A/N: Before this chapter begins. I want to clear the air, and say a few words.

Speaking plainly, I've not been myself these past few months. Times have been hard, especially on myself. It's only now that I've managed to get back to it, to my self. College was hard, and summer is here. Yet it is a brutal cold that still pushes at my mind, and it's echo calls.

So, bluntly, my life has been a mess. But I'm back to it. Maybe not 100%. But definitely to the point where I can focus on my writing again!

Hope you enjoy this one and I'll see you next time.

He remembered this place, as clear as day. It was a place that haunted many of his sleepless nights. Once a home brimming with life and love and joy. Except now it only harboured dark thoughts and endless pain.

Silenting cursing, Y/N shuffled himself through the many boxes and wax figures in the room that blinded him, and carefully maneuvered past them. Not even bothering to give them a passing glance, as their illicit eyes possessed a sense of watching, something Y/N didn't want to see, at all.

Rachel, the woman who had brought him back from the brink of death, had brought him down here once before. A prank, he should've known. In hindsight, he wished he had never discovered such a horrifying room. Her aim had been to scare the rocks off of him, to lighten him up, as she had said.

Or else to piss his pants.

That hadn't been a very promising memory to him. But out of all of them, it was probably the most remembered.

Why?

He had no idea, except maybe, because it was a place of silent horror, that his nightmares used as their fort against his fragile mind.

Shaking his head of such thoughts, Y/N finally found himself at the bottom of a staircase, having reached the end of the dark, cold and cobweb filled room.

The boy opened the door to the stairs and made way to the top. Only to stop when his feet hit the last step, bracing himself as a familiar scent found its way to his nostrils.

'Oh no...'

Y/N immediately charged forward, barrelling into the door with all his strength, knocking it open as he fell through and down to the ground. Groaning as his face hit the gravel concrete, Y/N lifted his gaze up to see the blazing fires covering that of a school. It's flames dancing high enough to reach the sky, as it's smokes withered and suffocated the air.

Yet, as the fire and brimstone perplexed his view, Y/N couldn't help but frown. It wasn't like before, not at all. Before it had started differently, in sync, in time, pushing forward.

Now, it looked as if time itself was going backwards.

"Rachael!"

Y/N shouted as he got to his feet and ran ahead, through the empty streets and across the road. He rushed to the entrance of glass and steel and wildy opened the doors.

He pulled himself in and immediately found himself stopping in his tracks. Frozen and stiff, as the scenery changed around him in a blur, and before he knew what had happened...

It was as if a fire hadn't even begun.

'What the...'

Y/N braced himself against the door, holding out onto the handle in shock as the scene ahead of him was not of fire and death, but of life and harmony. People went about their day, smiling and hugging, their faces filled with content and wonder. All the while, Y/N frowned, disheveled and stoney as he watched them.

'This has to be a dream.'

He shook his head and moved on forward, moving past the people, through a small reception and out into the main building.
The people paid him no mind, as if he were
a ghost, a mere phantom that roamed the deathly plain of existence.

He knew these people, and he knew why.

And he hated it.

As he roamed throughout the familiar setting of the school, Y/N's head began to thump dangerously, as a headache gripped him suddenly. Slugging through it, he pushed ahead and moved through another set of double doors and ended up in the gym.

Immediately his vision was once again filled with fire and death. He flinched, almost reflective as a piece of debris fell from above and landed in front of him. Making him jump as he moved around.

All around people ran, fear gripped them, as they hugged their loved ones and tried their best to escape. But it seemed only futile as they were ripped to shreds by an unseen force. Blood, guts and screams littered the hall and the clattering clicks and shrieks of the infected bellowed, as Y/N tried his best to shut them out. But the screams only intensified as he pushed on, keeping his footing upright as he moved through, minding himself against the fire.

The thudding in his head began anew, as he neared an exit. Another set of doors that appeared before him, just at the far end of the room. He rushed to meet it, but just as he was about to, another structure collapsed above him, and Y/N immediately cried out as he was pulled to the floor.

