Summary: Ellie, consumed by anger, will stop at nothing until she destroys those who took everything away from her. The memories of her past haunt her every step, appearing in the form of her former protector. The reality of her world threatens to consume her when a chance meeting with a strange young child sets of a chain of events that Ellie never saw coming. Little does she realise she herself is the biggest threat of them all.

Warning: Contains strong language, sexual themes, character death, violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own TLoU or 'Through the Valley.'

AN: So my oneshot has become something more. Bewarned: big twists ahead in later chapters and tissues might be required. Also, 'thoughts will appear in italics.'

"Humanity is a crazy contradiction. I accept us for who we are. We're not that great. Every time we take a step forward we go back to the same primitive behaviour. We're meant to be this way. It's not our fault, it's just who we are" - Colin Quinn

Chapter One

The deteriorating highway stretched endlessly into the distance. Asphalt crumbled underfoot as Ellie walked through the skeletons of rusting cars that littered the road like a maze, choked with bracken and stubborn weeds that grew through cracks in the broken concrete. Withered remains of humans who perished decades past were scattered sporadically, long since picked clean by opportunists. It painted a haunting picture of the chaos that was the Cordyceps outbreak, a picture that was all too familiar to the nineteen year old woman.

A lone vulture circled lazily overhead, following Ellie in hope of her perishing in the unforgiving heat. The Missouri sun brutally shone down on her relentlessly, distorting the air with waves of hot air that radiated from the ground. The humidity was stifling, causing uncomfortable drops of sweat to down run down her dirty body and made her clothes stick to her like glue.

Ellie squinted her eyes at the horizon, the ruins of St. Louis hazy in the distance. Ellie estimated she would be there by nightfall if she continued at her current pace. She stopped and shrugged off her backpack, pulling out her nearly empty canister. She twisted the lid off and drank the last three mouthfuls greedily, almost welcoming the unsavoury feeling of swallowing warm water. It did little to ease the throbbing headache she had had for the last 72 hours.

For the past couple of weeks Ellie had been travelling by night, the temperature being too brutal to move during the day. However, the trail of the group she had been following had started to grow cold so she had no choice but to push through during the day and risk heat exhaustion. She knew it could be potentially a fatal calculation. Missouri certainly didn't lack in rivers and lakes, but she needed to boil any water before drinking it. She couldn't risk contracting a disease when she was by herself- if she got sick she would lose her targets.

That was of course, completely depending on the validity of the information she obtained back in a small abandoned village outside of Omaha. Her interrogating skills weren't exactly efficient, but they had gotten the job done. The fight itself had been her closest call yet since she left Jackson, the scar on her forehead still visible where she had been nicked by a hunting knife. She had gained the upper hand by a craftily placed nail bombed, a trick taught to her long ago by a reluctant Joel. "I dunno Ellie," he'd said, filled with reservation as she had pleaded with him one night after they left the suburbs of Pittsburgh. They were huddled in an abandoned home, the boarded windows offering them enough protection that they were able to build a small fire in an empty drum that Joel had hauled from the garage. "Please Joel? I'm not a fucktard. I won't accidentally set it off I swear!" He had given a wary sigh and finally relented. It was moments like those shared with Joel that took her mind off of everything they had been through. Tess, Henry, Sam... For a little while she could distract herself.

But there was no distracting herself from what had happened in Jackson the previous winter.

Ellie shook her head, attempting to dispel the unwanted thoughts that crept into her mind. Succumbing to the memories would be a painful distraction.

"They're gonna get away if you keep standin' there like that kid. C'mon."

Ellie said nothing when she heard the southern drawl from behind her. She slung her backpack over her shoulders and climbed over the bonnet of a car that blocked her path as Joel fell into place beside her, the metal groaning in protest under her weight but didn't shift when Joel added his own. Some days there was no avoiding him. As much as it mentally exhausted her- in a twisted way she enjoyed his company. At the back of her subconscious she knew that every time she responded to Joel it was dragging her deeper into the realm of being batshit Crazy with a capital C. Sometimes she would ignore him but more often than not she caved and gave in, figuring she was a lost cause already. Majority of the time they talked about irrelevant things. Joel would tell her stories about his youth with Tommy- stories that she knew she had already heard a long time ago that her memory was regurgitating back to her.

