Silver ||Joel Miller||

you've always had high standards for everything that goes in your mouth

JOEL

The day had been a long one. In between the regular stops to find gas, the kid had taken a liking to reading out extremely horrible jokes from a book she found. Joel would never admit it, but he found them entertaining, even though he was exhausted from listening to them.

He and Laura took turns driving, but they hadn't made it as far as he would have liked to because of the frequent stops. They'd still made it a couple hundred miles, which would have taken them weeks by foot. For now, they had set up camp in a forest, and managed to have a decent hot meal.

"Maybe we should light a fire." Ellie suggested, but before he could explain why that was a bad idea, Laura cut in.

"Now, tell me exactly why Joel and I are going to say no to that idea," Laura said, sitting on top of her already unrolled sleeping pack.

"The smoke will give away our location," Ellie answered, to which Laura nodded.

"Out here, infected aren't the problem. They're not smart enough to connect smoke with a camp, but who would come looking?" Laura asked.

"People," Ellie replied. The kid was learning and doing so relatively quickly. "What would they do? Just rob us?"

"They'll have more in mind than that," Joel said, watching the kid carefully. He had to make sure his point was getting across; that being out here was dangerous. "There are raiders, slavers, and all other fucking sorts out here. None of them will just rob us, okay?"

"So, no fire," Laura concluded. Deeming the conversation finished, he got one of the sleeping bags from the car and started setting himself up for the night. Ellie did the same.

"Mine smells nice," Ellie said. He looked over her shoulder at her.

"That's Frank's then." Which meant he had Bill's... hopefully it wouldn't be too bad. He settled into the surprisingly okay smelling bag and prayed for a quiet night.

"Can I ask a serious question?" Ellie asked. He took a slow breath.

"Yeah?" he replied after giving Laura a second to. Maybe she knew what was coming, and that was why she didn't respond. He should have known better too, but it was too late for him now.

"Why did the scarecrow get an award?" Ellie asked, and he tried to fight a smile.

"Because he was outstanding in his field," he said, and he heard Laura quietly laughing to the side. The sound was enough to break his cover, and he rolled away from them so they wouldn't see the smile on his face. There was no need to let them know he was enjoying this—that he was enjoying their company.

"You dick, did you read this?" Ellie asked between her laughter.

"No, now go to sleep." He curled into himself as he spoke, still unable to hide the smile on his face. There was peace and quiet for a few moments, and when it was broken, he no longer had to hide a smile because it fell from his face.

"No one's going to be able to find us, right? No one knows we're here?" Ellie asked, and Laura was the one who replied.

"No, no one knows where we are. No one will be able to find us. We're safe here, I promise," Laura said, her Canadian accent a little more prominent because of her comfort around them—because she was comfortable around him again.

"It's hard to take you seriously with that accent." Oh, Ellie was really trying to push it tonight.

"Fuck off and go to sleep," Laura replied, and the kid didn't say another word. After he thought their camp had been quiet for long enough for the others to be asleep, he slowly sat up. Ellie's real question had broken him out of his little bubble, because he honestly didn't know if they were safe.