Sorry about the delay again, but I've been spending my Christmas holiday on the couch. Hope you enjoy this next chapter, more crazy stuff about to happen.

Chapter 24

After a few days, Ellie was still in the middle of the healing progress. She hadn't walked much during those days, but she was feeling a lot less pain than before.
"I think it's about time to change those bandages" Joel said while buckling his belt back on. He put his revolver to it's holster while feeling his pockets with his other hand. He had plenty of bullets and was well equipped in that way, but they were running low on canned goods. The deer meat wouldn't last for long, and they would have to cook the last bits today.

Ellie sit up and stretched her neck while lifting her eyes to see Joel. She sighed, nodding a few times. At least it wouldn't hurt as much as the first time did.
"Fuck... I guess you're right"
She turned a bit to hang her legs down towards the ground and lowered her gaze meanwhile. She felt like walking would do good, but her clothes were quite ripped. Especially her jeans.

After Joel had gathered his stuff and checked the bullets from his jeans, he turned to see the girl. She was still looking at her ripped jeans. Even though it had been a strange type of fashion back in the days, there was nothing stylish in the way they were ripped.

"Let's get those old bandages off" he interrupted her thoughts, trying to get her mind off the things she was dwelling in. Joel walked to his bag and crouched next to it while Ellie lifted her eyes back at him. She sighed and turned her eyes at the largest bandage on her thigh. She winced as she lifted her legs back on the bed, and leaned forwards to start unwrapping the rag.

Meanwhile Ellie used her time on unwrapping all the bandages one at a time, Joel went through his bag for the second time. He furrowed his brows, and decided not to do it for the third time.
"Hell.." he murmured, lifting his eyes up once he'd finished. Ellie turned to look at him while untying the bandage under the bite mark.

"What is it?" she asked, slowing down a bit. It couldn't be anything good.
"We're out of bandages" Joel shook his head, finally turning his eyes back at the girl. She frowned her face as she finally got the last bandage off, and looked at the pile of used, bloody rags in front of her.
"Well, those are done for" she sighed, trying to remember if she had any left in her own bag, but she knew she didn't.

After a short while of silence, Joel got up from the floor with his backpack. He looked at the ripped clothes Ellie was wearing, and then the bloody pile of bandages. Once he gazed at her wounds, he knew they would have to get new bandages. Since Ellie wasn't in a shape suitable for that job, he would have to go by himself. Joel closed the bag and put it on his back while slowly walking towards the door.

Ellie didn't have to be a genius to notice that Joel was going somewhere, and her eyes instantly widened.
"What are you doing?" she questioned once Joel took out his revolver and started loading it.
"I'm gonna go through the campsite, see if I can find new bandages" he said, almost as he was deciding that now. He noticed the worried gaze Ellie had, and furrowed his brows.
"I'll try to find you some new clothes, too"
"You can't leave me her-"
"Grab your gun" Joel instructed, nodding towards the nightstand. Ellie turned to see the handgun and instantly grabbed it to take off the safety switch. She stared at him with an insecure gaze, and was still scared to be left alone. She knew he did it for her, but she was still upset.

Joel looked at the girl once she had loaded her gun, and nodded.
"I won't take long. I promise"

And then he left. Ellie sat on the bed with the gun pointed straight at the door. It was the only entrance to the room, and she could not be surprised. Not by an infected, not a normal human. Not even by a goddamn David 2.0.

Joel travelled through the campsite carefully and quietly. Once Andy had betrayed them, he knew even his shelter could not be trusted. It had been quiet for the past couple of days, but it could always change. Thankfully the snow was old and it had already been stomped by them and some animals. It didn't make noise and it couldn't reveal their location.

The cabins were quite far from each other, and Joel had to walk a long while to actually find something. The first two cabins, 6 and 7, had nothing in them. They had been thoroughly scavenged and there wasn't even a half a peach left behind. Joel had carried on to the cabin 8, which seemed to have more to give.

Joel held his revolver even steadier than before, just in case someone had already booked the eighth cabin. He kicked the door open, then quieting down to see if there was an answer to his loud entering. Nothing.

He lowered his gun, and sensed that this cabin was almost as perfect as the fifth one. The place was not empty and not even trashed down. All the furnitures were in what Joel assumed were their original places, but the kitchen doors seemed to be open. The people who last lived in the cabin must have taken all the food with them.

Joel took a quick overall look at the place. It looked almost exactly the same as the three cabins he had seen before, and it was easy for him to search the place through.

First, he went through the kitchen, luckily the people had forgotten two cans of beans in one of the cupboards. Searching the kitchen gave him nothing more, and he carried on to the next room. The living room had nothing in it, and he continued his way upstairs.

