9:09 PM - October 31, 2025 - Abandoned Rangers Station
Dot [Ellie]
Time was moving at a snail's pace. Snow covered almost every inch of the forest, and Ellie's boots were practically soaked through. Uncomfortable barely did justice for how she felt, yet it hardly mattered in that moment.
Her grip on Callus's reins tightened as she walked alongside him, looking back towards where Joel was being dragged on top of a makeshift 'bed' tied to the saddle, behind Callus. It probably wasn't comfortable, but there wasn't much they could do with the resources they had on hand.
Something in the distance ended up catching her eye, causing her to squint to make it out in the haze of snow falling in the inky black night. A small building, probably only two rooms on the first floor, left at the end of a small, two-lane road. Whatever it was, it would make for decent shelter for the night.
Anything would be better than staying in that store again, after the lack of any sort of warmth to be found in the mall. Maybe this place would be protected from the harsh winds; or better yet, they could build a fire.
Sighing, she turned towards her companion, pointing the place out with a finger. Hopefully the girl wasn't as… out of it as she had been for the past twenty-four hours. Not that she blamed her…
"Looks like shelter. Should clear the place out."
That was probably the most she'd said to the girl in the past four hours. Her voice felt almost croaky from disuse.
Art [Clementine]
Their horses' hooves clashed against the snow one after the other, repeating a seemingly endless pattern as they led the girls into the empty blur of white ahead, Joel's unconscious body being dragged by a pair of ropes tied to Callus.
Clementine couldn't hear any of it. The fourteen-year-old had since blocked out the sounds. Had to, to keep herself from losing her mind, giving into the stress crawling up her skin. Noises drowned out by her continual stream of thoughts.
She hadn't had the time to be... introspective, really. There was always something keeping those fears glued to the back of her mind, keeping her from letting them out, letting them develop into sorrow, and eventually, self-loathing. That privilege had died hours ago.
That really would be it, wouldn't it? The last time she got to hear his voice, see the warm look in his eyes as he told her he'd never leave her. Crying was something left for the rare moments when Ellie wasn't around, like it was something she felt too guilty, or embarrassed of sharing with someone else, someone like her. Clem didn't want a pity party, and Ellie sure as hell didn't deserve more shit to get upset about. It felt easier, dealing with it alone. It's the only way she ever learned how, and it wasn't about to change.
She supposed, in one way or another, she'd seen it coming, even prepared herself for it. Clem hoped it'd make it easier, somehow, but it hadn't. Not even the most miserable amount of it. She entertained herself with the idea of going back. Get any sort of closure on it. Any moment she imagined him... not being dead, was spent wondering how long it'd take until she accepted it. You could only afford to have so much hope left in you before reality wore you down.
" Looks like shelter ," Ellie croaked out after hours of dead silence, and Clem found herself too tired to care, her cold eyes staring off into the nothing ahead.
"Mm-hmm."
It was a good thing. Doing something. Letting it out on a few of the deadheads…
Anything to escape from her own head. Just for a little while.
Whiskers stayed behind for this one, waiting outside with his head down, dragging his feet through the snow. Even he could feel that something was amiss. His cargo had just gotten a whole lot lighter.
When facing the building's doors, two soft knocks was all it took, and infected groans filled the stormy air. Walkers. Could've been two or more. She signaled Ellie as much, urging her to open the door, though not without pulling her knife out first.
Dot [Ellie]
The interior was dark, but that gurgly, guttural noise that walkers made was beyond unmistakable. As Clem signalled for her to open the door, Ellie simply nodded back, pulling out her switchblade and holding it tightly in her right hand. With her left, she twisted the doorknob, pulling the door open just wide enough to let a single walker through.
She wasn't expecting them to be huddled together, or for them to push against the door with enough strength to send her stumbling backwards. The first two were out, heading for Clementine, and Ellie tried to shut the door on the third, only for it to knock the door back again, sending her falling to the snow below. She landed on her butt, groaning as all three walkers approached Clem with staggering steps.
