A/N: I didn't think I'd be back so soon, but I couldn't get another idea out of my head. For those of you who know my writing, I always like to add a unique twist to spice things up. I'd like to test the waters again with a new story, so I hope you'll like it and give me feedback. Also, if some things are inaccurate, I would greatly appreciate constructive criticism.
As with the first chapter of any story, it's usually ordinary world set-up. It will be a bit mundane/recycled, and I know a lot of people don't read past the first chapter because I have a traffic graph and I look at it. Nevertheless, I do encourage you to read past the first chapter and have a little faith in me because you will miss out on a great story if you don't. It's your loss, buddy. Enjoy!
Normal was a foreign concept to Ellie. She wasn't quite sure if there was such a word anymore. Normal to her was being constantly attacked by either Infected or Hunters, surviving on nothing but canned food and boiled water every day. So, by definition, life in Tommy's town was foreign. The notion that people might actually focus on helping others was strange. Community was non-existent to her.
Yet there she was, in the middle of a bustling, quaint, prosperous community in the middle of the Wyoming forest. Jackson. She couldn't help but gawk at the one and two-storey wooden cottages built in neat rows around her, and Joel chuckled quietly as he walked along by her side, looking for lil' brother Tommy.
"Amazing, isn't it? Hard to believe we're gonna be living in one of these houses." Joel whistled as he scanned the dirt street in front of him for Tommy. He didn't have to search long because the familiar face of his brother surfaced from the sparse crowd of townspeople, jogging towards him.
"Joel! Glad to see you, brother! How the hell have you been?" Tommy greeted as he caught his brother up in a hug. Joel returned it, heartily patting Tommy's back. Maria emerged from behind her husband, smiling at Ellie.
"How've you been, Ellie? You guys sure took your sweet time coming back." The blonde woman laughed softly as Joel warmly shook her hand.
Ellie scuffed the dusty ground with her sneaker, "I've been okay. Salt Lake City is pretty far from here."
Maria furrowed her brow at Ellie's sudden quietness, and then glanced between her and Joel. She noticed the slight tension that seemed to hang over them, but she had the sense not to voice her opinion this time.
Instead, she amicably slung an arm around the redhead's shoulders. "You've grown, Ellie. Come on, let's take a tour," she offered, leading the way as Joel and Tommy followed, catching up with each other.
"We've got a barn now, with horses and cows and other animals. Wanna go see?" Maria asked in an effort to lighten Ellie's mood.
Ellie shrugged half-heartedly. "Yeah, sure."
The barn was more of a warehouse, with wooden stalls and rope doors. The intersecting catwalks above were filled with hay bales, sturdily bolted to the metal walls by steel supports. A few horses and Angus cows peacefully chewed on hay, swishing their tails at flies.
"We're working on expanding our herd; the rest are in the paddocks outside. We don't have enough places built yet for you to stay somewhere, but you're welcome to stay with us. We've got an extra room." Tommy explained with a hint of pride in his voice.
Joel nodded in confirmation. "That sounds good, little brother. I could put my feet up for a few hours. How does a nap sound to you, Ellie?"
Ellie shook her head, scratching the nose of one of the horses. It was a dapple gray mare with a black mane and tail. "I slept a lot in the car, I'm not tired," she declined, but Tommy could tell from her slumped shoulders and lack of energy that she was most likely exhausted.
"How about I show Joel the house and you continue the tour, Maria? I need to start lunch, anyway." Tommy offered, but Joel knew better. He wanted to have a chat with him about a certain girl and a certain cure for CBI. Nevertheless, Joel allowed his brother to guide him out of the barn and down the street.
Maria and Ellie were left alone in the barn, a comfortable silence between them. Ellie breathed in the calming scent of hay and horse, mulling over everything that had happened in the past twelve hours. So many unanswered questions…so much uneasiness.
Maria snapped her out of her brooding lapse. "C'mon, I'll show you the cafeteria. Carlos makes a mean ham sandwich. It should tide you over until Tommy makes us some grub. He takes forever to slap some meat and mayonnaise on two pieces of bread."
Ellie merely nodded, plodding along beside Maria as they entered into the sunshine again. "How's everything been going here? Do you get many families?" Ellie asked after a while in an effort to relieve the quiet.
"More every day. A lot of them have younger kids, but I'm sure there are some your age around here. You'll make friends in no time." The blonde woman smiled, but it faded when Ellie didn't return it. "Something bothering you, Ellie? You're awfully quiet."
Ellie self-consciously scratched the back of her head. "Umm…it's a long story. I don't feel like talking about it right now."
"That's alright, I won't pry." Maria promised, and then her walkie-talkie buzzed at her hip. "Go ahead," she spoke curtly into it, all business now.
"We've got traders from Victor at the gate, we need you and Tommy over here." A crackling, male voice responded from the other side.
"I'll be right over. Stand by." Maria answered, clipping the device to her belt again. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. At Ellie's confused look she explained, "We trade with passing groups and nearby settlements, all friendlies. You might even find something you like. Let's go say hi." Maria strode off, and Ellie half-jogged to keep up with her.
By the time they got to the gate, a few men with rifles were already assembled in front of it. Ellie hung back as they opened the gate, letting a wagon and about six weary-looking travelers come through. The wagon looked like it had seen better days, it was battered and Ellie counted about a dozen bullet holes on just one side.
The traders had bullet holes in them, too. One woman with lank, black hair tightly held a thick rag to her upper arm, and another man was supporting a teenage girl who was limping heavily. Their other three companions, a teenage boy, a burly man, and the woman driving the wagon hopped off to tend to their comrades.
"You got attacked? When?" Maria asked, her face set in concern.
