Final Piece

The guy mumbled in his sleep. He kept trying to say something, started with an S but he never got the full thing out. Other times he'd just grunt sleepily. He wasn't twitchy and he didn't talk the whole time just occasionally mumbled something incoherent then rolled over.

She was glad he was taking her somewhere within a day's reach because if the past couple of hours with him was any indication she couldn't imagine spending more than a day with him.

Ellie pulled a chair up to the window to look outside and beyond the wall where she would be going. She'd thought about it, wondered what it was like with no soldiers to tell you everything you have to do every moment of every day, the only boss being yourself. Well it wouldn't really be that way because she'd still have the two smugglers telling her what to do but going somewhere that dangerous with no real protection would just be stupid.

She knew from experience.

She heard more movement from him behind her and turned to see he'd finally woken up which kinda dampened her mood. Luckily the other one, Tess? She showed up which meant it was time to get going.

Soon she'd be with the Fireflies and she could forget about this whole thing.

Just a quick deadly journey across the city. Easy peasy.

++++++++++++

Well that was not fucking easy peasy. Ellie thought to herself as they exited the museum. She'd had her doubts about this journey in all honesty. She couldn't believe they even made it past the soldiers let alone the copious amounts of infected they'd encountered.

Through this journey she saw why Marlene trusted these guys. To say she was impressed with how well they took care of both the soldiers and infected was an understatement. Guess you don't just fumble your way through twenty years. And maybe they weren't as bad as she thought originally. She still just wanted this quick journey to be over with but they, or rather Joel, didn't make this trip as unbearable as she thought he would.

Now that they were almost there she was glad Marlene hired these two.

++++++++++++

Shit shit shit shit shit shit!

She didn't have time to process anything, the Fireflies were dead, Tess was dead, soldiers were swarming the building and now there were only two of them.

They were behind cover, Joel seemed to be listening and, as if subconsciously, he seemed to protect her with his body, surrounding her and putting his arm over top with his hand on the crate. It made her slightly uncomfortable but right now it didn't matter they just needed to make it out of here in one piece.

She tried apologizing but he clearly didn't wanna hear it. Seemed like he'd prefer they barely talk at all which kinda ticked her off. He really wants to travel that far without talking? She thought. She just figured she'd go with it for now, it wasn't like he made for engaging conversation.

++++++++++++

They'd been on the road for a day now and he still barely talked to her, maybe quick things here and there, he'd answer some questions she'd ask about things she spotted. He didn't seem like he hated answering her questions but she didn't want to push anything. She'd wait a couple hours before asking another question.

"So did you ever think about joining the Fireflies?" Ellie asked.

"Hm, maybe close to the beginning. I never really uh, got along with the military," he said quietly. She noticed something about him. Everytime the military or the beginning of the infection was brought up he seemed to feel the watch on his left wrist. Ellie figured it had some sentimental value to it and also figured asking him about that would definitely piss him off, so she stayed away from it.