Preacher's Daughter (The Last of Us - Joel Miller)

Thoroughfare

Tommy was gone. Tess was gone. Bill and Frank were gone. Lianne was gone.

Lianne was gone.

Joel is alone. Alone with a fourteen year old girl, tasked with trekking her across the country for the "fucking Fireflies." The one thing he had hated about his brother. The one thing he prayed Lianne wouldn't fall in with. And it had sucked him right into it.

Joel and Ellie had spent the night nestled in the woods a few miles from Bill and Frank's house. Joel sipped on the coffee that was promised by Lianne.

How long had it been since Lianne was at Bill and Frank's before Joel found them? Did she know already? Had she stayed with them until the end? How close behind her were Joel and Ellie?

Ellie had stuck her nose into the percolator to take a strong whiff, turning pale in a recoil at the smell. She let out a wretched noise, contorting her face in disgust as she quickly closed the lid to the coffee percolator, pulling Joel's attention back to her.

He twists to look over his shoulder, brows shooting up as he examines her scrunched face.

"You don't like coffee?" Joel asks the young girl, voice gravely in a gentle surprise.

"Is this that shit they used to sell at Starbucks in the QZs?" She had asked him, face still scrunched in a pained grimace.

"It was a lot fresher than this, but yeah," Joel had responded, voice barely above a gruff grunt.

"You ever go there?" Ellie continued quizzically. "Before?"

"Not really to Starbucks, but to smaller coffee shops," Joel answered, voice becoming softer. "My wife liked the local-"

"Your wife?" Ellie perks up, face contorting into a whole new expression of surprise. "You? Married? Dude, why haven't you said anything?"

Her words fall upon deaf ears, Joel turning from her with a grunt.

A memory of her floats across his vision. The golden rays of the morning sun seeped through the cafe window to cast a warm glow around her. Her cheeks were pulled into a smile, full and rosy, laughing at something Joel had said. His thumb had traced the swell of her soft cheeks, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her warm and forgetless eyes shined bright, crinkled in the corners.

The thought of her made his stomach turn.

"Forget it," he chides in Ellie's direction. He'd let it slip, the mention of Lianne. He had wanted to bring her up earlier, when he and Tess first met Ellie and she had asked if the two of them were together, or when they first reached Bill and Frank's. He especially wanted to talk about her when he didn't know what the fuck to do, and knew that she would have the answer. Wanted to bring her up just to keep the memory of her fresh in his mouth. But he had kept his tongue bit, wanting to keep her separate from this journey, as much as his body and soul ached in longing for her to be beside him. She would know what to do. She would know where to go. As much as she would keep him on his toes, she would be there to keep him grounded and his mind level.

—-

Weeks had turned into months of radio silence. The group that Lianne had left with all that time ago no longer existed; people giving up the fight and dying off. And still no sound of Joel.

Lianne had made it to that safe house in Nebraska about a week ago. In the beginning, she cleared out the town of any infected, ensuring her safety and isolation. Evening passed and morning came - that was the first day.

She spent what was left of the few remaining candles the first night. After a night of cold darkness with no electricity, Lianne had found some more candles in an old store down the road. The main floor of the house glowed warm, dozens of candles lighting the windowsills, climbing the way up the staircase, and above the fireplace mantle.