CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

SAVING ELLIE

THE FIREFLY SYMBOL was the first thing that Joel saw when he blinked his eyes open, even though his gaze was blurry. His ears continued to ring from the incident that happened earlier. The room around him was dark.

"Welcome to the Fireflies."

The sudden voice brought the man back down to earth. Still on the bed, he spins around to face the source of the voice, stopping abruptly to close his eyes at the ache that was echoing in his head. But when he opened his eyes again, he saw a face he hadn't seen in months.

"Easy. You got hit pretty hard." Marlene tells him. "Patrol didn't know who you were."

"Where's Y/n and Ellie?" Joel questions, hands on his head.

"Ellie wasn't hurt. Not even a scratch. The impact knocked the other girl out, but other than that, she's fine. They're mostly worried about you." Marlene assures.

Joel sits up, closing his eyes in pain for a brief moment. "Where are they?"

"We lost half our crew crossing the country. I had five men whose only job was to protect me. And I still almost got killed." The woman informs. "How'd you do it?"

"It was all Ellie. She fought like hell to get here." Joel states.

"She would've been dead on day one." Marlene comments. "You are the one person I never wanted to be in debt to. But I owe you. We all owe you."

"Just take me to them." Joel demands.

Marlene sighs, pursing her lips. "I can't. Ellie's being prepped for surgery."

This makes the man stop, confusion pouring into his expression. "What surgery?"

"Our doctor... he thinks that the Cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth." Marlene repeats what the doctor told her earlier.

"Why is she in surgery? And where is Y/n?" Joel hurriedly asks.

"It produces a kind of chemical messenger. It makes normal Cordyceps think that she's Cordyceps. It's why she's immune. He's gonna remove it from her, multiply the cells in a lab, produce those chemical messengers... and then we can give it to everyone. He thinks it could be a cure, Joel." Marlene explains. "A cure."

Joel stops, sitting back down as he thinks over her words. "Cordyceps grows inside the brain." The realization came to him quickly, yet he wanted nothing more than for her to deny it.

However, she nods. "It does." She takes slow steps towards the exit of the room he had been laying in for who knows how long now.

"Find someone else." The man demands.

"There is no one else." Marlene argues. "We didn't tell her, we didn't cause her any fear, there won't be any pain."

Joel was immediately shaking his head. "No, you take me to both of them. You take me to them right now!" He shouts as he stands up.

Just as he was taking a step towards the leader of the Fireflies, anger in his tone and in his expression, the Firefly that had been standing with his gun beside Marlene punched Joel in the gut, sending him down to the floor. The other soldier rushes in, but Marlene holds her hands up.

"Please... you don't understand." Joel shakily breathes out.

"I do. I was there when she was born, Joel. I promised her mother that I would save her child. I promised. So I do understand. I'm the only one who understands. I'm sorry. I have no other choice." Marlene tells him.

Joel clenches his jaw. "I do."

This makes Marlene tilt her head, shaking it at him. "Walk him out to the highway, get the other girl and leave them there with their packs." She grabs Ellie's knife from her pocket, handing it to one of her men. "Give him this. He tries anything... shoot him."

Not saying a word, one of her men grab the back of Joel's shirt, forcing him up to his feet as they push him out of the room. The other one grabs his backpack, nodding at another soldier as he tells him to "grab the girl" and Joel knew they were talking about Y/n.

Joel makes his steps slow, even as he was continued to be shoved down the hallway, turning a couple corners. The man stops at the map that shows where each room is in the hospital. "I didn't hear anyone say, 'stop'." One of the Fireflies points out.

"Which way?" Joel questions.

The Firefly grabs him, shoving him. "Down the stairs."

The Miller man just complies once again, taking each step at a time. He could hear the two Firefly soldiers close behind him. The lights in the stairwell flickered as the men continued to make their way down. By the third staircase, Joel slowly stopped.

