Chapter 2

Even though the days were cold and froze their bones like hell, at least the sun came out every morning. It would be a long time before it would stop shining.
Joel slowly opened his eyes while the dream faded out, and tried to blink away the fog from his eyes. Ellie was already up.
"Hmmm" Joel sighed while sitting up with his eyes gazing for the girl.
"I'm here" she gave herself up, rising up from a chair before the window. Joel frowned his face, yawning once before saying a word.
"You been up for a long time?" he asked while getting up from the bed. He felt his right side with his arms, and felt almost no pain from touching it. The medicine was doing it's job.
Ellie turned her head back at the window, clearly to hide her face.
"Uh, nah. I barely reached the seat" she lied to him, as she had really been awake for at least an hour or so. Joel lifted one of his eyebrows while walking towards her. She put her head down for a while, biting her teeth together.
"Ya sure about that?" he asked, not walking all the way to her. He turned mid-way and reached her side of the bed to feel it with his hand.
"It's not even warm anymore"
Ellie's eyes almost got wet as she fought the will to tell about the stuff that was eating her alive, but she didn't think it would help either way.
"Yeah, so?" she answered with her regular, feisty attitude, swallowing once before turning to him. Joel lifted both of his eyebrows when he saw her face. It was clear that something bothered her.
"Listen, kid. If you don't trust me with your stuff, that's alright. I just gotta be sure that you ain't backing up on the field as we're heading off" Joel explained, even though he had hoped for some kind of trust after the hard winter.
"Why the fuck do you think I would bail you off?" There she was with the bad words again. He shook his head a few times, lifting his hands up in the air.
"No reason. Just checking" he answered more quietly, taking one last peek at her eyes before turning on his heels.
"Man, this must be like, what - fourth? No, at least the fifth house were checking!"
It was neither of them. Joel immediately put his head down, rising his right index finger onto his lips. Ellie nodded, squatting down on the floor.
"Yeah. Why would they even stay in the village after what happened? Even they can't be that stupid!"
It was another guy. Luckily it seemed that they were the only two strangers in the house.
Joel crawled on the floor, grabbing his back and throwing the other one to Ellie. She caught it from the air and they both took their pistols into one hand.
"We'll have to jump out, okay? Follow me" he whispered, crawling towards the window. They were in the second floor, and he hoped for some kind of patio roof or something to jump onto. As he reached the window and got it open, he saw no roof.
"Shit…" he muttered, turning his head to find another way.
"Yes!" he whispered loudly, backing down to see Ellie.
"There's a fire escape, go on" he advised, waving with his hand. She nodded and took a few quick steps towards the window, peeking out of it. She reached for the ladders and landed both of her feet on it before taking the steps down. Joel listened for a while before following.
"I'll check upstairs. Probably empty, you go ahead to the next one" the other guy shouted from the stairway. Joel sighed before climbing onto the fire escape, and shut the window after him. He climbed down the ladders and met Ellie in the corner of the house.
"I don't think they saw us" Joel nodded, turning his head a few times before grabbing his gun again.
"Let's go before they pack up" Ellie nodded, gasping from excitement. Joel didn't have to nod back before they already started running. It was snowing, but not too heavily. Although, the sight was not the clearest possible.
They ran behind the houses, hoping that they were running to the right direction. They thought they had left the village yesterday, but it seemed they had just reached the other edge.
"Wait!" Joel whispered loudly again, as he heard a voice.
"Yeah, nothing in here!"
"OK, let's head back!"
They pressed their backs against a wall of another house, sighing out in unison. Joel listened for another good while before putting his gun back into it's holder.
"Okay, let's go through these houses for supplies, and then get the hell outta here" he opened the conversation before taking the first steps away from the wall. He looked behind him before circling the house to reach the front door. Ellie followed right after him, sticking to his back like glue.
"Okay, let's-"
"GOTCHA!"
Joel turned to see Ellie, who was grabbed by a strange man with a gun.
"Ellie!" he hurried to scream, but soon felt a hit on the back of his own head.
