CHAPTER THREE

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         NIGHT HAD FALLEN OVER BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS AND TESS HADN'T COME BACK YET. Ellie had fallen asleep not thirty minutes after they had gotten to the small apartment and Lucia snooped through all Joel and Tess' belongings that they had left there. It was clear the apartment wasn't lived in, but she guessed they had stayed there long enough to wait for patrols to pass by whenever they went on their smuggler business.

Lucia didn't care she was stealing as she pocketed some supplies for their journey to the capital building. There was a badly made shiv, a pocketknife, a can of soda that was without a doubt no longer consumable, an unknown cassette tape and two protein bars. There was also a pack of beef jerky, which still smelled decent so she hid it in the front of her backpack.

There was a soft snore behind her and she turned her head to Joel, who was passed out on the couch with his arm dangling down the side of it. The street lights FEDRA had placed along the wall were the only light illuminating the room, cascading him in a white glow.

"Anything good in there?" mumbled Ellie as she woke up from her slumber, seeing Lucia zip her backpack closed.

"If you like 20 year old peanut butter protein bars." she shrugged, sitting in the chair opposite of the fourteen year old. Ellie gave her a small nod, stomach grumbling in response and Lucia hesitated for a second before digging back into her bag and tossing one of them to the girl. "Didn't Marlene set you up with anything?"

"Maybe," she nodded. "but she told me to save it for when I most needed it."

"Hm," she hummed, eyes moving away from the teen and glancing at the dark world outside of the zone. The two tower buildings hadn't moved in about two years, but it wouldn't take much longer for they would collapse to nothing but rubble.

"How do you know Marlene?" Ellie wondered, taking in the woman before her still cautiously.

"We've run into each other a few times." said Lucia, scratching at the skin around her nails. "I sometimes provide her with supplies from outside of the walls and she pays me for it. I don't particularly like her."

Ellie decided not to push her further and opened the book she had found upon arrival. Her fingers scanned along the songs printed into it, wondering what they would sound like. There had been some music presented to them in school, but many teachers deemed it not important enough.

Joel mumbled in his sleep and Lucia glanced his way, seeing the deep crease appear between his eyebrows as his eyes moved behind his closed lids. Neither she or Ellie could make out what he was saying. Joel took a sharp breath, opening his eyes suddenly.

"You mumble in your sleep." said Ellie, meeting his eyes briefly. "I hate bad dreams."

Joel pushed himself up from the couch and planted both feet back on the dirty carpet, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Me too."

"I've never been outside the wall." Ellie said, frown overtaking her features as she peered at the darkness beyond the wall. "Look how dark it is. You guys go out there a lot?"

"I guess." he grumbled.

"When was the last time?" wondered Ellie, and Lucia listened in on their conversation.

"Maybe a year. What's it matter?"

"But you know where to go? So it's gonna be okay?"

"Yeah," he affirmed, resting his arm along the headrest of the couch.

Lucia averted her gaze and turned back to watch the night sky, counting the stars that were visible from between the clouds. The woman had been going outside of the wall far more than the smugglers did. She didn't like to refer to herself as a smuggler, most of them in the QZ were vile.

Ellie closed the book and hid it behind herself as she peered down at the radio between her and Lucia and turned to Joel once more. "Oh, the radio came on while you were sleeping."

Joel cocked his head to the side, his eyes moving from her to Lucia for a moment. "What? What was the song?"

"He kept sayin', like, 'Wake me up before you go-go'?"

Joel clenched his jaw, shaking his head slightly as he turned to look at the floor. "Shit."

Lucia raised a brow in Ellie's direction. The radio hadn't turned on while they were there and she had been awake the whole time, she wouldn't have missed it. Ellie shot her a smug grin before turning it to the man. "Gotcha. 80's means trouble. Code broken."

"Listen-" Joel got to his full height, pointing a finger at her.

He wasn't able to finish whatever crude remarks he was going to spew at Ellie when the door of the apartment burst open. Tess stalked in and quickly closed it behind her, before taking in the three of them but kept her eyes on Joel.

"Hey, sorry it took so long. Soldiers fuckin' everywhere."

"How's Marlene?" demanded Ellie, getting to her feet herself.

Tess shot her glimpse before saying, "She'll make it." and then to Joel, "I saw the merchandise. It's a lot. Wanna do this?"

Joel gave her a single nod, though he didn't seem pleased to be stuck with a strange woman and a kid. Lucia wasn't pleased either so his gaze didn't bother her, but she wanted her own merchandise so she would push through it. Lucia didn't know where she was going to go after they'd drop Ellie off, but she knew it was going to be far away from Boston.

