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j-eryewrites · 1 year ago

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Long, Long Time

Part Three of A Sinner’s Redemption

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SERIES MASTER LIST | MAIN MASTER LIST

Word Count: 12.3k

Warnings: Language, mentions of death, mentions of mass killings, descriptions of gore and violence, dark topics concerning mentality. (Let me know if I missed anything)

Author’s Note: Piper and Ellie make up, we get a look into Piper’s past, and Joel starts to warm up to the girls. I had fun writing this chapter, but it’s gonna get a whole lot darker with these next few chapters so get ready for heavy angst.

It was nice being out in the forest away from the city. Piper had never been out here before yet the longer she was breathing the fresh air and feeling the dirt and tree roots beneath her shoes she knew she never wanted to leave. The scent of the pine trees as their sticky sap oozed out of the bark filled her nose and the noise of the rushing river flooded her ears.

Joel had come down earlier to do whatever Joel needed to do. Piper didn’t ask. She didn’t feel like talking. Her nose still hurt from when Ellie broke it a day prior. Since her nose still plagued her vital need to breathe, she had an even harder time talking without wincing in pain.

As Piper neared the water, she saw Joel’s familiar figure crouched over the river bend. It looked like he was resting his swollen hand in the cool water trying to soothe his injury.

Part of Piper wanted to go up next to Joel and treat her injuries near him. She knew Joel was safe and could barely be trusted; something that Piper loathed to admit. Instead, she slowed her step and turned farther downstream. She’d washed her blood-soaked face and clothes far away from Joel. It was the least she could do to be considerate after losing Tess.

She missed Tess. It was another thing Piper didn’t want to admit. The young girl scolded herself for feeling an absence from Tess’s sacrifice. Piper had only known Tess a day and a half. Thirty-nine hours and seventeen minutes she had known the woman. That’s all it took. Thirty-nine hours and Tess was able to find a place in Piper’s heart. An accomplishment only her mother, Ellie, and Riley had achieved. An accomplishment that Piper began to fear was a curse. After all, three out of four of the achievement owners were dead.

Piper shook the thoughts from her head and covered the aches of her heart as she stepped to the river’s edge. Her body ached as she crouched to the ground. Piper decided against squatting and instead sat on the pebbles and round rocks of the riverbed before dipping her hands underneath the crystal-clear surface of the water.

It was cold. Really fucking cold water. Perfect. The water was even colder as Piper splashed it against her face. After a few more handfuls of water, the river beneath her turned a rusty red before disappearing. If Piper could see herself, she assumed the blood was washing away. She took extra care when splashing water near her nose and the bruising around her eyes that had formed. The ice-cold water felt nice. It soothed her skin and aching bones.

After a few minutes more of cleaning, Piper was finally satisfied. She leaned back away from the river’s edge and sighed. Water ran past her. Morning birds sang their songs from the tops of the trees. They were solemn songs. Although maybe that came from the hurt in Piper’s heart. Everything seemed a bit more depressing after yesterday's disaster. She lost Tess. She lost a part of Ellie. She lost another part of herself. Piper feared that she’d have no more if she lost once more. First was her mother. Second was her childhood. Third was Riley. Fourth was her freedom though Piper had lost that a long time ago. Fifth was Tess. Sixth was a piece of Ellie ergo, seven, a piece of her was also gone.

On the river’s edge, Piper looked at the remaining pieces of her soul in the palms of her scared hands. The largest share of them all was Ellie. Piper had put a part of herself into Ellie long ago. With a promise, she had become Ellie’s. She felt a few tears fall as her mind brushed over the cracks in the piece. Each crack was deeper than the next, bringing more pain. One or two more cracks and that piece of Piper’s soul would be shattered beyond repair. Ellie was her soul. Ellie was her reason. Ellie was her promise. Ellie was her sister. Ellie. Ellie. Ellie.

Piper sniffled and wiped away her tears. Ellie and she weren’t talking. Piper didn’t want to speak and neither did Ellie. They had fought. Piper could never remember a time when they did fight. Ellie was angry. Her anger was a scream in the three Fate’s faces. Piper’s anger was an acceptance. There was no screaming, no crying, or fighting. It was silent. It was patient. It was infinite. An anger that could never be satisfied. An anger that one could only be born with.

Piper sighed. It was growing cold. Her hands were numbed from the river. Her face was damp with its cleansing. No amount of water from the river could ever baptize her anger away. She was born a sinner cursed to fall deeper and deeper into the depths of hell.

She groaned as she pushed herself up into a standing position. Piper didn’t bother looking back at the river before finding her way back to the makeshift camp.

꧁_____________꧂

“I’m in a motherfucking tree!” Ellie exclaimed as she hugged the trunk of a gigantic pine tree. It was amazing. The thrill of the adrenaline pumping into her veins from the height and the exercise was more than enough to brighten Ellie’s countenance. The air never felt fresher here in the forest. Despite the lack of car exhaust, the QZ’s air always felt stiff almost like you wanted to choke on it.

Here in the forest a distance away from the Boston QZ the air was air. That’s all Ellie could describe it as. This shit was the real deal. It was real fucking air. It was air that she could breathe freely without coughing. Her lungs cheered as fresh oxygen flavoured with pine and spruce filled the organ to its limits.

Ellie chuckled at herself. She was throwing a fit over the air quality. Instead of fangirling over the air in her lungs, Ellie decided to move her sights to the view in front of her.

Being up in the trees high above the ground really allowed Ellie to have the cleanest view of the horizon. Testing her grip, Ellie raised her thumb in front of her to measure the distance the sun was from the ground. She squinted her eyes to get the exact measurement, but the sun was too bright for her to see clearly. Suddenly her grip slipped and some bark from the trunk scraped off and tumbled to the ground.

“Fuck…” Ellie nervously said to herself as she tightened her hold on the branches keeping her up.

The ground seemed miles away and Ellie scolded herself. She hadn’t realized how high she had climbed up the tree. Her mind was blinded by the child-like excitement of having the opportunity to climb a tree. Maybe it was time to climb back down. Yet as Ellie’s foot fumbled beneath her, she felt her stomach drop and her palms sweat even more.

“Shit!” Ellie cried out as she quickly readjusted her grip. Her arms were growing sore. Her mind was screaming at her. She was going to fall. She didn’t feel very brave anymore as the height from the ground taunted her. Maybe Joel was right to warn her and Piper about the boardwalk in the city being scary.

A branch snapped below and Ellie shut her eyes tight.

“Need some help there?” Piper asked.

Ellie’s eye’s opened as she realized she was in no danger of falling…yet. The sight of her sister seemingly irked Ellie.

“Oh now you talk to me,” Ellie scoffed. The tone of fear was horribly concealed in her voice.

Piper rolled her eyes and Ellie was amazed that she could see it from where she sat in the tree. Maybe she wasn’t as high up as she originally thought, thought Ellie. Yet when she looked back at the ground the tree seemed to grow in height. Fuck.

“I’ll help you down,” Piper said and Ellie’s fear seemed to dissipate. “…only if you apologize.”

“Piper!!” Ellie called out her voice wavering.

Piper chuckled and Ellie was sure she was rolling her eyes again. However, her mind was a bit more occupied with not falling to her death.

“You broke my fucking nose, Ellie!” Piper said before clutching the area near her nose. It hurt just talking to Ellie and the angle of her head wasn’t helping with the pain. There was a pause in Piper’s voice as she waited for what, Ellie assumed, was an apology.

