Chapter Text
The rumbling staccato of fire was what finally roused Ellie from oblivion. It crept around the corners of her untethered mind, spiked talons relentlessly dragging her back to awareness. Her first thought, upon (somewhat) re-entering the conscious world, was ‘What the fuck?’, closely followed by a jumble of discomfort as her body remembered the beating it had taken.
Ellie’s eyes snapped open and she gasped, rolling painfully onto her side as she recalled exactly where she was. And with who. Underhand, the carpet scratched sharply as she shifted, protesting her meagre weight with nearly as much vigor as her wrist did. Ellie’s brow furrowed, her gaze swinging around the blazing diner she lay in, relaxing slightly as she took note of the machete David he had torn from James’ throat and hauled with him as he stalked after her. Fuck yeah.
To her left, she absently noticed his breathing catch, presumably as he regained consciousness. Gritting her teeth against the rising tide of nausea that threatened to topple her, Ellie pushed herself up and began the painstaking task of crawling towards the machete. Her unsteady gait and glazed eyes spoke to the state of her exhausted (and probably concussed, she thought numbly) body, but the clench of her jaw swore to the determination of her wrath. Although she tried her best to move silently, an involuntary groan slipped past her chapped lips as she felt something move in her side and the shooting sting of bones sat wrong. Fuck. Ellie’s hand flew unbidden to her ribs, cupping her side and flinching against the wave of sickening pain it caused to flow through her. Dropping her hand again, Ellie continued her teetering crawl towards salvation.
Behind her, the diner roared in sympathy, flames licking the curtains and charring the walls as though God Himself willed it. David stirred, wild eyes snapping open to fix on Ellie’s hunched form, his mouth twisting into a pained smirk. He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, the glee flooding his veins not dissimilar to that of a wolf catching sight of injured prey. To her credit, his little deer had fought hard, but she was no match against God’s chosen one, and his quarry would soon feel his love.
David stalked onwards.
A boot crunched into Ellie’s side, sparking agony in her ribs again as she felt more bones splinter out of place. Oh, fuck. All the oxygen that she’d been happily inhaling was suddenly torn from her lips as colourful spots danced in her head. Ellie’s eyes widened and she gasped desperately, panic overshadowing everything else as she tried hopelessly to fucking breathe. Despite herself, tears flooded her vision and she scowled, biting her lip in an attempt to hold back her cries. The crackle of flames seemed distant, secondary to the pure terror coursing through her as her lungs spasmed and she couldn’t fucking breathe and she didn’t know what the fuck to do except lie there and just wait and wait…until finally, she was able to suck in a lungful of dry, hot air. At that moment, it was the best thing she’d ever tasted.
Absently, Ellie realised that David he was talking, his nasal drone washing over her without comprehension. Her palms pressed roughly into the carpet as she allowed herself a second to recover before clenching her jaw again and resuming her agonising crawl. Ellie’s lip curled into a snarl as she finally recognised the words he was spewing in her direction. The bastard wanted her to give up?
For a second, Ellie faltered, some small, hurt part of herself crying that she was tired of the pain, of the fear and helplessness. She was done with feeling small and alone, she was ready to finally just let go. Riley had fought till the end; she chose to wait out the infection with empty bravado and deep terror. How had that helped, the tiny voice begged, had that saved her? Or had it just prolonged the inevitable, granting her a few more minutes to fear?
Ellie, that’s enough, another part of her mind snapped, sounding suspiciously Joel-like. We didn’t trek halfway ‘cross the goddamn country for you to give up now. C’mon, kiddo; think. What are your options? The voice echoed in her mind, sealing her resolve and somehow uncovering a pocket of strength somewhere deep within her to utilize. Ellie took a stinging, scraping breath, and raised her head.
Just a couple of steps away lay the machete she’d been crawling towards, forgotten in the agony of the past few minutes. Ellie ground her teeth together until they ached, and shuffled forwards. To her side, David stood with an eyebrow raised, watching the tiny figure battle with herself for a second before continuing her tortured journey. He was impressed, he had to admit, but this back and forth was getting a little tiresome. It was time to finally love her, completely and as God intended. Still, David was darkly grateful that she had maintained her fighting spark. It certainly made things more interesting.
Ellie’s snail-paced advance was once again interrupted by a sharp kick to the ribs, moving them from probably broken to definitely 100% completely broken. Curiously, this time the pain was less intense, something which was probably not a great sign, but was certainly useful.
Stepping over her back, David he dropped to his knees over Ellie, fingers clumsily grasping her hair and pulling her head to the side, so his hot breath tickled against the shell of her ear. Ellie felt her bile rise in revulsion, the sensation so entirely wrong that her mind was briefly blanketed in fear, erasing all other thoughts and feelings, leaving only dread in its wake.
