It was the life in her eyes that Joel admired, although he would never say it. Their relationship was born of a power struggle, sometimes against the world, and just as often against one another. In this moment it was the complaining. While Tess had spent the last hour grumbling about their lot in life, more specifically, how she perceived a failing on Joel's part. Her eyes told a different story, one that Joel never missed. In contrast to her current verbal demeanor, her eyes blazed with that little spark, one that Joel could never quite find a name for.
As they stepped into a clearing in the ruble, Joel took in the sights: another gap between broken homes and shattered stories. He had a yard like this once. Although, he noted inwardly with a grunt, his yard had never looked this alive. As nature reclaimed the empty space, it burst into life, unconstrained by mans' attempt to trim and clip. The irony was not lost on him as he gazed upon the dilapidated house before him.
In that moment he decided to take a break. An annoyed sigh puffed out of Tess's mouth as she realized he was not keeping pace with her. Hands planted firmly on hips, she turned to face him and puffed a tassel of hair from in front her lips.
"Oh fer…" she paused for a moment "Damn it Joel, We do not have time fer this." She tilted her head to the side and pointed down the road. "Rocky says we gots a real score hidden deep in the city, we can't risk another person making off with whats ours." She took a step twords him "Get your lazy ass up". Joel could feel her gaze on the top of his head, and he smiled to himself as he rubbed the stress from his cheeks.
"Tess," he said leaning against the bark of a tree. "There's no way in hell them meds aren't gonna be there." A yawn made its way into the air as he scratched his stubbly chin. "We have all the time in the wor-". He was cut off as a clod of dirt smacked right in to his open mouth, skillfully sent on its way by an annoyed Tess.
His coughing and surprised look brought out the first smile on Tess's face Joel had seen all day. She crossed her arm after wiping the dirt off her hands and onto her pants.
"Oh son of bitch" he coughed spitting dirt and gravel onto the ground. "Damn it women, you almost knocked my fuckin tooth out". That earned a mischievous laugh from his companion as she leaned up against a tree.
"Oh Joel, whats tha matter? You was spewing out enough bullshit, I figured your mouth would feel right at home with the earth". He scowled up at her, but accepted her hand as she leaned forward to pull him up. With strength earned from years of hard living, she managed to pull up his muscled frame with little effort. The smile disappeared as she turned away from him. "Come on now, I aint risking us losing this much payment 'cus your lazy ass needed a break."
And on they went. The route was a known quantity to both of them, traveled often in their years of smuggling. They knew many ways in and out of the safe zones, and this one was a favorite of both. It possessed all the qualities that a good route should have; little to no infected, easy pathways to travel, and above all else, it was unknown to allmost everyone but the most skilled of travelers. A secret kept between the elite, and shared with no one. By skirting around the remnants of the outer suburbs, they managed to avoid traveling through crumbling buildings, which meant more visibility, and less surprises. This was preferable to the smugglers, as an encounter with the Federals could be just as bad for their likes as a run in with a pack of clickers.
Slowly but surely they walked towards the edge of the lower district. Their destination was a drop point several miles into the cities wreckage. This particular location was the balancing point for the easy pathway, where the trails took them safely around the suburban cataclysm, the drop was located within a maze of twisted ruble, rotting structures and naturally occurring deathtraps fueled by that most devious bastard: Gravity.
As they neared the danger zone, Tess's griping ceased, and they descended into a quite melancholy. Both had seen enough of their fellow smuggling kin killed by capricious acts of fate. A shifting floor had once sent the carcass of an industrial oven through a hole in the wall and onto the street bellow, which nearly smashed the both of them. Had they not stopped for a brief second to drink water, they would have likely been killed instantly… If they where lucky.
A chill went down Joel's spine as he remembered an encounter with an infected trapped beneath some ruble. Before he had met Tess, He often took work in the more dangerous city blocks, and once while scouring a basement for salvage, he had been horrified to find a clicker, in full bloom, pinned to the floor by a collapsed ceiling. The real horror sunk in as he saw the loaded gun nearby, and the bite mark on its leathery neck, as well as its torn and empty stomach cavity. It left Joel fairly certain that the poor bastard must have been trapped by a cave in, and with his weapon just out of reach, the SOB would have had nothing to defend himself from as the infected closed in to feast. Joel closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. The poor guy couldn't even take his own life to escape his fate. This was of course why the two of them worked together.
