Thanks for all of the reviews. I really appreciate all of them! Please enjoy the continuation of Endure and Survive!
A Game of Their Own
Two months. That's how long it's been since Joel and I got to his brother's settlement after leaving the Fireflies. Tommy found us a little house to set up in. It wasn't anything special really, just one of the newer houses on the outskirts of the settlement that had been cleared of infected and deemed worthy for living in. But Joel didn't mind, and neither did I.
Really, we were happy to just have a place that we could consider safe from infected and hunters. After a year of sleeping for a few hours whenever we could, ready to bolt at the slightest hint of noise, it was comforting to know that we didn't have to worry about that anymore. Still, it wasn't easy, and it took me a few weeks before I could actually let myself relax and fall asleep without waking up every time the floorboards creaked in the middle of the night.
Of course, I don't think Joel had it any easier. I don't know how he could sleep at all, knowing the things he had done. It was already hard enough for me after the winter we had in the mountains. I still found myself having nightmares over David and the things Joel and I did to survive. I know that it had been necessary at the time, but looking back, we did some pretty messed up shit. It really wasn't easy, but as Savage Starlight always said, "Endure and survive."
Damn, I loved those comics.
I'd managed to scrounge up Volume 15, and I was currently flipping through the pages, reading about Savage Starlight's latest run in with the Travelers when Joel suddenly burst through the door, an excited look on his scarred and worn face. Lately, he had taken to shaving, but he had neglected to do so today, leaving his face with a small stubble in a grayish tint.
"What's going on?" I asked, gently folding the page so that I wouldn't lose my place and tossing off the comic as Joel made his way to the small dining room table that we usually used for eating our dinners off of. Cooking was a nice diversion, and I found that I was actually improving to the point where I could help Joel cook dinner most nights.
He chuckled, causing his muscular chest to ripple, "I found something I thought you might enjoy."
"Really?" I asked a bit doubtfully. No offense to Joel, but he didn't really understand me all the time. He was basically an old geezer at this point, so I guess it was okay, but still, I was kind of skeptical about what he wanted to show me.
"Well, you remember how you said that always wanted to learn about chess back in Bill's town?" He asked me in his powerful drawl.
"Yeah, that was right before he got on my ass about touching stuff in his house." I nodded, remembering exactly how that crazy old man flipped out at me. I definitely didn't regret taking some of his comics after that. The asshole deserved it.
"Here." Joel said, handing me a wooden board divided up into black and white squares.
"I mentioned it to Tommy, and he said he had some pieces lying around." Joel informed me proudly, obviously full of himself for thinking of that. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a multitude of differently shaped pieces, each colored either black or white.
"Cool." I muttered, running my fingers along a white piece I had in my figures, admiring how it had a carving of a horse on it. I really did love horses, and Tommy really had some nice ones to take out to ride. After the little stunt I had pulled a few months back, I wasn't allowed to take a horse out by myself, but that didn't mean I couldn't hang around the stables as much as I wanted to.
"So, want to play a few games?" Joel suggested, pulling out a chair and taking a seat across from me. The wood sagged and groaned as his full weight bore down on it, exposing the chair's age and weakness. We definitely had to fix that later.
"You're on." I replied confidently. I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty good at games. I used to play a Monopoly set I found with Riley all the time before she… anyways, like I was saying, I'm pretty good at games, and if what Joel told me was true, he wasn't, which only added to my confidence.
Smirking, Joel began to arrange the black pieces on his side of the board while I followed along, mirroring him on my own half, until we had an entire board set up and ready for play, the two sets of pieces positioned across from each other on the board, almost like two armies patiently waiting to attack.
Joel set out explaining to me the basic rules and what each piece did. I learned that there were a few different pieces. The knight moved along in an "L" sort of fashion, the bishop moved diagonally along the squares, and so on. After listening for a few minutes, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the pieces and was only more anxious to start playing. Impatiently, I waved him off as he began trying to explain some more of chess' intricacies.
"All right, I'm ready to play." I said excitedly, choosing to move first with my pawn, which was a pretty good move at the time, if I do say so myself.
"Okay, if you say so." Joel replied with a knowing smile, countering with a pawn of his own.
