ELLIE CAME OUT of the bathroom of the abandoned gas station. She had been playing around with the pistol she grabbed from Bill's house, which the two men still didn't know about.
She was going to keep it a secret for now.
Joel was siphoning gas from the abandoned cars on the road. Y/N stood by with his crossbow strapped over his shoulder, looking around. The teenager walked up to the two.
"We have to do this every hour?" Ellie asked.
"Gas breaks down over time. This stuff's almost water." Joel replied. "Back in the day, we'd drive 10, 12 hours on one tank. You could go anywhere."
"So where'd you go?"
"Pretty much nowhere."
Joel started using his mouth on the siphon to suck out gas. Ellie was surprised by it.
"Nice! How does that work?"
Joel began to explain. "It's a siphon. It's when liquid...travels against gravity because pressure..."
"He doesn't know." Y/N interjected.
Ellie agreed. "Yeah, I could tell."
"I know it works." Joel said.
Ellie was about to walk off, but the smuggler stopped her.
"No wandering."
She turned back around and faced the men. There was a moment of silence before the teenager decided enough was enough.
"Okay. This is your fault then."
Ellie started unzipping her backpack to take something out. Joel watched, wondering what she was doing. Y/N leaned his head back and looked up into the sky, letting out a sigh.
The teenager took out a book. She opened it up and started to read from it.
"It doesn't matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery."
Ellie laughed to herself afterward. The joke immediately caught Y/N's attention, and he looked back at the girl with her book in hand.
"Wha—What is that?" He asked although he had a strong idea what it was exactly.
"No Pun Intended, Volume Too by Will Livingston." She said and showed them the cover. "Volume Too. Look. You get it? Too? Like, T-o-o."
"Jesus." Joel groaned and started getting up.
Ellie read another. "What did the mermaid wear to her math class?"
There was a beat as Ellie waited for a possible answer from one of the men. She grinned and prepared to tell the punchline.
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"An algae bra." She laughed. "Like, algae bra."
Y/N also laughed at the pun. Joel glanced at his son, surprised at how much he did so. It was actually the first time in a long time he'd heard him laugh that strongly.
