chapter 5 - badass

after making their way to the hotel joel suggested making their way through the museum. the whole walk there consisted of ellie's constant questions and sams annoyance toward the other two smugglers growing as they refused to let sam help in any way.

walking up towards the museum sam kept her pistol firmly in her hand her switchblade close tucked away in her pocket as she watch joel check the fungus that coated the outside of the museum.

"you've got to be fucking kidding me" ellie huffed examining the building while looking up at tess, sam would've chosen a completely different way to get to the capital building, a quicker way. but the two other smugglers refused to listen.

"there's a way across from the roof" tess stated as she looked down at an unsure ellie, sam looked over at the both of them before turning away looking back to the building.

"just stay quiet when we head inside." sam already had a bad feeling about this, it didn't matter to her if the others believed it was safe san wouldn't let her guard down especially for words of people she didn't trust

grabbing her flashlight sam followed joel inside, leaving ellie with tess in hopes of putting distance between her and the young girl. not wanting to spend too much time with her or grow any attachment.

walking inside, it was dark. the flashlight in sams hand lighting up a route to take, following joel sam carefully walked. reminding her of before the outbreak, how she learned to stay silent. it wasn't because of infected, she learnt because of her father.

following joel the floor was littered with dried fungus as joel flashlight lit up a dead clicker sending a shiver down sams spine. honestly she was desensitised to death, but the thought of a kid, ellie. seeing these things so young. being traumatised. that's what had an effect on sam.

"yeah cooked" joel reassured there would be no infected in the building but sam didn't believe it for a second. never let her guard down. infected could be smart creatures, and in reality they didn't know what was in there. clickers? bloaters?

"shut up keep moving" sam whispered joel sending her a glare in response as the eye contact between the two came to an end by ellie's words.

"oh shit" turning to look at the teen sams eyes laid on a man, torn up. he wasn't dead long. sam could tell. and once again she was right.

"what the fuck did that?!" ellie exclaimed, sam knew they needed to be quiet. she knew. every second they spent wasting time and talking was a second closer to whatever killed that guy doing the same to them.

tess, whispered incoherent words to joel as sam ventured further into the building, needing the rest of the group to shut the fuck up if they had any holes of getting out of this building not injured.

turning a corner is when sam heard it. the eeriest noise. one she could never forget as joel ordered the other two to shut up sam grabbed her knife from her pocket as a clicker made its way towards the group searching for what had triggered it's echolocation.

sams body flying into auto pilot as her eyes laid on the clicker. quickly grabbing hold of the clickers neck pulling its body into hers and piercing the clickers neck with her knife causing blood to pour from it before pulling the knife across its neck slicing the fungal infected skin open, blood covering her knife and hands as she waited for its body to fall limp.

ellie and joel watched in awe as sam dropped the limp clicker to the floor, a pool of blood now encircling it's body. sam raised her blood covered hand to her face, finger to her lips signaling for the group to be quiet as she ventured up the stairs. the stairs covered with dried fungus, dead infected tangled in the mess of fungus catching ellie's attention as they moved.

the creaking stairs filling sam with adrenaline as she knew it would signal their location to any other infected in the building, looking back she saw the group close on her tail. tess' jaw clenched clearly unhappy with how sam handled the clicker downstairs. sam didn't care, she always did what she had to do to survive.

as much as she didn't want to traumatise the young girl with them, sam couldn't change. she couldn't become a new person, change the way she was. she wasn't a good person, some people would even say the woman was evil for feeling no remorse when killing infected. but to her that's all they were infected.

joel and sam lead them into another room labelled independence hall, upon walking inside there wasn't any visible clickers so sam and joel moved hiding behind a display case, tess and ellie following not prepared to risk getting scene by any infected they hadn't spotted while walking in. hiding and staying silent was there best bet when it came to clickers, sam knew that. she felt like she had the most experience when it came to clickers. they were easy kills, or so sam thought.

hearing a loud crash followed by cracking sam looked back to the doors they had previously walked through them now being sealed by an abundance of debris from the unstable building now blocking there way to come back. sam could see the panic on tess's face at the change of plans but sam wasn't worried she always had a backup plan she knew this city better then anyone.

distracted by the noise the group hadn't noticed the approaching clicker, being caught off guard by the unmistakable clicker noise getting closer the three adults raising their guns in the direction the noise was coming from heart rates rising as adrenaline rushed through their bodies.

before long the noise grew louder and came from another direction, there were more. possibly a lot more. same heartbeat increased as she held her gun firmly preparing herself to fight and shoot her way out knowing the people with her weren't as good at stealth attacks as she was.

