𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞

- CHAPTER TWO -
FEEL THE FRESH AIR

THE AFTERNOON SUN blazed from above, momentarily blinding Kathy as she stepped outside and into the open air. A few bodies littered the silent courtyard, Fireflies that had been dead for several hours, forgotten about and left to rot.

"Whoa..." Ellie breathed out when she noticed them. "We heard all the shooting, but...what happened."

"The Fireflies." Joel sighed while he bent down by one of the bodies and picked up a pendant. "Same things gonna happen to us if we don't get off the street."

"You're the pro, we're just following you." Ellie said as they jogged down some stairs and through a metal fence that was missing it's gate.

The distant sound of the soldiers' PA could be heard as one of their trucks drove by.

"Attention. Harbouring or aiding wanted criminals is punishable by death. Do not place yourself at risk. Report any suspicious activity immediately."

"Down here!" Joel called to the girls from an alleyway that went lower into the ground. He was crouched behind a half metal, half concrete fence when they turned the corner. "C'mon, keep up."

"We are." Kathy rolled her eyes, but moved faster when more trucks went by. The PA system on repeat.

The alleyway opened up into what used to be a communal area for the old apartment buildings back in the day. Although, no-one lived there now, everyone had been segregated into sections in the quarantine zone for their upmost safety.

"Where are we going?" Ellie asked their guide.

"Up there, that'll get us to the north tunnel." Joel motioned to the fire escape stairs that were against one of the buildings. They looked in good shape, minus the missing bottom level. They'd have to find some way up.

"And how're we supposed to get up there with no bottom stairs?" Kathy questioned him and he sighed.

"Just gimme a minute." He disappeared around the side of a wall and came back into view a minute later, pushing a large trash bin. He looked at Kathy in exasperation, "Gimme a hand with this, would you?"

"What? You're macho muscles not enough?" She asked sarcastically, but joined in with pushing it against the stairs nonetheless.

Joel climbed up first with Kathy following close behind, helping Ellie up after her. They climbed up the stairs and went through an open door into an empty hallway. Kathy could remember a time when apartment hallways were lively and decorated, there had always been something going on, whether it be nosey neighbours or people coming back from work. But then again, Kathy used to live in a pretty wealthy apartment before, not everyone got to experience that.

"This tunnel...You use it to smuggle things?" Ellie inquired as she looked around while they walked.

"Yep." Joel simply replied.

"Like illegal things?"

"You ever smuggle a kid before?" Kathy wondered, gauging him for a reaction, but he kept looking fowards.

"No. That's a first." He replied, "So what's the deal with you two and Marlene, anyways?"

"I don't know. She's my friend, I guess."

"A family friend." Kathy vaguely added, she still didn't trust him.

"Your friend, huh? You're friends with the leader of the Fireflies." He nodded with a hint of sarcasm, "What're you, like twelve?"

"She knew Ellie's mother, my sister-in-law. She's been helping me look after her." Kathy answered plainly with a tone that told him not to push it. Anne and her brother were a very sensitive topic, she rarely even talked to Ellie about her parents.

"And I'm fourteen, not that that has anything to do with anything."

And of course, Joel just had to push it, "So where are your parents?"

Ellie sighed, sharing a look with her aunt before saying, "Where are anyone's parents? They've been gone a long, long time."

Kathy had the guiltiest of looks on her face and the girl didn't have a clue why.

They walked up a flight of stairs as Joel continued to question them, "Hm. So instead of just staying in school, you just decided to run off and join the Fireflies, is that it?"

Kathy groaned in annoyance, already fed up with the man and his insistence on knowing their lives, "We're not gonna tell you why you're smuggling her, okay? Just let it go."

"You wanna know the best thing about my job? I don't gotta know why. Be honest with you, I could give two shits about what you two are up to." He voiced, they were now in a much dingier hallway that had a dead end.

Ellie gave a tight lipped smile, "Well great."

"Good." He said and then he opened the door at the end of the hallway. It was the only one without a lock on it. "This is it."

He shut the door behind them and sat down on laid down on the couch, leaving them stood up and staring at him expectantly.

"What are you doing? You said we were going to the north tunnel." Kathy stressed with her arms crossed.

"Killing time." He replied with his eyes closed, "Gotta wait for Tess."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Ellie questioned.

"I am sure you will figure that out."

"C'mon, Ellie." Kathy coaxed her over to the window, "Let the princess have his beauty sleep."

"Your watch is broken." Ellie told him as she walked past.

➸ ➸ ➸

"You mumble in your sleep." The brunette Williams voiced, sounding very empathetic when she noticed him jolt awake. It was night now, he'd been asleep for a couple hours.

"I hate bad dreams." Ellie added from her seat by the window. How Joel hadn't woken up when they moved that bulky armchair over there was a mystery.

"Yeah, me too." Joel said, running a hand down his face. He stood up quietly and walked over to them, keeping his gaze out the window into the dark abyss of the outside world.

"You know, I've never been this close." Ellie revealed, "To the outside. Look how dark it is. Can't be any worse out there. Can it?"

Kathy looked at her sadly, "Ellie...we've talked about this..."

"What on earth do the Fireflies want with you?" Joel asked them after lighting a lantern on the table. Kathy didn't get a chance to have a go at him because Tess came into the room.

"Hey." She greeted, shutting the door behind her. "Sorry it took so long. Soldiers fuckin' everywhere."

"How's Marlene?" Ellie queried, standing up quickly.

"She'll make it." Tess reassured and then turned to Joel, "I saw the merchandise. It's a lot. Wanna do this?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

They all walked through a different door than the one they came in before, leading into another room with bent blinds and a lone bookshelf. Tess went straight for the window.

