Disclaimer: I do not own any character of (The Last of Us) TLOU is owned by Naughty Dog, Sony, and their creators.
A/N: Don't have much to say in this chapter other than thanks to the people that are reading it.
Chapter 4: Exploring the Farm
Joel opens his eyes when some of the sunlight starts to enter through the barn holes. He does not feel it at first, but when he tries to move to the side, he notices someone behind him. He moved one of his hands to the side and touched a naked leg that was over his.
"Ellie?" he said while moving quickly his hand away from her and turning his head to see her and saw that her body was closer to his back. "Ellie… what… are you doing… so close-" he started but Ellie only moved closer and hugged him tightly. "Ellie... wake up!" He tried to move away from her, but she was grabbing his body as her life depended on it.
"I don't need to go to work today… so just let me... sleep… a little more…" she just whispers at him.
After a few minutes, Joel managed to grab her arm and move it away from his waist and escape her grab. "Don't go… please… you're so warm… and…" Joel moved away from her and stood up. He looked at her but noticed that she was still sleeping. After he got up, Ellie moved her arm to the part he was sleeping and noticed that he was gone. "Joel!... don't… leave me… I need you..." he hears her whispering in her sleep.
Joel doesn't know what to say to that. He doesn't know if Ellie was dreaming or just talking to him. Joel looked at her for a few minutes watching her movements. The fire was out and the barn was a little colder, so he moved closer to Ellie and covered her with his blanket. After that, he walked to where they put their wet clothes to see if they were dry. But as soon as he touches them, he feels them wet, so they need to wait until they get completely dry.
Joel looked in Ellie's direction and saw that she was still sleeping, so he decided to let her sleep a little more. Joel walks to the pile of clothing Ellie finds and grabs a pair of pants. Soon he put them on, walked toward the barn door, and slowly opened it. He saw that the sun was starting to get up and that the rain had stopped. The ground was all wet and muddy, but he needed to check the place and look for some gas for the bike. So he will take the time of Ellie sleeping to go to the house and look for some. He knows that Ellie will be mad at him for going without her, but the last thing he wants is Ellie walking around without pants.
So he walked back to where the bike was and grabbed his backpack. He opened and grabbed what he needed, especially his gun. When he was ready, he gave one last look at Ellie then walked out of the barn. The ground was slippery so he walked with caution in the direction of the house. As he saw before half of the roof was gone as was much of the front door and the windows. With caution, Joel gets to the front porch and gets close to the wall to take a peek inside.
Joel doesn't think that there is someone there, at least not alive. But if the people that live here get infected, they can still be around the place. The things that Ellie found in the barn indicated that they were packing to leave, but maybe they never did. Joel doesn't see any car outside, so maybe they did or someone came here before and stole it. There is a lot of speculation about what happened here, so he needs to play safe.
Joel held his gun tight and slowly he moved inside. He has done this a hundred times so he knows how to move without making any noise. As Joel moves in, he watches the place around him. The house was a disaster, it was all wet probably because of the hole in the roof and all the broken windows. He looked at the furniture and saw that a lot of them were broken or damaged, probably by all the rain and time. The place looks like it was abandoned for a long time and the weather does its work on it. The living room has nothing useful for them, so slowly he walks toward the kitchen to see if he can find something there. But soon after he arrived at the kitchen, Joel hears a noise coming from the second floor.
Back in the barn, Ellie moves her hand to where Joel was sleeping and notices that no one was there. Ellie opens her eyes quickly and sits up on the sheet she used to sleep and starts to look around for him. "Joel? Are you here?" She called him a few times trying to find out if he was in another part of the barn. As Joel did not respond, Ellie stood up and started to walk around the barn looking for him. A few minutes later, she hears some gunshots coming from outside the barn.
"Joel!" Fear started to invade her mind as she started to think that something bad was going to happen to him. Without thinking for herself, Ellie ran toward her backpack and opened it. She grabs her 9mm pistol and starts running out of the barn.
JOEL!... she yells and soon she goes out of the barn and looks around. Then, Ellie hears another gunshot and noticed that it had come from the old house that is close to the barn. "JOEL!... Fuck!" she yelled again before starting to run toward the house. A few minutes later Ellie busted into the house and started looking around. "JOEL!" she yells again as she doesn't see him in the living room. "Joel!... Are you here!?"
"Ellie!" She hears her name coming from upstairs, so she runs as fast as she can with her gun in hand.
Soon she was up, she called him again. "Joel!... where are you?" she asked as she started looking for him.
"I'm in one of the rooms… the last one in the hall," he answered.
Ellie ran to where his voice came from and stood in front of the room entrance with her gun pointing inside. "Are you okay? I hear shoots…" she asked quickly.
