Goodnight, Baby Girl.

Based off of this picture;
lari-fari.deviantart.com/art/I…

Joel and Ellie raced through the city, grasping each others hands, adrenaline pumping through their veins. Their backpacks were full of supplies they had gathered. Tools, pills, food, booze, all kinds of good shit. Ellie was free to wear short sleeves, due to her almost-two-year-old bite mark being almost healed. Joel was grinning ear-to-ear, he was actually having fun. What reason did he have to worry? He and his baby girl had been in worse situations, and they always survived. He was breaking the one rule he drilled into Ellie's head over and over again; never get too cocky.

the runners raced behind them, clicking and snarling. The hunger and bloodlust in their screams was bone chilling, but Ellie found it funny. People were so afraid of them, but they were just dumb animals. They couldn't talk, couldn't think, couldn't even open doors. It had been sheer, dumb luck that they had bitten her before. But now wasn't the time to think about that. Now was the time to run with Joel.

"c'mon!" He bellowed, racing into a store. The two pulled the door shut and pushed a shelf in front of it. The two survivors slid down the door, panting and gasping.

"ok..." Muttered Joel. "I... I think were safe..."

as as soon as the words left his lips, a stalker burst out of the closet and tackled Joel. He wrestled with it. A knot of burning pain seared into his collarbone. The monster had blood on its mouth-

BANG!!!

The stalkers brain pooped out of its forehead and onto Joel's plaid button-up shirt. He pushed the limp figure of what was once a person off of him. Leaning on his knees, he gasped for breath. The brain slopped off his shirt- but, wait... What was dripping from his shoulder? Blood? Had Ellie shot him? He stood, and Ellie's eyes fell on his left collarbone. Her face drained colour and her excited, fun-loving face fell. "J-Joel... Oh, god, Joel... Y-your shoulder..."

she rubbed at her shoulder, indicating for Joel to do the same. The Texan felt hot, wet, sticky liquid beneath his fingers. And something else. Puckered holes in his shoulder. Like bullet holes. Except smaller. Closer together... And they hurt...

Joel forced himself to look at the wound. A U-shaped, puckered, bleeding bite mark decorated his shoulder. "No..." He muttered, wiping at his shoulder as though the bite was just mud, and he could wipe it off and everything would be fine. "No... No..." The wiping was getting faster and harder. Joel started shaking his head. "No, goddammit, no... Please, god, no..."

his is terror and shock turned to rage. "Fuck!" He lunged at whatever was left of the stalker, and started pounding whatever he could reach. Bones broke beneath his hands, organs burst and splattered. "Fuck! Fuck!!! FUCK!!!" He roared like a wild animal. Ellie did nothing. She had acted similar when she thought she was infected, and like Riley, she let Joel get his anger out go his system.

eventually, Joel was just pounding wet chunks of meat into the floorboards, so he stopped. His shrieks and inhuman howls had turned into sobs and shivers.

for a few minutes, father and child stood still. Joel rolled off the walker and stood, facing his baby girl. She met his eyes with a watery gaze and asked the inevitable question;

"What do you wanna do?"

Joel understood the question. Did he want to die now, or once the infection took over, and he was reduced to a snarling, brainless monster?

"I don't wanna be one of 'Em, Ellie. They're... Satanic."

ellie nodded. She vaguely remembered Tess, who had chosen death by soldier rather than becoming a runner, stalker, clicker, bloater, or anything that didn't have "-er" in its name. She never thought Joel would have to make that decision.

"right."

"so, you know what you have to do for me?"

"uh-huh."

"Will you?"

"yeah. Don't worry, I'll go back to Tommy's-"

"no."

Ellie was stunned for only a moment. "No? What do you mean?"

"don't go back to Tommy's. Find a car, a horse, a boat, something- and get to Salt Lake City."

