CHAPTER THIRTEEN

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          THEY HAD BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND SOME MORE EMPTY JERRY CANS, AND THEY HAD FILLED THEM TO THE BRIM WITH GASOLINE THAT THEY FOUND ALONG THE WAY. They would definitely be set for a few more days, which was one less thing they had to worry about as they drove down deserted highways.

Lucia had her now blue sock covered feet resting on the dashboard, much to Joel's dismay. He had smacked them off ten minutes ago, but she had cursed at him and placed them right back. He grumbled something about it being bad for her back before he focused back on the road. The woman shrugged, sitting comfortably in the passenger seat as she watched the sea of green pass by her window.

"Must've been some truck." commented Ellie, as she twisted her upper body to peer through the back of the car. 

They were passing another city and the highway was littered with abandoned cars of all kind. The vehicles had been forced to the side, as if some big tank had plowed right through the corroded metal. The smuggler easily manoeuvred through them, barely touching the gas pedal as he rolled the truck on the concrete.

"Yeah," confirmed Joel, glancing at her through the rear-view mirror. "they used to stick big-ass plows on them, and clear the roads for their tanks and stuff."

"I wanna see a tank!" Ellie snapped her head toward him.

"You will." said Lucia, tearing her gaze away from the forest. "Tanks, choppers, all that stuff. Just scattered around now. I'm sure they'll be in one of the cities we'll pass."

"I never saw any in Boston." she added.

Ellie pulled a face before she began to rummage through the flap in the backseat. The teen beamed, holding up another cassette tape. They had gone through all the tapes she had taken from Frank and Bill's home already, and she hadn't heard this one yet. "I got something." Ellie leaned forward between their seats and tapped Joel's shoulder. "Here. This make you all nostalgic?"

'Hank Williams. The Original Singles Collection'

"This is actually before my time." he took it from her and examined it. He clicked the disk open with one hand as Ellie muttered 'great'. The smuggler put it in the radio and turned it on. "It's a winner, though."

The music was unfamiliar to her but Lucia found that she didn't mind it at all. The woman pulled her feet off the dashboard and readjusted her position with a grimace and Joel raised a brow at her, as if to say 'I told you so', and he had been right because her back was aching.

He looked at her expectantly but all Lucia did was purse her lips at the man, not giving him the satisfaction of being right.

"Got something else." voiced Ellie from the back, holding up a magazine and opening it on a random page, eyes widening. "It's uh ... light on the reading, but it has some interesting pictures."

Joel, whom looked at her through the rear-view mirror, again, began to shake his head once he saw what she was reading. "No, no, no. Put that back. That's not for kids, Ellie."

The teen turned to another page and Lucia turned in her seat, confused. 

"Wow!" Ellie gaped, mouth wide open as she took in the picture of an undressed man. "How would he even walk around with that thing. Lucia, look at it!"

The magazine was all but thrust at her and Lucia blinked at it before she could even adjust her eyes to take in the picture. The woman let out a snort and shook her head, and shoved it back at her.

"Please, get rid of it." pleaded Joel, jaw set, uncomfortable.

"Hold your horses, I wanna see what all the fuss is about."

The teen continued to flip through the magazine, seeing multiple naked men displayed on the pages. The magazine had been on the floor of the truck and none had noticed it before. Joel sat rigid behind the wheel and Lucia couldn't stop the laughs escaping from between her lips.

Ellie suddenly said, "Why are all these pages stuck together?"

Lucia barked out another laugh, throwing her head back while Joel snapped his head toward her with his mouth half open.

"Uhh..."

"I'm just fucking with ya." Ellie smacked his shoulder with the magazine and rolled her window down. The teen leaned her head outside and threw the magazine, it fluttered to the ground. "Bye-bye, dude!"

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JOEL DROVE ANOTHER SIX HOURS AND THE SUN HAD BEGAN TO SET AS HE GLANCED AT LUCIA BESIDE HIM, WHOM WAS FIGHTING TO KEEP HER EYES OPEN, HE NODDED TO HIMSELF. After passing an abandoned theme park, multiple cities, they had finally reached the hills and they'd soon turn into mountains.

"All right." he sighed, twisting the steering wheel and rolling the truck off the highway and onto the grass verge that led to the dense forest beside them. "That's enough for today."

"I can drive." yawned Lucia, stretching her arms out in front of her. "We can go a few more hours."

Ellie who had headphones covering her ears as she listened to her tapes glanced up to see why they'd left the main road, but kept her mouth shut as she doodled in a small notebook on her lap. Joel turned his head and took another look at her, eyes rimmed red from the lack of sleep.

"No," he deadpanned. "we need to rest and you can't even keep your eyes open."

The brunette responded with another yawn as Joel broke through the trees, finding a path and taking in their new surroundings. It was darker, the sun barely getting its last rays though the thick leaved trees. Eventually, he put the truck in park, once they were far enough away from the highway.

It seemed secure, and while the smuggler checked their perimeter a second time, Lucia and Ellie set up their small camp. Frank and Bill owned multiple portable camping stoves and they had taken two of them and they had warm food ever night since they'd left Lincoln. Lucia had tried to use it once, but she had burned the food and Joel wouldn't even let Ellie touch it so she left it alone for the smuggler to use.

The woman laid down the three sleeping bags, close enough to the truck to keep them out of the wind. Ellie immediately dropped herself on the one closest to the truck, sitting down crossed legged. 

"What's for dinner?" she wondered, rummaging through the various of cans of food beside her.

"Whatever i'm giving you." commented Joel, snatching two cans from the pile and turning on the stove. Ellie shot him a vulgar gesture behind his back and glared at the back of his head as he began to prepare their food for that evening.