A piece of a destroyed roofing had collapsed and fallen, broken down and had trapped him down. Pinning him to the ground, blocking his legs. Y/N tried so hard to push it off of him, even as the fire burned against his skin, cutting through him as a blade would flesh.

But no matter, the fire still ate away at him.

If not for that, but then a blinding light appeared in his rear vision, and Y/N gasped against the smoke that filled his lungs as a figure made its way to him. Shocked, Y/N could not make out who it was, but at that moment, filled with such pain, he cared not for who it was, but if they could help him.

It was a small figure, the same height as him, maybe shorter. It was light, a brightly figure that looked almost like an angel, it's eyes an emerald green that glistened in the fire that made it seem so much more alive.

As it set its eyes on him, Y/N felt a sense of calm overlap with him, and a sense of safety that he hadn't felt since, since...

The figure held out it's hand, a small and delicate thing, it invited him in, like a thirsty individual for water, or a dying plant for a blessing of sunlight. It's eyes were begging and it's face set in a turn of concern and worrying that Y/N couldn't believe it was for him.

Subsiding his doubts, Y/N immediately reached out and grasped the young figure's hand and felt his head begin to clear and fire disperse around him. The smoke vanished from his lungs, and his vision cleared, the screaming and anguish seemed to buffer out. As a low humming met his ears, Y/N felt himself drifting away, as if his soul was being carried away from his body.

Yet, as he drifted away, he could only think on what his dream had shown him, and beg not to be brought again.

But he knew it was only a matter of time before his demons resurfaced, and his guilt was hammered to his chest for all to see.

In his own way, he knew it, no one was spared in this world.

Innocent or otherwise, they were all guilty.

—

"Oh fuck. Oh shit!" Ellie cursed in her usual fashion as fear gripped her soul, clenching her fists at her side. "C'mon wake up!"

She had woken up not long ago, to the sound of waves splashing against the shore, and rain splattering to the ground beneath her. To the heavy thunder and storm that raged the small island they found themselves on.

And, Ellie had found she wasn't the only one here.

"Is he dead?"

"No." Joel's gruff answer should've been enough for her, but it wasn't, it was never enough. "Kid will be fine. He's still breathing."

He did a good job of clearing the boy's airwaves and silently waited for more than a minute to see him wake.

As if on command, or as if the devil himself had granted himself their wish, Y/N suddenly wretched upwards, spewing water trapped in his lungs out and him into a coughing fit.

"It's okay." Joel said, almost automatic as he patted the boy's back to help as he choked his guts up. "It's okay." The older man looked up and narrowed his eyes at the two others, Henry and Sam, though mostly the adult.

Who watched with relieved expressions, though, perhaps not as relieved as Ellie

"Oh my god." Ellie breathed as she reached out and grabbed the boy's arm, almost gingerly as she stared wide eyes at Y/N, who finally calmed down enough to clear his throat with another cough, and looked up at his saviors.

The sixteen-year-old looked between Joel
and Ellie with a stunned look, as if he hadn't expected to be saved, nor washed up with them. Before the boy settled his narrowed E/C eyes on Ellie.

"I told you, I hate heights." He glared at her, and it had almost been playful. But Ellie only saw red as she pulled back and punched him in the arm, hard enough for him to wince at the attack. "OW!"

"You asshole!" Ellie scowled as she struck him again. "I... I thought you were dead!"

"Sorry to disappoint." Y/N bit back as he tried sitting up but flinched in pain as his leg burned wild from the gunshot he had received. "A little help?" He raised his brow to Ellie who scowled even more, but she helped him up.

"You scared us there for a second." Henry finally found himself into the conversation. "Was for sure you weren't gonna make it."

"I'm tougher than I look, I guess." Y/N huffed back as Ellie steadied him carefully at her side. "Thanks." He said to her, and it somewhat pleased her, as her scowl lessened and broke out in a firm line. "Where are we?"

"Beats me." Henry said, glancing between him and Ellie, before settling on Joel. "What I do know, is that Radio Tower I was mentioning, it's on the other side of that cliff." He moved ahead with Sam towing behind him. "We should have a look around, keep our ears out."

