CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

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          LUCIA FOLLOWED THE SMUGGLER WITH HER EYES UNTIL SHE LOST SIGHT OF HIM WHEN HE MANAGED TO DODGE ONE OF THE BULLETS AND DUCK BEHIND A FENCE. Her heart was thundering within her chest as she sunk back down the side of the passenger door. The raw metal scraping holes in her jacket.

Another shot echoed throughout the empty streets and Ellie hit her shoulder against the vehicle when she jumped. The teen held her breath at the thought of Joel getting hit.

"Sweetie, he'll be fine. Joel can take care of himself." uttered Lucia, reloading her weapon and pushing two bullets into the teens hand for her to take. "Take these. I don't have much left."

"But he's all alone." tried Ellie.

"I think the shooter's alone too. We'll be just fine."

"We almost got our heads blown off." accused Henry, desperately trying to shield his brother from the ongoing rain of fire. "How is that fine?"

"Shut up." hissed Lucia, narrowing her eyes at the man beside her.

Glass shattered over their heads when he dared to peak over the hood of the car and a bullet hit one of the windows. He cursed loudly, ducking back down. Lucia had her back toward them, eyes trained on the houses surrounding them, gun tight in her grip just incase anyone else decided to ambush and slaughter them.

"We're going to die." moaned Henry, eyes closed tightly.

Silence engulfed them as they waited for Joel to take out the sniper. Lucia slid onto her damaged knees after a moment, daring a peek through the broken window of the car and toward the home, no shots went off and she wondered if Joel had gotten to him. The ache in her arm had gotten worse from the fall she had but she tried to pay it no mind as Ellie pressed herself into her side.

The sound of a single gunshot reached their ears, coming from the top floor of the home and Lucia tried her best to spot anything through the open window. The woman sighed in relief when Joel rested his arms on the windowsill, looking toward them. But he didn't greet them with a smile, instead he was shouting something at them, eyes blown wide.

"Run! Fucking run!"

The four of them scrambled to their feet, confused and half not hearing what he was shouting about. Lucia, who took a step toward the home, got grabbed by Sam urgently as he repeatedly hit his brother on the bicep, trying to gain their attention.

Joel was still shouting and the woman followed the child's line of sight, dread smacked her right in the face.

The streets were illuminated by large headlights as a truck came speeding their way. There were more of them behind the first one and the smuggler began to shoot at them from the window.

"Go, go, go!" screamed Lucia, hauling Ellie away when the truck came into contact with one of the cars on the side of the road as if to clear the way for the other vehicles.

Adrenaline pushed Lucia further as the four of them manoeuvred their way through the sea of cars, trying to get to the home. Bullets flew around their heads as Joel shot at the moving truck. Ellie managed to get a few shots in, to no avail. 

"Ellie!" cried Lucia when the girl slid from her grip.

The brunette skidded to a halt to seize the girl and another shot rang through the air, going through the front window of the truck and killing the person behind the wheel. Tires screeched against the road as he lost control of the wheel, the vehicle crashing into one of the houses.

"Fucking move!" ordered Joel from above.

The woman rushed toward the teen, pulling her back to her feet as the rest of the vehicles came to a halt about twenty feet away from them. There were dozens of them, all heavily armed and ready to slaughter them. The two woman hadn't even managed another step when the truck caught fire, the gas tank blowing up and sending them to the concrete with force.

There was a shout coming from somewhere but Lucia couldn't hear anything but her own ragged breaths.

Ellie grunted when she tore the skin on her elbow as she tried to protect her skull from debris. Lucia was already back on her feet, ears ringing from the blast as she hauled the teen off the street and behind one of the cars on the side. Sam and Henry were already pressed up against the scrap metal.

"Jesus, are you okay?" demanded Henry, his face etched with worry as he looked them over.

"Yeah," breathed Ellie. "we're okay."

'He's up there.' It was one of Kathleen's man and she just hoped Joel had hid himself away. 'Two and two! Around the back, take him out!'

The fire from the blast had grown and they could feel the heat all the way from across the street. As Lucia looked down, she could see the shadows of the men as they made their way toward the home where the smuggler was hiding.

"Dead end, Henry." called a woman and the man cussed under his breath. "Are you gonna step on out? Save us some time?" Henry kept his mouth shut, holding onto his brother's hand. "No? That's alright. Doesn't matter."

Henry met the woman's gaze and she shook her head 'no'. 

"I'll come out." he ignored her, pupils blown wide. "Just let the kids go."

