( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ...

' when we are in need , part. 2 '

TRIGGER WARNING : attempted SA & david !

Inside the town where David, and his people had suited themselves there as their home, in one of the buildings and inside a big cage was (Y/N), who was slowly awakening from her knocked out state.

Her (E/C) eyes fluttered open with a low groan, placing a hand up to her head as she sits up from the ground, and just barely noticed that she was in cage. However, what really made her panic was that Ellie wasn't with her, and the sound of a familiar voice behind her talking.

"I started worrying you wouldn't wake up."

David was standing outside of the cage she was in, eyeing her waking up figure closely with his warm clothes still on, unlike her.

She blinks groggily, and swallows as she weakly glares at him, "Where's my sister?"

He hummed at her question, surprised she wasn't worried about her own safety, and leans against the metal table behind him, "She's safe, and you'll see her very soon. Hungry?"

(Y/N) doesn't trust his words, as her panic only rises wondering where Ellie was, and she glances around at the cage around her, "Why the hell am I in a cage?"

"Because I'm afraid of you." David answered her honestly straight away, "You're a dangerous person. You've certainly proven that. The others, they want me to kill you and your sister for all that's happened." He sees her unbothered by the news, as he leans forward to the cage more, "Did you hear me say the others wanna kill you?"

"Yeah, but I don't care." She grumbles with a hiss, slowly getting her footing as she places her palms on the cold tiles, and kneels on the floor to hopefully find a way out.

"Why don't we just start with your name?" David tries again to get her to budge, not really liking how disobeying she was being to him.

"Eat shit." She simply lowly mumbled to him, throwing a scowl at the male who locked her in this cage.

"Hey, listen to me!" His anger and impatience was spiking at her constant back chat, and he goes to lean up from his slouched position, "You can't survive on your own." He ends up right in front of the cage, making her crawl back into the corner, "No one can. But I can help you. Let me protect you."

(Y/N) pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping herself in her own arms as she scoffs at his words, "I'm not on my own."

David sighs heavily, shoulders moving up and then down, "Right. Your friend and sister. And how is he?" He tilts his head knowling at the girl, who stared wide eyed at the floor, "I can see how much you care about him, so I know it hurts. But even so..." He walks around the cage a little bit, making her backup to the brick wall, "you gotta face reality. That part of your life, it's ending. And what I'm offering you is a beginning. But if you can't find a way to trust me..." He trails of with a tight lip, "then yes, you are alone."

He walks to the opposite side of the room, opening the door and closed it behind him as he walked out, leaving (Y/N) in her thoughts and still trapped inside the cage.

...

Back at the place were the girls left Joel, shit was going down for the people who came to kill the male.

Currently in one of the houses rooms, Joel had capture two of them hunters, as he beats one tied to a chair, while he had the other one tied to the table in front.

Timothy, the one who was the target of Joel's senseless hits weakly groaned, and pleaded for him to stop. But, Joel wasn't having it, as they took something very important away from him, and he would do anything to gain them back.

"Leave him alone." Marco begs to the unhinged male's constant punching to his friend, as he realised his hands were tied behind his back also.

"You're next." Joel grunts through his rapid breathing, and pulls out his knife with a feral smirk, the only thought going through his mind was finding them, finding her.

"I don't know any girls." Timothy exclaims in pain, as Joel didn't like his answer, and stabbed his knife right into the male's knee, causing him to yell, and his buddy.

"No, no, no." Joel shakes his head nonchalantly, gripping the males hair roughly hearing his calls for Marco, "He can't help you. You focus right here." He orders through a growl, "Or I'll pop your fuckin' kneecap off."

He tugs on the shaking male's hair again, making sure he got his point across as Timothy answers with a bloody mouth, "They're alive."

Joel clenches his jaw, and demands strongly through gritted teeth, "Where?" When Timothy didn't respond back, he twisted the knife in his leg with a cold look.

Timothy shouted out in horrible pain, as his eyes were closed from how badly he was beating up, "Ah, fuck! The town!"

"What town?!" Joel screams in Timothy's face, his emotions being fueled by brutal rage, and the need to find the girls.

Timothy flinches a little at the aggressive yell, and pants out his answer, "Silver Lake."

Joel shoves back the male's head, as he pulls out a map from his pocket, and unfolds it as he listened to Timothy babbling about the town name not being real.

This makes him pull out the knife in his knee, causing Timothy to yell in pain, and Joel shoves the knife forcefully into his mouth, "You're gonna point to where we are..." He holds up the map in front, as he had Timothy's head pushed back, "and where your 'resort' is. And it better be the exact same spot your buddy points to."