"Let's go." she announced. "We leave in five minutes."

Ellie went through her backpack, pulling out a thin jacket to keep herself warm during the night. Lucia on the other hand, studied the smugglers as they went to the corner of the room, whispering to each other. Joel, who felt eyes on himself glanced her way with a glare.

"Dick," she muttered, pushing herself out of the chair and tying her hair back in a low ponytail. The fourteen year old beside her snorted, grinning her way which Lucia returned.

Rain pelted against the window as a storm began to brew outside, the curse of a hot spring night. Lucia strapped her knife to her belt and checked to see if all her bullets were safely tucked into her Beretta.

"Marlene wanted to do it herself." Tess said, not really caring if they overheard after Joel shussed her again. "We weren't their first choice, or their second for that matter. She lost a lot of men. Beggars can't be choosers."

"Let's just hope someone's alive to pay us." grunted Joel, shoving aside a bookshelf which revealed another small room behind it.

"You," began Tess, peering at the woman beside her. "aren't you that girl that keeps disappearing from the QZ for weeks on end, returning with barely a scratch on her?"

"Days," she shrugged. "not weeks."

"Why do you do it?" she wondered, squeezing into the room after her companion.

Lucia slid in behind her, scraping her elbow on the rough wood in the process. Ellie gave her a sheepish look as she bumped into her side while following. "The zone is too expensive. Find shit to sell out there."

The room was even smaller from what Lucia has spotted through the cracks of the wall and Tess told them to stand on the panel to their right as Joel turned on the generator. Lucia didn't even know this part of town had power as he pressed the green button and the panel lowered itself into the ground like a makeshift elevator.

"Who's waiting for us at the drop off?" he questioned.

Tess shrugged and sniffed away the dust from the room. "She said there were some fireflies that have travelled all the way from another city. Girl must be important." She turned to Ellie. "What is the deal with you? You some big-wig's daughter or something?"

"Something like that."

The panel halted in a small lit up basement, the ceiling was leaking and it smelled musky. Lucia clicked on her flashlight to get a better view of her surroundings and Joel led them through a corridor, having to crouch down from the collapsed ceiling.

"How long is it going to take?" asked Ellie, a step behind Tess and Lucia.

"If everything goes as planned, we should get you to them in a few hours." answered Tess.

"Are we going through the museum?" asked Lucia, having been there with Lucas a few days prior and she hummed. "The place is crawling with infected. Took a few out the day before yesterday, but there were more inside."

"Great," muttered Joel as they reached a ladder, leading back up to the streets.

"Ellie," said Lucia. "stay behind me at all times."

"Okay," she nodded.

Joel went up the ladder first, the metal creaking underneath his weight and his shoe almost slipped from the mud on them. Lucia watched as he pushed aside the wooden plank that hid the room below and he peered his head out, causing the rain to tumble down on them.

"Now hold up," he said, rain pelting down onto the streets. "there's a patrol up ahead." Lucia turned her flashlight off and after a moment Joel called, "Alright, we're good. Come on up."

Ellie was the first to climb up the ladder, eager to see more of the world. Lucia went after her, followed by Tess as Joel slid the wooden plank back into place. The road had collapsed, destroyed cars littered the place. Militia lights moved from side to side in the distance and the four of them were soaked from the rain within seconds.

"Watch your step, kid." said Joel, as Ellie almost slid down a puddle. "This rain ain't gonna do us any good.

They trudged through multiple puddles and Lucia grumbled underneath her breath as Ellie twirled in circles around her. "Holy shit," she muttered in disbelief. "I am actually outside."

"Careful," said Lucia, taking a hold of her bicep and pulling her toward herself and guiding her to the two smugglers in front of them. "this place is crawling with soldiers. We have to be quick and quiet."

"I can be quick." said Ellie, as they reached Joel and Tess.

"Keep up." grumbled Joel as they slid along the wall and away from the lights. "This way."

The four of them were quiet and smooth as they kept their pace, stopping whenever the lights moved to avoid being seen. The ground was slippery from all the rain but they managed as they crawled underneath an old wrecked school bus. If they weren't wet from the rain before, they definitely were now from crawling through puddles.

"We should go through the tunnels." whispered Lucia, motioning to them in the distance.

"That is a detour." Joel shook his head. "We keep going west."

Joel was the first to round the corner, followed by Tess and Ellie and an annoyed Lucia. The latter saw him before the others did and pushed the teen behind her quickly, aiming her knife at him. Their eyes met and his widened slightly, raising his automatic weapon at them.

"Don't move!" he ordered, glaring.

