𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞

- CHAPTER EIGHT -
BILL'S TOWN

A DAY OR so had passed rather slowly as the trio travelled over to the next town, Lincoln, where Joel claimed an old friend would be. Bill was his name and apparently he owed Joel and Tess for when they'd saved his ass in a deal gone wrong. Although, Bill had taken a liking to Tess much more than he had Joel and Kathy could understand why. Joel could be a real pain in the ass and seemingly a lot more irrational when he got angry.

Ellie, Kathy and Joel were trekking down a forest road when Joel spotted their destination in the distance behind the trees, "Now there we go..." He walked up to the road barrier and swung his leg over, "Yeah, it'll be faster to go through here."

So now they were off the road and into the forest that surrounded the outskirts of the town. Everything was overgrown and vibrantly green, having been left alone to grow for twenty years without major pollution or disturbances.

"Man..." Ellie's eyes sparkled with awe as she gazed at the nature surrounding them, almost looking like a child at Christmas. She was so used to the run down houses and buildings in the quarantine zone. It felt...amazing not being surounded by fences and concrete walls, trapped like some sort of prisoner.

"What?" Joel asked the girl, he'd been a lot nicer to them in the few days of travel after Kathy had put him in his place. The two adults were barely at each other's throats as much as they were when they first met. Now they had a mutual respect for one another.

"Nothing, it's just - I've never seen anything like this, that's all." She replied.

"You mean the woods?"

"Yeah. Never walked through the woods. It's kinda cool."

"Used to go camping with your dad way back before this all started. He never figured out how to set up a tent, so we'd just put our sleeping bags in the back of my pickup truck and toast marshmellows around the small fire we'd made." Kathy voiced through the calming sounds of chirping birds, Ellie's head shot straight to her after hearing that. Kathy never talked about her brother.

"Really?" Ellie asked, eager to learn anything she could about her parents.

Joel listened to them quietly, letting them have their moment. Sarah had always asked about her mother, but Joel never knew what to say. Sarah's mother had ran away as soon as she was born, couldn't handle the responsibility of being a young mother. So, Joel had been left with a daughter at the age of sixteen. He'd done the best he could, but he couldn't protect her enough in the end.

"He was...clumsy and unorganised, terrible with instructions, but he was a very reliable man and he was proud of the little things he could achieve." Kathy reminisced as they walked, casting a glance at Joel who she knew was listening just as much as Ellie.

"I wish I could remember what he was like, what he and mom were like." Ellie mumbled sadly.

"They loved you, so much." Kathy smiled, "Could see it in their eyes the moment they held you. And you can ask me anything you want to know about them whenever you want, you always could."

"I didn't want to make you sad if I did." The auburn teen quietly admitted.

Kathy stopped walking and pulled her niece into a warm embrace, "You can never make me sad, Ellie. They were good people, you have the right to know more about them. I'd never deprive you of that."

After the hug was broken and a silence had once again settled between the three, Ellie brought up a different subject to Joel who had remained quiet the whole time, "Why didn't you just take us back to Marlene?"

He replied with a question of his own, "If she was up to the task, why'd she drop you off on us?"

"Well maybe she's better now?" Ellie counterd back.

"Kid, I don't mean to upset you, but your friend's chances of survival weren't too high to begin with."

"Marlene is queen of the Fireflies. She's a lot tougher than you peg her to be." Kathy retorted with a roll of her eyes as she walked through the tall grass.

"It don't matter." He said, "'Cause I doubt I could get either one of us back into the city in one piece. Trust me, I wish there was some other option."

"You tryin' to get rid of us?" Kathy asked with a raised brow.

"Yes."

"Joel," Kathy gasped dramatically as she clutched her chest, "you wound me!"

Joel didn't laugh, but she could see the corner of his lips quirk upwards. She took that as a win. Kathy would get him to laugh or at least smile before their journey was over, she was sure of it.

A gate soon stood in their path and Joel made a move to open it, but it was chained shut, "Well shit."

"Should we climb it?" Kathy suggested, but in reality, she really didn't fancy doing that. She was getting to old for that crap.

"No, wire on top of it." Joel denied, "We gotta find a way to go around."

"Wish we had bolt cutters or something." Kathy mused, "Though I doubt either of us would wanna lug one of those things around all the time."

"Whoa look!" Ellie called out to them from behind. She was surrounded by Fireflies. The insect, not the resistance group, obviously. "Fireflies. I mean real fireflies."

"Yeah, we see that." Joel acknowledged.

"Sorry, I lost myself for a sec."

"Don't ever apologise for enjoying the little things, Ellie." Kathy grinned, ruffling the girl's hair as she went past to help Joel with the plank of wood he'd found.

The brunette climbed on top of the roof of some sort of shed as Joel waddled the plank over and she took it from him, pulling it up to the roof, where she then placed it down to connect with the other building on the other side of the fence.

Joel joined them on the roof, retrieving a modified pipe that had scissors on the end and place it on his back. New melee weapon, nice. Could come in handy with runners. He went across the plank first, followed by Kathy then Ellie, where they could see smoke coming from the centre of the town.

"That you Bill?" Joel murmured to himself.

"Where do you usually meet him?" asked Ellie, shielding her eyes from the rising sun.

"Huh? Different places."

Kathy narrowed her eyes at his vague answer, Jumping down off the one story building as carefully as she could. "You've never been here have you?"

"I know this is where he lives, but no I ain't ever been here personally." Joel clarified.

"And that smoke, you think that's him?" Ellie quizzed further.

"Sure as hell better be." He replied.

"Well, let's go check it out then." She shrugged.

❝IT'S NO SURPRISE TO ME, I AM MY OWN WORST ENEMY❞