( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER TEN ...

' endure and survive '

(Y/N) raises her hands above her hand, as Ellie did the same in front of her, while the male behind them still pointed his gun at the oldest head.

"Eyes on me." The male behind the girls demand, as he spots Joel looking at his younger brother who held a gun at him also, "You don't have to worry about what to say. We don't wanna hurt you. Wanna help you."

Joel, who had turned his attention on the guy holding the girls hostage, clenched his jaw and muttered, "Okay."

"Okay, um.." The male stumbled for words, as he shuffles in his spot but doesn't remove the gun, "I don't know what the next step is with something like this, but if I lower my gun... we didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us, right?"

"That's right." Joel replied to him nonchalantly, not letting him see how truly angry he was right now.

The male shook his head, with a unsure expression as he scoffed a laugh, "That's a weird fuckin' tone, man."

"That's just the way he sounds." (Y/N) quickly speaks up on his behalf, trying to ease the situation as she gives Joel a look, "He has an asshole voice. Tell him he's okay." She stresses, and points with her finger to the guy behind her.

"Everything is great." He once again told him blunty, only reassuring him since the girl said to do so.

She sighs heavily with a head shake, giving him a tired stare as that wasn't any better then before, "Come on."

"Fuck!" The male behind the sisters curses to himself, not wanting to keep this gun hostage going anymore, "Okay..listen..I'm gonna trust you." He grabs his younger brother attention, signing to him with his free hand, "I'm going to trust him."

The younger boy was hesitant, as he signs back, "Are you sure?"

"Yes." The older one mutters quietly, before looking back at the silent trio, "But if any of you guys try anything..." He motions to the gun at (Y/N)'s head, "Yeah?"

Ellie and (Y/N) were automatically agreeing with him, and nod their heads hasilty, "Yeah."

The older brother signals to his brother to step back, as he does so but keeps the gun aimed at Joel, who was half leaning up on his elbows.

"Can I sit up?" Joel questioned the older brother, as his back was starting to annoy him with the way he was sitting, and heard a small okay coming from him.

"Slow. Get up slow." The male warns lowly as he spots Joel about to get up, and where his gun was laying next to him in reach now.

Joel listened to what he demanded, as he sits up slowly and carefully, keeping his hands raised showing no harm, and goes to question, "Who are you?"

(Y/N) peeks a little over her shoulder, finally seeing what the male looked like who had a gun pointed at her head, and Ellie's. Her eyes go wide a little bit. He was handsome, she wouldn't lie about that.

"My name's Henry." He introduced himself at Joel's question, feeling the girls stare at him as he meets it for a second then motions to the younger boy, "That's my brother, Sam. I'm the most wanted man in Kansas city. Although right now..." He trails off knowingly, and lowers the gun, "my guess is you're running a close second."

...

The wind was blowing and hollowing through the gaps in the broken windows, as the group had now moved to sit down in the corner, across from each other and had a lantern in the middle to give light.

(Y/N) was sitting in between Ellie and Joel, with her legs crossed and eating some of the food they had, while Henry and Sam ate the same. Joel had reluctantly gave them some, as everyone but him ate some.

Henry was the one to break the silence, as he glances at (Y/N) in wonder, and noticed how Joel was already looking at her, "Where'd you get these?"

"From Bill." She answers him shortly, not wanting to get into their story about them, and smiles sadly at Henry, "He's dead now."

Joel looks away from the girls face, not enjoying the way Henry was also staring at her as a weird, uncomfortable feeling weighs down on his heart, but shakes it away as he passes some more food to Sam, who takes it gratefully.

Sam places the wrapped up food in his palms, making a sign at his brother, and went to speak what he signed, "He says thank you. I'm guessing you don't have much, so...this means a lot."

(Y/N)'s lips quirk up a little bit at his words, while Joel just stares at him with a neutral face and Ellie goes to eagerly ask about Sam, "How old is he?"

Henry turns to his brother, translating that through sign language to him, as Sam places the food in his hands down and signs his age back, "He's eight."

