Disclaimer : I do not own any character of (The Last of Us) TLOU is owned by Naughty Dog, but all the Oc character are from my invention.

A/N: Hi hope you still liking this story as it getting more close to the end. Yeah still have a lot of chapter before that happen so I hope that you continue reading it. as I have some chapter ready now I will start to continue posting this story weekly, for as much I have the chapter ready to go. So for now I will post one a week, so I hope that you like the story so far and don't forget to put a comment or review if you do or not. we writers like to here from the people that read our story, that is what keep us going. Thanks for be part of this, so see you next week.

Chapter 36 : Out of the pan, into the fire

*Two weeks later*

(Ellie)

Ellie is walking down a corridor. It's dark, and the only thing she can see is the little light at the end of the corridor. Ellie barely sees the floor or the walls... it just looks like she is floating, just guiding her toward the light. It seems like a dream she's had before, but this time, it looks more real. So she starts to ask herself if all this is just another dream, or if she is dead. What is this place?... why am I here?...the last thing I remember is… is!... Ellie tries to remember, but can't. She continues walking while her mind is getting lost in this place. After a few moments, she sees a shadow in the light. She doesn't know what it is, but it looks like a man, standing there. Joel!... is that you?... Joel!... Ellie starts to call him. But the shadow there... just stays there. Ellie starts to walk faster to get to him, but the more she runs, the more distant the shadow seems to be.

Ellie stops as soon as she is out of air. It's like she's been running forever. And any time she thinks that she's getting close, the shadow still looks so far away. After she recovers, the shadow starts to move away. And when Ellie takes a good look, it looks more like a person now. As Ellie gets close, the shadow moves his hand, trying to indicate for her to come closer. Joel!... is that you?... this isn't funny… I don't know what this is, but we need to go. Ellie starts to talk to the shadow, but it starts to move away from what looks like a door frame. The shadow disappears inside what looks like a room. Ellie starts to run again, but this time the door frame is getting closer. Ellie continues running until she arrives at the entrance. As soon as she gets to the entrance, the shadow figure isn't there, and the light becomes less intense, until she can see inside the room. The room is a big room, and looks familiar, but there's no one in there. Joel!... are you in here?... c`mon, just get out… I don't like this place, Ellie starts to say, trying to see if Joel is inside the room. Ellie starts to walk into the room… the more she moves inside the room, the more she starts to remember. Wait… I remember this place… we were here before.

Ellie starts to look around while walking inside the room, and starts to remember more. Joel!... where are you?... I know you're in here… I remember that we both were here before. Ellie continues walking in the room, looking for Joel, until she sees the hole in the middle. No!.. no, no… I remember that. Joel was fighting that mad man there, the one that was chasing us. But they landed on a plank that we put there, and then... it broke. Ellie moves closer to the hole and kneels in front of it. No, this can't be… Joel!... you can't be dead... I heard a splash when you fell down in there... So you could still alive, I know he is... Joeeel!.. Just hang in there, I'm coming for you. Ellie looks around and tries to see if there is another way to go down, because jumping is going to be hard. Joel might have landed in water, but she doesn't know if she will be that lucky. But she doesn't see any… even the door where she came in isn't there anymore. What the hell is this?

I need to get to him, maybe he got hurt from the fall, and… what was that- she is interrupted by a loud scream coming from the hole. No, no, I know that scream... there are clickers down there. Shit, there's no other way down, but I need to get to Joel before those things get to him. Hang on, Joel I'm coming to help you. Ellie stands up when she hears another scream. It seems like there's more than one clicker down there. Okay, Ellie, there's no other way down, so if you want to save Joel, you need to jump. This is going to hurt, but I need to get to Joel fast… I`m coming, Joel! And as soon as she is about to jump down, the hole disappears. WHAT!... no, no, no… Nooooooo! … Joeeel! She kneels down and starts to hit the floor with her hands. Tears start falling from Ellie's eyes as she continues hitting the floor and calling Joel's name. Then she starts to hear something inside her head. (I love you, kiddo… Always remember that.) She remembers those words... Joel told her that before he fell. I'm going to save you, Joel… I promise… so please don't leave me… I can't do this again… I can't live without you. Then she hears someone screaming, and this time it's a human voice… Joel's voice. After that, everything goes silent. Joel!... no, no, no… JOELLLL!

