Look For The Light

The Mall

Please see the Notes for this story. I love THE LAST OF US show and the video game! So here's my What-If fiction. I want Ellie and Joel to be happy, damnit! As always, I OWN NOTHING! This is just for fun!
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Jack had a picture book as a kid about a little girl named Alice who entered Wonderland and was marveled by all the things she saw. Standing in the middle of the decaying building, Jack wondered if this is what Alice felt. Riley came for them as she promised. Grabbing their backpacks in case they found more treasures to trade, the trio stealthily advanced across the QZ and avoided detection from FEDRA agents. They even stumbled across a body in one of the abandoned buildings clutching a half empty bottle of booze. They joked and asked Riley questions like where she's been this whole time and where she was planning to go after running away from the FEDRA military school. She just kept a coy smirk and offered vague answers.

After they restored power to The Mall, they dove head first into what Riley called "The Wonders of The Mall". The moving stairs were both exciting and scary to Jack. Stairs weren't supposed to move! But he quickly joined Ellie's play by walking up, down, and remaining in place laughing along with his sister. He tried to imagine his parents being kids just like him, going to a mall with friends, being completely safe and buying useless things just because they wanted it. He followed Riley and Ellie throughout the mall looking at all the empty broken stores. He noticed that some stores were still full of items collecting dust from decades of abandonment while others were completely empty of inventory.

Riley shrugged. "My mom said when everything fell apart, people took what they needed or what they wanted. Eventually FEDRA stepped in to stop the looting but by then the damage was done."

Confused, Ellie observed the mall. "So everyone took shoes..." she pointed to an empty shoe store. "...but not soap?" she pointed to a fully stocked soap and perfume store.

Jack shrugged and continued on. "Priorities?"

The girls stopped in front of a store with mannequins in the window with clothes with so many holes and thin straps.

"Is that supposed to be underwear?!" he laughed.

Riley frowned at the lingerie. "Why would anyone want this?"

Jack raised his eyebrow. "Really?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, I know why but it just looks really uncomfortable." She chuckled and nudged Ellie with her elbow. "I'm just imagining you in something like that."

Ellie blushed and nudged back. "Shut up!"

"Gross." Jack rubbed his eyes. "That's an image I never wanted in my brain."

Riley laughed and motioned for them to continue. "Come on, check this out."

She led them to the center of the mall. Ellie and Jack gasped at the bright lights blinking around then giving a glow from every color of the rainbow. Riley flipped a switch and opened her arms as carnival music began to play. "Your next Wonder! The Carousel!" The trio quickly hopped on as the carousel began to spin and every other animal bobbed up and down the carnival music. Jack hopped on a black horse and hugged the golden metal pole in the middle as he watched the world spin around him. His imagination transformed the decaying mall into a packed building filled with laughter, smiles, and the smell of sweets. He imagined his parents standing off to the side waving at him with big smiles on their faces as he passed by. He saw in the mirror at the carousel's center Ellie sitting on a gray spotted horse and Riley sitting on a white horse engrossed in their own world sipping the bottle of booze they took. Jack decided to leave them to their moment. Dad already had "The Talk" with him while Mom talked with Ellie so he understood what it meant to see the girls in his class differently than before. At first he thought there might be a boy Ellie was interested in, but the day they met Riley he knew she was like Frank and Bill. It made him smile to see her happy with Riley. She had the same smile that Frank had when Bill was around. Jack decided life was too short to make a big deal about it. Ellie liking girls was just another thing they had in common. The lights of the carousel dimmed and the ride slowed down bringing him out of his revere. Riley cursed and hopped off her horse to see if she could turn the ride on again.