The Last of Us: A Most Dangerous Game

Chapter 1: Do you believe?

Free. They were finally free.

Well as free as free can be. One week ago they stepped into these gates, hugged by its cold yet comforting embrace. Gone were the days of having to keep a firearm on their waist, in their pockets, or just about everywhere. Gone were the days they had to sleep with one eye open. They could finally get a full night's sleep, certain that they could do it again the following day. They no longer had to ration their food. They could eat to their heart's content and not worry about the consequences.

So why weren't they happy?

The tension was the only thing to slip through the gates. The guilt would flow in waves.

It pained Joel to lie to her, with those big green eyes begging him to tell her the truth. She was broken, at her wit's end and needed that closure. And he denied her that satisfaction. He suspected how she would react and he wasn't sure he could handle it. Joel just wanted to go home and start a new life. To once again have the life he lost 20 years ago, this time with less stress. He denied her closure for his own selfish reasons. And now it was coming back to bite him.

Ellie's survivor's guilt was eating her alive. She felt like she didn't deserve to be here. She felt she wasn't worth the sacrifice of other lives for her own.

Some days it got bad.

She often found herself playing the knife game with her pocketknife, a game that terrified her back in Boston. She was a master but it scared her every time she played. She never slipped up back then and even now, but god damn, sometimes she just wanted to.

Ellie wanted punishment. She wanted pain. How dare she continue to live at the expense of others? What made her so special? Why did she deserve to live?

Those questions and many others flew in her mind at breakneck speed every night.

The distance between them was killing Joel. He was cold towards her in the beginning. The unique parts of her personality, seemingly getting on his nerves, but in reality, on the inside he loved it. Her little quirks that made her, well Ellie. She knew how to relieve the tension. But she was quiet and distant now. The million dollar smile that could light up a room was long gone and left the room darker than ever before.

Joel's guilt was eating him alive. She was only here because he wanted her there. He didn't want to let go. He had the fate of humanity in his hands...and he doomed them. Possibly for good.

Joel often tried to rationalize it. It was never known for sure that a vaccine could be made, much less even work. Besides, who would they give it to? There weren't too many good people left in the world. People like Sam and Henry, hell even Tess were a dime a dozen. Pieces of hay in a mountain of needles.

But lying to her? He was the only person in the world she truly trusted and he let her down. There was no rationalizing around this one, no matter how hard he racked his brain for one. Every reason he had for his actions was selfish, plain and simple.

"As much as I understand why you did it, hell I would have done it, you have to tell her the truth, Joel." Tommy said.

"You can tell this is eating her alive, Joel. It will hurt and this won't be easy, but she deserves to know. And maybe not now but some day she might see it your way." Maria said. "Even people with good intentions can have bad ones and vice versa. That's just how things work now. She'll see that. "

Joel nodded in understanding. There was no way around this. Either continue living out this lie and watch her crumble further or tell her the truth. Light up the fireworks and let them explode...and hopefully will all end with peace.

He had to.

After his talk with Tommy and Maria he went home, but hell it felt like he was on his death march. Like there was going to be a bullet in his head at the end of this.

He made it home and immediately went upstairs, knowing full well she would be home. She didn't go out much these days unless she had to.

"Ellie? Do you have a minute?"

Ellie looked up from her comic, her expression blank as always. "Sure. What's up?"

"God damn it, how could I have lied to that face..."

"I have something to tell you."

~T~L~O~U~

It was deep in the night and Joel couldn't sleep. Joel juggled several outcomes in his head, all ranging from good to bad and none of them had come to fruition. That worried him even more.

Ellie was just silent, no expression on her face as Joel explained what happened and why he did it. Why she was worth the risk. Why he valued her over the fate of humanity.

And at the end of it all, the word she uttered that once brought him comfort just left him uneasy.

"Okay."

She would no doubt sleep on it (or try) and then come to him with a response in the morning. She had to have been shell-shocked by this onslaught of information, becoming aware of the fact that he looked her in the eye and lied to her. It was a lot to take in. She was in shock. Yeah that's it.

Any type of reassurance was welcome.

Morning came and not a peep from her. The community usually had classes and today happened to be the day of the week that classes weren't in session. On those days, Ellie preferred to stay in her room and read comic books, listen to music, what have you. Only coming down to get food.

Afternoon rose and still no sign of her presence. Joel didn't want to push things further and decided to leave her be. He just left her a tray of lunch and a note that he left for guard duty by her door.

Joel put an ear to the door hoping he could hear something. Anything. But to no avail.

"Kiddo's probably out cold." Joel muttered. He shook his head and left, hoping things could turn around went he returned later that day.

The day couldn't move any slower from that point. Joel felt like everything was moving in slow motion. Like the world had tilted to the right. And something in his gut was nagging him that something wasn't right. Something was off. But he just couldn't place what was. A sense of impending doom? Was there another raid coming? A beastly pack of infected?

God damn he just didn't know.

Joel had finished his shift and was heading home just as the sun was going down. He was hoping that he and Ellie could sit down and talk things out. Try and get back on the same page.

"Joel! Joel!" Tommy ran towards Joel, panic all over his face.

