Chapter Text
it starts with our eyes well acquainted with the dark.
then the mind was made to illuminate the heart.
and when every constellation suddenly appeared,
through telescopes and calculations,
the far was pulled so near.
-Overture, Sleeping at Last
It’s a painfully cold sort of morning, although Ellie has to admit she's in total awe of how beautiful this place can get in the winter. Back in the Boston QZ, it snowed, sure, but that snow was quick to turn into sad brownish-grayish slush. Jackson snow was a completely different experience. A thick blanket of snow settled around the area in late November and stuck around until march, and suddenly Ellie thought she understood that whole hibernation thing.
Joel woke Ellie up way before the sun rose- although that’s not saying much, since they only get a handful of hours of sunlight this time of year. Ellie tried to explain to Joel how that worked a few weeks ago- to little success.
“How’s that supposed to work, Ellie? If the planet’s tilted that way, how come we get more sun in the summer?” Joel had asked when she’d brought up that tidbit one night when they were walking home after a movie.
“The earth still rotates, dipshit.” She teased “How do you think winter works?”
“I thought it had something to do with, y’know, the earth bein’ further away from the sun.”
“Well, actually-“
A flock of birds soared overhead, twisting through the fridged air in a way Ellie wanted to imagine fighter jets used to. Ellie’s fingers had long gone numb gripping the reins on Shimmer- luckily, they were almost to the first checkpoint, and she was still somewhat warm from the adrenaline and excitement of going on her first actual patrol with Joel. Snow was beginning to flurry around them, although Ellie wasn’t sure if it was actual precipitation or just the biting wind gusting old snow around.
This was their second winter in Jackson, and according to Tommy, this winter was supposed to be milder than the last. She wasn’t sure she believed him.
Joel clicked his tongue, slowing his own horse to a stop underneath the awning of a gas station and dismounting.
“This the checkpoint?” Ellie asked.
“Yup.” Joel nodded.
Today seemed to be a quiet day for the both of them- which was nice. Something about this time of year was rough- Ellie knew why, for her at least, trying not to think about cold dingy basements and blazing lodges, and had a feeling she knew why Joel felt similarly. It was better when neither of them was trying to cheer the other up all day. That usually resulted in an argument that ended with old wounds open and bleeding. It usually took a few days after for them to scab over again.
The inside of the gas station wasn’t much better than the outside, although the wind wasn’t as bad. There was a dried up infected in the corner, tendrils of fungal growth swaying stiffly like dried reeds. It would put Ellie on edge if she didn’t know that it was likely used up. Lone infected didn’t last long in the winter, which was reassuring, in a way, and honestly a bit poetic.
“That’s new.” Joel noted “must’ve wandered in within the last few days.”
“Do you think there could be more?” Ellie asked “it wandered in from somewhere, and it couldn’t have survived for long out there by itself.”
“Hm.” Joel’s eternal scowl turned slightly more scowley “good point.”
It was his fault, really, Din thought to himself as his newly refurbished N-1 made an unplanned steep descent towards a sickeningly lush-looking moon. He’d dropped out of warp too soon- Grogu had distracted him “I thought I told you to go before we left”. Not necessarily a problem in itself, but combined with the likelihood that he’d dropped out of warp within range of a secret imp base at the edge of wild space. At least, that’s what he figured it was. New Republic didn’t seem the type, and raiders or spice-lords were unlikely to have the kind of firepower to shoot at something outside of orbit from the planet’s surface. Thats what he got for trying out a new shortcut.
In any case, he was going to be making an unplanned, very rough pit-stop.
“Hold on, kid.” Din braced, the whole ship shuddering as it passed through the atmosphere.
“Gah!” Grogu cheered from behind him.
They were quickly approaching the dense canopy of the moon’s surface now. Din pulled up sharply on the ship’s yoke, once again, too late, and crashed through the trees, leading to what Din might want to call, whiplash aside, a successful sort of crash. The ship was, after all, still intact, and the damage on the surrounding environment was minimal. Din groaned, pushing himself out of the cockpit.
“You ok, kid?”
Grogu giggled, unharmed.
Din smiled, proud of his nigh-indestructible son “Of course you are. Come on, let’s have a look around.”
The foliage above them was dense, and blocked out most of the light save for the giant hole the ship had made. Din padded through the underbrush, trying to be as quiet as possible, while Grogu floated behind him in his pram. He knew the imp base had to be around here somewhere, and would definitely prefer to keep out of their hair as much as possible. The forest floor itself was fairly barren, and it was eerily silent- something that had Din on edge.
The flurries had turned into a full-blown storm at this point, and Joel was getting worried. Normally, he’d try to push onwards. He knew his limits, or at least, didn’t care so much what would happen if he crossed them. Unfortunately-
“Joel! Storm’s getting pretty bad. Should we head back?” Ellie shouted above the wind somewhere behind him.
“No!” He shouted back, not turning his head so he could be sure he didn’t miss anything in front of him obscured by the snow “It’s too far. Our best bet is to high-tail it to the next checkpoint and wait out the storm there.”
“Ok!” Ellie responded “Uh. How far is the checkpoint?”
Joel clenched his teeth. It was still a mile or two to the next checkpoint, and the storm was likely to get worse- not to mention it was getting harder and harder to be sure they were still on the trail. He was… pretty sure they still were.
