Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I didn't really have your typical upbringing. I mean, I did at first, but then the world ended. I don't think anyone was really shocked. We always thought it might, and then it just finally happened. But how it happened, now that's where it gets interesting. Agatha 616. Yep, an asteroid heading straight for Earth. I know, so obvious—"

"You talk so much. You know that?"

"Elizabeth, please don't interrupt me when I'm talking. So, humanity came together, and we did what we do best: we shot a bunch of rockets at it! And we blew it up! And it was great! But, it wasn't. You see, the thing that makes rockets, rockets... is chemical compounds, a lot of them, which rained back down on us, and everything changed. And by 'everything', I mean cold-blooded creatures. And by 'changed', I mean mutated and started eating us to death. Ants, lizards, roaches, crocodiles, you name it, there's a lot of them. I knew this one kid who was eaten in his sleep by a goldfish he won at a carnival. Man, Todd loved that goldfish. And that cat—"

"Did you even know a Todd?"

"Not the point. For most of human history, if you wanted to kill a cockroach, all you needed was a shoe. Well, suddenly you needed a shotgun. And sometimes even a tank. And sometimes even that doesn't work. Especially if you don't stay in the tank, Bob—"

"You never knew a Bob, either, did you?"

"Will you shut up? Eventually, the really big ones and our military took each other out. We lost 95% of the human population in about a year. That's a lot of Bobs. And a lot of Todds—"

"Alright, time's up. Get out."

"Wait, I'm nearly done!"

"Hurry the hell up, Joel!"

"Anyway, those of us who survived, we hid anywhere we could... bunkers, caves, panic rooms all around the world. So, for the last seven years I've been living in an underground bunker. It's not as bad as it sounds, really. It's a great group of people, and we all love each other—"

"Oh, my God—"

"For the love of God, Elizabeth, I'm trying to talk! Ahem, and you know, it's kind of what I imagined college would have been like—"

"Out!"

"I'm out, I'm out! And good riddance!"

___________

SIX YEARS AGO

"Hello?"

Everyone in Joel's colony was in a deep slumber. Everyone apart from him.

"Is anybody in there?"

Tossing and turning, Joel was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. He always found it incredibly difficult to fall asleep, especially when his fellow colony members were always having sex. That's right, the majority of them were already coupled up, and the apocalypse only began about a year ago.

"Hello?"

The teenager paused and stared up at the ceiling —which he couldn't exactly see since it was dark, but still stared at the ceiling nonetheless. He furrowed his eyebrows, not quite able to pinpoint exactly whose voice he could hear. It had to be someone from his colony — but why couldn't he recognise it?

Or maybe it was in his head?

"Anyone?"

He slapped himself on the head in an attempt to convince himself that it was nothing to worry about. Everyone was asleep. And there was no way that someone was on the surface. Absolutely no way.

"Help!"

It was at this point that Joel sat up. "Someone needs help," he mumbled to himself. He got out of his bed and groaned as his weight shifted onto his feet, and walked sluggishly to the bunker's entrance. He placed his hand on the handle to open it, a sense of fear and trepidation rising within his body, contemplating whether it was a good idea to even open it, especially when it was so late. Suddenly, the boy felt something on his shoulder, nearly making him jump out of his skin.

Joel's head whipped around to see Ray, his chest heaving in relief. "Oh, my God, Ray, I think you just gave me a minor heart attack."

"You heard someone calling too?"

Joel's lip curled downwards, trying to play it off. "Uh, yeah. It sounded like someone saying they need help."

Ray nodded firmly at him, before shoving him to the side and placing his own hand on the door handle.

"Anyone?" came the voice from outside again. The feminine voice was firm yet wavering at the same time. It was clear she was frightened.

Ray flinched when he heard her, a look of shock plastered across his face, Joel mirroring his expression. Before finally, Ray pursed his lips nervously, placing his hand on the handle and swinging the door open.

There was a brunette girl, rather petite, standing right at the bunker's entrance. A small, hesitant smile cracked through her lips. She sucked in a deep breath before she spoke. "Hey. I'm sorry to wake you, I know it's late. This is the first colony I've come across in a while. Would you mind if I came in? I don't need to stay, I just need some food and then—"

"Yes, yes. God, get in here!" Ray dragged the girl into the bunker, cutting her rambling short and swiftly locking the door behind her.

She stared at him blankly, releasing a shaky breath. "Thank you." When her vision then diverted to Joel, she was bewildered to see that his eyes were fixated on her, his mouth dropped wide open. "Are you okay?" she asked him, feeling a smile grow on her face again.

"Y— yeah! Yeah. Hi. I'm Joel. Who are you?" his words seemed to have all jumbled together. Undoubtedly, Joel was pondering over how a girl who was that pretty and looked about his age had miraculously found her way to his colony.

"I'm Elizabeth. Elizabeth Parker," she replied, "but you can call me Liz."

Ray's eyes flickered between the two conversing teenagers, his foot incessantly tapping on the floor. "Alright. Liz, let's get you some food, okay? And a good night's sleep too."

Liz nodded, and Ray patted her shoulder before he grabbed Joel by the arm and dragged him, beginning to walk further into the bunker with Liz trailing right behind them. "Ow, ow, ow!" Joel spluttered out, Ray with a firm grip on his arm. "You're hurting me!"

"Keep your teenage, hormonal thoughts in check," Ray snapped lowly into his ear.

Joel gaped at him as his cheeks flushed, quickly glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Liz didn't hear him. "Yeah? Well, you guys don't exactly have your adult, hormonal thoughts in control either," he snarked back in a hiss. "And besides, I have a girlfriend."

Ray side-eyed him before releasing his firm grip on Joel's arm, having left a few faint red marks. "Mhm," he hummed sarcastically.

"God, you're so aggressive." Joel's fingers clasped around where Ray had grabbed onto and rubbed gently. "And I do have a girlfriend. Her name is Ai—"

"Aimee. I know. We all know," Ray interrupted, "you've told us all. Many, many times." Ray paused in his footsteps, making Joel bump right into him, before he did a one-eighty turn to face Liz. "Liz, did you know that Joel has a girlfriend?"

The girl furrowed her eyebrows, a silence settling over the area around them for a few seconds. She eventually shook her head in response.

"Well, now you do. Joel probably would've told you at some point, anyway. He never shuts up about her." Ray smirked while he quickly looked at Joel, who was glaring back at him, wide eyed. Ray raised his hands in surrender jokingly before turning back around and continuing to walk.

"Dude!" Joel complained as he followed.

__________

"So, you're from Fairfield?"

Liz looked up from her food and nodded at Karen, one of the many colony members who were now awake due to all the commotion, all circling her and bombarding her with an absurd amount of questions. And to be quite honest, Liz just wanted to eat. She was starving.

"And you've been on the surface for a whole year?"

Liz nodded again, uninterested in talking. She was too indulged in her long awaited hot meal; something she hadn't been given the opportunity to have in a couple of months.

"And you're how old, did you say?" Karen further questioned.

Liz swallowed a mouthful of her food before she answered. "Sixteen."

As soon as she confirmed her age, there was a widespread murmur around the entire room, along with a couple of inevitable gasps here and there. Though, Liz was used to it. Every time she found herself at a new colony, everyone seemed to have the same reaction. Ray glanced over at Joel with a grin etched across his face. "I guess Joel's not the youngest in our colony anymore," he announced.

Joel flinched off the wall he was leaning against as he heard his name, completely disoriented after having been daydreaming for a while. "What?"

"What?" Liz instantly asked, straight after Joel did, sounding as if she was mocking him. Joel narrowed his eyes at her, the pair of them just as confused as each other. "In your colony?" Liz looked at Ray in question.

The man walked over to Liz, the girl still sitting there, nearly finished with her meal. "Yep, you're staying with us," he iterated, his eyes spanning the rest of the colony members for approval. When they nodded, he continued. "You're so young; you can't be out there by yourself."

Liz looked up at him, a flustered expression upon her face. "No, no, I've been fine for the whole year! I swear, it's okay. I didn't mean to intrude—"

"Yeah!" Joel agreed. Everyone's heads whipped round in his direction, and Joel's cheeks reddened as he realised how bad it sounded out loud that he wanted the sixteen-year-old girl gone. "I mean, she has a point. She's survived the whole time. Why are you stopping her from— uh..." Joel paused, clacking his tongue rhythmically as he tried to think of the correct word to use, "—her adventures?"

Liz snorted at his stupidity. "If you don't want me here, just say so. I won't be offended," she retorted. "I'm going, anyway." The girl stood up, picking up her backpack and pulling the straps around her arms.

Everyone stared back at Joel again, giving him looks that screamed 'this is your fault', but the boy just shrugged. In all honesty, Joel didn't want her to stay. As terrible as it sounded, Joel was used to being the baby of the colony. He loved it: everyone obsessing over him, trying to make sure that he was okay. Now this new girl came in — literally out of nowhere — and stole the spotlight, and Joel couldn't help but feel envious about it. No matter how pretty he thought she was at first, his opinions switched in the space of half an hour, and he decided that he didn't like this girl already.

"Oh, no, you're not," Karen stood in front of her, blocking her view and preventing her from taking any steps forward. "You're staying right here."

Liz crossed her arms over her chest. "Karen, I'm appreciative. I really am. But Joel's right. And besides, I like being on the surface." Liz pulled her lips inwards into an awkward smile before she lightly tried to push Karen to the side so she could pass her, only to then bump into Ray who stood in front of her. "Ray, I—"

"You're not leaving. You're way too young to be alone and we're welcoming you to our home with open arms—"

"Joel doesn't want me here," Liz interrupted.

The man sighed, rubbing his hand on his chin. "He does, he just doesn't realise it yet. Joel's stupid."

Biting the inside of her cheeks to keep herself from laughing, Liz looked at Joel, who was rolling his eyes. "Are you sure?" she questioned, looking back at the man in front of her.

"Positive." Ray chuckled lightly. "Did you like the minestrone, by the way?"

Liz sat back down in the seat she was in previously. "It was delicious. Thank you."

Ray shook his head. "Don't thank me," he pointed at Joel before he continued, "thank him."

Liz narrowed her eyes at Joel, taken aback by the fact that Joel had made her food. And good food, at that. "You made this?" she asked him from afar.

"Yeah," Joel muttered, looking down at his hands, trying to go along with the careless act.

Liz's eyes softened on him. "Thank you," she said lowly, as an awkward silence filled the room for a short while.

"There! See? Friends already," Ray's voice pierced the air as he strolled over to Joel to wrap his arm around the boy's shoulders, grinning from ear to ear. "I have a feeling you two will get along perfectly fine."

Chapter Text

"Well, that was an extremely long day," Liz huffed, strolling to the bathroom alongside Kayla.

"Tell me about it," Kayla groaned, before turning to her friend. "Are you going to bed? I'm sure you're tired."

As soon as Kayla asked the question, Connor, her boyfriend, came walking towards the bathroom too, almost on cue. Truthfully speaking, Liz was a little tired. Kayla was right: being a part of the hunting party was fun and all — you know, with all the 'adventures' as Joel liked to call them — but it did get incredibly tiring. However, Liz was willing to pass up on the offer to go into the bathroom with Kayla and her boyfriend. Or even wait for them to get out for that matter, since they always took hours in there. No one knew what they got up to... and no one really wanted to know either. Ironic, though, since they'd just had a baby a couple of weeks ago.

Liz pursed her lips inwards in thought before she gave them both a false smile. "You know what? I'm not really tired. You two can go into the bathroom first."

"You sure? You can come with us—"

"I'm good, thanks," Liz cut her off, sending another small smile her way and turning around quickly before she could say anything more.

It was funny, really. Living together in a bunker meant that people had to share the bathroom sometimes. There was only one — or if you were lucky enough to be living in a bigger bunker, two — and so many people living under one roof meant that there wasn't enough time for everyone to just wait. While showering, everyone was expected to keep the door open to allow anyone to come in if they needed to pee. And locks were forbidden. Gross, right? Of course, you could still refuse. Some people did... but the people who were really desperate would have to go and pee on the surface, which was absolutely disgusting. It seemingly repelled monsters though, which was always a plus.

Liz usually refused to share the bathroom with anyone, despite having walked in on pretty much every colony member completely naked at some point— often part of a pair, doing God knows what.

The little lady decided that she'd go and make herself useful, coming up with the idea that she'd go and milk the colony's cow, Gertie. Making her way to the area the cow stays at, she could hear the sound of objects persistently falling to the ground, banging and clashing into each other.

Finally approaching the room, she rolled her eyes when realising what was going on.

It was Joel, being the colony's clown as per usual. Liz made her way closer to him, but ensuring that she kept her distance from the man of whom she didn't get along with very well.

Joel heard her footsteps and his head whipped around, sighing deeply when he noticed who is was. "What do you want?" he mumbled as he looked forward again and took his stance, regaining focus towards the crossbow in his hands.

"You're making a lot of noise, you know," Liz slowly walked over to the wall near where Gertie was held, stroking the cow as she spoke. But its reaction was not what she expected; the cow began to moo incessantly, causing the girl to panic, immediately recoiling and moving her hand from its skin in attempt to make it be quiet. "Shhh!" she hissed at the animal.

Joel snorted. "What, so you can deal with man-eating monsters for a whole year, but not a cow?" he mocked, glancing at the girl.

"Oh, shut up," Liz scowled, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against the wall behind her. "What are you even doing here? It's late."

"I could ask you the same thing." Joel aimed the crossbow towards the target, closing one eye in attempt to ensure it was in line with the middle. "And what I'm doing is called target practice."

Before Liz could respond, Joel released the arrow. Rather than it hitting anywhere near the target, it flew across the room and hit the robot, MAV1S, right in her metal chest. Liz began to laugh uncontrollably at Joel's failure, finding it utterly hilarious that he hadn't even gotten the arrow within a metre radius of the target. "Oh, you're terrible," she wheezed. "Poor MAV1S!"

Joel sent an icy glare Liz's way, causing the girl to pause her hysterics and raise her hands in defeat, but struggled to keep her laugh in nonetheless. Joel faced forward again, eyes softening as he looked at the robot. "Sorry, MAV1S," he murmured, before Liz grinned and shook her head at his words.

"Do you need help?" Liz offered, walking towards him.

"No, thanks. I don't need your—"

Joel was cut off when Liz snatched the crossbow right off him. "From the looks of things, you need all the help you can get," she dismissed, immediately taking her stance, aiming the bow directly towards the middle of the board.

Joel gaped slightly as he watched her in fascination, wondering how she was able to do that so quickly, since took him at least ten seconds to achieve the correct feet placement.

Without even giving Joel a chance to say anything, Liz spoke. "So, you're right-handed, right? Okay, so you stand like this: right foot in front of left," she instructed, looking at him to ensure he was paying attention. "You were nearly holding it correctly. Nearly. You're meant to hold it like this." She shook her hands a little, the bow rattling in her hands slightly, to emphasise how she was holding it. "Shut your eye that's furthest away from the weapon — for me, it's my right — for a better aim."

Joel nodded slowly, making it clear that he understood. However, he couldn't help but wonder why she was helping him, given the fact that they'd never gotten along, ever since she found her way into their colony six years ago.

Then, Liz released the arrow and it pierced through the air, both of their eyes trailing it, and landed right in the middle of the target. Joel's eyes widened; he'd never actually seen her in action before. A small, proud grin etched across Liz's face before she turned to him, handing him the crossbow. "Your turn."

Joel nervously took it from her, attempting to get in the right position. After he placed his feet where Liz instructed, along with holding the weapon how she said to, he looked at her. "Like this?" he asked, ensuring he was doing it correctly.

Liz nodded. "Now, shoot."

Like before, Joel closed one eye in attempt to aim better, as he pulled back the arrow.

Just as he was about to release, the lights of the bunker suddenly began to flicker. He paused whatever he was doing, turning to Liz. "What's happening?" his voice wavered.

Liz met his glare, eyes wide in shock with unsettling feelings of trepidation rising in the atmosphere. She didn't say anything, simply shrugging at his question.

Out of nowhere, there were screams heard from the rest of the colony members, followed by an animal-like screeching sound.

"We need to go," Liz said quickly as she tugged at Joel's shirt, dread curling in both of their stomachs as they ran towards where the screams were coming from.

"Wait!" Joel attempted to stop her, but the girl continued running. She knew that she was needed: everyone in the colony often relied on her to be there to help.

However, Joel stayed put, eyes darting around the room to look at all the guns and weapons. He was spiralling, panic rushing through his body as he contemplated what to do, before he finally sucked in a deep breath and picked up as many weapons as he could, sprinting back to the main colony centre.

When he got there, Liz and the rest of the colony members were already fumbling around, trying to get all their guns together, the buzz of persistent panic-talk heard throughout the entire bunker.

"Hey, guys!" Joel rushed in exasperation, distributing the guns out to the colony members. "I've got the weapons. What's happening?" No one answered his questions, continuing to fuss. One by one, everyone took weapons from him, not even giving him a second glance. "Guys? What's happening?" he asked again as his chest heaved with uneven breaths.

Ray was the only person to say anything to him. "Stay."

"What?" Joel asked, completely disoriented.

"Get what you need, and let's go," Ray dismissed firmly.

"What's happening?" Joel reiterated, growing annoyed that no one was answering his question as adrenaline rushed through his veins.

"We've been breached," someone finally spoke up.

"Breached?" a confused Joel questioned, his heart feeling as if it just skipped a beat. "What do you mean? Like it's inside the bunker?"

Liz finally rushed over to him, not looking him in the eyes as she stole a gun from Joel's grasp before she finally answered him. "Yes, Joel, it's inside the bunker. And you need to stay here," she insisted. When she finally looked up at him, she noticed that he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. "Stay here," she reiterated, feeling somewhat sympathetic towards him, before finally pushing past him to run along with the rest of the colony members.

Joel ran after them, arriving at the scene a little late. He heard Connor instructing the rest of the group from the front. "Anna Lucia, Liz and I will engage. Anderson and Tim, flank us."

"Flank 'em, yeah, okay. Where do you guys need me?" Joel's stumbled over his words. "Do you need me to come through the rear, or—"

"I thought we were past this, Joel," Tim interrupted, completely disregarding Joel's offer to help.

"Past what? You guys need help. I can help. Let me help!" he spluttered out, hands gripping tighter around the weapon in his grasp.

Connor sighed. "You're going to make me say it?" he asked, his head not even turning back to look at Joel when he was speaking.

"Say what?"

Liz rolled her eyes. Not only was she growing impatient that they weren't just going out there to kill the monster already, but she knew exactly what Tim and Connor were about to say.

The older man finally turned around. "You can't handle it, Joel."

"You're shook," Tim spoke up again.

Joel's heart plummeted to the ground, a silence settling for a couple of seconds before he finally broke. "Okay, yeah. So, you guys don't get scared ever?"

"We get scared," Connor assured him.

Tim added onto his point, as if on cue. "We all get scared, Joel, but you get really scared."

"But we're not trying to make you feel bad, Joel," Connor continued.

"We love you, Joel—"

"But you're unsafe."

"You're a liability—"

"Even on supply runs."

Another silence filled the air as Joel gaped at the two who had just attempted to perform some kind of sonnet-duet. He swallowed thickly before he finally spoke. "Okay, why did that speech feel so rehearsed?"

"God, can we please just go before this thing eats us alive?" Liz complained in a groan, her patience wearing thin.

Almost as if the creature heard her, there was a growl that came from the other side of the wall, causing the entire group to stumble back in shock, the lights beginning to flicker again.

Kayla handed Connor a device that showed him exactly where the monsters were located in the bunker. He analysed it carefully, before inhaling sharply to instruct the group. "Okay, thirty metres out. Let's move."

Just like that, the ventilator was opened, and the hunting party members crept into the tunnels that it led to. Liz was the first person to go in; not only did everyone just trust her the most, but her petite physique made it incredibly easy for her to fit into small spaces, so she was always able to lead the way better than anyone else could.

Whilst the hunting party trekked the grounds, Joel and the rest of the colony members watched what was going on on their device, the room thick with tension.

Suddenly, everyone flinched in shock to see that the creature had actually grabbed one of the hunters, dragging them along the path it had just come through. Worried whispers being heard from left, right, and centre, Joel began to tremble in disquiet, realising that the hunting party needed help.

That was when he decided exactly what he was going to do.

He was going to help.

Scrambling to get his things ready, he quickly made his way to the door.

Kayla was the one to notice, turning around with an alarmed expression across her face, ready to protest. "Joel!"

"They need help," Joel gulped, "I'm going." Without a second glance, he swung the door open, ignoring the calls from his colony members. He slammed the door shut behind him once he was out of the room and into the endangered area, pausing in his footsteps whilst he realised that this may not have been the best idea.

Nonetheless, he raised his weapon, taking notice of the lights that continued to flicker, whilst beginning to creep hesitantly to where he thought the remaining members of the hunting party would be.

"Joel?" came a familiar feminine voice from behind, ever so quietly. Joel's head whipped around to see Liz standing there, her face contorted in horror. She completely stopped in her place about a few metres away from him, aware that the monster was extremely close to him right now, just on the other side of the curtain. Swallowing away the lump of dread in her throat, she whispered, slowly and quietly, "Joel, you need to leave."

Joel, however, didn't cooperate, shaking his head at her. Although he didn't exactly want to be there, regretting his decision to go out there in the first place, he decided that he was done being the colony's baby. He may have liked it before, but at this point, years later, he'd grown sick of it.

"Joel, seriously. Leave," Liz repeated in a slight hiss, to which Joel shook his head again. Liz clenched her jaw, growing frustrated at him for not listening, simultaneously raising her weapon in his direction. "Fine. Get behind me."

Joel ignored her instruction as he furrowed his eyebrows at her, confused as to why she was pointing the weapon at him, instead of looking for the monster that was supposedly roaming freely. But it soon made sense to him, as his attention diverted to the noises — growls, even — coming from behind the curtain.

The monster was right next to him all this time and he had no idea.

Joel turned back around, lifting up his weapon with his head tilted to his right, as he noticed that the silhouette of a man was visible from the other side of the curtain. "Connor?" his voice wavered through his trembling lips.

When no one replied, Joel glanced back behind him, finally having decided to take the offer to stand behind Liz, allowing her to do all the dirty work.

But much to his dismay, she had disappeared.

It was now just Joel against the creature. Alone.

Eyes cold as stone, Joel stared at the silhouette of the monster, it visibly coming closer to him as its shadow gradually grew larger. It continued to grow up until the creature stood upright properly, giving Joel a clear vision of it from above the curtain, causing him to panic even more.

All he could hear was his own uneven breathing— even while trying to quieten his breaths, he was failing miserably. He couldn't help it: it was the first time he'd ever encountered a creature like this since the entire Apocalypse even began.

The monster eventually made its way over the curtain, shifting even closer to Joel. His eyes did not leave the immense claw-like structure of the creature, sirens blaring in his head to warn him of the substantial danger he was in right now.

Until finally, the creature leaned close enough to reach the half-grown man, ruffling his hair vaguely. Joel couldn't even think properly at this point; the only thought plaguing his mind was that he was about to die.

His eyes started to burn with tears that tried to escape, causing him to close his eyes desperately to prepare himself for his final moments alive, as the monster's claws only got closer and its thick, gooey sap began to drizzle onto him.

Suddenly, a string of whipping and zap-like noises were heard by Joel, causing him to open his eyes apprehensively to examine what had just happened. Releasing a shaky breath, he was pleased to see that a large chunk of the monster was on the floor.

Glancing to his left, he saw Jack exhaling sharply, undoubtedly shaken up by just having killed the thing.

Joel then decided to look behind him and noticed Liz standing there, panting heavily as she put her gun down. She shot a look at Joel— a look that screamed 'you're so fucking stupid', before bending forward, chest heaving as she struggled to find breaths. "Don't... ever—" she tried to speak through her heavy exhales, "—d— do that... again."

Joel winced slightly, heartbeat now beginning to steady. "Did I shoot it, or did you?" he murmured, completely neglecting what Liz had just said, still taken aback by what had just happened.

Liz took in a deep breath in an attempt to steady her respiration before she scoffed, finally standing upright as she gave him a deadly glare. "What do you think?"

"...You."

Chapter Text

"This is 7045. Come in, 3022. I repeat: come in, 3022. Over."

The sudden voice and rattling within the communications room — also Liz's bedroom — was enough to make her eyelids flutter open from her light doze.

She was never able to sleep much since the Apocalypse had began: it pretty much became impossible with the constant, overwhelming fear that a monster would come in and eat one of her colony members alive.

"This is 3022. What is it now, Ray?" an irritated elderly lady's voice from the other side of the radio came.

"Hey, Janice! No, it's actually Joel," Joel corrected the woman, a small smile creeping onto his face.

"Oh, Joel... alright, hold on one second," the lady murmured, before calling out to the girl that she knew Joel was trying to contact. "Aimee, it's Ray!"

"Joel," he corrected again, "thanks, Janice." He breathed, pursing his lips slightly, patiently waiting to hear Aimee's voice.

Liz rubbed her eyes harshly, disoriented and utterly confused as to why Joel was in her bedroom. "What are you doing here?" her tired groan vibrated throughout the entirety of the room.

"Sh, I'm talking to my girlfriend," he snapped.

Liz raised her eyebrows at him with sass, soon deciding to exaggerate her yawn as much as she could, purposely making as much noise as possible while laying down, just because Joel told her to 'sh'. She turned to lay on her side to face him, furrowing her eyebrows. "Oh, yeah. What's her name again? Abigail? Andrea?"

Joel shot her an irritated look, clearly sick of her mocking him constantly. "Her name is—"

"Joel, hey!" a voice interrupted from the radio, a different one from the elderly lady.

"Hey, Aimee! Hi!" Joel's attention adverted back to the machine in front of him, speaking into the microphone. "How are you? It's so good to hear your voice!"

Liz rolled her eyes. "Gross," she grunted, before turning to lay on her back and face the ceiling. There was no way she was going to listen to the couple's disgusting, soppy reunion over the radio. She grabbed the pillow from below her head and pressed it on her face, screaming into it.

Joel glanced over at her alarmingly, but Liz continued to release muffled screams to block out anything she would hear of their conversation, unable to see Joel's nasty glares.

When she finally removed the pillow from her face for a breather, she heard Aimee speak in a slightly concerned tone. "What was that?"

"Oh... uh, it's just Liz being Liz—"

"Elizabeth to you," Liz spat at him, shooting an icy glare his way. 'Liz' was a nickname reserved for friends only — or even any platonic friendship at all. Essentially, anyone was allowed to call her Liz. Anyone, except Joel.

Obviously, Liz knew, when she joined the colony six years ago, that Joel didn't like her. He didn't like her because he was jealous of the attention she got. And he used that as an excuse to hate on everything she did.

Joel was the colony's cook, he always had been. And Liz had always been a part of the hunting party, who go out and find food to bring back to the bunker. Around five years ago, when Liz came back with five potatoes instead of eight, Joel caused the biggest fuss, leading to an everlasting feud between the two. It was obvious that he only used it as another excuse to hate her since he'd been holding a grudge ever since, Liz naturally doing the same.

For the majority of the conversation between Joel and Aimee, Liz had almost completely zoned out. She pretty much got the gist of what they were talking about though: the breaching of the bunker earlier, Joel lying his ass off about fighting the monster and boasting about how supposedly 'ripped' he'd gotten. Every time Joel's speech processed in Liz's head — mind you, she was very tired, so it was quite slow — she snorted in a clamorous manner, causing Joel to send her death-stares that screamed 'shut the fuck up' every so often.

The moment she fully chirped back in was when she noticed Joel's tone had done a complete one-eighty, as he began to reminisce the last moments he had with Aimee seven years ago.

Liz turned her head to look at him, noticing he had tears full of yearning and longing evident in his eyes.

It didn't take a genius to know that he was utterly broken. He missed Aimee an extraordinary amount.

And Liz couldn't help but feel her own heart shatter into pieces.

She turned to her side to face Joel once again, listening to their conversation intently.

"I— uh... I write you letters," Joel admitted out of the blue, causing Liz's eyes to widen at his confession. A part of her wanted to laugh just to vex him, but the other part found it pathetically cute. She never realised how much he loved Aimee.

"Really?" Aimee asked, a shocked yet cheery tone laced in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah," Joel mumbled defeatedly. "I write you letters sometimes — all the time, actually."

A small smile was planted on Liz's face as she sat upright on her bed, facing Joel. Unlike before, she adored the conversation that she could hear between Joel and Aimee. Her knees propped up, arms wrapped around them tightly as her chin buried into her knees.

"I'd love to read them," Aimee said, making Joel feel warm all over, his face beginning to light up.

"R— really? I'd love to read them to you—" Joel stumbled over his words, before the sound of a static took over. Aimee's voice could no longer be heard. "No, no... Aimee?" Joel pleaded, hurt churning inside of him, as he fiddled with the buttons on the radio in attempt to regain connection. "Aimee?"

Liz's own eyes grew upset, a feeling of dread filling her body as she uttered her next few words. "There's no use, Joel. You've lost the connection." She felt bad for him; she hadn't seen the man so happy in all the time she knew him.

Joel sighed deeply, a pain growing in his heart — a pain he'd been feeling every day for the past seven years. "I know." Head drooped downwards, he tried to hide his tearful eyes from the girl who was nearby.

But Liz knew all too well that he was hurt. "Hey," she looked at him apologetically, "she misses you as much as you miss her, you know."

Joel lifted his head, allowing Liz to meet his painful stare. "You really think so?"

"Definitely," Liz confirmed. Suddenly, she felt the urge to get up and comfort him, but she quickly squeezed her eyes tight and shook her head vigorously to get the idea out of her head. Joel and Liz had never shown affection to one another, it would be weird if she did it now. She decided to swiftly change the subject. "So, you write Aimee letters, huh?"

Joel's tears were beginning to dry, but his hazel eyes glistened nonetheless. He nodded in response to her question. "I feel like she's the only person I can tell my feelings to," Joel paused as he thought about what he said, "I mean, even though she's not technically here. I just write to her, y'know?"

"I get that," Liz nodded back. "I know you like to draw; I always see you. I just never knew you wrote. Are they, like... love letters?"

Joel shook his head. "Not really, no. I write to—" he paused in thought again for a second, snapping his fingers as if to conjure up the correct words, "—express myself, I guess? It's kind of like a diary entry, but for a specific person. I just write to Aimee what's on my mind."

Liz's lip curled in amusement. "Cool."

Joel hummed as he pulled his lips inwards awkwardly, unsure on what to say. Abruptly, he hit the table in front of him. "Right, I'll let you get some sleep now," he announced, standing up to leave the girl's bedroom.

Liz's eyes trailed after Joel, watching him make his way to the exit of her room, contemplating if she should say what she wanted to say. And she did, quite quickly, at that. "Joel?" she called after him.

Having reached the door already, Joel paused in his footsteps and whirled back around, raising his eyebrows at her in question.

She hesitantly opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Joel's eyes widened at her awkwardly, doing funny hand gestures to urge her to hurry up and say what she had to say. She eventually gave in, swallowing thickly before she spoke. "I'm sure Aimee will love them," she assured.

He didn't expect Liz to say that at all — in fact, in Joel's long list of things that he was certain Liz would never say to him, that was probably number one. The man's eyes softened on her, body relaxing as he offered her a weak smile. "Thanks, Elizabeth."

__________

"I want to know how it got in."

"It appears to have ripped through one of our perimeter defences."

"What, it ripped through steel?" Liz snapped.

The girl didn't manage sleep, since everyone was quarrelling about the whole breaching situation. It appeared that most of the colony members were afraid that it would happen again, but Ray was quick to turn down everyone's concerns, constantly reminding them that it was just a 'freak occurrence' and that it was highly unlikely to happen again.

Liz was growing sick of it. Honestly, she was afraid too. She couldn't afford to lose another beloved colony member. They were like family to her, and she'd lost way too many people already.

Joel, however, was barely paying attention, his attention fading in and out as he had only one thing — or person — on his mind.

"How far away is Aimee's colony?"

Everyone's eyes flickered to the man who was sitting there, who'd just interrupted the persistent buzz of a dozen people bickering. His exhausted eyes heaved from the ground to meet the eyes of his colony members, looking at them all one by one.

"What?" came Tim's voice.

"Aimee's colony," Joel reiterated. "How far away is it?"

"About eighty-five miles."

"How long does it take to get there?" Joel asked, without even a second of thought.

Liz glared at him, immediately gaining an idea on what Joel was scheming in his head. "Joel—"

"You're not actually thinking of going, are you?" Tim asked, almost as if reading Liz's mind.

"Guys, just... humour me." Joel pursed his lips, legs shaking as he sat in his chair, growing impatient.

"Seven days," Ray confirmed, raising his eyebrows at Joel. "Minimum."

A momentary silence settled over the room before Tim spoke up to change the subject, gaining everybody's attention. "Alright, now, I need volunteers to help reinforce some of the outer perimeter."

Instantly, there was a shared murmur throughout the room, mumbles of 'yeah's and hums of approval.

Liz stood up enthusiastically, already prepared to get started on the task. "Let's go," she chirped, making hand gestures for everyone to get a move on. She looked down at Kayla sitting next to her, who gave her a sorrowful stare, and Liz's heart instantly sunk. She knew Kayla was grieving, after having lost her boyfriend — and her baby's father — to a creature that ate him whole.

But everyone knew you couldn't grieve for too long in the Apocalypse. And no one ever did.

People were constantly dying. The monsters showed no mercy.

