( gif by ; -tzarrion )

━ CHAPTER EIGHT ...

' please hold on to my hand '

The sound of water dripping into the sink from the tap is heard, as (Y/N) was looking at herself in the mirror and trying to tie her hair up in braids.

Beside her was Ellie, who was messing around with the gun (Y/N) had taken but it didn't have any bullets, as the older girl took them out just in case.

The trio had stopped at an abandoned gas station, so Joel could fill up the fuel tanks and as well as the siblings could take toilet breaks if needed.

(Y/N) finishes tying her hair in two messy braids, pulling out some side pieces as she exhales, and looks over at Ellie, smiling a bit amused seeing her sniffing the gun.

"Come on you dork, time to go." She laughs a little at Ellie, grabbing the gun out from her hands which caused her to complain, but stopped seeing (Y/N)'s look.

The two of them pick up their bags, and weapons as they walk outside of the gas stations bathroom and into the bright days light, and stroll over to where Joel was getting fuel.

"We have to do this every hour?" Ellie questioned confused, as the girls both watched Joel place a tube into another cars fuel tank, and into the fuel canister.

"Gas breaks down over time. This stuff's almost water." He tells her, as he stuffs a piece of cloth into the cars fuel opening with the tube, "Back in the day, we'd drive 10, 12 hours on one tank. You could go anywhere."

"So where'd you go?" (Y/N) now asked the male, sticking her nose in the air as she flicks her braids over her shoulders.

Joel looks up from his work, eyes spotting her new hair style as it lingers and he goes back to his fuel making, "Pretty much nowhere." He starts to blow into the tube now.

Ellie noticed this, and beams at the technique she's never seen done before, "Nice! How does that work?"

"It's a siphon." He answered her, and Ellie gave him a not understanding look, making him blink rapidly, "It's when liquid...travels against gravity because pressure-"

(Y/N) snorts under her breath, lips lifting up into a teasing grin at the male's explanation, "You don't know how, do you?"

Joel scoffs a little with a head shake, "I know it works." He hears the two sisters share a small laugh, shoulders bumping together as they walk back a bit, "No wandering."

The girls stop in their tracks at this, and turn around to face Joel, as they share a mischievous look between each other. (Y/N) walks back to lean against the car, as Ellie grabs something out of her backpack, "This is your fault then."

Joel watches with a baffled expression, as Ellie pulls out a book and ruffles it up as she reads from it in a funny voice, "'It doesn't matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.'" She laughs at the joke, while Joel remains unfazed, "'No pun intended, volume too' by Will Livingston." She points to the book title, showing it to him with a proud smile, "'Volume too.' Look. You get it?"

Joel mutters something under his breath, not impressed by her act as (Y/N) laughs through her nose, raising her eyebrows at the older male as he stands up.

"'What did the mermaid wear to her math class?'" Ellie continues asking her jokes to Joel, as she waits patiently for him to say something, but gets to excited and tells him loudly, "'An algae bra.'"

(Y/N) smacks her forehead a little bit at her sisters joke, trying her hardest not to crack a giggle as Joel looks completely fed up, and Ellie laughs seeing it.

"'I stayed up all night-" Ellie goes to say one more through a laugh, as (Y/N) comes up to her grabs her shoulders, placing her in a headlock as Ellie laughs louder, "'Wondering where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.'" She tries to finish the joke through the hold, and belly laugher.

"Feel free to wait in the truck." Joel grumbles to the youngest, arms crossed over his chest as he didn't want to hear anymore jokes, and would rather have (Y/N) as company right now over Ellie.

"Ugh, okay." Ellie whines as she stop her joke telling, pinching her sisters arm that held her, causing (Y/N) to yelp and remove her arms with a fake scowl, "but just know, you can't escape Will Livingston." Ellie warns the two of them, smirking as she held the book up, "He'll be back. There's nothing you can do to stop him."

