"Let's go."

Joel let out a disgruntled sigh as he led the two younger kids. They climbed up the ladder that the previous guy had used, and walked into another room.

They quickly grabbed anything of use before exiting into a larger hall, with what looked like foyer a below, the railing and off to the side. Y/N tagging along behind them, watching out for anything that moved.

Ellie noticed Y/N's watchable gaze. "Pretty sure they're all dead." She said in a slight comical tone, acting as if she hadn't just blown a guy's brains out less than a minute ago.

"Can't be too careful." Y/N said in a huff, stepping up to the rusted railing and looking down into the lower section of the room. He liked to keep himself busy, and he was right, never knowing what's around the next corner.

So, in his mind, you always had to watch out, to never drop your guard. It was how he was brought up to be, but as the years passed, that simple habit only got more secure in his head, and it just came normal for him to spend so long watching, observing, for anything in sight.

It's how he stayed alive.

The boy shook his head and looked to his right to see Joel maneuvering himself across the broken and heavily destroyed floor. His back against the wall as he tread carefully across. "Wait there, okay." He warned them, as if the rest of the flooring could collapse any minute.

Y/N doubted as much.

If the place could last this long, it could last another minute of three warm bodies crossing it. But against his better judgment, he waited.

"Sure, Joel." Ellie responded in a clipped tone.

She had rolled her eyes, that much Y/N could tell as her voice dragged his curiosity. She was pissed, and he couldn't blame her. Ellie had saved Joel's life and he was acting as if she had stolen his last roll of toilet paper.

'Ah, toilet paper....' A muffled sigh left his
lips, having to use ripped up cloth and leaves weren't as good as the early days of the end of the world.

Soon the two teenagers followed across, one before the other. They walked until they reached the end of the room and grabbed any more supplies in the area, which was accompanied by a bar and a sitting area.

Y/N finished picking up some spare scrap, before he noticed a comic book off to the side. He went over and picked it up, he glossed over it before sighing slightly at the content of it. It was the same stupid collection that Rachel had-

"You keeping that?" Ellie's voice startled him. It was something he definitely had to get used to. With not being in a group for so long, he had almost forgotten what it was like.

But since he was only tagging along for the rest of the ride, it simply wouldn't last long.

It never did.

Y/N lifted up his eyes from the comic and looked at hers. They were considerably brighter than they had been when she took her first human life, not the same dull and misty ones.

He knew them all too well.

He had shared the same look as her when he killed his first, of many, people. Granted, it was self defence and the guy was a complete asshole. But, he was still human.

He thought about keeping it. For only a second, he had no need for a comic book, but she did.

Y/N never really liked listening to the cliche good guy - bad guy story. He felt them to be bland, in comparison to his everyday life.

There was nothing like that in the real world.

There were only people. People who were either killers or stupid. No good, no bad. Sure some were worse than others, but in the end people tend to be all the same when it comes to survival. When they're at their last rope, that's when people show their true colours, and Y/N knew best.

He didn't know their true colours yet, but he would sooner or later.

"No." Y/N's voice came out rougher than he had liked. His mouth ran dry, he cleared his throat and looked up to match her own gaze. "No, you can have it." He walked up to her and practically shoved into her chest, and walked by her as if her question and recollection of comic books hadn't caused him some graciousness in some way.

He hardly recalled her mutter of thanks as he followed Joel out of the room, the older man having not said much concerning what had transpired. Only taking one small peep at him with a quierry of questions in his gaze, before turning back and heading out. As much as he thought Joel was an ass, he quite liked the subtle silence the man had.

"We need to get back out." Joel said as they jumped down a destroyed set of stairs, and headed through to a hallway. "Find that bridge."

"Just tell me where to go." Ellie said as she followed, Y/N next to her looking between the two of them.

"That won't be easy." Y/N murmured as he followed them.

Bandits were everywhere in the city from what he gathered. At least a decent sized group.

"We'll see." Joel huffed as they carried on.

Apparently he didn't believe him, or maybe he was simply hoping he would shut up by giving a response. It certainly sounded like it. Yet, Joel still thought it would go as right as rain. But of course, Y/N always expected the worst to happen. Any sane person would. However, Joel just simply relied on luck, to which Y/N couldn't fault him.

There were plenty of times Y/N thought he was gonna die, but luckily, he didn't.

After checking over the place, and Y/N finding more ammo. The three of them entered into another larger room. This one being something you'd see in some sort of comedy club or a restaurant. There was a big set for tables and chairs, cloth covered them, definitely the rich kind to visit this place. And at the front was a stage, even a piano sat on top of it.

