"Common Ellie, run!" Joel called out. He heard Ellie sprinting behind him.

Smoke was starting to fill his lungs, the entire town was on fire, and a bunch of hunters were chancing after them, largely because he and Ellie were trespassing in their town, and were responsible for the fire.

Apparently, dragons breath ammo was good for that.

Now, there they where, trapped inside a building that was burning to the ground, armed with shotguns loaded with dragons breath, which was now starting to be a risk to themselves.

"Through here!" Joel said as he kicked open a door that lead to a back ally. He stumbled out the door, and was on his knees, gasping for air. He heard Ellie fall down next to him on the pavement, coughing heavily.

"We don't got much time!" Joel said as he helped Ellie to her feet.

Ellie coughed one last time before saying, "Lets get the fuck out of here." She looked around for a way to leave the town, then grabbed Joel by the arm, "Look out!" Their was a hunter aiming at them with a rifle. Joel fired a shot in his general direction, more for the purpose of distracting him than trying to hit him. A bullet flew past Joel's head just as he turned the corner.

"This way!" Ellie yelled to Joel. Joel looked over to where she was running towards, and saw the forest that marked the edge of the town. He chased after her as fast as he could.

Joel heard a gunshot and saw Ellie fall over, dropping her shotgun

"Ellie!" Joel ran to her as fast as she could.

Joel saw someone run over to her and grab her by the feet, trying to drag her off the street.

That will be the last thing you ever do. Joel thought as he aimed his shotgun.

"Joel!"

"Where's daddy now you little bit-" the hunter's taunting stopped by a blast from Joel's shotgun. The hunter's dead body flopped on top of Ellie, who was struggling to push it off

Joel tossed the corpse off Ellie. "Can you run?"

Ellie stood up, winced in pain, but nodded.

"Follow me. If you need me to carry you now's the ti-" Joel felt and saw Ellie push him to the ground and pull out her pistol, firing three shots where Joel had just been standing. He heard a man fall down behind him. Joel stood up.

"Lets get the fuck out of here!" Ellie said as she picked up her shotgun in the middle of the street, and ran toward the forest on the edge of town. Joel ran after her, leaving an entire town burning in their wake.

"Holy shit." Ellie said.

To be honest, she'd said that a lot since she entered that town, along with lots of other colorful language.

"How the fuck are we still alive?" She asked, looking up at Joel.

"Dumb luck. I'll take it though." Joel said. He saw a building up ahead, and as much as he wanted to get farther away from that town, they were both exhausted, sore, tired, hungry, dehydrated, and needed rest.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ellie asked Joel in between breaths.

Absolutely. "Lets hold up in there."

Joel realized that the building was at least ten stories tall. "Probably some corporate conference center. Or something." Joel wasn't thinking clearly. The adrenalin from combat had worn off, leaving him only with exhaustion.

Joel opened the door to the office building. "We need to get to the top floor."

"So fucking exhausted..." Ellie managed to get out as she stumbled down on the carpet floor of the lobby to her hands and knees, and cried out in pain. Joel ran over to Ellie and saw the gunshot wound on her her right leg, just above the ankle.

"Common now, lean on me." Joel placed her arm over his shoulder and helped her get up.

"I'm fine..." Ellie tried to say in between gasps.

"Like hell you are." Joel walked up the stairwell supporting Ellie, who was now hopping on her left foot.

"Hey, Joel?"

"What."

"Mind carrying me? I'm not going to be able to handle the stairs." Joel obliged.

"Thanks." Ellie said as Joel carried her up the stairwell.

Joel set Ellie down on the carpet floor of the office building.

"Man, this hurts like a bitch!" Ellie said, probably referencing the gunshot wound.

"You're lucky it wasn't a lot worse"

"Thanks. It still hurts like a bitch." Joel chuckled at that.

Joel kelt down next to her and took off his backpack, looking for one of his medkits.

"Thanks for saving me back there." Ellie said.

"You saved me more than once back there. It's nothin. " Joel handed her his shotgun. "Please get the fucking dragons breath out of this thing."

"Good idea." Ellie began emptying the shotgun, loading it with standard buckshot.