Ellie nods her head in approval, leaning her knee against (Y/N)'s thigh, and grinned a bit,  "Cool." She points to herself, "I'm Ellie." She then motions to her sister, grinning more brightly, "This is my older sister, (Y/N)."

Henry told his brother their names through sign language, and saw how his eyes lit up at the knowledge of their names, and goes to sign something back.

This made (Y/N) curious as he gestured to her, and Henry chuckled to himself at his brothers words, signing his agreement, "He said you're very pretty."

She flushed with embarrassed at the sudden complement, releasing a small giggle and grinned at Sam, "Thank you." She sighed to him, well at least what she think it was.

Sam beams at this, nodding his head in approval as he showed a thumbs up, gaining another low chuckle from Henry who happily watched the entire interaction.

Ellie, who laughed to herself watching her older sister get complements, noticed Joel having a sour scowl on his face, which made her grin knowling and hit his leg, motioning for him to introduce himself.

He breaks out of his scowling expression, swallowing the food in his mouth and nods, "I'm Joel. Look, you ate, we didn't kill each other, let's call this a win-win and move on."

Henry took in his grumpy words, as he dusted his hands clean from the crumbs, and intertwined his fingers together, "Well, I'm betting...that y'all came up here to get a view of the city and plan a way out."

(Y/N), Ellie and Joel all look up from their food at his talking, listening closely as he continued.

"And when the sun's up... I'll show you one."

...

It was the next day as the sun had risen fully in the skies, making the city brighter and clearer now. Joel and Henry were looking out of the windows, in the building they were still in and talked.

"Welcome to Killa City." Henry was introducing, as they both saw many abandoned buildings, and how empty it was.

"No FERDA." Joel observed with his brows furrowed.

"Not as of 10 days ago, no." Henry confirmed.

Joel crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at the floor beneath his boots, "We always heard KC FERDA was-"

"Monsters? Savages?" Henry interruptus him knowingly, and turns to look at the older male next to him, "Yeah, you heard right. R**ed and tortured and murdered people for 20 years. And you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get a chance, they do it right back to you."

"But you're not FEDRA." Joel states as he listened closely to his explanation.

Henry slowly shakes his head, "No...worse." He pauses for a second, then confesses, "I'm a collaborator."

Joel makes a face at this, himself shaking his head stubbornly now knowing who he was, and went to uncross his arms, "I don't work with rats."

"Yeah, you fucking do." Henry scoffs, "Today you do.." He points to outside of the window, "'cause I live here and you don't. That's how I followed you here. I know this city, and that's how I'm gonna help you get out."

Joel stares at him for a few seconds, and pursues his lips in thought, wondering, "Why help us?"

"I saw what you did..." Henry tells him the truth, "the way you killed those men. Now, I know where to go, but I don't know how to make it through alive, not if it's just me and Sam."

"You see capable enough," Joel was cautious of him since the moment he pulled a gun to (Y/N)'s head, "You're armed."

"You're wrong, and wrong." Henry denies his statement, and shook his head with a distant look, "Never killed anyone. And pointing an unloaded gun at you was the closest I've ever come to being violent." He admitted honestly, "So that's the deal. I show the way...you clear the way."

Joel was in thought once more, going to say something back but the sound of happy laugher filled their ears, making the two turn to see (Y/N), and Ellie showing Sam one of Ellie's comic books.

"Haven't heard that in a long time." Henry comments with a bright smile, seeing how his younger brother was now laughing harder at (Y/N)'s funny hand puppets.

Once again Joel was absorbed by the (H/C) haired girls laugher, but quickly knocked out of it with a heavy sigh, "So how are we gettin' out?"

Henry turns back around to him, and then glances at the table as an idea popped into his mind.

...

Henry placed a piece of paper on the same table, using a pencil to draw up a sketch of a map of the city, well somewhat as he drew the needed information.

"Highways...downtown." He circle's his fingers in the middle of the drawing, and then taps to the side of it a little, "Us. This whole area belongs to Kathleen."

"She's in charge?" (Y/N) questioned the male, her, Ellie and Joel currently standing opposite to him as they listened.

