"Oh, thank god!"

There were no words that could describe the relief that filled her body seeing the guys exit the dorms. The metal door slammed shut behind them and they descended the semi-long stairs into the yard. 

Maeve's heart pounded within her chest; it had begun to string into minutes, long minutes. Five minutes turned into ten, and then into twenty. Those unhinged shrieks were infected, no doubt. Surely there had been a lot, if it took the guys that long to get out. She eyed their figures, urging a power of x-ray vision to suddenly be bestowed upon her so that she could see if they had any bites.

"Are you guys okay?" She found herself asking though it seemed more like a demand. "What happened in there?" 

Joel shuffled toward the generator to roll it to the gate and hook it up; TJ scratched at his chin.

"Just more infected," he replied, glancing between her and Joel. "We're fine."

"That sounded like more than just infected." It did, to be honest. The loud roar she and Ellie heard, the one that scared the horses, it was terrifyingly deep. Almost like a...

"Some clickers and a bloater."

"Fucking seriously?" Ellie's jaw dropped. "All the way out here?"

"Wouldn't be surprised if there were more," the blond boy frowned. "It's rare, but not impossible."

"If that's the case, we gotta watch our asses more carefully now."

A bloater, huh? She knew infected wandered from place to place, but bloaters? She wondered how a bloater would end up in a college, though she felt silly by the question brewing in her mind. For a person to be a bloater, they must have been infected...at least since the outbreak twenty years ago.

It seemed strange to think the outbreak happened so long ago, but it wasn't that long ago.

"Alright, stand back, TJ," Joel instructed the boy and bopped a switch or button that triggered the gate to roll up.

"The infected..." the girls led the horses into the wider area. "You think they were Fireflies?"

"Probably," TJ as he readied himself to mount Wren. "That bloater had one of their pendants on it."

"Yeesh," Maeve cringed. "What a way to go."

"But...why would there be infected so close to the lab?"

A truly wonderful and enigmatic question, Ellie, Maeve thought. It was a good question to ask, however, she felt as if she already knew the answer to it. It was clear the Fireflies fled this place, or at least part of it. The other part of her hoped they were holed up in the science building, awaiting their arrival.

"Bill used them as a form of defense," Joel mentioned, scratching at his stubble. "Maybe they're doing the same."

"Yeah..." the girl nodded briefly. "I could see that."

Once again, Maeve took over the reins, much to TJ's dismay. She petted Wren's mane soothingly. The soft clopping of the horses' hooves seemed louder, almost amplified by the stone structure around them. 

Another breeze breathed through the campus, a little chillier than the last one. It made Maeve shiver. When with Jordan's jacket, it seemed the wind seeped right through the seams and fabric. 

The closer they got to the science building, the more they began to realize there was no one around. Or at least, she noticed it. The others surely would've noticed just as quickly too.

Quiet would be an understatement. It was eerie and deafeningly silent. The kind of silence that would make people go mad if they stayed too long. She couldn't pinpoint why, but she felt like she was being watched. Her skin prickled as her sixth sense reared up like a revving engine. She didn't like that feeling. 

Most of the parking lot they had entered had about a dozen white tents lining the ends of the pavement. 

"No guards. No nothing." 

Joel made a breathy sound. "I'd expect to see someone by now. Let's get inside." 

The area was human-free. No infected loose, either. The only positive outlook on the lot was that there was Firefly activity.

Keyword: was. 

She released a lengthy sigh, slumping her shoulders. If of exhaustion or half-defeat, deciphering it would be futile, and headache inducing. The encampment was just their mark, or what was left of it. The tents were empty, nothing seemed to be left inside on the shelves or foldable tables.

"Hey...so...have you ever been to one of these?"

"What?  A university?" Joel's voice sounded out.

"Yeah."

"No," the man shook his head slightly. "Well, not as a student, at least."

"You went to college? Oh! What'd you study?" Maeve found herself asking. "Did you do economics or mechanics?"

"I did the basics."

"What courses are qualified to be "basic"?" Maeve furrowed her brows while she thought.

"You know, I ain't quite sure. It was mighty confusing," Joel replied with a light tone. 

"Wait a sec!" Ellie practically exclaimed. "You said you didn't go to a university? Why not?"

"Uh...I had Sarah when I was pretty young."

Sarah. Maeve glanced at Joel. She recognized that name well. According to Maria, who learned it from Tommy, Sarah was Joel's daughter; she died on day of the outbreak. Inside, she knew he had that authoritative and fatherly aura. She felt for him, honestly; though, she couldn't begin to fathom the pain and suffering he went through. Sure, she had pain of her own, but then again, she wasn't alive during the outbreak. From what she understood, Tommy told Maria that Sarah had been killed by a soldier while she and Joel were escaping the city. Never could she understand the feeling of losing a daughter. After that, Maria had been told Joel took a dark turn, retreating to murder and violent retaliation.

The outbreak ruined humanity, and after hearing about a thousand or so tales from several individuals, she began to believe most thought it was truly the end of the world for them. 

A hell on earth, to be exact.

In times like this, Maeve felt a bit blessed she was born after the outbreak. She didn't have to witness all that horrifying mess.

But if she had to guess...Joel would be about, what, his late forties? The white hairs that poked through his dark buzz just so happened to be from the stress of the years, or so she had to guess. Stress strung out sane people into something near unrecognizable. 

"Oh...were you married?" 

"...for a while," Joel replied gently. 

"What happened?" As curious as she was, Ellie failed to see her question and had Joel in a painful memory lane.

"Okay."

"Too much?" 

"Too much."

