hbo © the last of us
season 1, episode 1

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
LATE JULY ✷ 2023

━━ AT FIRST, LENA thought the room she'd entered was empty. There was nothing in it besides a table, a lone backpack left in the middle of the room, and a dirty tray of food. Panic overcame her. There was no way she could go out there again and search for another room, and if Ellie got hurt—

          The woman cursed out in pain as she felt the side of someone's palm hitting the nape of her neck so hard that she staggered forward before she raised the rifle in her hands and turned to her attacker.

          "What the fuck?!" she yelled out, so blinded by rage that she couldn't understand who or what was in front of her. "You're gonna regret that, you little shit."

          The girl was quick to match her scream. "Who the hell are you?!"

          She stepped forward and tried to reach the table on Lena's side, upon which a silver knife rested. The older woman shoved the barrel of the AK-47 into her face and forced her to retreat into a corner.

          It was only then that Lena began distinguishing the clear features of the girl. She was small and young, not much younger than her own daughter, with dark brown hair and matching eyes. She looked oddly familiar, like a picture long forgotten by time . . .

          The woman thought she could hear her jaw hitting the floor as millions of thoughts roamed free through her mind.

          "Ellie. Ellie." it wasn't easy to recompose herself, but when she finally did, the words came out loud and clear. "Look, I'm Lena, a friend of . . ." she didn't know how much the child knew about herself, about who she was, or why she had become so important to Lena in a matter of seconds. "I'm a close friend of Marlene's. I'm not here to hurt you."

          Even with the rifle glued to her face, the fierceness in Ellie's eyes didn't disappear.

          "How do you know my name? Are you a Firefly?" Ellie spat one question after the other, her voice rising above the sound of shots and grunts of pain from the other side of the door. "Are you here to take me?"

          The girl's suggestion made Lena's words turn into laughs. "I'm not a Firefly, Ellie. I'm a . . . close associate. And I'm not here to kidnap you. I'm here to protect you."

          She moved her head to the side and crossed her arms over her white shirt. Frowning, she sneered. "I don't believe you."

          Lena sighed in exasperation. When Marlene had talked about getting Ellie to the Capitol building, she hadn't mentioned how annoying of a child she was.

          The woman moved the rifle from Ellie to the door, her left hand slipping toward the table and gripping the girl's knife.

          "Look, I'm not here to hurt you." Lena opened her palm, inviting Ellie to take the weapon with a nod of her head. "If you don't try to stab me, I'll help you."

          "O— okay." she seemed reluctant, but Lena's show of good faith had been enough to melt away most of her insecurities. She took her knife and gazed intently at the woman.

          "This table; we could try to place it against the door so we can barricade ourselves in, but," she pressed her hip against the metal, her skin shivering as her lower back made contact with the cool surface. She waited for it to budge, but it didn't. "This is going to be impossible to lift. So we'll just hide behind it. If someone comes in, you take the butt of your knife, smash that stained glass window and you run for your life, kid. I'll cover your back."

          "Well, where am I supposed to go?" Ellie asked.

          Lena knew she couldn't reply; Marlene had left no such instructions. This meant that — for better or worse — she was Ellie's last resort for safety. "Certainly not where you came from. Now come on!"

          The two crouched behind the table, closely listening to the struggle outside. From what she could understand, two more of Robert's people were down, but Kim hadn't been left unscathed, either.

          Lena noticed Ellie was shaking, her eyes punctually fixated on an irregularity on the carpet. "Just don't piss your pants, kid. Look, it's gonna be alright—" she began, patting the girl's shoulder with her free hand.

          Ellie's gaze shifted from the ground to her arm. There was something catching her eye, an amalgamation of words inked on Lena's skin. Before the woman could stop her, the girl trapped her limb in both her hands and rolled the sleeve of her shirt upward. "For each dead Firefly in the noose, there'll be two dead feds in the streets."

          The girl blinked once or twice, trying to make sense of the phrase. Lena yanked away her arm in frustration and buttoned the shirt around her wrist.

          All of her tattoos had been made after the outbreak — during her days as the Fireflies' second-in-command — so there was no way of removing them now. As the years went by, she just hoped they would fade, but most of the time, she forgot that other people could see them too.