Ellie opens her eyes violently, gasping for air, and her heart is beating faster. She tries to erase the images that pop into her head. She can see and hear the sound of the clickers tearing up the flesh of human beings. No,no,no... That was just a bad dream… that is not what happened to Joel … he's still alive, I know he is. She says to herself to calm down. After that, she starts to breathe slower, but even with that, she's still feeling bad. After a few minutes, she realizes that she is laying in a bed, and not in that horrible place. But where is she? She starts to look around, trying to see where she is. Ellie doesn't recognize the room, and it's too clean to be an abandoned building. Her body still hurts in some places, but mostly the pain is in her head.

The room is almost dark, except for a little light that illuminates the room. Ellie can see a door, but not any windows. She sees that the illumination there comes from a small light bulb on the wall close to the door. Some others come from some electronic instruments that are close to the bed. Ellie starts to look at them, but doesn't know what they are. After a moment, she notices that one of her arms is connected to one of those machines. What the hell is this place… some kind of hospital?... wait, it looks like one of the rooms in the clinic at Jackson. So this could be a hospital or something like that… but where?... and how did I get here? Ellie tries to remember, but the more she tries, the more her head hurts. I don't remember getting here by myself... so that means Joel must be the one that brought me here. Ellie tries to see any sign of Joel in there, because if Joel brought her here, that means that he's still alive. A little smile forms on her face, because all that she was remembering could be just from a bad dream. But after she looks around, not seeing anything in there that indicates that Joel was there, she tries to see if their backpacks are there, but she can't see any.

Ellie is going to call Joel's name to see if he's close, but stops. What if Joel didn't bring me here voluntarily? What if someone captured us after the fight with those men? Are we safe in here? She starts to think of all the possibilities, but the most important one is to know where Joel is. If he is here, I'm going to find him, she tells herself as she starts to sit up in bed. After Ellie sits on the bed with her legs hanging on the side, her head starts to hurt again, but it's more tolerable this time.

Ellie tries to move out of the bed, but the thing that connects her arm to the machine doesn't let her. She looks at her arm and sees that the bandage that covered the bite is gone, and the new scar on her arm is visible now. What the fuck?... whoever is doing this must know by now that I'm infected. I don't know if these people are friendly or not, but it's better if I don't stay here to find out. So, she needs to find Joel, and get out of there. As soon as she sits on the bed, she grabs the tube and takes it out of her arm. As soon as she feels the pain, she holds in the scream, as that hurts like shit. After that, the machine starts to make some sound.

"Shit… that can't be good," Ellie says with a lower voice.

"Okay, I need to get out before someone comes." Ellie starts to walk toward the door slowly, but as soon as she looks at herself, she sees that she's in some kind of hospital robe. Just like the one she was wearing in the car, after waking up from Salt Lake City. As Ellie starts to walk again, she feels a little dizziness, but she is not going to let that stop her. The only thing in her mind is finding Joel and getting out. When she gets close to the door, she hears some voices coming from outside. She knows that someone is coming to the room, but before she can do anything, the door opens. Two people are standing in the door frame: a middle-aged woman and a young man. Ellie just stays there, frozen, looking at them and not knowing what to do.

"Oh... my god!... how… you're awake!" the woman starts to say as soon as she sees Ellie out of the bed and in the middle of the room. Ellie was going to say something, but her head starts to hurt again, and she starts to lose her balance. The woman moves quickly and grabs her before Ellie falls to the floor. "What are you doing out of bed? You're not well. C'mon, I will take you back," the woman says with some concern. Then she starts to help Ellie back to the bed.

"I don't know who you are, or where this place is, but I need to find someone," says Ellie with a weak voice.

The woman turns her head and looks at the young man standing at the door. "Mark!... Go to the laboratory and find Owen. Tell him that the girl is awake, okay?" The young man nods at her and runs away. The woman turns and looks at Ellie, still holding her. "And you!... you need to go back to bed. You're still weak, so you can't be walking in the room, or taking the serum off - that was dangerous," says the woman.

"I'm fine, really," says Ellie in a lower voice. "I just need to know where I am and if Jo-" Ellie stops as soon as she realizes that maybe it's not a good idea to say their real names. It's better to play innocent for now, until she can find out if these people are trustworthy. "I need to know if my friend is here, too?"

The woman continues guiding Ellie back to the bed, but Ellie tries to move away from her to get out of the room. "Please!... You need to get back to the bed - you have a concussion, so I need to check you." The woman tries harder to sit Ellie down on the bed.

"You don't understand… there was another person with me. And I need to know, where is he?"

"I don't know who you're referring to, unless it's one of the two people that brought you here," the woman says, trying to be casual.

