Chapter 6: Into the sewers

Evangelion belongs to Gainax and Studio Khara. The Last of Us belongs to Naughty Dog and Sony. I don't own anything, so please don't sue me.

AN: Fixed some errors and added a little bit more to the chapter to make it flow better and make things actually make sense when they don't.

XXXXXX

'I'm gonna die!' Shinji mentally screamed as he and Ellie plummeted towards the frigid river below.

He couldn't believe it was going to end like this. He had survived multiple battles with giant monsters, the literal end of the world, and being thrown into an unknown world full of fungus zombies and crazy people. Only to meet his end from a little water. He would've thought it was a little pathetic if he had time to think about it before he and Ellie hit the water.

The pair pierced the surface with all the grace of falling boulders. Luckily the laws of physics brought them back to the surface with lots of gasping and sputtering. But because of the strong current and their inability to swim Shinji and Ellie had a very hard time keeping their heads above the water.

They clung desperately to each other, trying to keep each other afloat. A second splash a mere three seconds later caught their attention as Joel swam towards them as best he could in the strong current.

"Grab onto me!" Joel shouted.

The teens quickly did so to save themselves from a watery grave.

"Rocks!" Shinji screamed while pointing behind them.

Joel shifted his head in the direction Shinji pointed, only to see a menagerie of large, jagged rocks jutting up from above the water.

Joel grabbed the two and twisted his body so that his back would hit the rock they were speeding towards instead of the kids that he positioned to his front. When the three did hit the rock, Joel's back took the brunt of the impact and was instantly knocked unconscious. Unfortunately for the teens, the impact still had enough force to knock them unconscious as well.

The trio's bodies went limp and were flung violently along by the river's current. Neither of the three moved by themselves, until Shinji opened his eyes.

Shinji's normally cobalt blue eyes glowed a dark, blood red and he began to swim toward his companions with the ease of an olympic swimmer or an aquatic creature. Quite an odd feat for the lad, considering Shinji couldn't swim.

Once he was was within range, Shinji grabbed his companions by their backpacks and yanked their heads above the water. He craned his neck to the left and saw two lone figures walking along the shoreline. Seeing an opportunity for help the boy attempted to drag his companions toward the shore.

His efforts weren't fruitful. Joel and Ellie's combined weight along with the force of the current were starting to tire the boy out. But he wasn't about to just give up! The boy's visage held all the ferocity of a wild beast as his crimson eyes glowed brighter and a beastly snarl adorned his face as some unseen force propelled him and his allies toward the the shore.

Once the three were within fifteen feet of the shore one of the figures took notice and alerted the other to their presence. The force that propelled them started to waver and the bright red glow of Shinji's eyes began to dim.

When they were within seven feet of the shore the force gave out entirely, and Shinji's eyes reverted back to their normal blue and he promptly passed out again.

XXXXXX

"...up. Wake up, Shinji." A voice echoed in Shinji's mind. He awoke with a fright and a sputtering cough. Ellie and Joel were crouched next to him.

"Hey, thought we lost you there for a second." Ellie worried.

"What happened?" Shinji slurred.

"We saved you. You guys almost drowned." Chimed another voice.

Shinji looked in the direction of the voice, only to find that it was Henry and Sam.

"Don't know how you did it, but you kept your friends from drowning." Henry continued.

What Henry had just told him confused Shinji greatly. He was knocked out, how could he possibly keep Joel and Ellie from drowning?

"I thought you said you couldn't swim." Ellie chimed.

"I can't. The impact knocked me out!" Shinji explained.

"He's not wrong. You guys were all unconscious when we pulled you outta the river." Henry injected.

"But Shinji there had a deathgrip on your backpacks, kept your heads above the water." He continued.

"Um, ok?" Shinji replied.

"Well thanks for the save. Again." Ellie said to the puzzled Third Child.

"You don't have to thank for that, I mean I can't even remember doing anything besides panicking!" Shinji exclaimed.

She gave him a shrug. "I guess miracles do exist."

Joel and Ellie then stood up. He also attempted to stand but clumsily fell backwards onto to his bottom. Ellie just smiled at him and extended her hand to the boy. He quickly took it and she helped him to his feet. When he did stand, the world spun and he staggered slightly.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, concerned.

He put his hands on his knees, bent over slightly, and watched Misato's cross sway back and forth as it hung from around his neck. It was a miracle that the river hadn't swept it away. Miracles did exist indeed.

