The blood was pooling around them on the ground, between the corpses of various stages of infected. To the left of Joel, the bodies of two Clickers were still twitching spastically in their own blood. To his right, closer to the heavily breathing Ellie, were three Runners. Their shrieks had long since silenced, and that had made no movements. Joel stepped over the Clickers and carried on his way, listening for Ellie's footsteps behind him.
"They came outta fuckin' nowhere, huh?" Ellie panted, tightening the hair in her ponytail. Joel spared a glance down at her, ears still perked and listening for the sound of movement in the empty street.
"Yeah," His voice was gruff and quiet, almost unheard in the street. The silence was becoming deafening, "Keep an eye out."
They had begun their trek through the small town convinced that there were no infected around. The city was abandoned, though, which should have been their first clue. When Joel and Ellie had stumbled their way into the town earlier that afternoon, there had been nothing but the sound of the birds in the sky above and the wind through the trees and the buildings.
It was a small town, and Joel estimated that prior to the infection, maybe two thousand – three thousand, if he wanted to push the envelope – people had lived there. Now, there was nothing. Nothing but empty buildings and the eerie screeches of Runners and Clickers. But those too had been silenced, and the town was quiet once more. Joel gestured towards one of the bigger houses on the main street. Ellie followed him up the front porch, wood moaning under their feet from their weight.
The door opened easily, the knob turning easily in Joel's hand. The door swung open, whining against its hinges. The two took their first steps inside. They had stepped into the hallway of a two storey house, but the top storey was in no condition for either of them to walk up into. Even from the landing of the first staircase, Ellie and Joel could see that the floorboards had collapsed, and that a large chest of drawers was barricading the top landing anyway.
The condition of the rest of the house, however, surprised Joel. It was well maintained, almost lived in. Sure, it wasn't the picture of clean, and the house had aged with no hope for repair, but compared to the other houses he and Ellie had looted…well, it was ahead of the game.
"You stay here," Joel was whispering now, still unsure of how safe the house was, "I'm gonna go check out the bedroom. Got it?"
Ellie nodded, though like always it irritated her that she was left behind. She watched Joel as he crept his way slowly towards the bedroom door. His disappearance into the space left her uncomfortable in her own skin, but she played the calm and collected card on the outside.
The gun Joel had given her was still in her pocket, but she had promised only emergencies, and so far there hadn't been one. She patted the pocket protectively. A sound behind her made her jump, and Ellie's pulse skyrocketed into her throat. She spun on her heel, peering into what she assumed was a living room and holding her breath.
She barely had time to react before the Runner jumped her. Ellie felt its fingernails against her skin as it grabbed her, and she barely had time to let out the half squeal, half grunt that escaped her throat before she was fighting to escape it.
"Joel!" She tried reaching for her gun, but it was useless; instead, she resorted to the primal, instinctual kicking and scratching that was present in all survivors. It was default action.
It took seconds for the grip on her to release, and she felt the spray of warm liquid against her cheek. Ellie knew it was blood, and she wiped it from the corners of her eyes and from her mouth, cringing. Joel was in the doorway of the bedroom, hand lying gently at his side, gripping the shotgun tightly with a white-knuckled fist.
The house was quiet then, and this time it was for real. The only sounds protruding from the silence were the panting breaths of Ellie and the slow, careful movements of Joel. The expression on his face asked her if she was okay, and with a few more gasping breaths, she nodded, smoothing down the wrinkles in the front of her shirt.
"Fine," Her voice was throaty and faint, "I'm fine. Where to?"
Joel holstered the shotgun back into its spot on his backpack and lifted a hand to the corpse of the Runner beside her, "Newly infected, I think. I'm gonna check downstairs. Must have fresh supplies or somethin'."
"I'll come with yo-"
"You stay here," Joel's voice was gruff as he approached Ellie, pulling the gun from her back pocket, "And you keep this out. You understand me?"