Timothy trembled in fear as he didn't argue, and pointed on the map with the bloody knife. Once he was finished, he spat the knife out with a grunt, "That's where we are. I swear. Go ask him. He'll tell you. I'm not lying. "

Joel didn't care much for his rambling, as he grabs the knife with blinding rage, and stabs it straight into Timothy's stomach, instantly ending his sorrowful life.

Marco exclaims curses at Joel, wiggling around in his tied up hold as he watched his pal get killed, "Why the fuck would you do that?! He told you what you wanted!"

Joel stumbled his way towards the couch, grabbing the pole that he used to knock out them out, and makes his way over to Marco. The Miller male was still in pain, and not healed just yet, but he pushed through it all to get to her.

"You motherfucker. Fuck you." Marco spat out to the incoming male, shaking his head with one of his eyes busted from Joel's punches, "I ain't tellin' you shit."

"It's okay...I believe him." Joel shrugs emotionless, staring down at him with wild eyes, brining the pole up and swung it down.

...

Back in the town inside the cage still, (Y/N) was searching around for a way out, as her thoughts were focused on Ellie and Joel's safety. She tries to lift herself up to the tiny window, but grunted seeing it closed up tight.

She then moved to the gate lock, tongue poking out a little bit in concentration as she tried to pick it open.

(Y/N) was getting even more annoyed when she couldn't get it open. She suddenly paused her movements, spotting something in the long drain in front that made her feel sick to her stomach.

She placed a hand up to her mouth, quickly stumbling her way back to the otherside of the cage, as the door to the door opens again, and David came walking in, a tray of food in his grasp.

He walked into the room silently, seeing her horrified look as he squats down and gently places the tray of food on the ground, sliding it under the cages bars.

She doesn't even focuses on the food, as her gaze was still trained on something in front, which made David follow her gaze, and saw what she was looking at. A human ear was sitting on the drains floor, with fresh blood surrounding it.

He sighs at this, looking down briefly with pursued lips as he folds his hands together, and motioned to the food near her figure, "For what it's worth, this is just deer meat. I swear."

(Y/N)'s face was stone cold, as she grips her flannel shirt sleeves, and continued to stare at the human ear, "You're gonna chop me up into little pieces."

"I'd rather not." He replied to her quickly, and then goes to plead his question, "Please, just tell me your name." He once again got no response, making him frown and look to the side, "If you wanna judge me-"

"Judge you?" Her voice finally raised, eyebrows slanted up with a mortified look, as she rushes up to the cages bars, and kicks the food under it, "You're eating people, you sick fuck!"

David steps back from her outburst, watching the food he made go spilling everywhere, and confirms her claim on his ways, "Yes. There are only a few of us that know. But I would've told you. Sooner or later. I guess sooner."

She shakes her head in disbelief, removing the hands that were placed into her (H/C) locks, "You're an animal."

"Well, yes, we all are. That's sorta the point." He shrugs his shoulders, as he tried to justify why he choose to do this, "It was a last resort. You think it doesn't shame me? But what was I supposed to do? Let them starve? These people who put their lives in my hands, who expect me to keep them safe, who love me?"

"Yeah, maybe." She snapped with her disgust still shown, and paces around the small cage she was in.

He stares at her for a few seconds, "You don't believe that. I don't think your friend, nor sister would either." He trails one of his fingers along the long table, as he walks to stand in the middle of the room, "Didn't he take another man's life to save yours?"

"He was defending himself." (Y/N) argued back with a sharp glare, becoming protective over the male who meant everything to her.

David tilts his head, and stares knowingly at the younger girl, "He was defending you." He lets those words sink into her brain, and starts off again, "But you knew that. You see a lot. So do I. And you know what I see when I look at you? Me. You remind me of me."

She faces away from him hearing his words, getting a bad feeling creeping up on her, as the anxiety she was currently experiencing started to rise more and more.

"You're a natural leader, you're smart...loyal." He starts to list off the qualities he saw in her, as he leans against the table with one hand on his hip, "Violent."

"You don't know shit about me." She hisses at him with a finger pointed, and didn't enjoy the way he was talking about her.

"But I do." He states firmly, before motioning to the knife on the floor where the spilt food was, "If I let you out of the cage right now, put that knife of yours in your hand, you'd stick me in a second. You have a violent heart. And I should know." He slowly went to walk up near the cage, "I've always had a violent heart. And I struggled with it for a long time. But then the world ended and I was shown the truth."

"Right...by God." She mumbles under her breath, eyes rolling a bit as she kept back away from David.

