The Crash of Worlds - The Last Of Us

Part XIV - A Sad Dinner

I'm a book with the pages all worn. The cover is tearing and the ink is fading. I'm terrified. I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to sleep. I'm not sure I'll be able to wake back up.

All these thoughts plagued me as I sat awake beside him. He looked so handsome when he slept, messy and tired but so peacefully. I cannot even form words beautiful enough to even come close to describing what he means to me. And if I could I'd spend a lifetime searching for those words.

The feeling of being curled up in his arms, with our fingers intertwined and the warm feeling of his breath on my neck can never be put into words. All I know is that this is where I belong, as his arms are where I feel at home.

I sat on the couch in his arms, we just kind of laid with each other. We weren't talking when Ellie busted through the door, she had a big smile on her face.
"What? Why you so smiley?" Joel asked, standing up and wandering over to the door. Ellie was blocking it with her body. I don't like that.
"Promise you won't get mad?" Ellie asked,
"Why would I be mad?" Joel replied,
"Because you'd be mad..?"

Ellie opened the door and in walked a stranger, some other teenage girl. Slightly taller than Ellie, hair a deep black and her eyes brown and even darker.
"Who are you?" Joel asked hesitantly,
"This is Tara. She's safe, she doesn't even have a gun."

I wanted to say something and I could tell Joel did too, but instead I coughed. Dear lord I'm tired of coughing. The three looked at me before Joel sighed, caving in to Ellie's puppy dog eyes.
"You hungry?"

...

James adjusted his grip on the fork. Joel had made them dinner, Ellie, Tara, him, and James.
"So... How'd you two meet?" Tara asked, taking a bite of the steak. James pretended to work at his plate but he wasn't hungry.
"He-" James coughed into his elbow, "He shot me."

Joel scoffed, holding James's shoulder as he smiled. He ran his thumb over the scar from the shot.
"He came out of nowhere. Didn't mean too but yeah. I shot him. Spent a good two weeks playing nurse with him."
"You were a good nurse." James sputtered, Tara smiled. She ate with her elbows off the table too. She was well mannered.
"So uh... Tara. Where you from?" Joel asked, Ellie glared at him for interrogating her guest.

James looked at them. Noticing the way Ellie kept looking at her when she wasn't paying attention. She had a crush going on, that much was clear. And Tara did the same, glancing over to her when she didn't need too. Laughing at Ellies jokes when they wouldn't (sometimes they were just too dark).

It was kind of adorable.
"Well I grew up in Estacada. Oregon. Born after the outbreak, I've just kind of been on my own for the past couple years. Couldn't stand my parents anymore and I left." Tara sighed,
"Why? What was wrong with them?" James asked,
"Well. They didn't like that I was gay. They're the difficult kind of Christian." Ellie's face lit up with her saying she's gay. That was even cuter.
"That must be tough." James said, he understood what that probably felt like even though he'd never felt it.
"I don't let it get to me. Far as I know they're dead."

Tara had a similar scrappiness to her, much like Ellie did. James admired that, he looked at the two girls and could confidently say they'd be able to kill him with their bare hands. Well, even before the cancer.
"I love you." Joel said, grabbing James's hand. The blonde didn't even know he'd spaced out.
"I love you too." He said, Joel ran his thumb in circles on James's hand.
"Y'know. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. But if they all had to be made, to end up here with you all. I forgive myself for them all." James smiled.

Joel wanted to cry at those words, as did everyone besides Tara who was just kind of wandering into this depression of a "family". James doesn't know why but he feels like he's saying goodbye, like someone is gonna pop in an assassinate him or something. It strange.

He didn't cry externally but he did inside, watching the way Ellie and Joel screwed with each other playfully. Ellie ripped on him and he did the same as they laughed, James doesn't want to lose this. He doesn't want to believe he won't see this through to the end of his days.

"James?" Ellie asked loudly, the blonde looked at her confusingly.
"What?" He asked,
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"

Suddenly a gunshot went off outside, followed closely by screaming and chaos. James shot up from his seat with Joel somehow in sync,
"I'll go see what's going on." Joel said, grabbing his pistol on the way to the door cautiously.
"I'll come with you." James said, following his tail.
"Me too." Ellie interjected,
"No. Stay here." James insisted, turning around and holding her still.
"C'mon let me help!"
"Do not leave the house. No matter what you hear. Do you understand?" James said, firmly. Ellie had never seen him so aggressive in his words. She nodded as Joel and James wandered outside. Closing the door behind themselves as the horses went wild.

They'd found the horses roaming in the wild near an old farm. Took them a good while to get them under control, and even then they didn't like being ridden. So they only rode them when they really needed too. Otherwise they were essentially house pets.

A crowd of people were rushing to the left as a woman laid limp in the mud, clearly left behind as a hoard ran towards them. Joel ran over, picking the woman up and placing her on one of their horses. The stallion did not like being mounted but nonetheless they rode them.

James mounted the other as he, Joel and this strange woman galloped in pursuit of the other strangers heading to the lodge. The woman came too and groaned. Looking around worriedly as she finally calmed down.
"Thank you." She panted out, James looked at her braid as it blew in the wind as the horse galloped down the beaten path.
"I'm Abby."
"I'm Joel and this is James." He said.

James about called him a moron. He doesn't know this woman or the people she's with, why would he give her his damn name? Irritatingly Joel always had a soft spot for young women, reminded him of Sarah. He always trusted them far too quickly.

As they finally caught up with the woman's presumable friends they arrived at the lodge. Slamming the gate behind them as the infected clawed at the iron bars. Looked like something out of Night of the Living Dead.
"Back up!" One of the strangers shouted as a Molotov was thrown at the monsters. James threw himself back as the creatures were lit ablaze, and they screamed something awful before finally dying.

The lodge was a place they'd discovered long ago, they almost made it into their home but it's too cold. Not enough insulation. It's a glorified tool shed.
"Thank you. Joel." Abby said, she had a strange inflection in the way she said his name. Joel and James tied their horses to a fence post as they followed these strangers into the lodge. They needed to know who the hell they were before just leaving them be. This is their land.
"This is Owen, Jordan, Mel, Nora, Manny, Nick, and Leah."
"I'm Joel. This is my partner James." Joel said looking around as this woman and her friends looked at him and James strangely.