Chapter 2 - A Reason

Disclaimer: The wonderful characters that are in The Last of Us do not belong to me. I do not own anything that you would recognize. Instead, they belong to their talented owners.

Prompt: Write a story where the main character has to make a decision about letting his or her loved one die.
Summary: Never having a say in it, Joel lost every single person that he ever cared for. That is, except for Ellie.
Warning: The discussion of death (although very minor), a quick scene of violence - which causes serious harm (happens later), quite a few curse words, as well as major spoilers for the game.

Just like I promised here is the second chapter! Sadly, though, it is the last part.

Unlike my other stories, this will be nothing more than a two-shot, and a very long one at that. The first part will basically be the scene where Joel wakes up in the lab, but after that - the second part - it will venture off to my interpretation of what he thinks as he walks through the lab. (If that makes sense) So, if you haven't played the game or at least watched any of the walk-through, then I don't recommend reading on until then; that is, unless you don't care if the game gets spoiled for you. (What little there is here)

This time, I want to keep this Author's Note short. So, with that said, I hope that you enjoy and I'll see you at the end!

Happy reading, friends!

Just as a recap:

He was definitely going to make a move. And as they slowly walked towards the building's exit, Joel made a promise. He was not going to leave this place without her. Not without Ellie. But how?

That was when Joel saw a backpack. Most importantly, his backpack. And his backpack meant weapons, which meant a way out.

Within mere steps of passing the desk that the worn backpack sat on, Joel began to form a plan - although, it was not a particularly elaborate one. There were only three steps to it: Step One - Find out where Ellie was; Step Two - Get Ellie; and Step Three - Get out. Alive.

'Hopefully this will work.' Joel decided, and slowly came to a stop.

To answer his silent remark, the soldier asked, "What the fuck are you doin'? Keep walking." When he was not given ever the slightest acknowledgements, he shoved Joel; hitting his back with the gun's thick barrel. He frowned deeply, growing suspicious. "I said keep walking."

And that was when Joel saw an opportunity to make his move.

As he turned around, that was when the soldier fired; but the shot missed when, at the same moment, Joel jerked his elbow in an upwards motion. The bullet lodged itself somewhere inside one of the ceiling's stained panels. The loud bang of a gun going off bounced off of the walls that surrounded them, disappearing as quickly as it had happened.

Joel licked his lips as he shoved the man against the wall, and in one quick movement he grabbed hold of the gun. With a grunt, he hit the man sharply across the head with the butt of the gun twice; not paying attention to the dark, red blood that splattered the front of his shirt and the wall. He had to act fast - it was only a matter of time until someone came running to investigate.

Holding the soldier against the wall, by his throat, Joel pointed the gun down at the man's crotch. He narrowed his eyes in distaste, and growled lowly, "Where is the operating room?"

However, the soldier did not respond. He continued to stare straight into his eyes, thick eyebrows creasing together.

Noticing the lack of words flowing from the man's mouth, Joel shook his head. "I ain't got time for this." He mumbled, looking to the side for a quick second as he pulled the trigger. And the sound of the gun going off was clearly heard, along with the soft splatter of blood as it began to stain the tiled floor beneath his shoes. "Where?" He asked again.

The soldier's eyes seemed to become as wide as saucers. The pain that was omitting from his broken and bloodied nose seemed to nothing but a dull, faint throb. And his jaw nearly hit the floor as another shot went off. Albeit with major difficulty, he managed to form words; "Top floor. The far end." He croaked out with a thin line of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Nodding in approval, Joel let the abused man fall to the floor. But not without aiming at his forehead and shooting another bullet. A thick trail of blood coated the walls, outlining the route that the soldier took before he hit the ground with a solid thump.

Without a second glance towards the still corpse that lay to the right of his dirt and grime-covered shoes, Joel stuck the gun in the waist of his blue-jeans. His eyes widened as the loud shouts of other soldiers echoed to his end of the long hallway; "Gun shots! Search the floor!"

Quickly slipping his arms through the spaces of the backpack's arm straps, Joel cursed under his breath, "Oh shit." And took off running in the opposite direction of the voices and pounding of feet.

