"We're going down?"

Maeve scrunched her face up while she eyed the endless depths of the building. The lower floors had been devoured by the earth and collapsed into the obsidian shadows. There wasn't much light, just the natural dimness of the glowing rain clouds from outside, which somehow seeped through broken walls or reflected through the small, streaming waterfalls.

She thought they were supposed to escape the building, not venture further into it.

"It's the only way out," TJ grunted from beside her. "Down and out."

"I don't feel comfortable with this!" Maeve complained as they descended.

"Well, by all means, stay here in this unstable building with the infected." TJ retorted as he ducked under a fallen beam.

"It was rhetorical!" Maeve shot back, following the boy's lead, and ducked under the beam.

"Didn't sound rhetorical," Ellie chimed, looking at Maeve. "We're almost out. We gotta trust them."

"But, it's hard..." the older girl huffed but continued to head down after their escorts.

"Who knows, maybe we'll get to sit back and relax once we get there — at least for a few minutes." Ellie shrugged with her guess.

"Yeah, that's still not motivating."

"Do you ever stop complaining?" TJ grumbled.

"Hey, that's offensive! I don't always complain," Maeve crossed her arms over her chest. "I could start yodeling."

"Please do not."

Aside from that, maybe it was the worry that building will collapse and they would all be buried under the rubble. And no one would even know they were under a giant ass building. Dead.

"You want to take it easy?" Joel's tone of disbelief caught the attention of Maeve.

Not to be nosy, but the adults seemed to be having an adult conversation.

Let us eavesdrop.

"Well, I won't this time." Tess answered Joel softly.

"I'll believe when I see it."

Trudging through a giant puddle which trickled down rubble and loose debris, Maeve peered down the path with uncertainty. She would rather eat salt! This was very unstable, completely loose and fall inducing.

"You gonna come down?" Ellie asked, having already made her way down with careful steps.

"Uh...sure...eek!" Maeve made an accidental bad step, which resulted in a small landslide of debris and rubble. It put her on her ass, and it carried her to the bottom of the slope. "Oof!"

Ellie cackled, hopping to the final ground. "That was awesome!"

"That's what you get for being so whiny." TJ commented while he making it to the bottom with them.

"Oh, fuck you!" Maeve flipped him off and got to her feet. "Son of a bitch! Stupid building!" She cursed thickly at the unsound structure when she realized her ass and the back of her pants were wet from the fall.

Very nice. Note the sarcasm.

"C'mon." Ellie pulled her along through double doors which, ironically, was missing the doors. The door frame hung sideways from one of the floor that had collapsed.

"Hey, Joel, Tess, over here!" TJ called for the adults as the three of them stumbled across a concrete that caved into the subway.

"That's convenient." Maeve commented and hopped down to a lower chunk of concrete, Ellie hot on her tail. "A makeshift staircase!"

TJ flicked his flashlight on, moving the light around to observe their surroundings. It was mostly benches against the walls, old telephone booths, and old busted vending machines.

"Okay, Captain Obvious." Ellie rolled her eyes.

"You're mean for a fourteen-year-old, anyone tell you that?" Maeve crossed her arms over her chest.

"Quite often." The younger sister grinned.

"Jeez...this guy had a day..." they spotted a figure strewn near one of the benches. Dead, obviously.

Joel and Tess caught up to them and inspected the body.

"Look at his sleeve. Firefly."

"Yeah, these guys ain't doing too hot, in or out of the city." TJ said.

"Let's hope there's someone alive to meet us at the drop-off."

"Oh!" Maeve squeaked as she plucked a bottle that had been laying near the body off the ground. "I've got something that could help us! Sorry mister, you won't need this anymore!"

"What are you doin'?" Joel looked at her weirdly, especially when she began taking stuff out of her bag.

