The twins followed after Joel through the hole in the wall, entering the next room.
"You gotta be smart about this." Joel informed the twins, "You stop wearing that mask, kiddo, and eventually you're going to slip up in front of someone you shouldn't."
"We've never slipped." Dylan replied.
"You ain't told nobody new, have you?" Joel asked the twins, "Not Jesse or Dina, Tori or--"
"Of course not." The twins replied in unison.
"'Kay, good." Joel said.
The twins followed after Joel as he climbed through a hole in the wall into the following room.
"You ever been in here before?" Ellie asked.
"No. We've just patrolled the streets." Joel replied, "Feeling like a bit of an oversight now..."
"Maybe." Dylan said as the trio continued on through the hotel.
Joel and the twins searched the rooms for supplies, picking up anything useful. The twins found Joel crouched in a room, looking at a dead clicker.
"Looks like it was shot a while back." Joel informed.
"One less to worry about in here." Dylan replied.
"When'd the last patrol go through here?" Ellie asked.
"Not sure." Joel answered.
"Is it one of us?" Ellie asked.
"Nah." Joel replied as he stood up, "Only people went missing from Jackson are them teenagers from last year. This one's too old. Probably just roamed in."
The twins continued to follow Joel as they climbed up some debris and jumped over a ledge to the next room.
"Kids, c'mere." Joel called quietly as he slowly and quietly opened the door to the next room.
The trio saw runners and clickers in the next room.
"We are on patrol, right?" Ellie replied as she slowly opened the other door.
"Okay." Joel said, "Let's take 'em out."
The twins hung back as they watched Joel quietly take out the clicker before them. Ellie followed Joel's example as she quietly took out a runner. Stealthily the trio took out the runners and clickers. Dylan took out the last clicker quietly.
"Joel...I think we did it." Ellie informed.
"Think so." Joel replied, "Good job, kids."
"Yeah. You too." Dylan smiled.
"So...what do you say we give up on those strings for today?" Ellie asked.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Joel replied.
"Thank fuck for that." Dylan grinned.
"But I think our only way out is forward now..." Joel informed before he began to push the door to the next room, clearing the barricade behind it.
The twins followed Joel into the dark room, switching on their flashlights.
"That looks like it might be something." Joel informed as he looked at a tight gap between the walls.
"Following you." Ellie replied.
The twins followed Joel as they squeezed into the gap, shimmying themselves along.
Joel lowered himself as he approached a pipe and Ellie followed suit, but used the pipe as leverage, which unfortunately broke it.
Ellie gasped as she heard a roar from the room before them.
Dylan looked to Ellie and went to grab her hand, but it was too late as Ellie was ripped through the wall by a bloater.
"Ellie!" Joel and Dylan cried.
Ellie was thrown to the floor by the bloater. Without a moment's hesitation, Dylan ran into the room and swung at the blaster with his machete, lodging it into the bloater's neck. Dylan ran to his sister's aid, ready to sacrifice himself to protect her. Suddenly, Joel began to fire at the bloater with his shotgun.
"Come on!" Joel cried, luring the bloater towards him.
Dylan helped Ellie up and the pair of them took out their rifles.
The twins began to shoot at the bloater as it went after Joel. Dylan quickly prepared a molotov and launched it at the bloater as it stampeded through a wall. The bloater began to move towards the twins, throwing its hands at them, trying to hit them. The twins dodged every swing and continued to fire at the large bloater.
Suddenly, the bloater caught Ellie in its grasp and prepared to rip her apart, but Joel quickly came to the rescue as he pulled Dylan's machete from the beast and began to hack at it.
Ellie fell to the ground and Dylan crouched down beside her, making sure she was okay as Joel finished off the bloater. Both the twins had lost their masks during the fight, unfortunately for Joel.
"C'mon." Joel said as he helped the twins to their feet.
"Shit." Ellie said as she looked down at the bloater.
"That was too close." Dylan informed.
"Sure...but we fucking did it." Ellie replied with a smirk.
"We sure did." Joel replied with a chuckle.
Dylan shook his head with a smile on his face.
"You good?" Ellie asked.
"Other than being really old?" Joel asked, "Ain't nothing a solid nigh of sleep won't shake off."
"I'm all good, you see I'm still rather young, so..." Dylan smirked.
Joel gently punched Dylan in the arm and smiled at the boy.
"I wanna get out of here." Ellie informed.
"Me too, sis." Dylan replied as they followed Joel towards the exit, which was blocked by a few chairs.
"What are you doing?" Ellie asked, "What if there's like two bloaters back there?"
"It'll be fine." Joel replied before he opened the door, walking in shotgun first.
"So 'fine' that he walks in shotgun first." Dylan smirked.
Joel shook his head as he checked the room.
"Quit your whining, spores are clear." Joel informed.
