[AN] Shout out to BlueSky509 for giving feedback on almost every chapter I've posted.
Also, if anyone has any scenarios or ideas for chapters, please let me know. I've been struggling to figure out to write about (that's why I haven't updated in a while). This chapter isn't my best work by a long shot, but I figured I should update this story, just to let all of you know I'm still alive and kicking.
Additionally, school has started up for me. I'm not going to stop posting, but there might be long breaks in between chapters.
"What are the fucking odds of this?" Joel looked over towards Ellie who was inspecting her shotgun. "That pice of shit managed to dent the barrel." Joel noticed an indentation on the side of the shotgun barrel, presumably caused by the revolver that bandit had shot at her with.
That bandit was now lying on the floor of the house.
"Let me see that." Ellie tossed him her shotgun, and he looked over the barrel. The barrel was to damaged to use. "Sorry, but I can't fix this."
"Shit."
"Its not that big of a problem. We'll find another."
"Yeah." Ellie paused for a moment. "Can take the barrel off?"
"Sure, but why?"
"If I hadn't been holding that shotgun, the bullet would have got me. I don't know, I just want to keep it."
Joel figured it couldn't do much harm for her to have it. He removed the barrel and tossed it over to her.
"You forgot to even say catch this time." Ellie said as she caught the barrel.
"Catch."
"Too late." Ellie took off her pack and reached for her joke book. "What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a pool? Bob."
Joel failed miserably at suppressing a chuckle. "That's sick."
"You're sick."
"Put that thing away. We need to be ready in case that bandit had friends."
"We would've heard from them by now." Ellie said, putting the book away regardless. She looked over the dented barrel one more time before placing it in her pack. "Shouldn't we search this place for this guy's base? Might be some good stuff there."
"Lets make sure nobody else is gonna come looking for him." Joel pointed at the dead bandit.
They waited for a couple minutes and nobody else showed up. "Lets go."
"Yeah."
"Wait... We didn't check upstairs." Ellie ran up the stairs.
"Careful!" Joel called after her. "Their might be tra-" he was cut off by the sound of an explosion from upstairs. "ELLIE! " Joel ran up the stairs.
He heard Ellie coughing, "I'm fine. I'm fine." Joel reached the floor and saw her on her hands and knees.
"You okay?" Joel helped her stand up. He was trying to calm himself down.
"Yeah... I'm okay." Ellie stood up. "It came from over there." Ellie pointed over to the far wall, now partly destroyed.
"We're lucky, this guy didn't know what he was doing. He directed the force of the blast right into the wall. Next time, be careful"
"I will. Well, he probably had something worth taking if he went through all that trouble to keep this place safe, right?"
"I'll check it out, you wait downstairs."
"Joel -"
"No." Joel cut her off. "I don't want you setting anything else off."
"But-"
"Guard downstairs. Now." Joel's voice was firm.
"Fine." Ellie begrudgingly walked downstairs.
Joel looked around the room. To his surprise he didn't find anything worth taking other than a couple of bullets. He walked back downstairs. "Nothing up there but a couple rounds."
"I found this down here." Ellie kicked an old cooler without turning to face Joel. He walked up to the cooler and lifted the lid.
"Well I'll be damned." Joel saw several cans of red bull.
"What's that?" Ellie asked?
"It's filled with energy drinks. Here, give this one a try." Joel opened a red bull and handed it to her. She lifted it up to her lips, and spat it back out.
"What is this shit!" She reached for her canteen and drank a large gulp of water to wash out the taste.
"It's Red Bull." Joel said calmly, trying to hide a smile.
"More like bull piss! Who the fuck would drink that?"
"People who needed energy, like needing to finish some work."
"You guys got tired from the work you did? Didn't you just sit around all day or something?"
"I was a construction worker, remember?"
"I mean most people. Must have been a bunch of dumb asses to drink this shit."
"I drank that stuff every now and then."
"So you wouldn't mind having a sip now?" Ellie reached over to the container and tossed him a Red Bull. "Drink or I pull out the joke book.
Joel quickly opened the can and chugged it. Ellie laughed.
"You're right." Joel grimaced. "This stuff does taste like bull piss."
"I'm right as always. Follow me." She walked out of the house.
"Ellie, wait up!" Joel walked after her.