The Last of Us part III Ellie's Redemption

Trapped

Ellie and Curtis were holed up for four days before the boy started getting antsy. Ellie was okay with sticking to a routine, she had decided to ease up on the fourth night and allow both of them to have a full night's sleep. Whoever it was she thought she had seen it didn't seem to matter. But she knew thinking like that was unsafe, she knew better by now.
They had traded stories about their lives and they had enjoyed each other's company, Ellie was surprised she'd grown to like him so quickly. She thought at first it was just a pang of loneliness that would subside but it had become a genuine liking for him.
When Curtis had talked about wanting to get away and just ride, Ellie had calmed him. She had talked like she'd never talked before, eventually she had told him to enjoy the experience and to toughen him up. See it like a holiday and make fun of how ugly the infected were.
Ellie had thought of a game to play with him which involved picking an infected, giving it a name and a backstory. The winner would think of the most interesting story and it had worked in cheering Curtis up.

"By no means should you ever take infected lightly, ever, but fearing them is something we shouldn't do. It can cause us to freeze, make mistakes and cost us our lives. Same with any enemies, don't fear them, but always be careful, use your head and be merciless. You'll know the difference between those who can and can't be trusted by looking at them for a solid five seconds if you get the chance. By then I know if they need putting in the ground or not." Ellie explained.
"How?" Curtis asked, simply, he wanted to learn as much as he could from her.
"It's simple, I'd put my knife to their throats, if I knew they lied it would be the last time, and believe me I'd know." Ellie wasn't clowning around.
"You wouldn't just slit their throats Ellie, I don't believe that." Curtis shook his head.
"Yes I would Curtis, you have to remember I'm just fodder to other survivors, so I would do what I had to, like I've tried to get into your head, kill or be killed." Slight frustration showed in Ellie's voice.
"No, come on, just because you think they lied, you're better than that." Curtis was equally frustrated with her.
"I'm not, don't be overly sentimental Curtis." Ellie scratched her ear. "I'm here for you, and you for me but other than that," Ellie pointed towards the window, "no friends and certainly no mercy."
Curtis still shook his head, Ellie gave up on the subject, he'd have to learn for himself.

A few days later, on Ellie's twenty first birthday, in the middle of the afternoon she and Curtis were shaken out of their hermit stupor when gunshots were fired close by.
Curtis attempted to go to the window, Ellie had to physically pull him back. He turned around looking flustered at her.
"No Curtis wait a moment, we have to be careful here. What if someone spots us?" Ellie put her hands up. "Just wait here a moment." She edged towards the window as a war erupted outside.
"You're not going to the window are you?" He asked.
Ellie put her finger to her lips. "Just to listen in, that's all."
After five minutes of screaming, shooting and dying the first audible human voice was heard.

"I think that's all of them, soldiers, now check all the buildings and be careful about it." A woman's voice, Ellie guessed it was a middle aged female, one of Horne's generals.

