"So, how are things with Ellie?" Joel asked as the two of us sat in the ski resort building waiting for Elle and Tommy to get back. "Uh, I guess their okay." Joel looked at me as he raised his eyebrows. "You guess?" I looked down at my lap before giving a small chuckle. "I commented against something she thought was cool resulting in us getting into a dumb argument." I looked back up at him as he stared laughing at me.

"That's one thing you don't want to do."

"Well, it's not my fault I have my own opinions on things." I defended myself. "Well then maybe you two should talk about it. There might be something deeper about the argument." I nodded rubbing my hands together. "Do you think she knows? About the Fireflies?" Joel let out a sigh. "I mean, she's been acting a bit weird for the past few weeks... She's more reserved." Joel rubbed his beard. "It's possible but we won't know until she confronts us about it."

It was quiet before Ellie and Tommy both walked through the doors. "That was y' all shootin' out there, right?"

"Oh, just some stragglers. Ellie got to try out my scope." The two took a seat by a table. "How'd you like it?" Joel asked her. "It's nice, right?" I added. "Yeah, it feels good."

"I see you've, uh... you haven't gotten around to changing the strings yet." Joel stood from his chair and walked closer to Ellie. "Wait, you're supposed to change those?" I asked pointing at the guitar. "Yeah, I didn't know that either." Ellie giggled. "Yeah, you uh... We'll get you some new ones." He placed her guitar on the table and Tommy grabbed it as Joel sat back down.

"There's that music store down there. I bet they got guitar stuff." Tommy spoke up but got no reply. "I mean, that area's long overdue for a sweep anyway. I can keep watch." Tommy finished. "What do you say, Elle?" I asked only getting a "Sure" from her. Tommy strummed the guitar as we got up and walked out. "And that's our que." Tommy chuckled at Joel's words.

We got on our horses and rode out while the two talked.

------------

"I have a bad feeling about this." I said as we helped Ellie crawl under some of the debris of the hotel to get in. "You have a bad feeling about everything." Ellie said as she crawled through. "Yet I'm usually right." I could tell she shook her head even if I couldn't see her. "I'm through, hold on!" She yelled from the other side. "All right." Joel said.

The two of us waited by the doors until Ellie unlocked and opened it. "Well, hello." She said opening the door. "Howdy." "You impressed?"

"Nope. You're just too skinny, you need to eat more." The two of us walked in. "He's right." I whispered to her as I walked passed. "You're welcome." She said with a scoff and I let out a laugh. We walked through the hotel with our flashlights and ran into some spores so we all put on our masks. Even if Ellie was immune Joel still made her wear one incase we ran into some people and we wouldn't have to explain why she wasn't coughing.

--------------

"So... what do you say we give up on those strings for today?" Ellie suggested. "Yes! Please, I would like to go home." I spoke up immediately. Honestly, I had grown accustomed to living a 'domestic' life in Jackson. "Couldn't have said it better myself." Joel said laughing at my response. "But I think our only way out is forward now..."

Joel and I walked up to a door and he pushed it open. With Ellie right behind us we walked through. We had to squeeze through a tight space and sort of squat under pipes. That bad feeling I had earlier got worse as I heard growling or gargling of some sort. And the source of those noises was shown when Ellie accidentally broke a pipe and that infected broke the wall and pulled her out.

"Ellie!" Joel and I yelled. We crawled out of the wall to see a bloater. The two of us pulled out our guns and shot the infected hoping to get its attention to focus on us so that Ellie could get away. "Come on!" Joel yelled effectively getting its attention. It ran at us as we shot at it and Ellie got up. As we started damaging the bloater, other infected started coming at us because of the amount of noise we were making.

At some point, we actually defeated the bloater and other infected leaving us breathless. "C'mon." I said as I helped Ellie off the floor. "Shit."

"That was too close." Joel said as he lead the way to get out of the area. "Told you guys I had a bad feeling." Ellie smacked my arm and walked ahead of me. "Sure... but we fucking did it."

"We sure did."

---------------

"Hey, Joel." Ellie said as she looked at the dead, decomposing body. "I think it's them. The couple that ran away last year." Joel walked over to the body that Ellie was looking at and squatted down next to it. I looked over at one of the tables and saw a piece of paper on it. I grabbed it and started reading.

"Jackson is a wonderful place but we got tired of hearing the stories of people suffering everywhere else. We wanted to save lives. We had good intentions. We didn't make it an hour before running into a horde. Now we're bitten. We've decided we're going to end our lives instead of turning. Please tell our family and friends that we're sorry. Love Adam and Sidney."

I finished and passed it over to Ellie. She flipped it around and there was more.

"I shot her. I can't take my own life. I'm a fucking coward. Adam."

"Jesus." Joel whispered. "If only they were immune, right?" Ellie said catching us off guard. "Well. Let's... Let's go get Tommy, and we can get these bodies back to Jackson." Joel started walking off but Ellie stayed in her spot. I too stayed but only because Ellie wasn't moving. "After you took me out of the Firefly hospital, you said there were dozens of people like me."

...

"Yeah. Yeah, that's what they told me."

...

"I've never met another immune person before. Have you?" Ellie looked between me and Joel.

"They could be hiding it. You do." Ellie placed the note back on the table. "Do you believe that?"

...

"Is now really the time for this?" Joel walked back over to us.

"We traveled across the entire country to bring me to the Fireflies... I had so many questions for them. Why did you pull me out of there while I was still unconscious?"

"Because we let them run their tests, and when I saw they were useless, I got us out of there--"

"How do you know they were useless?" Ellie cut Joel off and I took a few steps back as my lips formed a line. "Maybe if you just woulda given them more time, they could have figured something out--" Joel cut Ellie off this time. "Ellie!" He took a few more steps closer to her. "There was no cure. There's nothing that could've helped these people or anybody else. I know you wish things were different -- I wish things were different. But they ain't. We need to get there kids back to their families. Or is there somethin' else you'd like to rehash?"

"No."

"Good. C'mon." Joel turned to walk out and before Ellie could move to follow I spoke up. "Why don't Ellie and I stay here while you go get Tommy?" I suggested making Joel turn around. "I just have to talk to her about a few things." He had a look in his eye telling me not to tell her the truth. "It's about what we talked about earlier." He nodded and left the hotel.

I looked over at Ellie and noticed that she looked like she wanted to cry but was holding it back. "Need a hug?" I asked opening my arms for her and she accepted. We wrapped our arms around each other and just stood there.

"He's just trying to keep us safe... Plus he thinks of you as his daughter." I said patting her head as it laid on my chest. "I know." Instead of us actually talking about what I told Joel we were going to talk about we just stood there in each others embrace until Joel came back with Tommy.