Joel turned his head and looked at her. "Yeah… it was just a Clicker…" he said while standing beside the infected body on the floor. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked as soon as he saw her shirt and part of her body all muddy.
Ellie lowered her gun and moved inside the room without answering his question. "Just a Clicker?... Shit, Joel you just scared the shit out of me… I thought… you..."
Joel walked away from the Clicker and moved closer to her. He watched her body and face all messed up with mud and wanted to know what happened to her, but that was no important right now. "Sorry...kiddo… I didn't mean to scare you… I just came here to…" Ellie moves forward and hugs him. After a minute, Joel felt her sup on his shirt. "Is okay… kiddo… nothing happens." After a few more minutes, Ellie moved away from his body and looked at his face.
"But it could be… I mean what if there were more than one and they caught you?"
"But they weren't... "Now can you tell me what happened to you?" said Joel trying to change the subject.
"What do you think happened? I just hear the shots from the barn and grab my gun. I ran out of the barn and on the way here… I fell down a few times because it was so slippery out there." Ellie explains while looking at her shirt. "I don't even care if I get all muddy… I just want to get here as fast as I can to help you."
Joel moved forward and hugged her back tightly. He felt bad for scaring her like that, but it wasn't his intention. He didn't know he would find a Clicker inside the house. "Sorry to scare you… I just want to see if I can find some gas here…"
After a few minutes, Ellie moved away from him and whipped the few tears that were escaping her eyes. "Without me? You should wait for me or wake me up… you know that we should do this together."
Joel looks at her and remembers that she doesn't like when he goes into a house or any place without her as a backup. They're a team and they always protect each other in situations like this. "Sorry… I didn't want to wake you… I wanted to let you sleep a little more." yeah that was one of the reasons, but not the real one. He just started to feel strange when he felt Ellie's body all over him when he woke up and needed to get away from there.
Ellie gave him a look, then she looked at the floor where the Clicker was lying dead… well more dead now. "Do you think there are more of them here?" she asked quickly.
Joel turned his head and looked at it. "I don't see any more of them… but I know that this motherfucker is not going to be a problem anymore."
"Yeah, I can see your handy work…" Ellie looks where his head is supposed to be and all that remains are pieces all shatter on the floor. Elle turns around and walks out of the room and into the corridor. "Do you think they have water in here?" she said while looking around to make sure there are no more Clickers or infected on the second floor.
Joel almost forgot that she was all covered in mud, but when he looked at her legs he noticed that she was wearing only a shirt. "Did you run here without pants?" he asked.
Ellie rolls her eyes and looks at him. "I was sleeping, remember… and they don't have any pants that fit me." Ellie moves on the corridor looking for the bathroom. "What I need now is some water to clean myself out."
Joel walks out of the bedroom and goes into the corridor following Ellie. He tried not to look at her naked legs or any of that area since the shirt she was wearing didn't cover much. "I don't think this house still has water, but I saw a lot of buckets outside and with all the rain we had last night you can use some to clean up," he suggested while walking behind her.
Ellie stops in front of the bathroom. It was a little dirty, but it seemed worse. The other two rooms at the end of the corridor were without a roof so that part of the house was all wet and damaged. "Can you bring me a few of them? So can I use this bathroom to clean myself?" she said looking at him.
"You like to be bossy… right?" he said sarcastically.
Ellie goes into the bathroom and puts her gun on top of the sink and looks at him. "Well, is your fault that I ended like this, so it is your job to help me out." Ellie looks at the place and tries not to concentrate on the smell and dirty place.
Joel stops at the entrance of the bathroom and looks at the place. "Okay, just wait for me... I will bring you some water…" then he walked away, but after a few minutes he popped his head on the entrance and spoke. "I will be back!" he said, imitating the terminator's voice.
Ellie looks at him and laughs, so your mission is to break the tension between their works. So soon after that Joel walked away to bring back the water for Ellie.
Joel walked down the stairs and went out of the house and looked for the bucket he saw early on the side of the house. When he found them, Joel grabbed two of them and walked back into the house. Soon he was on the second floor. He stopped at the entrance of the bathroom and opened his eyes wide when he saw Ellie's naked body. Lucky for him she was facing the other way so he only saw her naked back.
Joel quickly moved to the sidewall and out of sight. "Ellie, I bring you the... water… ok… I will leave it out here… and head back to… barn… for-" he said all nervous.
Ellie turned her head to see if Joel was there. But put on a disappointing face when she doesn't see him at the entrance. "Wait… don't go yet…" Ellie grabs a tower she found in the middle closet in the corridor. It was clean so she was going to use it to dry herself after she cleaned herself. Ellie covers her body with the towel and turns around. "Can you put the bucket inside?" she says facing the entrance and waiting for him to show up.