Maeve hurried to pour the alcohol she found in the office building into the bottle and the alcohol just now. Molotovs were easy to craft, but since resources were limited, what she crafted would have to do for now. Though the bottle wasn't very full, the alcohol was still a significant amount. She stuffed the cloth into the nozzle and gave the bottle a good shake or two so the cloth inside would dampen quicker.

"Be careful when you light it! I don't think I have to explain the safety rules of flammable liquids to you—do I?" She squinted at Joel and slowly handed the molotov to him.

Joel took the arsenal item, "You do not."

"Great, 'cuz I didn't wanna." Maeve zipped up her bag and slipped it back on.

"You're somethin' else." Tess said, a little amused.

"You're all over the place, ya know that?" TJ grunted.

"It's called ADHD." Maeve stood.

"I doubt you even know what that means." The boy commented rudely.

In response to his jackass-ery, Maeve stuck her tongue out at him, but chose to ignore his words. Of course, she knew what ADHD was. She wasn't stupid. As a matter of fact, her mind was intelligent. She soaked in information like a sponge, though at times it seemed harder to do. But that's what the disorder was.

"They're from the quarantine zone." Joel's voice pulled Maeve back into reality. He crouched over the body she stole the alcohol from and held a piece of paper, probably having found it after searching the body.

"See..." Tess hummed in relief. "They're not our guys."

"That's sort of relieving..." Ellie muttered next to Maeve. "In a morbid kind of way."

No one really answered to that and silently agreed with the young girl. They seemed to find dead Fireflies every which way they went. It was kind of...dismal.

As they ventured around for a little bit, the group ducked into another part of the subway. The stillness and darkness made the place a shit ton eerie. Sure, they had their lights, but beyond that, Maeve worried they'd run into more infected.

They were bound to, after all. It was dark, damp, and a downright frightening hole in the ground. It was a perfect breeding ground for infected to stumble into. And after encountering all those Clickers and Runners, there had to be more stumbling about, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce and chew them like tasty steaks.

Click.

The deformed silhouette of a Clicker appeared in Maeve's vision and her heart took a leap for the ceiling. Its body awkwardly stumbled nearby, lurching forward as it croaked more creepy clicks.

"Oh fuck—"

A hand clamped over her mouth, an arm wrapped around her midsection and pulled her into a chest securely. Her body was firmly trapped against another. Thank goodness the hand silenced her when it did, because the Clicked perked up a little as it heard her squeak.

"Quiet!"

The Clicker continued to stumble about. Its head moved around all uncomfortably and broken-like, clicking its creepy clicks. It sniffed the dank air before it decided to move on.

Once it was far enough away from them, the hand let her free.

"Did you learn nothing from the upper floors, or did you want us to be Clicker food?" TJ whispered harshly into her ear.

Maeve let out a shaky breath and shook her head and collapsed to her ass. Holy fuck, that was intense...She gulped and crawled from TJ's crouched form, biting her lip in guilt.

"Sorry..."

"Just stay quiet and follow us."

Strike one. It stung; Maeve grimaced. Scolded for an innocent mistake. A mistake that could have killed all of them.

They sneaked past the frightening number of Clickers, which proved more tedious than Maeve had realized. The hearing of this infected was sensitive—mildly sensitive. She held her breath, afraid that her breathing would the attract the Clickers. Even the sleeping ones would click and groan at the slightest sound.

"Shit!" Tess hid behind a broken turnstile, glaring at an unmoving Clicker that blocked the exit. "God, we're almost out..."

"I'll take care of it." Joel said quietly and pulled out a sharp dagger-like object from seemingly out of nowhere.

He crept up to the Clicker and quickly grabbed it, thrusting the sharp object into its cranium before it called its infected pals. It gurgled for a second before the man discarded the body to the side as quietly as he could.

"Fuck, the door's blocked!" TJ grunted under his breath, attempting to open the gates futilely.

"We could use that ladder." Maeve just so happened to look up and see it, poking out halfway in the air.

"Joel, boost me." Tess said, and the man obliged.

