(Four Years Later/Winter)
18-year-old Ellie was asleep on the bed until there was a knock on the door.
She stirred around and sat up. "Oh, shit. Fuck," she groaned as she got out of bed.
She opened the door and saw Jesse, another friend of both Ellie and Enid.
"Hey," she said. "Morning!" Jesse enthusiastically said, leaning on the door frame.
"Sorry. I totally overslept. Enid forgot to wake me up. Just give me a minute and I'll get dressed," Ellie said with a shake of her head.
"I heard you had quite a night after I left," Jesse said.
Ellie stopped and held her hand up. "I... She kissed me. It was Dina being Dina. She didn't mean anything by it," Ellie said, thinking that's what Jesse was talking about.
"No, I was talking about your fight with Seth. Wait, you kissed Dina? Did Enid see you?" Jesse asked, shaking his head a bit.
Ellie looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh. I thought that's-- She-" she stumbled.
"We're broken up one week and you make a move on my girl?" Jesse said with a raised brow.
"No. She was probably making you jealous. I know I made Enid jealous. I didn't... I'd never... Oh, fuck, this is awkward," Ellie said, struggling to find the right words to say.
All Jesse smiled at Ellie's bashfullness. "I'm just messing with you, man. I don't care. Get dressed," he said.
Ellie scoffed, "You're the worst," She started to shut the door but Jesse stopped the door before it could close.
"It's kind of fucked up you did that," he said. Ellie scoffed again before she closed the door.
"Get your stuff together! We're already late!" Jesse called from the other side of the door.
Ellie gave her hoodie the smell test. "Smells fine. Ugh. So tired..." she groaned, obviously not ready to start the day.
She gathered up her coat and she put them on. She gathered her stuff and picked up her gun.
"Hey, is Joel and Enid up?" she asked. "We got reports of infected out north. Maria send them and Tommy out early to scout," Jesse replied.
"Wow, that sucks. Makes sense why Enid forgot to wake me up," Ellie said, getting her knife and she put it in her back pocket.
"Yep. Can't imagine they got much sleep. Definitely not as much as you. You know Enid's gonna give you shit for that," Jesse said.
"Psh. Shut up. I was just about to get up. Knowing her, she might just do that," Ellie said, opening the door.
Jesse waited for Ellie on the other side. "You got everything?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied. They start to walk out of the backyard. It was getting quite cold outside. There's a thin layer of snow everywhere.
"Heads up, you're the talk of the town this morning," Jesse said, letting her know what happened.
"Ugh, what?" Ellie groaned, going through the backyard gate. "Let me see if I got this right: You kissed Dina. You made Enid jealous-" Jesse started but Ellie cut him off.
"She kissed me. Yeah, I know Enid was jealous. I know her well enough," Ellie groaned.
"Which triggered Seth to call you a... not-so-nice word," Jesse said as they walked through the green house area.
"Yep," Ellie replied. "Then, Joel decked him-" Jesse added. "More of a push," Ellie said, correcting him.
"And then Enid told him off. Then you got mad at them. That part confused me," Jesse asked.
"It was a strange night, man," Ellie sighed. "Sounds exciting. Maria wants a word with you," Jesse said as they walked into town.
"Where is she?" Ellie asked. "The diner," Jesse replied.
"Is this about Seth?" Ellie asked, obviously not the mood to see him.
"No clue," Jesse said with a shrug. "Just tell her you never saw me," Ellie replied.
"Nope," Jesse said smuggly. "Oh, come on. Enid's more loyal than you are!" Ellie scoffed.
"Excuse me?" Jesse said, looking over his shoulder.
"Hey, so... we're okay, right?" Ellie asked, looking at him.
"You and me? Yeah, of course. Dina and I are done," Jesse said, holding his hands out.
"I know. I just didn't want you to think-" Ellie groaned. "Ellie, we're cool. Promise," Jesse said with a grin.
Ellie smiled, "Thanks," They walked through the town. Jackson was lively that morning.
Kids were playing, people were out talking or riding horses, pulling logs behind them.
Rose, who was laying with another dog, Buckley, walked up to Ellie with two happy barks.
"Hey, old girl. Yeah, get a good scratch," she said, scratched the canine behind the ears.
After going in the diner, they traded some conversation between Maria and Seth, who tried to apologize for how he acted the night before.
