chapter 3- leaving the QZ

ellie was a lot smarter then sam initially thought. she cracked joel's code. 80s mean trouble, that was just before tess arrived back. as soon as she did sam was more then ready to leave.

sam watched as joel pushed a wooden slab up and on to the floor to allow passage out of the QZ, getting out is easy it's sneaking past fedra. that's the hard part. sam watched as joel climbed out of the hole in the ground, sam followed after him climbing out before holding a hand out to help ellie. sam then took cover behind a few cars to avoid being seen by fedra.

"holy shit i'm actually outside!" ellie not so stealthily exclaimed, sam grabbing the kids arm and pulling her behind the car too.

"we're gonna take the north side of the wall out. stay low, follow my lead" sam offered ellie a small smile as she followed joel crawling underneath a bus to the other side, joel waiting for the three girls to go before him.

sam, ellie and tess waited for joel, he lead them to a tunnel, tess going first, then joel. sam waiting for ellie to go before following so she could keep an eye on her. the sound of a helicopter above them startled the teen, she looked back to sam who gave her a reassuring smile before nodding for ellie to follow joel and tess. the tension was thick in the air as the group exited the tunnel.

the sound of trucks driving past made the group lunge behind a car, the panicked look on ellie's face concerned sam, sam raised her finger to her lips signalling ellie to stay quiet, as ellie held sams arm waiting for the trucks to go past.

when they finally did sam and ellie followed the two older adults round the outside wall of the QZ. coming to a corner, sam second guessed how quickly the older adults turned the corner, she never moved this quickly. checking every spot before she moved location. sam was smart, clearly smarter then the trigger happy smuggler duo leading her.

as they turned the corner, there was a fedra solider taking a piss against the wall, the groups footsteps alerted him of their presence and in seconds his gun was aimed at the group. sam's heart rate immediately elevated.

"what the fuck! hands up!" the startled solider shouted at the group, sam subconsciously stood infront of ellie. protecting her without even realising what she was doing. the promise she'd made to herself about keeping kids safe too real.

"let us go on this run! we'll split everything with you" tess attempted to negotiate but the solider only took a step towards them, sams heart racing as she stood infront of ellie trying to figure out a plan in her head.

"on the ground! turn around! get on the ground!" sam couldn't believe the two other smugglers begging and attempting to negotiate, sam pieced together a plan. everything would be fine. she could get them out of this.

sam got on her knees, ellie next to her soon joel and tess followed. the soldiers shouting echoing in sams brain. taking a deep breath she zoned out, ignoring the pleas of the other smugglers and slowly reached for the knife in her pocket. internally begging tess and joel to shut the fuck up.

the solider began testing tess, testing to see if she was infected. sam could see the visible panic on ellie's face and mouthed 'everything is going to be fine' in an attempt to reassure the teen next to her, but that was no use.

sam watched as the solider pulled the testing machine away from joel's neck, seeing joel tested negative he continued to do the same to ellie. from that point everything was a blur it happened so quickly.

in ellie's panicked state, as soon as the machine touched her neck, she turned her switchblade penetrating the soldiers leg, a shriek coming from his mouth as he fell back in pain, sam immediately jumping into action. the rain blurring her vision as she lunged forward.

in the split second while the soldiers gun was lowered sam took her chances as her mouth went dry and slammed her fist into his nose causing him to stumble back. when she went to throw another punch the solider whipped sam across the face with the barrel of his gun, causing her to fall to the floor with a thud the copper tang of blood filled her mouth.

the solider raised his gun, aiming it at ellie before sam could even process what was happening joel jumped infront of the gun, infront of ellie. a look on his face one sam had seen many times before, but not on him. the look of fear, remembrance.

"we can fix this" joel reasoned his eyes darker then before the expression on his face full of emotion almost as if he was reliving something. his breathing now erratic as he wrecked his brain trying to think of a plan.

"get out the way!" the solider shouted, wanting to get to ellie. sam managed to stand up with a groan, just as she was about to charge at the solider, joel beat her to it.

in a split second joel charged at him, knocking the solider to the floor. gripping the soldiers shirt, joel's fist raised and hammered down on the soliders face, the groaning of the soldier grew louder as joel punched harder.

joel's vision grew blurry as everything around him dissipated as he zoned out his fist hitting the man now unconscious underneath him. the cracking sound of the man's skull sent a shiver down sams spine, as she noticed the look on ellie's face as she watched joel kill a man. ellie didn't look scared, it was an emotion sam was familiar with. wanting someone to protect you, the way you should've been protected as a child, but ellie was a child. that was the difference.

joel stopped. panting in an attempt to catch his breath, sam stared at the man as he looked down at his bloodied fist. his actions just gave sam an insight into his past, her mind filled with questions as she became intrigued with the man before her.

"joelll!" tess' panicked voice brought sam back to reality, looking over at the woman. the testing machine in hand 'positive' panic arose in sams body as she looked over at ellie with wide eyes. she's infected. marlene set them up with an infected kid?

sam couldn't bare to watch another kid die, a twinge of all the grief she'd felt in her life rushing back as she clenched her jaw. trying to understand how or why this had happened sam couldn't think of an explanation.

"no! no im not sick!" ellie exclaimed desperately begging to be believed, sams breath caught in her throat as she watched the teenager roll her sleeve up revealing s bite mark. but it looked different to any bite mark sam had seen before. it was healed.

"look! it's three weeks old! im not sick!" ellie begged desperately hoping for the adults to believe her, tess shouting joel's name again made sam look over at the man who's actions had revealed something to sam.

"you would've killed me!" ellie shouted, tess looked at her in disbelief they'd been set up. the rain now making sam shiver but she didn't mind she always loved the rain, before outbreak day she'd loved the rain. the smell, the memories everything that came with the rain she loved.

"i should've killed you!" sam looked over at joel who still hadn't fully returned to reality, the buzzing still prominent in his ears as he stared down at his bruised knuckles covered in blood in disbelief of what he'd just done, his heart beating so fast he could hear it. his mind fuzzy as tess screamed his name, but he was disoriented.

"joel! we have to go now!" sam shouted hearing trucks approaching their location, ellie and tess getting up ready to move. joel didn't move. sam sucked in a deep breath grabbing the soliders gun from the floor hearing the trucks getting closer.

"joel! now! let's go!" sam exclaimed grabbing the man's arm bringing him back to reality, looking at sam with a emotionless look on his face as the group ran.

running up to a broken fence sam held it open for ellie and tess to squeeze through, joel following behind the group still trying to catch his breath, after passing through the fence the group kept running, into the city.

ellie stayed close to sam as she led the group to a building she often took refuge in, opening the door revealed one mattress on the floor empty food cans in the corner along with a tool box and other supplies.

"holy shit, are we safe here?" ellie questioned, sam didn't want this to be how it happened but her hand was firmly placed on her gun that was tucked under her waistband.

"not if you're infected" sam muttered, tess and joel looking at ellie in disbelief trying to figure out what to do while sam grabbed a small box of ammo off the shelf and a shiv she'd made. it can't hurt to have extra.

"sam are you okay?" ellie asked the woman, sam hadn't even fully had time to process the throbbing in the side of her face, bringing her fingers up to her lip she felt the warm sticky liquid. looking down at her hand she saw the blood that had been dripping from the wound on her face.

"i'll be fine."