27. right between the eyes.

                                    

                                          





AFTER EVERYTHING HE HAD JUST BEEN TOLD about those scattered memories, Joel had expected the next event in the lineup to be Outbreak Day, but the storytelling had been postponed following rattling upstairs and a pair of muffled voices.
Ralph furrowed his eyebrows and looked up at the ceiling, scooting away from Joel a tiny bit so he could reach for his gun, only to realize that he had never had the gull to take it off of Joel while he was asleep. He applauded himself for his sudden morality, but quickly changed his mind about it when someone was stomping down the stairs.
'Hold him down.' Lou ordered, leaning Joel's rifle up against the wall as Ellie hurried over to Ralph and dropped to her knees right in front of Joel. She tossed the blanket off of him hurriedly and looked at Ralph, raising a needle with a bit of thread attached to it.
Joel made a sound that sounded vaguely like a 'no!', but Ellie was already peeling his bloodied shirt back and looking at Ralph for a bit of assistance.
'Did you disinfect that?' He asked worriedly, watching as she held the needle close to his skin and squinted to see the ridges of the wound better. She looked back at him with wide eyes, and then over her shoulder to Lou, spoiling the surprise that no, she hadn't.
Ralph looked between the two of them, looking like he was about to launch into a lecture about first aid, but Joel was still attempting to dig his knee into Ellie's stomach to get her to back off.
Ralph reached forward, took the needle from her, and they swapped places from there. Ralph shifted to kneel in front of Joel's stomach, and Ellie scooted upwards to pin his hands down on top of his chest, intertwining her fingers with him as Ralph took a deep breath and, eventually, began to sew.
...
DAYS HAD PASSED SINCE THEN, and Ralph was really beginning to wish that they had just taken the extra time to find a bar of soap or something. Even if Lou had ran outside and scrubbed some snow on top of it, he was sure that would've done the job. Joel's stab mark was stitched up, sure, but it was turning green and purple and looked totally gross.
It also didn't help anyone's nerves that, since then, Joel had been in and out of consciousness constantly, and Ralph was doing the same exact thing due to his stubbornness about going to sleep. And that they were running out of food, and water.
It was silent in the basement, as it had been for a while, and Ralph was sleeping with his back against a desk and his arms crossed over his chest, still sitting upright, which was kind of creepy.
Ellie had finished her portion of Rabbit with her stomach still empty, growling at her like she was meant to do something about it. Next to her, she could tell Lou was feeling the same thing, and the two of them shared a frown.
Then, Lou nodded over her shoulder, and Ellie turned on her heel to look at the rifle against the wall, picking up what she was laying down almost immediately. Without even a second thought, Ellie nodded at her and leaned down to speak to Joel in a hushed voice.
'Hey, we'll be right back, okay?' She assured him, even though she highly doubted that he even knew what was going on or that he could hear anything that she was saying to him. Then, Ellie hopped to her feet and grabbed the barrel, swinging the gun over her shoulder and zipping up her jacket.
She wasn't sure if it was the scuff of footsteps or the zipping of her coat that made Ralph wake up, but the second he did, the puzzle pieces clicked and he was opening his mouth and shaking his head, still half asleep.