"Yoohoo! Fireflies? Cure for mankind over here! Anyone?"

"Sh! Ellie!" Maeve chided her sister. "Don't be so loud, there could be more infected!"

They hadn't encountered any infected since the academic buildings, but that didn't mean there couldn't be more around. Ellie's voice bounced off the empty walls of the science building, protruding the sound barriers, and shrilled into calm loudness.

No matter where they looked, the rooms were empty, the halls too. There was no sign of the Fireflies being there. And they had yet to find any traces. It was a bit disappointing to not find a single person. Not only was it disappointing, but it was also frustrating.

Where were the Fireflies? Surely, they had to be here somewhere.

"Yeah, don't go stirring up trouble, Toe Fungus," TJ had to chime in.

"Don't call me that!" Ellie glared at him. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

TJ didn't answer her. Typical.

Maeve followed Ellie onto the catwalk with glass and metal railings. She peered down at the first floor. Shit littered the lobby. Rubble, large and small debris. A gnarly-looking pole sticking out of a piece of concrete like Excalibur. She shuffled toward the other side of the catwalk, into the stairwell.

"I think I found something!" Ellie called for them to rummage through totes stacked near a counter.

"Does it have anything to do with the Fireflies?" Maeve questioned, approaching her sister.

"That is a negative, Captain." She tossed the papers she held back into the tote disdainfully and pursed her lips. "Ugh, there's nothing useful here!"

"Yeah, this ain't nothing but a bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo," Joel threw a clipboard onto one of the closed totes.

"I don't get it."

"Looks like they all just packed up and left in a hurry."

A loud clattering came from upstairs. It startled the quartet. Whatever it was, it certainly was alive. Sounded like someone was trying to move something heavy on their own but dropped their shit.

TJ huffed. "Maybe like all of 'em."

"Y'all stay close," Joel crept up the stairs, gun in hand, just in case there was infected.

They entered another corridor with more classrooms. No infected. Yet.

"There are no bodies," Ellie peered around the classes. "That's good...right?"

No bodies meant one of two things. One, the Fireflies were gone. Packed up and left someplace else. Two, they were those infected from earlier. Either way, they were screwed and literally out of luck. Classrooms are empty. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

"If we can just find out where they went." Joel explored the classrooms, hoping to find anything related to the Fireflies.

"How do you think they'll do it?"

Maeve peered at her sister. "Do what?"

"You know...get the cure from me? You think it'll hurt?"

"They'll probably just draw blood — it won't hurt." The older girl tried to soothe her sister.

"Ha. Nice try," she cringed. "We were vaccinated at school, remember? It sucked."

Maeve rolled her eyes. The vaccinations they were forced to have, sure, they sucked balls. And hurt like hell, so she couldn't disagree with her. A twinge of a sharp pinch shot through her right shoulder. She grimaced, her body recalling the jab of the needle they used to give her the vaccine.

Ugh. She rolled her shoulder to shake away the phantom tingles.

Another crash sounded through the empty halls, alarming the group. The hall behind them was decked with white tarp and strobe lights, most likely kept for crowd control, or to keep a sturdy line. One of the lights had been knocked over. It crashed onto the ground.

"Holy—Clickers?" She assumed the worst, whipping out her knife.

"Stay alert now," Joel took the lead again, ready to shoot down anything that could be of danger to them.

They shuffled cautiously toward the end of the hall, it slightly broadened into a room with a large table bolted into the floor. Beakers, science-y stuff everywhere. Not exactly infected, but at least it was clear.

"Jesus!" Joel jumped the moment he opened the door behind them. The five chittering monkeys played inside the classroom; one knocked over a trash bin. It screeched at their presence and ran off with its monkey pals. "Well, at least it ain't clickers."

"Thank God for that," TJ sighed heavily and put away his gun.

She had to agree. Monkeys were better than Clickers.

"Yeah," Ellie grumbled sourly. "No Fireflies either. Well, maybe in all that research they turned into fucking monkeys."

She snorted, not that she could help it. Maybe it was so. With all their research and doctors, they probably did turn themselves into monkeys. It wouldn't surprise her much.

"Just keep searching, we'll find something."

Maeve scoured the desks, in hopes to find anything help to increase their supplies; they were running a bit low on nails. Each drawer was bare, practically bone dry. She glared at nothing in particular but continued to search.

"Hey, Joel, there's something in this room here," TJ called out.

"Fireflies?" Ellie perked up, hopping over to the room the blond stood in front of.

"I don't think so, but there's a body inside," he peered through the broken window. "He's been dead a while now."

"Oh..."

TJ then pressed himself against the door and forced the opening to widen. The object barricading the door loudly slid across the floor from the pushing.

"Jeez..." The body sat limp in a swivel chair by the large windows, nothing more than a skeleton with hair, a hole on the left side of the skull. Next to him, on the counter, was a small recorder.

Joel snatched it up, playing it. A tired and disgruntled voice came through, sullen and depressed:

"If you're looking for the Fireflies, they've all left."

"Yeah, no shit," Ellie grunted.

"I'm dead...or I will be soon — got me some time to reflect."

The man clicked a button, causing the tape to fast forward. She chewed her nails anxiously.

