There's always a light - Joel Miller x reader

Ep 2- Chapter Three

Ellie gives a sigh, "there's a firefly camp base somewhere out west, with doctors. They are working on a cure."

"Yeah I've heard that one before." Joel says, not convinced one bit.

"Well me too but how often do you see someone who's gotten bit and survived? I'm gonna take a guess and say it's not so often." I say to him.

"That's what this is? We've heard this a million times," Joel says slightly angrily. "Vaccine, miracle cures but it's never worked."

"Fuck you man, I didn't ask for this." Ellie shouts as she stands up.

"You and me both kid." He shouts back.

Me and Tess just stand looking between the two of them, watching them shout at each other.

"This isn't gonna end well Tess, we need to go back." He says sternly.

A/N- foreshadowing am I right 🤪

"Let's just finish it, it doesn't matter if she is or isn't what the fireflies say, if they believe that she is, we get what we want."

The two say silent for a moment then turn round to Ellie and Joel and he says, "if she so much as twitches."

And Ellie starts to make a joke choking noise and I can't help but let out a laugh at Tess's and Joel's serious faces.

Joel reluctantly agrees as we all start to pack our stuff up. As Tess and Ellie start to do their own thing and I take this as an opportunity to talk to him.

I walk over besides him. "You sure your hands alright?" I ask with a comforting smile on my face.

"Why the hell would you care?" He says coldly.

As much as I would never admit it, it kind of hurt my feelings.

I just stand there, slightly shocked but also hurt at the same time and then I turn away from him and pick up my backpack.

But what I didn't know is Joel has a guilty look on his face as I turn away.

Ellie sees Joel pick up his gun and asks,"Can I have a gun."

"Absolutely not"
"No." Tess and Joel say simply.

"I don't see why not." I say shrugging and they all turn to look at me.

"Are you joking?" Tess says sternly.
"Hey, I first got my hands on a gun younger than her. And I turned out okay."
"Some would argue you didn't." Joel says mockingly.

"Fine, no gun." I say throwing my arms up in the air as a mock surrender.

"Okay. Jesus. Fine. I'll have to throw a fucking sandwich at them." She replied, slightly annoyed and disappointed.

Joel struggles to move the, what looks like a vending machine, from the door as I walk over and give him a soft push out the way, as I move it to the side effortlessly with a smug smile on my face.

"Ladies first." I say pointing to the door smiling.

"Oh shut up." He replies, a bit embarrassed.

He opens the door and says it's clear for us to go out as we walk outside.

Ellie looks around and seems to be amazed.

"Woah.." she mutters

"Pretty cool huh?" I say smiling as we walk onwards.

"Woah is this where they bombed it?" Ellie asks with surprise and curiosity on her face.

"Yeah, they had to slow the spread somehow." I reply, slightly sadly as I fiddle with my necklace.

Joel seems to pick up on my sadness as he grabs me by the arm while the others walk on and turn to face me.

"What's up with that?" He says as he points to my necklace. "You fidget with it when you get upset." He says as he crosses his arms, looking into my eyes.

"Why would you care." I say mocking what he said earlier as I push past him and join the others as I tuck my necklace inside my shirt.

"Long way or short way?" Joel asks once he caught up to us.

"I mean, it's the long way or the 'we're fucking dead' way." Tess replies.

"Well I vote long way, based on that very limited information." Ellie says sarcastically.

"Me too." I say quickly.

"We have to check it from the hotel first." Joel states and we walk on towards the hotel.

Tess and Ellie walk a bit ahead of us, me and Joel walking peacefully in a comfortable silence, my way of saying 'I don't hate you.'

Suddenly while we are walking my hand accidentally grazes his and I quickly put my hand to my chest, embarrassed as I look away and try not to blush.

I catch a glance of him and just see him look away, also slightly embarrassed with him trying to fight a smile.

I decide to ignore him and just listen into Tess and Ellie's conversation.

"How did you get bit?" Tess asks.
"You know the mall in the QZ?" Ellie replies.

"The one that's sealed off and boarded up? And no one's supposed to go in, ever? That one?"

"Whatever, I snuck in. Wanted to see what is was like.. didn't think there was gonna be anything in there and then one just came at me out of nowhere. Thought I got away but.."

"So it was just you in there alone?" Tess ask.
"Yeah." Ellie says sadly as her voice breaks and I know she wasn't telling the truth but I don't say anything more, not wanting to upset her.

Date finished- 8/5/23 but 3am 💀
Word count- 923 words