LITTLE DARK AGE: the last of us

003: infected

Matt woke first the next morning. The sun shining through the hole in the roof, left no room for darkness and Matt hated it. He squinted his eyes to see Ellie laying on a patch of mossy ground curled in a ball, sun rays directly falling upon her. She didn't show any signs of movement, any twitches or turns.

He clambered up, back aching from sleeping upright and began walking around the building. When he found nothing useful, asides from a note from a desperate family member which wasn't actually useful but insightful nonetheless, he looked over at everyone. Tess was asleep, really asleep, but Joel was faking, Matt could always tell apart fake sleep.

"Hey." He said blankly, climbing over fallen planks of wood.

Joel grunted in return and sat up in his chair.

"How long should this take?" Matt asked, leaning against the wall. Dried paint clinging to the wall fell onto his shoulder in flakes and the moss under his feet began to slip. He repositioned and walked back over to his coat.

"Few hours at least," The other man replied, reloading his gun and paying no real attention to Matt. "Maybe 5."

"Hm."

"You two still want to rip each others heads off?" Tess grumbled, waking from her sleep. She rubbed her eyes, wary of the bruises surrounding them.

Matt forced out a laugh and grabbed his gun, Tess and Joel both copying suit as Ellie began to stir. A butterfly flew over her head and that's when she woke, eyes following the trail the fragile creature had left behind.

She looked harmless sitting there and it was hard to remember that she wasn't. Or that maybe she wasn't.

Three guns were partially pointed at her as she faced them, the adults all unmoving, eagerly awaiting her next move. She began to crawl over when her eyes caught sight of Joel's bloodied knuckles, tightening his grip on his gun.

"Morning..."

Ellie froze and looked up at Tess, who remained still, reminding Matt of the powerful statues he'd seen in Europe pre-outbreak. "Your arm." She requested.

The girl sat back down, fiddling with her laces and cuff of her jeans. "Do I look-."

"Show us your arm." Joel demanded, barrel of his gun inching closer to the girl.

She sighed before reaching down to roll up her sleeve. The bite across her arm appeared the same, it was still scarring and blistered.

"It's not getting any worse is it?" She asked looking up. She tried to be stern, Matt could tell but there was a sense of vulnerability in her voice. Almost as if she was pissed that the bite mark wasn't getting worse.

Joel and Tess shared a look and Matt felt almost left out as they talked in hushed whispers. It was childish, he knew.

"If we're out in the open, why aren't we getting swarmed?" Ellie questioned. She drew Matts attention away from the two and onto her only for him to not be able to answer her question. The only reason was that they'd gotten super lucky this trip. He began to open his mouth when-

"Don't worry about that." Joel interjected,

"Well I'm gonna." Ellie replied hastily.

"What's Marlene doing with an infected kid?" Tess asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"I'm not infected." Ellie sighed, her curls drooping over her face as she looked down. "She found me after I was bitten."

"And she didn't shoot you?" Joel questioned, even from the side Matt could see one of his eyebrows quirk up in surprise.