𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞

- CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT -
STAY WITH ME

ONCE JOEL HAD joined back up with them, they rode around on Callus for a little longer until they made it to the lab. They scouted for an easy way inside and lucky for them, there was a giant hole in the side of the second story wall that they could get in through. However, it was blocked off by a gate and this time it wasn't electric, it was chained shut.

Ellie tapped Kathy's shoulder and pointed it out, "Hey, what about over there?"

Kathy nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that looks like a way we could get in, but we gotta get through that gate first."

"Already on it." Joel got off the horse and beelined for the wheely bin. He pushed it towards the gate, intending to prop it against it, but it rolled down the hill, ramming the gate open. "Alright, not what I had in mind, but it'll do."

He then grabbed it again and pushed it against a truck parked by the wall so hat they could climb up. Joel went first and reached his hand down for the girls, "Alright we're inside. C'mon kiddo, gimme your hand."

He grunted as he pulled Ellie up and reached back down for Kathy. She grasped tightly onto his hand and jumped, allowing him to yank her up, his hands settling on her hips as she stood up.

"Those macho muscles are starting to grow on me." She smirked, trailing her hand down his arm. He matched her smirk and began to lean in.

"Really, guys? Now?" Ellie groaned, disrupting the moment, which was all she ever seemed to do. "C'mon, we've got some Fireflies to find!"

The whole lab was silent, no Fireflies in sight. Kathy thought that it would have been thriving with Fireflies, but no one was there besides them,

"How will they do it?" Ellie asked as they searched the rooms.

"Do what?" Her aunt asked back.

"Get the cure from me? You think it'll hurt?"

"No, no. Marlene told me they'd take some blood sample and some brain scans. It won't hurt." The brunette assured the girl.

"I've gotten shots before. They vaccinated us at school. It sucked." Ellie replied.

"Yeah, I remember. You came home so pale that day." Kathy reminisced. "Let's hope you got over your fear of needles."

Ellie grimaced as she remembered and then suddenly perked up, her voice echoing along the corridors of the lab, "Yoohoo, Fireflies? Cure for mankind over here! Anyone?"

"Let's keep it down until we figure out what's going on." Joel scolded the teen, his eyes searching around for any hidden threat.

Kathy and Joel caught up to Ellie, who was walking at a slightly faster pace. She was rifling through a box of files, looking for any clues about the Fireflies. Joel picked up a clipboard and looked at it.

Ellie released a disappointed sigh, "Nothing useful."

"Ain't nothin' here but a bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo." Joel added, putting the clipboard back down.

"I don't get it." The teen huffed in frustration.

"Looks like they took what they could and left in a hurry." Kathy remarked. A clanging from up the stairs made them look up at the ceiling.

"Maybe not all of 'em." Ellie responded.

"Stay close." Joel told the auburn haired girl in a quieter voice, slowing walking up the stairs. He swung open the door to the side at the top of the stairwell, leading into another section of the lab.

"There are no bodies. That's good, right?" The teen questioned as she looked around.

"If we find out where they went." Joel grumbled and again, clanging came from behind them.

"Um...So it's probably clickers, right?"

Kathy shook her head, "No, we would've been attacked by now if it was an infected."

They walked through a tarped hallway and into a room with incubators in, x-rays of brains and other body parts littering the room. Joel opened a different door than the one that they came through and they were taken by surprise when a monkey was on the other side, digging through a bin.

There were three of them, and once they noticed the humans, they ran out of the room.

"Jesus. At least it ain't clickers." Joel said, watching as the monkeys scattered.

"Yeah, no Fireflies either." Ellie sighed, kicking the bin as she went into the room with the monkey cages, "Well, maybe with all that research they turned into fucking monkeys."

"Just keep searching, we'll find something." Joel told her. He picked up a recording from one of the tables and played it. One of the Fireflies got bit by a monkey that had been infected with the fungus. "I'm sure glad we didn't mess with them monkeys."

"He didn't say where they went."

"I'm sure there'll be another recording somewhere around here. Don't worry." Kathy reassured the girl, patting her shoulder as she picked up a Firefly pendant from one of the shelves.

