"How old are you?" Tess asks curiously at Ellie.
"Fourteen."
"Wow.. well I mean you got some balls on you sister."
I smile to myself seeing them two finally not at each other's throats.
"Thanks." Ellie replies
Silence fills between us for a moment when Tess speaks up again, "so nobody's gonna be coming after you, right? Like Mom, Dad, boyfriend?
"I'm an orphan and uh no.." she says slightly awkwardly and I catch what she means but I don't mention it any more.
"So, (Y/N).. you got a boyfriend.." She give a pause for a moment. "or girlfriend, I don't judge." She says as she looks between me and Joel.
"uh, no." i say in an interested tone, clearly not wanting to make small talk.
"I seem to be in luck." She says as she looks between me and Joel with a smirk on her face.
"aw Tess i'm flattered but i'm not looking for anybody right now." i say sarcastically.
A/N- NO PLEASE I DIDN'T MEAN IT TESS I SWEAR 🙏🏻🙏🏻
"Very funny." She says sarcastically with a fake laugh.
"Everyone said the open city was crazy." Ellie says interrupting us. "Like, swarms of infected running around everywhere."
"Nah, well not here anyways." I say as I fiddle with my necklace once more.
"You're doing it again." Joel says as he points to my necklace and I mutter a "..oh shut up.." and tucked it back in my shirt once again as I see Joel with a smug smirk on his face.
"You know people like to tell stories." Tess says and I give an agreeing nod.
"So they're aren't super infected that explode fungus spores on you?" Ellie asks.
"Shit I hope not." Tess says while walking.
"Unfortunately.. there is." I say with a bit of a laugh. "Bloaters." I add.
"...or ones with split-open heads that can see in the dark like bats?" Ellie asks cautiously.
Tess and Joel just give each other a look but don't say anything.
I give a sigh and reply, it's always my job to explain everything I swear to god, "No, those don't exist, luckily."
Suddenly we stop dead in our tracks as we hear a noise, it sounds like infected but I can't quite make it out.
"What was that?" Ellie asks with her faces filled with worry.
"Let's keep moving." Joel mutters and I start walking once again.
✯ ━━━━━━ ✿ ✫ ✿ ━━━━━━ ✯
The four of us arrive in an abandoned hotel and what feels like forever of walking.
I look around and and see so much moss and damp mould everywhere but I just shake my head in disgust and just decide to suck it up.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Ellie exclaims in surprise but also a bit of excitement, "You ever stay in a place like that?" She asks curiously
"No a little out of our league." Tess says with a small laugh.
"Not exactly like this.. but something very similar yeah." I say nodding my head and looking around.
God I wish I could be back to when my life was simpler, when we could go to fancy hotels and kids and swim in the pools, but those days are gone now, and I guess that's just life for you, cruel.
"How do you even know what this is?" Joel asks her confused and I just shoot him a 'dude, really?' kind of look.
"Have you heard of books?" Ellie replied sarcastically and Joel gives an annoyed look then starts to walk down the steps towards the massive pool of green, mossy water.
"Wait are we going in there?" Ellie asks.
"Yeah, we got to get to the stairwell on the other side." Tess says and I give a groan then follow Joel into the water.
"Well.. I don't know how to swim."
"Well you kinda just.. you know." I say as I give some really bad actions of swimming. "Just like that." I shrug.
"Thanks." She says sarcastically and i roll my eyes.
"Seriously?" Joel asks with a stern look on his face.
"Do you think we have pools in the QZ?"
"No, smart ass." He replies with the same stern expression as before and steps into the water where in doesn't even reach his waist.
"Don't know how I was supposed to know that." Ellie mutters as we follow close behind him.
"This is gross." I state as I try to not get my backpack wet by holding it out of the water.
"Suck it up." I hear Joel mutter as I give him a glare.
"What the hell is your problem?" I exclaim loudly, starting to get a bit annoyed by his behaviour.
"What the hell is yo-" He replies angrily but he is cut off by Tess.
"Literally just shut up you two." She says seriously, clearly getting quite annoyed with our arguing now and I just roll my eyes but still quiet.
"Oh check it out." Ellie exclaims happily as she walks in the water towards the, now how emerged in water, desk.
"Ding ding ding." She says happily and starts to talk to herself. "Yes, sir. I would like your finest suite, please."
"Weirdo." I mutter and let out a small laugh.
"You're a weird kid." Joel exclaims to her.
"You're a weird kid." Ellie retorts.
Suddenly something startles Ellie and I raise my gun at where something fell. "Oh fuck!" She says loudly.
I take a step closer but I realise it is only a Skelton.
"Sorry.." She says trying to get her breath back.
"At least it can't hurt you," I say shrugging, "well physically anyways, think I just got scared to death for a minute."
Joel helps Ellie up but he quickly lets go and I can tell his hand is hurting him.
I know it will anger him but it's worth trying to get him to warm up to me a bit.
I slowly approach him with a somewhat fake smile on my face.
"...what?" He asks confused.
"Your han-" I start but he quickly cuts me off with a glare, it looks could kill, I'd be way down in hell right about now.
"Okie dokie." I say simply with an awkward thumbs up, clearly getting the message and walking away from him.
"You okay?" Tess asks Ellie.
"Yep. Fucking fabulous." She replies sarcastically.
"I feel ya kid." I say, nodding in agreement as I walk after her.
Date finished- 18/5/23
date updated- 17/6/24
Word count- 1086 words.
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There's always a light - Joel Miller x reader
Fanfiction⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ When I was just 14 the world went to shit. Nothing was left. The world was gone forever and no one would ever make the world feel whole again. Or that's what I used to think until I met two people who changed my life. I believed very st...
