The Last of Us (Joel Miller x Female!Reader)

University Eastern Colorado

"So, let me see if I get it straight. If you mess up your fourth down, then you give the ball to the other team?" Ellie asked Joel as we come up to the parking lot of the campus. Joel decided a while back was to teach Ellie about football. "Right, it's called turnover." Joel said to her. "And if you clear the ten yards then you're back at...first down?" Ellie said, questionable. "First down, that's right." Joel replied, smiling. "Man, it's confusing." Ellie said and I chuckled. "You just gotta play it a couple of times. It'll all make sense." Joel replied to her as we get inside the campus.

"Okay. None of these buildings look like a mirror to me." Ellie said as she looks around at the buildings. "Well, we'll head to central grounds. Should be able to see most of the campus from there." I said to her as we come up to a small building and Joel stops.
"Stay, Callus." He said to the horse as he gets down. "What kind of name is Callus anyway?" I asked Ellie. "Not my fault you guys forgot to ask Tommy his name." Ellie said while Joel just grumbles under his breath and goes to look inside of the building for any supplies.

"So, these places...people would live here and just study? Even though they were all grown up?" Ellie asked as she gestures towards the campus. "Yeah, study, party, and find themselves. Figure out what they wanted to do with their lives." I replied to her. "What they wanted to do with their lives." She mutters and I nodded at her as Joel comes back outside and climbs up on the horse.

"There was a lookout here." Joel said to us as he points up towards the top.of the building. "That's a good sign." Ellie said as we galloped deeper into the university. "That's a giant ram. You guys were like some idol worshippers." Ellie said as she points at a large banner we passed. "When it came to sports? Hell yeah." Joel said, chuckling, and I shake my head at this.

"Hey, over there. Is that it?" Ellie asked as she points at a large shiny building off in the distance. "Hmm. It does look like a giant mirror." I said as we look at the building. "How many people you guys think are there? Fireflies, I mean." She asked us. "Reckon it takes quite a crew to run that operation." Joel replied to her. "You think there'll be other people my age?" Ellie asked. "Ahh...we're not sure." I replied when Callus, suddenly, gets spooked as we enter a building.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...what is it, boy?" Joel asked the horse as we hear some noises upstairs. "Sounds like runners." Ellie said and Joel jumps off of the horse. "Stay with the horse." He said and he helps me down from the horse. "We'll go check it out." He said to her. "Are you sure?" She asked us. "Yes. We don't want him runnin' off. We'll be right back." I said to her and we walk over to the gate that's blocking our way to the rest of the campus.

"Huh, looks like someone jerry-rigged this thing." Joel said as he points at the power box next to the gate then he pushes the button but nothing. "No juice." He mutters. "We'll see if we can get the power back on." I said and we follow the cord which lead upstairs and towards a room full of infected and clickers.

Both Joel and I pull put out a nail bomb, each, then throw them into the room. A few infected reacted to the clanging sounds but seconds later both of the bombs exploded, killing them all. "And that's that." Joel mutters as we get inside of the room and he turns the generator on.

"Hey, I was thinking...I would've wanted to be an astronaut." Ellie said as we came back down the stairs and I go over to the horse while Joel pushes the button, opening the gate. "That a fact?" I said, questionable, to her. "Yeah. Can you imagine being up there all by yourself? Would've be cool. I'm just sayin'." She said as Joel gets back on the horse and we take off. "What about you guys? What'd you two want to be?" Ellie asked us. "I wanted to be a (dream job). It was one of the biggest dreams I had when I was a kid." I replied. "That's cool. What about you, Joel?" Ellie asked him.