Chapter Eight: Guardian


Out beyond the highway, where the trees stick so close together that hardly any light could filter through, there's a small house. A rusted truck sits on the path that's still usable and even a tire swing remains on a frayed rope, hanging from a crooked tree. Vines wrapped themselves inside the windows of this house and soon they'd pull it down into the earth.

This was where Daniel had been last seen, according to the hunter that Joel carved up. This was riskier than any of the other places they've found. This seemed almost like a resting place for that nameless group. The pack. Ellie had taken to calling them that in her head. Not that those fuckers deserved a name for what they were.

They had found a cave cut into a rock, that was far enough away where they couldn't be spotted but Joel still didn't want to start a fire. He sat with his back to the wall, cleaning one of his guns. He periodically looked out of the cave entrance to the forest beyond.

There was something off about these woods. Ellie felt it like an itch she didn't know the origin of. It made her feel restless, too uneasy to sleep, no matter how much Joel pestered her to.

"What is it?" Joel asks and she shouldn't be surprised he could sense how tense she was.

"I can't get comfortable."

Joel wipes his hands on the dirty cloth. "There are worst places to sleep."

He seemed comfortable enough but she's pretty sure he was just oblivious to it. Too many creepy places explored for him not to be desensitized.

"Something is off. I feel like we're being watched."

"We ain't. I'd know." Joel responds, confidently.

"Oh, you'd know huh? You can see through all those trees?" Ellie asks and points out of the entrance of the cave.

"Get some rest, Ellie. We're fine." Joel sets the dirty cloth back inside his bag, "Gimme your guitar."

She smiles a little, she can't help it.

Her guitar was dented and some of the strings had snapped from her fall down the steep hillside. She takes it carefully out of the bag and holds it out to him.

She slides her eyes back to the entrance of the cave. She thinks of the wild dog that saved her and its beautiful grayish fur. It was out there somewhere too and that at least brought her comfort.


The wind sounds like a choir of moans against the cave and it keeps her awake. She turns on her side facing the rock wall, her backpack as a pillow. She watches the shadows which look like cave paintings. If she squints, she can pretend they are.

The wind suddenly goes silent and it's so quiet. Had Joel fallen asleep?

She rolls over and realizes with bewilderment that she wasn't in the cave any longer. She was in her old bed in Jackson.

This was a nightmare. It had to be.

She sits up from the bed, her hands shaking. She presses her palms together to calm them but it never works. Her room never had much in it to begin with but it was the one space she could call her own. It was more than enough. She stands from the bed and walks to the open doorway that leads to the hall. Joel's bedroom was across the way but the door was open and it was dark inside. He wasn't there.

She walks down the creaky steps. The night faded to daylight and the colors were warm. The sunlight kissed the wood floor with soft bright shapes between the shadows. She was home. This was their home. She could hear Tommy's voice coming from the living room. He was speaking with Joel but they weren't arguing for once. Maria steps out of the kitchen when Ellie reaches the bottom of the stairs and smiles at Ellie. Her face was bathed in light from the open window and the wind sent some papers dancing across the wooden table.

"Are you going to let me cut your hair today?" Maria asks, smirking.

Ellie was speechless, her words caught in her throat, her eyes were blurring.

"Ye-yes…yes I will." Ellie manages and Maria winks at her before walking into the living room where Tommy and Joel were. Ellie stood in the small foyer looking down the hall and she could hear soft laughter. She didn't belong here. Not this Ellie, but she didn't care. She needed to stay here. Could she stay? Just for a little while longer.

She chanced walking further down the hall and finally reached the living room. She set her hand on the door frame, reverently and peeked inside. Tommy spots her and gives her a smile, which makes Joel turn to face her with an expression of something that resembled happiness. They were all looking at her and smiling and it should have been creepy but for once it wasn't.

"You want to eat with us, Ellie?" Tommy asks.

There was a rushing in her ears like the sound of waves crashing on the shore of a beach. The happy faces blurred in front of her. She was losing them again. She reaches out as if that could stop them from disappearing and hits her hand on something solid. The motion startles her awake. She had hit the rock wall with her hand. She turns over, looking to see that Joel had fallen asleep with her guitar in his lap. The moonlight painted a glow over his form.

