A/N: Here is my first chapter of Prototype: The Last Strain. I'm sorry that I haven't posted it earlier, but I had to keep myself paced so nothing seems rushed. Anyway, there's going to be a multiple layer of stories that will get detailed. There won't be a particular order for those stories, but they will feature Alex Mercer's for sure, because why not? There'll also be Heller's story as well as Joel's and Ellie's. And there's one more story here that should be worth noting that it belongs not to an OC, but to someone who was born from Elizabeth Greene. For those of you who've played Prototype before, I think you can make that guess. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next chapter as much as you did the first one.

Chapter 1: 14 Months Later

In the infected area of New York, now known as the Red Zone, a man in a black jacket with white stripes was watching the chaos that took place on a rooftop. All around him, he could see flyers in the air as helicopters fell prey to their kamikaze attacks on the blades, shutting them down and causing them to crash to the ground below, sending fire and smoke to the already darkened air. Down below was even worse. Many types of infected, CBI or just pure Blacklight, roamed the streets as if they owned them. Having marked several territories in the Red Zone, they might as well have.

The Walkers and Runners (self-explanatory labels of the infected) alone made things difficult for even a tank to handle. The tank could easily run them over, but too many of them would either obstruct their path or slow them down and make them easy prey for something worse, like brawlers for example. Brawlers are more of a brute mutation from Blacklight that exhibit more tendencies to lash out with their terrifying strength. Speaking of, the man noticed that a pack of them came from the alley and collided into the tanks like they were bowling pins. It was safe to assume that there were no survivors at this point.

Taken separately, it appears random, but he knew better. Aside from following their base instincts, it seems like they coordinated that ambush. Whoever caused that second outbreak must've acted as a de facto pack leader for those monsters. And for once... it wasn't on him. Because this time, he was just as much in the dark about who caused it as the others were.

"First, the Blacklight Virus. And now, its spawn: the Cordyceps Brain Infection. Apparently, a strain triggered in the fungi. This is the second time I've seen New York go to hell..."

The man began to reminisce about the first outbreak as he recalled waking up in a morgue, much to the terror of two scientists before he ran out of the Gentek building, holding a vial of Blacklight before unleashing it on Penn Station in his act of desperation.

"The first time was because of me. I didn't even know who I was anymore. But when I found out... it wasn't what I'd hoped."

Next, he began to remember a phone call from his "informant", revealing to him who, or rather what he was.

'You're not human. You're the Blacklight Virus.'

After he dropped the phone, he recalled another man's own words next in the lab.

'You died in Penn Station, but the virus found its way into your bloodstream. We were trying to figure it out— you just wanted to bring it all down."

Shortly after, he committed suicide by shooting himself under his chin, much to his terror before it showed him being confronted by Captain Cross as the man was held up by his neck before he pushed him away before transforming into a Hunter. After that fight, the man hijacked a helicopter and went away with it before dropping it into the ocean. It wasn't long before an explosion followed. It blew him to pieces.

But he came back. All the more proof that he wasn't human. Not anymore. Though, he didn't see it as a curse much anymore.

'I wasn't human to begin with after Penn Station. Rather than go through with it by simply using that code to turn it off... I decided to go out with a bang while saving everyone in the process. But even that didn't work. And right now... I'm glad it didn't. A few months after, things got worse. Someone else caused the Second Outbreak."

The man then recalled footage of a strange and unfamiliar face with a man in a black coat with a red moth on the back of it holding a red vial that he knew all too well. He could practically hear his voice from the footage playing back like a recorder.

'Upon this rock, I will build my church.'

The man then released the virus and spread it like a cloud, infecting all the people nearby, causing them to convulse from the overwhelming force of it as he looked back to the camera as he smiled before it showed the events of Hope, Idaho at '69, in which Elizabeth and her son were both taken away. Then, it showed him searching in an area where the alarms were going off with the red lights all around him before finding out that the cells were empty.

