Leaving. It was a weird concept. You pick up your stuff, and you go away. It's the process of leaving something behind, something you've been part of before. Leaving doesn't have to be permanent. It doesn't have to be a sort of abandonment. Through Ellie's life, she'd never really felt like she'd left or abandoned anything. In the kind of world they lived in, nothing was forever. Nothing was permanent, so she never really felt like she was leaving something more than she was simply going somewhere else. But this time was different. Joel had made that quite clear, actually.

"I'm leavin'."

Ellie hadn't really started feeling all at home in Jackson City yet, so for her, leaving wasn't all that bad. Again, she was just going somewhere else, like always. But there were a few things she didn't want to leave behind. Some things she couldn't wait to come back to once they came back from their journey. She wasn't sure where they were going, but Joel had told her they were digging up something from his past. He'd probably tell her where before they actually got there.

One of the things she didn't want to leave was something she'd decided to say properly goodbye to. "Hey, Joel," she said after they had agreed that she could come with him. "I'm gonna miss my bed. And I'm gonna miss sleeping in my fucking undies."

"Okay, Ellie," Joel chuckled, seeming a bit flustered about her blatant honesty. She tended to be like that. At least the mood was a little lighter.

"No, seriously. It's the first time in my life I've had the chance to sleep there in all my glory-"

"Ellie."

"With my tits all out-"

"Ellie, come on."

"It's amazing."

"Yeah. I get it, Ellie. Good for you."

"Thanks!" Ellie beamed. "My point is, if I have your permission, I'll go back to sleep and enjoy my bed one last time."

"Sure, go ahead," Joel laughed, and she returned to her room and slept peacefully. Joel did not.

…

That morning, Ellie was packing her stuff. She couldn't exactly bring a lot, but when Tommy had dropped by, he said they didn't have to worry about their stuff.

"I'll keep this place empty," he said, earning a little smile from Joel. "You'll be back. You always come back, right? So don't worry about that, your stuff's safe. Guitar, too."

"Yeah… would've brought the damn thing if I didn't have to have a rifle on my back." Joel sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Tommy could see the dark lines under his eyes, knowing he probably hadn't slept at all.

"I'll be at the gates to see you off, alright?" Tommy said, and then he left. Ellie was in her room, finishing up some stuff. She put her book and some comics into her backpack and made sure to bring some pencils. She had no idea when she'd come across a new one. She found an old shoebox that she put some things in. To her, it was a sort of promise. Both to herself and Joel. A promise she had to come back to. She slid the box under the bed once she'd gotten everything in there, and then she left her room.

"Here," Joel said, handing her a can of food. "Better get some of that in you before we get goin'," he told her, and she ate the whole thing. She didn't want to get hungry before they'd even started moving. That entire morning just went so quickly to her. Almost like a blur of motion and preparing and no time to think at all. Joel said it was to spare as much daylight as possible.

"Hey, Joel?" Ellie asked as they stood in front of the door, all ready to leave. "This is going to be like it's always been, isn't it? We're going out there… killing people, the whole deal… right?"

"I'm afraid so," Joel mumbled, giving her a sympathetic look. "You can still change your mind, you know. You can still stay."

"No," Ellie mumbled, shaking her head. "No, I want to come with you."

"If you say so," Joel replied. "So, you ready to go? Do you have everything you need?"

"I'm good to go," Ellie said, but Joel could hear the stroke of hesitation in her voice. He nodded slowly, patting her shoulder before leaving the house. She followed close behind him, and they went towards the gates.

"Look at you, all nice and clean," Maria laughed when Ellie and Joel arrived at the chain-link fences. Ellie looked down at her clean clothes and rubbed her own cheeks that were practically shining.

"No shit," Ellie huffed. "We actually have time to bath around here. I'll take every fucking chance I get to feel like a person who doesn't live in a pile of dirt."

Without any warning, Maria kneeled down in front of Ellie and cupped her cheek in her hand. "You deserve a better life than this." She said with a sad tone to her voice. "You should have lived in a normal world… you're such a pretty, young girl, Ellie. I'm sure all the boys would love you."

"Hell, maybe even the girls, too," Tommy added with a chuckle. Ellie was kind of dumbfounded, a surprised blush on her face. Blushing was something she never did, so that was new. "Look, we got somethin' for you." Tommy said, pulling a box out of his pocket. He handed it to Ellie, and she looked it over.