"Two?... I wasn't with two people! The man I was with is old-" Ellie stops again; she's not supposed to give any information about them to these people until she knows if they have good intentions, and right now, this woman hasn't shown any. "He is tall, has a bear-"

"I'm sorry, I don't know if I can help you with that. But the two men that brought you here don't match that description," says the woman, walking away from Ellie to get some instruments from a table.

"I already told you that I wasn't with two men, it was only-" Ellie stops as she starts to remember hearing voices before she got hit in the head. She doesn't know exactly what happened, but if the two men that hit her brought her here, that is not going to end well for her. But before she's going to try to escape, she needs to know if the two men brought Joel here, too. "Okay, maybe the two people brought him here, too… can you at least tell me if they did?" asks Ellie, trying not to sound suspicious.

"I don't have that information, I'm only here to check on you and make sure that you're fine," the woman says with a cold tone.

"But you can check… right?... I mean, go and ask your boss or something… maybe you can ask the two men... where am I, anyway?... what is this place and why are you trying to help me?" Ellie starts to ask, trying to get any information out of the woman.

"Sorry, but I can't ask them. I haven't seen them since they brought you here two weeks ago. But I'm sure that they only brought you, here. And about where you are, don't worry, you're safe in here and-"

"Two weeks!... no, no, no… that can't be… what the hell happened… and if the person that was with me isn't here, I need to go out and find him. He might be hurt… or..." Ellie starts to move out of the bed again, but the woman puts a hand on her shoulder and pushes her down, although she tries to be gentle.

"Sorry, young lady, but you're not going anywhere. You had a concussion when they brought you here. And that's something you can't take lightly. So now that you're awake, I need to check on you and see if everything is fine." The woman takes out something that looks like a pen, then flashes Ellie in her eyes with a light. "Now tell me, where does it hurt?" the woman asks while she continues checking on Ellie.

Ellie pushes the woman's hand away from her. She doesn't want to be so rude, but this woman is avoiding her question, and it seems that they don't have any intention of letting her go, so she needs to get out before she calls someone else. "I'm fine… so thank you for you all of your help, but I need to go," says Ellie, standing up and moving away from the woman.

Ellie starts to walk toward the door when the woman grabs her by the arm and stops her. "You can't go… you… you're not well, and I'm pretty sure that your friend is fine, Ellie-" the woman stops as soon as she realizes what she just said.

Ellie turns around and looks at the woman with a surprised expression. "What did you say!?" Ellie asks quickly.

"Oh… shit!" the woman says in a lower voice. Owen gave her a specific instruction to not talk to the girl if she woke up. Just call him if she does, and only check her and be sure that nothing bad happened to her. Now she doesn't know what to do; she only hopes that Owen shows up soon, before the girl starts to ask more questions. "Sorry, but that is your name… right?"

Ellie looks at her more curiously now. "I don't remember telling you my name. So how do you know that?"

"I… I… I think you said that name when you were unconscious. I've been taking care of you since-" she stops when Ellie shakes her arm away from her grip and looks at her. The woman knows that Ellie is not going to believe her, but she needs to buy more time.

Ellie moves close to the woman. "I want to know what is going on here?... and what you did with my friend?" Ellie knows now that if this woman knows her name - and they know she is infected! - these people have to be working with the men that attacked Joel and her. And if those men brought her here, it's probable that they did something to Joel.

"I'm sorry!... I don't know... what you're talking... I mean-" the woman starts talking, but Ellie pushes her until she hits the bed with her back. The woman is now more scared; even though she is in her forties and taller than Ellie, she's no match for Ellie. She is a doctor, not a fighter, so Ellie's not going to have any problem taking her down if necessary. "Girl, listen to me, you need to calm down. They hit you in the head… it's making you see things… I mean, we just want to help you, and no one is going to hurt you here-"

"I don't care what you want, and that hit on my head is probably the handiwork of those two assholes that tried to kill us… So now you're going to tell me where he is!" Ellie looks around and sees a pair of scissors on the table close to the bed - the same ones that the doctor left when she was checking on her. She moves away from the woman, goes to the table, and takes them. She turns to look at the woman, who now has a scared expression on her face.

"Look, can we talk about this… a little?... I really don't know anything about your friend… they only brought you here… I swear!" the woman says as soon as she sees Ellie moving close to her with the scissors in her hand.

"LIES!... I know you do. You are working with them, and you're going to tell me-" Ellie stops when another wave of pain hits her head, and she starts to feel dizzy again.

