The Last of Us part III Ellie's Redemption

Bye Bye Bengals

The next morning Curtis awoke to see Ellie sprawled beside her book, sleeping at the table.
He rolled his eyes and silently made himself a drink, although Ellie's senses were tuned finely and she woke up at his slightest sound.
"Huh wha...?"
"Sorry sis, it's morning, I was making a drink, I didn't mean to wake you."
Ellie rubbed her eyes. "It's fine, dang I fell asleep at the table. Out with it, I know you're going to scold me for not sleeping in the bed."
"Nothing of the sort." Curtis drank.
Ellie nodded and shrugged. "Fair enough, did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Another dream of Joel, I can't remember it very well, all I remember is we were riding through the snow then we came to a cliff, Joel rode off it and I couldn't stop him. These dreams continue to haunt me. Do you ever dream of your family, I know you'd have told me if you'd dreamt of your aunt."
"I don't dream about them much, definitely not auntie, if I ever do I'll tell you."
"Okay, I guess we'd better get our orders for the day." Ellie got her backpack in order then they both went to see Sally.
The day was fairly routine, they killed some infected, spent more time with Roger (Ellie really liked the old guy). They read their books, ate together then retreated back to their room for the night only to get ready to repeat the process the next day.
This time it was Ellie who woke first, from her bed.
"You awake yet?" She asked Curtis.
"Yeah I guess so."
"Let's get another sweep done, earlier the better then we can prepare for our leave tomorrow."
"Lead the way."
They went to get their orders from Sally for the final time.
It was just Ellie and Curtis doing a sweep by themselves again, Ellie preferred it that way.
There didn't seem to be much going on.
"Let's stay out a bit longer Curtis, I want to be sure we've covered everything before we head back."
"Sure, best to do our job properly. We are the best after all."
Ellie nodded in agreement.
They traveled around the area for a bit longer until Ellie put her finger to her mouth, she could hear sound in the distance.
"Can you hear that?"
"I can hear something, is that the sound of horses?"
"That's exactly what it is." Ellie agreed.
"New Eagles?"
"Fuck! We need to see for ourselves then ride back to the base as hard as we can."
"Shouldn't we just go now?"
"Maybe, I just want to confirm it." Ellie pulled out her binoculars and focused them in the direction of the noise.
She waited until she saw something, it wasn't good, the lead rider had a flag mounted on his steed, an upside down Stars and Stripes with the eagle in the middle.
"Confirmed, it's the Eagles." She passed the binoculars to Curtis who's mouth dropped, he gave the binoculars back.
"We need to get back fast." He was almost hysterical.
They galloped hard for the base.
The sentry could see something was troubling them.
"What's up?" He asked.
"New Eagles coming this way." Curtis replied, trying to catch his breath.
The sentry looked at Ellie.
"This isn't a joke, let us in we need to warn everyone." Ellie replied.
"Shit!" The sentry let them in and bells were rang in warning.
Everyone was being warned of the ensuing intruders.
Ellie ran to the reception area to tell them what they saw. Soldiers were coming out in mass, ready for another attack.
Sally came with them, she stopped in front of Ellie.
"Are you sure it was the New Eagles Ellie?"
"Head rider had the flag mounted on his horse, they were coming right towards us. A good hundred soldiers, me and Curtis couldn't deal with them by ourselves."
"Okay, you're both going to come with us aren't you?"
"Of course."
Jane and Lance were next out, ready to fight.
"Eagles?" Jane asked.
"Yeah." Curtis replied.
"Let's fuck 'em up and celebrate later." Lance added.
"What about Roger?" Curtis asked.
"He's hanging back, let's go, we'll see each other at the other end." Jane gave them a thumbs up as she and Lance went ahead.
"You two stay with me." Sally said.
"Okay, I'm really tired of these assholes." Ellie replied, checking Joel's revolver was fully loaded, the most sacred of all her weapons.
"Follow me." Jane said as they pushed forward on foot.
There were sentries everywhere, mounted soldiers, bowmen and bombers at the ready.
Soon enough the sound of enemy soldiers was heard, Ellie could feel the anxiety and atmosphere of what was to come.
She looked at Curtis. "If anything happens to me you know the plan."
"You aren't dying today or anytime soon Ellie, I'm sick of telling you this." He replied with annoyance.
"You're right." Ellie wouldn't be happy until she dropped as many of these people as she could.
The first shot fired moments later and everything became a blur afterwards.
Ellie remembered blowing the heads of some of them, although she didn't escape a scathing herself. An arrow hit her in the right shoulder, it broke as she tried to pull it out.
"Fuck." She held the wound, but the adrenaline kicked in and she continued the fight. A mounted Eagle got too close and she grabbed him by the waist dragging him to the ground. Unfortunately for her he was able to overpower her and get on top of her. She bit into his nose, tearing through the cartilage and spitting the stringy globule of flesh away. He screamed as she pushed him off and repeatedly hacked into his face with her butterfly knife, one of his eyes exploded, the hot jelly covering her shirt. An arrow whizzed by her and hit an Eagle in the heart who dropped only yards from Ellie. She turned to see Curtis give her a thumbs up. Ellie immediately threw the knife into the head of an enemy soldier who was getting too close to Curtis.
