When I wake up I start to walk back to Ellie and Dina, but stop at the sight of Ellie asleep on the chairs. I sigh before I go back and grab a blanket to put on Ellie. Once I make her more comfortable, I leave to go check up on Dina. I end up finding her in front of a radio upstairs with a map sprawled out in front of her.
"Hey. Whatcha doing?" Dina looks over at me with a small smile.
"Got the radio working. I'm seeing if I can figure out where the wolves are." I nod and sit down next to her.
"What do you have so far?"
"Well these are some of their checkpoints." She then points to a few areas, "I just need to figure out some other ones." I nod and sit down to help her.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better, now that we've rested. Still a little like shit, you?"
"Pretty much the same. My stomach is okay, Ellie cleaned it up."
Dina nods, "And you guys are..."
"Rough right now, but we'll be okay. Last night was a lot." Dina nods and we end the conversation there to focus on our task. After about an hour we have most of their bases marked on the map. Well, at least where we think they are marked on the map. Dina turns to the garbage can next to us and starts to throw up. I rub her back while looking at the map and photos. When we hear a new noise I look up to see Ellie standing there.
"Hey." I say to Ellie softly. She gives me a slow nod and looks at Dina and I confused.
"How hot do I look right now?" Dina says with a small laugh. Neither Ellie or I respond as I go back down to the map.
"How'd you fix it?" Ellie asks.
"It was a loose connection... Antenna." Ellie nods. She goes to make eye contact with me but I keep my eyes trained on the map, "They found our mess at the school."
"Good." Ellie says and she takes a seat next to me.
"This guy, Owen. He went AWOL."
"Maybe Tommy got to him."
"Maybe."
"What about her?"
"Nothing yet." Dina replies as we hear a new radio station talk about site two, "So, the numbers are locations. The TV station we were at? That's Six. There's a lot of chatter coming out of Two, so I'm assuming that's their home base." Things are quiet for a bit until the radio goes off reporting casualties at fourteen from a lone man.
"Tommy?" Ellie says, "where's fourteen?"
"We're not 100% sure." I say and Ellie looks at me, "Then guess."
I sigh and point to a location on the map, "Around here."
"Hillcrest. Okay." Ellie says. Both her and Dina get up and begin walking. I follow not far behind.
"Look Dina, you're not a burden. I'm sorry for last night." Ellie tells her.
"It's okay Ellie, last night was... a lot." Ellie nods and when we reach the front Dina takes the chair off the door. When she puts the chair down she leans on it and looks like she's gonna be sick.
Dina sighs, "Yeah. Not good."
"Hey, I got this one. You stay and rest." Ellie tells her softly.
Dina nods at Ellie and I turn to Dina, "You gonna be okay on your own?" I ask Dina and she nods. Ellie turns to me confused.
"You're not staying with her?"
"I told you Ellie, where you go, I go." She's about to object but I turn to Dina, "Stay in the back of the stage area. If anyone breaks in you'll hear it and there's a lot of places to get cover. You'll know it's us if you hear this knock." I go and do the knock on the chair, "Maybe keep tracking the WLF so we stay on top of them." Dina nods and I leave with Ellie.
"You should stay with Dina." Ellie tells me.
"You're not doing this alone Ellie."
It stays quiet between us for a bit until Ellie speaks up, "I'm sorry." I stop to look at Ellie, "I wanted to tell you, I did, but... I was told not to tell anyone about it and I just didn't want to lose you."
I walk over to Ellie and place my hand on her cheek, "You're not gonna lose me Ellie. We're in this together. I'm sorry for getting so mad, it really is your decision on what you do and don't tell me. I was just mostly upset that you told Dina and not me. I'm just, I'm scared of losing you too... and for what it's worth, I'm happy you're immune. At least I'll never have to lose you to the infection."
Ellie smiles. "You're stuck with me."
"Good." I smile back at Ellie, "We should go find Tommy."
