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IMPORTANT
Please read before continuing the chapter.
Hey guys I just want to thank you all for coming this far to my first Last of Us fanfiction. I truly appreciate the love and support, but I do want to let you all know that from this point on my story might contain spoilers from The Last of Us part 2 so if you haven't played the game or don't want to get spoiled make sure you finish watching the cutscenes or finish playing the game first. Without further ado let's continue on with the story.
It has been three hours since Ellie and Jesse have been patrolling together. They would write in their logbooks about certain landmarks that they have found, how much food they have found by that landmark. They have been taking out the infected and making sure that their hasn't been any trespassers, but there was still not a lot of communication between the two. They sat at a log bench to take a short break from patrolling. Jesse was on one side of the log bench while Ellie was on the other side. The silence was driving Ellie crazy.
"Okay I've had enough of this!" Ellie blurts. "I'm sorry that I kissed Dina. I was not expecting it."
Jesse turns to Ellie. "You were not expecting it! You went in for the kiss, if anyone didn't expect it, it's Dina and I" Jesse snaps, he was getting even more heated. "You're only apologizing because you don't want to deal with the consequences of your actions."
"Consequences of my actions?" Ellie stands up to her feet flustered "Maybe if you were a better boyfriend to Dina maybe you two would still be together!"
"Oh please you don't know her like you think you do. All that glitter is not gold!"
"Ugh I don't have time for this." Ellie marches to her horse, climbs on the horse and storms off.
Jesse stands up and watches Ellie disappear. "Always running off from your problems right!" Jesse yells at Ellie. Jesse then plummets back on the log bench to calm down.
Ten minutes have passed and Jesse finally snaps out of being angry with Ellie. "Wait what am I doing!" Jesse says to himself as he rushes to his horse. "I gotta find Ellie!" Jesse gestures his horse to run. He hopes that Ellie didn't go too far and was not in trouble.
Meanwhile Ellie was already in trouble she was already trying to sneak away from the infected inside of a abandoned court house, it was the infected that she hated the most, Stalkers. This infected would run away and would wait to attack. She was doing good so far sneaking away from the infected and then she tried to sneak pass one of the stalkers that was looking out the window and she accidently stepped on glass which alerted her position. The stalker turned in her direction and ran towards her. Ellie gets up and run while she uses her pistol to shoot at the Stalker that was trying so diligently to catch up with her.
She finally headshots the stalker and the stalker falls back and slams onto the floor, dying. Two more stalkers run out in front of her and plummets her onto the floor. Ellie drops her weapon and she was trying so hard to grab it while keeping the stalkers from biting her. Although she was immune to the cordyceps virus it would look bad if Jesse or someone else saw a bite mark on her. She could feel her hands sweating as she felt the pistol within her grasp. She was finally able to grab the gun and she splattered one of the stalkers face into bits. The other stalker grabbed her by the foot and began to drag her across the court house.
This was very odd to Ellie. This has never happened to her before. This stalker was just dragging her around without attacking her. She was trying to aim her gun to shoot the stalker arm off but since it was running so fast while swaying her side to side it was hard for her to shoot. The Stalker finally stopped dragging her and then pounced on top of her, scratching her. She shot the Stalker in the chest a few times before it fell over to the side. Ellie tosses the body to the side and stands up dusting the fungi off of her. She had a few scratch marks on her, but she was not bitten.
"What the hell was that all about?" Ellie was out of breath and she was very puzzled about what just happened. She begins to look for a way out of the court house while she was searching for supplies.
Then Ellie froze when she heard a noise that she never heard of. She hid underneath a desk and she saw an infected that she never seen before. It had puss spores all over its body with an overgrown head. She was very frighten, her whole body began to tremble as she felt a cool breeze go down her spine. She tries to carefully move from under the desk but she ends up accidently bumping her head and the Shambler came into the room she was. The Shambler burst acid towards Ellie and she began to sprint away from the hideous infected.
Some of the acid landed on Ellie's skin causing her to scream. She slides over the table and shoots at the Shambler. The Shambler continued to burst acid towards her. She shot the Shambler a few times in the head and in the legs before it fell down and exploded the acid everyone. Ellie took a huge breath of relieve before she used a brick to break the window and escape. She had to be extra careful now that she is out of bullets. Since she had lost her horse due to the infected scaring it off she hoped that she would find the horse again and she hoped that the infected didn't catch up and eat him.
