a/n~ here we goooooo episode 6!! i was so excited that you guys get 2 chapters in less than 24 hours. its next chapter that has me excited though hehehe

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IT MAY HAVE ONLY BEEN 4 weeks of travel since they lost Henry and Sam, but it was an odd thing how the weeks felt like months. Wherever Tommy was, Josie just hoped they'd be able to stay a while before getting directions on where to take Ellie. She didn't think she could take a short reunion / stay, only to get back on the road a day or two later.

But finally, the trio reach the final leg of their journey to find Tommy. The snow really kicked in on the last week, and now there are no rare moments of walking through a patch of grass untouched by the snow. Now, lucky is considered walking through snow low enough that they're not having to lift their legs up so high when they walk. Josie decided if she never had to walk in the stuff again, she'd be perfectly okay with that.

Joel guesses they're at most, another day or 2 from Tommy. When they come upon a cabin that's got smoke coming from the chimney, it's Ellie and Josie that beg Joel to knock and see who lives there, and it's the latter who finally convinces him.

They end up meeting a nice woman who immediately ushers them into her home and invites them to sit down. With how much she talks and in turn is fascinated to listen to the answers to whatever questions she has, Josie suspects it has been a long time since the woman has had company other than her husband.

"Speaking of, is he—"

"Dead? No, he's out hunting. But he should be home soon. Anyone want more soup?"

Josie and Ellie immediately get up and bring their empty bowls over to the stove, while Joel says he's alright, but makes sure to thank the woman and say it was delicious.

About half an hour later, they hear footsteps approaching, and Ellie is forced upstairs while Josie continues to sit beside the woman, despite Joel's protests that she should stay out of sight.

The man enters his home, placing his bow and arrows down by the door. He looks at his wife, not registering that someone is sitting next to her less than a few feet away. He's about to shrug his jacket off when Joel makes his presence known.

"Put the gun down too."

"Who the hell are you?"

"We're just people passing through. Take the gun out, two fingers only, put it outta reach."

Hearing the word we, it's then that the man notices Josie next to his wife.

"Joel, I don't think he's—" Josie stops talking when Joel shakes his head. His eyes don't leave the man.

Joel wants to believe that the man wouldn't do anything stupid with his wife's life potentially on the line. But Josie sits right next to her, and he isn't taking any chances.

"Why didn't you shoot him?"

"The gun's all the way over there... he didn't hurt me by the way."

"Yeah I got eyes. You made them soup??"

"Yeah I did. They're nice, and it's cold out."

Josie laughs, bringing out another smile from the woman, who introduced herself as Florence. She realizes the man must not think he's in that much danger for him to be speaking to his wife.

"As nice as listening to you both is, I'm looking for my brother."

The man removes his hat and takes a seat. "Well I ain't seen him."

Josie leans forward in her seat. "We haven't even told you what the looks like."

Pointing to Joel, the man doesn't seem phased by the gun anymore. "Well does he look anything like him?"

Joel answers this time. "A bit."

"Then I ain't seen him."

Ellie makes her presence known, finally coming down the stairs. She aims her gun just like Joel does, but puts it away when she notices Josie shake her head and motions for her to put it down.

"Ellie, damnit you were supposed to stay out of sight."

"Joel, come on they're like a thousand."

"Who's this little psycho? And who are you guys?"

"Never mind who we are," Joel slides a map forward. "I need you to tell us where we are."

Florence speaks up, "his names Marlon."

Marlon rolls his eyes. "Thanks," he turns his attention back to Joel. "If you got a map, why're you lost?"

"Must've missed all the street signs in the enormous fucking forest."

"Ho-ly..."

Joel points at the map again, and Josie knows he's losing his patience, not finding the humor in this like everyone else in the room does. "We're somewhere here. Exactly where? And your answer better be the same as your wife's."

Marlon looks to Florence. "Did you tell him the truth?"

"Yeah."

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yeah."

Reluctantly, Marlon points to their location on the map. It's obvious Joel was hoping for a different answer when he actually holsters his gun and sits down, sighing as he puts his head in his hands. He mentions they have a great place for hiding.

"Hide? Came here before you were born sonny. Get the hell away from everybody."

"I didn't want to."

"Eh."

Despite the tension still lingering, Josie smiles at the way they bicker.

