Joel fell a little bit, stepping back to balance himself. Ellie anticipate the other two in front of her to pull the trigger. She almost dared them to. Ellie looked back from the man with the dark mustache to the younger boy. She kept her gun at the Boy, as Joel kept his on the Mustache.
"So what the hell's going to happen? We going to sit here until one of us dies?" the Mustache asked. His hairline looked like it was receding a little bit, his brown roots becoming almost silver, like the patches of white in Joel's aging beard. His eye was bruising where Joel had punched him. Little dots of blood were sprayed on his shoulder from being smacked in the mouth. He had gotten the blood off of his mouth already, wiping it when he made eye contact with the Boy earlier. She saw the Boy anxiously look over at the Mustache, adjusting his feet and licking his lips. His heavy breathing of anticipation made his gun a little shaky. It reminded her of when she first shot the hunting rifle. Everyone's attention snapped to Joel, who fell a little lower.
"Joel," Ellie almost gasped, closing their distance between them to hold Joel up a little. She heard him grumble at her a little, but she placed herself under his arm. The Boy lowered his gun a little bit, slowly stepping forward.
"Kid," The Mustache warned. The Boy stopped at his third step, He looked back.
"Sully, he's hurt." He said. "It's my fault, let me help a little-" The Boy began to walk forward.
"Nate!" The Mustache yelled. Joel pulled his gun up, into The Boy's stomach.
"Get away." He growled. "Step back or I will blow a hole on you." Ellie felt the bass of his voice in her neck. His shoulder bleeding out too much. She readied herself to shoot the Mustache on Joel's queue. The Boy, 'Nate,' stood where he was for a second before stepping back next to other man. He didn't bother to bring up his gun again.
"Alright, we're leaving. Okay? I don't know why we stayed so long." The Mustache began to adjust his Firefly jacket. a little, lowering his gun slowly. Nate looked him. "Sully-"
"Now, Nathan. Come on, we don't have time to play the hero." He turned around and left, his backpack full of arsenal like Joel's. Nate slowly moved back, staring at Joel's arm. Ellie redirected her gun to him.
"Nathan, come on." Nathan turned around and left, meeting with the Mustache. As they disappeared around a crumpling building, Joel fell to his knees.
"Joel-" Ellie almost squeaked. "Come on, come on. What do you need?" She asked. Joel began to strip his layers off as fast as he could, until he was able to get to his bare shoulder. He held his hand out.
"Ellie, your shiv." He breathed.
"What are you doing?"
"Your shiv." He repeated. Ellie pulled it out of her pocket and wiped it on the inside of her sweater. "Joel, what are you doing?" Joel looked at his shoulder, poking around it and wincing every time he moved, sometimes letting out little grunts of pain.
"I'm getting this bullet out. Now give me your shiv."