She was on her feet before her brain had registered her pulling herself up. Running through snow wasn't exactly easy , but she didn't care. As Clem backed away, Ellie caught up to the last walker, tripping him and burying her blade into the back of his head.
The other two remained focused on Clem, and Ellie did the only thing she could think of to divide their attention.
She threw a rock at the second walker, who turned towards her with a fierce growl. She held her knife tightly, hands shaking from the biting cold.
Her voice was barely above a whisper as she waited for it to reach her. "Bring it on, asshole."
Art [Clementine]
Things escalated fast enough to keep Clementine from doing much of anything, watching Ellie fall on her ass from the corner of her eye, as two walkers started to gain on her, the two corpses slowly stumbling in Clem's direction. A sigh was all she could afford to give, clenching her jaw shut.
The girl backed away in careful steps, staying just over arms-length of the two infected. It wasn't smart; trying to take on two at the same time, this close together. Admiringly, Ellie made sure she wouldn't have to.
Now it was just her and it, and the odds were in her favor.
With the other one infected out of the way, Clementine put one foot forward, swinging her knife at the walker's jaw. The blade tore through its rotten flesh, getting stuck between the remnants of its noxious teeth. It tried to grab her with its right hand, but Clem was faster. She put enough force in hers to tear the monster's jaw off, thus using the knife to stab the walker's hand before it could reach her. She dragged it left, toward the building, his back against the wall. The decaying marrow of its bones meant only one thing: his hand was gone for good.
His left hand moved, and Clem put a stop to it once again, grabbing it mid-movement with one hand and slicing it off with the other. Defenseless and with nowhere to go, the walker wouldn't last another instant in the girl's line of sight.
Clementine stabbed it through the eye, the knife going through its brain and colliding with the wall behind it, effectively killing it again. The blood had gotten all over her new jacket, but she didn't give a damn. Clem was way past the point of caring, rage spelled in her eyes.
Now she just had to check up on Ellie.
Dot [Ellie]
The walker was closing in now, forcing Ellie to take several steps back to keep him at a distance, until she knew that Clementine was safe. Her eyes darted between its rotting face and beyond it, sighing with relief as Clementine finished off her walker. She took another step back.
She didn't expect the ice.
Her foot slipped from underneath her, sending her crashing to the ground with a startled yelp. She clutched onto her knife tightly, holding it up to prevent the walker from falling on top of her. It worked, if barely. The blade buried itself into the walker's chest, its growls only growing stronger. It clawed at her face, and she jerked her head back, nearly colliding with the snow-covered ground beneath her.
"Get… the fuck… OFF!" She growled, trying to push the thing off of her.
And failing.
Art [Clementine]
Before Ellie knew it, the infected one had moved its clacking teeth away, having been pulled in the opposite direction. Clementine grabbed the walker by the collar of its tattered shirt, forcing her hunting knife through its throat. It struggled, trying to reach for the little girl behind it, but it couldn't do a damned thing to stop her. She pulled out the knife - the opening in the monster's neck bursting with blood like a hose - before ingraining the blade in its skull, shifting it left and right in order to force it deeper in, straight through its brain.
The walker fell limp on the ground, oozing with crimson, the knife still lodged in its head. Clementine, on the other hand, heaved air like crazy, all that exertion starting to take its toll. She found the strength to flash her friend a smile, nonetheless, extending her hand to help Ellie up. "Didn't hit your head, did you?"
Dot [Ellie]
Ellie clenched her eyes shut as blood splattered all over her, the sickening sensation only overwhelmed by the relief she felt when the undead thing was pulled off of her. She wiped her face, trying to rid herself of the blood, but only ended up smearing it on her forehead and cheek.
Whatever, she had other things to worry about.
She took Clem's hand, grunting as the other girl helped her up. She glared at the patch of ice behind her, wiping off the snow that covered her jacket.
"No," she finally stated to Clem's question, looking between her and Joel's lying form on his 'bed' behind Callus. "Just my ass," she grumbled, stepping past Clementine to head over to Callus. She stopped halfway, looking towards her friend out of the corner of her eye. "Come on. Let's get him inside."
