CHAPTER TWENTY

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        THE TWENTY SEVENTH FLOOR HAD A PERFECT VIEW ACROSS THE CITY, LARGE WINDOWS DISPLAYED TO THEIR RIGHT WITH THE SUN JUST ABOVE THE HORIZON. None of the buildings were taller than where they stood and no trucks were seen driving down the abandoned streets. The highway was to their left, and they had to walk three blocks to get back on it.

"Welcome, to killa city." grimaced Henry, leaning against the long conference table in the middle of the room. 

"No FEDRA?" declared Lucia, crossing her arms over her chest as she glanced at him sideways. "What is up with that?"

They had survived the night as neither Henry or Sam tried to stab them in the back. Lucia didn't want to admit it, but maybe there were still decent people in the world. The kid, Sam, was kind enough, a bit shy but he was only eight years old. Horrible that he had to grow up in a world like this. 

"Not as of ten days ago, no." confirmed Henry.

"We always heard KC FEDRA was -" started Joel, but the young man beside him scoffed.

"Monsters? Savages?" he retorted, his gaze landing on the smuggler who was at least a head taller than him. "Yeah, you heard right. Raped and tortured and murdered people for twenty years. And you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get the chance, they do it right back to you."

There had been multiple hangings in the Boston QZ before, almost daily. It was a horrible place to live, but a place that provided somewhat of a shelter. FEDRA was corrupt, but the stories about Kansas City were stories made out of nightmares. You'd rather be killed and torn apart by infected than step foot in the QZ here. 

"But you're not FEDRA?"

Henry pulled his lips between his teeth and heaved a sigh, shaking his head. "No, worse. I'm a collaborator."

Joel turned to face him, fully, shaking his head in disgust and glowered. "I don't work with rats."

"Yeah, you fucking do." countered Henry, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he glanced between Joel and Lucia. "Today you do, 'cause I live here and you don't. That's how I followed you here. I know the city and that's how i'm gonna help you get out."

"Why should we believe a single things that comes out of your mouth?" scoffed the brunette, cocking her head to the side as she stared him down. "You could be selling us out for all we know."

"I'm not, I swear." tried Henry. "Look, I saw what you did, the way you both killed those men. Now, I know where to go, but I don't know how to make it through alive. Not if it is just me and Sam."

"You seem capable enough." argued Joel as he slid his eyes toward the weapon Henry had in his belt. "You're armed."

"You're wrong, and wrong." denied Henry, tearing his gaze away from them as he looked at the city below. "Never killed anyone. And pointing an unloaded gun at you was the closest I have ever come to becoming violent. So that's the deal." he turned back to face them. "I show the way, you clear the way."

Lucia was about to open her mouth when she saw Ellie throw her head back in laughter and the words died on her tongue. Henry turned to see what she was looking at and Sam's giggles filled the room. The teen was showing him her comic book and they leafed through the pages. Lucia's lips turned upwards as she watched them and she could feel the heat of Joel's body as he stood behind her.

"Haven't heard that in a long time." confessed Henry, smile playing at his lips as he took in the scene.

Joel, who clenched his teeth together before looking away asked, "So, how're we getting out?"

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HENRY WAS A TERRIBLE ARTIST AS HE OUTLINED THE CITY AS A MAKESHIFT MAP. He highlighted certain areas and marked them with numbers. He leaned over the table in the conference room, his younger brother a few seats down as he drew on his board.

"Higways, downtown, us." he explained, circling his finger in the middle. "This whole area belongs to Kathleen."

"She's the woman in charge?" asked Ellie, standing on the other side as she watched the man finish his map. Joel and Lucia stood on either side of her, arms crossed as they waited for Henry to explain his plan.

"Yeah, leader of the resistance." confirmed Henry with a quick nod of his head. He drew another line on the map and said, "You can see the way we're bounded by highways. They got people posted all around the inside perimeter. If we get close, we get caught. No question. So how do we get across?"

Henry knocked on the table with his knuckles, which shook the table to get Sam's attention. The boy glanced up as his brother signed toward him. Sam nodded his head and wrote something on his little board. Lucia and Joel glanced at each other, confused. Sam held up the board and it read, 'Tunnels'.

"Kansas City has a subway?" questioned Joel, lifting a single brow.