In attempt to make her feel a little better, Liz sat back down next to her friend. "Kayla, you don't have to come if you don't want to," she comforted, pushing a strand of hair away from her good friend's face.

Kayla's eyes, full of hurt that she tried to conceal, met with Liz's as she shook her head. "No, I can't be sad forever. I'm okay, Liz. Promise." She feigned a smile.

Liz nodded hesitantly, eventually putting out her hand for Kayla to grab. She figured that doing something would help the grieving lady to take her mind off things. "Okay, then. Let's go! It'll be fun."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Fun," she mocked Liz's enthusiasm playfully, before she grabbed her hand and stood up, following her friend's lead.

"I'm going to go," Joel interrupted everyone again, and all pairs of eyes were on him once more.

"Alright. Let's go then," Ray said, ushering Joel out the room, silently ordering everyone to get going, in order to complete the necessary task.

"No, I mean I'm going to find Aimee."

The air immediately reeked with tension, everybody silently exchanging looks of utter shock before someone finally spoke up. "Joel, you can't go out there alone. It's an impossible journey," Liz firmly informed.

"You've done it before, at only fifteen years old," Joel retorted, pointing at her.

Liz gaped, not knowing what to say. Admittedly, he was right, but she knew Joel wouldn't survive on the surface for long. He didn't have the skills, nor the experience, to do so.

Joel's eyes flickered from Liz to everyone else the room, waiting for an objection that he was so sure would come his way. When no one said anything, much to his luck, he inhaled sharply as he stood up, as if to make some kind of speech. "I'm serious. I love you guys," he paused quickly as he locked eyes with Liz, who glared at him with eyes full of worry, before he continued, "but there's one person in the world who's ever truly made me happy, and she's only eighty-five miles away. And I'm going to see her." Joel breathed out briskly, "That felt awesome." He swiftly turned around and rushed into his bedroom.

Liz, along with the other colony members, shared worrisome glances. "He can't go," she mumbled, panic evident in her tone before she ran after him.

"Hell, no, he can't," Ray agreed, following Liz straight after.

To the pair's dismay, Joel was already packing.

This was it: the moment he'd been waiting years for. He was finally going to see her.

"Joel?" Liz's soft voice spoke, slowly taking small steps towards him.

"Yeah?" Joel stole a speedy glance her way before he began putting the last of his essential items into his backpack.

She sucked in a deep breath before she spoke. "You can't go."

Joel scoffed lightly, not even looking at her as he zipped up the bag. "Why do you care, Elizabeth? You've never liked me anyway."

She furrowed her eyebrows at him, a little hurt that he thought she'd be so careless. "That doesn't mean I want you to die!" she snapped, louder than she intended to.

Joel didn't care much for it though, pulling his backpack straps over his shoulder and inhaled sharply, looking at the girl once more. "I'm not going to die," he said confidently, before his face fell slightly after allowing his thoughts to process in his head, "at least, I hope I don't..."

It was at this moment that Ray stormed in, mouth falling open in shock when he noticed that Joel was already prepared, bag on his back and everything. "You're not joking, are you?" he interrogated, knowing full well that Joel, in fact, was not joking, and that he was pretty fixated on leaving at this point.

"Nope," Joel's eyes flickered between Liz and Ray before he grabbed a weapon from the table near him, making it clearer than it already was that he was going, "nope, I'm not."

He began to walk determinedly, Ray and Liz exchanging another quick glance of concern before they hurried to follow the committed Joel.

"He's not joking!" Ray called out worriedly for the rest of the colony members to hear, and they instantly responded, standing in front of Joel just as he got to the bunker exit.

"We're not letting you leave, Joel. You're needed here," Tim deadpanned as he towered over the smaller man, crossing his arms over his chest.

Joel sighed helplessly. "Tim, no, I'm not. C'mon, I don't do anything!"

"That's not true!" Tim quickly denied. "You fix the radio, you make the minestrone..."

Joel widened his eyes at the man in front of him, as if to say 'and?'.

Liz facepalmed, knowing all too well that this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere. Tim's points sounded ridiculous.

Eventually, Tim caught onto it, mentally cringing as he realised what he said. He huffed, "Okay, it doesn't sound as important when I say it out loud—"

"I appreciate you trying. Really, I do," Joel began, "I don't know, I just feel like I don't belong anywhere. I don't really want to die all alone at the end of the world, so..."

Liz's concerns got the best of her, and she finally decided to speak up. "Joel, you're not alone. You have all of us."

Tim's eyes darted to Liz, as if he had a genius idea right in that moment. "You're right..." he pointed at the girl, a small grin lingering on his lips, "he's not alone. He won't be alone."

"What?" Liz and Joel questioned in unison, furrowing their eyebrows.

"Joel, if you're so adamant on leaving, Liz will go with you."

A silence settled around them, a few gasps being heard from other colony members. They were all aware that Liz and Joel weren't exactly the best of buds. Nevertheless, everyone knew better than to allow Joel to go alone.

"You can't be serious," Liz scoffed, crossing her arms. Her blue eyes scanned everybody around her, waiting for them to protest on her behalf. But to her dreaded surprise, they all had their eyebrows raised enthusiastically or hummed in approval. She groaned in annoyance, her hands flailing in the air to shrug dramatically. "I'm not going!"

"Yes, you are—"

"She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to," Joel cut off Tim. "Look, I know you guys think of me as some little, pathetic, adorable... hedgehog. But I can take care of myself! I'm actually probably a lot stronger than you might think."

Tim wasn't having any of it. He turned to the side, scratching his bearded chin in deep thought, before he conjured up the perfect idea. He knew that he couldn't change Joel's mind about not going, but he could, in fact, change Liz's mind to go with him. Liz had a big heart; she would never want Joel to go alone. He'd guilt-trip her. Sure, it was a little, if not very manipulative, but none of them could bear the thought of losing Joel to the Apocalypse, especially if it could be easily avoided.

Tim then turned to Liz, ready to persuade her, but the look she gave him already told him exactly what he wanted.

"I'll go," she mumbled, saving Tim from an endless discussion that would've gone back and forth for ages.

The larger man's eyes were wide in shock. "Really?"

Liz nodded, eyes fixated on the ground beneath her, and quickly walking out of there before she could take notice of the multiple pairs of eyes piercing through her soul.

Joel was the most taken aback out of everyone, eyes visibly trailing her as she left, his jaw hung open in astonishment.

__________

When Liz came back after packing her things speedily, she noticed all the colony members sending Joel their farewells. Approaching them, she saw Karen handing Joel a map, followed by Ray giving him some terrible advice for if he saw a monster; something along the lines of 'just run and hide'.

Liz stood next to Joel (still keeping a fairly wide distance) and faced everyone, a false smile upon her lips. "Well, guys, this is it."

Kayla was the first person to run to her, squeezing her friend tightly in a warm embrace. Liz returned it contently. "I'll miss you so much," Kayla muttered, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Make sure you don't die, alright? And look after Joel."

Liz chuckled, catching a glimpse of Joel from the corner of her eye before she pulled away from her long-time friend. "I'll miss you, too. I'll miss you all," she spoke aloud to everyone, "I know Joel will miss you all dearly too. And don't worry about us, okay? We'll both be fine! I'll make sure of it."

"You sure will," Ray said firmly, pulling Liz into an aggressively loving hug. He had a soft spot for her, ever since she joined their colony, as he and Joel were the ones to find her in the first place. He treated her like his own daughter, and was secretly dreading having Liz go back onto the surface. After all, he was the one who encouraged her to stay and join their colony six years ago. "Stay safe," he reiterated firmly, to which Liz nodded and smiled joyously.

As they gave their final goodbyes, the pair took off to leave the bunker. Needless to mention that it was difficult getting through a door that small. Liz went up before Joel, 'accidentally-on-purpose' having kicked Joel in the face a few times in the process, giving them an absolutely great start to their journey.

When they finally made it out, Joel was astounded by the view.

"Welcome to the world, Joel Dawson," Liz breathed playfully, wiping her hands on her trousers in attempt to get the bunker door's dirt off her hands.

He didn't say anything. He was too indulged in the beauty of the scenery around him to even speak, not having seen the outside world in seven years. Taking it all in slowly, he spun around continuously as if to admire everything. Then, he inhaled sharply through his nose, mentally applauding Mother Nature's fresh, pure, unpolluted air.

Liz chuckled lightly. "As much as I'm loving witnessing this reunion between you and the grass, I'd like to get going before any monsters catch our scent."

Joel nodded in agreement, pulling out the map that Karen gave him from his pocket. He glared at it intently, frowning when he noticed how useless it was. It was literally just full of circles and arrows, with notes like 'monster zone', 'no signs of life here', 'avoid this area, your life depends on it!'. All the messages caused Joel to feel an incredibly unsettling sensation in the pit of his stomach.

Looking at his expression, Liz was confused, and peeped at the map from the side to see why Joel looked so distressed. After her eyes skimmed the futile paper, she snatched it from him, shoving it into her own pocket. "We won't be needing that."

Joel was about to protest, but quickly shut his mouth as he realised that she was probably right. He figured that she, more than likely, knew the grounds anyway.

"Okay, so," Joel began, holding onto his backpack straps, "we need to head West, correct?"

"Correct," the girl confirmed. Before she could start walking, Joel immediately trudged in the wrong direction. "Where the hell are you going?" Liz called after him.

He turned around, dumbfounded. "West! Oh, wait..." he paused, thinking for a moment, "you're right. West is that way, right?" He pointed in the opposite direction.

Liz rolled her eyes at him. "No, dummy! That way," she pointed in a completely different direction.

Silence lingered between them as Joel's head whirled around, confusion getting the better of him.

It was slowly starting to hit them both that this was going to be a long, long journey.

"Shit."

Chapter Text

"So, what do you plan on doing when you see her?"

"None of your business."

"Careful, there's a hole there." Liz pointed at a hole in the floor of some random house that Joel had just dragged the pair of them into, before she prodded around it and stepped onto a rock in the house's garden. She jumped off to continue on her path, and glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Joel was okay. "Come on, you've thrown me under the rug for the entire journey so far. Have a civilised conversation with me. Are you planning to do something really romantic with her, or something?"

Joel's exhausted eyes met her stare. "None of your business," he reiterated. He paused in his tracks, chest heaving, evidently already tired from the few hours of walking they'd done — not to mention that they'd already managed to encounter a terrifying monster because Joel stupidly opened the fridge in the random house. Reaching for his bag, he pulled out a water bottle and began to drink, drenching himself in the process.

"Aw, you are, aren't you?" Liz cooed, stopping and turning back around to face him as she realised that he'd decided to take a water-break. "It's okay. You can be honest with me..." she paused for a small moment, eyes narrowing in thought, "unless you're planning to have sex with her. Don't be honest with me, if that's the case. I don't want to know that."

Joel scowled at her comment, taking down his last few excessive gulps of water. "I hate you," he muttered, while his hand flew back as he tried to put the bottle back in it's place, without taking the backpack off.

Liz snatched the bottle from him and effortlessly shoved it in his bag, dragging him along so he would move faster through the garden. "I know, but I'm helping you find the love of your life, so you might want to watch your tone with me."

"That doesn't change the fact that I hate you."

Liz scoffed lightly, her temper hitting a thin line. "Easy, Joel," a slightly agitated tone laced her voice, growing sick and tired of Joel's constant attitude. "Your life is pretty much in my hands, right now."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, I'm sure I'd be able to survive without you—"

"Oh, yeah? You want me to leave, then? 'Cause I can! I could run back to the bunker right now and leave you for dead," she spat, evidently fed up of how unappreciative Joel was that she'd agreed to come along with him on his stupid quest, even though it didn't benefit her whatsoever.

Joel's brows furrowed in both confusion and hurt. "Why are you mad at me?" he asked, barely above a whisper.

Liz pinched the bridge of her nose, sucking in a deep breath before she finally broke. "You know, I'm trying to be nice to you. Do you notice that? Did you even use your stupid, minuscule brain to realise that I actually willingly agreed to come with you on this journey? To make sure that you were safe?" Liz tried so hard to make sure that the tears prickling at her eyeballs didn't fall, refusing to let the man before her witness her crying — but her voice box betrayed her, Joel instantly taking notice that the girl's voice was wavering with emotion.

Truth be told, he didn't. He didn't realise how much Liz was putting herself through, just so that Joel wouldn't be alone. So that he'd survive. He was too entailed by the entire situation — not only excited to meet Aimee again, but also excited to be in the outside world again. He was completely oblivious to the fact that the person who he was with, was the same person of whom he'd hated for as long as he could remember, and she was only with him to keep him alive.

But when the realisation did hit him, it hit him like a brick. Guilt flooded every inch of his body, as he glanced up at Liz to see her already glaring coldly at him. Joel instantly felt as if he was crumbling under her gaze, eyes darting back down at the ground, before swallowed down his guilt in order to whip up some sort of apology. "Elizabeth, I'm sorry—"

"Shut up."

He looked back up at her, mouth falling open in bewilderment. "I'm trying to apologi—"

"Shut up," Liz repeated in a hiss, her finger shooting up to her lips, warning him to be quiet. Her body whirled around to the garden's pond which was beginning to bubble up, and she immediately realised what was happening.

They were both in danger.

Slowly, an eye peeked out of the water, followed by two others that gradually popped out too. Joel tapped Liz's shoulder unwelcomely, eyes wide as uncertainty ran through his veins. "Elizabeth..." he whimpered.

"Stay behind me," Liz breathed, grabbing his arm to pull him back behind her.

The creature started to rise out of the vile-looking water, revealing that it was a colossal frog, which looked way too grotesque to even be real. Naturally, the pair backed away slowly.

"Oh, my God, we're gonna die..." Joel mumbled weakly.

Liz's hand whipped around her to slap his arm, without even looking at him. "How many times do I have to say 'shut up'?" she snapped lowly to make sure that she didn't trigger the frog, although she was unsure whether Joel could hear her.

Joel swallowed thickly, confirming that he, in fact, did hear her. "Sorry."

Liz rolled her eyes at his idiocy, still slowly backing away from the frog, Joel following her lead and doing the same from behind her. "Nice froggy..." she raised her hands to her backpack to reach for her weapon, expertly taking it out and pointing it towards the monster, "we don't want to hurt you, okay? We'll leave you alo—"

Before she could even finish her sentence, the frog rapidly released its tongue in attempt to reach for the pair. However, Liz was able to beat it, pushing Joel onto the ground and unsettlingly falling on top of him.

They were both desperate to get out of this incredibly awkward position. But when Liz felt something crawl onto her back, she shot Joel an alarmed look. "Is it on me?" she spluttered out.

Joel shook his head quickly, feeling Liz's aghast breaths on his face. "It's a... dog."

The girl's eyes narrowed in confusion, but before she even had the chance to ask any questions, the dog jumped off her back and ran over to the frog, barking at it repeatedly, as if to challenge the creature.

Liz took this as her signal to lead them both out of there. She scrambled to get up onto her feet, pulling Joel by the arms to do the same, and ran towards a gap where the garden fences had been broken.

To both of their dismay, the frog's tongue was released once again in attempt to reach for the pair of them — but this time, it actually caught Joel, dragging him across the damaged grass by the leg.

Liz shrieked, reaching for her weapon again, but soon realising that she dropped it on the ground from when she fell onto Joel a few moments ago. She instantly ran over to get it, terrified that the man before her was about to get swallowed whole.

"No, no, no!" she heard Joel howl, clinging onto a nearby log for his dear life.

Nevertheless, the frog didn't cooperate, growling as it pulled Joel further towards itself.

It was at this point that Liz finally managed to reach her gun, aiming at the merciless creature. Much to her surprise, the dog seemed to be on her side, his teeth gripping onto the frog's long tongue, as Liz shot a bullet at it's top half.

The creature growled in pain, Joel, Liz and the dog taking this as their cue to run as fast as they possibly could. All they knew was that they needed to get out of there. And fast — the mutated frog already seemed to be stomping out of the pond in attempt to follow them.

__________

After the whole mutated frog incident, Joel and Liz were led to a bus-looking thing by the dog that helped save Joel's life.

And he already began conversing with the animal.

The word 'Boy' was written all over the inside of the bus; on the pillow that he sat on, drawn on the walls in bold writing. Liz mentally came to the conclusion that that was his name. Boy.

She kneeled down to stoke him as he lay on his pillow. "You're so cute," she mumbled, more to herself rather than the dog.

Joel was next to notice that 'Boy' was printed everywhere after his eyes trailed around the inside of the bus. "Boy?" he asked, glancing at the dog who was beginning to lick Liz's face lovingly. "Is that your name?"

Instantly, the dog's eyes darted to him, indicating that Joel was correct.

Liz rolled her eyes jokingly. "You just realised that?" She gestured towards all the places where Boy's name was written was around the bus.

Joel scowled in her direction, fake-laughing. He then turned back to Boy, "I'm Joel. Nice to... meet you..."

The girl's eyes alternated between the dog and Joel, mentally cringing at the fact that Joel was still talking to the dog. Nevertheless, she decided to join in. "And I'm Liz," she spoke enthusiastically, reaching out her hand, in hopes for the dog to shake it.

To the pair's surprise, Boy held out his paw to shake Liz's hand, making her jaw drop in astonishment.

"Clever Boy!" Joel mused, a grin lingering on his lips.

Liz sent Joel a quick glance, smiling in his direction before she looked back down at Boy. "Very clever Boy."

A comfortable silence settled around them for a few moments, before Joel cleared his throat quickly, deciding to speak up. "Uh... thanks."

Liz furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head to her right in confusion. "For what?"

"For— uh... for saving my life."

A grin grew on Liz's face, one that stretched from ear to ear. "I thought I'd never see the day you say 'thank you' to me!" she laughed hysterically.

Joel quirked an eyebrow playfully, lips pursing into a line as he raised his arms in surrender. "Take it or leave it, Elizabeth."

The girl hummed, pretending to be in deep thought, before she finally gave an answer. "I'll take it," she retorted cockily.

Joel smiled at her awkwardly before reaching for a red dress that was to his left. Almost instantly, Boy snatched the dress from him and sat on it, making it clear that he didn't want anyone to touch it.

Liz's eyes widened at Joel, a little shocked that the dog would be so protective over a dress. "It was probably his owner's," she guessed.

Joel nodded quickly, rubbing the back of his head. He decided to lay down on the bed he was sitting on, closing his eyes instantly, clearly tired from their journey so far.

But Liz beat him to it. "I need a place to sleep, too, you know."

The man opened one eye, before closing them both again, unbothered. "You can sleep on the floor."

Liz scoffed, placing a hand on her heart in astonishment. "That's not a nice way to treat someone who just saved your life."

"You're going to keep milking that, aren't you?" Joel groaned, already regretting saying thank you in the first place.

"You bet. Anyway, give me the bed. Saving your life tired me out."

He huffed, opening his eyes to stare at her once more. "No."

Liz clenched her jaw, ignoring the urge to hurt him, because truly, she actually did want somewhere to sleep. "Where the hell am I meant to sleep, then?"

"On the floor."

Liz narrowed her eyes at him. "Give me the freaking bed, Joel."

Squinting, Joel glared at her. "Go there," he instructed, pointing towards the end of the bed, where his feet were placed, earning a scrunched face from Liz.

"You want me to go there?" she retorted, pointing to where Joel pointed to, to which Joel nodded innocently. "You know what? I think I'd rather just sleep on the floor." Before another word could be uttered, she quickly curled into a ball next to Boy, receiving a dozen licks to the face from the animal. Liz chuckled, muttering slightly, "Looks like your new momma's sleeping with you, tonight, Boy."

Joel's eyes pierced into the both of them, contemplating what he should do. "Okay, Elizabeth, you can have the bed," he finally decided, immediately starting get up without a second thought.

Liz furrowed her eyebrows at him. "Oh, so now you want to give me the bed? I'm already comfortable here!"

"It's the least I could do. After you just saved my life, I mean," Joel shrugged, sitting down next to her on the floor near where Boy was sat. Boy then jumped from Liz to Joel, instantly licking his face, just like he did to the girl. Joel laughed, nudging Liz in the rib cage when he realised that she wasn't moving, but was rather just staring at him in shock. "Go on, then."

Liz hesitantly stood up and sat on the bed, glancing at him with grateful eyes nonetheless. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Joel met her gaze with a smile. "Goodnight, Elizabeth."

"Night, Joel."

Chapter Text

"You know, taking lipstick from a random bus is not very hygienic."

"Do you ever shut up?"

"Boy, what do you think?"

Liz and Joel both looked at Boy stupidly, in hopes for some kind of answer, but the dog simply just whimpered in an unknowing manner.

After their prolonged night in the bus, Boy made it clear that he was pretty determined to leave alongside the human pair. So he did.

But not before Joel aimlessly took a random stick of lip-product that he found in the bus, because it seemed to remind him of his beloved Aimee. And, not to mention that Boy was also adamant on bringing the red dress with him too.

"Boy doesn't mind, nor does he care. He literally allowed me to take it," Joel spoke on behalf of the dog, his head dug into the map, trampling through the grass-filled path they'd been walking on for at least seven hours.

Liz rolled her eyes, snatching the map from his grasp. "Yeah, whatever. He probably never even notice that the lipstick was there in the first place."

"No, no, I'm sure he did—"

"Wait a second," Liz cut him off, eyes glaring at the map with intense concentration, "Joel, which way did you start walking when we left the bu—"

Before Liz even had the chance to finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a shriek that erupted from her own throat, falling into a deep hole and landing on her stomach with a loud thud.

"Elizabeth!" Joel called out, stumbling forward as he tried to grab her, but failed in doing so. He quickly raised his hands to his sides to balance him up, trying to make sure that he didn't fall into the hole as well. Once he fully balanced himself, he stared at her with worried eyes, as she loudly coughed out the dirt that decided to unwelcomely invade her mouth.

Rolling onto her back in the filthy ground, Liz's pained eyes glanced back up at him and Boy, only to see a smirk grow on Joel's face from ear to ear. "What's so funny?" Liz muttered through gritted teeth, in attempt to refrain from screaming in pain.

"You fell in a hole!" Joel cackled, slapping his knee dramatically to get on Liz's nerves more than he already was.

Liz shot him a deadly glare. "It's a sand-gobbler's nest, actually," she snapped, coughing once again, "now, help me up."

Joel gasped in a sarcastic manner. "Is that you asking me for help? Are you saying that it's my turn to save your life?" he teased, earning an aggravated eye-roll from Liz.

The girl groaned as she tried to sit up, pain scattering across every inch of her body. It felt like she had broken all of her bones at once whilst falling. "Joel, please, just help me up," she whimpered. "A stupid sand-gobbler is going to eat me alive if you don't help me up."

Honestly, Liz thought that she was in an abandoned sand-gobbler's nest, so she thought she'd be fine; she just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

But want came to need when she heard low growling noises coming from small holes from all around her.

The girl felt her heart plummet to the ground, lips ceasing movement as she achingly scrambled onto her feet. She tried to mentally plot a way she could climb out of the hole herself, since it seemed like Joel would be no help whatsoever.

Joel seemed to notice the change in Liz's demeanour. "Elizabeth?" he called, concern laced in his tone.

Instantly, she sent him a piercing glare as her finger shot up to her lips, warning him to be quiet. However, Boy didn't seem to cooperate, as he started to bark repeatedly at the girl in the hole. "Sh!" Liz hissed, terror washing over her, and as if on cue, a thin, animalistic, arm-looking thing of some sort reached out and grabbed at her face, causing for her to falter and fall back onto the ground.

Joel watched in horror, a panicked expression evident on his face, trying to conjure up an idea as to what he should do to save the girl. Although their journey hadn't been that long, he'd finally grown a somewhat tolerance for her, and he certainly didn't want her to die.

"Joel!" Liz screamed, unable to see him as various other monster-hands made their way to caress her face. But when she finally had the chance to glance up at the hole's entrance, he was nowhere to be seen.

The girl's mouth fell open in both hurt and betrayal, her heartbeat roaring in her ears whilst the realisation hit her hard: this was it.

She was as good as dead. Joel left her.

Almost as if to confirm her theory, more arm-like structures made their way towards her body, but this time, they began to wrap around her frame, slowly attempting to suffocate her. "No!" Liz released a choked sob, tears pooling in her eyes, "Joel?! Joel, please help me! Joel, where did you go?"

After a few emphatic cries from the girl, a much bigger creature came bursting through the walls of the large hole, the smaller and thinner creatures immediately releasing their grip on her, as if they were afraid. Liz's eyes widened in horror as it came increasingly closer to her, until it was towering over her her body. She gulped heavily, and thing roared in her face in return, its slimy sap and hot-wind breath gushing out onto her face, and she screamed as her head whipped to the side. Liz's jaw clenched as she shut her eyes tightly, mentally preparing herself for her last moments of her life.

Until suddenly, she heard a familiar voice call at her from above.

"Liz!" he said, followed by gunshots, and the monster that hovered over the girl immediately fell onto her body. The girl howled, utterly grossed out by the fact that some creature was dead on top of her.

However, she didn't have much time to think. The arm-like creatures shot out towards her again, undoubtedly trying to get revenge on Liz, since they thought that she was the one who killed the bigger monster.

Luckily, the same man had dropped a rope. "Wrap it around your foot!" he instructed.

Liz scurried to do exactly as he said, rolling the deceased monster off of her body, then wrapping the rope around her foot several times and gripping onto it with her hands, before she called out to the man. "Got it, pull me up!"

He immediately did, hoisting the girl up as the thin monsters reached up for her feet in attempt to pull her back down. Nevertheless, the man continued to haul her up, until Liz's top half finally reached the surface and she was able to use her own arms to help heave herself and speed up the process.

She speedily crawled away from the hole and looked behind her, to see Joel, whose hands were gripping onto the rope, indicating that he was helping to pull her up too. Liz's eyes trailed the rope to see a two faces that she knew all too well. "Clyde?" she paused, eyebrows furrowing in confusion, "and Minnow?"

"Watch out!" Minnow warned, unintentionally ignoring Liz, as she threw a grenade into the hole. "One, two..."

Liz scrambled onto her feet and grabbed Joel by the shoulders, pushing him into the ground and falling on top of him to shield him with her own body. She knew full well exactly what was about to happen.

"...Three, four, and..."

The ground exploded, the thin monsters from underneath ripping into pieces, some of their flesh shooting out of the hole and landing on Joel's face.

Joel groaned, peeling the monster-flesh off him. "That's disgusting."

A huff of relief was released from Liz's mouth, her breath landing on Joel's face, hands moving from his shoulders to the ground either side of his head to keep her upright. "Saved your life again," she joked quietly, grinning as she hovered over him.

Joel's heavy, shaken up breaths hit Liz's face in return. "I saved your life, too," he mumbled back through irregular puffs.

Liz's eyes narrowed sarcastically, grin still lingering upon her lips. "Barely."

Joel scoffed lightly, a small, teasing smile growing onto his own face. "You know, I could've left you to die in that hole—"

"Always count to five," Minnow interrupted their undisclosed conversation, but instantly turned to Liz nonetheless. "Who are you? How'd you know my name?"

Liz shifted off of Joel's body casually to sit up, clearing her throat. "Oh, you probably won't remember me, since you were only two years old when I last saw you. I'm Li—"

"Liz! It's Liz!" Clyde exclaimed, sprinting over to her as fast as his legs could take him, wrapping his arms around her in affection.

She laughed, welcoming him into a warm embrace. "It's good to see you, Clyde."

"Liz?" Minnow questioned, her face lighting up as she realised who it was. "You're the girl who was on the surface for a year — everyone in our old colony told me all about you!" She then ran over to the hugging pair to join them, wrapping her arms around them too.

Joel inadvertently sat up, a baffled look plastered across his face. Truth be told, when Joel realised that he needed to save Liz, he knew that he wouldn't be able to do it alone, and he felt incredibly lucky when he noticed that there were two humans randomly just prodding by. "You know these two?" he asked her, standing upright as he clapped his hands clean.

Liz just hummed in confirmation, not wanting to let go. "Their colony was the last one I visited before I came to yours." She looked at Joel, whose eyebrows raised in surprise.

Without warning, Clyde and Minnow suddenly moved from Liz, taking their stance with their weapons as they heard a noise come from behind a few bushes.

"No!" Liz and Joel yelped in unison, knowing that it was just Boy behind the bush, and most definitely not a monster.

When Clyde and Minnow figured out that it was just a dog, they immediately put their weapons down, and Minnow's face softened towards the animal. "Oh, my God, it's a puppy! Come here, Boy," she admired, hands moving forward in attempt to call for the dog to come over. The dog did exactly that, instinctively licking Minnow's face in affection. "Good Boy!"

Clyde smiled down at the little girl and the dog, before his vision adverted back to Joel. "So, what's your name?"

"Joel. Joel Dawson."

"What happened with your colony? Did they kick you out?" He turned to Liz, pointing at her, "And I thought you were on the surface?"

Liz went to kneel down next to Minnow and Boy, stroking the dog. "No, we left on our own," she answered on Joel's behalf, "and yeah, I was. Until I found Joel's colony and they genuinely wanted me to stay. Well, they didn't even let me leave..." A humoured huff slipped through the girl's lips at the memory.

Clyde smiled at her lovingly, before turning back to Joel. "So, why are you here now? You stole food, didn't you?" he interrogated.

"They're food steal-ers," Minnow added, earning a hysterical laugh from Liz.

But Joel did not seemed to be amused. "No, we didn't steal any food..." he claimed, sending Liz a desperate look, as if to ask her to back him up. To his dismay, the girl raised her hands in surrender, still laughing nonetheless. It was clear that she wasn't taking it as seriously as he was. Joel groaned, "Our colony was actually really close — like family, okay? They were actually super upset that we left."

Liz nodded jokingly, lip curling in amusement as she glanced back at Minnow.

The little girl's eyes flickered between the pair, until they eventually fixated on Joel, pointing at him accusingly. "Food steal-er!"

Chapter Text

"You left your nice, safe colony to travel all the way to the ocean for a girl you ain't seen since you were seventeen?"

Liz snorted at Clyde's comment, fully aware of how stupid the whole situation sounded out loud — or even just the thought of it, for that matter. "He thinks it's true love," Liz told Clyde teasingly, to which she earned a stern look of disapproval from Joel.

"But he ain't seen her in seven years!" the older man pointed out once again, glancing away from his binoculars to look at Liz, only for her to raise her hands in question.

"Don't ask me, I was just dragged out here to protect him," she retorted, fixing the crossbow as Minnow painted a red target on a nearby tree. The group were about to do a short target-practice session, and Liz was looking forward to it, since she knew Joel couldn't shoot to save his damn life.

"Wait... so does that mean that you two aren't dating?" Minnow asked innocently, pointing the red painting utensil in her hand towards the two of them.

It looked as if Minnow painted Liz and Joel's faces red rather than the tree when she asked the dreaded question. "N–no!" Liz dismissed quickly, her face scrunching up in slight embarrassment. "Gross. You think I'd ever date anyone like Joel? Please, I'd never."

Joel's heart plummeted to the ground when he heard Liz's words. It hurt him more than he showed, or more than he ever even imagined it could. In all those six years of knowing her, he never cared about what Liz said about him... so why did he care now?

At that moment, Liz could feel the heavyweight of Joel's stare on her, and she didn't dare to even glance in his direction. Something about it just made her uncomfortable. It made them both uncomfortable. Something about it — they just couldn't pinpoint exactly what, nor did they know why.

Luckily, Minnow stepped away from the tree after having just finished painting, and Liz and Joel hoped that she'd be able to break the awkward silence that settled amongst them. "Phew! I was hoping I wouldn't have to listen to you guys kissing all the time."

...Or not.

Since Liz, Joel and Boy had joined Minnow and Clyde on their ongoing hike, Minnow had been dreading the fact that Liz and Joel were together. Granted, she was young and didn't really know what a relationship was supposed to look like, but seemingly had terrible theories about them anyway.

"What, so you're both just friends?" Clyde further interrogated, much to the pair's dismay.

Liz mentally refused to look at Joel, but she could once again feel Joel's gaze piercing her like laser beams.

"No, not friends," Joel confirmed in a slight murmur, and Liz's blue eyes flickered to him to meet his painful stare. His words cut her deep; she thought after their journey so far, they could at least be considered friends. Truthfully speaking, Joel hoped the same, but any chance of them being friends was now down the drain, after what Liz had just said. Gross. That word rung in his eardrums and he couldn't get rid of it.

Clyde instantly took notice of the situation, realising just how uncomfortable the pair of them were. "Right, okay. I hear ya loud and clear."

Joel cleared his throat, desperate to change the subject. "Uh... me and Aimee just got back in touch over the radio a few weeks ago, and our connection and everything... it's all still there. It's just magical, and so sweet. She loves me, too, so I think we're going to pick up where we left off..." he rambled on, but it was all nothing but background noise to Liz, as she continued to fiddle with the crossbow, until she finally set it up and it was ready to be used. She awkwardly handed it to Joel, still unable to look him in the eye.

"Shoot it that way," she explained in a mumble, pointing at the target.

After he stiffly took it from her, Liz's feet prodded through the grass, over to where Minnow was standing, to watch Joel take his first shot.

Joel pulled back the arrow in his hand and released. It landed on the ground, absolutely nowhere near the intended target. "That was the wind," he blurted, but he wasn't fooling anyone with his stupid excuses.

Clyde's lip curled in disgust as he shook his head, before his focus was back on his binoculars. "You can't shoot for shit!"