We start making our way when Ellie speaks up again, "Look, I see the looks Dina gives me and tries to give to you too, and I know that you're worried but aren't like trying to talk me out of anything, so thanks... I feel like you're the only one who really gets it."
"I had my revenge. I don't know if it helped or not, but I'm here with you... You and me right?"
"You and me." Ellie says softly. When we get to Hillcrest, Ellie pulls out the map, "Hillcrest... is this the right place?" As she says this we hear gunshots in the distance.
"Seems like it." I nod my head towards the sound, "Come on. Let's go get Tommy."
Ellie and I jump onto a truck, but quickly have to duck when we hear the skidding of a car. Ellie pushes me behind her as we watch it speed away, "Shit. There's too many of these assholes." Ellie says.
"Well lets make this quick then." Ellie nods as we jump off the truck in front of Ruston's Coffee. I pause for a minute looking at the coffee shop. All of my times with Joel come rushing to my head- he was a reserved guy, but he didn't hesitate to ask me to drink his morning coffee with him, and he never pried into my life before Jackson. I look over at Ellie and she's already looking at me.
"He'll get justice." I nod at her and we go to the buildings to quickly look for supplies. When we get into a new area we run into more WLF, "Fuck Lia we have to keep moving, they have a dog with them."
"Think we can just kill the guys and adopt the dog as our own?" Ellie gives me a look, "What? It's not a terrible idea."
"Yeah who doesn't want a pet who would eat them." Ellie mutters sarcastically. I look over and the dog smelled us so the soldiers start to come closer.
"I can't kill the dog that's on you babe. I'll get the guys."
"Seriously! You can kill the people but not the dog?"
"They're assholes." Ellie is about to reply but I already left and make my way to the soldiers. One of the guys is at the door while I creep behind him and grab him before putting my knife in his throat. The dog and the female WLF spot Ellie, but before she can shoot I already whipped out my pistol and shoot her in the head. Ellie kills the dog as it charges at her. I walk over to her, "Nice job babe." She shakes her head at me with a smile, "You're such an idiot," she says before we keep moving towards Tommy. More WLF keep showing up and we have to take them out. Once we're clear we go through a red door with an 'exit' sign above it. I help Ellie get through the door and we move a desk in front of it to prevent anyone from following us. When we're making our way through this town we don't run into WLF, but we do run into quite a bit of infected. We make our way to this long staircase. Ellie grabs some arrows from a dead body laying at the bottom. As we are making our way up we hear a huge explosion in the distance.
"Whoa. What was that?"
"I don't know but let's move carefully." I tell her. When we get to the top we see a big pile of black smoke.
"Holy shit. I hope you did that, Tommy." Ellie says and we creep our way into the town. We enter one of the houses to look for supplies. Ellie finds a hole in the door to squeeze into but once she's through an infected grabs onto her. I widen my eyes as I move in quickly to help Ellie kill it, but once I'm through Ellie's already handled it. She walks over to the dead infected and pry it's bow off of it.
"Well that will come in handy." I tell Ellie and she nods.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good with a bow. Come on." We open the garage to an area filled with mannequins used as targets, "Well that's one way to use mannequins." Ellie comments. I nod and we jump down into a new area.
"Hey! There's another trespasser. Two girls, have you seen them?" A WLF female says as she runs to her colleague. Ellie pulls me down into the grass and we watch.
"No. But the fucking guy is nearby." I look over at Ellie and show mouths 'Tommy' I nod and we look back over at the soldiers.
"Shit! We're looking for three!" They yell and I scan the area to see a whole group of WLF.
"Get ready to move from this area." I tell Ellie and she looks confused until I grab a molotov and throw it at the two WLF, and consequently, the dog. Ellie and I move as quick as possible through the grass as the other soldiers are alerted. They never saw where we went so Ellie pulls out her bow and I do the same as we aim at the other soldiers and kill them. Ellie and I keep moving fast through the area and kill any soldiers in our way.