"No." He shakes his head strongly, and corrects her, "By Cordyceps. What does Cordyceps do? Is it evil? No. It's fruitful. It multiplies. It feeds and protects its children, and it secures its future with violence, if it must." He stops his weird explaining, and gives her a look that has the girl cringing, "It loves."

(Y/N) swallows hard, really on edge now from his sudden obsession with the disease that took over the world, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because you can handle it. The way the others can't. Thy need God. They need heaven. They need..." He trails off, and motioned to everything around him, but was actually implying to himself, "they need a father. You don't. You're beyond that. I'm a shepherd surrounded by sheep, and all I want is an equal. A friend."

"What about my friends?" She lowly questioned, eyeing him carefully as her back wasn't touching the cage anymore.

David nods in approval at her words, "Like I said, loyal." He licks his lips for a second, and goes to walk forward towards the cage, "I can tell the others to stop looking for him. They'll spare him."

She looked a bit hopeful at this, as she made her way to the front of the cage, and gave him a suspicious stare, "Really? Are you sure they'll just let him go?"

"Yes." He confirms firmly with a nod head, "If he leaves us in peace, they will just let him go. They do what I tell them to do. They follow me." He lowers his voice as he stepped right up to the cage, "And they would follow us. Lord knows I could use the help. I-" He gestured to the human ear, "Look what's happened."

David eerily goes to places his hand on the cage's bar, and grips it with as he stares right at the creeped out (Y/N), "Think of what we could do together, as strong as we are. We'd make this place perfect. We'd grow, spread out. And we'd do whatever we needed for our people."

She presses her hand onto the bars of the cage also, making sure to keep it away from his as she listened to his words, not trusting him for a second.

"Imagine the life we could give them." He raises his hand holding the bars, and swiftly places his hand on top of hers, "Imagine the life we could build."

(Y/N) was surprised at the sudden bold move, but then the realisation hits her heavy feeling his fingers rubbing against her hand. She had to bite back her disgust, as she uses this to her advantage, and places her free hand on top of his, giving him the idea she agreed to his words.

However, the girl suddenly snapped back one of his fingers which made his bone crack, and he yelled out in pain. While he was holding his broken finger, she wrestles through the bars for the keys dangling on his belt.

Growling annoyed, he grabs the back of her flannel, and yanks her head towards the metal bars, hitting her hard against it a few times. She falls back to the cold floor, groaning in pain as blood drips down onto the tiles.

"You little cunt." He swore with an angry scowl, and held his broken finger in his other hand, as he picks up the keys from the floor, "Let's see what I go tell the others now."

As he goes to turn away and leave the room, her throaty voice talking makes him stop mid way.

"(Y/N)."

"What?"

She crawls up to the bars a little bit, blood dripping from her nose as she bares her teeth at him, and yells, "Tell them that (Y/N) is the young woman, who broke your fucking finger!"

"How did you put it? Hmm?" David hums knowingly, as he repeats back what she told him, "'Tiny little pieces'?"

Her eyes went wide with instant regret, as she grips the cages bars, and he opened the door as he walked out of the room.

...

A few hours later, the door to the room the girl was in flew open as David and James came barging through, which caused (Y/N) to scramble up from the ground and into the corner of the cage.

David goes to open the cage doo quickly, and she exclaimed her protest seeing this, "No! No! No!"

When the gate was opened, James rushed into the cage and grabbed the struggling (Y/N), who tried to fight back with screams and kicks. David came to help grab the girl, and this made her get a chomp at his hand, and he yelled in pain at her bite.

He had enough of her struggling, and goes to knee her in the gut, which made her double in pain, but the two males just hulled her forcefully up to the cutting table.

"No! Wait Wait!" (Y/N) cries out with leg and arm kicks, trying to break free but they both throw her up onto the metal table, and she grunted when her back had hit it.

James goes to hold her arms down, as she was still struggling while David grabs the butchers knife, "Don't! Don't do it! Please, don't!" She begs frantically with dry blood on her face.

"You had your chance." David tuts over her yells, as he raises the big knife over his head and went to aim for her held down arm.

"I'm infected!" (Y/N) hastily exposed herself, as the males both paused at it, and she breathes heavily, "I'm infected."

David scoffs at her words, still holding the knife mid way into the air as her struggling stopped also, and stares down at her unbelievable.

"And now so are you." She hisses lowly as she nods at the bite mark on his hand, "Roll up my sleeve. Look at it."

David clenches his jaw, and sticks the knife a few centimetres from her head, and it caused her to wince with her eyes screwing shut. What she had done, had definitely saved her for now, but new she still needed to get out of here somewhere, and find her sister.