'You better...' Y/N thought as he eyed Henry and Sam. He hadn't forgotten what they had done to them... to him.

"Yeah, we'll do that...'' Joel trailed off as he turned to Y/N and looked down at the kid's leg. "Better take care of that first."

Few minutes later, the three of them were moving ahead, Y/N now sporting a bandage wrapped securely around his leg that had been on the wrong end of a bullet.

Grimacing, Y/N vaulted over a fallen log and spotted a washed up boat ahead.

"Hey, maybe we can find something in that boat over there." Ellie called out to the two of them as she followed up behind Y/N. "You okay?" She asked, noticing his grimace, before grimacing herself at her question. "Actually, I'm sorry. Stupid question—"

"I'm fine." Y/N interrupted her, bringing himself to a stop as Joel pushed ahead, and into the boat to search for supplies as he and Ellie kept out front. Turning away from her view, Y/N silencing cursed. "Thanks..."

"For what?"

"Thanks for, you know." Y/N said, awkwardly as he fiddled with his knife. His pistol and rifle were still secured to him despite the part of him almost drowning and getting washed away in the chaos. "If you hadn't of did what you did, I doubt I would've jumped in after you."

There was a weird sense of deja vu filling the two of them, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. No matter what, saving each other's behinds was beginning to turn into more than a one time thing.

The shit was becoming the norm.

"No problem." Ellie smiled, before frowning. "You really hate heights, don't you?" She questioned as she hefted her bag closer to her shoulder, occupying her hands to fidget with.

"Hate's not really the word, I'd use..."

"Fear?"

"...Yeah." Y/N agreed as Joel came walking out of the boat and began towards them, and up the path leading to a cliff.

The two teens followed after him, jogging behind him.

"Heights aren't my strong suit." Y/N shook his head. "So I guess I owe you one too, princess." He managed a small smile that ghosted as soon as Ellie openly scowled his way.

"Maybe." Ellie rolled her eyes. "But, maybe not." She climbed up a set of rocky formations and onto a path of rushing, murky water, before turning around to help Y/N up with her hand. "Thanks for saving me, too." Y/N remained silent, and wary at her hand, before locking eyes with her. "For keeping me afloat." She clarified.

For a few seconds, he watched her, his eyes searching for mistrust or doubt, but found only gratefulness and content, and a trust that he didn't deserve, and in a way, he knew he could trust her to help him out.

He just didn't know why.

Y/N reached out and grabbed her hand, and she pulled him up onto the path with her. His hand still grasped in hers, Y/N squeezed it causing her to lock her green eyes with his again.

"Guess we're even then." He huffed at the girl, as he tried his best not to falter under her cute green eyed gaze that began to churn his gaping stomach to pieces.

"For now," Ellie grinned back and squeezed his hand, before pulling back at the sound of Joel calling to them.

The two of them pulled back from each other, and locked eyes once more, before taking off. Following after Joel, who hopefully, had found a way forward, and out of this mess once and for all.

—

'Fuck this burns.' Y/N thought as he limped ahead, the strain in his leg offering him no salvation, but just a painful burning sensation that irked him.

The five of them had come across a grate of a sewer tunnel leading deeper into the cliff. Where it led, Y/N had an idea, they all did.

Watching as Joel and Henry opened up the grate, Y/N tore away his gaze and reached into his bag to look for his journal.

Luckily, he found it, and it was intact. Despite the situation, it hardly looked damaged, thanks to his bag being the shield that had guarded it against the tide.

Thanking every God under the fucking sun, Y/N placed it back and in zipped his bag up, just in time to see that the men had opened up the grate with enough force, and immediately the three younger teens followed in after them, without another word as they held it up for them.

Being the last one in, Y/N carefully placed the grate down, and turned around to face the back of Ellie's head.

"Hey, flashlights out." Henry cautoised them as they were greeted to the darkness of the sewer tunnel. They immediately switched theirs on, while Henry led them forward. "Sam stay—"

"Stay close. I know."

