Probably should have put this by now, but I don't own the Last of Us, not even a copy of the game sadly. The rights go to Naughty Dog, because they are flat out awesome.

He'd been sleeping for a while now, twitching and muttering from the couch. What had Marlene and the other woman called him? John? Joe?

No, Joel. Marlene had called him that, along with the woman who had gone with her to see the weapons. Why they wanted the weapons so badly was a little beyond me, they seemed like good smugglers to get their hands on more, or at least the lady could.

It had been obvious that she was the one in charge, the way Joel had stood behind her at the bakery and listened to her when she told him to take me to the "north tunnel".

Looking around the apartment, it looked nothing like a tunnel so far. It was clean enough, none of the windows were broken, the couch Joel was lying on wasn't to badly decayed and there was a night stand in the corner.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I opened the top drawer and a sheet of paper was in there. It was list of stuff they had gotten in with the help of some one named Bill. Kevlar vests, morphine... Man these people were good. Nothing else on there really, but it did confirm that the man's name was Joel, but not the woman's name.

I looked over at him. The first thing that came to mind was... old. His hair was streaked with grey and lines were mapped around his eyes and mouth. He was some where around the fifty mark, that was obvious enough. He gave a particularly violent twitch and muttered what sounded like a name but he didn't wake up.

Not to mention, why was he wearing that watch? It was clearly broken, with a small hole in the crystal face with fracture lines radiating out from it, turning opaque with years of grime. Had some one before the outbreak given it to him, and he just kept it out of habit despite the fact it would never work again?

I snorted at my self. It didn't matter, he and the woman would take me to the Capitol Building, hand me off, and I would never see them again. I'm kinda glad about that actually. Joel acted like he wanted nothing to do with me.

I flopped down in a chair by the window. We were finally going to the Fireflies. Out west and away from Boston, from the memories. An urge to pull up my sleeve popped up, but I didn't. If he woke up, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to blow my brain out.

The bite had healed over now, with little dents where the teeth had ripped into my forearm and raised bumps from little fungi sprouting next to them. I'd have rather worn short sleeves, but I refused to wear my tank top since the mall, and I have to cover up the fucking thing too. I prefer to keep my head in one piece.

Would they find a cure with the shitty stuff in my arm?

I hope so, 'cause I just want the guilt to go away. The Fireflies have to, they have to find a cure, and I will help them. Even if means traveling all the way to the other side of the country with some stranger. Maybe I'll be able to go to L.A. and surf on the beach.

But not without her, it wouldn't have be fair. She wanted to go just as much as I did, probably even more, and I couldn't do that to her even if she isn't around any more. And the there's the ugly fact that I can't swim worth a damn.

I sighed, pulling my knees up and resting my chin on them. Distant thunder rolled through, getting a grunt out of Joel.

Looking through the window it didn't look like it was going to rain, but the apartment was facing east. And it was getting darker out too as the sun set.

I've been to other zones, but in between I'd been locked in a bus. Seeing how close to the fence we were, I was surprised at how dark it was. Sure the lights didn't run 24/7, and candles never lasted long, but there had always been light. Not out there though. Just pitch black.

Look for the light. It made a bit more sense now.

Rain started pattering against the windows, just a couple drops rolling down here there. I amused myself by pretending they were racing, cheering on the drop I was rooting for and booing if it lost. Sadly though, the rain started falling a just a little too hard to keep track of the drops and I resorted to just looking out again.

The sun was definitely down by now, and the darkness outside the fence was some how getting even more so. What was out there? It couldn't be worse than here, have soldiers breathing down your neck every day, people getting shot, people disappearing. It just couldn't. I won't let it.

AN: Yet again, too lazy to update until now. Unsurprisingly, this is really hard. Ellie is a really complex character and I don't want her to be OoC.

Please review, leave a suggestion if you want: PLEASE no cutscenes or action sequences. I want the story to be sort of canon, and I really don't have the patience to look up all the dialogue.