"Listen I didn't mean to upset you about your brother, but if you've come this far, then you know what's out there. You seen Cody?"

"Yeah, got close enough. It's crawling with infected."

Marlon nods. "Yeah. Laramie and Wind River Reservation, anywhere people used to be, you can't go there no more."

Josie can see Joel's hope dwindling. "Have you at least heard the name Tommy?

"Nope."

After a discussion about Fireflies and the fact that they're people not bugs, Josie tries to redirect the conversation again.

"We need to head west. Do you have any advice?"

"Yeah, go east." He moves his finger along a river on the map. "You never go past the river here. Ever."

"What's past the river?"

Florence is the one who answers. "Death. We never see who's out there, but we see the bodies they leave behind. Some infected, some not. If your, if Tommy went west of the river, I'm sorry but he's probably gone."

Well fuck, Josie thinks.

After Florence offers them more soup, to which Marlon says he hasn't been offered any at all, the 3 gather their belongings and finally head back out into the cold.

"Ellie go put that back."

She ignores Josie, going on about how the people are wrong. They have to be, she points out. They don't even know about the Fireflies.

When Josie sees Joel put a hand against the wooden fence, she knows what's happening. Ellie notices too, but Josie holds a hand up to stop her from asking. "Ellie please, put the rabbit back. It's not ours to take."

Ellie nods, walking back to the house.

Slowly, Josie approaches Joel. She puts a hand on his shoulder and he nods to show her that he knows she's there, but that doesn't stop the panic that feels as if it's spreading through his whole body.

"Hey, look at me, please," Josie puts a hand on Joel's face, and after a few seconds of feeling frozen, he listens. "We are not giving up. We are going to keep going, and we will find Tommy, okay? We're not turning back. I — we're still here with you, and we're gonna go find Tommy. Okay?"

Joel nods, never more grateful for her than he is in that moment.

"Oh shit is he dying?" Ellie finally returns to them and gets a closer look at Joel.

"Shut up I'm fine."

"Just a reminder if you die, I'm fucked. No offense," Ellie grimaces as she's looks to Josie.

"I said I'm fine." Joel finally stands up.

Josie moves to stand between them so that Joel can have one more moment of privacy before they continue on. "It's just the cold air all of a sudden. I get like that sometimes too."

Ellie nods. "Alright, then let's go find Tommy and the Fireflies. All we have to do is cross the River of Death."

At one point, Josie gets her bow and arrow out, holding it ready incase she needs to shoot at any moment.

Ellie quickens her pace to walk next to Joel. "What's she doing?"

Joel doesn't even need to turn around to answer. He heard the sound of the bow. "Looking for animals. One small enough to carry, that way we don't have to stop and butcher it."

"Hah got it!" Josie runs off to the left, through a small cluster of trees. This does cause Joel to finally stop. He's about to go after her to make sure she's alright when she emerges again, carrying an animal not unlike the one Ellie tried to steal. Ellie offers to attach it to her backpack since she doesn't have as much inside, and Josie is more than happy to accept that offer.

Clouds block the sun by the time they finally approach the river.

"The River of Death. Oooh scary."

"Don't start. It's too close to dark. There's some caves along the river. We'll set up camp there, cross in the morning."

It's still over an hour before they end up finding a cave with surrounding areas that Joel deems safe for the night. Josie gathers things for a fire, and Joel gets to work once she's finished.

As he's starting the fire, Josie and Ellie climb up on the rocks to look at the sky. When Joel's finished and turns to look for them, he nearly has a heart attack. Especially when he sees Josie, who climbed up a lot higher than Ellie did.

When he whistles, only Ellie turns around. He motions for her to get down, and breathes a sigh of relief when she listens without complaint.

Only a few more minutes pass before he looks back up at Josie, terrified that the rocks will fall and she'll plunge to her death. That anxious feeling returns.

"Josie, fire's done." It's a lame excuse, and they both know it. But she sees the look on Joel's face as he watches her, and she immediately climbs down. When she has only a short drop to the ground, Joel still insists on taking her hand and helping her.

Ellie sits on one side of the fire, while Joel and Josie sit close together on the other side. Ellie bites her tongue, but thinks they look very much like a couple right now.

Once their cooked fresh meat is gone, Joel pulls out a flask and takes a sip.

"Woah can I have some?"

"No."

"C'mon just to warm up."