"Are you decent?" he asked from behind the wall, before moving out of it.
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Yes, Joel… you can come in…"
Joel slowly moved from behind the wall and stood at the entrance of the bathroom. He was glad to see Ellie with the towel covering her body. He slowly walked into the bathroom and put the two buckets on the floor in front of her. "I hope this will be enough… for you…to clean up." he starts to get a little nervous again.
"Well, I prefer to get a good shower like the ones back home, but this will do… thanks." They look at each other for a few minutes without saying anything. Then Joel cleared his throat and started to move back.
"Okay then… Are you sure you want to do this here... alone? I don't want to go back to the barn and leave you here without any protection."
"Well, you can stay here and watch over me while I clean myself… I don't mind…" she said with a smile on her face.
"Yeah… I don't think that will be appropriate… but I can stay in the corridor… just in case the house has more unexpected hosts."
Ellie rolled her eyes, even if she loves when Joel gets all protected, but she likes to be treated as an adult because she can handle herself. "Well, if you don't want to stay here in the bathroom with me, then go to the barn and bring me something to put on… I will be fine here." Ellie looked at her gun that was on the sink. "I will keep my friend close just in case."
Joel knew what she meant. "Okay… then… I will leave you… with you… you know… bath." he quickly turns around and walks out of the bathroom as fast as he can.
Ellie had to hold her laughing until Joel was out of sight. She saw how embarrassed he looked, so she was hoping that he saw something before she covered herself. It was funny the way he looked at her, but as he didn't say anything it gave her some hope that Joel wouldn't see her as his daughter at least not anymore. After that Ellie takes the towel off and starts to clean herself with the water. She screamed as soon as she put some water on her. Even though it was summer, the rainwater was still cold.
Joel goes back to the barn and looks for another shirt, but he needs to find some pants for her because the one she brought was still wet. He goes up to the second floor of the barn and starts to search the boxes again and after 5 minutes he finds some shorts that can fit her.
Joel wants to give Ellie time to finish her bath, so he stays a little longer in the barn. The last thing he needs is to walk there again and see her naked body again. He knows that Ellie is not his daughter and even though he does not treat her like that since they arrive in Jackson, it is inappropriate for him to see her like that. He never thought to see Ellie in another way besides a daughter, but he liked the way they ended and saw her more as a partner. He knows that she is not like Tess, but they go through a lot since they met and not only on the way to the fireflies but with some of the mission trips they have on Jackson.
Ellie has saved his life more times than he can count… and being with her has changed his life for the better. After a few minutes, Joel picks up their things and put them back in their backpack. That will give time to Ellie to finish and more time for their clothes to dry. After 15 minutes, Joel walked back to the house and found Ellie in one of the bedrooms searching for something. Lucky for him, she was wearing a towel this time.
Here, I found you another shirt and some shorts that can fit you…" he said from the entrance of the room.
Ellie turns around and smiles. "Oh, good… I was trying to find something here, but all was cleaned out." Ellie turned around and walked toward him. She grabbed the clothes from his hands and smiled. "Thanks…"
After a minute Joel started to move back. "Okay… I will give you a few minutes to change… I will be downstairs…. okay..."
"Okay… thanks," After that, Joel went down to the living room and started to check the rest of the house.
After five minutes, Ellie goes downstairs and walks into the living room. Joel saw her and was glad that she was wearing some pants now. She has her gun in hand too so it was good.
"Okay, did you find something in here?" she asked quickly.
"I check the house, and I don't see any gas or anything that can help us. He turns his head and looks at the corridor that leads to the kitchen. "The only place left to check is the basement."
Ellie looks at Joel and starts to move closer to him. "Okay… do you think that this house has a basement?"
"All houses like this one had one… But I didn't have much time to check where the door is, but now that you're here we can search together.
"Okay… then let's go and find it…" Ellie and Joel start to walk out of the living room and go through the rest of the first floor of the house. After a few minutes of searching, they found a door behind a kitchen rack. It looks like someone hid it from view, so it should be something of value there.
"Why does someone hide a basement door?" asked Ellie.
"I don't know, but there has to be something there…" he moved to the side of the rack and started pushing it. "Help me with this will you?"
Ellie moves beside him and starts to help him. "What… this is too heavy for you?" she said in a mocking way.
"Just push…" after a few minutes they move the thing out of the way. And Joel grabbed the nob and tried to open it, but it was locked from inside. "Okay, I think this is it… but it's locked..." he said while moving away from the door.
