𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞

- CHAPTER SEVEN -
HISTORIES TO OUTSELVES

JOEL CLOSED THE door softly behind him with a painful expression on his face. He'd done a lot of bad things in his time, but leaving Tess behind to die would be one of the worst. He'd known her for years and now suddenly it was hitting him that he'd never see her again. She was his best friend, and those were hard to come by these days. Everyone was in it for themselves, but Tess...Tess was there for him. She knew about Sarah, what he'd been through, she knew the worst parts of him that he'd kept hidden.

"What the fuck?! I can't believe we did that." Ellie exclaimed as he backed away from the door, his fingers dropped of the doorknob one by one until his arm fell at his side.

"Joel...I'm so sorry." Kathy empathised, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. She had no clue what he could be feeling, it must've felt like another part of him had died. That's what Kathy felt when she lost her brother, Mark and Anne. Ellie was lucky, she'd been too young to understand death when they died.

He nudged it off, "Stop."

"We just left her to die." Ellie continued.

"Stop!" Joel repeated louder. "You stay close to me. We have to move."

"Oh man..."

"It looks like we can get out upstairs." Kathy voiced from up ahead, she'd found more resources to make another shiv. Sadly, no molotov parts.

Gunshots ensued from the other side of the door. Men were groaning and then the awful sound of Tess's cry of pain could be heard as they ran along the upper floor.

"Just keep pushing forward." Joel said as they came out onto the balcony that looked over the entrance of the capitol building. They could see Tess's body splayed out on the floor with two others and a few soldiers gathered around. Tess hadn't gone down without a fight, she was one tough son of a bitch.

"Target neutralized. She took out two of my men. Copy that. You, take out the door. You, with me."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh my God. Tess." Ellie whimpered. "They're gonna be here soon. We should move."

They could still hear the soldiers when they went through different rooms, "Proceed with caution. There's still at least two more of 'em in here."

"How do they even know about us?" Kathy questioned Joel after they jumped over out of a collapsed wall and into another area of the Capitol building.

He found a hunting rifle with ammo still in it and he swung it into the gun holder on his back, "I don't know."

"They're escaping into the hall! Go around!"

"What do we do? Joel!"

"I got this."

Out came the guns, shots being fired everywhere. The soldiers fell to the floor one by one, some a little harder to kill than the others because of their body armour. Joel, Kathy and Ellie worked their way down the stairs to the first floor, immediately thrown into another gun fight. Kathy even managed to get in a few headshots.

They ran out of the front doors and into the flooded street. Ellie spotted an entrance to a subway, "There's stairs over there."

"Stay low." Joel replied and they crept until they were hidden in the entrance of the subway stairs. But they weren't safe for long.

"They're going into the subway! Stop 'em!"

"They're following us!" Kathy exclaimed, running a lot faster when a weaponised truck pulled up in front of the entrance.

They ran until they got to the train platform, the air around them was now infested with spores so Joel and Kathy put their respirators on. Ellie couldn't get infected, so she didn't need one.

Ellie pulled the two adults behind a vending machine to hide, "Get down. There's a soldier over there."

"No target. I repeat, no target." The soldier said into his radio, he was wearing a mask too.

"Understood. Hold your position and wait for reinforcements."

"Copy that. Holding position."

Joel turned to Ellie incredulously, "How the hell are you breathin' in this stuff?"

"I wasn't lying to you." She replied.

A lone soldier ran in through the entryway they had just came through, "Did you spot them?"

"No. Place is empty."

"Search the area. Let's find them and get the hell out of here before clickers show up. Who the hell is this guy?"

The trio snuck past them, through one of the train carriages and onto the tracks. The tunnel was flooded after a certain point and Kathy definitely could not give Ellie a piggy back with how deep the water was. Joel, forgetting that, jumped right in.

"Hey, in case you forgot. Ellie can't swim, Joel." Kathy reminded, stood next to her niece above the water.

Joel sighed, "We'll figure something out."

He disappeared under the water for a few minutes, diving under some of the submerged train carriages to the other side.

"You're not gonna leave us here, right?" Ellie called out to him.

"Just stay put." They heard him say from a distance away.

Kathy shrugged, "We're not going anywhere."

He went left first and found nothing of use, but when he went right, he'd found a wooden pallet floating in the water. Perfect for Ellie to balance on.

"Get on." He instructed the teen.

"She looked it skeptically, "Really?"

"Ellie..."

As Joel swam Ellie across, Kathy dove into the water. Goosebumps travelled across her skin due to the sudden drop in temperature, the water was freezing.

"Be careful."

"I gotcha."

Ellie jumped up onto the platform on the other side, leaving Kathy and Joel floating as she dropped the ladder into the murky depth. Kathy climbed up first with Joel close behind.

"Alright, let's get outta here." He voiced, a new set of stairs and daylight coming into view.

He and Kathy ripped off their respirators, coughing slightly when they could breathe proper fresh air.

Ellie had her hands on her hips awkwardly as she tried to think of something to say, "Hey, look um...about Tess...I don't even know what to-"

Joel didn't let her finish, "Here's how this thing's gonna play out. You don't bring up Tess - ever. Matter of fact, we can just keep our histories to ourselves. Secondly, don't tell anybody about your...condition. They'll think you're crazy or they'll try to kill you. And lastly, you do what I say, when I say it. We clear?"

"Sure."

"Repeat it." He turned to Kathy as well, "You too."

"What you say goes."

"No."

Joel's head shot up in her direction, clearly taken by surprise, "What?"

"Here's how we're gonna work," Kathy glared, gesturing between herself and him, "Ellie does what you say, and I will to a degree. But if anything you do endangers her life, I won't hesitate to put a knife to your neck. We make decisions together, a partnership if you will. I will not let you make life threatening decisions for my kid without my say. You got that?"

He nodded, not expecting Kathy to argue with him on that, she was a little scary in that moment. He decided to change the subject, "There's a town a few miles north of here. There's a fella there that owes me some favours. Good chance he could get us a car."

"Okay." Kathy said, seemingly more calm than a few seconds ago. A car seemed like a good idea.

"Let's get a move on."

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