009. the eighties

THERE IS A RATHER SULLEN atmosphere surrounding the three of them as they begin their journey to where Bill and Frank live. The loss of Tess has hit Joel especially hard, but both Ellie and Aurora are mourning in their own ways as well. Neither of them knew Tess as well as the man, but they still feel a deep sadness due to her lack presence. It's almost as if part of them has been ripped away, the small group now merely a trio.

"I've never been in the woods before," Ellie breathes, that childlike amazement returning to her face once again. It is a rather beautiful sight in comparison to the things they've seen over the past few days, or in Aurora's case years. "More bugs than I thought,"

It's true, flys buzzing around their heads and mosquitoes sticking to the bare skin of Aurora's hands. She has small, red bumps all over her hands from the bites, and the girl knows that they are going to be irritatingly itchy later on. However, in some ways, the view is worth it. Not only the things she can see, but the sounds around them. The gentle chirps of birds that just aren't heard around the QZ much, the trickling of water in the stream – even the cracks of branches as they sway in the wind.

"Look, I've been thinking —" Ellie begins to speak, the words more so directed at Joel who definitely isn't in the mood for conversation.

"I don't want your sorries," Joel returns, his voice rather cold.

There isn't any sorries to be given out on Ellie's part, not in Aurora's mind anyway. This has been so unprecedented, none of them knew what was going to come their way. In this world, it's practically impossible to predict what's going to happen at any given moment. Tess' death, whilst sad, is not really something that any of them could've prevented in that situation.

"I wasn't gonna say I'm sorry," Ellie responds.

Aurora gives her uncle a quick glance as Ellie continues to speak. "I was gonna say that I've been thinking about what happened. Nobody made you or Tess take me. Nobody made you go along with this plan. You needed a truck battery or whatever, and you made a choice. So don't blame me for something that isn't my fault,"

Joel looks at Ellie for a few moments before slowly nodding his head. All tension in Aurora's body fades away rather quickly, knowing it will be a little less awkward between the three of them now — or more like between the two of them. Aurora is the middle man, well woman, the one who will have to mediate if there are any issues.

The absence of Tess has already shaken up the dynamic dramatically between them, Joel still seemingly less than happy to communicate with Ellie unless it's essential — meaning Aurora is now their 'translator'. She knows her Uncle quite well, she likes to think she does, so the brunette knows it's going to be a rocky road for quite some time.

The trio travel ahead, Joel firmly clutching his gun in his hands simply just in case there is some sort of threat along the way. It's a very probably scenario, this world is hardly safe at all anymore.

It's just hours and hours of walking along abandoned roads and moving through overgrown shrubbery. It's almost too hard for Aurora to imagine what this place was even like before the infected took over, although she will admit that the reclaiming of Earth by the surrounding nature can sometimes be a beautiful sight.

Joel walks ahead of the two girls, distancing himself whether he means to or not. She's never seen him like this before, she was much too young after the death of Sarah to remember that in the slightest. Aurora has witnessed Joel's emotions over the years — anger, annoyed, fear. It turns out, he's simply always been an expert at hiding all forms of grief.

Ellie seems to be picking up the pace a little bit beside her, trying to catch up to the man who isn't worried about them trekking behind. Aurora can only assume that she has questions, fears she wishes to have addressed about where they're going.

"You've gone this way a lot?" Ellie questions, looking up at Joel. "No infected?"

"Not often, no," Joel replies gruffly, eyes wandering the space around them. It's pretty hard to believe what he's saying when he's doing that.

"What are you looking out for?"

"People, right?" Aurora questions softly, knowing that people often stumble out this way by accident. She'd been to see Bill and Frank only once in her lifetime, and at that time she was only a little girl. The brunette can barely remember anything other than the fact that Frank is the nice one who gave her chocolates.

Joel gives her a short nod.

"Have you ever met them?" Ellie's question is directed at the brunette woman this time, eyes straying from the Uncle to the niece.

"Once. Frank is definitely the more accommodating one, well that's how I remember it anyway," Aurora answers, looking at her uncle to have him confirm her words.

"That's correct," Joel tacks on to her explanation, the confirmation that both the girls seem to need. For the moment, Ellie seems content with steering the conversation away from Bill and Frank as she stares at the side of the man's head. He catches her looking, eyes glancing at her. "What?"

"How'd you get that scar on your head?"