          Ellie sprung up and took three steps backward, almost as if she were afraid of Lena. "You are a Firefly." she screamed. "You lied to me!"

          "Get down, you little shit!" she pulled the girl back down harder than she intended to. "If we make it out of here alive, I swear to God I'll answer all your questions. But if you keep screaming bloody murder like this, I'm going to use your body as a shield to make my way out of here."

          Ellie looked down, a gesture that probably showed remorse. She crouched, bracing her knees with her arms, chin buried on her chest. "I'm sorr—"

          "Shh." Lena raised her hand, calling for silence. Ellie obliged, and the two remained quiet for a few moments. "You hear anything?"

          "Am I supposed to?"

          "No. 'Cause it's over." Lena answered.

          "Well, then I guess we can go." Ellie said. She tried to get up and walk to the door, but Lena was quicker. She put a hand over her head and forced the girl down. "Ouch. You didn't have to do that."

          "No, listen." the woman urged.

          There was a sound, almost like the scratching of metal on metal, coming from the concrete walls. Lena looked around trying to pinpoint the spot where the din came from, but after a few seconds, all that was heard was a creaky door opening.

          Lena made out the voice of a woman coming from the hallway, the battered movement of her shoes against the floor reverberating on the parquet. "Well, the battery's no good . . . twice." She tried to make out the rest of the words, but the distance and the howling of the wind outside were making it difficult. Cape Cod was gathering for a heavy storm.

          Step, step, step.

          Thunk, thunk, thunk.

          Through the small circular window at the top of the door, Lena caught sight of a man walking in the hallway.

          "Shit." she muttered.

          "What? What is it?" Ellie asked. She made an attempt of lifting her head to inspect the scene herself, but she thought twice after seeing the expression on Lena's face.

          "Outside, there is a man and a woman. At least." she explained.

          "Are they Fireflies, or—"

          "I got no idea, Ellie." Lena interrupted. "Now we do it like this: give me your knife. You open the door and let me take them down, alright? If shit goes south, you just run."

          Ellie nodded and pushed her knife in Lena's direction. The woman gripped the weapon so hard she could begin to feel her knuckles hurting. If only she wasn't delivering punches left and right less than forty-eight hours before—

          Lena walked toward the entrance with soft steps, gluing herself to the wall opposite the door. Ellie, who'd followed closely behind her, had already placed her hands on the knob before the woman even began counting.

          "One, two . . . three!"

          The woman grunted as she leaped forward.

          Now that there was no door separating them, Lena could get a good look at the man in front of her. He was old, much taller than her, with salt-and-pepper hair and an aquiline nose.

          He tried to switch the direction of his gun from the hallway to Lena's abdomen, but she was quicker than him. With one hand gripping the knife and the other gripping the back of his throat, she could feel the blood racing through him. One cut, she thought, burying the blade deeper into his skin, and it's all over.

          "Put that down." the woman behind him groaned, clicking the safety of her gun as she glued the muzzle to Lena's temple.

          Taking advantage of the moment of unsteadiness in Lena's actions, the man got ahold of her wrist and smashed her against the wall.

          The knife skidded across the hallway a few inches away, but the throbbing in Lena's torso was making it impossible for her to lift a finger as the force of the impact was settling in her body. Her mouth opened into an exclamation of pain, her vision blurring. She'd broken the same rib twice — now thrice — in less than two years, and each time the pain was worse than the last.

          "Fuck . . . you." she whispered but made no attempt at tackling the stranger to the ground again. She didn't have to look up from the floor to know that there was a weapon threatening to blow her brains out at that exact moment.

          Ellie appeared on the doorframe, alarmed. Lena raised a hand, motioning at her to stay where she was before the man and the woman could see her, but — stubborn as her mother had always been — she threw herself to the ground and attempted to regain control of her fallen knife.

          The man was faster, though. He pinned the weapon down between the floor and the sole of his boot, his attention switching from Lena to the girl.

          "Leave the kid alone!" Lena attempted to scream, pain shooting through her as her ribcage contracted.

          Their momentary exchange was interrupted by the sight of two limping shadows crossing the corner of the hallway toward them. It was Marlene, holding her half-hanging guts with her left hand, and Kim, profusely bleeding from her right ear.

          "Joel?" Marlene exclaimed, her eyes narrowing at the sight before her.