"The news called him Francis Niccolo. But I've never heard of this man in my life before now. Yet, he seemed to know a hell of a lot more about this virus, seeing he lasted this long. I would've suspected Elizabeth Greene's child; he didn't look a day over 40, as in 40 years since Hope, Idaho. But from what I saw with Randall's memories, the child was killed, at least as far as I know. And each time I get close to him, he gets his trail cold, and I'm back at square one. The last time that happened was Vandenberg Air Force Base at California. I found out that Greene's child was stationed there for Project Crusade. I thought I could tag him and find out if he's responsible. But by the time I got to where I'm supposed to be... I was already too late. So, now I'm left with the obvious question I haven't been able to answer since I saw him. Who the hell is Francis Niccolo?"

In the present day, he continued his gaze on the rooftop as he narrated to himself.

"One virus. 14 months. Trillions dead. This time, the whole world went to hell. And I was there. My name is Alex Mercer. And I'm gonna end this, once and for all."

Just then, Mercer heard an explosion go off, making him turn his head to see a tank capsized on the streets. Nearby the tank were countless infected, including the Brawler pack. Another set of victims to the "random" attacks. But if there was a silver lining to this, it'd be that he'd be able to track down Niccolo, or even better, find out who knows about him. Assuming he's lucky, that is. Nonetheless, he had to try.

With that, Mercer leaped from said rooftop and dove down towards the street where the tank got ambushed before landing on the ground, causing a shockwave that knocked all the infected within range away. However, it also gained the attention of the others who weren't knocked away. Despite this, Mercer came prepared. He turned his hands into claws before the Walkers and Runners came at him. This was nothing more than child's play to him.

He ran towards the creatures before running through them, cleaving through them as their pieces fell to the ground. Amidst the bloody carnage, the infected continued to charge at him, acting on the instinct to spread the virus. But of course, against their superior, they had no chance, especially not when he turned his right arm into a blade and swung it like a windmill, slicing through every one of them. But the Brawlers were a different story.

They, out of all the infected from the virus itself, knew how to pack a punch. So, he made sure to keep his guard up as one leapt at him. He used his blade to hold back the beast's attack, but there was so much a defense could do for him. Fortunately, he found an opening, went under the brawler and stabbed at it before forcing his blade to travel down on its body. As a result, the beast succumbed to its mortal wound quickly as it was cut almost in half. But there was still the rest he had to deal with.

This time, Mercer tried a different approach. He turned his right blade into a small razor whip before waving it in the air and scratching it against the ground. The Brawlers roared in retaliation before charging at him. That was their fatal mistake. Mercer did a swing of his whip, and as it made contact with the creature, it sliced off its arm before he did another swing to cut off the other Brawler's arm. With both reduced to having one arm, Mercer closed in for the kill.

He lurched his whip into one Brawler's chest before pulling him closer, knocking it to the ground in the process. He then planted his foot on top of one of its shoulders before using his whip to swing it at the neck, pulling it free while decapitating it. With that done, Mercer ran to the other Brawler, picking up its dissected arm before jumping into the air and slamming it claw-first into its face, silencing it forever. With the infected out of the picture here, Mercer was free to analyze the tank that was capsized.

As he walked towards it, Mercer knocked away a pile of debris with a thwack of his hand towards the left lane. When he did, however, it appeared that he was too late and out of luck. All he found there was a pile of corpses. And the worst part of it was that not one of them were Blackwatch soldiers. They appeared to be dressed in standard military uniform. But the one thing that's caught his attention was a small painted emblem: a white firefly.

"Dead. And they're not Blackwatch material, either. Those Fireflies must've hijacked their tank to try to ambush them from inside. Would've been impressive... if they survived."

Mercer's been hearing a lot about this group for a while. They called themselves the Fireflies. They stood in opposition to Blackwatch, who'd long since overthrown they casual government to take charge since the world got thrown into Armageddon. They sought to restore the world's branches of government, not that he'd cared about it. But their extreme methods were what interested him.

In a way, he felt as if he inspired them indirectly. They must've taken note of his work and used that to try to fight back against them. Their resolve was impressive, he had to admit. A part of him felt more sad than disappointed that he couldn't find Niccolo's current location as he lifted one corpse's head before setting it back on the ground.