The Firefly shares a confused glance with his friend. "The fuck are you doing? Keep walking." He shoves Joel, but the older man stops again. "I said keep walk--" Just as he went to shove, Joel spun around and elbowed him in the face.

Grabbing his gun before he could fully fall, Joel aims the gun at the other Firefly and pulls the trigger, killing him instantly. The man snatches the Firefly's gun from him, shooting him in the leg, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Where are they?" Joel grunts out.

The Firefly glares up at him. "Fuck you."

"I don't have time for this." Right after he said that, Joel shot him, killing him.

As voices from the radio detected the shots fired, Joel reaches down to the other Firefly, grabbing Ellie's pocket knife, then some bullets before he throws his backpack over his shoulders, moving back upstairs.

He slowly peeks down the hall, gun tight in his grip. He moves down the hall, aiming his gun towards the window at the sight of someone walking by. The bullet goes right through the window, breaking it and hitting the Firefly on the other side.

Once he stepped through the door and out into the other hallway, Joel killed him right away. Moving down, he ducks when bullets are shot at him before quickly shooting back, hiding behind the wall to stay covered and reloading the rifle.

There was only anger in Joel's gaze as he kills them one by one. One of them even drops their gun, raising their hands in surrender, but the Miller man shoots him. Peeking inside a room, Joel hits a Firefly with the bullets until he was out.

So, unsheathing Ellie's knife, he stalks towards the Firefly that had fallen on the floor, stabbing him until he stopped moving. Joel grabbed his gun afterwards, leaving the one he had behind. Gunshots continued to ring through his ears as he rushed through the hallways and up stairwells.

With each second passing, more and more Fireflies laid lifeless in almost every single room of the Salt Lake City hospital. Joel was close to where the surgery hall was, and he still had yet to find Y/n. Once the rifle was out of bullets, he grabbed a pistol.

As he did so, he didn't notice the girl peeking out from behind a counter until she saw him. "Joel?" The man spins around, the anger in his eyes fading in seconds at the sight of Y/n stumbling to her feet.

He didn't hesitate to pull her into his arms. "Oh, baby girl." He shakily breathes out, pulling back hold her face. She had a cut on her head from the bomb earlier. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Y/n shakes her head. "No, I-I'm fine. Where's Ellie?"

"We're going to get her right now." When she looks down at the dead bodies, Joel guides her gaze back to look at him. "Don't look at them. Stay close to me, okay?"

The fourteen year old just nods, sticking close behind him as he pushes a door open. Their eyes read the sign that says 'Pediatric Surgery' with an arrow to show where it was. And down at the end of the hallway was a door with a light shining through.

Y/n glances up at Joel, her shaky hand reaching to grab his, causing him to look at her. The man stares at the young girl, jaw clenched and eyes soft as he squeezes her hand before they moved down the hall. It takes them seconds to reach the door.

When Joel pushes it open, both of them freeze as they look through the window that shows into the surgery room. Three doctors were surrounding an unconscious Ellie, all of them wearing face masks. Neither of them noticed them, even when Joel opened the door.

"Unhook her." The man speaks up. The nurses gasp as they all look towards him, seeing Y/n peeking over his shoulder from behind him.

The surgeon takes a small step forward. "How did you get in here?"

"I said unhook her." Joel repeats, raising his arm and aiming the gun right at the man.

Gerald Anderson was frantic in his movements. He glances at the unconscious girl on the bed, then to the tools on the other side. He couldn't let him have her. To him, she was the cure. "I won't let you take her." He grabs a scalpel, showing he'd fight Joel with that.

In seconds, the nurses were letting out screams as Joel shot him right in the head, his brains falling all over the floor. "Unhook her." Joel demands. The nurses hesitate. "Move!"

Their whole bodies shaking, the nurses were quick to obey his demands, unhooking all the wires from Ellie. One of them caused a cut on her arm, to which he told them to cover it, so one of the nurses did just that before raising her hands in surrender.

