Look Down Now
**Preface: This follows Last of Us Events plot and characters. Ellie and Joel have made it out of Kansas City (RIP HENRY) and are now in Colorado. Joel lost his rifle to raiders and now both he and Ellie rely on pistols with limited ammo.
Their current objective in this writing is; look for any clues or signs of nearby encampments to re-align themselves with their path to the fireflies.
PRAIRIE MALL SHOPPING CENTER
They had come across the carousel with a huge mountain of blankets in front of it, right in the middle of the mall. Beside the carousel was a small store, with two wide door-less entrances. At one point in ancient history, these entrances had glass doors. One entrance was facing the carousel, and the other outwards to the main walkway.
"I just want one night of good sleep Joel. Just one fulllll ni-, andthisblanket." She rummaged through the mountain for the blue blanket. "This one is gonna be my cocoon and then I'll bust out as a well-rested gun-slinging badass."
"Actually, wait. Lemme double check." She kept rummaging around. "No-Ye-well-yea I just need this one." She gasped, looking into an adjacent store.
"Oh Joel! Look at this mattress! It's KING SIZE." She went into the store.
"Yes, Ellie, yes it is." Joel said mildly.
The mattress covered mostly the whole floor, awkwardly, because it was a stadium type flooring. There was a desk pushed up the back of the store and Joel was navigating towards there, checking out the empty shelves slowly. He double checked on Ellie. She was on the mattress, completely covered by the blanket, falling asleep.
"Ellie. What are you doing?"
"Joel I'm fucking tired. Let's just sleep here, it's so perfect." She out a small sigh.
"No, Ellie." Joel said patiently, "You can't just lay down, you have to inspect the place; someone could be living here. You need to be cautious."
He immediately caught sight of the white electronic gadget at the back of the room on a tall desk, with a giant solar battery, and a filthy large rag. He made a beeline for it. He saw a piece of paper fall, with printed ink, and the first words were "Who is" He grabbed the device, trying to see the rest of the paper. There was no more paper though, his mind had simply conjured it.
"Someone could be living here." She mocked him and then laughed. "Ok."
The giggling is what caught them off guard. It was like the man had been trying to keep it in for so long and it had finally exploded. It sounded very close to what Ellie had just finished saying.
Ellie whipped up into a sitting position with her gun and pointed it at the man's head peeking out from under the mountain of blankets.
That mountain had been slowly jostling towards the purse store while they were checking it out. Ellie's mouth partially dropped in irritation, because the man was clearly still laughing at her from the prone position, under all the blankets she had haphazardly inspected. He was gazing at her without blinking, in wide, gleeful, admiration. His chin rested on his arm, which was obscured by the blankets. His skin was polished onyx, his hair, nappy. He was gazing at her without blinking, in gleeful admiration. Certainly, his eyes were somewhat crazed, unfocused and, well, burning and sickly. But… they were not threatening-because he was dying with laughter. And that mountain of blankets, was quivering and falling.
Joel breathed, "Run." Quickly, under his breath. He was still holding a white colored electronic in his hand.
Ellie eyed him, butthurt, as she scrambled to try and get the whole blanket over her head and sprint in the opposite direction.
"Drop the fucking blanket Ellie, and sprint!" He roared. His hand superglued to the device, the other pointing the pistol at the slowly rising onyx creature.
"No Joel, NO-and I am fucking sprinting, ok!"
She heard the mans strange, chittering guffaw.
Ellie tried to calm her breathing as she burst through the door into the rain outside.
Joel and her ran, somewhat crouching, through the parking lot.
They found a car in the parking lot with its doors unlocked, and hopped inside.
"That wasn't human, Ellie. His head was much larger than a normal man's skull. His eyes were all bright red. We gotta hike it outta here."
"Well." She leaned her head back into the front seat.
"There were gold flecks in those eyes, Joel, it wasn't just…uh, it was red? His eyes were brown. They were all big hazelly brown. But he was fucking laughing! And he certainly sounded good-natured."
Joel shook his head absentmindedly as she said all the wrong colors with such confidence. Her mind couldn't process it, but he had a much better ability to understand. He was absolutely sure about what he had seen. And it wasn't human.
They checked around to see if he was chasing them. Nothing.
"It's just…that laugh, its very strange…" Joel muttered. It was just like Ellie's.
He scrutinized the area. "There's a FEDRA settlement, well…should be within 45 miles of here. But this…whats the word." Joel sat still a very long moment, sifting through all of the memories. Like switching out a movie for a silent film.