He rolls up her brown flannel sleeve, and spotted her massive scar from a infected bite. He looks up in with wide eyes to James, keeping her arm exposed to them.

"What did you say?" (Y/N) breathes out, glancing between the two males holding her down, "Everything happens for a reason, right?"

"David." James starts of warily, giving him a worried expression as he points to her bite.

"No, she would've turned by now." He denies strongly with a head shake, "This isn't real."

"It looks pretty fuckin' real to me." James exclaims through gritted teeth, and lets go of her arm.

Unlucky for them, she took this chance and snatches the knife in her hands, yelling out as she stabs it into James' neck, making him fall dead against the wall.

She pulls herself out of David's grip, and falls off the table as she runs out of the door, while David tries to shoot her with his gun.

She keeps running through the building, not stopping for anything as her propriety was either killing David, or getting out right now. She pants as she passes through the kitchen, pushing open the door to the main building, and rushes over to the front doors, but found them to be locked.

(Y/N) curses under her breath, going with another plan as she runs back into the kitchen, and found some wood on fire beneath the cooker. She grabs the safe side, and hurried back to a hiding place as the door just opened, meaning David had entered.

She gulps shakily, trying to calm down her fast beating heat and ignored the pain coming from her nose, as she holds the weapon in her hand.

When David took a few steps forward, and made the floorboard creek, (Y/N)'s head popped up as she grunts and throws the onfire wood towards the curtains, which causes them to catch on fire.

She quickly fleas from that position, to hide somewhere else while David was searching around for her, "There's no way out, (Y/N). The doors are locked. And I have the keys."

The fire was starting to spread throughout the place, as the young woman didn't answer back to the creepy male, "(Y/N)?" He calls out her name tauntingly, and holds the butcher knife in his hands, "I know you're not infected."

Her head peeks out from behind some small cupboards, keeping her breathing calm as she spots him a bit in front of her, and became agitated seeing his weapon in his grasp.

"No one infected fights this hard to stay alive." David continues on his speech, as he looks around for her and she moves spots quickly, "So...how did you do it? What's the secret? Or are you just that fucking special?"

(Y/N) was now behind some more cupboards, as she pushed the little flappy doors open to move into behind the bar, and tried to find a weapon to defend herself.

"No one likes being humiliated, (Y/N)." He walks around the table she just past, and motioned to himself with an exclaim, "You don't know how good I am! You don't know what I could've given you!"

She ended up finding a kitchen knife in the smaller draws, and picks it up in a firm hold, as she shuffles in between some more cupboards.

"If you had just let me!" He now yells aggressively, which caused her to flinch and hold the knife tighter, while the fire continued to spread on the wood inside.

"Well, I have news for you. Neither one of us is dying today." David stops in his tracks, as he glances around for her (H/C) hair, "You see, I've changed my mind. I've decided you do need a father. So I'm gonna keep you, and I'm gonna teach you."

She felt her stomach twist with unease at his sicking words, and holds the knife up as she takes a daring look around the cupboards she was hiding in, and spots his back turned to her.

She swallows all her nervousness, and goes to charge forward with a yell, as she ends up stabbing the knife into his side. David grunts at the hit, and shoves her roughly to the ground by her hair.

He groans in pain, holding his bleeding side she had attacked and curses, "Ah, fuck."

(Y/N)'s head felt dizzy as she looks up from the ground, and spotted the butchers knife a few meters in front under a table. She goes to try and pull herself towards it, but David saw and was not pleased.

He lifted his foot up, and brought it down to kick harshly against her side, which made her gasp in pain and roll over on her back.

He caught ahold of her wrists in a ruff, and painful hold as he forces them above her head. He gets on top of her, while she started to shout in protest, and kick her legs around.

She screams in his face, and spat on it also, as she was held hostage once again by his strong body weight, and couldn't break free.

"Oh," David chuckles darkly as he stares down at her with predatory eyes, and licks his lips, "I thought you already knew. The fighting is the part I like the most."

(Y/N) felt like she was going to be sick hearing these words. Her body went rigid as she felt the cold breath of David on her neck. She screamed, and cried out petrified knowing what was about to happen, and no one, not even her could stop it.

"Don't be afraid." He mockingly tries to coo, shaking his head as he runs a finger down her stomach, making her scream and kick more in terror, "'There's no fear in love'."

David hold her arms above her head with one hand, while the other one now goes to reach for his belt, and she continued screaming in absolute horror, as her fingers fumbled to reach for the knife near her head.