"Ungh.." he grunted, falling onto his knees. He was obviously taken down by two guys, one of which was taking all his weapons, one aiming his rifle at his head.
"Joel! Stop, you dipshits, I-" Ellie tried to scream, but the man shut her mouth, taking a good grip on her while walking away.
"Ellie!" Joel shouted, trying to calculate the situation. As hasty as he was, he tried to get up.
"You're not going anywhere!" one of the men denied, and he felt another good hit on his head. It suddenly darkened inside Joel's head.

"Well, good morning to ya!"
Ellie was trying to kick away the two guys holding her down, and Joel opened his eyes for the first time in a while. He was lying in the snowy ground, but was held by nobody.
"Ha ha ha! Did you really think we wouldn't find ya?" a man laughed right at them. There were in total 5 guys surrounding them, two of which were holding Ellie from her arms and hair. She tried to scream through the gag, but was only able to make up senseless whining.
"You damn pieces of garbage… " Joel murmured between his teeth, getting up on his knees. He felt two guns pointing straight at him, and he knew he had no other choice but to stay calm.
"Well, that's hasty! Was I dumb to think it was you two who nearly destroyed the other half of our group, huh? Or wait, was it some other strange man with a little girl?" the man in the lead inquired from them. Joel bit his teeth together, as he felt great anger growing inside of him.
"Oh, no. I'd be glad to say that we beat the shit out of your pals, mister" he tried to give out the anger in pieces, not to burst it all out. The men around him suddenly started laughing. They didn't seem to care that much about their friends.
"Yeah? Well, I never liked that David, anyway. Now that he's gone, we can treat our prisoners exactly the way we want. He was always either too nice or cut them up right away" the guy kept on talking, and Joel got the feeling that they were not going to die today. Of course that didn't mean that nice things would follow. In the middle of the conversation, the guy turned his head towards the two men holding down Ellie.
"Oliver, Matt, let her go" he ordered, and the two guys answered quite slowly to the commission. After pondering for a while, they saw the guy nodding towards Joel. They took a grip of her, and threw her in the middle of the circle with him.
"Ellie..!" he reacted, partly grabbing her as she landed. He reached for the gag in her mouth to take it off, but suddenly heard a click too near behind him.
"Stop" one of the guys forbid him, and he stopped right there. He was standing on his knees in front of the knelt down Ellie. He stood close to her, lifting his hands in the air not to get shot.
"That's a nice catch, huh? Ain't it nice to catch a younger feast, boys?" the commanding guy laughed, getting a bunch of nods and humming for an answer.
"Sure is, Frank!" one of them answered to him. So the boss seemed to be called Frank.
"Feast..?" Joel whispered to himself. They were obviously talking about Ellie, since kids were very rare nowadays. No-one seemed to be travelling with them.
"Joel, I'm scared…" Ellie murmured, and Joel just barely heard what she said. A huge wave of anger and pain suddenly went through his body, as she watched the girl in front of him. Her hands were tied behind her back, and the gag in her mouth made it really hard for her to speak clearly.
"But it's cold out here, huh boys? Whaddaya say if we, uh, make him do us a little preview?" Frank sneered, taking a look at the other guys. Like always, he got a huge support for his idea.
"A.. a preview?" Joel muttered again. He tried to understand, but wasn't able to follow their thoughts.
"Yeah, a preview" Frank answered, waving his pistol towards them. He took one step closer to them, licking his lips malevolently with a strange shine in his eyes.
"Y'know, take her clothes off!" Matt laughed like a mad man. Joel turned his head, and was so close to jumping off the ground to choke that piece of garbage. The fire inside him had probably never been this fierce.
"Yeah, don't be shy! She's only a little bitch!" one of the guys followed. His name had not came out yet, but he was standing right behind them and seemed to be most enthusiastic about the situation.
Joel could not see Ellie's face, but he could only imagine what she was feeling inside her right now. Maybe not that much of anger, as she probably felt horrified and ashamed.