"What is this?" She asked, furrowing her brows a little. Joel looked over and immediately recognized the type of box it was.

"Open it," Joel smiled, and Ellie did as he told. Inside was a metal piece. She wasn't sure what it was, but she was sure she'd seen something similar before. "That's a harmonica. You make music with it."

"We figured you might want something to learn while you're travelling," Maria smiled, a hand on Ellie's shoulder.

"Considering Joel couldn't bring his guitar and all. He ever sing to you, Ellie?" Tommy asked, apparently trying to say as much as possible before they left. Maybe he didn't want them to leave.

"Uhm," Ellie uttered, hesitating a little. She looked at Joel, who almost looked apologetic. "No. No, he hasn't."

"That's too bad," Tommy huffed. "You should tell him to. He might not look it, but he used to love music when we were younger."

"Yeah, he told me," Ellie said, a small smile on her lips. It was weird to think that they'd be out on the road again soon.

"Look, Joel," Tommy said, handing him some sort of a bag. "One town over, there's a car scrapyard." He said as Joel took the bag from him, seeming to be curious about what it was. "There's a car there, black pickup truck… It was only missing a few parts, you'll see which ones… they're right there." He told him, pointing at the bag. "Just get those in, and the car should be good to go."

"Really? You sure you don't need this yourself?" Joel asked. Tommy always had been helpful, even though they'd fought a lot in the past. Joel never knew how to thank him, either.

"No, big brother," Tommy chuckled. "I'm not going anywhere, am I? You take it. We stuck a note to the inside of the windshield, so it should be easy to figure out which one it is."

"Thank you, Tommy." Joel said, giving his brother a hug. "Now we'll be back, alright? Some day, we'll come back."

"You'd better," Maria said, rolling her eyes a little before laughing. "I can't wait to see this one again," she said, giving Ellie's clean hair a good ruffle.

"So, which way you takin'? Going through Kansas?" Tommy asked.

"I'm thinking we cut right through Oklahoma. Should be a bit quicker."

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea. But be careful, alright? Oklahoma's known for its vast amount of hunters." Warned Tommy, a bit of a grim look on his face. Joel nodded. He knew that, of course. They'd passed through once, and it didn't exactly pay of nicely. After talking for a short while, they all said goodbye to each other and then Joel and Ellie were on their way. They walked for quite some time before they started getting close to the scrapyard Tommy had told them about. Joel had started spacing out for some reason, and it took him way longer than expected to notice the horrid sounds coming from Ellie's direction.

"What hell are you doin'?" He asked as he snapped back into a more present state of mind, his head having turned to observe the girl next to him. She stopped "playing" the harmonica and looked up at him.

"I'm playing, what does it look like?" She retorted, frowning at the old man.

"Well, it's even worse than your goddamn whistlin', that's for sure." He grumbled, shaking his head in dismay as his eyes yet again fixed themselves on the road in front of them. The sun was hot on his skin, and even rolling up his sleeves didn't help a lot.

"I highly doubt you knew how to play a guitar the first time you picked one up," Ellie huffed, still trying to figure out how to properly play the thing in her hands apart from just blowing mercilessly into it.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I did!" Joel exclaimed with a little grin on his face, and Ellie just stuck her tongue out.

"Haha, that's real fun. You're a blast, Joel." She deadpanned. Joel simply shook his head with a little chuckle.

"'Course I didn't. It takes a while, you know? You'll probably get it down eventually, just… try not to blow up my eardrums in the meantime." He said, and Ellie couldn't help herself from chuckling.

"Maybe I should do just that!" She stated, and then blew into the instrument with all her might, harming no one's ears except her own. "Ouch, that was uncomfortable…"

"That's what you get," Joel mumbled. Neither of them really knew where they stood in their relationship at the time being. There had definitely been some very uncomfortable tension between them after Ellie had given him a hard time about his dreams, and Joel couldn't really tell if she was still pissed at him or not. He wouldn't be surprised if she actually was, but she was damn good at hiding it.

"Joel, check this out," Ellie said after a while, pointing at a sign. It read "Scrapyard – 500 meters".

"We're getting close. I'd stash away that harmonica for now, if I were you. We never know what's there." He advised, and she didn't really hesitate to do as he said.

"So, what are you expecting? Hunters? Infected?"

"The trick, Ellie, is to expect absolutely everything at once. That way you're never disappointed." Said Joel simply. Ellie rolled her eyes.

