Manoeuvring deeper into the city deemed harder than Y/N initial thought. Many streets were blocked off with cars, debris and even infected roaming. For the better, Y/N decided to sneak around most of them, only taking down a few silently that were in his way. The gunshots still echoed throughout the part of the city, only did it stop as Y/N reached the end of his fifth detour.

He figured who ever was attacking or being attacked, were moving further away from the scene. Though whoever it was, Y/N had no idea. He hadn't encountered anyone living for a while. Sneaking past another set of infected, Y/N made his way into an office building, scavenging anything on his way, he wasn't necessarily in a rush to aid anyone, or kill anyone either.

When he reached the top of the small office building, he managed to get a better lay of land, for a better view, Y/N grabbed his rifle and aimed through the scope to scan the area. Moving north-west, he spotted what looked like a couple of buildings, a garage and a store, where he could barely make out smoke of a crashed vehicle. Dead bodies littered around it.

'Shit.'

He soon spotted the ragged and torn outfits of the Hunters, so whoever was in the car was still alive... for now. Suddenly more gunshots sounded and not too far enough. Y/N gaze with the scope snapped further north and he spotted a group of three maybe five Hunters. They were standing on top of a wrecked bus, target practise by the looks of it. Must not have heard the commotion.

Y/N scanned the area for anymore, or even for the people who were from the car crash, he looked for a minute until he his gaze fixated on something, he twisted the dial on the scope further and zoomed in, he saw a shadow of a person moving up fast past the wrecked cars.

When the person finally came into view, he spotted an old man, no longer than his fifties he reckoned. The man stopped behind a taxi cab as the men from the bus jumped down.

He snapped his gaze back on the old man, he was watching them, probably trying to figure out a way past them or how to go through them. Just as the group of Hunters were about to move on, something, or somebody bumped into Joel behind, knocking over a stack of empty cans, causing a loud thud and for the group of bandits to look in their direction

'Fucking dumbass.' Y/N thought as he rolled his eyes, looking at the group, they were advancing on them, getting closer. He went back to the old man and finally saw what, or rather who, knocked the cans over. It was a girl, no more older than himself. She had a mix of brunette and strawberry hair, cut medium length. She had porcelain skin and a pocket knife out, nice.

Y/N let out a sigh as he watched the two people try to prepare for bandits heading for them. In a split second decision, he decided to help them, why? Well he was aloner, wary yes, but not completely fucking heartless.

He propped the rifle out and laid it against the part of the window for better stability and aimed the rifle at the closer bandit to them, the one was just about to round the car as the old man got out his gun. Checking that he had a round in, Y/N leveled his breath and aimed the cross-hair of the sights on the man, aiming for his leg. He waited a second before squeezing the trigger.

'Boom, sucker.'

The kick of the butt did nothing but faze him, his shoulder was far used to the punishment of rifle stock battering him from experience before. The bullet pierced the fucker's leg and he went down to the ground screaming, alerting the others. The hunters turned around frantically looked in all directions, most of them were taking cover immediately but some were standing idly.

'Idiots.' Y/N pulled back the chamber and let the casing fall, before priming it again and setting his sights on another, this one wielding a molotov. He aimed for his head and fired, the shot doming him right through the forehead, and the body fell to the ground, by now the rest of them were covered.

'Two down, a few more to go...'

The bandits began jumping out of cover and spraying their own set of bullets towards where they thought Y/N was hiding. He shot again and this time hit one guy in the chest, killing him. He looked back at the two newcomers to see them sneaking past the group as they continued to fire. The guy he had shot in the leg was no longer screaming, it seems one of the two killed him.

Y/N reloaded his rifle, adding the maximum of three bullets into it. He seriously needed a magazine for it. And aimed at the others, but it was a lot harder now, from what he could see there were about three left, all hiding behind cover.

'Hmm.'

Y/N aimed to his far left, where an old motorbike was sat, he looked closely before seeing one of the three, he had a good eye, the man's feet were just visible under the exhaust. Y/N breathed in another breath of air before aiming and fired at the man's foot, and the body crumpled to the ground in pain, screaming in agony.

And he waited, as he the man began to scream more. Hoping one of the others would take the bait. After a few seconds of waiting, he saw something move the motorbike just an inch, somebody had hid against it as the man was still screaming.