"Try it again," Liz hesitantly encouraged, and Joel's head whipped around to give her a baffled glance, no doubt because of the awkward situation just a few moments ago. Nevertheless, he attempted to shake the nerves out of his body, positioning his form to give it another shot.

"C'mon, Joel," he mumbled to himself quietly. Liz's eyes were full of hope, her fists clenched in anticipation as she watched him shoot, but with no luck, he failed once again. "Damn it!"

Minnow shook her head at him. "You're braining out."

"Huh?"

"Braining out. Thinking too much," she explained. "I always clear my mind and say to myself: 'a needle through water'."

Liz smiled fondly at the little girl, but Joel's brows furrowed together in bewilderment. "A needle through water?"

"Just trust me," Minnow assured him, "my dad was the best archer in my colony."

"Oh, really? Okay, then how come he's not the one giving me the lessons, huh?" Joel said with sass as he nodded in Clyde's direction, as if asking him the question.

Liz inhaled deeply before speaking up. "He's not her dad."

"Yeah, my dad got killed back when we lived in the subway station, along with Elliot." Minnow's voice softened, undoubtedly at the memory of her father.

"Who's Elliot?" Joel questioned.

"My son," Clyde replied, hoisting his huge backpack full of apocalypse necessities up onto his shoulders.

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry," Clyde told Joel as he fiddled with his backpack straps, walking closer to the other three, "we all have stories like that, don't we?"

Joel and Liz simultaneously sent each other quick yet comforting glances after Clyde's words, both of them aware of what the other had been through, and all the people they'd lost. But alas, they both looked away instantly, still avoiding direct eye contact.

Liz's eyes narrowed slightly when she heard Joel mumbling to himself. "Needle through water..." he said repeatedly under his breath, aiming for the target once more. When he released it, the arrow went flying, and this time, it actually hit one of the leaves of the tree instead of the ground.

"Close — much better!" Liz squealed, grinning as she clapped excitedly. However, when she noticed that Joel's shocked, wide eyes darted to her, her face fell slightly.

But to her surprise, he offered her a smile back. Liz's body relaxed; she hadn't even realised that it was tensed in the first place. She was just glad that they were fine. Friends? Perhaps not, but whatever they were, they were fine.

"It was better," Minnow agreed, though not as enthusiastically as Liz.

"It was really good, right? It was pretty close!" Joel said, in hopes for returned optimism.

"It was better," was yet again all Minnow said.

Liz shook her head, clacking her tongue before she spoke up. "It was good, Joel. You'll get better."

Joel lips curled into a proud smile as he looked fondly at the girl. "Thanks, Elizabeth."

__________

"It's got our scent?!" Joel complained as the group walked through the forest, and everyone groaned in unison for the third time.

Clyde and Minnow had just informed Joel that a chumbler had actually caught his and Liz's scent, and that they were to keep moving if they wanted to survive.

"Yes, now shut up and walk," Liz snapped, slightly worried, her grip on Minnow's hand growing tighter protectively as they stomped their way through the greenery. She knew that the creature had a lock on their scent since the beginning, but Joel's persistent moaning was slowing them down.

Joel scowled in her direction before turning Clyde, who was navigating the group from ahead. "Where are you guys headed, anyway?"

"North, to the mountains," replied Minnow.

"What's up there?"

"A place called Snow Mountain Wilderness. There's supposed to be some kind of colony up there, full of survivors," Clyde explained. "The cold and elevation helps keeps the monsters away."

"You guys should definitely come with us!" Minnow looked up at Liz's face with a hopeful smile, then glanced at Joel, who was behind them.

Joel pursed his lips into a thin line, ducking under a low tree-branch. "Well, I would, but y'know—"

"You've got to go find your girlfriend. Yeah, yeah," Minnow cut him off, before immediately tugging at Liz's hand as she diverted off the given route, both the girls climbing up onto the higher path. Minnow was clearly annoyed and didn't want to speak to Joel about his stupid girlfriend anymore.

Liz shot Joel an icy glare from above, as Joel flailed his arms in question. 'What the hell did I do?' he mouthed to her, to which Liz sighed deeply, rolling her eyes at the man's idiocy. "You know, if you knew her, you'd really like her," Joel began once again, in attempt to cheer up Minnow, "she's a super cool person."

"Well, she's not going to like you," Minnow said bluntly. "I only like you because you have a really cute dog."

Joel's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "You don't like Elizabeth either?"

"I didn't say that." Minnow held up where her's and Liz's hands were linked, shaking it in the air, as if to show him how foolish he was. "I obviously like Liz. I just don't like you."

The man's jaw clenched slightly, huffing through his nose as he was unsure what to say. "That hurts my feelings."

"You're so useless... so annoying," Minnow muttered under her breath, aggressively kicking the grass at her feet.

Liz sent Joel an apologetic stare, before stopping Minnow, and kneeling down to reach her height. "Hey, Minnow," she whispered with a smile, holding both of the girl's hands in her own lovingly, "I think you should be a little kinder to Joel."

"Why?" Minnow asked. "He's stupid."

Liz had to bite her cheeks to prevent herself from laughing, in attempt to remain completely serious. "I can't argue with that," she began, "but he's been through a lot. We all have. And he likes you! Joel and I are both your friends, right?"

The little girl seemed to be in thought momentarily, before she finally gave an answer, nodding. "You are — you both are."

"Phew!" Liz pretended to wipe her forehead in relief, "I got scared for a second. Well, you're nice to your friends, right?"

Minnow and Liz both glanced back at Joel, who was talking to Clyde. Liz could just about hear them — they were talking about how much Minnow had gone through, and Liz could feel it pain her own heart. She felt incredibly sorry for the girl; she didn't deserve to go through so much at such a young age.

"Yeah," Minnow admitted eventually, "okay, maybe I'll try to be nice to him."

Liz sent her a huge grin, kissing the girl on the forehead on her way to stand upright. "As long as you try." Minnow returned her gaze with a beaming, adorable smile.

Suddenly, the girls heard Clyde's stern voice. "Joel, don't move."

"Oh, my God, why?" Joel asked Clyde, as feelings of terror washed all over him.

The girls both turned their heads to see a colossal boulder snail right behind Joel, gradually moving closer to them. "Oh, my..." Liz murmured, hiding behind a bush, "Minnow, get behind me." Liz pulled Minnow by the arm to forcefully drag the girl behind her frame, expertly pulling out a gun from her backpack and pointing it towards the snail.

"Give me your shirt," the older man demanded from Joel quietly.

Joel stayed utterly still, lips barely even moving as he spoke. "My shirt? What do you mean?"

"Yeah, yeah, your shirt. Give me your shirt."

"Okay," Joel whimpered, although he still ceased movement, looking to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"Come on, hurry!" Clyde hissed, and Joel spastically moved in attempt to speedily take off his shirt.

Liz watched intently as she chewed at her bottom lip nervously. When she glanced back at Minnow, she noticed that she was was trembling in disquiet from behind her. "I've got you, okay? I won't let anything happen to you," Liz tried to comfort her, using her free hand to hold Minnow's and gave it a small squeeze. The smaller girl nodded quickly, swallowing away the lump of dread in her throat.

Clyde helped Joel take his shirt off, since Joel seemed to have trouble, being in his incredibly frightened state. He was hyperventilating, chest heaving with uneven breaths, until he was finally topless, and Clyde scrunched Joel's shirt into a ball. "Stay very, very still, Joel," Clyde instructed him, to which he whimpered uncertainly. Clyde then began to walk towards the monster, Joel's shirt still in his hand. "Okay, buddy," he said to the creature calmly, "easy does it."

When Liz caught a better look of the monster in front of her, she slowly put her weapon back down. After all her years' experience, she could tell that this particular creature was a good one. It was already pretty close to them: she mentally came to the conclusion that if it was to kill them, it would've done it already.

Clyde finally made it next to the monster, and began to place the scrunched up shirt into a small gap in the snail's shell. "It's okay... you're alright..." Clyde mumbled whilst he shoved the shirt in, and once it was in fully, the monster growled ferociously in his direction. While Minnow covered her ears, Joel just stood there, simply covering his bare top half with his hands, unable to move in his current alarmed state. Liz immediately felt bad for him, and luckily the creature finally started to slither away. "Okay, now. All good, on your way now," Clyde continued to encourage calmly, "good boy."

Once the snail was far away enough and they were all safe, Liz hopped back down from where she was, running to Joel, with Minnow following right behind her. "Are you okay?" Liz asked Joel as she placed a hand on his shoulder, inspecting him up and down to make sure that he wasn't hurt.

"I–I'm fine... I think," Joel trembled, shaking violently.

Liz whipped off her jacket and handed it to Joel. "Here. It'll definitely be small on you, but it's better than nothing," she said sweetly, but Joel was unable to do anything but just stare at the jacket with confused, wide eyes. Liz laughed and placed the jacket around his shoulders so that he was somewhat covered. "There. It's pretty hot out here, anyway, so you won't need it for more than, like, ten minutes. Just relax and calm down, okay?"

Joel sent her a weak nod, before Minnow spoke up. "What are you so scared for? Boulder snails are nice."

"There can be nice ones?" Joel's voice cracked in uncertainty, his heartbeat still roaring in his ears, clearly still shaken up by the entire situation that just happened.

"You can always tell in their eyes. Just look at their eyes."

"This one probably saved our lives, too," Clyde added, "he's gonna spread your scent all over this hillside."

"S–so the chumbler is going to follow my shirt?" Joel asked, his panicked expression still not having left his face.

Liz hummed, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, it will. That stupid chumbler won't know which way to go."

"Thank you, Mr. Boulder Snail!" Minnow called out to the creature.

"Thank you, Mr. Boulder Snail!" Clyde repeated after her, a smile on his face.

"Tha-yuh—" Joel tried to say it too, but his words slurred dramatically.

"He means thank you!" Liz called out on Joel's behalf, as Boy barked at the boulder snail too.

Chapter Text

"Hey, that's pretty good!" Liz complimented as she hovered over the drawing that Joel had produced of one of the many monsters that they'd already encountered. Almost immediately, though, she returned to her task of washing some of the group's clothes that reeked of body odour and were in dire need of a clean after constantly walking for the past few days.

Joel's head turned to where Liz's voice was coming from, smiling at her softly. "Thanks. You need help with that?" He pointed his pencil in the direction of the wet clothes in her grasp.

Liz shook her head. "Nope, I'll be done with this soon, anyway," she said, pulling out another item of clothing that was left to soak in the bucket of water, which was actually one of Joel's jackets. She shuffled over to hang it onto the makeshift washing line that Clyde had set up for her.

"Hey," Clyde spoke softly, walking across to Liz and taking the drenched jacket from her. "I'll do it. You've been at this for a while now, I can do the rest."

Confusion flickered across the girl's features. "What do you mean? I'm fine doing this, Clyde," she pointed at the bucket of clothes, "I'm nearly done, look—"

"Go," the man protested, his tone stern yet caring all at once.

Liz exhaled loudly, raising her hands in surrender. "Fine," she mumbled, twirling on her heels and carefully treading around the sputtering, luminous campfire to find an appropriate space to sit. She laid upon the turf, body relaxing as her eyelids fluttered shut. She knew Clyde was right; this was the only time she'd get to have a somewhat rest for a while.

"Does anyone have an eraser, by any chance?"

Liz's eyes shot open at the rather stupid question. She sat up, her so called 'rest' being cut short, sending Joel a surly glare. "Yeah, because during an apocalypse, people on the surface just stroll around carrying erasers just for the sake of it," she retorted, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. Minnow found it utterly hilarious and laughed hysterically at the older girl's bitterness, earning a wink and a prideful grin from Liz.

"It was just a question," Joel mumbled nonchalantly, attempting to rub the paper with his index finger to fix his mistake when he realised just how ludicrous the 'question' he asked was.

Scooting closer to Joel until she was fully next to him, Liz's eyes widened in awe at Joel's drawing. "That's really good, Joel."

"You told me that already."

"And I can tell you again, dip-shit," she remarked, rolling her eyes. "Where's the mistake, anyway?"

Joel pointed at what looked like some random point on his paper. "Right there, see?"

Honestly, Liz was confused — she couldn't see a single thing that looked out of place on the drawing. She squinted so hard that her eyes almost wholly shut; she even took the sketchpad from Joel and dramatically pulled it closer to her face in order to see the supposed 'mistake', but there was nothing. "Where the hell is it?"

"There!" Joel snapped, pointing at the same spot.

"Where?" came a high-pitched, slightly agitated voice, although she didn't even bother looking again, because she knew full well that there was nothing to be seen. "Joel, you literally don't even need an eraser!"

"Oh, my God, Elizabeth, I do!" He snatched the sketchpad back from the girl, immediately resuming colouring in his drawing.

Liz scowled, shaking her head at the man. She watched him for a while, utterly fascinated by how he expertly fixed every little out-of-place line with the art of improvisation, and watched him pick out certain shades for every colour he'd use so that the drawings would look as realistic as humanly possible.

When the drawing looked pretty much completed, Liz finally awoke from what felt like a compelled state. "You should teach me how to draw like that," she spoke suddenly, inching ever so closer to the man to inspect the finished product.

Noticing that she was trying to see, Joel offered her the sketchpad, to which Liz took it with a smug grin. "I thought you were already good at everything you do," he sneered, and Liz scoffed, elbowing him gently in the rib. "Ouch!"

She sighed, playing along, despite Joel constantly mocking her. "Yeah, good at everything, except drawing."

Joel pouted slightly, seemingly considering all sorts of ideas. "Well, I guess I could give you some art classes."

"Oh, please, I seriously need them," Liz huffed, a breathy laugh falling from her lips as her fingers trailed over the lines of the drawing in front of her, admiring every little detail of the praiseworthy handiwork. "It truly is amazing, Joel," she said for the third time, unable to get over the man's outstanding talent. However, this time she spoke quietly, turning her head in Joel's direction once again, only to notice that his face was incredibly close to hers. He'd been intently watching her trace the drawing, and accidentally moved closer to her as he did so, almost as if he wanted to hear her thoughts that consisted of persistent mental applause.

When Joel noticed that his face was closer to Liz's than it had ever been, his cheeks tinted red, and he instinctively recoiled, although he didn't move too far at all. "Thank you," he replied in a mere whisper, so only she could hear him, his eyes locking with hers in an attentive stare.

A small smile crept onto Liz's face as she blushed slightly. "Hey," she said softly, turning her body fully so that she sat facing him, cross-legged, "I wanted to say sorry."

Joel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "For what?"

Liz clenched her jaw, swallowing away her guilt before she spoke. "For what I said today. You know, when Minnow asked if we were dating?" Her voice was minimal, not wanting to let Minnow or Clyde hear their confidential conversation.

Joel's heart sunk a little at the unsought memory, but was able to shake it off nonetheless. "Don't worry about it."

"No, it was unnecessarily rude, I don't know why I said that. Well, maybe I do — I don't know; probably just because this whole thing is new to me, I'm not used to spending so much time with you. Being your friend was unexpected, you know? Friend? Can I even call you a friend? See, now I'm confused," Liz practically stumbled over her words and decided to cut her rambling short, head falling into her palms in embarrassment as she inwardly cringed at herself for speaking way too much. When she glanced back up, she noticed a comforting smile form upon Joel's face as he watched her babble. The girl inhaled deeply, "Okay, forget everything I just said. I'll start again: I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

A humoured puff was released through Joel's nostrils, a little taken aback by the girl's apology. "Friend sounds good to me," he said teasingly, "and I know you didn't."

"Oh, great," Liz sighed in relief, before her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "wait, I didn't what?"

"Didn't mean it."

Liz's face heated up a little, as her mouth fell open, brows pinching in bewilderment. "What's that meant to mea—"

"That's really good!" Clyde's voice interrupted her, as he knelt down to sit next to the two of them. Liz took this as her cue to back away from Joel a little, their somewhat intimate conversation coming to an end.

Whilst Joel and Clyde discussed all of Joel's monster drawings, alongside the little notes down the sides of the pages on each of their strengths, weaknesses, and whatever the hell they talked about, Liz tried to mentally figure out what Joel meant by what he'd just said to her. What the hell did he mean when he said that? Did he think she liked him? What if she did?

The girl shook her head vigorously to rid herself of the thoughts that ran frantically through her mind. Not today, Elizabeth... she thought to herself, you're overthinking it.

"Are you okay?"

Liz snapped out of her daydreams to find Minnow and Boy making their way towards her. She offered her a soft smile, stroking the dog as soon as he came nearby. "Yeah, I'm fine, Minnow," Liz breathed, and the small girl nodded in response, sitting right beside Liz and resting her head on the older girl's lap. When Liz ran her fingers through Minnow's hair lovingly, she noticed that it was incredibly knotty, which made sense, apocalypse and all. As she reached out for her backpack, Minnow sent her a look of confusion, but her face contorted into a grin when she saw Liz pull out a hairbrush. "You want me to brush your hair?" Liz asked blissfully.

"You have a hairbrush but made fun of Joel for asking for an eraser?" Minnow giggled.

Liz laughed as she shot a finger up to her lips, warning her to be quiet whilst she glanced at Joel. "Sh! A girl's got to do what she's got to do," she hissed jokingly, as Minnow sat up to allow Liz to style her hair.

However, her attention adverted back to Joel and Clyde's conversation when she heard them mention her hometown.

Fairfield.

"Wait, wait, wait... you're from Fairfield?" Clyde questioned, sounding as if he was shocked.

Joel glanced at Liz from the corner of his eye, before his thumb alternated between her and himself, in a pointing manner. "Yeah, we're both from there."

"Man, I've never met anyone who's made it out of Fairfield," Clyde murmured breathily. "That place was basically ground zero. Shit, I've only ever heard horror stories."

"Yeah, it was pretty bad," Joel muttered.

Liz didn't want to remember what happened; she tried to focus on brushing Minnow's hair, but the unwanted memories were plaguing her mind before she could even think of ridding them. It was almost as though she was back in Fairfield on that awful, tragic day, sirens blaring and people running around desperately, trying to evacuate. She could vividly picture the sinister pools of blood that were seen all on the street, lifeless corpses laying nearby, and the other dead bodies being either crushed or eaten whole by heavily mutated animals... the list was endless.

"Your parents..." Clyde began hesitantly.

"Oh, no, it's just me," Joel said in a slight mumble, before he cleared his throat awkwardly. He lost eye contact with the man, as his mournful irises glared at ablaze fire in front of him. "I–uh... I couldn't save them."

Liz swallowed thickly, her heart shattering into a million pieces. Not only did she know that Joel felt alone, but she also knew that there was nothing that Joel could've possibly done to save his parents. There was nothing that anyone could've done to save their families or friends for the past seven years — that was given.

Clyde's eyes softened on the younger man. "You putting that on yourself?"

Joel nodded slowly, hurt washing in his eyes as he stared at nothing but the fire in front of him.

"Joel, it wasn't your fault," Liz spoke up, to which Joel just pursed his lips in denial.

"She's right, man. You're from Fairfield; neither of you should even be here!" Clyde peeked in Liz's direction, not even daring to bring up Liz's parents. He knew, from the time they met for the first time six years ago, that family was an incredibly sensitive topic for Liz. When the Apocalypse hit, she was stripped away from her parents. Everyone told her that they were most likely dead, but she constantly refused, holding onto the last string of hope, that she'd find them one day. One day, she'd reunite with them, and they'd be the happy family that they always were. Clyde's attention adverted back to Joel as he comfortingly pat him on the back, "You're more of a survivor than I thought."

Joel glanced up at the man, eyes full of hope. "That's the coolest thing anyone's ever said to me."

The three others chuckled lightly. "It's a good start," Clyde said, handing the sketchpad that he took from Joel back to him. "Keep this up, by the way, a book like this could save someone's life out here."

"Thanks, Clyde."

"You sure your girl's worth it? Coming all this way?"

Liz immediately froze in her place for a few seconds, before she mentally scolded herself once again, tying Minnow's hair into a low ponytail with a spare hair-tie that was around her wrist. She couldn't let talk about Aimee affect her this much. Why was it affecting her so much? She just couldn't get her head around it.

But to her dismay, when she sent Joel a quick glance, she noticed that he was looking right back at her. He gulped a little, instantly looking away. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, she is," he said lowly, although he didn't exactly believe himself anymore.

"Don't settle, Joel," Minnow spoke sweetly, smiling at Liz as her hands caressed her own hair to feel her ponytail. It was clear that Minnow cared more about her hairstyle than the current conversation about Aimee at this point — styling her hair was something she hadn't been able to do in a while.

"She's right," Clyde added, "you don't have to, not even at the end of the world."

The group lapsed into a comfortable silence, all laying down and getting as cozy as they possibly could. Minnow snuggled up next to Liz, Liz wrapping her arm around the girl attentively, and Boy laid in front of Minnow. They looked like three happy peas in a pod, and honestly, the two girls looked like sisters; anyone who saw them would've thought that they were. The low crackling of the campfire being the only noise that the group could hear, Joel got comfortable too, and everyone's eyelids fluttered shut.

Everyone except Clyde.

Suddenly, the group's attempt to fall into a slumber was disturbed by two loud claps that echoed throughout the small and limited space, startling them and nearly making them all jump out of their skin. "Okay! Time to break camp, let's go!" Clyde announced out of nowhere, immediately beginning to put all the items that were spread across the terrain back into his handy backpack. Liz and Minnow knew exactly what was up, and quickly stood upright to throw on their jackets and help Clyde put everything away.

Joel's head whipped around to them all, an urgent look of confusion written all across his face. "What—"

"Lesson two: you either get a hot meal, or a good night's sleep. Not both," Clyde told him.

Liz and Minnow both nodded before they spoke in unison, "Not both."

Joel finally sat up, eyes flickering between the three in a baffled manner. "Are you being serious?"

"Something will have smelled our food and will be all over this camp within the hour," Clyde informed the dazed man.

"W–why wouldn't you tell me that, though? I–I didn't... I didn't do either of those things..."

"I can't tell you everything, man," Clyde said, not even attempting to conceal the bluntness in his voice, "keep up."

"Don't worry, Joel, I've got snacks in my bag," Liz spoke sweetly, despite trying to quickly fumble through all the things that were spread across the ground.

Joel watched her, eyes widened slightly, still just sitting there whilst everyone rushed to get going quickly. "Thanks, Elizabeth," came a mere whisper.

"It's no problem at all. And for the love of God, get up!" Liz hissed. "We need to leave!"

__________

"I'm gonna kill you, Joel Dawson! I'm gonna eat you like broccoli!"

Whilst on their short break after walking for a couple of hours, Liz and Minnow decided to give Joel yet another target practice session, since he still couldn't aim for shit.

And Minnow seemed to have a few words of encouragement.

"Oh, I'm Joel, and I can't protect my girlfriend because I'm a useless, insecure, awkward little teenager," Minnow retorted, deepening her tone in attempt to mock Joel's voice, before switching to a squeakier one to imitate Joel's girlfriend. "But I need you to save me! I thought you loved me! But I can't because—" Minnow was cut off by rather peculiar noises that escaped her own mouth; a mixture of feigned screams and blowing raspberries, to say the least.

There was no doubt that Joel found it incredibly difficult to focus while Minnow was distracting him so much. "What?"

"It's your girlfriend, Liz, dying!" Minnow snapped, before her jaw fell open in shock at her own words, and her hand shot up to her mouth to cover it.

A red hue fell upon both Liz and Joel's cheeks, the pair of them ceasing movement for a few seconds before Liz swallowed thickly and finally spoke up, "Minnow, that wasn't very funn—"

"Accident!" Minnow interjected, arms flailing in the air. "I meant Aimee. I know, I know, you guys aren't dating — you've made that clear."

Minnow's words shut them both up, the air absolutely reeking with tension. Joel eventually turned back to his crossbow, shaking off the awkwardness from his body. "Okay..."

"Just remember, a needle through water," Minnow said as she turned back to Joel, almost in a whisper, allowing him to focus once more.

Joel's eyes were set on the target, completely and utterly concentrated on the tree in front of him. "Needle through water..." he repeated after Minnow, before he released the weapon, and it landed straight in the middle of the target.

Minnow and Liz jumped with joy, cheering aloud for everyone to hear, even if they knew no one was around. "Bullseye!" Minnow announced, immediately wrapping her arms around Joel tightly, her face digging into his side in an affectionate embrace.

Liz felt her whole heart warm up as she watched Minnow grab onto Joel firmly, aware that the little girl never really showed him any kind of affection up until this very moment. Liz was unaware of the grin that was carved into her face from ear to ear, and it was only when she locked eyes with Joel that she noticed that his face broke out into a smile right back at her.

Chapter Text

The group spent the next couple of days teaching Joel everything they knew about survival. Granted, he always had Liz by his side to help him get out of potentially fatal situations, however, it was beneficial for Joel to learn how to fend for himself too, given the fact that Liz had literally fallen into a sand-gobblers nest and Joel was pretty much no good when it came to helping her back up. If she were to die in there that day, Joel probably would've too.

Joel had finally perfected his aim with a crossbow, upped his physical ability as a whole, and learnt the rules for survival in the Apocalypse over the past few days. The most difficult one for him to adhere to was 'never both', for sure, but he was certain that he was getting better at it. Needless to say, though, he was exhausted, as was everyone else.

"You know," Minnow began, as she and Liz marched through the forest path hand-in-hand, "I think Joel is in love with you."

Liz's cheeks heated up as her eyes widened at the little girl in utter bewilderment, pausing in her tracks and whipping out her hand out to bring Minnow to a halt too. She stole a quick glance over her shoulder to ensure that Joel didn't hear what Minnow had just said, and luckily, he was talking to Clyde, completely oblivious to the girls' conversation. She let out a huff of relief, "W–what? Why would you think... that?" She practically stumbled over her words.

Minnow sighed deeply, rolling her eyes. "Have you seen the way he looks at you?"

"Yeah... I guess? I mean, it's nothing like that—"

"And the way you look at him?"

The older girl's eyes narrowed in confusion as she looked over at Joel once more to check he wasn't eavesdropping. "What do you mean?" she hissed.

Minnow rolled her eyes once again, the eight-year-old growing slightly agitated at how clueless the pair of them were at the chemistry that they blatantly had. "All I'm saying is, even if Joel is going to find Aimee, he's definitely going to realise that you're the one he wants." Liz gaped at Minnow's words, attempting to come up with a viable reply but unable to even form a sentence. Minnow continued, "And I think it's pretty stupid of you to be going with him to find some other girl when it's so obvious that you love each other."

That was what shut Liz up completely for the next few minutes. She didn't believe it, she had no reason to. There was no way that Joel had feelings for her. Absolutely no way. They were literally going to find his high school girlfriend — that didn't exactly sound like Joel confessing any feelings to Liz.

"Well, we're getting close to where our paths diverge," Clyde informed the group, pulling Liz out of her thoughts as they made their way to a sign that showed numerous arrows pointing out different possible routes to take. He pointed his finger west, "You're gonna want to go west — to Jenner, the beaches."

Liz smiled at the man, "Thanks, Cly—"

"Or you could be sensible and come with us to the mountains," Clyde interrupted her.

Liz noticed that Joel seemed to be contemplating it, his brows raised and lip curling in thought as he looked over at Liz in consideration. But the girl shook her head, sending him a death-stare, as if to call him pathetic for making her come all this way just to change plans, and Joel instantly crumbled under her gaze.

"We're gonna go to the beaches," Liz dismissed firmly.

...Not the answer Joel was expecting.

He frowned deeply, but before he even had the time to process his thoughts, he was distracted when he caught Minnow tearing up from the corner of his eye.

"Woah, woah, woah," Joel said softly as he made his way over to Minnow, kneeling in front of the little girl. "What's going on?"

Minnow's heavy eyes hauled from the ground up to Joel's face in front of her. "Why do you have to go?"

Joel's hazel irises bored into Minnow's sympathetically, sucking in a deep breath before he spoke, "Because... Aimee..."

But his lips ceased movement after uttering the girl's name. Joel locked eyes with Liz, only for her to quickly look away, not daring to make eye contact after what Minnow had said earlier. Joel frowned in her direction, but Liz didn't really care for it, turning to Minnow. "He needs to find Aimee," she spoke aloud, although she couldn't ignore the fact that the words that fell from her mouth were eating her up inside.

Maybe Minnow was right; maybe she did like him.

The group watched as further tears welled into the little girl's eyes. "But you—"

"But nothing!" Liz demanded, way harsher than she'd intended to. Minnow flinched, bottom lip trembling as she began to cry silently. Hurt flared through Liz's chest as a bitter taste invaded her throat, instantly feeling bad for shouting at the girl. She didn't mean to, honestly, but she was incredibly overwhelmed by all that was going on, given the whole journey, her supposed feelings for Joel, everything.

Once again, an unsettling silence fell amongst the group, and everyone, even Boy, glared at Liz for having raised her voice. When Liz took a few steps towards the smaller girl, Joel quickly stood upright defensively, raising his hand up in an attempt to stop her. "Elizabeth, I don't think you should—"

"Shut the hell up, Joel," Liz groaned, pushing past him and kneeling in front of Minnow.

Needless to say, it shocked Joel to some extent. If she did that a year ago, he wouldn't have been surprised, but now, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't. Nevertheless, he instantly stepped back and held his hands up in his defence, knowing full well not to mess with Liz in this given moment. "Sorry."

Liz hummed sarcastically at him, before taking Minnow's hand into her own. Instinctively, Minnow recoiled from Liz's touch after being shouted at, but she was soon able to loosen up and offer her hand to Liz. After all, Minnow knew that Liz would never hurt her. Hurt further churned inside of the older girl when she noticed how much Minnow was crying, so she sucked in a deep breath before she spoke softly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled. But we told you this already, Minnow. We're currently on a mission, okay? And we can't just change plans now, not after coming all this way."

Minnow nodded weakly, a feigned smile on her face as she leaned down to give Liz a big hug.

"Hey, you know what? I've got something for you, Minnow," Joel spoke up, causing the two girls to pull away from each other and look at him in question. The man's hand dug into his pocket, and he retrieved the lipstick that he took from the bus a few days back. "I don't think you'd even know what this is, but—"

"Lipstick?" Minnow cut him off, snatching the product from Joel's hand with a smile carved into her face from ear to ear. Liz couldn't help but grin at the girl's enthusiasm to see the lifeless object.

"Oh... yeah!" Joel encouraged.

Without warning, Minnow's arms wrapped around Joel tightly, pulling him into the biggest and warmest embrace. "Maybe you're not so stupid," she muttered into his shoulder, soon pulling away and wiping her nose with the back of her hand with a huge smile on her face, to which Joel returned. Liz could almost feel her heart warm up at the pair in front of her, a soft smile lingering on her lips.

Joel chuckled lightly, "Thanks, Minnow."

"Alright," Clyde cleared his throat, turning to Joel. "Final lesson. Listen to your instincts out here, they'll keep you alive."

Joel nodded, confirming he understood. "Okay... what if I have terrible instincts?"

"You'll die."

Joel's face fell instantly, all emotion fleeing from his expression. "Oh."

"But don't worry," Clyde added, pointing a finger at Liz, "you've got Liz! She won't leave you."

Joel sent a quick glance in Liz's direction, smiling faintly at her, only for the girl to look away immediately for the third time. Joel frowned once again and turned to Minnow, both upset and confused, but the girl simply just shrugged. It seemed mean, Liz knew that, but she seriously needed to think. What Minnow said really got to her and she needed time to decide where her feelings lied.

So, she decided what she'd do.

She was going to ignore Joel.

Liz wouldn't speak to him unless it was absolutely necessary to do so. Or at least until she'd figured herself out. She'd be able to ensure that Joel was safe without actually speaking to him... right?

"Oh, and this might come in handy, too," Clyde added, pulling out a grenade from his pocket. Joel gasped, like a child, and immediately reached forward to grab it, but Clyde pulled it away. "Ah-ah-ah, I don't trust you with this. Liz, take it," he instructed, passing it to her.

Liz did as told, taking the weapon with a smug grin. "Count to five, right?" She looked at him for confirmation.

Clyde nodded firmly. "Not four, not six."

"Do you have any more of those?" Joel inquired, nodding in the grenade's direction.

"You only get one."

Liz snorted, her hand shooting up to her mouth to hold in her laugh. "Hopefully, we won't even need to use the thing. Don't fret, Joel," she assured him.

Clyde sent a smile in Liz's direction, before he turned to Minnow, "Alright, let's go, kid."

Almost instantly, though, Minnow wrapped her arms around Liz one last time, causing Liz to flinch at the sudden contact, but her body was quick to soften in the little girl's arms nonetheless. "Promise me you'll come and find us after," Minnow mumbled, her words coming out muffled as she spoke into Liz's hair.

Liz had to blink away the tears that were poking at her eyes. Over the course of the last few days, she really built a bond with Minnow like no other; she was like the sister she'd always wanted. "I promise, Minnow, we'll meet again. Joel and Boy will be waiting for you, too."

Chapter Text

"C'mon, Elizabeth, please talk to me."

Joel, Liz and Boy were walking alone, after having left Minnow and Clyde around six hours ago. It was almost as if the long-gone pair had taken a chunk of their happiness along with them; everyone's mood was a little down, and to make it worse, the forest that they were currently treading through was incredibly eerie, to say the least.

Even though daylight shone through the slender branches, it was still somehow dark and gloomy, dead leaves crisping under the trio's feet with every step, and the trees looking as if they were about to topple onto them any moment.

And, since Liz promised herself that she wouldn't speak to Joel, she hadn't said a word to him. Admittedly, although she'd been at it for a while now, it was certainly not getting any easier.

"Elizabeth?"

