Till The End of The Line

~Seven~

Joel wrapped his arms around me to try and cushion me from the blow of our bodies meeting the metal of the elevator at the bottom. I opened my mouth to let out a strangled cry, but my voice came out garbled as it filled with water. Joel's arms had let me go after the fall, letting me push my legs to get to the surface of the water I was under.

"Joel?! Erin?!" Ellie screamed from the opening a couple levels above us.

"We're alright!" Joel yelled back, swimming to me as he cupped my face in his hands, checking for any damage. "How you doing, darling? You alright?'

My back was screaming in agony, but at that nickname, the pain was filled with a warm, swirling feeling in my stomach. I nodded to him, trying to hide any sign on my face that I had just lied to him.

"You're a shit liar, darling." He chuckled, dropping his hands from my face. "You alright up there, Ellie?"

"NO! You scared the shit out of me! I-i'm gonna climb down there!" Ellie sounded unsure of the words coming from her own mouth.

"NO!" Joel and I yelled in unison, causing him to look over his shoulder at me. "Stay up there, we're gonna make our way up to you." I yelled, following close to Joel through the collapsed rock that led us underwater.

After making our way through murky water, a couple clickers and runners, we made it to the next floor level. Which was eerily quiet. "You keep close to me, alright darling?" I nodded furiously, subconsciously latching onto the back of his shirt. "Do you have to have your hands on me, darling?" I could hear the smirk in his voice with his question. I went to loosen my grip, but he put his hand on top of mine, stopping me. " I didn't say you had to let go."

I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks as I looked down to avoid his gaze. We kept moving down the hallway, leading us to what used to be the hotel's kitchen area. A screeching clicker caused us to stop in our steps and Joel lifted his arm to keep me back. A shot rang out making me jump and grip Joel's arm again.

"Lets fan out and make sure we got all these mother fuckers." The hunter called out to his buddies, cocking his gun once again. Joel looked back at me before peeking over the crate, we had been hiding behind, to check what we were up against.

"Alright darling. I'm gonna get this asshole, you circle around me and sneak up on the other guy near the dining area. I'll be right behind you." He took his arm from my grip before sneaking up on the guy just feet away from us and taking him down. He motioned his head for me to get a move on it and I didn't need to be told twice. Sneaking my way behind counters, I came across one of the other hunter's. His back was turned to me, so I took the shot and jumped up on his back, taking my knife and plunging it into his neck. Once he began to gurgle, I took my knife from his skin, but another shot rang out, sounding extremely close to me. My head shot up to the last man standing aiming for me.

"ERIN, DOWN!" Joel yelled, tackling the guy from the side. I heard them rolling around for a minute before a large crunch came from underneath Joel's boot. "Alright, the coast is clear. You can com-" Joel's sentence was cut short and the noises that came from him sounded strangled. Without a second thought, I jumped up and made my way to where Joel had been standing. Sure enough, there was one last hunter, pinning Joel's head into a puddle of water, trying to strangle him.

The gun Joel had been holding was just shy of his fingers. This was life and death. I grabbed the gun, aimed quickly and shot a bullet straight through the side of the hunter's head. Joel sat up quickly, gasping for air. His eyes widened at me holding his gun. "Holy shit, I don't know if I should be pissed you have my gun-"

"Seriously?! Pissed?! I just saved your life, old man!' I snarled abc, absolutely baffled.

"You didn't let me finish, darling. I don't know if I should be pissed that you have my gun, or absolutely turned on that you used it and saved my life." My breath caught in my throat at his words and my stomach got all hot again."Come on, let's get back to Ellie."

"Right here! Let's get a move on it! I can tell we're close!" She beamed down at us, making us chuckle. I handed him back his gun, letting his fingers graze over my skin as he took it from me.

"Let's go, darling." He put his hand on my lower back, ushering me toward the ladder that led us out of this place. I knew I didn't stay in hotels like this beforehand for a reason. We made it to an old ballroom that still held all of its beauty. "Look girls, there's an opening right uo there, we can get through using this." He walked up to the old piano and began pushing. It didn't move much, so Ellie and I hopped up and began helping him.

"Damn, didn't think you'd need so much help, old man." I smirked, hearing Joel chuckle made my thighs clench together.

"You really got a mouth on you, darling." He looked at me, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. Once the piano was pushed into the spot we needed it to be, we hoisted Ellie up. Next, Joel helped me up, using his hand on my ass to keep pushing me up. He gave it a squeeze before his finally push up. Joel hopped up behind me, shooting me a wink as he went on by, leading us out of here.

Once out of the run down hotel, we made it to small garage that led us into a smaller building that looked out into the street. There was complete silence until Joel grabbed a hold of both Ellie and I, pulling us to the ground to where we could only peak through the broken windows. Shots rang out through the streets, causing multiple bodies to drop dead.

"Oh. My. God." My voice came out just below a whisper as the bodies fell down, lifeless. Nothing infected about them.