"Huh, someone's finally learning." Henry chuckled as the five of them reached the end of the tunnel, leading out into a larger section of the place,

It took the group some time, but after moving through the rundown, overgrown sewer system, and sewage waste beneath their feet (to which Y/N had silenting stressed over his wound slugging through all kinds of diseases) they finally reached a more spacious pathway.

Big enough for a vehicle to drive through.

And that wasn't all, coming through halfway, the five of them stopped as they noticed a gate off to the left side, blocked by a red container. Inside the area, it was loaded with scrap and supplies.

"It's blocked." Joel stated the obvious as he tried his hardest to push it open but to no avail.

"Maybe we can find a way around it." Y/N theorised as he looked around, and then spotted a small sewer grate leading into what looked like a small duct or drainage tunnel to pry open. "Here we go."

Small enough for someone to squeeze through.

"If you can get it open, I can crawl through and clear that door." Ellie explained as she came up behind Y/N, followed by Joel as Henry and Sam watched from afar, keeping watch.

Nodding, Joel moved ahead and began pulling the grate off, as Y/N moved back to Ellie.

Finally tugging it enough, Joel pried it off and only slightly jumped at the appearance of a big ass rat scurrying through the opening and away from them.

"Oh yeesh..." Ellie said, grimacing. "That is a big rat."

"Shame you don't have your BB gun." Y/N commented dryly as he folded his arms over, as Ellie maneuvered herself to a crawl to get through the venting.

"Ha ha." Ellie rolled her eyes, looking over her shoulder to glare at him. Before moving ahead, and pushing herself through the venting to the otherside.

A few seconds later, they were greeted with the sound of another grate being kicked through, and Ellie crawled out and appeared over the fencing that surrounded the gate, looking unharmed.

"No more giant rats?" Y/N asked lowly, as he moved up to the gate.

"Nope." Ellie said, pushing the container out of the way and opening it up for them. "And... voila." She smiled as the two entered, letting go of the handle of the gate.

Joel began searching through the area for supplies while Y/N picked up some extra scrap from metal shelves donning the walls, and turned around to see Ellie watching him curiously, before retracting her gaze, like a child who had gotten up to no good.

"Do you think they'll join us all the way to Tommy's?" Ellie asked Joel as the man turned back to face her, having just picked up a letter from a nearby table.

"Well, I don't know." Joel simply answered. "We're just gonna have to see how everything that pans out." He said, moving onwards to the other section of the room, as Y/N exchanged looks with the both of them.

"Tommy...?" Y/N questioned as he turned to look at Ellie who, for the most part, looked slightly embarrassed.

"My brother," It was Joel that answered that, surprising the two of them, and even himself a little. "We need him to help us find the Fireflies." Finding that despite everything, he was beginning to find himself trusting the teen, just a little bit.

Enough to know he wouldn't stab them in the back, that much he knew.

"Huh," Y/N said to himself, as he tapped his chin. "Well, why's that then?" He couldn't help but be intrigued. After all, neither of them had said anything about what they were doing, or where they were going. And it was bound to come up sooner than later.

"I'm... kind of the reason." Ellie admitted as she folded her arms over, subconsciously as Y/N's gaze found her, almost surprised at that.

"So... Joel's delivering you... like cargo?"

"You know, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so great." Ellie chuckled to herself, awkwardly as Joel moved out with another glance and the two teens followed them.

Keeping in a steady pace, Y/N nodded his head but said nothing more. It made sense to him why the two didn't feel overly familiar with each other. It was just a job for Joel, a simple extraction mission for him.

But still, what would the Fireflies want with with a girl like Ellie?

Yet, as curious as he was, Y/N wasn't going to dive into someone else's business, it was theirs to share, their secret.

Just as his business was his own.

"So you aren't gonna ask why?" Ellie spoke up, whispering as the five continued (mindful of Henry and Sam who they had only met, and who had fucked them over, slightly) along through the sewer

"No." Y/N said, shaking his head as they headed through a hallway that led to some concrete stairs. "It's not my business."