The frown she treated him to was more half-hearted than anything. She watched him descend down the rickety stairs of the now empty house, and she herself started on her own adventure. Ellie was still in the living room, where she had crept at the sound of the Runner. It was cleaner than the other parts of the house she'd seen, and there was a nice, intact sofa and even a glass coffee table.
Across from the glass coffee table was a TV. Ellie had seen televisions before, but none as big as this. It was bigger than the table, maybe a good forty inches. She stepped closer to it and brushed her hand across the screen. It was smooth, albeit dusty, and couldn't possibly have been used in over a decade.
"Huh." Ellie mused to herself, crouching down to the spot underneath the TV where several plastic electronic devices were lying. Most of them were cracked or broken beyond use, but one of them looked to be in pretty good shape. Ellie fingered the white plastic casing of the box and pushed her bottom lip out in thought, "I wonder what these did."
It was then that the lights in the house flickered on, and the TV did the same. There was nothing but static, of course. Electricity, and lots of it; Ellie's face split into a grin.
"Fuckin' awesome."
She heard the heavy footsteps of Joel as he made his way back up the stairs, and she turned to him, almost excitedly.
"What'd you find?"
Joel looked at the static on the TV, "Generator in the basement. Almost brand new. You find anythin'?"
"Just these things," She gestured to the white, plastic box, "You know what the hell they are?"
Opting not to crouch down for the sake of his knees, Joel leaned over a tad to inspect the devices. A half smile lit his face, but it went unnoticed by Ellie. He straightened back to full height.
"They're, uh, they're video games," He scratched his face with nonexistent fingernails, "That one plugged in, it's, ah, it's called a Wii. I think. Sarah had one, but she wasn't real fond of it. Didn't play it much."
Joel tossed the white controller, a bar of plastic at Ellie, who caught it easily, "Why don't you give it a try?"
It was not much like Joel to let her hang around and have fun. It was more like Joel to usher her into another room to look for supplies, and to eventually leave. But this time, he had practically thrust the controller into her hands, and demanded that she experience some level of childhood.
And she was very grateful for that.
So she took the controller, turned on the system, and watched as Super Mario Sunshine appeared across the screen. Ellie's face broke out in a half smile, and she pressed the start button.
Joel watched in admiration from his standing position by the TV. While it was rather true that he needed to be looking for supplies to keep them alive, and to be watching out for the Infected, it was also rather true that this was Ellie at her finest, and that he hadn't seen her this happy in months. Sure; she had her moments, and so did he. But after the incident at the hospital; after she'd woken up in the car, she'd not been the same. She was Ellie, but every time he looked in her eyes, it seemed like a piece of her was missing.
But now, he was looking at her, and in those eyes he saw the same childlike joy that he'd seen in Sarah's eyes on Christmas morning, and the same smile was on her face that had been on Sarah's face the day she'd scored her first goal in a soccer game.
"Joel?"
He blinked. Sunlight gleamed through the windows and the small holes in the walls of the house, "Yeah?"
"You, uh," Ellie began, avoiding eye contact by staring at the screen, "You wanna play? It's just, you seem pretty beat, and this game is a hell of a lot more fun than trackin' down more fuckin' Clickers."
And maybe Ellie was broken, but Joel was just getting fixed. So he dropped his backpack on the floor, tossed his weary body onto the sofa, and grabbed the other controller from the coffee table.
"One game," He warned the child, even though they both knew he'd end up being a pushover, "And then we leave."
Ellie saluted, "One game, boss. I'm gonna kick your ass."
"In your dreams."
[an] Wow this is finally done! I would say it took me long enough, but that would be rude. Anyway, this little piece is my gift to Piklink, who became my 51st reviewier on 51 Things a few days ago. The prize for that esteemed title was a oneshot of the user's choice, and this was what they chose!
So, Piklink, I hope you like it! ^-^
Read and review, chaps, and I might just end up updating 51 Things this week! [an]