"See!... you're not well… just let me help you. If you'd only let-"

Ellie recovers and looks at the woman again. "The only help I need from you is telling me where you have my friend. So start talking, because if you think for a second that I'm not going to hurt you … you're wrong," says Ellie, now closer to her.

"I already told you I don't know wha-" Ellie grabs her by her front tunic and puts the scissors close to her face.

"This is your last chance… I don't want to hurt you… so it's better for you to start telling me the truth!... or I can find someone else to do it," Ellie says with a threatening voice.

"Please don't do this!... we only want your help… and your gift can help us save humanity… we can work together and finally find a cure," the woman starts talking in a panicked voice. She can't believe that this young girl is capable of hurting her… but right now, the only thing she sees in Ellie's eyes is anger.

Ellie looks at her with a surprised expression. "What!... for someone that doesn't know anything… you seem to know a lot?... so how do you know about that?" Ellie starts to get confused about how this woman knows so much about her.

"Look, I know that you want some answers, but if you just let me explain everything. Maybe we-"

"Look, I don't know what you think you know, but if you don't tell me right-" Ellie stops when she hears someone talking on the other side of the door. She moves quickly and pulls the woman in front of her, the scissors on her neck. After that, the door opens.

Two men with guns and a man in a white robe enter the room. "Don't move!" says one of the armed men, pointing his gun at Ellie.

"Please... please... gentlemen. There's no need for this… I think we can resolve this in a peaceful way," says the man in the medical robe to the guards that came with him. Then he moves forward a little and looks at Ellie. "Oh, I can see that you feel better… young lady. I was a little afraid that those two morons did some permanent damage to you… so this is good news."

"Look, I don't care about you or your organization, or what you think you know about me. I just want one thing from you... And you are going to tell me before this becomes a little messy," says Ellie with a mean voice.

"Wow, wow… I wasn't expecting so much violence from a young girl like you. So why don't you calm down, so we can resolve this in a better way," says the man, moving a little more toward her with his hand in front of him in a gesture of surrender.

"I said, don't move!" Ellie says to the man as she presses the scissors more against the woman's neck. Of course, she is not going to kill someone in cold blood, but they need to believe that she will.

"It's okay, Ellie… you don't want to hurt anybody, right?... I'm a doctor here, and we only want to help you... To help everybody," says the man in a calm voice.

"Who the fuck are you, and how do you know my name?"

"We know a lot of things about you... and I know that you're not a killer." Owen moves a little closer. "It's okay, Martha, she's not going to hurt you - in fact, she is going to help us." He looks at the woman doctor now, trying to calm her down, too.

"You want to bet on that?... I already told you that I don't need your help. The only thing I want from you is to know where my friend is," Ellie asks with a desperate voice.

"Your friend?... you mean the old man that was with you?... the one that kidnapped you and killed all those men in Salt Lake City?..." He looks at Ellie's expression and smiles a little. "Oh, yes, we know who you are, Ellie. Marlene talked about you a lot."

As Ellie hears all that, she realizes now who these people are. They are not the people that were hunting Joel - these people are Fireflies!... probably the same ones that Joel told her about. The ones that were looking for her. "You're wasting your time if you're still looking for a cure. I can't help you with that."

"I think that you can help us more than you think," says Owen, looking her in the eye.

"I don't understand why you continue with this after 5 years. A doctor checked me and said that my immunity is not going to work to make a cure. I'm not the answer you're looking for, so why don't you let me be in peace? No matter what you do, you're not going to change the world."

"Oh, yeah… that's what that old killer has been telling you, ummm. They don't know nothing - we are so close now, and with you here, we can get the answer we're looking for. You can run forever, and you can't escape your destiny. Marlene knows that, even after that killer shot her in cold blood."

"Shut up!... Joel is not a killer, not the way you think… he, he… saved me, because… he lov- because he cares about me. Marlene, and people like you, only care about one thing. Using people like us to experiment on them, like we're nothing. Oh yeah, I know a few things about you, too. And what you've all been doing with all the inmune people you find. There's no destiny here… or cure. So why don't you just give up and let us live in peace!" Ellie yells the last part at him.

The two guards see the opportunity when Ellie moves the scissors away a little and gets distracted. "Okay, enough of this - we were sent here to get this contained immediately." Then one of the guards takes aim and shoots at Ellie.

"Nooo!" Owen screams when he sees Ellie get hit on her shoulder and start to fall down. He moves toward her and grabs the woman when she moves away from Ellie, as soon as Ellie drops the scissors and starts to fall down. "What the hell have you done?... I need her alive, you assholes!"