Once they were turned around and steps away from the table, Joel gave his gun to Y/n, who kept it aimed at the nurses as he picks an unconscious Ellie up in his arms, carrying her bridal style. Y/n followed right behind Joel as they left the room, letting her gaze linger on the dead body.

The Burrell girl presses the button of the elevator before and after they step inside. Within the silence of the elevator, Joel lets his eyes glance between his girls. He had his world right here, and he wasn't gonna let anyone take it.

The elevator opened with a ding and they stepped out into a parking garage. Spotting a car just feet away, Joel silently ushers Y/n to follow as they walk towards it. Neither of them notice the woman coming out of hiding until she speaks up, "You can't keep her safe forever."

Both of them spin around to see Marlene slowly stepping out from behind a pillar, a pistol in her hand and aimed right at the man. Her eyes briefly glance at the unknown girl next to him.

"No matter how hard you try, no matter how many people you kill, she's gonna grow up, Joel. They both are. And then you'll die. They'll leave. Then what? How long till they're torn apart by infected or murdered by raiders? Because they live in a broken world that you could have saved." Marlene tells him.

Joel shrugs. "Maybe. But it isn't for you to decide."

"Or you. Or hers." Marlene fires back, briefly aiming her gun at Y/n. "So what would she decide, huh? Cause I think she'd wanna do what's right. And you know it." She watches Joel's face drop. "It's not too late. Even now..." She starts to lower her arms. "...even after what you've done. We can still find a way."

The man drops his head as he contemplates her words. His eyes move to stare down at the girl in his arms, then to the girl beside him who was still holding his gun. Marlene watches as they stare at each other.

A silent look passes between them.

* * *

THE DRIVE WAS silent as the vehicle moved down the road, trees on either side surrounding the world all around. The sky was a bland color, the sun hiding behind the clouds. The grounds were wet, drying up from the rain they got earlier.

Joel kept his hands gripped on the steering wheel as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of him, occasionally looking through the mirror to stare in the back or turning his head to look at the passenger's seat.

In the passenger's seat, Y/n found herself staring out the window, her knees pulled to her chest as she rested her head on her hand. The fourteen year old kept tugging her sleeves over her hands. Neither of them said a word.

The silence was eventually broken by the sound of a quiet groan. While Joel looks through the mirror, Y/n glances over her shoulder, fully shifting her body as she watches Ellie slowly blink her eyes open, shifting around in the back seat.

The Williams girl sits up. "What?"

"It's alright. You're with us." Y/n was quick to reassure her.

"Take it slow." Joel instructs. "The drugs are still wearing off."

"I was with the Fireflies and then--" She tries to remember, eyes closed. However, she stops herself as she processes his words, opening her eyes to stare at him. "What drugs?"

Joel gulps hard, taking a few seconds to respond, "They were running some tests on you... and some others. Turns out there's a whole lot more like you... people that are immune. Dozens of them."

Ellie stares at one spot in the car, processing his words through her still sluggish brain. Feeling her eyes water, Y/n shifts and turns back to the window, wiping her eyes and tugging her sleeves even more.

"And the doctors, they couldn't make any of it work. They've actually..." Joel stops himself as he thinks over what happened just a few hours ago.

Marlene had been stepping towards them, arms lowered but gun still in her hand. And after their shared look, a trigger was pulled and shot Marlene right in the gut, sending her falling to the floor. And it wasn't Joel who pulled the trigger.

It was Y/n.

"They've stopped looking for a cure." Joel finishes.

Ellie licks her dry lips, opening and closing her eyes. "Where are my clothes?"

"Raiders attacked the hospital. I barely got you guys outta there." He continues to lie. "We'll find you some new ones on the way."

"Were people hurt?" She asks in a whisper.

Joel purses his lips and pauses. He already went this far with the lie. He had to keep going. "Yes."

Ellie stares at the back of his head. "Is Marlene okay?"