Silence.

"Elizabeth, please."

Not a single word.

Joel was unaware as to why Liz wasn't talking to him, and honestly, he'd be lying if he said it wasn't hurting him. He missed speaking to her; she made their prolonged journey all the more entertaining with all her sassy jokes and constant remarks. Her company made the past few days a little better.

"Elizabeth?" he tried again, desperation laced in his tone.

As expected, Liz completely ignored him.

Joel huffed dramatically, a frown prominent upon his face. "Fine," he mumbled, running to sit against a tree, like a child, with Boy following him.

Liz's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the two boys just sitting there, before she rolled her eyes at Joel's immaturity — she wouldn't have been surprised if he was to throw a tantrum at this point. Shaking her head as she sighed deeply, Liz ushered her hands towards the direction they were headed as she looked at Boy, "Come on, Boy."

Boy did as told, innocently running over to Liz and continuing to walk alongside her, and Joel's mouth fell open in both confusion and slight betrayal from near the tree. "So you want Boy to come with you, but not me?" Joel called out as he glared at her from afar. "I could literally die without you!"

Again, the girl was silent.

Joel groaned loudly, running a hand down the side of his face in frustration. "Liz!"

At that name, Liz's head snapped around. Her lips parted, ready to remind him that only friends could call her 'Liz', but she almost instantly closed her mouth.

"Ha!" Joel retorted, pointing at her accusingly as he finally got up and walked in her direction, wiping his hands clean on his trousers. "See, we're friends, remember? Didn't we agree on that? You can't say that I can't call you Liz anymore... although, I probably wouldn't call you that anyway. Saying Liz sounds weird..." Joel's voice faded out as he thought out loud to himself, genuinely contemplating which of the names he should use on the girl.

Liz winced at him in annoyance, immediately turning on her heel to resume walking. "Come on, Boy," she said once again, turning a blind eye to what Joel was saying.

"Oh, my God, Elizabeth!" Joel pleaded as he followed her, grabbing her by the arm and whirling her body back around to face him again. Truthfully speaking, he expected her to turn away again, but was pleasantly surprised when she didn't. Instead, she stayed facing him, and his hazel eyes bored into her blue ones, whilst a soft grip remained on either one of her arms so she wouldn't change her mind and turn back around. "Talk to me. Did I do something wrong?" he asked in a slightly worried tone.

Liz shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Joel's head tilted forward for confirmation.

"You didn't do anything," Liz responded in a mere whisper.

Joel huffed in relief, a smile creeping onto his face after finally hearing her speak to him. "Oh, thank God."

Liz pursed her lips into a somewhat smile and sent him a singular nod, before she spun on her heels once more and began walking again.

"Wait!" Joel rushed in front of her, blocking her from going any further. "Then why aren't you speaking to me?"

Jaw clenched, Liz glared at the man in front of her. "Joel, can we just go?"

"Not until you tell me why you haven't been talking to me."

Boy began whimpering from the side, his eyes darting between the conversing pair and someplace in the distance.

"It doesn't matter," Liz mumbled, trying to shove past Joel, only for him to grab her by the shoulders and drag her back in front of him.

"It matters to me. I don't want you to be mad at me," Joel spoke truthfully without thinking.

Liz's lip curled in amusement. "That's a first."

Joel's face scrunched up self-consciously, a nervous chuckle falling from his lips. "First time for everything, I guess?"

Boy suddenly began to bark incessantly, causing Liz and Joel to shoot him a look. "Quiet, Boy!" Liz hissed, knowing that he'd attract a monster if he continued barking like that. Luckily, the dog's barks turned back into whimpers, and he sat flat on his stomach.

"Well, are you going to tell me?" Joel resumed interrogating, only for Liz to shake her head once again. "Come on, Elizabeth... please?" he begged.

Her eyes softened on the man when she noticed the desperation in his voice, sucking in a deep breath before she finally spoke. "Fine." She pulled away from Joel's grasp on her arms to look at him seriously. "You know what Minnow said?"

Nerves racked Joel's body immediately after having noticed the change in the girl's demeanour. He swallowed away the lump in his throat, "What? What did she say?"

Liz inhaled deeply, eyes screwing shut, praying that this wouldn't end badly.

But just as she was about to speak, Boy, once again, began to bark continuously. Liz and Joel whipped their heads in the dog's direction, Joel groaning at the animal. "Boy, for the love of God—"

He was cut off when Liz's hand flailed up to cover his mouth, shushing him in the middle of his sentence. His eyes widened, glaring at her, muffled moans being released into the girl's hand. "Shut up," she hissed as she glared at him right back, and Joel noticed that her eyes were full of fear.

That's when he realised what was about to happen. They all did.

Out of nowhere, Boy began to run frantically ahead of the pair. "Boy?! Where are you going? Boy!" Joel called, himself and Liz running after the dog.

They managed to catch up with the animal when he went to hide underneath some huge, random duck that was lying in the middle of the woods. Liz fell on her knees, head peering through the gap in which Boy was hiding. "Boy? Hey, Boy, we really need to go," her voice wavered with nerves, bile rising in her throat at the known fact that a monster was nearby.

Joel bent over to shoot Boy a quick glance too. "Boy, please get out from under the duck. Please..."

But his voice trailed off when he noticed that the ground around them had started to move. Dozens of leg-like figures rose from the ground, and Liz stood upright, the pair of them turning around gradually to see the body of a colossal centipede-looking monster emerging from the ground.

"Joel, get behind me. Right now," Liz breathed, her arm reaching behind her to grab a gun from the outside pocket of her backpack, dread washing into the pit of her stomach. Joel was quick to follow as instructed, but he grabbed for his own crossbow nonetheless, shaky breaths escaping his trembling lips, fearful eyes never leaving the monster.

Both of them pointed their weapons at the creature in unison, and Liz continued to give orders, "Okay, I'm gonna count to three and we're both gonna shoot it at the same time, you got that? Shoot as many times as you can." Joel attempted to hum in agreement, however it came out as more of a quiet weep, but Liz got the message anyway. "Okay... one, two, thr—"

Suddenly, one of the monster's antennae darted forward like a bullet, whipping Joel off his feet and he fell head-first into the ground.

"Joel!" Liz shrieked, instinctively dropping her gun and sprinting in his direction. She fell next to him, shaking him viciously until his eyes opened. When they did, she huffed in relief, "Are you okay?"

Joel hadn't had the time to answer her question, his face contorting in horror when he noticed the monster coming up behind Liz. "Watch out!"

The monster's antenna ruthlessly wrapped around the girl's neck before she had the chance to turn around, terror washing over her as she suddenly struggled to breathe. Joel could practically hear sirens in his head and instantly stood upright, looking to be on the verge of a panic attack, eyes widened in complete fear.

That was until the monster hauled at Liz's body from her neck, heaving her up, causing an empathic scream to erupt from her throat. Her dainty hands shot up to the antenna wrapped around her neck, using the small amount of strength that she currently had to try and rid the creature off her whilst her small, dangly legs kicked the air aggressively.

Tears brimmed Joel's eyes and his breath came to a hitch when he noticed the girl's screams turned into violent coughs and chokes. He was too taken aback and was standing there, ceasing movement — Liz was dying in front of him and he didn't know how to help her. It was making his insides flip; he felt sick to his stomach.

He'd already seen his parents die to a monster because he was unable to help them... he knew how that felt, and he blamed himself for it every day. There was no way that he was going to allow that to happen again.

But when Liz's eyes darted around the forest, she noticed half of the monster's slim body was wrapping around the huge duck that Boy was hiding under.

Her teeth clenched together, eyelids unbelievably heavy as she started to feel light-headed, her breathing rate decreasing by the second. "Joel," she whispered in a strangled sob, tears resembling a waterfall gushing down her cheeks. "Get Boy and go."

Another breath caught in Joel's throat at her words. "I'm not leaving you," he protested firmly as he leaned down, his hand hesitantly curling around his crossbow that he dropped earlier.

His breathing became even shakier whilst he aimed the weapon in the monster's direction. Joel tried to do anything but look at Liz, because he knew that seeing her hanging there would make him feel terrible and distract him, and right now he needed to focus with all that he had in him.

Liz grunted in pain, and her vision grew blurry as she cried. "Joel... Joel, it's g–gonna get Boy..." she said through heavy, struggling breaths.

Joel didn't care for what she said, though, blocking out her wailing as he focused on attacking the creature. He took his stance and instantly shot at the monster, the arrow hitting it in its side, causing it to roar ferociously in Joel's direction.

Almost immediately, the creature crawled in Joel's direction faster than he'd expected in attempts to attack him, but Joel took this as his perfect opportunity to hit it right in its front.

Needle through water.

He released the string, and the arrow landed right in the middle of the monster's open mouth. It growled lowly, before it evidently became weak, gradually losing all of its strength and it slowly deceased right in front of Joel.

Instantly, it released its grasp from Liz's neck and she fell onto the ground with a loud thud, making her gasp as she struggled to find oxygen. Joel's mouth fell open, further tears pooling in his eyes whilst his gaze never left the girl.

Liz choked out a laugh, glancing at the man as her breathing began to even out again. "Where's Boy?"

Joel's alerted eyes darted around as he wondered the same thing, and as if on cue, Boy emerged from the shadows and ran towards Liz. A soft smile crept onto Joel's face as he dropped to the ground to join them. "A–are you okay?" he asked worriedly, and winced when he noticed bruises all over Liz's neck from where the now-deceased creature had strangled her.

Liz sat upright, grunting in pain — being dropped onto the hard forest ground from twenty feet high by a dying monster was not good for her prominent back pains. She noticed that Joel was staring at her neck worriedly, and a reassuring smile arranged on her pink lips, "I'm okay. You saved my life."

Joel's eyes shut tight as he shook his head harshly. Everything that just happened had honestly been a complete blur to him. "I–what?"

"You saved my life! Finally!" Liz laughed, coughing a few final times before Boy licked her face lovingly. "You're a monster-killer!"

"I am?" Joel was still a little shaken up, but before he even had the chance to process his thoughts, Liz's arms wrapped around him securely in a comforting hug.

"Thank you for saving my life, Joel Dawson."

His eyes widened in shock, given that they'd never even hugged before, but he was quick to ease into her embrace, slowly wrapping his own arms around her petite frame. "You're welcome, Elizabeth Parker," he mumbled into her hair as he shut his eyes, clinging onto the warmth of her body, "I hope I never have to do it again."

Chapter Text

"Is that a car?" Liz squinted her blue eyes, intrigued by a vehicle-looking silhouette in the distance.

"Oh, my God... it is!" Utterly fascinated by the lifeless car, Joel began to run frantically in its direction, Liz and Boy spurting after him. Liz let out a small chuckle — she completely understood Joel's enthusiasm, given that he hadn't seen a car in seven long years.

Joel came to a hesitant halt when he reached the red car — jeep, even — glaring at the vehicle with what looked like shocked eyes. Liz stopped abruptly behind him, her body colliding with his from behind, but he didn't seem to have any reaction. His eyes were wholly glued to the jeep, body entirely still.

"Are you... okay?" Liz tried to say between heavy breaths, grabbing his shoulder for support.

Joel gulped, looking back at her, "Y–yeah. This car... it's just..."

When his voice trailed off, Liz's eyes widened to urge him to continue. "It's just what?"

"I–it looks just like Aimee's car," he admitted in a voice barely above a whisper, and Liz's heart sunk at the mention of the girl's name.

She quickly pulled her hand away from him, attempting to shrug off both the pain and awkwardness she felt. "Maybe it is her car. We're not that far from her colony anymore. Probably broke down or something."

Joel sighed, his lips pursing in a straight line. "Yeah."

Suddenly, Boy began to bark, and the pair shot him a confused glare.

Liz immediately thought of the worst, panic flooding her veins as her eyes darted around the forest to check if there were any monsters nearby.

"Boy? What is it?" Joel questioned, a frightened tone laced in his voice as he glanced nervously around the forest, just like Liz.

The dog only continued to bark, wiping his head with his paw. That was when Liz felt cold water droplets fall upon her face, the girl groaning at the inconvenience that the weather was causing them.

"Oh, my God, it's raining," she grumbled, the downpour of the rain almost instantly becoming much heavier as she mentioned it. The torrential rain absolutely drenched them all in a matter of seconds.

Joel seemed to be far more excited than Liz was, though, staring up at the sky with a grin plastered on across face. "It's raining!" he cheered, allowing himself to practically drown in the water that poured onto his body.

"Yes, I just said that, you idiot," Liz retorted, doing a light jog towards the jeep and swinging open the door. "Come on."

"No," Joel dismissed, his face still pointing towards the sky and the smile never leaving his face. "I haven't felt the rain in seven years — let me enjoy it."

Liz rolled her eyes at the man's childishness. "Suit yourself. Come on, Boy," she called, and the dog was quick to listen, following her into the jeep as she shut the door behind her. She threw her backpack into the backseat and sighed deeply, finally able to relax for a bit.

Boy curled up in a ball on her lap, and Liz sent him a smug smile, stroking him lovingly. "You're my best boy, you know that?"

The dog whimpered slightly in response, and Liz could've sworn she saw him smile, as he shut his eyes contently whilst Liz continued to stroke him. She stole a quick glance out the window, expecting to see Joel still staring at the sky — or whatever the hell he was doing — only to see what he'd completely disappeared.

Body stiffened, a wave of panic and dread washed over Liz whilst her arm darted forward to unlock the car door, eyes flickering around the forest in an attempt to find him. "Joel?" she called out, although she was certain that he wouldn't have heard her over the persistent, violent pattering of the rain anyway. Boy quickly caught onto what was going on, the clever dog's eyes shooting open and his head perking up, before he speedily jumped off Liz's lap to run out of the jeep, searching for Joel. "Boy? Boy! Come back here!" Liz called after him.

Just as Liz was about to step out of the car herself, she felt something push her back in, causing her to shriek vociferously in her defence, instinctively grabbing her pocket-gun. But a hand covered her mouth mid-scream, her yells becoming muffled as her body tensed, eyes widening at the sudden contact.

"Hey, hey, hey, sh! It's just me."

The girl's eyes visibly trailed up the soaked figure in front of her, and her body relaxed when she noticed it was just Joel. He removed his hand from her mouth, shaking his head slightly.

"Joel!" she snapped, kicking him away from her.

"Holy shit, I thought you were gonna shoot me," Joel chuckled dryly, using his hands to usher Liz to go further into the car.

"I would've! What the hell are you doing?" she hissed, and she quickly used her own strength to haul herself into the passenger seat to allow Joel to sit in the one she was previously in. Though, she didn't understand why he couldn't have just gone around to sit in the passenger's seat instead.

"I decided to take up your offer on using the only shelter that we currently have," he spluttered out as he sat, water dripping from his body into the entire car. Boy somehow managed to run back and jump onto Joel's lap right on time, before the man slammed the door behind him. "The rain got a bit too much."

"No shit," Liz muttered, slipping off her jacket and handing it over to Joel when she noticed that he was shivering. "You need a towel?" she offered, reaching out for her backpack to find the only towel she brought.

Joel contently took her jacket and wrapped it around himself, despite the fact that it was absolutely tiny and barely even covered his body. "I'm fine, thanks."

Liz sent him a small smile, and Boy jumped from Joel's lap to the backseat, soaking Liz in the process. She grunted, "Boy!"

"Leave him alone," Joel protested defensively.

Liz completely ignored him, sighing and she leaned back into her seat and shut her eyes. "Night, Joel. Night, Boy."

"Wha— night?" Joel's eyes narrowed in confusion at her, but the girl's eyes nonchalantly remained closed.

"Yeah, we're gonna sleep here tonight."

"Are you... are you sure that's safe?"

"Don't you remember when we slept in a literal bus?" Liz reminded him. "We'll be fine."

Joel nodded slowly, realising that the girl was right. He huffed, his head dropping forward and leaning against the steering wheel in front of him.

A peaceful silence filled the car before Joel suddenly spoke up again. "Elizabeth?"

Liz groaned, rubbing her temples. "What?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

The girl's eyes shot open to send him a baffled look, furrowing her eyebrows. "Yeah...?"

"No, seriously."

"I am being serious," she mumbled.

"No, seriously," Joel urged, his forehead still on the steering wheel but tilting his face side to look at her from the corner of his eye. "Do you think this whole thing was even worth it?"

Liz's felt her heart drop to the ground when he asked the question, unsure on how to even answer it. Of course, she thought it'd be worth it for him; hearing Joel and Aimee's conversation over the radio pretty much confirmed that they were madly in love. But selfishly, Liz hoped that wasn't the case.

"What do you mean?" she finally managed to speak.

Joel sighed, stripping his wet forehead off the steering wheel and leaning back into his seat, staring joylessly out into the windscreen. "You think she still loves me?"

His words stung her a little, and the girl tore her eyes away from him and glared into the windscreen as well. She swallowed down the lump of envy in the back of her throat, putting her selfish thoughts aside. "Yeah, of course," she breathed, a false smile upon her face. "Why wouldn't she?"

Joel turned his head slowly to look at her. "What if I don't want her to?"

Liz instantaneously felt the heavyweight of the man's stare on her. Her gaze fell upon her hands as she played with her fingers awkwardly, the air absolutely reeking with tension. "What do you mean?" she murmured, mentally refusing to look at him. "Don't you love her anymore?"

Joel exhaled loudly, almost sounding as if he was stressed, as he ran a hand through his fluffy hair. "I'm— I'm not sure."

It was at this point that Liz returned the glare, breathing deeply through her nose. Another false, reassuring smile arranged on her lips, "You wanna talk about it?"

Joel hummed in thought momentarily. "Not really," he shrugged. It was true; he didn't know where his feelings lay at all, and he wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"Fair enough." Liz turned to her side, huffing loudly as she shut her eyes, her back facing the man. Joel bit his lip to hold back a smile, but before he could say anything, Liz added, "I'm here for you, though, Joel."

A soft chuckle fell from Joel's lips. "I know. Thanks, Elizabeth," he mumbled in a fatigued, raspy voice, as he leaned forward to grab Liz's delicate hand and gently gave it a comforting squeeze.

A breath hitched in the girl's throat, her eyes shooting open once more, but she did not dare to turn her head to look at him. Besides, it would've been useless even if she did, because he had already looked away, head leaning against the cold glass window as he passively watched a couple of raindrops race to the bottom.

But truthfully, every part of him was consumed by the doting thoughts about Elizabeth Parker that were running frantically through his mind recently. And it was impossible to make them stop.

__________

The trio were awoken when there was a sudden continual banging noise coming from the front of the car.

Joel rubbed his eyes harshly, clearly disorientated from the slumber that he had fallen into."What's that noise?" he wondered out loud, his words slurring a little.

"I don't know," Liz said mid-yawn as she stretched her arms out dramatically, the back of her hand hitting Joel right in the face.

Joel grimaced, groaning as he swatted her hand away. "Ouch."

"Oops," Liz giggled. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Boy was okay, and noticed that he was wide awake too. "Come on, let's check it out," she suggested, swiftly opening the car door.

"What? But it's still raining!" Joel stated the obvious, pointing out into the windscreen as if to prove it to her.

Liz rolled her eyes. "So? We won't be able to sleep with that noise." She tugged at his arm, urging him to get up. "Get your lazy ass up."

"Fine," he grumbled, stepping out of the car. Boy followed the pair and hastily jumped out the vehicle, only to be grabbed by Joel and shoved back inside. The dog immediately tried to leap out again, but Joel stood in front of him to block his path. "Ah-ah-ah," the man held a finger up to the animal. "You stay right here."

Boy, however, decided not to listen, hopping out of the jeep nonetheless, causing Joel to scowl and shake his head exhaustedly. Himself and Liz didn't even bother telling the dog to go back, knowing full well that he wouldn't listen at this point.

The three of them tiptoed out to the front of the jeep, the banging noise becoming increasingly louder the closer they got.

"That noise is gonna drive me insane," Liz muttered, wincing as she covered her ears with her hands. "As if the rain wasn't enough."

Joel's jaw clenched, clearly growing agitated of it too. "What the hell even is that?"

Liz shrugged as she took a couple of steps forward and grabbed the car's bonnet. She counted in her head slowly, and on three, swung the front open.

Unsettlingly enough, some huge, mutated, cockroach-looking monster was feasting on the gears in the front of the jeep. The sight of it sent Liz staggering back a few steps in shock, the creature instantly looking up at the human pair and growling ferociously in their direction.

Joel's face contorted in pure horror, looking to be on the verge of a panic attack. "Elizabeth?" he whimpered, slowly backing away from the creature. "Elizabeth... w–what do we do...?"

Both of them continued to back up gradually, Liz grabbing her pocket-gun for the second time in the space of an hour, whilst Joel trembled in disquiet from behind her.

Until suddenly, Liz's body whirled around, the pair sending each other alarmed looks before Liz screamed.

"Run!"

Chapter Text

"So, are you gonna tell me?"

Liz's brows pinched together in confusion. "Tell you what?"

"What you were gonna tell me before I saved your life earlier today," Joel made sure to emphasise his words, making it clear that he wouldn't let that go. "You were gonna tell me what Minnow said."

"Oh," Liz chuckled lightly, "definitely not."

Joel's mouth fell open in feigned hurt. "What? You were gonna tell me, though!"

"Yeah, and I'm glad I didn't," she replied, pointing to a building that they were approaching, indicating that they were headed there for a short break.

"Why?"

Liz shrugged, not wanting to continue with the conversation any further. "I just don't want to tell you. Is that a problem?"

Joel hesitated, slightly taken aback by the girl's accusatory tone. "I–I guess not."

"Good."

The pair lapsed into a short silence until they made their way into the small building — one that had a sign that said 'free wifi' on the front. They figured it was some kind of old motel that had been destroyed by monsters at some point.

When they got there, Joel wandered around the place, gazing at the furniture in awe. Being out in the open for all those days honestly made him forget what it was like to be indoors.

Liz's shirt was stuck to her body, but she quickly peeled it off, leaving her in just a bra. She turned to Joel, "Can I have my jacket back?"

Joel's head whipped around to face her, eyes widening when he saw her topless. He instantly looked away with reddened cheeks. "Uh, y–yeah, sure," he stuttered, pulling off the jacket and handing it to her, not daring to look the girl in the eye.

Rolling her eyes, she snatched it off him. "Get over yourself, Joel. It's not like I'm completely naked. You can look, I don't care."

He stole a quick glance in her direction before immediately looking away again. "A–Are you sure?"

Liz couldn't help but feel her heart swell at how thoughtful he was, and her face contorted into a small smile. "Yeah," she confirmed, "and give me anything you want to dry, too."

Joel nodded, taking off his own shirt and passing it to her. "Thank you," he said, offering Liz a smile back as she hung it next to her jacket on the out-of-order radiator.

He wasn't wearing anything underneath — he was currently wearing the only remaining clothing that he had, since the boulder-snail had taken his original ones. As the cold, forest breeze hit his bare skin, the man began to shiver.

Liz took notice and dug into her bag to find the blanket that she'd brought with her. She retrieved it right from the bottom of the bag, but as she pulled at it, some of her other things toppled out — her hairbrush, water bottle, food containers, and a mirror included.

"Oh, my God," Joel's eyes widened in shock, instantly dropping to the ground, "how many things did you bring with you?"

"Not a lot," Liz responded, handing him the blanket which he took smugly. He speedily covered his bare top half with it, before helping her pick up all the items that she'd dropped.

"Way more than I brought."

"That's why I brought them. You obviously didn't bring everything you needed; I packed for us both," Liz quipped. Her arm reached for her water bottle, which was the last of the objects, but Joel grabbed for it first, causing Liz's hand to brush over his.

Both of their cheeks tinted red, and their eyes locked into some kind of staring contest, neither of them knowing when or whether to even look away.

That was until Joel finally decided to tear his gaze away from her and look elsewhere, handing the bottle to Liz. "Here you go," he said awkwardly.

Liz mumbled a thanks as she took it from him, a soft smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Hello!"

The pair yelped at the sudden voice, and Joel hid behind Liz, using the girl's body as a shield from whatever the hell just spoke. Their bodies whirled around in unison to see a real-life MAV1S sitting right in front of them.

Liz gasped, clapping her hands excitedly as she approached the robot. There was one back in their colony, but no one ever got to see it actually switched on.

"Holy shit..." Joel remarked, eyed widening in utter fascination. "You're alive!"

Liz crinkled her nose. "Alive?"

"I mean... on..." he corrected himself, kneeling on the floor in front of the robot.

"I have fifty-one minutes of power left. What are your names?" MAV1S asked, the robot's tone quite friendly, which seemed to be a little strange to them.

Joel gulped. "Uh, I'm Joel. And this—" he pointed at Liz with his thumb, "—is Elizabeth."

"Joel and Elizabeth!" the robot exclaimed. "I am so pleased to meet you. My name is MAV1S, but if you were to write it out, you would write it with a '1', and not an 'I'."

"Yeah, we know. We have a MAV1S robot in our colony," Joel explained.

"You are familiar with the MAV1S line. Delightful!"

Joel scoffed in astonishment, a huge grin on his face. "You guys were meant to be the next amazing thing. I can't believe I'm talking to one!"

"But if you were to write it out, you would write it with a '1', and not an 'I'," MAV1S repeated.

The human pair sent each other baffled glances. "Yeah, you said that," Liz pointed out awkwardly.

"Years ago, I was bitten in half by something I did not get the chance to name." MAV1S gestured towards her bottom half, which looked like it had been aggressively torn off. "I crawled here for safety and powered down, hoping that someone would find me someday. And here you are!"

"Amazing," Liz hummed, almost compelled by the talking robot before her.

"Elizabeth and Joel, if you don't mind me asking, why are you not wearing any clothes?"

Joel's choked on his spit at the robot's question, coughing violently as he pounded on his own chest. He slowly turned his head to his left, only to notice that Liz was snickering quietly beside him.

Liz breathed, trying to pull herself together. "MAV1S, can you see us?"

"I can!" MAV1S responded cheerfully. "However, my vision is not like the human eye. Elizabeth and Joel, if you don't mind me asking, why are you not wearing any clothes?"

Liz's smile faltered when MAV1S repeated herself, realising that the robot was indeed slowly losing its power right before their eyes. "Uh, because we were walking outside in the rain for a while," Liz answered, Joel nodding from beside her. "We left our clothes to dry."

"Oh. I would've thought you had sexual intercourse!"

"Oh, dear God." A red hue fell upon Joel's cheeks, his head falling into his palms as he huffed loudly.

Liz's own cheeks heated up in embarrassment, but she quickly shook it off, since she didn't expect any less from a robot. "W–why would you... think that?"

"According to my findings, when two people are not clothed, it's often because they're about to, are having, or have just had sexual intercourse," MAV1S spoke enthusiastically, awkwardness gripping them tighter after every syllable. "Are you two dating?" The robot leaned forward as she asked the question, as if she were interrogating them.

A hand slipped from Joel's face as he sent Liz a glance, silently waiting for her to answer the question. "No, we're not dating," she spoke up, "I've never even had a proper boyfriend."

"Oh, no," MAV1S said, her lit-up face looking down for dramatic effect. "Joel, do you have a girlfriend?"

The air was thick with tension, Joel gulping slightly before he spoke, "Uh... yeah, I think—"

"How lovely!" MAV1S remarked before any potential hurtful words could even process in Liz's mind. "Besides conversing with me, for which I am eternally grateful, may I ask what you're both doing outside of your colony?"

"Yeah, um—"

"Did you steal food?" MAV1S' electronic eyes narrowed as she leaned forward intimidatingly.

Liz snorted, this being the second time that they'd been accused of the act. "No, MAV1S, we didn't steal any food."

Joel nodded, his eyes flickering between Liz and the robot. "Yeah, what Elizabeth said. We're going to..."

But when Joel's voice trailed off, Liz was quick to fill in for him. "He's going to find his girlfriend."

Joel's face fell — that wasn't exactly what he was hoping she'd say.

"Yeah..." he hesitantly agreed.

Liz's mind faded out as the robot and Joel began to have a conversation about Aimee. It was safe to say that Liz was jealous, despite never even having met the girl — yet.

__________

MAV1S had chosen to donate some of her remaining power to help Joel speak to Aimee over the radio. All while he did so, Liz decided that there was no chance that she was going to the pair's soppy conversation, so she went out to play fetch with Boy — and luckily, the rain had stopped.

Needless to say, though, her attempts at distracting herself were of no use. Even though Liz was trying with all of her willpower not to think about Joel and Aimee, she was conjuring up millions of scenarios as to what the reunited couple would do when she and Joel would eventually arrive at the beaches.

They'd probably make out right in front of her, or perhaps they'd even have sex as she joked about at the beginning of the journey. Thoughts were coming and going, and Liz shuddered at every single one, desperate to get the images out of her head.

She slumped onto the couch outside of the motel, assuming that Joel and Aimee hadn't finished their conversation from inside of the building.

So she was surprised to see Joel coming out of the exit... dragging MAV1S along with him.

Confusion flickered across Liz's features. "What are you doing?"

"MAV1S wanted to come outside," the man put simply, carefully placing the robot on the couch next to Liz.

"Oh." She stood up instantly, gesturing for Joel to sit next to MAV1S. "Sit here."

Joel hesitated. "Uh, are you sure you don't wanna sit?"

She nodded, offering him a smile, and Joel returned it as he sat next to the robot.

"How's Aimee?" Liz spoke up, much to her own surprise. "What did she say?"

...So much for not wanting to know about their conversation.

Joel released a sigh as he shook his head softly, his eyes focused on the ground beneath him. "She— uh... she said some survivors showed up there, at the beaches," Joel explained lowly. "They're there to 'rescue them'."

Liz's brows furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"Yeah, taking them away."

Liz gaped slightly. "A–Are you okay with that?"

As Joel's eyes met with hers, he didn't miss the worried expression spread across her face. "I think so—"

"I have fourteen minutes of power left," MAV1S interjected, her robot arms raising energetically.

Liz frowned. "She's dying?" she hissed at Joel.

"Yeah... I kinda used up a lot of her power while talking to Aimee," Joel admitted, guilt washing over him.

A brow quirked up on Liz's face, and just as her lips parted to speak, MAV1S interrupted her.

"You both seem to be awfully tense. Is something troubling you? Elizabeth? Joel?" the robot asked, concern laced in her voice. "You can tell me anything, as I am an empathetic listener. Also, my memory banks will be permanently erased in fourteen minutes."

Joel's eyes darted between Liz and MAV1S quickly as he licked his lips. "Uh, Elizabeth, can I talk to MAV1S alone?"

The girl's mouth fell open, bewildered at the fact that Joel supposedly wanted to talk to a robot about his feelings, instead of her. But she immediately shrugged it off, shaking her head slightly. "Sure, whatever. Can I have the blanket, by the way? I'm cold."

Joel nodded, unwrapping himself and passing it to her.

"Thanks." Liz cloaked her body with it before whirling on her heels and walking into the building. "Come on, Boy."

Boy innocently followed Liz back into the motel. She sighed, pacing the small area of the floor and curiously prodding at random objects, as she not-so-patiently waited for Joel to finish his prolonged conversation with the robot.

While marching back and forth, she quickly peeked through the crevice in which the door seemingly used to be, and noticed Joel and MAV1S having a full-blown conversation on the couch outside. Her eyes narrowed in confusion and she glared at him, curiosity bubbling inside of her as to what they could possibly be talking about.

At that exact moment, Liz's ears perked up when she heard MAV1S' voice. "I think that's romantic!"

Liz internally groaned, rolling her eyes. They were talking about Aimee. Of course, they were.

"But that's the problem," Joel admitted, his voice low. "I don't want to anymore."

Upon hearing this, Liz's heart nearly jumped out of her chest. He told her the same thing in the jeep earlier but didn't bother explaining what he meant by it.

"Whatever do you mean, Joel?" MAV1S asked kindly.

"I swear to God," Liz muttered under her breath to no one but herself, "if he tells the damn robot how he's feeling and not me, I'm gonna throw a fit."

Joel inhaled sharply, running a hand down the side of his face. "Elizabeth..."

The lurking girl's eyes bulged out of their sockets when she heard her name. She moved closer to them, her head now peering around the motel's entrance, looking directly at where Joel and MAV1S were.

"You're in love with Elizabeth?"

Liz flinched a little at the question, ceasing movement. At that moment, she knew full well that she should not have been there.

Memories with Liz plagued Joel's mind and he chuckled lightly upon remembering them, glaring down at the ground in front of him. "Love is a strong word, but I think there's something there."

Body stiffening further, the only thing Liz could do was quietly laugh a little in disbelief.

Suddenly, Boy began to bark continuously from inside the building.

Liz huffed, silently thanking the Lord for getting her out of that situation. She licked her now-dry lips, swallowing thickly before she speed-walked to the dog, the blanket falling from her body and landing on the floor. "Boy?"

"Is he okay?" Joel called from outside, glancing at them over his shoulder.

"Y–Yep," Liz spluttered out, avoiding any kind of eye contact with him as she tried to get the dog under control. "You're okay, right?" she asked Boy as she stroked him, and he licked her face affectionately. Liz laughed — it turned out Boy was just desperate for attention.

"Would you like to see a trick, Joel?"

"Sure."

Liz's eyes darted out the door, curious as to what MAV1S and Joel could be doing now. "Let's go," she whispered to Boy, as she made her way to the exit again, picking up the blanket that she dropped on the way. She once again wrapped it around her near-naked top half, and leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest.

"What is your full name, and where were you born?" MAV1S asked Joel.