          "Marlene." the man mirrored her tone of surprise.

          "You okay?" the woman glanced down at Ellie and Lena, both of them still pinned to the ground, even though the younger was in a much better state.

          "Yeah." the kid was fast to reply. Lena's answer came a few moments later. She simply nodded her head while looking toward the blood-splattered flowers printed on the wallpaper. She couldn't stand to look Marlene in the eyes. One glance at her, and Lena would make something she'd regret for the rest of her life.

          Ellie bent forward and tried to reach her knife again, but Marlene called out her name austerely. "Ellie!"

          Afterward, she took a few seconds to recompose herself and opened her empty hand in a pacifying movement.

          Slowly, all of those that were holding a gun began lowering them.

          As her heartbeat went back to a steady pace, Lena began distinguishing a viscous liquid running beneath her fingertips. She lifted her hand quizzically, looking at the crimson that covered her entire palm. It's Robert's, she thought as realization swept over her. She looked to her left, at the dead body supported by the wall, and almost jumped in surprise at the sight of the man's bullet-pierced head emptying the contents of his brain on her shoulder.

          She moved the body to the other side with a hard push of her arm, but her two adversaries were too distracted to be alarmed by the movement.

          The woman behind Lena sneered, disgust dripping in her tone. "So this is who Robert screwed us over with? The Che Guevara of Boston? War must be going pretty shitty for you to be buying from scumbags like him."

          "Yeah, it kinda has been." Marlene replied, a defeated look on her face. "The merch was bad, and he obviously didn't take "fuck off" for an answer."

          Ellie seemed oblivious to the words exchanged between Marlene and the man, Joel. Her mind was set on a singular goal. "Give me my knife." she said through gritted teeth.

          Joel ignored Ellie's plea. "What do you need a car battery for?" he inquired.

          The girl reach to grab her blade once more, but Joel wasn't as lenient this time as he was in the others. He pinned the girl to the wall and raised his gun at her. "Don't." he spoke in a harsh voice.

          Kim and Marlene acted in unison, raising their weapons at the man's head.

          "No, not at her." said the latter. "Point it at me."

          Throughout the whole exchange, Lena remained silent. She wished that the blonde woman from behind would remain distracted, so she could spin around and reach her weapon belt that had fallen to the parquet minutes before. But then, what would she do? Would the three of them — wounded, on top of everything — try to take Joel and his companion down?

          There was not a version of Lena's imagination in which she didn't end up cold on the ground, with a bullet in her skull.

          "And to answer your question," Marlene continued. "I need it for a better reason than you do. No offense, but Tommy's just one man. It's our business to know things."

          The corners of Joel's mouth were upturned in contempt as he repeated the woman's words. "To know things. You're the cause of it. You turned my own brother against me."

          "Okay, Joel." Marlene sighed, rolling her eyes.

          "That was a lot of gunfire." Kim noted. "FEDRA's gonna be on their way."

          Marlene exchanged a curt glance with the woman at her right, nodding and murmuring something indecipherable.

          "We were gonna move Ellie out of the zone tonight. But we won't make it anywhere like this. Not for a while, anyway. So," Marlene explained, her eyes drifting to where Lena sat, her hand pressed against her ribcage. "Now I'm thinking you're going to do it."

          Lena's outcries echoed through the walls, but they were cut short by Marlene's words.

          "Come on, Helena. You're gonna kill two birds with one stone. You grant me this favor, take Ellie to the State House, and you get to Chelsea and Philip. After this, you can go. Nothing's binding you to this place anymore. But . . ." she looked down, almost as if she was about to deliver distasteful news. "One last thing. I don't want you doing it alone. I want Joel and Tess with you."

          "The hell we are!" the man was the first to raise his voice, soon after followed by the woman behind him.

          "I'm not going with them!" Ellie dissented.

          Lena winced in pain as she slowly rose to her feet, hands palpating the walls for support. Her body was getting old, — no doubt not as strong and lean as in her youth — but Lena would be damned if she backed down from a fight that easy. "Fuck you, Marlene. You want me to do your dirty work for you, again, but you don't even trust me to do it on my own. What, you think I'm gonna kill this kid?!"

          The woman looked furtively at the girl, who retributed her glance with a glint of scare in her eyes.

