"Shit, get down."

In a short panic, they hid around the windowless window seal. Two bulked hunters are inside the room, conversing with each other. Her knees seemed like they were going to pop off. She ached from all the climbing and sprinting.

"—It took two of us to put 'em down."

"Wait, how many is that?"

"Hmm, five just this week," Maeve felt sick to her stomach. "But, hey, I'm not complaining."

Maeve has seen firsthand how bat-shit insane these dudes were, yet she still couldn't believe it. That was too many people that didn't survive against these nut-jobs. It was sheer luck they hadn't been killed yet. She thought she feel grateful that Joel and TJ weren't with them, having seen how brutal they could get.

"Should we sneak around them, or mow them down?" TJ whispered as he looked at Joel.

"No, no..." the man went into brief thought. "There's too many of them. We'll just go quietly if we can."

Once the two hunters dispersed and walked off in their own paths, Joel climbed into the room, creeping after the lone hunter. He put him in a choke hold and took him out silently, hiding the body behind the bed.

As quietly as they could, they went through the rooms. Joel and TJ taking out the hunters in a stealthy manner. Though, strangling them was a morbid way to put them out, Maeve was a little thankful a shootout didn't start again. Her ears were still ringing from the last ones, or maybe that was the humidity working its cursed magic.

After finding a way to the upper floors, the group comes across a bathroom. Now, it wasn't as empty as most of the other ones. In the bathtub, there were two, very decayed corpses. Maeve couldn't tell if the tub had water or blood in it. Probably both. She pinched her nose to avoid retching from the smell.

"Creepy..." Ellie cringed. "Guess they took the easy way out, huh?"

"It ain't easy—for many it was better than letting a clicker or hunter do it for 'em," Joel kept his voice low. "Trust me. It ain't easy."

"Aright, we should get." TJ pressed forward, squeezing through the broken bathroom wall, which led into another bedroom.

"You think they'd let me take a nap on one of these beds?" Maeve eyed the dusty, but comfy-looking hotel bed.

"Pssh—no." Ellie shook her head with a grin.

"Uggggggggghhhhhhh...I'm so tired!" Maeve stretched her arms over her head.

"More hunters, get down!" TJ ushered her and Ellie behind the bed she wanted to nap on while Joel took cover behind the tall dresser to the right of the hunters.

"—How 'bout we take a little food break?" Two hunters paused by the room they were in

"Nah," the one with the shotgun said. "Maybe in, like, in an hour or so. We can eat something before heading back to camp."

"Sounds good."

"Got some extra dried fruit, if you want."

"I'll take you up on that."

That was when the two decided to search the rooms individually. Joel made finger signals to TJ before he seized the hunter, choking him out. The hunter gasped out, clawing at Joel's forearms as his consciousness faded. He was put behind the bed, to avoid suspicion.

This was a brief routine until they managed to sneak around the halls, which were identical, and it made everything feel so confusing. Or at least to Maeve. They headed up a set of stairs, finally finding a way out, or at least it looked like one. There were a set of elevators, one of which, was pried open and had a ladder inside. One by one, they climbed the ladder out of the trapdoor into the shaft. Ellie shut the trap door, just in case more hunters show up and try to follow them. It was incredibly dark, and creepy. Joel climbed the beams, sliding onto the next elevator. It groaned and shook under his weight.

"This doesn't feel safe." Maeve whimpered as the elevator tremors under their weight.

"It'll be alright," TJ murmured. "We'll just boost you two up and you'll pull us up."

"Or find something for us to climb on." Joel added.

"Okay..." Maeve nodded warily.

"Ready?" TJ gestured for Maeve to come to him so he could boost her up while Joel boosted Ellie.

"Not really..." She made a face and prepared herself anyway. Her clammy hands touch his shoulders, and her left foot was in his palms.