"Yeah... just a bit winded." He panted.

"Are you sure?" Ellie asked. He merely nodded and tried to wave off the sudden vertigo.

After a few seconds of panting, Shinji shook his head yes and found himself able to move without staggering.

Joel had kept his eyes locked on Henry and Sam during the whole conversation. When Henry made to walk closer Joel swiftly pushed him to the ground and pointed his gun towards him. Henry then began to reason with the old timer, but Shinji paid them little heed. His mind was still reeling from what Henry had told him. Shinji watched them but his mind wandered away.

'How could I have possibly grabbed Ellie and Joel's backpacks? There's no way I saved them!' Shinji thought.

"That is because you didn't. I did." A distorted voice whispered in Shinji's head.

He nearly had a panic attack at the sudden intrusion into his mind. The others didn't notice his sudden panic. They were too focused on Henry, who now stood again, talking about the radio station that he and Sam were heading to.

'Who are you!? Where are you!? What are you?!' Shinji mentally questioned. He received no answer.

'What the hell is going on!?' Shinji mentally screamed. Still no reply from the voice.

Shinji couldn't help but feel frustrated at the lack of answers, but there really wasn't anything he could do about a random voice inside his head that could possibly come and go whenever it wanted. Exasperated, he turned his attention back to Henry and Sam.

"You're gonna be glad you didn't kill me." Henry exclaimed to Joel.

The two brothers then began walking down the shoreline once more and called out that they were going to search the left side of the beach for supplies.

"We'll see if I'll be glad." Joel muttered.

"Man, that was intense. You guys alright?" Ellie asked the pair.

"Fine/I'm alright." They responded.

The trio then started walking down the right side of the beach to search for supplies of their own.

"Bet you're glad to be out of the city, huh?" Ellie questioned. Shinji looked at her before answering.

"Yeah, like you wouldn't believe. There's only so much hiding, fighting, and bridge jumping I can take at one time." He sighed. Ellie gave him an evil smirk.

"What?' Shinji asked.

"Such a manly scream…" She teased playfully. Shinji's face heated up in embarrassment.

"Shut up! I thought I was dead for sure!" He snapped.

Ellie noticed that although Shinji had said the words with a defensive tone, his face held a sort of kicked puppy look. It wasn't often Shinji actively showed aggression towards others he considered friendly, but the last week had left the boy very on edge. Shinji couldn't help but to lash out.

He realized what he had done and muttered a quiet "I'm sorry" and found the ground interesting to look at.

"I'm just messin' with ya. It's ok." She joked.

Ellie decided not to tease her newfound friend too hard until she found out why he looked so much like a scolded puppy when teased. She chose to give the boy some confirmation that she wasn't all teasing.

"Alright, I won't mess with you anymore." She stated with an apologetic look.

This took Shinji by surprise. He wasn't used to people simply giving up on teasing him. Toji and Kensuke liked to pull his chain sometimes, Asuka teased him whenever she got the chance, and Misato went a bit too far sometimes. Even Kaji and Ritsuko did it sometimes when they needed to deflect some of the teasing being thrown their way by Misato. He knew most of it was harmless but in his emotional state during his time in Tokyo-3 he was very sensitive and remained so to a lesser degree even up to this point. Meeting Asuka and living with Misato allowed him to build an immunity to it somewhat, but it still hurt sometimes.

To meet someone his age that knew when to stop teasing was a breath of fresh air for the lad. Touji and Kensuke knew when to stop most of the time but didn't always take the hint that he wanted them to stop and he was too shy to outright tell them to knock it off.

"You mean you're not gonna tease me?" Shinji asked quizzically.

"Nope. I can tell you really don't like it. Your face gives it away." She pointed out. He looked at her and smiled with a brightness that no one had seen him use in quite some time.

"Thank you." He beamed softly.

The pure sincerity in his smile and simple 'thank you' caught Ellie off guard. All she did was tell him she'd stop teasing him, yet Shinji looked as if she had saved him from some terrible fate.

"Y-you're welcome." She stuttered awkwardly.

Ellie had never seen someone so happy over something so trivial. Ellie didn't know what to say to Shinji after that and decided to remain quiet for a bit, until Joel spoke up.

""Well, would ya look at that." Joel murmured.

