Lost in the darkness 2.
part 1
Your request had been heard @mochacake2016 now gimme your house :3
Takes place during the first part/season of The Last of Us
Warning: blood, death, swearing, your typical apocalypse things
Wordcount: 2.3k
“You okay?” asked Marlene the girl who was still curled up against the wall.
“Yeah.”
Carl gripped his gun when the young girl leaned forward to take a hold of the knife she dropped when Joel threw her against the wall. However, Joel was quick to step on it before her fingers could even touch the blade.
“Ellie!” Marlene called out to get the angry girl’s attention. She turned to the Firefly with burning eyes but the fury was gone the moment she realized that the woman has been injured.
“Oh, shit!”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll be all right.”
“Not if you keep standing there like a goddamn tree,” Carl spoke up, earning an exhausted look from Marlene.
Ellie furrowed her eyebrows at the boy’s voice and turned toward him with questioning eyes. She wouldn’t have expected a kid her age to show up with the intruders. Her surprise didn’t last long, when Carl glared at her in response, she turned her head back to Marlene, not saying a word.
Joel glanced back at Carl to silently order him to keep his mouth shut which the boy acknowledged and adjusted his grip on the gun instead.
“You can’t be stupid like this,” Marlene scolded Ellie in a lower tone.
Carl found it strange that in a situation where everyone was pointing guns at each other in suspense, Marlene still had time to lecture the teen girl.
“What was I supposed to do?” Ellie beamed. “They were heading to you, they could have shot you!”
“We still might,” Joel responded in a cold tone, thinking back to the corpses laying in the building. They didn’t know who started the fire but it was sure that neither Marlene nor the rest of the Fireflies were saints.
They couldn’t take the risk.
“So this is who Robert screwed us over with?” Tess walked past Joel and Carl with an unimpressed look on her face. “The Che Guevara of Boston?”
Carl almost smiled at Tess’ choice of words but he remained stoic for the sake of their safety. He couldn't be distracted now.
“War must be goin’ pretty shitty for you to be buying from scumbags like him.”
“Yeah, it kinda has been.” Marlene admitted in an impatient tone. She wasn’t in the mood for lectures, especially with the injury on her side that kept bleeding. “The merch was bad and he obviously didn’t take ‘fuck off’ for an answer.”
“Give me my knife.” Ellie breathed and glared up at Joel who wasn’t even paying attention to her.
“Don’t even dream about it,” Carl warned her with a sinister glare.
Ellie sent Carl a deadly look but that didn’t surprise the boy. He had seen that look too many times on people’s faces by now to be affected by it in the slightest.
“What do you need a car battery for?” Joel asked.
Ellie, losing her last drop of patience, leaned forward again, reaching out. Joel turned back to her, pointing his gun at her face.
“Don’t.”
When Marlene and her friend raised their guns at Joel, Carl immediately pointed his at Marlene’s crouched figure. It didn’t take Tess a long time either to return the favor.
“Not at her.” Marlene ordered. “Point it at me.”
Carl felt his shoulders tense as he was waiting for Joel’s reaction who didn’t look fazed by Marlene’s order at all. Who was she to give orders to them anyway?
Joel’s gaze dropped to Ellie who had her hands lifted up in surrender with uneasiness in her eyes. Raising his eyebrows at the girl’s trembling figure, he slowly turned away from her, still leaning on the knife.
Carl found it ironic how big her mouth was before but now she was afraid to say a word after facing the revolver’s barrel.
Marlene and her partner slowly lowered their guns now that Ellie wasn’t a target.
“And to answer your question, I need it for a better reason than you do.” Marlene answered, out of breath. “No offense, but Tommy’s just one man.”
Joel’s face hardened at Marlene’s audacity. Carl shared a silent look with Tess who was just as unsure of Joel’s possible reaction as Carl was.
“It’s our business to know things.”
“To know things.” Joel echoed, swallowing his anger. “You’re the cause of it. You turned my own brother against me.”
