( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER FOUR ...

' infected '

After the stress full night had passed with trying to find a place to sleep, and lay low from all the unknown infected lurking around outside the walls, the four of them had found a place inside an abandoned building.

The bright light of the sun was shining down on (Y/N), and Ellie, who were both cuddled up next to each other and sleeping. The older William sister was slowly starting to wake up from her restless nights sleep, as her (E/C) eyes flutter open and she squints from the bright morning light.

She hears quite groaning behind her, as Ellie was waking up also and (Y/N) smiles a little tiredly at her sister, and they both sit up from the soft grassed ground.

A loud creak from behind the girls, has (Y/N) gripping Ellie's arm tightly and the two spin their heads around, almost having heart attacks stopping Joel and Tess staring at them.

(Y/N)'s stomach lept as she makes eye contact with Joel's dark intense ones, him holding a gun making her narrow down on it, but look away from his stare.

"Morning." Ellie greest causally, shuffling around so she sat directly next to her older sister and continued to watch the two silent adults.

(Y/N) goes to reach for her bigger jacket she took off in the night, but the sound of Joel's gun moving has her stopping and tensing, watching him raise it a bit.

She sighs through her nose, understanding that he didn't trust her yet. She didn't blame him though, as seeing someone having not turn with an infected bite was new and unbelievable.

"Do I look like I'm infected to you?" (Y/N) questions exasperated, carefully pulling her longer jacket on that reached till her knees, as her scars were exposed.

"Show us your arm." Joel's rumble of a demand cut through her words, his finger still on the trigger.

(Y/N)'s shoulder slumped at this, sharing a side glance with Ellie who nodded reassuringly. The older sister swallowed, reaching for her jacket sleeve and pulled it up slowly, revealing the scar mark of an infected bite, that had healed.

Tess furrowed her eyebrows seeing this, as she looks at the infected bite, and so does Joel, who still wasn't convinced.

"Yeah, it's not getting any worse, is it?" Ellie snarkly tells the two adults eyeing her sisters arm.

The two adults sitting in chairs in front of them shared a look, having a silent discussion through that stare.

"If we're out in the open city, why aren't we getting swarmed?" Ellie questions curiously, watching her sister fix up her sleeve and place back on her jewelry.

"Don't worry about that." Joel replies shortly, not looking at the girl when he did so.

Ellie made a face at him, "Well, I'm gonna."

Tess turns her head to the silent (Y/N), staring at her interested and wearily, "What was Marlene doing with an infected girl?"

"I'm not infected." (Y/N) muttered loud enough for them to hear, lips turned upwards as she was use to people not believing her condition. "She found me and Ellie after I was bitten." She refers to Marlene.

"And she didn't shoot you." Joel states the obvious, looking at the agitated younger woman.

"Clearly not." She remarked shortly, throwing her hands to the side a little in gesture to herself, "She locked us up, and had her guys test me every day to see if I was getting sick."

"Test you how?" Tess questioned the woman, leaning a bit forward with her elbow resting on her knee.

(Y/N) bit her bottom lip nervously at this, glancing at Ellie again who gave her hand a squeeze, and the older Williams looked back at the waiting Tess, "They'd make me count to 10 and hold out my hand and then keep it steady. But you know what I think really impressed them?" Her lips lifted up into a snarky smirk, "That I didn't turn into a bloody monster. Now can we please?"

She goes to stand up with Ellie beside her, boots landing flat on the mossy floor as Joel stands up also, gun in his hand at their movement.

(Y/N) scoffs with a nose rub, giving him an incredulous stare at his act, as Ellie rolls her eyes at Joel, holding her sisters arm.

"Fine." Tess gives in, and motions her head to the door behind them where it was private, "Back there. You two can find a spot." She then reached down a little, and picks up some old magazines, chucking them at the sisters.

(Y/N) catches them with one hand, passing them to Ellie who looked through them and the older sister gave a fake courtesy, before turning around and walking with Ellie towards the door.

"There's not gonna be anything bad in here?" She questioned the two behind her, back turned away as she directs Ellie over the door entrance.

"Just you." Was all Joel had to answer back.

