A/N= so this is the second to last chapter. I want to thank anyone who had the patience to read this far into the story- PLEASE review! Bye guys!
Disclaimer= No, I don't claim to own any of the Last of Us or Left Behind.
She Was All I Had:
Chapter ten:
"You still lug that Walkman around?" asked Riley, although she knew the answer.
"Of course!" I replied, using the best 'of course you idiot' voice I could muster.
"Give it here." She commanded. I shrugged before obliging, my hand brushing past my journal as I rummaged through my back pack. After a short while, I made a noise of success and gave Riley the Walkman.
"What's in it?" she asked, curious.
I hung my head and hoped I wasn't blushing, "That tape you gave me."
Riley grinned inanely, "You really will be miserable without me!"
I don't think she knew just how right she was.
I was her walk over to one of the radios, and plug something into the headphone jack of my Walkman. She pressed play, and "I got you babe" blared out of the speaker. I always thought of me and Riley when this song played; it seemed as though the song was made for us, on our relationship. I had her and she had me. It was the way it had always been, and (or so I thought) always would be.
"Come on up!" called Riley, and I realised that she had jumped up on the makeshift stage and was dancing around. I hopped onto the stage, and began moving around ridiculously, not knowing how to dance and envying Riley because she did. Ah, Riley. Riley, Riley, Riley. This was us, what we did. Messing around, listening to music, being… Normal. Being… carefree. Simply being… happy. And that's exactly when I realised; I wasn't just losing my best friend, or even the only person I loved in this piece of shit world. I was losing the last person I loved, and who loved me. And that was something I couldn't bear. I'd lost my mother, my father, my previous friends, one of the few nice soldiers, and most of my sanity in this world, and the one thing that grounded me- that kept my depressions and bad dreams and thoughts at bay, the last one that I love was being ripped away from me by the newest version of the fucking girl guides. And I was sitting by and letting it happen. My body froze at that thought. I was letting them take her from me!
"Hey," Riley whispered to me, her voice filled with concern, "what's wrong?"
It was selfish, and not something I had the right to ask, but I did it anyway;
"Don't go."
She studied my pleading expression with scrutiny; as though she was contemplating something, before she smiled at me warmly and ripped the pendant she had worked for all her life from her neck and threw it to the ground. I gazed into her eyes for a moment, emotions swimming around in my mind; admiration, wonder, confusion, love, lust, and a need to have her in my life that was so strong it hurt. And this time, without concern for our friendship and without the worry of rejection, I kissed her.
-ElliexxxRileyxxxEllie-
Marlene's Point Of View:
Looking into Ellie's eyes when she talked me through this latest 'chapter' of her time with Riley at the mall was the most fascinating thing in the world. The unadulterated emotion in them, the sheer love for Riley turned her eyes a bright green that are so full of life- unlike when her mind returns to the present time, when her eyes are a dull dark green that look so…depressed and sad. Finding out what she had planned to do was hard, and seeing the anger and hurt in her face when I stopped her was harder. But I had to do it. Failing to intervene would have been failing Anna, and I couldn't do that, wouldn't do that. Because I had loved her. Though I would never admit it to Ellie, I had loved her mother, and regret it so much that I never admitted it while she was alive. That's why it made me angry that Ellie hadn't told Riley, and why it filled me with joy that she had at least shown it.
"It was the most beautiful thing in the world," I heard her say, still deep in her memory; "she tasted of strawberries and cream, though I don't know how. Her lips were soft yet firm and I remember my thoughts as it ended so clearly. I was panicking, not knowing if she hated me or not. I regretted it, yet I really didn't. I said sorry, and she replied in a soft voice that was like a lullaby the way it put my worry to rest;
"For what?"
-RileyxxxElliexxxRiley-
I smiled such a big smile I could have sworn I felt my face split in two. I was so happy I felt like laughing and crying and dancing and singing all at once. I had just had my first kiss, and it was with the girl I had dreamed of kissing for almost a year.
