This is Not the Last of Us

Chapter 9

Ellie woke up after (Y/N), a weak groan escaped Ellie's lips as she tried to pull herself together. She sat up slowly, her eyes surveying the room until she finally caught sight of (Y/N) seated in the corner. Her arms were wrapped around her legs and her eyes were distant, almost like she wasn't fully there.

"Where... Where are we?" Ellie whispered to her friend.

(Y/N) seemed to suddenly snap out of it and she smiled weakly, "I have no idea, Ellie. Are you okay?"

"I'm good. Just a little... hungry? I guess?" Ellie moved some of her hair out of her eyes and then spoke again to fill the silence. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," her friend confirmed, "I'm just... unsure of what to do."

Ellie nodded in agreement and moved over to her. The two girls sat together in a comfortable silence. They heard a dragging sound outside of the door, and when it opened, they saw the young man from before dragging in a corpse. He vaguely regarded the girls as he threw the corpse onto the table in front of them. He wordlessly began cleaning his tools, but very suddenly, he started chopping away at the body.

There was a moment of horrified silence shared between the girls. Ellie felt (Y/N) lean into her, and she instinctively wrapped a protective arm around her. The two girls held each other as they watched the man chop away.

"Oh, shit...," Ellie whispered to voice both of the girl's concerns.

Seemingly realizing that they may be next, the two girls started to panic. Ellie started clawing at the lock and violently shaking the doors. (Y/N) was clawing at the window, trying to gauge if they could crawl through it. Or even properly reach it, in all honesty.

The two let out a series of horrified cries of desperation as another set of footsteps entered the room.

"And how are you two feeling?" David asked, he was holding a tray in his hands.

The two girls slowly stopped panicking, they could still hear the blade chopping through bones. Ellie stepped away from the door slowly and glanced at (Y/N), who had stopped clawing at the wall. Ellie scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Super," Ellie said sarcastically and studied him as he approached.

He carefully kneeled and sat the tray down on the floor before pushing it to them, "Here, why don't you two eat? You must be hungry. The two of you have been out for quite some time."

"What kind of meat is it?" (Y/N) spoke first, reluctant to move closer.

He laughed softly, "Well, it's, ah, deer."

"With some human helping on the side?" Ellie sneered.

"No, uh, no I promise. It's... just deer meat."

The two girls were quiet for a moment, and the only thing that could be heard were their growling stomachs.

"Thank you," (Y/N) said quietly and the two girls knelt, moving to share the food that was on the plate.

They ate feverishly, trying their best to fill their stomachs with it. They were both a little relieved to be able to tell that it was in fact just deer meat. They may be desperate, but they weren't cannibal desperate yet.

"We're not monsters, you know? We're just doing what we have to do to survive. You and your group aren't all that different from us." David said, trying to reach a middle ground with the girls.

"Yeah, but we don't fucking eat people." Ellie said between desperate bites.

"You're people attacked us first, we did what we had to do to survive. I'm sorry for your losses, but can't you just let us go?" (Y/N) said, the fear was audible in her voice.

David smiled at the two of them, remaining crouched to be on their level, "Please tell me your names? I can protect you."

Ellie reacted first, flinging the tray out from underneath the gate, "You are so full of shit."

David started to put the tray back together for them to eat off of again, "On the contrary. I've been, ah, quite honest with the two of you, I think. And now I think it's your turn. It's the only way I'm going to be able to convince the others."

The two girls studied him suspiciously, but Ellie spoke first, "Convince them of what?"

"That you two can come around, that you can change for the better! That you have heart, and that you're loyal."

He reached out to the two girls and took one of their hands in each of his own, "That the two of you are special."

Ellie and (Y/N) shared a confused look, but Ellie's turned to disgust much faster. She gingerly took his hand with a tiny and dainty smile, but as soon as his guard was down, she broke his thumb. The sickening crack resounded and startled both David and (Y/N). Ellie immediately made a move for the keys around David's belt. David violently grabbed her arm and started slamming her against the door.

"Ellie!" (Y/N) screamed and carefully wrapped her arms around her friend's torso in an attempt to pull her back.

David managed to shake her and Ellie leaned fully into her friend for support. The two girls momentarily leaned on one another as they watched David snatch the keys back up. He sneered at the two girls with a look of absolute disgust.

"You stupid little girl! Don't you see you're ruining this for the both of you?" David cradled his thumb in his good hand and frowned. "You are making this very difficult to keep you alive! What do you want me to tell the others now?"

Ellie looked at him from within her friend's arms and smirked, "Ellie."

David seemed momentarily surprised.

"Why don't you go and tell them that? Ellie's the little girl that just broke your fucking finger!"

David stared at the two girls for a second before sighing, "You might make a good addition to our dinner menu, I think. We'll see you two in the morning."

The two girls held each other for a moment. Unsure of what to do as they watched him leave. Ellie sucked in a trembling breath as she leaned into her friend's chest for comfort.