(Y/N) chuckles at her sisters words, coming up behind her to tickle her sides which caused Ellie to gasp surprised and try to hit her sister with the book, as she dodged with a bubbly laugh.

Joel would never admit it to himself, but he could get use to hearing her beautiful laugher all the time.

...

Now the three of them were back in the truck, as the siblings were in the back seat together and Joel driving the vehicle through the road filled with old cars.

"Must've been some truck." Ellie comments seeing all the vehicles around the edges of the road.

"Yeah, they used to stick big-ass plows on them, and clear the roads for their tanks and such." Joel told the younger girl.

Ellie spins back around from the back mirror, and stares at him with wide eyes, "I wanna see a tank."

"You will." Joel declared with a small sigh, eyes flickering to the wing mirror to watch (Y/N) staring outside at the scenery, "Tanks, choppers, all that stuff. But they'll fight the wrong enemy. Just scattered around now."

(Y/N) looks down at her backpack, where her bow and arrows were, but remembers she found something for the male in front. She opens the zip, digging around until she felt the music tap in her hands, "I got somethin'. Here." She moves forward to him, leaning her chest against his back as she shows him the tap, "This make you all nostalgic?"

He didn't seem to mind the close contact, as he gently grips the music tap from her hands, and glances over who it is, "This is actually before my time." He corrects her, tilting his head to meet her grinning face, "It's a winner, though."

Joel places the tap inside the radio, pressing play and turns the volume up while (Y/N) sits back in her chair, ignoring the way Ellie raised her eyebrows at her teasingly.

As the song starts to play, Ellie bumps her sisters arm to gain her attention, as she looks at her and Ellie grabs something from down on the floor of the car, "Got somethin' else."

(Y/N)'s eyes almost popped out of her skull seeing what she had. Ellie was reading a magazine full of naked male's body, and she tried to grab it off her, but Ellie made a protest noise and turned away so she couldn't reach.

"It's, uh...." Ellie trails off with her eyes now wide, shock showing on her face as she looks at the pages, "light on the reading, but it has some interesting pictures."

Joel, who finally had realised what she had, double takes on her and exclaims his dislike, "Oh. No, no, no. Put that back. That's not for kids. Ellie."

(Y/N)'s face flushes at the image Ellie was holding up, and avoids looking at it as Joel was in the car with them, "Please put that away Ellie." She grimaces with a nose scrunch.

"How would he even walk around with that thing?" Ellie gasps in awe, completely outstanded by what she was seeing on the male, and ignores the adults complaints, "Hold your horses, I wanna see what all the fuss is about."

The (H/C) haired girl's shoulders slump, leaning into her seat more as she knew Ellie was to curious for her own good. Her eyes wander over the car, before meeting Joel's dark ones in the wing mirror, causing her to gulp and dart them away in embarrassment.

"Why are all these pages stuck together?" Ellie questions innocently, flicking through the book as she knew she was teasing the two adult's.

(Y/N) chokes on her spit at her statement, giving her sister a incredulously stare with her mouth open, knowing damn well Ellie wasn't that stupid. However, Joel on the other hand fell for her tricks, and stuttered to think of an excuse, "Uhh..the-"

Ellie cackles at his stuttering, and hits the book against his side with a grin, "I'm just fuckin' with ya."

She leans over her side of the car, rolling down the window with her grin still on and throws the magazine out of it, waving, "Bye-bye, dude!"

...

After many hours of driving, the sun was starting to go down and be replaced with the moon as the light was getting darker. (Y/N), and Ellie were back in the front seat, as Joel noticed their tired expressions.

"All right. That's enough for today." Joel speaks up as he turns to steering wheel, directing the car off road and into a field of grass, driving through it until they reached the sheltered forest.

The trio were all out of the truck when it stopped, with Joel getting camp ready, Ellie playing with sticks and (Y/N) was somewhat practicing with her bow and arrows.

