Disclaimer: I do not own any character of (The Last of Us) TLOU is owned by Naughty Dog, Sony, and their creators.

A/N: Hi, I want to thanks the people that are reading this, I hope you like the story so far. I also wanted your opinion about something in the story. Some people ask me To make Joel more into Ellie, but since the original plan for the story was that Joel was going to be like a father figure for Ellie and only Ellie was going to have a crush on him. I need to do some changes to the story, so I was thinking on change that too. So LMK as soon as possible if you want me to do that or keep that part as original was planed. LMK what you all think, thanks.

Chapter 5: Back to the Road

After two hours on the road, the gas of the bike was getting low so Joel needed to find some, to fill the tank soon.

"Hey, Ellie, the tank is almost empty… we need to find some gas soon. So I will stop to check the map again… okay?" he said while slowing down the bike to make a stop.

"Hey… what is that?" said Ellie while pointing to a structure on the side of the road a little far away...

Joel looked at it and noticed what it was. "Oh… this can be our lucky day… It looks like a gas station… so maybe we can find some gas there," he said while accelerating the motorcycle.

Soon they got closer to the station, Joel slowed down to stop a little away from the place. Joel moved into the side road and stopped the bike behind some tree.

"Hey, why are you stopping this far?" asked Ellie. "I thought you wanted us to check the place for gas…"

"And we will… I just want to be sure that the place is safe before rushing in there…" he turned his head and looked at her. "Can you pass me the binoculars from my backpack?" he told her while looking at the place.

Ellie looked at the place too. The place looks deserted, but Joel always wants to be too cautious about places like this, so Ellie gets off the bike and looks in his backpack, and gets the binoculars.

"Here," she said while passing the binoculars to him. "I don't know what you think about that place, but I don't see anything from here… and it's too quiet too," said Ellie moving to his side as soon as Joel got off the bike. Joel walked toward some trees and stop behind one and started looking at the place.

"Yeah, too quiet for my test," he said while continuing to look at the place.

Ellie rolled her eyes again because she knew that all the places they stop are suspicious to him. But a lot of the time he is right. She thought about what happened on the farm and how he was almost bitten by those infected in the basement. So it is good that he always acts with caution.

"So… Do you see anything?" she asked a few minutes later.

"Not in plain sight… there are a few rusted cars there but I don't think they have any gas. So we need to check the pumps or inside the store." he said, lowering the binoculars.

"Okay, so we just walk there… or we take the bike with us?" she asked while looking at the place.

Joel turns around and walks back to the motorcycle. "No, you will stay here to guard the bike while I go and check the place…" he grabbed his shotgun from the bike side and checked the ammunition.

"Here we go again," Ellie said in a lower voice. "No... you're not going in there alone… we already talked about this... and you know what happened in that farm a few hours ago so-" She stopped when Joel looked at her.

"This is out of the discussion, besides I don't want to leave the bike alone if there are hunters there… so I need you to stay here and-" Joel did not even finish as he watched Ellie turn around and start walking toward the gas station with her gun in her hands.

He walks after her to stop her, but she runs and crosses the road to get closer to the gas station. Soon she gets close to one of the rusted cars, she gets behind it and starts looking at the place.

Joel arrives a minute later and gets behind the car too. "What are you doing?" he asked her in a lower voice.

"What I have to do since you like to leave me behind every time we need to check a place out," she said without looking at him.

Now was time for Joel to roll his eyes. "I don't like to leave you behind… I just want to keep you safe… is that a bad thing?"

Ellie turns her head and looks at him. "Yes, it is if you're going to risk yours… What do you think is going to happen to me if you get killed? Did you think about that?" she said with an annoyed voice.

Joel looked at her eyes and saw the sadness in them. Yeah, they're so bonded together now, that they can't live without the other. But Joel knows that he is old and that someday he will be gone and Ellie will stay alone. But even so, he wants to spend all the time he has left with her. Even if he was a selfish bastard that condemned humanity by taking Ellie from the fireflies.

"I know you get scared sometimes about… you know things can happen to me, but you're young and you have a friend back in Jackson and Tommy can take care of you if something happens to-"

"I don't want Tommy to take care of me… and I don't care how many friends I have there…" a tear goes out of her eyes as she thinks about a life without Joel. She loves him, and not only in the way he thinks. Ellie thought about them for a moment and maybe this was the time to tell him. Tell him how much she loves him in a way a woman loves a man and that she can't live without him.