"But you're curious, right?"

"Yup, just dying to figure it out." Y/N replied with an air of sarcasm.

"Hey, this way." Henry interrupted them, pointing down another hallway to the right in front of them. "Looks like there's a path up ahead. Right here."

The group took their time through the corridor, and ended up on the other side
and before them revealed a larger room.

Filled with the rushing water of pipes and floodgates, a platform ahead of them, out of their reach. And the pathway across for them to continue, but couldn't reach.

And below them was filled to the brim with sewage water.

"Can we get out this way?" Sam asked as they looked around the overgrown structure of the sewer.

"Nah, there's no way to reach it." Henry said, eying the platform up and down.

"Well," Ellie looked around at the group members with a sheepish expression. "I can't swim."

They all looked at Y/N.

"My leg is busted." He rolled his eyes as he massaged his leg that was still burning hot and irritable.

"I'll look on ahead." Joel sighed and headed off, "Stay here."

"Guess we'll stay here, then." Ellie said offhandedly. "In the dark, loneliness, of a sewer. Filled with giant rats."

"Could be worse." Y/N said as looked around, his attention more focused on surroundings yet again, and then to the path that Joel took.

"What's worse than giant rats?"

"Oh, sewer gators. Had someone I used to...Well, it was a long time ago." Y/N said as he sighed and turned away from them. Before propping his hand up to his cheek as he stepped backwards from the dripping rain pouring down from the crack in the ceiling.

"The fuck's a sewer gator?"

"A reptilian creature." Henry explained, chuckling at the young girl's confusion. "Cold-blooded animal that dwells beneath the ground. Such as—"

"The sewers." Y/N nodded as he moved up beside Ellie and crossed his arms. "Only ever saw one."

"Shit." Ellie cursed. "What did you do?"

"The only thing I could do... Haul ass out of there."

"Bet that was fun." Ellie huffed, not at all impressed.

"Yeah, for the sewer gator..."

The group remained quiet after that for a few minutes before the youngest of them broke it, airing his own words.

"Florida." Sam said, more to himself in thought, but Y/N caught on.

"Huh?" Y/N asked, turning his gaze to the boy.

"Florida." Sam repeated. "That's where most alligators are found, and in the sewers."

"Y— Yeah, I imagine so." Y/N said, turning away from the group and out into the wider range of the room, keeping his mind away from the subject.

"You ever been there before?"

"No, not really, I mean..." Y/N froze up slightly, and curled his fist up at his side as a sense of anxiety took a hold, which would soon turn to anger, not that Sam noticed. "I don't think so..."

He started, trying to find a way out of it as memories of a time in Florida haunted his overcoming nightmares that had yet to resurface, despite the more recent ones crashing down all around him.

"Hey, Sam, c'mon." Henry warned his brother. "What I'd say. We mind our own business, and they mind theirs. They ain't none of our concern—"

Though that proved to be the wrong thing to say, as Y/N immediately reacted to that, and not in a good way.

"Yeah." Y/N interrupted, shaking his head as he looked they're way. "Especially after you left us to die back in the city." If there wasn't any tension before, there was now. "You know, as far I'm concerned, Joel should've just left your asses behind after that stunt you pulled! An eye for an eye. So the next time you wanna dig into my past after what you both did, think again."

He hadn't meant to blow up, but it was just sitting there in his gut. It had to be unleashed somehow, and that was it. That anger was used out in the battlefield, not this. But it had been a hot minute since he had hurt someone, killed someone....

They had left them behind, they had left him behind. To die, to save themselves instead. No matter what. The similar situation had him gritting his teeth every time he looked at Henry and he couldn't help but unleash it.

The pain in his leg throbbed and itched, and played him into it like a fiddle. Frustration, and keeping it all in, was never his strong suit. He had to say something at one point or time, and that was it.

After everything he had done, it still played with him, haunted him.

People were guilty, innocent or otherwise.

They all had something that made them tick, something that separated them from the rest.

They all were.

And they were all selfish, cowards.

