rewritten January - August 2025

"See that silver lining? Just keep your heads down and you'll be fine."

There was yet another tripwire to navigate. Maeve had lost track of how many tripwires they had to leap over or duck beneath. They had only journeyed a short distance, weaving through the labyrinth of back streets and vacant, sealed-off buildings.

Though it had been close to an hour, to Maeve, it felt like an entire day. Aside from those clickers, when they got ready to get into the town, and the one clicker got blown up, they hadn't encountered any other infected. Not yet, anyways.

She hoped they'd reach Bill despite all of the extra obstacles. In the back of her mind, she thought that was why there were so many booby traps.

"Now listen," Joel started after having carefully under the wire. "Bill isn't exactly the most stable person. So, when we get there, you let me handle the talking. Understand?"

Maeve and Ellie exchanged wary glances. "We understand."

"We need to be on this," the older man pressed on. "He... he doesn't take well to strangers."

"We understand."

"Bill's a decent guy," TJ added. "He just needs some time to... warm up to you."

Maeve adjusted the straps of her bag. "Wow, this guy sounds like he's in desperate need of a hug."

"Well, I mean, you can try."

They arrived at another narrow alley, where a chain-link gate stood and a trailer obstructed a clear escape route. It was positioned against a warehouse, with a broken fire escape and stairs above the trailer. She thought about a potential idea of boosting each other up and over the truck to get around this whole mess.

Bill certainly made it difficult for outsiders and infected, didn't he?

She remembered when Joel mentioned Bill lived alone in Lincoln. Was it true he had booby-trapped this whole place? It seemed to her that this was far more than just paranoia. There were bombs everywhere, cleverly concealed in plain sight too.

He was just trying to survive the best way he knew how to.

Loud banging startled her from her thoughts. She recoiled at the harsh thudding of flesh against metal. A door from the adjacent building rattled suddenly before a deep growl emerged from behind it. Heavy footsteps echoed as they ascended what sounded like stairs.

"You hear that?" TJ and Joel drew their weapons.

"Yeah." Joel watched the door for another, debating whether to enter or not. When Maeve was about to think he was going to have them move on, he went toward the door.

"You're actually going in there?" Maeve gaped at him.

"It'll be fine," he opened the door, keeping his gun ready. "We should check out what we can find."

"You're gonna find my dead body when I die of a heart attack." Ellie replied, her tone dripping with thick sarcasm.

"Dont' worry, I've got this." He crept up the stairs with a confident stealth stride. The door and stairs led to a small apartment.

Maeve took out her switchblade, prepared for any infected that might spring out unexpectedly. She was always on alert for their sudden appearances. Whether intentional or not, the infected had a knack for startling the non-infected. AS they ascended further up the stairs, she tightened her grip on her blade. Alright. Small bedroom, a combined living room, kitchen, and dining area. Nothing appeared to be out of place—

"RAH!" A sluggish body burst from another doorway opposite of them, baring its teeth and lunging at the group.

Joel, with his quick reaction time, dodged its wild arms and snapping jaw, easily catching it off guard. He wrapped his arm around its neck and forcefully shoved it to the ground. It landed on its back with a yell just before Joel stomped on its face. The skull shattered like brittle wood. Blood gushed from the fractured cranium, thick and dark crimson, mixed with mushy brain matter.

"Oh, that is just gross..." Maeve turned away, her stomach already churning.

She should be used to the smell by now, should be used to the ways Joel killed the infected in quick but brutally. Yet, it never seemed to settle with her.

"Well, since we're here, let's search the place."

Maeve gave a thumbs up and hurried to explore the bedroom, eager to distance herself from the dead infected. The stench was unbearable, especially when they'd be shot and opened up. The thought, and smell, made her grimace, but it was undeniably true. They were so horrifically foul that she was surprised she hadn't vomited yet.

"Uh...Cheesus." Her nostrils flared as she stepped into the bedroom, the odor slightly less intense now.

She entered the room to find a queen-sized mattress, a large heap of clothes, and a suitcase on the foot of the bed. The previous occupant must have been in a rush, likely trying to pack as much as possible before being taken to a quarantine zone. She dismissed the thought and began searching through the clothes.

"Do you think they ever found each other?" Ellie's voice drifted in from the other room.

"How the hell should I know?"

"I'd like to think they did."

"Good for you," Joel replied with a lack of interest.

