Thank you to everyone who reviewed on the last two chapters! With the inception of a new semester came lots of stress and no time for leisure writing, so I am deeply sorry to those of you who were really anticipating the steady continuation of this story. I am really going to do my best to update frequently now and as you can see, I did go over the third chapter and decided that it really needed to be rewritten, so here is the newest installment! Enjoy, lovelies!
iii.
Booze and birch make quite the combination, especially when the latter is ablaze.
When Tommy had come to Joel a week earlier, a day after he sprung mission reproduction on him, and offered some good news, Joel was (to say in the least) in slightly better spirits. Though Ellie hadn't actually given him a concrete answer, Joel had decided that she had to have been leaning more toward a rejection of the proposal, especially because she hadn't brought it up since. And neither had Tommy.
In fact, that good news didn't even correlate to the whole repopulate bullshit. Maria and her father had decided that a community event was needed. After all these years, nothing as simple as a bonfire had been resurrected from their former lives, until now. And, in truth, it excited Joel. Bonfires had been such an integral aspect of his life, even as a teenager. If you had a bonfire, you had a good time. Even if everyone was just sitting around staring into the flames. Bonfires brought people together, and Joel thought that a community bonfire was one of the best ideas Maria and her father had come up with.
So there they were, all huddled in (slightly) broken lawn chairs and blankets around the fire. Nature had decided to give them a break for once and the ancient thermometer they'd managed to find just a year prior showed that it was forty-three degrees out. Cold. But not freezing. And that was enough to bring folks out of the comfort of their homes and to the comfort of a fire, alcohol, and guitar.
The man that lived about six houses down from Joel and Ellie, a stout Canadian with crinkling eyes and a hearty laugh, knew how to brew his own wine and did so with makeshift items. Of course, his wine was no Chardonnay, but it was pretty damn good for being homemade in an apocalypse.
The neighborhood had split up into four sections, with four separate bonfires, but joy was heard all throughout the town. And around Joel and Ellie, everyone was laughing and chatting and sharing stories and drinking and children were chasing each other and mothers were telling them to knock it off and in his arms, Joel strummed on his guitar lightly.
"And then she was spreading out her arms, like this, and as she backed up she tripped over the guy who played the tree in the play and everyone fell down and she got all wrapped up in the curt..."
"Do you really think so? I mean, back when I was in the quarantine zone..."
"I just don't fucking get it, you know? Like why the fuck do they sound like they're throwing up? Why couldn't they just shit rainbows or something?"
"Did you write this?"
Joel had been paying so much attention to flitting between others' conversations that he hadn't even realized Ellie was talking to him. When he didn't respond, she shifted away from him, as she'd been resting her head on his shoulder, and gave him a slightly offended look. "Hey. I'm talking to you."
"Hm?" he looked over at her before processing what she'd said. "Oh. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I wrote it."
Content with his answer, Ellie returned to his side, tugging the blanket tighter around her body. "I like it," she commented and gave him a small smile.
"Thanks."
And they lapsed back into a comfortable silence, listening to the animation of the rest of the group. Joel had to admit that it was refreshing to be around so many live, happy souls, even if he wasn't really speaking to any of them. What Tommy had told him, though, hadn't left him and now he was more aware of all of the potential lovers in the group, for both him and Ellie. And though Olivia was sitting but a foot away and continuously peeking over at him with those inquisitive brown eyes of hers, Joel's gaze was trained on the boy that could possible catch Ellie's attention - Connor. He was a tall young man, just beginning to show the distinctive signs that Testosterone was flowing heavily in his body. Muscular but slender - that made Joel question whether he'd be capable of really protecting Ellie, especially if she was pregnant. No, he decided automatically. He could only trust himself with that. But still, he went on dissecting the boy.
Slightly stubbly. Joel couldn't say anything there. Though he managed to smooth and sharpen the blade of a shiv enough to create a makeshift razor, he still hardly shaved. Right now, he was sporting his own mess of stubble. Razor burn wasn't something he'd willingly go out of his way to endure for a face clear of hair, if that lasted even a day.
There was a slouch in Connor's walk, like he never fully stood straight and that further convinced Joel that he'd be terrible with any sort of weapon ever. And when the older man tuned into Connor's conversation, he concluded that he wasn't very strategic or bright either.
Which all added up to Joel deciding that Ellie taking any interest in Connor would need to be deterred. Joel's greatest interest was keeping Ellie safe and if he had to go and give her up to some weaker man, damn it all if he wasn't going to make sure that weaker man was at least skilled with a gun. He strummed some final notes on the guitar before setting it down beside him and lifting his cup of wine to his lips. He wasn't going to indulge, he'd decided. Just in case. He didn't want to be drunk in the event of an attack, so one drink was plenty.
"That was really nice," a voice chimed from beside him and he glanced over to catch Olivia smiling. "You said you wrote that?"