It was silence after that. Perhaps a silence that made the atmosphere awkward, or sludge-like. The chilly air seemed heavier than before, the light gray sky grew darker, or thicker. Whichever it was, it grew colder. It nipped her nose, the dryness painfully wafting into her nostrils and lungs. A coldness burned her equally dry respiratory organs.

"Ugh...are we ever gonna find living Fireflies?" The words left her mouth before she realized she opened her mouth. 

"We better," TJ grumbled behind her. 

"Hey, what about over there?" 

"What's that?" Maeve followed Ellie's outstretched arm to the science building nearby. On the second floor, just above the small and enclosed staff parking lot, a wall was busted in, a tattered tarp fluttering in the wind.

"Yeah," Joel nodded, and tugged Callus toward the dip of the lot. "That looks like a way in."

"Come on, girl," She clicked her tongue, pulling at Wren's bridle, urging the mare to follow after Joel and Ellie. "Damn," she cursed not-so-silently as they came across a chained gate at the bottom of the curved drive. "Of course, it can't ever be that easy."

"Don't be so dramatic." TJ slid off Wren; Joel and Ellie slid off Callus to look for a way past the gate.

Ugh, fine. Maeve, too, demounted Wren and patter her shoulder adoringly. It must've felt a hell of a lot better to not have a couple of people on her back. Being a horse must have been shitty, but then again, horses were meant to be ridden. Down the slope, Maeve tried the gate. The metal clinked and clanked while she jolted it back and forth.

"Stupid thing," she growled, grabbing at the rusted chains. "Hey, this is rusted shut."

"We'll have to find another way round it, then," Joel, from the top of the slope, moved around the area. 

"Maybe we can climb over it?" Ellie suggested. Though the idea yeeted itself off a cliff when she saw the barbed wire at top. "Of course...did these places get robbed or some shit? Why did they have to wire everything up?"

"I reckon it was for infected."

"Or that, too, I guess."

A weird and hollow rumble resonated within the cold air, causing the three teens to look a the source: a big dumpster rolled by Joel.

"We'll use this to climb over—whoa, shit!" He had barely gotten the dumpster past the slope, and gravity took its toll on the wheeled trash can. It zoomed from his hands, quickly rolling down the short hill of pavement. 

"Eek!" Maeve jumped out of the way just before she could be crushed into the gate. The dumpster rammed into the bars, effectively destroying the rusted chains, and throwing the doors open. It sounded more like a small explosion than a door being rammed open.

"Well..." TJ trailed. "That's cool too."

Joel released a chuckle. "Not what I had in mind, but it'll do."

"Could we like proceed without trying to kill Maeve?" The elder girl recomposed herself, well, sort of.

"It wasn't like he did it on purpose," Ellie patted her shoulder. "Besides, we're in, right?"

That much was true. "Yeah, I guess."

"I think we can use this again." Joel grabbed the side of the dumpster, wheeling it over to the short semi-trailer. It was too big to try and climb on themselves, even if they had boosted each other up. The large waste bin reached half the trailers' height, so she assumed it worked out.

"Huh!" She did a little jump to climb the dumpster, the thick plastic lip sharply dug into her diaphragm. The muscles in her forearm burned ever-so-slightly as she relied on them to pull weight up.

"Having trouble there?"

"I'm fine!" She hurried out, finally able to get up after a moment of struggling. 

Upper body strength was something she never really had, as much as she tried, the strength hadn't built up, despite all the intensive training she had to go through; it sucked serious balls. 

"You don't like asking for help, do you?" TJ bemused from his crouch on top of the trailer. 

"If I can do it, I don't need help," she replied stubbornly.

He rolled his eyes and reached his hand out for her. "Just take my hand."

"Why? I got this." She refused his hand and began to climb the trailer.

She would rather eat a piece of rotting meat than ask for help, that was beneath her. Taking on infected would be easier than asking for help. Doing things that required another person's help, well, she tried to avoid that as much as possible. There was something about needing a lending hand that made her feel...feeble. 

Sure, if she doesn't ask, and someone has given her their aid, that was fine because didn't ask. But having to grovel and beg for help, yeah, that was something she could not, and would not do. Completely beneath her. 

"Alright," the blond shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Though, she couldn't shake that unhinged feeling. Whether it be confusion or anger, there was no telling. Her mind buzzed from the memories that flooded her mind just then. All of those times he had saved her ass from uncertain death, caused a bitter swirl in her stomach. An acid kind of bitter, too. She thought more about it, and though he didn't appear as if he cared, he did. 

Giving her CPR when she was almost dead, well, she was sure he did it for Ellie, she wasn't so sure he did it out of the purity and greatness of his heart. Or that time he shut her up before she killed them all in the subway. 

A pang of guilt bubbled in the acid, she should be more willing to lean on them, if need be, but here she was acting like a child. A bratty child. An ungrateful child. 

Joel climbed into the wall, looked around, and then faced them.

"C'mon, Kiddos," he said, reaching down for Ellie while TJ climbed up himself.

"Thanks," Ellie was lifted up through the wall. "Let's look around."

"C'mon, Maeve, your turn," Joel reached for her next. She took his large hand and was immediately pulled into the building.

"Surprised you let him help you," TJ jabbed at her.

She cast a glare his way. "Oh, shut up."

The classroom they entered was a bit spacious with black-topped surfaces, littered beakers, and science-y stuff. It was a bit overwhelming to be in there, the class seemed frozen in time. Maybe if she imagined hard enough, she could see students at their desks, taking notes, or even chatting with each other. Just doing college stuff.

It seemed too bizarre to even picture.