One Of The Last//the last of us

Chapter 2

"I won't work with someone who's hiding a bite they got from a clicker." I said before falling off the building that was headed to the capitol building. I looked up to see them looking at me in shock before walking away. I sat outside the building waiting a fair distance away to see what would happen. I saw Joel and the kid run towards me just as the building went up in flames. I clapped which got their attention.

"Survived the capitol building." I said about the building. "You knew there were explosives in there." Joel said about the explosives. "No, but I did know that they had something worth wild in there. I never trust the Firefly group for that reason obviously." I said about the firefly group. "You don't trust the fireflies. Why?" The kid asked about the group and the distrust.

"Anyone who wants to hurt, maim, kill or even smuggle a kid somewhere shouldn't be trusted. I guess that's what makes my smuggling methods different from others. And the fireflies are just like the military coup, people without morals being led by people who are corrupted by the power they hold." I said as I started to walk towards Frank's and Bill's place. "What do we do, Joel?" The kid asked Joel what to do. "We follow her for now, Ellie. We need to stop at Frank's and Bill's place before heading to see where my brother is." Joel said to Ellie. Ellie and Joel followed me to the pair's little getaway.

After a while, they bumped into me when I stopped at the fence. "What's wrong?" Ellie asked me when they noticed I was looking at the fence. "Something's wrong. Bill would have greeted us a bit further out with a gun. Also the fence isn't turned on, meaning something happened to both Bill and Frank." I said about Bill and Frank. We walked through the fence and into the house Frank and Bill lived in. "Bill, Frank," Joel called to them and waited for an answer. "Joel, you better want to see this!" I said as I found the pair peacefully died in the bed from what I assume from drinking poison. Joel came running to see what happened to his friends.

"They died peacefully in each other's arms. The way they wanted to go out together." I said to Joel about Bill and Frank. "They would have wanted that either way." Joel said as well sadly. "You and Ellie take a shower and find things we'll need for the trip. I'll bury the lovers in the grave they wanted to be in." I said as he nodded in agreement. Once they were done, Joel came to stand by me to have a moment for his friends while Ellie stayed by the truck.

"Where did they get the gravestones?" Joel asked about the stones above Frank and Bill's graves. "I made one for Bill and left the other blank if he found any lover in this messed up world. It was the last thing I gave him before we stopped talking." I said about the stones and what Bill and I talked about. We got in the truck and started heading to where Joel's brother was. Joel slowly passed a zone that was empty of people when we saw someone limping towards us. "Joel, hit the gas. We're in an ambush." I said as I shot the guy and shot any other people who popped up from the buildings. Joel crashed into a corner store and we got out of the truck. "Ellie hid over there." Joel said to Ellie who hid with a knife.

Joel and I fought the people coming into the building. When I looked around, I saw someone behind Joel with a gun pointed to his head. I jumped on the guy and bit his neck while braking it also. Joel turned around to see what happened and saw what I did. "Kid, kid, he's dead. You gotta let go now." Joel said to me as he tried to pull me off. Joel covered my eyes to block out the sun and it worked somehow.  "Joel, what's happening with her." I heard Ellie asked Joel about me. "I don't know, Ellie. I think it was instinct that triggered it. We have to get somewhere safe so we can recover." Joel said as he tied a cloth around my eyes so whatever happened won't continue.

They got everything from the truck and Joel grabbed my hand to lead me out of the building somewhere else. It was near dusk when Joel found a place to rest for the night.  He took off the cloth to see if anything changed in my eyes or face. "What happened back there in the store?" Joel asked me about the store. "I don't know sometimes it happens when there's a large fight or I'm stressed but that doesn't happen often. Some of the Cordyceps take over as a fighting mechanism to help me survive some crazy ways. That was one of many to happen to me. Even a few clickers and runners came to help for some reason. I haven't done enough research to fully know about it." I said about the fight in the building.

"How many times does it happen?" Ellie asked, scared that it might happen to her. "After 3 years, I noticed that I would black out for multiple days without warning. After about 6 years, I noticed that the Cordyceps make me watch what's happening. After 10 years, I could do what the clickers do and turn it off and on with some will power. But the Cordyceps will take over if it needs to as a protection of new people in its group." I said about what happened to me over the years. "Just how many bites does it take for that to happen to someone?" Joel asked about the number of bites.

"About 15-20, I don't know, but I truly think it's closer to 20 bites. Which if I count the bite on my cheek, would be the 20th bite I got that's healing now." I said about the number of bites someone could get and how many I have. "How long was it from the last bite you had to this one?" Joel asked about the bites. "A year and a half, give or take 6 months. The, uh, Cordyceps issue has been getting harder to control with each bite I get from the clickers. I feel like I'll sooner turn into one if I get bit again." I said about the Cordyceps. "You're still immune right." Elle asked about being immune. "For now," I said about being fine for now.

We fell asleep without knowing people were looking for us. I woke to the sound of a shotgun being cocked back and the sound of glass crunching as I whipped up and aimed my handgun at them. "Who are you?" I asked the kids loud enough as Joel and Ellie got woken up. "We saw you being attacked yesterday. We need help getting to Houston for my brother's pills." The older one said about the pills his brother needs. "What's your name?" Joel asked them for their names. "I'm Henry and this is my younger brother, Sam." Henry introduced them to us. "You're the kids they were talking about." I said about the radio broadcast I heard. "How'd you know it was us?" Sam asked me about what I heard. "Siblings that were doing something stupid, right." I said about what had happened and they nodded. I groaned knowing someone will more than likely come for us now that these two were with us.

"What do we do now?" Ellie asked as they heard me groan. "We need to leave now or else a group of infected come stampede up here." I said as Ellie and Joel grabbed their things from last night. "Will you be okay when we head out?" Joel whispered to me about last night not wanting Ellie, Sam and Henry to hear. "I'm fine. If something happens to me, take Ellie and run without me. Don't ever look back and don't come back for me either." I said about leaving me behind if something happens to me and he nodded. "Ellie, Henry and Sam, come on, we're leaving." Joel called the trio to us.

"Stay close to us unless something happens then hide until we get the issue sorted." I said about what to do incase of an issue and they nodded. Joel went first then Ellie, then Sam, then Henry, followed by me being last. We walked through a seemingly abandoned neighborhood as Joel and I looked out for any infected or other people. There was a drop in the road when I heard a gunshot before a bullet flies by our heads. "Get down." Joel warns us to hide behind a car. "A sniper." I said about the sniper. "Did you see where it came from?" Ellie asked about the sniper's location. I took out my own sniper rifle and looked through it to a house at the end of the road, seeing an old guy with a sniper rifle also. "Joel, go for the house at the end of the road. I'll cover you." I said about what the plan was and he nodded. I took the first shot and Joel ran as I continued to fire at the house. Once Joel got in, I stopped before I heard tires coming towards us and saw trucks coming.