"That's a pretty morbid fucking way of looking at it." She mumbled. They kept walking in the direction the sign had pointed them, and it didn't take them long to get to the scrapyard. Unfortunately for them, there was a big gate, and it was locked. "Well, on the bright side," Ellie stated, hands on her hips as she looked up at the gate, "There probably aren't any hunters in here!"

"No, I can't remember Tommy sayin' anything about this being locked when they were here. I think the best thing to do is to definitely expect someone to be in here." Joel said, walking up to inspect the gate. They definitely wouldn't be able to get it open from the outside. "Let's look around, see what we can find. And Ellie?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep your gun in your hand." Joel said without really wanting to say it. It was a necessary precaution. They started circling around the facilities. The entire thing was covered with a high chain-link fence, and they had no means to cut it open with. After circling it for a little while longer, they found a hole in the fence.

"I can crawl through here." Ellie said, already in the middle of crouching down.

"And how do you s'pose I'll get in?" Joel frowned, which left Ellie thinking.

"I can go around and unlock the gate from the inside?" She asked, and she could already see the disapproval in Joel's eyes. "Look, if I see anyone at all, I'll pull back, alright? I'm not taking any chances." She reassured him, and he sighed heavily.

"Alright. But promise me that you won't do anything stupid, alright?"

"I promise." Ellie said, and then she crawled inside. Joel hurriedly circled back to the gate and waited impatiently.

Ellie was crawling along the chain-link fence, constantly checking to make sure she couldn't see anyone. There was a little house of sorts in the middle of the place, probably for the people who used to work at the scrapyard. If anyone was here, they were probably in the house. Ellie made sure one last time before dashing to the gate, struggling to get the big bar up so that the gate could open. She held it up to keep the thing from making too much sound, and Joel just opened the gate slightly before slipping inside and closing it again.

"Good job," Joel said automatically, and Ellie could feel her cheeks flush a little. She wasn't really used to being praised like that, especially not by Joel who in her mind had been formerly known as "hard-ass old guy".

"I didn't see anyone, but I figured they were probably in that house over there if there really are hunters." Ellie said, pointing in said direction. Joel nodded and tapped her shoulder to make her follow him as they snuck towards the house. They could hear voices inside through the open windows.

"Did the others say when they'd be returning?" One gruff male voice said, and a female voice replied shortly after.

"I think they should be here in about an hour or so," she said. Joel tried to figure out if those two were the only two there. He couldn't even be sure if they were actually hunters or just people like them, but speaking of the devil…

"You think they get to kill any tourists today?" The man asked, and Joel nodded a bit to himself now that he knew he could kill them without feeling too guilty about it. He gestured for Ellie to stay put as he silently hoisted himself over the ledge of the window and into the house.

"I dunno," the woman sighed. "Let's hope so. Man, I wanted to kill some too."

"You'll get to do that next week when we head out again." The man chuckled. Joel spotted the man standing against the wall in the next room, talking to the woman who was on a sofa with her legs on the table. Joel had, apparently, ended up in the kitchen. He found an empty beer bottle and tossed it as far into the next room as he could. "The fuck was that?!" The man yelled.

"Probably one of them damn rats again… I'll go check it out." The woman sighed, and Joel could hear her getting up from the couch. He saw her round a corner, and he pulled his bow and arrow out, spun the string and placed and arrow straight through the man's throat, efficiently silencing him. He just hoped the woman wouldn't hear the thud. He hung the bow over his shoulder again and pulled his pistol out, hurriedly yet silently walking in the same direction the woman had.

He rounded the corner and was met by a fist to the face. Yup, she'd heard the thud. The woman charged at him and pummeled him with her fists, and unfortunately for Joel, she was a lot stronger than he was. They wrestled over the gun, and in the end, it clattered to the floor. Joel took several punches to the ribs, and he had trouble regaining his balance and composure. Just as the woman stopped for a split second to catch her breath, Joel rammed into her and slammed her against the wall, but she was quick to mash her forehead against his nose, sending him straight to the floor. Just as she was about to pick the gun up from the floor, a gunshot was heard, and she fell to the ground.

"Shit, Joel! Are you okay?" Ellie asked as she put her gun away and rushed over to him. She helped Joel up and he tried his best to get his breath back.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said, brushing her hand away. "Is she dead?" He asked, and Ellie shook her head.

