The Both Of Us | Zelink X The Last Of Us

Chapter Five

Zelda's pov

Impa goes to talk to Link, leaving me in the room by myself. She said she's going to try to calm him down. I wrap my arms around my knees, trying to calm myself down. We almost died and it was all my fault. I should've listened to Link. If I'd kept my eyes on him, none of this would've happened. I don't belong out here.

I start to cry and wipe my face with my sleeve. Rust colored smears come away from my cheeks. The clicker's blood from when Link crushed its head. I whimper in disgust and desperately try to clean my face while swallowing the bile. I can't do this. I never should have left.

"Hey there, princess," Impa says as she comes back into the room. I sniff and wipe my eyes again. They think I'm weak enough already; they don't need to see me cry too.

She sits down next to me and lightly touches my shoulder. "Are you okay?" I nod even though it's a lie. How could I be okay out here? "You know, he's only like this to keep us out of trouble. He knows what he's doing and you have to listen."

"I know," I croak. My throat is sore from screaming and my chest feels like it's being crushed by a weight.

"I wouldn't get on his bad side either if I were you. If our job wasn't to keep you safe, he would've shot you by now." I look at her with pure terror. I have good reason to be scared of him. "He's only lost his mind a little bit." How can she possibly be smiling right now?

"Lost his mind?" That's not reassuring.

"Mhm. If you think he's bad now, you don't want to see what he's like when he starts laughing." It's hard to imagine him laughing but I don't think she means laughing because something is funny. "He may be crazy, but he knows how to survive. Listen to him and you'll be okay."

"Okay..." She's a lot calmer than him and that makes me feel a little better. I don't tend to have conversations with people. I keep my head down and only talk when I have to and I haven't been around a girl my age in a long time. Maybe it'll be okay to talk to her. "Why is he like that? Angry I mean...and crazy."

"Well, he doesn't talk about his past but from what I've gathered, he lost everything."

"Haven't we all?"

"He lost himself too. He stays distant so he doesn't get attached to anyone."

"What about you then? Aren't you two...together?"

She snorts. "Romantically?" I nod. That's what I'd assumed. "Hell no. I'm gay and not that desperate yet," she laughs. I smile a little without realizing. "I found him drunk in a quarantine zone three years ago after he deserted the military and we've been working together ever since." The dogs tags. He was in the military. The military is what took my father away from me. They were the ones doing the bombings. He was a part of it. He also left it.

"How old is he?" I want to know how old he was when the outbreak happened. He can't be much older than me.

"Twenty-three and I'm twenty-two. What about you?" So he was eighteen and she was seventeen at the start of the outbreak.

"Twenty."

"Damn, you were only fifteen at the start of this shitshow?" I nod. Fifteen, thrown into a quarantine zone without my father, scared out of my mind. "How did you end up alone anyways?"

My eyes sting as I unearth the memory. The one I have nightmares about. "The soldiers separated me from my father. I don't know why but they didn't listen to my screams. The last thing he said before I was carried away was that he'd find me. I thought he was dead until you and Link showed up." I wipe my runny nose with my sleeve. I was just a kid and I was taken from the one person I needed.

"Damn..."

"Do you know how he ended up in Seattle?"

"No but I know he's a big deal over there. He'd heard about Link and I and figured out where we were to hire us to find you and bring you back in one piece."

"You mean he's in charge of something?"

"I think he's in charge of the whole city."

"He used to be the Governor of Georgia," I day, remembering my old life of comfort as a politician's daughter. "Maybe that's why."

"No fucking way! You're a governor's daughter?"

"Mhm." It's insignificant now. I'm just another lost daughter out of the few left.

"You really are a princess! I wondered why he was going through so much trouble to find you. Normal people don't have that many resources." He must have a lot of power to be able to hire people to retrieve me. He was always a persuasive person, the perfect quality for a politician. That's probably how he acquired Seattle.

Link comes back into the room and I go silent again. His presence hangs in the air like a thick, dark cloud. After what Impa told me, I'm even more scared of him and I won't mess up again. He might still shoot me if he gets angry enough.

"We're going to stay here for the night. We'll leave early tomorrow morning and get out of this shithole," he says. I'll be leaving the city for good. Maybe that's a good thing. There should be less infected outside of Atlanta and after what happened today, that's what I want.

"I'll take first watch," Impa says.

"No Impa-"

"You haven't slept in three days." Three days? How is he still standing? I slept last night and I'm exhausted.

He doesn't try to argue. He lays down with his rifle in hand and closes his eyes. I turn away and close my eyes as well.

***

I wake up a little while later to incoherent mumbling. I'm facing Link. He's lying on his back, still clutching his rifle but his mouth is moving. I try to listen to what he's saying but I can't make it out. He sounds like he's in distress.

Link's pov

"Aryll wake up," I whimper as tears spill from my eyes. I press my hands over her heart, trying to stop the bleeding. It's soaking through her shirt and coats my hands, running through my fingers. "Wake up!" I shake her body but the light isn't in her eyes anymore. She stares blankly at the ceiling. She can't hear me. "Please wake up! Don't leave me alone here! Aryll!"

My eyes snap open and I sit up. This is why I don't want to sleep. Every time I'm reminded of who I couldn't save. Of who I failed. I'd rather just forget.

I look over at Zelda. I can tell she's pretending to sleep. Her eyelids are moving too much and her breathing isn't even. It's too quick.

She almost got us killed today just like I knew she would. I have half a mind to take her back to the QZ but we've made it this far and we're closer to the truck now. And we pissed off all the infected behind us and I can't guarantee we'll get through them again. We got lucky this time. I knew she'd lose it if she looked at those clickers and that's exactly what she did. Impa thinks I'm being too hard on her but I don't think I'm being hard enough. She needs to get it through her head that she will die if she messes up. I've messed up before and people died.