Already making it to half way of the stairway, suddenly one of the steps broke down underneath him.
"Oh, shit-!" he shouted, grabbing the handrails to hold himself up. His left leg had sunk into the hole while his right leg was still on an intact step below it.
"Christ... " he whispered while hanging in the same position. After a few seconds he had recovered from the heart attack, and climbed himself up.

Once Joel finally made it to upstairs, he couldn't help but notice that the bedrooms were also quite well emptied. Thankfully the people had left something behind. Intentionally or not, Joel saw that most of the everyday closets were untouched.
Joel walked up to one of the closets, opening it and instantly congratulating himself.
"Yes…" he whispered, once he saw the piles of rather clean clothes inside. He put his revolver back to it's holster, using both of his hands while going through the clothes. It was the master bedroom, and the clothes seemed too big for Ellie. Joel was bad at estimating sizes, but these were too big.

"Then you'll turn into rags" he scoffed, and packed a pair of large T-shirts in his bag. After going through the women's clothes, he saw a pile of clothes for men. He furrowed his brows before having a quick look, and decided to grab a shirt with him. Maybe it was the time for him to change, too.

After going through the first bedroom, Joel continued his way into the smaller one down the hallway. Entering it immediately pushed Andy into his head, and he couldn't vanish the picture of him standing in front of the armchair with the baseball bat.

Joel bit his teeth together, walking straight to the closet. He did not want to think about it.
Once he opened the closet, he faced an even bigger positive surprise. It was indeed the room of a girl, probably a few years older than Ellie but close enough. Fortunately the clothes were quite clean and overall intact, and Joel could just grab a pair of jeans and a couple new shirts before he closed the door.
"I found it, Ellie" he said to himself, walking out of the bedroom. He picked up the pace after safely landing downstairs and heading straight back to the cabin 5.

Quite soon after Ellie was left alone, she was already getting paranoid. She was listening more carefully than ever, and hoped that Joel would return.
"Please, don't take long.." she whispered to herself, holding the gun with both of her hands.

Meanwhile, she started to observe her wounds more carefully. She remembered something about the evening she got them, but the visions were blurry and could even be incorrect. She slowly landed her eyes on the big wound on her thigh, and frowned her face. She remembered how she had begged. She remembered how she had cried and hoped that Joel would come to save her. How she had regretted she didn't come up with him instead of Andy. Above everything, Ellie remembered that she had desperately hoped to see Joel.

A blurry memory entered her head, as she thought about the end of that scene. She hardly remembered seeing Joel, although she remembered she had seen him later on in this bedroom. Even though she didn't remember seeing him in Andy's room, she recalled hearing him say something that warmed her heart.

Ellie furrowed her brows, trying to think about the words. She wanted to remember, yet she couldn't.

"Come on! In here!"
Then Ellie awoke back to reality. She got scared of the female voice coming from downstairs, almost dropping the gun.
"Fuck..!" she whispered, swallowing a lump from her throat while aiming the gun at the bedroom door. She carefully listened as the front door was quietly closed after the woman, and she also recognized another pair of feet walking in the living room.
"Mom, I think they saw us"
A voice of a teenage boy. Ellie frowned her face, hoping that Joel would be the next one entering the house. The fact that the boy spoke in plural woke her concern.
"We ran a long way after that, they couldn't possibly know which way" the woman tried to comfort him. Ellie was suddenly not so afraid, but worried about the whole situation. Clearly these people weren't too dangerous, since they were running away from someone else, afraid.

Ellie followed their conversation, trying to figure out their moves by the steps they took downstairs. Joel had left the bedroom open which helped her hear their conversation more clearly. They were just talking about their plan of finding a place to stay, when they quieted down the same instant they stopped walking.
"You think it's theirs?" the boy asked from his mother, and Ellie tried to figure out what they were talking about.
"Oh God…" the woman whispered, clearly more quiet than before.
"Nathan… we must leave.." she continued, and Ellie heard their almost inaudible steps approach the front door. She heard the door open, and then close.
"What the fuck..?" she whispered to herself, exhaling deeply as she put the gun down.

Joel made his way towards the cabin five. He kept a good pace while walking, but he didn't want to make any excessive noise to gather the attention of any possible trespassers. Neither infected nor healthy ones.

He didn't have to walk for too long, as he already heard loud shouting from the direction of the nearby field. He slowed down, frowning his face as he pulled out the revolver.
"They came this way!"

It was a male voice, and they were approaching the campsite. Who were they talking about? What was the group and could they possibly have talked about him and Ellie? No, that was impossible.

Joel listened for an answer to the first shout, and realized that they were still a bit further away. He didn't know who they were searching for, but he had to hurry to reach Ellie in time. She could not handle herself in that condition.