"Believe me, I didn't want to go through the city either," Joel said as the group was currently walking through the suburbs, "This'll make it quicker to get through, it's either this or walk all the way around."

"Who calls a City North Platte anyway ..." Ellie commented as the wind blew over the three.

It was early morning as the group had once again got back onto the road as soon as they could. The sky was cloudy however, so there was a good chance it would start raining.

"We could probably get to the other side of the city before it gets dark," Matt told as he looked around, making sure there was no infected or hunters in the area.

In the distance a few tall buildings were in visible disrepair, but it told them that thy weren't far from the city centre, "Let's try and avoid that," Joel motioned to the centre.

"Do you think some hunters are around?" Ellie questioned as she shivered slightly, hoping there wasn't going to be another situation like Pittsburgh.

"Sure hope not," Matt answered, "But it's hard to say ... Some cities have hunters and others don't."

Joel nodded, "Hopefully we don't have to find out," He added.

The three continued to walk through the street, seeing nothing of interest and seeing no one of interest. It was pretty quiet. Until thunder could be heard in the distance, letting out a low-rumble for what was to come.

"Damn ..." Joel muttered, seeing that the sky in the distance was getting darker, "We might need to find some shelter soon."

"Why don't we stay in one of these houses?" Ellie gestured to the houses on her right, any one of them would be fine.

Joel shook his head, "Let's just try and get as far as we can before we settle down somewhere," he explained, not wanting to waste any time in case it didn't start raining.

Silence filled the gap in conversation as they came across a cross-roads, unfortunately, the only route that was free from debris was the path on the left which led them closer to the city. As they began to walk again, Ellie hummed a tune to alleviate the silence that had engrossed them.

The suburbs were replaced by buildings with signs, all of them trying to advertise shops, or clever ways of pulling you in.

"Taylor's Tans ...?" Ellie read a sign off of one of the buildings they slowly walked past, "What did that sell?"

"Well, people would often pay to sit in a sun bed or something," Matt explained, "Try and get a tan on their skin."

"Really?" Ellie asked in surprise, "Couldn't they just ... Go on vacation or something?"

"They could, or do it the easy way." Joel shared.

"Huh ..." Ellie hummed, "The world was so weird ..."

Matt and Joel shared a chuckle between then, they knew that well. "That might be so, but I'd give anything for a nice cup of tea again ..." Matt said.

"Tea?" Ellie questioned, "You mean green tea? I've had that before, it was nice."

Matt gave her a look of disgust, "Not that shitty stuff!" He said, his jokey tone being clearly evident, "I mean like real tea! PG Tips kind of thing."

Joel hummed, "I'm more of a coffee man myself,"

"I probably could've guessed," Matt stifled a laugh, "Tea is still better though, can't change my mind."

"Well, I've never had either," Ellie clarified before the two could start a debate, "So if we ever find any, I can be the judge!"

The two men chuckled as they walked past more shops, but then saw a supermarket in the distance, "Think it's worth checking out?" Matt asked as he looked around the car-park, but found it surprisingly bare of infected.

Joel found this strange to, it was quiet, too quiet, "We'll need to be quick," he said as he looked at the sky, hearing another rumble of thunder, "See if we can find anything edible."

Joel takes the lead as he starts walking towards the entrance of the supermarket, "It's so ... Quiet," Matt whispered as they stood outside the large twin double doors.

Joel peered inside, the lights were off and it was dark, "We'll need our flashlights out,"

Matt was quick to pull out his flashlight as Joel did the same, Ellie took a few more seconds as she was shuffling through her bag, "Okay! Ready!" Ellie whispered as she held up her small flashlight and turned it on.

The three entered the supermarket slowly, making sure to hear out for anything, "See any spores?" Joel asked as he looked around in the distance, not wanting to be caught off guard.

"No, I don't think so," Matt answered as he couldn't see any spores, "Might be some in the back so we'll need to be careful if we search there."

Joel nodded as Ellie stayed close.

"Most of the aisles are empty ..." Ellie commented in a whisper as they began shifting through the aisles, looking for anything that might be useful, or edible.

"Probably ransacked at the start of the outbreak," Joel sighed, "This is just a waste of time."