"There's so many of them. Fuck Lia we have to work quick." Ellie yells back as we keep killing the WLF and move closer to where they reported Tommy. Ellie and I stay close together so we can cover each other and make sure the other is okay. It feels like more WLF just keep coming. Once the WLF are all clear Ellie and I slide down a mud path into a new area.
"Let's check around here." A WLF solider says as we hear a car pull up.
"Seriously? More?" I mutter to myself and hide behind a small fence next to Ellie.
"He's here! I saw him go into that house!" The WLF soldier announces. Ellie and I look at each other before we go to take them out and book it to the area the WLF were talking about. We stop and look around in the house until suddenly Ellie is grabbed and I pull out my pistol to shoot the attacker. I'm surprised when I see Jesse and I slowly lower my gun.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ellie asks.
"Think I'd let you do this on your own?"
"Jesse.." Ellie begins but he already starts speaking, "Where's Dina?"
"She's safe. She just sick."
"What kind of sick?"
"She's fine."
Jesse doesn't look fully convinced, but I turn his attention to me, "How's Leo? And Marley?"
"They're fine. Marley is getting bigger, but is healthy. Leo gave me quite the talk about looking out for your ass." I snort at this.
"Sounds about right." Our attention is turned away when we hear the WLF again, "Christ, there's a lot of them." Jesse says. I nod and when we move I notice Jesse is limping.
"How hurt are you?"
"I'll be okay." Jesse replies, "Your friends out there rushed me. No warning, no nothing."
"Tell me you didn't come alone." Ellie says.
"Gimme shit about it later."
Ellie scoffs, "You're a fucking idiot, you know that, right?"
"Yeah. Leo wanted to come, but I made him stay with Marley." Jesse replies lowly, "Good." I mutter and we look through a crack to see the WLF stationed outside, "All right, see that truck?" Jesse says.
"That's your plan?" Ellie stares at Jesse.
"We need to get some distance."
"Yeah, and maybe in the process we'll get a bullet in the head." I say.
"You got a better plan?" Jesse retorts. I look out and see that we can take out the soldiers easily.
"Any of you know how to drive?" I ask. Both Ellie and Jesse shrug their shoulders, "Great." I mutter, but we still move out to steal the truck. We sneak into the grass and go behind all the soldiers to kill them. Once we're clear we run to the truck to go, Jesse get's in the driver sear, Ellie in the passenger and I sit in the back pickup. Jesse starts trying to start it but the car won't start. The WLF scream and start running towards us. I whip out my gun and start shooting at them. I don't have cover so I reach at the bottom of the hatchet and pull it up so I can lay down and at least somewhat protect myself. I peak my head up to start shooting, but am automatically shot at so I tuck back down.
"I can't get up to shoot I'm out in the open!" I yell at them.
"Jesse start the fucking car!" Ellie persist.
"I'm working on it!" Jesse keeps putting gas and the truck finally roars to life. Jesse backs up the car into the WLF soldier and the body hangs above me.
"Oh fuck!" I shoot the guy in the head before he can swipe at me. When Jesse finally starts moving the truck I get up into a crouched position so I can help Ellie shoot the chasing WLF vehicles. Jesse's driving sucks as we're trying to escape from the WLF.
"Look out!" Ellie yells and I turn to see Jesse drive into a pole. I get launched forward and my body slams against the back of the driver and passenger seat. I scream out in pain, "Lia!" Ellie shouts. I lay groaning on the back as Jesse try to start moving again, "Lia hold on to the back and grab my hand." Ellie shouts and I look up to see her one free hand out the back window. I grab onto it and the side as Jesse starts the car again and I hear infected all around us, "Oh my god." Ellie says. Ellie's hand lets go of mine as she has to use it to block off the infected clawing at her from the window. I hold on as Jesse drives and I try to keep clear of the infected around us. I scream and hold onto the back of the truck as Jesse drives through a fence and into the forest. Tree branches scrape me as we make our way down the hill. The last thing I hear is Ellie scream my name as I'm launched from the back of the truck and into the water.