The Crash of Worlds - The Last Of Us

Part VI - A Bump in the Road

Ellie sat confused as she watched Joel and some stranger walk towards her.
"C'mon we're going." Joel said, walking over to Ellie with a serious look in his eye.
"Joel-"
"This ain't a lab." Joel said, James looked at him with a puzzled look. It's not? He thought.
"Sure it isn't." Ellie rolled her eyes,
"I'm not lying kid they ain't doctors! They're gonna use you like some experiment." Joel cried out.

Ellie was about to disagree until she took a closer look around this basement. Everything looked kind of unclean, there were several body bags and no real hospital supplies. There was a chair and various dissection tools however nothing else.

And she has yet to see a doctor. With that idea Joel implanted in her mind she was starting to doubt everything. This place no longer felt trustworthy, everything had a noticeably different feel under the lens of negativity.
"Okay." Ellie mumbled, standing up and grabbing her clothing. "Turn around." She demanded. Joel and James did promptly as she slipped on her normal clothes.

"C'mon let's go the same way we came in." James whispered, the three of them did just that. Without the need for information it was easier, all they had to do was make it to that window and crawl under that fence.

Joel led, and James tailed. Ellie in the middle for protection. Turns out she didn't need it as they managed to escape without detection. Well they still caused a loud alarm to start blaring just as they had got past the fence.

The three of them started running, the sounds of commotion and chaos echoing out in the lab behind them as they disappeared into the forest.

They were somewhere in Washington, a sign said Spokane. It was a large town. Not big enough to be considered a city but it was big. From the remains you'd never guess that this was once a thriving community loaded with people. Now it was just an empty shell. Infected all about, and thousands of corpses.
"Oh shiiittt-" Ellie said, pointing to a truck that didn't look too bad.

Joel smiled, wandering over to the drivers side door. After shoving a corpse out of the seat he sat down, he tried to start the truck. Didn't work, a second time neither. However on the third try the engine came alive, it audibly running.

James excitedly ran around and hopped in the truck. His legs were beyond sore so this is like a dream come true. There wasn't a back seat but there was a seat in the middle that Ellie could squeeze into.
"Just crawl over me." James said, Ellie did just that before settling in to her seat.
"Alright this is more like it!" Joel smirked, taking off on the shaky road.

They occasionally ran over a body or two but other than that it was a nice ride.
"Okay so who are you?" Ellie asked, looking at James with confusion.
"James. I uh, helped Joel find you. To be honest I didn't do much."
"Yes he did, I would've got us killed." Joel scoffed,
"No yo-" the car came to a stop as a person limped into the road, "Joel don't stop it's an ambush! Go!" James screamed, Joel hit the gas and sped foreword hitting the stranger in the road before bullets started to rain down onto the truck.

Out of nowhere a cinderblock was thrown at the windshield, the glass shattered and turned white as Joel hit something. The car barrel rolled into an old toy store, crashing through the front windows as they slid into a beam in the middle of the lot.

"Is everyone okay? Ellie? James?" Joel asked, the others nodded as they crawled out the windshield. Bullets kept coming as they hid behind the truck like a shield.
"Ellie you see that bathroom?" James asked, pointing to a door in the back.
"Yeah?" She mumbled,
"Go in there and lock the door." He demanded,
"Bu-"
"Now!" Joel shouted, Ellie promptly did so. Crawling to the bathroom door and locking it.

Joel and James at shoulder to shoulder as the bullets kept coming.
"You can shoot right?" Joel asked,
"Of course I can. Shoot!" James shouted, leaning out from cover he shot a man approaching them. A bullet to the forehead before James shot another man off a roof, the stranger fell a good fall before splattering to the floor violently.
"You fuckers!" One of the ambushers shouted, Joel popped out to fire at the loud mouthed one. A hit directly to the chest.

The chaos of the gun fire was as loud as usual, ears in pain as shots rang out. Dust of all sorts was being thrown into the air as countless toys fell to the floor behind the two.

They kept shooting, stranger after stranger dropped dead until the gunfire stopped.
"I think... that's the last of them." Joel panted, reloading his gun as Jaden holstered his revolver.

However as they did so they heard it, the loud groans and grunts of a hoard running towards them. The gunfire must've drawn them in,
"Shit get to the bathroom!" James shouted, him and Joel banged on the door aggressively.
"Alright! Alright!" Ellie sighed as she let the two into the bathroom.

Just as they locked the door they heard the infected make contact, glass shattering as chaos erupted from the crowd.
"Shit." Joel whispered,
"What?" Ellie asked,
"They ain't gonna leave for a few days. They're gonna eat and then leave."
"What?" James asked,
"Get comfortable because we're gonna be here a good while." Joel groaned, sliding down the broken tiled wall. Sitting down besides Ellie as James sat against a stall door in front of them.

"Well if we're gonna be here a while you guys want to hear a joke?" Ellie asked,
"Sure." James replied, he's genuinely curious what this kid would say.
"What did the triangle say to the circle?"
"What?" Him and Joel asked,
"You're pointless!" Ellie laughed, wow the last thing James was expecting was a dad joke.

He couldn't help but laugh a little at the stupidity of the joke, Joel tried to keep a straight face but eventually cracked too as the three giggled uncontrollably.