Joel sighs, clearly sick of the ongoing conversation. Aurora has most certainly heard that before, she's even been the cause of them many times. Ellie reminds Aurora a lot of her teenage self — curious and full of questions that Joel doesn't seem to want to answer. There's absolutely no doubt in her mind that she'd drove him close to the brink of insanity with the way she interrogated him.

"What? Is it something lame? Like you fell down the stairs of something?" Ellie prods at him further, amusement glimmering in her eyes.

Aurora wants to interject, she really does, but she's honestly quite curious herself. He's had it for as long as she can remember, it would certainly be interesting to find out why.

"Someone shot at me and missed," Joel explains, and Aurora is not the slightest bit surprised by that. He's had his fair share of shootouts since the world went to shit, he practically walked into one the other day with Marlene and that Robert guy.

"That's cool," Ellie comments. "Did you shoot back?"

"Yeah," Joel breathes.

"You get him?"

"No. I missed too. It happens more often than you think,"

"Cause you suck at shooting or like, in general?"

Aurora bites her lip softly, stopping the laugh from coming free. Joel isn't amused by the comment however, the man giving the teenager a look of disdain. "In general,"

They continue on their walk, Ellie trying her hardest to be given a gun from the man who isn't having it. Protection is definitely a necessity in this world, but Aurora can understand it. Ellie is untrained, more than likely anyway, and it may be more danger to give her a gun.

Eventually they come across a building, the man muttering "Cumberland Farms" as they move closer.

"I've got to get some stuff I have stashed here," Joel says to the two girls.

"Stashed? Why do have stuff stashed here?" Ellie questions the man again.

"You ask a lot of goddamn questions," Joel almost hisses out, clearly annoyed now. Ellie doesn't disagree with his statement, going as far to agree with him, as the girls follow him into the building. "We hide supplies on routes in case we find ourselves short on gear which I currently am cause—"

Joel doesn't get to finish his sentence, the young girl exclaiming "No way!" from behind him as if he hadn't been talking to her at all. She rushes over to an arcade machine, eyes wide in wonder. "Did you ever play this one? I had a friend who knew everything about this game,"

Aurora walks up behind her, staring at the machine curiously. She often wonders what it must have been like to have something around like this to entertain, these days she only has tattered old books that she often struggles to actually read — the pages often worn beyond repair.

"There's this character called Mileena who takes off her mask and she has monster teeth, and then she swallows you whole and barfs out your bones!" Ellie rambles, her face bright in away that Aurora had yet to see it. Must have been an important friend.

"That's rather grim," Aurora speaks, leaning against the side of the machine.

"No Rory! It's cool," Ellie replies, turning her attention to the smiling woman. Ellie then moves her gaze to Joel who's searching about. "You forget where you stashed your stuff,"

"No, I'm just zeroing in on it," Joel defends. "It's been a couple of years,"

"Okay well, I'm gonna take a look around, see if there's anything good,"

Ellie moves towards the back room as Aurora awkwardly stands across the room from her Uncle. He fiddles about with several shelves, looking for whatever he and Tess have left her. She opens her mouth several times, looking for something to say to him, anything. It's just that she doesn't know how to approach him, things hadn't exactly ended well the last time they'd been alone. Granted, it was over seven years ago, but things she'd said to him still swim in her mind to this day.

"I'm sorry about Tess,"

Joel turns his head to look at her, his expression stoic and practically uninterested. The man's jaw clenches. "I don't want to talk about Tess, Aurora. I just want to find the supplies and get out of here,"

"I know you really cared about her, Uncle Joel. I just don't want you to have to repress your emotions, it's not good for you,"

"What are you? A psychologist? I'm fine Aurora. It's just the way life goes now,"

Aurora swallows, eyes falling to the floor as he continues to moves things in different directions. In a way Joel is right, death is at every corner in this world. She's seen plenty of it, years and years of watching people she'd befriended meet their end at the hands of the infected and other human beings alike. She's felt the blood against her skin, imbedding itself underneath her fingernails as a constant reminder of what had happened.

But there is nothing worse than the things she sees when she closes her eyes. Not only does she see those horrific memories, but she sees what could be in the future. Her Uncles dying before her eyes as she fights to save them, their yells and tearful eyes.

"Are Bill and Frank even going to help us? Bill has never been the giving type of person," Aurora comments, wanting to free herself from those terrifying thoughts of death.

