Sorry for the delay. I've been working on a huge dialogue and I chopped it to chapter 13, which will appear shortly

Chapter 12

They chatted for some time. Music, food, guns and such. Joel even offered Andy a story of him getting his first car.
"Driver's license? What a load of crap" Andy laughed, and took another mouthful of deer while laughing. Joel had barely started eating, as he was talking for most of the time. He had not been paying attention to any sounds from upstairs, and was in the middle of a story when Ellie appeared to the stairway. They both turned to see her, even though Joel's story about traffic rules was still unfinished.
"Oh, hi Ellie!" Andy greeted after swallowing the last piece of his meat. Joel's eyes rested on the invisible smile that was showing on the girl's face, and he could not be happier about it. He was surprised to see her so calm after the tense atmosphere upstairs, but he didn't want to go back there.
"Sorry for not waiting for ya, we could've starved before you wake up" Andy joked before Joel got to say anything.
"There's a piece for you, too" Joel nodded towards the third piece of meat. As she turned her eyes to see Joel, she saw a hint of forgiveness in his eyes. A new light shined from her face as she jumped her way to the couch. Her smile seemed to call out "thank you" and Joel noticed it. Maybe she wasn't ready to tell him what it was all about, but at least she didn't keep up her anger after the short moments of frustration. Joel watched as she jumped to them, and started destroying his steak one bite at a time.
"Oh, man!" Ellie smiled as she grabbed the last piece from Andy. She sat on the couch while Andy was still on the floor, and sighed out with joy with the steak in her hands.
"I wish we could always eat like this!" she rejoiced, attacking the meat with no manners at all. In a blink of an eye, Joel had finished his own while Andy took a better position on the floor.
"You got interrupted, old man" Andy opened the conversation after a short while of chewing noises. Joel turned his head and laid his arms on his knees while leaning forwards.
"Right" he awoke, trying to remember what he was talking about.
"Oh yeah, the uh, traffic thing"
Andy grabbed a cushion from the couch and dropped it behind him. With just a few adjustments, he was lying on the floor with the cushion as his pillow.
"Back in the days with electricity all around, the traffic lights were on 24 hours a day. They really were a pain in the ass during 5 o'clock in the afternoon"

Andy and Ellie listened to him brag about the traffic, but they definitely weren't bored. Since they were both so young, they hadn't seen world like it was before. No nine to five days in the office, no rock concerts while under aged, not to mention the fact that neither of them had never even been to an amusement park.
"So they just shake you around in a bunch of big, electric seats?" Ellie frowned her face while lying on the other end of the couch. She was staring at the ceiling, holding her legs on the back of the couch. Joel shrugged, nodding a few times.
"I guess you could say so"
"Why don't they call it a pukement park? Can't be pretty in there" she shook her head, thinking of the amount of nauseous people.
Andy nodded along, eyes closed. He was already getting used to the fact that he had actual friends instead of robbing partners. At least he thought they were friends. Joel's mind wandered in the past, and the stories seemed to come across him like waves. Once he mentioned something he remembered, he had to tell the whole story for the kids who craved to hear about the world as it was before.

The three of them spent the day talking, joking and sharing ideas about how they would get to Salt Lake City with minimum amount of walking and other pain. As they had figured out a plan, they made a deal they would leave the next morning. They had been scoffing the deer meat, but they had packed some of that to take with them. The journey would still be long and it was obvious that they couldn't eat like that every day.

Even though they hadn't done much during the day, it could not have been more than nine before Andy already announced he would turn in for the night.
"Already? What are you, eight?" Ellie laughed at him as he got up. She was going through the stuff that was in the house as they got there, and had found plenty of interesting items. She had already packed a deck of cards and a bottle of something that smelled very nice. She had found it under the double bed, and she didn't think it was perfume. She hadn't told Joel or Andy about them, since they would surely take the bottle away from her. For she had done most of her investigations while the men were asleep, they had no idea that she had been stealing stuff.

"No. But that's just about how many hours you slept after I already got up this morning" Andy answered with a very sarcastic voice. Ellie was standing before the dining table, going through the drawers of a small dresser near the kitchen door. Joel was sitting on the couch, organizing his belongings for the journey that would continue tomorrow morning. He'd rather sleep late than do all the preparing after getting up.
"Ha ha" Ellie laughed ironically, opening the lowest drawer. She squatted next to it to see better. Andy gathered his things before walking to the stairway, and he looked at Ellie for a while as she searched the bottom drawer.
"What do you think you're gonna find in here?" he shook his head. He didn't stay for the answer, and soon disappeared from the stairway. Ellie looked at his back as his legs got shorter in her view, and turned back to the drawer.
"Asshole" she murmured, dropping all the useless things to the floor. Joel had finished packing, and got up from the couch while putting his backpack to his shoulder. He turned around to see the girl behind the couch, and stretched his neck from side to side.
"You ready?" Joel asked from the girl, hoping for her to join him. She forced all the stuff from the floor back to the drawer, and pushed it back to it's place. She nodded a few times while getting up, and looked around her.
"Nothing useful in here" she lied, shrugging. Joel nodded once before turning around. He started walking towards the stairs while talking.
"What'd you expect? If Andy has lived here for so long, I don't think they've left any corner unturned"
"I guess you're right"

As soon as they got upstairs, Ellie dropped on her back to the mattress. She spread her arms as wide as she could while closing her eyes in comfort.
"Do you think this bed would fit in your bag?"
Joel was taking off his belt and facing the other way, but he had to turn to see her as she spoke.
"In my bag? I thought you had one too" he sneered while sliding the belt out of it's place. He dropped it on the floor and sat to his own side of the bed. As he took off his gun holster to put it down, he heard her speak again.
"Yours is bigger, and- OUCH!"
"What is it?" Joel asked before even Ellie had time to figure it out. He took out his pistol and pointed it her way as turned to see her. The holster dropped to the ground. As he saw that it was only her, he quickly put the gun down not to point her with it.
"Nnngh..." she murmured, and bit her teeth together while holding her leg with both of her arms. Joel picked the holster back up and put it on the night stand with the pistol.
"Ya 'lright?" Joel asked, and looked at the girl. As he took a step closer and leaned on top of the mattress, he tried to lay his hands on her leg to see better.
"Yes" she answered, pulling her leg away from him. She still frowned her face from the pain, even though she claimed otherwise. Joel frowned his face, as he didn't believe her words.
"What happened? Lift the leg" he ordered, getting just a hint closer to her. She shook her head while dropping her legs to meet the floor, once she had reached the side of the bed while dodging Joel.
"Ellie, show it to me" he said seriously to make her obey, and she was still not happy to do it. Joel climbed down from the bed, circling it around to reach her side. She was staring at her right leg while Joel came to her, knelt next to her and laid his hands on her jeans.
"Let me see"