"Joel Dawson. Fairfield, California."

Images of people flickered on MAV1S' screen, until eventually, it landed on a man and a woman, supposedly a couple.

"What lovely parents you had, Joel," MAV1S said sympathetically, as Joel adjusted himself on the couch to completely face the robot.

Liz's heart shattered into a million pieces as she watched Joel. She knew how much he missed his parents, and how much he blamed himself for their traumatising deaths.

Eyes wide and glassy, Joel glared at the screen in absolute astonishment. "Oh, my God..." he breathed out, "I don't even have a picture." MAV1S then found another picture of a woman, zooming into her face. His mother.

"What would you say to your mother now, Joel, if you had the chance?" MAV1S questioned.

A wound yet to be healed was being stung once more, and Joel's eyes did not leave the image projected on the robot's face. "I guess... I guess I'd tell her I'm okay," he began, tears further welling in his eyes, "I made it to a colony. I met a lot of really, really good people who took good care of me."

A tear fell from Joel's eye, causing Liz's own eyes to grow hazy, too. She slowly walked over to him and placed an arm on his shoulder comfortingly, but he had no reaction.

"They also lost a lot, too, so..." Joel continued, his voice barely above a whisper as salty tears landed on the couch. "I miss you guys so much. I'm so sorry."

With that, Joel leaned forward to give the robot a hug. He stayed like this for a few moments as Liz watched, dabbing the inner corners of her eyes with her thumbs to wipe away the few tears that blurred her vision.

When Joel finally pulled away, he turned around and noticed Liz sniffling. "Are you crying?" he joked, letting out a nervous chuckle.

She grinned in response, rolling her tearful eyes. "No, are you?"

"Nope," Joel denied with a laugh, shaking his head rapidly as though to confirm it.

Liz shrugged the blanket off, and carefully wrapped it around Joel's body. "Okay, neither of us are crying," she teased quietly, leaning forward to adjust it around his shoulders. Her face merely brushed past his, and Liz felt her heart doing backflips in her chest as she glanced at him, only to see that he was watching her attentively.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, it looks like you are both crying," MAV1S interrupted their undisclosed conversation, before almost immediately changing the subject. "Elizabeth, what is your full name, and where were you born?"

Joel sent Liz a worrisome glance, but just as the girl parted her lips to speak, he spoke up, "She doesn't need to see a picture of her parents."

"Why not?" Liz deadpanned. "MAV1S, would you be able to help me find them?"

"If they were alive, then yes!" MAV1S said cheerily.

Liz exhaled sharply, shutting her eyes to mentally prepare herself. "Okay. Elizabeth Parker. Fairfield, Calif—"

"Elizabeth!" Joel cut her off firmly, grabbing her arm.

But Liz snatched her arm away from his grasp, shooting him an icy glare. "Fairfield, California," she finished, her other hand gently rubbing at where Joel had grabbed her.

The screen upon MAV1S' face flickered with hundreds of pictures of families once again, until suddenly, an image of her fifteen-year-old self, her mother and her father was projected on the screen.

"You had lovely parents, too, Elizabeth," MAV1S comforted.

Liz fell forward, now sitting on the couch next to Joel, a little squished since there wasn't much space. She glared intently at the screen with eyes cold as stone, unable to rip her gaze away from it. But hurt soon washed into them; she felt her eyes prickling with tears, MAV1S' words eating her up inside.

"H–'had'?"she managed to squeak out, eyes wide in confusion and utter misery. "They're... they're dead?"

"They died a couple of years ago," Joel mumbled, looking anywhere but the girl's face.

MAV1S nodded her head. "They fell victim to a monster that breached their colony's bunker—"

"Hold on," Liz cut MAV1S' explanation short, gaze piercing into Joel's with sharp focus as she accusingly pointed a finger at him. "You knew?"

Joel felt uneasy and crumbled under her intense glare, but knew not to lie to her right now. "We all knew."

Liz felt her heart drop to the ground, re-evaluating her entire stay with her colony members for all those years. "And you all..." she croaked, before she swallowed away the lump in her throat, "you all lied to me?"

Joel's hazel eyes bored into her blue ones sympathetically. "I'm so sorry. We all tried to tell you but you were so sure that they were alive. We— we didn't know how you'd react." His hand reached out to hold hers comfortingly, but she instantly recoiled away from his touch.

"Don't touch me," she snapped, trying to ignore the urge to hurt the man. Her fists clenched so hard that her fingernails dug crescent-shaped indents into her palms, but that was the least of her concerns.

Suddenly, water gathered in Liz's mouth and her stomach twisted unsettlingly, nausea churning inside of her body, before she whirled on her heel to run back into the woods. It was only after she dropped to her knees near an old tree, that she used her weak hands to hold back any hair in her face and spilt the contents of her stomach onto the dirt.

Liz grimaced at the sight of it, groaning incredibly loudly in frustration as her body collapsed onto the ground. She could hear Joel calling her name repeatedly, his voice inching closer every time.

But just as she sickly turned her head to see him and Boy running towards her, helpless whimpers escaped her lips as her eyelids fluttered shut.

__________

Liz was leaning on Joel's legs, the man's hand running through her hair lovingly, his eyes full of concern as he looked down at her.

Until suddenly, Liz's eyes shot open with a deep inhale, and she immediately locked eyes with Joel as his face hovered above hers.

Joel huffed in relief, all his current worries being settled as he watched Liz rub her eyes dramatically. "You're awake!" he exclaimed.

"What the hell happened?" came a mutter from a rather disorientated Liz as she quickly sat upright, eyes darting around. She was surprised to find herself back on the couch outside the motel, MAV1S and Joel on either side of her.

"Hello, Elizabeth!" MAV1S greeted fondly. "You had fainted. How are you feeling?"

"Uh, good, I think," Liz murmured, but the memories from before she fell unconscious resurfaced and everything suddenly hit her again like a brick, all too fast. Her parents were dead. Tears pooled in Liz's eyes, and she tried to ignore her heart that felt as if it were about to explode any moment.

Joel's face fell at the sight of it. "Hey, hey, hey," he whispered, pushing a strand of hair behind Liz's ear.

"I–I couldn't..." her voice wavered, barely even able of processing a coherent sentence, "I couldn't save them..."

The man's eyes softened on her, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill from his own eyes. "Elizabeth," he mumbled, his arms wrapping around the girl's frame in an attempt to comfort her.

She deflated in his arms, not bothering to return the hug. The warmth of his bare body against hers was unable to warm her anguish-filled heart.

"Joel, I couldn't save them," she whimpered into his shoulder, her bottom lip trembling as she cried.

"It wasn't your fault—"

Joel was cut off when an emphatic sob erupted from Liz's throat, silencing him and causing Boy — and even MAV1S — to turn their heads to stare at her. Joel's eyes widened in panic, unsure as to what to even do, so he just sat there with his arms cloaking her figure, rocking her back and forth to console her.

Her wails were painful to listen to, but was nothing compared to the pain that she felt.

Her parents died and took a huge chunk of her heart with them.

When Liz's cries died down after a minute or two, the only thing heard being little sniffles, her arms finally wrapped around Joel's form in return.

The man's body relaxed in her arms, letting out a deep sigh of relief. "I've got you, Liz," he muttered, running a hand down her hair comfortingly.

Liz pulled away, eyes glossy as her brows furrowed at him. "Liz?" she asked teasingly, wiping her stuffy nose with the back of her hand.

"Yeah, I thought I'd try it out, but it's safe to say I'm never gonna call you that again." Joel laughed, further fiddling with her hair.

Boy leapt onto Liz's lap and began to lick her face continuously, and Liz giggled at how thoughtful the dog was. Joel used the blanket and wrapped it around the three of them, all wrapped contently like a burrito.

"Oh, look! Sky-jellies!"

Liz, Joel and Boy looked up, admiring the jellyfish-looking creatures that illuminated the sky. "Wow," Joel breathed, mouth falling open in astonishment, "they're beautiful... but, should we be worried?"

"They're harmless," Liz told him, and he hummed in acknowledgement, smiling at the sky-jellies.

"Would you both like to hear a song?" MAV1S inquired.

Liz and Joel turned their heads to the robot in unison. "Yeah, of course," Liz said.

MAV1S began playing music — a somewhat slow song — as the sky jellies continued to elegantly float around them.

"You know," Joel whispered into Liz's ear, "nature's kinda nice when it's not trying to kill you."

Liz scoffed jokingly in agreement. "That's for sure."

Thirty seconds didn't even pass before the music completely stopped, MAV1S' robotic head falling as her screen shut off. It was silent — almost awkward.

Joel frowned, Liz sighing deeply as she reached to pat the robot's arm gently.

"Rest in peace, MAV1S."

Chapter Text

"I miss MAV1S," Joel groaned childishly.

"I do, too, but she's safe where we buried her," Liz assured, glancing at Joel over her shoulder. "We gotta keep moving."

Joel scowled, "Can't I grieve?"

"I'm— but she's—" Liz cut herself off, shutting her eyes tight as she shook her head. She flicked her wrist dramatically. "Fine, sure. Grieve. Just do it quietly."

"Thank you," Joel muttered, sending her a sarcastic thumbs up.

She rolled her eyes as she took a few steps backwards, and grabbed Joel by the arm to drag him. "And can we hurry up, please? We're nearly there."

"Why are you in such a rush to get there?"

Liz shot him a look. "Why aren't you?" she snapped back, her grip on his arm inadvertently growing tighter. "You're the reason we're out here anyway."

"I don't— I'm not sure if I even wanna go anymore."

The girl's eyes narrowed at him, "What?"

Joel shrugged. "I don't really wanna go," he repeated.

Liz could feel her eyes start to unintentionally twitch ever so slightly in frustration. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Joel chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. "I mean, Aimee said some survivors showed up there to take them away. What's the point of us even going?"

Liz's grip on Joel's arm was released as she stopped in her tracks to face him, glaring up at him with murder in her eyes. "You're asking me what the point is?! Joel, we literally risked our lives for you to meet your idiot girlfriend from seven years ago, and now you're saying you don't wanna go?"

Joel winced at Liz's tone and nodded hesitantly, feeling her gaze practically piercing holes into him. He sucked in a deep breath before he spoke, "It's not all bad, is it?"

Liz muttered a string of profanities under her breath as her fists clenched, glaring up at the sky. "How could this possibly not be bad, Joel? Hm? Enlighten me." A false smile twitched on her lips as she tried to keep herself together, calming her homicidal thoughts towards the man.

"Uh— I mean..." Joel began, doing weird gestures with his hands, "we got to spend time together, right?"

Eyes widened, Liz was slightly taken aback by his words. She crossed her arms over her chest, clearing her throat awkwardly, "We would've spent time together back in the bunker, too."

"Would we?" Joel challenged, a brow perked up. "You hated me."

Liz scoffed. "No, you hated me."

Joel raised his hands in surrender, lip curling in amusement. "Fine — we hated each other," he decided. "My point is, this trip brought us closer."

Liz felt her stomach flutter, and Joel was going insane trying to keep his own feelings hidden, too. Joel wasn't aware that Liz had heard everything when he was confessing his feelings to MAV1S.

"That being said," Joel added as if on cue, pointing a finger at Liz, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

The way chills rose on her skin, Liz could've sworn that the air turned colder. "About what?"

Joel took a step closer to her, fiddling with his hands, which he seemed to find the most interesting things in the world at this point. "Uh—"

"Boy!" Liz interrupted him. She immediately felt bad for cutting Joel off, but that didn't stop her from disappearing from Joel's sight before he could even ask what was going on.

His eyes visibly trailed after her to notice her chasing Boy, who was running through a hole in a random fence. He groaned, facepalming quickly before speedily following them through it.

"What's going on?" he called out, to which there was no answer, only persistent barks from Boy.

And by this point, Liz and Joel both knew what that meant.

Suddenly, crackling sounds were coming from behind them. Both Liz and Joel completely froze, before their bodies turned sceptically to see a creature emerging from the ground.

Liz's hand intuitively flew to her backpack's outer pocket, grabbing the gun, and pointing it in the monster's direction.

"Joel, stay back," she whispered, but Joel didn't seem to listen.

His jaw hung open in astonishment. "It's a queen, isn't it?" he breathed. Liz nodded at him, and Joel grabbed for the first thing that caught his eye: an abandoned, squeaky hot-dog toy.

Liz rolled her eyes but didn't dare to speak aloud since the monster was so close. As Joel held up the toy, his hands were shaking aggressively in fear, before he threw the it as far as he possibly could.

The creature instantly followed the object's noise, ferociously tunnelling its way through the dirt. Joel exhaled in relief, thinking he'd gotten rid of the monster.

So when he saw it jump out of the ground, soil splattering everywhere, he was more than terrified.

Liz yelped, hitting Joel with the gun so he'd start running with her. "Come on, Joel! Run, Boy!"

"Go, go, go!" Joel added as they ran faster than they'd ever run before. They dodged tree branches, leapt over loose logs, and even tumbled over a few times, all while the monster followed close behind the three of them.

Joel's heartbeat roared in his ears, trying his best to catch up with Liz and Boy, who were both able to run way faster than him. "Boy! Elizabeth! I can't run that fast—"

He cut himself off when he fell over the edge, landing face-first on the lower area of land with a loud thud.

Liz's body whirled around at the sound, an alarmed expression growing on her face when she saw Joel laying there. "Joel!" she called to him, to which he didn't respond. "Joel?"

However, when Liz jumped down to check if the man was okay, she completely lost her balance, her body toppling over. She landed on the ground next to him, one of her arrow's sharp blades digging into her side.

She released a deafening scream at the excruciating pain, the weapon gouging further into her as she rolled onto her side.

Joel lifted his head instinctively, his dirt-caked face contorting in pure horror when he saw Liz being stabbed with her own weapon. "Elizabeth!" he cried, scrambling onto his knees and grabbing her hand to try to haul her up.

Pained tears welled in Liz's eyes, her free hand covering where the arrow was drilling into her. "I–I can't... get up..." she spluttered out, glancing down at where the injury was. Crimson blood stained Liz's shirt, and the patch of red only grew, causing a quarter of her entire shirt to be drenched in a matter of seconds.

"You're losing too much blood," Joel mumbled, panicking as he continued to try to pull her up. His eyes darted around, knowing fully well that the monster would surely catch up to them soon if they didn't start moving.

"I'm fine," Liz said in a mere whisper, sending him a false smile. Liz knew she wasn't fine, but she also knew that she'd only be one more thing for Joel to worry about, "You should go."

Joel's face fell in utter hurt, as he rapidly shook his head in denial, only for Liz to nod weakly.

"I'm— I'm not leaving you," he protested, his voice shaking.

"I'm just gonna s–slow you down," Liz spluttered out, finding it hard to focus with blinding pain flooding through her.

But the man only shook his head repeatedly, feeling his face warm up as tears flooded his eyes. "Come on, Elizabeth. Get up, please..." Joel wrapped his arm around her waist and tried to pull her up, but she stayed sat, unable to move. "Elizabeth, please, you have to get up."

The only thing Joel could hear was a symphonic fusion of his and Liz's uneven breathing. His hand shot to the arrow in her side, ready to pull it out. But just as he hesitantly tugged at it, Liz shrieked in pain.

"Don't take it out! It'll make me lose more b–blood," she explained through gritted teeth. "And an open wound can—" she cut herself off when she grunted in discomfort, "—c–can get infected."

Panic flickered across Joel's features, "What the hell am I meant to do, then? I can't leave you here—"

A tormented groan pushed through Liz's lips and she heaved herself up, finally standing on her own two feet, even if it hurt her to no end. Both hands were clinging onto her side, where the arrow remained in her flesh. Joel stepped back upon seeing the thing inside of her, eyes widened in complete disbelief.

"I'm fine, see?" Liz retorted as she sent him a smile, and Joel could've sworn that it was probably one of the most unauthentic smiles he'd ever seen.

"Oh, my God, you're not fine!"

The growl in the distance became louder, and they could almost hear the monster inching closer by the second. Liz limped over to a large rock and hid behind it, Joel shadowing her, ensuring the girl didn't leave his sight.

The pair of them dropped onto their knees, Liz hissing in pain at the sudden movements upon her fresh injury. Worry crossed Joel's features and he decided to wrap his arms around her hips protectively, careful not to touch her wound. Liz's shoulders relaxed as she let out a sigh, her back leaning against his chest.

She threw her head back onto his shoulder and let out another huff as she looked up at him, only to see him staring right back down at her.

Joel's eyes narrowed when a grin etched across Liz's face. "What's funny?"

"You're upside down," she whispered, giggling.

A humoured puff escaped Joel's nose as he rolled his eyes, his arms gripping tighter around her contently. "You are unbelievable, Elizabeth."

Their undisclosed moment was interrupted when the sound of barks pierced the air. Liz's head whipped around to a petrified Boy who was hiding behind a broken tree stump. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets, and she glared at Joel who wore an extremely panicked expression.

Liz pulled away from Joel's grasp, whirling around to face him. "Go and get Boy," she ordered, wincing slightly as a surge of pain rushed through her body at the abrupt movement.

Joel's eyes cautiously scanned her body up and down before he answered, "I've said it before, I'm not leaving you."

"You're not leaving me," she confirmed, nodding. "I'll be right behind you. Go."

He hesitated, eyes darting between the helpless dog and Liz, but eventually, he decided to listen. Joel speeded across the turf as fast as his legs could take him. He grabbed Boy and sat behind the tree stump, both of them sticking to each other's bodies like glue.

When he peered over at Liz to his right, expecting that she'd have followed him, he was unpleasantly surprised to see that she was still sat against the large rock. She looked weak; her eyes were shut and her forehead crinkled as hurt continued to flare through her body.

"Elizabeth!" Joel hissed, and she stiffly turned her head to meet his glare. "Come on!"

Liz shook her head sickly, letting out a deep exhale. "I can't," she whispered defeatedly, and Joel was just about able to lip-read it.

"What do you mean, you can't?" Joel frowned, ushering with his hands for her to come. "Hurry!"

Once again, Liz shook her head.

Joel pursed his lips together in thought for a few moments. Without thinking, he hopped out from behind the tree stump and speeded in Liz's direction, but his sudden outburst of energy only caused the monster to sense it and run even faster towards them.

Panicked as ever, Joel stumbled back, hiding at the tree stump once again. He held Boy firmly in his hands, and gave Liz one final glance before the monster suddenly emerged from the earth behind them.

Joel's hand immediately flew to the dog's mouth, clasping onto it to keep him from making any noise as the monster inched closer and closer towards them.

But while Joel tried to save himself and Boy, the only thing on his mind was how he felt the need to save Liz.

From the corner of his eye, he could see one of the monster's many arms headed in Liz's direction as well. Joel's heart plummeted to the ground, feeling useless for not being able to help her.

His eyes screwed shut, mentally praying for this nightmare to end.

And as if the Lord heard him, the monster slowly backed away, returning into the earth that it was in before.

Joel's body relaxed as he patted Boy. "I'm so sorry," he murmured, kissing the dog apologetically. But much to his dismay, Boy instantly hopped out of Joel's grasp and began to run. The man tried to grab him but failed miserably. "Boy! Oh, my God, Boy!"

First, Boy ran to Liz and showered her with affectionate dog-kisses, licking every square inch of her face. Liz wanted to laugh but the pain in her side made it difficult, until Boy abruptly ran away from her, too, and chased the mysterious red dress that had been blown away by the wind.

Joel came spurting after the dog, pausing in his tracks when he got to Liz. He exhaled in relief as his eyes softened on her, thankful that she was alive. "Are you okay?" he asked as he hauled her up.

"Mhm," Liz hummed, feigning a smile.

But suddenly, there was a loud splash coming from behind them. Joel and Liz's bodies whirled round in unison to see that Boy had jumped into the lake — after the red dress, no doubt.

"Shit, Boy!" Joel cursed, mentally concluding that that dog would be the reason he'd go insane someday.

When he turned back to Liz, he noticed that almost her entire shirt was drenched in red liquid, the blood having spread everywhere. His nose scrunched at the sight of it, unable to even imagine the pain that Liz was going through.

Joel took her hand and dragged her to the tree stump that he and Boy had been hiding behind.

"What are you doing?" Liz questioned breathlessly.

The man forcefully tore off a bit of his shirt, pushing Liz gently to urge her to sit. "I'm gonna bandage you up," he informed her, one hand holding the fabric and the other holding the arrow inside of her. "I'm gonna take this out, okay?"

Liz furrowed her eyebrows. "What? No, you can't—"

"You trust me?"

If she was in the right headspace, she would've been shocked by his tone. Nevertheless, she sent him a weak nod.

Joel nodded in return, his hand leaving the arrow and moving up to cup her face. "I'm not gonna let you die, Elizabeth."

"But Boy..." Liz pointed across the lake.

Joel glanced over his shoulder to see that Boy had already paddled his way across the lake and was now safe on the other side. "Boy's fine — he's safe there. Right now, you're my priority."

And with that, Joel's grip on the arrow returned, and he looked up at Liz with raised eyebrows for confirmation that she was okay. When she nodded, he pursed his lips together and speedily pulled the arrow out, a shriek erupting from Liz's throat at the sudden overwhelming agony that she felt.

"Hey, hey, shh, it's okay," Joel tried to calm her as he lifted her shirt, revealing an extremely deep wound that the sharp object had drilled into her. He grimaced slightly upon seeing it, but still quickly used his hands to wrap the material around it.

Joel didn't miss the several times that Liz hissed in pain, trying not to scream, and he mumbled apologies every single time.

He managed to complete the task relatively quickly, and Liz was up on her feet in a matter of seconds. Joel stared at her in awe; he couldn't help but wonder how she could be so strong. If he were in her shoes, he believed he'd probably be dead by now.

Without warning, Joel was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt arms wrap around him in a warmhearted embrace. He stumbled back in shock slightly, but Liz managed to keep him upright. He practically melted into the hug, leaning down to hold onto the smaller body in front of him, being extra careful not to touch the fresh injury as a warm smile arranged on his lips.

"You okay?" he asked once again in a mumble.

"Never been better," Liz assured, even though Joel knew it was far from the truth. She sighed deeply into his neck, causing a shiver to run down Joel's spine, his eyes shutting gracefully as he relaxed in her arms.

Until suddenly, his grip around her hip got tighter and he picked her up, spinning her around repeatedly. Liz clung around his neck for her dear life, squealing at how fast he was able to whirl around whilst carrying her body. Admittedly, she was impressed. "Joel, put me down!" she yelled playfully, laughing.

"No way!" he teased. He spun her around for ages, until he eventually grew tired and started to feel dizzy.

Joel didn't put her down, though; his arms remained on her hips to hold her up as she straddled his waist, her arms resting on either shoulder as she pulled her face away. Her blue eyes bored into his hazel ones affectionately, unable to tear her gaze away from him as a grin etched across her face.

Abruptly, the pair's intimate moment was ruined once again when they heard Boy barking from the other side of the lake.

Joel's head whipped around to the dog, giving him a deadly glare. "Boy, shut the hell up!"

But that was when they could the earth behind them starting to rumble again.

Boy had triggered the monster to come back.

Before Joel even had the time to process his thoughts, Liz's hand curled around an object that seemed to catch her eye. It was the grenade that Clyde had given them before they parted ways.

"Smart thinking." Joel sent Liz a quick wink as she threw it to him. "I'm gonna fling it at the thing, and we're gonna jump in the lake, okay?"

Liz's mouth fell open in panic. "But I–I don't know how to swim!"

Joel's eyes widened twice their size, sending Liz a look of utter disbelief. "You were on the surface for a year, but never learned to freakin' swim?!"

Liz groaned, "Not helping!"

The sound of the monster in the ground suddenly became louder alarmingly fast, panic swelling in both of their chests.

Joel sent Liz a quick nod, silently telling her that he had a plan and she was going to be okay. "Count to five," he mumbled to himself as he glared at the grenade in his hand in contemplation. He pulled out the pin from the object, his body shaking nervously.

"One... two..."

Liz's breathing became erratic, still a little sceptical about Joel's ability to aim. But she decided that she trusted him, and in a life or death situation, he wouldn't miss.

"Three... four... five!"

Upon screaming the final number, Joel threw the grenade into the monster's mouth. Immediately, his arm wrapped around Liz's waist and he jumped into the lake, pulling the girl in with him. She yelped as her body fell in the water, Joel holding her up firmly.

"Hold your breath!" Joel instructed, and Liz obeyed, before he pulled her frame underwater, clinging onto her with everything in him. He didn't dare let go.

Once they heard the explosion-type noise from above, the monster ripping apart and bursting into a million pieces, Joel kicked his legs and pulled Liz back to the water's surface. He took a deep breath and cheered, not missing the proud look on Liz's face.

"Oh, God!" Liz spluttered out, breathing heavily.

"That was awesome," Joel spoke between heavy breaths, "I feel like Tom Cruise!"

All of a sudden, the pair of them screeched in unison when they felt weird bites on their bodies.

"Ow! What the hell?" Joel cried.

"You— agh! You felt that too?" Liz breathed, arms still around Joel's neck.

"Yeah, I feel them everywhe— oh, my God!"

But that was when Liz remembered exactly what these things were, her eyebrows shooting up at the realisation. "Joel, they're water-slugs!" she told him. "They're venomous, we need to get out of the water. Right now."

"W–What?" he stuttered, gaping at the new information.

"Swim, for God's sake!"

Joel did as told, navigating his way through the water whilst his grip on Liz never loosened. She noticed her backpack floating in front of her and grabbed it — thankfully the explosion had pushed it into the water.

Out of nowhere, an incredibly sharp pain shot through Liz's body — specifically at her fresh wound. "Shit!" she howled, her eyes scrunching shut as her teeth clashed together to contain the screams that so desperately wanted to break free.

Joel sent her a worrisome glance, watching the girl slowly fall apart in his arms. "What's wrong?"

"It fucking hurts!" she cried out, pain blinding her beyond reasoning. "The slugs! They're biting my—" she gasped, "—the i–injury—"

"Shit," Joel murmured, beginning to paddle faster. He was exhaustedly out of breath, unsure as to whether he could keep Liz up for any longer, but his face contorted in horror when he noticed her eyes were bloodshot, her face turning pale. "Elizabeth?"

"Joel, it hurts..." Liz whimpered, eyes growing hazy as everything around her started to spin.

"Hey, stay with me, okay?" he urged with panic laced in his tone, as he finally reached the other end of the lake.

Boy was simply standing there, his head tilted to the side with the red dress in his mouth as he watched the human pair approach the surface.

"Get that dress outta my face!" Joel yelled at him as he heaved Liz onto the ground.

Liz's respiratory system was seemingly failing her — she was barely even breathing. Joel ignored the millions of slugs attached to his skin, and instead focused on saving Liz.

He lifted her shirt, only to see that the bandage from earlier had completely disappeared, and there was indeed a water-slug chewing at Liz's open flesh from the stab wound. Blood was oozing from the sides, quick to spread all across her body once more. She was losing too much blood... again. But this time, way faster, courtesy of the vampire-slug.

"Holy fucking shit," Joel's face scrunched up in disgust, holding back a gag as he looked away for a second, trying to pull himself together. His hand reluctantly inched forward until it was on the slug — which was, in fact, inside of Liz's body — and without warning, he yanked it off. Liz would've screamed in agony if she could, but her lungs felt as if they'd collapse any moment.

"Joel," she released a strangled sob, watching him quickly unbutton his shirt to reveal several water-slugs feasting on his own body.

"I'm so sorry," Joel whispered, using his whole shirt as a bandage once again. "So, so sorry."

"It's okay..."

"It's not," Joel replied firmly. "None of this is okay."

It was only once he'd finished bandaging her up for the second time that day, that he finally decided to rip off the slugs that were secured onto his own body. He grimaced at the sight of every single one of them as he took them off.

When he glanced up at Boy, he noticed the dog staring at him, head still tilted to the side in confusion.

Joel was fuming.

"You! You... you! This is all your fault!" He pointed at the dog accusingly, anger radiating off of him in all directions. "What is wrong with you?! Do you have any idea what you just did? You just almost got us killed!"

Boy whimpered apologetically, and Liz tried to speak but only a croak could come out, "Joel, you're scaring him—"

"Look at her! Look at Elizabeth — do you see the damage you've caused?! Why the hell would you do something like that? I'd never do that to you — never!" Joel shouted furiously, taking notice of the dress in the dog's mouth. "Ugh, that freakin' dress, I can't take it anymore!"

At this point, Boy was terrified and decided that he'd had enough. The dog made a complete U-turn and ran away, into the forest, as fast as he possibly could. Joel instantly felt extreme remorse, but when his vision adverted back to Liz below him, his mood switched and he dropped to his knees with a frown.

The girl's eyelids were fluttering shut, her breathing slowly coming to a stop. Joel's hand reached out for her chest, checking for a heartbeat.

But it was incredibly slow... to the point where he couldn't even feel it.

Eyes cold as stone, Joel froze for a moment. Dread curled in the pit of his stomach, causing him to feel physically sick.

"E–Elizabeth?"

He ran a hand over the girl's head, shifting the hair that curtained her forehead to fully reveal her face. She was paler than she was before, and her lips were chapped completely.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Joel shook her shoulders gently as he continued to call her, "Elizabeth? Hey, it's me."

No response.

Joel was spiralling, his throat growing tighter after every breath that he released.

"Elizabeth? Liz... please, you've gotta open your eyes."

His voice wavered as he spoke, attempting to blink back the tears that prickled in his eyes. He leaned forward and grabbed her top half, trying to make her sit upright.

"Elizabeth, open your eyes for me."

A bitter taste invaded Joel's throat. Guilt.

"Please..." he pleaded into her ear quietly, hurt flaring through his chest. "Y–You can't leave me."

Salty tears landed on Liz's shoulder, sobs racking through Joel's body.

"Elizabeth!" he cried, terror flooding through his veins. "P–Please!"

It was no use. And Joel knew it.

He rocked back and forth for a few minutes, trembling as he weeped silently, holding Liz's still body in his arms with his lips pressed against her forehead.

After a few minutes, Joel's face backed away from hers and he stared at it, apologetic eyes scanning her face up and down for any movement.

But there was none.

A cold chill encased Joel's entire body. His neck bucked down and he leaned his forehead against hers, in hopes that it'd warm him up, but it only made him feel worse when he realised that she was absolutely freezing.

He sniffled against her, his eyes shutting to allow his tears to fall onto her face.

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth."

Chapter Text

"Woah, woah, go slowly! You might hurt her!"

"Joel, do you know how CPR works?"

The sudden sound of a deep inhale pierced the air. Liz's blue eyes shot open, to see a pretty raven-haired lady hovering over her, her uneven breaths landing on her frail face. Liz tilted her head quizzically, eyebrows pinching in confusion as she stared up at the female of whom she struggled to recognise.

But in return, the woman did nothing except send her a comforting smile, before she turned around and spoke aloud. "She's awake."

Instantaneously, Liz heard the sound of footsteps running frantically towards her. Her eyes visibly trailed the girl who walked away from her, heading towards a couple of elderly people on the other side of the vast room.

Liz was pleasantly surprised to see that Joel was by her side before she could even utter a single word.

"You're awake!" he said cheerfully, relief evident upon his features. "Holy God, you're awake!"

Liz looked at him in question, slowly remembering what had happened before she'd lost consciousness. "I–I am?"

"You are," Joel confirmed, sitting on the side of the bed that Liz was on. He paused momentarily, eyes narrowing in thought, "...Unless I'm dreaming."

"Maybe you're just dreaming." Liz grinned at him, but she frowned when she noticed the worrisome look on his face. "I'm just kidding," she assured him, attempting to sit up. "Where are we?"

"Hey, hey, stay here," Joel urged, pushing her back down gently. "You're still pretty messed up from all that poison. We're at Aimee's colony."

Liz internally groaned at that name. This was the last place she wanted to be.

"I'm okay," was all she said as she ignored his commands, trying to sit up again. But she was pushed back down by the excruciating pain from her own stab wound in her abdomen.

Hissing in pain, she lifted her shirt to take a look at it, and noticed that it had now been professionally bandaged, not a single drop of blood seeping through.

Joel softly took her hand, pulling her shirt back down to hide the bandage. He intertwined his fingers with hers, smiling reassuringly as he noticed her eyes flickering nervously between his face and where their hands connected. He'd never done that before.

"I'm sure you are," he nodded, "but I need you to rest."

Liz sighed. It honestly annoyed her, feeling this useless. "How am I here?" she asked out of the blue.

"W–What?"

"How am I here?" she reiterated. "How did I get here? And how the hell am I even alive?"

Joel's eyes widened a little, swallowing thickly. "Uh, well... after the whole thing at the lake, I took you with me."

Liz's lip curled in amusement. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Well, I wasn't gonna leave you there alone." Joel shrugged. "But the poison kinda messed me up, too. I was hallucinating pretty hard..."

"What happened?"

Joel contemplated his answer for a second, recalling what had happened earlier. His face dug into his palms in embarrassment, giggling a little at the memory.

"Well?" Liz urged, desperate to know what was so funny.

After a few moments in deep thought, Joel blurted out, "I thought you came back to life."

He lifted his head to meet her gaze, knowing that he was missing one credible detail.

There was no way he was going to tell her that he kissed Old Pete thinking it was Liz — thinking that she'd miraculously come back to life to announce that she was the love of his life. Absolutely no way.

"Oh." Liz snorted, believing it fully. "Well, surprise! I'm alive!"

