𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙤𝙧 ━ 𝙩𝙡𝙤𝙪

20 years later

╔═══*.·:·.★ ✦ ★･:･:*═══╗

2 0  Y E A R S  L A T ER

paige knocks on the shared apartment between herself and her father. earlier having had an argument about their shortage of ration cards. knocking again, purposely louder to annoy her dad. when she hears a gruff voice speak from within. She stops the rapid banging on the door "i'm coming."

the door was whipped open, leaving the two give a hard stare at each other. paige pushed past him and towards the liquor that was on the table and quickly pours herself a drink. "how was your morning? want one?" she gestures to the bottle.

"no, i don't... want one." he replies.

"well I have some interesting news for you." the young girl begins.

"where were you paige?" joel cuts her off, using a stern voice.

she sighs before continuing "west end district. hey we had a drop to make."

"we. we had a drop to make." he retorts, getting angry that his daughter had gone without him.

"yeah well you're the one that wanted to be left alone remember?" paige reminds him.

opening the cap of bottle again, she holds a rag against, then lifts it to her wounds. "so i'll take one guess. the deal went south, and the client made off with our pills. is that about right?" koel asks snarkily.

paige replied in the same tone, "deal went off with a hitch. enough ration cards to last us a couple months. easy."

this caused the father to raise his brows in disbelief, "you wanna explain this?" gesturing up to her face.

she explained "i was on my way back here and was jumped by these two assholes, alright? yeah they got a few good hits in. but... look i managed."

scoffing, joel grabbed the cloth from her hand, "gimme that" tilting her head, he continues "these assholes still with us?"

already knowing the answer. she smirked, "now that's funny"

becoming serious once more, the man asks "did you find out who they were?"

she being quick to reply "yeah, look, they were a couple of nobodies, they don't matter. ehat matters is robert fucking sent them."

he looked into her eyes with disbelief. "our Robert?"

nodding, his daughter replies, "he knows that we're after him. he figures he's gonna get us first."

joel scoffed "that son of a bitch, he's smart."

rolling her eyes, paige replied, "no, he's not smart enough. i know where he's hiding."

with a shake of his head, the father asked in disbelief, "like hell you do."

a smirk etched across her face, head tilted slightly, "old warehouse in area 5, can't say for how long though."

"well I'm ready now. yeah?" joel grumbled the question.

"oh I can do now." with this the pair set out of the door, closing it behind them.

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normally walking outside, you would be met with a clear blue sky, and air easy to breathe, instead, after twenty years of infection had cause the sky to be a pale grey colour, and the air to foggy and thick with pollution that it was hard to inhale.