"STL huh? Well this takes me back. Me 'n Tommy did a road trip here once, went to a Cardinals game," Ellie must've looked confused because Joel chuckled, shaking his head with amusement at her preoutbreak naivety. "Baseball team. Busch stadium is pretty famous..." Ellie nodded as Joel continued to tell her about how Tommy had gotten into a fight at a bar after the game and how they had narrowly avoided being arrested. She remembered the story vaguely now, he had told it to her the first time back when they had passed a small local stadium outside of Boston. At the time Joel had treated her like a pubescent inconvenience and would barely say more than two sentences strung together. Sometimes though, something would trigger a memory and he would indulge her even if it was just for two minutes before resuming his stoic silence. Back then she had thought he was a massive dick but still found it interesting see him open up, even if it was just a tiny amount.

"I don't know what he was thinkin', but he thought he could take the guy on- he woulda been at least a solid foot taller than him..."

Ellie shot Joel a look out of the corner of her eye as they walked side by side. For someone who was a creation of her mind, he was a lot chattier than he had been alive. At first it had baffled her, but eventually she theorised that it the memories were trying to keep her occupied and distracted. She was musing this over when Joel shot an arm out in front of her and stopped suddenly in his tracks. "Shit!" Instantly she was on alert, dropping hastily to crouch behind the remains of a F150 with her 9mm in hand. She strained her hearing, the noise was so faint that she was sure she had imagined it (because really, could she trust her brain at all these days considering her dead companion was at her side ready to fire off his Revolver?) but when she heard it the second time she knew it wasn't a trick.

"Fucking Stalkers," Ellie hissed in frustration through gritted teeth. She pressed her back against the tipped over truck, making note of everything that could possibly provide cover to keep her out of sight. She hated Stalkers more than Clickers. At least with Clickers you didn't have to worry about being seen but Stalkers had the whole 'we're going to run around like fucking spastics and come at you like a pack of psychotic velociraptors on steroids and oh- PEEK A BOO I SEE YOU!' thing going for them. They kind of made her think they had all been drug addicts before becoming infected. It had taken Ellie a long time to learn how to distinguish between Runners and Stalkers. Joel had been a natural, he could pick it up just by a certain blood chilling screech they emitted and their erratic behaviour.

It was times like these she was thankful that she was trained by one of the best.

Joel hadn't moved from her side. When he had been alive he had always been the one to take charge, leading the way to or through their foe. Now he followed her, shouting words of encouragement or advice which at times could be incredibly distracting because it's not like someone who isn't real can do hell of a lot. Ellie's eyebrows knitted together in concentration as she tried to calculate how many there were. She had established from the different unique groans and the distance between that there were only two, an oddity considering their hunting style. Today was her lucky day. She shifted her weight and leant around the front of the Ford, waiting for the right time to stealth attack the closest infected when rapid gunshots cracked through the air. Ellie froze as Joel growled from beside her. "Shit, that sounded close," he hadn't heard them approaching either, another rarity considering he had the senses of a bat.

Which meant the Infected were now the least of her concerns.

'Fuck!'

"Kid we gotta move. Now!"

"No shit Joel!" The Stalkers agonised screams covered her snarky reply. Ellie heard the grunt of several men jumping down off the roof of a RV not too far ahead. Joel peered around the tailgate of the vehicle they crouched behind, lifting his hands up to signal to Ellie there of eight of them. She cursed under her breath.

Dehydration was beginning to take its toll, fighting eight unprepared like this was a guaranteed suicide mission. As the group despatched the Stalkers with dull thuds of melee weapons she crept silently away, using the cars as cover.

"Jesus Christ these fuckers stink- Jess they actually remind me of you."

"Get fucked Nate, at least I don't smell like your girl- did she live in a fish market before you picked her up huh!?"

Ellie's heart hammered viciously in her chest as she fled, trying to put as much distance between herself and the Hunters as they laughed and shot crude jokes at each other. The highway was surrounded by a dense forest but she was a good 200 meter sprint away with zero cover, there was no way she could make it without being spotted. Her only chance was to find a spot and hide until they left. She spied a Prius that was wedged into the side of the trailer of a Kenworth truck, providing a small enclosed space that she could squeeze into. She darted through the open space between her shelter and the car, keeping her head as low as possible. She was about to wedge herself into the space when her nose started to itch.

'Fuck not now Ellie- cut it out you stupid piece of shit nostrils! Don't be douchebags to me now!'

Her hands flew to her face as she tried to suppress the urge to sneeze but it was to no avail. Her eyes began to water as she let out four consecutive sneezes, cringing at how they echoed.

'Please tell me they didn't hear me, pleaseeeeeeeeee!'

"What the heck was that? Infected don't sneeze! Move out and check the area, there could be Fireflies."