Meanwhile Jesse was riding on his horse still searching for Ellie. He thought that Ellie couldn't have headed far since he wasn't sitting down for long before he decided to look for her. It was only one thing it was starting to get late and they needed to get back home soon or they would have the town worried. He was in a hurry to try and find Ellie. He would search building after building to make sure that she wasn't in there, killing infected in the process. Soon Jesse had ran into the horse that Ellie was riding. Jesse gets off of his horse and carefully pets Ellie's horse to calm it. Jesse grabs Ellie's horse and walks with it.
"Okay so Ellie's not too far from here." Jesse was relieved to see the horse." But where would she be?"
Jesse hears a scream that was right behind him and it was Ellie running away from a Shambler. Jesse gasp at the Shambler, he has also never seen anything like this.
"Ellie over here" Jesse yells at the top of his lungs, shooting at the Shambler.
It begins to get worse when Shambler after Shambler showed up trying to kill them. One of the Shamblers begins to catch up with Ellie and burst the acid towards her. Jesse hops on his horse and runs towards Ellie grabbing her. Jesse then stops his horse for Ellie to hop on hers. The both of them heads away from the infected.
A couple of hours later Ellie and Jesse decided to settle in an abandoned theater. They set their horses aside in the theater. It was now a couple of hours until night and the two had no clue where they were.
It was still awkward silence between the two and it was build up tension that needed to be resolved. Jesse decides to wander around the theater. Walking around the theater helped clear his mind. On the other hand, Ellie had found a guitar and she began to play it. Ellie was sitting comfortably in the red chair, leaned back, stroking the strings gently. She then gets a flashback of herself at Dina's 17th birthday. Dina and Jesse were still together at the time, the three of the were the ultimate trio. Ellie remembers that they like it was yesterday she had a blast. She begins to ponder in her happy thoughts some more as it calms her.
Meanwhile back at Jackson it has been two hours since mostly everyone has returned from the patrol except for Ellie and Jesse. Dina notices that there was something wrong when she saw a group of people at the gate discussing something. She decides to approach them and ask some questions.
"Hey what's going on?" Dina had fret in her voice.
"Were looking for two patrollers named Ellie and Jesse have you seen them?" One of the gate patrollers was waiting for an answer.
Dina opens her mouth to answer but another guy was speedy quick to answer.
"No" a guy replies. "They have been gone longer than usual we might need to send out a search party"
Dina begin to panic. She decides to rush to Jesse's house to tell them what's going on and then she rushes to Joel's house. Dina bangs on Joel's door waiting for him to open.
It was Maria that opened the door instead. "Hello Dina, have you seen Ellie?"
"No!" Dina shouts. "Her and Jesse went out to patrol and they haven't came back!"
"What!" Joel shouts, he had just approached Dina from behind and heard everything.
Tommy heard his brother shout and he had a concerned expression on his face. "What's going on?"
"C'mon Tommy, Ellie is missing." Joel begins to head to the gate. There were so many things running through his mind right now. He was so concerned that Ellie could be in danger at this very moment and he wouldn't even know or be able to do anything. His main concern was to find her.
"I knew that she wasn't ready for this." Joel begins to feel regretful and sorrow.
"Joel don't worry we will find her." Tommy tries to calm his brother. He could tell how stress he was getting.
Joel, Tommy, Maria and Dina soon were at the gate.
"John go ahead and set up a search party. Joel and Tommy will be apart of this party" Maria orders.
"What about me." Dina wanted to look for Ellie as much as Joel did.
"No, Dina you need to stay here. We have everything under control." Maria assures.
"What that's not fair. The more people we have out the better chance we have of finding them." Dina was getting upset that Maria wouldn't let her go.
"Dina." Maria said in a serious tone.
Dina knew by Maria's tone of voice that she was serious and that she meant business. "I really hope you find them." Dina says in a sad tone, she then turns around and begins to head home.
Jesse's dad showed up and was also getting ready to look for his son. The men were getting their horses and guns prepared for the trip.
"Maria can I talk to you in private?" Joel hops off of his horse.
"Of course." Maria nods, walking a little bit further away from the men.
"Once we find Ellie I want her pulled off of the patrol list she is not ready for this." Joel was very upset about what was happening and he was trying to hide the pain in his voice.
"Well I just can't get her off the list. There are people above me when it comes to who patrols-" Maria was trying to explain, but Joel interrupts her.
"Well talk to whoever is in charge to get her off the list before I do. If I have to talk to them it's not going to be nice." Joel warns Maria.
"Joel!" Tommy calls him over. "They are about to open up the gate."
