"I swear." Joel didn't even have to think before he said the lie.
"Okay." Ellie instantly knew it was lie and was instantly disappointed by it. She wanted to yell at him and demand that he tell her the truth but then what? She had nowhere else to go and no one to go with. So instead she said nothing else.
"C'mon kid, we're almost there" he said while walking ahead "And we can finally put all of this behind us."
"Sure thing" Ellie quietly said to avoid her voice quivering. She felt the sting of tears and quickly swiped them away before trudging behind him.
When they got to Tommy's dam the snipers perched on the towers alongside the great metal instantly pointed their riffles at them. Ellie and Joel put there hands up in a surrender motion and slowly Joel lowered his right hand in a protective motion in front of Ellie instinctively.
"I'm Tommy's brother, we've come a long way to get here and he said he would have a place here.
"Stay there." one of the snipers said "I'll go get him."
Joel looked behind him to see Ellie staring at the ground a kicking a patch of dirt. He walked over to her with a small smile to try and cheer her up.
"Hey kiddo, we finally made it. Is there anything special you wanna do when we get in like rustle up some food that's more than just edible?"
"Not hungry. Maybe I'll just rest for a bit." she shrugged
He felt a tightness in his chest when Ellie didn't even look up to him but decided to try again.
"Yeah reckon it'll be nice to get some sleep without being scared of a damn clicker." he chuckled.
She just gave a small nod and continued to kick the small dirt hill in front of her. He thought of asking another question but he heard the creek of the metal gates open and looked behind himself to see a grinning Tommy.
"Nice to see y'all again." Tommy said while ushering them inside. "I got a lot to show ya."
The pair followed Tommy as he gave them the tour of the town. "We have movie night every Friday at the rec centre. It's open to everyone." Whenever Tommy said something interesting Joel would look back to Ellie to see if she had perked up at all but she would only glance up and look right back down. At the end of the tour Tommy stopped in front a bungalow and turned to the two.
"Finally we have arrived at the the last stop. A home for the two of you to stay in." Tommy stated proudly.
When Ellie heard that her head snapped up and her eyes popped open with a smile to match. "No way." she said while making her was up the steps to go in the house. Joel was happy to see Ellie smiling again and hoped that maybe that was enough to shake her out of everything that's been going on.
"Wow, this is too good of you Tommy." Joel said surprised
"I'll do what I can for family. Let's go inside, see what that girl of yours is up to." Tommy said.
They went inside and saw Ellie who was already checking out the bedrooms. "Dibs on the one with the the bay window." she said happily rushing into her new room.
"At least you get the bigger room, Joel." Tommy said.
"This is even better than I coulda imagined, thanks so much brother." Joel said still blown away by everything.
Ellie came bouncing out of her room "Yeah thanks. I really owe you one."
Tommy laughed at that on his way out the door "Don't worry about it, just get comfortable around town first and we'll find a place for you. Joel come find me once you got the time, we got some catchin' up to do." he said and closed the door behind himself, leaving Joel and Ellie alone.
It was the first time Ellie looked a Joel since the lie and her head started to hurt so she awkwardly looked away. When Joel looked at Ellie he saw broken innocence and felt responsible for it and wanted to fix it. He thought of all the things that Tommy said there was to do in town but before he could get a word out Ellie spoke first. "I know it's pretty early but maybe you should go see Tommy now, get it out of the way you know?"
Joel understood her underlying plea to leave her alone for a little bit and thought it would be best to comply. He opened the front door and waved a hand to signal for Ellie to come to him. When she got to him he gently tilted her face towards him and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Stay safe, baby girl." he said in his soothing gruff voice and then left. In that moment she felt like breaking down in front him so that he would hold her and she could forget about it all. Instead she held it in and said "I will."
To busy herself she unpacked the stuff in her backpack in her room which didn't take long considering she didn't have much to begin with. So she decided to go our for a walk around the to clear her head and left a note for Joel saying she was going out and not to worry in case he got back first. She was trying to process the lie the best she could. 'Why would Joel lie to me? Did he think Marlene was gonna keep me after it was all over? Why would he risk a possible cure for something like that.'. Suddenly a voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Hey!" someone yelled at her "C'mere for a sec!". She saw three people about her age standing together. She thought about refusing and continuing with her stroll but her curiosity got the better of her and she went over to see want they want.
"My name's Mac" said a boy with long hair tucked into a bun. "This is Lana" he said pointing to a girl with short wavy red hair and a black tank top "And that's West" he said pointing to a boy with long dreadlocks. "You new around here?"
"Yeah, name's Ellie." she said trying to maintain confidence even do she couldn't help but feel a little intimidated.
"We don't get a lot of new comers" said West "Want us to show you around a bit?"
