AN: I formally apologize for this.
The sun was well up when Riley eventually reined the sweating mare to a stop. She had no idea how far they had traveled, only knowing that the horse had slowed to a trot after running herself into a lather, and then eventually to a walk, occasionally halting and calling out for the herd mates she had left. Riley had stroked her slick neck and coaxed her forward, feeling a twinge of guilt.
Then again, ends justified means. Maybe.
Ellie had drifted off at some point during their travel, her cheek rested against Riley's shoulder. They hadn't exchanged a word since they'd left, both too numb and tired to try.
Riley nudged Ellie awake and helped her down from the mare, guiding her to sit in the moss underneath a large oak. She stripped the damp saddle pad from the horse's back and wiped what sweat she could from her coat, her movements stiff from riding so long.
Ellie watched her through heavy-lidded eyes. "Ri?"
"Yeah?"
"You okay?"
She shrugged. "Just really tired."
She set the saddle on the ground, pad stretched over it to dry, and pulled the reins over the palomino's head, letting her graze while they rested.
Riley leaned against the trunk of the oak, the ache in her head from lack of sleep rivaling the dull pain in her arm. She felt Ellie's fingers trace the cut.
"We've gotta find something for that."
Riley sighed. "And food. And more ammo." Her voice became increasingly exhausted as she spoke. "And new fucking clothes."
Ellie just shook her head.
There was silence then, apart from the twittering of birds, and the mare crunching the thick grass. Her bit had become covered in green foam, and Riley wiped it off with her finger.
Ellie ran her hands through the mare's tangled mane. "What do you want to call her?"
"You can chose."
Ellie considered this for a while. "Venus."
Riley raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Well, I figured you'd be opposed to naming her after a spaceship, so I want to name her after a planet instead."
Riley chuckled quietly, closing her eyes. "Fine. Venus it is."
When they set off again, Ellie rode in front. They'd been traveling for about an hour when Ellie noticed Riley's breathing had slowed, and her arm had loosened its hold on Ellie's waist. She smiled to herself, remember Riley's insistence that yes, she was tired, but no, she didn't want to sleep yet, and that Ellie should stop worrying.
Riley was woken a few hours later by the sound of hooves on pavement, as Ellie guided Venus through the tangled weeds that had encroached on the street.
They'd set off in no particular direction, but appeared to have stumbled into a rural town, judging by the compact nature of shops that lined the street, the small motel, and the lanes and drives off the main road that lead to modest neighborhoods.
Riley yawned, stretching her arms to rest her hands on the saddle's horn. "How long have I been out?"
Ellie's shoulders shrugged under her chin. "A few hours. You feeling okay? Your arm feels warm."
Riley nodded lazily, resting her cheek against Ellie's neck.
Ellie directed Venus down a side road, and into a small neighborhood with tightly packed, tidy little houses, and lawns that threatened to consume them.
They stopped at the first house that looked promising, which happened to be a single story, simple blue house with a white front door and shutters, and tired looking picket fencing around it. The gate was hanging open, and Ellie reined Venus through it, closing it behind them and leaving her to graze in the yard while they looked for a way in.
The house seemed undisturbed: the lock on the door was still intact, and so were the windows, until they broke one.
Inside of the house looked strangely normal. It almost seemed lived in, apart from the dust that coated everything, and had settled into the white carpet, giving it a dull, grayish tone. There was the faint smell of rotting in the air, though it seemed almost a part of the place, in a way that was impossible to describe.
One cabinet in the kitchen was filled with medications of all sorts, including prescription antibiotics. They weren't certain whether the previous occupant had been ill, or perhaps an addict, but they couldn't bring themselves to care. Apart from medicine, they also found a number of knifes, and a few cans of food, all of which they left arranged on the counter cheerfully.
There was a single bathroom, and it held a decent medical kit, with all the basics they needed. Ellie hugged it, and then insisted they clean up Riley's arm then and there. Riley agreed begrudgingly, allowing Ellie to seat her on the edge of the tub while she rinsed the wound with rubbing alcohol – Riley came up with a few new curse words during this – and then toweled and bandaged it.
"It won't need stiches, at least, though you're going to have a cool looking scar," Ellie said, repacking the medical kit and carrying it along with them.
"You ever see that scar on Marlene's chest?" Riley asked suddenly, still looking down at her wrapped arm.
