A/N:

Seems like for some reason Monday's update never stuck. Don't know why, I hit submit and it seemed to work. Oh well, that's the internet for you. Here's the update, let's hope it works.

GOTY

Rating: T

Summary: [after the main story] Those production values, man

January, 2036

"And now I'm bored."

Ellie flopped back on the couch, throwing the last dart at the dartboard, the missile slamming into quite possibly the opposite spot of where she had wanted it to go. A person could only play so many games of darts or pool before it got old. The rest of the recreation center seemed to be deserted, and the quiet was oddly frustrating for that place. A sigh escaped the idle girl, the exhalation directed at a rebellious lock of hair that refused to leave her eyes in peace. She looked at the other figure on the couch, the face of her boyfriend obscured by a twenty year old magazine that had previously been his reading material.

The stillness of the center seemed almost overwhelming. Jackson's population was either working or spending family time together, and the two teens had decided to steal away from the hustle and bustle and spend the morning in a vain search for something fun to do. The winter had quickly begun to deepen, and a heavy snowfall had prevented any aimless wandering past the gate. Top it off with Joel's business at the warehouse keeping him occupied and the old man was unable to entertain the youths. So they had drifted into the old bowling-turned-recreation center to try and waste away the hours. That had quickly devolved into Ellie throwing pointy things at the wall, and Marcus flipping through old magazines in search of something interesting to read. Two hours later she was still throwing things at the wall, and her boyfriend was dead to the world, and slightly snoring. A wry thought popped into Ellie's head. Someone somewhere is probably dying. And I'm just sitting here, bored as shit. Oh how the world works.

She turned to her boyfriend, and a sharp smack on his boot brought him back to the land of the living. The magazine slid off him, falling to the floor with a padded thwack. He blinked in the light, his eyes darting about the room as sleep abruptly left him. His eyes settled on her, and with a stretch and yawn the teen sat up, stretching his neck, the soft pops of vertebrae audible.

"So, read anything interesting?"

Ellie's voice was full of dry wit, the question entirely rhetorical. He cleared his throat and stretched again, her sarcasm either lost on him or simply a challenge to be as matter-of-fact as possible.

"Yeah. Apparently right before the outbreak there was some chick who liked to ride wrecking balls naked or something. They were surprised when they found a sextape of her, whatever that is, and even more surprised when they found her coked up and detoxing in jail."

He picked up the magazine, flipping it open and turning it so Ellie could see the picture. Risqué pictures filled the page, small columns of text winding down the sides of the pages. The images were clearly the main attraction. That got an eyebrow raise out of the girl.

"Is…is she licking a fucking sledgehammer?"

Marcus shrugged before tossing the magazine on the nearby table. She could only shake her head as he stood up to stretch. People back then were weird.

The door to the rec-center banged open, and both teens craned their necks to see Tommy walking inside, quickly turning and pressing the door shut against the strong wind. With a thud he pushed the door into place, sealing in the heated air and brushing a few flakes of snow off his shoulders. His face was pale and pinched from the outside temperatures, and as he walked towards them his hands began to rub together, his mind slowly uncoiling from the numbing cold.

"Thought I'd find y'all in here. Joel asked me to check up on you. I'd ask if you were having fun, but that looks like a resounding no."

His voice held a slight shiver, and he sat down next to Ellie, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her cheek against his chest. The jacket was frigid, and she instinctively giggled against the cold, squirming and pulling away. Some part of her mind found it strange how quickly Joel's brother had come to accept her as a niece. This whole family thing still threw her for a loop on occasion.

She wiggled free of his grasp, hopping off the couch and rubbing her cheek viciously to get the warmth back.

"A resounding hell fucking no. It's boring as shit Tommy. Seriously, you've got to have something cool here. It's either that or break out the booze, man."

Ellie removed her hand from her face, pressing her tongue against the inside of her cheek, letting the bump it formed trace about the skin of her cheek in search of any still cold areas. Her gaze fell on the older man, bright-eyed and begging for something new to do. Her surrogate uncle could only shake his head and laugh, standing up and motioning for the couple to follow. They fell into step behind him, and he walked towards the maintenance area, leading them deeper into the building than most bothered to journey, taking a sharp turn down a hallway and coming to stop in front of a small room. He talked as they walked.

"All right, all right. I'll take pity on the both of you. This here's a little secret. I didn't want to use it before, but the dam's been running well enough these past weeks that I don't see the harm in plugging it in for a bit. Don't tell anyone else though. Got it?"

"Got it."

Both teens nodded their assent, Ellie speaking for the two of them. Satisfied, Tommy opened the door, leading them into a small, plain room. To the young woman it was a glorified supply closet, metal racks lining the walls, brooms and mops piled in the corner, and a dusty desk with several rolling chairs pushed against it.

"Chairs? Mops? Fuck Tommy, I can't handle this level of fun."

That only earned a chuckle from the man, who was by now well adjusted to the girl's razor tongue. He walked towards a corner of the room, pulling a sheet off an object, the cover slipping away to reveal an old, battered television. Ellie blinked at the object. Movies were nothing new.

"Hate to burst your bubble but we already watch movies at your house."

He bent down as she spoke, examining an object resting under the TV.

"It ain't the TV that's special. It's this."

He shifted slightly, revealing a rectangular object, a thin coating of dust resting against its seemingly glossy finish. The man patted it tenderly, a cloud of grey wafting up where his hand hit.

"I never was much into these things, life was always busy, but I'm betting a little escapism will do you some good."

He bent back towards the box, rummaging around and plugging in cables as the teens stood back and watched. With a grunt of satisfaction he pushed away, powering on the TV and the black object. Both whirred to life, and Tommy stepped back, handing Ellie a strange object.