Ellie retrieved her knife.
"Fuck, Ellie your shoulder." Curtis grabbed the remaining bit of arrow and pulled it out.
"Shit!" Ellie felt every bit of it. "Come on Curtis let's finish these bastards."
"Aye, aye sis."
They continued their fight.
Eventually the Eagles made a retreat, although Ellie noticed their direction was in the one headed towards Natasha Horne.
Ellie immediately looked for Curtis, he was alive although obviously scathed too. She tried to find Jane and Lance too, they were alright as well. Ellie felt a lot better about it now, but she was finding it hard to move her right arm. She went towards Curtis who noticed and ran to her.
"How's your arm?"
"I can't move it much."
"That's not good."
"I'll get it tended to shortly, let's check on Jane and Lance." Ellie tripped over a soldier landing on her injured soldier. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
Curtis helped her up, she took the assistance from him gratefully. She spat angrily on the corpse.
"Fuck you shit-bag." She kicked the dead man hard then held her shoulder, wincing in pain.
Jane noticed Ellie and her face dropped. "Ellie, damn, are you okay? Curtis?"
"I'm alright, I don't think Ellie can move her arm."
"Yeah and I go and fall over a dead body and make it worse."
"We'll see to it." Jane inspected it.
"I'll stitch it up myself." Ellie replied.
"I'll do it, don't argue."
Later on the bodies of both Bengals and Eagles were loaded onto lorries. Bengals to be buried and Eagles to be fed to the fish.
Lance and Curtis had gone to see Roger and get him up to date on the morning's invasion.
Sally had sent Ellie to the infirmary, Jane had gone with her, as her tending nurse.
Ellie insisted on stitching her wound up by herself.
"Ellie you don't have to prove your toughness to me. I know what I'm doing, so trust me as a friend and someone who actually knows what they're doing."
"Thanks, I'm not really used to someone else doing this sort of thing for me, although my ex girlfriend Dina was handy like that."
"Dina seems pretty cool, I'm sorry things didn't work out between the both of you."
"It's fine, I'm honestly over it now."
"I know I've only just started seeing Lance, but if I wasn't I'd definitely ask if you were available."
Ellie waved the thought away with her good arm. "No, I'm not good for anyone at the moment, I just hurt them."
"It's like I said though, I'm happy with Lance, but if I was single, you know."
"Thanks Jane, I appreciate it, and if you were single I wouldn't say no. But I'm not kidding, I hurt people, not on purpose but I have a knack for it. Lance is good for you, try and make it work."
"Thank you also Ellie."
"For what exactly?"
"Not shooting him that day, and that he didn't shoot you either." Jane smiled, to Ellie it was infectious.
Ellie laughed. "Me too, who'd have thought the guy wasn't a complete dumbass like I first thought."
"Ellie! He's a guy, give him a break, they're all dumbasses."
"I know, although there's hope for Curtis."
"Yeah he's a good kid, I think it's so adorable how you both look out for each other. Now I know you Ellie, you'll come back at me with 'I ain't adorable Jane, I'm too dark and brooding for that' but yes sometimes you're downright sweet."
"Urgh, I admittedly have some good points I guess." Ellie shrugged then wished she hadn't. "Dang, my arm feels like cement."
"Tomorrow we're leaving, when I return I'm being stationed here with dad, Sally has sent a letter to Monica to accept a transfer request for me and Lance. I want to thank you for that too, I should have done it earlier."
"You're welcome, you're a good friend and I'm glad we met, you deserve to be here, I never liked Monica anyway. I'm sorry to drag you to Indiana, but I'm going to talk to Sally about both of you staying here. Me and Curtis will do the remaining trek alone."
"Wait, why?"
"It's safer for you Jane, like I said I mess up any friendship I have one way or another, I'm not messing things up with you, I'm doing right by you both."
"I could die tomorrow on a hunt, Lance could die today falling off a horse. We're coming with you. I understand what you're saying Ellie but danger and death surrounds us all the time."
"Think about it Jane, if you really want to come tomorrow, fine, great. But if not just know you've got my blessing, for all it's worth, to stay here."
"Ellie..."
"Please Jane, please just think about it."
"Fine Ellie."
"Really think about it."
"I'll give you my answer at breakfast tomorrow. Now just rest for the day, let's go and see dad, drink some relaxing tea and just enjoy the rest of the day. After what happened earlier I need any distraction I can to get that bloodshed out of my mind."
"I hear you, you win."
Jane gave Ellie a hug knowing it wouldn't be reciprocated.
Ellie winced.
"Damn, sorry, sorry. You're just so huggable."
Ellie smiled gingerly. "Shut up you, let's go and drink some of your dad's tea, it's much better than coffee."
"It will help take away some of the pain too."
"I need a reminder of that pain though, it reminds me not to get lazy."
"Yeah I understand, just relax for the rest of the day Ellie."
"That's a word I've never understood Jane."