August 24th, 2036
Hey Riley
Its been almost three years, three long fucking years. I would like to tell you that everything that we've worked for has been for the better, that its all over. But life it seems, and the world, has had other plans. What I can say is, I miss you, every single day. I can't tell you how many times I've needed you here, but that too, is another plan. Joels okay though, I Dont think I've ever really known any one quite like him. Through our, great, crazy adventure, we've come so close to the edge, in fact, we've fucking danced right on it. The things we were trying to do, and the people who tried to help us, echo in my head almost just as often as you do. We came so far, just to be turned away, and somehow, I find myself disappointed. How could all of this have been for nothing? I Guess it doesnt matter, and to answer the obvious question, because we are happy, I... am Happy. Despite everything we saw, and all the terrible things we've gone through, we found something better. A glimpse of how the world used to be, and everyday I find myself thinking about how thankful I am, to be where I am. It kind of makes me believe that maybe it was never going to be about a cure, the saving grace that Marlene had told me I could be. Maybe the world, the Universe, was putting these things in our path, so that I could find myself here. And you know, its not so bad.
I Still Think of You, And in my heart, I'm never going to stop loving you, Fuck, how could I. I Just want you to know, that I Made it, and that I'm happy, just the way we would have been.
I Love You Riley, Endure And Survive.
-Ellie
-We, The Wasteland-
Chapter 1: Home
The cool northern breeze blows through the changing leaves, autumn is on the way. The forest floor lies quiet, birds chirping in the distance as a Hare steps over the crunching leaves. The sun is low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the ground, between the sounds of the branches creaking, and the soft sound of water flowing from some stream in the distance, the hare is taken completely by surprise. An arrow from the forest, sticking the body firmly against a fallen tree. The forest falls silent for a few moments, save for the sound of approaching footsteps.
The boy reaches down, pulling the arrow out of the log, the kill still firmly attached to the end of it. The boy wears a denim vest, black shirt, a black beanie covers the top of his head, his long hair flowing from underneath it. His pants are tattered, ripped just above the knees. His boots aren't in any better shape either. He smiles to himself as he yanks the arrow loose.
"Thats Three!" He shouts over his shoulder. Sticking a small hook underneath the jaw of the animal, placing it on his belt. A Line of dead rabbits across his hip.
"Your catching Up." A voice mutters from beyond the bushes, soon a girl emerges, a black vest over a dirty white hoody, her dark hair pulled into a pony tail, tattered skinny blue jeans and a pair of Converse. She too has a line of dead rabbits along the side of her body, five total.
The boy throws his bow across his back, nodding his head sarcastically as he wipes the blood from the arrow onto his pant leg.
"Your just making up for yesterday, don't think your slick." He smiled, shaking her head she patted him on the back. Walking off ahead of him.
"So, what you thinking?" He asked after her.
"I'm thinking we got another hour, at the most... we can cover another mile or so before we gotta head back." She replied, looking through the trees to the sun.
"You think we got enough to cover that front?"
"Tommy'll be fine with what we have now, hopefully Hannah and Zoey made it back with something." She said, rubbing the sweat from her forehead.
"Those girls can cover alot of ground." The boy said, taking a drink of a bottle of water he had pulled from his backpack.
"So whats the plan for tonight, you know, after this?" She asked as the two stepped through the trees.
"I dont know, I think they are showing some western at the lodge, I've seen it a hundred times." The boy said regrettably.
"Well, you want to make it a hundred and one?" She said with a grin.
The boy shook his head, smirking to himself as they pressed on. The air was getting cold earlier in the day, forcing goosebumps across the boys arms.
"Should'a brought a jacket." He muttered to himself.
"But your... A Dumbass." She smiled.
He shook his head, her cynical humor was easier to handle, when the two had first met, the boy found himself sort of put off by it. But after almost two years of dealing with the girl, he just began to understand that its just how she was.
The two walked for another fifteen minutes, lying low, their footsteps drifting quietly over the forest floor. They had been at this for a long time, and moving quickly, and quietly was second nature to them at this point. The boy stopped momentarily, his eyes on the floor, the grass and leaves had been matted down, a slim trail leading up to the hill in front of them.
"What you think?" The girl asked.
"I dont know, can't tell how fresh it is." The two crept over the hill, following the trail. It only took a couple minutes for their quarry to come into view. A Set of deer stood grazing in the opening.
"Forty Yards, Thats what? Eighty Points?" The boy said with a grin, taking an arrow from the quiver.
"Yeah for me!" She whispered, playfully pushing him to the side, quickly drawing an arrow of her own. She let the arrow fly, it finds its mark just below the beast's jawline. It flairs its head around for a moment, crying out in pain as blood began to fall from the wound in its neck. She nods her head to him, his half-smile looking back up at her. She winks as he shakes his head, the two move forward, pushing down the hill towards the deer, now lying down in the grass.
"You know your really something, Ellie." The boy said as the two moved into the clearing.
"I do what I can." She said with a grin.