His sudden words caught the teens' attention, and they looked at him. He pointed past them in response to their questioning gazes. Since the two had been chatting with each other, they weren't paying attention to what lay ahead of them. Twenty feet ahead sat an old boat that had crashed into the shore.

"Cool! Let's check it out!" Ellie chirped excitedly.

The awkwardness of the previous conversation left her mind as she jogged towards the beached craft with Joel and Shinji in tow. The old vessel was tilted, making it quite easy for the three survivors to get onboard.

"Hmm, looks like an old fishin' boat." Joel announced. Shinji merely stood next to him while Ellie walked about the deck, taking in every little detail.

"First time on a boat?" Shinji asked the curious girl.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool." She breathed.

"Yeah well, it's a bit different in the water." Joel grinned.

"The 'Over the Rainbow' was a lot different in the water." Shinji blurted out.

Joel interest peaked. "You've been on a boat before, huh?"

"What's the 'Over the Rainbow'?" Ellie questioned.

Shinji scratched his head nervously. He quickly racked his mind for reasons why he was on the vessel and what the ship was without sounding insane. He couldn't very well tell them he was there to greet another Evangelion pilot like himself on a gigantic aircraft carrier. Though he hated to do so, and the fact that couldn't tell a lie to save his life made Shinji more than a little nervous of what he was about to do.

Luckily for him, Shinji had just recently met his companions. They didn't know him that well yet. How were they supposed to know he was lying? Still, lying to good people made Shinji uncomfortable.

"Y-yeah. The 'Over the Rainbow' was the ship my group used to get to America." He stuttered.

"Odd name for a ship." Ellie said with a raised eyebrow.

"That's what I thought when I first heard it too." Shinji replied.

He prayed no one asked more questions about the 'Over the Rainbow', he didn't know how he'd be able to answer them. When the awestruck redhead turned her gaze back to him, Shinji sweat dropped and started to mentally panic. Ellie opened her mouth to speak again but before she could say anything Sam's voice filled the air, calling everyone over.

Apparently he and Henry had found something.

Their interest peaked, the trio hopped over the side of the beached craft and walked over to Sam. He merely gestured for them to follow and clambered over some rocks to where his brother stood. Ellie, Joel, and Shinji followed him up to where he and Henry stood atop the rocks and climbed up themselves.

"Check this out." Henry pointed out.

The trio turned their heads to see what Henry was pointing at. A few feet away was a large drain with a lid. The metal lid was built like the bars in a prison cell so water could flow smoothly through it. The group walked over to the old drain and peered inside. It was pitch black inside.

Henry pulled out a flashlight and switched it on to see inside. With the addition of light, the group now saw that the drain lead inward past the small cliffs they stood under.

"That could work. Henry gimme a hand." Joel grunted as he tried to lift the heavy, metal lid. Henry joined him in lifting the sewer lid.

When the two men had lifted the lid high enough, the three teens slipped underneath and helped to lift it high enough for Joel and Henry to slip under themselves. Once Henry and Joel had gotten to the inside of the drain, they carefully lowered the metal lid back into place before taking out their flashlights. The inside of the drain was dark. Not dark enough you couldn't see without a flashlight, but one would have to strain to do so.

Sam and Ellie also pulled flashlights out of their backpacks. Ellie and Joel tied their flashlights onto their backpack straps so they didn't have to hold them. Henry and Sam saw and mirrored them. Shinji suddenly began mentally cursing himself. He had forgotten to pack a flashlight!

Joel noticed the look of distress on the boy's face.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I don't have a flashlight!" Shinji cried.

In retrospect when he was packing for his little trip, he didn't expect to be crawling through dark spaces, like the sewer the group now found themselves in. The result being that he had forgotten to pack a flashlight. He began mentally berating himself, Lilith had told him to be prepared!

Shinji realized that without the small ground level windows and holes in the ceiling, he would've never made out of the hotel basement. Dark places were where the infected had the advantage, they didn't need flashlights.

"Just stay close to me then." Joel sighed.

It was always something, wasn't it? The first kid he had to babysit reminded WAY too much of his deceased daughter and the newest edition, while capable of fending for himself, was unprepared for their current situation.

Shinji nodded and kept pace with the older man.

"Hey, the path ahead splits. Me and Sam got the left side." Henry called out.

"Alright. If you need us, just holler!" Joel barked. Henry nodded and ushered Sam to stay close.