"...Computer…this is fully charged."
"What-why did you TAKE it JOEL WHAT THE FUCK."
Her eyes were wide saucers, staring at him wide-mouthed.
"Nooowww we're fucking DEAD. Holy fuck. We'resofuckingdeadyoufuckingidiot. See. THIS, is why you need to let me. Make some decisions."
But she was indeed fascinated as he traced its smooth edges. And as she looked around the lot without seeing a soul, she calmed down.
" Wait what did you call it? What is it?"
Joel smiled a bit, lopsidedly. "I was too poor to have one of these fancy gadgets, but it's a computer of some sort. This was made in 2012."
"It's 2033 now…" She looked to him for the calculation.
"21-year-old electronic device. Legally allowed to drink. Battery shouldn't have lasted this long."
"Am I allowed to drink, Joel?"
"Nu….uhhh…" He shook his head impatiently at her, refusing to answer.
The rain poured now, and the sounds of clickers and screams were not too far away.
Ellie was disappointed. She wanted to sleep on that mattress still. Her feet ached.
"Joel we can take it down if we just surprise it. You shoot at it and I jump up and stab him in the neck! It was so so slow! I saw metal crates labeled food in there! We have to go back. It was probably fully stocked."
Joel 's mind now started to bring forth flashing clear images as he examined the tablet.
"Who is Joel Miller?" An assignment, to be read before a class. Typed on his computer in the living room. Printed out with that strange halting whir. He could hear it…or not. He needed to hear it, and his heart quickened.
They went back into the mall, through the east entrance, quite far from the carousel. Even though it wasn't raining inside, the cold was still present.
"Alright Ellie, we return the tablet now. Go to the other side of the walkway and make yourself invisible."
She nodded, hoisted up her blanket and crouched, going laterally to Joel.
Each step Joel took, was careful. He could not hear any movements. He looked behind him, below him to the lower level of the mall, and back over to Ellie. Nothing; just silence. He checked inside the shops with his flashlight. They were back at the carousel in the complete darkness of night, now. His light flashed on the floor in front of the carousel. A closed trapdoor and no more blankets. His flashlight moved to the store. No blankets on the mattress. Just outside the entrance was a heavy metal chest. Opened.
Ellie made a beeline for it but froze as soon as Joel huffed, about a foot ahead of him. She scooted back behind him and pointed her gun to the side, to the other side.
Joel knelt down and saw two canned foods; lentil soup and cream of mushroom soup.
"It's two cans of soup Ellie. We're not gonna take it."
Ellie tucked her gun into her jacket pocket and hovered over it.
She shook her head sadly. "Ok Joel just put the thing back so we can go."
Joel went to the back of the room. The desk was empty. He put the tablet down and heard the noise in his head again. He picked it back up and stared. Then he saw. Sitting in front of a monitor. A thick full mane of amber coiled hair, enshrining A hidden face.
Whenever he thought about…it, his mind always corrected it to THE, or A face. Because it was thus, and it was so. But he couldn't keep his mind from suddenly whispering. Her.
He took a step back. "Actually Ellie, I'm gonna keep it for one night, try to see what's on it."
"Oh Joel." She said slowly. Ellie was sitting bundled up on the mattress again, her feet off to the side.
"You giving the blanket back Ellie?" He said patronizingly.
She looked at him like he was stupid. "NO. He had a million blankets Joel, but you…well,-he only had one computer."
"I'm giving it back Ellie ok, he's not out for blood. Let's go find some better mattresses.
Ellie saw Joel clench his pistol, and she knew that Joel was gonna try and kill this man. She rolled her eyes. "Good luck, guy. There you go again; I'm a MAN doing MAN stuff."
They walked quickly to the Macy's store at the other end of the mall, talking quietly.
Ellie talked in a hushed voice. "Maybe it turned just recently; some fedra soldier? It didn't even come after us. Maybe its brain is all likeall like…staticky from the fungal takeover still. And the soup Joel he gave us souuuup and you wouldn't even take it." She groaned.
Joel had been quietly infuriated by the cream of mushroom soup. He wouldn't admit it to Ellie, though.
They entered the Macy's store. The store still had rows of clothes kind of lined up. The male model mannequins all had shirts but no pants.
"Man, this guy has a stupid. Sense of humour Joel." She was trying to not laugh but then she bust out laughing.