"...been years that I felt like we were... fucking thing was a giant waste of ti—not going to do this anymore..."

"C'mon." Joel growled impatiently.

"...looking for the others, they've all returned to Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City. You'll find them there, still trying to save the world," The man inside the recorder chuckled. "Good luck with that."

"Salt Lake City..." Maeve repeated, furrowing her brows, and then looked toward Joel. "Do you know where that is?"

"I know the city."

"Is it far?" Ellie asked.

"It ain't close," TJ intervened. "Even on horseback—Joel what is it?"

A light flickered at them from outside, alerting them all. 

"Fireflies?"

"Get down!"

The window shattered and they just narrowly dodge whatever bullet that was shot. Maeve hunkered down, awaiting Joel and TJ's leadership to take over.

"What the fuck? Who are these guys?"

"It doesn't matter," Joel brought out his rifle. "We know where to go, let's get the hell outta here."

They retreated the way they came.

"Shit, get down!" Ellie grappled her to the floor just as a winter-clad rifleman came out of practically nowhere. He shot at them, and by sheer luck, they dodged his bullets.

"Hey, asshole!" TJ shouted out, shooting the man; he went down, and his violent pals yelled out for him, swearing out revenge.

"Motherfucker!" A man with a shotgun rushed from one of the classrooms. He aimed his barrel at the blond, who barely had time to react.

BLAM!

She didn't know who screamed, her or Ellie. Maybe it was both of them. Blood painted the floor and the walls. A sick feeling nearly overwhelmed her. Brain matter and bits of skull flung onto the door of the classroom.

The shotgun man dropped to the ground; his weapon clattered to the ground.

"Fuck —" TJ blanched. "Thanks, Joel!"

"Damn this place! Let's get!"

They pushed through the strange invaders, who were obviously violent and non-nonnegotiable. Hardly a threat to them, but these massacre dudes wanted them dead anyway. What bullshit logic did they have?!

Maeve hurried down the stairs after Ellie and Joel, TJ right behind her. They rushed onto the catwalk/balcony.

"You're not getting away!" A tall form seemingly came out of nowhere, a scoped rifle aimed directly at her.

"Maeve!"

Crack!

TJ's body crashed into hers, which landed her onto the floor. Gravity took a jolt on her bones, rattling every piece of cartilage wedged between her lacunae. Another gunshot went off, and the guy went down. His dark-clothed body tumbled to the floor.

She assumed it was safe.

"Fuck—" she groaned and sat up. "TJ?"

He lay at the last step of the stairs, his right chest and his shoulder staining dark crimson. His left hand clutched the red-stained denim he wore, the red seeping through his fingers. Agonized grunts came from him; his body quaked with his deep breaths.

"Oh my God!" He was shot. "TJ!"

She scrambled over to him, ignoring that her own body hurt from that shove. Her eyes focused on the hole in his jacket. Her hands hovered over the bleeding shoulder, unable to comprehend what had happened.

"TJ? TJ!" He remained unresponsive through his pain. "Hey, c'mon, we need to—"

"God...dammit!" He managed through his grit teeth. "Fucking shit!"

"Can you move?" She tried to get him to focus. He was losing too much blood, his sleeve half soaked with scarlet. She hesitated on getting him to move, but they weren't safe in the college anymore. She cast a glance at the body just feet away from them, bleeding also. "TJ, we need to move now. I'm going to lift you up, okay?"

"N—no! I got...it!" Stubbornly, the blond reached for the stair railing, forcing himself up without her help.

"Be careful!" She jumped to her feet; her hands tugged on his jacket as he wobbled a bit. "You're losing a lot of blood!"

"Joel..." With heavy steps, TJ trudged for the balcony, despite Maeve trying to stop him. "Joel!"

Part of the railing was broken, and there was blood surrounding the pole in the concrete. Fear rippled through her. She had been too focused on TJ and herself to realize that Joel and Ellie were being attacked. But where were they? She shook herself to stay focused.

"We need to get out of here, TJ," she clung to his left side, to help him move faster. "We gotta get outside to the horses, do you understand?"

An inaudible mumble came from him, but she took that as permission of some kind. He began to lean his weight onto her, either it be subconsciously or his fading consciousness, she didn't know. He was probably going to pass out from the blood loss.

"TJ, you stay awake," she demanded, leading him across the catwalk. "You have to stay awake; do you hear me?"

Outside was far chillier than earlier. They came across what seemed like a dozen bodies of those creeps. Joel and Ellie must've taken care of them.

God, she hoped they were okay.

"TJ?" He slipped from her hold the moment the winter air engulfed them. "Fuck! TJ!"

His body clumsily rolled down the concrete steps, the blood drenching his jacket smearing on them.

"No, no, no," she fumbled to his unconscious body, grabbing a hold of his face, and smacking him lightly. "Hey, c'mon! You need to stay awake! Wake up, TJ! Fuck!"

She lifted her head to look around, maybe she was hoping to see Joel or Ellie, or even the horses. Fuck, fuck, fuck! She gritted her teeth and returned her focus to TJ. The blood became much thicker and sticker. Fuck, not good.

"Goddammit! TJ, wake up!"