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They’ve been riding away for maybe three minutes before Joel pulls them to a walk, his breaths almost as rough as the horse’s below them.
“Which way do we go?” Ellie asks.
Joel doesn’t respond.
“Joel?”
“I’m fine.” Joel’s voice is tight with pain.
“What are we going to do now?” There’s no one behind them at the moment, but the buildings loom in a way that makes Ellie think someone’s behind every corner.
“Get out of the city.”
“And then what? You have a huge fucking hole in your stomach.”
“Hadn’t noticed.” Joel grunts.
“This is serious shit, you can’t just walk it off.” Ellie says, trying to lean around and take a look at the wound.
Joel elbows her hand away. “We’ll get somewhere safe and I’ll handle it. Now stop fussing at me, I need to concentrate.”
They ride in silence for another five minutes, with Joel occasionally craning his head at the sun to check their direction. The only noises are Callus’s footsteps and the occasional pained grunt from Joel.
Finally, there’s the crunch of snow beneath them and a slightly better line of sight as they move out into the edges of the city. They’d followed a rail line to get here, so if they follow it they should be able to make it back to Jackson. She can see the water tower they’d passed when they first came into the city, the faded paint beckoning in the distance.
Joel seems to have spotted it too, nudging Callus into a slightly faster walk.
Their only obstacle seems to be a shallow stream in a deep canyon that runs next to the road. They follow it slowly, waiting for a bridge, but when the road starts to bend away it’s obvious their only way forward is to ride across.
Joel pulls Callus up to face the stream.
“It looks pretty shallow.” Ellie says, peering around him.
Joel grunts in response. She can feel him shivering against her front, like the injured dogs she saw FEDRA put down in the QZ.
“Do you think we should get off?”
“No. The water could sweep us off our feet. Just hold on to this, don’t want it to get wet.” He takes a breath and stifles a cry as he yanks the rifle out of its holster and passes it back to her. It’s wet and sticky where he’s touched it.
Joel clicks his tongue and Callus begins picking his way down the icy bank, lurching side to side as the horse tries to find the safest place to put his feet. Ellie can hear Joel struggling, his breaths coming as gasps. She grabs the back of his jacket to keep him in place and worries when he doesn’t say anything about her crumpling the leather.
The sounds change to wet sloshing and dull clunks as Callus navigates the rocky bed of the river. It’s shallow, like she thought, but the rocks in the bottom are large and unstable underneath their feet, and she can feel Joel listing to the side as he hunches over to protect his wound.
Almost to the other side now. They just need to get up the bank and it should be a straight shot to somewhere they can hunker down for the night.
Callus trips, dumping Ellie into Joel as the horse scrambles to get his feet beneath him. Joel cries out and scares Callus even further, sending him bounding up the bank with huge leaps. Ellie snatches the reins and pulls them to a stop at the top of the embankment.
Joel immediately folds over. “Shit,” he groans, sucking in huge gasps of air. He’s squirming in the saddle, reins abandoned as he presses desperately against his side. “Oh, shit. ” Somehow Ellie has managed to keep hold of the gun, and with him bent over there’s enough room to slide it back into its holster. Weapon taken care of, she hovers worried hands over his back and peers at the sliver of his face that isn’t covered by his hair or his jacket.
He doesn’t look good. He’s pale and sweaty and grimacing like he’s dying. God, she hopes he isn’t dying.
She pulls her gaze away and sweeps their surroundings, making sure there’s no one following them after their scramble up the bank. Joel quivers in front of her, trying to control his breathing. She tries to ignore the quiet gasps ( they aren’t whimpers, she tells herself, Joel wouldn’t whimper ) and how they make her stomach twist with anxiety.
Joel sucks in a few more harsh breaths, then pulls himself upright.
“You better not fucking die on me.”
“‘m fine.”
He sounds awful, pained and exhausted, but trying to hide it for her sake.
“Just stay awake, okay?”
They start following the train tracks out of the city, walking the same way they came in. It’s only been a few minutes, but Ellie can sense Joel fading. Something about that leap up the river bank must have fucked him up on the inside, because he’s shivering harder now and doesn’t seem to be able to keep himself upright.
She sticks her hands into his pockets.
“What’re you doing?” he slurs.
“My hands are cold.” And she wants to keep him upright.
A branch snaps across the river, and she rips her hands out of Joel’s pockets to grab her gun. They both freeze, holding their breath for several long moments.
A deer steps out from the forest, snapping another twig as it goes.
Joel wheezes in the silence.
They need to find somewhere fast. Joel is doing the opposite of good, and she barely remembers the first aid courses she had to take in FEDRA school.
Joel slumps a little more in front of her.
“You’re doing good, just a little longer.”
Joel nods weakly, and Ellie kicks Callus to keep him moving. Thankfully, the horse seems smart enough to follow the rail lines, as there’s no way Joel is actually steering.
They pass a line of stalled out train cars that look vaguely familiar, and she looks at them suspiciously to make sure no one’s camped out in one. It’s been a minute since Joel’s said anything, so she offers up a quick, “They’re not following us. I think we’re safe.”
And those must have been the magic words Joel was waiting for, because he immediately crumples off the horse.
“Joel? Joel?!”
The next few moments pass in a blur of panic. She presses his hands to the wound and pushes down, but he doesn’t even twitch. He’s still bleeding, so he’s not dead yet, but she doesn’t know what the fuck else to do.
“Joel, you gotta get up. I can’t fucking do this without you.”
He’s barely breathing.
“I don’t know where the fuck I’m going, what the fuck I’m gonna do. Joel, please.”
Nothing.
It’s up to her now. Joel’s not dead yet, but he will be if he stays here. Step one is finding shelter. Step two is getting them both there. She’ll figure out step three when she gets here.
Ellie stands up and starts running towards the nearest building.