The words echoed inside Joel's head. Only a little bitch? Take her clothes off? There was no way he could do that to her. As he could not do that in a regular situation, he could definitely not do it for five strange perverts after their friend had most probably harassed her before.
"Right… um, right now?" Joel swallowed, and he felt some movement in front of him, while Ellie was eagerly listening to their conversation.
"Joel…" he heard her mumble. There was a huge amount of fear in her voice.
"Yeah, now! Are you fucking deaf?" Oliver shook his head, also waving his gun in the air.
Joel felt like he was running out of options. He could not wait for too long, or they would do it for him. Or worse, shoot him out of the game entirely.
"Uh… alright…" he finally answered, going out of breath while even thinking about the situation.
"Joel…" the girl repeated, shivering on the ground like never before. Not only from the cold, but also the feeling that the only person in the world she had trusted in was suddenly obeying their enemy.
Joel leaned towards her, putting his head on her shoulder. He let his arms come around her waist, meeting on the other side. He slowly opened his mouth, putting it against her left ear. He could barely hear the sounds that the men around them were making. They were totally focused on them. As for the people around them it would've seemed like he was kissing her neck, he opened his mouth for a whole another reason.
"Play along" he whispered as quietly as he could, but luckily the blowing wind did it's part on covering his voice. Not that the men would even listen to him talk while they were waiting to see the naked teenager girl. Ellie swallowed, letting out a silent utter. Nodding would be too risky.
As Joel had felt her waist for a moment, he slid his hands on top of her bottom.
"Ooh, yeah! Make us hot!" the insane guy, Matt, yelled in between. Another wave of uncontrollable anger crossed Joel's insides. He heard Ellie's breath getting more and more quick, and he knew he had to slow down. As he had no idea what the plan was, he had to make it quick for the sake of Ellie's mental health - and his own.
"Not exactly what we were asking for, but he sure is into it" Frank laughed, and all the guns were suddenly pointing down.
"Horny fucks…" Joel grunted silently, biting his teeth together. For some reason, the guys seemed to pack up in front of them, leaving the area behind them completely unattended. He finally got his chance.
As he slid his hands to Ellie's own, the rope holding her hands together didn't seem too tight or hard to solve. Joel found his hands trying to open the knot, but meanwhile the guys seemed to get bored.
"Hmph, keep at it, you faggot!" Oliver shouted annoyedly, kicking a bunch of snow towards them. Even Joel started to feel a bit cold, as the wind was not at it's warmest this time of the year.
He knew he had to do something meanwhile. Otherwise he would get caught.
"I'm sorry" he whispered to her ear, as he knew he couldn't use his hands for this one. He felt a huge wave of discomfort enter his stomach, and he knew he would never be forgiven for doing this.
After a few seconds, he laid his lips on her neck. He hated himself for it, and Ellie bit her teeth together while feeling disgusted by the whole thing. She was angry, sad, uncomfortable, ashamed and everything else at the same time, as she felt the warm lips on her neck. She wanted to close her eyes from it, but she knew they had to act at one point, and she had to be ready for it.
After the longest 20 seconds, he ropes were untied. He slowly laid them on the ground. The men did not see him act behind her back, and he reached for the girl's back pocket.
"Wait…" he whispered, and touched the switchblade in there. As he slowly slid his hand into the pocket and the same way out, they were ready.
"GO!" he yelled, as he used all his strength to throw the blade at one of the men's throat. Fortunately, it was Matt. Meanwhile Ellie jumped onto him to twist the blade in his throat, Joel jumped towards Frank, grabbing his gun arm with both of his hands. He twisted and turned, trying to get a shot at any of the guys in the row.
"GET DOWN!" Frank shouted, as Joel tried to twist his arm to get the gun. As he finally got him to drop it, he heard another click behind him.
"Stop your business!" one of the guys yelled at him, and he knew he had to turn.
"Oliver, Andy, fix Matt's throat. We're getting inside" He was holding Ellie, and they had no choice.