Carl was surprised at how calmly Joel managed to answer when after everything that happened between the Miller brothers, Marlene still had the nerve to call Tommy names. The boy almost expected Joel to shoot Marlene right in the face for the side remark she just made, not acknowledging other people’s lives.
“Okay, Joel.”
“That was a lot of gunfire.” found her voice the other woman covered in blood. “FEDRA’s going to be on the way.”
“I know.” Marlene replied with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Carl dropped his gaze to Ellie who rubbed her aching shoulder with a distant gaze. Who was she and how did she end up with terrorists like Marlene?
Flinching in pain, Marlene exchanged a weary look with Ellie before pressing her lips against each other.
“We were gonna move Ellie out of the zone tonight. But we won’t make it anywhere like this. Not for a while anyway.” Marlene admitted in a defeated tone. “So, now I’m thinking, you’re gonna do it.”
The alarm went off above all three of their heads at Marlene’s answer. Carl twisted his head at Tess who glared at Marlene in suspicion.
“The hell we are.” Joel answered right away.
“I’m not going with them!” Ellie exclaimed.
“You’re wrong if you think we’ll do your work.” Carl joined the resistance. Not that he was a smuggler but he was the closest to Tess and Joel in the Boston QZ and he felt like a part of their team too. So, he thought he had a right to say something.
“Let me take her.” said the other woman with a determined look.
“Tess, we don’t have time for this.” Joel turned back to Tess.
“You don’t have time?” Marlene repeated.
“Who is she?” Tess asked and Carl gave her a questioning look. He didn’t want to believe that Tess was seriously considering taking the burden from Marlene and her crew. They were the ones who messed it all up because they couldn’t handle Robert. Why would they need to do their job?
“To you? She’s cargo.” Marlene replied easily.
“We don’t smuggle people. Sorry.” Joel spoke again with determination.
“I can do it.”
“Kim, you don’t have a fucking ear on your fucking head. Could you please?” Marlene started to lose her patience.
Kim slowly dropped her eyes with sadness filling them as if her missing an ear was the most normal thing in the world.
“There’s a team of Fireflies waiting for her at the old State House.” Marlene said. “I know what’s out there. We were going an entire squadron for that very reason. But now I don’t have a truck, I don’t have a squadron, FEDRA is five minutes away. What I do have is you. And I know what you are capable of. For better or worse.”
Joel gave Marlene a dark look while Ellie shifted in her place.
“The kid too, I’ve heard scare stories about you, Grimes.” Marlene’s eyes found Carl, making him feel exposed. He really did have some fame in the QZ. “I know you never play a fair game.”
Carl was surprised to have Marlene, out of all people, the leader of the Fireflies, admitting that he could be a threat if he wanted to be despite his young age.
Tess, on the other hand, always tried to tone down Carl’s coldness and aggression, so he had no idea how to react to Marlene’s compliance.
Ellie now looked startled a little by this statement. “What are they capable of?”
Carl thought back to the things he heard Joel and Tess doing before they settled down in Boston. Everything he heard about the things they had done was ruthless. They had a lot of blood on their hands but so did Carl, just not in the same way.
No one bothered to answer Ellie’s question. It was better for her to not know anything.
“You get her there safely, and they’ll give you what you need. Not just the battery. The whole thing.” Marlene promised quietly. “Fueled-up trucks, guns, supplies, all of it. I swear.”
Carl knew what was going on inside Joel’s head now, even though his face remained expressionless. Marlene just mentioned everything he tried to get so that he could get out of Boston and find his brother.
It was a charming offer, that was sure. But was it worth it? Risking their lives for a girl?
“I swear.” Marlene repeated when Joel refused to tear his eyes away from her.
Carl was sure Marlene was telling the truth about what the other squadron would have but how could they be so sure that they would pay them after smuggling Ellie out of the QZ?
Joel’s seriousness broke and he turned back to Tess, who called him back to her with a simple side nod.
Sliding the knife to Tess and Carl with his foot, Joel was about to back away from the girl.
“Asshole!” Ellie glared at him as the distance between them grew with each step Joel took.
“Carl.” Joel gave a glance to the boy who understood him immediately.