"Here we go." Joel pulled out his alcohol filled rag. The bullet wound was more of a nasty cut than anything else, due to the bullet only grazing her.

"Here." Ellie handed him his shotgun back. "You reloaded yours yet?"

"I'm on it." Ellie grabbed her shotgun and started unloading it.

"Ellie, Im' gonna need you to role up your pants over your wound, okay?"

Ellie pulled up her right pant leg to show the bullet wound.

"Now, this is gonna sting a bit, so..."

"Back in the zone, whenever doctors said it would only hurt a bit, it hurt a lot. Same here?" Ellie asked.

"Yep."

"Just get it over with."

Joel raped the rag around the wound.

"That'll keep away any infection."

"It better." Ellie said. "Hey, look over there." She pointed out one of the windows, which made up the entire outer wall of the building.

Joel saw a bunch of smoke in the distance.

"We did that, didn't we?"

"Yeah, that was us." Joel said as he turned around to face Ellie, who was now sitting up against a cubicle wall.

Ellie sighed, "I feel kinda bad about it."

"Don't. They were trying to kill us."

"I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again. They tried to kill you, I'm not sorry about what I've done. It's just... I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"People like that don't deserve much better. They ain't gonna change. Once you cross a certain line, you almost never get back. At first, lots of people had to kill to survive, don't get me wrong. Some still do. But now, its the only way lots of people know how to live."

"But that can't be true."

Joel chuckled at that, "What makes you say that?" He knew he was right. All he had to do was look at himself.

"You changed, didn't you?" Ellie said.

That stopped Joel cold.

He wasn't exactly sure what to think of that.

He stared at Ellie, who stared back.

Joel was fairly sure she didn't know what to make of his reaction.

Hell, I don't even know what to make of my reaction. Joel thought to himself.

After a minute of silence, Joel turned back out towards the window.

From what Joel could tell, this girl actually cared about him. He knew he didn't deserve that. She was better than him in every way that mattered, Joel knew that. Hell, she had to know that.

Yet for whatever reason, Ellie thought he was a half decent human being. He lost any sense of that two decades ago. He wasn't getting that back. Nobody could live like that anymore. Sure, he was a lot better than a lot of people out there, but he was no hero.

Quite frankly, the fact that Ellie thought anything good about him beyond his ability to survive was a bit frightening.

More so because a part of himself thought Ellie just might be correct.

Ellie broke the ice. "So, want to hear a joke?"

Joel turned around and sat down against a cubicle across from her.

"What do you call a man with no arms and no legs playing in the leaves?"

A dramatic pause.

"Russell." Joel and Ellie both burst into laugher at that one.

"That was by far the best one in there."

"Can't agree more." Ellie replied.

Joel enjoyed the next couple hours.

"Joel... Joel... Please.. "

"Ellie, wake up." Joel walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?" Joel asked.

"Yeah... Just a nightmare, from what happened back in the town."

"Oh."

"You left me in one of the burning buildings. Thanks for waking me up."

What.

She was having nightmares about him leaving her?

Joel walked back to where he was sleeping and lied down, knowing he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep with that knowledge.

Joel was staring at the celling, unsure what to make of the clusterfuck of emotions going through him right now.

Joel heard Ellie get up and hop over to him on her left leg. She got down and placed the back of her head on his right shoulder.

"You don't mind, do you?" She asked.

"No." Joel said, which wasn't entirely true.

Joel had two major emotions right now, he felt a wave of self loathing, and also felt blessed at the same time.

Blessed that Ellie could find some comfort in him, knowing that he would never leave her.

Self hatred knowing that he didn't deserve a scrap of the emotion this girl felt towards him. Not with the shit he'd done. Not with the blood of so many innocent lives on his hands.

She deserved so much better than him.

At least I can keep her safe. Joel thought to himself. That much, he knew he could do.

Joel knew that she easily deserved that.

[AN] Sadly, school is starting up again soon. That probably means I won't be updating as much as I have been recently. So, if I go a week without updating, I'm not dead. Just an FYI.

Dont forget to leave feedback. Thanks for reading.