Don't worry I'm alive, I haven't been abducted by aliens or anything but life hates me. Right after I uploaded the last chapter my laptop got the Blue Screen of Death, leaving me unable to write for about a week, currently I'm borrowing a friends laptop that's using the 03 version of Microsoft Word but I'll manage. Enjoy.

I woke up with a massive headache and no clue to where I was, my head felt like an eggshell that was cracked in half and sloppily glued back together. I slowly got up from the cold concrete ground and examined my surroundings. I was in a makeshift cell of some kind, crude iron bars covered the windows and a chain link fence separated me and that James guy.

He was chopping up some kind of meat, putting a lot of effort into separating the slabs of-

He was chopping up humans.

Oh man.

I started to panic, shit were they going to eat me? No they wouldn't it just doesn't make sense; I mean why would they knock someone out just to kill them later? Maybe they wanna hear me scream as I get chopped from limb to limb, I just don't know.

I sat back down, making some kind of whimpering noise. Oh fuck, the thought of eating another guy made me cringe. I quickly scanned the bodies to see if any of them were Joel or Jake. I let out a sigh of relief, realizing that I didn't recognize any of the corpses. James turned around, seeing that I was still awake and left, probably to go tell the men sharpening their knives that their breakfast was ready.

Sure enough David opens the door, with a platter in his hand and a smile on his face. "How are you feeling?" he asked me.

"Super." I sarcastically replied.

He pushed the platter of food under the door. I stared weakly down at the chunk of meat.

"You should eat; you've been out for quite some while." He said.

Now that I thought about it, I was starving. I guessing having half a rabbit, no lunch or dinner, or breakfast again will do that to a person. But no fucking way am I going to eat a person. No fucking chance.

"What is it?" I asked him weakly.

"Its deer. Nothing to worry about." He responded.

"With a little bit of human helping on the side?" I again, weakly asked him.

"No, no, nothing like that." He smiled a bit.

My stomach growled again and I finally gave in too my temptation. "You're a fucking animal." I told him before ironically using my bare hands to pick it up and tearing at it like a wolf.

"Awfully quick to judgment, considering you and that boy killed how many men?" he replied.

I looked up at him from my meal. "You didn't give us any choice."

"And you think we had any? It's the apocalypse out there, it's kill or be killed. We survive, by any means necessary." He responded. I thought about Jake and the circumstances to meeting him, David had a point.

"So what now? You're gonna chop me up into tiny little pieces?" I said.

"I'd rather not." He smiled again."Now please, tell me your name?" he asked.

"You're so full of shit." I harshly said as I pushed the tray of food back under the door, flipping it over in the process.

"On the contrary, I've been quite honest with you. Now I think it's your turn." He stated as he picked up the tray, his tone hinting at anger.

"It's the only way I'm gonna be able to convince the others." He continued.

"Of what?" he said, I am not joining these assholes and I am not leaving Joel or Jake.

'That you can come around, that you have heart, that you're loyal, that you're special." He gently held my hand through the chainlink bars separating me from him.

A wave of realization passed through me. This guy didn't want to be my guardian or to see me safe, he just… wanted me. This guy's Joel's age and he… Oh fuck. I think I might get sick. Okay, got to focus at the task at hand.

I softly put my hand over his, letting him ponder for a moment before breaking his finger. He quickly covered his hand as he howled out in pain. I took this opportunity to make a reach for the keys that were hanging off his belt. I wasn't fast enough, as he grabbed me with his other hand and slammed me into the bars a few times. He then let go and stood up, backing a few feet away from the cell.

"You stupid little girl! What am I supposed to tell the others now?" He yelled, as he backed away to check on his finger.

"Ellie." I stated.

"What?" He responded.

"Tell them." I paused to catch my breath.

"Tell them that Ellie is the little girl, who broke you fucking finger!" I finally answered.

David paused for a minute to process what I said. I was pretty sure my lip was bleeding as was my nose a little bit but overall I was fine.

He looked over at me. "How'd you put it? Little tiny pieces? I'll see you later Ellie." He said before smiling a bit, before walking outside and slamming the door, Leaving me to my own devices.

Jakes POV

Joel woke up.

