borderline - the last of us.

08. oh.

JOEL SHOT AT IT, as anyone with a gun in this situation would do, but the thing managed to grab his rifle and throw his aim off. He maybe got one good shot in the flurry of them.

'Run!' He screamed, kicking at the creature and trying to get it to back off. From the doorway, the other one came running at Tess and Ralph. Tess raised her pistol with shaky hands, and missed a very close headshot. That was when they took Joel's advice to heart.

'What the fuck was that thing!?' Ralph whisper-screamed at Tess as they sprinted down a corridor. 'I mean, I've heard about them, but, are they meant to look like that!?'

'I got no clue, man!' She said back to him, turning around and raising her gun again and missing another shot. 'Damn it! Alright, run! The three of you, spread out and stay quiet!'

Ellie seemed like she had been waiting for that order all her life and immediately shimmied through the gap between a display and the wall, disappearing into the darkness. Lou crawled underneath a table and headed in the same direction. Ralph turned the corner at the closest opportunity and tried to find someplace to hide.

He found a corner connected to the main corridor that didn't look like it had any monsters living in it, so he decided to take a chill pill and calm himself down from the inevitable heart attack that was about to spring on him. It was difficult to be quiet when you were scared for your life. Between your heart pounding in your chest and your out of breath-ness, you're really put in a little bit of a pickle.

A flashlight waved at him from behind the dining table in the main part of the second floor, and Ralph craned his neck to find Ellie and Joel crouched down behind it with Clicker Number One just a few steps away. Despite the fact that he was practically shitting himself, on his own accord and also on their behalf, he couldn't pull his eyes away from them, praying to God that nothing would happen.

Just their fucking luck that Joel stepped on a shard of glass and the monster dove at them, screaming and clicking and baring its teeth at them.

'Ralph!' Ellie yelled, shoving at the creature while it snarled and inched closer to her. Luckily, Ralph was already on it, and he gave the Clicker a rough kick in the head to teach it a lesson.

It fell on its side, sliding away from Joel and Ellie as the duo scrambled to their feet and backed away. Joel turned to reach for his gun but discovered it was gone, and he turned back around to find that Ralph was holding it like an expert and aiming it straight at the monster's head.

It was, surprisingly, still on the ground, albeit not for long. It clambered back to its feet slowly, clicking in a low tone and looking for where everyone had gone. The trio had fallen completely silent, holding their breaths and dragging their feet instead of lifting them.

Panting silently, Ralph looked over to Joel, then looked at Ellie and made a twirling motion with his finger. She looked at him like she didn't understand, but Joel took her by the shoulder and spun her around so that her back was facing Ralph.

The gunfire was far louder than she expected it to be. Maybe because it was completely silent leading up to that point, maybe because it was right behind her. When it stopped, she kind of wished she had turned around and watched it happen. That ugly zombie-thingy deserved it big time.

Because her back was turned, Ellie had the honor of reuniting with Lou and Tess as the girls approached her hurriedly, fingers to their lips and shaking their heads when Ellie was on the verge of making a sound to welcome them and congratulate them on being alive.

Confused, they all looked at the duo, wondering what they were doing. Tess raised her pistol so they could all see it, and pulled the trigger once so the sound of the empty mag clicking could be heard, explaining why the other clicker hadn't been killed with one swift, movement.