𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 ━ 𝙟. 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧

david's town

D A V I D ' S T O W N

Iris got back from hunting a while ago and there was still no sign of Ellie. They had split up in the forest to scrounge up more food and planned to meet back at the house they were hiding Joel in. She had managed to bring back a few rabbits but was unfortunate to not come across a town in her trip.

Joel was still injured and in dire need of medical supplies. Iris sat next to Joel's makeshift bed and the floor and watched as his chest rose and fell, it was comforting to her. She worried that he wouldn't make it through the winter as she and Ellie were barely getting by on themselves.

Now in much thicker clothes, Iris pulls her coat closer to her body, it was still freezing and she had given Ellie's blanket to Joel in the mean time. She stared at Joel's pale face as brushed some of his greyed hair back, she was broken out of her thoughts as she heard the garage door open and footsteps coming down the stairs.

She quickly got her pistol from her back pocket and aimed at the stairs, but when she saw Ellie lowered the gun and narrowed her eyes, "where the hell have you been?"

"I only managed to get a little bit of food. But I did get this..." the girl pulled out some medicine and a syringe, "where did you get that?" Iris asked, but Ellie ignored her and rolled up Joel's shirt, "move your arm."

Iris stopped her, "Ellie." She warned as Ellie sighed and looked in her in the eye, "I met these guys. They said, if I gave them the deer I caught, then they would give me the medicine for Joel." She points the syringe into Joel's wound as Iris asks, "who were they?"

Ellie finishes giving the medicine and pulls Joel's shirt back down, "look, they were a couple of nobodies, all that matters is I got what we needed."

Iris nods, "Okay, okay, just... get some sleep. He's gonna make it." Ellie lays down on her backpack and places her hand over Joel's chest. She drifts off to sleep as Iris takes the spare blanket and wraps it over Ellie. The woman lays down on the opposite side and closes her eyes.

. • ° ______ ° • .

They woke up the next morning to voices talking around the town. Ellie jumped up on the washing machine as she looks out the window, "shit, they tracked me." Iris wipes the sleep from her eyes and asked, "the medicine guy?"

Ellie nods and jumps down and pulls her bag over her shoulders, "we gotta draw them away from here."

"Okay, let's go get the horses." Iris bends down and pulls the covers up to Joel's chin to give him extra warmth, "we'll come back for you."

They take their horses out of the garage and slowly ride the horses away from the house, "are we even sure she's here?" One of the guys ask as the other replies, "man, there were horse tracks down the fucking street. She's here."

Suddenly a man grabs Ellie and shouts, "hey! I got her, there's one more with her too!" Before Iris could whip out her gun, Ellie had already stabbed the man in the neck with her switch blade.

"What're you waiting for? Shoot her!" The man orders, "but David-" the other man says with his rifle raised, "fuck David. Shoot her now!"

"Go Ellie! Keep your head down." Iris yells as they kick off and the horses gallop forward. With her gun in one hand and the reins in the other, Iris shoots any stragglers that shoot at herself or Ellie. When one jumps onto Ellie's horse, she immediately shoots the man in the head as she ushers her to keep moving forward.