If it was an apology her sister wanted then no fucking way. Piper deserved it. Piper deserved it for–now Ellie wasn’t so sure.

“...Fine, figure out how to climb down then. If you fall, I’m sure Joel will be just fine taking me to the Fireflies and leaving you behind,” Piper sang as she turned to walk away. Piper winced at her own words. She wouldn’t be fine if Ellie fell. Christ, what was she doing?

“…Piper! please... I’m sorry, I was–” Ellie shouted.

“I don’t need an explanation, shithead. Sorry is all I wanted.” Piper explained before returning back to the trunk of the tree. She had to crane her head back quite far to see Ellie’s predicament.

“Okay, Jesus! How do I get down?” Ellie questioned. She was eager to have her feet touch the ground once more.

“It’s just climbing backwards. Step down and then move your grip down as well.”

Ellie nodded and tried to do as Piper said when another piece of bark fell to the ground halting Ellie’s movements. “Piper…!?” Ellie pleaded.

“You’ve got it,” Piper encouraged, …worst case scenario you fall, and break a limb.”

“Piper!”

“What? Consider it payback for my broken nose,” Piper muttered.

“I thought you forgave me,” Ellie said as she finally dared to move her body a branch down.

“No,” Piper corrected. “Just said sorry was enough.

“Pip–” Ellie said before the snapping of a branch froze her progress.

Ellie looked down to seek her sister’s comfort, but Piper was no longer looking at her. Ellie followed her sister’s gaze and found Joel. He had an unreadable look on his face as he glanced from Piper to Ellie high up in the tree. After a few moments of observing the fiasco in front of him, Joel heaved a sigh and turned away.

Ellie took another step down. Her fear of falling and the height dissipated as she grew more confident in her descent. Ellie took another step and then another. Soon the ground was in sight and all Ellie had to do was make the final jump. Her feet hit the floor and she gasped in relief.

“There you go! You got it.” Piper congratulated her sister with a slight shove. “Why the fuck did you climb a tree if you couldn’t climb down?” Piper laughed.

Ellie punched her sister’s arm in retort.

“What?!” Piper rubbed her sore arm. “I was just asking, Jesus.” Then Piper punched her sister in return. Now they were even so long as Ellie didn’t hit back.

“I don’t know…” Ellie replied. Her voice was no louder than a whisper. Even so, Piper heard her.

“Yeah, sure.” Piper turned away from her sister and looked over at Joel who was shuffling through his bag. His hand was looking better so soaking it in the river must have done it some good. The next thing Piper noticed was the tiny bumps along Joel’s forearm. He was cold. “You want your jacket back?” Piper blurted out. Her mouth moved faster than her mind. She quickly yanked Joel’s jacket off her back and stuck it out to him. “Mine’s dried now,” Piper muttered.

Joel just stared at the jacket in her hand. His face was stoic and unmoving. Piper began to think that maybe Joel didn’t want the jacket back since she tainted it with her blood. She was sure she washed it out. Still, Joel did not take the jacket.

Piper sighed and turned to look back at Ellie over her shoulder. Her sister was now sitting comfortably against the tree with the majority of her body in contact with the dirt floor

There was a thud against Piper’s chest and her hands instinctively reached to catch it. Piper was soon to discover that in her hands lay food. It was what was left over from Joel’s sandwich. Just enough for her and her sister to take a few bites. For a moment, Piper stared at Joel in awe before shaking the expression and passing the food onto Ellie. The younger one needed it more than her.

Ellie happily took the leftover meal and shoved it into her mouth. “I've never been in the woods,” Ellie said with her mouth full. Her heart had finally calmed down from the adventure of a few minutes prior. “More bugs than I thought,” Ellie noted. It was an invitation for someone to speak. More of an invitation to Joel. Piper had already spoken to Ellie today. When no one spoke, Ellie tried a new tactic. “Look, I've been thinking about…

“I don't want your sorries,” Joel spat.

Piper sent Ellie a warning glare. She knew that it was too early to talk about it. However, Ellie ignored her sister’s silent advice.

“I wasn't gonna say I'm sorry,” Ellie barked back at Joel. “I was gonna say that I've been thinking about what happened. Nobody made you or Tess take me and Piper. Nobody made you go along with this plan. You needed a truck battery or whatever, and you made a choice. So don't blame me for something that isn't my fault.”

Piper froze at Ellie’s words. It was the truth. The cold-hearted, brutal truth. Piper glanced nervously at Joel worried that in his silent anger and grief that the worst would happen. His previous threats from before resurfaced in the young woman’s mind. Instead of growing anger in Joel’s face, Piper saw a softness. Joel knew what Ellie was saying was the truth. There was no one to blame.

The weight of Joel’s jacket carried Piper’s arms down. In his moment of weakness, Piper handed him the jacket. Joel took the clothing from her hands and placed it into his bag. “How much longer?” She asked changing the tense subject.

“Five-hour hike,” Joel stated.

Ellie smirked to herself. Now both Piper and Joel were talking again. “We can manage that.”

꧁_____________꧂

Piper was surprised to discover that there was a trail to follow. She was sure after twenty years since outbreak day that the forest would be overrun with ferns and other plants. Yet here she was, her feet moving step by step on a dirt path. While it wasn’t as defined as it would have been years ago, it was still enough for Joel to know where he was going.

He had taken this path many times to Bill and Frank’s. Being in the forest was one of his favourite parts, yet his countenance did not show it. It was a place where he could relax a bit. Just like Piper, Joel appreciated how in the thick of nature there was no one. The Infected stayed near the cities and places with people for them to turn. FEDRA existed in the big cities and the FIREFLIES existed wherever FEDRA was. The raiders kept to themselves but close enough to those that they could raid. There was nothing out here in nature for any of them. Nothing out here except Joel, Piper, and Ellie.

Joel hiked along the path. Ellie was a step behind him and Piper was behind her. The thick mixture of vibrant green leaves and web-like branches provided the three of them with protection from the harsh heat of the sun. A cover that soon would fade the closer they got to their destination.

While Piper and Joel were content to enjoy the peaceful silence that the forest provided, Ellie was not. “You've gone this way a lot? No Infected?” Ellie asked Joel.

“Not often, no,” Joel replied.

After a while of Ellie’s continual talking the group reached the end of the trail. The dirt path and the tall grass halted as the concrete river cut through the forest. Unlike all other roads, this one was clear. There was not a rusted car in sight. Joel paused for a moment. His head looked side to side before he stepped out from the cover of the treetops, his boot coming into contact with the road underneath.

“What are you looking out for?” Ellie questioned Joel’s actions.

“People,” Joel uttered. He was a man of few words and each word he spoke told Ellie he’d rather be doing anything else than answering her questions of child-like curiosity.

“Oh,” Ellie replied, taking the hint to calm her mouth.

The sun was unforgiving as it bared down on the trio. Piper rolled up her sleeves and readjusted her backpack so that the coarse material hardly touched her back. Ellie had removed her jacket and tied it around her waist with her sleeves rolled up just like her sister. After a few more minutes of the heat, she stopped to roll up her pants so that they looked more like botched capris. Joel seemed to be taking the heat well. He made no move to cool himself down.

Ellie considered complaining about the heat but decided against it. She wasn’t the only one suffering from the heat. Instead, she did what she did best, she talked. “Are Bill and Frank nice?”

“Frank is,” Joel stated.

Piper raised her brow up at Joel, not that he could see her. “So if Frank is nice, then what is Bill?” Piper found herself asking. She would rather be prepared to deal with someone not-so-nice than not at all.