"I caught her in the leg." She uttered, looking a bit distraught. "Shit, I heard you fighting, and I just thought I should-"

"It's okay, Ellie. You did what you had to do." Joel said without even looking at her, and then he walked over and pulled the woman up on her feet, even though she could barely stand. She was groaning in pain, and Joel shoved her down on a chair. "Ellie, see if you can find some tape or somethin' in the kitchen."

Ellie did as she was told, and it didn't take long before she returned with just what Joel wanted. He used it to bind the woman to the chair. "What are you going to do to her?" Ellie asked nervously, knowing just how ruthless Joel could be.

"I'm going to ask her a few questions. You're not gonna wanna stick around for this. You head on out into the lot and try to find the black pickup truck Tommy talked about, alright?"

"O-Okay," Ellie nodded, and then she left. Joel sighed a little and turned to the woman.

"How many?" He asked sternly.

"W-What?" The woman groaned.

"How many others are there?!" Joel suddenly shouted, taking a step towards her.

"Why the fuck would I tell you? You're gonna kill me either way," The woman laughed, though biting her lip right afterwards to try and suppress the pain.

"You're absolutely right," Joel said. "I am going to kill you. But who's to stop me from makin' it as painfully as absolutely possible?"

"I'd like to see you try, old man." She grinned, and before she could even blink, there was a finger inside of her bullet-wound. "FUCK!" She yelled, spit getting stuck in her throat as she did so.

"Tell me how many people are comin' back here, and I'll kill you quickly." Joel said. The woman just shook her head, and Joel pushed her chair against the wall. He took out his knife and cut one of her arms loose.

"The fuck are you doing?" The woman exclaimed, and Joel grabbed her wrist and held her hand against the wall.

"Good thing this wall's made of plaster," Joel said before shoving the knife through her palm. She screamed in agony as her hand got stuck to the wall.

"FUCK! FUCK!" She screamed, shaking her head furiously. "There are twelve of them!" She shouted. A few seconds later the knife was out of her hand, and she had time to groan in pain one last time before Joel embedded the knife into her heart. He searched the two bodies and the rest of the house for anything he might need of food and ammunition, and then he hurried outside.

"Ellie?" He asked as he came into the lot, but there was no sign of her. Even though she was probably just behind some cars or something, Joel felt a pang of concern go through him. "Ellie?" He called again, louder this time.

"Over here!" Her voice called back after a while, and Joel did his best to ignore the relief that washed through him. He jogged over to where the voice had come from. Ellie was standing by a black pick-up truck that had a note with an X marked on it on the inside of the windshield, just like Tommy had said. "Man, it's a fucking miracle those assholes didn't touch it."

"Damn right," Joel huffed. He sat the bag with the parts down in front of the car and opened it up. "Oh, great. Tommy even remembered to put tools in here," he chuckled as he pulled out the few tools he needed and popped open the hood. He could easily see what parts were missing, too. He'd learned a tiny bit about broken cars in his time as a survivor.

"You think you can do something about it?" Ellie asked, curiously peering over and into the hood. She, on the other hand, did not know cars.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Joel said, and then he got to work. Despite what he said, he used at least thirty minutes to get the parts in place. "Ellie?" He asked once he'd finished, wiping sweat from his forehead with the heel of his hand. "Could you go inside and see if you can find anything like… pillows or mattresses or blankets?"

"Uh, sure. What for?" She asked him.

"You'll see." He chuckled. Ellie jogged inside and got to work, while Joel got in the car and started making an attempt at high-wiring the engine. It worked, miraculously, and he started driving the car slowly so that it was lined up in front of the gate in case a problem should arise. He let the engine run and then he went inside and helped Ellie get the mattresses and pillows out of the house and onto the back-part of the pickup truck. "When it's warm and all… you could lie on the back here, on a mattress, and just… relax, you know? Sound nice?" Joel stated with a voice that was much softer and kinder than the one he usually used.

"Sounds pretty awesome," Ellie mumbled, still checking the truck over. "Did you ever-" Ellie was cut off before she could say anything else by the voices on the other side of the gate. She froze completely.

"'Ey Michael!" A male voice called. "Open the gates!"

"Joel," Ellie uttered, and Joel shushed her with his finger. He closed his eyes and went into his memories, trying his best to recall that voice. That man he'd killed just forty minutes ago.

"They're early, but we'll deal with it," he said quietly, trying his best to think of something. He took a deep breath and tried to imitate the man. "Yeah, yeah, just gimme a fuckin' second man, I'm takin' a piss!"

