*another short chapter*

"So...let me get this straight," Ellie's voice pierces the chilled, empty air. "If you mess up your fourth down...then you give the ball to the other team?"

"Right," Joel nodded. "It's called turnover."

"Ah, my head hurts trying to connect the dots..." Maeve grunted, rubbing her temple. "Why are sports so confusing?"

"You just gotta play it a couple of times," the older man peered at her. "It'll all make sense then."

"I guess this is it?" TJ spoke, looking toward the college buildings beyond the brick-structured walls. The lot around them was littered with broken-down cars, cars unmoved, wedged between faded white lines.

"Colorado University," Maeve read off the giant, curvy fancy-looking metal sign, "Hey look, we're here."

"Don't get sarcastic with me," TJ retorted. "I will make you walk."

"Oh, you mean like the last several times you threatened that?"

That shut him up, for sure. He zipped his lips and directed Wren through to the parking lot of the college after Joel and Ellie. They peered around at the buildings, looking for openings to enter.

Although, no building that looked like a mirror. Unfortunately.

She found it nice that they weren't still trying to bite each other's heads off, her and TJ. Frankly, not having the energy or excuse to argue was nice. He seemed to not play her nerves as badly as before, for some reason. Maybe she'd grown accustomed to his presence and personality. 

"Okay..." Ellie began, voicing Maeve's thoughts. "None of these buildings look like a mirror to me."

They passed a crooked blockage, carefully maneuvered around the barbed wire-covered roadblock.

"Well, we'll head to the central grounds. Should be able to see most of the campus from there," Joel said, pulling the reins of his horse toward an open garage, a bunch of supplies sitting out in the open for taking. "Stay, Callus — what kind of name is Callus anyway?"

The older man unmounted the crimson-coated horse, plopping feet-first into a giant puddle that has accumulated at the garage front. The water sloshed as he walked through it.

"Not my fault you forgot to ask Tommy his name."

"I like it," Maeve chimed, peeking around TJ and at her. "It's badass."

"Isn't that my line?" Ellie grinned back at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Hey...so, uh, these places...people would live here and just...study? Like, even though they were adults?"

Joel seemed to have found a new weapon of sorts. It was long, like a rifle, but rigged with a small gas canister near the trigger.

Oof.

A flamethrower. Fucking awesome.

"Yeah," Joel nodded, exiting the garage, and disappearing into a doorway near the back of the room. "Study, party, find themselves. Figure out what they wanted to do with their lives."

"Hmm...what they wanted to do with their lives..." Maeve hummed, a little voice in the back of her head already coming up with ideas and fantasies.

"Sounds like a riot."

"Wouldn't that be cool, though? Just doing your thing and finding yourself? College sounds so cool."

TJ made a noise. "Until you have to pay tuition."

"The hell is tuition?" Ellie's face screwed up.

"It's like a payment. You got to pay a crazy amount for the courses and classes you take. I think they charged you for the materials you use for each course, too."

"That's totally fucked," Maeve cringed. "Who makes people pay for education? Isn't it, like, a necessity, or something?"

The blond shrugged. "That's the only good thing from before the outbreak, no infected."

That was a serious bummer. Who had to pay to learn? It was like paying to be alive. Maeve couldn't believe her ears as TJ said that. People from the old days must've been idiots, because...yeouch.

Living in a world where you have to pay for a certain topic to fully obtain knowledge about, talk about pretty shitty. If she were being completely honest, she'd probably still do it. College seemed normal. She liked normal, or at least the feeling of normal. If she tried hard enough, she could see students bustling in and out of the buildings, going to their studies and getting their work done, or not. She could see them working, chatting, partying, hanging out with each other, and being themselves while they grew.

She wondered about the courses. Could anyone study just anything?

"There was a lookout here." Joel's voice nearly startled her out of her own skin.

She was too much into her thoughts, she almost forgot about him. He sounded high up, or at least somewhere above them. As always, she was correct. Catching a glimpse of his hair on the third-story balcony, Maeve gnawed the inside of her lip.

A lookout was good, right? A lookout meant someone was here. Was, being past tense. Would that mean Fireflies were around, or did they pack up and leave?

"That's a good sign, right?" Ellie asked, antsy.

Joel didn't seem to hear her and disappeared again from Maeve's sight.

"Do you think the Fireflies will still be here?"

Maeve shrugged. "Maybe, for all we know, they're huddled up in that building Tommy told us about."

"Maybe," Ellie softly repeated. "I fucking hope they're all still here."

"Ditto."

"Alright, let's get to findin' that building," Joel exited the garage, adjusting his bag straps to his shoulders. That flamethrower was safely tucked into the side of his bag.

"Hey, can I drive?" Maeve poked TJ's shoulder blade. Having been stuck as a back passenger on Wren, she was getting a bit tired, and she wanted to take the reins, so to speak.

"No, but you can walk if you ask that again."

"Don't be a dick," she blew a raspberry at him, though he didn't respond to it.

"Okay, move back." Joel mounted Callus; Ellie slid back for him to climb.

"Hey, so, the whole thing about tuition is just a ruse, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I mean," Maeve readjusted herself on Wren's back. "TJ said that college makes you pay to enter. Please tell me it's just a bunch of bull."

"Nope," the older man responded, peering at her. "There were universities, like this one, that was more expensive. Community colleges were less money grabbing, but you still had to sacrifice your wallet."

"Damn." Her tongue clicked loudly against the roof of her mouth.

Then they were on the move again. The soft clopping of hooves seemed like the only sound around the abandoned campus, sharply echoing off the empty areas, around the foliage, and the depressing state the plaza had grown to be. Dead leaves, debris, and other random objects cluttered the sidewalks and around the blockades at the entrance behind them.

A chilled wind blew through her, rattling her bones. "Damn...it's getting cold."

"Yeah, well, it's that time of year," TJ unnecessarily commented.

"I can do without your sarcasm." She huffed.

They went a little further within the plaza, the area broadening into a wide area with racks for bikes in the center of the area. There was a single blue rusted bike still chained to one of the racks. The building standing off to their left had part of its wall broken in, leading into a semi-white and cream-colored hall. Perfect to take the horses in and get around that whole mess and roam the empty campus to find their building. 

"Hey — over there. Is that it?"

Off in the distance, a tall-ish building stood, towering over shorter buildings around it. Clouded light reflected off the side, nearly blinding Maeve. Bright, clear, and beckoning. Like a mirror, Tommy's voice resonated within her mind,

That building was the building they were looking for. 

*is it just me or is Maeve smol?*