She barked a small laugh at this, shaking her head not amused and gave him the rude finger as she disappears behind the door with Ellie.

Joel scoffed under his breath, his lips twitching up a little bit but quickly stopped when he spotted Tess giving him a raised eyebrow, knowing look.

...

(Y/N) was laughing behind her hand. Ellie had just argued with the magazine papers, as they were not ripping apart well and it caused the younger girl to exclaim profanities at the pieces.

Ellie throws her older sister a glare, a pout shown to be on her lips as they were walking back to where the adults were talking, most likely about the immune girl.

"Not funny, (Y/N/N)." Ellie grumbled with a shove of her arm, and the older William just giggled, wrapping an around Ellie's shoulders as they just walked through the doors entrance, spotting Tess and Joel looking up at their arrival.

(Y/N) removed her arm around Ellie's shoulders, as she grabs the magazines from her hands and drops it to the ground, pushing it back to Tess with her black boot.

"You two hungry?" Tess asked to sisters, who were sitting back down in their original position and the adult was rummaging through her backpack, and pulled out some wrapped up food, "You can share some of ours."

The (H/C) haired girl was grateful for her efforts, having a feeling that she would eventually end up getting along with her, "Thanks. Marlene sent us with our own."

Joel, who had grabbed some of the food from his pack, broke some of it off and took a bite, as the sisters were laughing quietly with each other and shared their well made sandwiches.

(Y/N) could feel the stares of Joel on her as she ate some of her (F/F) sandwich, feeling judge and nervous under his stare as she eats. She really didn't enjoy when someone watched her eat, but, she once again did not blame him for doing so.

Tess swallows the food inside her mouth, ticking her nose in the air to motion to the food in their hands, "Is that (F/F) and chicken?"

"Yeah." Ellie speaks with it muffled from the food, pulling down the wrapper around her sandwich more so she could take more bites, "Marlene said they get it from smugglers. Guess not you guys." She got quieter at the end, shrugging innocently.

Tess places her food down with the rest of it, bending her knees a little bit and stood up from her chair, as Joel stood up also alarmed at her getting close to the sisters.

Tess holds out her hand for him to stop, as she ends up standing in front of (Y/N), "Why are you so important to Marlene? And don't lie to me or we'll take you both back."

(Y/N) narrows her eyes down at the older woman, cranking her neck upwards to look at her as she wraps her food back up, "You take up both back, and you don't get your battery."

Tess scoffs at her words, lips lifting up a little bit, "You heard that?" She sees (Y/N) respond with a small shrug, "Then you must've heard that he wants to shoot you." She motions to Joel a little back from her.

(Y/N) pulls her bottom lip in between her teeth, eyes moving to Joel who was leaning his weight on one leg as he stares at her with a neutral face. Once again it made her nervous not knowing what he was thinking.

Tess sees this interaction, as she bends her knees and goes to squat down to the (H/C) haired girls level, "Joel and I aren't good people. We're doin' this for us, because apparently, you're worth something. But we don't know what you're worth if we don't know what we have." She tells her, voice strict with authority, "So answer my question."

(Y/N) sighs heavily through her parted lips, looking over at Ellie who had moved closer to her at the closeness of the adults. The older sister was doing this for Ellie's future, that was the entire reason why she was out here in the first place. If her blood was the cure, Ellie would be the first to get it.

The (H/C) haired girl rubs a hand over forehead, dragging it down her face while mumbling under her breath, "She told us not to tell anybody, and now I'm telling the first people that we-"

She paused her words, scrunching her knuckles tight and crossed her arms over her knees as she looks at Tess, speaking wearily as she wasn't supposed to tell no one else, "There's a Firefly base camp somewhere out west...with doctors. They're working on a cure."

Joel hums with annoyance hearing her explanation, a bitter expression on his face, "I've heard this before."

(Y/N)'s glaring eyes flickered to Joel, "And whatever happened to me..is the key to finding the vaccine." Her and Joel both spoke the last words at the same time.

"That's what this is?" Joel questioned in disbelief, his face scrunched up as he looks at the thinking Tess, "We've heard this a million times. Vaccines, miracle cures. None of it works. Ever."