Immediately, the ladder was grabbed. It was dropped, but TJ caught so it wouldn't clatter and make too much noise. Once the ladder was settled down and leaned stably, they climbed it one at a time.

"Kick the ladder, Joel." Tess told the man before she dropped out of the exit.

"Can do." A loud, metallic band echoed throughout the subway area, and screams erupted from the shadows.

Maeve dropped down onto the top of a bus, grunting out. The sounds definitely made her think of demons crawling through hell. She slipped off the bus and into the train wreck around. Water that had been collecting from the rain pooled shallowly as they walked through it.

"Holy shit," Ellie breathed out. "We actually made it!"

"Yeah," Maeve said as she held a hand over her furiously beating heart. "I thought we were goners for a minute there!"

"We would've been if I hadn't shut you up in time." TJ frowned at the girl.

"Haha..." The older auburn-haired girl chuckled, embarrassed while her pale face became red. "Sorry 'bout that. We've never had to worry about Clickers before. It's a new kind of infected for me."

"Clearly."

"Everyone okay?" Joel looked at everyone, as if to check if they been hurt.

"Yes," Tess answered. "Let's move."

"Hey, you guys are pretty good at this stuff!" Ellie complimented while they headed toward the broken road and climb out of the subway into downtown prior.

It stopped raining. Thank God.

"It is called luck, and it is gonna run out," Joel said as she climbed the broken pieces of pavement. "Which way we goin', Tess?"

"Uh..." Tess glanced around, eyeing the buildings before looking toward the east, the sun brightly shined as it rose. "Capitol Building's in this direction."

Maeve shuffled across the cracked four-way street, eyeing the old museum and the truck blocking the road near it. She breathed in the warm morning air, though it smelled like mud, it was more refreshing than decomposing infected bodies.

"How're we gonna get over this truck?" Tess grunted and approached the trailer.

"Maybe we can boost each other up?" Maeve suggested, looking at the top of the truck's trailer.

"Ehh..." TJ shrugged. "No."

"I mean, it's an idea, right?" She looked at him with disdain.

"A terrible one."

"You know what—!" She glared at him, ready to curse him to hell and back when Joel rolled a dumpster out the old museum. "Oh—that works, too, I guess."

The dumpster thumped against the trailer, as steady as Joel could get it, she assumed.

"Up and over, I guess..." Maeve groaned under her breath, feeling the day weigh down on her while she climbed on the dumpster and then the trailer.

One by one, they dropped onto the other side of the truck.

"Maybe we can cut through here." TJ mentioned, gesturing to the garage door that had a chain levy.

"Maybe." Joel agreed and grabbed the chain. The gears and mechanics in the levy squealed against the friction and rust.

"Yeah, that worked out great last time—" Ellie was elbowed by Maeve. "Sorry, I'm just saying."

A cry rang in the distance, heard by everyone but Joel.

"Shh-shh..." Tess stopped Joel.

"What? I don't hear anything." He said in confusion.

As if the scream multiplied, dozens filled the air. Wails and cries.

"Double time!"

"Oh shit!" Joel grabbed the chain faster, the garage door lifted just barely enough for the others to slip underneath and inside.

"Oh—they're coming!"

"I know!"

As if they were magic, several infected appeared and began to climb the truck. Maeve yelped out and Tess forced her to duck under the door with Ellie and TJ.

"Okay, that's good! That's good!" With Tess, Maeve held the door open for Joel to crawl under while the infected got closer as they screamed their lungs out.

"Drop it!" Joel hurried underneath.

Slam!

The door dropped just as a Runner stuck her arm under the door. Everyone stood back, the infected pounded the metal relentlessly. With each pound, Maeve flinched. Their wails were deafening.

"Damn..." she muttered and stepped back some more.

"You got something on your shoe." Ellie suddenly said to Joel.

There was a hand, er, well, an entire arm latched to Joel's boot. The infected had managed to grab him before the door chopped its limb off.

He kicked the arm off in disgust.

"Gross."