"Ellie…" he said in a lower tone. "I… I know that we go through a lot of things together, and I am always glad that we end up together. But if you really know all the things I did, you don't be-'' Ellie stops him while putting a finger on his lips.

"I don't care what you did in the past… you said it before, that we have to do a lot of shit to survive. I know you want to keep me safe and I like that about you, but I am not a kid anymore. I will be 18 soon and I can take care of myself, so you don't need to worry about me so much."

Joel lowered his head because that is not what he meant to say. Ellie may love him now, but soon she knows about what he did in that hospital in Salt lake city she will hate him. But this was not the time for that. He knew that need to tell her the truth someday, but not now or here.

Ellie looks into his eyes and just wants to tell him what she is feeling … even kiss him, so that way he knows her real feelings for him. But all that changes when she heard some noises coming from inside the station. Both of them hid behind the cars as soon they saw two men walk out of the place.

"Hunters!" both of them said at the same time. Lucky for them the hunters don't hear them talking, or they will know that they are there. So they keep themself hidden.

"Shit! What do we do now?" she whispered at Joel.

Joel moves a little and looks at them. "We can kill them, but we don't know how many hunters can be inside there… so it is better for now to wait and see," he said in a lower voice too.

They are a little far away from the hunters, so it is not guaranteed to kill them both at the same time. Also when the shooting starts, they don't know how many hunters are inside the gas station store. So the fight could become nasty and without gas, they can't go far in the bike either. So Joel has decided to wait and see what happens.

One of the hunters moves away from the entrance of the gas station store and gets out a box of cigarettes from his pocket. "How long do you think we need to wait here?" one of the men asks the other while lighting one of the cigarettes.

"I don't know… the boss said to wait here for them." answer the other man while walking close to the other.

The man with the cigarette takes a smoke and looks at the other. "Well, I hope they come back soon with the girl… I'm getting tired of babysitting those two in there." he takes another smoke. "I don't know why the boss hasn't let us kill them like the others…"

"Well, he wanted the old man and the brother to watch when he fuck their little girl… You know how he is. He also lets us have some of the action too when he finishes with her, so stop complaining."

"Yeah, she shouldn't have run away when the boss captured those two. Now he pisses and he is not going to be gentle with her when he gets her…" the man starts to laugh a little.

"Yeah… I like when those girls scream and beg, but the boss only gives them more pain… that gets me really excited."

Joel has to hold himself to not just get out of their hiding place and go kill those mother fuckers right there, but he needs to think of Ellie first, even if she feels the same way as him.

"Did you hear that?" Ellie said, moving closer to him.

"Yeah… I don't really care what they do to whatever they have in there that is not our business, but going to rape a girl just for the fun of it is sicking me." Joel said with a disgusted tone in his voice.

"So what are we going to do about it?" asked Ellie with the same tone.

Joel moved back and sat down. "I don't know… as I said we don't know if they're more inside and if the others they mentioned are coming back soon, will be outnumbered."

"Okay… so what is the plan… because we can't let those assholes do what they're going to do?"

"There is not much we can do right now… even if we kill the ones in here, the girl is not here, so it means that the others are looking for her."

"Yeah, but we need to do something…" Ellie moves a little and looks at the men that are still talking with each other. "Maybe they haven't found her yet and if we liberate the ones they are holding up here. Maybe we can help them to find the girl before the hunters do it."

Joel starts thinking about what to do. He doesn't want those assholes to get to that girl and rape her, but he also doesn't want to risk their lives for some random people on the road. But thinking about it they don't have much of a choice. They need gas for the bike to continue and this place can have some, so for them to check it out, they need to take out those hunters.

"Okay, let's go closer and see if they're more of them inside. If only those two are here, we kill them.

"Okay, I will move around and approach from the back and-" Ellie started to talk but Joel grabbed her arm before she moved away.

"No… I will go to the back and you stay here to cover me…"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Here we go again… Joel, I can do this. Let me go to the back and you can watch those two and make sure they don't see me." Said Ellie trying to convince him to let her help.

"Sorry… kiddo, but I have more experience with this, so it is better for me to do it and you cover me here."

"Damn it, Joel… I am not a little girl anymore and you can kill those asses better if you stay here," she said in a mad tone.