The two of us traded moves back and forth, neither one of us really finding a distinct advantage. True to his word, Joel double guessed every move he made, and was much more deliberate in his movements while I pressed forward on instinct, pushing forward the pieces that felt right. Although I wasn't close to winning yet, it was clear that I was slowly but surely routing Joel, taking piece after piece from him while he growled in frustration at his inability to stop me.
"So, did you do this with Sarah before?" I asked as a lull settled over us, creating an uncomfortable silence. I know it was a stupid question, but it was the first thing that had come to my mind, and I barely had time to slap my hand over my mouth as I realized what I had just asked. For as long as I had known Joel, bringing up Sarah was a topic that bordered the taboo, and I had just crossed the line.
Suddenly, Joel's hand slipped and he toppled his king, which rolled off of the board and fell to the wooden floor with a resounding clack. I gulped slightly as I saw his shocked expression, and a feeling of guilt welled up within my chest as his eyes stared down into the ground, devoid of any expression, almost as if the being before me was a husk of who Joel had been. The piece rolled along the wood, finally coming to a stop as it bumped into Joel's heavy boots.
"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have brought it up." I apologized quickly, hoping that Joel could forgive me for what I had said. I scratched my head, expecting Joel to start screaming at me or some shit, but it never came. Instead, he crouched down and snatched up his misplaced piece, repositioning it in its original position on the board.
"No, don't be sorry." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, his eyes recovering some of their life, although there was a weariness in them that had not been there before.
"Yeah, I did play with Sarah before, but neither of us really were any good at chess, so we played it our own way." He chuckled slightly, with a nostalgic smile on his face. I bit my lips as I saw his eyes dampen slightly as small tears welled up, even as he attempted to blink them away.
"Hey, why don't we try doing that too?" I suggested, grasping for anything to take Joel's mind off of Sarah. He still wasn't ready to move on from her, and we both knew that. But maybe, if I could distract him and take his mind off of it, he would be able to forget about her, if only for a little while.
And that's how we ended up here, playing Battlechessopoly with the remnants of some assorted board games we had discovered around the house. Currently, we were sitting across from each other on the living room floor, each with a thick stack of fake colored dollar bills in our hands.
"C-5." I guessed, receiving a groan in reply. Fuck yeah.
"Hit." Joel grumbled, shoving a red marker into his carrier as I grinned and moved my piece forward on the Monopoly board, which was littered with the ominous red of hotels that I had placed on each of my properties.
He rolled a dice and moved his own piece accordingly, landing on one of my properties that had been outfitted with a hotel, eliciting a cackle from me as I calculated the payment in my mind.
"Clickers were easier to deal with than this." Joel muttered with a scowl on his face as he paid me my money and switched over to the chess board to move one of his knights.
In response, I moved one of my rooks forward, taking the knight he had just moved forward.
"Checkmate." I declared triumphantly, as Joel just shook his head and smiled.
"Yep, you got me." He reluctantly admitted, toppling his king with a swipe of his hand.
I dusted off my jacket with a bit more confidence than I normally did, "I did warn you that I am pretty good at games."
I glanced up at the clock that hung over our living room to find that it was already 8:00 and we hadn't even started cooking dinner yet.
"I guess we should start on some food." I sighed, struggling to my feet and stretching out deeply after sitting in one spot for so long.
"Wait." Joel suddenly spoke up, stopping me in my tracks, "Ellie…thanks for being here. It was good to have some fun for a while."
I heard the quiet tone of loneliness, and I nodded softly in understanding. He was still reeling from Sarah's death, and I knew that he was just trying to use me as a replacement. But strangely, I didn't care. He was the closest thing I had to a family in this fucked up world, and we were both just using each other to get through each day.
"Yeah. Anytime, Joel." I replied, folding my arms across my chest.
"But next time, I'm definitely going to take out your carrier before you can even think about buying any properties." Joel chuckled, starting in the arduous process of cleaning up the board game parts littered all across the room.
"You just keep dreaming." I said with a smile. Family or not, I wasn't about to lose to an old geezer like Joel.
If you guys liked it, please, don't be afraid to leave your thoughts in a review or PM! I really appreciate any and all response I can get for this series. I was thinking of writing a chapter from Joel's perspective, so please, let me know if you guys are interested in more. Thanks for reading!