(Y/N)'s nose flared at this, standing up suddenly with a finger pointed in Joel's direction and scowled, "Fuck you, Miller. I didn't ask for this."

"You and me both." Joel fired back with the same energy, glaring intensely at the fuming woman. "This isn't gonna end well, Tess. We need to go back." He stated firmly to the squatting woman.

Jess was quiet for a few seconds, till she stood up to be at the same height as (Y/N). She looked between the two sisters, then back to Joel, "Let's just finish it. It doesn't matter if she is or she isn't what the Fireflies say. If they believe that she is then.." She trailed off for a moment, "we get what we want."

Joel was unsure at what she said, as his brows were furrowed and glances back at the still pissed off (Y/N), who held Ellie's hand in hers. He shakes his head, not liking this idea, "If she so much as twitches-"

Ellie starts to make fake choking, and snarling sounds to annoy them, causing (Y/N) to snort under her breath and grin amused at her sister.

"Don't." Tess warns the younger girl lowly, pointing a finger at her as the girl sheepishly clears her throat and stops the noises.

Tess shifts her attention back to the conflicted Joel, who was still eyeing (Y/N) off, "Okay?" Tess asked for his agreement.

Joel sighed through his nose, nodding his head softly and repeated what she said back to him, and turned around to pick up his stuff beside the chair.

Tess looks back at the sisters, gesturing to grab their backpacks also, as she does what Joel did with grabbing hers.

(Y/N) bends down to help Ellie place her jacket inside her backpack, and the older girl zips hers up, placing her bow over her shoulders securely.

Once Joel and Tess had their stuff, the male went to move the metal cupboard that was blocking the exit from unwanted guests. He opened the door when it was moved, taking a peek outside as the bright light scan through, "It's clear."

Tess looks back at the siblings, motioning for them to move as Ellie grabs (Y/N)'s hand in hers, and they two move to follow behind Tess outside of the door.

(Y/N) squints her eyes a little bit at the brightness, blinking rapidly as she takes in the new and different environment she's never seen before.

"Whoa." Elie gaps in awe, seeing what the city had become like because of the virus. Buildings were slanted, broken and filled with shrubbery, the grounds all banged up with ruined cars littinger the once busy roads of this city.

"Yeah, looks different in the daylight, huh?" Tess speaks up her agreement, looking out at the once peaceful city that was now in chaos.

(Y/N) looked over towards Joel, where he had stepped up on a rock to glance over the city. He turns around feeling her stare, meeting it for a few seconds till he shook it off and directed his words at Tess, "We should get movin'."

The sisters took this a signal to move, so they started to walk behind where Tess we going, them in between the two adults as they walk through the city.

"It's like a fucked up moon." Ellie comments, as they pass by a massive crater in the road, where they most likey did something to stop the infected, "Is this where they bombed?"

"Yeah. They hit most of the big cites like this." Tess answered the interested girl, "They had to slow the spread somehow. Worked here, but it didn't in most places."

She went to walk forward again along the path, as the sisters quickly follow behind the adult with Joel now in front, as he walked away already.

(Y/N) looks up from the ground, as she spotted her black boots getting all dusty from the dirt, and comes to a harsh stop in between Joel and Tess, seeing that had paused also, and looking at something ahead.

"So, the State House is across there. It's about a 10-minute walk if you could go straight." Tess explains to the sisters, head motioning to the destroyed building a few feet in front of them.

"So..?" (Y/N) trails off and looks between the adults staring ahead.

"Long way or short way?" Joel simply questioned, summing up what Tess just told them.

"I mean, its the long way, or the "we're fuckin' dead" way." Tess remarks to the male, pulling her backpack on tighter.

"Well, I'm sure we both vote the long way just based on that limited information." Ellie speaks up her input, sharing a look with (Y/N) who nodded in agreement.

"We have to check it from the hotel first." Joel tells Jess, who nodded her head at his comment and goes to walk forward, with the sisters following behind once again.

...

Now sometime later, the four of them had made it up on one of the higher roads, walking along it so they wouldn't bring attention to themselves.