"Probably a deserter. But let's get one thing straight here Ellie, he's infected. He's much larger than you can comprehend, ok, because we only saw his face-which was much larger than a human person's face."
They hiked up the escalator, which had fungus growing on it. Throughout their hours at this mall, they had not come across any infected. Although they had heard them outside in the distance, not a single soul was here.
"Ellie, this is where we find mattresses."
"Ooooh Woooow!" Ellie slowly gazed around in wonder in the dark.
"Well, I mean, we would be dead by now if he wanted that computer back. Probably. Maybe we are, actually." Ellie mused. She was dragging her feet tiredly.
The mattress section had been somewhat pilfered, and there was blood in some spots. The elevators had fungus built up from what looked like a pile of year old corpses.
Ellie and Joel got to work fortifying a barricade of mattresses and clothes racks to obfuscate them.
They had beef jerky for dinner on the mattress.
"Tomorrow we are headed to the grocery store in the morning. Might end up hunting rabbits if we can't find nothin."
Joel was exhausted but he checked out the tablet, trying to figure out how to turn it on. He kept hearing that printing noise.
"Maybe you're right Ellie, you need fine motor skills to work with a device like this. You take first watch, I'll take second." He was out like a light as soon as he turned over.
Ellie buried herself and Joel in her blanket, as she sat up attentively. Not a sound, not even anything crashing in the distance. She didn't wake Joel up, because she was soothed to sleep by the rain. The mall reverberated softly, still, with the sound of pitter patter and thunder.
They had both slept quite well, but Joel woke up cursing in the early morning light. He saw a clipboard of sorts, dropped off at the edge of Ellie's blanketed feet.
He woke Ellie with his noise, and one of her sleepy eyes raised itself to fully awake. He was inspecting a magic pad; just like the one Henry had. It had magnetic sheets attached to it. The letters written were jagged and thin, but quite large;
'"RETURN MY TABLET'"
"Looks like it was written with a big dull knife…"
Ellie scoffed and said, "How is he supposed to write, exactly, JOEL? He was huuuuuman. AND…he just watched us take off with his stuff."
Joel's memory flashed back to those eyes fully dilating, filling with red at the sight of him. He was shaking his head no.
"Maybe he's just a fucking normal giant man?"
"No Ellie, he's infected. HE. IS. INFECTED." Joel slapped the back of his hand into his palm, to add emphasis. He motioned for them to start moving. "Let's get it back to the carousel, and then we go find a supermarket."
They walked cautiously out of the dark Macy's store, down the escalator, and back through the now bright mall.
"You know Ellie, sometimes I wish you would grow the hell up and start taking some responsibility here."
She raised her eyebrows at him.
"Ugh, Joel why would I want to do that grown-up stuff? It's so borinnnnnnnng."
"Because your life depends on it, Ellie, and so does mine. For instance, remember that time you stepped on a cherry bomb?"
"I DIDN'T SEE IT JOEL. I was looking EVERYWHERE ok, making sure our path AHEAD was SAFE. I was SOO careful."
"But you didn't look down. Ellie. That's where you should've started looking, as soon as I pointed out a tripwire a few meters back."
"But…but Joel, it just…like, I knew what to look for, ok. I WAS looking. And there's just so much space where there WEREN'T planted cherry bombs. I didn't expect my foot to connect with the ONE place where it was."
"Lucky it was a dud." Joel whistled in relief. "But next time…what if it's not? Ellie."
"Oh well?"
She burst out laughing.
"Joel. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's a nuclear bomb or a cherry bomb; I'm already dead. That's why you're watching my back! I've saved your flat ass too, you're just too proud to admit it." He slowly started to chuckle. But he was shaking his closed fists into the air.
"You're right Ellie. You are absolutely right about that. You are gonna wake up dead for the rest of your life and not even know what hit you." He remembered how slowly Ellie had reacted to that bomb. She looked mad when she took her foot away, as if it had violated her first amendment right to be alive, and she was about to fuck it up. Then she'd hopped a few steps back from it.
"Dude." She slapped her face in exasperation, clawing at it. "You need serious R and R Joel. That doesn't make aany sense."
They reached the intersection of the mall where they had found their loot.
The man was sleeping curled up in a ball on the king sized mattress, in front of the carousel. A couple of blankets covering his body. It looked like he was just waking up.