The next hour went by in silence as they neared the more treacherous zones, broken only by the scuffle of feet on ruble, or the occasional bark of a wild dog. To keep his mind busy Joel scanned the surroundings, the weight of his pistol a constant presence on his hip. His eye glanced amongst the densely plotted ruins, darting from wrecked car, to the ominously slanted skyscraper resting against its twin neighbor. Someday it would come crashing down as weather wore away at its supports, and Joel made a note to be far away when that day happened.
His thoughts where interrupted by a sudden halt from Tess as he walked into her. His feet slipped in the wet grass and he grabbed her arm to steady himself. A shard of anxiety burrowed into his mind at the feeling of her arm, the muscles where hard as rock. His eyes quickly took in the scene. Tess stood completely still, save the steam rising from her wet hair in the early morning sun.
"What is it" Joel whispered, as he sunk into a ready crouch, his previous calm evaporating quickly.
"I don't know" Tess quietly murmured. This caused him to instinctively tense up further. Years of running together bred an almost psychic connection, and Joel had long since learned to trust her intuition. "across the street" she whispered, still frozen. "I think I saw something in the Old Charlie's window".
That did not surprise him. Old Charlies was nickname they had given the ruins of a hole in the wall pub on this route. The location had served them well in the past, offering reasonable coverage of the surrounding area, as well as plenty of space to rest in comfortably, should a journey take longer than a day.
Joel instinctively reached for his gun, slowly finding its wooden grip with the tips of his finger. He drew it and flipped the safety in one slow but purposful motion. His peripheral vision caught Tess's hand doing the same, slowly moving back to her hip.
With a sudden crash and a flurry of movment the sign above the window gave way. Time slowed down as Joel and Tess reverted to that moment, Joel saw to his surprise the look of horror on Tess's face as her hand came up empty. Panic took over as her hand started the eternal track back down to her empty hip. Immediately Joel reached up, hooked his arm around her waist, and half pulled half tackled her to the ground, behind a pile of rubble.
"Oh shit, oh shit" she whispered, anger quickly replaced her panic as she desperately groped her hips, franticly searching for her sidearm. "What the fuck" she exclaimed in a horse whisper. Seeing that she was safely in cover Joel peeked around the corner of the half wall. The crash of the old sign as it shattered on the pavement sent brown streak out of the pub's broken window.
As the sound of hooves carried down the street and into the distance, Joel body faltered for a moment, and he collapsed onto his back.
"It was a deer," He exclaimed, as waves of relief crashed over his body. To his immediate right Tess was on her hands and knees, peering around the corner, mouth wide open. As she verified that they were in fact not in any danger, she also collapsed next to him, with her head on his chest, facing the sky, eyes closed. She took several deep breathes to calm herself.
"I…hate…those stupid… fuckin animals" came her words, accentuated by her slight southern drawl. Several seconds went by as their breathing calmed. Normally Joel would have appreciated the view down her shirt, but in that moment, it just wasn't appealing.
Tess reached over to her pack, which had fallen off her shoulder as Joel tossed her to the ground. Inside her hand found the grip of her gun, and she sighed in relief.
"Tess," Joel started, "What in the hell where you thinking?" he chastised. "I don't see that gun doing you a lick of good in your pack". She took the comment well he realized. What would normally have evoked an irritated response seemed to cut into her tough demeanor. She waited a while before responding, her hand caressing the wooden grip , reassuring her mind that defense was once again within arms reach.
"I fucked up," she said quietly. The realization of her mistake having the effect of neutering her usually fiery attitude. It got quite as they both listened to the world around them, half searching for the audible clue of infected coming to the cause of the commotion, and half taking in the gravity of the situation. Had the deer been an infected, or even worse, another person, Tess would be, in all likelihood another victim of the outbreak. They had both seen to many people killed by one simple error.
"Yeah, I see that Tess," he responded. "I'm asking why". She sat up, drawing the gun from her pack. After a quick scan of the surroundings, her eyes found their way to the metal exterior. Tess slowly dropped the magazine, checking to make sure the gun was loaded. A slight pull on the slide revealed a .45 caliber round neatly in the chamber. She climbed to one knee and turned to face him.
"I don't know Joel," she said. As she slid the gun into her waistband, their eyes met, and Joel saw the spark flicker. It did not leave, but was subdued in that moment of weakness. Shame brought her eyes downwards, and she stood to her feet.