Joel was cooking their dinner on the mini portable stove, as he taps the spon on the edge of the pot to get rid of residue from the food.

When the food was read for serving, he gave some out to the siblings, and they all sat on the ground eating it. (Y/N) was eating it calmly, as Ellie was shoving her face full of it and it made both adults stare at her.

"Slow down." They both tell her in sync, making them quickly look at each other with surprise, and (Y/N) is the one to break the eye contact, as she glances at her food with a small smile.

"This is slow." Ellie replies back with a mouth full of food, continuing to eat herself full and furrows her brows at the choice of meal, "What are we even eating?"

"That is 20-year-old Chef Boyardee ravioli." Joel answers the younger girl, cutting up his food with the knife and fork he had.

"That guy was good." (Y/N) voices her comment, placing a piece of ravioli in her mouth, as she licks her lips clean from the sauce.

"I actually agree." Joel mutters his agreement, finishing up his meal as (Y/N) chuckles a little at his words.

Ellie swallows the last of the food in her mouth, before going to question Joel in front of them, "How long we staying out here?"

"I figure I sleep tonight..." Joel pauses as he wipes his mouth, and places the cutlery down, "and drive tomorrow all day, all night, get us to Wyoming by next mornin'."

"So can we start a fire? I'm freezing," Ellie looks over to her sister, seeing her rubbing her arms up and down, "And I think (Y/N) is also."

Joel raises an eyebrow at her, staring with a incredulously expression at the silly question, "Now, why am I gonna tell you no?"

"Because infected will see the smoke." Ellie states with a small shoulder shrug, placing a piece of pasta in her mouth.

"No. Fungus isn't that smart." Joel interjects her statement, looking around the area with a frown on his face, "This is too remote for infected, anyway."

(Y/N) chews on her bottom lip with nervousness, as she places her empty plate down and goes to ask unsurely, "People?"

Joel glances up from his meal, giving her a somewhat soft knowing stare which makes her instantly understand, and nod her head silently.

However, Ellie didn't get it as much so she questions in general to Joel, "So what are they gonna do? Rob us?"

He clicks his tongue, shaking his head firmly with a displead expression, "Oh, they'll have way more in mind than that."

(Y/N)'s baby hairs stick up at his statement, causing her to shuffle closer to Ellie and wrap an arm around her shoulders, as the girl leans into her hold comfortable.

...

Now the sun had set for another day, as darkness and night had developed over the new world. Joel had given the girls their sleeping bags, as they were placing them down on the ground beside each other.

Joel had his sleeping bag on the opposite side of them, as he placed a lantern in between them for light before shut eye.

Ellie, being the curious girl she is smelt the sleeping bag, causing her sister to smack her hand, and Ellie gave her a 'what' look, "It actually smells kinda good."

"Well, that would be Frank's then." Joel remarks from his side of the area, making Ellie chuckle a bit and they all get inside of their sleeping bags.

Joel makes sure his gun was loaded, and placed down next to him for safety reasons while Ellie gets out her book, and (Y/N) made sure she was comfortable before she switched off the lantern, making everything go dark.

(Y/N) feels Ellie shuffle towards her more in the dark, as she opens her arms and the younger girl slides up into them, resting her head on (Y/N)'s shoulder.

The older Williams smile warmly to herself, brushing back some of Ellie's hair as she coaxes her to sleep. Once she felt Ellie was asleep, (Y/N) turns her head over towards Joel, just seeing his figure within the darkness, "Joel?"

(Y/N) just heard an audible hum from him, as his head moves to look over his shoulder at her, and she takes this as he was listening, "Those people you said..." She swallows hard, pulling Ellie closer to her side as she looks up at the stars, "there's no way anyone knows we're here, right?"

Joel hears the slight waver in her voice, already sensing she was scared for the safety of her sister, but not herself, which sent a weird feeling straight to his heart, "No one's gonna find us. I promise I won't let that happen." He vowed, tone firm and low with a rasp.