Joel flinched as the sound of another hand-made bomb was set off. The smell of smoke and burnt fabric barely had the time to reach his nose as he ducked behind an object, making quick use of the distraction as soldiers, the few that were left, shuffled their way towards the blast sight. Noticing how quiet it was, he took a peak over the small desk that he had taken temporary shelter behind. Notching an arrow, he pulled the string back and aimed; his ear picking up the ever-faint groan of the material as it was stretch. And let go, waiting only a beat before rushing over to the fallen man to retrieve the lodged arrow.

Only once in the darkened hallways of the large building was he forced to turn around, due to the semi-important task of looting for extra supplies. Upon having done so and grabbing a rather generous load of ammo, which may or may not have belonged to a deseased soldier, he had stumbled upon an x-ray lab. Out of sheer curiosity, he had peered inside only to find himself inching the door open as quietly as possible a foot step or two later.

On a desk that was located rather close to one of the large, rectangular windows was a file, and, with a trained eye that he thought that had been long lost, written on a tab were five letters of the alphabet, ones that spelled a name - Ellie. It was her file, and as he opened it, found out that it contained a single x-ray of her brain; both on its side and from the front. He had been shocked at first glance, seeing how nearly her entire brain had been covered in that mushroom-shaped fungi. And yet she had not turned.

Joel was suddenly brought out of his revere when there came a hushed whisper to his right. Quickly fingering the small knife in his hands, he waited until the soft scrape of heeled boots neared the desk until-

"!" The fallen soldier's yelp of surprise was silenced into a soft gurgle as Joel wrapped his arms around the man's neck. As the muscles in the soldier's body unwillingly relaxed due to the lack of oxygen, Joel could not help but gently lower the man to the ground. A small part of him, one, again, that he thought that he had long-since subdued, could not help but feel guilty for but a moment; but the feeling was quickly crushed as the thought that these monsters were going to kill Ellie, just to somehow reverse-engineer a vaccine. Just to have a better chance at surviving against those things.

Before pushing open a double-door, Joel came to a halt.

The generator-powered lights that sat in every corner continued to flash bright red, happily illuminating the wrinkles that appeared at the corners of his eyes and middle of his forehead as, for a second time, he came to a realization. Was he not the same as them, the Fireflies?

Did he not look for any way to have an edge towards the infected? Better believe it. Every chance he got.

Did he not kill one infected person after the other? Certainly.

Unlike the Fireflies, though, he had a reason to go out a murder countless people every day, whether they were infected or if they attacked him first. With them? You were lucky to walk away alive, and the only way to do that was if you were one of their possessions or knew of someone on the inside. Or, if you were one of them.

In one way or another, Joel was just like the Fireflies. He killed for an opportunity to keep breathing instead of becoming one of the infected. Yet, in a different sense, he was not. He was different.

He had one things that the Fireflies did not. A reason to stay alive. And that was-

"Ellie." He breathed, eyes going wide at the still form of the young adolescent. He moved forward, the soft swish as the operating room door slid closed once again. He was stopped short, however, as a doctor that was clothed from head-to-toe in teal-colored scrubs cautiously approached him.

"Doctor?" A nurse asked, unsure of what to do - should she proceed like planned?

The doctor in charge held his in a sign of submission as Joel started to walk towards the hospital bed that was surrounded by medical equipment. The sickly-pale form of Ellie that lay silently on top was the only thing on his mind; the frightened bodies of the assigned-doctors barely registering to him.

And then he saw the knives and scissors that were being held tightly by one of the other doctors. "What are you doing in here?" The third doctor asked, his voice a bit shaky as he clung for dear life on the edge of the sink; dropping the utensils to the floor in surprise.

That was when it all came back to him - they were going to cut Ellie open, the surgery.

His eyes narrowed angrily, and he looked down at the shorter human that stood an arm's-length away. Joel moved to take out his pistol, reloading it in one, swift motion as he took aim.

The doctor that he had his eyes locked on backed up when he took a step forward. The uniformed man shook his head in disapproval. "I won't let you take her. That is our future." He offers out a hand, "think of all the lives we'll sa-"

But Joel does not want to listen. He just cannot bear loosing another person, not someone else that he cared for. Not again. And so he pulls the trigger; silencing the rest of the man's sentence, not even watching as the body slumps to the floor, hunched over.