She sat up, touching her neck and swallowing against her hand. She knew it was bruised and it was painful to swallow. She yawns and then stops herself suddenly when she hears what sounds like tires moving very slowly on gravel. She stays on her knees and crawls slowly to entrance of the cave.

She peeks around the jagged corner that opened out to the woods and sees a rusted truck not far from the cave. It was parked with the engine on. The headlights blink on, blinding her and she startles back into the cave, falling to the ground on her elbows.

"Joel!" She scrambles over to him and he jerks awake. "There's a truck outside the cave. I don't think they saw me."

He sits up quick, his tiredness forgotten and crouches, while motioning for her to get her bag. She shoves her partially repaired guitar inside and swings it over her shoulder. He has his shotgun out and he's knelt down by the entrance. She stands still, quieting her breathing.

Joel looks alarmed. "Move to the back and crouch down in the corner over there." He says and points.

"Why?" Ellie breathes.

"Ellie!" He snaps and she complies, pulling her handgun out of her bag.

She presses her back to the cave and crouches down in the semi-darkness. The cave wasn't very big and it's not as if someone couldn't see her if they were to walk inside it, especially with a flashlight at their disposal.

There were footsteps nearing the cave and her grip on the handgun tightens as she moves it up in front of her. A beam of a light hit the entrance of their cave and she released a slow silent breath.

Her heart almost leapt out of her chest when Joel fired his shotgun.

"Fuck…" She exclaimed and then there were gunshots. Joel moved back and crouched down behind a small protruding rock. It wouldn't provide much cover.

"Screw this…" She moves across from him to the other side of the cave but he didn't have time to be angry with her. A man approached with a shotgun and Ellie fired three times, hitting him twice in the chest and once in the neck. There were more and they were yelling. Ellie chanced a glance at Joel as he moved quickly to her side of the cave. The truck was revving up. Were they leaving?

Her answer came when they rammed the front of the truck into the entrance of the cave. It was too small for them to drive into but it sent rocks tumbling down and part of the wall caved in at the back. The truck had them trapped inside. The headlights were blinding. She knew it had only been a matter of time before they knew someone was after them. Ellie would suspect it was after Lila's death that they started putting the pieces together.

Gunshots rang out in the small space and Joel fired the shotgun while crouching in front of her. She could feel the kickback from his shoulder against her chest. One of the men had climbed inside as Joel was reloading and Ellie stood, emptying what was left of her clip into him.

"How many of these fuckers are there?" Ellie asks and Joel grunts moving his shotgun up, ready to fire.

The answer was three. There were three more and Joel got one, while Ellie was able to use her knife on the other one, when he got stuck between the tire and the rock wall. The third guy ran into the woods.

There was no time to even catch their breath. They squeezed passed the truck that was lodged in the entrance of the cave and ran.


Ellie crouched down tying her muddied shoelaces as Joel surveyed their surroundings. The forest was thick here, no room for buildings. There were plenty of rocks to hide behind.

There was a scream out in the forest and then the sound of tearing flesh. Ellie stood up quick. Her and Joel exchanged glances. He looked spooked. Ellie wasn't though, she knew.

"It's the dog. It followed us." She says and she smiles, it must look odd to Joel because he tilts his head at her.

"I'm not sure that's cause for celebratin'" He says with the shake of his head.

"I'm telling you, it's not here to hurt us."

"Why is that exactly?" He asks, keeping his shotgun up.

"I don't know. Maybe it knows we're not…" She stops, looking down at her shoes.

….not the bad guys.

Joel is waiting for her to finish her sentence but she doesn't.

"Hungry animals need to eat, Ellie. They ain't got a reason beyond that."

"You're wrong." She states and he huffs.

A small smile remains on her face and she looks out to the darkened trees beyond. She knows Joel is looking at her but he doesn't say anything. They stand back to back and she should be terrified, out in the mud, with nothing but monsters for company.

She's okay. She's okay with dying here if need be but for the first time in a long while she thinks they'll be alright. Maybe she really was losing it but that's okay too.

Joel's voice is soft when he says, "I saw it too."

"What? The dog?"

"When we had a fire goin'. It was just standin' next to the trees. It didn't do nothin', but it didn't stick around."

"I told you!" Ellie whispers and hits him once on the shoulder.

The trees all sway in unison, each carrying the other, each part of a whole. For a moment, she thinks she sees eyes flash in the deep dark but they don't appear again.