The Monster Inside Us It’s been fifteen years since the zombie epidemic began, most of the world has either died from lack of resources or turned into one of those things. Many people’s families have died or have been separated never to see each other again only to search endlessly. Asking themselves if they truly believe their loved ones are still alive. It’s been a couple years since Joel saved Ellie from the fireflies who tried to kill her in an impossible attempt to create a vaccine. Joel and Ellie meet up with Joel’s brother and his group of survivors in hopes of living a peaceful life among them. Even with the undead roaming around and bandits that seek to raid camps for supplies. Joel’s brother was able to create a town protected by walls from all sides. Many people live her peacefully, all working together towards a common goal. To survive and to live a happy and long life with their newly created families. The camp is far away from cities so there is a less chance of encountering zombies. The location is hard to find so most bandits and cannibals don’t find them. Surrounded by a forest, this gives them access to hunt for animals closer to their camp, safer and easier. Joel and Ellie have lived at this camp with his brother and his wife for about two years now. They both regular leave the camp to hunt and search for supplies like medicine and weapons at a small town about 20 minutes away by car. These two work very well by themselves as a team and only seem to be slow downed and hindered by others. There are zombies that lurk around the town and other people scavenging for supplies. So it’s best to go in smaller teams anyways so they can avoid being seen or heard by both the zombies and other people. Killing the zombies only alert and make the other zombies more aggressive so it’s best to just avoid them at all cost. As for the other people they come across from time to time. It’s also best to avoid any contact with them for multiple reasons. For starters, it’s very hard to know who you can trust now a days. People may ask nice only so they can still from you while you sleep or report back to a larger group of bandits. Secondly, food, water and other supplies a limited resources even with so many people from the camp searching for supplies. They can’t afford to feed and protect everyone they come across. The camp is always worried that one day there won’t be anymore water and not enough bread to go around. There have been many times where confrontations were inevitable and in these situations Joel and Ellie had to do what you have to do now a days. In order to keep their supplies and keep the camp’s location secret, they have had to kill people. They always kick, scream and beg for their life trying to give empty promises to save their own lives no matter the cost. But what they don’t realize is that a Joel does not care what you say or do. He has completely given on humanity because he knows what people really are. If he senses there is any threat to Ellie, he will not hesitate to destroy that threat. Joel has already lost one daughter, he will not lose another. There is many horrible things that Joel has done to protect her that Ellie does not know including lying to her about the fireflies. Ellie has learned to also trust and care about Joel just as much he cares about her. She has begun to be just as skeptical as Joel but has not completely given up on humanity. Although she too will kill if she must especially if it’s to cover Joel’s ass from bandits. She will hesitate more because she still sees some people as human and can sympathize with their situation. But just as Joel, in the end it doesn’t matter if your human or not they all have to do what they have to do to survive. One day Joel and Ellie were doing their normal routine searching for supplies in the town when Joel trips an old trap left by someone in the doorway of a house in order to deter humans and possibly kill any zombies that set it off. An explosion goes off sending Joel flying back into the street knocking him unconscious and badly injuring him. Ellie drags Joel into a random building as fast as she can knowing that the explosion will have alerted someone or something. Ellie quickly tends to his wounds but is not able to completely treat him because she does not have the right supplies, those are back at the camp. She does what she can and tries to get Joel to regain his consciousness. She quickly stops her attempts after hearing a noise in the distance. It was a car alarm going off at the other end of town. Then another went off from the opposite side of town and another and another, they were increasing from all over the town and growing closer fast. They had attracted the zombies from around the town to their location. Armed with only a pistol and two small homemade explosives that were mostly used as a distraction. There was no way they would be able to stay there. There’s to many of them and will overrun her in minutes of arriving. Ellie had to pick Joel up and run fast. She would only have a little time before the zombies got to them. There only chance was to get back to their vehicle as quick as possible and leave. She picked Joel up and kicked the back door open that led to an alleyway behind the building. At the end of the alley was a zombie charging at her, she aimed carefully and quickly so that she could kill it with one shot in the head. She then lit one of the explosives and threw it as far as she could could in the opposite direction hoping it would redirect some of the quickly incoming zombies. She continued onward towards their old blue pickup truck that is sitting just around the corner. They reach the truck and Ellie can hear the zombie running down the alleyway. She shoves Joel into the truck, gets into the driver seat, starts the struck and drives off with the horde of zombies behind hear disappearing in the distance. What Ellie didn’t know is that the explosion didn’t only alert the zombies but also another person within the town. This person was scouting the town a surrounding areas looking for people that may be around. This scout was part of a large group of bandits that would raid camps and eat the people that lived there. They had sent a scout there because a number of their when would go to the town for supplies and never come back. They figured that with the amount of people that were going missing, many of which were very experienced with avoiding zombies. They knew that it had to be another group of people that were killing them. The scout began following Ellie and Joel on a four wheeler back to their camp. Once they had arrived the scout marked down the rout they took and the location of their camp. He then returned back to his group to report back what he found. The leader gathered as many of his people and weapons as he could to attack the camp. Back at the camp Joel is receiving treatment while Ellie explains what had happened. Joel thankfully will live and was not as badly hurt as it seemed. A few hours goes by and Joel wakes up and regains his consciousness. At the same time a very skinny child covered in dirt and wearing torn clothing appears at the front gate. He begs for them to open the gates to let him in and give him some food and water. Unfortunately this is a trap set by the group of bandits all hiding in the surrounding trees. Feeling bad for the child and guilty about some of the other people they turned away the guards begin to open the gate. The gates open and a guard steps outside to confront the child. The guard gets down on one knee to talk to the child to ask if he was with anyone. As he is asking this question the child pulls a knife out from behind his back. He slices the guards throat before he can finish asking his question. Blood sprays onto the boys face as he kicks the guard to the ground. The bandits begin firing at the guards on top of the wall and flood through the gate. They begin slaughtering everyone they see, some are distracted from hunger and are already eating some of the dead bodies. This distraction will work in the camps favor as they kill the bandits in the open eating. The survivors in the camp all regroup at the infirmary where Ellie and Joel are. They take up positions to fight off the last bandits heading towards them. With well defended positions they are able to kill the last remaining bandits. Ellie and Joel search for any other survivors that may be hiding in the town. Most of the people are dead and some even half eaten with there limbs separated from their bodies. Many people once again losing their family and friends not knowing how to live anymore some of the survivors take their own lives while others sit in despair. Joel looks at Ellie with the same face he always has on. He says “remember Ellie, zombies are horrific creatures, but humans will do anything they have to, to get what they want and survive. Humans are the true monsters.”