"Well with your bladder, that's gonna take forever!" Another man from behind the gate laughed. Joel looked at the gate, and then at the car, measuring the distance between the two. He had a plan, but it was going to be difficult to pull off. He hurried to the back and placed the mattresses and pillows so that they practically covered the entire back of the truck. He pulled his backpack off and put it there too, so that he didn't carry anything heavy.

"Ellie, put your backpack here," he said, and without hesitating, she did as he said.

"Come on man, we're gettin' impatient here!"

"I'm comin'!" Joel shouted back.

"Joel, what the hell do we do?" Ellie asked, in a voice that in no way betrayed the worry she experienced.

"Get behind the wheel," he said simply. Ellie swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Fuck, really?" She asked, as if part of her wanted him to be joking.

"Yes, really. You get behind that wheel, and you get ready. When I start runnin'… you start drivin'."

"What about you, Joel?" Ellie asked with big eyes.

"Drive slowly at first. I'll get in. When that gate opens completely, you duck, and you give the gas all you got. It doesn't matter if you hit someone, you keep drivin' 'till we're out." He said with a certain grimness to his voice. She nodded hesitantly and got behind the wheel of the car that was still running.

"Hey, Joel? Be careful, okay?" She mumbled, and he nodded reassuringly. She closed the door and put her hands on the steering wheel. Joel jogged over to the gate and grabbed the heavy bar.

"Gate's openin'!" Joel shouted in the fake voice, and as soon as the bar was up, he started sprinting in Ellie's direction. He could hear the gate opening behind him, and Ellie looked completely terrified as she started driving towards Joel.

"Holy fuck, what are you doing, Joel?" She mumbled as he kept sprinting towards the car. He must have miscalculated the distance, she thought, because the gate was almost all the way up now, and she could even see the people on the other side. It wouldn't take them long to realize that something was off. She started speeding up a little. She'd rather he broke something getting in than getting shot to death because he didn't reach the car on time. And then she could hear the people who had opened the gate start shouting, lifting their guns to fire. She realized that Joel had no intentions of getting into the car. "Oh, fuck. You're going over it." She gasped.

"Come on!" Joel shouted as he leapt up on the hood of the car and dived over the roof, having to limit his jump in order not to overshoot, seeing as the car was moving in the opposite direction of him. He landed splayed out on the slightly softened back of the truck, relief washing over him as he felt the mattress beneath him. He scurried to his knees and unhooked his shotgun from his backpack, readying it in his arms. Ellie ducked down behind the steering wheel and booked it towards the gate. Luckily for them, the people there jumped out of the way but fired mercilessly at them.

Joel sat up and fired at one of them, catching him right in the chest with a shotgun shell. A few bullets rippled through the air right next to him, and he ducked down a little.

"TAKE A RIGHT!" He shouted as loud as he could, and Ellie jerked the wheel to the right and the car slid out onto the road and they hauled ass as far away from the hunters as they could. They stopped firing when they realized it was futile. Ellie kept driving for a good ten minutes, just to make sure, whilst Joel lay splayed out on the back, trying to calm his breathing. Ellie pulled over after a while and came rushing out of the car. She definitely hadn't calmed down while she drove.

"Holy shit!" She yelled as Joel climbed out of the trunk. "That was intense!" She continued, pacing around while muttering profanities to herself. "Man, Joel, I know you're old and shit," she breathed, and he just stood there with furrowed brows. "But that was so fucking badass!"

"It was, huh?" Joel huffed, brushing some dirt off his shirt.

"Hell yeah! You just… you just dived over the fucking car while I was driving. It was insane!" She exclaimed, a higher pitch than usual to her voice. She looked as if she was looking for something else to say, like something was on the back of her mind.

"What's wrong?" Joel asked, and Ellie took one step forwards before stopping again.

"I just… you scared the shit out of me, Joel," she said, and before he could do anything about it, she had wrapped her arms around his torso and pushed her face against his chest. "I can't lose you. I just can't. You're all I have." She said, her voice muffled by his shirt. Joel sighed a bit and put a hand on Ellie's head, ruffling her hair. It's not something he'd do before, but they were closer now. They cared about each other.

"It's okay, baby girl," he whispered, gently stroking her hair. "You won't lose me. I'll take care of you, just like always. And more importantly, I will not let anything happen to you. Ever. Can you trust me with that?"

"Yeah. I can trust you." She said with a soft smile. "More than anyone."