Y/n shifts at the mention of the woman. His silence gave her the answer she had been looking for. "I'm taking us home." Was all he said. Ellie turns around, facing her back to them. "I'm sorry."

Y/n could still hear the gunshot. She remembers Joel looking at her, Ellie still unconscious and in his arms. She remembers letting him lead her to the car, putting Ellie inside as she climbed in the front passenger's seat. She remembers Joel taking the gun from her.

And she remembers the words he said to Marlene before he shot her in the head, "You'd just come after her."

* * *

FOR SOME DAYS, the group of three traveled in the vehicle, stopping at abandoned gas stations to find as much gas as they could before Joel had continued driving on. They felt relief hit them when they saw the Jackson, Wyoming sign welcome them.

At the moment, Ellie was sitting in the driver's seat, the door wide open as she stared down at the bite on her arm. Joel was looking at the hood of the car that had finally broken down after a couple days. Y/n stood a couple feet away, admiring the view from the hill they were on.

"Well, she got us close enough." Joel announces as he shuts the hood, moving towards the teenagers. "We gotta walk the rest of the way. Probably about a five hour hike, but we can manage that. Remember?"

Glancing at each other, the girls just smile as they nod in agreement. And soon enough, the group of three were walking through the woods as they got closer and closer to the town behind walls where Tommy and Maria were waiting for them.

"You know, Sarah and I used to hike like this all the time." Joel recalls with a little smile, glancing back at the girls. "I wouldn't say it was her favorite thing. She wasn't a fan of the mosquitoes and such. But she was a big climber... or scampering. That's probably the right word. That girl... she'd see a big rock, and just... pew." He lets out a breath of air, motioning up the path. "She woulda liked you two. Not to say the three of you are the same. Definitely different kids."

"How so?" Y/n questions.

"Well, she was a lot more... I wanna say girly, and I'm not saying that you two aren't girly." Joel quickly tells them.

Ellie shakes her head. "I'm not."

"Yeah, me neither." Y/n adds.

"Yeah, you're not." The man agrees. "So that. She was taller. She had a killer smile. Again, not saying that you two don't. But you know why I think she'd like you guys?"

Y/n raises a brow. "Why?"

"Cause you're funny. I think you would've made her laugh." Joel admits, feeling his heart pound against his chest. "Anyway, I bet you two would've liked her back."

"Yeah, bet we would've." Ellie replies.

Nothing much was said afterwards as they continued up the hill. Passing through the trees, the group of three stop at the very top of the hill as they stare down. Y/n sighs in relief at the sight of Jackson just below. It was still a bit away, yet they finally made it.

Joel nods down at it. "There you go. Not much further now." He starts walking down with Y/n right behind him.

"Hey, wait." Ellie calls, making them stop. She hesitates, shifting on her feet before finally speaking, "Back in Kansas City, you asked me about the first time I killed someone. When I got bit in the mall, I wasn't on my own. My best friend was there and she got bit, too. We didn't know what to do, and she said, 'we can just wait it out... be all poetic and just lose our minds together'. And then she did. And I had to--" She stops abruptly.

"Oh, Ellie." Y/n whispers with a deep frown.

"Her name was Riley... and she was the first to die. And then it was Tess. And then Sam." Ellie continues, only making Y/n frown more.

Joel shakes his head. "That's not on you."

"I know, but--" The girl begins.

"Look, sometimes things don't work out the way we hope." Joel interrupts. "You can feel like... like you've come to an end and you don't know what to do next. But if you just keep going... you find something new to fight for. And maybe that's not what--"

"Swear to me." Ellie demands. "Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true."

She watches as Joel looks at Y/n, who looks at him. Neither of them say anything, yet a look passes between them. "I swear." Joel says.

The fourteen year old stares at them, her eyes holding so many emotions that she couldn't even comprehend. She wanted to believe him. She really did. But deep down, she wasn't sure what to think or how to feel. But still, she nods.

"Okay."