"why there?" She was beginning to get scared. No, no, Joel had sworn, he had said-

"I lied to you, Ellie. There was no immune community. The fireflies are still looking for a cure. They... They were going to kill you, Ellie. I couldn't live without you, but now... Now it's your choice. You can provide a cure or... Or live your life."

Ellie didn't know what to feel. Joel had lied to her about the fireflies, but now he was offering her a choice. And this raised some questions; Marlene probably knew Ellie wouldn't mind dying, but then why didn't she give her the choice, just to be sure? Why didn't she at least wake her up to thank her for the sacrifice she was making for humanity? Besides, after what people were like now, the cannibals, the bandits, was there even a chance at saving the world?

"no, Joel." She told him. "I'm not going back. The world isn't worth saving anymore. And... Thanks for giving me my life and... Oh, Christ, Joel, what a cock-knocking, motherfucking MESS this is!"

and she she burst into hard, wet, uncontrollable bawling. Joel gathered her gently to him and stroked her fiery hair. She wept uncontrollably into his no bitten shoulder. "Shh... I know, baby, I know. You gotta be strong for me, though."

"D-d-don't you die, y-you wh-whore..."

"believe me, Els, I'm trying. I don't wanna leave you."

Ellie pulled away and wiped at her face. "Ok... Whenever you're ready, Joel, I... I can do this."

"Ellie."

"I can." She insisted, and then in an undertone, "I have to."

The two looked at the gun between them. One of them needed to pick it up, put the barrel between Joel's eyes, and pull the trigger. And they needed to do it soon. The bite was only a few minutes old, and it was already worse. This was real. Joel was not coming back to the dam with Ellie. Aunt Maria's horrible policy about getting bitten reverberated in her ears; "if you get infected, you're already dead, so don't come back here and infect the rest of us."

it it was a policy that made perfect sense every other time, but when her father was involved, the young girl thought it cruel and unreasonable.

Joel gathered his daughter to his heart and let her head rest in the crook of his neck. He placed the gun gently into her hand and started stroking her hair back behind her ear. And then, he put his lips to her ear, and began to sing;

"Ellie, this is my fault,
dont blame yourself,
I did it 'cause I love you,
self-preservation on the shelf.

"I'm sorry that I lied to you
I ask forgiveness please.
I thought that you would dissappear,
me beggin' on my knees.

"I wish so bad you wouldn't cry
and wouldn't make a fuss.
You'll always be my baby girl,
you are the last of us."

the he song gave Ellie the comfort and reassurance that she needed to do what was necessary. She swallowed, pointed the barrel of the gun at Joel's forehead, and looked away. "I love you, daddy."

Joel sighed and closed his eyes. "Goodnight, baby girl."

BANG!!!

the texan's brains hit the floor with a loud splatter as they rushed out the back of his head. The only evidence if a gunshot from the front was an inch-wide crater in the centre of his forehead. With a loud plop! Joel toppled foreword, revealing the ugly wound, which had ripped his scalp off, hair and all, and left it hanging on a hinge. The girl stared at his body a minute, then grabbed his bag, hers and the gun, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

eventually, she reached Tommy's wall, and made a sort of moaning sound. Maria popped her head over the wall, saw Ellie, and motioned for Tommy to open the gate. at first, he grinned and held out his arms to her. Then he looked around. "Hey, where... Where's Joel?"

Ellie gave a dry sob.

"Ellie, what happened to Joel?"

"T-T-Tommeeee...."

"No... No, Goddamnit, no, not Joel, Ellie, tell me you're lyin'!"

she let out a small wail of despair, and rushed into Tommy's arms. The two collapsed to the ground, holding on for dear life. They could never let go. If they did, they would both lose a piece of Joel. A man who was so invincible, reduced to begging his preteen to kill him, to prevent him becoming a monster in this apocalypse.

as night dawned on the dam, Tommy and Ellie slept clinging to each other, and Ellie knew she couldn't go back to Salt Lake City.

she was the last of us.