Set Me Free ▪︎ Joel Miller ▪︎

▪︎○ Five ○▪︎

The group headed further up ground, passing by the many rotten and rusted cars scattered along the broken highway. They climb effortlessly up the steep and crooked terrain, listening intently for any sign of danger.

"Holy moly. I guess this is what these buildings look like up close." Ellie says in awe, tilting her head back to get a good look at the slanted building. "They're so damn tall," she observes.

Olivia smiles to herself, remembering the first time she had seen the skyscrapers before the outbreak. She had been in similar awe of them, but that was back when things were semi-normal, when the infection didn't exist amongst humans. When kids could just be... well, kids.

The last thought strikes sadness in her heart, causing her smile to slip away and a frown to form in its place.

"You okay?" a familiar voice asks.

"Like you care." Olivia scoffs before picking up her pace in an effort to catch up with Tess, leaving the brooding older man behind her without a second glance.

She almost falls into step beside the female smuggler when a loud screech rings out through the air, louder than the thundering sky. Its clearly an infected somewhere further away, far enough that Olivia doesn't allow herself to worry all too much about it, even when Ellie asks what the sound was.

"Tess, you hear that?" Joel calls out, completely ignoring Ellie's question.

"Yeah. It sounded pretty far away, though."

"That was the sound of an infected," Olivia tells Ellie with a smile, answering the girl's previous question.

"Oh, creepy."

"Yeah," Olivia nods in agreement.

"Are we safe?" the teens asks nervously.

"For now," Tess throws over her shoulder.

"So, what happened here?"

"Well, they bombed the hell out of the surrounding areas to the quarantine zones, hoping to kill off as much of the infected as possible." Tess explains whilst coming to an abrupt stop at the edge of a large crater, she crouches on the ledge and looks down in thought. "We need to find a way around this mess," she sighs.

"We could cut through that office building," Olivia suggests whilst pointing to their right where the slanted building still stood. "I reckon it beats leaping to our death," she says with a playful smile.

"I don't know, I reckon I could nail the landing." Ellie plays along, a grin lifting on her lips.

Olivia chuckles, "Come on," she gestures with her head towards the building where Joel had already set off to, Tess trailing behind him. "Best catch up before we give grandpa there an aneurism," she whispers into the girl's ear with a smirk.

Ellie laughs quietly and nods whilst jogging alongside Olivia to catch up to the smugglers. "So, this is the downtown area?" she asks after a few quiet moments.

Olivia hums, "it was but now it's just a giant wasteland."

"Oh,"

"Up here, there's a way through." Joel calls from up ahead, pointing out an office that is missing its front wall, opening it up to the outside and giving the group easy access into the skyscraper.

"Jesus," Olivia breathes as she pulls herself up into the room with ease. "This does not feel safe," she voices her concerns as the building trembles from the force of the heavy winds and rain. Her fear of heights rising to the surface quicker than she can hide it. "What if it collapses?"