          "Maybe I should." Lena groaned. "Fuck your plans over like you fucked mine for over six years, Marlene."

          "Lena—"

          "No. Out of the fucking question. Get someone else to do it for you."

          "Let me take her." Kim offered, her words drawing a sarcastic laugh from Marlene.

          "Tess, we don't have time for this." Joel turned toward the woman. She lowered her eyebrows and pursed her lips together, pondering her options. She was weighing in, Lena could tell, whether she trusted the woman or not.

          "Who is she?" Tess asked, pointing to the girl.

          "To you? She's cargo." Marlene replied promptly.

          Lena shifted the weight of her body onto her left leg. "Yeah, I'm gonna need a little bit more than that if you want me to do anything for you." she said.

          Marlene cocked her head to the side, clenching her jaw. She was getting impatient, and her physical pain would soon turn into anguish. "You know just enough about who she is, don't you?"

          "You know just enough about who she is, don't you?" Marlene replied.

          "We don't smuggle people. Sorry." Joel said.

          "I can do it." Kim insisted.

          "Kim, you don't have a fuckin' ear on your fuckin' head, could you please?" Marlene yelled. She directed her attention toward Joel, Tess, and Lena again. "There's a team of Fireflies waiting for her at the State House. I know what's out there. We were going with an entire squadron for that very reason. But now I don't have a truck, I don't have a squadron, FEDRA's five minutes away. What I do have is you. And I know what you're all capable of. For better or worse."

          "What are they capable of?" Ellie asked, looking up at Joel with a marveled expression on her face.

          "Hanging you upside down like a goddamn piñata for the infected if you keep disobeying me, kid!" Lena yelled.

          Marlene sighed in exasperation, pinching the bridge of her nose.

          "Didn't you get here by car?" Kim asked Lena.

          The latter was quick to reply. "Yeah, but it's no use. I left it two miles from here, in case FEDRA was tailing me. But they know I'm here to meet the Fireflies. My best guess? They found my truck, went through my cargo, and figured out who I was. By tomorrow they'll have rewards for whoever brings them my head."

          "Look, Joel. You get her there safely, and they'll give you what you need. Not just the battery. The whole thing." Marlene explained. Her voice was firm but compassionate, almost like an invitation for everyone to taste her lies. If Lena didn't know who Marlene was, maybe she'd be tempted to accept her offer, too." I swear. And, you, Lena, get an escort for you and your daughter out of Massachusetts."

          Joel and Tess looked at each other, sharing puzzled glances. The latter signaled for him to come to the back of the hallway where they could discuss in privacy.

          While they waited for the two to make a decision, Lena glanced down at Ellie, who was massaging her aching shoulder with her left hand.

          "You okay, kid?" she asked. "Sorry for how I reacted earlier. My fuse is not the longest."

          "Yeah, no problem." Ellie smiled. "You?"

          "I'm getting too old for this shit, but I'll be fine. You don't need to worry about me."

          Marlene tsked and looked up at the ceiling, vexed. "Y'all talk it through, but please remember that I'm bleeding out."

          "Fuck it." Lena cursed. "I'm going. I got no other option. But I'll tell you this, Marlene. You're gonna have another body dropped at your doorway tonight. 'Cause when I catch Lip he's a dead man."

          The other woman laughed through her nose. "He's a good man, Lena. I understand you're mad at him, but he does care about y'all's kid. Just remember that before you do anything stupid."

          Lena was gathering words for a proper answer, — about how it wasn't her right to talk about her family business, or how wrong it had been to bring Cess into Firefly problems — but she was interrupted by Tess.

          "Okay, here's the deal." she announced, turning around and marching closer to Marlene and Kim. "We'll get her to your crew at the State House, but before you hand her over they give us everything we want. If not, we kill her, then and there. And you," she looked at Lena, acknowledging her presence for the first time since putting the gun at her temple. "You stay close to us, but this isn't a partnership. When it's over, you take whoever you're looking for and go wherever the hell you want. You're not with us anymore."

          Lena shrugged and looked at Marlene. "It's a deal for me."

          "Deal." Marlene replied.

          Ellie suspired sarcastically. "Really? That fast?"

          "You are all that matters. My team will not jeopardize that." Marlene told the girl. "Remember what I told you? Now go get your backpack."