Art [Clementine]
With Ellie up and running and the undead back to being just dead, Clem let out a brief sigh of relief, locking her eyes with the blacked out Joel. The best they could do for him right now was find him someplace warm. Anything else... it was an uphill battle only he had the power to fight. She helped drag the old timer inside the building, prompting Whiskers to follow with a quiet whistle. Cozy, it was not. For once the smell of blood wasn't the most noticeable one, and that wasn't a good thing.
Clementine scanned the crummy floor for a place to sit, settling for one of the corners, leaning against the wall with her arms wrapped around her knees. The girl could still see her own breath with every puff of air, her hands refusing to settle, shivering in the cold. Should've grabbed some gloves... Finally, Clem's gaze settled on Ellie and the dozing smuggler, a rub of her nose followed by a soft inquiry. "How's he?"
Dot [Ellie]
Ellie sweeped the building with her flashlight, checking every room - although there weren't many - for any more walkers, and came up with nothing. She returned to the lobby to check on Joel, untying his makeshift mattress from Callus and leading the horses into the garage connected to the station via a door in the back. At least there they'd have some room to move around until morning.
When Clementine spoke up, Ellie kneeled next to Joel, concern etching across her face. He was shivering. This place wasn't warm enough, and they couldn't just… make a fire in here.
She cursed under her breath. "We need to find somewhere warmer. Maybe they have, like… a fireplace, or something."
She sighed, standing up. "Come on, let's check the place out."
The ranger station consisted of two floors.
On the first, the main lobby dominated the majority of the floor, while a small kitchen and dining area took up the back. Ellie searched through the kitchen for anything useful, but only came up with a bottle of… something called Southern Comfort. Some kind of whiskey, as far as she could tell. Wouldn't be the best antiseptic, but it was better than nothing, when they'd run out of whatever was left in the first aid kit.
A staircase led up to the second floor, where about three or four offices lined the hallway. They almost appeared untouched, desks and computers left as they were, only covered in an atrocious amount of spider webs.
At the far end of the floor, a glass door revealed a balcony that overlooked the winding river cutting its way through the forest, dropping deeper into a valley that was shrouded in the heavy snowfall. Under normal circumstances, the view would be enough to leave her in awe. Right now, though, there were far more pressing matters to attend to.
A small fire pit was positioned to the right side of the balcony, surrounded by chairs that have long since been overturned from the wind. A roof hung over the balcony, blocking out most of the snowfall that was coming down, and the wind was pushing it towards the river beyond. At least it'd be semi-comfortable here.
Inside, she found a bunch of logs left behind in a neat pile. She grabbed a few and dropped them into the pit, heading downstairs to find Clementine.
"They've got a fire pit on a balcony up there." She began to lift Joel from the 'bed', hauling him towards the stairs. "Please tell me you found more matches?"
Art [Clementine]
Clem stuck to the lower area while Ellie searched upstairs, keeping a close eye on Joel, and mostly scrounging up whatever was left of that place. Spoiled food and rusty tools were in great supply, as was the amount of useless junk, like old papers and broken souvenirs. Ruffling through the trash can, however, the girl did find something not totally worthless, and Ellie had shown her face just in time to see it. Clementine rose the discarded box of matches above her head, showing it to her with a faint smile. They'd had worse days.
The good news was that upstairs smelled a whole lot better, if not only because of the balcony Ellie mentioned. The absolute numbing cold more than made up for whatever good that did, though thankfully that wouldn't last long enough to be a problem. Kneeling down next to the pit, Clem lit one of the seven matches inside the box, cupping her hand around it so as to keep the wind from blowing it out, then placing it under the logs Ellie had dropped there previously. It took a few frustrating attempts, but it all felt stupid worth it as soon as the flames rose in front of her eyes, warmth setting in on her skin like the girl hadn't felt in weeks.
Sitting down came naturally after that, as though her knees couldn't take another second, every one of her limbs shutting down one after the other until she was resting comfortably near the fire, eyes dropping from sheer exhaustion. "C'mere. The fire's nice," Clem said, using up the last bit of excitement still left in her voice to holler Ellie over, eyes fixated to the light emanating from the fire pit.
