Joel heard that dreaded 'click' as he pulled the trigger of his revolver. He heard that other dreaded clicking sound as he saw the clicker charge at him with the light from his flashlight.

"Joel, catch!" Joel spun around to see a pistol flying at his face. He reached up just in time to grab it, turned to face the clicker, and shot its head twice at point blank range. It fell down to floor of the highway rest stop they were going to stay in for the night. It was already late evening, and they had decided to get inside.

"And stay down you motherfucker!" Ellie called out as she clicked a dead stalker lying on the tiled floor in the head. She had blood all over her, and was holding her switchblade.

Joel looked down at the pistol Ellie had tossed him. It was her pistol.

"I'd like that back now, thanks." Ellie walked up to him and extended her hand.

"Thanks Ellie."

"Not a problem."

Joel mulled over what just happened in his head. She gave up her gun in order to give me a chance of killing that clicker, and made herself face a stalker with only a switchblade. Granted, a stalker bite wouldn't kill her, and a clicker bite would be death to him. If I die, she's probably screwed, so this was simply her increasing her chances of survival. Joel assured himself.

Yeah, and she went through that entire thought process in the quarter second she had to decide to save your life. Yeah, that's totally what happened. Another part of his brain that sounded suspiciously like Ellie chimed in.

Joel stopped thinking about that. Either way, he was alive, and genuinely grateful.

"So, Ellie, what do you think about Ohio so far?" They had crossed the state border earlier that day.

"To be honest, it's kinda a shit hole." Joel chuckled at that as he bent down to pick up the revolver he had dropped while grabbing Ellie's pistol.

"You search that side, I'll take this side, lets search for supplies."

"You got it." Ellie said as they started searching.

Joel was searching an old Starbucks booth when he heard Ellie, "Aww, gross."

Probably just a dead body. Joel thought.

Joel finished searching his side of the rest stop, sat down at one of the tables and waited for Ellie. He hadn't found anything useful, not that that was surprising.

He saw Ellie walk up to his table with a shotgun strapped over her. "All I found was this, and these." She sat down across from him and placed down a box of shotgun shells.

"You find these on the dead guy?" Joel asked.

"How did you-"

"I heard you say 'Awww gross', so I figured that's what it was."

"I've seen dead bodies Joel. This guy was torn to pieces, he had a bunch of infected corpses around him, mostly with fire and shotgun wounds. It was pretty bad."

"Body look fresh?"

"Probably only a few days old."

"Well, I guess we finished the job for him then."

"Yeah, I guess the two we took out where the ones that got him."

Joel looked at the box of shells. Wait a second... "You said that the bodies had burn and shotgun wounds on them?"

"Yeah, why?" Ellie asked.

"Wait here, I'll be back in a minute. I mean it this time, wait."

Joel pulled the shotgun off his back, emptied out the shells, and took one of the shells Ellie had found. He walked out of the rest stop and loaded the shotgun.

He fired, and smiled. "Ellie's gonna love this."

He walked back inside, "What the hell are you doing wasting ammo Joel?"

Joel picked up another shell. "Do you know what fireworks are?"

"Yeah, but I've never seen them except in pictures. Why?"

"Follow me, I'm gonna show you the next best thing."

Joel loaded another shell into his shotgun as he walked out the door. "You ever fire a shotgun before?" He asked.

"No, but I know how to use it."

Joel handed her his shotgun loaded with the ammo she had found. "Point it up that way, and fire." Joel placed the gun at a 45 degree angle from her shoulder, and took a step back.

"Fire now."

Ellie fired the shotgun and watched the flaming metal light up the area around them.

"That was fucking awesome! What did you load this with?"

"Ellie, the shotgun shells you found contained a special type of ammo called 'dragons breath'. It was damn expensive back in my time, God only knows how rare that stuff is now."

"Well, the next hunter we face is going to have a hell of a time." Ellie said with a smirk on her face."

"No kidd- wait, that was a pun, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

Joel looked at Ellie for a second before walking inside, followed by a laughing Ellie.

"Never talk again." Joel said half seriously.

Joel glanced up over at his opponent, and cringed at the smile on her face. She knows she has me beat. It's only of matter of time. If he made the wrong move here, he was going to regret it for a very long time.

Ellie wasn't here to save his ass this time.

In fact, she was at least partly responsible for getting him into this mess.

This was all up to him.

All he had left was one shotgun shell.

It was now, or never. He wasn't going to get a better shot than this.

"All in." Joel said as he placed his last remaining chip into the pot.

Joel revealed his cards, a seven of hearts and a seven of diamonds. Joel smiled as he saw the surprised look on Ellie's face.

"Three sevens and two tens for a full house. Not bad." The community cards consisted of a seven of spades, a ten of clubs, a ten of hearts, jack of diamonds, and a 4 of spades. Ellie looked up at Joel.

She revealed her cards.

"How in the hell did you..." She had a ten of spades and a ten of diamonds.

She had cleaned him out with a four of a kind.

"Damn it."

"So, I remember something about beginners luck?"

"Shut up."

"To be honest, I'm surprised you managed to hold out this long. You're not too bad."

"I'm never gonna hear the end of this am I?" Joel said with a half serious sigh.

"Nope." Ellie said happily, placing all of the cards on the table in the main deck.

Joel had an idea. "Ellie, before we hit the hey, I need to show you something important." Joel picked up the deck of cards and started shuffling.

"What is it?"

Joel continued to shuffle the deck, not looking up at her. "You ever play fifty two card pickup before?"

"Never heard of it before. How do you play it?"

"It's a fairly simple game, actually." Joel said as he looked up at Ellie. He stopped shuffling the deck.

He put the entire deck in his right hand, and flung all the cards into the air.

"Now pick them up." Joel said.

"Joel what the... Oh, you asshole." She said as she stood up to grab the cards, punching Joel in the arm as she walked last him. Joel laughed.

"I'm surprised you fell for that." He said to Ellie.

"Me and you both."

After a minute of watching Ellie pick up cards, Joel got up to help her out.

"Thanks, but you're still an asshole." Ellie said as he picked up the last remaining cards. Joel handed her the cards and she put the entire deck into her pack.

"Hey, that's what I'm here for." They both laughed at that.

"Lets call it a night." Joel placed his backpack on the ground, and placed his head on it.. Ellie followed his example, and they were both asleep within minutes.

"Morning Joel." Ellie gently kicked Joel.

Joel shot up, fearing that the kick was meant to inflict harm, but relaxed when he saw Ellie.

"Morning to you too." He sat up. "You made breakfast yet?"

"Yep." It had become a routine with them. Ellie almost always woke up before Joel, and by the time she had finished making breakfast, she woke up Joel.

Joel picked up the meat Ellie had cooked. "So, you up for another round of fifty two card pickup?" Joel asked, remembering the events of last night.

"Nice try Joel." Ellie said with a smile.

They finished eating and walked out of the rest stop. It was overcast and windy, but it didn't look like it was going to rain. Joel looked over to Ellie, who still had that shotgun strapped over her. "You sure you can handle that?"

"I'm fine. It's not that heavy, and why would we leave behind a perfectly good shotgun?"

"Because we already have a perfectly good shotgun?" Joel patted the one he had over his back."

"No, you have a perfectly good shotgun. This one's mine." Ellie patted the shotgun over her back mimicking Joel. That got a small chuckle out of him. He walked back to the highway with Ellie.

"We're a team now. We help each other out."

"Yeah, you could say that."

[AN] Yes, the start of this chapter was inspired by Bioshock Infinite. Anyways, don't forget to leave a review. Thanks for reading.