In the light, Ellie could see this was definitely not really just a man. Because even scrunched up into a ball, he was too massive to fit on the mattress. His skin was moreso the color of an espresso mocha. His facial bone structure was hyper masculine, with a very sharp, strong, wide and finely chiseled jawline. A tiny jagged line down his prominent chin.
"Sorry we took your tablet. I'm just gonna lay it right here in front of you and we will see ourselves out."
The man shifted so that he poked his head up a bit, slowly, from the blanket, eyes still heavily lidded in some kind of restful awakening. His tightly curled black hair was well groomed. He snorting lightly in some kind of agreement, and slowly lay his head back down. Joel laid both the tablet and the magnetic notepad down a few feet away from the pile of blankets covering the man, then quickly and hustled backwards. Ellie pointed to the opening of the purse store. The man had dumped a different crate out onto the mall tile, in the middle of the walkway where they were headed. Like a blockade.
Ellie grabbed one and inspected it. Chicken soup. And the date of expiration was in 2038.
"Are these for us?" she backpaddled so that she could see the man around the corner. He nodded twice, deliberately.
"All of these?" Ellie watched the man nod while slowly sitting up. He nodded his head deliberately again as he glanced at her and looked away quickly. He wasn't smiling or making any kind of facial expression that she could discern.
Ellie made a yip of joy and gathered up her treasure. "Look Joel, this says organic! What even does that mean? And these expiration dates. Hey, sir, can we eat here?"
Another slow nod.
"Ellie why don't we go eat at that Orange place right across from here?" The light shone through the middle of the mall, and Ellie could see that the clouds were moving fast with the morning wind.
The man stayed there in a sleeping position as they walked away and sat themselves down. Joel purposefully had Ellie sit facing away from the thing, while he kept a steady eye on its slow crawling under the blankets. He didn't like the way the man used the blanket to cover over his head and the tablet momentarily. Ellie used her pocket knife to open up a can for both herself and Joel. Then they chinked their cans together and gulped it down fast.
"This store started up in the 1920's, and they served fruit juice in every big mall across Olden America."
"Must've been some good juice if it stayed around that long."
"Naaaaah. It was shit in a cup. Company just had good business practices."
"So you gonna ask that guy where we can hide out or where the fireflies are?"
Joel shook his head no.
"Well I am. I am sick of being starving. He gave us 5 cans, he must know where to get more."
"Ellie wait-"
"I'm protecting you Joel. Let me do this."
"Ellie!" He shook his head, chuckling-almost crying- in frustrated disbelief, as his voice hitched upward in surprise. "I'm protecting YOU! Ellie. That's-I'm protecting YOU!" He was knifing the air with his palm.
"Joel. I got this." She got her pistol out, pointing it forward, carefully stepping forth.
She found the large man sitting on a chair behind a tall desk. She gasped, because he was indeed much wider and more muscular than a human could possibly be. She felt like a midget inside a normal person's home. When he still did not move, she went forward again. He had moved it to the front of the store, whereas last night it was pinned to the back. The desk had two canned goods on it. He looked half-asleep now, like he was nodding off. His eye muscles were twitching uncontrollably, but they remained closed. On top of the canned goods, was the notepad, but this time it had a lot more written on it. Ellie went to pick it up but Joel pulled her back hard.
"Ellie no!" She scoffed at him and he looked a bit embarrassed. She went back to the man at the desk and picked up the magnetic notepad, reading it aloud.
"TROY
WANT2HELP
I KNOW FOOD
LOCA"
Ellie looked back at Joel and held up the notepad for him to see as well.
Joel glowered at the man.
"Why can't you talk?" Ellie asked. The man ignored her.
"You work for FEDRA?" Joel inquired. Troy quickly nodded no. He was looking down, and his lids mostly covered them up.
Ellie noticed that the room smelled strongly of a skunk, unlike last night.
Ellie held the notepad back to Troy, as Joel sized him up.
"Is this where you've been living?" Joel interrogated the man.
Troy nodded again, a quick definitive yes.
"Wow this is your place?" Ellie smirked. She waved the notepad at Troy's closed eyes, so the wind blew.
"Where's the food at Troy?"
He stayed slumped slightly while Ellie leaned over the desk and punched his quaking shoulder. She realized, somewhat, that she was on borrowed time. She brought her gun up, and clicked the safety off.
"Hey motherfucker tell us! Wake up! Dude. You can't just fall asleep like that!"