"What do we do now?" I asked the girl I had just kissed, still gazing into her eyes in a really cliché overused way.
"We'll figure it out." She replied, not being very helpful but still putting me at ease.
But of course, at that moment, as though life itself just wanted to piss me off, Infected ran into the music store and screeched at us.
"Riley!" I breathed in panic, though when I looked at the older girl I saw she already had a plan. She looked calm, although the panic in her eye's showed it was a façade that was probably for my benefit. I knew I was no longer looking at carefree Riley, but Firefly girl, her training already taking effect. She pulled a 9mm from her side at shot the runner closest to us clean through the head before turning to me, "Run Ellie!"
We turned and sprinted to the nearest exit, sprinting through the door and slamming it behind us, "Barricade it!" she cried, and I wasted no time in following her order. I helped her push a heavy object (I hadn't stopped to look at what it was) in front of the door.
"Come on, this way!" Riley cried, grabbing me by the arm and pointing me in the right direction.
"What about our back packs!" I said, pissed off about leaving my journal, Walkman and water guns behind.
"Fuck the back packs!" she yelled back in exasperation.
We ran towards a door, but the Infected behind it kind of put that way out off limits. Riley slammed the door and pushed her body weight against it whilst twisting the lock. Once it was locked we ran over to the shutters and tried to lift them. I wasn't strong enough to lift them so that Riley could get through however, so I crawled through to find an object to hold them up. I used this thing that looked like a heavy duty trolley, and shoved it under the shutters. Riley ducked under and shot the lock off of the double doors that were the only other way out of that room. We ran through a corridor and another room where we encountered more Infected. One tackled me to the floor, but I kicked it off of me and buried my switchblade into its skull. I got up and turned around, only to see another infected run at Riley and push her against the wall, snarling and gnashing its teeth. My blood boiled and rage ran through my body as I ran at it and jumped on its back, burying my switchblade into it again and again whilst cursing until it collapsed to the floor and I landed on my feet, blood on my face clothes and hands.
"Wow," I heard Riley murmur, to which I replied with a nod.
"Come on," Riley ordered, "up the stairs. You know the scaffolding? That's our way out."
We sprinted up the stairs, Riley always two steps ahead of me. We reached a corridor, but it was blocked by infected, so we took a right.
Somehow, after a lot of running and gunshots, we reached a jump, we both made it. Riley clambered up the scaffold and made it. I jumped up it too, but it gave way, and before I knew it I was falling through the air, my back smashing on wood and metal as I fell back to the cold hard floor of the mall, winded. Life decided not to give me time to recover however, as an infected ran at me, desperately trying to bite me. I struggled against him, but he was a grown man twice my height and weight, and I was a female teenager with a switchblade I couldn't get to- take a guess at who was winning.
Before I could die however, Riley was there, and she put a bullet in his head, silencing his strangled screams. She held her hand out to me, and I went to take it before yet another infected ran and pushed her to the ground. I grabbed it, and shoved the switchblade into its neck, using my adrenalin to fuel my strength as I slit its neck open from ear to ear in a sickening red grin. I tossed it's carcass to one side and stood there, panting.
"I think it clear, I think we did it," I panted in relief.
"Ellie." She said with a lot more sadness in her voice then I would have liked to hear, "Ellie your arm."
I looked down at my right arm, a horrible sense of dread replacing the adrenalin that had been pumping through me. There was a bite mark on my arm. But I almost didn't see it, because all I saw was a disgusting death sentence. I looked at my arm, and every hope I'd had for my life, my life with Riley disappeared.
"No." I whispered in horror, "No, no, no!"
Riley merely smiled sadly and held up her own hand to show that she had been bitten too. Fury rushed through me as I realised that any dreams I had of our relationship growing was scattered. We would both be dead within forty eight hours.
