Chapter 5: A Favor

                                    

                                          
"Sure." Ellie said, with her head down. "Repeat it." Joel demanded, looking at the two. "What you say, goes." They both said at the same time. Joel sighed and stood up, looking at the two then looking in the distance. "There's a town a few miles out, there's a fella there that owes me some favors. Good chance he could get us a car." Joel said, looking over to them. "Let's get a move on." He motioned for them to follow, and they walked off towards the town.
                          
Chapter 5
                          
It had been a couple days after the events went down in the capitol. Everyone was still going through the backlash, but they tried their best to forget it. However, (Y/N) still seemed heavily affected by their journey through Boston. A little fact that was not unnoticed by the other teenager in the group. Ellie slowed her pace to match (Y/N)s and ended up next to him. 
                          
"Hey," she started, causing the boy to look over. "What's up?" He asked casually, trying to seem like it was alright. But he was trying a little too hard. "Are you alright? You've seemed pretty out of it ever since Boston." She said, recalling how he had acting when they first met. He seemed carefree and joking, then just before the capitol he had gone silent. He hadn't even pointed out Tess's bite.
                          
"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered briefly, trying to close the conversation. "Bullshit, you aren't alright." Ellie claimed, staring at him and not backing down. "Fine, I'm not alright." (Y/N) conceded, but then explain any further, which prompted Ellie to try again. "I'm not going to stop bothering you until you tell me." She had declared, acting like a child.
                          
(Y/N) sighed as he stared ahead at Joel, who was silently leading them. "That horde of infected, just before the Museum. I've had... some terrible experiences with hordes like that. And it just threw me off. But I'm fine." (Y/N) stated, ending the conversation and ignoring any further talk about it. They were silent again, until Joel called to them. 
                          
He pointed out the town and jumped the railing on the side of the road they had been walking on. "It'll be faster to go through here." He claimed as he landed a couple feet down, into a forest. (Y/N) sighed as Ellie followed, and soon he joined them. "Man..." Ellie started, looking around at the beauty. "What?" Joel questioned as he stopped to look at her. "Nothing. It's just that... I've never seen anything like this is all."
                          
"You mean the woods?" Joel asked, stepping over some above ground roots from a tree. "Man that's what they're called? I just called them tree fields." (Y/N) claimed, causing Ellie to start laughing and Joel gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, I've never walked through the tree fields before." Ellie answered Joel in between fits of laughing. (Y/N) pouted at the mocking, but let out an unseen smile. 
                          
They kept walking until the approached a bit of a pond, with a White Crane resting atop the water. "Woah!" Ellie and (Y/N) both said, watching the beautiful creature fly off. After a bit more walking,  Ellie seemed to get an idea. "Why don't you just take me back to Marlene?" She asked Joel, not noticed (Y/N) poking some suspicious flowers. "If she was up to the task, why'd she drop you off on us?" Joel asked back, looking at Ellie now.
                          
"Well, maybe she's better now." Ellie claimed, looking right back at Joel. "Kid, I don't mean to upset you, but your friend's chances of survival weren't to high to begin with." Joel explained, causing Ellie to look a little disheartened. "Besides, if she's back in Boston, there's no way we could reach her. Not without running into even more infected." (Y/N) stated, now holding one of the flowers. That was, until it was blown out of his hand.
                          
"I doubt I could get any of us back into that city, not in one piece anyways." Joel reasoned more, leaving Ellie to sigh and sulk back as they kept moving forward. "Yeah, and I kinda like all my pieces together, so how about we just go find this dude and get us a car?" (Y/N) said, hoping he could cheer Ellie up a little bit. "Yeah, Alright." Ellie relented as they came up to a gated enclosure.