Lilium || A The Last of Us story.

Day 4 of 6

Lily's heart skipped a beat, shivering as she felt it plummet into the depths of her stomach, where it lay fettering away in an acid puddle. The unforgiving cold wind whipped through her clothes, and the dim fire had been almost completely extinguished. Suddenly, a voice shattered the eerie silence.

"Put your hands behind your head and turn around...slowly."

Joel and Lily complied, exchanging worried glances as they shuffled around on their knees. They hoped to God that the intruders wouldn't find Ellie. The thick darkness that surrounded them made everything even more unsettling, and Lily's body wouldn't stop trembling. She desperately wanted to reach out and grab onto Joel, to feel safe.

"Now, what's in the truck?" a male voice snapped.

Lily gulped, the sound echoing through the empty silence. She could hear Joel clenching his jaw, his teeth grinding together.

"I won't ask again. What's in the truck?" The mouth of a rifle was embedded under Lily's chin, twisting harshly. She could hear the faint sound of the trigger being squeezed.

"Supplies," Joel gruffed reluctantly. "Take them," he growled.

Lily held her breath in a strangled panic, why was he offering up the truck knowing Ellie was inside?

"It's locked!" Called a different male voice from across the camp.

Lily immediately remembered not locking the car on purpose, which meant that Ellie must've done so from the inside. Smart girl.

Lily felt her body jolt forward as another attacker thrust their boot into her back, she let out a helpless yelp as she was forced onto her hands.

"Watch it..." Joel cautioned, a sinister hint to his voice.

"Which one of you fuckers has the key?"

Joel rolled his head back trying to catch a glimpse of the raiders, "I do, it's in my bag."

Lily's breaths were a string of panicked shudders, "Joel..." she hissed, fearful tears streaming down her face. The gun that was now jabbed into the middle of her back twisted painfully upwards to the nape of her neck.

"Get the key out of his bag." They ordered abruptly, pushing Lily towards the small pile of belongings that sat next to the embers of the fire. The glow slowly fading.

She began frantically searching Joel's bag for the key, "Got it." She spat out in a terrified shriek. She drew in a sharp steadying breath, reaching behind the bag into the embers, picking up a scorching handful of orange and reds.  The embers burnt into the flesh of her hand as she slowly raised to her feet. The key dangled on her thumb as the burning wood ate its way through the palm of her hand.

"Here!" she exclaimed calmly, stepping closer to the raider. Just as he reached out for the key, she swiftly thrust her hand into his face, embedding the sizzling chips of wood into his eyes. A blood-curdling scream pierced the silence of the clearing. Joel sprang to his feet and deftly seized the rifle that had been aimed at him. He swiftly turned it around, pressing his boot into the attacker's shin. The sound of the bone snapping was as satisfying to his ears as the first crackle of wood in a freshly lit fire.

Taking the gun high into the air, Joel began to embed it into skull. Over, and over until the gurgling splutter of blood stopped and the attacker was nothing but a bloody pulp on the soft moss ground.

The man that Lily had attacked lay writhing on the ground clutching his eyes as they burned and sizzled in his head. Joel stared into space stoically as he placed his boot across the neck and applied what looked like no pressure at all, another echo of splitting bone disturbed the air.