“You can try beggin’.” He taunted, licking his lips eagerly as he waited for Ellie’s response. It was unlikely, David reasoned, but even if she didn’t give in now, he’d enjoy making her do so in the future.
“Fuck you.” Ellie spat, her glare fixed and unmoving over the roiling fear underneath, a Halloween mask plastered onto a vulnerable young girl.
Suddenly enraged at her disobedience, David’s fingers twisted and gripped Ellie’s neck as he threw her onto her back, forcing her to stare into his narrowed eyes as he choked her.
“You think you know me? Huh?” He growled incredulously, humiliation and rage dancing across his face. “Well, let me tell you something. You have no idea what I’m capable of.” His words were laced with satisfaction and arrogant pride as he boasted the depths of his depravity to his petrified teenage quarry.
Ellie’s head swam as the concussion mixed unfavourably with being strangled, David’s his wide fingers bracketing her throat and pressing hard against her windpipe. As black spots swirled in her vision, Ellie searched frantically with her hands, tapping weakly against his legs, his hands, the floor around her.
A rough handle brushed against her fingertips, and Ellie fought to hide the flash of hope in her eyes, desperately willing him to keep looking at her, keep rambling about his capabilities and just please don’t fucking look up. Again and again, her hands grabbed desperately at the machete, slipping uselessly off.
Finally, yes. Her hand got a good grip on the handle, and she took as deep a breath as she could manage before swinging the machete up and into David him, moving as she did so. A shriek tore from her throat as his fingers loosened in shock. As she felt the blade sink into his flesh, Ellie kept the momentum going and rolled over to face him again, ignoring the twinge of agony throughout her body. Breathing heavily, she quickly straddled him in a perverse mimicry of their earlier positions. Crying properly now, she screamed and slashed, rendering his flesh just that: flesh.
Ellie sobbed. And she hacked.
The blade thudded against bone and Ellie let herself be lost in the dull thump, eyes unfocusing against the smear of bones, pulp and brain that she continued to brutalise. She didn’t notice the blood splashing across her face, nor the chunks of him that settled in her hair as she swung again and again. It felt fucking good.
A voice distantly shouted her name, and hard arms grabbed her waist, dragging her backwards and away from her quarry. A primal, strangled sob pulled itself from low in her chest.
“NO,” She cried. “DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME.”
The arms around her were shaking slightly, but it was hard to tell amongst the shivers that wracked Ellie’s own body. Twisting in her attacker’s grip, Ellie beat frantically against his torso, even as her heart sank once more. His torso. A man. Deep in her soul, Ellie knew she couldn’t do this again, she couldn’t survive it this time. An arrow of sorrow shot through her and she mourned silently.
I'm so sorry, Joel.
Calloused hands gently cupped her face, trying to maneuver her as softly as possible to see the devastated face hovering in front of her. Joel, Ellie’s mind echoed numbly before shutting down entirely, finally safe enough to fully let go. Her mumbles were too low for either of them to really understand, but Ellie smashed her face into Joel’s chest and let her tired mind float away regardless.
As Ellie slumped against him, Joel’s wide eyes fixed on the mess of ivory and pink gristle that littered the floor and, if smell was anything to go by, all over Ellie. Despite his past and the atrocities that he himself had committed in the name of family or hunger, he found himself morbidly fixated on the abstract mess of human physicality that Ellie had managed to make out of what was once, presumably, a man.
From just beneath a caved-in section of jagged skull, Joel thought he caught a glimpse of an eyeball nestled amongst gritty brain matter. Tearing his gaze from the floor, he gently pulled Ellie away from his torso and carefully looked her over for any visible injuries. She was unsettlingly pliant and her gaze held a blankness that he absently recognised, throwing him back to nights spent coaxing a shaking Tommy out from his cupboard. As he scanned her body for signs of pain or discomfort, his stare caught on her jeans. The button was gone.
His stomach flipped and he gulped down the nausea, forcing himself to confront the missing button until he couldn’t anymore, burning it into his mind alongside the image of a sobbing girl hacking at a corpse twice her size with a vengeance that hinted at a much darker story.
His hand came up to gently rest on the back of her head, and he hissed in sympathy as he felt the massive lump jutting out of her skull. Oof. definitely a concussion, he thought grimly, resolving not to let Ellie fall asleep before he could get a proper look at her.
A beam far above groaned as the flames flickered on and around it, reminding Joel where they were with a start. He pulled Ellie back against his side and stood, ignoring the stinging howl of his injured side where he’d popped his stitches. Tucking his girl under his arm, he firmly steered them away from the body, and together they shuffled towards the blessedly clear door.
As they stumbled out into the crisp snow and away from the diner, the roaring fire behind them exploded in a burst of blinding heat, chewing through the building with renewed vigour, as though in celebration of Joel being reunited with his quarry once more.