Just as he went to lift her up, the shaft shook violently. Maeve yelped out, losing her strength to jump and practically clung to TJ until the tremor was over. His voice was muffled when he tried to speak. Come to realize, his face was smushed into her breasts, from her clinging to him as if he were her safety net.

"Sorry!" She went red.

"Just—!" The shaft creaked and groaned loudly. TJ thrust her up as the lift gave out.

"Maeve!"

"Ahh!" Her scream echoed off the shaft's metal walls as she plummeted to the waters below.

Her body caused quite a splash, it hurt too. Maeve resurfaced with a gasp for air, the guys also resurfaced from their fall, taking in big breathes.

"Joel! Maeve! TJ!" Ellie called from opening above.

"We're alright! You okay?" Maeve worrying craned her neck to see the silhouette of her sister's torso and head.

"No! You scared the shit outta me! I'm...I'm gonna gonna climb down there, okay?"

"No!" The three of them burst. "Stay up there. We'll make our way up to you!"

"Don't do anything stupid!"

"We'll try."

They try to swim around to look for any way up, but their only option was to swim through the flooded basement. Maeve felt like she was going to drown under the water before they even found an exit.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they were able to surface through a collapsed floor. Each of the persons gasped for desperately needed air and searched around for another way out.

"Maybe that way," TJ pointed out to a set of double doors, however, as he pointed it out, the rotting vents above them gave out, ultimately blocking the suggested way. "...or not."

"And that door looks locked." Joel mentioned to them, eyeing the fenced door with an exit sign above it.

"I think I saw a way under the water." Maeve mentioned as she wiped her brow.

"You think?"

"It's something at least, isn't it?" She shot back at TJ. "I want to get out of this place! Ellie is up there with those creeps!"

"Alright, alright," Joel interrupted before a fight could begin. "We'll go under, see what we find."

"Whatever." TJ grumbled.

The trio dipped back into the hole in the floor and swam under the submerged area. It was quick for them to find a path around the locked gate/door. They reemerged inside a locker room.

"Over there, look," Joel pointed toward a wide and open doorway. "Spores. Masks on."

Maeve didn't need to be told a second time. She grabbed hers from her bag, elated to find nothing in her bag was soaked from having to swim under water. Once their masks are on, securing their safety from the poisonous spores, they went ahead into the spore-filled hallway and basement.

There was an odd sound. It was a thousand squeaks, which sounded more like tiny screams, as the shallow water was splashed around. Whatever it was, Maeve's heart pounded like a hundred drums. The water began to ripple violently as whatever it was came closer. The noises seemed to be louder.

"Holy shit!" Maeve lost her breath, her heart continued to race. A dozen or so rats came from the water, running away from something. "Oh my God." The girl tried to calm her palpitating heart. "It's just rats...just rats..."

"Don't let your guard down just yet." TJ pulled out his gun, keeping it at the ready just in case they were attacked by infected.

They entered a small storage room lined with metal shelves against the furthest wall to the right. There was a small table to their left, supplies untouched by the flooding presented themselves to the newcomers.

"Hey," Joel grabbed one of the jars from the table, shaking it slightly before handing it off to Maeve. "You think you can make something out of this?"

Her brows cinched together and grabbed the jar with her shaky fingers. A jar of razors and nails. How convenient. Somehow, she felt a bit more confident about making a nail bomb. She gave the older man a brief nod and went to pull the rest of the nails from her bag, and TJ stopped her.

"We should get to dry ground, otherwise that explosive powder will be useless."

"S-sure." She wasn't gonna complain. This place gave her the willies, to the point her nerves ate away at her. She felt like there was something watching her from afar.

They go into a different room. A part of the upstairs floor caved in, creating an unintentional ramp. It led into a lounging area of the basement.

"You kids make those gadgets; I'll get this generator on." Joel said, stepping closer to a machine, which she assumed was the generator.

"Sure thing, Joel," TJ began to climb the broken floor, pulling Maeve after him. "We should look for more supplies."