Joel goes over to his horse and reloads his gun before they open up the gate and send the search party out. They then begin the search to find the two.
A few hours later Jesse decides to approach Ellie who was still playing the guitar and was in deep thought. He gently taps her on the shoulder. "Is it okay if I sit next to you?"
Ellie gives off a soft smile. "Sure."
"Also you don't mind if I play the guitar do you?" Jesse hands his arms open, wanting Ellie to give him the guitar.
Ellie hugs the guitar away from him jokily. "No way, you play guitar!"
"And sing" Jesse adds.
"Well don't keep me waiting." Ellie was excited to hear him sing and play the guitar.
Jesse begins to sing his favorite country song while playing the guitar. Ellie was very surprised about how good he sounds and she could tell how much he had passion for singing.
Jesse finishes up his song and gives the guitar to Ellie. "Your turn"
Ellie chooses a song to sing as well, her song choice was more romantic. Jesse watches as Ellie strokes the strings on the guitar and listen to the sweet melody.
"You have a beautiful voice." Jesse smiles at Ellie.
"Thank you." Ellie nods. "You're pretty good at singing yourself. How come you never come to karaoke night?"
Jesse shrugs "Eh I guess it's the nerves. I actually never sang in front of people."
"Don't let the nerves get to ya. You'll do great." Ellie shoulder buds Jesse.
"Ellie.." Jesse begins to change the topic. He felt like he should get this off his chest sooner rather than later. "I'm sorry about how I acted earlier. You're right if I would of been a better boyfriend to her then we would have still been together. I don't want our friendship to break." he felt his guilt exploding.
Ellie felt relieved when he apologized and that the tension between them were going away. "Apology accepted."
Jesse stands up. "It's late we should get some rest. Tomorrow we will continue our search back home."
"Goodnight Jesse." Ellie gets up and sleeps on the brown couch nearby.
"Night." Jesse goes to next room and falls asleep on a red couch.
In the middle of the night Ellie was awoken by a strange noise she heard outside. She wakes up Jesse.
"What is it." Jesse rubs his eyes he was still tired.
"Jesse get up. It might be infected." Ellie tugs on his arm.
"Alright, Alright." Jesse gets up a bit annoyed that Ellie woke up him. They both head towards the front of the theatre and presses their ear against the door to hear better.
There was a clear call. "Ellie."
Ellie recognized that voice from anywhere. "Joel!" Her heart was filled with glee.
"Oh thank goodness." Jesse took a breath of relieve.
Ellie rushes to get the door open. Once the door opened she spotted Joel and Tommy on their horses. "Joel!"
Joel and Tommy looks over at the theater and sees Ellie coming out and Jesse was right behind her bringing out the horses.
Joel's eyes widen when he saw Ellie, rushes over to her on his horse. He stops his horse, leaps off and gives her a tight, warm hug. "Oh baby girl, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Joel. We just got a little lost." Ellie wanted Joel to stop hugging her so she pats him on the back.
"I was so worried about you." Joel continues to hug her.
Jesse hops on his horse. "You guys won't believe what me and Ellie ran into."
Joel finally stops hugging Ellie and he was quite curious on what he had to say.
"What is it?" Tommy was waiting for Jesse to answer.
"There was this infected that has puss spores and burst acid towards you." Jesse explains, he still couldn't believe what he saw.
"Oh yeah this stalker grabbed me by the foot and dragged me around without trying to attack me until a couple minutes passed. Now that was weird." Ellie said, shaking her head.
"Wait a second a stalker grabbed you, didn't even attack you and there's a infected that burst acid." Tommy could not believe what he was hearing.
"Sounds like to me the infected are mutating." Joel mentions as he hops on his horse. "We should get home and tell the others."
Ellie hops on her horse as well and the four of them heads home.
When they arrived home they were greeted by Maria and Dina. Once Ellie and Jesse gets off of their horse Dina rushes in and gives both of them a hug.
"I'm so glad that you two are okay." Dina was more than relieve that they were okay.
"Yeah were doing fine." Jesse smiles, he happens to turn around and spots his father and the other men from the search party coming into the gate. "Hey I will catch up with you guys tomorrow."
"See ya." Dina waves at Jesse.
"Actually Dina I'm going to go home. I had a tired day. I have so much to tell you later." Ellie gives Dina a tight hug before she heads home with Joel.
Another day, another chapter written. Thank you guys so much finishing another chapter to this story. There is something crazy that is going to happen next chapter and I cannot wait for you guys to read the next chapter. Until then keep enduring and surviving.