They searched the room and the only way for them to keep on going was to get something big enough to stack against the wall leading up to a walkway above the room.

"Alright," Joel muttered as he braced himself at the back of the piano and reached out, placing his hands on top of it and began pushing it towards the wall. But, it was far more challenging than he'd thought.

"Goddamn this is heavy."

Y/N rolled his eyes and dropped his hands from his rifle, letting it hang from his body, and dragged himself over next to Joel, and helped him push it. Joel nodded his head slightly in thanks, even if he still didn't fully trust him yet, he did need his help, just as Y/N had said he would.

However, they could only get it about halfway across, they needed the extra muscle, even if it was a pissed off fourteen-year-old.

It seemed Joel thought the same. "Hey, 'bout a hand?" He asked Ellie who was moping off to the side, watching her feet idly.

She looked up from whatever she found interesting and looked at Joel. Wrinkling her nose up, she retorted. "Sure you can trust me with that?" Y/N snorted loudly in amusement at the two of them, to which they glared before pushing the piano forward with all their strength.

'Jesus he wasn't kidding.' Y/N thought as he put his back into it, his feet dragging almost painfully against the degraded wooden flooring of the stage. Finally another huff and puff, they managed to stack it against the wall.

Joel climbed up first, leaping up onto the above walkway, and looked down to gaze at the two teens, before walking ahead to check the area.

Ellie gazed at the piano with a wary look, before looking back at Y/N with a raised eyebrow. As if silenting asking him to go before her, to which he didn't know why.

Y/N noticed her look and crossed his arms over.

"Beauty before brawn, princess." Ellie blushed slightly before huffing at his comment and climbed up. Checking when she was finally up, Y/N followed suit and made his way up too.

It didn't take them long to get out of the building, the rest of the way being a small shortcut through it, another walkway before looting the rest of the rooms. Finally they walked through an open glass window door to the outside of the balcony walk, and climbed over the edge of the building and onto a construction scaffolding.

Looking over it, they had a wide view of the streets below and the city ahead. But inside, there was a chair in the far corner with a dead body, and what looked like an ammo magazine hanging from it's cold dead hands. Joel kept his eye on it before ducking ducking at the sound of voices.

Unfortunately for them, they were not alone.

"Oh shit." Joel muttered as he ducked for cover under a wooden board.

The two teenagers following suit.

Ellie perched herself beside Joel, while Y/N went to her left, grabbing up his rifle and positioning it on the wooden board of their cover, to better steady the weapon if needed. Which, he would.

"What the hell is taking 'em so long?"

Yeah it was definitely bandits. From what Y/N could see through his scope there were quite a few of them, covered in rags and armed to the teeth.

"I don't know. They went to check on them."

Most likely the guys they had killed before. Like the rest.

"Keep your head down." Joel warned Ellie as she peaked over the cover. "Alright, now I'm gonna jump down there and I'm gonna clear us a path." Joel explained only for Y/N to glare at him.

"I'll go too."

"I don't need some kid watching my back." The older man looked at Ellie as if to cement his point. It caused Y/N to scoff.

"I know what I'm doing." Y/N argued with a tone that meant 'You're not talking me out of it.' And so Joel sighed out of frustration.

"Fine." Joel lamented as he rubbed the lines of his jaw out of annoying habit. "You come with me, don't mess up."

Y/N huffed and turned his attention towards the bandits below. Watching them closely only to be interrupted by Ellie. "What about me?"

Joel looked at with a firm look in his eyes and said. "You stay here. One kid with a trigger finger is enough."

"This is so stupid." Ellie muttered under her breath. "We'd have more of a fucking chance together if you let me help."

"Princess, isn't wrong." Y/N said as he eyed another bandit with his rifle.

"I am." Joel snapped, all while Ignoring Y/N's sarcastic tone. "You seem to know your way around a gun." Joel said as he inched closer to her. "Reckon you can handle that?" He nodded towards Y/N, and Ellie followed his gaze. They both looked at him.

'Okay not too many of them. Can probably pick them off one by one from here.' Y/N turned his attention back to them to see them looking at him with a demanding gaze.

"What?" He furrowed his brows in confusion before he realised that they weren't exactly looking at him, but his rifle.

"Oh, no." Y/N said firmly, looking at the two of them with narrowed eyes. "I said I'd tag along with you two. I never said anything 'bout giving you my gear."

The two didn't move, they kept their steady, almost agonizing watch on him that made him uncomfortable. Switching his gaze back and forth between them and the bandits. He cursed under his breath. "Un-fucking-believeable." And reluctantly handed his rifle over to Ellie who watched it with awe, yet a hesitant look.