The three proceeded to walk down the right pathway. As they walked Shinji was suddenly reminded of something.

"Hey Ellie, why did you yell it's 'Endure and Survive time' on the bridge? Does it mean something?" Shinji asked curiously.

"Oh, it's a thing from this comic I've been reading. The main character says it after a big battle." She explained.

'Hmm, it makes a good catchphrase now that I think about it.' She thought.

Shinji nodded with a look of understanding before it instantly changed into a look of utter confusion.

"What's a comic?" Shinji inquired innocently.

Ellie, and even Joel, thought that was more than a little odd.

Ellie gave the boy a confused look of her own. "I'll show you when we get to the radio station." She told the boy.

'How does he not know what a comic is? He must be more sheltered than I thought. Is is because he's not from the US?' Ellie questioned mentally.

She would have to wait until later to find the answer.

"Oh, okay." He nodded.

The three then happened across a chain link fence with a door made in the same fashion. A large crate sat against the other side of the door. Joel gave the door a solid push to no avail, it was jammed. It was then that Shinji noticed the small open vent in the wall behind the door.

Ellie followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at and saw another small vent in the wall to their left.

"Hey look, there's another one. Betcha those vents connect." Ellie pointed out.

"Most likely." Shinji replied.

The trio moved over to the vent and crouched down in front of it. Unlike the one behind the fence, the one in front of them had a covering. "If you guys can pry it open, I can get the door."

The two males nodded and ripped the old covering off with ease, and when they did the largest rat Shinji had ever seen skittered out from the inside of the vent. The two teens voiced their distaste at the small creature and Joel simply rolled his eyes at the pair's reaction.

"Alright, I'm going through." Ellie told the two before dropping to her hands and knees before slowly making her way through to the other side. Shinji quickly averted his eyes, less he be caught staring at her butt. Even though she was facing away from him Shinji didn't dare look. After plenty of accusations of him being a pervert from Asuka he got used to it but did NOT want the same accusations from his new friend.

A sudden thought of Ellie shooting him for looking at her in that way crossed his mind and snapped him back to reality. He was pretty sure Ellie wouldn't do something that drastic but he still didn't want to be labeled a pervert.

"You sure do space out a lot don't you?" Ellie asked.

"I guess…" He trailed off.

His eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he realized that Ellie was right next to him on his side of the gate. In his overthinking he had lost focus.

"Maybe I do that more than I thought." Shinji said.

"No shit. I wouldn't do that if you want to keep breathing" Joel chimed in.

Shinji flinched and nodded in response. Joel was right, now was not the time for daydreaming.

"Here." Ellie said to the boy.

Shinji turned his head towards the redhead to see her extended hand holding an extra flashlight she had found in the small room. The Third Child gave a quick 'thank you' before tying it to his backpack strap like Ellie and Joel had done with theirs.

Meanwhile Joel had torn the small room upside down and found a little extra ammo for his revolver and a note left by someone named Ish. Apparently Ish had been a guard at this community and the the boat they found beached on the shore had been his.

A sudden yell from Henry drew the trio's attention and they hurried down a corridor that connected to the tunnel Henry and Sam were in.

"We found a way through." Henry told the trio.

The reunited group followed the hallway a short ways before coming upon a big obstacle for the younger members of the group. It was a large flooded room with some sort of large machine in the water. The contraption had a platform that looked like it was used to transport people across the water and there was a small generator attached to a console on the other side of the water.

"Uh, guys. I can't swim." Sam squeaked nervously.

"Join the club. Neither can I or Shinji." Ellie chuckled.

Joel let out a heavy exhale, pinched the bridge of his nose, and looked at Henry. "If you tell me YOU can't swim I'm gonna through all of you in and let ya learn on the spot."

Henry merely laughed and looked around for some way to get across the water. He then noticed the enormous, metal gate in the water next to them that moved and creaked ever so slightly. Joel caught on to where Henry was looking at and noticed the gate had a wheel next to it that looked like it was used to open and close the gate.

Joel tried with all his might, and even with help from Henry the wheel didn't budge.

"It's probably jammed from underneath. I'm gonna check it out." Joel informed the group.

He promptly jumped in the water and dove underneath the water.

Shinji stared at the water where the man had dived under and began to clench and unclench his fists without realizing it. Ellie noticed the nervous habit and looked at Shinji. He was focussing intently on the water

"You ok?" Ellie asked the nervous lad.