"You deserved better."

Suddenly, Mercer found himself caught by his neck before a knife sliced through it. Someone must've tried to ambush him. Of course, it didn't make any difference to him. He simply gave a smirk as his assailant tried to speak his surprise.

"What the—?"

Mercer quickly pushed his back against the assailant, knocking him near the side of a building before he stood up and turned to see who attacked him. It was a man with dark skin in a military uniform, but it came with a vest that held bullets as well as a pocket for his knife that sliced through his neck. He went up to him to take a closer look, only to find that the attacker wasn't moving. Though, when he panted his breath, he knew he was still breathing. Still, he was impressed that he could survive that, let alone sneak up on him.

If he could stand up to that, could it mean...? No, it couldn't. Mercer only shook his head at him before walking away. A few moments after he did, though, he heard a shout coming from behind him. It came from the attacker he'd knocked back a while ago.

Thinking quickly, he tried to punch him away, but he dodged his volley before stabbing him in the back. He tried again to punch him, but the attacker dodged again before stabbing him in the back near his neck. He appeared to be disoriented, but when he made a third stab, this time on his chest, Mercer forced his knife away quickly before pushing him away to the ground again.

Like last time, he recovered. He's as stubborn as an ox. Perhaps, even as stubborn as he is. Seeing a closer look at him, Mercer found out he was a Firefly like the other soldiers. No wonder he fought that good. He must be a force to be reckoned with. And he admired that, even as he spoke to him with a smile.

"What else you got?"

The attacker only held his knife at the ready before proceeding to go towards him. Mercer knew what his plan was from those attacks, but they couldn't do much to him as is. Still, like he thought before, he was stubborn. But that didn't mean he wasn't cautious as the attacker spoke under his breath.

"The heck is this punk up to?"

As he went towards him, Mercer began to walk away from him, heading towards the pile of debris that laid out a path by their obstruction. His attacker didn't seem too concerned about it, however.

"What? You think I won't follow you in there?"

Mercer only shook his head as he responded back to him, assuring him that he'd heard him.

"No. I'm seeing if you could."

And he did. The attacker was trailing Mercer. He's a driven man, just like those Fireflies. They taught him well. He's used to people wanting him dead, but for someone to come close to pulling it off... if he were like anyone else, he might've succeeded. But he's fighting the wrong person. If he can show him around long enough, he'd come close to understanding that.

While they walked on the path, the two of them took notice of a wounded Firefly soldier on the side of a road far ahead. Mercer couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"Hello? Please help me."

Mercer went over to the soldier and knelt down to him.

"Hey. Don't worry. I'm gonna help you."

Upon seeing his face, however, he became fearful.

"Mercer? You? Oh, my god..."

"Listen. I can help you, okay? Just tell me where I can get you help."

"But you— you caused all this! Why would you help me?!"

"Let's just say you're my responsibility."

Despite his actions, his attacker didn't seem convinced. Just then, however, he noticed a Brawler leaping out before heading towards the soldier and Mercer. The former was quick to panic, but the latter knew turned his hands into red and black fists before the creature lunged. He countered it quickly, knocking it back all the way past the point it leapt from, much to his follower's surprise. After which, Mercer spoke to him, shaking off the shock of seeing him stand up for another man.

"You're a Firefly, aren't you? Call some backup to look after him."

Upon hearing this, his follower began to see through his apparent ruse. He must be trying to shake him off by having him wait with his fellow soldier. But he knows better than to fall for that, or so he believed.

"And let you walk away? After what you did to my wife and kid? Not a chance."

Mercer didn't seem too fazed by it. In fact, it got him what he needed to know. He must've attacked because he's being blamed for what happened to his family. It's understandable in this world's standards. But he still needed to understand...

"Fair enough. You got a name?"

"Heller."

"Well, Heller, he can come with if you want to follow. But he needs help. Don't forget that. And don't worry. I won't go too fast for you."

Mercer then proceeded to walk further away, this time to the right lane that's opened up as Heller turned back to the soldier to help him up. But when he tried, the soldier stopped him.

