NO LIGHT. ✹ E.W.

iv.

Over the course of a couple weeks you'd slowly begun to reach your destination, through those weeks you'd surely started gaining your strength back. The only pain truly remaining from the incident was emotional, both for yourself and Ellie.

Ellie's might have been a little more severe than yours.

You'd noticed the small changes in your beloved girlfriend, others Dina had mentioned to you in hushed whispering to not upset Ellie. One of the first things, you noticed, was the way her hands trembled whenever she had to pull open a door that usually led downstairs. Another was the way her nightmares had gotten worse; you were used to comforting her from occasional nightmares but these seemed constant. Every other night you'd wake up to the feeling of her fingers gripping your shirt, muttering under her breath and shaking. You understood why, it had only been a couple weeks since Joel's death. No one expected her to get over it that quickly.

But it still concerned you.

Still about a day out from Seattle, you'd stopped in a small town for supplies. You'd opted to let Ellie sleep in, she needed the extra sleep now and it was the first time she'd slept soundly all night. So, you made sure the small gas station was properly secure before leaving her a small note in case she woke up and headed out.

You quietly followed Dina through the doors of an old pharmacy, intent on finding some extra painkillers and anything else you might need in Seattle. Inside, the sound of small groans, likely Runners, sounded in the back room. Over the course of the journey you'd managed to avoid big groups of infected, straying from the bigger towns and into the smaller; but that didn't mean you hadn't seen them at all.

"Sounds like runners." Dina whispered, pointing a finger to the office door of the pharmacist corner. She'd been a massive help to both of you on the trip, easily helping you keep a check on your bandages until a squishy, pink scar appeared over the area. "I'll take one, you take the other?"

You nodded in agreement, quietly jogging over to the door and quietly peeking inside. Two runners stood shuffling about with no particular direction in mind, an easy job to handle for you. The pair of you quietly crept around the corners, your hand reaching up to grab hold of it's old shirt collar and drive your knife into its skull. It dropped without much fuss, thudding to the floor before Dina's. You exhaled in satisfaction, fishing through their pockets for anything useful; inside one was a small lighter, etched with small details.

"Found another one." You grinned in triumph, it had become a hobby of yours to pick up these small lighters throughout the adventuring across the states. Dina, before she could respond, picked up on the sound of a clicker in the opposite room and whispered to you.

"One more, I think."

She shuffled through a crack in the wall, hunting for the alleged clicker with you following suit behind. It stood in the corner of the room, ripping into something that looked like a very large rat. You cringed at the tearing sound of flesh, hanging back in case Dina needed your assistance for some reason-she seemed unusually tired the last few days, but you hoped it was just from traveling. She seemed to struggle with bringing the clicker down, something about her facial expression seemed like she was nauseous. You hurried over and relieved some of the pressure from her, allowing her to plunge her knife into its neck several times.