arcticfox42: Thanks for the review! And yes, that is very long away :)

NineJulySkies: Thanks and I hope you enjoy this!

Exleader75: Glad to know that I'm not straying too far. And I didn't know there was going to be comics, so yay! :)

AnimeWolfGirl16: Thanks!

Chapter 2: Ups and Downs

Ellie's first impression with Joel was not getting any better. Actually, she liked to think it was worsening by the minute.

"What was that back there?" she had asked when they were far away enough for the guards to hear them; the gunshots and shouting had ceased a while back.

When Joel had given her a questioning look, Ellie had motioned to her sore and bleeding hands.

"We had to hide and you weren't getting in cover fast enough," Joel explained, stopping when they got to the tree line outside of Boston.

"I didn't know anyone was coming," she stated, "you could have warned me beforehand either way."

Joel had looked away for a moment, taking a calming breath.

"Look Ellie, I didn't sign up to babysit-" he had started, a bit annoyed.

"I don't need babysitting," she cut him off sharply; "I can take care of myself."

I have been for all these years, she thought, thinking of telling him when he hadn't answered for a moment.

"Let's keep moving," Joel had said, ignoring her comment for now, "we don't want to be in the open when night comes."

Joel had continued walking, leaving Ellie inwardly stunned and angry again at being ignored, before she had quickly walked to catch up to him.

She blew air out slowly, keeping pace with him as they continued to walk further into the forest. After a while she glanced over at Joel, a question at the front of her mind.

"What did they mean by a 'runner'?" she asked as she tilted her head, wondering about what had distracted the guards earlier.

Joel glanced at her, an almost disbelieving look in his eyes before he answered.

"They meant there was an Infected," Joel answered, surprising her.

"Infected aren't supposed to be inside the quarantine zone," Ellie mentioned, wondering how one of the former humans could have gotten inside.

"The guards don't catch everything that goes in and out of the quarantine zones," Joel said as he glanced at her, "we are proof of that."

Ellie realized that he was right, which was somewhat shocking at how "safe" they were inside the quarantine zones, at least according to the US military.

"So, how do you think it slipped past the guards?" Ellie wondered, "I mean, you think the guards would have realized something was different."

"Yes, they would have," Joel said, "If the Infected was one to begin with."

Ellie was confused by that. She knew that Infected were former humans, but what did Joel mean?

"Do you mean that the Infected could have changed from a person into one while in the quarantine zone?" Ellie guessed and he nodded.

"Precisely. The person could have been infected with the virus and not have known it until it was too late," Joel explained, making another question form in her mind.

"The guards are always checking people for the virus though," Ellie wondered, "so how could they have missed someone with the virus?"

Joel stopped walking for a moment and stared at her, making her wonder if she said something she shouldn't have, but the look on Joel's face said otherwise.

"Do you always ask so many questions?" Joel asked with a hint of a smile. Ellie thought for a moment before answering.

"No, but it's so much more different out here," Ellie answered as she looked around, "I always thought it would be worse out here than in the quarantine zone, but I guess not. It can't be, can it?"

Joel gave a sigh at that and kept walking, making Ellie wonder if she had touched a sore subject for him.

"You have a lot to learn then," Joel said but then went back to her earlier question, "and like I said, the guards aren't perfect. The virus only takes a few days to take over the infected person's mind and turn them into a Runner."

Ellie nodded, understanding a bit more.

"So when they meant 'runner', they had seen an Infected?" Ellie questioned and Joel nodded, "but it seemed to be following us."

Joel stopped walking for a moment and glanced around, making Ellie a bit on edge. Just as she was reaching for her switchblade, Joel relaxed and kept walking.

"To a degree. It was able to sense your blood," Joel said as he motioned to her hands, making her somewhat angry at the meaning behind his words.

"So you mean you injured me on purpose?" Ellie asked, not sure whether to feel frustrated or angry.

"Not on purpose," Joel explained, "I didn't see the Infected trailing us until after the guard was passed out. I figured it was following us because of your injury."

Ellie sighed, finding this a lot to take in. She glanced at Joel.

"You thought that the Infected would be a good distraction to get us out of the quarantine zone," Ellie concluded, feeling somewhat worn out. Joel nodded and they lapsed into silence.

"How do you know so much?" Ellie asked after a while.

"Experience," Joel stated, but Ellie knew that there seemed to be something he was hiding.

"Like?" she prodded, but Joel didn't answer her, keeping silent as they continued to walk.

There goes our socializing time, Ellie thought with a sigh.

"We can stay there for the night," Joel said after a while, pointing to what looked to be an abandoned shack.

"If there aren't any other residents?" Ellie asked and earned a nod.