"No. What's it from?"
"You know, she wouldn't tell me. Isn't that weird? Most people have some colorful story for each of their scars, but she wouldn't even explain where it came from."
"Huh."
They wandered past the front door – it had at least four separate locks, a peephole, and a baseball bat and flashlight within reach of it – and into the bedroom, which looked totally normal, apart from the skeleton dangling by a rope from the ceiling.
"They must have just given up as soon as everything started." Riley's voice was distant as she approached the body. There was no note. Whoever it was didn't seem to have had anyone to tell.
They mutually decided to leave the body be – if it had been there so long, there was no reason to move it, really – and quickly checked the room for supplies.
In the closet they found shirts and pants that, though a little too big, could replace the dresses they'd been desperate to abandon. Riley wanted to burn the itchy, flowery fabric, but they eventually decided that throwing them out the window would do well enough.
It turned out that the stove ran on gas. Riley left a pot of chicken soup simmering while they sat themselves on the couch in the living room, watching Venus graze through the window.
Riley was the first to speak. "You know, killing people is a lot different than killing infected."
Ellie took a deep breath. "Riley…"
"I killed one guy with a pair of brush cutters."
Ellie said nothing.
"I think a lot of those people in that town were probably good people. I mean, Adam was a dick, but a lot of them were just… naïve, or something."
Ellie shook her head. "You did what you had to do, and you got us out of there. We didn't have a choice."
"I still probably got a lot of innocent people killed. I did all of this shit without even feeling bad, because all I could think about was just getting you out of there-"
Ellie cut her off with a firm, lasting kiss, cupping her cheek with her hand. When she finally pulled away, she rested her head against Riley's.
"Riley, it's okay."
Riley wrapped her hand around Ellie's, by the bruise that still remained on her cheek, and said nothing.
They spent a few hours in the house, enjoying the first proper meal they'd had since breakfast in the town, and drinking the jugged water they'd found in the kitchen pantry – they set some aside for Venus in a bowl, and brought her into the house to let her drink - and finally allowing themselves to unwind. It wasn't until Venus had begun pawing at the carpet that they decided to pack up what they'd found in a large travel bag that'd been in the bedroom and head out. Venus had protested being tacked up again, but Ellie had managed to assuage her with a few sugar cubes she'd found in the cabinet.
The afternoon sun was gazing down at the land unrelentingly, a gold coin interrupting the solid blue of the sky. The world seemed quiet. Almost tired.
Ellie had suggested heading for the coast: even if it wasn't LA, they could still try to figure out surfing. Riley had agreed that it seemed better than wandering aimlessly, and they'd decided to go seek out a map, since hers had been stuffed in the backpack she'd left at Adam's settlement.
Ellie was alternating between attempting to whistle and humming as they traveled, and Riley had had to choke back a laugh on more than one occasion when Ellie would cut off a puff of air with a random curse.
"You know, it's not an instant thing," Riley said, glancing back at her. "You'll just pick it up over time."
"Whatever."
They found their map in the agricultural center of the town, neatly tucked away on its shelf. The building itself was untouched. Apparently, no one had any interest in pamphlets on tending plants when the world was ending.
They sat on the curb while Venus grazed in the overgrown garden, dusting off the map and examining it.
"It's going to be a few day's worth of riding, I think," Riley noted, tracing the various routes with her finger. "We're near the middle of the state, and the coast is…"
Dragging her finger from the dot on the map that marked the town, to the ocean, she shook her head.
Ellie shrugged. "Well, you have any other ideas?"
Riley closed the map and stood up, offering Ellie her hand. "Nope."
They decided to do one last search of the town before they left, to see if there was anything else they could scrounge up. They trotted Venus down the main street, where decrepit shops loomed on both sides, the paint peeled off their signs, many of their doors hanging open. The largest appeared to be a grocery store, and they stopped in the parking lot between abandoned cars, assuming the building to be the only place that used to sell things other than knickknacks and books.
As they dismounted, Venus stepped around uneasily, her nostrils flared.
Ellie rubbed the horse's neck, gathering her reins in her hand and leading her toward the automated doors that were standing open, rusted in place. When they were within feet of them Venus balked, tossing her head up and backing away quickly, nearly pulling the reins out of Ellie's hand.
"Jesus, girl, what's wrong?" Ellie had to jog to keep from losing her hold on her.