"Well, uh I sorta shot a rifle before." Ellie said as she let the heavy weight get comfortable with her skin. It was heavy to her, yet with Y/N it was light, guess prior experience helped.

"Oh yeah, at what? Bottles?" Y/N asked almost teasingly, and agitated at the same time.

He was pissed having to give up his baby.

"Uhhhh, rats." And immediately Y/N's gaze shot back at her with a look she couldn't figure out.

"Rats?" Y/N asked her with a frustrated tone. "Great, just great." He sighed.

"...With BB's."

"You're not making your case any better."

"Ugh..." Joel groaned as the two bickered back and forth. He was starting to regret taking in the kid, and now even the job itself. "It's the same concept." Joel said trying to break them up, and luckily did, but it only made Y/N scrunch his nose up in either disgust or annoyance, or both. "Lift it up." Joel began to show her how to use the rifle and Ellie followed his every word.

Y/N shook his head and crouched away from them, making his way over to the chair that held that dead body from before. He scavenged up anything of use before setting his eyes on an ammo magazine. It looked like one for a rifle much like the one he had. The mag held up to five bullets a piece, that's including the chambered round.

'Jackpot.'

He smiled slightly before schooling his features and returning to his spot. He finally noted that Joel and Ellie were done.

"Listen to me - if we," Joel gestured to himself and Y/N, who was readying his pistol. Despite it being a piece of shit that needed cleaning. "Get into trouble down there, you make every shot count. Yeah?"

Ellie nodded with a confident vigor that Y/N hoped was legit. "I got this."

"Can we get this done already?" Y/N asked impatiently, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

Joel merely nodded. They two sneaked towards the end of the scaffolding but before they climbed down. Joel turned back around to face Ellie. "And just so we're clear back there... It was either him or me."

The two males climbed down from the scaffolding and made their way to the street level in a silent yet quick manner. When they reached the bottom, they saw a couple of bandits in their range.

Y/N looked to Joel and nodded. Joel went to the right and Y/N went left. They managed to take out the first two who were conveying between them. While more bandits came into view. There we a couple in the office building to the left, and some on Joel's side in what looked like a corner store, and then another office building stacked up against it. Joel made his way, silently taking out any enemies in his path.

While Y/N took his time to spy on them, to get a sense of their pathway. He noticed one in a red jacket and mask who was idly yet there was another in his line of sight. He picked up a brick from the ground and threw it over to the left, drawing away enemy.

"What the fuck? I'm gonna go check it out." The bandit called out while his friend was watching him with his arms crossed. Y/N sneaked out from his cover behind a car and snuck behind the man. He brought out his knife, and slit his throat. Dropping the body to the ground.

The other man with the gas mask had made his way to the distraction. Only to find a smashed brick on the ground. "What the f-" Only for a gun to be pointed to the back of his head. The man lowered his gun. "Wait pl-" But was stabbed in the neck just as quick as his plea for mercy.

All while this was happening, Ellie was watching with bated breath. Eyeing the two back and forth through the scope. As she watched Y/N through the scope, she couldn't believe how he could be so cold in killing, and Joel too.

She understood that it was kill or be killed, she had no problem with that. Yet with Y/N it just looked like he was used to it, like it was some chore or simple hobby. Ellie wondered if she was ever gonna be like that? With the world how it was, she thought likely so.

Back with Y/N, he managed to get into the office building and take the rest of them down. He just dispatched the last guy with a brick to the face, before the sounds of gunshots echoed. Y/N lifted his head up fast to see the others had spotted Joel and were shooting at him.

In a fast and swift move, Y/N took off running, he slided over to the cover mid-way and pulled out his pistol and aimed. Joel was in a gunfight against two men while another three were making their way around to flank him. Y/N lifted up his pistol and shot the first guy in the head only four meters away. The two other's saw this and turned around, firing their own guns at him. Immediately Y/N ducked for cover.

"Shit." Y/N cursed as he noticed the guy's getting closer while Joel took another guy with his shotgun. 'I gotta get one of those.' He thought as he lifted himself out of cover only to be shot at again. "Fuck." He tried again, only for more shots to be sounded. But they didn't come from Y/N, nor Joel.

Ellie took her first shot and managed to blow one of the guys head off. Lucky shot. While the other was distracted by the sniper. Y/N rushed out of cover and charged at the man, tackled him down to the force and knocked his gun out of hand. Sure, he wasn't wasn't as strong as Joel but he had his own strengths and weaknesses.

