Set Me Free ▪︎ Joel Miller ▪︎

▪︎○ Thirty Two ○▪︎

Olivia heard the familiar clicking and groaning before the others did, mainly because she was further down the tunnel than the two men and teens. She slowed down, inching cautiously towards the chain-link gate at the end of the tunnel she had wandered down alone. She frowned, listening to the increasing sounds of the infected with a racing heart.

"Do you hear that?" she asks the group as they come up behind her, talking quietly about the maze of tunnels.

The question silences them almost immediately with both men stepping forward with ears perked up, searching for the sounds Olivia was referring to. It took only a short second before they too heard the groans and aggressive clicking just beyond the chain-link gate.

"Shit,"

"I'll take that as a yes," Olivia mumbles whilst drawing her knife and turning to the two teens. "You two stay behind us and look out for each other; we don't know how many of those things are in here with us."

"You heard her Sam. Stay back and do what we say. Got it?" Henry reiterates to his brother.

"Got it."

"Alright, let's go." Joel drawls whilst turning the lock on the gate and pushing it open with an audible squeak that made Olivia cringe.

Together, they walked through the gate, keeping their ears perked up and their eyes peeled for any close infected. One by one the adults stepped down the metal stairs cautiously, their weapons drawn and prepared to fight.

Unfortunately, Olivia made one crucial mistake; she stepped on a broken piece of glass. Below her sudden added weight upon it, the glass shard crunched, breaking into smaller pieces and attracting the unwanted attention of the infected hidden out of view.

The runners screeched aggressively, charging at the group straight ahead while a stray runner bee lined for Olivia from their right. She stood tall, ignoring the mild annoyance lining Joel's brows at her unintentional screw up with the glass while lifting her knife and charging at the runner coming towards her. She drew her knife back, then with all her strength she swung it straight for its head, through the brain.

"Shit, there's too many of them!" Henry called out whilst firing off his pistol at the clickers approaching.

"Fuck this," Olivia muttered tiredly. She moved behind Joel as he shot at the approaching infected that were climbing over a steel barrier towards them. Silently, she reached into his pack and withdrew a nail bomb carefully.

God, she hated those things but desperate times called for desperate nail bomb related measures.

So, with a brief shrug offered to Joel who had arched a curious brow at her having rummaged through his pack, she tossed the nail bomb forward just in time for the group to move back and the infected to charge towards it.

"Holy shit!" Henry cried out fearfully as the bomb exploded, shredding the infected that had been circling it.

"Those things are awesome," Ellie said wistfully.

"I still hate them," Olivia muttered stubbornly, earning a smirk from the Southern man. "But they are pretty damn effective." she admitted reluctantly.

"I'm not sure I caught that," Joel told her with a smirk, too smug with his 'I told you so' expression for Olivia's liking.

"We really need to find you some hearing aids," she deadpanned.

Joel's smirk dropped, replaced with a mildly irritated expression. "Cute."

"Yes," Olivia smiled, brushing past him with a racing heart. "You are." she breathed just loud enough for him to hear as she tucked away her knife and followed after Henry and the teens, leaving a surprised and near red faced Joel behind.