Joel slowly pushed her hand down but she kept a firm grip on it as they raised their hands in surrender. The soldier took off his helmet, shaking his head in disbelief as he took in the small group.

"You gotta be shittin' me." he cursed.

"Okay, let's talk this out." tried Joel.

"Turn around." the soldier demanded, flicking the trigger with his finger in an attempt to frighten them into listening to him. "Get on your fuckin' knees. Get on your fuckin' knees!"

"Now hold on-" Joel tried.

"What did I fuckin' tell you, man?" said the soldier. "I said stay the fuck home. Get on your knees!"

Tess let out a huff and sighed, "Just get on your knees." and she did so, the other three slowly following. Ellie was on the far right, next to Lucia and the woman's heart was beating a hundred miles per minute from the adrenaline. They could easily take him down, but he had often let her sneak out of the zone without a problem, so she didn't want to do that. "Listen, you let us do this run, we'll split the cards with you."

"Oh, will you?" he mocked, pressing the butt of his gun to the back of her head. "I am so blessed. Hands on your head, eyes forward. Hands on your head!"

Lucia did as she was told, having slid her knife in her sleeve just incase. Beside her, Ellie was breathing harshly, shielding her eyes from the rain. The girl seemed worried and she noticed why as the soldier took out his scanner and pressed it against Tess' neck.

"Ready, dude?"

"Yep, we're doing it by the book."

"Jesus Christ," she muttered, and the scanner came back green and he pressed the retake button. "All right. What about three quarters?"

He scoffed and went over to Joel. "Unauthorised exit? They will hang you for that."

"Fine, you get everything from this run and pills half off." Joel barked, keeping his eyes focused in front of him as he felt the cool metal of the scanner against the back of his neck. The scanner turned green once more, clearing him of infection.

"Half off?" he raised a brow and went to Lucia. "You think i'd risk my ass for half off? All off."

"Just let us go, man." Lucia sighed, annoyed.

"What are you even doing with these assholes, Luc?"

"Top secret." she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Whatever you want, I'll get it for you. Just let us go and i'll have it to you by tomorrow."

He went to Ellie and before he could answer her, the teen had plunged her switchblade into his thigh. The soldier cried out, doubling over from the pain. He dropped his scanner and took some steps back as Lucia pushed the teen behind her.

"Fucking bitch!" he yelled. "Get out of my way, Lucia."

"We can fix this." Joel held up his hands, taking one stride to get in front of both of them.

"Move." he ordered, and they were momentarily blinded by the brightness of his flashlight.

It was as if something within Joel snapped as he let out a growl and tackled him to the ground, bullet ricocheting off the wall beside them and into the soil. The man was crying with anger as he hit his fist into his face over and over again.

Ellie watched him with wide eyes, glancing around the woman in front of her as Joel kept at his assault. Lucia didn't stop him, he would have shot all of them for the stunt Ellie pulled, but she couldn't blame the girl as she noticed the scanner beeping with red light illuminating from the screen.

"Oh, shit." frowned Tess, she had gotten the scanner from the ground . "Joel! Joel! Look!"

When the soldier was no longer moving, Joel sat up on his knees beside him glancing down at his bruised hand before slowly facing them. "Jesus Christ." muttered Joel, watching in disbelief. "Marlene set us up? Why the hell are we smuggling an infected girl?"

"I'm not infected." denied Ellie, shaking her head quickly.

"So this is lying?" demanded Joel.

"I can explain." began Ellie, eyes wide as she looked at Lucia for support.

"Then explain." Tess glared, pointing her gun at her. "You better do it fast."

"Get your gun out of her face." Lucia mirrored her expression, hand reaching for her own weapon carefully. "She's not telling you shit until you do."

Tess's hand twitched slightly and she narrowed her eyes, but lowered her weapon slightly. Joel scoffed and rubbed his hand over his face in disbelief once more. Behind her, Ellie pulled up her sleeve to show her scabbed over bite mark.

"Look at this." she began.

Joel brushed her off as he paced before them. "I don't care how you got infected."

"It's three weeks old." added Lucia, impatiently.

"No." Tess shook her head. "Everyone turns within two days. So you two stop bullshitting."

"It's three weeks," Ellie tried. "I swear. Why would Marlene set you up?"

"I ain't buying it." confessed Joel, turning away from the three of them.

"We can discuss this later." said Tess, seeing headlights of a car heading toward them. "Right now we have to get the fuck out of here before we get killed."

Lucia took a hold of Ellie as she pushed her toward the broken fence that led them out of the quarantine zone and into the city of Boston, the smugglers dead on their heels as they disappeared into the night.

hope you like this chapter <3