          The girl stood up and marched down the hallway, slamming her shoulder against Joel's body on the way out. She must have been expecting a reaction from him, but she didn't receive it. He just stood there, quiet as a grave.

          Marlene looked at Lena and approached her carefully.

          "You take care out there." she said.

          "You too."

          "Look," Marlene spoke, using her free hand to pat Lena on the shoulder. "I'm sorry for dragging you and your girl into this shit. I know what happened, and I know I got no right to ask you to risk your life for us, but . . . if you're not doing it for me, do it for Anna. I know she'd be happy to know that Ellie is with you."

          Lena nodded, giving her friend a timid grin. "I don't know what this is, Marlene. And I don't need to. But I hope you get what you want from this."

          "And I hope you find Cess. And that you two make it far, far away from this place."

          The women both smiled at each other.

          A few moments later, Ellie emerged from one of the rooms wearing a thick raincoat, with the backpack slung over her shoulder.

          Before the reality of her actions could settle in, Lena picked up all of her belongings and hurriedly followed the group of strangers out of the apartment complex.

━━━━━━━━━━

          The walk to Joel's apartment was made in silence. Ellie walked with the hood drawn over her face to shield herself from the torrential rain, while Lena used her leather backpack to hide her face from the patrolling FEDRA officers. Even after so many years, the panic of being caught still resided inside her.

          As they reached his house, Joel motioned for Lena and Ellie to enter first with a deadpan expression on his face. At first, the woman thought he wanted to be polite, but her expectations were soon shattered as he slammed the door in their face and remained outside, to talk to Tess.

          "What the fuck?!" Ellie asked, furious.

          "Give them a minute. I'm sure babysitting you wasn't on anyone's list today." Lena replied as she looked around the apartment.

          It was a quaint space, with an entry hallway, a small great room, a bedroom that was separated from the rest of the house with some wooden bars, and, at the end of the corridor, a bathroom.

          Lena began undressing. She took off her muddied boots and hooked her dripping wet jacket on the coat hanger.

          "What?" Lena asked, noticing Ellie's disapproving stare. "I'm just making myself at home. I'm sure the guy won't mind."

          The girl sighed. She tossed her backpack onto an old, worn-out armchair and began inspecting Joel's knick-knacks that lay on the table. Small batteries, cogs and gears, maps of the United States, empty liquor bottles.

          Afterward, she approached the window-side cabinet that overlooked the deserted Boston streets, letting her hands wander over the "Number 1 Billboard Hits" book that Joel had left there.

          "You know most of these songs, right?" the girl asked.

          Lena was looking around the apartment for a piece of thread that she could tie her hair with.

          "Well, I . . . don't know all of the songs that were ever made, but probably a lot of those from the book. But, uh, Ellie—" she called out, though the girl wouldn't take her eyes from the pages. "Maybe it's not a great idea to go through his stuff."

          "You said that he wouldn't mind."

          "Yeah." Lena laughed dryly. "If he gets mad at me, I still got a strong left hook that I can use. But you; what are you gonna do? Bite him like a poodle?"

          Ellie rolled her eyes. She was on her way to deliver a snarky remark, but her words were interrupted by the door opening. Joel walked in, annoyed.

          He threw his backpack in a corner of the great room and sat down on the couch.

          "So, who's Bill and Frank?" Ellie asked, pointing to a small paper that had been wedged between pages of '70s hits. Joel looked at Lena as if expecting an answer from the woman he'd just met.

          Lena leaned against the entrance wall and crossed her arms over her chest. She had a smug smile on her lips as she said, "I told her it wouldn't be a great idea to go through your stuff. She's not my kid. Not my responsibility."

          "The radio is a smuggling code, right?" Ellie pressed. "'60s song, they don't have anything new. '70s, they got new stuff. What's '80s?"

          Joel leaped from his couch and took the book out of Ellie's hand, closing it with a thump and throwing it on the dirty table. He sighed in annoyance and went back to his spot, laying down and closing his eyes.

          "What are you doing?" Ellie queried.

          "Killin' time." the man replied.

          "Well, what the hell am I supposed to do?"

          Joel massaged his forehead. "I'm sure you'll figure that out." he pressed a hand over his eyes to block the afternoon light from disturbing his sleep.

