shittybirthday: (Default)
joel miller ([personal profile] shittybirthday) wrote in [community profile] bezoar2014-03-26 11:32 pm

searching home still

"Wake up," Joel whispers urgently. He crouches down by the dirty mattress Ellie is asleep on; bracing a hand on her thin shoulder, he gives it a quick shake. "Wake up, baby girl."

In the distance comes an echoing thunder of gunfire. Someone shouting nearby. Footsteps pounding along the metal scaffolding just outside the room that's become Ellie's room in Tommy's settlement.

Joel's heart is pounding. He'd been downstairs with Tommy, rugged up in thick layers to keep warm against the oncoming winter, playing poker with a pack of old, tattered cards by the dim glow of a light overhead, using empty bullet shells and useless scraps of metal as chips, a half-empty bottle of contraband whiskey shared between the both of them, when the alarm sounded that the compound had been breached. Hunters, Maria had shouted as she came bursting into the room, breathing hard with angry panic in her eyes. Fucking Hunters. A whole pack of them this time. The compound is outnumbered. The fuckers had waited until the dead of night to ambush.

"C'mon," whispers Joel, whiskey on his frosty breath, "we gotta move. Now."
tonsofpun: (Don't make me beg)

[personal profile] tonsofpun 2014-04-13 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
Getting shot always stings. Thankfully, it's another graze -- she ducked in time -- but it feels like somebody raked the back of her shoulder open. She's bleeding. No telling how badly, but her arm still works.

She's only just pulled her gun when she hears Joel leap out and start laying into the men, and she peeks over the side of the log, lining up the closest guy in her crosshairs and firing. Good, clean headshot.

He drops, which leaves Joel smashing the last guy in the face with a pipe. It's too close, and they're moving too much for her to risk hitting Joel. She picks up a rock from the side of the trail, throws it at the bastard.

"Get away from him, fucker!"
tonsofpun: (Swear to me.)

[personal profile] tonsofpun 2014-04-13 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
It's not like she hasn't watched him do it dozens of times. Watched them beg, and scream, and tried to plead with them. Watched Joel not listen. The first few times, it scared the shit out of her. Now, she can't imagine ever giving in.

Part of her, though, a deep, sad part of her, has been wishing they were done. That maybe in Jackson those days could be put behind them. Instead, she watches Joel put a bullet in this guy's brain, and closes up that part of herself that ever believes there will be peace.

Joel's hand on her shoulder hurts like hell, and his touch instantly slicks him up with blood, but she nods, barely flinching.

"I'm good," she insists, and leans down to grab a rifle from one of the corpses, an extra clip from his belt. They can't carry the extra guns, but the ammo was going to be helpful.

"Ready."
tonsofpun: (Bullshit detector)

[personal profile] tonsofpun 2014-04-15 07:19 am (UTC)(link)
By the time they get up to the cabin, Ellie is breathing a little hard. It's not much worse than anything they've had before, but her shoulder hasn't stopped bleeding quite yet, and she hadn't put pressure on it. It's sluggish, but still going.

Ellie doesn't complain. Joel's head wound is probably making him feel worse than just her little cuts, and she's not about to suggest they stop. It's still too close to the firefight.

"Gotcha. Meet in the main room."

Carefully, Ellie moved through the greenery at the edge of the meadow, never coming within sight of the cabin's windows. They'd been there enough times for her to know the range, and where the best spots to camp the place were. There were plenty, but there were also blind spots.

In the back, Ellie found the shaft of darkness thrown by the chimney and crept up to the side, following along the base to a loose part of the foundation in the back. Carefully, she slipped underneath the house, listening for any sign of voices or footsteps.

So far, nothing. She waited, knowing Joel's approach would be louder. If anybody was in there, they'd be roused by him, and she'd have his back.