Learning to live with it.

Warning this story contains graphic violence and offensive language.

“No, please..I have a fami-” Ellie cut off the man's words with one shot in the face. She had learned over time not to let a hunter, or a firefly for that matter, to ever say the words 'I have a family' those were words that could stop someone taking a necessary shot. Such a thing could be, and almost always was deadly. Ellie slipped behind the what was left of what was left of a doorway in what Ellie had learned was a place that people would exchange money for video games. What a novel concept. Ellie put a brick between the door and the door frame, as she prepared a nail bomb hearing more hinters coming, there was a caution in their footsteps. Ellie completed the bomb and punched the wall as hard as she could. “Over there!” one of the hunters said as they began to approach the door. With that Ellie threw the door open and threw the bomb with as hard as she could before she slipped back behind the cover of the doorway. “What the hell was-” The bomb went off shredding the man mid-sentence. She heard them gurgling as the life drained from them. As the others began to collect themselves, Joel stepped out from the other door to what had once been a bathroom and shot the last two who were uninjured and finished off the ones who were injured, but alive. At least they hadn't suffered long. Ellie breathed slowly and heavily. Trying to shake the screams and the looks in the men's eyes from her mind. “Hey, you okay, kiddo?” Joel asked as he opened the door and entered the backroom with Ellie. “Yeah, I'll be okay,” Ellie said. “You're a bad lier baby girl” Joel replied. “So what's wrong?” “The killing,” Ellie said. “Does it ever get any easier?” Joel said nothing to that electing instead to change the subject. “You wanna get something to eat kiddo?” “I, I guess so.” She said. Joel reached down and took Ellie's hand and helped her to her feet. The two walked down the street, slowly, making small talk here and there, but Ellie's mind kept wondering, to those men, to all the other men they'd killed, to Tess, to Sam and Henry and to David,. Ellie shook her head side to side before David could infect her mind, like ink in water. Joel took a note of that, he'd seen it before, he'd done it before. Not in a while, but he had done it. Eventually, the two found themselves in what used to be a supermarket. “Why isn't this one empty like all the others?” Ellie asked as they made their way to the section full of sealed cans. “There's hundreds of thousands of these things in America,” Joel said. “It takes a hell of a long time to raid them all, that's why you follow the hunters. They know which ones still have edible food in them.” Joel and Ellie decided not to be selective if it was in a sealed can it was theirs and they took it. Ellie was amazed by just how little of this she had ever actually eaten. Once Ellie's backpack was as full as it could get and about as heavy as she could carry, the two made their way to the exit, but they had to drop down behind the counter, hearing the sound of gunfire and screaming, the screaming was a combination of people, they didn't know, or particularly care, if they were Soldiers, Hunters, Fireflies or something else entirely. The other screams were those of clickers. The clickers were winning. Joel slowly moved his head up so he could see over the counter, seeing the last of the Hunters being bitten by the last of the clickers, before clickers and hunters alike were gunned down by the last hunter who hadn't been bitten. Joel ducked back down before the man turned his gun on himself, tears pouring out of his eyes. Joel signaled for Ellie to get up and they began to sneak out of what was left of the old supermarket. As they made their way out Ellie looked down at one of the men his pistol in his hand, and a bullet hole that went in one temple and out the other, a locket around his neck, open with a picture of a woman lying dead next to him. The woman had a bullet In the back of her head and a bite mark on her neck. Ellie was able to infer the rest. Eventually, they found themselves in an old apartment, both staring into a can of beans as it's contents boiled over a fire, in what had once been a luxury apartment. “Ellie I uh...” Joel started. “I know how you feel right now.” “Do you?” Ellie asked it wasn't sarcastic, angry, or snarky. It was the most genuine question that Joel had heard from Ellie in a long long time. “Well, I think I know.” Joel corrected himself in response. “The first time I killed someone was when I was in the city, this was a couple of years after Sarah died, it was for Tommy. Some guy had him dead to rights, Tommy was surrendering, but the guy pulled the hammer in his revolver back and...well I had a faster finger than he did.” “Oh fuck,” Ellie said. “Point is I know that it hurts to kill someone, even to see someone die, that's had for anyone to go through. But for someone your age, I can't imagine what that'd do to your age.” “Do you still see that guy?” Ellie asked. “I used to see him every night, now I see him once every few weeks. All the ones I've killed more recently stick in my brain a little more.” Joel said before he reached forward and pulled the beans off the makeshift fire, and served it up between the two. Ellie was surprised by how much she liked beans. Everything she'd ever read about them made them sound like the most boring food in the world. “Killing never gets easy, but easier than it was, but if you ever need to talk about anything at all, after everything we've been through, I'm here,” Joel said before he gave Ellie the most comforting hug she had ever received.

#thelastofus #tlou #brief1 #fanfic #fanfiction