"No," declined Kathleen, her voice loud enough that she must be close. "sorry. The girl killed Brian, the other two idiots killed lots more of my men. And Sam ... well, Sam's with you."

Lucia could feel the rage within her ribcage as she peered down at Ellie. The thought of someone hurting her was something she never really thought would get such a rise out of her, but it did. The woman wished she knew where Joel was, if he had left them to fend for themselves or if he was still cooped up in the home. There were just too many of them and they didn't stand a chance.

"You don't understand!" argued Henry, tempted to get to his feet and reveal their location.

"But I do." she said, though there was no sympathy in her tone. "I know why you did what you did. But did you ever stop to think that maybe he was supposed to die?"

"He's just a fucking kid!"

Sam, who had no idea what was being said cowered behind his brother as his eyes filled with unshed tears. The brunette took his hand in hers and squeezed, trying to give the boy some form of comfort.

"Well, kids die, Henry. They die all the time. You think the whole word revolves around him? That he's worth everything? Well, this is what happens when you fuck with fate."

Henry tried to regulate his breaths as he turned to face Lucia. The woman furrowed her brows when she heard the urgency in his voice. "Get ready to take them and run."

"What, no." Ellie attempted, shaking her head quickly.

"Yes, do it."

Lucia blinked at him and she knew that there was no way to change his mind. He was going to sacrifice himself to get them and his brother out. He would offer himself without even knowing if this was going to work. There were forty of Kathleen's men and very little time to outrun them. The woman gave him a single nod and he sighed in relief, moving his head from side to side slowly.

"It's time, Henry." called Kathleen as her patience ran out. "Enough!"

Henry exhaled and tried to give Sam a small smile, trying to calm himself down. The young man got to his feet, hands raised in the air to show he wasn't armed. 

The eight year old didn't understand what was going on and went to stand up to follow, but Lucia pulled him back down gently. The woman really wished she understood sign language to help him understand, but instead she shook her head at the boy.

Henry disappeared from their sight as he slowly walked out from behind the car, coming face to face with Kathleen and her army of FEDRA resistance.

The woman stared him down for a moment, frown evident on her face. The crackling fire had now reached the top of the home the truck had crashed into and the scent wasn't very pleasant. Kathleen shrugged her shoulders with a sigh, "It ends the way it ends." And she pulled out her gun, flicking the safety off and aiming it toward his head.

Before Kathleen could pull the trigger, the ground beneath them shook, gaining everyone's attention toward the blown up truck. Even Lucia dared a peek around the car.  

The metal creaked, as if someone was squeezing it so tightly it crumbled. Slowly, the front of the vehicle tipped forward and slid toward the home. The ground shook again, and the truck flipped vertical, disappearing into a large sink hole.

It had gone eerily quiet and the hairs on the back of Lucia's neck rose. From the corner of her eye she spotted movement in the house to her right and she saw Joel's face appear out the window, gun aimed at the large group of people. Their eyes met for a moment before snarls echoed from the hole in the ground. The ground shook even more, small debris from the blast dancing over the concrete at the force of it.

Henry, had taken a step back toward the car they had been hiding behind. The soldiers made their way toward the hole, rifles pointed down.

The moment one of them stood at the edge, causing debris to fall down into the hole, everything went to shit. Dozens of infected scrambled out of the hole, clawing their way to the top as they snarled and screeched at the bullets hitting home inside their bodies. The soldiers fired at the charging horde, to no avail.

The young man managed to get back behind the car, engulfing the other three in a tight grip as they hid from the rotting bodies. They didn't see how soldiers were being ripped apart and they didn't notice that more and more appeared from underground.

"We have to get out of here!" panicked Lucia, desperately searching for a way out. "We're going to die if we stay here."

The gunfire and screeches were deafening and Sam let out a silent wail when one of the infected crawled over the hood of the car toward them. A bullet burried itself into its skull as Joel shot at it from the windowsill.

Lucia wasted no more time as she tugged on the teens wrist and made a run for it toward the home. Sam and Henry were close behind them, following in her footsteps as she led them through the chaos. It was as if she had no control of her body when she slammed her knife into an infected skull. The woman was livid, blood splattering on her tanned skin and a cry left her mouth when another's head was blown off by the smuggler above.

"Lucia!" cried Ellie, trying to get her to stop running when one of the infected was about to take a bite out of her shoulder. 

Joel was strangely calm as he reloaded the shotgun and fired, the infected falling limp before he even had to chance to do any damage. The woman met his eyes form below and even if she couldn't quite decipher the look in his face, she gave him a nod. 