Y/N drove down his knife, attempting to stab the man in the chest. The bandit itself put his hands around the knife trying to stop him but it was futile as whatever energy the man had was knocked out of him when he fell to the ground. The man gurgled in blood when Y/N finally pulled out the blade for the fourth time, to make sure he was dead. His hands were covered in blood, and his eyes held nothing but cold determination.

Panting, Y/N lifted himself up from the ground to find that Joel was already finished with the last of them and was watching him with an intense and curious gaze. But before either one could say anything another gunshot rang out, very close to them, making Y/N almost flinch. He heard a body drop to the ground behind him. He turned and found another bandit with a lead pipe in his grasp.

He breathed in again hard, and looked up at the scaffolding where Ellie was. She had just saved his life. Guess one debt was already paid. "Alright c'mon down!" Joel shouted down to Ellie as Y/N still had his eyes on the dead guy who could've as easily killed him if not for Ellie.

It didn't take her long.

While Ellie walked up to meet them. Joel was checking out one of the guys they had killed. The man picked up a pistol out of the fallen bandit's hands, before looking up at Ellie.

"How'd I do?" Ellie asked as she slumped her shoulders, rifle in hand.

Y/N snapped out of his trance and walked over to Ellie and Joel. He raised his eyebrow at Ellie, it took her a second to realise. "Oh. Here." She passed over the rifle to him, and
Y/N accepted it wholeheartedly.

"Not bad, Ellie." Y/N said in a strained voice. As if complimenting was something he didn't do much. Which he didn't. Yet that simple praise meant everything to her as her eyes lit up and she grinned. Especially the fact that he used her name.

Come to think of it, he only used her name when he was either complimenting her, or was angry at her.

"How 'bout something a... little more your size?" Joel said as he handed over a smaller pistol to her. "It's for emergencies only." Which she took without question, and placed it in the back of her jeans.

Joel began instructing her how to use it, and how the safety worked. But considering she had just used a bloody rifle to watch other them. Y/N thought she didn't need his help.

"Okay you gotta respect it, it's not a toy-" Joel started but Y/N interrupted him.

"Man, I think she gets it." Y/N told him, slightly irritated. Thought not for the reason you think. Y/N picked up a molotov from a dead guy nearby.

"He's right." Ellie said with a nod. "I'll be careful." She promised the older man, to which he nodded.

"Okay."

The three scavenged anything worthwhile in the area before aming their way around a camper van and to a pull up metal gate that was shut. Joel immediately got to the floor and began pulling it up with all his might. "Here." Followed by Y/N joining him to help out.

'Shit.' He thought as they managed to lift it halfway and Ellie went inside to do her own thing. 'I really am breaking my own rules' He was helping others out who weren't himself, and even offering it willingingly. Even going as far as to be grateful. 'Fuck...'

Y/N watched as Joel proceeded ahead after the three entered into the room by placing a metal container under the gate to stick it in place. As Joel went ahead, Ellie was beside Y/N and was about to head forward to but was stopped by Y/N's hand touching her shoulder.

Ellie turned around to face him and looked at him closely, which only made him freeze up and drop his hand from her. "I-" But his words were drowned out. He frowned at how freaking disgruntled his voice was. It almost made him sound like he was twice his age at how grully it was.

'Goddamnit'

"What?" Ellie asked with a curious look in her eyes.

Y/N cleared his throat, before answering. "I... Just wanted to, you know." Y/N sighed deeply, turning away to look at something else beside her pointing stare. "I just wanted to say... thanks... for saving me back there, if it wasn't for you... I'd probably be dead. " He rubbed the back of his neck, the awkwardness clear in his voice and expression.

After a moment Y/N returned his gaze to Ellie's, to find her with a thoughtful look across her face.

"No problem." Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "You'd do the same for me." And she walked off to check out the room, leaving Y/N still and alone in the entrance.

He couldn't help the conjuring thought going his mind that began to affect him ever since he found her and Joel. That if she was ever in that situation or something similar. Would he still do so, help her?

'But would I though?'

He didn't like the way he was warming up to them. He made himself a rule and a promise never to group up. Unless he wanted to die like his friends. Yet here he was. With a man and a girl. Together working as one. He decided when he finally gets out of the city, he would leave before he got too attached and risk his heart being broken yet again.

Because that's all his heart was used to...

Everyone he knew before, the ones he loved, his friends and family. They were all dead. His heart wouldn't take losing anymore. A little thought made it's way to his head. As he thought back on everyone who had died before him.

And simply asked.

'Why am I still here?'