"Tess, what in the hell are you doing?" Joel said within a sigh, running a calloused hand across his worn features. Said woman in question was bent over rifling through the pockets of a dead Firefly footsoldier, whom was sprawled out within a pool of blood reminiscent of the wings of an actual firefly.
"Maybe they-maybe they had a map or something to tell us where they were going" She managed to retort all the while frantically groping the dead man's body, ripping open every zipper and pulling out each pocket on his person.
"What do we do now?" The young redhead seemingly materialized by Joel's side, her green eyes glancing between the large man and slender yet athletic woman.
Joel shook his head before scratching at his scraggly beard, striding over to Tess' side and placing a hand on his shoulder. It wasn't until she flinched and shrugged out of his embrace as if she'd been burnt by his touch.
"How far are we gonna take this?" He grunted, standing to his full height casting an ominous shadow over the woman.
"As far as it needs to go," She replied curtly before turning her attention to the redhead abandoned on the sidelines holding her arm sheepishly and staring intently at her tattered shoes.
"Ellie, did they ever say where this lab of theirs was?" The young girl bit her lip as she mulled over her thoughts before responding.
"Marlene never said, only mentioned it was someplace out west-"
"What are we doing here," Joel interrupted, growing frustrated at the sheer amount of bullshit they've endured the past few hours. "This is not us"
"What do you know about us?" Tess snapped, jumping to her feet and getting close enough for their chests to be inches apart. "About me?"
"I know you're smarter than this"
"Really?" She looked at him incredulously, her brunette hair ruffling about as she shook her head. "Guess what, we're shitty people Joel it's been that way for a long fucking time"
"No we are survivors!" He growled, using his height to his advantage to intimidate her.
This is our chance-"
"It is over Tess!" Joel's booming voice echoed throughout the empty space, reverberating off the chipping painted walls before dying out in the distance.
"Now we tried, let's just go home" His temper began to simmer down now so that his voice was filled with more emotion than he usually showed. He looked pleading to Tess who avoided his eye.
"I'm not-I'm not going anywhere," Tess spoke almost as if she were holding back a sob, her voice cracking with every word. "This is my last stop"
"What?" Joel looked to her disbelievingly, unable to comphrend the true underlying meaning in her words.
"Our luck had to run out sooner or later," She turned away and began pacing, leaving Joel more questions than answers.
"What are you going on about-"
"No don't!" She spun around as he attempted to grasp her forearm. "Don't touch me!"
"Holy shit," Ellie voiced just above whisper, albeit the low decibels the two adults still heard, both looked to her as Ellie's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "She's infected"
"Joel," Tess said weakly as Joel took a few cautious steps back, his hand traveling lower to the revolver on his hip than she'd like.
"Let me see it," His hand was now on the cool steel of his revolver, slowly removing it from the waistband of his denim jeans.
"I didn't mean for this-"
"Show it to me!" He snarled, his aim dead center between Tess' eyes, her heart rate sped up exponentially at his aggressiveness before realizing she was living on borrowed time to begin with.
"Oh christ" He mumbled in disbelief as she moved the collar of her shirt enough to expose the angry red bite spanning across the length of her neck.
"Oops, right?" Tess stated surprisingly calmly even with Joel's gun still leveled at her head for an instant kill shot with the twitch of a finger. She moved forward only for him to stumble backwards and pull back the hammer on his revolver.
"Stay back!" He looked to the young redhead at his side before turning his aim on her as well. Ellie raised her hands in surrender as her eyes were now filled with fear, not only for her life but for the woman who was going to be gunned down by her own partner.
"I told you I'm not infected, my bite..it's three weeks-"
"Shut it, I knew the Fireflies had it out for us but I didn't think Marlene had the balls to do it" Joel slowly circled around them until the two women were side by side, both their hands still raised.
"Stay back!" He growled as Ellie moved to him rolling up her sleeve.
"I told you to stay back or I'll blow your goddamn brains out!" Joel fired a warning shot narrowly missing the youth as Tess tackled her behind cover. A few more rounds dug into the column both girls hid behind, Joels large footsteps echoing off the marble floor.
"I'm sorry it's gotta end this way, but I've been surviving for too long to get put in the ground like this!" A few more shots impacted the marble column as Tess un-holstered her own handgun and checked her magazine.
"3 shots, damnit better make them count" She cursed herself mentally before smacking the magazine back in and loading it.