Joel just looked back at the girl and answered her with a look in his eyes that said ‘I think you know.’

“How'd you get that scar on your head?” Ellie asked, catching sight of the scar as the sun glared down on it.

Joel stopped in his tracks and turned around to the two girls behind him with his hands on his hips. This provided the perfect opportunity for the two girls to reach his sides and walk alongside Joel.

“What? Is it something lame?” Ellie prodded. She turned to Piper and nudged her arm. “What if he fell down the stairs or something?”

This earned a smile from Piper. “Maybe he got into a fight with a cat or walked into a door,” Piper giggled.

The two girls were talking about Joel as if he wasn’t there. It reminded me of something he lost during the outbreak. The conversations that his brother and daughter would have whilst he was in the room sounded all too similar to the words coming from Piper and Ellie’s mouths. The pain was threatening to storm his heart. He changed the subject.

“I didn't fall down any stairs,” Joel said. He should have known those few words wasn’t enough for Ellie to stop talking.

“Okay, so what then?” Ellie questioned.

“Someone shot at me and missed,” Joel sighed.

“See,” Ellie nudged her sister again, “that's cool.” Then Ellie craned her head up to look at Joel. “You shoot back?”

“Yeah,” Joel said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“You get him?”

“No, I missed too. It happens more often than you think,” Joel explained.

“Piper doesn’t miss,” Ellie said proudly looking at her sister. “There’s a reason why FEDRA started using her at 12 years old–”

For a moment Joel’s eyes flashed a look of intrigue at the two girls before it disappeared as quickly as it came. Piper cleared her throat and looked over at her sister. Ellie knew that look. Her sister’s dark brown eyes were telling her to shut up.

Except Ellie didn’t want to stop talking. If she stopped talking she’d be thinking more about the unbearable heat. Instead, she continued to pester Joel. “'Cause you suck at shooting or, like, in general?”

“In general,” Joel answered. His hand unconsciously dropped down to hover over the rifle at his side.

Ellie’s curious eyes followed Joel’s bruised hand to the gun. She glanced over to Joel’s other side. He had two guns. More than enough to share with her.

“You know, seeing as it's just the three of us, I was thinking I should pro–” and before Ellie could finish her proposal, both Joel and Piper exclaimed. “No.”

“Oh for fucks sake,” Ellie grumbled. She looked at her sister with pleading puppy eyes. A secret weapon of Ellie’s. However, the heat of the sun must have negated its effects because Piper was glaring at her sister asking her to try and get a gun. At this rate, Ellie felt like she was never going to get a gun.

Even in her brooding, Ellie was quick to notice the decrease in Joel’s pace. His steps got shorter and his speed slowed down as they approached a big yellow sign pointing to a building off the road. The words had faded so much over time that Ellie couldn’t make out anything. Instead, she turned her focus on the building Joel was now approaching.

The building itself was a small gas station. It looked like it could have been home once with the wrap-around wood porch and style in which the building had been constructed. There were broken power lines that haven’t been used in over two decades. The long black wires flowed in the breeze of the summer day. The parking lot had been overgrown with weeds, tall grass, and some budding trees whose roots were destroying the unnatural concrete day by day. Like all other places Piper and Ellie had been to, there were broken-down cars in the back of the parking lot. The tires had all been sliced open, doors rusted shut and windows shattered. All signs of the post-apocalyptic world.

As they got closer, Ellie could see the corroded ice coolers alongside the building. She knew they were ice coolers because the big bold red letters were still visible even twenty years later. She smiled, proud that she knew what they were, maybe FEDRA school wasn’t that shit of a school anyway.

“Cumberland Farms,” Joel stated as if he knew the girls would ask him what this place was called. He turned around to face the girls who were looking around in awe. He forgot that they had probably never had some of this stuff back in the QZ. “Hang back a minute. I gotta grab some stuff I stashed.”

“Stashed?” That piqued Ellie’s interest. Joel winced at her words. He knew he shouldn’t have said anything. “Why do you have stuff stashed here?” Ellie asked.

“You ask a lot of goddamn questions,” Joel grumbled as he marched up the steps into the gas station.

“Yes, I do,” Ellie said proudly. Questions were one thing she was good at. “So, are you gonna answer me or what?”

“We hide supplies on routes in case we find ourselves short on gear, which I currently am 'cause…” Joel waved his hand around motioning to the gun and his backpack.

Piper nodded in understanding. It was smart to have a stash place. She had one herself in the QZ just in case something happened. Ellie never thought it was necessary. In fact, her sister told her on a few occasions that it was stupid to save stuff for a rainy day.

Speaking of Ellie, the young girl dashed to the side of the room. Her eyes lit with a fire of excitement at a busted arcade game. It seemed like time had been kinder to the machine as the only noticeable damage was the cracked screen and the layer of dust that covered it in its entirety. “

No way! You ever play this one?” Ellie asked. Neither Piper nor Joel was sure who she was asking and instead chose to ignore her. “I had a friend” who knew everything about this game. There's this one character named Mileena who takes off her mask and she has monster teeth, and then she swallows you whole and barfs out your bones! Ah. Oh, man.” Ellie’s excitement turned sombre. Her expression faltered as she glanced at her dusty reflection in the cracked glass. It was Riley who loved this game so much. It was Riley who showed her the arcade in the old mall. It was Riley who died in that old mall. Riley– “You forgot where you put your stuff.”

“No,” Joel scoffed as he pushed over shelves and moved debris around the room. “I'm just zeroing in on it. It's been a couple of years.”

Piper chuckled as she helped Joel move things around, which earned her a glare from Joel. Piper took that as her sign to back off and give the old man some space for a bit.

“Okay, well, I'm gonna take a look around, see if there's anything good. Ellie, come on,” Piper said. She spotted a back room and looked at Ellie. It seemed like the two girls had the same idea.

“Trust me, it's all been picked over already,” Joel explained.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Ellie smiled. She looked back at Piper knowing her sister’s insane skills to find things in ‘looked-over’ places. “Is there anything bad in here?”

“Just you,” Joel mumbled.

Ellie rolled her eyes and stepped into the backroom. “Ah. Getting funnier.”

The back room was in a horrific condition compared to the rest of the run-down gas station. Piper and Ellie could hardly see the ground underneath their feet. Without a word, the two girls got to work moving around the pieces of collapsed ceiling, a stray desk from the middle of the room, and discarded glass bottles and junk. After moving one particularly large chunk of debris a dome of dust kicked into the air and into Piper’s lungs sending the young girl into a coughing fit.

Ellie was giggling at her sister’s struggle with the dust cloud when she spotted a latched door on the floor. She crouched down and started to move over the clutter of things covering the hatch.

“Ellie, find anythi–What are you doing?” Piper wheezed, the dust still lodged in her lungs. Ellie’s brow furrowed in determination. All her focus was on getting the hatch open.

“Ellie.” Piper coughed.

“What?” Ellie looked up at her sister and laughed. Piper was covered in dust from head to toe. It looked as if she could have been a statue that had been sitting in the back room for twenty years.

Piper rolled her eyes and dusted herself off as best she could. “Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh.” Once Piper was done, she spotted the object of Ellie’s fixation. “Move over. We’re gonna push this off together,” Piper instructed Ellie as she retrieved her flashlight from her bag. Ellie moved over slightly and got ready to push the remaining blockage off the door. “On three. One, two, three–”

“You alright back there?” Joel’s voice cut off Piper.

