IN NO TIME, they were back on the road again, walking out into far-too-bright sunlight that made Ralph cover his eyes as they left their base to go and explore. Lou ducked behind him, hiding her face behind his arm, but quickly forgot all about light sensitivity at the sight of the city in the daylight.
It had been absolutely destroyed, but in a somehow beautiful way.
Buildings that rose to the top of the sky had been shattered and broken all the way down their sides, overgrown by vines and greenery and grime. A nearby building had been uprooted entirely and forced to lean on a nearby one for support. The sight of it made Lou feel uneasy. Another one had its roof caved in entirely.
'Woah.' Ellie gasped quietly, looking up at the buildings and surrounding structures in awe.
'Yeah, looks different in the daylight, huh?' Tess murmured, taking a moment to herself to admire the scenery, or what was left of it. Ralph didn't seem all too interested, just sort of looked around and followed whatever it was that Joel was doing.
'We should get moving.' He instructed, jumping down from the ledge he had stepped up on for no apparent reason.
They did get moving. They moved all through the empty, depressing streets, through bug-infested alleyways, and passed by raided stores until they came to a big, fat, juicy dead end, right in the middle of the street. In front of the five of them was a caved-in building, mountains of dirt and bodies in front of it.
'So, the State House is across there. It's about a ten-minute walk if you could go straight.' Tess explained briefly.
'So?' Ellie prompted.
'Long way or short way?' Joel butted in, looking back at the two girls before shifting his gaze to Ralph and Tess, the only other rational decision-makers in the group.
'Well, it's the long way or the "we're fucking dead" way.' Tess sighed.
'Well, I vote long way, just based on that limited information.' Ellie raised her eyebrows.
'Where's your sense of adventure, Elliegator?' Lou mocked, shoving her a little bit before holding her chin up and raising her hand. 'I vote for the short way.'
'The hell you do!' Ralph laughed at her, a grin of disbelief on his face. Joel looked over at him. 'We're going the long way.'
'Either way, we'll have to check it from the hotel first. Nobody get their hopes up.' Joel commanded, looking at the group. Sighing, Tess nodded her head and started walking, Ellie and Lou trailing not far behind her. As they walked, Ralph began to speak.
'How's your hand?' He said, stepping over some old, scraggly barbed wire that was laying on the concrete in front of him.
'It's fine.' Joel replied, copying his move and hopping a little bit to cross over it. He hoped that, after their small talk last night, Ralph didn't see them as friends or something like that. They weren't. Ralph was simply an accomplice, an addition. Not someone to buddy around with.
'Really? 'Cause, it looks a little bit broken.' Joel didn't know where Ralph had learned sarcasm, but he didn't like it. He much preferred five seconds ago when they were walking in silence. Subconsciously, Joel tightened his respective hand on his gun, wincing when a flood of pain came after the tiny movement. 'See, that's what I mean. When we get bandaids, I'll patch you up.'
'Hey, where the fuck are these things?' Ellie turned around and yelled at Joel, making the duo realize how far behind they were from the others. They shared a look, wondering who would be the first to answer the question, and Joel took the lead.
YOU ARE READING
borderline - the last of us.
Fanfiction'we're on the borderline, caught between the lines of pain and rapture.' in which ralph leaves his bedroom door unlocked, a nosey neighbour blackmails him, and now he's stuck backpacking across the country with his daughter and a strange little...