"No, but they do have maintenance tunnels. There's a bunch of buildings all put up by the same developers. And they share these tunnels, including," Henry drew something else with his pencil. "a bank building here. So we enter the tunnels here, travel underground, and pop up here. Westside North, residential. There is an embankment on the other side of the houses. We head down, pedestrian bridge over the river, free as a bird."

"You're right. It's a great plan." said Joel, leaning on the table with one hand as he looked at Henry. "So what do you need us for?"

Henry peered at his hands for a moment, licking his lips as he asked, "You notice anything strange about this city? Other than the strange shit you've already seen?"

"No infected?" shot Ellie.

"Oh, there's infected. Just not on the surface. FEDRA drove them underground fifteen years ago, and never let them get back up. It's the only good things those fascist motherfuckers ever did."

"Of course," huffed Lucia with a shake of her head. "so you want us to go into a tunnel?"

"Everyone things it's full of infected, including Kathleen, which means that we're not gonna be running into anyone of her people." Henry's lips lifted into a smile as he continued, "You see what I know is, it's empty."

"You've been down there?" concluded Joel, not convinced.

"No ..." Again, Joel and Lucia shared an annoyed glance. "but the FEDRA guy that I worked with told me that it's clean, completely clean. They cleared it out, all of it."

"When?" demanded Ellie.

"Like ... three years ago."

Joel scoffed in disbelief as he shook his head. There was absolutely no way that they were going into the tunnels if no one had been down there for three years. It was way too risky, they'd just have to come up with another plan.

"Okay, maybe there's one or two, but you'll handle it."

"What if there's more?" asked Lucia, a strand of dark hair had fallen out of her ponytail. "What do we do then? You think we can take a dozen of them at a time? Because we can't, even if we had enough bullets."

"Or what if there's one of those blind ones that see like a bat?" added Ellie, grimacing at the thought of running into more of those monsters.

"Wait ..." muttered Henry, blinking down at her. "you ran into a clicker?"

"Two of them." nodded Ellie.

"And you're still alive." A grin tugged at his lips as he looked to Joel. "You see? You're the right people. If it gets bad down there, we turn around, and run right back out the same way we came -"

"That's your great plan?" accused Joel, brows pulled together.

"No, that's my dicey-as-fuck plan." Henry retorted. "But as far as I can tell, it's our only shot."

Lucia tapped Joel's bicep with the back of her palm and the smuggler glanced down at her. The woman jerked her head toward the window and he followed her wordlessly, trying to gain some sort of privacy within the room.

"I do not like this at all."

"Neither do I." sighed Joel, hands on his hips as he peered down at the city below. "I don't feel comfortable taking Ellie down there."

"We can't find another way out." decided Lucia, running a hand over her face. "It's a big city, they can't be everywhere. We can probably sneak past them at night."

"You can't." Henry interrupted. "Kathleen has the entire city on lockdown. They'll shoot on sight."

"We can take our -" began Lucia.

Sam thudded his little fist on the table, gaining their attention as he signed toward his brother. Henry smiled at him and signed back, while saying, "They're saying they're going to help us escape." The kid beamed at them and went back to his drawing while Henry faced them again. "Right?"

Joel clenched his fists at his sides as he looked at the young man.

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FUCK. THEY WERE ACTUALLY GOING TO DO THIS. They were nowhere near strong enough to take down a bunch of infected. They were almost out of bullets, Lucia was injured and they had two children with them to look out for.

Henry had led them through the vacant streets, one block down toward another building, where he promised the tunnels would be. Though, he hadn't sounded so sure of himself. He did, however, knew enough about the bandits to know which streets to avoid in that area to get them to the building safely, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't get caught.

He was the first through the glass door and into the old bank. Floor to ceiling windows surrounded the small group of five, leaving them exposed. 

"We need to get outta sight." urged Joel, turning on his heels to get a proper view of the space they found themselves in.

"Uh," heaved Henry, out of breath. "I think it's this way."

It was a small hallway that led into the basement, the scent of dust particles making Lucia scrunch op her nose. 

'Security Notice. Authorized Employees Only. All Visitors Must Sign In.'

Henry flashed his flashlight down the stairs as soon as he pushed the door open. There were no snarls coming from the depths of the tunnel and Joel shut the door once they were all inside and halfway down the steps.

"This should be it." he acknowledged. "You ready?"

Joel gave a single nod and said to Ellie, "Get your gun out."