Dot [Ellie]
Ellie cleared a spot next to the fire for Joel, pushing away any snow around the area with her foot before knocking it off the edge of the balcony. With the fire slowly gaining in strength, she found herself leaning on the railing overlooking the world below.
...
What were they going to do? Joel still hadn't shown signs of waking up. Fighting off an infection that just might end up killing him. They've already changed the bandages at least twice since the mall. Now… the reality of the situation was beginning to set in. The possibility that Joel might not make it after all.
I should've shot that asshole. I should've done something…
That feeling of regret had settled into the pit of her stomach, and had remained there for the past thirty something hours. Joel was dying. Lee was… gone. Clementine wasn't herself because of it, and Ellie just… ugh.
It wasn't fair. Any of it. Like the world had decided to shove a middle finger right in their faces. She was ready to shove it right back.
Clementine's voice broke her from that train of thought, causing her to look towards her out of the corner of her eye. Her stomach twisted, clutching the railing tighter. This… wasn't the time to be brooding. She had to be strong, for Joel, and for Clem. They wouldn't make it otherwise.
She pushed herself away from the railing, taking the next few steps to sit in between Clementine and where Joel was lying down. The fire crackled in the momentary silence, only to be quieted by the howl of the wind blowing over the station. She reached her hands out, letting the small flames warm her frozen hands.
She opened her mouth to say something, but the words caught in the back of her throat, forcing her to clamp her mouth shut again. She didn't know why this was so hard. Why she couldn't tell her that she was sorry about what happened with Lee, or even bring him up at all. That had become the crux of it, the thing that kept them in an uncomfortable silence for extended periods of time. She hated it.
Still, the words she wanted to say wouldn't come.
Art [Clementine]
The girl's lips felt unfathomably heavy, dragged and pressed moments at a time to form crooked smiles. As the one sitting right under her nose slowly came to evaporate into a heartrending frown, Clem quickly realized that she couldn't find the strength to do it anymore, even long after the numbness settled in her fingers had come to pass. Her chest went back to hurting like a bleeding wound, the stillness in her mind only serving to bring back those grim thoughts she could only find herself being able to contain for so long.
Even with Ellie there, next to her, Clementine would've been pressed to recall a time in her life where she'd felt more alone.
Her body trembled without a hint of stopping, and she could tell rather plainly that it wasn't because of the cold. The harder Clem tried to wrap her head around their situation, find a solution, the worse she felt. The more she thought back to the last few days, the more her heart pounded, the paler her skin became. The fire could only bring so much comfort to a shaken little kid.
The silence, then, was bittersweet and largely unwanted. She knew why her friend was so reluctant to talk, why the air felt thicker than the ice piling up on top of the roof they were under. It wasn't her fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. No one's but the people who took him from her. The ones who did that to Joel. Her glances toward Ellie were few and far between, though the last one did linger for longer than the rest, a question forming from under her breath.
"You scared, too?"
Dot [Ellie]
Scared was an understatement. Their future was uncertain; their lives were constantly in peril, even now. The feeling of dread had already settled on her skin, like a thin layer of cold sweat. She was the one having to step up and make sure things don't go to shit, but even she's a step away from jumping off the edge. That was just… too much to ask for, out of Clementine. To deal with her bullshit on top of their current predicament and the girl's own issues. Joel might die, but Lee already was.
She let out a slow breath, closing her eyes. She opened them after a long pause, glancing towards her friend with what could've only been interpreted as remorse.
Her answer was quiet, and short.
"Always."
Art [Clementine]
The sky was painted black with no stars to be looked upon, the light cast by the flames, and the moonlight shining down on them being the sole reason the two girls weren't left in utter darkness. Clem answered Ellie's cut-and-dried response with a curt nod, lowering her head the moment after, her eyes obscured by the nightfall.
The quiet returned as unforgiving as ever, strung along by the odd sounds of crackling fire and heavy snowfall. Clem drew her two feet together, curling into a ball to shield herself from the bitter cold, yet another hint of the girl's tender voice exiting through a sigh.
