Too Late
Focus: Joel
It had taken longer for Joel to reach the burning building. The smoke grew thicker, darker as he trudged slowly through the snow. With one hand clamped over his slowly closing wound. Joel swayed, struggling to stay on his feet.
No person he knew would go out with a hole in their side for the girl; no one but himself, that is. Ellie had braved… wherever she had gone to get his sutures to his wound. She probably had to kill numerous infected and soldiers.
That was why Ellie had been so important to Joel, she had risked her life to save his several times, and he had fucked up majorly at the start. He had been a prick to Ellie that was plain and simple.
"Oh fuck!" Joel whispered sharply under his breath, crouching down low as the dark grey smoke covered most of his vision and flames licked at the walls and crawled around the floors, tables, sleeves and anything else.
"Ellie?" Joel was even sure if Ellie was in this building, if she was even anywhere near where he was. But his gut had told him otherwise; somehow something told him she was in the burning building.
But it was getting harder to find anything. The room was blazing hot, the smoke grew thicker and darker with every passing second and the glow of the many fires around him became dimmer. With all of that danger aside, it seemed that the flames were ruining the ceiling, as Joel heard loud crashes above the sound of crackling every few minutes.
Getting down as low as he could in a crouching position, Joel moved his slightly wet and dirty button up shirt to his mouth. It was at least a little protection against the dark grey air around him as he shuffled along the floor carefully but as quickly as he could manage.
From near him, when getting past the crackling and bangs from fire and wood crashing, there were loud grunts and soft crying noises. This had been enough to have Joel spring to his feet and begin to run blind through the building. Minutes had seemed like hours, and Joel had finally found Ellie.
The small section she was in had no flames, but was still heavily filled with smoke. The knife she had with her back in Boston was in her hand, being raised and lowered as she repeatedly stabbed an older, and scruffier looking man than Joel. He probably would have been in his 50s, at least.
Joel finally had found his sense, grabbing Ellie by her arms and pulling her off the man, who had been dead for only a short time. He pulled Ellie into his arms and tears streamed down her face.
"He- he." She couldn't get out much more than the one word. Joel held Ellie tighter and rocked her slightly.
"It's okay, it's okay baby girl. I've got you, it's okay." Ellie continued to cry when Joel had rushed the two out of the building, and once again trudged through the snow with one of his shorter guns at the ready. Ellie had calmed down in Joel's arms, clinging tighter to him while burying her face into his chest.
Focus: Ellie
Ellie could still smell the sickly odour of David; and the instant she had caught the smell in the burning restaurant, she decided the smell of the flames and heavily building smoke was a better scent than David in any respect. He smelled of heavy, thick, dried out blood mixed with sweat and a sickening hint of pleasure. Ellie didn't even know that that was a scent, until she smelt David for the first time.
And she remembered how ugly he looked as he smiled down at her when she had stabbed him twice before he pinned her to the floor. It only took one hand of his to restrain both of hers, leaving the other to roam wherever and whatever he pleased. For the first time in several months, Ellie had genuinely hoped she could have died, rather than this old man feeling her body.
It hadn't taken long for everything to escalate. Soon after, Ellie was hit on top of her head with the end of the handle from the knife she had been reaching for. She awoke not remembering much, but the coughs that had arisen from her throat reminded her where she was.
Ellie had found David on the ground beside her, perhaps passed out from the smoke that had surrounded them heavily. Anger and hatred for the man built up in her when she noticed a sharp pain between her legs when she sat up.
"You fucker!" Ellie lunged at David, landing on top of him. She grabbed the knife that was beside his left arm, and proceeded to stab him repeatedly in the skull. David had died almost instantly, scratching at her face with the small amount of strength he had before he left his dead body. But Ellie didn't stop the blows until a pair of strong hands grabbed both of her arms.
She hadn't noticed she had been crying until the voice of Joel started to tell her it was okay. Nothing had been 'Okay' from the start, and worse for Ellie then when Joel clearly didn't know what had happened to her. But she distracted herself by holding onto him tightly and holding her face to Joel chest.
"Ellie, did you hear me?"
Ellie blinked several times, raising her head. She didn't need to look at Joel, who stood behind her, to know he was worried about her. It was eminent in his voice.
"Uh, no, I didn't." Ellie faintly heard Joel say 'Salt Lake City' in his sentence, but still didn't turn to face him. This was where she hoped the Fireflies were so the whole situation could be over and done with.
The fire and smoke she had seen before her was replaced with a beautiful sunset, overlooking lush greenery and decrepit buildings with trees and vines growing from the cracks. The scent of smoke and David then turned into freshly blooming flowers of all kinds, the smell of salt water from somewhere and some trees with fruits nearby.
Both she and Joel stood on a bridge that had crumbled away in some places, where cars were lined up; some windows in several cars had been completely smashed. Ellie finally turned around, walking over to Joel slowly.
It had been that for about a week after Joel woke up that Ellie had clung to him constantly, but then she drifted away to almost being a stranger that didn't say a lot, but hung around for help. Ellie couldn't help it. She had been raped, and almost murdered, by David that night. The worst thing about it was that she hadn't had enough courage to tell Joel.
He just had been a little too late to help her when she really needed it most. But she didn't blame him; Ellie blamed herself for not shooting David on sight when his buddy had got the medicine for Joel.
A.N. I thought I'd put the Author's Note down here for a change. I think I will make another 'What If' story, just like this one is. I haven't read any stories on Ellie actually being raped by David, but I'm sure there are plenty. Sorry if this one isn't my best, but I did this fairly quickly compared to other stories I write. Speaking of that, I have to go and write more. Let me know if you guys like this because I may write more for The Last of Us.