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Despite never having witnessed the states in the former glory Joel’s always talking about, Ellie still felt a certain eeriness upon seeing all of the empty skyscrapers.
She and Joel had been wandering around for quite a bit when they came across yet another abandoned state. Joel told her a lot about it, about how the skyscrapers were office buildings and buzzing with people on a daily basis. Now, they looked like they hadn’t seen people in years.
No non-infected people, at least.
Even the dirt on the main road they were following to the other side of the state, made it look like they were the first people to pass through in ages. Sand and dried up dirt, was build up to the point Ellie could track Joel’s footsteps without seeing him, if she’d wanted to.
Having grown a bit disorientated by the looming skyscrapers, Ellie decided to do that; look at Joel’s footsteps in the dirt. Since she followed his footsteps, literally, she noticed it immediately when Joel came to a sudden halt.
“What’s up?” Ellie asked. When she peeked over his shoulder, it wasn’t hard to see why they’d come to a halt. What appeared to be the wall of a skyscraper, had fallen onto the road, creating a wall.
“The main road’s blocked off, so-“ Joel looked around, searing for a way to get around. His eyes finally land of the large, looming building, right beside the road block. “We’ll go through there.”
Ellie felt hesitation in Joel’s voice, she knew they’d been purposefully avoiding going inside of buildings. Joel said it’s because the buildings could be filled with infected.
Ellie felt herself shift in her place when looking up at the building. The lower bits of the building had been left untouched and seemed to be a good state, considering the way the building across the street had tumbled onto it, breaking apart the higher floors.
“Is something wrong?” Joel’s voice sounded.
Ellie looked over to him, shook her head and readjusted her backpack. “Nah.” She wasn’t going to let this minor detour scare her off; she’d seen worse. But after the previous experiences she’d had inside of large buildings, she didn’t think it to be weird she would’ve preferred to remain outside.
She didn’t let Joel notice that, though, as she passed him. “Let’s go.”
Joel grumbled something sounding a lot like, “Okay” before catching up to Ellie.
Her heart was hammering in Ellie’s chest as she entered the building through its large doors. Or maybe they used to be the windows, she couldn’t tell; the glass had been shattered to bits.
At first it felt a bit strange to be inside of the large building, and for it to be completely empty, just like it had been with the few previous times they’d gone inside of places. But after a few steps into the corridor, Ellie started to feel more at ease.
“This is pretty cool,” she said, gazing around the room and at the ceiling. Her voice bounced off the walls. She giggled and shouted, “Echo!” Again, her voice sounded multiple times again.
After walking a bit further into the building, the found out the ground level was almost non-accessible; the rubble that’d build up overtime, kept them from crossing right through.
“We’re going upstairs,” Joel announced, making a first move towards the stairs.
“Okay,” Ellie responded, and now feeling a little more at ease inside, she told Joel, “Last one upstairs is a slow poke.” She bolted for the stairs, but was stopped by a grumbled, “Careful!” from Joel.
She turned around, her foot already on the first step of the stairs. “But why?”
Joel glared at her, like she was asking him a dumb question. “Because,” he began. “We’re inside of an old, badly taken care of building; we don’t know how sturdy this is. And on top of that, there could be a lot of infected upstairs, for all we know.” He walked past Ellie and started to climb the stairs, slowly, checking the sturdiness of each step before taking the next. “We’re proceeding with caution.”
“Uh, Ellie, you have to be more careful-“ Ellie muttered, deepening her voice as to imitate Joel, as she continued to venture further into the silent building; it appeared to be made out of pretty solid-looking concrete. No way this wasn’t sturdy enough to hold the both of them.
Joel just was a worrier, Ellie knew that, but it surprised her still.
Her hand slid across the handrail as she made her way up the stairs. “Boring-“ She grumbled.
By the time they had slowly made their way up the stairs, Ellie’s mood had gone back to normal for the most part; that was how long it’d taken. Joel, though, still wasn’t at ease.
He, indeed, proceeded with caution. Checking behind every corner and every door.
“Can we just get a move on already?” Ellie whined.
Joel hushed her.
“But why?” Ellie spread her arms and shrugged. “There is literally nothing here.”
“Be quiet.”
Ellie rolled her eyes, but decided to listen anyway.
As she let the silence return, she heard something behind them. It sounded a click. It could barely be heard, so she doubted Joel actually heard the small clicks over the wind passing through.
“Hey, Joel?” Ellie whispered, her eyes glued to where the sound had been coming from.
“I said: be quiet,” Joel hissed.
“Joel, I hear something.”
“Very funny.”
“No,” Ellie whispered. “I’m serious.”
Her eyes grew larger when she spotted something lurking behind one of the doors down the hallway. It was still pretty far away, but there was no mistaking the fungus that’d spread along the creature’s body, covering its eyes completely, but leaving its ears untouched.
Shit. Ellie thought to herself as she was standing face to face with the clicker. Shit. Shit. Shit.
She nudged Joel in his side, trying to get him to turn around and see.
“What?” Joel replied, his voice brimmed with frustration as he turned around to Ellie. “Shit-“
A guttural scream soon followed and the creature bolted in their direction.
“Run!” Joel shouted, pushing Ellie out in front of him so she could get a head start.
Without giving it a second though, Ellie started running. Bolting for the end of the hallway, without knowing whether there’d be a way out over there. But that didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter was the way her feet complained.
It didn’t matter was her tripping over rubble, as long as she picked herself up again.
It didn’t matter was the floor growing unsteady under her feet.
As long as she stayed away from the clicker as long as she possibly could. That was all that mattered.