The woman holding the gauze to her arm answered first. "Less than an hour ago. I thought we agreed that you would keep your parts of the trade routes safe? We got attacked by bandits on your territory!" she accused, practically seething. The burly man, his red plaid shirt hanging off one shoulder, placed a hand on her back to placate her.
Maria worked her jaw. "We do our best to keep the routes safe, Georgia, but we don't have 24-hour patrols that far out in the forest. Our men have to sleep and eat too, you know."
Ellie swore Georgia hissed as she pushed her black hair back, tangled and wild around her angled face from the recent battle. "Well it ain't good enough! Look what happened!" she pointed a furious finger at the rest of her group.
Tommy and Joel emerged from the gathering crowd around the wagon, wearing the same concerned expression as Maria. "Now Georgia, we'll reimburse you for whatever you lost. I can send out an escort with you once we get you all patched up, bring you nice and safe into your territory," he offered, which seemed to calm Georgia down a bit. She didn't look so much like a feral wolf now.
Georgia stood up straight, clutching the rag tighter to her arm. "That's better. I'll give you a list later, but for now I'd appreciate some medical supplies, food, water, and a place to put up for a few days." The angry tint to her alto was still there, however. She turned to the teenage boy, who was holding the anxious cart horse, "Cody, you and Mitch do some business with whatever we have left."
Cody, the boy with long, shaggy black hair and the burly man in the plaid shirt nodded, and the rest followed Tommy and Maria. Joel worked his way over to Ellie as some of the crowd dispersed, but others stuck around to survey the goods in the wagon.
"Ain't much now, mostly food and miscellaneous goods, but if you find something you like, come on over and we'll make a deal!" Mitch announced, and some women and children peeked into the cart to see what was available.
"You want to take a look?" Joel asked, and Ellie responded by cautiously approaching the wagon, like a curious doe that could spook at any moment. Joel couldn't help but chuckle as he followed, inspecting the various pots, pans, and canned goods over the side of the wagon.
Ellie hopped in the back, digging through various vegetables wilting in the hot sun, canned food, and packets of spices until she victoriously held up a faded Savage Starlight comic book, along with a half-wrapped package of something Joel hadn't seen since before the infection: a Hershey's chocolate bar. She clambered off the wagon, showing off her haul to Joel.
"Can we trade for these? Please, this chocolate looks so good!" she begged, like the world might end again if she didn't have it. Joel cracked a rare smirk, glad to see Ellie brighten up a little, even if it was for a short while.
"We'll see." Joel said, tapping the black-haired Cody on the shoulder. "What'll you trade for these?" he held the items up, and Cody reached a hand out for them instead.
Ellie cocked her head as Cody brushed his unruly bangs from his eyes with his free hand. He had angled features like Georgia, but they were more likely due to lack of food rather than genetics. Before he could answer she exclaimed, "Whoa, what the hell happened to your eyes?"
Joel noticed it too, plain as day. "Ellie…" he warned sternly. Cody had a milky hue to his eyes, and where the pupil was supposed to be there was a dark blue circle. His black t-shirt and dark, ripped jeans only seemed to bring them out more.
He smiled tiredly, as if it wasn't the first time somebody had asked him that question. "Kinda freaky, isn't it?" Cody drawled in a boy's low tenor.
"Really freaky…" Ellie muttered. Joel shot her a firm glare. "What? It's true!"
"So what do you want?" Cody snapped, eager to move on to another topic.
"Can't you see it?" Ellie asked again, furrowing her brow.
Before Joel could open his mouth to outright scold her, Cody beat him to it. "Ha, very funny. No, I can't. I'm blind, can't see a thing," he quipped sarcastically, annoyed now. Joel placed the items in his outstretched hand.
Ellie shrank back, now understanding her rudeness. "Oh…sorry," was all she said.
Cody ran his long fingers over the sleek cover of the comic, and then the bar of chocolate. "Hmm…this is the last comic we have, and so is the chocolate. Damn, you have expensive taste." He leaned against the wagon calling out, "Hey, Mitch! What's our rate on chocolate?"
"Either a pistol or a med kit!" Mitch answered.
Joel muttered some obscenities under his breath, and Ellie gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.
Cody smirked in their direction. "I can give you a discount if I get a kiss from the pretty girl."
"You're disgusting. Here, I have a med kit in my pack." Ellie scoffed, unshouldering her backpack. She dug a kit out of it, handing it to Cody. The smirk never left his face.
Cody opened it, fingering the contents. He nodded to himself, holding out the comic and the chocolate. "The comic's on the house. Nice doing business with you, Ellie." His tone was almost mocking, and Ellie rolled her eyes, shoving the items into her pack.
Joel followed her wordlessly as they cleared the scattering crowd, and Joel took the lead as he led them to Tommy's house. "Nice bunch those traders are, huh Ellie?" He shook his head. It reminded him of his days in Boston, where everybody was haggling for something, or swindling people out of their hard-earned ration cards. The black market was a dog-eat-dog place, and if you didn't have a few bullets in your pistol, you weren't taken seriously.
"They're a bunch of creeps! They're no different than those assholes in Boston, conning people out of their ration cards. Can't wait 'til they leave. Can we go eat lunch now? I'm starving." Ellie complained, trudging along after Joel.
"Why don't you eat that chocolate? It'll tide you over." Joel suggested.
Ellie bit her lip, thinking. "No, I'll save it for later. When Tommy and Maria are here."
Joel casually ruffled her hair, and she swatted his large, rough hand away. "Nice of you to share, kiddo. A little kindness goes a long way."
"Yeah, yeah, let's just go make lunch." Ellie ducked away from his hand, unsuccessfully hiding a giggle.
A/N: There you go, I promise things will pick up. As usual, don't forget to tell me what you think! I appreciate suggestions, predictions, and the like. Thanks for reading!