Matt nodded, "Unfortunately, it likely is pretty empty, let's just go," he said as the group turned and left the same way they came in, making sure to switch off their flashlights.

"Well, as least we had a look in there," Ellie tried to ease Joel's annoyance, "And we didn't spend much time in there ..."

Matt smiled as he patted her on the head, "She's right, it was better to give it a quick look then not at all,"

Joel sighed as they stood outside the supermarket, "You're right," he smiled, but then pointed to the road they were following originally, "Come on, we'll get back on the road."

The three then begin walking, still grumpy that they didn't even loot anything from the supermarket, it felt like a waste of time even though they weren't in there for very long.

"Looks like we're getting closer to the city centre," Matt commented as they started passing over a bridge that took them closer to the tall buildings they saw earlier, "Jesus ... It's all looking more destroyed than Boston,"

Now they had a better look at the city, it was obvious that it was heavily bombed, more so than Boston, "That might explain the lack of infected ..." Joel reasoned, "Maybe they were all got in the bombing?"

"Woah ..." Ellie breathed out as they walked past a building that was completely collapsed, probably from the bombing.

Click ... Click ... Click

The three stopped walking as stood in shock for a brief moment as a clicker had wandered out into the middle of the road from a nearby alleyway.

"Crap ..." Matt muttered, "It's only one, do we take it out or sneak past?"

Taking out one clicker wouldn't usually be a problem for them, but for some reason this city was eerily lacking infected, so they needed to make sure not to draw any out, if there were still some here.

Soon another clicker appeared as started fumbling around, clearly agitated.

"Use this," Ellie whispered as she carefully picked up a brick from nearby as handed it to Joel, "Throw it at the wall or something."

Joel took the brick and looked around, deciding to throw it behind them to lead the clickers away. Once the brick hit the ground, the clickers became aggressive and began running towards the impact area.

"Go! Go!" Matt whispered as they started speed walking away from the clickers.

Unfortunately, another clicker appeared from the alleyway the previous two did.

"Shit!" Ellie panicked as she tripped over a rock.

"Ellie!" Matt yelled as he turned around to help the girl up.

At this point the clickers were aware of the survivors, causing Joel to ready his shotgun and take out the clicker in front of them swiftly, "You good?" Matt asked as Ellie stood up.

"Yeah, yeah," Ellie reassured as the two clicked behind them started charging.

"We need to run!" Joel yelled as they began sprinting away.

Likely due to the gunshot, screeching sounded from the nearby buildings, "Sweet jesus!" Joel yelled, "They're coming from the buildings!"

Infected runners and clickers poured out from the nearby buildings, stumbling over each other as they tried to reach the group.

"There!" Matt yelled as he pulled out his pistol and killed an approaching runner, "Office building in front, we can get to the top and jump to the next building!"

"There's so many!" Ellie yelled as she took a glance behind them, seeing a horde of infected chasing after them.

"JUST RUN!" Joel yelled.

The three pushed as hard as they could to reach the office building. The windows were smashed, so they wouldn't stop the infected, "Shit! Find the stairwell!" Matt shouted as he took pop shots of the infected that got took close.

The infected horde ended up getting in each other's way, so it gave the group just enough time to find the door, "FOUND IT!" Ellie yelled from the back of the building, "COME ON!"

"Matt, let's go!" Joel yelled, pumping his shotgun as the rest of the horde descended on the building.

Joel rushed towards Ellie as Matt followed, but slowed down to grab a desk, pulling it with him, "Matt what are you ...?!" Ellie panicked as she and Joel waited at the bottom of the stairwell.

Matt pushed the desk in front of the stairwell door and climbed over, shutting the door behind him, "That won't last long!" He exclaimed.

"Good thinking!" Joel praised as the three began rushing up the stairs as fast as they could. Just as they reached half-way, they could already hear the infected banging on the door below them.

"Almost to the roof!" Ellie said as she saw an arrow on the wall that said roof entrance.

The three burst out the door on the top level, leading them out to the roof of the office building, "Here, we can jump to the next building," Matt said as he rushed to the side of the building along with Joel and Ellie.

The building next to them was another office building from the look of it, but they were separated by a small alleyway, "You ready Ellie?" Joel asked, hoping she'd be okay.

