Short Series where I give you guys a little insight on how I imagined Joel and Tommy survived after Sara's death, how they met Tess, how Tommy left, and goes all the way to the point that Joel and Tess meet Ellie. Can be seen as AU.
Joel's heart could have fell out at that very moment, but he would never have noticed with how cold and shriveled it had become in the past two weeks since escaping from the horrendous night that had been the death of all he's every loved. His body aches, not because he's tired from the long trek through the wilderness, but because he is tired in general; He would rather lay down, and die right in the grass alongside the bones of small animals too slow to evade the Runners - that's what they have started being called, the cordyceps victims that had began this whole thing. Joel calls them victims because he can't imagine they wanted to become what they are and do what they do. It's the Cordyceps that makes them this way, and that's what Joel tries to remember every time he has to gun one down - They are victims.
"You've been real quiet," Tommy says. He isn't much of a help either, and his voice quivers with emotion. Tommy isn't as strong as Joel in most aspects of physical and mental demeanor but that doesn't mean his little brother is any less capable. Admittedly, he is holding up far better than Joel so far...But he isn't the one who lost his only child less than two weeks previous. "Yeah," Joel answers, gruffly shouldering aside a mass of bare hanging branches,"Been thinking."
"Ah, 'bout Sarah?"If there's one thing Tommy did lack at his age it was sensitivity.
Joel winces, turns to look at his little brother with weary eyes. Two weeks, and he had already gotten over the fact that his niece is dead. Full survival mode perhaps, or maybe bottling it up. Joel neither knew nor cared his reasons. "Jesus Joel, I lost her to you know. You have to get past this or you aint gonna survive out here much longer." Joel see's red in that moment, the first he's seen in a while yet. He takes long strides to catch up to Tommy, pushing him up against the nearest solid object with a red face and veins jutting out angrily. His teeth are bared like a wild dog on the attack. "Shut the hell up Tommy! What reason is there to survive out here when there's nothing left!"
Branches crackle to their left, one of their travelling companions holding her gun aloft stares them down. "Would you assholes mind keeping quiet?" She barks, sweeping long brunette hair back with her gloved hand. She's caked in blood, the same as when Joel and Tommy stumbled upon her and her friends out in the wilds of Texas. "Sorry Tess," Joel mutters with less respect than he should have for their savior. Two days ago the woman stumbled upon them being driven down by a bunch of infected, they were on their last legs and ready to give up when she and her own group of handymen (and women) came in swinging makeshift weapons and shooting from their hips. None of them were skilled but all of them had the will to kill.
"Ya better be sorry, making all this noise." Even with harsh words she seems to find a way to smile, voice laced thick with sarcastic glee. Tess is one of the few people Joel can stand out of the group beside Tommy. She's a natural born leader, with a cold-heart and an attitude he could only describe as being a bite-me kind. Since they met she's been getting them out of and making trouble at the very same time, and without a care for the fact that the end of a civilization has come and past. Shes hopeful too, a good thing since most of the group consisted of guilt ridden, depressed, or hopeless individuals - Joel included.
A silence stretches out between the trio for some time, until Tommy breaks it with his usual upbeat chatter. They move quickly over a massive car graveyard; getting caught in such a jungle could easily be the death of any of them, so they bypass it and stick close to the rails of the road instead. Tess and Tommy lead, while Joel falls back to walk with a few of the others that have tagged along on their journey to one of the military run zones. He hasn't spoken much with any of them, and likes to keep it that way.
If it weren't for one boy in particular.
Conner isn't an average kid to say the least. He lost his mother when this whole thing started and his father ended up infected a day later. At eight years old he has endured quite a few hardships but survived by hiding out until Tess found him in an abandoned apartment building in her hometown. He is quiet for his age, a battered soul really. For some damn reason the kid attached himself to Joel the first time they locked eyes, and despite Joel constantly giving him the cold shoulder he still sped up when Joel fell back, content to just walk by him. Conner hasn't spoken a single word to Joel, and neither has Joel to him but the kid gets comfort by standing so close to the older man. Maybe Joel reminds him of his father, or maybe the kids just lonely; nobody seems to pay him any mind or get attached to him, in fear he will die.
Hell, nobody wants to get attached to anybody anymore, no less a frightened child who has no chance in hell of surviving. That's why Joel closes off when the boy gets near, seems to tuck into himself as he stares straight ahead of him at the backs of Tommy and Tess's heads. He doesn't need the reminder either that Sarah is gone now. But the kid sticks close as they move.
They run into trouble after a few miles when one of the survivors that Joel thinks is named Ashley trips over the body of a dead soldier and ends up alerting nearby Clickers of their presence. Their enraged screams draw a crowd and Joel gets lost in the gun fire. He grips tight to the Conner because he is closest and shoots his way through a group of Runners that are gaining on them. He has to drop Conner's arm to fight off a few when he can't reload fast enough and when he returns to the boy its to find him underneath a female Runner who continuously snaps her teeth at him as he struggles. Joel dispatches her with a shot to the head and helps the boy up.
From what he can see he isn't hurt and its relief to Joel even if he wont admit that the boy has grown on him. He leads back to where Tess and Tommy have fought of the last of them and makes sure his little brother is OK. Nothing but a few scratches and scrapes from the ground, so Joel leaves them be to look over the ragged bunch of stragglers they have left. The girl he thinks is called Ashley lays in a pool of her own thickening blood - apparently shot in a friendly fire accident. Two older men are lying hunched over her body, crying. While the rest are either dead or staring around helplessly. Their group was twelve, but a new headcount brings it down to eight. Four dead, two bit from what he can see - so six in reality.
Joel spares a few moments to help get the survivors back on their feet and get those who are hurt patched up. He doesn't care for these people but it won't do to loose any advantage they have over the hordes of the dead.
Later, after everyone has calmed down they return to the site where the bodies of fallen survivors lay and bury them. Everyone besides Joel seems to have something tearful to say about each one of them - including Tommy who talks for a long time about Anna (Joel doesn't feel bad for not knowing that Ashley's name was actually Anna.) Then they throw dead flowers on the mounds of dirt and return to the road - nobody speaks, not even when they camp for the night.
"Shit," He hears Tommy swear the next morning. Joel awakes to seeing his brother beating down one of the injured survivors with his fists. He jumps up to help, noticing that they had changed noticeably over night. Nobody had the experiance to tell yet that the bite was the cause of infection but now they knew. Joel helps subdue the two bitten survivors and put them down before any more damage can be done.
After that they do a routine check for bites on the remainder of the group.
Conner is bitten.
Two days later Conner dies, and Joel finds that even though he paid the kid no mind it still hurts, and it tears open that still fresh wound in him that Sarah left when she died...
But they continue on the long road, with barely a weary sigh to contain the heavy heart that each member of this ever dwindling group now carries.
A/N: Short Preview of next chapter. If you can't tell I'm jumping back and forth on this timeline.
"Your doing what?" Tess shrieks as she stares at Tommy angrily.
"Look Tess, they have a good plan. They only want to help us and you know these military idiots wont do a damn thing!" Tommy hisses back, defending himself against the anger of his close friend. Joel doesn't want to get into this fight, but Tess has a point. Tommy shouldn't join the Fireflies, its as risky as it is a completely stupid idea.