His whole body went into a sudden deep tremor, and then was still. She tried shaking his shoulder, now completely still, pressing her gun to it. He was a cinderblock of impossibly bulky muscle. Then she used her hand, placing it under his chin and forcing his head back up. She pressed the gun to his temple. She knew that there was no way she could possibly try to hold it up, and that he was doing so for her, with the direction of her hands. She had to adjust her grip. His head slumped back; and so she tried again to hold his head up. "ey!" This time she used both hands to hold up his head, but it fell down in another direction. His body was trembling again, as if he was freezing. She laughed, and touched the middle of his forehead with her pointer finger. "I see what you're doing. Joel I need 20 hands to hold this man's head up, look at that, it just fucking falls." Now she went around the desk to be right beside the man. She heard him let out the lightest little huff. He cracked his head extremely slowly, and she heard the desk move slightly. What she didn't fully comprehend is that the man's seat was on a doubly lowered layer of the floor, while the desk was at the normal layer of the floor.
"Ellie-"
"No Joel, I got this. I'm gonna hold his head up, this motherfucker can't win." She laughed as his head fell again with her hands on both sides and her stomach resting against the side of it, trying to control it so that it remained still.
"Get!" she continued laughing readjusting her grip, while she sped up trying to catch his head, trying to balance it against her chest on one side with both hands on the other side of his head. "This man's head is more slippery than a wet vag!"
She tried placing her hand on top of the scar on his chin to hold his head up. It fell sideways and down again. "Yo Joel this guy is wiley!" She traced the side of his face with her pistol, and then her hand. His head twitched, too fast for her to even fully notice, but it made her pause. He moved his head into it very slowly.
Finally she leaned over him, slid her hand up the nape of his neck and grabbed his natty hair, placing her nose against his.
"Open your eyes and tell us!" She said laughing and smiling. The man's breathing changed slightly. He moved his whole body, scrunching his shoulders and moving the desk closer to him. Then his whole body went limp again.
"ohh ellie…" Joel said in feigned light exasperation.
"But Joel, his skin is healthy, and whatever he is infected with, it hasn't actually…ruined…any of his facial features. He's actually a good-looking man." She was tracing around the side of his eyes. "hmph." She said softly as she inspected further. He hadn't withdrawn from being touched, and she was relaxed.
"You know what Joel, I know what's bothering me about this man. She forcefully tapped the top of his head with the pistol. Then, she traced his very tight curls on his head with her gun, and then again with her hand.
"This haircut. He has a barber. Right? I mean, just look at how crisp these lines on this crew-cut is."
Joel sighed tiredly. An explosive chuckle escaped the mans lips. But he went dead silent immediately. His face moved to where he heard her speak, just above him. His closed eyes were again suffering from involuntary muscle spasms.
"No, look, come closer Joel. This shit is layered and that requires lots of special tools-does this afro hair require special tools? And we're in a 3rd world country, right Joel? Is this considered a 3rd world country now?"
"Uh…well maybe 6th-"
"No, Joel, bottom of the 9th. That's what we are now." She left the man's side and returned to the front of the desk.
She started pacing, getting worked up. "And he's just so clean. I WANT A GODDAMN HAIRCUT! Joel we've been traveling hundreds of miles, bathing in pond scum with nobody around, and this fucking sucker is like, in perfect condition. And-Joel-he's INFECTED. His dark skin is practically shining, and its fucking dark in here. What the FUCKING. FUCK."
Ellie was hyperventilating, pacing around in front of the desk. She paid no attention to the scratching under the desk.
"Deep breaths there Ellie, slow your roll."
When Troy quickly peeked with one predatory eye across at her. She cocked her smiling suspicious face at him, waiting expectantly. He huffed, and then again, cleared his throat lightly. He made it more clear that he was extremely uncomfortable. He closed his eyes tightly, grimacing and looking sideways and down. He let out a helpless whine, as if he was asking for someone to save him. He shook his head no, quickly again and seemed to turn it in shame.
A very slow dawning of an awful realization came to Ellie.
"What's wrong? What's…wrong with your. Hands?" She said slowly. The man didn't move. "Joel he's scared to show his hands, I think. He looks very worried. What's he trying to say Joel?"
"Hmmm." Joel inspected the fidgeting figure sitting behind the desk. Joel's hand started to shake.
"Ok, so." Joel stated, "He is trying very hard not to scare us Ellie. I say, you close your eyes. Let him write and then he can uh..well he can just tap under the desk when he's done."