Joel looks at her and wants to say something, but he already sees that she is determined about this and the last thing he wants is to continue their way with a piss-off Ellie. Also, he doesn't want to get into any more trouble like on the farm. The last thing he wanted was to get into trouble with hunters too. But he knew the risk was going to be out here. But protecting themselves is something they need to do, but risking their lives for some strangers was another different thing.

After a few minutes he looked at Ellie, and it was better to not waste more time. "Okay, you win… we do it your way, but if things got too bad we're out of here no matter what… Do you understand?"

She moved her head as a yes. She wanted to smile at the victory of their discussion, but it wasn't the time for that. She needs to let Joel know that she is capable of doing things by herself, that she is not a little girl anymore. He teaches her all she needs to know to survive, so she needs him to trust her on that. Even so, she loves that he is so caring and always thinks of her first, that is one of the things that make her love him even more.

Soon the men get distracted enough by talking about the bullshit things they do, Ellie starts to move away from the car and into the trees that cover the back part of the gas station. Joel gets a good grip of his shotgun and gets ready to kill those assholes if they spot Ellie. So for now he just needs to wait for her to confirm if they're more inside the station.

At the back of the place, Ellie moved between the trees without being seen. It was over noon and the sky was cloudy so it was better to hide as the sky was getting a little dark. Doing this was better in the dark, but she didn't have any other choice. Soon Ellie moved closer to the back of the store. She made sure that no one was watching that part. The back of the building does not have any window except for a small one that is supposed to be the restroom. But it has a back door, so she will try that one to get inside. Normally that back door takes to a small storage place on the back of the building, so it will be safe to enter that way.

Okay… Ellie, you can do this, just do what Joel teaches you and everything will be alright. She said to herself. Soon Ellie gets to the wall of the building, she moves slowly toward the door and tries it out. Lucky for her it wasn't locked out, so she proceeded to open it slowly. She has her 9mm in one hand ready to kill whatever is on the other side if it is a tread to her. But she hopes for no one to be on the other side.

Soon she was in, Ellie closed the door and looked around. Lucky for her the place has some holes on the wall and roof that leave some of the outside light to come in so the place was not totally dark. Ellie looks at the messed place, she can see all kinds of broken things and garbage everywhere. She also sees a few old boxes, but they have nothing that can be useful. There was a lot of junk and papers all around but no sight of any people there.

Ellie starts to move around slowly until she gets to the door that goes into the front part of the store. But before she opened, Ellie put her gun on the back of her pants and grabbed her knife in with one hand while opening the door slowly to take a peek. Soon she does, Ellie doesn't see anybody close to the door, so she decides to get out of the backroom and hide behind a rack. The place was a disaster with a lot of garbage everywhere too, but the empty racks were still up and served as good cover. This part of the store was more illuminated as it has glass windows in the front and some to the side. She can't see anyone inside so she decides to move from her spot and check around to find the hostage they claim to have in here. Soon she starts to move, Ellie hears a voice from a man coming from the other side of the store.

"Wake up old man… we don't want you to be sleeping when the boss comes back with you little girl." Ellie hears the man say as she continues moving closer.

"You will never... find her… she is a clever girl…" said another man with a pained voice.

Ellie moved behind another rack and saw the back of a man standing a few feet in front of her. The man was talking to an old man sitting on the floor with his hands tied up on his back. He was older than Joel, probably 70 to 80. There was some blood and bruises on his face, probably because those assholes have been hitting him. Beside him was a boy, probably 18 or something. He looks unconscious, so he probably gets the worst treatment from those assholes.

"Yeah, you said that about you boy right there too, and look how he ended up." Ellie saw how the man kicked the boy in the stomach just for the fun of it. What a sick bastard. She said to herself.

"Why are you doing this? We give you all the things we found in the city… so why not just let us go?" said the old man.

The hunter gets down to his lever and smiles at him. "No all of it… we're not getting laid in a while and that girls of yours are going to keep us entertained for a while. You two are still alive because the boss wants-AAAAgggghhh," the man won't even finish his sentence as soon he feels Ellie's knife penetrated his throat. The man moves his hand to grab Ellie in desperation, but she only pushes the knife forward. After a few minutes, the man stops struggling and falls down to the floor, and lands on his own blood.

The old man looks at Ellie with a surprised face as she moves down beside the dead man and starts to check his pockets. "Who are you?" he said in a lower voice while watching her.