“Yep!” The girls uttered in a strained voice as they finally cleared the door. With a creak the hatch was open.

Piper stuck out her open hand to her sister. “Give me your knife.”

“Why?” Ellie asked.

“Cause I’m going down there first,” Piper explained. Ellie opened her mouth to refute when Piper continued. “To make sure there’s nothing down there.”

Ellie sighed and reached into her pocket to pull out the knife. Her morbid curiosity would have to wait until Piper gave the all-clear. Even so, Ellie did not do so without grumbling.

“Thanks,” Piper said before hopping down into the cellar.

It was a short and soft landing. Once Piper had found her ground, the flashlight went up alongside Ellie’s switchblade. The soundtrack to her brief sweep of the cellar was Ellie’s grumbling. Piper rolled her eyes at her sister’s weakness in showcasing some patience. By the end of her search, Ellie’s grumbling had turned into quiet puppy whines that seemed to echo in the cellar.

“Jesus, fuck! Fine, come down Ellie,” Piper hissed.

Ellie doesn’t miss a beat dropping down into the cellar. Her sister’s landing wasn’t as graceful as hers, but Ellie showed no sign of stopping as she jumped to her feet and began to scavenge the empty cellar. Piper clenched her jaw and decided that their way out of this cellar was a better use of her time. As luck would have it there was a metal garbage can near the hatch door. It was tall enough and sturdy enough to serve as a stepping stool for the two girls.

Piper rolled the trash can over to the spot they had dropped down onto not moments before when Ellie triumphantly cheered.

“Fսck yeah!” Ellie waved around a fresh unopened pack of tampons. Piper smiled at her sister and made a step to congratulate her when a sickening snarl filled the air. It was low and quiet and could only come from the cellar.

Piper darted to her sister’s side and flashed the light around. The switchblade in Piper’s hand was ready to be used at any second. Ellie stepped behind her sister and used her own light to look around.

It was Ellie’s beam that caught sight of the Infected first. Like a spotlight, the two flashlights landed on the body caught underneath a foot's worth of brick, stone, and debris. It was a pathetic excuse for an Infected, as it flailed around trying to reach the girls. It growled at them with silent sorrow. Its’ yellow eyes glossed over reflecting the light from their flashlights back at the girls. It almost looked human if it weren’t for the fungus that was creeping outside of the creature’s cracked skull.

Piper was mesmerized by its sorrow. A creature that was the cause of the downfall of the world lay trapped in its own undoing. Still, the thing was still so desperate to get out, to get to the girls, to feed, to bite, and to convert. Its’ life’s only purpose was keeping the monster going in the dark, cold, and wet cellar of a broken-down gas station. Piper felt a bile rise in her stomach looking at it. The sick wasn’t from the creature itself, but her own mind. She saw herself in that thing. She was buried under the pressures of life and the traumas of her mind. The one thing keeping her going in the sinister trap of her mind was the promise. It’s you and me until the end.

Ellie’s mind had a different path set. The years of anger and pain came boiling up to the surface. The hot liquid of her sorrows only fueled her fury. Ellie found herself stepping closer and closer to the Infected. She only stopped until she was just out of arm's reach of the creature. The perfect taunt. She watched how the creature writhed in pain as it put everything in its being to reach her. It was only fair for it to suffer. It was the thing that destroyed the world. It was the thing that brought an end to the things she loved and the life she could have lived. Her legs bent down as she crouched to the ground. Ellie’s thought was a wire with a new purpose. In her blood, was the cure. The end to the end. She’d save everyone. She’d save Piper. She’d saved them all for those she couldn’t save. She put an end to each creature. Let the people go and the monster dies. She hoped that her blood would make them suffer. She hoped that something in her made them shrivel up and die. It was only fair. Pain for pain. Suffering for suffering. However, Ellie wasn’t sure how much pain was enough. Maybe nothing ever will be.

Silently, Ellie extended her hand behind her. Her finger stretched out to Piper. There was only one thing she could want, and so Piper obliged. It was the only thing she could ever do. Ellie was her purpose and Ellie asked.

With the shiny silver switchblade in hand, Ellie raised it to the creature. Its’ eye followed her movements. The failing stopped as it realized its defeat. Its purpose would be its end. And in the Infected’s acceptance, Ellie sliced open the decaying skin of its head. There was a thud. A sickening gasp followed. Then all fell quiet. The Infected dead with Ellie’s blade lodged in the centre of its head. Its’ lifeless eye on the young girl, frozen on the spot.

꧁_____________꧂

He finally found it. Joel leaned over and pulled out his spare supplies as he grumbled to himself. He was getting old and was sure that his mind would never be able to remember this spot again. He contemplated finding a different spot, but then it would just make it easier for raiders and other stragglers to find the gear. However, Joel was smart. With a quick look in his bag and a scan of the supplies, he concluded that he could just take it all with him.

A few canned foods, ammo, and some first aid supplies were all stuffed into his bag. He stood up and lugged the bag onto his back. It was heavy and would slow down his step, but that was better than some other fucker getting his goods. As he adjusted the bag, the sound of silence grew louder in Joel’s ear. With how loud the two girls seemed to be, silence was never a good thing.

“Ellie? Piper?” Joel called out. His words were met with the clanking of metal, yet there was no reply. His throat tightened and he felt his heart pick up in pace. “Girls!” Joel yelled. Again there was silence. He cocked his gun and walked to the back room. The door was closed. “Ellie? Piper?” Joel said as he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open with the tip of his gun.

“Picked over, my ass,” Ellie uttered as she flung the door open and walked out of the back room. She waved the Tampax in Joel’s face with a smug look on her face.

Then Piper came out behind her. “You better fucking share with me,” she told her sister.

“You wish,” Ellie joked as she opened the Tampax box taking a handful and stuffing them into her bag. Then she handed Piper the rest to carry in her bag.

Joel watched the two girls as they shared the tampons like popcorn, passing them back and forth until they were split evenly. The girls were fine. Good. Joel turned around and made his way back to the storage spot before dropping his empty rifle into the hole.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked as she watched the weapon be discarded.

“There's not much ammo out there for this thing. Makes it mostly useless,” Joel explained.

“Well, if you're just gonna leave it there,” Ellie suggested.

“No,” Joel growled. The last thing he needed was a teenager with a gun; loaded or not. Without another word, Joel trudged to the door and out of the gas station.

“I’ll get you a gun, sooner or later,” Piper whispered to her sister. She patted her sister on the back and made her way to follow Joel.

“This one?” Ellie asked with a pleading look in her eye.

Piper turned around to look at Ellie. “Nah,” Piper shook her head. “no ammo. Plus how the fuck would we hide the thing from Joel?”

Ellie nodded solemnly. Her sister's promise did somewhat ease her want for the weapon. Hell, Piper promised, and when Piper promises she keeps them. It was something that Ellie knew well.

꧁_____________꧂

“People are driven by fear and desire,” Levi told Piper. “The two sides of the same coin that everyone carries with them.”

Piper swung her legs back and forth on the ledge and nodded her head in acknowledgement. Her mouth was occupied with the sandwich whose ingredients were smuggled into the QZ.

Piper liked Levi. He was a guard working for FEDRA and he had a soft spot for her. He gets smuggled goods for her and her sister and treats Piper to ham and strawberries. Food that people would kill for in the QZ. Yet for some reason, Levi got them for her.