Ellie closed her eyes expectantly. She heard Troy cluck once. Joel saw Troy nod at him.
"Oh me? Oh. My eyes are closed."
They heard tapping. Ellie opened her eyes excitedly and picked up the magic pad.
'BUNKER'.
"It says Bunker, Joel. And there's lots of food there?"
Troy nodded quickly.
"You can show me your hands Troy, I trust you." Ellie said.
Very, very slowly, with his head to the side looking down serenely, he brought up the curled form of one palm from under the desk, which became very hard thick claw. After moving it up another inch from the desk, he stopped and put it back under his desk. So slowly.
"Hooooooooooly shiiiiit" Ellie breathed. "Ooooooooooooh, I get it! Eyes are closed Troy."
DO U WANT 2 SURVIVE?" He had underlined survive multiple times for emphasis as he lay with his head sideways on the desk. Ellie's heart stopped and her hands shook with fear. She backed out of the room, Joel grabbing her and placing her behind him. There was a voice in her head, screaming-that it was time to go-…straight up to heaven.
"We are good at surviving on our own."
Ellie eyed Joel to see if that was truly how he interpreted the message. When she saw he was unalarmed, she went back to the desk.
Troy shook his head very slowly and fervently no as Joel said that, and put his head back down.
"Eyes are closed now Troy." Ellie announced.
ACTIVE NEW INFECTED-ED…LOTS
There was a tap on the desk.
Like you? Ellie thought to herself, as her eyebrows raised.
"How about you show us where this bunker is on that map on the wall, and then we'll decide?"
When Troy stood up very slowly, with his hands behind his back, Ellie felt her stomach drop, the way that an elevator manages to halt at one floor-and then keep dropping all the way down 10 floors as she was right next to him and he was still not at his full height, somewhat hunched, refusing to stand all the way up-not that he could, because the ceiling was too low. Joel drew her behind him as he approached Troy. "Ellie's behind me now Troy, go ahead and point it out."
Troy turned Joel's attention to the wall where he had put up a map. Colorado. Town of brighton.
Then he pointed at the symbol of the plane. In Broomfield, Colorado.
"You meant an airport bunker?
Joel peered into Troy's eyes from the side, as Troy nodded at the wall. His deep red pupils were widely dilated, and the irises were a sickly yellow. Wherever the man looked, his gaze was wide, unfocused. Somehow, this man, was furious. His lids were hiding most of it, but Joel saw it. His mind was threatening to be sucked into quicksand. And even, for a moment, he felt his spine, the same way a finger can touch something and feel its surface. He felt his spine for the first time, as if the man was physically breaking it into pieces. He kept his cool now, fully pretending.
"Alright Ellie let's step back and let him write. Don't look." Joel closed his eyes.
"Are they closed Ellie?"
"Yes." They heard movement.
SAFE 4 U
FEDRA USED
I SAVE U, K?
They heard tapping a minute later. Ellie kept her eyes closed. She had put her gun in her pocket, forgotten, and was holding onto her knife with both hands. Joel picked up the pad from the desk, as Troy sat with his whole body twitching. He kept on shaking his head, sometimes too fast for Joel to even catch.
"Ok Ellie, he says the bunker is about 22 miles away from here. He wrote on the pad 'SAFE for you. Then the next sentence said "FEDRA USED, and the D is underlined. Last sentence on the pad says "I SAVE U comma, K, question mark."
"But are you infected?" Joel pressed, "Are you…are you going to be ok?"
The man refused to look at him, but banged his head on the desk and nodded. They all heard the desk breaking, slightly.
Joel witnessed those massive claws shoot straight up from the desk before he could close his eyes. He heard tapping again.
'"I WANT 2 HELP U. My A JOB'"
Then a smiley face.
"Ellie, he just wrote; I want 2 help you, with-a-period mark, and then two words; a job. Also a smiley face."
Troy nodded fervently, with his eyes closed tightly.
Her breath was tight in her chest. "A job Joel? A fucking JOB?! Well are you fucking hiring him?"
"Well…uh, what do you say Ellie? You're the boss. Can he come with us?"
"Hmmmm…" She finally peeked behind Joel, who had backed up out of the shop.
Elllie studied the man, who now had his head pressing down facing away from her on the desk. His claws back out of sight.
"FUCK YEA!"
Troy let out a very loud, very surprised, deep bass laugh, while staying dead still.
