The Last of Us Part II (A Complete Rewrite)

13. A Way In

"Ellie?"

Ellie awakened to the familiar shape of the figure hunched over her. Her eyelids felt heavy as she blinked. "Hey, what is it?"

"You told me to wake you up in a while, remember?" Dina said, sitting down on the edge of the couch.

Ellie stared at her with a blank face, before she realized where she was. "Oh, shit, yeah. Jesus, I don't think I've ever slept like this before. Felt like I was drugged." It was completely dark in the apartment, save for the faint orange light from the bedroom.

"Yeah, you did sleep well."

Ellie looked at her watch as she sat up.

"You've been out for a bit," Dina said. "We should get going."

"Wait, why didn't you wake me up sooner? I've been sleeping for hours now."

"It's alright. You really needed it, and you looked far too peaceful for me to disturb. I haven't seen you sleep this sound for a long time. You didn't even talk."

Ellie simply nodded. She still felt too fatigued to talk, forget arguing. She yawned. "What were you doing?" she finally asked.

"Just rearranging my bag. Had enough time so it seemed like a good idea. I've realized that we're running short on food."

"I know. I had that thought last night. How much do you have left?"

"A day's worth, at best," Dina replied. "Maybe two, if I stretch it. What about you?"

"Same. Just a couple left. I don't know what we're going to find in the city, but it's gotta be something."

"We'll figure it out. Here, I saw something that'll help us. Come to the window. See those lights over there?" Dina asked, pointing in the distance.

Ellie squinted. There were quite a few of them. "Holy shit, that must be the Fireflies. We finally found them."

"We can head in that direction and see what we find."

"Are you sure you don't want to rest for a bit?" Now that she was up and moving, she felt the energy surge back to her.

"I'm sure," Dina replied. "I cleaned out your rifle too. Might need it in there."

"Thanks. You didn't have to."

"Well, I had nothing else to do. It's not a big deal. Besides, you don't want it to malfunction."

"I don't," Ellie agreed. She gazed at the lights. "What do you think's gonna happen in there?"

"Honestly, no idea. So far, it's all been fucked up, and I can't even believe we're not dead. But after all of it... I think we got this."

"I think so, too. I just hope we're ready for whatever's in there."

*

The girls were lucky with the weather. It wasn't snowing, and the clouds had parted. The moon was just visible, casting a ghostly white light that was enough for them to see what lay ahead.

"I wonder what's left in these stores," Dina mused as they passed by several of them.

"Lots of stuff probably."

"Back with mom, I remember it used to be my favourite thing to find places like these and take things I liked. I had a large collection of earphones, although, only like a couple of them worked. Still, it was fun collecting them."

"You told me about this a while ago, but I've never seen them," Ellie said.

"That's cause I don't have them anymore. They got left behind when mom died." She looked around. "It's still tempting to walk into one of these places."