"I'm glad you're here."
The words escaped her on their own, like a sudden twitch. Thinking of Lee for hours on end, and of all the times she had the chance to tell him that and didn't... it came as naturally as the tears now glistening in her eyes. "I know I don't say it enough. I just thought..."
Realization came with the impulse to quickly dry them away, which she hastily did with the palm of her left hand, the girl whimpering, turning her head to face the other way."Fuck." She just couldn't look her friend in the eyes anymore, wrapping her arms around herself, struggling to keep all that pain from coming adrift.
" I'm so fucking scared, Ellie. "
Dot [Ellie]
Her gut twisted as Clementine's words washed over her, realizing then just how much her instinctual urge to not bring up Lee or anything bad about their situation had only made things worse. Of course she was worrying about it. Why wouldn't she be? This was shit. Actually, this was beyond shit. It was something out of a fucking nightmare. The only things keeping her together was the fact that Joel wasn't dead yet, and Clementine was still there with her. She wasn't alone.
And that only made her feel worse when Clementine told her that she was glad that she was there with her.
She mentally cursed, wringing her hands together to gather warmth in them. How could she possibly get Clem to feel better? Consoling people wasn't something she was really… experienced with. She had always been the one being consoled. With Riley…
She took in a deep breath suddenly, allowing herself to scooch closer to Clem in order to wrap an arm around her, a sort of sideways hug that she hoped would bring the girl some kind of comfort. It probably wouldn't work, but what else could she do? Just sit there and let her best friend fall deeper into this pit of shit they've found themselves in? No fucking way.
"We're gonna be okay," she started strongly, emphasizing each word. She didn't believe that for a second, but she wanted it to be true. For Clem's sake. "Joel's going to pull through, but until then, we… we gotta do what we can, okay? We've been through some serious shit. All of us. We've made it this far. We… nothing's gonna stop us." She paused, taking in a deep breath. "It's okay to be scared, but…" She struggled to find something to say, something meaningful that'd help Clementine out. She tightened her grip around Clementine, hoping that'd give some sort of reassurance as her next words punctuated the air. "We don't give in to fear. We just… tell it to 'fuck off'. Right?"
Art [Clementine]
Clem's red nose sniffed the frigid air in short order, her eyes still melting into droplets of water. When Ellie put her arm around her, the rest of her body melted too, closing down and ceasing to function. Days and days of playing tough, crumbling into weeping while she smeared her tears on her friend's shoulder.
It wasn't how she wanted to deal with it, but Clementine couldn't do much to help it anymore.
Taking into account the fact that incoherent mumbles were all that left her clattering teeth, Ellie would just need to have faith in how much she soothed the ballcap-wearing girl. Clementine promised herself she'd toughen up come morning, show Ellie the same strength and disposition she always did when her best friend was the one needing comfort.
Tonight, she just wanted to let herself feel sad and afraid for once.
Dot [Ellie]
As Clementine quickly devolved into a weeping mess, laying her head against Ellie's shoulder while the older girl rubbed at her arm reassuringly, it occurred to Ellie just how infrequently she'd seen her like this. In fact, she couldn't recall a time it'd ever happened. She didn't want to see it again. She'd be there for her every time it happened, but… she was going to try and find a way to keep the girl from ever having to feel that way again. A promise that she knew she could never keep yet meant in equal measure.
To see someone as strong as her falling apart at the seams. To see how truly devastated she was, how lonely she felt in the wake of Lee's absence. It was almost too much to bear. If they could fall asleep there, Clementine safe in her arms, then she'd fall asleep knowing that, at least, she'd done something good for her. It was hardly enough to repay the debt she owed to Clementine, but it was a start.
Her eyes trailed down to her best friend, lips twisting sympathetically as she lifted her free hand to remove the girl's baseball cap, laying the soaked thing in her lap. She ran her fingers along the edge of the hat, looking towards the fire for a while, and giving Joel occasional, worried glances as he moved in his sleep. He was going to make it. She was sure of it. No matter what, he had to.
She couldn't take care of all three of them.