"For sure!" Ellie nodded, her heart pumping gallons around her body as the adrenaline kicked in.

Infected started spilling from the door, "NOW!" Matt yelled as he, Joel, and Ellie leaped to the next building, making it in one piece.

The infected didn't get the hint and still tried to follow, but many of them ended up at the bottom of the alleyway.

"Right, next building, come on!" Joel said as they moved over to the other side of the building and jumped again, taking them further from the infected.

This time, the building they jumped onto was much larger, and was likely an apartment complex from how the roof was laid out, "I think we're safe ... For now," Matt breathed as the infected could still be seen falling off the roof with only a few making it to the next building.

"Holy shit ..." Ellie took in deep breaths, "That was fucking crazy ... It was quiet and then ... So many!"

Joel patted Ellie on the back, "Well, we're okay now," he said, ignoring her language as he had gotten used to the foul mouthed girl as well as the Brit.

Ellie smiled, finally getting her breath back as the sounds of the infected groaning and screaming could still be heard behind them, "Where to now?" She asked.

Suddenly, thunder rumbled once again and rain began to fall towards them.

"We should probably try and find shelter," Matt said as more flashes of light occurred in the distance.

"Let's get to it then." Joel told as they started walking towards the edge of the building as the rain began to get heavier.

--------

"The backdoor is open," Matt pointed out as Ellie jumped down from the tall, wooden picket fence.

The three had found a garden to climb into and decided the house seemed stable enough shelter for the rain, "Think somebodies home?" Ellie asked as Joel and Matt readied their weapons.

The rain was pouring down and the wind was getting stronger.

"Come on, let's find out," Matt told as they started walking towards the sliding door that was open.

Coming to a stop just before it, blood was pooling on the floor, it looked pretty fresh, "Someone was here," Matt commented as he kneeled down to take a closer look.

"That's really fresh," Joel added, peering from Matt's shoulder, "There's a trail,"

The three carefully enter the house with Ellie sliding the door closed behind them. Joel was right, there was a blood trail leading into the next room.

Matt took the lead, taking light steps as he followed the trail.

The next room was the living room, one large sofa faced the television with two smaller single person sofas flanked either side. However, the trail of blood lead right up to the large sofa.

Quietly, Matt approached the large sofa as Joel and Ellie checked the rest of the room. His eyes soon found a girl, lying unconscious on the sofa, "It's a girl," Matt said as he moved closer.

Finding the source of her bleeding to be the stab wound on her leg, it had a sloppy wrapped bandage around it, "A girl?" Ellie questioned as she and Joel looked at her from behind the sofa.

"Is she infected?" Joel asked, not wanting to risk themselves, "Or dead?"

The girl in question had scruffy looking long, blonde hair and pale white skin. The clothes she wore were torn and shredded, but they vaguely looked like some jogging shorts and an oversized t-shirt.

Matt gave her a quick check over from the skin he could visibly see, arms, legs, face, and neck, "She's not infected from the look or feel of it ..." He answered, placing his fingers on his neck to check for a pulse, "She's alive and breathing, might have gone into shock from the blood loss."

"Should we ... Help her?" Ellie questioned, looking from Matt to Joel.

Joel sighed, the life he lived before he usually turned his nose up at people in need. They were survivors, they couldn't risk themselves to help others.

"Yes," Matt answered, not giving Joel a chance to respond, "I'll clean out her stab wound and change the bandage, that's all,"

Joel was conflicted, but nodded. It wasn't like he didn't care, spending his time the past few months with just Ellie and Matt had brought the old Joel back.

But there was still some of the new Joel that was still there, the Joel that had experienced the loss of his daughter, the one that was the survivor, the one that did some pretty unspeakable things.

Matt began unwrapping the bandage, "Joel, do you wanna check the rest of the house?" He asked as he dropped the dirty bandage on the floor and took his bag off, "I'd rather not have any surprises."

Joel readied his pistol once again as he disappeared to search the rest of the house.

Ellie on the other hand remained, "Anything you want me to do?"

"Get me a rag or something," Matt asked as he pulled out a clean bandage and some water from his bag.

Ellie looked around for a second and then saw a table cloth that sat over a small end table, "Bingo!" Ellie smiled as she moved the stuff on top of it and grabbed the cloth, bringing it back over to Matt.