"Where the fuck are they already?" Ellie speaks up her question from behind Tess, as (Y/N) walked right beside her sister.

"You'll know it when they're close." Tess answers the younger girl, glancing from side to side in case of danger creeping up on them.

(Y/N) shakes her head at her words, gripping Ellie's hand tighter in hers, "We didn't know last time."

Tess becomes curious hearing this, "How did you get bit?"

Joel, who was behind them had now lifted his head up and was focused on the conversation, instead of keeping a lookout.

"You know the old mall in the QZ?" (Y/N) questioned the adult now walking beside her, giving her a small side glance.

"The one that's sealed off and boarded up, and no one's supposed to go in...ever?" Tess recalled, raising her eyebrows at the younger adult, "That one?"

(Y/N) rolls her eyes seeing this, tiling her head a little towards her sister, who was sheepishly smiling, "This one snuck in, so I, of course followed. Ellie wanted to see what it was like. Didn't think there was gonna be anything in there, and then one just came at her outta nowhere." She exhales heavily, remembering how traumatic the entire accident was, "So I jumped in front and tried protecting her. I thought we got away, but..." She trails off knowingly with lopsided lip twitch.

Tess humed in thought at her reveal, admiring how she literally put her own life on the line for her sister, "So it was just you two in there, alone?"

(Y/N)'s back went straight up at this, sharing a knowing glance with Ellie as the older William's nods her head slowly, "Yeah."

Tess came to a stop in front of the two, looking between them suspiciously, "How old are you two?"

The (H/C) haired girl's eyes flickered to Joel quickly, it becoming a habit for her as she glances away and back to Tess, fiddling with her bow strap, "I'm 27, and Ellie is 14."

"Wow." Tess was impressed to say the least, leaning all her weight on one leg as she hunches a little, "Well, I mean, you two got some balls on you."

Ellie beams at this, smiling a little bit up at (Y/N) who rubbed her back and pulled her along, "Thanks."

They follow where Tess went to, which was climbing over a car and Ellie went first, with (Y/N) going next and Joel last behind them all.

(Y/N) jumped down from the car, seeing many more around where they were as Ellie waited for her sister to walk next to her, continuing on their strolling.

"Everyone said the open city was crazy." Ellie speaks up and breaks the silence, "Like, swarms of infected running around everywhere."

"Not exactly like that." Joel's deep voice sounds from beside (Y/N), making her turn and spot him walking next to her, but still kept a gap in between.

"You know, people like to tell stories." Tess reminds the younger two, the woman still in the lead of them as they walk on the leaf invested road.

(Y/N) tuks the loose hair behind her ear, looking at Tess with a nose scrunch, "So, there aren't super-infected that explode fungus spores on you?"

"Shit, I hope not." Tess snorts with a head shake.

"Or ones with split-open heads that see in the dark like bats?" Ellie picks up the questioning from her sister, glancing between the two new people.

No one answered her words, as (Y/N) spotted Tess and Joel sharing a look, most likely communicating through it. Her stomach churned seeing it, and she didn't know why.

All of a sudden a loud, distant yell was heard from somewhere, causing the entire group to stop their movements and look in the direction of where it came from.

(Y/N)'s hand straight away reached for her bow, as her fingers tip grazed the top and her other hand had Ellie close to her side, "What the hell was that?"

Once again there was no answer for her, as the two older adults continued to glance out around the area, knowing something bad was gonna happen if they didn't move.

"Let's keep movin'." Joel commands, breaking the silence as he nods his head at Tess, and she motions for the sisters to start walking with her.

...

The group had eventually made it to their new destination, which was the hotel Joel had talked about. Tess and him strained to open the front door, grunting as they finally get it to budge.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Ellie exclaims in awe as they all walk inside the hotel, the girl beaming as she pulls along (Y/N) with her, who smiled at her joyfulness.

The entire ground level was filled with murky, old water that if anyone tired to see the bottom, they would not be able to. Many objects were floating around in it, including some ducks quacking in the corner.

"Ya ever stay in a place like this?" Ellie questioned the two behind her and (Y/N), as they walked up towards the edge of the stairs.

