𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐜 ☀︎︎ 𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

Maybe In Another Life

{tw: intense violence, slight gore, character death, sadness!}

"What do you mean?" Ellie said before she looked at Renae.

:-:-:-:

Ellie couldnt get ready quick enough. Renae got dressed as Jesse and Dina went back upstairs to keep watch after busting them. They didn't speak at all, knowing that this couldn't be good. Tommy and Joel would never do this on purpose. Renae looked over to Ellie as they got on the last of their gear, but it was like she wasn't there. Ellie felt distant. It felt like she had built a dam- or a wall- keeping Renae out of whatever was going on in her mind. But Renae still kept up pace as Ellie quickly sped off up the stairs.

Once the pair reached the top of the stairs and met Dina and Jesse, they set off into two teams to make searching more effective. Ellie and Renae would check the cabins while Dina and Jesse would check the surrounding area of the patrol. They would meet at the ski lodge cabins in 2 hours to regroup.

It was cold. The air was harsh and unforgiving. But so were Ellie and Renae. It took twenty minutes before they reached the ski lodge cabins. The first one was empty, the second one had an infected that was no issue for the pair. But the third. The third had something a lot worse.

Ellie took the lead as they dismounted Shimmer and Gloss, scouting the outside just in case. It seemed clear, but the mounds of infected bodies near the entrance were the first red flag. The back door had an opening they could creep into, and once they did they heard a horrific sound. One that could never be forgotten. Sounds of pain and misery. Ellie and Renae passed a look, a look that said a thousand words, but none at the same time. The two quickened their search of the cabin, gathering up some supplies. Renae found a jacket with a weird wolf patch, so she told Ellie to write it in her journal. Ellie complied, and then they found a door. A door and some stairs. Renae went first this time, so that Ellie could have her gun out while Renae opened the door with her knife. The events unfolding in the room were nothing short of horrific. Renae didn't have to witness the events for long though, since when she opened the door she was struck with the hilt of a gun stock and knocked out. But this didn't stop her from seeing the man that saved her on the ground bloody, and a girl with a braid holding a golf club.

Ellie saw it all. She watched as Renae opened the door and was brutally hit, and then shoved away from the door. Ellie tried to shoot but couldn't, so instead she took out her knife and slashed. It must have hit because she could hear a fuck shouted from somewhere. But then she was also struck onto the ground, and pinned. This is when reality settled in, and she saw her father figure laying in front of her on the brink of death, lying in a pool of his own blood. She was enraged to say the least. "You're gonna fucking die!" Ellie shouted. But it's like they didn't hear her. She couldn't stop looking at Joel. How sad the scene they were presented in was. Ellie still had so many things left to say to him. She needed him to be alive.

"Joel... Joel get up. Fucking get up Joel." She said, as tears started to form. She had a chance to glance at the other two jumbled bodies in the corner of Tommy and Renae. She felt anger like no other. She strained and tried to get out of the pin she was being held in, to no avail.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked to no one. No one said anything. The only noise was her shouts. "Fucking get off me!" She screamed. Her voice was distressed.

She heard a man talking to the braided woman. "End it. Now." Oh shit. Ellie shouted more. "Wait! Please.. Stop." They were ignoring her. The braided woman picked up a golf club. Ellie set her head onto the ground in defeat as the braided woman struck the final blow. With tears flowing, and emotions high, Ellie let out a guttural scream.

"NOOOOOOO."

But he was gone. Joel, her protector, her smuggler, her father, was dead. All because of her. Ellie started to cry, and everything else faded away as she looked at the dead body of Joel. He probably thought Ellie was next. Hell so did she. But she didn't care. Death was the easy way out now. She didn't look away, until her face was kicked in and she was knocked out.

renae's pov

When I woke up, he was dead.

I was pushed up against Tommy's still limp body, and I could see Ellie a few feet away. I quickly scrambled over to her and saw that she was also knocked out.

"Fuck." I whispered. I didn't want to look at his body, but I had to. I walked over to Joel's lifeless body, and sunk to the ground. I didn't even want to acknowledge the fact that the blood I had kneeled on was probably his. Even though I didn't know him for long, he was special to me. He took me in without question, and treated me like one of his own. But now he was gone. He was fucking gone and I couldn't do anything about it. I cried, and cried, and cried. But then I got angry. So I looked around. That's when I found something the group left. A jacket. They must have forgotten it before they ran. It had just what I was looking for too. The patch. I ripped the patch off and shoved it into my jacket. I would investigate that later. I walked over to Ellie again, and gently shook her awake. She didn't stir whatsoever. What if they killed her too? So then I started to cry again. I didn't stop until Dina shook me out of it.

"-nae can you hear me?" I shuddered, and looked at her face. I nodded, and she enveloped me into a hug. I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel anything. But I still hugged her. She then released me, and we both woke up Ellie. We tried talking to her, but she couldn't hear it. I knew she couldn't because the only thing she was looking at was Joel. So I helped her up after Jesse covered Joel's body with a miscellaneous bedsheet he found, and we walked back upstairs.

ellie's pov

Renae had such a beautiful face. Even when it was bruised and bloodied. But not even her beauty could outshine Joel. His beaten and bruised body. Renae tried to speak, but I couldn't hear. Dina was there too. But I didn't care. I was registering all the faces I saw to memory. One bitch stood out. The one with the braid. I'm gonna kill her for what she did. I'm gonna kill them all. No one's gonna stop me.

Eventually Jesse covered the body. But that didn't mean I couldn't still picture perfectly what laid beneath. I looked over to Tommy, who was beginning to wake up. He looked shocked when Jesse told him. His brother is dead.

Renae's beautiful tear stained, bloody face led me upstairs and eventually back out to our horses. Renae rode Shimmer with me, and Jesse took Gloss' reigns with his horse too. The ride back was done in silence. I think at least. All I could hear was the sound of my sniffles.

__________
shrub speaks.

this was hard to write, but necessary. i didn't want to make it word for word so i hope the changes worked well. also i didn't want it to be like one of those tiktok's where they say that joel wouldn't have died if ellie said dad before abby hit a joel in one, because obviously not.

In other news, THE FIRST LOOK OF SEASON 2 WAS RELEASED!