smile, muttering something about Joel being grumpy and Lucia bit back a grin of her own.

"Let's get a move on, then."

THANK YOU for 10K reads, that is amazing. I hope you're liking this story so far. I am so exited for the next few chapters! I've written and edited this chapter six times because i was so unhappy with it but i hope that you will enjoy it <3 Also, more time to write Lucia and Joel banter now that Boston is behind them.