"Leader of the resistance." He looks up and answers her, then uses the pencil to tap on all the sides of the map, "You can see the way we're bounded by highways. They got people posted all around the inside perimeter. If we get close, we get caught. No question. So how do we get across?"

He turns to his little brother, who was sitting in a chair at the table, and bangs on it to gain his attention. Once Sam looked up from his work, Henry motioned to the map and hand signed, "How do we get across?"

Sam lifts his nose into the air in understanding, flipping a new page on his writing board, and writes something on it as they watch. When he was finished, he holds the words up, and saw "Tunnel".

Henry snaps his fingers in approval, "Boom."

"Kansas City has a subway?" Joel asked the two brothers, one hand on his hips as the other rested against the table.

"No, but they do have maintenance tunnels." Henry starts off his explaining, "There's a bunch of buildings all put up by the same developers. And they share these tunnels, including.." He gestured to something drawn on the map again, "a bank building here. So we enter the tunnels here, travel underground, and pop up here. Westside North Residential. There's an embankment on the other side of the houses. We head down, pedestrian bridge over the river.." He claps his hands together, "free as a bird."

"You're right. It's a great plan." Joel speaks up after the plan being told, as his voice held sarcasm, "So what do you need me for?"

Henry releases a sigh at this, lips going into a straight line as he looks at Joel, "You noticed anything strange about this city? I mean, other than the strange shit you've already seen?"

"No infected?" Ellie joins in at this.

Henry raised an amused brow at her, "Oh, there's infected. Just not on the surface. FEDRA drove them underground 15 years ago, and never let them come back up. It's the only good thing those fascist motherfuckers ever did."

Joel looked incredulously at his claim, and motions between him, and the sisters, "So, you want us going' into a tunnel?"

"Everyone thinks that it's full of infected, including Kathleen, which means that we're not gonna be running into any of her people." Henry elboarated, and points at himself quickly, "But you see, what I know is, it's empty."

"You've been down there?" Joel asked the male suspiciously with his eyebrows slanted.

"No, but the FEDRA guy that I worked with told me that it's clean, completely clean." Henry tried to persuade Joel, seeing his unbelieve expression, "They cleared it all out. All of it."

"When?" (Y/N) jumps in to question, eyes slightly narrowed down on the male, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Like...." Henry trails off, racking his brain for an answer as her stare was making him a bit nervous, "three years ago.."

Joel scoffs loudly with a clenched jaw, sharing a look with (Y/N) who shrugged her shoulders, both expressing their skepticism.

"Okay, maybe, there's one or two, but you handle it." Henry pointed out.

"What if there's more?" Joel questions sharply to him, turning his head away from the girl and at him.

"Or one of those blind ones that sees like a bat?" Ellie voiced her question, making a cringing face at it as (Y/N) rubs her sisters shoulders.

Henry pauses at this, double taking on what she just told him, "Wait, you...you ran into a clicker?" He points at the girls, a bit impressed.

(Y/N) nods her head firmly, and pulls her sleeves jacket down more to cover her fingers, "Two of 'em."

"And you're still alive." Henry states the obvious, clearly knowing this trio could handle themselves, and he sticks his head towards Joel purposely, "You see? You're the right people. If it gets bad down there, we turn around, and run right back out the same way we came."

"Oh, that's your great plan?" Joel exclaimed loudly with disbelief, leaning up from his slouched position.

"No, that's my dicey-as-fuck plan." Henry tells him as he faces the standing male, "But as far as I can tell..." He shrugged his shoulders a little, "it's our only shot."

Sam, who was looking at them as they talked, hit his fist against the table, and caught his brothers attention, signing to him, "What are they saying?"

Henry looks back and forth between them all, before turning to his brother, signing and talking, "They're saying, they're going to help us escape."

Sam nodded his head in approval, lip in a lopsided smile and goes back to writing on his board.

"Right?" Henry insisted, looking back at the quiet Joel.

The Williams sisters also turned to Joel, who glanced down at them, landing on (Y/N) last and made up his mind.

...

The trio followed Henry and Sam through the city, as they arrived at another building, and pushed through the doors, and quickly made their way inside.