"Oh I've already got a look at everything from Tommy" she said
Lana spoke up "Aw c'mon we'll show you something he sure hasn't yet.". Ellie quickly felt a strong liking to Lana and almost agreed but her time on the road thought her to be wary of anyone she didn't know.
"Why do you guys wanna hang out with me so much?" Ellie asked.
"We don't get a lot of new people especially not of our age" Mac said simply while scratching his face "we want to make a good impression.". She thought about it and the possible and quickly found out that she didn't care about the possible consequences. All she wanted was to get away from everything else for as long as she could.
"Okay, where to?" Ellie asked.
While they walked together Ellie found herself trying to impress the others by telling the others about taking down clickers on her own and her encounters with bloaters. Every now and then she would look at Lana to see if she found it entertaining and felt accomplished when Lana said : "That's so cool. You're pretty badass."
"Tss I guess." Ellie said trying to sound nonchalant with a shrug. The rest of the way the other three told them about what they do around them dam when they hang out together.
"... and that's how we almost got caught while sneaking into the guard tower." Mac said as the other two laughed at their adventures, even Ellie was giggling form the story. They approached an abandoned garage and went to the side of the building and opened the door to get it. "Lock's broken." West said when he saw Ellie's confused face. Inside their where two cars one was a old rusted green pickup with a front wheel missing and all the doors ripped off. The other was a black car with the trunk top ripped off. Both of the cars rears where facing each other.
"Hop in." said Lana already making her way in the back of the pick up and Ellie followed. West and Mac sat together in the empty car trunk.
"So Mac did you get more?" Lana asked eagerly. Ellie was confused about what they where talking about.
"Yeah right here, girl." He tossed a small tube of yellow liquid to Lana and gave another to West. "Wanna try some, new girl?" Mac extended a third to Ellie. She didn't think about what she was doing before she accepted the vile and inspected the liquid as it sloshed around when she moved it. She looked up to the other three and saw they raised their tubes in the air and said "cheers" before drinking it. Ellie just watched as they slowly slouched back with wide smiles on their faces.
"Ya ain't got to do it Ellie." Lana said with traces of sympathy in her voice but Ellie just shook her head and guzzled down what was in her tube. She felt a pleasant feeling spread in her heart and nice numbness of her fingertips and started giggling.
"Maybe you shouldn't have had it all at once for your first time Els" Mac remarked. But Ellie couldn't process what he said she was on her way into a happy daze where the outside world barely existed. Time went by quickly because when she cam back to, it was dark out. She was lying down in the back of the pick up with alone and felt empty, her mind remembered the lie again and all the emotions where getting to her but she kept it in, refusing to let herself cry. She tried to hoist herself up and all of her muscles where aching. She slowly got out of the car and saw that the other three sitting by the exit of the building barely awake. Mac was the first to see her awake.
"Looks like we can rule out coma, guys." he said with a sly smile.
"How long was I passed out for?" Ellie asked surprised.
"Couple hours later than the rest of us." he answered simply.
Ellie was gonna respond but remembered that she had to get home before Joel made the whole dam go on high alert to find her. Without another word she rushed out the door and jogged back home. On her way there her head was pounding, her whole body felt like collapsing and she felt sick to her stomach. By the time she got to the the house she was clutching her stomach with one hand and her head with the other.
"Ellie!" it was Joel's voice. She looked up to see him rushing towards her and the sick feeling in her stomach became to much because she fell to her knees and vomited on the ground. When Joel got to her she finished vomiting, he bent down, gently cupped her chin and said: "Honey? What happened to you? I was worried sick.". All the pain she felt physically and emotionally was proving to be too much because the only answer she could give was a sob which lead to her breaking down in the streets crying. Joel heart broke at the sight and he picked her up in his arms so that her face was safely nestled in the crook of his neck as he brought her inside. He kicked the door shut behind him and went to to take a seat on the couch with Ellie in his lap and her head laying on his chest. He wanted to ask her where she went but decided against it as her sobbing was only getting louder. "Shh, baby, shh" he whispered as he held her tighter and rubbed circles in her back."I got ya now. It's all gonna be okay, sweetheart." He started to rocked her back and forth and her crying was starting to subside "That's it, baby girl, just breathe. We'll get through this together,honey." Ellie's crying got quieter and quieter until it was nothing more than just sniffles. He gently grabbed her face with both hands and wiped her remaining tears with his thumbs. "Talk to me, baby girl." She didn't say anything, her head felt too dizzy and her eyelids felt heavy so she buried her face back in his chest and let herself fall asleep. He simply leaned back and enjoyed the feeling of knowing she was safe and thought about how he would address all this tomorrow.
I'll try to post chapter two as quickly as possible but let me know what you guys think and if you want more.