As the two of them sat on the playground in the QZ watching the other kids play, Piper couldn’t help but think that Levi was an older brother of sorts. While she watched over Ellie, Levi watched over her. He showed her the ropes, told her the places to avoid, and told her to trust in him and only him. He’d keep her safe.

“Piper!” Ellie screeched as she ran up to her sister on the swing set. The young girl tapped Piper on the shoulder and ran away as she screamed “You’re it.”

Piper giggled as got up running after Ellie and the other children who were playing. It was only fair if she got Ellie back for tagging her. It’s how these games went. It might as well have been called tag the person who tagged you or tag back.

A whistle blew and the children were ushered back inside the facility. The sun had set over the city. The sky was a bright orange merging with the dark purple of the night. Levi wasn’t sitting on the ledge when Piper looked behind to say goodnight.

꧁_____________꧂

Despite the warmth of the sun falling down on Piper, there was a chill under her skin. It was chill and seemed like it would never go away with how fast it spread on her body.

Joel and the girls were walking along a dirt road. Green hills of grass and wildflowers were found alongside the road. Green leaves from the trees near the street shimmered in the sun like diamonds as they rattled in the breeze. Birds sang their songs and all was peaceful.

“Holy sh¡t!” Ellie exclaimed as she pointed to the top of a hill near the road. “You fly in one of those?”

Piper turned her head to look where was pointing. It was a plane. In all its glory shattered in pieces against the ground. It was a distance away, yet Piper could clearly see inside the machine with the wings and side ripped off from the impact. She had heard a few tales from her teachers in the QZ about planes. Something that would take you into the sky and you’d be across the country in a few hours. It seemed impossible, but so did the outbreak.

“A few times, sure,” Joel noted. He didn’t pay the plane much attention as he continued to walk along the path.

“So lucky,” Piper muttered.

“Didn't feel like it at the time,” Joel grumbled. “Get shoved into a middle seat, pay 12 bucks for a sandwich.”

“Dude, you got to go up in the sky!” Ellie said with all the excitement her vocal cords could produce.

“Yeah, well, so did they, “Joel replied.

Piper’s eyes widened. Ellie’s excitement had been killed. “Grim. So, everything came crashing down in one day; literally and figuratively?” Piper asked as she pointed to the plane on the hill.

“Pretty much,” Joel said.

Ellie pursed her lips in confusion. “How? I mean... no one was infected with Cordyceps, everybody's fine, eating in restaurants and flying in planes. And then, all at once? How did it even start? If you have to get bit to be infected, then who bit the first person? Was it a monkey? I bet it was a monkey!”

Joel sighed. “It wasn't a monkey. I thought you went to school.”

“FEDRA school,” Piper spat. “They don't teach us how their shitty government failed to prevent a pandemic.”

Joel rubbed the back of his neck. Both at a pause for Piper’s statement, but also how to answer Ellie so that the creation of more questions could be squandered.

“No one knows for sure, but, best guess... Cordyceps mutated. And some of it got into the food supply. Probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere, all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal... pancake mix. You eat enough of it, it'll get you infected. So the tainted food all hits the store shelves around the same time, Thursday. People bought it, and ate some Thursday night or Friday morning. Day goes on... they started to get sick. Afternoon, and evening, they got worse. Then they started bitin'. Friday night, September 26, 2003. And by Monday, everything was gone.”

Ellie kicked the ground. “I like the monkees idea better,” she mumbled.

Piper chuckled and then turned to Joel.”It makes more sense than monkeys. Thanks.”

“Sure,” was all Joel could say. Then he halted. His step was unsure as he glanced back at the girls.

“What?” Piper asked, noticing Joel’s hesitancy.

“We'll cut across the woods here,” Joel instructed.

Ellie raised her brow. “Isn't the road easier?”

“Yeah, it's just…” Joel paused. “There's stuff up there you shouldn't see.”

Ellie smirked. “Well, now I have to see.”

Joel raised his hand out in front of Ellie as she tried to find the source of Joel’s concern. “I don't want you to. Serious.”

“Ellie, come on,” Piper said.

Ellie turned around and walked backwards as she conversed with Piper and Joel. “Can it hurt me?” Ellie asked.

“No,” Joel said too quickly for his own liking. The quick remark only furthered Ellie’s curiosity as her pace quickened into a jog. Her curiosity only grew with each step closer to whatever it was that Joel didn’t want her to see.

Joel sighed and cursed himself. He was rusty and forgot the power of a kid’s curiosity. You say no and the kid is gonna do exactly what you just said.

“You're too honest,” Piper told Joel as they walked over to where Ellie stood. It seemed like she found what Joel was trying to conceal. “Should've said ax murderer,” Piper smiled.

Joel had to double-look to make sure he saw Piper correctly. She had just smiled and made a joke. It was something he was sure was only reserved for Ellie. Despite this newfound discovery, Joel’s face remained ever as stern.

“Fuck…,” Ellie muttered once Piper and Joel were standing right next to her. “Uh... whatever it was... think it's gone.”

Piper agreed. Fuck about summed up the horrific mass grave in front of them. Charred bones were sticking out of an enormous pile of ash. The two girls could make out skulls of all different shapes and sizes. Some of the smaller bones, Ellie was sure, could only belong to a baby. She felt sick to her stomach, with only one question on her mind–why?

Joel could sense the unease coming from the two girls. It’s not every day you find yourself standing over the graves of dozens of people. “About a week after Outbreak Day,” Joel began to explain,” soldiers... went through the countryside, and evacuated the small towns. Told you you were goin' to a QZ, and you were... if there was room. If there wasn't…”

Piper’s throat tightened as memories flashed in her mind. Screaming children, begging parents, pleading people all praying for a chance to survive. She turned away and walked to the other side of the road. Her hands clutched so tightly her nails were breaking the skin. It was the only way to calm herself down. Pain for pain. The commands echoed in her mind.

‘There’s no room. I’d say it's time for some target practice.’

A gun was placed in her hand. A shot rang out. Then another. Screams filled the air. The horror of a trapped animal brought to the slaughter. Practice makes perfect and so Piper never missed a shot.

Joel can see the horror in Piper’s eyes as she walks away. Her glossy dark brown eyes reflect the torture of her soul so clearly that Joel isn’t even sure he saw it. It’s a look of a lifetime of pain. A look he always finds in the mirror. His heart wrings itself at the thought. Part of him wants to console her, yet he knows he has no right. Instead, Joel stands still next to Ellie staring at the corpses of the past.

“These people weren't sick?” Ellie dared to ask.

“No,” Joel shook his head. “Probably not.”

Ellie’s face paled. “Why kill them? Why not just leave 'em be?”

The hurt in Ellie’s voice was what sent Piper over the edge. As the contents of her stomach spilled onto the side of the dirt road, Piper was glad that she hadn’t eaten anything this morning. She’d rather have her throat burn than waste any food.

Joel clenched his eyes shut at the sound of Piper’s sick. “Dead people can't be infected.”

꧁_____________꧂

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

The words rang like a bell forcing Piper to remember every minute of every hour of every day. She was guilty. There was no doubt about it. No one could protect her. Levi was gone and Piper was alone to fend for herself against FEDRA.

No one cried any tears when the twelve-year-old received her verdict. It was all swept under the rug along with the bodies and the lies. Piper wished someone could cry for her because no tears seemed to fall from her eyes. She wanted to cry but everything was numb.

The hallways were empty as she returned to her room. Her face and shirt were wet, but not with tears. Everything was quiet. The floor didn’t creek like it used to under her feet. The running water never dripped or splashed as Piper baptized herself under the tap. The towel never rustled against her skin and hair. The bed never groaned and squeaked as she laid down next to her shivering sister.

