AN: Wooo! Long time since I'm writing... Dear no one, sorry of the delay... keyboard broke, finals, yada yada yada. Okay let's get on to it!

As I put out the fire, AJ is having a rather enthusiastic conversation with Ellie, including guns sounds and explosions. It's good to see AJ so relaxed yeah, that's one way to put it. Given that little story Ellie told us, I can say with confidence that she's been through a lot. What happened then was so crazy, running away, taking care of Joel; can't lie, it's pretty badass.

Although, there's this thought racking my brain telling me that we aren't so different after all. It feels like we've been on the same boat, we had the same struggle, same loss, same pain. That kind of explains why when I asked who was Joel, she got quiet. Taking a hint, I changed the topic and moved on. Now, she seems less tense and having a blast talking with AJ. I wonder what they're talking about. I walked toward them, picking up on what they're saying.

"And she was like 'I thought you were dead' and and and-"

"Woah there dude. Don't catch a stroke trying to play the scene out, and how did you know what happened? No offense, but I'm pretty sure you were too young to remember anything that happened." Ellie claimed with her arms crossed. I cut in.

"I happened to tell him that story. Last time I saw Kenny-"

"Who's Kenny" Ellie interrupted. I glared at her.

"A friend."

"You mean a boyfriend?" She teased.

"Eww no." I cringed. "Besides, I was too young to think that way anyways."

"You're never too young for love Clem."

"What the hell Ellie." I gave up on explaining my story and just walked off. She follows me laughing.

"Aww come on Clem, You know I'm just fucking with you right?". I didn't reply, just turned my head and glared at her.

"Oh shit sorry... Oh!" She facepalmed, I merely rolled my eyes and continued to walk to our room.

"Sis" AJ called. I turned around, humming as my response. "Are we going to train tomorrow?" I looked at him for a moment, Oh that's right! I was supposed to teach him how to fight walkers.

"Sis?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Sweet!" AJ walks ahead of me and goes off upstairs. As I was going up the makeshift ladder, Ellie stopped me.

"What." I deadpanned, but when I looked at her, she looked doubtful or something. She spoke up.

"Are you really going to teach him how to kill the infected?"

"Infected?"

"Yeah, that's sorta how I call them, But seriously, are you going to teach him?"

"Yes."

"I don't think its a-" I put a hand up, silencing her.

"Your opinion don't matter. What I do or don't do with AJ doesn't concern you." I said flatly. I started going up the ladder, leaving her behind to follow after.

OoOoOoOoOoO

As I opened the door to the room, AJ had this very detached expression on his face as he looks out the window. It took me putting my hand on his shoulder to take him out of his trance.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine... I'm just wondering..." he seemed to trail off indicating that he may not want to talk about it, but I want to know.

"About what?"

"Life before all this." he extended his hand out towards the window. I looked out at that direction and let out a little sigh.

"You know, things were actually relaxing to say the least. The only thing we had to worry about is going to school, getting good grades, get a job, make a family, all that... But when it happened," I looked at AJ who seem to be paying close attention.

"The person who was watching over me have turned into those, things... So I did what I would do when I face problems, I ran into my tree house. At that time, it seemed like the safest place in the world." I scoffed, thinking of how stupid I was back then.

"It was different before all of this happened... but that's in the past." I finished.

"Yeah." I looked at him and smiled, He's always a curious soul.

"Okay AJ, you need some rest, all that walking made you tired I bet."

"I know what you're doing, but I am tired soooo..." He walks into the bedroom leaving me and Ellie alone in the living room of the suite. She gently laid down on the couch while I looked out the window..A couple of moments passed where everything was quiet. Thoughts of lee and the others start to come back. I try not to think about these things because I usually end up having nightmares about it later.

"I can tell you know." I turned around and glared at Ellie.

"What?"

"You know with taking care of AJ and all, it sounded like you been through a lot."

"You have no idea."

"I might." She challenged

"And what makes you so sure that you know how I feel?"

"I don't know exactly how you feel but I can see where you're coming from." she paused.

"I mean, Joel was the only person I relied on the most at these times, we used to have each others backs when things got out of hand. He was like a dad to me." I took a second for those words to sink in. Given how we had adoptive-apocalyptic-fathers is pretty damn similar.

"Where is he now?" as I asked this question, I see Ellie's body tense up, she looked at me and then back to her injured leg.

"I-I don't know."

"So is he alive?"

"I don't know Clem! We sort of got stopped by these thugs who were trying to loot us, but Joel and I took care of them and snuck into their camp. We found out that they had this armory with a shit-ton of weapons and ammo; we tried to take some, but a guard saw us and we had to jet. But as we were trying to escape, Joel got hit but he told me to go on without him." She then looked over to my direction, I think to make sure I was following. I nodded signaling her to go on.

"I slashed my thigh while I was jumping the fence to get away. Stupid ass barbed wire." I snorted and I guessed it was loud enough that she heard it.

"Oh I'm glad that you enjoy my agony, you know how long I was walking?" I tried to silence myself.

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me. Go on."

"Well there isn't really much left to say really, after all that, I met you guys."

"Oh." Suddenly, there were muffled noises coming from the other side of the door. Me and Ellie are now on high alert.

"What was that?"

AN: Welp there you have it... Now if I stop procrastinating you guys might get another chapter soon enough. Stay frosty.