LITTLE DARK AGE: the last of us

005: bit by bit

The walls were yellow and moulding and the floor was breaking under their step. Matt walked along the hallway, anticipating Tess's return, watching as the building around him crumbled. Joel sat opposite Ellie in the hallway and Matt stood before one of the doors, the one in which Tess was supposed to come through, gun in hand. No one had said a word and the awkwardness of the situation was getting to him. Matt kept pacing.

Ellie was slumped up against the wall, watching the man before huffing and turning away. The small girl pulled a knife out from her pocket and began flipping it at her side. She watched intently as the hilt landed back in her palm every time. She did it over and over again.

"Nice knife." Joel said, voicing Matts thoughts. The hilt was a deep brown, engraved with some sort of pattern that got picked up by the light as she flipped it. She continued to flip it, only allowing Joel a look up to know that she'd heard them.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Matt asked, watching as the girls eyes made their way to his face. "It's pretty impressive."

She let out a sigh, her head falling to the side. "The circus." She replied sarcastically, pulling an unamused face as she did so.

Joel looked away, shaking his head slightly. The girl pocketed her knife before shuffling back into her position. Matt never had a kid before the outbreak but if he had, and they had the attitude of Ellie, he thinks he would've cried.

"Where are you from?" She asked whilst looking around, voice sounding strained as if someone were forcing her to speak to the men and ask this question.

There was a beat of silence where nobody really knew what to say. Joel hesitated to answer, almost startled by the question. "...Texas."

"And you?"

"Texas as well, at least when the outbreak hit." Matt muttered, he bit his tongue as he finished speaking, wondering if he really needed to list all the places he'd lived. He hoped nobody would ask but with his luck somebody would.

"Where were you before?"

His. luck.

"Uh.. a few places," Matt said, he looked to Ellie who just looked back at him, clearly expecting more of an explanation. "Italy, England, Wales, then a few places in America, I don't really remember, it was like 30 years ago or something. But finally Texas. Stayed there the longest after Italy."

Her eyes slightly lit up as she opened her mouth to ask another question. "Did you know each other before the outbreak then?"

"Texas is a big place." Joel answered for him. It was more of a grumble.

"So no?" Ellie asked, cocking her head.

"No, just a coincidence."

"What about Tess?"

"Detroit." Matt replied, It's in Michigan."

"I go to school, I know where Detroit is." Ellie answered, before she looked to Joel and then eyed the area Tess had just climbed through. "So uhh, you two like-."

"Me and Tess?" Joel asked, knowing damn well what Ellie was implying without actually having to question it. "Pass."

"But you live together." Her mouth hung open.

"Still pass."

"Then what about you and him?" Ellie bit her tongue and looked between the men in the room.

"Double pass."

"Wow." Matt answered dramatically, adjusting the grip on his gun, not knowing what else to do with his hands. He hadn't meant to answer, not seriously, but now he feared Joel - or Ellie - might take it to heart.

Ellie looked between the two men suspiciously, before 'coughing' into her elbow. The cough sounded much more reminiscent of a laugh.

"How'd you end up in Boston?" She asked, after "re-composing" herself after her cough.

"Pass. I ain't gonna answer any more questions about me." Joel replied, sitting back against the wall.

Ellie pulled a face, as if she was literally swallowing down her next question.

"How long do infected live?"

"I thought you went to school?" Joel snapped back.

"It's a really shitty one."

"Well some last about a month or two, there's other that've been walkin round about twenty years."

"They're big. Makes them hard to kill." Matt added, "Their fungus is really thick, acts as an armour."

"You ever kill one? An infected?" Ellie looked to the floor, then to Matt who seemed to be the designated question answerer now.

"Yeah I've killed lots of 'em. Joel too."

"Is it hard? Like, knowing they were people once."

Matt thought for a moment, at the beginning it was hard, really hard, but soon enough the instinct to survive took over. It didn't affect him any more, he tried not to think of them as people and it was easy mostly, especially if their faces were covered up. "Sometimes."

"What about that guy last night?"

There was a loud noise, a sort of drag, and Joel jumped to his feet. He pushed Ellie behind him and shuffled back slightly.

"Put the gun down, Joel." Tess called from behind the door, only to be met with Matt, who's gun was inches away from her face.

"Oh, it's you." She responded, pushing the door wide open. What was that supposed to mean? Matt lowered his gun anyway, allowing the woman to pass through.

"What now?" Joel asked, meeting her eyes with a somber expression.

Tess led them outside wordlessly, they climbed another floor before reaching a balcony. They all followed after her not knowing where else to go. When they arrived they reached an empty room, a thick layer of dust over everything inside. The outside was blocked by plastic sheets lined from ceiling to floor and Tess pulled one back for Ellie to walk through.

Joel and Matt stood besides each other, waiting for Ellie to speak on the view. It seemed to take her a moment to realise what she was seeing but soon her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"There's so many." She breathed out, mouth barely closed. Beneath her were the heaps of bodies that scattered their course below. They all lay together like a large mound of cordyceps, only moving ever so slightly.

Their whines cut through the air and Matt grimaced.

"The last time we were here they were still deep inside the buildings. I guess enough people came through looking for the QZ, went inside seeking shelter and that's how they get more and more of this city bit by bit year after year."

Light swept over the hive causing them to groan and squirm and Matt watched as Ellie took in a sharp breath. Her gaze was still transfixed on the crowd below, not faltering throughout the conversation. Even as they began to leave she shot back one glance at the infected before bidding silent goodbyes.

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GCSEs have killed me off im literally dead but I am back now pray for. My sanitu guys 🙏🙏