Right where you left me {a Joel Miller fanfiction}

Chapter 6 - Us And Them

"Us, and them. And after all, we're only ordinary men." - Us And Them, Pink Floyd

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November 2023, Kansas City

The sound of glass crunching under boots, clear as day, woke me up, still securely in Joel's arms. My eyes frantically looked around me, landing on a man with a young boy. The man making his way over to Ellie with his gun held out to her.

I untangled my arm from beneath me, reaching for my own gun that I had placed beside me last night, grabbing it before slowly sliding out of Joel's arms and sitting up. I glanced over at the young boy who was now standing over me and Joel, his gun pointed towards me, I couldn't stand the thought of having to hurt him. 

"Don't move anymore. Put your gun down," The man said. I glanced over at him, noticing  how his hands shook slightly as he spoke. Almost terrified of even holding a gun.

I nodded slowly, my eyes flickering over to Ellie. Her own frantic eyes met mine. She'd already been through enough today, I needed this to be over as soon as possible.

"You point your gun at me, not her, and I put mine down, are we clear?" I questioned as I slowly lowered my gun.

He nodded, doing his part of the agreement.

"Joel," I whispered, trying to wake him up without bringing too much attention to us.

When he didn't wake up I kicked him, causing him to jump up, "Eyes on me. You don't have to worry about what to say. We didn't hurt them. I swear, we want to help you," The man said as Joel looked between us all.

"Okay," Joel said in his familiar dry tone, my face scrunched up at the sound of it. Mentally cursing him for it.

"Okay um, I don't know what the next step is for something like this. But if I lower my gun, we didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us. Right?" The man asked nervously, rocking back and forth slightly.

"That's right," Joel said in the same asshole tone as before. I was going to kill him for this, if he didn't get us killed first.

"That's a weird fucking tone man." The man moved his gun slightly back to Ellie causing my breathing to quicken.

"Gun on me. That's just the way he sounds," I tried to desperately assure the man, my eyes pleading with him.

"He has an asshole voice. Joel tell him he's okay." Ellie clearly sensed the nervousness of the room, we were making this already jumpy man ten times more nervous, and when someone's jumpy their finger can slip. The last thing we needed was more gun fire.

"Everything's great." Joel's voice spoke up again, I really shouldn't keep letting him talk.

"Joel Miller, I am going to kill you," I muttered, turning my head slightly to him, "I lowered my gun, you can lower yours." My voice was slightly lighter now attempting to stay calm, trying to desperately get us out of this situation.

"Fuck. Okay, I'm going to trust you." I watched as the man signalled with his right hand to the younger boy standing above me and Joel, "If either of you two try anything." He directed his words to me and Joel before indicating with his gun to Ellie's head.

I nodded frantically, the man signalled once again for the young boy to move away from me and Joel. I couldn't calm down however until he moved away from Ellie.

"Can I sit up?" Joel asked from behind me, casually, as if this was normal.

"Slow. Get up slow," The man announced as Joel began to come to a sitting position.