The teenager tried to hold in her grin as she slid her hand inside her jacket and pulled out the firearm. God, this girl never listened to anything Joel or Lucia told her to do and she could have popped her own leg off like that. Joel brushed past her with an annoyed look on his face as he went down the stairs.

It stretched down into a long corridor, pipes had burst, water was dripping down from the ceiling and left puddles on the concrete. It was dark, you could barely see a hand before your eyes without the flashlights.

"You see?" began Henry. "It's empty. The plan is good."

"Shh," Joel shushed him with a glare and repeated. "'The plan is good?' We've been down here two seconds. We don't know anything."

Henry pulled a face and leaned toward Ellie. "Your dad is kind of a pessimist."

"He's not my dad."

"I'm not her dad."

Lucia pursed her lips as she took a few steps forward, away from the group as tension cut through the air. "Just point your light forward, and be ready to run."

It was like a damn maze down there and they had been walking for at least fifteen minutes when the tunnel had gotten smaller, forcing them closer together. The brunette bumped into Joel's back when he came to a sudden halt. She shone her flashlight to where he was staring and caught sight of drawings covering the walls. There was a castle painted around the door at the end of it, fairytales all over the rest of them.

"Whoah," breathed Ellie.

The drawings were childlike, as if they had been living down here and Lucia's hand shot forward when Sam reached for the door. He looked up at her, wide eyed and she shook her head slowly. "No,"

Sam stepped back into his brothers arms as Joel reached for the door himself, aiming his gun at the entrance. More of those paints adorned the walls inside and both children watched them with awe as they entered. The floors were filled with toys and books, there was even a painted goal at the far end of the room. This place had been a bunker for survivors, but it was empty of the living.

There was a white board to their right, reading 'house rules'. Lucia flicked on the light switch and the room came to life.

"I heard about places like this." began Joel, peering around. "People went underground after outbreak day. Built settlements."

"What happened to them?"

"Maybe they didn't follow the rules and they all got infected."

Ellie hummed and ambled toward one of the children's table, sitting down on a chair far too small for her, Sam at her side. The teen pulled back one of the race cars on the surface and watched it fly off. Sam giggled at this and leaned down to grab it.

"At least there's no infected." sighed Lucia, placing her gun on the cabinet beside her as she wandered around.

"No way!" Ellie shouted. "I love these!"

Sam had found another copy of 'Savage Starlight'. The girl made a writing motion and Sam nodded his head, taking out his writing board for them to use. 

Ellie said the words as she wrote, "I have issues four, five, six and eleven." Sam beamed up at her and wrote down the issues he owned while the adults checked the room. "So cool. 'To the edge of the universe, and back. Endure and Survive.'" she quoted.

Sam signed the words back to her, which he mimicked as best as she could. Once she got them right, the boys laughter echoed through the room. "Fuck yeah, man!"

"Hey! Keep it down." ordered Joel, shooting them a glance. "We're not out yet."

"Come on," Ellie groaned with a roll of her eyes. "can we just rest here for awhile? There's actual shit to do here."

"Wouldn't be so bad to wait the light out a bit." added Henry, agreeing. "Safer in shadows when we pop back out on the other side."

You didn't have to know Joel to know he did not agree with any of this and he gave them a slight raise of his brows, moving his arms to the side as if to say, 'whatever'. 

Lucia was glad to be able to sit down for a while, so she did as she slid down the wall. The woman was so used to sitting on uncomfortable surfaces she didn't really mind the floor as much. It was actually a bit more comfortable that hunching on a hard wooden chair these days. Most were splintered and made her skin go numb after a while.

With a huff, Joel slid down beside her, crossing his ankles over each other when he stretched his legs in front of him.

"Just a few hours." she commented as she retied her hair. "We'll be back on the road in no time."

"Yeah," he sighed, rubbing at his salt and pepper beard. His eyes fell to the shot wound on her arm and he pulled his brows together. "How's your arm?"

"It's fine." she shrugged, hand reaching toward it absentmindedly. It throbbed beneath her touch and she winched. "It's not bleeding anymore so I'll take that as a win. Could do with some painkillers, though."

"There might be some here. Here," he said, already getting back to his feet and handing her his bottle of almost empty water. "i'll be right back."

the way i am so so excited for the infected scene in this episode. shit is going to go down! also, joel and lucia's relationship is still slow, little little little steps because i am planning their stuff as best as i can. they're both super closed off so it takes a while to establish a relationship. but i am planning to write multiple chapters in the three month gap so there will be things happening then!!