Ellie looked at him still with a mad face. "Someone that doesn't like assholes like this one do bad things to people." She grabs the few bullets she found in his pocket and his gun. Then Ellie grabs the knife from his neck and pulls it out and stands up looking at the old man.

"How old are you…?" he said while watching her cleaning the knife. "You look like a kid… and how do you manage to kill that man? He is almost the double of your side."

Ellie gives him a serious look. She hates when people think of her as a kid. "I just saved your life, so you don't need to worry about my age, I'm big enough to take care of myself. Besides I've been killing assholes like this for a long time… so it is not a big deal."

The man looked at her with surprised eyes. "I understand that, but how are you going to take care of the others? Because there are two more outside."

"I did not come here alone… so don't worry about that…" Ellie moves close to him and kneels beside him.

"Do you come with other people?" asked the old man.

"Yes, I came with another person, he is outside watching the other two…" she answered him. "Are there any more of them around here?" she asked while cutting the rope that tied the man's hands.

"Yes.. they're but they're gone… only three of them stay here... but the other part of the gang goes out looking for my granddaughter…" said to her while rubbing his wrists. "Please, she is only 13 and you don't know what those men are going to do with her if they find her... so please you need to help me to find her before they do… please," he begged.

Soon Ellie finished cutting his hands free, she stood up. "We want to help you, but I don't know what else we can do. We're only stopping here looking for gas and we don't know where you girl go so-"

The man looked at her with pained eyes. "Look they're going to rape her if we don't find her first… but if you help me, I can help you with that… I know where to find some gas. So if you help me to save my granddaughter, I can show you where," said the man moving close to the boy that was still out.

"Is he okay?" she asked while looking at both of them.

"They hit him in the head with a gun, after they beat him up. He needs some attention…but I don't think it is so bad."

Ellie was going to say something when she heard gunshots coming from outside. "Shit!... Joel!..." she said while looking at the entrance of the store. "Stay here…" then she turned around and looked at the old man. "Take this in case any of them try to get back in here," she passed the hunter gun to the old man while grabbing her own gun from her back and moving away from them.

Outside Joel was firing his gun at the men that moved behind the gas pumps for cover and miss. But he hit the one that tried to get back inside in the leg, but that wasn't enough to kill him, so he moved away from the entrance and hid behind the pump with the other. So soon after that, they returned the fire.

"You better give up man, we're three of us here and just one of you…" the man covered himself as Joel fired at him. "Shit!"

"Ah, don't worry about that… I have enough bullets for all of you…" he tries to let them think that he is alone. Hopping for Ellie to be right as they mention a third person that must be inside. They have him pinned behind the car, but Joel was a better shooter than those assholes. He just needs an opportunity to get a clean shot. Joel looks at his gunshot and notices that he only has three more shots, and his other gun is back on the bike. So he needs his three shots to count if he wants to give Ellie a chance. But for that he needs to get close to them, but how? He can't move away from the car without getting shot so he just needs a distraction.

"Hey, man... We don't know who you're but you mess up with the wrong people." said the man that Joel shot in the leg.

"Cover mi… I will get to the other side and make him move, so you can shoot his ass as soon as he moves away from the car." whispered the other man while moving to the other side of the pumps.

Joel needed to take care of these two before they found out about Ellie. He didn't know if she was inside yet, but he needed to keep those hunters away from the store. Joel was ready to make his move, so he moved his head to the side of the car to see where exactly the hunters were. But at that moment he saw Ellie walking out of the store and aimed at one of the men.

"You better drop your weapon if you don't want to die." Ellie doesn't know if that was a good idea, but she wants to give them the chance to get alive from this. Besides, they need one of them alive so he can tell them about the girl and the other members of their gang. But that was a mistake… because the men on the other side of the pump turned around quickly and shot at her. Ellie barely had the time to move to the side to evade the shot and quickly got back inside the store looking for cover as the other men shot at her too.

The man that shot first ran after her with his gun in hand. "You made a mistake… sweetheart… now I will get you… and you are not going to like what we're going to do with you..."

The men that were shot in the leg look at him. "Don't kill her… we can have some fun with her later," he said while looking inside the store. For a moment he forgot about Joel and stood up from his hiding spot.

After a minute a few shots can be heard from inside. "ELLIE!" Joel screamed as he ran toward the front of the store. The man outside turned around remembering Joel, but it was too late. Joel quickly aimed his shotgun at him and shot.