Piper couldn’t sleep and she was sure she never would again for her mind was trapped in its own self-inflicted prison.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

꧁_____________꧂

Silver fence as far as the eye could see. It looked so out of place wrapped around the small town full of brightly coloured homes and buildings. The barbed wires and warnings of electric death only furthered Piper’s concern about the whole ordeal. She remembered what Joel had told them earlier. Frank was nice and Bill…Piper imagined Bill to be the death trap of a fence protecting the sweet and welcoming town inside. Part of her hoped that she wasn’t true.

Joel’s face tensed as he looked at the neighbourhood in front of him. It felt dead. Even the world inside the fence seemed stale, a fate Frank would rather die than see come to pass. “Stay there,” Joel told the girls as he approached the gate. The girls ignored him and continued to walk alongside him.

Four buttons are pressed on the keypad. A ching noise rang out. The gate was opened and they all stepped inside allowing Joel’s concern to grow.

“What the fսck? Bill? Frank?” Joel called out as his pace quickened. He marched to a large white house. Pots once filled with beautiful blooming flowers now lay wilted. The sun had soaked up every source of life on the street. “You two stay there. Ya hear anything, you see anything... yell,” Joel commanded as he opened the black door with peeling paint.

The girls paused for a moment before entering the home after Joel. It was beautiful. Walls painted vibrant colours that Piper and Ellie had never seen before. The blue in the living room called out to Piper beckoning her, and at that moment she knew what her favourite colour was. There was a couch untouched by moths and time, a piano in perfect condition, paintings and art supplies stuffed in a corner of the room, and a rug that wasn’t covered in dirt and mud. For a moment, the two girls could finally imagine what it was like before the outbreak. At last, the two girls could see what a real home could look like.

“What if they're gone?” Ellie whispered to Piper as she strolled into the dining room. Wine bottles open, glasses lay empty, and leftover food lay rotting.

Piper found herself gliding over to the piano. She had only heard of these things before and only once had she heard one being played. Another kid in the QZ had a tape of piano songs. Piper only got to hear it once before it was taken away. Curiosity got the better of the girl and she lifted up the covering for the keys. The white and black keys glistened in the sunlight that crept through the window. Her fingers hovered over the keys waiting for the right moment. She had to remember this for the rest of her life. Her pointer finger found a key and pushed it down and the piano sang. It was a chord that struck her soul.

“Ellie? Piper?” Joel said as he walked back into the main room. He saw Piper’s awe of the piano. He could see the love she had for the instrument. There was a shuffling behind him causing Joel to turn around.

Ellie raised a slip of paper into the air as she sat down on one of the chairs at the dining table. “It's from Bill,” Ellie explained. Joel stood there watching her, not a thought in his mind or a word in his mouth. Ellie took his silence as an okay and began to read. "To whomever... but probably Joel.”

Joel adjusted his stance as Piper entered the room upon hearing Ellie’s voice.

Ellie looked up at Joel worried she had offended him. “I figured I fell under whomever. Came with this.”

Ellie passed a set of dusty keys over to Joel. He removed his bag and snatched up the keys. Piper took that as her chance to move and pulled out a chair to sit down on.

“So they're dead?” Piper asked as she observed Joel holding the keys.

“Mm-hmm,” Ellie nodded. “You, you wanna?” Ellie offered the letter to Joel.

“Go ahead. You do it,” Joel replied as he stepped back waiting for Ellie to read the message Bill and Frank had left him.

"August 29, 2023. If you find this... please do not come into the bedroom. We left a window open so the house wouldn't smell, but it will probably be a sight. I'm guessing you found this, Joel because anyone else would've been electrocuted or blown up by one of my traps. Hehehehehehehehe.”

Piper winced at Ellie’s attempt at a written laugh. Ellie stuck her tongue at her sister before continuing.

“Take anything you need. The bunker code is the same as the gate code but in reverse. Anyway... I never liked you, but still, it's like we're friends... almost. And I respect you. So, I'm gonna tell you something because you're probably the only person who will understand. I used to hate the world, and I was happy when everyone died. But I was wrong because there was one person worth saving. That's what I did. I saved him. Then I protected him. That's why men like you and me are here. We have a job to do. And God helps any mοthеrfսckеr who stands in our way. I leave you all of my weapons and equipment. Use them to keep..."

Ellie’s throat caught on the next words. Tess. She couldn’t say it. Piper sat up in her seat watching her sister’s sudden wave of silence.

Joel clenched his jaw and grabbed the letter from Ellie’s hands. His eyes scanned the paper over until he reached the line that caused Ellie’s hesitation.

Joel couldn’t stand it any longer. The stench of dust in the air was clogging up his lungs. His eyes burned aching to find some release. “Stay here,” he said to the girls before darting out of the house and shutting the door behind him.

The sun seemed to be shining even more than usual when Joel emerged from the house. ‘Use them to keep Tess safe.’ The wilting flowers, the dead brown yard, and the peeling paint. Each thing he looked at glared in his face like a headstone in a graveyard. It was inescapable. The letter was read. The paper now lay crunched up in the palm of Joel’s hand. He wanted to squeeze the letter so tight that it vanished from existence. He wanted to wash away the effects of Bill’s words. He wanted to clean himself of the pain, the memories, and the emotions. So the first time in a long time, Joel cried. It wasn’t a sob or a cry that brought you to your knees. No, Joel’s face bunched up and a single tear fell down his cheek. Joel knew better than to stand there and cry. The heavy weight of a key in his hand reminded him of the weight of what he promised to the dead. Joel knew better than anyone that the best way to mourn was to move on in the world of the living.

꧁_____________꧂

Joel was surprised to find both Ellie and Piper exactly where they were when he left the house a while ago. He was sure they would have at least explored the house. Instead, it seems they explored dust art as tiny stick figures and horrible renditions of animals and flowers now decorated the table.

“Show me your arm,” Joel asked the two girls. Piper was the first to stick out her arm. The wound had scabbed over and was beginning to fade. Ellie’s bite mark was only a scar on the skin of her arm. Joel thought back to Tess’s words. This was real, these girls are real.

“I just finished makin' a truck battery. It's charging right now,” Joel told the girls.

“Okay…” Ellie said.

“I have a brother out in Wyoming,” Joel explained to two girls. “He's in some kinda trouble, and I'm heading out there to find him. And my guess is he knows where some of them are out there. Maybe they can get you to wherever this lab is.”

“All right,” Piper agreed.

“Uh, listen, about Tess, uh…,” Ellie began to say when Joel cut her off.

“If I'm takin' you with me, there are some rules you gotta follow. Rule one, you don't bring up Tess. Ever. Matter of fact, we can just keep our histories to ourselves. Rule two, you don't tell anyone about your... condition. They see that bite mark; they won't think it through. They'll just shoot you. Rule three, you do what I say when I say it. We clear?”

“Yes,” Ellie nodded her head.

Joel turned to Piper. “Repeat it.”

“What you say goes,” she muttered.

“Okay,” Joel sighed as he looked around the room.

“So, what now?” Ellie asked.

“We grab what we can,” Joel said. He waved his hand telling the girls to follow as he led them to Bill’s bunker.

80s music was blaring from the computer’s speakers, and Joel knew a headache was coming. Immediately, he marched over to the computer and silenced the sound.

“Ho-ly shit,” Ellie was in awe of the bunker. “This guy was a genius.”