(Y/N) had Ellie's hand in her own, as they jog a little bit to keep up with the brothers, and Joel does the same, checking around the open windows where everyone could see through.

"We need to get outta sight." Joel tells Henry, as he hunches over a little bit and catches his breath.

"Uh..I, I-I think it's this way." Henry stumbles for words, pointing towards the way they needed to go, and the sisters followed right behind them, Joel going last.

...

Henry opened the next door they needed to get through, as it was darker inside so the group had some of their flashlight out.

Joel closed the door behind them, when they all walked inside and stopped on the stairs, glancing around at the new environment.

"This should be it." Henry told the trio next to his brother, making them turn to stare at him, "You ready?"

Joel looks away from him, and down to the sisters, "Get your bow and gun out."

(Y/N) follows his instructions, grabbing her bow that was folded and Ellie took out the gun her sister gave her before, as Joel walked past them, going down first.

He opened another metal door, as it creaked and made a rumbling noise when being opened. He shined his flashlight inside, not spotting anything yet as the other four were right behind him.

They had made it underground, where the long tunnel was seen, and the sound of water dripping had hit the ground was heard, making the silence even more eerier.

"You see? It's empty." Henry voiced proudly, talking a bit to loud for liking as he shined his light down the pathway.

Joel made a shushing noise at him, giving a not amused look as he was still on edge, "'The plan is good'? We've been down here two seconds. We don't know anythin'."

Henry raises his brow's at (Y/N), turning his head to look at the girl standing near him, "Your boyfriend's kind of a pessimist."

(Y/N) makes a startled noise at this, flushing embarrassed at the claim and waves her hands frantically in front of her, "He's not my boyfriend."

At the same time, Joel who's stomach flipped at the words went to deny it also in sync with her, "I'm not her boyfriend." He turns away from the entertained Henry, "Just point your light forward..and be ready to run."

(Y/N) sends her younger sister a narrowed eyed look, as she was quietly snickering at what just happened. The older Williams sighs with a shoulder slump, grabbing Sam and Ellie's hands in her own as she looks at Joel's back, and follows after him down the tunnel.

...

Joel was still leading the group through the long, dark tunnels, and took many turns to get where they wanted. Sometimes he would glance back, making sure his so called cargo were still behind him.

They make it to a different sort of tunnel, one where it was smaller than the other ways from before, and the group walks down into it now.

(Y/N) still kept the younger ones hands in hers, as she kept them close and led them through the tunnel, and came to a stop when Joel and Henry did.

"Whoa." Ellie gaped in awe, seeing all the beautiful drawings on the walls around them.

Sam lets go of (Y/N)'s hand, and motions to the door in front of them that was covered in drawings also. He want to walk forward with a grin, but Joel grabbed his arm and stopped him, "No."

Henry pulls back his brother, as he stands next to (Y/N), who had Ellie under her arms, and Joel slowly opens the door, sliding through it sideways as he squints from the sudden brightness inside.

He signals for the group to follow in, as they all do one by one, faces breaking into smiles or in awe ones at what they saw.

It looked like a kids play area, well at least was one as it had tables full of toys, pens, small cupboards full of other things and books, and many more drawings all over the walls. It also had a massive white board, which had house rules written on it, showing that a family or families used to live here.

"I heard about places like this." Joel speaks up as he continued his looking around the place, "People went underground after outbreak day. Built settlements."

"What happened to them?" Ellie asked him from beside her sister, who was looking at the area with big eyes.

"Maybe they didn't follow the rules, and they all got infected." Joel answered knowingly, hinting and implying this at the sisters, and (Y/N) rolled her eyes with an amused smile, following after where Ellie went.

Sam sat down at the table the sisters walked over to, as he was playing with some of the toys on it, and Ellie rolled a toy car, making it drop onto the ground.

She chuckles a little bit when Sam looked at her, as (Y/N) spots some comic books beside her boot, making her bend down and pick one up, "Ellie, look."

The girl looks up at her sister, eyes going wide with glee seeing the comic in her hand, "No way!" She takes it from (Y/N)'s hands, as they both squat down to Sam, and show him.