"Yeah, just anxious. I'm ready to get out of these tunnels." He answered.

"I hear that, buddy." Henry chimed in.

Joel suddenly surfaced and Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin. Joel told Henry to try the wheel again, with successful results this time. Shinji paid it little attention as he forced his breathing to return to normal. The four survivors watched Joel swim underneath the gate and return a minute later with a large wooden palate. He regretted watching all those horror movies with Misato, they'd made him too easy to scare.

"I hate doing this…" Ellie muttered.

She then walked to the edge and carefully jumped onto the palate. She tried to distribute her weight evenly on the palate as Joel slowly pushed it towards the other end of the room. Shinji watched with nervous concern in his eyes. He really didn't want the girl to fall in.

Luckily she didn't, to Shinji's relief.

When Ellie and Joel reached the other side Ellie hauled herself back onto solid ground before attempting to rev up the generator. After a minute of failed attempts and loud curses, the generator sputtered to life.

"Alright guys get on the platform!" Ellie ordered the others on the opposite end.

They did so and watched Ellie fiddle with the console's many buttons and switches. Ellie quickly figured out the controls and flipped the switch that moved the platform. It slowly chugged forward with a metallic grinding sound.

The whole thing made Shinji's growing uncomfort even further.

Eventually the platform reached its destination and trio of passengers disembarked. Henry then helped Joel up from the water. While the rest of the group waited for Joel to wring himself out as best he could, Shinji stared down the long hallway they now stood in front of, shining his new flashlight all about to check for danger.

A second light shone next his as Ellie glanced down the hallway as well.

"What is it?" She asked softly.

"I don't know. I got a bad feeling about this place, something feels off." He replied.

"It's a creepy sewer, what did you expect? Of course it feels off." She stated.

Shinji shook his head in response.

"That's not it. Look." Shinji pointed out.

Down the hallway from the group were a set of large double doors with two large barrels of some kind in front of them. Everyone else picked up on his words and turned to where he was pointing. The thing that intrigued Shinji was that a cartoonish castle drawn on the wall surrounding the double doors.

Did someone live here?

"What do you think's in there?" Sam asked.

"Well we're about to find out." Joel answered.

The group pulled out their weapons and walked carefully towards the door. Shinji looked up at the ceiling to notice a large pipe that ran past the double doors. Right before they reached the doors Shinji went against his nature and decided to speak up.

"D-do we have to go in there?" Shinji stuttered.

"Yeah, ditto. I would really like to get outta here." Ellie chimed in.

"Sorry guys, we don't have much of a choice. If we turn back now we might miss me and Sam's group." Henry replied.

The two teens sighed in defeat and waited for Joel to take the lead. Joel reached forward and pushed the door open causing a plastic basket tied to the ceiling to tip over, releasing bottles that shattered all over the ground.

"What the hell?" Ellie exclaimed.

"Sound trap. It's basically an alarm." Henry explained.

"Looks like somebody lived here once. That don't seem to be the case now." Joel commented.

"Well if there are still people here they know we're here now." Shinji contributed.

Joel and Henry shared a glance, and took point in front of the teens. There was truth to the boy's words. Just because a place looked abandoned didn't mean it was, and if there was danger ahead they had to be the barrier from it to their wards.

Down the hallway was a waist high barrier and various old shelves and other items scattered about. An odd smell smell hung in the air and a general feeling of danger was on the rise. Shinji was starting to understand why he was feeling so uneasy about this sewer. There were either people there now, or had been at one time.

They had walked a couple of feet when Sam spied more pressing evidence that someone did or still lived here. Shinji's other hand not holding his pistol began to clench and unclench again when he saw what it was, or moreso what was on it.

On the wall to group's left was a large whiteboard with a sign above it that read 'House Rules', and on the whiteboard were the actual rules themselves.

Some of the rules like 'No running' and 'No loud play' made the hair on the back of the Third Child's neck stand up. Play meant children and that meant that he might see dead kids in this little journey underground. He did NOT want to see that. Ever since going with Touji to visit his little sister Sakura in the hospital, Shinji found he had a weakness to kids. That little girl had wormed her way into his heart forever.

Children also represented innocence, a trait that had long been cast away from him. The memories of Sakura were a topic of much mental torture for the boy. It was his fault she was hospitalized, yet when he visited she always seemed so happy to see him. She idolized him as the hero who saved the city, something he never viewed himself as.