Through a window at the end of the hallway, she could see the next house. The metal staircases, creating a fire escape, appeared to be in a better state than this building. If she jumped, she might be able to make it. “Joel, let’s go there!” She pointed at the window, before picking up her pace.
As she jumped out of the window and finally landed on the fire escape outside of the collapsing building, her heart was racing. Adrenaline rushed through her veins. And as she heard the screeches of the clicker be smothered by the sound of crumbling concrete, she let out a laugh.
She’d made it out and, honestly, it was-
“Pretty awesome,” she said to herself. It was like playing a platform game at the arcade, having to jump before the floor fell away beneath her. “We made it! I can’t believe we made it-“ She tucked her hair behind her ear and turned around. “-Joel.” Her heart started racing again when she saw she was the only one standing on the fire escape’s platform. “Joel?”
Her eyes scanned her surroundings, looking for hands holding onto the iron bars, but there was nothing. No Joel to be seen.
Was he too slow? Did he just not jump?
Her eyes finally lingered on the building, which had tumbled down onto the streets with a lot of commotion. She started breathing faster when the realization hit her; Joel was beneath that rubble.
As she started running down the fire stairs, she kept telling herself he must’ve found a different way out. Right? He didn’t just not jump. He was supposed to take care of her, make sure she remained safe until she got where she needed to be. So, he couldn’t just leave her alone now.
By the time Ellie had reached the bottom of the stairs, there were tears stinging behind her eyes. They were eager to start flowing, especially when she saw the mess down below up close. She took a few breaths, before running towards the rubble.
“Joel!” she began shouting, running past the bits of crumbled concrete. “Hey, Joel! Where are you?” She scanned the rubble for a sign of life. She cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed, louder this time, “Come out, Joel! This isn’t funny!” She listened for a reply, but there was none.
Anger rose up in her chest; how could Joel be so- so stupid? “You stupid fucking slowpoke-“ Tears welled up in her eyes. She kicked a piece of concrete away.
As her eyes followed it bounce across the terrain, she finally noticed something. Beneath a pile of concrete and steel beams, laid a still body. It was completely covered in grey dust, making it barely noticeable at first. As she looked closer, though, she recognized the familiar bad haircut.
“Joel!” She ran towards the unmoving body, kneeling down beside it in the dust. Her hands hovered over his shoulder for a second, hoping to see him take a full breath. But with her entire body shaking, Ellie couldn’t make out the difference between her own shivering and Joel’s shoulder moving. So, after a couple of seconds of waiting, she placed her hands on Joel’s shoulders and shook him.
“Joel!” she shouted, her voice sounded hoarse. “Joel, wake up!”
The first response was a deep cough. The next, two eyes opening up. Followed by a mouth saying, “No need to scream.” A small smirk appeared on the old man’s face, it had a hint of sarcasm to it, which made Ellie believe Joel was somewhat okay. Or at least, okay enough to be a douche.
Joel glanced up at her and, in a more serious tone, asked her if she could give him a hand.
Ellie nodded quickly, a few times, before starting to move away the bits of concrete that’d fallen onto him. Most of them had been shattered on impact and she could brush them right off. There was a bigger piece, Joel’s leg was stuck beneath, but with a little heaving Ellie was able to lift it just enough.
After Joel crawled out from underneath the rubble, releasing a sigh of relieve upon doing so.
Ellie dropped the heavier piece of concrete to the ground and backed off. She dusted off her hands, staring at the mess surrounding them. “Damn, Joel. You’re a lucky guy, you know?” She turned around, ready to tell him she thought he’d actually be injured. The sight she saw, made her swallow her comment, though. As she spotted a fragment of iron beam, going straight through Joel’s leg.
It looked terrible. Just looking it, Ellie could tell, it hurt like Hell.
She stared at the fragment of the rusty beam, which was probably the only thing keeping him from bleeding out right now. “Uh, Joel?” she whispered, nodding at the wound.
Joel glanced down at his leg and winced. When he looked up though, his expression softened.
“I’m okay,” he limped over to Ellie and put his hand on her head. He tousled her hair and promised her it would all be okay. After that, he sat himself down on top of the rubble he’d been under and examined his leg. He clearly didn’t want to show his pain, but Ellie could sense he was hurting.
Ellie tried watching him push and prod the beam, but after a few seconds, she started to become sick to her stomach. She averted her eyes downward, staring at her fingers as she played with the straps of her backpack.
“Ellie?” Joel’s voice sounded, Ellie looked up to him. “Can you pass me your bag?”
She nodded, chugging the bag in Joel’s direction. He got out a serrated knife and started sawing off the bits of rod that’d been sticking out. He held back grunts of pain as he sawed away at the beam.
“What are you doing?” Ellie asked. “Shouldn’t you take it out?”
Joel shook his head. “I don’t know if it hit the artery, but if it has, taking it out would definitely be a bad idea.” He broke off the last bit, leaving in a small fragment, and grabbed the bandage from Ellie’s backpack. “This way, I can at least try and make it to a place with people that can safely help me.”
Ellie looked at Joel as he wrapped the bandage around the rusty metal. It didn’t look like a long-term solution, but what Joel was saying made sense to her. More sense than getting it out and risking him bleeding out right here and now, at least. She nodded in response. “Okay.”
Joel secured the bandage and looked up at her. He stuck out his hand. “Will you help me up?”
Ellie took a step closer and took a hold of his hand. Joel made a little grunt of pain as Ellie helped him upright. There were also some discomforting sounds coming from Joel as he tried to take his first steps, but after Ellie’d found a way to properly support him, he started making fewer noises.
With destruction left behind in their tracks, they continued their way along the main road. This time, not in hopes to remain far away from other survivors, but in dire need of someone who could help them instead.
The End.