averno, tlou

twenty three

chapter twenty three: never a break
november 25th, 2023

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Alejandra was sat using her arm as a pillow.

Blinking tiredly as the pain had caught up to her. She saw Joel peek from behind the newspapers at the civilians who searched the city for them and directed her sight to Ellie who stood behind him. "Are we okay in here?" She asked quietly and Joel didn't know how to respond, "for a little bit, maybe." Alejandra wanted to joke and tell Ellie she had a gun, she would be safe, but she didn't. Instead just shifted her head and shut her eyes.

"Looks like they're checkin' out apartment buildings first." Joel shook his head, feeling his back cramp from his hunched over position. "But they'll be coming through these places soon enough." Alejandra sighed, sitting up and grabbing her backpack while pulling out the plastic bag. She stuck her finger inside and turned it over, six pills left. The woman had more fear of running out of pain pills than the men searching for them outside. She knew she could fight, just didn't know how for how long with out any drugs.

Joel sat down in front of Alejandra, his brows knitted together while focusing on her who studied the pills and thought of ways to make them last longer. Ellie dipped her head between the sections of the newspaper, "there's a really tall building four blocks away." Alejandra pulled a pill out and placed it in her mouth, "yeah, saw it." Joel sighed, "as soon as we don't hear a truck, we move."

"I need like, fifteen minutes." Alejandra replied while slowly laying her head back down. Ellie had a small smile on her lips while sinking down the floor, leaning her body against the windows. "Well in fifteen minutes... We get there as fast as we can." Joel wanted to sink his head down like Alejandra's was, but he focused on Ellie who picked at her nails. "Are you okay?" Ellie asked Joel, breaking the silence. The question made Alejandra shoot her head up, unsure on what Joel was doing while the man leaned forward while debating his answer.

"I'm all right." He said what needed to be said. Of course he wasn't okay, his lungs burned and throat hurt to speak. His head was splitting in two and his eye movement felt like his brain was melting. He was hungry, no, starving and was afraid that in two minutes he'd collapse from hunger and his knee. Nothing was compared to the way his knee was hurting. He couldn't even consider it hurt anymore, it was numb from pain and it sent tingles down the right side of his body. But when he glanced to Alejandra, everything seemed to be not important because she was his priority. Then glancing to Ellie whose eyes were weld with permanent tears from not understanding what she had done minutes prior and he wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but he couldn't promise that. No one could promise that.

"Are you, all right?" It sounded like he was pained to say it and Alejandra didn't fight the small smile that came from his concern. The questioning in his tone making the woman want to chuckle, "yeah" was all she answered with. Alejandra watched Joel who opened his mouth to speak again but instead dipped his head and shook it back and forth, peeling away at the paint on the table with his left hand. "Thing is, I didn't hear that guy comin', and you shouldn't have had to-" Joel hummed, unsure how to tell Ellie while he quickly looked to Alejandra for help. Instead the woman downturned her lips and her shoulders shrugged, "you know?"

Alejandra rolled her eyes, "well, you're glad I did, right. I mean, Alex was knocked over and she wasn't getting up fast enough if I didn't-"

"You're just a kid." Joel interrupted Ellie, "you shouldn't know what it means to-" he stopped abruptly and Alejandra gently kicked her leg out. Pushing her foot between his while his eyes saw it and his vision doubled from warm tears. "It's not like you killed him." His voice cracked, "but, shootin' or," he didn't know what to say, the words he wanted to say were caught in the back of his throat around the bruising and barbed wire that kept him from lashing out on her.