"When we explain it to him he will," Joel responds, now gathering up the supplies he'd found. The two of them swing their heads to the side when they hear a noise come from where Ellie has disappeared to minutes ago. "Ellie?"

There's a clank of metal, and Joel gets back to his feet holding a gun. Ellie returns with a box in her hands that she wastes no time stuffing into her bag. "Picked over my ass,"

"How did it even start?"

Aurora trails behind the duo as Ellie questions Joel on the beginning of the 'apocalypse'. To this day, there is still no real certainty on the way the infection started but there is certainly theories.

"Best guess is that Cordyceps mutated and it got into the food supply. Probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere, all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal, pancake mix. You eat a enough of it, you'll get infected," Joel explains.

Aurora still struggles to believe that she'd been alive pre-infection, because these things sound so strange to her. Her whole life has revolved around scavenging things that they need rather than simply going out to a store and buying it. It must have been awfully convenient, simply having the world at your fingertips.

"Friday night, September 26, 2003,"

She knows why he remembers it so well, it being the night his daughter, his only child, had been a victim of the new world. Sarah isn't something he likes to talk about often, not even to her.

It wasn't only that though, as he held his little girl in his arms and watched the life fade from her eyes, his little sister was laying in a car without a beating heart. He'd lost two of the most important people in his life that night, leaving behind a never ending cycle of grief.

"By Monday everything was gone," Joel adds, his tone quiet.

Aurora looks away from them, her face having fallen into one of sadness. Losing her mother, who she doesn't even remember properly, had only been the beginning to a life of misery.

Joel holds his arm out, effectively stopping the two of them. "We'll cut across the woods here,"

"Wouldn't the road be easier?" Ellie questions.

"There's stuff up there you shouldn't see,"

"Well now I have to see,"

Joel objects as she walks off, ignoring the calls of her name. Aurora allows her feet to move faster, wanting to catch up and see what has him so concerned. Then she sees it. The small ditch in the side of the road has numerous old skulls and bones from people who must not have made it very far in this world. Ellie has stopped in her tracks, her eyes never leaving the horrific sight in front of her.

Amongst the bones there are several torn suitcases with old clothes spilling out the sides, which to Aurora makes it seem as if they'd been attacked without much warning. They were more than likely trying to make their way to a safe zone when this happened, a terrifying reality for the time.

Joel comes up behind the two girls, a solemn look upon his face. "About a week after outbreak day, soldiers went through the countryside, evacuated the small towns. Told them that they were going to a QZ if there was room. If there wasn't—"

He doesn't need to say anything further, both of them quickly understanding. These people had died thinking they were going to be safe, that they'd have somewhere to go.

"These people weren't sick?" Ellie asks quietly.

"No, probably not,"

"Why kill them? Why not just let them be?"

"Dead people can't be infected,"

"And what a world of good killing innocent people did for the rest of us," Aurora mumbles sarcastically, shaking her head and walking off again.

The trio travel in relative silence, Aurora doesn't really know what to say anyway. All she has in her mind is those terrible images from earlier, that could've been her — that was her cousin. They didn't even check to see if Joel and Sarah had been infected, they'd lashed out and it ended up with an innocent child dead.

"Rory?"

The brunette woman looks down at Ellie, the girl just slightly shorter than her. "Yeah?"

"Do you have any cool stories?"

"Cool stories? Uh not really my expertise kid. I'm more of a stay away from everybody and everything type. The coolest story I have is probably that time I ended up near the ocean and saw a dolphin," Aurora shrugs.

She'd been so excited when she was a teenager, after months of walking around a desolate world with nobody to watch her back, to see a real life dolphin. It had jumped out of the water in the distance, water splashing about as it reentered. Aurora had sat there for a better part of an hour watching it do the same thing over and over again, enamored by the beauty of nature.

"A dolphin! That's so cool," Ellie breathes, bringing a smile to Aurora's face.

It's so interesting, that the smallest of things that people once took for granted are now things people can only dream about seeing — and Aurora dreams a lot. A happy family, a world free of danger, a purpose in life.

But now, now she has a purpose. Get this girl to the Fireflies and perhaps her other dreams will follow.

NOTE!

Hi everybody! Thank you for reading. I just thought I'd jump on the end of this and add that I've changed the title of this story form 'Soon You'll Get Better' to 'Kingdom Come'.