"And thank God for that." Joel chuckled lightly, before he continued, "One of Aimee's colony members found us and brought us here. They apparently gave us both a heavy dose of anti-venom, but I don't remember because I was completely out of it."

Liz shot him a look of concern. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, rubbing circles on her hand with the pad of his thumb. "I woke up way before you," he spoke quietly, looking to be deep in thought, almost like he was reliving the traumatic experience in his head all over again. "I was really worried — your heartbeat actually stopped for a bit."

The change in Joel's demeanour didn't go unnoticed. Liz took her other hand and placed it on top of his. "I'm okay, now," she said reassuringly.

A small smile crept onto Joel's face as he hummed in agreement. "They said that after they gave you the anti-venom, your heartbeat started again, but your breathing was still all over the place. Until about ten minutes ago, when your breathing completely stopped..." Joel's voice trailed off warily.

Liz frowned. "And then?"

"CPR," Joel put simply, "I honestly don't know why I hadn't thought of that before."

Liz looked to her left, where she could see the black-haired girl still with the elderly people, and it all started to piece together in her head. "She did it?" Liz asked, bucking her head in the lady's direction.

Joel followed Liz's line of vision and glanced over at the girl. "Mhm," he confirmed, "she's kinda, like, the medic here. Well, she helps everyone do pretty much everythin—"

"She's really pretty," Liz murmured, unable to tear her gaze away from her. But when the tan girl peered in Liz's direction to ensure that everything was alright, Liz felt her cheeks warm up as she quickly looked away, eyes wide in embarrassment. "Shit."

Joel's jaw dropped in astonishment, an amused grin on his face. "Were you just checking her out?"

"What? No!" Liz quickly dismissed, red hues on her face darkening.

"You were totally just checking her out," Joel teased, earning a groan and an eye-roll from Liz.

"Oh, shut up. Who is she, anyway?"

"Aimee."

Liz's eyes widened twice their size, eyes darting between the dark-haired girl and Joel. "I'm— that's Aimee?!" she hissed without thinking. "Why would you let her near me?"

Joel's eyebrows shot up at her tone, and Liz immediately realised where she went wrong. But before she could even try to fix it, Joel spoke up, "You don't like Aimee?"

The air was so thick with tension, Liz could've guaranteed that she could cut it with a knife at that point. "I–I didn't say that..." her voice faded out.

"Sounded like it."

Liz's glare on the man intensified as she huffed. She couldn't tell him that she was jealous. Aimee was the reason why they'd even gone there in the first place.

Liz let go of Joel's hand for the first time since she woke up, and Joel frowned upon realising. The lack of touch made him feel empty, but he didn't dare say anything in case it would upset her.

Joel chewed at a hangnail on the corner of his thumb awkwardly, contemplating what to say. "Sorry," he eventually mumbled through his teeth.

When Liz glanced up at him, her face softened and her hand immediately reached out to his, pulling his fingers away from his mouth. "Don't do that," she murmured, wiping his thumb with her fingers. "And you have nothing to be sorry for."

At this point, Liz tried to sit up, only for Joel to object and try to pin her down once again. But she was quick to dismiss him, sitting up nonetheless, ignoring the sharp pain in her side as she heaved her body upwards.

Joel sighed, offering her a weak smile. "You're so strong. You know that?"

Liz stared at him blankly, "What?"

"You're really strong — way stronger than me," he added. "I don't know how you do what you do. I would never be able to. I mean, even back home at the bunker... I always admired how you were able to go out almost daily and do all of those tasks — and do them really well, too. Like, I could never get my head around it."

A soft smile etched across Liz's face. "Really?"

"Really. Ever since you arrived at our colony, I was jealous," he admitted lowly.

Liz scoffed. "I know. Never understood why, though."

"I just couldn't believe you had been out on the surface for so long by yourself. And you were younger than me — literally, what, sixteen? You got all the attention as soon as you stepped foot there. You know what that felt like?"

Disbelief was written across Liz's features as she slowly shook her head.

Joel scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, inwardly cringing at himself for speaking so much, but continued anyway, "I don't blame you, though. Well, I did, but now I don't. Now I know I was just being stupid. And jealous. I was stupidly being jealous."

"I know," Liz acknowledged again. Gentle laughs fell from both of their lips.

"I'm sorry." Joel let out a deep sigh. "Sorry for being a pain for all those years."

A brow quirked up on Liz's face. She'd never expected him to apologise — not like this, at least. "It's okay," she whispered, "I wasn't exactly the best to you either. I'm sorry, too—"

Liz was cut off when a loud clash-type noise came from the other end of the room. The duo's heads whipped around in unison to see that one of the elderly colony members had dropped a plate, and Aimee was scrambling to pick up the pieces.

On instinct, Joel ran in Aimee's direction, leaving Liz sitting there alone on the bed.

Her face fell slightly as she watched Joel and Aimee gathering all the plate fragments. Liz didn't miss the numerous times they'd locked eyes, mumbling what seemed like inside jokes as they laughed, fumbling on the floor.

And that was when it became clear to Liz: Joel was still in love with Aimee.

Hurt gnawed at her heart, eyes wide in confusion. But she wasn't going to let herself get upset over this. After all, Joel was never hers to begin with.

She looked down at her hands and fiddled with them, trying to ignore the unwelcomed thoughts that plagued her mind. Until suddenly, the very voice she was trying to block out invaded her ears once again.

"Hey!" Joel said cheerfully as he approached her. "Uh, I'm gonna go and see what it's like outside, okay? I've heard the beach is really nice. You'll be okay by yourself, right?"

Liz frowned. "Can't I come?"

"No, no, you need to rest," Joel protested.

Liz could see right through him, though, and truthfully speaking, it was hurting her.

"Are you— are you going with Aimee?"

Joel's heart raced at the question, and he hated that it did. After their long journey, Joel honestly thought he'd gotten over Aimee and was pretty certain that he'd gained feelings for Liz. Now, however, after actually arriving and seeing Aimee face to face, it made him feel as if he were seventeen again — like he was a teenager falling in love for the first time.

The man rubbed his temples, hand running down his face as he muttered, "Yeah."

He took notice of how Liz's face fell completely, instantly feeling remorseful. It was safe to say that Joel's feelings were an unmitigated mess, and he didn't like it one bit.

But Liz still managed to feign a smile and nodded, silently telling him that she'd be fine alone. "I get it," she breathed. "Go, Joel."

__________

"I wish you were here, Mum."

Joel had been gone for what felt like hours, and Liz was left alone. She'd been sitting on the bed, reminiscing her home, desperately yearning to be back there.

'Home' being both her colony, and her old home back in Fairfield. But she could only really return to one of them; the one she'd rather not return to at this point after finding out that everyone there lied to her about her parents' passing for God knows how long.

Liz felt lost here — in a colony where she knew no one. The only person who she knew was off admiring the beaches with his high-school girlfriend.

There actually had been two people who stopped by earlier and greeted her: a tan guy called Rocko and a blonde lady called Dana. They'd been pretty nice to her, given that everyone else in the colony gave her discomforting stares. Though she had to admit, Dana was a little scary with her so-called 'homemade' arm canon.

And almost on cue, another overly-jolly blonde man walked through the door with a smirk on his face, pulling Liz out of her thoughts.

Liz sat up properly when she noticed him, watching him attentively as he approached her.

"Hi, Liz I presume?" he greeted with a thick Australian accent, before his eyes squeezed shut and he pinched the bridge of his nose quickly. "Sorry, can I call you Liz? Do you mind?"

The brunette smiled at him sweetly. "Yeah, you can call me Liz."

"Captain Brookes Wilkinson, Royal Australian Navy... retired, of course," the man introduced himself, holding out a hand. "My mates call me Cap."

Liz took his hand politely, and it was almost like feeling Joel's hand in hers once again. Except, this man didn't bring her the warmth, nor the comfort that she felt with Joel earlier.

Liz expected Cap to simply shake her hand, so when he raised it up to his lips to place a gentle kiss upon the back of her hand, saying she was shocked was an understatement.

Her eyes widened a little, not being used to this kind of attention. "Wow," she chuckled nervously. "Gentleman, I see."

Cap's grin grew, shrugging nonchalantly. "They don't call me the Charmer for nothing."

"Consider me charmed."

Although Liz believed that Cap didn't have any ill intentions, she still felt considerably uncomfortable. She pulled her hand away reluctantly, and Cap understood, mumbling an apology under his breath.

"Joel told me about you," Cap spoke, allowing himself to sit on the bed next to the brunette.

Liz's heart skipped a beat at Joel's name. "He did?"

Cap hummed, "Yeah. Told me that you helped him get here. A week on the surface, right?"

Liz nodded, somewhat proudly. She was not only proud of herself, but also proud of Joel for being able to make it so far after having absolutely no experience in the outside world for seven years.

"That's phenomenal; I didn't even think that was possible. Well, apart from Elizabeth Par—" Cap cut himself off, eyebrows shooting up at a sudden realisation. "Wait... Liz? Like, Elizabeth? The Elizabeth Parker?"

Liz giggled, face falling into her palms. Anyone would've thought that she'd have gotten used to this by now, but it never got easier having people recognise who she was. "That's me," she murmured into her hands.

"Oh, my God, wow," Cap laughed, hands clasping together in front of him as he looked at Liz in adoration. "On the surface for a whole year at sixteen. God, you amaze me."

Head lifting to meet his stare, Liz beamed at him. "Thanks," she smiled. "I'm guessing you're the yacht captain I've heard so much about?"

"Guilty as charged." A pearly grin etched across Cap's face, raising his hands in defeat playfully.

It wasn't long before an awkward silence lapsed around the pair, Liz fiddling with her hair nervously, as she could practically feel herself crumbling under Cap's intense glare. Until finally, he figured that it'd probably be better just to leave her be.

"I'm gonna go," he announced as he stood up, hand reaching out once again.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Cap." Liz took his hand graciously.

But yet again, he shocked her. His fingers weaved in between hers like a jigsaw puzzle, his eyes never leaving her face. Liz's eyes, however, cautiously flickered between where their hands interlocked and Cap's face.

Again, it seemed awfully similar to what Joel had done before, but it certainly didn't feel the same. Especially because Liz had just met Cap. This man seemed to be quite a touchy person, and she still hadn't adjusted to it.

"Please, the pleasure was all mine," Cap said. "I'll see you around, Liz."

And with that, he retreated his hand and whirled on his heels, making his way through the door and back out onto the beach. As Liz's eyes trailed after him, she noticed a familiar face at the exit.

"Aye, you alright, Joel?" Cap asked brightly as he walked directly past him.

Joel didn't respond. He simply stared at Elizabeth Parker from the door, eyes wide in disbelief and utter betrayal.

Chapter Text

After Joel had walked in on Liz and Cap in a rather suggestive pose, he'd immediately left, not giving Liz the chance to explain herself at all. In fact, she actually did try to go after him, but she could barely even get up since she was still relatively drowsy because of all the poison from the whole lake incident.

So, she did the next best thing. She took a nap.

And luckily, when she woke up, she was feeling a lot better. Joel was right; perhaps all she really needed to do was rest.

The brunette propped onto her feet, struggling to maintain her balance when everything around her started to spin and her vision went blurry. She staggered forward a couple of steps, managing to reach out for the wall to keep herself up, shaking her head quickly to rid herself of her hazy state.

The warm air hugged Liz's form contently, causing a soft sigh to escape her lips as she slipped off her jacket, leaving her in a loose tank top. Her shoes lay beside the bed, and she glared at them with narrow eyes in contemplation, wondering if she should even bother to put them on, but eventually concluded that people don't wear shoes on the beach anyway.

Finally, Liz walked sluggishly through the door and out onto the beach. This was the first time she'd seen it since she'd got there. And also the first time she'd actually seen a beach in seven years.

She wiggled her toes as her feet sunk into the sand, the comfortable breeze hitting her pleasantly, and her face broke out into a small smile. She forgot how much she loved beaches. It reminded her of all the times she'd visit the beach with her parents when she was younger — her home back in Fairfield was near one, and she'd beg her parents to go almost every weekend.

Her ocean-coloured eyes skimmed across the beach and noticed that Joel was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Aimee. She groaned, rubbing her temples defeatedly.

"Hey!" Liz heard a familiar voice calling at her from afar.

Body whirling around, she saw the same blonde man who had come to see her earlier, grinning from ear to ear as he waved at her frantically. Liz smiled, politely returning the wave.

When Cap finally reached her, he huffed dramatically, leaning forward to catch his breath. "Liz, you're up! How are you feeling?"

Liz giggled, eyes still discretely scanning the coast to see if she could spot any trace of Joel. "I'm okay. Have you seen Joel at all? I think he's still with Aimee."

"Ah." A false smile twitched on Cap's lips, an arm wrapping around Liz's shoulder as he led her further onto the beach. The brunette flinched at his touch, shifting slightly from under his arm, but was quick to adjust. "I should've known you were looking for Joel."

Liz's brows furrowed in confusion at his accusatory tone. "What?"

"You know he loves Aimee, right? Everyone can see that, it's pretty obvious," the blonde man said bluntly, catching Liz off guard. "He came here for love. It's cute, really. There's no mission more admirable than love, don't you think?"

Liz felt her throat grow tight, ignoring the urge to scream at him from the top of her lungs. She wanted to scream that she came, too — that she came for Joel, just to make sure that he was safe. Because she cared for him that much, despite the pair never even getting along before this trip.

But she didn't. She didn't scream, she didn't say anything. Her thoughts remained exactly that: thoughts, for herself to hear only, and she allowed them to swallow her whole. All she outwardly did was send Cap a reluctant nod, silently indicating that she agreed.

Suddenly, Cap's face lit up in excitement. "Ooh, I wanted to show you something!"

Liz raised her eyebrows at him in question, and in return, the blonde man's arm only remained around Liz's shoulder, urging her to walk a little faster. Needless to say, she struggled to do so, the pain from her stab wound resurfacing as she was forced to move at a quicker pace, but she did manage to stay by his side as he speed-walked in the direction of the ocean.

He came to a halt when they were near the sea's edge, his bulky arm never leaving Liz's shoulders. "Look." He pointed out into the water, and Liz's eyes visibly trailed his finger to see that he was pointing at a large, dirty yacht. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"

Eyes squinting as she stared at the thing, Liz nodded slowly. In all honesty, it looked pretty old and worn out, but she knew to be polite. "Very."

Cap's grip around Liz's shoulder grew tighter, pulling her petite body into his large, sweaty one. Her body stiffened at the sudden contact, her side uncomfortably digging into his. Liz was pretty sure that Cap could crush her to pieces if he wanted to — he was already practically suffocating her.

"I think you should come with us," Cap announced.

Liz's brows pinched together in confusion. "With you?"

"Yeah. We're going away soon — somewhere safe. And we're taking everyone here with us."

A soft chuckle fell from Liz's lips as she tried to break free, or at least make Cap's grip on her loosen up, but he seemingly refused to let go. "Well," she spoke through her teeth, feigning a smile, "that could be fun."

"It would be," Cap agreed. "Joel's coming, too."

That name was what caught Liz's attention, her body relaxing slightly upon hearing it. She looked up at Cap, and he was quick to lock eyes with her. "He is?" she questioned.

Cap nodded. "He's coming for Aimee."

Liz's face fell, an awkward silence settling amongst them. To say those words hurt her was an understatement. It wasn't like she didn't know that Joel loved Aimee, because she did, but it didn't make her feel any better.

Eventually, the brunette cleared her throat. "I'm gonna go," she mumbled, trying to back away once more.

This time, Cap finally let go, sending her a look of concern. "You okay?"

"I actually feel a little sick, I don't think the poison has worn off yet," she lied, wrapping her arms around her own body for a sense of comfort as she took a few steps back. "I'll see you later, Cap."

Without giving him the chance to respond, Liz whirled around and made a run for it towards the building. Granted, running in the sand was quite difficult, and Liz could pretty much feel the dozens of pairs of eyes piercing holes into her as they watched her every move.

Just as Liz got nearer to where her backpack lay on the bed, she grunted uncomfortably when her body collided with a taller one. Her eyes trailed up the figure looming over her, and she allowed herself to relax when she saw that it was just Joel.

The man exhaled in a relieved manner, pulling Liz into arguably the biggest hug he'd ever delivered in his entire life. Liz's body stiffened in shock but was quick to melt into his touch. She instantly knew something was up, and when she heard him let out a little sniffle, her theory was confirmed.

Liz's forehead crinkled with lines of concern, her own arms wrapping affectionately around his frame. "What's wrong?" she asked him softly, her voice muffled into his shoulder.

"I'm so glad you're here, Elizabeth, honestly," he whispered into her ear, his fingers running down the hair at the back of her head.

Liz chuckled lightly. "Like, right here, right now? Or because I basically died and came back to life by some mind-blowing miracle?"

"Both, I guess."

Joel pulled away slowly, and Liz could see his eyes glossing over with tears. A singular drop slipped from his left eye, and she gently wiped it with her index finger, a weak smile upon Joel's face as he watched her admiringly.

"Seriously, though, what's wrong?" Liz asked again.

Joel sucked in a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Aimee..."

Confusion took over Liz's features. "What happened? Did she do something to you?" she hissed in interrogation, immediately thinking of the worst. "I'll beat her ass if she did."

"No, no, it's not that," Joel reassured, before looking to be in thought momentarily, "Well, kinda, actually. But not really."

Liz sent him a blank stare. "What's that meant to mean?"

Nerves were flooding through Joel's veins as he ran a hand through his fluffy hair, and exhaled sharply, contemplating how to say what he wanted to say. Liz immediately took notice of the change in his demeanour.

"Hey." She grabbed either arm, shaking him gently. "Talk to me. What happened?"

"She, uh..." Joel gulped, looking anywhere but Liz's face, "She said she doesn't love me anymore. She said lost someone last year that 'meant a lot' to her."

The brunette's face fell, feeling his words sting her heart. She felt guilty. Although she liked Joel a lot, Liz just wanted nothing more than for him to be happy, regardless of what the outcome was for herself.

"Oh, Joel." She sent him an apologetic look, pulling him in for another hug, and he gratefully complied. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Joel said airily. "I'm not upset about it."

Liz pulled away from the hug abruptly, eyes narrowing in confusion. "You're not?"

Joel did nothing except let a small grin linger on his lips, avoiding her gaze as he scratched the back of his neck nervously. But when he stole a quick glance in Liz's direction for a split-second, the golden glint in his eye gave it all away. He was an open book for Liz; she'd learnt to read him so easily after the past week together.

"I heard what you said to MAV1S," Liz blurted out before she could have the chance to stop herself, her heart feeling like it would thump out of her chest any moment.

Joel felt his own heart drop to the ground, eyes widening twice their size. "W–What?"

"Yeah." Liz nodded as she swallowed down the lump in her throat. "I heard what you said. And, uh— remember when I was gonna tell you what Minnow said to me... but never actually told you? It was about that, too."

The man's mouth fell open but no words came out. Joel had officially been stunned into silence.

Liz's face heated up in slight embarrassment, the awkward quietness eating her up inside. So, as anyone would do, she started rambling to fill in the gaps.

"And I know it's probably a shock or whatever, but I really don't know how to deal with this." Her voice was now a lot quieter, exclusive for Joel's ears only. "For a while, everything seemed fine. I didn't ever think you'd like me, y'know? I mean, why would you? Plus, you loved Aimee! I thought it was a harmless crush that developed only because I was spending every second of every minute of every day with you — something that I'd get over quickly. Until that day with MAV1S. God, that was freaking crazy, I had no idea what to do! I was gonna tell you that I heard you talking to MAV1S, I swear — I don't know when, but I would've done it at some point. But when we came here, you were all over Aimee and I didn't know what the hell was going on. I thought you still loved her—"

"I don't," Joel cut her off there, having heard everything that he needed to hear.

Liz frowned. "It definitely looks like you do. Please don't lie to me, Joel."

"I don't, Elizabeth," Joel assured firmly. "I'll be completely honest with you, okay? I thought I did after coming here, too. But just after she told me that she loved someone else, I realised that I don't. If she loved someone else, then it would hurt me to find out about it, right? But it didn't." He paused, eyes narrowing in thought as a shy smile formed on his lips. "And... I also realised the reason why."

Liz swallowed thickly, ignoring the butterflies that were fluttering inside of her and spoke up, "And why's that?"

Joel's soft smile contorted into a playful grin as he took a couple of steps forward, until his body was towering over Liz's. Their eyes locked into a somewhat intense staring competition, and Liz bit her lip to hold back the smile that was so close to breaking free on her face.

"It's you, Elizabeth."

Eyebrows raised, Liz's lip curled in amusement. "Yeah?" she mumbled, her arms snaking around Joel's neck, pulling him down to reach her eye-level.

Joel followed her lead complacently, head bucking down until his face was near hers. "Yeah," he confirmed lowly, wrapping his own arms around her body so that they rested nicely on her waist.

Liz hummed contently, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. One arm stayed around Joel's neck and the other reached out to his bottom lip, and Liz played with it teasingly, pulling it outwards as she pouted slightly.

But that was the exact moment that Joel's gaze dropped from Liz's eyes to her lips, and she could've sworn that she saw his hazel eyes turn darker, 'lust' practically written all over his face.

"Hey! The fir— holy shit."

Liz and Joel instantly separated when they heard the voice. Liz's hands clasped in front of her form, scrunching her eyes shut to save herself from the humiliation, and Joel rocked back and forth on his feet as he plastered a horrific smile that looked more like a grimace across his face.

They tried to act completely natural. Although, when they glanced at each other and saw that both of their faces had been painted with the deepest of all reds, they knew that putting up an act would be uselesss.

"Cap!" Liz feigned enthusiasm, twirling a strand of hair around her finger as she looked up at the man in the doorway. "What are you doing here?"

"I–I just came to say that the fire's ready," he announced, his wide eyes darting between the heavily breathing pair. "Everyone's ready, if you guys wanna, um... come."

"Right." Liz scratched her head awkwardly as she and Joel sent each other rather uncomfortable looks. "Let's go."

Chapter Text

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, everyone! Let's all settle down."

Cap's voice was ringing in Liz and Joel's eardrums like an annoying bell that wouldn't shut up, no matter how hard they tried to ignore or avoid it. Everywhere they went, the blonde man was always there.

The pair strolled into the room uncomfortably — it didn't take a genius to figure out that they absolutely did not want to be there, especially after Cap had walked in on them at quite possibly the worst time in existence. This was bound to get awkward.

Joel sat near an elderly woman, pursing his lips in a smile when she glanced at him.

"Cap's been telling us stories about his adventures!" she whispered to Joel enthusiastically, and Liz just about able to hear it as she propped down beside him.

Joel sent Liz a look that expressed both bore and worry, and she shuffled closer to him, rubbing his arm comfortingly. "Don't worry, this will be fun," she mumbled in feigned optimism.

"Come on, Cap, tell us another story!" someone called out, and Cap raised his arms in defeat.

"Alright, alright," he breathed, before pausing in thought momentarily, pointing at Liz with a hopeful grin across his face. "Liz! I'm sure you've got hundreds of stories. You were on the surface way longer than I was. Why don't you come over here and tell us a few?"

His hands ushered for the brunette to come in his direction, and she chuckled nervously before shaking her head. "Oh, I don't know. I don't really have many stories," she dismissed.

"Aw, c'mere!" Cap said playfully, and he immediately stood up and did a little jog in Liz's direction. When he got to her, he raised his eyebrows as a hand darted forward, waiting for Liz to take it.

"I'm— uh..." Liz trailed off, vision scanning around the circle and noticing that they were all eyeing her bitterly. Anxiety bubbled ferociously inside of her stomach as the pressure got to her, head whipping around to send Joel an apologetic look.

The brunette mouthed an 'I'm sorry' to him, before she took Cap's hand and was being led to the other side of the circle. A deep frown was carved into Joel's face as he watched her get dragged further and further away; a couple of metres feeling like miles between them.

There was a symphonic cheer throughout the room, everyone clapping Liz and Cap on, chanting their names repeatedly. A smug smirk was fixed upon Cap's face as he sat on the floor, tugging at Liz's arm gently to urge her to do the same.

Collapsing onto the floor next to him, she offered Cap a weak smile, and he took this as his cue to put an arm around her shoulder, as he'd done on the beach earlier.

Liz's eyes widened, body stiffening at the muscular arm fixed around her frame, but everyone in the circle turned a blind eye to it and only continued to cheer. She glanced over at Joel on the other side of the room, noticing that his fists were clenched enviously as he shot Cap a dangerous stare, trying as hard as he possibly could not to blow his brains out.

"Story! Story! Story!" Everyone began to chorus again.

Cap nudged Liz a little, head bucking down to whisper in her ear, "They wanna hear a story."

Liz let out an airy, false laugh and shook her head. "It was so long ago, Cap, I honestly can't remember anything," she lied, shrugging.

The dozens of people cheering didn't seem to care, though, and Liz figured that they probably wouldn't stop until they got what they wanted.

"Okay, okay, alright, alright." Cap retreated his arm from around Liz's shoulders, and her body relaxed as she let out a deep exhale, shuffling away from him discretely. "Four years, post-Agatha. HMS Brisbane. First watch. I was the first person to see it coming over the wall. A giant lizard, two stories high. I sounded the alarm, but it was too late. We lost one-thousand and thirty-two souls that night."

Everyone in the room gasped, except Liz and Joel. Unable to tear her gaze away from him, Liz was watching his every move, and she was upset to see that his eyes were fixated on the fire in front of him, evidently unfocused on whatever story Cap was telling.

"I mean, make no mistake. We have lost this war, right?" Cap continued, standing up as he spoke for dramatic effect. "There is no place for mankind on land. But out there?" He pointed out the door, indicating that he was talking about the ocean, "Out there we've got a chance."

It went silent for a short while; everyone clearly in deep thought as they nodded in agreement.

Until suddenly, Joel cleared his throat, raising his hand as if he were still in school. "I've got a... um, just a question?"

The smallest of smiles lingered on Liz's face as she watched him speak up for the first time since they'd walked into the room. Cap nodded at Joel, gesturing for him to go ahead.

"I survived seven days on the surface, and... if I can do that, literally anyone can," Joel pointed out.

"But you weren't alone, were you?" Cap challenged.

Joel stammered, "W–Well, no—"

"He would've been able to come alone," Liz interjected defensively on his behalf. "The only reason I came with him was that our colony didn't let him come here alone. They had good reason to, as well: he hadn't been outside in seven whole years, so he had no experience at all. But he didn't exactly need me — he met some amazing people who taught him a lot about survival, and he picked up on everything really quickly."

Cap gaped slightly, laughing a little in disbelief. "Right, okay, but you were still with him. Surely, you helped him a lot."

"If anything, I slowed him down." Liz leaned back, shrugging. "You would not believe the number of times I got injured or nearly eaten alive by those vile creatures. He helped me, too. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Joel."

The group lapsed into an awkward silence, Liz grinning contently as she sent Joel a discrete wink — one which went noticed by no one but him. He scoffed lightly, cheeks tinting red the tiniest bit as his face broke out into a smile.

"Well then," Cap's voice tore through the quiet, an icy glare being sent between Liz and Joel, "Seven days on the surface, I'm impressed."

"So, maybe we still have a chance to fight," Joel spoke optimistically. "A–And... y'know, win our— win our world... back."

"I have a plan," Cap said bluntly, pointing at Joel. "And if you have a better one, mate, I'm all ears. And I will stand by your side."

"You— you wanna hear my plan?" Joel stammered as he noticed everyone staring at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. "Well, it's— uh... just..." he swallowed nervously, and Liz's head fell into her palms, knowing fully well that Joel had no plan at all. "I–I got nothing."

"Hey, that's on me. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, mate," Cap faked reassurance, before changing the subject. "Aimee tells me you make a mean minestrone, and you're great on the radio. Lord knows I need a comms expert, and someone to teach Rocko how to cook."

Everyone in the room burst out into heaps of laughter as Cap teased him, Joel's face burning in embarrassment as he stared intently at the fire in front of him. Liz frowned, parting her lips to speak up to get everyone to be quiet, but before she even had the chance to, Joel was up on his feet and storming out of the room.

Liz shot Cap a deadly stare, and he practically crumbled under her gaze. "Maybe you should try being nicer to people. He didn't deserve that; he was just trying to help," she deadpanned, before she was on her feet and hurried after him, a hand against her abdomen to ensure her bandage stayed put as she speed-walked.

Joel was back in the room that they were in earlier, sitting on the bed. He glanced up at the doorway to see Liz standing there with a sincere look on her face, and he immediately ripped his gaze away.

"Hey," Liz said softly, moving quickly to sit by his side. Joel didn't look up — he didn't do anything — so Liz nudged him gently. "Joel," she murmured, a hand reaching up to his face to make him look at her. Following her lead, he obliged, locking eyes with her and Liz's face softened on him, "I'm sorry about that. He's a douche."

Joel pulled his face away once again, eyes focused on the ground. "Stay away from him," Joel muttered.

Liz's brows knitted together in confusion. "What? Why?"

"Just stay away from him," he reiterated.

"And I'm hoping you have a good reason as to why I should?"

Joel's head heaved to the side to look at her. "He's... evil."

Liz snorted. "Evil, huh? What gave you that idea?"

"I'm not joking, Elizabeth," he insisted as he stood up and looked down at Liz, his tone a little sterner now. "Stay away from him."

Liz's face fell. She stood up to try to seem more intimidating, although the height difference certainly did not cooperate. "You're serious?" she asked in disbelief. "Why the hell should I stay away from him?"

Joel stayed silent, chewing his bottom lip as he tried to conjure up a viable excuse.

Eyebrows raised, Liz crossed her arms over her chest. "Well?"

Overpowered by a strong feeling that this wasn't going to end well, Joel clenched his jaw, staring up at the ceiling. "I–I don't exactly have a reason yet—"

"Don't have a reason yet?" Liz scoffed, shaking her head in incredulously. "So, you're just gonna pick and choose who you think is evil and wait for them to do something wrong? That's what you're doing now?"

The man winced at her tone, pinching the bridge of his nose. "No, that's not what I said," he protested defeatedly, voice toning down a little. "I just don't want you around him..."

Joel's voice trailed off when he noticed Liz's eyebrows raised in suspicion, biting the insides of her cheeks to hide a smirk. Her body immediately relaxed, realising exactly what this was about. "You don't?"

Joel gaped slightly, panic flickering across his features. "I–I am not jealous!"

"Woah. Easy, tiger." Liz raised her hands in surrender as her lip curled in amusement, taking a step closer to him. "I didn't say you were."

"You— okay, that's true," he admitted lowly with a sigh. "Fine, maybe I am just a bit jealous."

"I didn't take you to be the jealous type, Joel," Liz teased, her hand raising up to trace his facial features lightly. "And we're not even together yet."

A breath caught in Joel's throat at the gentle, unexpected touch, closing his eyes as he felt Liz's fingers tickle at his stubbled jaw. But, out of nowhere, he grasped onto her hand and pulled it up to his lips, causing Liz to yelp in shock at the abrupt movements.

"Shut up," Joel said playfully, pressing soft kisses against her knuckles. "Just promise me you'll stay away from him — or at least be wary of him? His vibe is completely off. I just want you to be safe, alright?"

Liz's heartbeat quickened a little bit as she watched his puckered, pink lips place the sweetest of kisses upon her hand. It was a sight that she was certain she'd never grow tired of, unable to stop the pearly grin from forming on her face as she nodded slowly. "Anything for you."

Chapter Text

"Seventy forty-five, this is thirty twenty-two. Come in."

Joel's finger remained on the button of the radio as he impatiently waited for someone on the other end to answer. Beside him sat Liz, who was watching intently, chewing at her bottom lip nervously as she was starting to believe that trying to contact their colony was no use.

"Seventy forty-five, this is thirty twenty-two. Is anyone there?" Joel urged. "Tim? Ava? Anyone? Over."

"Hey," Liz said quietly, reaching out for his hand and gently pulling it away from the machine. "Give it some time, okay? Maybe they're just busy right now."

Joel glanced from where their hands connected, up to her face, offering her a weak smile as he nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right."

The sudden sound of a bowl and glass hitting the table interrupted them unsympathetically. "Cap thought you both might need a snack," a man spoke, pointing between a bunch of berries in the bowl and a glass of what looked like beer. "You know, he brews his own beer!"

"Oh. Yeah. So I've heard." Joel's voice was flat, groaning inwardly at the constant talk of the blonde Australian.

Liz noticed and gave Joel's hand a little squeeze comfortingly. Joel didn't bother to look up at her, his eyes fixated on the radio in front of him, but gently gave her hand squeeze in return, silently letting her know that her kind gesture didn't go unappreciated.

Pulling away, Liz stood up to stretch her legs a little, but was startled when she heard the sound of paper crinkling in her pocket. A confused brow quirked up on Joel's face as he looked up at her, curious as to what she had in there.

Liz almost instantly remembered exactly what inside, her blue eyes lighting up excitedly. Her hand dug into her pocket and she quickly retrieved the map that their colony members had given them before they left.

"You never got a chance to look at this properly," Liz said as she handed Joel the map. "Take a look at it now."

The man took it hesitantly, opening up the map to see nothing that he hadn't seen before. In his opinion, it was pretty useless; a map with no instructions, but only some sections circled with warnings like 'do not go here' and 'this place is off limits' wasn't exactly helpful, per se.

"What's special about it?" Joel asked curiously.

"Look closer. You'll find it — I know you will."

Joel huffed, narrowing his eyes with sharp focus as he really tried to concentrate on the map. His vision flickered frantically around it, trying to pick up on anything that he could've missed, but found nothing.

