¹epiphany ─ j. miller

I Saved You

CHAPTER TWENTY
SUMMER
I SAVED YOU

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"Alright, y'all stay close, okay?" Henry clarified, walking out of the office. Ellie and Sam followed shortly behind him, leaving Elva and Joel to protect the back.

"Have you tried this before?" Joel asked.

"Uh, yeah." Henry gulped.

Elva sighed. "That's comforting." She spoke sarcastically. They all tried to keep their voices down, they had no clue if a group of hunters were still lingering in the office building or not.

"Relax." Henry replied. "It's this way." He stated, leading the group of six down a large stairwell. It led down into a room, Henry checking the surroundings before crouching and walking through.

A few hunters stood in the room, the group ducking down behind a few chairs. Elva pulled out her handgun, loading it.

"Okay, let's try to take them out quietly." Henry suggested. "I'll follow your lead."

Joel turned to Elva, watching as she pulled out her bow and pressed an arrow against the string, nodding towards him. They made their way closer to the two hunters, immediately hearing their conversation.

"Hey, how're you doing?"

"Just trying to keep warm. How's it looking out there?" Before the other hunter got a chance to reply, Elva took a headshot with an arrow. Joel ran up behind the man before he could notice his friend had died, snapping his neck and ducking back behind another tipped over table.

The group walked back outside, spotting a hunter using a large light to help another one snipe an infected. Joel followed Elva behind a cement block, Henry tailing a bit behind and helping Ellie and Sam get towards them safely.

"Hey, you hear that? Clicker." One of the hunters yelled to his friend on the ground. He stood up on the top of the gate, using a large military-grade spotlight.

"Yeah, I hear it, but I don't see shit!"

"Hold up!" The first hunter yelled, aiming his light dead in the center of the cement block rows. "There it is! There!"

The hunter shot the clicker with a loud snipe. "Woo! Nailed it!" He celebrated.

Elva quickly used her bow to snipe the hunter on the ground, ducking down moments later as the flashlight just grazed their bodies. It spotted Joel's backpack, the smuggler immediately pulling out one of his scoped weapons and shooting the hunter before he got a chance to shoot.

Another four hunters dropped down from the other building at the noise, one throwing a molotov just behind the group of smugglers. Henry took out one that had made his way to the group, and Elva took out another with her handgun.

Only two remained, Elva taking out one that had been getting dangerously close to her before Joel took out the other one.

"Alright, we did it." Henry exclaimed, breathing heavily.

"C'mon." Elva motioned to Ellie. "We got it."

The young girl nodded, standing up from her position with Sam behind one of the cement blocks. They walked up to the gate that the skeleton crew once stood at, taking a chance to warm up near the barrel fires.

The generator hummed loudly near them, but that noise wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a hunter to hear, so they didn't worry about it. "Let's give this a try." Joel suggested, Elva and Henry joining him to push open the gate doors.