"Alright, we'll let you go ahead of us now; go ahead and come out." Ellie closed her eyes tight and tugged on Joel's hand. Joel inspected the still figure.
"Ellie, go sit down at the juice shop, and we wait for him there. As long as it takes, we wait." Joel refused to let go of Ellie's hand, as she drew him out of the shop.
They ended up waiting silently for a half hour, for him to come out of that store. Joel felt a bullet of furious rage pull his head down and he knew that his body was actually moving instinctively without his consent. Ellie felt it pass by her, and couldn't figure out, consciously, what, or how it could be. Yet, subconsciously, she had a wealth of experience molding such ethereal things. He put his fingers to his lips, slowly put his head down, and widened his eyes at Ellie.
WE ARE DEAD
The thought popped into Ellie's mind and it was just so loud. So peculiar.
"Why can't he just leave? We got shit to do Joel! We gottta get to the bunker." Ellie breathed to Joel, watching the guy just sit there. I gotta go to the ladies room. When she was back, she raised her eyebrows at him and shook her head, demanding an explanation.
"Uh…"
They heard Troy giggling like a schoolboy, patronizing their stupidity.
"He's infected Ellie. I don't know. "
"Pfff-"
and then a slowly accelerating low timbre clicking reverberated out across the empty mall from him.
Ellie placed her hand on her chest, closing her eyes, breathing shallow and fast. She desperately wanted to put her head down now. And so she did, and stuck it there like superglue.
They ended up waiting for four hours in dead silence, listening to Troy trying to communicate on a radio.
"…Sector Report…"
-.-. .- .-. - ..- .-. . -..
The noise was coming from the computer.
"Repeat? Over."
Troy let out a small clicking roar of frustration. Then Ellie heard her laugh coming out of him again. This time it made her shiver. He must've noticed, because he let out a slow even-keeled tsk tsk tsk.
- .- -
-.-. .- .-. - ..- .-. . -..
"Copy that. Do what you can. Over and out."
Troy got up slowly and put a large backpack on. He tucked his palms out of sight. Then, with his eyes closed, ducked painfully slowly to get out of the store and then turned towards where he wanted them to leave. He walked slowly to about 15 feet in front of them and stopped, waiting. His claws were now tucked tightly in front of him. Ellie and Joel got up slowly when they heard his pounding footsteps, and started walking behind him. Ellie and Joel pulled their rainjacketsrain jackets out and put them on, because they could tell from the overhanging broken glass ceiling that it was rainy and windy. Ellie noticed his military cargopants were a perfect fit for his (possibly) over 8 foot height. Tailor? Teased at her mind, peeving her slightly.
"Ellie" Joel nudged her. "Congratulations on your first employee. You're now a woman. Of. Business. At 14!"
She tasted the words in her mouth, "I'm. His… boss, now? Me? This guy?!"
"Yep, that's right Ellie, you're his boss. You interviewed him, you chose him. And you get to tell him what to do now, because he works for you."
She was silently mulling it over on the trail. Troy's clawed feet made deep, huge, indents on the wet grass. He was walking slowly and lithely in front of them. A black behemoth in a ruined land.
"Whoooooooooooooa Joel this is so cool! I'm his fucking boss!" She burst out, smiling widely. "What's the pay?"
"Obviously, Ellie, every minute-every second-that he keeps you alive is pay. He would've asked, otherwise. And you know, I won't hesitate to kill him if he tries. Anything."
"Hey, Joel." She elbowed his side and motioned for him to lean down, his ear towards her. She whispered to him, "I saved your ass Joel." She needled her pointer finger into his chest. Then she nodded at him and raised her eyebrows. Then, she raised her hands with her palms up; a victory. She had made her point; she wasn't so impossible to save-she was actually quite capable of saving others too.
He clicked his tongue in his cheek. "We're a team, Ellie. We saved each other."
Joel heard Tess's voice in his ear. "Save who you can save."
Ellie felt her fear leaving her quickly. "Joel, you and I can simply…walk. Just walk. For the first time ever, we don't have to look both ways every three steps. This is beautiful. I mean, of course I will…"she backtracked slightly with his unapproving look, but then he just waved it down.
"But now I won't feel like….like I have to." She blew a chef's kiss.
Troy's head was ever so slightly turned towards them. Listening. He was chittering quietly in immense dissatisfaction. Although he was smiling hard now. So hard, in fact, that his chin had split apart.