I know it's been ages since I updated this story but I've been really busy for the past few months. But now I'm ready to get back into it and hopefully update it regularly
Ellie opened her eyes gradually, glad to finally have a good night sleep, as she sat up she let out a small squeak, stretching at the same time.
"Joel?" She asked inquisitively.
"I'm just upstairs checking things out, gimme a sec." he replied.
A few minutes later after Ellie had got up, Joel made his way back downstairs, carrying a small leaflet that most likely came from a travel agents. On the back was a map of the town, showing shops, hotels and other notable places.
"Ellie, I'm going to go look around the area for some supplies, but I need you to stay here and look after things here." Joel instructed.
"Joel, no that's not fair, we alw-" Ellie began to reply as Joel cut her off.
"No, this place is important, I'll be fine. I won't be long I promise" Joel began to walk towards the door. "Don't go wandering off" then Joel closed the door behind him. Leaving Ellie by herself.
"Now what the hell am I gonna do?" Ellie asked out loud.
Ellie slumped down on the large sofa in the corner of the room, after a few minutes of sulking, she decided to use the time to search through and clean out her bag, which was slowly starting to fall apart. No matter how much Joel tried she would never switch out her old bag, too many memories were attached to the keyrings and marks on her bag from when she was still with Riley, back at the zone. It seemed such a long time ago, but the memories from their last day together was still raw.
Ellie started to pull different items out of her bag, most of them were vital to their survival, others not so necessary but all the same still valued. As she was brushing her hand across the side of her bag, she found a pocket she hadn't touched for a very long time. Ellie reached inside and found a small book, she knew what it was but couldn't bear to open it.
"Come on, pull yourself together Ellie" She told herself, but not believing any of the words.
Joel was currently walking down a small alley, on edge in case any infected were hiding in a dark corner, he knew an encounter this close in an alley would probably be fatal. A few tense seconds later Joel reached the end of the alley, and could now see the back door to the shop he was trying to get into. After just trying the front door and finding it barricaded shut, he was hoping to find a decent stash of supplies inside.
Joel tried the handle to the door, but unsurprisingly it was locked. Joel put all his strength into kicking the door, and on the second attempt the door flew open, lighting up the store room at the back of the store. Before entering Joel waited a few moments to see if any infected came to investigate the noise, but nothing. He stepped inside, reaching for the switch on his torch, when he heard the distinctive sound of a Clicker screeching from somewhere inside the room.
"Oh shit" Joel said under his breath as he dived behind a container hoping to avoid being detected just yet.
"Okay… okay" Ellie reassured herself as she opened the book. The first page revealing a photo of Ellie and Riley, which Riley had taken on an old camera they had found, below the photo, written in blue ink, said "Ellie" and "Riley".
"I wish we could have figured it out" was all Ellie could say as she was fighting a losing battle against her emotions.
Ellie flicked to the next page quickly, trying to keep herself together. She was confronted by a crumpled piece of paper attached to the page, it was a not from Riley moaning about one of her teachers. Ellie laughed as she read through it, remembering people who she completely forgot about. Waves of memories came back as she kept reading the note intensely, trying to relive all of them.
Ellie spent the next half an hour flipping through the pages looking for things that would remind her of Riley. She wanted her back now more than ever, but nothing she could do would bring her back. She stopped reading and looked up, suddenly she realised that Joel should have been back a while ago.
"Where the hell is he?" Ellie asked herself. She considered if she should go out looking for him, but she had no idea where he could be, and if Joel found her out of the room she would be in massive trouble. Instead, Ellie slipped back into the memories of Riley and tried to keep herself busy until Joel got back, having no idea that Joel was in danger.