Riley glanced at the store, and then back at the horse. "Maybe she just doesn't like big, dark places?"
"I don't know. She doesn't want to go in, though."
Riley shrugged, and helped Ellie tether Venus to a light pole. She had calmed slightly after being led away from the store, but her muscles were still tense.
"We'll be back in just a minute, Vee." Ellie called over her shoulder as they jogged to the door. They were both armed with knives, and Riley had given Ellie the smaller gun she'd taken from the one man, and kept the rifle for herself.
"You haven't used a gun yet, right?" Riley asked, examining her gun and finding six bullets inside.
"A beebee gun."
"Right. Well, your gun is little, so you should be able to handle it fine. It's the same idea."
"Got it. You think there's going to be infected in here?"
"I don't know. We'll see."
Riley took the lead as they went inside, toting the one flashlight they had found in the house. Its batteries were nearly drained, and its light was dim, but it did the job suitably enough.
The inside of the store was a wreck. Windows were broken, shelves were toppled, and there were bullet holes in more than one place. Shadows inhabited the majority of the store, and in some areas they were barely able to make out the checkered tiles beneath their feet as they walked.
Eventually, Riley shook her head, kicking aside the remains of a cardboard box.
"Wanna head out?"
"Yeah. I don't want Venus to freak out by herself."
They tracked along the back of the store on their way toward the door, hoping there might have been something they'd missed on the initial search. There was a shelf toppled across their pathway near what looked to have been the produce department. Riley rested her hand against it, preparing to vault over when the shelf gave way with a crash that bounced around the store proudly, like an alarm.
It was followed shortly by a screech, somewhere in the darkness. Others joined it.
"Oh, shit-" Riley readied her rifle and fired one shot at a runner emerging from the shadows. She started to aim for the next one, but Ellie caught her arm, shoving her forward.
"There's too many, go!"
They took off, hearing the sound of footsteps somewhere behind them. Dashing toward the corner on one aisle, Riley grabbed Ellie's arm just before a stalker cut them off, flashing out of the darkness from behind a shelf and rushing toward them. One shot from the rifle took it down, and they were running again, jumping over fallen shelves and broken carts, their feet slipping on the smooth floor.
They were within twenty feet of the door when the runner crashed into Riley's back, knocking the gun from her grasp and slamming her face first into the floor. Ellie shot, catching the creature's shoulder and drawing its attention to her. She didn't have time to fire again before it was on her, grabbing at her shoulders. She dropped her gun as she fought it back.
"Riley!"
Riley pushed herself to her knees, the wind knocked out of her by the fall. She stumbled to her feet and toward where the runner had backed Ellie against the shelf She jammed the knife into the infected's neck quickly, pulling it away from Ellie and knocking it aside.
She grabbed Ellie's hand and pulled her forward, dragging her toward the exit, only pausing to retrieve her gun. They could hear more infected crying behind them, and once they were out in the daylight Riley spun with her rifle ready, shooting out a clicker's knee before it could reach them. A runner followed it, and one shot in its throat brought it down. There were two more runners after that, one of which Riley missed when she shot at it, but hit the second time. She aimed at the other, only to find her gun empty.
"Fuck-"
The runner went for her first, and Ellie stabbed it in the back while it was distracted, and then shoved the knife up through its jaw and into its head when it turned toward her. Its body thudded heavily to the ground, and they stood in shock for a moment, their clothing clinging to their skin with sweat, their breaths coming in short gasps.
Riley surveyed the area for a moment, and then approached the fallen clicker that was writhing on the ground and slammed the butt of her gun against its head, silencing it.
She turned to Ellie, mopping the sweat off her brow. "I think we're okay."
It was then that she glanced down at her hand and saw the blood. She shook her head slightly, disbelievingly, before running her other hand over her skin. She found no wound: her palm was smooth, though slick and smeared with blood.
"Ellie…"
She lifted her gaze to Ellie, who was staring at her solemnly, clutching her arm.
Riley's head was spinning. "Ellie?"
Ellie removed her hand, and lifted the arm slightly, turning it toward Riley.
There, contrastingly vividly against the paleness of her skin, were angry, red indents, glaring back at her.
Riley only stared, taking slow, deep breaths. After a moment, she only breathed one word. "No."
Ellie just shook her head.