Suddenly one of the bandits, who was hiding on the far right popped his head up and began shooting precisely at Y/N's position, the man's own rifle managing to hit his location. Y/N ducked to avoid the shots and when no more were heard he got back up instantly and aimed for the man, who was clumsy trying to reload. He aimed at the man and fired, hitting him in the head, dead.

The other one was trying to drag their wounded man away, Y/N moved as fast as a hawk and shot the man who was wounded, killing him.

He could've swore he heard the other bandt say "Fuck it." As he let go of his, now dead, comrade and ran off, rushing back towards the bus where he only imagined the other two mysterious newcomers must've gone.

With one last, exhale. He fired and the bullet hit the man in the back of his chest, ending him and the body fell to the ground. Y/N scanned the rest of the area for any sign of them, and was awarded with nothing but silence. It seemed he had killed them all. He turned his attention back to the bus, they were nowhere in sight, which he was glad. He hoped they'd make it.

With a sigh. Y/N lifted up his rifle and emptied out his spent casings and reloaded. And let go of the gun, letting the strap of the rifle do the work for him as he took off through the rest of the building, moving on to wherever this city would take him.

—

"What was that?" Ellie's voice sounded from behind Joel. They were deep in the shit now, that much they knew. From the car crash to the ambush and now these bandits everywhere. The two had been alerted to a single gunshot.

"I don't know." Joel said in a gruff tone but when he lifted his head up past the wreck of a car, he was answered as he soon spotted a handful of people, bandits. "Ellie, get down. Hide." Joel told her as he too ducked low for some cover as Ellie did the same.

"Where did you learn to shoot?" A judgemental voice came from ahead. It seems the group were having some sort of shooting practise.

The man who was obviously the shooter, answered. "Man, screw you." Causing the rest of the men to laugh. The shooter shook his head and jumped down, followed by the rest. Shit, there was no way they could get past them, though they had beaten better odds before. Joel figured it was easier to sneak past them and not waste any precious resources.

"You had an entire flock and you hit nothing." One with a Molotov in hand scoffed, making their way through cars.

"I'll hit you." The failed shooter retorted.

Joel watched the group of them bicker, they were close to getting past them now. Well that was until Ellie moved up behind him, not paying attention to her surroundings and accidentally knocked over a bunch of empty cans, causing a thud. "Fuck." She quietly cursed as Joel pushed her against the wrecked car to avoid being spotted.

"The hell was that?" One of the bandit's called out, looking in Joel and Ellie's direction.

"Go check it out." The one who had molotov practically ordered.

Joel pulled out his revolver, checking how many rounds he had in it, then clicked the cylinder inwards and was ready to fight if needed. He watched as the man got closer, a pipe in his hand waiting to smash somebody's head in. Hopefully not himself or Ellie.

Completely surrounded, Joel waited as the bandit approached, slowly at first until he was only two meters away. He readied his gun and prepared to aim, but before he could, a gunshot followed out.

Suddenly the man who had approached them, had crumpled down to the floor in a screaming whail, a bullet in his leg. Immediately the other bandits ran for cover but then another one was taken down, from what they could see.

The others began firing at whoever had shot their friends. Joel looked back at Ellie with a look she couldn't figure out. Ellie herself showed visible confusion, her brows furrowed.

"Shit, sniper!" A bandit covered head to toe in rags shouted out as Joel watched them shoot back.

The man who had been shot in the leg first was still on the floor, clutching his leg with both hands. Joel sneaked up by him, with Ellie in tow.

The guy soon spotted the two of them and immediately tried to grab his gun but failed, as Joel grabbed him round the neck and choked him out, snapping his neck in the process.

"Holy shit." Ellie muttered as she came up behind him, her green eyes watching the bandits getting completely wrecked.

"Let's go." Joel's gruff voice brought Ellie out of her staring, and she soon followed him.

They both passed the cars, staying by cover until they finally made it to the bus while the enemies were distracted. Joel climbed up first, then helped Ellie up as she took one last look behind them, they were all dead but one.

With an urge from Joel, Ellie followed after him, wondering who their mystery saviour was.

The two of them jumped down from the bus, just in time to hear the final gunshot.