Whispering, Ellie turned to Curtis and said. "Here's the plan, the horses will give us away so trying to hide is probably out."
"So you're saying we're fucked basically." Curtis sighed.
"No, don't give up, that's not a choice, I told you that. Someone's going to check the house, I'll go down and try to make a deal or something to get to Horne, try to convince them we're friendly. You stay up here in case something goes wrong. They'll know there's two of us but just be my back up in case someone isn't in the mood to listen to me and would rather put a bullet in my brain."
"I have a feeling we could die here Ellie." Curtis seemed resigned.
"Not going to happen, keep your bow at the ready, if shit goes down we fight our way out and we will win. But that's our last resort. Snap out of it because we have this, okay. Are you afraid of dying?"
"No, if I'm dying with you at my side it's okay."
Ellie nodded, proud of his reply. "We'll try everything in our power to come out of this quietly and peacefully, I promise."
"I trust you Ellie." Curtis meant it wholly.
Ellie knew this and would do everything in her power to see this situation turn in their favor.
As footsteps neared, Ellie went over the plan with Curtis again.
"Stay at the top of the stairs, arrow nocked, let me talk. If I say the words 'whoa Nelly' it means kill them, then we fight, although that's our final resort. Hopefully we'll be okay." Ellie patted him on the shoulder and went downstairs, 9mm in hand.
Her heart was hammering again, she was surprised she hadn't had a cardiac arrest by now.
"Hey Pisces, hey Reed, you guys be good now." She petted them both and awaited the inevitable confrontation. She saw the guy's gun before he even entered through the plexiglass on the door, if she'd wanted she could have put a bullet through his head for fun.
As he entered and saw Ellie, both of them aimed their guns at each other.
"Who the fuck are you girl?" He asked.
"I'm someone who could have shot you in your head before you even got this far. Look up you'll see my bro has his bow trained on you."
"What the fuck is this, are you looters?" The man, mid twenties, Caucasian, asked.
"Aren't we all? Look listen, I just want to talk, you're a Bengal right?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah I'm a Bengal, are you a goddam New Eagle?"
"No way, I killed Daniels point blank on the way here." Ellie replied.
"Bullshit." The guy laughed at her.
Ellie slowly raised her hands and dropped her pistol, keeping her hands in the air.
"Listen, I'm being honest, I killed him just outside his barracks from long range after infected took over the town, we were holed up like we are here. I'm looking for Natasha Horne, I need safe passage to Illinois and I'll trade or work for it. But I'm telling you Daniels is laying dead with my rifle bullet through his skull. Look you can kill me, congratulations but my boy here will put you down immediately after. I'm showing I mean peace, I want to talk, I'm affiliated with no one. My name is Ellie and that's Curtis, just let us explain our situation. If you're not satisfied we'll leave, if you are maybe we can be of use to you."
The guy nodded. "Okay sure, but why do you need to see Horne? How do I know this isn't an assassination attempt?"
"Firstly I know she is an associate of Doctor Clairmont, Daniels murdered his son. I need to see Clairmont because I'm immune to the infection and I want to help." Ellie explained.
The guy lowered his gun. "Hey kid, lower the bow." He looked back at Ellie. "Okay girl you wait here, I'm calling this in. I don't know if you're lying or what."
Curtis lowered his weapon.
"I'm not." Ellie replied.
"Not up to me, you say this to me, fine I'm not who you need to convince. Oh yeah my name's Lance, as if it really matters." He went outside. "Yo Monica! Two stragglers hiding out here! They come in peace, or whatever! Kid, male, early teens and a girl, early twenties, late teens! They've got quite a story for you!"
"Alright get 'em out here!" She called back.
"Come on." Lance ordered them out.
"We have supplies upstairs, maybe we can share them. As you can see we've got our own horses." Ellie said.
"Get your shit, get the horses out and see Monica, she's the one with white hair. Then you can ride up front."
"Fine, Get our stuff Curtis."
A few minutes later they were outside. Lance had explained the bones of Ellie's conversation to Monica.
"I take it you're in charge." Monica asked Ellie.
"Yeah that's right." She replied.
"You'll ride up front with me, he your brother?" She pointed at Curtis.
"Half brother yeah." Ellie didn't know why she lied but who really cared?
He can ride alongside Lance. You can keep your weapons but no funny stuff or..."
Ellie understood. "There'll be no funny stuff, we need some assistance and we're willing to trade or work for it."
Monica nodded. "Explain it on the way. You two," She pointed at two soldiers. "Ride to the Eagles barracks, I want confirmation this girl executed Daniels then get back to our base as quickly as possible. Until then Ellie and Curtis will stay with us as peaceful prisoners. If it's confirmed she killed him we will help the two, if not they'll be sent away to deal with whatever dangers on their own."
"Yes ma'am!" They both replied and rode away without question.
"Any particular reason you didn't assist us against the infected?" Monica asked Ellie.
"Yeah because we didn't know what we were up against."
"Okay you two want to pay your way, you'll both fight infected with us until our compatriots return. I'll take a wild guess you're both seasoned fighters normally."