"Quite the fight back there, huh?" Ellie asked as they entered the room.
"Not often we get a bloater around these parts." Joel replied as he scanned the following room.
"Yeah...Jesse, Dina and Tori are going to lose their shit when they hear about this." Dylan informed.
Joel removed his mask as they walked through the gym area.
"What's the deal with them two anyway? Jesse and Dina?" Joel asked, "They're dating, right?"
"On and off. Why?" Ellie asked.
"I hear the way Jesse talks about you." Joel replied.
"No. Jesse and I are just friends." Ellie informed.
Dylan tried his best to hold back his laughter.
"Now, now, now, I've got a pretty keen eye for these sort of things." Joel stated.
"Not so keen with this one." Ellie replied.
"We'll see." Joel said.
"Don't hold your breath." Ellie informed.
Dylan began to laugh and looked to Joel.
"Joel, trust me, you're seriously not keen with this one. Let's just say that Jesse isn't Ellie's type and leave it at that, shall we?" Dylan said with a grin.
Joel nodded as they continued through the hotel. Joel found a door and went to open it. The door opened slightly, but was barricaded from behind, preventing Joel from opening it further.
"You guys think you can squeeze through there?" Joel asked the twins.
The twins squeezed through the gap in the door to the next room. Ellie entered first and checked the area was clear, whilst Dylan followed after.
"See what it is?" Joel asked.
"Yeah." Dylan replied before pushing the barricade away, allowing Joel to enter, "Okay."
The twins looked around the room, finding a corpse on the floor.
"Ellie!" Dylan and Joel cried.
Dylan pulled Ellie away, whilst Joel stopped the approaching crawling clicker with his foot before shooting it in the head.
"Shit. Thanks." Ellie thanked her bother and Joel.
"Yeah." Joel replied.
"You like cutting it close today, huh?" Dylan said as he smiled at Ellie.
Ellie stuck her tongue out at Dylan before she looked closer at the corpse beside them.
"Hey, Joel." Ellie called.
"Huh?" Joel replied.
"I think it's them." Ellie said.
"Who?" Dylan asked as he looked down at the corpse and the clicker.
"The couple that ran away last year." Ellie answered.
Joel lowered himself to look closer at the corpse as Ellie noticed a note on the table beside her and Dylan.
"I think you're right." Joel informed.
Ellie picked up the note and Dylan looked at it from over her shoulder.
"'Jackson is a wonderful place, but we got tired of hearing the stories of people suffering everywhere else. We wanted to save lives. We had good intentions. We didn't make it an hour before running into a horde. Now we're bitten. We've decided we're going to end our lives instead of turning. Please tell our family and friends that we're sorry. Love Adam and Sidney.'" Ellie read out.
Ellie turned over the note, finding more on the back as Joel stood up.
"'I shot her. I can't take my own life. I'm a fucking coward. Adam.'" Ellie finished.
"Jesus." Joel said.
"Fuck." Dylan mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair.
"If only they were immune, right?" Ellie stated.
Dylan nodded at Ellie's statement as Joel looked to the twins.
"Well. Let's...Let's go get Tommy, and we can get these bodies back to Jackson." Joel informed.
Joel went to leave when the twins piped up again.
"After you took us out of the Firefly hospital, you said there were dozens of people like us." Dylan informed.
Joel stopped and looked back at the twins.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's what they told me." Joel replied.
"We've never met another immune person before. Have you?" Dylan asked.
The twins looked to Joel, trying to find some answers.
"They could be hiding it. You do." Joel replied.
Ellie looked down at the note again before placing it back on the table.
"Do you believe that?" Ellie asked.
"Is now really the time for this?" Joel asked as he stepped closer to the twins.
"We travelled the entire country to bring us to the Fireflies...We had so many questions for them. Why did you pull us out of there while we were still unconscious?" Ellie asked.
"Because I let them run their tests, and when I saw that they were useless, I got us out of there--" Joel informed.
"How do you know they were useless?" Dylan interrupted as he looked to Joel.
"Maybe if you just woulda given them more time, they could have figured something out--" Ellie stated.
"Ellie! Dylan!" Joel said.
Joel moved closer to the twins and looked them dead in the eye.
"There was no cure." Joel informed.
The twins hung their heads before looking back up at Joel as he continued to speak.
"There's nothing that could've helped these people or anybody else." Joel stated, "I know you wish things were different -- I wish things were different. But they ain't."
The twins looked to Joel and reluctantly swallowed the hard 'truth.'
"We need to get these kids back to their families. Or is there somethin' else you'd like to rehash?" Joel asked.
Dylan and Ellie looked to Joel, defeated.
"No." The twins replied.
"Good." Joel said, "C'mon."
The twins followed Joel out as he exited the cafe, carefully stepping over the dead as they did so.