They went through two more door, and behind one of them was a decayed body, probably of the Firefly that had gotten bit by that monkey in the recording. He'd shot himself in the head - on the table next to him was another recording.

Joel skipped through the unimportant parts - all he cared about was the Fireflies new location. They were in Saint Mary's hospital in Salt Lake City.

"Do you know where that is?" Ellie asked the adults.

"I know the city." Joel responded.

"Well that makes one of us." Kathy replied. "'Cause I've no fucking clue how far away that is."

"Well, it ain't close." He told her. "I mean on horseback -" He trailed of, focusing his sight out of the window where he saw a light flashing through the trees.

"What?" Ellie tried to look, "Fireflies?"

Joel pushed Kathy and Ellie down and out of sight, a gunshot breaking the window they'd been looking out of, "Get down!"

"Oh, who the hell are these guys?" Kathy curse, pulling out her shotgun, preparing for a fight.

"It don't matter. We know where to go. Let's get the hell outta here." Joel said, staying low as they went back the way they came in.

They aimed at the doorway when voices grew closer and shot at the men that came running though, killing them in one shot with their shotguns. Back through the tarped hallway they went, quickly hiding behind some desks when shots were fired from the other end of the hallway.

Quickly swapping to her pistol for better range, Kathy aimed for the heads of their enemies, getting a few successful headshot.

Slowly but surely, they killed the hunters while simultaneously making their way through the lab, heading for the staircase so that they could get Callus and get the fuck outta there.

They were now back down on the second floor, trying to got back to the hole in the side of the building. They were jogging along the indoor balcony of the second level and Kathy yanked a door open, only to be pushed against a railing by one of the hunters.

"Fuck you, asshole!" The hunter exclaimed as he wrapped his hands around her throat and pressed her harder against the railing. Joel rushed to try and help, but just as he reached them, the railing broke and Kathy fell off the balcony with the hunter.

The bastard hit his head and died on impact.

Kathy cried out in agony as her lower stomach was impaled by a thin metal rod sticking up from the floor. Joel and Ellie called her name in panic, hearing her cry of pain. They slid down some wire that was hanging off the balcony and ran to her aid as a puddle of blood seeped out from under her.

"Fuck, Kathy." Joel faltered, one of his hands hovering over the rod and the other caressing her cheek as her face scrunched up in pain. His only focus was on her.

"What do you want us to do?" Ellie asked in pant of panic and uncertanty.

Kathy sucked in a breath through her teeth and pushed Joel and Ellie aside with great effort, grunting as she lifted up her pistol and aimed it at the door, "Move."

"What?"

"Move!" Kathy grit her teeth as she pushed herself up a little and shot at the men who had burst through the doors. Joel quickly retrieved his gun and helped her. She flopped back down, she could feel her legs going numb.

Joel leaned over her and grabbed her hand, "C'mon baby, we gotta get you up."

"I'm- I'm gonna need you to pull me up." The brunette hissed, not looking forward to the next few moments.

Ellie grabbed Kathy's other side and on the count of three, she and Joel pulled Kathy up. She screamed so hard as she felt the pull of the rod against her flesh, but it had to be done.

So much blood dripped out of the wound as she stood up that it painted her blue shirt red.

The brunette leaned heavily on Joel, her legs were shaking so much, she knew she wouldn't be able to walk on her own. Joel's hands were painted red, but he paid no notice. All he cared about was getting Kathy to safety and stitching her up so that she could live to see another day.

Ellie hovered beside them, just in case Kathy suddenly fell to the side.

Kathy pushed her niece away, "Please just get me to the damn horse."

"Okay!" Ellie breathed, running ahead with her gun aimed and ready.

Kathy's vision blurred as Joel helped her along, her arm thrown over his shoulder and his hand avoiding the newly acquired hole in her abdomen. Her pistol was in her hand, but her arm was limp. Joel had his out, but unlike her, he could actually raise his arm.

"I don't see anyone. Let's go!" Ellie informed them. "Kathy, how we doing?"

"I could really use a shower." The brunette laughed, but immediately regretted it when she coughed up some blood. It trickled down her chin and Joel wiped it off with his coat sleeve.