"Yeah," he responded, without much enthusiasm. He had nothing against the woman. It was just that now that Tommy had planted that damn seed in his head, he didn't even want to be bothered with her. But that didn't matter. He'd given up trying to please others and take feelings into consideration a long time ago. People knew him as unapproachable. People knew him as intimidating and "oh, that's Tommy's brother but he's not nearly as friendly". People didn't really know him at all. Not even Tommy knew him well anymore. Ellie was the only one that he ever truly relaxed around, the only one he ever truly let (most of) his guard down around.
He'd just grown bitter and ill-tempered as time passed and as the apocalypse wore on. And it wasn't until maybe five years before he'd met Ellie that he'd accepted that it wasn't going to end. They had to coexist with these nightmares now, even if it meant possibly waking up every morning to fight for his life. But then he did meet her and Tess died on him and Ellie was all he had left. And she gave him hope, if even for a little bit, that this devastation could and would all go away. And she would be the reason why. She was the cure to Cordyceps.
But to cure the brain infection, she would have had to die. Instead, all of his hopes of curing Cordyceps died, and she lived, and he was perfectly fine with that because, to him, she was more important than the cure. Her life, her smile, her stupid little remarks... they were all more important to him. And they still were. And this repopulation shit only made him angry because, truthfully, Joel felt very protective over Ellie. She wasn't like a daughter to him anymore, no. He couldn't imagine her as though she was Sarah with her hips so wide and her chest so full. Sarah had been long gone and the memory of her had faded, and he was trying to consciously accept that she really was never coming back and it was time he move on with his life. It was his subconscious that was unyielding and refused to let it go. No, Ellie wasn't his daughter. Sarah was his daughter. Ellie was Ellie. She was her own person, and he realized that the first time he'd woken up and she was laying right beside him, her auburn hair wild and her features soft with slumber.
Sarah never slept in his bed. It was actually very odd for a child her age. Even when she had nightmares, she'd always choose the couch over his bed because the television offered her comfort. Ellie, though? She needed to be close to Joel or her heart would race, goosebumps would raise all over her arms and she'd feel so utterly alone and scared she'd be convinced the world was about to crumble around her. But, of course, Joel didn't know that much. All he knew was that she was different from Sarah. So much different he just couldn't try to compare them anymore.
"Joel."
He was drawn from his pondering by the call, and he glanced at Ellie, believing his name had come from her lips. But she was looking forward, hardly paying him any attention. So he glanced around and his eyes fell on Maria, who was walking over to him, cup of wine in hand.
"Hi, Ellie," she greeted and Joel could see that Ellie gave Maria a tired smile as a response. "Why don't you get a drink? I'm gonna steal Joel for a minute." She paused, then looked at Joel. "If that's alright?"
"'Course it is." He shifted to gently rise to his feet as Ellie moved away from him and made a move to just take his cup. "Hey. No. You ain't drinkin' that."
"What?" Ellie peered up at him, as though confused.
"Oh, sorry, Joel. I didn't realize you didn't want her drinking."
Joel looked over at Maria before quirking an eyebrow. "Never said I didn't want her drinkin'. She can drink if she wants. She's a big girl, don't need me to decide what's best for her. Just said I didn't want her drinkin' that, because that one's mine."
He saw the corners of Ellie's lips twitch into a smile and without a word, she got up to go get her own drink.
"Could you follow me?" Maria asked, but didn't wait for an answer and she didn't have to because Joel did what she asked. He was curious to see what she needed to discuss with him and if she was going to bring up procreation, he'd give her an earful of his own opinions. And it turns out, that was exactly what she wanted to discuss. They stopped beside someone's house, several yards away from the gathering. "Did you talk to her?"
He tried to play clueless. "Talk to who?"
"Ellie," Maria said patiently. "About having children."
"Yeah, I talked to her."
"And?"
"Didn't get a definite answer. She just said, 'I don't know about that'."
"Talk to her again."
"No."
"Joel, this is important."
"To you. We want nothin' to do with this. Let everyone else have kids."
Maria sighed deeply, her eyebrows tugging inward, as though she was worried. This confused Joel until she started to speak again. "No. This is important to everyone. Could you please just talk to her again about it and make sure she says yes?"
Joel could feel his annoyance steadily becoming inflamed. How many times did he have to tell this woman that neither he nor Ellie would be participating in this experiment and they had the right not to. Especially Ellie. After everything she'd been through, she deserved more than just a few years to enjoy life without nuisances like infants. And pregnancy was hard on a woman's body, that much he was sure. Ellie didn't need that right now. "Maria, I'm not-"
But she interrupted him.
"Listen to me, Joel. Ellie could still be the cure."
Aaaaand that's where I'm going to leave it for now. Thank you all for reading and please review! I love constructive criticism! The fourth chapter will pick up from here. And I apologize if the tone was a bit off. It's midnight and I haven't written this story in quite a long time.