"Wait! Just leave me here. I'd only hold you back."

"But you were begging for help almost a minute ago."

"I know that. But that was before I saw Mercer in front of me. Besides, if you're here, the others aren't far behind. Do you have a communicator on you? I lost mine not too long ago."

Heller searched his belt and found a walkie-talkie before handing it to him. When the exchange was made, the soldier spoke to him again.

"I'll call the others and get some help from here. Just go get that son of a gun."

"Gotcha."

Heller then proceeded to walk towards the path Mercer went to as he drew out his knife. But when he went down that path, Mercer was already gone. This made him furious more than anything as he shouted.

"MERCER! DON'T YOU RUN FROM ME!"

Luckily for him, he didn't have to worry. He didn't know it, but Mercer was actually inside one of the torn down buildings, watching him. He told him he wouldn't go too far, and he had every intention of keeping that word. Just then, however, he noticed a Blackwatch helicopter moving in before turning around to see Heller standing in its spotlight, much to Mercer's annoyance.

"Sergeant Heller, you are trespassing on Blackwatch territory."

"Blackwatch again? Great. I don't have time for this."

Mercer then mobilized towards the helicopter as he jumped from the building before leaping at it as the pilot spoke.

"You are to hold your position. A personnel carrier is inbound to—"

Before he could finish, Mercer kicked the helicopter and triggered an explosion that made it spin out of control. In the process, however, it began swerving towards Heller.

"Oh, crap!"

Just in the nick of time, though, Heller rolled out of the way before the helicopter landed on the ground and exploded, knocking him farther back. As Heller recovered, Mercer leapt from another rooftop and onto a ruined bus, much to Heller's annoyance for his recurring disappearing act.

"Okay... you done runnin'?"

Mercer gave him a nod as an answer before adding to it.

"I am. But I don't think you should be."

A roar came up from behind Heller as Mercer leapt away. Heller then turned around to see a giant infected monster headed toward him. It had one thin arm that held a sickle and another giant one that had a claw that also acted as a shield.

"What the—! Oh, crap!"

Heller had no choice but to run for his life as the beast roared before it slammed its giant arm on the street and began pushing it. Heller ran as fast as his legs could manage while trying to evade the monster's crushing arm. But each step he took, the arm got closer and closer to him. Fortunately, Heller noticed a gap he could jump through on the ruined building in front of him. He took a leap of faith and made it through, leaving the monster behind on the other side. The monster peered through the open window to search, but after that, it went away as Heller caught his breath before brushing himself off.

"How's a virus make something like that?"

As an answer, Heller heard a roar behind him.

"Oh, heck, no."

By the time he turned around, he was suddenly ambushed by a Brawler. Having pinned down its prey, the Brawler began to chow down on Heller, but to no avail. Each time it tried to bite him, Heller swiftly dodged each of its jaws' strike. But he knew he couldn't keep this up forever. Rather than deal with the possibility of being dead, or worse, he had to end it quickly.

"Get off of me!"

Heller forced the Clicker away before getting out a knife and repeatedly stabbing at it. The creature writhed in pain from his attack, but it nonetheless persisted to try to attack. So, Heller did the same, too as he continued his stabbing.

"Just! Die! Already!"

After a few more rounds, the Clicker had succumbed to Heller's ferocity and fell dead on top of him. A moment later, Heller lifted the corpse off of him before standing up and catching his breath. Just in that moment, Heller heard clapping from behind him and turned to see none other than...

"Mercer!"

"Good job taking down that Brawler by yourself. There's not many Fireflies that can do that, let alone people."

Heller only responded by holding his knife at the ready before charging at Mercer, only for his arms to turn into a red and black matter before gripping him by the neck and slamming him to a wall. Despite his position, Heller continuously stabbed his arm with little to no effect other than a spurt of a glowing red substance from each laceration he made. Mercer sighed at his vain attempt.

"You're a really stubborn guy, aren't you?"

The more Mercer looked at Heller, though, the more alike he realized that the two of them were. No matter what came his way, he was determined to accomplish his mission, even if that mission meant his destruction. On top of that, he showed that he's quite resilient to the chaos around him, or at least he didn't appear to care about them. Misplaced as his goal was, Mercer had to admit it. Heller was something else. Then it came to him.