He would cover them from within the home, trying to give them the best chance at an escape as he could.

With a grunt, Lucia fell to the ground when one of the soldiers smacked into her trying to escape. Ellie laid before her and began to crawl toward the other side of the road. The girl was fast and Lucia shielded her from behind, stabbing a clicker in the head when it lunged for the teen. Ellie was trying to get to the truck, wanting to climb through the open window for protection.

Sam and Henry were lost in the chaos and more and more infected fell limply beside them as Joel covered them. The heat from the fire was scorching and she shielded her head from it when she got closer to it.

"Ellie!" Lucia cried as the girl hesitated to get inside once she reached the car, in search of the brunette. "Get the fuck in!"

Ellie pushed herself to her toes and pulled herself inside, barely inside when a clicker smacked into the vehicle to grab her. Once she was inside, Lucia got back to her feet and made a beeline for the car, too. The woman was pulled back by her sleeve and without hesitation she twisted her stiletto knife into the skull of a soldier.

Joel cursed loudly as the shotgun jammed, unable to load another bullet. Fear overtook him as he watched the scene below, eyes wide. Lucia was a force to be reckoned with, despite her injury, as she left dead infected and soldiers in her wake.

"Come on, come on, come on." he muttered, smacking the weapon until it clicked back together. 

He shut one of his eyes, glancing along the gun to get a better view of his targets as he began firing once more. They had to clear a path for Ellie, they had to get her the fuck out of there and it was as if either of them could only focus on that.

Lucia had managed to take out another clicker as it clawed at the car Ellie was hiding in.

"Jesus Christ!" she cried as another came charging toward her and she ducked out of the way when he snarled toward her.

The cries of torn apart soldiers, shots and screeches of the infected would be forever etched into her brain. The woman dropped to the ground again when another clicker grabbed at her shoulders, straddling her on the cold concrete. Lucia screamed loudly as its rotting teeth came toward her face, but again, it fell beside her limply. 

The woman was too distracted to stand back up, heart hammering within her chest as a low growl came from the hole. The most horrifying creature she had ever seen stalked from the ground. Its entire body was covered in fungus, head split open at the top and it had grown over seven feet tall.

Lucia had only ever encountered a bloated once before, and she never wanted to lay eyes on one again.

Ellie pushed against the passenger door and dropped to the ground as she tried to get away from a child clicker that had also crawled to the window. The girl was panting and screamed once Lucia grabbed hold of her to pull her out of the way from a stray stalker.

"Help! Get the fuck away!"

Henry shouted with all his might, trying to get himself and Sam out of the hands of two clickers. They were halfway crawled underneath a car, kicking and screaming. Little Sam was crying as he pushed and smacked at the infected.

It was on the other side of the road and Lucia met Joel's gaze and he gave her a firm nod. The woman held her stiletto knife in on hand, Ellie's palm in the other as they manoeuvred their way toward the siblings. They dodged, stabbed and killed their way through. Infected dropped left and right as Joel took them out.

Lucia let out a snarl as she pulled the clicker off of Sam, stabbing her knife into its ear. Ellie followed her movements and did the same to the other, freeing the brothers from their terror.

The one Lucia had stabbed was still moving and she stomped on its head, blood splattering onto her clothes.

"Come on, come on!" urged Lucia, as she pulled the boy to his feet.

Joel pushed away from the window and the four of them rushed toward the home, running up the steps to the front yard. They managed to avoid more infected as she made a bee line for the back that would lead toward the bridge. 

"Stop!" It was Kathleen, gun pointed toward the small group.

The brunette didn't hesitate to push Ellie behind her, shielding her from danger. Sam was holding onto her tightly as Henry went to hold up his hands from her other side. Kathleen cocked her head to the side once she noticed that they glanced right past her, holding their breaths.

Kathleen went to turn around, but an infected leaped at her and pushed her to the grass. The woman screeched as it clawed at her face.

Footsteps thundered behind them and Joel found them huddled together. He pulled them from their trance by grabbing the woman's face between his fingers and making her meet his eyes. His grip on her chin was tight but she barely noticed it.

"We gotta fucking go!" he urged, dropping his hand. "This way, now! Move!"

The five of them leaped from the yard and into the opposite direction of the scene as the gun fire and screams followed them for quite some time.

Okay, this is probably my worst written chapter to date ... but i've rewritten it twice and this is as best as it gets for now. I wanted to publish it because i won't have much time writing next week. I work lots of evening shifts and i'm going to see the arctic monkeys so i wanted to do this now.

next chapter is endure and survive aka crying