“Yes,” Carl nodded and walked toward Ellie with careful steps. The last thing he wanted to do was make the girl jump at him in rage.
“I don’t have my fucking knife on me, do I look like a threat to you?” Ellie asked, irritated, glancing down at Carl’s lowered gun.
Carl was aware that both Marlene and Kim were watching him carefully as he held Ellie in her place but his attention remained on the girl.
He only now noticed the small cut that split Ellie’s right eyebrow into two. He started to wonder if there was a badass story behind that or if it was just a ridiculous accident that left her with a life longing scar above her right eye.
“You look angry enough to be impulsive and hare-brained,” Carl answered. “And I’m not taking any chances.”
Ellie huffed in annoyance and sunk into the wall behind her. Carl almost believed that if they would have met under other circumstances, they might have become friends. She was fierce and confident, just like him.
“What about the hat?” Ellie asked suddenly and Carl furrowed his eyebrows.
“What about it?”
Ellie pointed at the ceiling above them.
“We have a roof above us, in case you haven’t noticed. Why are you wearing that stupid sheriff hat?”
The term ‘stupid sheriff hat’ felt like a nail in Carl’s heart. Only if she knew the story that his hat held. But Carl wasn’t in the mood for explanations. If ever...
“Do you always try to act like a smartass?” Carl asked instead.
Ellie sniffed. “Only when I’m faced with cosplayers.”
Carl let out a deep breath, trying to get rid of his annoyance, and looking back to Joel and Tess who were debating whether to take the deal or not.
“Y’all talk it through, but please remember that I’m bleeding out.” Marlene raised her voice, her eyes full of pain and exhaustion.
“Do you even know how to use that thing?” Ellie stared at Carl’s Beretta between his hands.
Carl tipped his index finger against the cool metal. He could still remember how awesome he thought it was when Rick taught him how to shoot. Back then, he didn’t think much about the weapon that now rested in his hands.
Now he didn’t think of it as something cool and awesome but as an object that could either save or end his life.
“Better than you’d think.” Carl grumbled.
“Okay. Here’s the deal.” Tess turned around, interrupting the teenagers’ conversation. “We’ll get her to your crew at the State House. But before we hand her over, they give us everything that we want. If not, we kill her, there and then.”
Carl felt goosebumps raise on his arms when he heard the coldness in Tess’ voice. She never talked to him like that and it felt like she wasn't the Tess he got to know a few months ago.
“Deal.” Marlene said without hesitation.
Ellie turned to Marlene with betrayal in her eyes. “Really? That fast?”
“You are all that matters.” Marlene looked at Ellie. “My team will not jeopardize that.”
Ellie turned away with an unbelievable look on her face.
“Remember what I told you? Now go get your backpack.” Marlene hurried her, not wanting to waste more time.
However, Ellie remained on the floor, giving Marlene a disappointed look. Carl made notice of how much she disliked Marlene’s decision. They must have known each other for a while now.
“Now, Ellie.”
Ellie scoffed and pushed herself up, not looking at anyone as she walked into the room she broke out of when the three of them arrived.
Carl waited in silence as he heard Ellie moving around before she walked out with a dusty backpack in her hands. Ellie stopped in her movement, giving Marlene a pleading glance even though she knew it was a lost cause.
“Let’s go.” Tess said as she already turned away.
Marlene nodded at Ellie, sending her an encouraging look. Carl almost felt sorry for Ellie who found herself alone in a matter of seconds. It must have been hard for her to leave the QZ with strangers whom they stumbled upon, whether the adults knew each other or not.
Ellie bumped into Joel’s shoulder and stepped on Carl’s shoe as she broke through between them. Grabbing her knife from the floor, she followed Tess with heavy steps.
Carl glanced down at his now even dirtier boot then gave Joel a headshake.
Joel scoffed and nodded at Carl, telling him to go. Fixing his gaze on the back of Ellie’s head, Carl followed the two of them but could still hear Marlene’s words in the silent hall.
“Joel, don’t fuck this up. Please.”