Eternal Mind | The Last Of Us

6

The group bunkered down in an abanded store for the night. Joel and Tess had taken turns watching Ellie while she slept. After finding out about the girl's immunity the pair had each of their own assumptions.

Joel wanted to take both the girls immediately. Ellie was going to turn soon, he was sure of it. The man was interrupted from his thoughts by a tap on the shoulder. He jerked forward a bit in surprise. Turning sideways he saw Prim standing next to him.

"Shit kid, you can't sneak up on people like". The situation got awkward as Prim didn't say anything in response. For a second she just stood there, unmoving, unblinking. Then all of sudden there was a sharp movement.

Her hands that were behind her back shot up in front of the man's face. In her hands was a bouquet of blue and yellow flowers. "fleur pour toi", she shoved them into his face more.

"Oh, thanks".

"When the hell did she start speaking in french", Tess asked when Prim walked back.

"Until just now I suppose", Joel responded. He tucked the flowers in the pocket of his bag. Ellie stirred in her sleep. The blinding light hit her eyes when she opened them.

"Morning", she said turning towards the pair. By the looks on their face there seemed to be some unresolved tension. That was even more apparent when Joel pointed his gun straight at her when she stood up.

"Do I look infected"?

"Show us your arm". Ellie rolled up her sleeve for the hundredth time. There was no redness or any sign of irritation. "Yeah, it's not getting any worst is it". The pair looked at each other. "If we're out in the open city, why aren't we getting swarmed"?

"Don't worry about that".

"Well, I'm gonna".

"What was Marlene doing with an infected kid", Tess asked.

"I'm not infected". There was a short silence. "She found me when I was bitten".

"And she didn't shoot you".

"Cleary not. She locked me up and had her guys test me every day to see if I was getting sick".

"Test you how"?

"I have to pee".

"Test you how"?

"They made me count to ten and hold out my hand then keep it steady, but you know I think what impressed them was the fact that I didn't turn into a fucking monster".

Ellie stood. Joel followed suit. He kept the gun pointing at her. She put her hand up and looked at Tess for approval. "Fine, back there you can find a spot", she picked up a magazine and tossed it toward the girl. "Here, tear a few pages".

Ellie walked into the next room. "There's not going to be anything bad in here"?

"Just you", Joel joked, somewhat serious as well.

"Oh, funny".

Tess scratched her head. This whole situation was taking years off her life. She has felt more stress in the past hour than she had in years. "She made it through the fucking night Joel".

"It doesn't matter It's gonna happen soon or later, All right? We're still close to the wall we sneak her back into the QZ and find a different way to get the battery".

"This is our best shot, we take her back we take them both, we would be giving away our best bargaining chips". Joel sighed. "If we take her back someone gonna notice her arm, they're gonna scan her and they'll kill, then after they do that they'll hang the other girl".

"You need to stop talking about this kid like she's got some kinda life in front of her, who knows about the other one she could be infected too, we can't take that risk".

Prim gave all her attention to the wall of vines that were in front of them. Earlier she had tried to reset her cassette tape. There was no saying it though, it was completely busted.

Ellie came walking in. She threw the ruined magazine on the floor. Toilet paper these days sucked.

Prim went over to sit down next to Ellie. "Are yall hungry", Tess asked the girls. "You guys can share some of ours".

"Thanks but Marlene sent us with our own". While the adult eat dried beef jerky the girls ate sandwiches. Real sandwiches.

Prim mostly ate the bread. The other stuff wasn't really to her liking. Unbeknownst to them their food was making a certain someone jealous.

"Is that chicken"?

"Yeah, Marlene said they get from smugglers, guess not you guys". Tess got up.

"Hey hey", Joel wanted to stay precautious.

"Why are you two so important to Marlene, don't lie to me or we'll take you back".

"You take me back, you don't get your battery".

Tess scoffed, "You heard that". Ellie smiled. "Then you must have heard that he wants to shoot you". Her face dropped and she looked at Joel.

"Im gonna talk to you like your an adult, okay? Joel and I aren't good people we're doing this for us because you two are worth something but we don't know what you're worth so answer the question".

Ellie rolled her eyes. She put her hand on her face to think. "She told me not to tell anybody and now I'm telling the first people that I-". The girl stopped mid-sentence. "There's a firefly base camp somewhere out west with doctors, they're working on a cure".

Joel couldn't believe his ears. This whole journey across dangerous territory was for a cure that didn't exist. "I've heard this before".

"Whatever happened to me and Prim is the key".

"That's what this is. We've heard this a million times Vaccines, miracle cures, none of it works, it never has, it never will".

Ellie stood up. "Fuck you man I didn't ask for this".

"You and me both, this isn't gonna end well Tess. We need to go back". While everyone argued, Prim had nestled her feet into the grass. Her shoes were nowhere in sight.

"Let's just finish it, it doesn't matter if they are or aren't what the fireflies say, those wannabe revolutionaries have gotten real fucking desperate, if they believe that there's a cure then we get what we want".

The woman was making a good point. Whether it was because she believed Ellie was immune or not didn't matter. Joel had to remember the main reason he was doing all this. Tommy was out there somewhere. One way or another he needed to find him.

"If she so much as twitches". Ellie started to snarl while flailing her arms around.

"Don't", Tess warned. The girl tugged on her jacket. That was a lot funnier in her head.

The girls grabbed their bags. After a long night, it was finally time to make a move. "Can I have a Gun"?

"Absolutely Not".

"No".

"Okay fine I'll just throw a fucking sandwich at them".

"It's clear", Joal said after he moved a bulky cabinet that he had put up last night to block the only entrance there was.

'Woah" Ellie was in awe when she walked outside. The broken-down buildings looked so beautiful to her.

The group continued on. They came up upon a big crater in the ground. "It's like a fucked up moon, Is this where they bombed"?

"Yeah, they hit most of the big cities like this they had to slow the spread somehow. Worked here but it didn't in most places".