I was loading my rifle and stuffing my pockets with as much bullets as it could carry, my backpack was full of medkits and other various weapons, and I was ready to go out and kick some ass. I was super fucking pissed, Ellie's been gone all night and I figured she'd been captured or worse by those assholes. I had the odds stacked against me but I didn't care, I was determined to either rescue Ellie or die trying.

Right when I was about to walk out the door I heard an eruption of coughs and a hoarse voice whispering "Ellie?"

I ran over to Joel, finding that he was slowly trying to lift himself out of the makeshift cot we made for him to rest on.

"Joel! Holy fuck you're awake!" I exclaimed while helping him get up. I mean Joel's been in a coma for TWO fucking months! Hell, I was having doubts on whether or not he'll make it up but now he's up and about! Fuck, I guess it was the medicine.

"Jake?" Joel whispered as he slowly got up and stumbled slowly onto one of the chairs. He was confused at first, finding it hard to believe that he was in a coma for two months.

He inquired about what happened and I gave him the gist of the two months he was asleep. Finding shelter, finding food, finding the asshole that put him in a fucking coma, and than finding that he sent out a group of assholes to come find us. He sat there with a calm look on his face, like he was just taking it all in, one step at a time.

Joel tensed up and beckoned me to go on when I got to the point when Ellie left, me being incredibly stupid for letting her do so, and I told him that after she had left the group had went to go search for the source of the shots and haven't returned sense.

"Alright, hand me my backpack. Let's go find these fuckers." He said once I had finished talking. His backpack..right. We practically emptied the thing the first week taking whatever we needed at the time. One time, before I learned how to make fires, I used his flamethrower on twigs and sticks to boil water, which worked out pretty well. Until one day I accidently set a turkey we bagged on fire too. After that I resolved to find more practical solutions.

"Here" I said, handing Joel his 'pack.

"It's light." He acknowledged.

"Yeah, well we kinda raided the thing after a week or so." I said sheepishly.

He sighed and went to go collect his guns, pistols on the drawer, long guns leaning on the wall, and he wasn't too happy about us using up all of his materials.

"Is that my rifle?" He said, pointing to the one slung over my shoulder.

"Yeah, uh, I've gotten good with it. The scope makes aiming a hell of a lot easier than it is without one." I finished.

"Let me see it." I handed the rifle over to him, he inspected it thoroughly, opening up chambers and compartments I didn't even know existed.

He handed it back to me a few minutes later. "After this I'm gonna teach you how to clean that thing, it needs damn good cleaning." Hurt my pride a bit, but I still get to use it so I was okay.

As we walked out the door a realization smacked me across the face and I knew I had to tell him.

"Hey Joel." I said.

"Yeah." He turned to face me, his huge frame overshadowing mine.

"Ellie.. she told me." I said, not really knowing how to put it into words.

"About what?" he asked.

I suddenly froze up before sputtering out. "That you and her killed them, my dad and his buddies."

"Oh fuck kid, I'm-"Joel started before I interrupted him.

"Its fine but, well it's not but-" I was having difficulty explaining my thoughts, I took a deep breath before starting over.

'It was nothing but a mistake Joel, and I don't blame you or Ellie, but it's just something that you don't forget." I said.

He looked me in the eye. "I don't know what to say Jake. I'm sorry, about them."

I said nothing and we moved on looking for any of David's men. Less than a year ago I was just a kid, raised on violent comics and books with a dirty mouth. Now I'm just a guy traveling across the country with my parent's killers, with a dirty mouth. Life is funny that way huh?

(Sighs) Finally, I got this finished.

This chapter was originally gonna be about four thousand words, then I realized that would take me another week to write, so fuck it.

I had ideas for chapters in between the time skip, Ellie fearing that Jake will end up like everyone else in her life, dead, infected, or both. Ellie telling Jake about Sam, he in turn telling her about a guy he knew back at the zone etc. I didn't put it in because of pacing, but I might revisit them in the future or make them into oneshots, if anybody's interested. Besides that I basically had to revisit the entire winter section of the game to get these scenes right. Anyway, I appreciate any and all feedback and I'll see you guys soon.

Until next time

-Jogman