"Can you handle the window?" He asked her softly as he pulled her arm off his shoulder and helped her lean against the window frame.

"Yeah, I think so." She panted, groaning as she tried to lift her leg over the panelling. She succeeded in getting one leg over, but as soon as she tried to get the other one, her leg gave out and she collapsed on the other side. Joel hopped through the window and propped her against a desk for her to get her strength back. She needed a rest, even if it was only for a second.

A hunter came into the room and shot at them, "I see you."

Kathy's head slumped, Ellie's voice was fading in and out, "Alright, just stay here. Joel, you look after her. I'm gonna flank this asshole."

"Ellie..." Kathy's arm reached out weakly towards her niece, but Ellie had already snuck around the desks to get an angle on the hunter.

"She'll be fine, baby." Joel whispered, his bloodied hands caressing Kathy's now bloodstained cheeks, his forehead resting against hers. His laboured breaths matched her pained ones, telling her that he was scared, perhaps even more than she was. "Everything's gonna turn out okay. Just stay with me."

"I'd really like to not almost die every week, it's becoming a bit of a habit." She wheezed, her eyelids fluttering as she tried to stay conscious.

"Those were my friends you killed, asshole." The hunter seethed as he stepped closer to where Joel and Kathy were, another shot hit the desk by their heads. "Come on out. You want to do this the hard way?" Ellie shot at the hunted and he turned his attention over to her, giving Joel the opportunity to shoot him in the back of the head.

Ellie ran back over to them and aide Joel in helping up her wounded aunt, "Oh, man. We gotta get you outta here."

"I'm okay." Kathy slurred as her arm was thrown over Joel's shoulder again, a bloody patch was left on the leg of the desk.

"You're not okay, Kathy. Now come on! Move it." Kathy wasn't sure she liked her niece snapping at her like that, but she knew it had to be done. "There's no one here. Hurry. "

Her vision went again as she stumbled with Joel towards the front doors of the building, they were almost there.

"You're doing good, Kathy. There's the exit. Just a little bit more." Joel soothed, holding onto her a bit tighter when he felt her falling a little.

Kathy pushed away from Joel and fell against a vending machine. Leaning down to catch her breath, she could feel herself growing colder by the second and it wasn't because of the snow falling outside.

"Kathy?"

"Behind you." Kathy told them with gritted teeth. Joel whipped around and began shoot at the men who were coming at them. The brunette collapsed on the ground, only seeing snippets of Joel and Ellie shooting at the hunters as her vision grew darker.

"Kathy, come one, get up." Joel demanded, sliding his arm behind her back and under her legs, lifting her up. Suddenly, he was reminded about his daughter's death, how this was the way he'd been holding Sarah when she died. He wouldn't lose kathy this way. No fucking way. Not again.

Her head slumped against his chest, she could hear his thrashing heartbeat. "If I survive this, you are so singing for us." She croaked, leaning into him in hopes to warm herself up. She was just so cold.

"You wish." Joel chuckled, but there was no heart in it. He stopped as he waited for Ellie to get the door for them.

They burst through the doors, a hunter was there, petting Callus. He turned in surprise, "What the fuck?"

Ellie killed him before he could even get his gun out.

"Ellie, get the horse." Joel commanded, hiking Kathy's limp for up a little, careful not to touch her seeping wound. His coat was now, well, coated in blood. He was surprise she was eve still awake with how much blood she'd lost. There was so much.

He lifted Kathy onto Callus and got on behind her, Ellie jumped up onto the back and wrapped her arms around his waist and they rode off as fast as they could.

Once they were a decent distance away from the lab, Joel slowed down the horse. Ellie looked behind them, "I think we're safe."

Kathy groaned weakly, her eyes fluttering shut as she fell off of Callus. Joel and Ellie quickly got off the horse and tried to wake her back up.

"Kathy, baby, no! Don't leave me. Not like this." Joel's voice trembled for the first time in years as he cradled her in his arms.

Ellie began to sob as she shook her aunt's shoulders, desperate to try and wake her up again, "C'mon, get up! You gotta tell me what to do. Kathy? Please!"

Kathy didn't budge.

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