Life has been odd recently, to say the least. That was putting it rather mildly. This was as close to a vacation he could have in a post-apocalyptic world, and the inactivity was driving Joel fucking insane.
At first, after Tommy gave them the house, he repaired the plumping, the electricity, the appliances (the ceiling fans were the first to get repaired even if they took a hella long time), chopped firewood… hell, he even swept damn floor. Then when he couldn't find anything else to do in the house, he slept. A lot. For a whole week in fact, even took afternoon naps. Even with the dreams, he felt well rested. And now Joel was bored.
It was almost too good to be true. He didn't have to run around quarantine areas doing jobs for ugly green ration cards. They served three meals at the diner here in the middle of settlement, and the steak was the best he'd ever had (that was sayin' something since he mostly ate steak before the outbreak). If you came late enough, you could even have left overs for seconds.
Ellie was around, safe and alive. She squealed and and ran home to him every night with some new magazine or book or some new story about a friend – she was finally acting her age, going out the whole day only to come home to bug him in the night.
But most of the time, bored was bad for Joel. Because bored makes his mind wonder. It makes him think about the infected, and the heart tearing sobs they make when they stand with their heads bowed. Bored makes him think about the lives he's taken to survive. Infected are dead inside, he used to tell himself. But a part of him remains unconvinced after hearing so many cries on his travels with Ellie.
And Ellie. Bored makes him think about having lied to Ellie, to his baby girl, and for taking away the chance of a cure from humanity.
For Joel, boredom can send him onto his knees in heavy, gut wrenching guilt.
Face scrunching up in pain, Joel got up abruptly, sending the light wooden chair to the floor. Grabbing a pistol from the kitchen table, he heads out of the house. Tommy should have a job for him to do.