(Y/N) releases a small exhale at his words, feeling a strong sense of protection washing over her at his words, and mutters softly, "Okay. Thank you."

She rolled over on her side, relaxing her tense body, closing her (E/C) eyes, and drifts to sleep. What she didn't know was that, Joel had stayed up majority of the night to keep his promise to her.

...

Daytime had hit very fast for the sisters liking, as the sound of something bubbling and being made was heard beside their sleeping bags, as well as clanking.

(Y/N)'s eyes slowly fluttered open, blinking slowly from the brightness of the day and looks down to see the sleeping bag pulled up more over her body. She smiles a little giddy to herself, realising that Joel had done this while he got up to pack their stuff away.

She starts to sit up from her sleeping bag with a groan, rubbing her tired eyes with her palms, as she spots Ellie worm crawling in her sleeping bag towards what was cooking.

Ellie lifts open the canister, leaning down to take a sniff and automatically flinches away with a gag, "Ug! The fuck is that?"

Joel, who was at the truck's trailer putting stuff away turns his head around, "You don't like coffee?"

Ellie makes a funny face, flipping back the opening on the canister as she rolls back over onto (Y/N)'s stomach, making her release a chuckle, and tickle her sides which caused Ellie to wriggle around, and try to tickle back.

Once the sisters stopped playing around, all their equipment and supplies were back in the truck as the trio hopped into the vehicle, and Joel's starts up the engine.

Now on the road to their next destination, Joel was driving with one hand as the other one held the bottle of coffee, and drank from it.

"Is that seriously what those Starbucks in the QZ used to sell?" Ellie continues her complaints about the coffee, making a grimacing face from beside her sister next to Joel.

Joel removes the bottle from his lips, "Well, theirs was a lot fresher than what Bill saved up, but yeah, this is what they sold."

"Smells like burn shit." Ellie voices her opinion, causing her sister to snort at her choice of words and holds in her laugher when Joel slurps loudly on purpose.

"Eyes on the map." He grumbles to the youngest, who was indeed holding the object in her hands.

(Y/N) shakes her head amused at the two, and looks over Ellie's shoulder at the map, as she traces the way to go, "76 west and then..70 west for, like, ever. Where in Wyoming did you say your brother was?" She glances back at Joel in question.

Without turning away from the road, he answers her quickly, "Last contact came through a radio tower close to Cody."

"Cody." Ellie repeats the name back, flicking the map up so her and (Y/N) could find where the place was, and eventually found it on the paper, "Ah, man. That is deep up in there. And if he's not there?"

Joel furrows his brows, thinking for a moment before replying, "Then odds are he'll be near a settlement, probably close to another city out there. Ain't too many of  'em in Wyoming."

Ellie starts to mutter some of the other city names on the map, while (Y/N) goes to ask Joel, "What's your brothers name?"

"Tommy." He tells her, taking a sip from the coffee mug again.

She hums at his answer, nodding her head as she quirks an eyebrow up, "Younger or older?"

His fingertips tap against the steering wheel a little at her question, not wanting to see her response as he said, "Younger."

"Why isn't he with you?" Ellie now steps in again, hearing her sister went quiet after the last statement.

"A long story."

"Is it longer than 25 hours?"

Joel looks over at the younger girl after her words, seeing her giving him a waiting look with a small grin.

He sighs heavily, knowing there no getting out of this as he goe to explain, "Tommy's what we used to call a 'joiner'. Dreams of becomin' a hero. So he enlisted in the army right outta high school. A few months later, they ship him off to Desert Storm. It's what they called that war. It doesn't matter. Point is, bein' in the Army didn't make him feel much like a hero. Cut to 12 years later, outbreak happens. He convinces me to join a group makin' their way up to Boston, which I did...mostly to keep an eye on him, keep him alive. It's where we meet Tess."