"There's nothing on this! You're lying to me, aren't you? Is this a prank?" he interrogated dramatically.

"No! Try again. It's a special map." Liz pointed at the paper from over his shoulder with wide eyes, urging for him to continue.

Joel grumbled, not believing a word she was saying. Liz couldn't help but giggle at his frustration, standing directly behind him as both of her hands landed atop Joel's head, running her fingers through his hair.

He sunk into his seat as Liz rubbed at his scalp with her fingernails, releasing a noise that expressed satisfaction as his eyes comfortably fell shut.

"Feels good?" Liz's voice was soft, almost a whisper.

"Really good," Joel breathed out. "I don't remember the last time I got a head rub."

Liz chuckled lightly. "Me neither."

Joel's head shot up so that he could see Liz peering down at him from directly above, causing her to flinch a little at the abrupt movement. "I'll do it," he announced.

Liz's head tilted to the side, amused. "You will?"

"Yeah. I'll do it if you do it for me. Whenever you want."

"Deal." Liz's hands grabbed at his head again and forced it back down so that he had no choice but to stare at the map in front of him. "Now, focus!"

Joel had serious doubts that there was anything 'special' on the map at all. His eyes darted across it once more, once again completely unsurprised to see nothing different about it. An agitated groan pushed through his lips as he mentally concluded that he'd given up.

Just as he began to fold up the map again, he noticed a couple of scribbles on the back of the dirt-covered paper.

"Oh, my God..." His eyes lit up in fascination as he unfolded it back out again, but opening it up the opposite way this time.

The back of the map revealed numerous messages in lots of different handwritings, all from his colony members:

We'll always be your family xox Kara ♡

She better be worth it! - Tim

We love you Joel, come back quickly. Karen ♡♡

Come home soon, Joel - Maya

Gertie will miss you too. Moooooo

Disbelief was written on Joel's features as he read all the messages silently, letting out a small chuckle when he read the Gertie one.

"They love you, you know," Liz reassured him. "I know you think they saw you as — and I quote — 'a little, pathetic, adorable hedgehog', but you're more to them than that."

Joel's cheeks reddened as he chuckled at the embarrassing memory that he was forced to relive in his mind. "Oh, God... you memorized that?"

"Just in case I needed leverage over you!" Liz laughed, acting as if she was stating the obvious. "Going on a seven day trip with, like, my arch-enemy was less than ideal. I thought I'd need it at some point."

Joel scoffed playfully, shaking his head. "You didn't, though."

"I know." Liz bent forward, her chin hooking over Joel's shoulder as her arms wrapped around his neck. "I'm glad I didn't."

The man tried to hide the fact that his breath hitched when Liz whispered into the space between his head and shoulders, but she recognised it instantly. She smirked, pressing tender kisses upon his neck — the only place she could really reach from this angle.

Joel exhaled sharply through his teeth, his head tipping to the side to provide Liz greater access, allowing his eyes to roll back until they wholly fell shut. She continued, this time sucking at his skin gently, causing Joel to bite his lip to hold back a small, whimpery moan that threatened to break free.

At that exact moment, however, Joel had an intriguing thought.

"E–Elizabeth?" he stammered, voice low and hoarse.

"Mm?" Liz pulled away from his neck for a second to grant him her full attention.

"Um... we— we haven't even kissed yet..." Joel trailed off, immediately cringing upon saying the words, and mentally cursing himself for ruining such a perfect moment.

But Liz didn't mind, and she bit the insides of her cheeks to hold back a grin. Her index finger reached out for his chin to turn his head to face her, and he complied, his vision flickering between her eyes and lips.

"You know there's an easy fix for that, right?"

Joel swallowed nervously. "There is?"

"Yeah," Liz chuckled. "Do you want to kiss me?"

The man nodded frantically. "One-hundred per cent. Do you?"

"One-hundred per cent," she echoed.

Upon hearing her confirmation, Joel's body shifted in his chair to face her properly. Nerves were flooding through them both, the pair trying to stay as calm as possible.

Neither of them had kissed anyone in seven years — this could go either brilliantly or horrifically.

Liz grabbed Joel by the chin, pulling him in ever so slowly, until her lips were just about hovering over his, not having fully indulged into a kiss yet.

Joel paused, waiting for her to lean in further, but it didn't take long for him to realise that she was purposely not moving any nearer.

"A–Are you okay?" he whispered in worry.

Liz nodded. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Another nod from Liz.

"Okay, good." Joel pursed his lips into a small smile. "Wanna try again?"

Liz didn't say anything; she simply leaned forward for a kiss once again, just to come to a halt when she was only millimetres away from him.

It was at this point that she'd completely lost it, and she couldn't hold back the snort that she released when she saw Joel's face, hand shooting up to her mouth in an attempt to hide her laugh.

Joel believed he understood her tactics. Like Liz with him, he'd learned to read her relatively well after spending the past week together.

"You're teasing me," he claimed gruffly.

An amused brow perked up on Liz's face, head tipping to the side. "What makes you think that?"

"You won't kiss me!" Joel huffed. "If you don't wanna do it, just say so. I totally get it—"

Joel was silenced when Liz's lips collided with his, and his eyes widened twice their size in pleasant surprise. He quickly eased into it, eyelids fluttering shut and making the most of the moment.

It felt euphoric. Joel's lips felt unbelievably soft against hers, and Liz noticed how the physical sensation matched perfectly with the emotional feeling — not rough or aggressive, just a gentle and intimate act.

A smiley Liz pulled away after a couple of seconds, eyes flickering between Joel's eyes and his puckered lips. "How was... how was that?" she asked in a soft tone.

"I–It was good. Great. Beautiful, actually." Joel swallowed nervously, his heavy breaths landing on Liz's face. "Can we, uh... can we do it again?"

She grinned, nodding as leaned in for another kiss. Their lips joined comfortably, already having adjusted from just a few seconds prior, both fitting together perfectly like puzzle pieces.

Heads rolling in unison as they both began to properly revel into it, Joel's legs separated as his large hand fixed onto Liz's neck, signalling for her to come nearer. She did so, but she took Joel by surprise when she swung her leg over him to straddle his waist.

"Oh, o–okay," Joel submitted, allowing Liz to get comfortable on his lap, her arms snaking around his neck.

"You okay?" Liz asked quietly, a sincere look across her face. "Is this all okay with you?"

"Yeah. I like this." Joel smiled as he pushed a loose strand of hair back behind Liz's ear. His fingers then laced together at Liz's lower back to tighten his grip on her, careful that she wouldn't fall. "This is nice."

"Very," Liz agreed, before leaning forward to litter numerous kisses across Joel's flustered cheeks. She could feel him smiling under her lips, causing her to smile, too — both of them practically being able to feel the affection radiating off one another.

Wet kisses were gradually pressed all down Joel's jaw up until Liz got to his neck. Reaching up to the back of his head, Liz's hand balled into a fist and grabbed a chunk of his hair. She tugged it down abruptly so his head tilted up, allowing her full access to his neck.

"Jesus, Elizabeth," Joel spluttered out in exasperation, a shaky breath falling from his lips as he allowed Liz to nibble at his neck skin. To say Joel was stunned was an understatement; he'd never expected Liz to be so rough... and he'd be lying if he said he didn't like it.

Uneven breaths landed on Joel's neck as Liz pulled away, staring at the bruise that was beginning to turn purple on his delicate skin. "I'm— I'm sorry..." she gulped, face contorting into one of worry, "Do you want me to go slower? Or stop?"

"No, no, I like it." Joel's head cocked forward to place a short and sweet kiss on Liz's lips, before leaning back into his chair again. "Keep going."

Liz smirked as she obeyed, securing her lips on Joel's neck once more, sucking gently as her tongue swirled in circles against the area. Joel's constant hums of fulfilment didn't go unnoticed by Liz, and they only encouraged her to continue.

"Shit..." Joel whispered defeatedly, "You're really good at that."

Liz pulled back, eyebrows raised in question. "You sound surprised."

"I–I'm not—"

Joel cut himself off when Liz impulsively leaned forward, slowly running her tongue along the length of his bottom lip. Not having expected it at all, Joel's eyes widened twice their size as she did so. When the girl pulled away, she had to hold back a laugh when she saw the aghast expression upon his face.

"That was hot." Joel's eyes narrowed as he licked his lips, trying to see if he could taste Liz's flavour that felt as if it were lingering on him. "So fucking hot."

The grin never left Liz's face. "Yeah?"

"Hell, yeah. You make me feel so..." Joel paused for a moment, thinking an adjective that would best describe the feeling he had in mind, "...Good."

"Oh, really? But I haven't even fucked you yet."

Her words caused Joel's jaw to hang open in astonishment. Any other sentences that he was planning to say melted into his mouth, his lips ceasing movement for a couple of moments.

Liz's finger reached for Joel's chin and she softly pushed it upward to close his mouth playfully, giggling. "What? You don't think I can fuck you?"

Joel loved her confidence, but it intimidated him just a little bit. He didn't think he was worthy of someone like Liz. He was soft and awkward, scared of monsters and was stuck in a bunker for seven years — whereas Liz was confident, knew everything about survival, and spent a lot of her time on the surface. He knew that that was also the reason why he felt so threatened by Cap; Cap was so much more like her.

It felt like fire was burning his cheeks as he cleared his throat awkwardly, "Y–You can. You absolutely can. I know it. And you'd be the best at it, too."

Liz shifted on his lap so that she was sitting even further up his body, leaning forward so she could whisper in his ear. "Better than Aimee?" she teased quietly, Liz's gentle breaths against his skin causing a shiver to run down his spine. "D'you think I can fuck you better than she did?"

Joel's face would've turned a deeper red if it was possible. Nevertheless, a playful grin tugged at the corners of his lips as his hands crept up and down the side of Liz's thigh teasingly. "Definitely. Way better than she ever did," he confirmed.

A satisfied hum came from Liz as she backed away from near his face slowly, grabbing at the bottom of her tank top and swiftly pulling it over her head, leaving her topless. A cocky smirk arranged on her lips as she watched Joel's lustful eyes dart between her face and her bra-clad breasts, licking his lips in desire.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Liz whispered, fiddling with the hem of Joel's shirt and slipping her hand up the layer of clothing, trailing her fingertips along his firm stomach.

Joel's head tipped back, exhaling deeply through his nose as he took notice of how it felt so right to have Liz touching his bare skin. "Yeah, and I'd be willing to find out right now—"

"Hello? Is someone there?"

The pair both jumped at the familiar voice that came from the radio, turning to it in unison with horrified expressions across their extremely flustered faces. They immediately parted from one another, Liz jumping off Joel's lap and slumping into the empty seat next to him as he grabbed for the device, irregular breaths pushing through both of their somewhat swollen lips.

Liz didn't bother to make an effort to pull her shirt back on. She was in no rush, really — it wasn't like Joel hadn't seen her topless before.

"Hey! Yeah, yeah! Hey, Ray, is that you?" Joel yelled into the radio, trying to hide his erratic breathing. "It's me, it's Joel!"

"Joel? Oh, my God! Is Liz there, too?" Ray laughed in excitement.

"Yeah!" Joel cleared his throat as he glanced at her, gulping thickly, tension clearly still in the air. "Yeah, she's right here."

"Hey, Ray!" Liz chirped in from beside Joel, and Ray could practically hear her smiling through the radio. "I miss you so much."

"I miss you, too, kid. We all miss you both." Liz and Joel both heard Ray calling for the rest of their colony members, and their voices flooded the other end of the line.

"Joel? Liz?" Karen spoke. "Oh, my God, you're alive?!"

"Yeah, we're at Aimee's colony," Liz informed them. "It's so good to hear your voices."

"It's so good to hear you guys, too," Ray said.

The colony talked for a short while, filling each other in on everything that had happened. Liz had a small reunion with her best friend Kayla over the radio, but as expected, Joel was the one who did most of the talking.

He spoke about how they'd seen a real-life queen sand-gobbler, and how Joel blew it up with a grenade, all while Liz had been stabbed with her own weapon, which ultimately killed her, but she magically returned to life like she was Joel's special angel. Needless to say that the colony members back in the bunker were extremely worried, but once Liz assured them that she was well, they dropped the issue.

Joel also talked about how they'd met a real-life MAV1S that actually worked, and how they'd met the coolest dog in the world. Though, he didn't tell them about how Boy ran away after the lake incident — he still felt terribly guilty for that.

Liz and Joel grew worried when Ray mentioned that the colony had been through multiple breachings since they'd left, and that they'd need to leave the bunker as soon as possible for their own safety. But just at that moment, Ray's monotone voice was overpowered by an ongoing static sound, which soon led them to fully lose connection.

Panicked to no end, Joel fiddled with the radio desperately. "Hello? Hey, Ray! Can you hear me?"

Liz's forehead fell into her palms, pitifully shaking her head. "It's useless, Joel," she whispered.

Joel knew she was right. His lips pursed into a straight line as he sagged back into his chair, huffing loudly. "We've gotta go back..."

Liz was silent for a split second, his abrupt words processing in her mind. A frown was on her face as she watched Joel fumble with his things, packing everything into his backpack right away. He was clearly stressing.

"Okay, we'll go back, yeah?" she spoke gently after a couple of moments.

But Joel only continued to panic. "Why the hell are we even here?" he pressed, practically hyperventilating as a wave of dread and terror washed over him, as if he were on the verge of a panic attack. "This is so stupid... we have to go back, Elizabeth — we never should have left! Oh, my God, they're all in danger--"

"Hey, hey. Look at me. Breathe in—" Liz took in a deep breath, wavering inward motions with her hands, encouraging him to copy, before she exhaled sharply, "—and out. And again."

He followed along, breathing in and out repeatedly until his respiration was in sync with her's. The corners of Joel's mouth curled upwards into a smile when he felt himself calm down already. "Thanks."

Liz's own face mirrored his grateful expression, before she sighed, leaning back into her chair. They both lapsed into a comfortable silence, Liz reaching forward for the berries that had been delivered to them earlier.

As she picked one up, she studied it closely, realising that there was something totally off about them.

"Joel?" Liz spoke up, and the man hummed in response, turning to her. "Do these look, like, funny to you?"

Eyes squinting, Joel took the bowl from the table, searching for any kind of faults that could be seen on the purple berries. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with them, and truthfully speaking, they looked quite good — a good size, perfectly ripe, and pretty colour.

Just as he was about to say 'no' and that Liz was probably just being paranoid, his face lit up in realisation.

Joel grabbed for his 'Monster Apocolypse Survival Guide' book that he had been religiously putting together over the past few years, and he flicked through the pages until he got to the 'purple berries' part.

Liz's eyes bulged out of their sockets when she quickly skim-read the page, one specific word catching her eye. "Poisonous!" she exclaimed, pointing at the word that was in bold writing in the book.

"Boy said no to the purple berries on the way here..." Joel thought aloud, piecing things together in his head. "And they were from Cap!" He pointed in Liz's direction accusingly. "Ha, I told you he was evil!"

Liz scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You don't know that!"

"What?" Joel asked in disbelief, shock all across his face. "What the hell are you even talking about? You're defending him?"

"Maybe he just didn't know the berries were poisonous?"

Joel's mouth fell open, gaping like a fish, barely even able to process her words. "Elizabeth..."

"What?" She frowned.

"You've gotta stop doing that."

Her frown deepened, "W–What do you mean?"

The man leaned forward, placing his index finger on her chin to tilt her head up, thumb resting upon her cheek. His face was only a couple of inches away from hers, both pairs of eyes locked in an intense stare. "For once in your life, please stop trying to see the good in bad people."

Liz's eyes narrowed in question as she shook her head in her defence, "I–I don't do that—"

"You do," Joel interrupted. "You always do. You've done it with me, too."

"With you?" Liz quipped. "But you're not a bad person!"

"I was an asshole to you, but you still cared for me," Joel said lowly, the pad of his thumb soothing over her cheek. "You cared for me enough to come here with me. Travelled eighty-five miles on foot to make sure I was safe, right? You risked your life for me."

Liz could feel tears prickling at her eyes, but did as best as she possibly could to hold them back. Her dainty hand crept up until her fingers were wrapped was around Joel's wrist, and she leaned forward and sealed her lips against Joel's for a gentle kiss.

He quietly hummed into her mouth, eyebrows instinctively raising in shock, but he was quick to ease into it and almost felt like he was melting within her midst.

When pulling away, he let out a nervous chuckle. "Still need to get used to that."

Liz giggled, leaning back with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Joel. I'll never doubt you again, I promise."

"No, it's totally fine." Joel shrugged. "I didn't really have a reason to think he was evil, to begin with. But, you're telling me that you didn't get any... evil vibes from him at all?"

Liz's face scrunched up slightly at the unwanted memories of Cap being a bit too comfortable around her, but shook her head nevertheless. "Not really. I got uncomfy vibes, but not evil vibes. I just thought he was a touchy dude."

"Yeah, a little too touchy with you," Joel grumbled under his breath, but Liz only laughed.

But suddenly, her eyes narrowed as things began to piece together in her head. "Hold on a second. Cap's story at the fire... it made no sense..." She thought to herself for a few moments, processing everything that had happened at the fire earlier. "Cap said that there was a lizard that 'came over the wall', right?"

"Yeah." Joel nodded, before his eyes widened as he caught onto what Liz was getting at. "Holy shit..."

"Lizards can't fucking climb!" She flailed her arms, scoffing. "Even Clyde told us that. How the hell didn't we realise this before?"

"That lying son of a bitch. He was probably never even in the 'navy'... and doesn't know a single thing about survival," Joel snarked, immediately jumping to his feet and running towards the door.

"Joel!" Liz called after him, wobbling slightly when she stood up and attempted to follow him, hands shooting up to put some pressure on her bandage. "Slow down, I can't run that fast! I'm... injured..." Her voice faded out when she realised that he had already gone way too far to have even heard her.

But much to her surprise, Joel actually came rushing back. His hands gained a firm grip on either one of Liz's shoulders, and he shook her gently as he explained, "You stay right here, okay? Everyone here is in trouble. I need to make sure that that bastard Cap doesn't get away with this."

"What? No! Not without me—"

"You're kinda, like, a vulnerable person, at the moment! I'll be back, I promise. Stay right here."

"But I—"

Liz was cut off when Joel placed a quick, chaste kiss upon her cheek, causing her body to stiffen slightly. He then instantly whirled on his heel and made a run for it.

"Oh, my God, Joel!" Liz yelled after him once more.

"Stay there! Don't move!" he called back from afar.

An agitated groan fell from Liz's lips as she rolled her eyes in annoyance. There was no way she was just going to sit there and have some evil, fake hero pretend to save the day when all he did was have ill intentions. No way at all.

So, she quickly pulled her shirt back over her head and sprung to her feet to follow Joel out of the building. Granted, it was impossible to catch up with him, but she just about managed to weave in and out of the obstacles that were scattered across the floor and eventually reached the beach.

When she got there and saw all the elderly colony members dancing around with drinks in their hands, saying she was shocked was an understatement.

Then she remembered: tonight was the night that Cap was throwing that 'killer going-away party'...

'Killer' didn't seem so metaphorical now.

Her blue eyes scanned across the bustling beach, catching a glimpse of Joel and Aimee together. She swallowed thickly, jaw clenching as she watched Aimee grab Joel's cheeks and squish them as Joel tried to explain everything to her. Obviously, Liz couldn't make out what they were saying, but she could tell that Aimee was awfully drunk, as was everyone else in this place. But she eventually decided that she trusted Joel, and that he'd be the one to convince Aimee that Cap was bad, get her on board, and get everyone the hell out of there.

Liz looked further around the beach, seeing Cap dancing around with one of the elderly women, laughing gleefully with a drink in his hand. Head tilted to the side, she watched him for a short while, soon noticing that he was repeatedly glancing over his shoulder to where Joel was talking to Aimee.

"Shit," Liz cursed under her breath, realising that Cap would soon grow suspicious of Joel and figure out what was going on. She darted in Cap's direction as fast as she could go, and found herself right behind the blonde man in a matter of seconds.

Liz sent Joel a quick glance, and thankfully, he was looking right back at her. Though, he was shooting her an extremely alarming look — one that screamed both 'I told you to stay away from him' and 'I told you to stay put' — Liz was sure it was a combination of both. She ignored his deadly glares and simply winked in his direction, indicating that she had everything under control.

Joel huffed but eventually decided that he trusted her and that she wouldn't do anything that would get anyone in trouble or hurt. He sent her a reluctant thumbs-up, before he continued rambling on to Aimee.

Taking this as her cue, Liz tapped on Cap's shoulder, and he was quick to turn around.

"Lizzie!" Cap greeted with an awkward smile on his face.

Liz tried so hard not to cringe at the nickname, but she couldn't help that her nose scrunched ever so slightly. "Hey, Cap."

"What are you going here?" he questioned, eyes narrowing sceptically. "Shouldn't you be with Joel or something?"

Liz scoffed. "Joel? Please. You think I'm interested in him?"

An amused brow perked up on Cap's face. "It seems like you are from what I saw earlier. And what I see now." He did a one-eighty turn to point at Joel, before gesturing towards his neck with a sadistic grin on his face.

A red hue fell upon Liz's face as she realised that Cap was talking about the hickey that had grown into a deep purple colour on Joel's neck. She cleared her throat awkwardly, rolling her eyes to play it off, "That wasn't me."

Cap snorted, tilting his head to the side in amusement. "It wasn't, no?"

"Nope. And besides, you totally misread the situation." Liz's hand rested on his torso, running her fingers up his body slowly. She stopped when she reached his chest, and she could actually feel Cap's heart hammering at how close she was. Struggling to hide the grin on his face as Liz placed her hand on his heart, a breath hitched in his throat. "D'you wanna come inside with me?"

Cap hesitated as he glanced over his hefty shoulder, and Liz followed his eye-line to see that he was looking at Joel. He, however, was already glaring at them with murder in his eyes, fists clenched so hard that his nails threatened to dig holes into his palms. Liz laughed nervously, silently praying that Joel knew that this wasn't serious.

The blonde man's eyes darted between where Liz's hand lay on his chest and Joel over his shoulder. Cap grinned sardonically, seemingly incredibly entertained by Joel's frustration. Cap was not entirely buying the act, but he certainly wasn't complaining, and was more than willing to take the offer.

"Yeah, sure, but there's something I need to do first. I'll be right back, yeah?" Much to Liz's dismay, he backed away, making his way over in Joel's direction.

"No, no!" Liz protested, grabbing his arm to pull him back. "Let's just go now."

"Not now," he dismissed firmly, before pulling his arm away aggressively and sending her a piercing glare. He turned to look back at Joel who was still with Aimee, and had a sadistic grin plastered across his face as he watched Dana creep up on Joel from behind.

And Liz finally understood what was happening.

"Joel! Look out!"

With one hard blow to the face from Dana, Joel was gone.

"Holy fucking shit!" Liz bellowed, running to check if he was okay.

But she was pulled by the hair, screaming as she felt herself being hauled backwards. She was forced to turn around and see Cap staring at her unapologetically.

"We really could've been something good. You could've joined my side — notorious Captain Brookes Wilkinson and the Elizabeth Parker. We could've been an unstoppable duo," he spat as his grip remained on her hair, head bucking in Joel's direction, "But you're far too in love with him. Too bad, it's your loss."

And, just like Joel, Liz received one destructive punch to her jaw, knocking her out completely.

Chapter Text

When daylight started to seep through the little slits between Joel's eyelids, he awoke with a loud groan. Without giving himself even a second to entirely process his surroundings, his eyes instinctively shot upwards to see barbed wire wrapped around his wrists above his head, his hands tied against a metal pole of something large that he struggled to decipher.

As pins and needles brutally began to prickle at his numb arms, memories of what had happened the night before plagued his mind.

That bastard, Cap.

Joel tugged at his hands frantically to try to break free from the metal pole that he was forcefully up against, but it didn't seem to be working at all.

"Oh, my God..." He began to panic, wondering where the hell Liz was, "E–Elizabeth?"

"Shh, I'm right here," Liz hushed from next to him, causing Joel to flinch in shock slightly. "Hey, you're finally awake!"

"Oh, thank God you're okay." He huffed in relief, eyes scanning over the girl next to him, only to see that she, too, was tied against a metal pole. "Fuck... Are you okay? Are you in pain? Oh, my God, I'm gonna kill that asshole—"

"G'morning!" an overly jolly voice with an Australian accent interrupted.

Both of their heads whipped around to see Cap sitting right in front of them, a devilish grin lingering on his lips.

"You! You... you bitch!" Liz yelled, impulsively moving forward, only to be held back by the wire wrapped ruthlessly around her wrists. "I'll fucking kill you!"

"Woah, woah, woah, enough of the empty threats," Cap teased, chuckling. "You won't do anything to me. I know you won't."

"Oh, yeah? You wanna test that theory?" Liz hissed, spitting venom through her words. "Why don't you come a little closer, huh?"

Cap snorted. "Might wanna watch your tone with me, Lizzie. You're the one tied up, remember that."

"That's why you're not coming any nearer? You're scared, aren't you?" Liz challenged, her face contorting into a sardonic grin. Mocking his tone, she added, "You're the one who keeps going on about how impressed you are that I was on the surface for so long. I could kill you if I wanted to, remember that."

"Elizabeth, stop it," Joel warned quietly, taking notice of Dana fiddling with her arm cannon, seemingly getting it ready to shoot.

"Thank you, Joel." Cap sent him an exaggerated, false smile. "Joel, I'm sorry about the fist to your face. But I'm not so sorry to your bitch of a girlfriend."

Joel's demeanour immediately changed when he scoffed, wincing angrily at the blonde man. "You are unbelievable. The only bitch here is you," he snarked, glaring up at him with murder in his eyes.

Cap let out an airy, nonchalant laugh, not bothering to argue back. "I couldn't have you talking shit about us on the radio. Didn't wanna mess this up," he explained. He turned to Dana, who now had her arm cannon prepared, already taking her stance and pointing it towards the radio tower. "Dana, take care of it."

"No, no, Dana. Don't!" Aimee called from where she was also tied up. "Not the radio tower!"

The blonde woman showed no mercy, and simply shot a hefty bullet in its direction. Smoke was released into the air as the entire thing blew up, and panicked screams from all the colony members were being heard from left and right.

"So, you probably figured out that we're not on a pleasure cruise," Cap spoke, backing up slowly to speak to everyone, with a cup of what seemed to be a hot drink in his hand. "My crew and I wanna thank you for your generous donations. Food, water, supplies, medicine. We greatly appreciate it. It will see us through to the next helpless colony down the coast."

There was a shared silence for a few moments, before one of the elderly men spoke up, "H–He's a food steal-er!"

"You're right," Cap acknowledged, pointing at the man with an acerbic wink. "But it's not that simple. See, the world is basically devoid of fossil fuels—"

"Oh, here we go." Liz let out an exaggerated sigh with an eye roll, purposely trying to wind up Cap. "Incoming: bullshit explanation."

Cap shot her an icy glare, but chose to ignore her and continue nonetheless, "As I was saying, we're running out of fossil fuels. We don't have enough to run a yacht on, anyway. So, my crew and I had to improvise just to find a way to survive—"

"Would've done us all a favour if you didn't."

"You gonna keep interrupting me like that, Liz?" Cap snapped, agitation lacing his tone.

"Perhaps. I won't interrupt you if you stop talking, though. Logically." A cheeky smirk etched across Liz's face.

The blonde man scowled. "You know, if I killed you, you wouldn't even be able to interrupt me." He bucked his head in Dana's direction, whose finger tapped against the trigger on her weapon, as though to silently threaten Liz.

"Shut up," Aimee and Joel both spat in unison, and Liz's eyes darted between them both on either side of her. She didn't expect Aimee to back her up at all, but Liz was grateful for it, that was for sure.

But it only seemed to fuel Cap's entertainment. "You!" he pointed at Aimee accusingly, "I thought you were on my side? You're taking her's now?"

Aimee only felt her temper hit a thin line, blood running cold as she sent him a piercing glare. "Go to hell," she muttered between gritted teeth.

Cap's brows raised in amusement, lifting his arms in his defence. "Hey, it's not my fault you were stupid enough to believe everything I said."

Aimee groaned, her shoulders sagging defeatedly. She knew he was right; she was so caught up in trying to ensure that all the vulnerable people under her care were safe that she allowed herself to be manipulated by an asshole.

The silence was what Cap took as his cue to continue. "Ten tonnes of pure power is chained to the front of that yacht," he told them all, whirling on his heel to face the boat. He stared at it, smiling admiringly as he spoke, "She's sleeping now, but she will be hungry soon."

There was a widespread murmur across the beach, everyone confused as to what Cap meant by that.

"What the hell does that mean?" Liz mumbled, bewilderment across her face as she turned to Joel, only to be met by the exact same expression.

As if to answer Liz's question, Cap pressed a button that was on some machine that was slung across his body, causing chains to tug at the yacht, bringing it closer to the beach.

"What can I say?" Cap said teasingly, turning around to face everyone once more for dramatic effect. "Shit gets crazy in the Apocalypse."

"Oh, my God," Joel murmured, him and Liz both cringing at Cap's consistent egotism.

The blonde man took a final sip of his brew, before chucking the empty cup at Liz's feet. Her vision darted between the cup and Cap's face, and she fiercely kicked it back to him, before he walked away with a careless chuckle.

"E–Elizabeth?" Joel whispered, and Liz looked at him with a forehead wrinkling in concern. "Not— not that I'm scared or anything... but I just want you to know that I won't let anything happen to you."

Liz's face softened on him as she cracked a small smile, shuffling as close as she could. "You're so cute. I won't let anything happen to you either." She softly tapped her leg against his, in a way to show comfort whilst she couldn't use her hands since she was tied up. "And not just because Ray said so."

A light chuckle was shared between them as the memory resurfaced: Ray ordering Liz to accompany Joel before they'd left. It felt so long ago, when realistically, it was only just over a week ago. Time didn't seem to even be real in the Apocalypse.

Suddenly, a colossal crab-claw hauled itself over the huge wall, aiding the green beast that it belonged to make its way over the rocks. Screams of dread were heard from numerous colony members, instantly jumping to their feet and helping others up, trying their best to flee the area as fast as they possibly could.

"Hell-crab..." Liz mumbled to herself when everything clicked in her head; the figure in front of her connecting with a forgotten memory of some encounter she'd had with a similar creature years ago.

As the crab inched nearer, everyone else was running to hide whilst Dana and Rocko gathered baskets of food that they were planning to steal.

"Oh, my God, we're gonna die," Joel whimpered, eyes narrowing at the crab in fear.

"Not gonna die," Liz reassured him, tugging at the wire around her wrists with all of her strength, until eventually she somehow managed to break free. Joel's face lit up in disbelief, surprised that she was actually able to escape, and he allowed Liz to unwrap the wire around his own wrists as well.

She then moved on to Aimee next to her, fiddling desperately with the contents tied around her arms. The crab suddenly released a vociferous roar, causing Liz to flinch and grow slightly panicked, but she finally managed to free Aimee from the metal pole, too.

"Thanks," Aimee breathed, and Liz sent her a small smile in return.

"Alright, I'm gonna go stop those assholes," Liz told Joel. "Joel, you're okay to get the crab, right?"

"What?" Joel's voice hit an alarmed octave.

Liz sighed exasperatedly. "Just— just remember everything we taught you," she explained, speaking incredibly quickly as the madness all around was slowly but surely getting to her. "Me, Clyde and Minnow, remember? How to take your stance. How to shoot — needle through water? You remember all of that, right?"

"I–I think so—"

"Great!" The brunette searched frantically for some kind of weapon, and her eyes landed on a somewhat spear-looking thing that was laying on top of a machine. She pointed at it, glancing back at Joel, "Use that, okay? I believe in you!"

Liz placed a quick kiss onto Joel's forehead, and with that, she spun on her heel and ran towards Rocko, Aimee following close behind her.

The two girls charged at Rocko, dodging the multiple bullets that he tried to shoot at the pair of them as they approached him. Liz landed a firm punch to his jaw, but it only further fueled his anger, causing him to shoot another bullet in her direction. Aimee, however, stood in front of Liz with a metallic shield in her grasp, ensuring that none of the bullets hit either of them.

Suddenly, Rocko forcefully shoved his entire body into Aimee's, causing her to stumble backwards and onto the ground. Liz practically growled, snatching the gun from his grip and using it to whack him across the face, but it didn't take long before Rocko grabbed Liz's petite frame and body-slammed her into the sand.

"Elizabeth!" Joel cried as he watched Liz groan, coughing out the sand that had unwelcomingly invaded her throat. He began to run to her, but Liz was quick to raise her hand from where she lay on the ground, signalling for him to stop.

"Fuck, I'm fine, just go!" She pointed at the hell-crab that was creeping towards them and gradually getting closer. "Get the crab!"

A very panicked Joel was conflicted between checking up on Liz and actually going to attack the monster, but he quickly decided that it'd be better to just do as told. Grabbing for the spear, he spurted towards the crab.

As he approached the creature, Joel's weapon finally dug into its stomach, causing the crab on the end of it to travel through the air before flipping over entirely and landing on the ground. Its legs wiggled in the air as it laid on its back, clearly trying to get back up.

"Holy shit..." Joel murmured to himself in disbelief, surprised that he was actually able to floor the monster in the way that he did. He then waved the spear up high, mentally preparing himself to kill the creature once and for all.

But just as he raised the weapon, Cap pressed on a button on his machine, causing one of the crab's legs to swing and hurl Joel away, and he immediately fell unconscious.