"Uh, no, a little out of our league." Tess answered the younger girl with a half smile.

Joel turned to look at the siblings beside him, eyebrows lifted with surprise, "How do you even know what this is?"

(Y/N) laughed under her breath, shaking her head with disbelief and raised her brows back at him, "Have you ever heard of books and common knowledge?"

Joel's lips went into a straight line, rolling his eyes at her and went to move forward towards the stairs, as Tess gave (Y/N) a small smirk.

"Wait, are we going in there?" Ellie asked incredulously as she spots Joel going into the water.

"Yeah, we gotta get to the stairwell on the other side." Tess informs the younger girl, gesturing to where she said as Joel was now in the water, hearing it splashing from the movement.

Ellie sucked in a breath through her teeth, looking up at her sister with big eyes, as (Y/N) gave her a reassuring smile, "Well, I, I don't know how to swim." Ellie admits.

"Seriously?" Joel questioned with a disbelief looks thrown at them, and caught (Y/N)'s tongue poke.

"Do you think we have pools in the QZ?" Ellie fires back a question, narrowing her eyes on the adult.

"No, smart ass." Joel moves all the way into the water, it only reaching past his knees a it, "I mean."

(Y/N) bits back an amused giggle, as Ellie huffs and puffs out mutters under her breath as they both walk down the stairs, "I don't know how I was supposed to know that."

The (H/C) haired girl kept a hand on Ellie's shoulder, as they both had now walked into the water, feeling the coldness of it through their long pants.

"This is so disgusting." (Y/N) gags to herself, cringing at the feeling of the dirty water on her favourite clothes, as Ellie was beaming beside her.

"Oh, check it out!" Ellie exclaims excited, as she moves out of (Y/N)'s hold, causing her to freak out and watch as Ellie makes her way over to the front desk, chuckling.

She reaches the front desk, leaning against it and pressed the bell over the counter, "Ding, ding!"

(Y/N) laughs through her nose at Ellie's act, glad she was starting to show her bubbly personality again as she moves over to where Ellie was, standing behind her at the piano.

"Yes sir. I would like your finest suite, please." Ellie continues to act out what would happen, as she mimics a deeper voice, "Yes, ma'am. Would you like me to take your luggage? Yes, ma'am. Right away, ma'am-"

"You're a weird kid." Joel comments from behind (Y/N), watching the entire scene playout as it reminded him of someone.

Ellie grabs the luggage cart, going to push it through the water as (Y/N) comes up next to her with a small laugh.

"You're a weird kid." Ellie repeats back to him with an eye roll, continuing to push the cart along as (Y/N)'s eyes spot something falling out from next to it, causing her to curse seeing what it was.

"Ellie!" She grabs her sister quickly, pulling her away from the dead body as her back bangs against the piano.

Joel was already by their side, as (Y/N)'s yell alerted him and he had his gun raised up ready, but relaxed seeing it was just a skull of a dead person.

"Jesus-" (Y/N) breathes out, looking down at Ellie as she scanned her sister for an harm, seeing none which made her release a sigh of relief.

Joel makes his way to the girls, kicking the skull away as it span in the water, and Ellie moves out of (Y/N)'s arms, brushing herself down, as she watches with surprised eyes spotting Joel helping her sister up.

The male held out a hand for (Y/N) to take, as her eyes flickered to his face and the hand, seeing him quickly raise his eyebrows at her.

She gives in with a sigh, and grabs the outstretched hand so their palms touched, as the piano creaks from the weight lifted off it.

Joel, however, ended up pulling her up a bit to forceful which caused her chest to collided with his, and her hands pressed against it to stop them from touching.

(Y/N) laughed nervously at this, their close proximity making her tense up as she avoids his dark gaze on her and quickly moves away from the males strong chest.

The (H/C) haired girl flicks Ellie's nose when she hears her giggling at what happened, and glares at her to go forward through the water.

Joel watched this happen, eyes lingering on (Y/N) as he looks down at the hand that touched hers, and flexed them a little bit, not sure what he was feeling, and goes to follow the three who were talking.