It didn't take long for it to be ready, he only had to heat it up. Joel messily divided it in three equal meals and shoved a metal plate at the teen opposite of him before doing the same to Lucia. It didn't look like much, but they really had nothing to complain about.

Beside the adults, Ellie gobbled down her food as if someone was about to snatch it away from her. It really did taste great, and Lucia ate as slowly as she could to savour it. Ellie put in the next bite before she was even finished chewing the former.

"Slow down." Joel said, pulling his brows together.

"This is slow." she retorted with her mouth full of tomato sauce, swallowing the un-chewed food in a big gulp. "What am I even eating?"

"That is twenty year old Chef Boyardee ravioli." 

"That guy is good." Pieces of pasta fell down her chin.

"I actually agree."

Lucia was slower than either of them, her stomach already hurting from the lack of variety she had experienced before. The woman was so used to jerky and protein bars that actually food took her a little longer to get used to.

And when Ellie was almost finished she asked, "How long are we staying out here?"

"I figure me and Lucia sleep tonight," began Joel, still chewing. "then drive tomorrow all day, all night, and get us to Wyoming the next mornin'. Maybe another day if the gass we siphoned turns bad."

Ellie nodded her head. "So, can we start a fire? I'm freezing."

"Now, why am I gonna tell you no?" Joel glanced up at her, eyes narrowed. They had gone over this the past few nights but Ellie tried every single time, and Lucia really couldn't blame her. Night got awfully cold, especially deep within the forest.

"Because infected will see the smoke." she rolled her eyes and took her last bite.

"No. Fungus isn't that smart." Lucia remarked, shaking her head. This might be their safest option right now, but you never know what lurked behind the acres of trees. There were more dangerous things out there. "This is too remote for infected anyway."

"People?" Ellie wondered and Joel nodded to confirm. The girl grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "So, what are they gonna do? Rob us?"

"They'll have way more in mind than that." Lucia muttered, eyes on her plate. It had been a very long time since she had encountered bandits as bad as the one who got to her and her brother all those years ago, but the horrors were still fresh in her mind.

"Like what?" Ellie pressed, curiosity getting the better of her and Joel looked at her as if to say 'shut up'.

"I don't know." Lucia moved her ravioli around the metal plate and glared up at her. "What do you think they'll do to a young girl like you, huh?"

Ellie widened her eyes but mimicked her glare. She hadn't expected the woman to get mad so she gave her the same energy back as she said, "They'll wanna get their hands on you first."

"That's enough." barked Joel, setting down his plate. 

Lucia did the same, ravioli spilling on the soil beneath her as she got to her feet. The woman knew she was overreacting, but the anger that coursed through her veins was dominant. No, she wasn't mad at the teenager for she had done nothing wrong but ask a question. Lucia was angry at the fact that those memories still haunted her as much as they did.

Joel and Ellie watched her storm off, silently.

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DARKNESS HAD SWEPT OVER THE DENSE FOREST NOT THIRTY MINUTES LATER. The brunette made her way back to their small camp after having calmed down. This is exactly why she didn't want to spend time with others. Lucia was good at shutting herself off, but seeing Ellie's green eyes filled with fear made her regret ever coming on this journey.

Lucia cared and she didn't want to do that. It would only end in getting her heart ripped from her chest. It always did. The thought of anyone getting their hands on Ellie, even Joel, made her nauseous and there was no turning back.

Ellie had her headphones on her head, working on her notebook with her flashlight between her teeth once she got to the side of the truck. Joel, whose head shot up in her direction stalked toward her with long strides and a glare etched on his handsome face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he hissed, careful not to thunder through the forest. "Do you have any idea how worried w - Ellie was? You could have been dead."

Lucia ground her teeth together to keep herself from snapping back at him, because he was right, again.

"Look, Joel." she let out a long breath through her nose. "I'm sorry for scaring either of you." she emphasised that last word, ignoring him as he tried to fix his mistake. "I just needed to clear my head, i'm fine."

"We don't split up." he glared, the vein in his forehead was visible as he took a step toward her. "Ever."

"I said I was sorry." she held her ground, but she knew that wasn't the only thing he was pissed about, she had scared Ellie. "She needs to know what kind of monsters are out there. You have no idea what they're capable of."

"Oh, I know what they're capable of." he declared, breaths mingling together. "But she's just a kid and shouldn't be worrying about all of this shit."

"Look where we are, Joel." The brunette waved her arms around. "This is all we can worry about. Until she's safely with The Fireflies, anything can happen to her or us. We're not safe here. We won't be safe anywhere. And she needs to understand that."

"I do." Ellie interrupted, having taken off her headphones to listen to them argue. She looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Lucia peered at her through the dark, eyes squinted closed and her anger dispersed almost immediately as she met her gaze. The heart that thumped behind her ribcage gave a single firm thud and regret settled within her bones. It hadn't even been that bad, but she still shouldn't have snapped at the girl.

Joel, wordlessly, made his way toward his bedroom and left them alone. His shoulders were still tense and she felt even worse.

Lucia sank to her knees on the soft material of the sleeping bag beside Ellie, brows pulled together. The girl put her notebook to the side and waited, not knowing what to say to her. 

"I'm so sorry, El." Lucia tried. "I didn't mean to snap at you."

Ellie shook her head and smiled up at her. "It's okay. We can just forget it." And they did as Ellie showed her her drawing, the plane from a few days prior, surrounded by shrubs and flowers.

THANK YOU FOR 2K VOTES!! I've had a comment that I was taking things too slow and I was wondering how you thought about that? I am planning so many things for lucia and joel and now that were close to henry and sam those things WILL happen. I just didn't want to hurry anything because i don't enjoy reading stories where they 'fall in love' within a few chapters. Maybe that's just me.

Next chapter will continue where we just left off but i don't want to make the chapters over 2500 words.