The two kneel down next to the deer, now too weak to continue, it kicks its legs as the boy draws a long red knife from the sheath at his side, forcing it into the bottom of the animal's neck. They stand, letting the animal bleed out. The boy takes another drink of his water, tucking it back into the side pocket of his backpack.
"Look, we gotta get back to the horses, drag this son of a bitch back, so do you want to? Or... should I?"
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" She said holding out her hand. The boy nods and the two shake their hands together, he throws rock, she throws scissors.
"HA! I know you too well!" Ellie shakes her head, its almost a mile and a half back to the horses. She begins to step off as the boy suddenly grabs her by the shoulder, leading the both of them off into the treeline. The sudden movement takes her back as he shoves her down behind a layer of tall ferns.
"What the fuck, Trent?" She whispers, but he quickly puts his finger over his mouth, quieting her. He points to the other edge of the clearing. In the still air that seems to have crept over them, her ears begin to adjust, and soon, she hears it.
Across the clearing, the sound of footsteps can be heard, growing closer as the moments pass.
"Theres three, maybe four, you got bullets for that thing?" He says, referring to the hunting rifle strapped to the side of Ellie's pack.
"Ive got six rounds." She replied.
The two watched as four men entered the clearing, slowly circling the kill. As they stood over it, Ellie tapped Trent on the shoulder.
"Who you think they are?" She whispered, the boy shook his head.
"They aren't military, and they don't have firefly bands." he observed.
Ellie felt a shiver overcome her, not due to the weather, the mention of the fireflies has made her feel a certain way ever since Salt Lake. She didn't know if she would ever be able to shake the feeling that something was wrong with what had happened out there. But she couldn't think about that now, she shook off the feeling, trying to exchange it with humor.
"Well why dont we have some fun with these guys?" She said, Trent turned to her with a smile, nodding his head. He points to his right, then to her, then to their left. She nods, getting the signal. The two army crawl across the floor, keeping the cover of the ferns, and moving as quietly as they can. Trent keeps an eye on the men standing in the middle of the clearing, now observing the kill, probably considering taking it for their own. Trent understands how obvious it is, that they know that someone else is in the area.
The boy moves behind a thick tree, slowly standing, peeking around it, keeping an eye on the men now fanning out from the center, no doubt looking for whoever it was that laid that deer down. He checks his surroundings, a tree lies fallen against another fifty feet from where he's standing. He turns, putting his back to the tree, pulling the bow, and an arrow from his back. He looks to the left of the clearing, where Ellie is preparing as well. He nods to her, receiving a thumbs up.
He bursts from behind cover, sprinting towards the fallen tree, quickly disappearing into the branches. He stills himself for a few moments, holding himself against the tree, his bow still in his left hand. He takes a few breathes preparing to duck around the tree for the shot. His heart beat jumps as he ducks around the corner, the men miss him, the leaves covering his outline. He takes aim at the man creeping towards his edge of the trees, he lets an arrow go, it hits the mark, the man stumbles backwards for a few moments, looking down at the arrow sticking out of his chest. The men raise their weapons as he slumps to the ground, unsure of where the shot came from. The boy looks around, scanning the branches for somewhere to move to. He pushes himself upwards, into the Y of the branches above him. He can see the men beginning to move towards him, he picks his next move, and leaps to the next branch, trying to land as light footed as possible. Once again, the men in the clearing miss his movement.
On the other side of the clearing Ellie moves through the treeline, the brush is thick on her side of the clearing, making it easy for her to move. She stays down, using the changing fall colors to break up her outline. As the first arrow hits its target, the men suddenly turn. All eyes towards the other side of the clearing. She waits a few moments for them to put some distance between her side of the line. She raises the rifle and leans into the kick as the crack of the gun echoes through the quiet wilderness. Her targets head snaps forward, his body falls forward, tense, beginning to cease as it hits the floor. The men turn again, now frantic, Ellie ducks behind one of the large boulders that litter the forest floor. The first man lets out a cry into the treeline.
"Where the fuck are you!?" His voice echoes.
"H-How many do you think there are?" The other mans voice trembles.
Another arrows passes by the first man, so close the breeze from the passing arrow blows his hair to the side. Hitting the other man in the side, he gropes the wound momentarily, looking to the upper treeline.
"Oh shit! Goddamnit!" He cries out in pain as Ellie sticks her own arrow against the side of his head, snapping it sideways.
The last man stands, his feet trembling, he looks into both side of the treeline. Knowing the shot is coming, but not knowing where from. The boy observes him momentarily, ducking back behind the tree.
"What are you doing here?" He calls from the treeline.
The man takes a few deeps breathes before answering, firing a few shots into the trees. "We needed food." He mutters.
"The deer belongs to us, walk away." Ellie calls from the other side of the trees.
"You know as well as I do that I can't do that, why dont you just come out, and we can settle this." The man proposes.
"Like the wasteland?" The boy calls.
The man takes a few moments to breathe, throwing his gun to the ground, producing a Ka-bar from his side. The boy nods his head, smirking to himself.