Josie nudges Joel, "one sip wouldn't hurt."

He sighs, but holds his flask out as he leans forward. Ellie takes it quick, incase he changes his mind. Once she takes a sip, she gags. "So gross."

She holds it out to Josie, who shakes her head at the same time that Joel says "she doesn't like to drink". Again, Ellie bites her tongue. She wonders if either of them realize how in sync they are.

Only a few minutes go by before she speaks up again. "So I've been thinking. Let's say we find the Fireflies, it all works, they draw my blood and put it through some of their fancy machines and make a cure."

"Okay..." Joel answers, but Josie also wonders where she's headed.

"Then what? Like what do we do?"

"It's we?" Joel raises his eyebrows.

"Okay fine, whatever. You. Well you and you," she points to both of the people sitting across from her. "You're obviously gonna stick together. You guys can do anything you want. Where are you going, what are you doing?"

Josie sighs, a smile on her face as she tries to imagine a life without infected.

"It's never been an option before," Joel leans forward, "maybe some land, a ranch. A big old farmhouse on a lot of land, with one of those big wraparound porches."

Years ago, Josie let it slip that she was sad she'd never get her dream of living on a nice plot of land in a big home with a wraparound porch. This was before Joel was friendly to her, and she didn't realize he even remembered.

"Cool, what kind?"

"Sheep. I would raise sheep. Maybe some cows too, for the milk and the meat."

"Sheep."

"Yeah they're quiet and do what they're told."

Josie laughs as Ellie rolls her eyes. "Yeah yeah. So just you guys, some cows, and a lot of sheep. Romantic. You cool with that?" The last part is to Josie, who nods.

"Sheep need to be sheared once a year, I've always wanted to learn how to make my own yarn."

Joel tries to ignore the feeling he gets when Josie answers. The fact that she'd want that life with him, even though it's imaginary, is something he knows he'll think about for years to come.

Realizing he probably stared into space with a dumb smile, Joel asks Ellie what she wants to do in the future, after the cure is made.

She tells them about her fascination with space. Never technically answering the question, but also giving a small answer just the same.

Josie gets up to go sit on top of the rocks again, promising she'll be careful. Joel and Ellie have their own meaningful conversation below, as Josie lays down at the top, and just looks up at the sky.

She tries to imagine a world with no infected, and smiles as she pictures the big house she'd have with Joel. Even laughing as she imagines him herding sheep. Or maybe they'd have a dog that could do that for them.

When she hears Joel say he'll take both watches, and she looks down and sees Ellie go set up her sleeping bag, Josie takes that as her cue to climb down again.

Josie unzips her sleeping bag all the way to make a blanket, then plops down right next to Joel. As she leans on him and puts the blanket over them, he sighs.

"What're you doing?"

"I heard you. Taking both watches means you plan to let us sleep all night. Which also means you get zero sleep. We're so close Joel, I can feel it. You can't reunite with Tommy with no sleep, or how will we get there? You take first watch, wake me up for second."

Joel moves his arms from under the makeshift blanket, needing at least his arms to be free so he can hold his rifle.

"I've always wanted a garden," Josie speaks softly. Joel can tell she's tired, but he entertains her anyway.

"What would you plant?"

Josie laughs, "well if we're far from a grocery store, hopefully Walmart becomes a thing again and it's not too far away, but if it is, I'll need to plant lots of fruits and vegetables. But I also want a pretty garden, with lots of flowers and even some trees. Think you could build me a fancy greenhouse?"

When Joel looks down at Josie and sees her eyes closed, he knows she's picturing it, their imaginary future life together.

"Course I can. You'll have to tell me exactly what you want it to look like though."

"I've got some ideas. I'm not very good with tools, so Tommy might have to help you with that part."

Joel snorts when he laughs, "after that we'll hire him, keep him on as our farmer boy."

As the night goes on, Joel and Josie stay like that for a couple of hours. They take turns describing what the farm would be like, and occasionally Joel will add on something dumb he'd make Tommy do.

Josie finally falls asleep just after describing her dream kitchen.

As Joel looks at the woman sleeping leaning on him, he knows he plans to still take both shifts. He's always had a hard time waking her up, feeling guilty even if she insisted he wake her to take watch.

And as he stares up at the sky, Joel dreams of the life he wishes he could give her.

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