When they got to the door of the shack, Joel put his arm out to signal to her to stop walking. They leaned up against the wall as Ellie held her breath. She didn't know what Joel was listening for, but after a few moments of silence he quietly opened the door.

Ellie followed him inside and saw that the shack was the definition of abandoned. Broken boards lay on the floor and no furniture seemed to exist, making her guess that the pieces of wood lying around was what was left of the furniture. Blood was stained on some areas of the room.

"We'll stay here unless something else comes along," Joel said as he closed the door behind them and then checked out all of the glass windows, some of them broken or cracked in places.

"Something else?" Ellie questioned, wanting to know just what could drive them from the shack.

"Infected, other survivors, or the military," Joel explained, but then continued, "The military probably won't be for a while though."

Ellie nodded and started to clear some boards away from the ground, wondering where they would sleep. Joel did the same thing and sat down; making her wonder if something was wrong.

"Are we going to sleep on the ground?" Ellie wondered, as she sat down. Sleeping in strange places had never been a problem for Ellie; most of the time the boarding houses or abandoned ones she had stayed in didn't have much.

"What else is there to sleep on?" Joel asked and then continued, "You get some rest. I'll wake you when it's time to go."

"Don't you need any sleep?" she wondered, lying down on the ground a few feet away.

"I'm fine for now," was his only reply.

Ellie closed her eyes and tried to empty her mind, knowing from experience that if you thought of too much you wouldn't be able to sleep, but that didn't work, since too much about the day was running through her head.

She opened her eyes after a while and saw Joel still sitting in the same place, positioned so that he could see out most of the windows.

Ellie sighed as she stood up and walked over to sit beside him, the motion making Joel glance at her.

"Can't sleep?" he asked and she nodded, "Nightmares?"

"More like lack of," Ellie answered with a slight smile, wondering if she should keep watch in case Joel needed to rest.

"Well, a lot of things out here can give you nightmares," Joel stated, making Ellie curious again.

"What happened?" she asked and at his confused glance, continued, "What happened to make you like this?"

Joel seemed to give her a hard stare, making her feel somewhat bad for him; whatever he had went through seemed to take a toll. Joel sighed, a bit irritated.

"Once upon a time," Joel started and Ellie wanted to scoff at him for using such child-like words, "I had someone that I cared about."

Don't we all? She wondered but didn't interrupt in case of spoiling the moment.

At her glance, Joel reluctantly continued.

"But the only kind of thing that gets you out here," Joel motioned to their surroundings angrily, "is to get you killed."

Ellie stared at him for a moment; wanting to tell him how non-educational he was being when it hit her.

That person he loved, Ellie thought, something must have happened.

She glanced sympathetically at him.

"What?" he asked after a while, seemingly still annoyed at how she was looking at him.

"Something happened," Ellie said and Joel sighed.

"Yes," he answered and Ellie thought he was going to reveal more, "but you can't change the past. What's done is done."

Ellie stared at him for a moment before going to sit down a few feet away, feeling somewhat upset and angry. Joel didn't seem to understand this.

"Ellie?" he questioned, but she didn't answer, biting her lip. She heard him sigh behind her, becoming silent for a while.

Ellie knew he wouldn't understand what she had been through, how much of an effect his words had on her. She knew that he would probably be like every other adult who used to give her false sympathy in the quarantine zone. Joel's voice made her look over at him.

"Ellie, whatever you faced in there," Joel said with a jerk of his head back towards the direction they had come, "out here, it's going to be much worse."

Ellie knew he was speaking the truth, but it still angered her. He didn't understand.

"Wouldn't you like to know what I've been through?" Ellie bitterly asked, not planning on telling him. Joel stayed silent as she lay down, facing the wall this time.

Ellie closed her eyes and heard Joel sigh behind her, this time giving herself up to unpleasant dreams.

Personally, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, or even read this fanfiction so far. Your encouragement gave me the motivation to get this chapter out quicker. Anyway, this chapter is sort of like a filler where Ellie and Joel learn a bit more about each other, with Joel also opening up to Ellie a bit and her (Ellie's) constant questions. I am hoping I am not rushing this or any character development, since to me it seems like their relationship in the beginning might be an up-down one. I probably should have told you that I haven't watched all of the trailers yet (although I have watched the "Truck Ambush" which I am hoping to include), so I am not as well informed about the game. Anything that might be different to the trailers, or something that might be 'missing' might just come later in the story since I don't know the timeline of the events in the trailer. I am also hoping to include Joel's POV in this fanfiction at some point; I am just trying to work on it a bit since he is a bit harder to write. Once again, I thank you for reading this and I hope you tell me what you thought (and any comments or ideas) in a review!

-AnimeWolfGirl9