"Hey Ellie, the wasteland, Haha." He laughs, on the other side of the trees Ellie can be heard laughing as well. The man begins laughing as well, his eyes dancing back and forth from one side to the other.
"What do you say!?" He yells, as the laughter comes to a peak.
"You want it?" The boy calls.
"I think You owe me one." Ellie replies.
The man stands in silence for a few moments, turning to face Ellie, he's got her position. Suddenly a pain rips into the center of his back, He feels around for a moment, trying to get his mind to straighten itself out, the more he feels, the more he begins to realize. The object sticking out of his back, is a hatchet. He turns, just in time to see his final blurred vision of the next hatchet, the world goes black.
The body slumps backwards, the hatchet striking his head dead center.
The soft opening melody of "Nasty Letter" by Otis Taylor begins to play quietly as the two emerge from the treeline. Trent dropping down from his perch in the tree, and Ellie moving slowly from behind the rock. She smiles to herself, nodding her head as she moves into the clearing.
"You know your getting better with those." She says, giving him a quiet applause as the two approach each other.
"Hey, I appreciate that thank you." He says grinning, pulling the hatchet from the mans face with a sickening crack.
"Hannah will be glad to hear your finally starting to be able to walk the way she does." Ellie comments, pointing to the branches of the trees Trent jumped from.
"Maybe." He replied as he kicked the man onto his stomach, pulling the second hatchet from his back. "Who you think these guys were?"
"Hunters maybe, Bandits anyway, probably got a camp somewhere around here, better put it in a report." Ellie said.
"Right, we should probably get going, collect what you can from these guys, ammo, we can turn that in to the center, anything else, you know what it is." He says beginning to pull the pockets out.
They searched the men, finding a stock of shotgun ammunition, as well as a few clips for the assault rifle now lying on the ground.
"Hey, now you got one of these." Ellie said, tossing the weapon over to Trent.
"Yeah, now Andy can go fuck himself with all that "Bigger Guns" Bullshit." He said, taking the clip out and checking the shell count, the man had only left nine in the clip, and one in the chamber, he kicked the shell out and placed it back into the clip.
Ellie rolled the man with the arrow sticking through the side of his head onto his side, she pulled once, twice, the arrow was lodged better than she thought, she torqued it around, loosening the hole and finally it came out. She shook it in Trent's direction, a bit of grey matter sticking to the end of it.
"Give you Respect if you eat this." She said jokingly.
"Yeah right." He replied, watching her begin to rifle through the backpack.
"Whoa, hell fucking yes!" She exclaimed, pulling a Savage Starlight Comic from the mans pack.
"Hell, what else he have?"
She turned the pack upside down, nothing but a pack of cigarettes and a couple more clips of ammunition.
"Hell yes Now Ive got something to trade Nick for that Goo Goo Dolls record." Trent said, snatching the smokes off the ground.
"God, that music is like, a century old." She replied.
"Ellie, no one is making good music anymore, and if they are, they're certainly not recording it. So its got... Nostalgia factor." He said, tucking the cigarettes into his front pocket.
"I Think Joel, might have an argument for you."
"I Think Joel actually might agree with me, The Goo Goo Dolls were his time." Trent says with a cocky smirk, he tucks the assault rifle across his back.
"We should get back to the horses, it'll be a long hike back with all this shit on our backs." She said, rolling her eyes.
"And we gotta find a way to get this deer outta here." He nodded.
The two pack what they can onto their backs, Trent now with an extra weapon hanging at his side. Ellie with her newly found comic book, and fresh clips of ammunition. They make their way back to the horses, finding their way back through the trees, using the deer trail as a guide for the first bit, but after it fades, Trent pulls a map from his pocket, drawn on an old piece of canvas paper, not tattered from use.
"It looks like we came farther than we thought, might take a while to get back, you worried about travelling in the dark?" Trent turns, Ellie whistles as she shakes her head back at him.
"Alright good, getting the horses back out here's gonna take a little while, hopefully Joel's not too pissed when we get back." He said, scratching the small bit of hair on the bottom of his chin.
"Hey, let me worry about Joel." She says sheepishly.
"Yeah well, we've got alot of ground to cover, better hit it."
The two make better time than they think, as the sun sets over the hills in the background the two make it over the hill, Jackson settlement on the edge of the mountains, the Snake river running up to the Dam in the distance. Ellie looks over the mountains, the sun shining through the clouds, casting a red/gold outline across the tops of the trees on the horizon. The town draped in the shadow cast by the mountain.
"Wow, look at that view." Ellie says, the wind softly blowing her hair to the side. Trent smiles for a moment, looking at the view, slowly, his vision drifting over to her. He can't help but chuckle to himself, her head turns, as does his.
"I saw you." She says, rolling her eyes.
"Saw me what?" The two share a grin. Trent clicks his tongue and squeezes the horse, the two step forward. The sun setting, Jackson settlement in the distance.
Home.