"Shit!" Liz cursed, scrambling back onto her feet and racing towards Joel, and she managed to arrive by his side in a matter of seconds. She knelt beside him, shaking his body violently. "Joel? Joel, wake up!"

When Joel's eyes didn't open, she glanced over her shoulder at Aimee, taking notice that the raven-haired girl had already awoken and that she was now fighting Dana. Everything was happening way too fast, Liz could barely even process it. Her eyes averted back to in front of her, shaking Joel once more when she realised that the crab was back on its feet again.

The creature was causing major destruction; cutting buildings in half with its tremendous claws, and everyone was going ballistic just trying to ensure that they didn't get eaten alive by the thing.

"Joel!" Liz tried again, but now with a firm grip on his arm, dragging him across the sand and away from the monster. "Wake the hell up!"

As Joel began to feel sand entering his pants uncomfortably, he finally awoke with a loud gasp. "E–Elizabeth?" he stammered out. "What's happening?"

"Up!" she ordered, bucking her head in the direction of the crab.

Joel followed her line of sight to see that the monster was incredibly close to them. He was up on his feet in an instant, shaking himself clean of any sand before the pair of them grabbed each other's bodies for some sense of comfort.

Out of nowhere, a familiar barking sound was heard by them both. Their head whipped around in unison to the noise, to see a brown dog running towards them eagerly.

Liz squinted. "Is that... is that Boy?"

"Holy shit... it is! Boy!" Joel exclaimed eagerly, a relieved grin etching across his face as the dog rushed over to both of them for a brief reunion. However, the smart dog was quick to figure out what was going on, and he instinctively took their side and started growling at the monster.

From afar, Liz heard Cap order, "Dana, shoot the dog."

"No!" Liz bellowed as she ran towards them.

But Aimee beat her to it when she ripped off a plank of wood from where she was sat, and whipped it in Dana's direction. Dana's aim at the dog faltered and she accidentally hit the crab instead of Boy, everyone beginning to scream as the creature had seemed to have blown up.

Aimee threw Dana's gun out of her grasp as Liz approached them, and Liz just about managed to catch it in time. Her finger was on the trigger as she pointed it at Dana with raised eyebrows, silently threatening her, daring her to make another move.

And, stupidly enough, Dana did exactly that.

She charged at Liz and Aimee, attempting to take them both down in one go. It failed miserably, though, when the pair of them hurled their weapons across Dana's face and sent her stumbling off the edge of the small cliff.

Liz and Aimee were left panting heavily, looking at each other with relief evident upon both of their faces.

"A–Are you... okay?" Liz asked Aimee between irregular breaths.

"I'm great," Aimee laughed. "Good job—"

"Look out!"

Joel's warning was barely heard by the two females when Cap had crept up behind them and landed aggressive fists to both of their heads, causing them to go staggering off of the cliff, just like Dana had done.

"Liz!" Joel shrieked, eyes wide in total worry as he watched from afar.

"Rocko?" Cap called, wiping the side of his mouth with his thumb. "Time to move, let's go—"

He was interrupted when the sound of wires inside the crab began buzzing again, and the crab was back on its feet, charging towards Cap.

"Oh, no, you don't," Cap mumbled, pressing yet another button on his device to purposely electrocute the monster, the creature flashing as it shook ferociously.

"Boy? Boy!" Joel hissed, and the trusty dog was by his side instantly. The man pointed over the cliff, "You see over there? Elizabeth and Aimee are there, okay? I need you to get them both. Go and get them." Boy seemed to have understood right away and began running towards the cliff, but not before Joel added, "I'm sorry I yelled at you!"

Cap managed to help Dana up and she was seemingly feeling better straight away, not a single bruise on her body. She, Cap and Rocko began to get their little motorboat prepared and they were already back on the sea, en route to the yacht to make their grand escape, all while Joel was left to fight the hell-crab alone.

And that was what he did: he fought the creature as best as he could. Sure, it wasn't much help that it was at least twenty times larger than he was, and that he had a very limited experience with monsters in the Apocalypse, but he did try his best. Though, it didn't take long before the crab yanked the spear out of Joel's hand, leaving him weapon-less, and ultimately, defenceless too.

After the hell-crab growled aggressively in Joel's face, it clawed onto his calf and began to drag him through the sand. Joel's throat grew tight when he tried to scream, dread curling in the pit of his stomach as he was forced closer to the creature, but much to his surprise, Liz and Aimee came running back to him as quickly as they possibly could. It seemed like sending Boy over to them worked.

"Joel!" Liz yelled, Dana's arm-cannon in her hand.

"Elizabeth!" he called back. "Give me the gun, I know how to kill it!"

Liz did as told, throwing the weapon to Joel and he was able to catch it immediately, just before the monster lifted him off the ground.

Joel was hauled upwards and was now dangling upside-down in the air, facing the monster head-on as he pointed the gun directly into its mouth.

However, he paused. No movement from Joel nor the monster for a couple of seconds.

"What are you doing?!" Aimee cried. "Shoot it!"

Liz's hand flew up to Aimee's chest to hush her, looking at Joel with narrow eyes in thought. "Give him a second. I think I know what he's doing."

Joel looked between the monster's eyes and the chain that it was attached to, remembering something that Clyde told him.

You can always tell in the eyes.

Instead of aiming the arm cannon in the monster's direction, he aimed towards the chain that was being used to connect the hell-crab to Cap.

But he didn't shoot. Joel was terrified; there was only one bullet left and he couldn't afford to miss.

"Shoot the damn thing!" an elderly man's voice came from afar, and all the other colony members expressed their agreement through shouting at Joel, too.

"Joel, just ignore them, okay?" Liz spoke to Joel calmly from below. "Remember, needle through water. I believe in you."

That was all the affirmation Joel needed.

At that exact moment, Joel shot at the chain, and thankfully, his aim did not fail. He successfully hit it, and the panic on Cap's face as he desperately pressed on the button made it clear that he'd lost control over the monster.

"You're free," Joel murmured to the hell-crab, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

The monster released Joel abruptly, causing him to land into the sand with a loud thud. Liz collapsed onto her knees and shielded his body protectively as the creature stared at them for a few moments, almost like it was about to attack them. But much to their relief, it turned around and headed straight for the ocean instead.

As soon as the coast was clear, Liz's arms wrapped around Joel in one of the tightest hugs that he'd ever received. She sighed into his neck, and Joel's body deflated in her touch, his eyes shutting contently as he hugged her back, even tighter.

"I'm so proud of you," she said in a whisper — something that no one else heard, exclusive for his ears only. "You're so brave."

"Learnt from the best." Joel pulled back, cupping Liz's face in his hands and slowly bringing her forward to press a sweet kiss on her temple.

Liz's face tinted red a little as they both stood upright, and she placed a chaste kiss against his jaw to return the favour.

Everyone around them started emerging from the places that they'd been hiding in prior, hesitantly walking up to the sea's edge to catch what was going on.

And, honestly, they were all happy with what they saw.

The crab was clawing onto Cap's yacht, forcing the whole ship downwards and causing it to gradually sink. First, it ate Dana's body whole, then Rocko's, then Cap's, all one after the other — the three of them screaming emphatically, causing everyone to wince and look away in disgust.

People began to depart, slowly making their way back into their own huts across the beach.

Liz sighed. "He deserved that," she grumbled under her breath, Joel humming in agreement from beside her.

Aimee chuckled dryly. "Yeah, he totally did. And, you know, you two make a pretty good team." Her index finger pointed between Joel and Liz, eyebrows raised teasingly.

Both of their faces heated up slightly, sending each other the subtlest of glances. "You think so?" Joel asked Aimee airily.

"Definitely." Aimee grabbed onto either one of their shoulders, shaking them both gently with a grin across her face, before making her way back inside with everybody else.

The pair were left there alone for a few moments, a comfortable quiet lingering between them.

Until Joel finally decided to break the silence.

"I agree with her, by the way," Joel said quietly, taking multiple steps closer to Liz until his body was only a couple of centimetres away from hers. "I think we make a good team."

Liz's arms slithered around his neck, fingers interlocking at the back. She tip-toed as Joel's head bucked down and his lips sealed around hers comfortably. It was an unexpected kiss, causing Liz to inhale deeply through her nose in a slight gasp.

When she pulled away, she whispered into his ear, "I think so, too."

Chapter Text

Liz and Joel were inseparable. Literally.

Their lips were colliding desperately, erratic breaths tickling each other's faces every time they'd pull away — but it only made their craving for one another deepen. Liz's mouth found Joel's neck and placed a few aggressive kisses on it, before her lips sealed around a certain spot and she began to suck gently.

"You're sure— shit," Joel cut himself off when Liz's tongue lapped frantically at his neck, his words practically dissolving into his mouth, "You're sure that Boy is asleep?"

"Positive," Liz replied breathlessly when she pulled away, and Joel nodded in acknowledgement, immediately connecting his lips with Liz's once again.

Even though there hadn't been many yet, it was their most heated make-out session to date. The both of them barged into the little motel that they'd stopped by at on the way to Aimee's colony, bodies slamming into the walls and knocking over multiple objects in doing so. Sounds of metal clinking against the floor, alongside glass shattering into pieces pierced the air sharply, but it didn't seem like either of them cared for the potential damage that they'd caused.

A loud grunt was released from Joel as Liz pinned him against the wall, his back hitting it rather harshly, "Fuck..."

Liz pecked at his lips quickly, before her fingers slid down her own body and fiddled with the hem of her shirt, pulling it upwards and over her head.

Eyes widened twice their size, Joel scanned her body up and down in awe, face softening a little. "E–Elizabeth?"

"Hm?" Liz hummed as she tugged at the bottom of Joel's shirt, and Joel complied contently, allowing her to take off his top and throw it onto the ground, just on top of hers.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?"

Liz paused what she was doing, blush covering her cheeks when she looked up at Joel to see how admiringly he was looking right back at her. It was flattering, really — it felt like forever since someone had looked at her like that.

She decided to play along, scratching her chin to fake thought for a moment. "No, you haven't, actually."

Joel rolled his eyes with a subtle grin, his fingers tracing around Liz's bra straps. The brunette could almost hear her heartbeat ringing in her ears at the intimate touch, and all she could do was hold back any noise that threatened to escape her slightly swollen lips.

"Well, I think you're really beautiful," he admitted quietly, "I always have, ever since we were teenagers and you joined our colony."

Biting her bottom lip to hold back a smile, Liz ruffled his hair. "Thank you."

"And, you know, I've actually always wanted to kiss you."

Liz's eyes narrowed on him sceptically. "Really?"

"Really," Joel confirmed.

"Huh." She quirked up a brow at his statement, her blue eyes boring into his hazel ones. "What about Aimee? You had her."

"That doesn't mean that I never thought about what it'd be like to kiss you."

Liz's hand shot up to her chest as she gasped, feigning shock. "You were gonna cheat?" she teased.

"N–No, of course not! I never actually did it, did I?" Joel stammered out, clearly taking it far more seriously than Liz was. "C'mon, everyone else in our colony is, like, years older than us. And we were the two only single people there. You're telling me you never thought about it either?"

Liz's eyebrows raised. "Single?" she scoffed, tone accusing as she challenged him. Honestly, she was indirectly reminding him about all the times he had constantly pestered everyone when talking about Aimee.

An exasperated sigh fell from Joel's lips. "You know what I mean!"

"You made it clear that you were not single," Liz rightfully pointed out, shrugging. "Otherwise, I would've kissed you a long time ago."

Joel could've sworn he felt his heart skip a beat. With a jaw that hung agape, he stared at her blankly. "Y–You would've?"

"Yeah. You're cute," Liz chuckled, nudging him in the shoulder. "My only problem was that you held a stupid grudge against me over freaking potatoes!"

Joel's head pulled downwards in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, El—"

"Uh-uh-uh." Liz held a finger up to Joel's face as she eyed him playfully. "You've already apologised. If you say sorry one more time, I might just kill you."

"Comforting!" Joel retorted in false enthusiasm.

"I've already forgiven you," Liz assured him, ignoring his sarcastic remark. "And you like me now, so I can do this as much as I want..."

Her near-bare body pressed against Joel's as she leaned forward, going in for another kiss. Soft and sweet — just an act to show that she truly did forgive him, and that she was sorry for all those years, too.

They had barely even pulled away when Joel whispered, "If six years hating each other means that I get this now, then I think it was worth it."

"Definitely," Liz replied, her lips brushing over Joel's as she spoke softly.

She inched forward again until Joel was pinned against the wall once more. He could feel her breasts pushing against his chest, causing him to let out a soft groan, the deep sound sending vibrations through her perspiring body. Kisses were placed along his jaw, going down his neck and his chest, until Liz eventually had to get down on her knees to undo his pants when she got to his happy trail.

Joel swallowed thickly, "Have you, uh— have you done this before?"

A hum came from Liz as she nodded, looking up at him from where she was kneeling on the floor, fingers fumbling with the zipper on Joel's trousers. "Once or twice. You?"

"Once or twice," he echoed breathily. "Elizabeth... I wa— fuck," Joel interrupted himself with a hiss when Liz's hand accidentally grazed over his print.

She shot him another look, brows dipping in concern. "You okay? What were you gonna say?"

He hesitated for a second. "I–I wanna do this. With you."

Liz released an amused scoff, grinning sardonically. "I do, too, but you're gonna need to be quiet. Moan any louder and you'll attract a monster."

Red hues painted Joel's cheeks, the man almost crumbling in embarrassment. "I can't help it," he mumbled.

Liz's cocky smirk only grew, giggling lightly as she stood upright once more. "Of course you can't," she teased, her lips enveloping Joel's once more for a kiss.

Joel's arms snaked around Liz's petite frame, trying to pull her even closer to him. Although their bodies were practically glued together, it didn't feel close enough.

When Liz pulled back, Joel's lips puckered with a frown. "No, no, no," Joel begged childishly, "More kisses, please."

"I was thinking of something better..." Liz's voice trailed off as her eyes were now fixated on the ground, seemingly a little embarrassed. It was uncharacteristic for her, and Joel took notice of it instantly.

"What is it?"

Liz's head bucked downwards, in the direction of Joel's pants. The dots connected in his head and he let out a faint 'oh' sound when he realised what she meant, eyebrows pulling together in what seemed to be contemplation.

"Is that... is that okay with you?"

"Y–Yeah!" Joel's voice cracked. He cringed at himself, shaking his head in embarrassment. Before Liz could even make a comment on it, he cleared his throat awkwardly, "I mean, yeah. But, uh, can I try something first? For you? There's something I've always wanted to do..."

The glint in his eyes didn't go unnoticed by Liz. She exhaled deeply, holding back a grin as she nodded. "I'm all yours."

__________

"For the love of God, Joel," Liz hissed as she fiddled with their bunker door, trying to get it open. "Can you hold the flashlight properly?"

"I'm trying!" Joel snapped back, the object still shaking uncontrollably in his hand.

Liz had given him the simple task of holding the flashlight still, but he was clearly struggling. His legs were bouncing with uncertainty, consequently causing his entire body to shake. It made it incredibly difficult for Liz to even see where everything was as she tried to undo the latch.

"Maybe try a little harder?"

Joel released what seemed to be an anxious huff, "I'm nervous! We haven't seen anyone in forever."

"It's only been two weeks," Liz pointed out, shrugging.

"Two weeks is longer than we've ever been separated from our colony," Joel sassed back, brows raising cockily as he waited for Liz to conjure up another witty comeback.

An amused smile cracked on her face, finally giving in. "Touché."

Before Joel could say anything else, Liz abruptly swung open the bunker's door, much to her own surprise. She didn't think she'd be able to do it so quickly since they could usually only open it from the inside.

She stared into the bunker with wide eyes, breath coming to a hitch in her throat. The floor was in sight. She ceased movement for a beat, heart thumping in her chest as she swallowed heavily, an overwhelming, tense feeling rushing through her veins. This was it.

"Now who's nervous?" Joel mocked, quirking a brow at her.

Liz snapped out of her thoughts, rolling her eyes. "Just shut up and pass me the flashlight."

Joel did as told, and Liz led the way as they both lowered themselves into the bunker's entrance, slamming the door shut behind them.

As they reached the bunker's floor, Liz held up the light as she waltzed slowly through the empty corridors, Joel following closely behind. It was silent — Liz was certain that she'd probably be able to hear something as light as a feather drop. It was extremely unsettling, to say the least; the bunker was almost never this still, even when it got to nighttime.

"It's so... quiet," Joel whispered, slightly worried.

"Deafeningly quiet."

She knew what both of them were thinking. After Ray mentioned that there had been multiple breaches in the bunker, Liz and Joel were scared out of their minds, wondering whether their colony members were okay. The place that they'd called 'home' for seven years was no longer safe, and there was no sicklier feeling than the one they felt right now as they roamed the bunker, searching for their family.

A shaky breath slipped through Joel's lips. "T–Tim?" he called out. "Ray? Kayla?"

On instinct, Liz's hand found itself slipping into Joel's. He flinched a little at the abrupt gesture; his first thought was that a monster had just touched him. Eyes flickering between where their hands connected and Liz's face, he gave her a gentle squeeze, until someone suddenly spoke—

"Joel? Is that you?"

The duo's heads whipped around simultaneously to see Ray peeking through the door.

"Ray!" Joel spurted towards the looming figure and pushed the door fully open.

His arms wrapped around him tightly in an affectionate embrace. Ray laughed as he stumbled back a little, wrapping one arm around Joel as the other one reached out, indicating for Liz to join them. A grin etched across her face as she did so, both Ray's and Joel's arms cloaking her contently.

The group hug gave her an almost nostalgic, homely feeling, like this was where she was meant to be. Not necessarily back in the physical bunker, but back with her family — the ones who looked after her and cared for her for a large chunk of her lifetime.

When Ray finally pulled away, the relief upon his face made it clear that he'd been worried sick about the pair.

He grabbed onto either one of their shoulders with a firm, protective grip. "I'm so glad you're both here," he breathed, a smile never leaving his face. "We were all so worried about you."

"I promised nothing would happen to Joel, remember?" Liz laughed, nudging him.

"You're right, you did. And it looks like you did a pretty decent job of it." Ray raised his brows as his eyes scanned Joel up and down jokingly, ensuring that he was indeed in one whole piece. "And I'm glad you're okay, too."

"You can thank Joel for that," Liz beamed. "He actually saved my life a lot."

Joel rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, a bashful smile creeping onto his face. "It was nothing, really. Elizabeth taught me everything, anyway — and those two really cool survivors we met."

Ray's eyes narrowed in suspicion, glaring at the pair sceptically. "Seems like you two actually got along quite well. Are you friends now?"

Fire practically burned in their cheeks, both of them avoiding any eye contact as the dreaded question had been asked.

"Something like that..." Liz trailed off, playing with her fingernails absentmindedly.

Ray grinned, soon catching onto the supposed romance that had blossomed between them. "We all knew it'd happen soon," he claimed pridefully.

Joel's face fell. "W–What'd happen soon?"

"You two." Ray's index finger pointed alternatingly between them. "It was only a matter of time. Clearly, all you needed was a little push. We were all waiting for this day, to be honest."

Liz's cheeks painted over with an even deeper red, whilst Joel's head fell into his palms in embarrassment. "Dear God..." he mumbled.

"Oh, shut up, Ray," was what Liz said in a lame attempt at playing it off, landing a gentle punch to the older man's arm.

Ray stifled a laugh as he rubbed at where she hit, feigning hurt. "Ouch!"

"Speaking of which, where is everyone else?" the brunette changed the subject.

"Asleep. I'm on watch tonight."

Liz frowned. "Watch?"

"Yeah. Since the breachings, we've had to make sure that at least one of us is awake at all times."

Her frown deepened. "Oh, Ray, I'm so sorry we weren't here..."

"It's fine, Liz. Honestly. You're here now, and that's all that matters." Ray sent them both a comforting smile. "Now, how about we get you both some food, yeah? You must be starving."

Chapter Text

"My name is Joel Dawson."

"And I'm Elizabeth Parker."

"I'm twenty-four years old and I survived seven days on the surface. Twice, actually."

"And me — don't forget me!"

"I'm alive because of the generosity of my girlfriend, a few strangers, and the kindness of a great dog—"

"Boy! His name is Boy."

"My colony and I are headed to the mountains. There's supposed to be less monsters there. And don't get me wrong, the surface is a dangerous place. But I don't... I don't think hiding underground is the answer anymore."

"Me neither."

"Oh, my God, Elizabeth. Stop! You've had your turn!"

"You're right. Sorry... Continue."

"...There is a great, big, beautiful, inspiring world out there. And I know you might think it's impossible, but it's not. If I can survive out here, anybody can. A good friend once told me: good instincts are earned by making mistakes. If you're lucky enough to survive a few mistakes, you're gonna do alright out here."

"Shoutout to Clyde and Minnow. Miss you guys."

"Elizabeth!"

"Right, right. Your speech. Go ahead."

"In this recording, you'll find everything I was taught about our new world. Most of this, I had to learn the hard way. Hopefully, it'll make your way a little easier. So, crank open that hatch. Breathe some fresh air. Go. Live your life. It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it. We travelled eighty-five miles to find out that what I had been missing below ground for seven years was right above my head this whole time. And it's incredible."

Silence.

"...Uh, can I talk now?"

"And you might even end up creating relationships that you never saw coming. With some of the most amazing people that you've ever met. I know I did, for sure."

Silence again, but this time, Liz's face flushing pink at the statement.

"Yes, Elizabeth, you may talk now."

__________

THREE YEARS LATER

"Where's Liz?" Minnow questioned, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Shower," Joel murmured under his breath, eyes glued to the object in his grasp. Evidently, Minnow barely even held a fraction of his attention. In his hand was Liz's crossbow, and he was scrubbing the metallic blade so harshly that his fingertips had grown red.

"Do you know how long she'll be?"

"Nope."

Minnow rolled her eyes at his bluntness. "What are you even doing?"

"Hey, look!" A proud grin was across Joel's face as he held up the arrow nice and high for Minnow to see. "It's so clean, I can see myself in it!"

The girl took a few steps forward, eyes narrowing at the weapon in Joel's hand. She took it from him to inspect it — and she had to admit that he was right. The reflection in the metal was so clear, it was almost as if the blade was brand-new.

"Oh, you're right... That's so cool!" Minnow raised the blade up to her face, pouting slightly and giggling at her reflection. "Does this have anything to do with the fact that your anniversary is near?"

Joel snatched the arrow back from her. "It's today, actually. And no, it does not."

"Mhm, sure. So, you're doing all of this—" she gestured towards the entire bedroom, where everything was completely tidy, all of Liz's things had been polished, and Joel had essentially completed a whole month's worth of chores all at once, "—not because it's your anniversary?"

Joel's eyes trailed around the room, lips pursing into a thin line when he realised that Minnow was right. "It's not like I don't do this all the time," was his poor excuse, "I actually always clean."

"Not to this extent. Everything is spotless. You do this every year, Joel."

"—Do what?" Liz's voice came abruptly.

Both Joel's and Minnow's heads whipped around in unison to see Liz standing there, a towel wrapped around her small frame, and damp hair cascading down her shoulders.

Joel's eyes widened in shock, clearing his throat awkwardly. "N–Nothing," he stammered.

Liz took a few long strides towards them. "Is that my crossbow?" she asked, pointing at it.

"Uh, yeah—"

She took her blade from Joel's hand, studying it closely. "Hm," she hummed, a grin pulling at her lips as her brows raised in amusement. "It's clean."

Joel nodded, scratching the back of his neck stiffly. "Um, yeah, I cleaned it for you..."

Minnow's face scrunched up in disgust. "Alright, gross, I've heard enough," she cut in bluntly. "Clyde and Tim just wanted me to remind you that Joel's on survival class duty tonight."

Joel's eyes narrowed on the girl sceptically. "So why were you looking for Elizabeth?"

"Clyde and Tim also wanted me to tell Liz that she should be there to supervise, or 'at least give Joel some extra pointers' before the class," Minnow explained.

Joel frowned. "But she taught last week. She deserves a break."

"A kid shot Ray with a practice bullet the other day... after a class that you taught," Minnow sassed, raising her brows at Joel accusingly. "Let's just say, Ray does not trust you alone when it comes to kids with weapons, Joel."

Liz snorted, sending Joel a quick glance in disbelief before she turned back to Minnow, "Got it, cupcake. Let Ray know I'll be helping Joel out."

Minnow nodded eagerly, fingers curling around the door handle to quickly pull it open. "Alright, I'll see you later, strawberry! Bye, Joel!"

Liz and Joel both bid brief farewells to the younger girl, and she slammed the door shut behind her.

"You know, I've always loved that nickname. Strawberries are my favourite," Joel commented out of the blue, fiddling with his fingers absentmindedly.

"I know. Mine too." Liz cracked a small smile, shrugging the towel off her body as she grabbed for one of Joel's shirts — which was awfully big on her. She threw it on, along with a pair of shorts that she found at the bottom of her drawers that had been abandoned for God knows how long.

When she was done, she slumped onto the bed beside Joel, letting out a loud and exaggerated sigh.

"Tired?" Joel asked quietly as he leaned on his side, propping himself upon his fist to keep his head up.

"A little." Liz's head rolled to the side to meet his gaze. "D'you want me to help you go through the steps for tonight? Or should I just come with you to joint-teach the class later?"

"Either one works with me," Joel whispered with a comforting smile. But his eyes soon narrowed in thought momentarily, before he added, "Actually, no. You're tired. Maybe take a nap now and we can just go together later?"

Liz scoffed. "You don't think I can run without a couple of hours of sleep?"

"No, I know you definitely can. You do it all the time," Joel assured her, reaching out for Liz's hand and gently tracing circles on the back of it. "But you need to start sleeping more."

"I don't need sleep, Joel," Liz spoke matter-of-factly, even though she was fully aware that her statement was logically incorrect. Her legs heaved off the bed and she shot her hand forward, waiting for Joel to take it. "But you need practice before tonight, or Ray's gonna be mad. C'mon, get up."

Joel's eyes hesitantly flickered between where Liz's hand hovered in front of him, and her face. Urging for him to take it, she wiggled her fingers, causing Joel to release an exasperated huff as he finally gave in and took her hand.

"Fine, but aft— woah!" his sentence was cut short when Liz hauled him up and off the bed, practically sending him flying. He groaned when he hit the wall, rubbing at the back of his head — it didn't hurt; it just shocked him a bit.

"Alright, focus," she demanded.

"I was just trying to say tha—"

One swift movement from Liz, and Joel was put in a headlock. His head was squashed against her side, eyes bulging out of their sockets at the hasty action.

"Never let your guard down, remember? Concentrate." Liz immediately let go of him, shaking her hands and craning her neck to the side.

"I'm trying!"

—But Joel failed. Again.

Liz flipped his body around and pinned him to the wall with his cheek shoved up against it, grabbing both of his hands at his lower back, as if her fingers were handcuffs. Joel was clearly struggling.

"Joel!" Liz tried to hold back a laugh at how easily she was beating him. "If I were a monster, you'd be dead by now!"

"But you're not a monster," Joel's voice cracked when he protested, his words being muffled by the wall in his face. Head turning to the side to create a wider gap so he could talk properly, he added, "And monsters don't fight!"

"This is just a warm-up. You need to be a step ahead of me at all times."

"I can't do that. I'm not like you, Elizabeth."

"Yes, you can. You can be better than me." She grunted, releasing his hands suddenly as she let out a deep breath. "Okay, you ready—?"

Joel suddenly grabbed at Liz's hips and shoved her body onto the floor. A minimal screech came from her as he speedily tackled her, straddling her waist with his hand wrapped around her neck, imitating choking her without actually hurting her at all.

"I—" Liz swallowed thickly, her eyes widening twice their size as she was utterly taken aback by the action, "I'm... impressed..."

A cheeky grin was across Joel's face as he looked down at her fondly. "Yeah?"

"Y–Yep. Now, if you could get off me, that'd be great."

Joel's grin widened. "Why? You don't like it?"

Liz's hand crept up to where Joel's grip was around her neck, her fingers rubbing in between his. He immediately caught on, his fingers separating to allow Liz to slip hers inside the gaps. "You know I like it," she breathed out quietly. "I like it very much. Too much. It's distracting."

Joel gulped, the lump in his throat visibly bobbing as he swallowed. "You look pretty when you're under me like this," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh, yeah?" Liz quirked a brow at him cockily. "I thought you preferred it when you're under me?"

The man released his hold on Liz's neck abruptly, causing her to sulk. "Don't talk like that when we're meant to be practising defence," Joel ordered, half-jokingly.

"Why? Because it's distracting?" Liz teased, echoing her own words from before.

"So incredibly distracting." He whined his words out, elongating almost every syllable.

Liz shrugged. "You started it."

"How so?"

"You're the one on top of me."

Joel's eyes shot down in surprise to see himself sitting on her, almost as though he'd already forgotten everything that had happened in the past few moments. Not missing the sardonic glint in Liz's eyes, he groaned playfully whilst he slung his leg off of her, sitting cross-legged next to where his girlfriend was still laying down on the floor.

"D'you know what day it is today?" Liz asked suddenly.

Slightly startled by the question, Joel stammered, "Uh... S–Sunday...?"

The brunette frowned. "You don't remember?"

Joel rolled his eyes. "I was kidding. Of course, I remember. I thought you forgot."

"Me?" Liz gasped, a hand on her chest in feigned shock. "I'd never!"

A soft chuckle fell from Joel's lips, before his face suddenly lit up as he seemingly just remembered something. Speedily on his feet, he stumbled over to his side of their double bed excitedly, "I have a surprise for you. An anniversary gift, if you will."

Liz's brows dipped in confusion as he lifted up the mattress, searching through a number of papers that were stacked there. It was silent for a minute as Liz watched him, gaping like a fish. She honestly had no idea that there were so many things hidden under their bed.

"That's a... that's a good hiding spot..." her voice faded out, mentally trying to understand what the hell Joel was doing as he continued to fumble with all the sheets of paper.

"Found it!" Joel held one of them up in the air, Liz squinting as she tried to figure out what it was. Upon realising this, though, he immediately retracted the sheet, holding it up to his chest to hide it. "Wait, close your eyes."

Liz frowned, looking at him in question. "Joel, what is going on?"

"Just trust me, okay?"

She sighed, hands balling into unintentional fists as her eyes scrunched shut. The sound of footsteps coming towards her rang in her eardrums, as she inadvertently held her breath.

"Hold your hands out."

Again, she did as told. Her hands shot forward, and it didn't even take a second before she felt the paper being carefully placed into it.

The man released what seemed like a nervous, shaky breath, but before Liz had the chance to say anything about it, Joel spoke once again, "Okay, open your eyes."

Her eyelids fluttered open, and to say she was shocked at what she saw was probably the understatement of the century. In her hands lay a drawing of herself. It looked identical to her.

Liz's jaw hung open wide as her eyes flickered around it. The way that Joel captured every single little detail of her being was absolutely astonishing. She could see her wide smile with crinkles that bordered the outer corners of her eyes — lines that she hated so much, but Joel promised that they made her smile even prettier.

The baby hairs that always seemed to roam free upon Liz's head, even though Liz did everything in her power to attempt to force them down every morning. But Joel insisted that it made no difference and that they actually made her look better.

Even the tiny permanent scar that Liz developed on her left cheek when she was a baby. It was one that was barely visible unless you got super close — and Liz refused to let anyone stare at her closely for too long for that exact reason. Anyone except Joel. He said that it just proved that she was 'a sexy badass since birth'.

"Well... what do you think?" Joel asked nervously, pulling Liz out of her thoughts. The silence was killing him.

But, the silence lingered still. For a few seconds, at least.

Liz's finger traced over where he'd used at least a dozen shades of blue to achieve the correct eye colour, but she still said nothing. Joel's face fell, waiting for Liz to say something. He was desperate for a sentence. A string of words. Or even just one word. Anything.

But he instantly thought of the worst. "Oh, God, you think it's terrible, don't you? I mean, I tried... but I could've tried harder, I guess..." His voice trailed off, shoulders sagging defeatedly with a heavy sigh. "I–I know it could be better. I restarted so many times... a–and I kinda gave up after, like, the seventeenth time and just went with the flow—"

Joel's babble was cut short when Liz's lips collided with his, and he flinched at the sudden movement against him. However, he quickly eased into it, eyelids fluttering shut as he mirrored Liz's actions, their heads rolling in unison perfectly.

Joel thought that after three years of dating Liz, he'd grow used to how often she just kissed him to put an end to his rambling. But he never did, and it shocked him every single time, without fail. Liz thought it was adorable.

They pulled away after a short while, irregular breaths plaguing each other's faces.

"So, uh..." Joel said breathlessly, running his fingers through the hair on the back of his girlfriend's head, "You like it?"

Liz giggled, her eyes flickering up and down Joel's flushed face. "I love it, Joel. You know how much I love your drawings. I'm honoured that you chose my face for this masterpiece."

Hands moving to her lower back, Joel pulled her closer. "Oh, please. You are the masterpiece. It was an honour to draw such a flawless face."

Blush coated Liz's cheeks as she held back a bashful smile. "You really know how to flatter a lady."

Joel's forehead pressed against hers as his hands reached up to her face, thumbs smoothing over Liz's cheeks comfortingly. "It's easy when my lady is you," he whispered, his lips almost grazing over hers as he spoke.

Liz bit her bottom lip, her gaze dropping from Joel's eyes to his mouth. "I love you so much. So, so much."

"I love you so much more, Elizabeth." And with that, his lips captured Liz's once more.