Sam looked at them confused, as to why Ellie was so excited and she motioned to get out his writing board. She took it and began writing something, as she spoke it, "I have issues, four, five, six, 11."

The young boy flicks another page onto the board, grabbing the pen and writes, 'I have 15, 6, 8'.

Ellie grins at his information, and nods her head excitedly at Sam, "Ah. So cool." She leans closer and goes to talk slowly, "'To the edge of the universe..." She nods her head as Sam does some hand motions, "'and back. Endure and survive." She goes to sign the words, coping what Sam was doing, "Endure. Survive. Fuck yeah, man!" She laughs excitedly, sharing a high five with him.

(Y/N) watched the interaction from beside Ellie, glad to see her sister having someone similar age to mess around with. The older sister would always be there for her, but she also knew Ellie needed someone closer to her age as well.

"Hey, keep it down. We're not out yet." Joel's deep voice speaks up, slightly raising it as the kids quietened down, and he walks behind Henry.

"Ah, c'mon." Ellie whined with a small pout, "Can we just rest here for a while?" She hits the table with her hand, motioning to the objects on it, "There's, like, actually shit to do here."

Henry agreed on this idea, turning his head to face Joel with a shoulder shrug, "Wouldn't be so bad to wait the light out a bit. Safer in the shadows when we pop back out the other side."

(Y/N) tilts her head at Joel, a pleading look taking over her features as she stares at him, while Ellie was smirking to herself knowing he wouldn't say no to her older sister.

Joel grumbles to himself spotting the older girls look, sighing heavily and tilts his head back, arms out a little bit to show he agreed.

He really couldn't say no to her, and it was starting to bother him more and more. However, he also was not complaining.

...

Sam stood in front of the human made goal, as it was painted onto the grey wall behind him, and waited to block the hit Ellie was going to make with the soccer ball.

Ellie kicks the ball, and it ends up hitting the goal which caused her to jump around, cheering, "Yes! Come on! Yeah!" She walks up to Sam a bit, grinning, "Come on. Pass it back."

On the side of where they were playing, (Y/N) sat on the ground, legs crossed and was fixing up her bow, as she made sure it wouldn't get caught when she folded it up. As well as sharpening the few arrows she had left, it reminded her she had to make some more soon.

Henry and Joel were a bit away from the three, as they sat on chairs and watched the situation happen. The two watched as Ellie and Sam played with the ball, trying to get it back from each other, as Ellie's giggles filled the air.

Joel's dark eyes moved to Henry, noticing him staring at the focused (Y/N), a small smile on his lips as he did so. The Miller male didn't like that, felt he didn't as his jaw clenched and inhaled sharply, trying to ignore the burning emotion he was currently feeling.

(Y/N) looks up from her bow cleaning, grinning a little bit as she pushes the ball back to her sister, who laughed and took it, continuing her playing with Sam.

She watched them run around the table, as Ellie tried to tag him, and she shook her head in amusement when Ellie almost fell over face first.

The (H/C) haired girl tilted her head around, and saw Joel and Henry in deep conversation, as she felt her heart flutter, when Joel's dark eyes met hers intensely mid talk from across the room. She had a sudden feeling they were talking about her.

"You might not be their father.." Henry was telling Joel strongly, as his voice lowers a little, and adds knowingly seeing Joel gazing at (Y/N), "You might not be her lover, but you were someone's."

Joel slowly looks away from (Y/N)'s gaze, breaking their eye contact as he scrunches his knuckles tight and thinks about Herny's words.

Though before he could answer, Ellie was suddenly roaring and the two look over to see her jumping on (Y/N)'s back, as they chase after a giggling Sam.

Joel shook away his ever-growing thoughts about the girls, especially about (Y/N) and stands up from his chair, grabbing his flashlight with a neutral expression, "We've waited long enough."

Henry sighs defeated as Joel was avoiding the conversation, and goes to stand up also, letting the trio messing around know it was time go.

( gif by ;
sporadicstarsx )

AUTHORS NOTES;; warning you all now, the next couple of chapters are about to be very sad, and heart wrenching so heads up guys ☹️☹️☹️