borderline - the last of us.

19. the river of death.

'WHAT ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH ARE YOU DOING?' Joel looked back at Ellie after hearing a plethora of wheezing sounds fall from her mouth for well over three minutes, wondering if something was wrong or if she was just being Ellie. The line blurred sometimes.

She had two fingers jammed in her mouth and was breathing heavily around them like a weirdo, drooling all over her knuckles. Ralph grimaced when she announced that she was "learnimph how to whistlemph.'

'You don't know how to whistle?'

'Does it sound like I know how to whistle?'

'No.' Joel mumbled, digging around in his pockets for something. A wheezing noise similar to Ellie's previous ones came from next to him, and he looked over to see Ralph trying to copy her. 'Oh, Jesus, you too?'

Ralph scrunched his nose and wiggled his head to mock Joel, taking his fingers out of his mouth and wiping them off on the side of his jeans. Ellie did the same and wiped her fingers off on Ralph's jeans as well, which led to him snatching the wooled hat off her head and awarding her the title of "grossest person ever."

'How do you even do that?' Ellie asked Joel once she had jumped high enough to retrieve her hat, tugging it over her head and huffing when Lou fussed about it and began to fix Ellie's hair for her.

'Talent.' Joel replied snarkily, expecting to get away with it.

'No, it's not.' Lou replied, placing her index and thumb in her mouth and whistling so loudly that they swore it echoed from where they stood in the middle of nowhere. Ellie laughed victoriously.

'Hahaha! Oh, she got you good, man!' Ellie held up her hands— Her index finger pointing up and her other fist forming a circle. 'Zhenya, one. Miller, zero. Hey, you guys should teach us how to hunt.'

It was typical Ellie fashion to hop from one conversation to another like it was nothing. Ralph didn't respond to her as he was busy trying to prevent Lou from wiping her spit on his trousers as well. Joel replied with a "hm."

"'Hm."' Ralph had been secretly missing Ellie's Joel impression. 'Like, "Oh, they're girls. They can't handle it. Grr, look at me. I'm Joel Miller. Rooaaarrrr! Al, come help me with this! Al, come help me with that! Al, I lov—!'

Joel smacked his hand over Ellie's mouth.

'Hunting's not all fun and games.' Ralph was smiling, particularly at Joel following that interaction. 'I mean, the shooting's kind of fun. But, then you get down to dressing, with all the guts and it's just... Ew.'

'Doesn't it suck?' Lou asked her dad. 'Like, especially for you, because you're such a big geek and everything? Does it make you sad to kill them?'

'Super sad.' He nodded. 'But, I mean, it's, like... The circle of life and everything.'

'Why do they call it dressing?' Ellie asked. 'It's like, you should call it undressing, 'cause it is. It's like undressing from the inside... Still interested, though!'

...

'DAM.' Ellie said as they stood on the edge of a huge dam. Ralph resisted the urge to shove her in just for that terrible joke.

'You're no Will Livingston.' Joel replied rudely.

'Yeah, yeah, but who is?' Ellie smiled, looking down at the bright blue water below them. 'So, that makes electricity?'

'Yeah.' Joel said, turning to Ellie before she could turn to him. 'Ask Al. I don't have a clue.'

'Ask Lou.' Ralph shook his head, following Joel as he turned to walk away. Ellie looked at Lou with her eyebrows furrowed, wondering if she would actually explain it, only to discover that she was also running away and was going to do no such thing. Ellie sighed to herself. 'You know, you guys could've just made something up. I would've believed you.'