After a fruitless search, Maeve exited the bedroom, making sure to avoid looking at the dead infected. It was hard not to, though; the foul smell lingered in the air. She scrunched her face and pinched her nose.

"Alright," TJ emerged from the bathroom, adjusting his bag on his shoulders. "Are we done?"

"Yeah," Joel replied, stepping past the corpse and heading back down the stairs to the outside.

"That thing scared the hell outta me," Ellie admitted to Maeve as she bounded the stairs.

"Same here," Maeve agreed.

They left the building without exchanging another word. The only issue now was figuring out how to navigate through the tripewired fence without setting it off. Maeve looked through the chain-link fence and noticed a skeletal figure awkwardly draped over an old, weathered chair.

"Careful stepping over this wire," Joel carefully stepped over the tripwire.

If Maeve were being honest, she figured he'd throw a rock at it. It was better to not set off more bombs to avoid attracting infected to where they are. One by one, they were over the wire and quickly created a safe distance from the silver wire.

"Careful, we got another one," Joel said, taking a big careful step over another wire, at the end of the narrow gap of the buildings. They stepped over that one too.

"Come on you two, stay close." They entered the back of the building, which was a small, rectangular office. It was hardly big enough for four people to idle about in.

Maeve wondered if people really made themselves work in cramped environments liek this. The thought of working in such a tight space made her claustrophobia shudder. She glanced at the filing cabinets and two L-shaped desks that occupied most of the small room. To make matters feel worse, the place lacked air vents for that air flow; if her claustrophobia didn't her, the stifling humidity and no air surely would.

Joel moved toward the door that led into the warehouse. He grasped the doorknob and turned back at them as he opened it. "Now, you just — OH SHIT!!"

In an instant, Joel was yanked off his feet, and a loud crash reverberated through the building. His body was flipped upside down, swinging wildly from the sudden jerk. A rope tightly cinched around his left calf.

"Joel!" The three teens shouted in alarm as they watched him swing.

"Goddammit Bill!"

"I'm coming!" Ellie rushed toward the swinging Joel, grabbed him, and steadied him.

"What the hell just happened?" Maeve asked, scanning the area for the source of the noise.

"It's one of Bill's stupid traps!" Joel grunted, and then suddenly gestured toward a large refrigerator precariously balanced on a table. "That fridge over there. Looks like that's the counterweight."

"Alright," the sister drew their switchblades and moved toward the appliance.

"Cut that rope and it'll lower me."

"Got it!" Maeve saluted him, climbed onto the table with Ellie, and began sawing at the rope.

The rope was incredibly tough. Likely much tougher than any rope Maeve had ever attempted to cut. She figured it was because Joel was hanging off the other end of it. Her knife barely created any friction, let alone inflicted any damage on the fiber of the rope. She tightened her grip on the handle and tried to put more pressure behind her sawing, hoping to hasten the process.

"Oh, crap," TJ exclaimed, pulling out his gun.

"What/" Maeve paused her cutting and glanced down at him. "What's going on?"

"Infecrted," he said grimly, his gaze scanning the area where Runners seemed to appear as if they had materialized from nowhere.

"Holy..." Maeve paled, glancing over her shoulder as she heard the gurgling cries. "Ellie, can you handle this?"

"Yup!" her sister replied, concentrating the rope.

"You keep cutting that rope, I'll try to hold them off, okay?" Maeve jumped off the table, grabbing a conveniently fallen glass bottle from the ground.

Ellie didn't say anything, but instead of an answer from her, a scream from the infected echoed as they staggered into the warehouse, seemingly on a mission.

"Hah!" Maeve hurled the bottle in her hand at a Runner charging towards her. The glass shattered against its face, momentarily stunning it, just long enough for her to strike it in the head and kill it.

"Nice throw," TJ remarked as he took down a Runner too.

Maeve's heart raced in her chest. The sight of so many infected beyond the chain-link fence was terrifying, their screams and frantic attempts to break through were almost overwhelming. She could also hear Clickers. Her heart raced harder.

"Hey, watch out!" A group of infected into the building, targeting Ellie and the teens.

Joel, still hanging upside down, coolly fired at them, missing a few shots but providing enough distraction for the two to handle the threat.

Maeve barely avoided a flailing hand, stumbling over debris that somehow wasn't there before. She hit the ground hard, and the infected seized the opportunity. "Ah! Get off me!"