"How will making more nail bombs help?" Maeve questioned, feeling a bit silly.

"Did you really just ask that?"

She rolled her eyes and took off her bag to pull out the rest of the needles and nuts, with the explosive powder and canister. She got to work while TJ kept watch...and raided whatever cabinets and drawers he could open.

"Hey, did you find something?" Maeve screwed the lid on the canister and carefully put into her bag, wedging it into the comfort of Jordan's coat.

She heard an odd sound. It was breathy, yet ragged. There were bare feet scampering around. Her heart took a huge leap into her throat when she heard a disoriented grunt, and her first response to that was to pull her knife out. Her eyes scanned around, just barely able to see deformed face peeking around the wide doorway behind her. It screamed out as soon she spotted it, and it lunged at her. It was quick to grapple her, tackling her to the floor, trying to wear her down and bite her.

"Argh!" It screamed into her face while it slapped her around a bit before she lunged her blade into its torso, and then its jugular

"Oh fuck—" she released a shaky breath and checked her mask.

"What the fuck—""TJ reappeared, his gun ready to shoot, but then he saw Maeve shoving the infected off her. His eyes narrowed with alarm. "Joel, are you done?!"

"Does it look like I'm done?!" The man responded hastily.

"We got Stalkers!"

Maeve scampered away from the body, putting her bag back on. "What the fuck is a Stalker?"

"They're another stage of Cordyceps," TJ briefly explained when they heard the grumble of the generator below. "They're incredibly stealthy, and they hunt in groups."

"Oh, that's nice," Maeve sarcastically mumbled.

"Which means we need to get out of her before any more of them show up."

The generator roared to life, causing the alarm lights to flash on and off, and causing infected to scream out. They were sounded, which also meant, they were going to come to the sound of the very loud generator. By the sound of it, there were a lot. Or could be. The empty walls echoed their screams, making them be louder and more gut-wrenchingly terrifying.

"C'mon, kids, get!" Joel hurried up the broken floor with his shotgun in his hands.

They hurried out into the hallway; the red flashing lights gave Maeve a serious headache. She chose to ignore it and follow after the guys.

"Grah!" A Stalker leaped out of a room of washing machines, going to grab Joel, but he recoiled, pumping the shotgun, blasting the Stalker's head right off its shoulders.

"Shit, Joel!" Maeve cringed as the head blew into a dozen pieces. The body flopped back onto the tiled floor and bled out.

"Hurry!" They entered another hallway. It was almost devoured by a pink substance; it was hard and oozing spores. It had vein-like strings webbing out in the areas that weren't covered.

There was a door with a flashing light, and a keycard access device by the door.

"What?" Maeve grumbled out frustrated, rattling the knob.

"Did y'all find a key of some kind?" Joel eyed the slot meant for a card.

"Oh, shit," TJ pulled something out of his back pocket. "This could be it."

Joel took the card and swiped it in the slot. The little red light blinked green, and door was opened. The three rushed through to safety. Inside, the air was void of any harm spores, though each of them waited until they went up the set of stairs to take them off. Just to be sure. No one couldn't be too careful these days.

Maeve breathed in the clean air, er, well, as clean as it could get, and looked around. They were in an office-type back hall, with a janitor's closet and an office, an actual one this time. Everything seemed to have thick coats of dust. She didn't see anything worthwhile — ooooooh. She peered into the janitor's closet, spying some bottles of alcohol and maybe powder that may or may not could be used for smoke bombs. She grabbed the stuffs from the metal brackets and stashed it into her bag, or at least what she could.

"Wanna be a carrier?" She asked the blond when she exited the closet.

"What?" He looked at her weirdly, but then saw the alcohol and bags of powder in her hands. "Oh, uh, sure."

He took the powder and alcohol, and stashed them in his bag. By the time he zipped up his bag, Joel came out the office room and headed to the exit straight ahead.

