𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 ━ 𝙟. 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧

aquarium

A Q U A R I U M

Iris drags the dogs dead body off of Ellie, as she helps the girl stand up properly, water still drips from them as they walk further into the aquarium, "we don't know if she's in here, so just watch your back, okay?" Iris whispers, Ellie nods as they round the corner.

They see a metal table splattered with blood, red soaked tissues and a scalpel, Ellie growls as she looks around for a door, pistol in hand, "that better not be Joel's blood."

Iris reassures the girl as she spots a door blocked with a chair, "I'm sure it's not kiddo, come on, keep moving." She removes the chair, "keep your guard up." Ellie nods and keeps her pistol pointed at the door.

Iris opens the door, and at the far side of the room sat a bruised and bloodied man, "Joel? Oh my god." The girls rush forward and Iris takes his pale, lulled head into her hands. She pats his cheek lightly and whispers, "c'mon baby, wake up."

Joel's hazel eyes open tiredly, "Ris?" The girls laugh in relief, Iris kisses him lightly and rests her forehead against his. She unties his arms and legs as Ellie helps her stand him up. The young girl brings Joel into a tight embrace, she didn't say anything as tears of happiness welled up in her eyes, "I'm so sorry Joel. I forgive you, I forgive you." She cries.

Joel sighs into crook of Ellie's neck and keeps her close, he kisses the side of her head happily, "it's okay baby girl." They pull away and Ellie wipes her eyes, chuckling slightly.

Iris hangs Joel's arm over her shoulder for support as they walk him out of the room, Ellie was in front of them. They walk through more of the aquarium and come to a door a crab painted on, they heard talking inside and Ellie pushed her way through, she hides behind some boxes as Iris rests Joel beside her.

"People don't come back from that island." The woman yells as the man gets in her face, "how many times has Abby risked her life for you?"

"She chose this, I'm not fucking going there." The woman says, the man replies, "then don't! Go back." The woman begins to walk away, "fuck you, Owen."

Ellie walks from behind the boxes and threatens, "hands up, where's Abby?" Iris puts her hand on Ellie's shoulder, "Ellie, we don't need to do this, we have Joel, we can go home." The girl looks at her angrily, "what if she comes after you two again."

"You're the girl from Jackson." Owen realises as Ellie nudges Iris's hand off her shoulder and moves forward with her gun, "tell me where she went."

"How do we know you won't kill us?" The woman asks, "give her what she wants and we're dead." He tells her as Ellie explains, "you guys can survive this, I just need her."

"Bullshit." Owen cursed. Ellie pulls the map from her backpack and aims the gun at Mel, "you, come here... fucking get over here."

"Ellie." Iris warned as she kept an eye on Joel, Mel walked over to the girl as Ellie ordered, "point to where she is on this map. And then you. It better fucking match up."

"Okay." Mel breathes out as Owen snaps, "what're you doing?" She argues back, "she's probably dead anyway." He moves forward to the girls, "it is not worth it, let's talk about-" Ellie shouts, "stop! Get back! Back the fuck up! Point to where she is."

She aims the gun at Mel, "fucking point!" Owen pushes Ellie's gun upwards as he tries to wrestle it off of her, she punches him shoots him in his side, "Owen!" Mel shouts, she goes to tackle Ellie but Iris pulls her back, she and Mel fight but the short haired woman gets the upper hand, with her knife, Mel goes to stab Iris, when Ellie plunges her switch blade into Mel's neck.

She slumps on top of Iris before falling to the ground, Ellie stalks over to Owen as he stutters over his blood, "sh- she." She points the gun at him, "tell me where Abby is." When he doesn't answer, she slams the gun into his neck, "where the fuck is she?" He dies in a puddle of his own blood.

Ellie storms over to Mel as Iris helps Joel up from the floor, the younger girl opens Mel's coat to reveal a baby bump, sick to her stomach, Ellie drops to the floor, Iris tries to gain her attention but was ignored, she heard the doors open behind her and Tommy and Jesse enter the room.

The men's eyes widen as they spot Joel hanging off of Iris's shoulders but the woman gets Tommy to check on Ellie. Jesse takes Joel's other arm and helps Iris stabilise him.

"Ellie. Ellie." The girl shoots up and aims her gun at Tommy, "woah, woah, woah. Hey, hey." He steps closer to her as Ellie backs up in distraught, "I'm sorry." She gasps as Tommy takes a hold of her shoulder, "it's alright. C'mon let's go. Let's go." She leave the aquarium and go back to the theatre Dina was in.

《 * ° • ° * 》

Now back at the theatre, Joel and Iris were in a secluded room in the back of the second floor, she was stitching up his wounds the best she could with what she had. Joel was staring at her as she bandaged the cuts on his face, "why did you come for me?"

Iris looks him in the eye, "you really thought I'd leave you here?" He sighs at her and refuses to meet her eyes, "you could've gotten hurt."

She gently places her hand to the left side of his face, careful to avoid any cuts or bruises, "I'm not going to apologise for saving you. The only thing I'm sorry about is that I didn't come sooner." Joel leans into her touch and a look a admiration washes over him.

"I love you." He whispers so quiet that Iris wasn't sure that she heard him. She smiles widely at him and kisses him softly, they pull away and dark brown meets hazel, "I love you too, Joel."

They lean down for their lips to meet again, when a gun shot sounded throughout the theatre, Iris bolted up and grabbed her backpack from beside Joel's bed, "what the hell? Stay here." He grabs her hand, "be careful." She nods at him and gives him one of her spare guns, "no matter what, you stay in this room, okay?"

He takes the gun from her and turns the safety off, he presses a quick kiss to the back of her hand and Iris walked out of the room and quietly shut the door, locking it behind her.

"You killed my friends. We let you both live, and you wasted it." Iris heard a woman growl faintly as she tip toed down the stairs. She carefully poked her head around the wall. Her heart dropped when she saw Tommy on the floor, Ellie with her hands in the air and Jesse holding onto his shoulder where blood leaked through his fingers. A woman with a blonde braid aimed her gun at Ellie while a little boy held a bow.

. • ° ______ ° • .

We're getting so close to the end people, only two more chapters to go! Vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter and have a nice day/night :) x