So far, he's been doing this solo, and it offered no fruits to him whatsoever, in solving the mystery that is Francis Niccolo, tracking down Pariah, or stopping the Blacklight the second time around. But if he had a partner by his side, one just as resilient as him... maybe there would at least be some success. Though, the requirement to recruit him could be costly.

If it doesn't work, the virus would kill him. But if it does, there'd be a new player on the field. If there was a chance that he can be able to do what he couldn't initially... he had to take it. But in the case that he doesn't, he had to say this to Heller before he lost the opportunity.

"You're fighting the wrong side of this war, Heller. I hope you'll live long enough to understand that."

With that, Mercer plunged his left arm into Heller, sprouting red and black matter around him and making him convulse as the virus coursed through him.

As Heller dealt with the painful torrent of biological contamination, his mind trailed to the memory a little girl who ran in the park with a happy smile. After that, he had another memory of when he was beside his wife in the living room, holding her close before it showed another more painful memory of two graves, one for the child and the other for the wife as a voice spoke in the hall of memory lane.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

In the present, Mercer dropped Heller to the ground as he looked on. Heller still convulsed as the matter sank into his body. Though, at this point, it's hard to tell whether or not he's dead or alive. Then again, he'd died before. Who's to say he wouldn't come back to life the way he did? At the very least, that's what he hoped.

Mercer was about to carry him, but then he noticed a helicopter closing in from above. Other times, he would've taken them on like he did not too long ago, but not this time. This time, a retreat was in order.

"Time to get out of here."

Mercer then picked up Heller's body before placing him over his shoulder and taking off, just barely avoiding the searchlight from the helicopter above. As the helicopter searched for them, Mercer set Heller down behind a brick chimney on a rooftop as he spoke to him.

"Just hang in there, Heller. It'll be a second."

In that moment, Mercer turned his attention to the helicopter as it spotted him.

"Red Crown, this is Tango-Niner. We've spotted Zeus. I repeat, we've spotted Zeus. Preparing to engage. Over."

Mercer's eyes only glowed red before he began coating his arms in a red and black matter and ran towards the helicopter, much to the pilot's horror. In his panic, he began to fire at Mercer, with no success. Mercer then leapt at the helicopter and landed just in front of the cockpit before breaking through the windshield to pull the pilot out and toss him to a rooftop before leaping over to him as the helicopter exploded behind him while he glared down at the pilot as Mercer held him by his throat while he spoke to him.

"Let's see what you know."

The pilot only scoffed at him.

"Good luck getting anything out of me, Mercer! I'll never talk."

"You won't have to."

Before the pilot could react, Mercer's arm began to sprout black tentacles around the pilot before they completely enveloped him and pulled him towards his body. The moment he did this, Mercer began to recall his memories.

He saw a flash of a young child standing all by himself with only one arm as he looked at the people in front of him, one of which was the person Mercer had just consumed before that image turned him into a young man with his light brown hair and his hazel eyes shown. Afterwards, it showed him making contact with a baby chick, rubbing its head softly, only for it to appear misshapen and mutated a moment later before showing a young girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes beside him before it showed her being hugged by the young man.

'Subject Pariah removed to clean room at Vandenberg Air Force base on 8/1/69 as main test subject in Project: Crusade. Subject exhibits unusual biological activity. Responsible for five deaths in thirty-four years of captivity. Unlike Mother, Pariah exhibits no physical symptoms of Blacklight infection, although like her, he doesn't appear to have aged beyond the image of 19 years. Following this, Subject Pandora, A.K.A. Miller, Sarah D. has been acquired from Austin, Texas on 9/27 albeit in critical condition, for purposes beyond top secret as she had no sign of infection.'

In another memory of his, it showed a new General of Blackwatch, one with thin black hair on his head and a scar over his right eye before he spoke to his soldiers as images of red alarms played back before showing that of Alex Mercer in the hallway with a glare before showing Francis Niccolo smirking at Penn Station.