"What's wrong?"

"Have you seen Ellie today?"

"Pretty sure she's been in her room all day. I did dump a lot on her last night. Today was her day off so she probably wanted to mull things over. I just let her be."

Tommy shook his head and let out a shaky breath. "Princess is missing. I don't want to go jumping to conclusions now but the last time a horse went missing Ellie happened to be gone too."

Joel's eyes widened. "Come on!"

The two of them ran as quick as they were able to Joel's home. Joel's mind was running at a million an hour. He was hoping that this instance was pure coincidence but he couldn't cling to that hope forever. The nagging feeling grew.

They arrived at his home with Joel nearly breaking his front door in and hightailed it upstairs, Tommy not too far behind him.

Joel arrived at Ellie's door and knocked on the door. "Ellie! Ellie, are you in there?!"

Silence.

"Shit." Joel opened the door and the sight made his heart drop straight through the floor.

The room was empty, save for the furniture.

All of Ellie's belongings, her clothes, bag, pocket knife, and the bow & arrow set she received as a gift were all gone. It was like she was never here.

Ellie was gone.

Without a trace.

~T~L~O~U~

"It's not too late...It's not too late. I can still fix this..."

Ellie rode with fierce determination. She plotted this during the night and was able to execute it early morning. She knew she only had a small window of time before they would discover both she and another horse had gone missing. It wasn't hard to connect the dots here.

Once she snuck out through the one security flaw in the settlement (she was lucky with this draw), she mounted Princess and took off at a near incomprehensible speed. She didn't know where she was but she damn well knew where she was going.

She was going back. She was going to try and find them. She owed them at least this. It couldn't have all been for nothing.

To her left she spotted a river stream. Ellie remembered being told that Princess was sturdy horse with plenty of endurance. You could ride her for a straight day and she would be ready to run another. But even the sturdiest horses need some rest and water.

Ellie instructed the horse to slow down and directed her to the water. She swore she could hear a sound of relief from Princess.

She dismounted the horse and led her to the water, Princess not hesitating to take a drink. Ellie sat down next to her and grabbed the pendant around her neck. She brought it up to eye level and looked over the engraving,

"I'm doing this for you, Riley. Tess...Sam...I won't let another one happen."

They all risked their lives for her. She wasn't supposed to be here. She owed them this.

Ellie was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a branch breaking behind her. Princess quickly stopped drinking and turned her head towards the source of the sound. Ellie quickly jumped to her feet, drawing her bow and arrow.

"Who's there?" Ellie exclaimed. "Might as fucking well show yourself. I know you're there!"

A tall, dirtied man emerged. He was wearing a green sweatshirt, jeans that had definitely seen better days, black boots, and a blue beanie. Even from a distance, Ellie could spot multiple scars riddling his face.

"Hmm, you're pretty young..." The man purred, licking his lips. "More emphasis on pretty..."

Oh god. Not this shit again.

"Tell me young'un, what're you doing this far inland on your own?" The man spoke, taking a few steps closer.

"Not a another step!" Ellie commanded, hoping the man didn't catch on the slight waver in her voice.

"Why this all hostility? We're just getting to know each other here. Who knows, if this works out we could have beautiful relationship on our hands. One with plenty of benefits on both sides..." The man took another few steps.

"Another fucking step and I'll stick this right between your eyes."

"I'd rather you aim for my mouth sweetheart..." The man purred. "Young ones always taste sweeter..." Before Ellie could react, the man ran and tackled her to the ground, pinning her down. Ellie tried her best to wiggle out of his grasp but he was just too strong.

"Fuck...I didn't think this guy could smell worse than he looks..."

"I was hoping we didn't have to come to this young'un. Such a pretty face going to waste. Please reconsider...together...we can rebuilt this world. You and I, we can raise an army...we'd be unstoppable."

Ellie spit in his face. "Burn in hell."

The man smirked before laughing loudly, startling some of the birds spectating nearby.

"I'll see you there sweetheart." The man quickly wrapped his hands around Ellie's throat, squeezing tightly.

"And besides...you know what they say; they don't got to be breathing for you to enjoy the ride..." The man chuckled. "The face you leave behind...more than enough to keep it going..."

Ellie was running out of time, black spots were already filling her vision. Last time, chance was on her side. There was machete nearby that allowed her to hack the asshole's head into soup she didn't doubt the rest of them would enjoy eating. She felt an arrow just tickling her finger tips. If she could just get a proper grip on it she could fight back. It wouldn't be as brutal as the machete but it would work.

Just before Ellie could attack a loud gun shot rang through the air.

Princess whinnied loudly.

The man went limp and Ellie didn't hesitate to push him off. While it wasn't as reassuring as David but Ellie was certain that this one wasn't coming back from a bullet right between his eyes. But she sat here

"Good shot there, Lauren." Ellie turned her head and saw a couple, a man and a woman, and the woman was holding a rifle.

"We were doing a last minute checking of our surroundings, making sure nothing funny would happen before we lock up for the night. Good thing we found this wacko, no doubt to be more of him running around." Lauren said while lowering her rifle.