Glancing over at their fallen comrade. "No!" One of the nurses screams at Joel as he maneuvers to the other side of the room, "You fucking animal!" The rude comment nearly being drowned out by the steady beat of the heart monitor as it calmly chirps away.

The doctor's gaze flashes to the nurse and he hisses, "Kari, shut the hell up!" Quite frankly, he preferred to stay alive and breathing, instead of being met with a bullet to his head. When he sees the gun trained on him, his body begins to shake in fear. "O-Oh god. Ah, just take the girl leave. Okay?" He whimpers with his face facing the dust-covered wall.

And Joel does just that.

Squinting his eyes against the impossibly bright light of yet another lamp, he began to detach the clips from Ellie's motionless body - she was still breathing, he reminded himself. As soon as the first device was removed, which was a Pulse Oximeter that was clamped around her index finger, the heart monitor began to wail loudly as its screen displayed a flat line. He had to keep his eyes locked on Ellie or else he would have surely recoiled from the obnoxiously loud sound. Next to be tossed out of the way was a small oxygen mask, which immediately became clear once it was torn away from her face.

"Come on, baby girl," Joel mumbled, slipping one arm underneath her knees and the other under the arms. He sent a concerned glance down at the limp form of the young teenager that he had - at first, a bit reluctantly - grown close to. "I gotcha, I gotcha." Lifting her body up, he cradled Ellie close to him, and made sure that no extra wires were attached before rushing to the other door.

He looked up just in time to see more lights flood in from the hallway, filling up the well-lit operating room. His eyes widened, "Oh shit." He breathed, already feeling adrenaline coursing through his brains, coating every muscle. It masked the pain that had bubbled from his stomach and the headache that was slowly, but surly, making itself known. He jumped, breaking his frightful stare with the door that had been left ajar.

"Get back!" Sending the two medical professionals a quick glare, Joel took a deep breath and kicked open the door that had remained closed. Without another glance behind him, not even to see how far the soldiers were behind him, he started to sprint down the dimly lit hallway. As he ran around cluttered desks and ducked behind stray pillars, the shouts of the soldiers filled his ears.

"He's carrying her towards pediatrics. Get up here. Now."

Joel's heart nearly stopped, they were calling for backup. And if there were extra soldiers, then he could not fight them off. They would take her away from him, but not before shooting him like Marlene had previously ordered. He shook his head, no. That would not happen. As he continued to run in the opposite direction of the soldiers, Joel spared a glance at every room and sign that he happened to see. But none of them displayed the four-letter word.

That is, none until he reached the end of the hallway. And there was an elevator. An elevator.

"He's over here!" Someone shouted, a little too close for comfort.

"Shit," he hissed, wondering how, in that short amount of time of leaving the operating room, they had been able to get so close. He dashed through an open-door room, avoiding another barricade; one, he was sure, that was meant for the infected. He looked down at Ellie, her pale face calmly facing the ceiling as her neck bent back. "I'm getting you outta here girl." He promised her, with the elevator in his sight again.

The click of boots echoed down the window-lined hallway, along with a shout and multiple beams of light. "Come on, man." One tried to reason with him, "we only want the girl." It did not work.

"I got you." He reassured Ellie's slumbering form. "I got you." They were almost there. Just a few more steps.

"Cover the exits!" A soldier yelled frantically.

Joel did not alter his gaze from the elevator, its bright light illuminating everything that was within five feet of it. It was their "light at the end of the tunnel". A symbol of freedom. "Come on." He grunted, nearly slipping on a few sheets of discarded paper. "We're okay, we're okay," he repeated.

Just before reaching the elevator, a soldier appears on his left; sprinting towards him with his arm outstretched, gun raised. "This is your last chance." He shouts, and reloads in the beat of silence. All means of negotiating were out the window. "Drop her now!" He shoots, having noticed that Joel was not listening to any of their warnings.

And misses.

A/N: I'm not going to say much here, since I decided to divide this part into another due to length. Hope you don't mind! I'll definitely have the last part uploaded in a few minutes.

Until next time, ¡Adiós!