But Ellie was having none of it. They exit the diner and make their way towards the stables.
"When you go out, I want you to trade off with Tommy, Enid, and Joel. They've been out there for far too long.
"Where do I meet them?" Jesse asked.
"If you go up to the northwest Lookout, they're scheduled to arrive later today. Watch yourself. I mean, there's too many sightings of infected lately," Maria said to him.
"Of course, I was gonna check out the creek trails. I'll need someone else to cover it.
"Ellie? You know the creek trails?" Maria asked. "Not really," Ellie replied.
"Dina's done it a bunch. I'll have the two of them take it," Jesse said to the blonde woman.
"That solves it. Ellie, can I talk to you for a sec?" Maria asked, bringing Ellie to the gate.
"What's up?" Ellie asked. "Look, I don't know what's going on between you, Enid, and Joel..." Maria started.
Ellie shook her head. "Maria..." she groaned.
"They really care about you. And I'm sure they d idn't mean to-" Maria said, but Ellie held up her hand.
"We're fine," Ellie interjected. "Yeah?" Maria asked. "Yeanh," Ellie replied.
"Okay, okay, sorry to pry. Be safe," Maria said, walking away.
Ellie went through the gate along with Jesse.
"Yo, Dina! Assignments!" Jesse called as they approached a small playground, where Dina was having a snowball fight with some kids.
"Just gimme a minute!" Dina called. Jesse looked over at Ellie and called out, "Will you get her to the stables, please?"
Ellie walked over to where Dina was and leaned on the fence. "Hey, Dina!
I need to talk to you," Ellie called.
Dina looked over her shoulders and glanced back over to the kids. "Hey, guys! I'm tapping out!" Dina called, making a T shape with her hands.
"Come on, for how long?" a kid complained. "Hoo!" she said, waving them off before looking over at Ellie.
"Hey," she said with a smile. "Hey, um, I just wanted to say sorry for running off last night," Ellie apologized.
"Oh, that's-- I totally get it. I just... I felt bad," Dina said, rubbing her face.
"Why?" Ellie asked in confusion.
"It's because I started the whole thing. I shouldn't have kissed you in front of all of those people. Not to mention, I sure as hell made Enid jealous," Dina said, feeling bad about what she did.
"You were drunk, it's fine," Enid said.
"Well, still. Idon't want you to think--" Dina started. "No, I'm not reading into everything," Ellie finished her sentence.
"You know what I love about you? How you let me finish my senteces. I bet you never do that with Enid, huh?" Dina said jokingly.
Ellie smiled, knowing that that last part was true. "Alright, well, we should get going," she replied. "Yeah," Dina said.
Then, one of the boys threw a snowball at Ellie, hitting her shoulder.
"Ow!" Ellie shouted. "What the fuck?" Dina exclaimed, turning around to face them.
"I'm not even playing!" Ellie shouted, throwing her arms out.
"'Cause you're a chicken? Ha ha! You're a chicken!" the same kid taunted, hiding from them.
Ellie groaned aloud. "I hate this kid so much," she said. Dina smirked at her and said, "You want to fuck him up?"
"Yeah, I do," Ellie agreed, hopping over the fence.
The two elder girls have a snowball fight with the kids before Ellie told them that they had work to do.
The kids, of course, complained before going back to do their own thing. Ellie and Dina leave the playground and go to the stables.
They had been assigned together and go to get their horses from the stables.
They go inside the stables, where a stable boy had Shimmer and Japan (Dina's horse) ready to go.
Ellie walked up to Shimmer and she leads her out of the stables. "Hey, Shimmer," she said to the light brown mare.
They make their way over to the gates, where Jesse was waiting for them. "Ahh, look who decided to join us," he said.
Ellie scoffed at this. Jesse then brings two rifles and hand them over to Ellie and Dina.
"Open it up! Settle down, children. All right, you know the drill. Run your routes, Mark your log books. Clear any infected you see. You run into anything you can't handle, you come back. Be smart. All right, get going," Jesse said, instructing everybody on what to do.
Ellie and Dina mount their horses and they get their horses to gallop through the gate. They ride towards the snow-covered mountains.
A/N: Okay, the next chapter is going to introduce Joel and them. This is where things kick off.
Iceearth12