“Joel?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m pretty sure we’ve passed that weird tree like, three times.”
Shit.
Joel took a deep breath, trying to think “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna-”
“What?”
“Here’s what we’re gonna do!” He repeated, louder “I think I remember seeing a house with an in-tact roof somewhere around here. We’re gonna circle back around and wait out the storm there. Got it?”
“Why don’t we just go in there?” Ellie asked, now next to him.
She was pointing ahead of them. Some sort of large building loomed in the distance, just visible in the storm. It wasn’t ideal- hordes of infected tended to linger in buildings like that, and with the stalker they’d found earlier, it certainly didn’t put him at ease. But if they stayed out in the elements much longer they might not be able to find anything better.
This was a bad idea.
Weighing his options, Joel nodded “Okay.”
20 minutes from the ship, they came across what looked like a mostly abandoned city. It had been built inside of a crater, with a large central spire in the middle and three rings of buildings radiating out from there, each surrounded by a canal. The far side of the city still seemed inhabited though- likely whoever remained, trying to hold onto what they once had. If Din had a feeling for the stuff, he might have said it was poetic.
“What do you think, kid?” Din asked “Think we can find someone to fix the ship down there?”
“Bah.” Grogu said, confidently stretching his claws towards the spire.
“If you say so.”
Sliding down from the crater rim into the basin proper, Din took another moment to assess his surroundings. The place seemed old, and the architecture looked familiar. Old huts made from stacked stone huddled together in groups, choking on foliage and crumbling, as they were slowly consumed by time. It was actually quite beautiful, compared to the unsettling stark absence of life in the understory.
“Wonder what happened here.” Din mused, peeking inside a hut “What do you think, Kid?”
Grogu was oddly silent.
“Kid?” Din turned, realizing the kid was, in fact, gone. Again. “Shit.”
“Ugh.” Ellie huffed, pushing the door closed against the wind “It’s cold as shit in here.”
“Would you rather be out there?” Joel asked, surveying the lobby in front of them.
Said lobby was eerily untouched- as though it had only been abandoned for a week instead of twenty years. No broken windows, no trash strewn about, no broken furniture. The only things that showed the place’s age were the peeling wallpaper and the overpowering smell of mildew.
“Uh, maybe?” Ellie shrugged, walking further into the room “This place gives me the creeps.”
Joel nodded “Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Reminds me of this old movie, actually.”
Ellie rolled her eyes “Uh-huh.”
Joel squinted at her- that look he got when he’d made a reference that Ellie clearly didn’t get “You’d like it, I think. Really over-the-top gory horror type stuff.”
“Oooh.” Ellie grinned, interest piqued “what’s it about?”
Joel scratched his chin “it’s about this father and his family that are hired to look after a ski lodge over the winter. The guy goes crazy or something and tries to murder his wife and kid. And also there’s ghosts or something- I dunno. It was all kinda confusing.”
“We should watch it when we get back.” Ellie suggested “You think they have it in Jackson?”
“Probably.” Joel shrugged “We should probably look for some supplies. Firewood, food, that kind of stuff. May be here for a few days.”
“Got it. I go this way, you go that way?” She asked, pointing her thumb down each of the respective hallways on either side of the lobby.
“No.” Joel shook his head “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to separate. We’ve gotta do this careful. The likelihood of there being a colony of infected somewhere around here is too high, and we can’t exactly leave if things go sideways.”
Ellie tried not to be annoyed. Joel meant well, and had gotten better at not sticking to her like a shadow the way he used to the first two months after Salt Lake, but in Ellie’s opinion, he was still treating her like a kid. Which she wasn’t. She was sixteen, for fuck’s sake!
“Good point.” Ellie nodded “But also, I really have to piss.”
Joel rolled his eyes “Well go do that, then.”
“Cool.”
Ellie wandered down the hallway, snickering at Joel’s “Don’t fall in!” as she snooped around, only partially looking for a bathroom. She did actually have to piss, but also, this place was weird, and she wanted to get a good look around. Down another hallway and through a large dining room she found what she was looking for.
Joel was trying very hard not to worry about Ellie. Apparently, not hard enough. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since she scampered down the hall, but still. This place was creepy as hell.
“Woah!” Came Ellie's voice from down the hallway. Joel breathed a sigh of relief “Joel, you’ve gotta come check-”
She was cut off by a loud blast coming from her direction. Shit.
Din’s panic only grew when a hut three or four buildings away exploded. Or, well. Sort of exploded? It seemed to be some sort of stun grenade, judging by the bright light emanating from the structure, a central beam shooting upwards. There was clearly little concussive force, since the building was still very much standing. It reminded him a bit of the seeing stone, in the way a beacon of light shot up into the air. His stomach dropped.
“Kid!” He shouted, rushing towards the source of the beam.
When he got there, the beam of light had dissipated, flickering off like an old lightbulb.
Well. That was either good, or not good. He ducked into the small hut, adjusting his visor to see better in the low light.
“Grogu?” He muttered, scanning the single roomed structure for signs of his kid.
The hut was one large, empty room, aside from a small woodfire hearth on one side and a strange looking crystalline object lying on the floor in the middle of the room. Din bent down to investigate, picking up the object, which seemed to hum in his hand.
A trigger mechanism clicked behind him, and he was suddenly aware that a blaster was pointed at his back.
“Alright, what the fuck is going on?”