The Last Of Us: Part I - Darker Days (Male Reader)

Chapter 25 - Winter's Solace

A/N: It's crazy to think I started this book 3 years ago...

Shambling out from a dug out hole in the ground, an infected -- freshly turned Runner -- struggled, groaning and huffing, as whatever left of its brain ordered it into the daylight. It looked around, bloodshot eyes focusing on the trees and outlines of the forest, searching for anything to eat.

Until it was suddenly sent flying backwards onto the ground, its body flattened into the snow while its arms and legs spread far apart like an angel. Prodding out of its head was an arrow and the darkened blood spilling onto the snow.

Trudging towards the body, Y/N stopped when he stood over it, gazing between the corpse and the surrounding area. Lowering the crossbow in his hands, he looted the body.

"Shit."

Nothing, absolutely nothing of worth.

Nightwing, the horse that had served him well since Jackson, came to a stop beside him, neighing down at the body.

"Yeah, I know. Fuck all..."

Y/N placed his crossbow on his back with the rest of his gear, and grabbed the lead from Nightwing's reins, as he pushed onwards, the body forgotten and left to rot.

It had been weeks since the university, weeks since the shopping mall. And winter had arrived bearing fangs of ice and snow. Its shadow passed over the land like a blanket of white that threatened to chill living and infected alike in their bones.

Without mercy, it ravaged the wilderness unchecked, leaving only the strongest to battle its cold embrace.

And for Y/N, it was a great relief.

Pulling his new light blue jacket tighter around his body, Y/N traversed the snow, all while the elements battled against him. The cold kept him numb as he pushed on ahead through the dwindling days and nights, his boots crushing the snow beneath him.

Leaving a trail of footprints that would be gone in the hour.

He looked upwards, dragging his gaze from the snow floor and he spotted buildings not far from his position. He guessed the infected came from there.

A chance at supplies, he couldn't simply bypass it.

Especially now.

"C'mon."

Breathing out, the cold followed a breath of ice that scratched at his throat. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't exactly thrilled with the winter. Sure, it kept the Infected numbers down and away from them — mostly — but here, he was more likely to starve than he was to be eaten.

He hoped Ellie was having better luck than him...

The weeks working together without Joel there to act as a guide, it was something they had to deal with. And while they got on, there was a tension between them that was uprooting itself into their lives. Ever since the mall, it had only gotten worse...

Y/N had always pushed people away, for their safety and his own. But now, he had made a silent promise not to leave. No matter how much his brain screamed at him to turn back, he was rooted into the ground, whatever left of his heart keeping him in place.

He wondered what Ellie was thinking, and feeling, after everything that had happened.

And most of all, did she hate him?

"Fucking idiot." Y/N muttered as he pushed on faster to the buildings, the ransacked shacks and mobile homes coming into sight as he neared a broken down wooden fence. "Why do you always have to—" He tied up Nightwing and vaulted over the fence, boots clinking into the snow covered ground. "—fuck everything up."