“Why was the music on?” Piper asked as she hopped off the ladder.

“If he didn't reset the countdown every few weeks,” Joel explained,” this playlist would run over the radio.”

“'80s,” Piper whispered as she glanced over the wall of firearms. Some of which looked brand new.

“Grab some cans from over there. Nothin’ dented or swollen,” Joel instructed the girls as he pointed them to the corner of canned goods.

“Dude,” Ellie uttered, she pointed to the wall of guns. A hopeful look was born in her eyes.

“No,” Joel said, squandering the hope in Ellie’s gaze.

“But there's a wall of them…Piper?” Ellie pleaded.

“Let’s go, Ellie,” Piper replied.

Ellie groaned and her whole body heaved over. Piper chuckled at her sister’s dramatics before Piper moved to the canned goods and began to stuff bags full of food.

꧁_____________꧂

The whole house was stocked with things that were a rarity in the QZ. Ellie found an entire closet full of toilet paper and women’s toiletries. It was a fucking gold mine. As Ellie filled bag after bag, Piper stood in the kitchen rummaging through the food. She had never seen some of the spices and foods that were stored in Bill and Frank’s kitchen. Part of her wished that she could have lived here with them in this life of luxury as the rest of the world fell apart.

“Needs another hour,” Joel said as he closed the front door behind him. He walked over to Ellie and looked at the bags before nodding and doing the same for Piper.

“Come on, you two,” Joel uttered as he walked up the stairs to the second floor of the house.

There were fully decorated homes with beds. The rooms had beds that were in amazing condition compared to the wilting mattress of Piper and Ellie’s bunk beds. The two girls would kill to have at least one night's rest in this palace of a home.

Joel led them into a room and cracked open the closet doors before dropping cardboard boxes onto the bed.

“Look in there,” Joel said before reaching into a box labelled men's shirts for himself.

Piper and Ellie smiled as they walked over to the boxes full of new and clean women’s clothing. There were thick jeans unworn by anyone and shirts without holes and any signs of thinning.

“Grab an extra shirt Ellie and a warm–” Piper began to say as she shuffled through the piles of clothing.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Grab something warm for when winter comes and extra clothes just in case.” Ellie repeated the words as if she was a robot.

Piper smiled before placing her hand on Ellie’s head and roughing up her hair making it all go frizzy. Ellie groaned before smacking Piper’s hand away.

“Alright, got my…holy shit!” Ellie exclaimed as she open a door in the bedroom. Before her was a pristine bathroom. She stepped inside and turned on the water “Piper! They have hot water!” Ellie stuck her head out of the bathroom. “I'm takin' a shower. And then you're showering because seriously.” Ellie waved her hand in front of her nose as she pointed to Piper.

Piper rolled her eyes as she bagged the last piece of clothing in her backpack. “Oh fuck you, Ellie” Piper smiled.

꧁_____________꧂

They really did have hot water and fuck did it feel amazing against Piper’s skin. As she stood underneath the raining showerhead, she could never recall a time when she did have warm water. If she was lucky to get a shower back in the QZ, all the water was freezing cold. Piper thought that she could get used to how the water eased her aching muscles and soul. She likes the feeling of the water trickling against her skin turning it a shade of pink from the heat.

For a large majority of her shower, the water that rinsed off her body and hair was a dark brown. One could say it had been a long time since she really cleaned herself. While the river from earlier was nice, it was river water and Piper could only do so much when it came to bathing.

Piper was quick to realize that the shower had a nice supply of fancy shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. Each bottle with a different scent that pleased Piper’s nose. To be safe rather than sorry, she used each of the five shampoos, the six conditioners, and the three body washes. She even contemplated using the razor to shave, but after remembering she had no recollection of how to wield the blade, she chose against it.

The water washed away the dirt and grim and crusty blood that had stuck to her skin and some part of Piper believed that it washed the deepest parts of her broken soul. The heat of the water melded together the shattered pieces into one stronger shard. Piper felt renewed. Who knew a shower could do that?

She shut the water off and stepped out of the shower before wrapping a towel around her body. She practically moaned at how soft the fabric was. All the towels she had ever used before were coarse and left scratches against her skin. Yet these towels were gentle as she guided the towel to soak up any remaining water.

By the time she dressed herself the steam that had fogged up the mirror evaporated leaving Piper with the perfect view of herself. Her mind was torn from the view. Part of her cherished the sight of her dark eyes and long hair that took forever to dry as they shine in contrast with her pale freckled skin. The other more menacing part caught sight of the bruise along her nose and the dark circles under her eyes. What was worse was the look in her eyes. Piper already knew that she was broken, but to see it? That was a fate no one deserved to have. All of a sudden, Piper wished the mirror was fogged up again. She wished she never looked in the mirror and saw what it saw, so she bundled up her dirty clothes and left the bathroom.

“It’s your turn,” Piper muttered to Joel as she passed him in the hallway. “I made sure to keep some warm water for you.”

Joel nodded and took in the sight of the clean yet broken figure of Piper as she glided down the hallway and out of sight. He pushed himself off the wall and entered the bathroom. With a quick check of the water, he knew Piper told the truth. She did leave some hot water for him.

꧁_____________꧂

“You clean up nice,” Ellie whistled to her sister as she stepped off the last stair.

With a scoff and a raised brow, Piper brushed Ellie’s comment off. “Yeah, whatever.”

Piper glanced up the stairs in the direction of the bathroom and turned on her listening ear. Watering was running. Good.

Dark eyes scanned Piper’s movement to the basement door. “Where are you going?” Ellie asked.

“The bunker,” Piper replied as she carefully turned the knob to negate any creaking.

“But Joel–” Ellie began glancing upstairs.

“Is in the shower and won’t know a thing if you don’t tell,” Piper assured. The door was now fully open, and the smell of dust lay filled Piper’s nose.

“...and what about the code?” Ellie pondered.

A sigh escaped Piper’s mouth. “I saw the code at the gate,” Piper explained, “so I just have to put it in backward: 6791.” She widened her eyes at her sister as if to say ‘duh’ before closing the door and trekking to the bunker.

Ellie sank deeper into her seat as she picked at her fingernails. For the first time in her life, they were clean. There was no dirt or grime hidden under the nail bed of each finger. It was weird and now there was nothing for her to pick at anymore. Huffing a breath of air, Ellie dropped her head back. Her skull banged against the back of the seat.

“Fuck,” hissed Ellie as she rubbed her injury.

Maybe sitting in a hard chair wasn’t the best idea when she was bored. It was then Ellie remembered where she was. It was a house that was a treasure cove of goods. She was sure she could find some good to keep her boredom at bay. Besides, it’s not like Bill and Frank would mind, they were dead.

While the living room was an enticing start with all the painting supplies and the piano, a small desk in the corner of the dining room caught Ellie’s attention. It was small as it buried itself deep into the corner. The young girl almost would have missed it if it weren’t for the funky shape of the desk.

Unlike all the other desks and tables Ellie had seen back in the QZ, this one was rounded at the top. While there was a flat surface in the middle, on the sides there were walls that curved to meet the top edge of the desk. The bottom half of the desk was as you’d expect. It was flat with multiple drawers to hold all of one’s belongings. Drawers were the perfect place to search for something to quench boredom, so that’s exactly where Ellie went looking.

There was the odd thing-ama-gig here and there and by the time Ellie searched through the first drawer, she had found three packs of gum and some toothpicks and pads of paper. Boring. The next drawer was the same. And the next until Ellie’s hands glossed over the top drawer of the desk.

