Only Us

Chapter 35

Since we were in the middle of the building, Joel and Tommy went downstairs while Ellie, Dina, Abby, and I headed upstairs. The second building was not like the first one. There were less and less Scars patrolling, but that probably meant that wherever Jerry was, there would be more guarding. 

"How do you think Joel and Tommy are doing?" Dina asked.

"Hopefully better than us," Ellie said.

We turned a corner and there was a group of Scars. We ducked behind the corner and listened carefully. 

"Where is Emily? How come she isn't back yet to deal with him?"

"I don't know. She might have gotten held up with those two."

"How can she? All she needed to do was slit their stomachs and let them hang in the snow. Let them bleed out as their guts spill out."

I almost dry heaved, but Abby covered my mouth and pulled me into her chest.

"I don't know. Maybe those two were pretty strong. You saw how that one was. She had arms like him."

"Do you think we should deal with him ourselves?"

"We'll head up to the thirty-fifth floor and wait there for her. If she isn't back within an hour, we'll take care of him ourselves. You, go patrol the building."

"Understood."

"May she guide you."

They were walking towards us, which Ellie and Abby quickly took care of. We slowly made our way to the stairs and we heard footsteps coming our way. We ducked back into the hallway, only to see it was Tommy and Joel.

"We know where he is," Ellie said to Joel once she saw him.

"Good. Where is he?" Joel asked.

"Thirty-fifth floor," she said.

"That's the very top," Joel said and looked at the number that was on the wall. We were on the twentieth floor. "Let's get climbing."

We tried to quietly go up the stairs as we quickly could. We had to fight some Scars along the way up to the last floor. When we reached the door, there were Scars crawling all over the place.

"Looks like we need to take down all of them to get over there," Tommy pointed to a door that had two burly looking men guarding it.

"Well shit," Joel said and ducked from the glass.

A few Scars walked past the door, looked through the glass, and walked away.

"How are we going to take down these many Scars at once?" Joel asked.

Abby reached into her bag and handed him something.

"What's this?"

"Smoke bombs."

"I like you're thinking, kid," Joel said. "Alright, I'm going to open the door, throw them in, and then we make a run for the door. Got it? Tommy and I will try to take the two down. Abby, we might need your help with that. Ellie, Dina, and Y/N. You get into that room, get Jerry, and find a way out of there. We'll try to meet up back at the sky bridge. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," we said.

"Let's hope this works."

Joel made his way towards the door, opened it, and threw the smoke bombs. The Scars were yelling at one another. We slipped through the door and made our way towards the heavily guarded door. Tommy, Joel, and Abby went after the two men while Dina, Ellie, and I headed into the room. There were other Scars, but they weren't like the men that were standing guard. We took them out easily and I ran towards Jerry. His hands were bound above his head and his eyes drooped. His hair was greasy and his clothes looked torn and ragged on him. I pulled out a knife and cut off his binds. 

"Are you able to stand, Mr. Anderson?"

"I should be able to," he was slow to get up.

Joel, Tommy, and Abby ran into the door and barricaded it. Abby turned and ran towards her dad.

"Dad!" she hugged him.

"Abby, oh my Abby. How are you my dear?" he asked and kissed her head.

"A-Alright. You?"

"I've been better," he chuckled.

"Alright, we need to get out of here," Joel said and ran towards another door.

"Come on, Abby," I said and we ran after Joel.

We reached the sky bridge and Abby took one long look at it.

"There has to be another way," she said.

"There is no other way out here other than here," Joel said. "Unless you want to deal with them," he pointed to the Scars that were coming after us.

"We've got to go, Abs!" I said and made my way towards the sky bridge.

"It's ok, Abby," her father reassured her.

She nodded and headed onto the sky bridge. She was a bit faster this time around. Once she was halfway, Joel and Tommy headed towards the middle and dismantled the middle section of the bridge. They ran back towards us and we ran out of the building. We burst through the doors and we ran towards where Abby had parked the car. But we had to be careful towards that area since there was tripwires. After carefully maneuvering the tripwire trap, we made our way towards the car.

"You four go on ahead! Joel parked his car some where else!" Tommy yelled.

"See you back at the house," Ellie called over to Tommy.

We reached the car and Abby jumped into the driver's seat. I hopped into the passenger's side while Ellie and Dina got in the back.

"We ready?" she asked.

"Let's get a move on!" Ellie said, looking behind and out the rear window.

Abby put the car in drive, drove out of the woods, and onto the road. A minute had passed and Joel's car pulled up behind us. He drove beside us and Tommy rolled down the window.

"We'll lead you back home!" he shouted over to us.

Abby gave him a thumbs up and let them get in front of us. While we were driving back, Ellie and Dina had passed out in the back, leaving only Abby and myself awake for the drive back.

"Back at the sky bridge, I think you did great going over it."

"I thought I was going to shit myself."

"But you faced your fears."

"All thanks to you," she said and rested her hand on top of mine.

"Not to mention how strong your grip was," I chuckled.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No. It just was a bit uncomfortable for a bit afterwards."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"Get some rest. You need it."

"You ok to be awake by yourself?"

"I'll be fine."

"Alright," I said and closed my eyes, relaxing a bit.