          Ellie narrowed her eyes and went back to studying the book she'd been looking at only moments before.

          Lena rolled her eyes at the sight. She stepped out into the kitchenette and gestured at the girl to come closer. "You want something? 'Cause I'm starving."

          "I'm not good at cooking." Ellie confessed.

          "I wasn't better at it when I was your age. Still aren't to this day."

          Ellie crossed her arms over her chest and pouted her lips, mimicking Lena. "Maybe it's not a great idea to go through his stuff."

          Lena laughed heartily for what felt like the first time in an eternity.

          "This bitch just broke my rib. The least he can do is let me eat his food. Maybe I'll raid his bathroom for some painkillers after, too." she said, raising her voice to make sure that the man understood what she was saying.

          Lena could almost swear she heard Joel grunt in annoyance at her comment, but she was too starved to care.

━━━━━━━━━━

          The rainy afternoon soon turned into a cold, unpleasant night, though Lena was too delighted in eating her food than noticing the passage of time. She'd made scrambled eggs and powdered orange juice from the scarce ingredients she'd gathered from Joel's cabinets and drawers.

          From the lack of tidiness, decoration, and women's clothes, Lena surmised that he lived alone.

          Ellie approached the table with a notebook and pencil.

          "You want some?" Lena asked, pushing the plate in the girl's direction. Her hunger hadn't been satiated, but there was a part of her that couldn't stand the thought of leaving a child starving when she had a plateful of food.

          "Yeah, thanks." Ellie said, stabbing the yolk with a fork and eating it whole. "You want to play?"

          The girl pointed the tip of her pencil to a grill drawn on the corner of the page.

          "You want me to play tic-tac-toe with you?" Lena asked. "No."

          The radio lit up with static. In less than five seconds, the sound of Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go muffled the sound of Joel's soft snores.

          Ellie chewed the inside of her cheek. "Okay, fine. But you said . . . when we were back there you promised you'd answer all of my questions."

          Smart kid, Lena thought. Of course, she wouldn't forget.

          "What's the deal with you and Marlene? And why did she say that you knew who I was? And why do you need to go to the State House?"

          "One question at a time, girl." Lena scolded. "Many years ago, before you were even born, I was friends with Marlene. Became one of her first Fireflies. That's what the tattoo was about."

          "Oh. Does that mean that you killed many people? I mean, isn't it hard—" Ellie blurted out, her expression changing into one of morbid curiosity. Lena raised an eyebrow, and she was quick to apologize. "Sorry, sorry. Not my business."

          "And then I had my daughter, Chelsea." the woman continued. "At first, I thought I could be a Firefly and a mother. But I realized that my way of living would kill her. I made a decision for our good, moved to a new place."

          "I know Chelsea." Ellie said.

          "You know Cess?" Lena asked, surprised.

          "Yeah, we go to the same school. Or did." the girl answered. "We were never close enough to be friends, but she was nicer to me than half that school was. It's kind of hard to miss a kid that has an actual living parent at an orphanage."

          Lena smiled at her comment. She missed her daughter more than anything, but the conversation with Ellie was making the ache inside of her a little bit smaller.

          "Marlene said she was the one to put me in that school. Why?"

          Lena pursed her lips, feigning surprise. "I— I have no idea."

          "Yes, you do. Marlene gave me a letter. From Anna, from my mom. She said that she left me in your care, and Marlene's."

          Lena thought about Anna in the last hours of her life. Birthing Ellie had left her so frail, so delirious, and yet . . . she'd gathered all the strength she had left to write her daughter a letter.

          Lena looked at the empty plate in front of her, batting her eyelashes a few times to stop the tears from spilling on the wooden table.

          "Your mom, Marlene, and I were friends. Long ago." Lena began gathering the dirty dishes so she would have an excuse to turn away from Ellie. "She died giving birth to you. Maybe I'll tell you everything one day, but until that day comes, no questions about it. We're understood?"

          Ellie slowly nodded.

          "Good." Lena said. "Now it's my time to ask the questions. Why are they smuggling you?"