Before his mind could begin the downward spiral he reminded himself what he learned in Third Impact.

It was possible for him to love himself. Eventually he would be able to connect with others. Ellie had even said she'd help him! How she going to actually do that Shinji didn't know, but he trusted the foul-mouthed redhead regardless. Because of his time in Tokyo-3 Shinji had gotten very good at reading people. He picked up the subtle things and could tell when people were lying most of the time. So far Ellie seemed to be an honestly good natured person. He would trust her and go along with what she said for now.

That is, assuming he didn't die first.

Thankfully for the boy's psche no one decided to comment on the whiteboard, but Ellie noticed the odd quirk's return. As they continued down the hallway Sam drifted away from the other two teens towards his brother while Shinji and Ellie lagged behind a bit. Secretly she had hoped he would so she got a chance to talk to her new friend more privately. In what barebones privacy they had being only a few feet behind everyone else.

Ellie remembered her earlier words to him. She had promised to help him with people and right now people seemed to make him very uncomfortable. So she decided the best approach was to get Shinji to trust her and maybe, just maybe, he'd open up to her.

Then she could work on getting him used to others beside herself. Joel was the next person she'd try and get him to relax around.

'One step at a time.' She told herself.

"Are you alright, Shinji?" She whispered to the boy.

"Huh? What do you mean?" He puzzled.

Ellie pointed to his hand and whispered again. "I just noticed you're doing the whole hand thingy again. You said you do that when you're stressed, right?"

He gave her a small nod before responding. "Yeah, I'm ok though. Really." He replied quietly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? We can talk about if you want."

He shook his head and gave a meek "It's ok, don't worry about it" and looked everywhere but at Ellie.

Ahead of them the tunnel split into two ways. On the left the path continued on to a corner and on the right was a small side room with lockers lining a wall and light streaming in through the ceiling.

"Let's give it the once over, couldn't hurt to check." Joel ordered. No one objected.

Henry walked over to where the light was coming from and searched the corner there. Joel opened the remaining lockers to reveal a kind of sawed-off shotgun that he called a 'shorty' and some ammo for it. Ellie and Sam playfully kicked around a soccer ball until they were quickly told to keep it down.

While everyone else quietly searched for supplies, Shinji wandered down the left path. His reason being a noise he thought he heard and to scout for potential danger. He made it halfway to the path's corner when he heard a familiar gurgling moan.

There were infected here. How many he couldn't be sure until he saw them.

Thanks to his week in the hotel Shinji knew now how the infected tended to act. Some made loud screeching, some made soft moans, and others made no sound at all. Since he couldn't risk going around the corner in front of him so he turned around and came face to face with Joel. The older man had leaned down to get face to face with him.

It took all his willpower not to scream in fright, he hadn't expected anyone to be that close. Everyone had noticed his absence quite quickly and had caught up with him very fast.

"Kid, do you have a death wish? 'Cause that's gonna happen if you keep wande-" A familiar screech cut Joel off.

"I thought I heard something so I went to check...maybe warn everyone if it was dangerous." Shinji whispered.

"Yeah…" Joel let the word hang in the air. His tone was gruff but there was understanding written in the older man's eyes.

Now that everyone figured what was going on they dropped to a crouch after Shinji himself did so. They crept silently towards the corner with Shinji in the lead. Joel motioned for Shinji to get behind him but Shinji merely unsheathed his knife and pointed towards the corner.

A look of understanding swept across the adults' faces and confusion on Ellie and Sam's.

Shinji had remembered a trick Misato had shown him with her tiny makeup mirror. Turn a mirror at just the right angle and you could use it to see around corners. He had no mirror with him but his combat knife was still shiny enough to work in this situation.

He carefully extended his arm and tilted the knife to see what lay around the bend. Sam and Ellie now understood what he was doing.

No infected thankfully, only a large prison cell style door. He tried to see what was past the bars but the lack of light was making that task difficult. The Third Child gulped and boldly stuck his head around the corner. He stood up and all followed suit.

"I don't see anything." Shinji whispered to the group.

"Alright. We go first this time." Henry piped up and motioned for Shinji to get back.

Shinji nodded in response. Henry and Joel then took the lead and walked slowly around the corner with the three teens right behind him. They reached the old door and pushed it open. It swung wide and creaked loudly as it did.