"Don't you think it's a bit strange that they're having us do their smugglin'?" Joel conversed his thoughts to Tess.

"Marlene wanted to do it herself. We weren't their first choice, or their second for that matter." Tess replied, "She's lost a lot of men. Beggars can't be choosers."

Joel countered, "Yeah, well let's just hope there's someone alive to pay us."

"Someone'll be around. Come on." Tess addressed the other two girls and together they pushed the bookshelf away to reveal a large hole in the wall. Joel had disappeared into the other room to read one of Tess's old notes, but he soon joined them through the hole where he then started the generator for the lift they were stood on.

It was loud and annoying, but nothing could be done. Joel pressed the button and the lift descended, "Who's waiting for us at the drop off?"

Kathy was the one to answer, "There's some Fireflies coming all the way from another city."

"Girl must be important." Tess tutted, sending both Williams' a suspicious look. "What is the deal with you two? You some big-wigs daughter or something?"

Kathy pulled Ellie closer to her and she glared. She seemed to be doing that a lot with those two, "Or something."

"How long is this all gonna take?" Ellie quizzed as they walked off the lift and into some sort of dark basement. Although, Joel, Tess and Kathy had their flashlights on so they weren't immersed in complete darkness.

"If everything goes as planned, we should get you to them in a few hours." Tess explained, "Ellie, Kathy, once we get out there, I need you to follow our lead and stay close."

"Yeah, of course."

"You know the area better than we do, we're not gonna wonder off blindly." Kathy scowled, she didn't like not being in charge. She was so used to being the one who'd take action and make the choices and now she had to hope Tess and Joel knew what they were doing. Because if they didn't, if they made one wrong move, it could mean life or death. And usually that was Kathy's burden to bare.

They crouched through another hole in the wall, this one was much lower - hence the crouching - and it led them into a room with a ladder and nothing else except for the pipe that ran across the ceiling.

"Climb up and check if the coast is clear." Tess urged Joel, who climbed up and lifted the large piece of wood aside, to survey their surroundings.

"Now hold up. There's a patrol up ahead." Joel cautioned, his eyes darting around before saying, "Alright, we're good. Come on up. C'mon kid. Watch your step."

Ellie went up first, followed by Kathy and Tess. Joel put the wood back over the ladder and hole to hide it, joining them out in the rain. "This rain ain't gonna do us any good."

"Holy shit, I'm actually outside." Ellie breathed out in awe, looking from the wall to the unknown around her. Kathy couldn't help but smile at the sight, she hadn't had much to smile about these days.

Just seeing Ellie let loose and enjoy something new was enough to make her week. The fourteen year old had been so tense ever since she lost Riley.

"Up this way." Joel announced, going into the back of an old trailer that now acted as a ramp. They stuck close behind, taken by surprise when he was hit in the face with a gun and knocked to the ground.

"Don't do anything stupid." A soldier advised, her gun aimed on them. Tess, Kathy and Ellie raised their hands in surrender.

"Move." The male soldier urged, motioning with his gun.

"Turn around. On your knees." The woman soldier commanded, her gun's light illuminating Kathy's face as she scowled at them. She should've known it wouldn't be as easy as Tess said it was. Nothing in this world was ever easy anymore. "You scan them. I'll call it in."

"Alright." The other one nodded, "Put your hands on your head."

"This is Ramirez in sector twelve. Requesting pickup for four stragglers." Ramirez, the female soldier spoke into her radio. "Understood."

The other soldier was scanning Tess first. She tried to bribe him, "Look the other way. We can make this worth your while."

"Shut up. I'm tired of this shit." He moved onto Joel and both Ellie and Kathy grew worried as he came closer. He put the scanner against the back of Ellie's neck, but he wasn't looking. "What's the ETA?"

"Couple a minutes."

"Oh man, oh man. Sorry!" Ellie panicked, swirling around and sticking her knife in the man's leg. 

He hit her in the face, but before he could do any more damage, Kathy tackled him to the ground and wrestled the gun off him while Tess shot the other one in the head. Kathy was straddling the soldier and she cocked the pistol now held in her hands, she didn't even hesitate to pull the trigger.

"Oh fuck." Ellie swore, putting her knife away as she tried to calm down. "I thought we were just gonna hold them up or something."

"Oh shit." Tess picked up the scanner from the floor and Kathy moved in front of Ellie, she knew this wouldn't go well. The smuggler threw it to her partner, "Look."

Joel looked at the scanner closely and cursed, "Jesus Christ. Marlene set us up? Why the hell are we smuggling an infected girl."

"She's not infected." Kathy stated firmly, making sure that he didn't get any closer.

"No? Was this lying?" He threw the scanner on the ground in front of her angrily.

"We can explain." Ellie pleaded.

"You better explain fast." Tess retorted.

Ellie rolled up her sleeve and showed them her bite, "Look at this!"

"I don't care how you got infected." Joel rolled his eyes.

"You should." Kathy sneered at him, "It's three weeks old."

Tess did not believe them, not even for a second, "No. Everyone turns within two days. So you stop bullshitting."

"It's three weeks. I swear." Ellie repeated confidently. "Why would she set you up?"

Joel shook hi head in denial and looked at Kathy skeptically, "And how are we supposed to believe that you aint infected as well? I ain't buyin' it." 

"I'm not." Kathy snapped, her face had some blood splatter on it and her hand was still clutching the dead soldier's gun. She looked like a wreck. Joel found himself believing her.

He caught sight of the soldiers' back up in the corner of his eye and he swore, "Oh, shit. Tess, run. RUN!"

❝IT'S NO SURPRISE TO ME, I AM MY OWN WORST ENEMY❞