the group hid behind a display case as one of the clickers became visible, sam could kill it. she knew she could. but the safety of the group made her hesitate. as much as sam tried to push away and disconnect from the fact ellie was 14 she couldn't help but second guess herself. and if her actions would lead to the same thing that happened 14 years prior.

sam noticed ellie's shaky uneasy breathing and again signalled for the the teen to stay quiet as sam slowly stepped towards the edge of the display case looking directly at the clicker walking towards them. if sam could get behind the clicker she knew it would be an easy kill, hoping this attack would go smoothly.

holding her breath as the clicker began walking past, but to no use as ellie's breath got caught in her throat and she gasped at the sight of the monster in front of them signalling their location to it the clicker turned, the screeching sound from its mouth sending shivers down sams spine as the adrenaline took over.

the clicker lunged forwards as joel unloaded a clip into the clicker's midsection in hopes of killing it. but the shriek coming from the monster grew louder as it lunged towards joel, the bullets doing nothing as it gripped onto joel.

the clicker pulled joel trying to kill him but joel tried to hold the monster as far away from his body as possible in an attempt not to get bitten as he shouted "run!"

tess and ellie ran around the corner following joel's ordered as sam rushed towards the monster who had joel in its grip. not even noticing the other clicker now fast approaching the two other girls in the group. sams body now moving in a way it did when adrenaline and overwhelming emotions took over. she wasn't even aware of her actions as everything moved so quickly.

the sound of gunfire rung in sams ears as she pulled the clicker from joel its attention now on sam as she desperately tried holding it away from her and joel trying to keep the both of them safe as she dug around in her pocket for her knife.

her breathing uneasy as the clicker tried biting her to no avail as she finally pulled her knife from her pocket and stabbing it in the side of the head as fast as she could. after penetrating the clickers head with the sharp object a few times it's body finally fell limp on top of sam.

as she pushed its body off of hers, joel quickly grabbed sams hand pulling her up from the floor with ease as he nodded a silent thank you his hand lingering on hers for a second too long as she nodded. before a scream echoed through her ears causing her to break eye contact and rush towards the noise.

joel's speed surprisingly proved to be quicker then sams as he rushed to ellie as a clicker did the same. just as joel reached ellie the clicker did to. pushing them both to the floor. joel desperately holding the clicker as far away from him and ellie as possible. reaching for his gun he shot the clickers midsection a few times causing it to fall back giving sam enough time to slit its throat. as it fell to the floor the violent clicking coming from the monster not coming to an end until sams boot clad foot stomped onto its head. the cracking of its skull and blood now oozing from its every orifice as the thing died the awful noises coming from it coming to an end.

"holy shit! did you see that joel?!" ellie exclaimed getting up, sam taking a step towards joel and ellie thinking for a spilt second they were safe before the clicking sound returned.

sam turned her head to see another clicker charging towards them, raising her gun she didn't have enough time to use it as tess hit the clickers head with an axe.

the axe now wedged into its skull confusing the monster's echolocation now unsure as to where you all were as it desperately shook its head waving its arms around. as joel raised his gun shooting it twice right between where it's eyes would've been. killing it. sam watched as it fell to the ground with the other dead clickers.

"you alright?" joel turned to tess checking she was safe as sam did the same to the teenager as they were finally in the clear.

"you okay ellie?" sam asked her gun still in her grasp in case any more wanted to appear, sam didn't want to spend any more time in this building.

"well, i didn't shit my pants. so." she huffed in an attempt to catch her breath before pulling her sleeve up revealing another bite.

"are you fucking kidding me? i mean if it was gonna happen to one of us." the teen sighed pulling her sleeve back down. sam sighed running her hand over her face knowing the kid had even more chance of turning now.

"let's get the fuck out of here." sam exclaimed turning to find a way up to the roof, joel nodding as he followed sam.

**

getting to the roof of the building joel took of his backpack to aid tess and her sprained ankle. ellie looked over to a plant of wood connecting the building to another.

"sam! you're so fucking badass! you guys see her in there with the" ellie mimicked sam slitting a clickers throat with her own switchblade. sams actions giving ellie some type of hope that she could protect herself with only a blade, slightly easing her want for a gun.

the adults ignored ellie's comment as joel focused on tess and her injuries as sam reloaded her gun, before turning away from the group.

"this where we're going?" she asked as sam was facing the other way pulling up her sleeve revealing a deep cut she'd gotten while slitting a clickers throat. it was just from a knife so she wrapped a piece of cloth around it hoping it would control the bleeding.

"yeah i know it's scary." sam turned around to joel's voice as he spoke about the plank of wood only for ellie to scoff.

"that was scary this is wood." ellie stated before walking across the plank. sam did the same after pulling her sleeve back down and followed ellie across the plank.