He stops his rant to take a drink from the coffee, as the sisters listed with their heads resting on the headrest, "And that whole crew, we, uh-" Joel paused his words, looking off into the distance, "Well, for what it was, it worked. And then Tommy meets Marlene. She talks him into joinin' the Fireflies. Same mistake he made when he was 18." He shakes his head with a somewhat bitter expression, "Wants to save the world. Pipe dream. Him, Fireflies, all of 'em...delusional. 'Course, last I heard, he quit the Fireflies, too. So now he's on his own out there, and...I gotta go get him."

(Y/N) pursues her lips once his speech was finished, fiddling with her dog chain as looks at him interested, "If you don't think there's hope for the world, why bother going on?" She questioned in a small voice, and shrugs her shoulders, "I mean, you gotta try, right?"

Joel clenches his jaw at her naiveness, and exhales heavily, "You two haven't seen the world, so you don't know." He objects in a gravelly voice, "You keep goin' for family. That's about it."

She frowns dejected at his lack of hope, and especially because of his last words, "We're not family?" She motions to her and Ellie, nervous for his answer.

"No..." He retorted slowly, himself not really knowing what he was saying as he shakes his head with a neutral expression, "you two are cargo. And I made a promise to Tess. And she was like family."

Any hope (Y/N) had for Joel just all vanished at his statement. She felt her heart clench for some reason as her lips go into a straight line, and wraps an arm around Ellie's shoulders, brining her close knowing she was upset also.

"Ya two got up pretty early." Joel was the one to break the thick silence, side glancing the hugging sisters with knitted brows, "If you wanna grab more sleep-"

"Pfft." Ellie waves him off with a scoff, rolling his eyes at the older male, "Not even tired."

...

Not even a few hours later both sisters were out like a light, which didn't surprise Joel whatsoever.

Though, his body did somewhat tense when (Y/N)'s head landed against his shoulder as she slept. He tried to keep his movements low as she slept soundly, and relaxed the more he got use to the feeling.

Joel took a short glance at the younger woman, seeing her loose bits of hair covering her face, and it took everything in him to not brush those back.

He was going to continue to watch her peaceful expression, something he's hasn't seen before on her, but (Y/N)'s eyes were fluttering open and he didn't want to get caught watching her.

At the same time, Ellie's eyes fly open from her little nap as both sisters looking around out the windows, and saw they were coming up to a big tunnel through the road.

Joel comes to a slow stop in the truck, as he was weary of where they currently where. He places the vehicle in park, turning to the confused siblings, "Stay put."

He opens the door on his side, stepping out briefly and closed the door as he grabs his gun from the back seat. He walks towards the entrance of the tunnel, as (Y/N) watched anxious for his safety.

Joel kneels down to check what was under the truck blocking the way, spotting light from the underside, and no humans nor infected. He stands back up with a conflicted expression, scanning the area as his eyes land back on the sisters.

He couldn't risk their safety, her safety going through here. He knew that much right now. So, he quickly made his way back to the truck, placing his gun in the back seat and hopped into his driving spot.

"Where are we?" Ellie asked the male once he was back in the car.

"Kansas City." Joel told her, taking the map out of the siblings laps and looked over it with them.

"How far back do we have to go to get around this?" (Y/N) now questioned, leaning her side against Joel's as she reads the map with Ellie doing the same.

Joel traced the map with his finger, trying to figure out where the best route would be for them, and shakes his head with a sigh. After a few more seconds, he finally breaks, "Screw it." He closes the door shut, passing the map back to them.

"What are you doing?" (Y/N) asked baffled as he starts the vehicle back up again, and makes a U-TURN back around away from the tunnel.

"We can jog right around this tunnel..." Joel starts to explain to her, moving his hand so it rested on her headrest while he looked back, and reversed, "take the next ramp, and we're back on the road. Minutes tops."

He makes a successful turn as drives the car out of the way they came, and back onto the road towards another so called safe way.

( gif by ;
sporadicstarsx )