A/N: Yayyy. Also, sorry to raffinit. I'm a fan, I love your Joel/Tess stories, especially won't you stay shotgun till I die. You're hilarious, I'm flattered that you're reading my crap.
Enjoy!
April 15, 2032
Boston, Massachusetts
Nineteen years after the CBI outbreak
Joel: Tess . . Tess, wait!
Tess brushes off his gentle hand from her shoulder, walking out of the building, her eyes frantic.
She runs across narrow alleyways, Joel following shortly behind, calling her name repeatedly, telling her it was a bad idea. She stops in front of a brick building, and climbs up the fire escape until she's standing on the rooftop. She rushes to the edge, and kneels on one knee, looking down. She pulls out her pistol from the back of her jeans.
Joel kneels down beside her, following her line of sight. He sees on the road down below, five soldiers and a Humvee, surrounding a group of two men and one woman. The man in center looks familiar, with dark skin and short hair. He's forced down to his knees, ordered to keep his hands behind his head. He does as told.
Tess: Goddamit . . Terry . .
Joel (looking at her nervous features, attempting to be considerate): We don't know yet if he's infected . .
The scanner on Terry's neck beeps, and even from the height, Tess can see that red words blink on the screen.
Immediately, the soldier puts a gun to the back of his head and shoots.
Tess doesn't flinch, but shuts her eyes when she sees his dead body falling to the ground, a hole bleeding from the back of his head. Joel observes her shoulders falling, his eyebrows drooping at the ends as he gives her a moment.
Joel: We should head back, Tess.
Tess (glancing at his shoes from the corner of her eyes): . . Yeah.
Joel (placing a hand on her shoulder, beckoning her as he stands up): Come on now.
April 16, 2032
Boston, Massachusetts
Nineteen years after the CBI outbreak
Tess is seen walking through an underground tunnel. She climbs out of it, enters the familiar diner. The front corner of the walls are collapsed, giving way to the outside. She walks out into the night, making her way through the abandoned, dilapidated houses like she was used to it. She arrives at a metal shutter, and with loud grunts and all of her energy, lifts it up, keeps it in place by fixing a table under it. She walks out to the other side, jumps down the platform and arrives at the wharf. She takes a deep breath of the fresh air, her movements now relaxed. She has no pistol or backpack.
From the back pocket of her jeans, she pulls out a familiar picture, the one of her and her sister. She gazes at the smiling face for a moment, her eyes giving away her grief. She shakes it in the air lightly, taking short, nervous steps to the dock. She steps over the chain link fence and walks all the way to the edge, sits down on it with her toes hanging down towards the ocean.
The vast expanse of salt water surrounds her eyes, disappearing and mingling with the dark starry sky at the horizon. She takes a deep breath of the salty ocean air, closing her eyes, feeling the breeze in her hair.
She looks down at the picture again, and shuts her eyes, shaking it reluctantly. Then, leaning forward, she lets it go, watching as it falls into the waves. She sees the smiling faces for the last time, holding their gazes as a wave engulfs it and pulls it into the depths of the ocean.