"That's the controller. You use it to control whatever game is in that thing."

The TV flickered, the screen going black before jumping to life, a loading screen etching itself across the glass.

He glanced down at his watch, his brow furrowing as the long list of things to do scrolled through his mind. He was needed elsewhere.

"Alright, you two can take it from here. You're both smart, just figure it out. And remember, don't tell anyone. I only found one of these things, last thing I need is a bunch of nostalgic townsfolk clamoring to play."

With that he turned on his heel and walked out, shutting the door with a soft clang. Boy and girl were left in flickering darkness, and Marcus was the first to pull out a chair and sit down, his attention focused on the TV. Ellie followed suit, and they silently watched the loading bar fill up and up. It reached a hundred, and they held their breath as the screen went dark again, the machine clicking and whirring as it did god-knows-what.

It lit back up, a title and opening credits being displayed against a forlorn background of a tattered city.

The first of them, a Good Kitty production

Marcus let out a whistle as the credits rolled, studying the shifting background intently. Ellie remained quiet, her eyes taking in everything on the screen. She was mesmerized already, and the "game" hadn't even started. A flashing x appeared at the bottom, with the prompt "push to start new game." She stared at it, wondering what it meant, before glancing down at the controller in her hands, seeing a button neatly labeled "x." With a quick tap of the button the scenery changed, and both teens leaned towards the screen as a new world unfurled itself before them.

12 hours later

"…No."

The character whispered on-screen, before turning away and running into the rubble of a ruined city. A steady rhythm of drums beat faster and faster as the character ran, its outline blurring as it put distance between itself and the camera. With a final slam of percussion the figure disappeared, and the screen was drenched in black as the credits began to lazily float upwards.

Ellie blinked, for the first time in what felt like hours, and turned to her boyfriend, seeing him loosely holding the controller, his mouth agape at the conclusion. With a deliberate motion he set the controller down, leaning back into his chair and resting his hands on top of his head. His boot began a quick tap against the floor, his mind obviously churning as it processed the end. He turned to her, his mouth still not fully closed.

"That was…" His voice was a whisper.

"Fucking intense." She finished for him.

He could only nod, and they both stood up, turning off the machine and TV reverently, before lowering their eyes and walking out of the room. Darkness filled the rec-center, and they proceeded towards the exit, trailing through long shadows. With a tug the door opened, and both shivered at the biting wind that quickly attacked them.

The dash to Joel's house was quick, and neither said a word on the trek, their minds still analyzing the conclusion to the digital epic they had just finished. The front door was opened and shut, wet boots tossed by the threshold, and both teens found themselves pressed together and blanketed on the couch, Marcus's arms wrapped tightly around her stomach.

"They just seemed so real."

Ellie was the first to break the silence, resting against his chest as her mind unwound. It almost felt like part of her heart had been left in that room, or more likely in that game. His chest seemed to rumble as he replied.

"I thought that sort of thing only worked in books. But, yeah, they felt…alive? I don't know, just the way they acted. It was like every flicker of movement meant something."

She snuggled closer against him, nodding as he spoke.

"Yeah, and I knew those other two guys were fucked. They weren't on the box of the game."

"Wait, what? What box?"

She turned to him, shrugging as she explained.

"The box I found after you went to go take a leak."

"Why the hell didn't you show me the box?"

"Well fuck, all you wanted to do was get back to it. Far be it for me to hold you up."

She heard him click his tongue against the bottom of his mouth, and silence flickered in. The gentle creaking of the house seemed to lull her into a trance, the heaving of her boyfriend's chest rocking her like a boat upon a gentle ocean, and she let her mind continue to unfurl. A thought sparked in her mind, and her voice gave sound to it before she knew what she was saying.

"I wonder what the game of my life would be like."

"I don't know Ell. Probably be pretty awesome I guess."

She snorted, shaking her head as she looked out the window.

"Doubt it. What kind of fucked up voyeuristic son-of-a-bitch would want to see the shit I've been through? Where's the fun in seeing friends die? Or in a thousand desperate escapes? Or…fuck, or him. That cannibalistic monster. Seriously, how could that be fun?"

"Well maybe their definition of fun is different than yours."

His voice was becoming quieter, and she could tell he was exhausted after the marathon gaming session.

"If that's their definition of fun then they're going to be the ones who cause the end of the world."

"Well hey, maybe you're in a game right now, and you don't even know it."

He was definitely exhausted. He just wasn't making sense anymore. She turned to look at him, seeing his eyes half closed and fighting to stay open. She let out a quiet noise, a strange gurgling in the back of her throat. It took a ridiculous idea to get her to make that sound.

"Yeah, and next thing you know this was all set up for someone else's enjoyment. Our misery's nothing but their entertainment. Now that's a special kind of masochism. Think about it, if I'm in a game that means all the stuff that happened to me will happen over and over, all for someone else's satisfaction. I'll have to almost die a billion times, hell that game had a continue button, so maybe I will die over and over. No free choice, man. That's just scary. I don't want that."

His breathing had deepened, and he only managed to let a few words slip out.

"Well I wouldn't worry about it. I think we'd know if this was all a game or something."

She leaned back against him, feeling him relax as he fell asleep. It took several minutes of thoughtful tongue chewing for her mind to reach a conclusion. No, they couldn't be in a game. This was her life, no one else's. Besides, if anything, she'd rather be in a story.

A/N:

In other news, my life got super busy again. That might (probably will) end up making me toss out my schedule and just post when I can. It sucks, but I'm spending on average 17-18 hours a day on school related stuff, and simply don't have the time to write. I know for a fact that life will slow down eventually, but until then I've got to do what I've got to do.