Though, as he looked into their gazes and only saw the widened threshold of their eyes, and that littered concern. Before he brushed it away with a frustrated sigh, and shoved past the ones who looked at him as if a stranger.

Henry made a move to walk forward but was stopped by Sam who looked down in slight shame. Causing the older man to sigh loudly, and then look back at Ellie, who despite being shocked, was not at all surprised.

"Sorry about that." Ellie apologised with a sheepish look. "He doesn't like to talk about his... well, anything, really. He's not really a people person."

Though not blind to his anger at the situation, Ellie at least wished he had worded it better than that.

But still, he was right.

"Doesn't talk about his past?" Henry asked, suddenly understanding the kid's slight hostile action, and Ellie nodded. "Yeah, I get that. We're all hiding behind something. We don't need the whole world knowing."

The man turned back towards Sam and began talking in hushed tones that Ellie decided to ignore.

"More than you know." Ellie whispered to herself as she looked away, and to Y/N who was looking up at the ceiling, his gaze more focused on the dripping of the rain rather than anything else now.

'Way to be a buzzkill, Y/N' The boy thought as he groaned and pressed his head to the course of the rusted metal that provided a sense of longing and rest.

"Looks like you scared some friends away."

Y/N flinched slightly at Ellie's presence again and immediately turned around to glare at her, but only found her smiling at him that sent him frowning like a moody teen.

"I don't have any friends." Y/N huffed, turning away from her and back out towards the sewer lines and water gates that continued to flow idly.

"Well, shit. What am I chopped liver?" Ellie exclaimed as she moved up against the rail beside Y/N.

"That's not..." Y/N sighed and hung his head, not caring or just given up, "Never mind."

"I'm serious." Ellie frowned, before softening her features. "You're my friend."

"I didn't realise I had earned that title." Y/N said a loud, almost to himself as Ellie thumped him on the arm, causing him to glare at her yet again.

"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone." Ellie's frown reappeared and only worsened. "If you have to prove that, then you're better off without them."

"Maybe..." Y/N replied, backing away from her. "I'm not really good at keeping 'em."

"Why not?" Ellie asked as she nudged closer.

"I think you know why..."

"You're a loner." Ellie stated, face compressing into pity that made Y/N scowl. "Sorry, I mean—"

"No." Y/N shook his head. "You're right. I've always been better on my own, anyhow."

"I don't know how you do it." Ellie frowned. "I don't think I could..."

Y/N turned back to face her, and softened at her frown, and the pouting of her lips. Looking at what she had done so far, what they, her, had already been through, he could tell there was more.

She was strong, she just didn't know it yet.

"You don't know if you're good at anything until you're right in the middle of it." Y/N said as he noticed Joel from far away coming across the water. "I think... I think if anything were to happen, you'd be okay."

"You really think so?" Ellie asked, skepticism shinning through her eyes and in her tone of voice that echoed the same doubt that Y/N himself carried.

In a way, the two were more alike than either thought possible.

"Yeah," Y/N nodded and backed away from the railing and began walking. "You're a survivor. You can survive anything as along as you put your mind to it. Just as you have already..."

Ellie followed behind him as he moved past Henry and Sam, and down to a small dock like pier leading past the platform where Joel was resurfacing from the water.

"Just like everybody else." Y/N continued. "It's just depends on how far you're willing to go, that matters. And from what I've seen. People are willing to do anything these days."

"You've seen a lot of that then?" Ellie asked as she fiddled her with hands at her side.

"More than enough..."

"Do you think it'll ever get better?"

Y/N stopped as he got to the end of the pier and looked down at the murky water as his dirt and distasteful reflection peered back at him.

Only, to dodge the question with a thought, that tickled his own mind, and one he had yet to answer truthfully.

"It all depends on how far people are willing to go to make it better... If they even want to at all..."

A/N: I'm sorry if this turned out not as you expected but I've been having trouble these last months so I haven't been able to write at all and shit just got in the way. But I'm back now for good and now I can continue on with my stories and hopefully entertain you guys as promised. So yeah, hope you enjoyed this one and I'll see you in the next one!