"Thanks," Matt said as he poured some water onto the stab wound and started wiping the wound with the cloth, "The wound doesn't look too deep ... But I'm guessing she still lost a quite a bit of blood,"

After saying that, it he now realised how much blood had dried up on her legs, "Jesus man," He said, cleaning some of it away for her benefit.

"What do you think happened?" Ellie asked as Matt began wrapping a clean bandage around the wound, hoping that prevents it from getting any worse.

"Hard to say," Matt answered honestly as she was awake to tell them and probably wouldn't wake up for a while, "She was stabbed and has some bruises, so, probably fought someone ... Maybe hunters?"

"Shit ..." Ellie whispered, the girl looked close to her age, maybe just a bit older.

Just then, Joel returned from checking the rest of the house, "It's clear," He answered as he pulled his weapon away, "The infected are wandering around again," He explained, "Saw some runners on the opposite end of the street, so, we'll need to keep it quiet."

Handling a few runners wouldn't really be an issue, its if they cause too much noise that would end up attracting the rest of the horde, "Is it still raining?" Matt questioned as he stood up and moved away from the girl.

"Yeah," Joel nodded, "It's gotten heavier."

"If we're gonna be here a while, I could do with a wash," Ellie added, "Even if its just a quick wipe down ... Got some blood on me,"

"I'll find a bucket or something," Matt told as he started walking towards the kitchen, "Leave that out in the rain to fill up with water,"

"Sure," Ellie shrugged, not caring how its done as long as she can wipe herself down.

Joel took one last look at the girl on the sofa. She looked familiar to him, scarily so. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, Don't go there, we'll send her on her way once she wakes up.

-------------

"What are we gonna do when she wakes up?" Ellie asked as the three of them were sat in different areas of the living room, watching over the girl.

"I don't know," Matt answered, thinking it would be difficult if she tagged along with them, their supplies would be stretched super thin, "I'm not sure she can come with us,"

"But we can't leave her here," Ellie pointed out, "She needs to be somewhere safe. Definitely not in the city."

Joel grunted, "We'll have to see what see has to say," He told, internally agreeing with Matt, "She might already have a place to stay, a town even, who knows."

Ellie sighed, she hoped that was true.

Rain and thunder could still be heard hitting the roof of the building, it refusing to let up, even for a second. However, this gave the three of them a chance to clean themselves up, not having bathed for over a week at this point.

As the three returned to a silence, the girl began shifting, slowly waking up.

Matt sat on one of the small recliners while Ellie sat in the opposite one, both of them flanking the large sofa. Joel was sat on the floor near the Television.

The girl opened her eyes as she slowly sat up and realising she wasn't alone, "Who are you!?" She said, loudly.

At this point her heartrate was on full alert as she sat up, "Easy, we're not here to hurt up," Joel held his hands up and neither of the three made any move to get up, trying not to spook the poor girl, "Try and keep your voice down ... There's still infected outside."

The girl took deep breaths as she eyed the two men, once she looked over and saw Ellie, her breathing began to calm, but still she was visibly scared, "What's your name?" Matt asked.

"It's ..." The girl paused for a moment, trying to control her breathing, "It's Sophie,"

"Well, Sophie," Matt gestured to himself, "I'm Matt, that's Joel, and over there is Ellie," He introduced himself and the others, "We aren't here to hurt you, don't worry," Matt reassured before continuing, "I changed the bandage on your leg and cleaned the wound, what happened?"

Sophie let her hand drop to her leg, only to find a fresh bandage over her stab wound, "I ... Escaped ..." She breathed out as tears threated to fall, she really wasn't sure what to do, these three people appeared out of nowhere, but they must be different if they weren't readily abusing her, "I was being kept in a cage ... But ... I escaped."

"You were being kept in a cage?!" Ellie gasped, "Holy shit ... How did you escape?"

Sophie breathed, "One of the guards ... He was drunk," she started, "He opened the cage and started hitting me ... I fought back ... He didn't like that," She choked up, "So he stabbed me ... But I-I managed," Sophie wiped her eyes as she tensed her hands, "I kicked him in the nuts and run out the cage ... I just kept running ... It was dark, but ... I didn't stop until I got here."