          Lena had formed a few ideas in the last couple of hours. The biggest one — the one she struggled to make sense with — was that they'd found her biological dad, maybe someone who was high in the ranks of FEDRA; and the Fireflies planned to use his daughter as leverage for control of something. But no, it wasn't right . . . no one knew who Ellie's father was, not even Anna's closest friends. Finding him, after fifteen years, would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

          A strange look crossed Ellie's face. She stammered for the right words. Just as she was about to lift the sleeve of her shirt and show Lena something, Joel grunted awake.

          "You mumble in your sleep." Ellie commented. Her eagerness to change the subject didn't pass unnoticed by Lena, but she wouldn't try to ask the girl something like that in front of a man they barely knew.

          It's not like she knows me better, anyway.

          Joel opened his eyes and sat straight on the couch.

          Ellie stood up from the table and approached the window, perching herself on top of the armchair. She glanced at the street with a pensive stare. "I've never been outside of the Wall. Look how dark it is."

          "You're missing a shitload of nothing." Lena replied.

          "You guys go out there a lot?" Ellie asked Joel.

          "I guess." he replied.

          Lena stepped back into the living room and began aimlessly searching through the few books stacked on the man's shelves.

          "When was the last time?" Ellie asked.

          "Maybe a year." Joel replied hastily, his tone dripping with vexation. "What's it matter?"

          "But you know where to go. So we're going to be okay." the girl spoke with conviction, almost as if trying to convince herself of her own words.

          It took Joel a few seconds to respond. He leaned back into the pillows and draped his right arm over the back arm of the couch. "Yeah."

          Ellie finally seemed content with his answer.

          "So what's the deal with you, anyway? You some kinda bigwig's daughter or somethin'?"

          The girl smiled. "Yeah, something like that."

          The apartment settled into an awkward silence. For a moment, Lena pondered on the option of launching herself toward Joel and repaying his earlier kindness with a punch on the nose and two in the ribs, but she decided it'd be better to wait until they made it to the State House. Out there, with so many Fireflies she knew would back her up, she'd have the time of his life beating the living daylights out of him.

          Instead, Lena contented herself with choosing a magazine about European vegan cuisine and threw herself on the only remaining armchair.

          Ellie was the first one to break their silence. "Well, the radio came on while you were sleeping. Like fifteen minutes ago." she declared.

          "What? What was the song?" Joel asked, knitting his eyebrows together as he leaned forward.

          "George Michael." Lena replied, not lifting her eyes from the ratatouille recipe. "'80s stuff, I'm pretty sure."

          "Joel looked down, shaking his head. "Oh shit." he muttered.

          Ellie's face lit up with a know-it-all smile. "Gotcha!" she exclaimed, her words oozing with pride in herself. "'80s means troubleee. Code brokeeen."

          The man's gaze darted across the room, toward Lena. He narrowed his eyes, pointing an accusatory finger in her direction. "You—"

          Lena turned her palms up and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Not my kid, not my responsibility." she repeated once more. "Maybe next time you shouldn't invite strangers into your house."

          "Yeah, like I had a choice." Joel riposted in a sharp tone.

          The door of the apartment flew open with a cold current of air that made the magazine Lena was holding in her lap fly to the ground. She wanted to lower herself and pick it up out of common courtesy — a gesture that would go a long way for Joel when he came back to his house with missing teeth and a couple of broken ribs — but the urgency in Tess' voice told her there was no time for such a thing.

          "The spot under Lancaster looks good. Come on. It's time to go."

          Lena was the first to spring to her feet. She was more than eager to leave the apartment, to leave Boston and Massachusetts altogether.

          She looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror in Joel's bedroom as she tied the lace of her stolen combat boots. The makeup she'd improvised had long disappeared, leaving her face purple and sore. Her clothes, now dirty and disheveled, were splattered with tiny specks of blood on the front of her shirt.

          It wasn't how she'd planned to greet Cess on the first day of summer vacation, but Lena figured her daughter had bigger things to worry about than her mother's shabby state now.

sorry for ending the chapter like that i am literally the worst at writing chapter endings 😭 next one is gonna cover the last 10 minutes of episode 1 and (from what i planned) the entirety of episode 2 — but you won't get it until later this week because i am so exhausted my brain cannot compute writing anymore xhdfbbcnf

ps: thank you so much for 1.5k views and 100 votes on this story <3 y'all don't even know how much that means to me 💌

word count: 5930 words

date started: january twenty-first

date finished: january twenty-third

date published: january twenty-third