"Who the hell was that?" Ellie said as she held her arm out against the window of a broken down car. "Were they on our side or just popping anyone in sight?"

"They weren't on anyone's side." Joel dismissed the idea of having a helping angel, though he had to admit he was curious, whoever it was clearly helped them out. "It doesn't matter. Best to move on."

"It'd be nice to have some help..." Ellie shrugged her shoulders as the two walked ahead. The ruins of a quarantine zone was in front of them, walls, razor wire and a checkpoint.

Joel shook his head. "C'mon, let's get a move on."

--

'Fuck...'

Currently Y/N was working his way through the office building, luckily no one was in here with him. But as he reached the end of the building, he found the stairs blocked off, unable to go down to street level. Yet there was an opening onto another building. A wooden plank was laid over the gap of the ground, leading into a complex building.

'It's my luck I get stuck on a building with the only way out is this... fucking hate heights.'

Looking at the wooden plank, it was stable enough, he hoped. It wasn't rotting so that was good.

"Please don't break. Please don't break. Please don't break.' He thought over and over again as he placed his right foot slowly onto the plank and tested it. After tapping it a few times, he deemed it safe to go across, not that he had much of a choice.

'Okay here we go...' He placed both his feet atop of the plank and took his first step across, to his surprise he didn't fall to his death. After inwardly screaming full of joy, he walked across the plank until he climbed down past the shattered window, his boots touching the tile flooring safely.

He began to search through the building, checking rooms and occasionally looking through the windows now and then to make sure he wasn't being prayed upon, which he wasn't. He didn't find much than last time but he at least found some more ammo, which he was grateful for, his rifle was running low. The rest was useless junk. Y/N walked through to the exit of the building, leading out into the street, though further down it was completely filled up with water. Thankfully, Y/N knew how to swim.

He spent the next twenty minutes manoeuvring through the water, luckily no wildlife was present so he was clear of sharks, though he had to remind himself sharks would never venture this far, and into a city no less.

Y/N finally reached the end of the street leading up to a giant building, from the view he had, Y/N figured it was a hotel. He seemed to be at the back exit of it. He looked up to see an opening leading into the building, a hole or gap that had somehow appeared there. Explosives probably.

Y/N looked around for a ladder, searching through the, nearly clean, street. 'C'mon there's gotta be one round here somewhere.' He slapped the door of a maintenance truck shut before walking ahead and into an alleyway. 'Fuck yeah. Jackpot.' A ladder laid perched against the wall of the opposite building. 'Okay... let's pray I'm strong enough to- no wait, I AM strong enough. I've totally got this.'

No he didn't.

He was about average in strength. But he was no Arnold Schwarzenegger.

'Fuck this is heavy.' Y/N panted as he placed the ladder down. He was almost there, just a few more meters to place it down. He vastly underestimated the weight of the metal ladder. 'Okay let's try... again.' He grabbed the ladder again and held it upright, and tried to walk it over to the spot. 'Ok, c'mon you've got this, you got this... YES!'

Y/N managed to get the ladder over and perched it against the collapsed walling of the hotel. After making sure it was secured, he climbed up it and then crouched through the gap in the building. As soon as he got in, he turned his flashlight on and behold, what looked like one of the apartment floors.

Notice: Y/N hasn't said a single word at all yet? It's all his thoughts :)

The floor was as gradual and charming as the rest of the world. He went through the rooms and collected anything useful, encountering a couple of infected, but nothing he couldn't take care of. When he completed his tasks, he headed for the next floor above, treading carefully on the steps of the stairwell and listening for any sounds, people or infected, to be exact. After taking his time, he finally reached the top of the stairs leading to the next floor. The stairs leading further up were blocked off so he had no choice but to enter.

Unholstering his pistol, and holding it with both hands, Y/N aimed down the sights and entered in cautiously, eyes scanning before him. After spending thirty seconds making sure, he holstered his pistol and carried on, planning on walking into the first room he saw. But something stopped him in his tracks.

Y/N crouched down besides the wall of the room, and steadied his breathing, he heard something, like the grinding of gears or an elevator moving. Suddenly the floor shook and Y/N had to reach his hand out to stop him from falling over. He soon heard something else, but this time... it was a voice. A girl's voice, not too far away.

'I wonder who that is?'