Till The End of The Line

~Eight~

Joel put his hand over my mouth, looking at Ellie as he held a finger to his mouth, motioning for her to keep quiet. My body went rigid as the hunter shot another round into the dead civilians heads. Tears welled in my eyes and slowly dripped down my face.

We watched as the hunters filed back into their beat up hummer, squealing the tires as they took off from the scene. Joel dropped his hand and put it on my back. "I don't think they were infected." I whispered, roughly wiping at my eyes.

"I don't think so either, darling. But there is nothing we coulda done." Joel whispered back, looking at the sadness in my eyes. "Come on, let's get out of here. We gotta make it to that bridge."

We exited the building and made our way, dodging soldiers along the way, until it came to the building before we got to the alley way. They began shooting rapidly. Hitting anything that moved. "Come on girls, we'll lose them this way."

Ellie and I stayed close to him, bullets barely missing us, we took a sharp right turn into a building that had flights of stairs. It was completely closed in, so they couldn't see us. Everything outside the building went silent, making it to where I could hear how everyone of us breathing heavily.

At the last flight, there was a window that led outside to a small ledge on the outside of the building. "I think we lost them." I whispered, holding my hand out to Ellie so she wouldn't fall behind. 

"Here, this looks like a way in." Joel stated, jumping into the last window on the building. Ellie and I jumped in after him and were met with a black man, holding Joel in a choke hold.

"Joel!" I yelled, pulling a knife and slicing the man's arm. The man swung his arm back and slapped me across the face, sending me to the floor. I looked up, holding my cheek as I watched the emotion change in Joel's face. Anger took a hold of him, using his body weight to slam the man back and flip him over his shoulder. He started punching him in his stomach and ribs.

"Wait, wait! Stop." The man yells, using his arm to protect my face.

"Joel! Joel Stop." Ellie yells, using her knife to point in the direction of the door. There stood a boy, about Ellie's age, holding a gun that was pointed straight for Joel. Joel looked up and motioned for us all to hold our hands up.

"Leave him alone." The little boy shouted, holding his ground.

"Easy, son. Just take it easy." Joel says, slowly getting off of the man.

"It's alright. They're not the bad guys. Lower the gun." The man says to the boy, watching as the young boy slowly lowered the gun, eyeing us carefully. "Man, you hit hard."

"Yeah, I was tryin' to kill ya." Joel growled, rubbing his knuckles. I nudged him with my shoulder, glaring at him.

"Yeah, I thought you were one of them too, but then I saw her." Pointing at Ellie. "If you hadn't noticed, they don't keep kids around. Survival of the fittest." He put air quotes when he stated the last sentence. He took the gun from the younger boy, turning back to us. "I'm Henry. This is Sam. Think I caught your name is Joel?"

"I'm Ellie." Ellie stepped up, giving a small wave.

Joel and I both looked back at her, sighing before I turned back around. "I'm Erin." I greeted, still keeping my distance while also keeping close to Joel.

"She yours?" Henry asked, motioning to Joel and I.

"NO!" Joel and I yelled at the same time, earning a look from each other. Henry cracked a smile at us, but tried to keep it hidden.

"I think we should group with them." Ellie suggests, making me turn around.

"No, we don't even know who they are." I said, trying to keep my voice down.