They entered a kitchen, but duck down behind a metal cart with crap stacked on the top and lower shelves when they spot a clicker mindlessly hanging near the sinks.

BLAM!

The clicker shrieked out, bolting for the culprit. A hunter entered through a set of swinging doors. He brandished a rifle, which he fired again, clipping the infected in the head and breaking its fungal plates. He fired once more, finally killing it.

"Nicely done," There were more hunters in the dining area, they all had weapons. "You bit?"

"Not today," the rifleman said. "You?"

The others responded, "Not today."

"Alright...spread out and make sure we didn't miss any more of these fuckers."

"I'm counting four," TJ peeked over the cart. "What do you wanna do, Joel?"

"We do this quietly," the older man responded under his breath and then he glanced at Maeve. "You, stay here."

"Aye, Aye, Captain."

The guys crept about, stealthily taking the hunters out, strangling them into unconsciousness. And then it was over. The dining hall was silent, but at least the group was free to stand and walk around normally, they stayed cautious of their surroundings.

"Okay...so how do we get out of this place?" The auburn-haired girl asked, stepping around a booth.

"Uh...well, it looks like they used that ladder to get up there." TJ gestured to a fallen ladder and the upper floor.

"That's our ticket outta here." Joel seemed to like that idea and they hurried over to the wall.

There was this shallow crater in the floor, it was filled with water. Maeve avoided it, her shoes had been victim to water too much. By the end of all this, she'll have stinky feet. She didn't like that thought, at all. She watched Joel grab the ladder and set it against the wall, on the area yellow tarp hung over the edge.

He took the lead, climbing the ladder first.

It everyone by surprise, they didn't even see the two hunters on the upper floor. One of them kicked Joel in the jaw, sending the man off the ladder and into the shallow pool of water, causing a big splash. The ladder clattered back to the floor loudly.

The hunters dropped into the area, one climbing on top of Joel to drown him and the other lunged at TJ and Maeve.

"C'mere, you brats!" The hunter growled before a brick hits his face, causing him to stagger backwards and TJ whacks him so hard, he's knocked unconscious.

"Joel!"

Pow!

They hadn't even seen Ellie, but when a gun went off, the room went silent. Joel shoved the dead hunter off him and resurfaced, gasping loudly and crawling out of the water.

For a moment, everyone stared at Ellie. Joel's gun was in her hands, the barrel still smoked from the shot.

"Man...I shot the hell outta that guy, huh?" She blanched as she lowered the gun.

"Yeah, you sure did." Joel got to his feet and regained himself.

"I feel sick."

Ellie held her stomach as she hunched over. Maeve moved to comfort her sister as Joel approached them and snatched the gun from the younger girl's hands.

"Why didn't you just hang back like I told you?" Joel stashed the pistol into his belt.

Maeve opened her mouth to argue, but Ellie beat her to it. "You're glad I didn't, right?"

Joel scoffed. "I 'm glad I didn't my head blown off by a goddamn kid."

"You know what? No. How about "Hey, Ellie. I know it wasn't easy, but it was either him or me, thanks for saving my ass." You got anything like that for me, Joel?"

"We gotta get going." Joel dismissed her and went for the fallen ladder again.

"You had no choice, E," Maeve placed a comforting pat on her shoulder. "You did well."

"Why don't I feel like it?" The girl slumped her shoulders and frowned.

"It'll pass," the older girl said. "Eventually."

It wasn't exactly the best advice, but she didn't know what else to say. After Jordan—she thought, she wouldn't ever stop feeling so sick. It's been nearly four weeks; she was just beginning to get over his death. But she supposed a loved one's death is much more different than an attacker's death.

Ellie seemed disgusted with herself, and she shook Maeve's hand off and shuffled toward the ladder after Joel was up on the upper floor.

"Did you hear me?" Joel glanced down at the girls. "I said we gotta get going."

In the most sarcastic and blunt voice, Ellie answered: "Lead the way."