She looked to Ellie, who was bunched up in the fetal position covering her ears with small tears streaming down her pale cheeks, to see the young teen breaking down was enough to tug at Tess' heartstrings. It was then she knew what she had to do.
"I'm sorry Joel.." She cried in her head as she bolted out of cover, blindly firing off the remaining rounds in her handgun in hopes of distracting him enough to poach a weapon off one of the dead Fireflies. He grunted as one of the rounds impacted his shoulder, sending him spiralling to the floor as Tess slipped past and dug through another corpse.
Before her hands could grasp the handgun in the dead man's grasp, Joel gripped her ankle in an iron grip enough to make her cry out in pain as he hurled her away from the body and onto the ground several feet away. As he approached, she kicked out catching him in the shin and sending him tumbling onto the floor beside her.
As she got to her feet Joel's large forearm wrapped around her throat, constricting her airways and making her struggle to breathe. He was no longer the kind, gentle man she had come to know over the years, he was the ruthless hunter he had been when they first met.
And she was his prey.
Seeing no other way out as her life was slowly slipping away, Tess frantically reached for the handgun a few feet away until she lurched forward out of Joel's vice grip as he cried out in pain.
"Fuck!" He cursed as Ellie repeatedly stabbed him from behind with her switchblade, providing a decent distraction until she backhanded by the flailing man sending her reeling backward. As Joel pryed at the blade wedged into his flesh, Tess sprinted toward Ellie pulling her up to her feet.
"Kid you gotta get out here, get to-" Tess screamed as white hot searing pain surged from her back, Ellie fell backward as Tess' grip on her shirt loosened. She spun around to face her attacker; Joel stood menacingly over her, Ellie's crimson stained switchblade in hand as he brought it down onto her again this time stabbing into her forearm as Tess raised her arm to shield herself from the blow.
As the blade ripped through her thin forearm, Ellie scrambled to her feet to grab the spare handgun in the back of Joel's jeans. Caught unaware, he finally spun around once pulling the blade from Tess' forearm and went to stab at the teen until she raised the handgun and fired a burst of shots impacting his chest area.
"Ah!" Joel cried out in agony as he fell onto the ground yet again, gasping ragged breathes as he clutched at the gunshot wounds pouring blood onto the floor.
"Come on, get up!" Ellie pleaded, grasping Tess' uninjured forearm and pulling her out of sight.
"You're okay" She soothed, ripping a piece of fabric from her outer shirt and wrapping it gingerly around the gaping wound in Tess' arm. She hissed as the teen tied off the clothe to stem the blood.
"Appreciate the gesture kid," Tess said with a faint smile "But I'm infected, either way I don't got much time" She leaned her head against the wall and took deep breathes to calm herself, no point in scaring the kid more than she already was.
"No, no" Ellie whispered, hiccuping as she choked back a few more sobs and laid her head on Tess' lap. Tess couldn't help but run her fingers through the teen's unique rust colored hair as she attempted to calm the girl down.
"It's okay kid, you're safe.." Tess' words made Ellie raise her head and look up at her with glistened emerald orbs that could make the coldest heart melt. "I mean, as much as we can get in this fucked up world" She managed a weak chuckle but sighed.
"I'm sorry about Joel.." She said, looking towards the figure taking in raspy, coughing breathes as he squirmed around on the floor. Turning away she pushed her face further into Tess' lap and held on for dear life.
"S'not your fault kid, guess all this shit finally got to him" Tess looked to her former partner and couldn't fight back the tears as memories of their past clouded her memory. As the two laid together in silence, save for the distant groans of Joel slowly growing lower the doors at the far end of the room burst open quick enough to knock the door off of it's hinges.
"I heard gunshots, check the area!" An authoritative voice cut the silence in the room as armor clad men filed in, assault rifles raised and fingers on the triggers.
"We got a live one over here!" One of the men called out, kicking Joel with his boot. In response, he released an inhuman groan that caused the young man to stumble back.
Caked in blood and marred by stabs and gunshot wounds, anybody would be able to confuse him for an infected, especially the men and women that seeked out to exterminate anyone that showed signs of infection.
"Infected!" The young man cried as he and his colleagues released a hail of gunfire that tore through Joel's body, making him jerk on the floor from the impacts from the bullets.
Ellie stifled a squeal as she hid further into Tess' embrace, the older woman held the teen close as the gunfire ceased and the footsteps grew near.
"Kill any survivors, where there's one infected there's more" The same authoritative voice called out to his team as they stalked forward unaware of the two women huddled together a mere few meters away from them...