It was long and thin, and Ellie was sure there wasn’t going to be anything in it. The drawer groaned as it was pulled open. Ellie’s eyes widened.

“Fuck yeah!” She triumphantly whispered.

Inside there were two notebooks and upon further inspection, they were both empty. Brand new and just waiting to be used. One for her and one for Piper. There were also some assorted pencils and pens, which weren’t as exciting, but Ellie grabbed them just as well. She needed some to draw with after all. Upon further inspection, she found some magazines and a comic or two. Quickly, she put them in her bag. She was sure she’d need reading material at some point.

With the drawer closed Ellie sat back in her seat at the dining table and got to work. She always loved to draw and knew she was shit at it, but she remembered that Piper always told her you can never be good without practice. First, Ellie drew a tree to help her remember her adventures from that morning and the thrill of being in the sky. Next was the arcade game she saw in the gas station. However, she gave up after drawing a funky box with weird angles. She’d have to work on dimensions and perception if she was to get any better. The last thing she tried to capture on the blank page of the notebook was her and her sister. She wanted to do better than some stick figures and a bright yellow sun in the sky. At first, there were two circles, which then became ovals. Then there were circles for eyes but eyes don’t look quite like that so Ellie erased them and…

“What’s that?” Piper asked as she peered over her sister’s shoulder.

Ellie jumped out of her seat and a long dark line was scratched against the paper. “A notebook,” Ellie muttered, collecting her nerves. “Here found you one.” She handed Piper the notebook and watched as her sister flipped through the pages.

A smile grew on Piper’s face as she hugged the notebook close. “…thanks, Ellie.” Ellie beamed up at her sister. For once she gave something to Piper, and it made Ellie’s heartbeat with pride.

“Here,” Piper said, placing down her backpack and placing the notebook safely inside. “Shove this deep in your bag, but someplace easily accessible,” Piper instructed.

At first, Ellie was confused about exactly what she was supposed to store in her bag, but her expression quickly changed to one of pure excitement. “Fuck yeah!” exclaimed Ellie.

Piper chuckled. “Just hurry up.” She placed the gun in Ellie’s hands.

“Ai yai captain,” Ellie saluted as she shoved the gun into her bag. “Thanks, Piper for–Oh shit.” Joel had come down the stairs. “Well, don't you look pretty?”

Joel paused for a moment staring at the girls. Their faces were flushed, and they were oddly still. “Shut up,” he told Ellie. “…Ready to go?”

Piper and Ellie nodded a bit too enthusiastically for Joel’s taste, but these were weird kids, so they’d do weird things. “Let’s go.” Joel opened the front door and motioned for the girls to follow.

꧁_____________꧂

Joel let a sigh of relief fill his body once his aching bones sat down on the leather seats of the truck. It was going to be a luxury to drive instead of walk. A true luxury it would have been if he could have been taking this trip alone.

“You’re in the back,” Piper barked at Ellie.

“There’s no way in hell,” Ellie growled.

The two girls had a hand on the door handle to the passenger seat. Their bodies were vigorously pressed up against each other in an attempt to knock the other over. Their yapping was already giving Joel a headache. He pinched his brow hard and clenched his jaw. Maybe if he thought hard enough the girls would be silent. Alas, their bickering only grew.

“Because I said so,” Piper said as she shoved Ellie to the side.

“That’s bullshit–”

“Girls!” Joel scolded. He knew that if he didn’t conclude the fight, they would never leave Bill’s and Frank’s.

Silence came from Piper and Ellie as they stood watching Joel carefully.

“Who knows how to read a map?” Joel asked, his tone was much softer.

Ellie looked down just as Piper began to smirk. “I do,” Piper smugly replied.

“Piper’s in front. Ellie, you’re in the back,” Joel stated.

“Yeah! Told you,” Piper muttered to her sister.

“Fuck you,” Ellie grumbled as she took the back seat of the truck.

“Love you too,” Piper smiled back at Ellie as she got comfortable in the passenger seat. She pulled the sun guard down and looked in its tiny mirror after she scanned all the buttons for the stereo. “Nice,” She whispered.

“It's your first time in a car?” Joel asked curiously as he watched the two girls' reactions to the vehicle.

“It's like a spaceship,” Ellie noted as she stared around with wide eyes.

“No, it's like a piece of shit Chevy S10, but it'll get us there... I think,” Joel said. “Seatbelt.”

“Hm?” The two girls looked at him with confusion. Joel stared back with a look of bewilderment.

“Seatbelt,” Joel repeated. The girls’ reactions didn’t change.

The seat groaned as Joel stretched back and reached for Ellie’s seatbelt. In one swift motion, she buckled her in. Her hands roamed the material as it lay strapped across her torso. Next, Joel buckled in Piper. His large hands clasped the buckled guiding across Piper’s torso before hearing the click.

“Okay,” Joel said to himself once the girls were seated. With a turn of the key, the engine whirred to life. One hand on the wheel and the other on the shift.

Piper watched in awe as Joel backed them out of the garage and onto the street. It was an odd sensation to feel the rumbling of the engine beneath her seat.

“So cool,” Ellie whispered as she looked out the window and the moving world.

Joel placed the map in Piper’s lap as they approached the gate. She carefully unfolded the paper, her eyes scanning over the numerous lines and illustrations to find their location. With a quick glance outside the window to check for street signs, she found their location on the map.

In the meantime, Joel had opened the gate and began to leave the ghost of a utopian neighbourhood behind. Ellie sat with her head laying against the window as she watched the homes disappear behind her leaving the open road ahead.

“Would ya leave it?” Joel said to Piper pulling Ellie out of her trance as the trees flew by. “Put it back... Piper.”

Piper turned to Joel and smirked as she placed the tape into the stereo. With a click the tape began to play and the song came to life.

The sound of instruments seeped through the speakers of the stereo playing the intro. It was slow as they set up the start of the first verse.

Ellie huffed. “This sucks, come on, change it,” she told Piper.

Piper rolled her eyes and made a move to skip the song.

“Oh, no, wait. No, leave it. Leave it,” Joel said as he swatted Piper’s hand away from the stereo. “Oh, this is good. This is Linda Ronstadt. Do you know who Linda Ronstadt is?” He turned back to look at the girls.

“You know I don't know who Linda Ronstadt is,” Piper replied as she sat back in her chair. Her ears tuned in to listen to the music.

“Oh, man. Eh,” Ellie sighed. “It's better than Piper’s shit music.”

Immediately Piper sat up in her seat. “Hey! Try having a music taste in this shit world…and I’ll have you know Fleetwood Mac isn’t shit music.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say…”

This was going to be a long car ride.

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♪ Wait for the day ♪ ♪ You'll go away ♪ ♪ Knowin' that you warned me ♪ ♪ Of the price I'd have to pay ♪ ♪ And life's full of loss ♪ ♪ Who knows the cost ♪ ♪ Livin' in the memory ♪ ♪ Of a love that never was ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've done everything I know ♪ ♪ To try and change your mind ♪ ♪ And I think I'm gonna love you ♪ ♪ For a long, long time ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Love will abide ♪ ♪ Take things in stride ♪ ♪ Sounds like good advice ♪ ♪ But there's no one at my side ♪ ♪ And time washes clean ♪ ♪ Love's wounds unseen ♪ ♪ That's what someone told me ♪ ♪ But I don't know what it means ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've done everything I know... ♪

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