The two guards move close to Ellie and kneel beside her to check if she is alright. "You don't need to worry about that... doc. We only used a tranquilizer. She is going to be fine, in a couple of hours." Then one of the guards picks her up and puts her back on the bed.

Owen moves close to Martha, who is scared as hell, and grabs her by the shoulder. "Hey, hey… it's okay, you need to calm down."

"I can't believe that she was going to kill me," says the doctor, trembling.

"She was never going to hurt you - she was just bluffing, okay?... Now we need to check on her and make sure that everything is fine. Because she's the only one that can help us."

"Yeah, sorry… I was just thinking that she was really going to kill me."

"It's okay… c'mon, we have a lot to do now. With her here, everything is going to change. This is the opportunity we were waiting for." They move close to the bed and Owen orders the two guards to leave, since he and Martha need to examine the girl and don't need them anymore.

"Okay, Doc, but we have orders to keep an eye on her, so one of us is going to stay at the door."

"Fine, but I don't need a babysitter in here. We can handle this now," says Owen to the guard and moves to continue with his work. The two guards go outside and close the door, but one of them stays beside the door, just in case.

(A few days later)

The drugs they used on Ellie turned out to be stronger than they thought, and kept Ellie out for a few days. Owen and Martha examine her, and make sure that she is fine. After that, they take more blood samples and start to work on them. After she wakes up, Walter comes back from his patrol and tells Owen to move Ellie to a more secure building where no one can get to her.

Ellie starts opening her eyes again after she was knocked out. She tries to stand up, but everything hurts on her body as she tries to remember what happened, until it hits her. As she is looking around, she notices that she is not in the same room as before.

The place is a little dark... only a small window on one of the walls illuminates the place. As she tries to see where she is, Ellie tries to move her hand to clear her eyes, but notices that her hands are tied up to the bed she was in. What the fuck… is this? Ellie says to herself, moving her hands and trying to get loose. "Hey, is somebody here?... why am I tied up here… what the hell is going on… is anyone there that can hear me?" Ellie starts to yell, and tries to see if someone out there can hear her. And after a few tries with no one responding, she starts to look at the place and try to figure a way out. The room isn't big; it looks more like some kind of prison cell that she's seen in a few TV shows. Besides the bed where she is right now, the room has a sink and a toilet, also a small table attached to the wall at the end of the bed.

Ellie tries to break free again, but she can't get loose. After a few minutes, she starts to remember what happened before. She remembers a woman talking to her, then two armed men entering the room and shooting her. Oh yeah, I remember now, they said that they were looking for a cure. So this must be a Firefly base. She starts to think, if they are Fireflies, she needs to find the way to get out of this place. Joel already told me what these assholes have been doing with the immune people. But before I find a way out of here, I need to know if they have Joel here, too. The woman said that they only brought me here, but they could be lying. Ellie prefers thinking that to thinking that Joel is dead. On the other hand, if he's still out there, trying to come to rescue me, that is a better option, I think. I only need to stay alive, and wait for him to get here. But can that be true? I saw him fall in that hole, and it was four floors down. No, Ellie, don't think about that - he survived. I heard the water splash at the bottom, so I know he is alive... right?

Ellie is taken out of her thoughts as she hears some voices coming from the other side of the door... Shit!.. They are coming for me already… so I need to think of something… But what can I do… being tied up here is not going to help much. Maybe I can pretend to be sick or something. I just hope that they don't want to cut my head off too soon. Ellie snaps out of it again as she sees the door open. As the room is not very well-lit, Ellie can't see the face of the man that just entered the room and closed the door behind him. Then the man turns on the room light and moves closer to her. Ellie closes her eyes a little, since the light hurts them, but just for a moment. After that, she opens them again and looks at the man. He doesn't look like any of the ones she saw before, and he's not wearing any white coat. So he is not a doctor... he seems more like the two guards that shot at her. Ellie watches as he moves closer to the bed and looks at her with a curious face. That is starting to creep her out, but after a few moments, he finally speaks.

"Hello, Ellie!... I've been looking for you. These last five years… have been too long. But now that you're here, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," says the man with a little smile on his face.

Ellie looks at him with some disgust, but what she sees in his eyes is starting to scare her. "Who the fuck are you?... And what do you want from me?" asks Ellie, trying to break the straps that are keeping her tied to the bed.

"Oh!... I'm sorry... where are my manners… yeah, it's better if I introduce myself first… My name is Walter!... and I'm the leader of this group of ex-Fireflies."