The shot hit the man in the chest sending him flying back to the ground. Soon Joel was closer to him, he shot him again to make sure he was dead. "No one shot at mi girl… asshole!" Soon after that, he hears more guns shot inside the store and ran inside. "Ellie!" He called her as soon as he walked into the front part of the store.

"Over here…" he hears Ellie from the other side of the entrance. Joel walked as fast as he could to the other end of the store and saw Ellie standing next to the man's body on the floor.

"Are you okay?" he hurried up and put one hand on her shoulder and started looking for any injury.

"Yeah… I'm fine." Ellie said quickly to calm him down. "And you?"

"I'm okay too… I just… shit... Ellie, you should not go out like that… you can't give them the chance to shoot back. Just shoot them when you have the chance… you were lucky that they missed."

"Sorry… I was just trying to distract them… so that way they stop shooting at you. Besides, we need one of them alive to talk, but that option is gone now."

"Shit... you scare the hell out of me… but I'm glad that is over… did you find out who they have a prisoner here?" Joel asked.

"Yeah… they have two people, they are on the back, close to the restroom… an old man, and a young boy…" said Ellie pointing to a few raked away.

Both of them walk toward the two prisoners and soon they get there Joel sees the old man checking the boy's head that has some blood on it. Soon the old man hears them, he looks at them.

"Thank you for helping us… are you her dad?" He said as soon as he noticed that Joel was way older than the girl.

"I never said he was my dad…" she said quickly. "Now how is your grandson's head? Do you think he can walk?" Ellie starts asking, trying to change the subject.

"He is in bad shape… but he will live. Do you have anything to take care of his injury?" he asked, looking at Joel. "And my granddaughter, can you help me to find her… before those men do?"

"We can give you something for the boy… but about you girl, there is not much we can do. We only came here looking for gas and we don't have time to get involve in-"

"We will be happy to help you… just wait here okay." Ellie grabs Joel's arm and pulls him with her. She walked to the other side of the store and toward the exit.

"What the hell are you doing? You hear those men, there's more coming this way so we need to get away from here before they arrive," said Joel as soon as they got out of the store.

"We need to help them to find the girl… those men are looking for her to do a bad thing to her… you hear them."

"Yeah, I did… but now that those two are free they can go and help her themselves."

"They can't do this alone… You saw them. The man is old and the boy is injured… we can't leave them like that. Besides, the old man told me that if we help him he can give us gas or at least tell us where to find some."

Joel walks away from Ellie in a frustrated way, then he turns around and looks at her. "And you believe him? He probably said that to make us help him... besides, it's better for us to not get involved in this. We don't know how many there are and we do not come here looking for a fight... getting involved in other people's problems is a mistake. And we don't need it right now."

"I know… I know, but what choice do we have? The bike is out of gas and we need some to get out of here, she is only 13 and we can't let those assholes find her and rape her." Ellie moved closer to him. "What if it was me!... or Sa- another girl from Jackson?" She almost mentions his daughter's name but stops in time.

"Joel turned around and put his hand on top of his head. He walked around for a few minutes mumbling to himself, probably cursing. "If they were after you I will make sure they-" he stopped and looked away.

Ellie walks at him and hugs him from behind. "I know this is not our problem… but we can't let those men hurt that girl…" Ellie put her head on his back and hugged him tightly. Ellie knows that this is not what they wanted to do when they go out of Jackson. But soon she hears what those men want to do with the girl, which reminds her of David and how sick he was. She knows that if she does not kill him as she did, he will probably rape her before he decided to eat her.

Joel doesn't like Ellie doing that, because she knows his soft spot and always uses it to convince him to do something he doesn't really want. But he loves that Ellie always tries to help other people. He wants that for her, so that way she doesn't end up like him. That sometimes he doesn't give the fuck about other people's needs.

"Okay… okay… you win. We can help them find the girl, but if things got too hot for us we leave… okay?"

"Ohhh, Joel… thank you this means a lot to me…" said Ellie while moving away from him.

Joel doesn't get exactly why, but he is happy that she has a big heart, even if that can kill them someday. "Okay, I will get the bike and bring it here, you go back inside and find out where the girl went… okay?" he said as soon as he turned around and looked at her.

Ellie moves forward and kisses his cheek and moves away. "Thank you… and don't worry, we will do this as fast as we can, then we can continue our way to California." Ellie smiles at him and turns around.

Joel watches her walk back inside of the store with worried eyes. Because he knows that nothing is as simple as it looks in this world.