She gripped its throat to keep it at bay while it relentlessly slapped at her. Desperately, she cried out and caught a glimpse of TJ battling two infected himself, while Ellie remained on top of the fridge, trying to cut the rope.

"GRAH!" The Runner on top of her screeched, its torso twisting towards her.

She screamed out again, feeling the strength in her arms weakening. The infected's jaw snapped open and shut, its teeth was absolutely grotesque and decaying. It was overwhelming her fast and just as it was three inches from getting a bite on her, its head burst apart. Not just a simple explosion that left only its neck' it was more liek a gunshot. Its crown shattered, sending some fragments of skull flying in all directions. Maeve pushed its heavy, lifeless form aside and gasped as her arms ached.

"Are you alright, kid?" Joel asked from his suspended position, gripping his gun and hurrying to reload it. She hadn't even registered the gunfire; her fear and focus on avoiding being bitten drowned out everything else.

"Yes," she exhaled, scrambling to her feet just as a Clicker appeared. It lurched toward the fridge at a terrifying speed.

"Ellie, hurry!" Joel shouted, shooting the Clicker, taking it down with three shots.

"I'm trying!" Ellie grunted, tugging on the rope with all her weight. This made the fridge wobble on the edge of the table, creaking ominously before it finally toppled over, sending Ellie sprawling. "Whoa!"

"Are you alright?!" the man shouted from his... increasingly elevated position.

"I'm okay!" Ellie replied, quickly getting back to her feet and rushing for the rope again.

Joel kept firing at the infected with TJ.

"Look out, Ellie!" Maeve threw a brick she had picked up at the Clicker charging toward her sister. "Take that, you creepy fungus face!"

The brick hit the Clicker in the chest, causing it to stagger back, momentarily disoriented. Seizing the opportunity, she rushed in to finish it off. It regained its senses and let out a furious shriek while swiping at Maeve. She narrowly avoided its clammy grasp and quickly drove her knife into its lower jaw. It let out one final cry before it flopped to the ground.

"Hurry, Ellie!" Maeve urged her sister.

"I've got it!" Ellie shouted back, her frustration evident.

"Look out!" TJ yelled at Maeve, who was just seconds away from getting attacked by a Runner, which he quickly shot in the back, the impact of the bullet knocking it off balance and giving Maeve the chance to kick it in the face before it could get back up.

"Ow, shit!" She hobbled on one leg, the foot she kicked the infected with throbbing painfully.

"Get ready!" Ellie warned, the rope fraying at its last fibers.

Joel shouted and fell hard to the ground.

"Dammit..." he groaned in brief agony.

The cries of the infected grew louder. Many staggered outside the fence, with some even breaking through, but there were too many for just four people to fend them off.

"Joel!"

A heavily dressed man wearing a gas mask appeared, storming into the building with heavy stomps. He swung a machete down, driving the blade into the skull of the runner that tackled Joel. He withdrew the blade and swung again, this time decapitating the fungal creature.

The man extended a hand to Joel. "Get off your ass and on your feet."

"What the hell?!" Maeve barely heard her own voice over the screaming.

"This way!" The mysterious man, she assumed that Bill, guided them out of the building and into the alley, leading them to an abandoned laundromat. They slammed the side door shut as the infected battered against it from the outside.

"Ah, damn it! Get back!"

The guys fired at the infected coming through the front entrance.

"Hey, shroom face!" Ellie hurled a bottle at the head of an infected, knocking it off balance so Joel, or whoever was nearby, could handle it.

It'd been shot, but a Clicker stumbled in through the back door. Then came another Runner. And yet another Clicker. There were too many of them... and suddenly, an idea struck Maeve.

"Everyone get down!" Maeve exclaimed, pulling something from her bag.

She clutched the molotov she had prepared and ignited the rag with her lighter, the cloth immediately flamed. Her voice was raspy as she threw it at the doorway full of infected. Their bodies were instantly engulfed in volatile flames that licked their bodies and swallowed their screams. All they could do was flail their arms in a futile attempt to save themselves as they perished.

"Holy crap, Mae!" Ellie flinched at the sudden brightness.

For a brief moment, there was no infected pushing through the doorway. It was almost silent, but the distant cries outside made the eerie quiet even more frightening.

They weren't out of danger yet.

"Keep moving," Bill urged, his heavy footsteps loud as he rushed toward the scorched entrance. "This place ain't safe."

"Thanks for stating the obvious!"