'Gentleman, we've received confirmation that Alex Mercer, the man who killed my father, General Randall Sr., has infiltrated this base some time ago. As a result, Subject Pariah has escaped with our most recent addition, Pandora. And I have this wound here to prove it. Recapturing them is mission critical. They must be found. They must be secured. But above all, they must not make contact with Mercer OR Niccolo at any cost.'

When the memory was over, Mercer couldn't believe what he'd just seen. 14 months of no precise location for where he is, but he's finally found out about another factor. He thought the child was killed, but he just saw that it survived, if the missing arm was any indication. And he appeared to have grown with a roommate, too. There were only two survivors of Hope, Idaho, supposedly. But who was Pandora?

"So that's it. No wonder I couldn't find him at Vandenberg. And Pandora... the girl he took with him who wasn't infected, but was taken by Blackwatch anyway. What does that all mean?"

As much as he'd like to know the answer to that, Mercer knew he should give Heller some attention. For now, he shook it off before turning back to the unconscious infantryman. Mercer considered taking him back to the fireflies, but he had no clue where they were. To do that, he'd have to consume one of them, but they didn't do anything to deserve that. They were the ones fighting Blackwatch, after all. For now, there was only one other option left as Mercer sighed before speaking to the unconscious Heller.

"Don't worry, Heller. I know a guy who'll patch you up. Goes by Ragland. You'll be glad that you know him. I know I am..."

Mercer then took off from the rooftop, beginning to travel to the person who can help Heller the way he'd helped him. The way he helped Dana...

Meanwhile, in Boston, Joel suddenly woke up with a start. He now wore a faded green shirt with dark jeans to complete the set. The sunlight could only get in through the cracks of a boarded up window. And the atmosphere was darkened, even with the little light that got in. He'd just woken up from a nightmare. And it wasn't the first time he's ever had one.

Since Outbreak Day, Joel was stricken by nightmares of his baby girl being taken away. From what he heard out of Tommy, he said that his plan was to correct a mistake. But what was the mistake? And why did he have to take Sarah away to correct it? Sadly, he may never know.

According to Tommy, she was gone. Whether that implied she was dead or alive, he didn't want to know. He had a feeling that the answer would be worse than his nightmares. Since then, he'd done everything he could just to survive like everyone else would in this time... Before he could dwell on it any further, he heard a knock on the door before standing up to take a look. Another knock came before he'd spoken up.

"I'm coming."

Joel came over to answer the door before he opened it to find not only a brown-haired woman with hazel eyes, a headband around her hair, a dark pink shirt, and her own set of jeans, but also a man with silver hair, a faded blue shirt, and grey pants at the door. The latter was only partially relieved to see him as he shook his hand.

"There you are, Joel. About time you opened the door. For a while, I thought you died in your sleep or somethin'."

"Not likely, Paul."

The two let themselves in as the woman looked over to Joel.

"How was your morning?"

The woman didn't get an answer before she turned over to the bottle of beer on the table accompanied by a couple of cups. She and Paul went over to it before they each poured themselves a cup before Paul turned over to Joel.

"You want a drink, buddy?"

"No. I don't... want one."

"Alright. More for us, then."

The two of them each took a drink as Joel began to wonder what it was about.

"Look, what are you two even doing here? You don't usually make house calls."

After the woman finished her drink, she answered to Joel with a satisfied look on her face.

"Well, I have some interesting news for you."

Interesting was a gentle way to put it for Joel, especially when he saw a wound on the right side of her face. He wasn't used to hearing good news, so naturally, he assumed the worst as he went over to the sink to grab a wet cloth.

"Where were you, Tess?"

"West End district. Hey, we had a drop to make."

"We. We had a drop to make."

"Yeah, well, you wanted to be left alone, remember?"

As Tess took the cloth and held it to her face, Paul felt she had made her point clear.

"She's got you there, Joel."

He only scoffed at Paul's words. He'd gotten used to his mannerisms since he came to work with Tess and Paul. And it was also because of that experience that he guessed where that wound came from.