"Can you no… kick it and open it?" she said while looking at him. "I thought you're good at that."
Joel looked at her. "Sorry… kiddo, but if the door opens in the other way around, it is impossible to do that." he starts to look around to see if they can find the key or something to open. "Maybe we can try to find the key or-" he stopped when he saw Ellie pointing her gun to the nob. "Ellie, what're you doing?"
"Using my own key… stay back…" she shot a few times to the nob, damaging the lock in the process.
"Shit… girl, you don't have to do that… besides it was a waste of bullets… and we don't have too many to waste," he said, protesting.
"Yeah, but we can open it now… and if we are lucky, may we find some gas there." Ellie grabs the damaged nop and opens the door, but soon she does two infected run up the stairs toward her.
One of them jumps at her quickly and tries to bite her, but Joel grabs Ellie by the shirt and moves her away from the infected woman. "Get the other one…" Joel yells while grabbing the infected away from Ellie and starts fighting with her.
Ellie quickly pointed at the other one that was running toward her and shot. She hit him twice in the chest and another one in the head before he got close to her. "Shit that was close…" she said looking at the infected body on the floor.
On the other hand, Joel pushed the infected that he was fighting away from him and shot her down too. "Yeah… to close…" he said too.
Ellie quickly moved toward him to check if he didn't get bitten. "Are you okay? She didn't bite you… right?" she starts to panic while looking for any mark on him.
"Yeah… yeah... I'm okay… she didn't bite me…" he said looking at Ellie's scary face.
Ellie relaxes as soon as she knows that he is okay. The last thing she needs is Joel getting infected for a mistake she makes or for any other reason. They look at the bodies and notice that they were young, probably in their 20's.
"Do you think they were the ones that live here?" asked Ellie while looking at the bodies.
"I don't know… they look too young and look like they have not been infected too long."
"Do you think the clicker bit them and got them infected?"
"Maybe, but who locks them in the basement and tries to hide the door?" He asked with some curiosity of what happened here.
"Maybe they were with some other people and they locked them up," Ellie answered him.
"Yeah, but why? It was easy to just kill them and leave them like that."
"Well, maybe the other ones were their parents and they didn't want to kill them… or they found some hunters here, and they..."
"It doesn't matter right now… they're dead and the Clicker too." Joel moves closer to one of the bodies. "Anyway check their pockets and see if you can find any bullets or something... I will make sure that there is no one else down there," he said looking at the entrance of the basement.
"Oh, no,no...no you're not going down there without me... mister," she said with an authoritative tone. Ellie moves away from the dead infected and walks toward the basement. She wanted to go down first, but Joel grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Okay, you can come with me… but I'll go first."
Ellie gives him a look. "Joel I'm already infected and if there are more of them down there or spores it is better for me to go first and make sure that is safe."
"I don't think there are more infected down there… if they were, they should be coming up already."
"Okay… but you bring your mask?"
"Yes… on the bike sandals…"
"Well, if you don't have it here I will go first. Maybe they're not infected down there, but they can be spores and those do not affect me."
Joel pauses for a moment because she was right. He didn't think that he would need it so he left it on the bike. He could go and get it, but by then Ellie will be down there. "Okay fine but if I hear something dangerous… I will go down there spore or not… okay?"
"Fine…" Ellie rolled her eyes and started to move down the stairs. Soon she was on the button, she used her flashlight to illuminate the place and look around. She checks the place and makes sure that there aren't any spores. After a few minutes, she calls Joel and tells him that it was okay for him to get down.
Joel and Ellie checked the basement and saw a few things down there, but not any gas tank there. So they grab some food cans that they can use and carry them out of there. By the time they get back to the barn, their clothes were dry, so after they put the food on the bike sandals they put it back on and start to get things ready for departure.
"What do you think happened to the couples?" Ellie asked while putting on, her backpack.
"What makes you think they were a couple?" asked Joel while moving the bike out of the barn.
"I don't know… but I think they were. It would be so sad if they were because they die in the end."
Don't be so sad about it… it's not like we should be able to help them. I just thought and found this farm and thought of using it, but found the Clicker and at least one of them got infected. Then try to hide in the basement until one of the turns and… you get the picture."
Joel stopped moving and got on the bike and started it. Well, it does not matter what happens here anyway, they're all dead now and we still need to find some gas or this trip is going to be long if we have to finish it on foot.
Ellie goes behind him and puts her hand on his waist. "Well, maybe it was better to use horses for this… they don't need gas."
Joel rolled his eyes. "Yeah that may be true, but it will take us too long to get there." With that, Joel accelerates the bike and drives away from the place. Yeah, it gives them cover from the rain, but the infected there give them a close call too.