(Y/N)'s hand grasped the butcher knife firmly in her hand, and screamed a guttural cry as she went to swing the weapon down against David's neck, which has him falling off her with a grunt onto the floor.

Now filled with surging rage, she stumbles to stand up straight and brings down the knife to hit his neck again, while David pathetically groaned and choked on his own blood.

Blood curdling screams escaped her mouth, as her hits with the knife on David didn't stop, even when his blood splashed onto her skin everywhere.

The only thing she could hear was, her pulse beating in her ears, and her soul wrenching screams that blocked out all other sounds. She kept the hits up with bared teeth, and trembling hands as this man didn't deserve to rest easy, nor leave this room alive.

Her stabs came to a slower stop, as she finally realised what she did, and breathes tremulous breaths of air seeing the messed of what was once a disgusting human being beneath her.

...

The doors to the main building fly open, as the smoke from the inside fire comes out also, and (Y/N)'s shaken up figure walks out into the snow.

She breathes heavily with a fast breathing heart, not even bothering to fix up her hair that was now out, nor wiping the blood covering her. Her entire body trembles, and it wasn't just from the coldness of outside.

Suddenly from behind her, two warmer hands grab her arms which has her automatically freaking out, and screaming afraid thinking it was David, "No! Get off of me!"

She fight against the hold on her, not even knowing who it was as her eyes were closed and was crying out in desperate protests as she fought weakly.

The person holding her tries to talk, but her pitiful cries overpower them, and they swiftly turn her around to face them.

(Y/N) punches her fists feebly against their chest, as they held her by the arms, and hyperventilates when two soft, but calloused hands comes up to cup both of her cheeks, and directs her teary, panicked eyes to theirs.

"Hey, hey...look." Joel was kneeling down in front of the scared girl, as he gently, tenderly talks to her while cupping her blood stained cheeks in his hands. He felt his heart crack spotting her fearful look, "It's me...it's me."

She released a harsh sob seeing Joel's face, his touch being much softer, and comforting then what she just experienced, "Joel-" She whimpers through little cries, bottom lip quivering badly, and babbles, "He tried to-"

The traumatised girl didn't even finish her sentence, as she fell forward into his arms, and he immediately wrapped in her in a tight hug against his chest.

(Y/N)'s face found the crook of his neck, arms wrapping around his shoulders as her body trembled with weeps, and desperately clings onto her lifeline, afraid she wasn't ever gonna see him again.

"It's okay, it's okay baby girl." Joel breathes out in reassurance, one hand cupping the back of her neck while the other was around her back, "I got you. I got you." He promises with a voice crack, pressing his nose into her hair and closed his eyes with utter relief washing over him.

When they pulled back slowly from the comforting hold, their hands didn't move from each other, which caused Joel to gently press his forehead against hers for extra reassurance to show her that he was here.

(Y/N) whimpers at his gentle touch, tears stopping a little and drowns in it as she had never felt such fear from before, and never wanted to experience it ever again. However, as their foreheads touched, Joel made it a silent promise to never let her leave his side again.

Footsteps behind them has the two breaking apart, and the girl become scared again as she gripped his jackets sleeves, but relaxed seeing her younger sister walking over to them with their bags.

"Ellie!" (Y/N) weakly cries out to her, arms reaching out from the girl as she comes running towards her, and Ellie falls into her sisters open arms, crying.

"I thought I'd never see you again-" Ellie sobbed softly with tears rushing down her cheeks, and pressed a hand against her older sisters face, wiping some of the blood off, "Joel saved me, but we couldn't find you-"

(Y/N) shushes the younger girl gently, releasing a shaky breath as she leans her chin on top of Ellie's head and relaxed into the warm hold more when Joel wrapped his arms around them both, "M'okay, El, we're safe now."

After the last reassuring hold was over, everyone pulled back as Joel takes off his brown coat, and gently places it around (Y/N)'s shivering body.

She leans into his side, as she hugs the jacket close and he wraps an arm around her shoulder for support, and to also keep her warm.

Ellie had hers, and her sisters bag on as well as her bow, and she stood on the other side of (Y/N), keeping an arm around her waist as they all start to walk off.

Joel faintly presses his lips to the top of (Y/N)'s head, as they walk and away from that hell hole where the older William's lost her faith in trusting strangers ever again.

( gif by ;
sporadicstarsx )

AUTHORS NOTES;; the struggle was real to write this omg, the amount of times i had to pause because of the scenes jesus 😕😕 i hate david sm and he literally deserves the death he got fr 🤮

i cannot believe i've caught up with the episodes.. normally im behind like 2 or 3 but i ain't here so that's wild, anyways see you guys in the update next week <3