"Yeah we are when it's not us two versus fifty clickers, even I don't have enough Molotov Cocktails for that." Ellie was quickly losing patience.
"Sure, fair enough." Monica grunted.
"You've got a deal, we'll make it up to you." Ellie replied. "Okay Curtis?"
"One hundred percent." He called back.
"Good to know because you do owe us now. Ellie as a peaceful prisoner you'll be free to do what you like on our base within reason. You won't be allowed to leave until we have confirmation of Daniels' death. Also if we want you to help hunt infected there's no room for debate." Monica looked for confirmation from Ellie.
"Understood, we agree to the terms." Ellie simply replied.
"Sounds fair." Curtis added.
"I hear you're not affiliated with any group but you know about Daniels, how's that?" Monica asked.
Ellie cleared her throat and spoke up enough for Curtis to hear.
"Long story short I left Wyoming to get Curtis and on the way I was attacked by these New Eagles assholes. By the time I got to Curtis he was the only one left alive, infected had killed his parents. Basically I was looking to help someone find a cure to this virus because I'm immune to it, I chose to do this because my father died and this is a journey I needed to make. I found out about Daniels after holing up in his town and reading about him in a diary from one of his soldiers, I've got all sorts of information on him, Horne and Clairmont, all the information is in my backpack. I'm being honest, and if I was lying may I die in a pool of my own blood before I even make it to Indiana." Ellie had clearly done enough to convince Monica.
"I'll believe you, if you're lying it will come back and bite you, but this whole being immune thing, this is interesting. I'll take a look at them books later, don't worry I'll return them" She scratched her chin.
"When I come to fight infected with you I won't wear a mask because I can breathe spores. I'm telling you because I want to show I'm not lying and I genuinely want to help be a cure, for what it's worth now."
"If you're telling the truth it's worth it." Monica replied. "I'm not interested in holding you over it, I'm sure if you get to Natasha she'll see you get on your way safely to Clairmont. But I'll make a suggestion you don't mention this to any Black-horns. The Pegasus is some science fiction kind of shit to me, but I guess it's for the greater good and so are you. So if it all checks out, Ellie from Wyoming and Curtis from Nebraska I hope everything works out for you both."
"Thank you, I appreciate it, good to know." Ellie gave a thumbs up.
"Right, if I might ask, what happened to your left hand?" Monica asked.
"Had my fingers bitten off in a fight, screwed up my guitar playing days. It's the line I use when anyone asks me, which is quite regular." Ellie was actually tired of how many times she'd been asked about it.
"So what happened to the finger biter?" Monica asked.
"She came off worse than me, I guess I can't moan, I came out of it alive."
"Say no more on the matter Ellie, it's clearly irking you, I apologize." Monica dropped the subject.
"Yeah it's fine, it's not my favorite thing to talk about but I'll admit I don't hide my emotions well."
"I can see that." Monica replied.
Ellie blushed. "It's not my finest quality."
"It's a warrior quality, I'll be interested to see it for the first time." Monica was as good at the forked tongue as Ellie.
"She will show you, and so will I. If it was two of you against all them would you be all guns blazing? That would be pretty stupid wouldn't it? There was what twenty of you guys?" Curtis was getting heated.
"Eighteen, we lost three, so don't get so defensive. Monica isn't disrespecting your sister, kid, she's trying to figure you both out. But I'll agree if there was two of us we'd be dumb to wade in." Lance explained.
"Exactly." Monica agreed. "No offence, I just have the sharp tongue like your big sis, it doesn't mean anything." Monica pointed out the remaining members thirteen of the Bengals. "Rod, Hosé, Gemma, Arn, Krystal, Wesley, Jun, Damien, Bubbles, Zara, Bobby, Pablo and Finnegan. The two men riding off were Barnes and Van Wyjk." Everyone either nodded their head or said 'hi' sombrely, there were no high spirits among them.
"Happy kid?" Lance said to Curtis.
"Stop calling me kid, it's Curtis."
"Whatever, don't get all mad, it doesn't suit you." Lance replied.
"When's the next infected hunt happening?" Ellie asked.
"There's one tonight then one in two days."
"Sign me up for tonight." Ellie demanded.
"No, rest up and we'll do the one in two days."
"Nah ah, you want proof I can fight, I'll fight tonight." Ellie's stubbornness was coming into play again.
"Me too." Said Curtis.
Monica sighed. "Fine, you probably haven't seen action for a bit if you've been holed up."
"That's right, I don't want to lose my edge." Ellie replied.
"You cool with your brother coming along?" Monica asked.
"Yeah, I'll bet he's the best bowman among us." Ellie was adamant they proved themselves worthy, anything to get to Horne with a good recommendation.
"What do you reckon Lance?" Monica asked.
"He looked competent enough, I don't think he would have hesitated putting me down if I'd shot his sister." He replied.
"I'll protect her with my life." Curtis added.
"Good enough for me." Monica was satisfied. "You've got a good brother there Ellie."
"Better than I deserve." Was her response.
"Also it's Ellie's twenty first birthday so I want to celebrate it properly." Curtis called out.
"We have plenty of cigars back at the base." Lance replied.
Ellie began to laugh.