-ElliexxxRileyxxxEllie-
"Or so I thought." I muttered bitterly, "Being completely honest with you Marlene, I wish I had just died with Riley, instead of being cursed with life without her. It's depressing and sounds stupid and attention seeking, but it's true."
Marlene merely shook her head, looking at me with pity. I didn't like it.
"I don't want your pity Marlene, I want my girlfriend back!" I said, sounding weaker then I was aiming for.
"You need to understand Ellie; nothing you can do is going to bring her back. If you could raise the dead, your Mother would still be here."
"But I can still see her again! I don't to raise the dead, I can just join them!"
"Do you realize how selfish you are being? You are the cure Ellie! If you kill yourself, you damn us all. You want that on your conscience?"
"I already have Riley's blood on my hands; it wouldn't make much of a difference." I sighed, wiping my eyes in a vain attempt to stop the tears.
"Ellie," she stopped whatever she was about to say and replaced it with, "just finish what happened."
So I did.
-RileyxxxElliexxxRiley-
"Fuck!" I cried out in pain and the wall hit my fist harder than my fist hit the wall.
"I told you to cut it out! Are you ok?" Riley asked.
"No I'm fucking not ok! I'm infected and now I think I have broken my hand!"
"Let me look at it!" she sighed. She took my hand gently in her own, and I had the strong urge to kiss her, but decided not to as my hand hurt. It hurt a lot. She sighed, "You have broken it. I knew you had a temper but Jesus. Look, I'm going to go and get our stuff-I need the medical stuff in my pack to treat your arm. I won't be long." She kissed my hand tentatively, before kissing my lips and leaving the main hall.
Riley's Point Of View:
I left the main section of the hall and walked across to the corridors which lead to the music store. I could think of nothing more than the kiss we had shared in the music store. I had ruled out the fact that it was a platonic or friendly gesture, which leads me to the conclusion that she feels the same way about me that I feel about her. However, I wasn't going to be the first one to say the 'l word'. The things I said before I left were simply because I couldn't deal with how I really felt about her. I started dreaming about her for god sake and that just made me feel like a creep. I gave her the mix tape of love songs in the hope that she would get the message, but she didn't. Well, she might of, but she didn't show it. So I decided to run away and join the Fireflies, in the hope that it would get Ellie out of my head; which it didn't. In any case, I came back and hoped I could make her tell me to say. What I had told her was true;
"This is something you have wanted since forever, so who am I to stop you?" she had said.
"The only one who can."
When she had had asked me to stay, I was happy. When she had kissed me, I was even fucking happier.
I finally reached the music store, and saw there were no infected in the area. First, I took my bag and swung it over my back, before grabbing Ellie's Walkman and opening her pack to put it inside. But then I saw a book. Always being the nosy one, I opened it to see Ellie's neat handwriting. On the top right of every page was a date followed by Dear Riley below it to the left. They started on the day I left for the Fireflies. I knew I was being nosey and rude, but I decided to read it anyway.
Dear Riley,
I'll never understand you. One day you'll be giving me mix tapes full of love songs, and the next you insult me and tell me to fuck off. And you know what the worst part is, I came to your dorm to tell you I loved you, and instead of it being a mutual feeling you insulted me. Thanks a lot. I fucking love you too!
Ellie
Dear Riley,
Where are you? I don't know why I asked, I will never let you read this, but you are not in your dorm and you aren't anywhere else either. You were a dick, but I still love you, and I need to know you are safe!
Ellie
Now I felt like a dick. I was crying, but without shame. She was trying to tell me something, but I didn't know it was a confession of love! Oh Jesus Christ Ellie I'm so sorry, I thought. I stood up and walked back to the main area.
Ellie's Point Of View:
I looked towards Riley as she walked back in. Her eyes were red from crying, but I didn't question it. She was looking at me funny though. She looked… guilty? But I couldn't ask because she had put my bag in front of me and taken her med kit out of her own. She took my hand and asked me, "You ready?"
"Yup."