"So, I'll take one guess. The, uh, whole deal went south and the Client made off with our pills. Is that about right?"

Paul shook his head in response to that while Tess laughed as he set his glass down before he spoke on the contrary before holding out a deck of cards in his hand.

"Actually, Joel, the whole deal went off without a hitch. Got us enough ration cards to last us a couple of months. Read 'em and weep."

As Paul set the cards on the table, Joel put the focus back on the wound Tess was tending to.

"You wanna explain this?"

Tess didn't see any point in making a big deal out of the wound, so she explained it to him bluntly.

"Paul and I were on our way back here, and we got jumped by those two a-holes, alright? Yeah, they got a few good hits in, but... look, we managed."

Paul agreed with Tess. In their experience, it wasn't anything they couldn't handle.

"Yeah. Those guys weren't any trouble. I mean, if it were the big boys like the Rattlers, that'd be a different story."

Joel went over to Tess before taking the cloth from her and applying pressure to the wound.

"Are those a-holes still with us?"

Tess only made a small laugh from hearing this before replying to him.

"Now that's funny."

"Did you at least find out who they were?"

"Yeah, look. They were a couple of nobodies— they don't matter. What matters... is that Robert sent them."

This made Joel widen his eyes. He knew Robert all too well. In the years that followed, he had a new line of work that doesn't require being nice to the contractor. He's grown more ruthless over the years. And Robert is the one who owed him, Tess, and Paul a great debt. The fact that he retaliated this way was a surprise to him.

"Our Robert?"

"He knows that we're after him. He figures he's gonna get us first."

Paul interjected Tess' sentence with the end result.

"And look how well that turned out. If he's gonna take us out, at least hire someone who can use a gun."

Thinking more on it, Paul began to see the reason for Robert hiring those alleged "nobodies."

"But... then again, maybe he didn't think we'd expect them. It's good planning, I'll give him that."

Joel, on the other hand, didn't think it was good news, whereas Tess saw the bright side.

"That son of a jackal, he's smart."

"No. He's not smart enough. We know where he's hiding."

Joel has no reason to believe this. His partners don't exactly let anyone live long enough to tell them, or at least Tess wouldn't. Paul would let them disclose the location, but they usually point out dead ends to them. But that's a habit he broke with a new technique he learned a few weeks ago. Still, Joel couldn't be sure it was true.

"Like hell, you do."

"Old warehouse in Area 5. Can't say for how long, though."

"Well, I'm ready for now, yeah?"

"Well, I can do now."

As Joel and Tess began to head to the door, Paul felt he was being rushed a bit.

"You sure we can't stay a few minutes and enjoy the drink?"

Joel turned back to Paul and made a quick retorsion toward him.

"Not the time for it, Paul."

Joel and Tess walked out before Paul sighed.

"Right. I forgot."

Paul then finished his cup before setting it down on the table.

"When was there ever a time to enjoy a drink?"

Paul then got up from the table before heading out the door as closing it.

A/N: So, what did you think? You can feel free to leave a positive review or constructive criticism on the chapter, but only two of the above. If it's not your thing, then don't ruin it for everyone else. We've had enough negativity going on as is, so I would appreciate it if you don't make it worse if you have any nasty thoughts. Anyway, I think you've noticed my OC working with Tess and Joel. As you know already, his name is Paul, and he will be portrayed by Bruce Campbell. And the next chapter will show a lot more of him on Joel's story. And to keep you interested, there will be some snippets of another character's story to give you an idea about what to expect from another chapter. Other than that, it should be worth noting that there are some changes to the voices for certain characters. For instance, Alex Mercer will be portrayed by Jensen Ackles while Terrence Carson (A.K.A. Kratos) will fill in the shoes for James Heller. And one more thing: it will also add in some elements and characters from The Last of Us Part II (which broke my heart into tiny pieces as expected ;() to add more depth in the story. And, before you ask, yes, it'll include Abby. I myself am mad at her, yes, but keep in mind, this is Abby before she overheard what her father said to Marlene, so you can expect her to go through some proper development this time. Now that this is cleared up, I hope you all have a good day. ;)