"Christ ..." Joel breathed, he wasn't expecting that kind of story, "Well you don't have to worry about them now,"

Sophie looked around, clearly not believing the man, "What ... Happens now?" She asked, thinking she's going to get killed.

Matt looked to Joel and then back at the girl, "That's up to you," He answered, "I asked Ellie to find you some old clothes," Matt gestured to a pair of cloths that rested on the back of the sofa, "We'll be having some food soon, if you want some?"

Sophie was surprised, she didn't expect that kind of reaction, "I'd ... Like that," She admitted.

"How old are you?" Ellie asked, shocked that someone that seemed close to her age had to go through that.

"I'm sixteen," Sophie answered.

"Two years older than me," Ellie smiled, "I'm fourteen,"

Sophie briefly returned the smile.

"You should get changed," Joel said, "You might get cold in the stuff you're wearing now."

Sophie nodded, "Thank you ..." She whispered as she carefully stood up and grabbed the clothes, making her way to another room so she could get changed in private.

This left the three to ponder what they should do next.

"She's clearly lost," Matt answered, "I mean ... Fuck ... Locked in a cage? Sick bastards."

"Maybe she doesn't have anywhere to go?" Ellie suggested, "We can't just leave her here ..."

Joel let out a sigh, this was a difficult situation for everyone, "I understand kiddo, but we don't have enough supplies for another person ... We'd have to constantly go into the cities to get more ..." He explained, "And you know how dangerous they are. Look at what happened earlier."

Ellie responded with a sigh of her own, she understood that, but ... Leaving her felt wrong, "I guess ..."

"Let's just see what she has to say, yeah?" Matt offered, "She what see wants to do."

The three of them patiently waited for Sophie to return as they needed to figure out a plan.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Sophie to get changed into her new clothing that was still slightly oversized, but fit better than the previous stuff.

Sophie walked into the room and quickly claimed her seat back on the large sofa, "Have you got anywhere to go?" Matt asked as the three hadn't moved an inch from before.

The girl in question nodded her head, "Yeah ... I lived in a small settlement not far from here," She answered, "It's a town called Keystone,"

Joel hummed, shifting to pull out his map, "I remember seeing that on our map ..." He mumbled, wanting to figure out how far it would be. Joel unfurled the map and placed it on the ground, allowing everyone to see, "We're here in North Platte," He placed his finger on the city, "Keystone is here," Joel moved his figure to the town Sophie had mentioned, "Probably a day or two, max,"

"Then we can take her there!" Ellie smiled, earning a look of shock from Joel.

"Now hold on-" Joel tried to push back, but Ellie knew that was coming.

"No! We can take her there!" Ellie crossed her arms, "It's not far and it's only going to take a few days!"

"Ellie! We don't have the supplies!" Joel reasoned.

"Fuck it," Matt sighed, "We may as well,"

Joel turned to Matt with annoyance plastered on his face, "Matt, you were the one that said we don't have enough supplies, don't tell me you're seriously gonna do this,"

Matt understood where Joel was coming from, but Ellie was right, the town wasn't far, "The town isn't far and it still takes us towards Wyoming," He explained, gesturing to the map, "Besides, I'm sure we could pick up some more supplies at Keystone."

This time Sophie spoke up, "We have plenty of food and water ... I'm sure they would be willing to give you some before you get back on the road."

Joel groaned, they were going to do this, weren't they?

The supplies weren't a massive issue – The three of them had enough to get them to Tommy, but with another mouth to feed that would throw off the delicate balance and would require re-organising.

"Fine," Joel growled, "We can take her, but know I'm not happy about it."

It doesn't help she looks like ... NO. Joel rubbed his head, what was he thinking, he really needed to stop comparing Sarah to people, he already had enough of it with Ellie and now there was another girl they had to take somewhere who had similar blonde hair to his daughter.

"Thank you ..." Sophie whispered, "I'm sorry for causing the trouble ..."

"Don't worry about it," Matt reassured as Joel stood up and walked out of the room, clearly annoyed with both him and Ellie, "You hungry?"

At that question, Sophie's belly get out a low rumble which caused Ellie to chuckle, "You and me both!"

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