Ellie couldn't help but nod her head in agreement. "Yeah. Lots of these sick fucks around."

The man raised a curious brow. "Speaking from experience?"

Ellie nodded once more.

"You with someone honey? Did y'all get separated?"

"No. No, I'm on my own." Ellie responded, finally standing up.

"Not a good idea to be in the wilds at night. Could be animals and such lurking about." Lauren said.

A faint clicking filled the air.

"And there's our cue. They must have been alerted by the gun shot. We better move fast." The man said. "We have a settlement just a bit more up north from here, in Montana."

Ellie could swear she had been going south this whole time. All this time and she was going the wrong way. Damn.

"Gather up your horse, we're just a few from here. This border is one of the easier ones to cross."

Ellie nodded and went over to Princess her nudged her softly. "Come on." Ellie said and tugged on the reigns.

More sounds of clicking filled the air.

~T~L~O~U~

As promised, they arrived at the settlement in almost no time at all. This settlement was definitely bigger and in much better shape than Jackson. It was as if this place was barely touched by the outbreak. She was especially surprised that the only thing really guarding this place was a climbable and easily unlock able chain fence.

"Welcome to Red Lodge." The man said. "I don't believe we caught your name. What do you go by if you don't mind?"

"Ellie."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, I'm Gale and this woman here is Lauren, my wife."

Ellie nodded. "This place is amazing."

"Sure is. We found this place abandoned and in impressively good standing not too long ago. So we've secured it down and built a community. Up to 100 strong now."

Ellie whistled. "100?"

"Well 101 for the time being" Lauren winked.

"Come, you look like you could get a good meal and a place to rest for the night. You've obviously had a long day."

Ellie nodded in agreement. It wouldn't hurt to settle down for the day. It could give her a chance to gather herself and figure out how to get to Salt lake City. There's no doubt that there's a search crew out for her. She's in the southern most part of Montana and in order for her to get back to Utah, she would have to go through the entirety of Wyoming all while trying to avoid citizens of Jackson. She didn't know what lied east and that was a chance she didn't want to take. If she wanted to do this right it had to be with absolute precision.

Gale and Lauren led Ellie to their home. Their house a faint blue with hints of moss and vegetation surrounding, average size, and surrounded by a peeling white wooden fence.

"Do you trust that steed to stay put or do you think she'll hop off if you don't tie her down?" Lauren asked.

"I dunno." Ellie shrugged.

"Well there's plenty of grass for her to graze in the back yard, how about tying her to the tree there and see how it goes?" Gale suggested.

"I'll do that, you take her in Gale. The leftovers should still be on the counter."

Gale chuckled. "With Mr. Iron Gut lurking about? I'll chalk that up to a miracle."

"Last I heard, he was out hunting with the others. If he hasn't eaten some of the game raw already there's a chance here. Now go!" Lauren laughed, taking Princess to the back of the house.

"Come on then." They entered the home. "Feel free to have a seat or wash up a bit if you'd like, we just got some water flowing properly in this place. Might take a little bit to warm up the food."

"Alright." Ellie went over to take a a seat on the couch and took the chance to study her surroundings. The place falling apart in a few places but not to the point where it seemed like the it would fall over with a rogue gust of wind. Very similar to the house she lived in Jackson; a sofa and couch, a kitchen, a table with four seats around it and a staircase leading to the upstairs.

"Food hasn't cooled down too much, so here you are." Gale handed her a bowl of soup. "Tonight happened to be soup night. If that isn't enough to fill your belly I can give you some bread. We got plenty to spare and can always make more."

"Thanks." Ellie took the soup and immediately began eating.

"Whoa, relax there! Food's not going anywhere." Gale laughed.

"Must be hungrier than I thought." Ellie muttered.

Gale took a seat on the couch beside her. They sat in a comfortable silence while Ellie slurped away at her soup.

"You're pretty young to be out alone. What really happened?"

Ellie paused. "I was with a group of people...but they all got infected. There's was another one... but he left me." It wasn't the whole truth but it wasn't a complete lie. "Since then, I've been getting by on my own. Close calls here and there but I'm still here, y'know?" Ellie took another spoonful of the soup.

"Sorry to hear that." Gale said.

"It's fine."

Silence.

"Tell me something Ellie." Gale started. "Do you believe in chance?"

Ellie paused to think. Chance was the only thing keeping her alive. If it weren't for chance staying by her side, holding her hand, or even carrying her, she probably wouldn't be here. She would have been gone, long before Chance allowed her to meet Joel.

Chance allowed her to know the truth.

"I guess." Ellie said. "Chance is the only thing I got going for me now. For anyone really."

Gale nodded his head, impressed with her answer. He fell silent again, twiddling with his fingertips. He stole a couple of glances of her every once in a while.

"Tell me Ellie...do you believe that everything happens for a reason?"

This story is something I was toying with one LATE night last semester. Thought I'd get it up to hold you guys over until I can get the other content back. I don't imagine this being very long. This story was inspired from a short story I read a while ago, The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell.

Thank you all for your patience and support. Leave a review if you'd like. Hugs =)