'Aw crap aw crap aw crap. Aaaaaaand I'm doomed. What a shitty way to die. Death by sneezing. Fuck. I have to get out of here!'

The laughter of the men came to an abrupt stop. Ellie's palms begun to sweat as she strained her hearing but couldn't detect the men. The combination of her sinuses acting up and the lack of water were impacting on her senses. Whoever they were they certainly weren't amateurs. Her heartrate accelerated and her adrenal glands went into overdrive. She twisted her head from side to side as she became flustered frantically trying to piece together a plan of attack. Joel materialised at her side, startling her. "You gotta get out of here kiddo!" He said, shaking her shoulders urgently and snapping her out of her moment of panic. "I know these type of hunters, if they get their hand on you you'll be wishin' you were dead!"

She had no smart arse retort for him. Ellie shivered, his words making her think of infernos and blizzards. She pinched her arm, the sharp pain cutting through her scattered thoughts as she scrambled around the side of the Prius, making a beeline for a thick bush that offered her only a small amount of cover. She knew they were getting closer. She had to move. Fast.

"Well lookie at what we have 'ere!" A hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed Ellie by the scruff of her shirt. She cried out in anger and twisted furiously in the Hunters grasp, shouting obscenities as he laughed in her face with a toothless grin. He was old, his limp black shoulder length hair almost completely streaked with grey. His dark tanned face was marred with pockmarks and scars. Ellie thought darkly to herself that she was going to add more to his collection as soon as she was free.

"Let go of me you creep!" Ellie brought her foot crashing down on his and aimed a swift elbow into his chest, feeling his ribs protesting from the impact. He wheezed and let go of her in surprise, bending over and clutching his stomach. "I'll get you for that you whore!" He grounded out winded, struggling to stand back up. "Yeah yeah," Ellie replied dryly as she grabbed a fistful of his hair and smashed his face onto her kneecap. The connection made a satisfying cracking noise. He went down with a thud and didn't move. She hadn't killed him, but it wouldn't be long before he was conscious again.

Her one advantage was that they always underestimated her.

"Ellie you gotta MOVE!"

Joel was pointing at the group of armed men that were now charging towards her, alerted by the commotion. One lifted up his pistol and aimed a shot at her, causing sparks to fly across her cheek as a bullet impacted with the car behind her. Seeing no other option she begun to sprint as fast as she could through the gaps between the vehicles, narrowly missing the bullets that followed her. She spun around and took a few shots of her own. A cry of pain confirmed that she had hit one but she didn't stop to look as a bullet narrowly grazed past her forearm, causing a thin trail of blood to begin to streak over her inked skin.

"Don't you fucking mess with my tattoo you fuckers!" She shouted angrily as her feet thundered on the road. Her chest heaved with exertion as she dropped behind a trailer and blindly fired more shots, quickly emptying her clip. They were almost on top of her. Two were down but that still left her with six pissed off foes who were not exactly cheery after what she had done to their friends. Ellie had been in worse situations before but rarely was she caught out in the open like this. She mentally criticised herself for being so reckless as she reloaded her firearm. 6 precious bullets remained.

"Come out Princess, we won't hurt you we swear," the Hunters voice was dripping with sarcasm as he ducked behind a car and out of sight. Ellie rolled her eyes as she fired off a well-aimed shot, clipping one of the men moving between vehicles in the chest. He fell down in a heap. He wasn't going to be a problem anymore.

"She's 'ere you bunch of pussys," the voice was close, too close. Ellie spun around as the Hunter leapt over the vehicle. Ellie lunged at him with her switchblade, attempting to bury it into his neck. Although she had been brought up fighting and was battle hardened by her life on the road, she could never make up for her size and lack of physical strength. "You bitch!" The hunter swore as he flung her smaller frame to the ground. Ellie had time to spit at the man in defiance before he brought the butt of his semi-automatic rifle down on her head with a crack.

"No no no no baby girl! ELLIE!"

And then everything went black.

Flies crawled over the dried blood that covered the knife wound in the throat. The man couched next to the broken body as he quickly analysed the cause of death, estimating the woman to be at least a week gone. The mid-summer heat had caused the body to bloat, her features grotesque from swelling. She wore the garb of a female hunter, which meant more could still be in the area.

Which meant she could be there.

The man stood up, knees creaking with protest from being in the same position for too long. He walked over to the dust coated blinds and pushed a gap with his index finger, peering out the grimy window at the sign outside. He was barely able to make out the faded words-

"Welcome to the State of Missouri!"