The door connected them to a larger tunnel with a large pile of objects halfway down it that looked to have been erected as a makeshift barrier or cover for a firefight. The five survivors descended a small flight of stairs into ankle deep water.

Before they had a chance to take in their surroundings a large infected man came barreling out of the darkness to the group's right. They had barely any time to react before it was upon them. The creature had nearly reached Joel when Shinji showed off his increasing marksman skills by putting two bullets into its temple.

The shot was deafening in the enclosed tunnel.

"Raaaaauuugh!" Monstrous screams echoed down the tunnel.

Everyone turned about wildly shining their flashlights every which way, trying to locate the creatures before they got too close. Not one second later Ellie spotted them. They were two runners and a clicker sprinting towards the group from the other end of the tunnel. They fell down the staircase at the opposite end of the room before getting up and resuming their charge.

"There! Three more!" Ellie announced.

The infected had just reached the waist high barrier and were desperately trying to clamber over it but Joel wasn't about to give them the chance. The grizzled man rushed forward and stopped a mere five feet from the infected, aimed his shorty, and pulled the trigger. The shorty's increased spread took care of all three infected with one shot. Fungus, blood, and brain matter painted most of the barrier.

"Cowabunga, fuckers!" Ellie muttered to herself while doing a small fist pump.

The group shared a collective sigh of relief. They all took a second to survey their surroundings proper now that they weren't being attacked. The group noticed that light leaked from the direction the first infected had came from. They shined their flashlights towards it to reveal that the light was coming from another side room.

The survivors shuffled carefully to the entrance of the room and peered in.

No infected were inside. Without a threat they strode into the room proper. Large containers of some sort sat in the back of the room and a corpse so old it was a practically a skeleton lay against more lockers to the right.

"What're those things?" Shinji asked while pointing to the containers.

"They look like raincatchers. I reckon they catch the water that falls down from that little hole." Joel answered.

Shinji looked at where the light streamed in and there was indeed a small hole that likely lead to the surface. Water dripped down from it into an open container.

"Smart move. Whoever lived here had it all figured out, until they got fucked over somehow." Ellie blurted.

No one said anything after that, they didn't have to. They knew there were no people left. This place had fallen a long time judging by the skeletal corpse and the clicker that had attacked them. The Third Child recalled what the man that first attacked him at the hotel said. Clickers took a long time to form. Shinji tore his eyes from the corpse and forced the image of what the man could've been like from his mind.

No reason to think of things that would drain his sanity even more than it already had been drained.

Joel found nothing of use in the lockers and motioned the group out of the room. They all walked to the barrier that had stopped the infected just long enough for to blast them with the shorty. They stuck to right side and crawled over one by one on account of the gore that painted the rest of the barrier.

Another small flight of stairs met them at the end of the room and the group trotted up them, weapons at the ready just in case. No surprises awaited them at the top. Just another small hallway that opened up to a much larger room.

When the five walked into the open room Ellie spied a possible way out.

"Hey, check that out." Ellie pointed out while descending the small flight of stairs into the room.

Directly in front of them was a large hole in the wall that looked like a promising way out. The only problem was that it was fifteen feet off the ground. While the group stood and discussed how they were going to get up to the hole Sam noticed another way to go.

On their right was another prison style door with metal bars around it that made it look very much like a prison cell. Those style doors had most like been built on the possibility that the tunnel needed to be flushed with water, making it easier to go through. Sam walked over to the door and attempted to open it. But it wasn't budging, time and the humid air had rusted the old door heavily.

"Here, let me give ya a hand." Joel said to the boy. He nodded and waited for Joel to act.

The other three hadn't notice them move. They were too busy trying to brainstorm a way up to the hole. Joel placed his hands on the door's handle alongside Sam and forced the door open with all his might. The door snapped open and mechanisms could be heard whizzing and buzzing. The thunderous crash behind them told Joel and Sam they shouldn't have tried to open that door.

To be continued…

XXXXXX

Holy crap this is overdue! Stuff in the real world just kept halting my progress on this for so long I didn't think I would ever get to finish this chapter. Also after rereading the first few chapters I realized how bad they were and how I need fix them, errors abundant in those. I promise the next chapter will come sooner. Also check out my other fic Guns in the Valley if you like this one.

Sayonara, Peace!