This is Not the Last of Us

Chapter 8

"What the fuck do we do now?" Ellie shouted through the high winds.

The horses' hooves slammed into the snow hard enough to show the dirt. Ellie was antsy, and not able to think up a clever plan right away. (Y/N) seemed to be in the same boat, but she quickly realized that she needed to be Ellie's pillar and started to think.

"We need to tell Papa so we can relocate — quick! He'd be able to get them on the horses." She shouted back through the wind. "We need to cover our tracks first! They found us in the middle of the woods so we can't guarantee they couldn't track us back!"

"Good idea!" Ellie shouted.

The girls traveled in the woods in circles and made the horse trot backwards and forwards. Desperate to cover their tracks even slightly in the snow. (Y/N) cringed in frustration.

"They're going to find us, we need to get back home — soon."

"Right," Ellie confirmed and began to rush the horse.

When they got back, they rushed into the home and looked for Ace immediately. He was sitting on the floor beside Seth, carefully rubbing the hair out of his face. When he heard the girls rush in, he shot to attention and subconsciously reached for his gun.

"Papa!" (Y/N) shouted. "Papa, we need to go now!"

Ace stared at the two girls, but was still already starting to move, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The guys we...," (Y/N) paused, "The guys we killed in the University... Their leader found us in the woods, and he's not friendly. I think he's planning on sending someone to kill us. We need to go!"

Ace hesitated from shouldering his bag. His eyes flitted between the two girls abs studied the fear in their eyes. "Did he hurt you? Are you two okay?"

He asked the questions slowly, as if he was deliberating on what he should do himself.

"We're okay," Ellie whispered and stared up at Ace.

"Good, that's good." He said and turned to the men.

"We got some penicillin from him, but I still don't trust him. He was threatening us." (Y/N) said firmly.

"Okay, okay... We'll get out of this," Ace trailed off in an attempt to comfort them. He seemed to be thinking about what to do.

"I've got an idea, Ace. Will you hear me out?" (Y/N) said.

Ace didn't know if he was more startled that she had stopped calling him papa, or if she had just dropped his first name like it was nothing.

He nodded.

"I think we should send you, Dad, and Mr. Joel off first. Ellie and I will distract them on two of the horses, and then we'll circle back to you. That way you can get them to a safer spot and we can catch up with you."

"No," he said immediately, "Absolutely not, if we get too separated then you two might not be able to find us again."

"But — !" She began to protest.

The sound of horse hooves brought the three of them to attention.

"We'll run on two of the horses, so we can hide you all and then we'll circle back to you. We don't have time to argue!" Ellie shouted and moved back to the garage.

"I love you, Papa! We won't be too long!" (Y/N) shouted in concurrence.

"Hey, wait!" He shouted, moving to go after them, but the two girls were visibly rushed. "For the love of — be careful you two!"