Joel and Ellie creep through the abandoned parking lot, listening hard for infected or bandits. Standing up when Joel deemed the place empty. They'd come here with no goal, as when they got to Tommy's place, it was in ruins.

"Hey! Come look at this! This is really deep!" Joel hears Ellie's excited voice echoing through the place. Joel slowly jogs over to Ellie, who is peering into a huge hole. "Don't fall in" Joel warns her as she leans close.

"psh, does it look like I'm five?" Ellie questions. Joel rolls his eyes, lookig into the hole. "Even with my flashlight, I can't see the bottom" Joel says incredously.

As Ellie turns to walk away, Joel sees something coming out of the pit. His lips part to utter a warning when the thing reaches up and grabs Ellie. "JOEL!" she manages to scream before she gets pulled down. "I'm coming for you!" Joel shouts as he jumps into the abyss.

Feeling like she was grabbed. Falling. Waiting for a quick and painless death at the bottom. Nothing. Ellie opens her eyes, slowly, feeling as if she hadn't for a long time. Joel lies a few meters away from her, his hair strangely browner and shorter than before.

She lies there, struggling to suck in oxygen. It feels like someone punched her in the gut. When she manages to speak, she utters "Joel"

"Joel" she says, louder this time. His eyes open with a groan. "Where the hell are we?" Joel asks, bringing Ellie's attention to her surroundings. Damp moss lays beneath them. Trees all around. Ellie gets up, brushing her jeans off.

Ellie looks at Joel's face and gasps. "What?" Joel says. "Y-you aren't o-old anymore" Ellie stammers, wide eyed. Joel pulls his knife out of his pocket, looking at himself. He looked as he did twenty years ago. "What in the name of -" he doesn't finish her sentence. His eyes dart to his watch. It wasn't broken. He stares for a while.

Joel gets to his feet. How did they get to a forest? He gets up and looks around. Their backpacks were a good ten metres away. He goes and retrieves them.

"here" he says as he hands Ellie's backpack to her. "Thanks" she says, taking it and putting it on her back. They walk through the forest puzzling just how the hell they got there. He pauses to look through his backpack. As he reaches his hand into the main pocket he freezes.

He feels supple leather against his fingers. He takes the object in his hand and pulls it out. "What the hell?!" he exclaims as he pulls his wallet out of his bag. "what is that?" Ellie says, pointing to the wallet. "It's a wallet. It's used to store money. How the hell-" his voice trails off.

He opens his wallet. It has various bills and his cards in it. The cards are clean and new. The bills are crisp. Something is wrong.

"We need to get out of this forest" Joel says abruptly. Ellie, startled by Joel's low voice cutting into the silence, quickly says "Why?! Is there something here?!". "No. There might be something outside of this forest." Joel says with an edge of doubt in his tone.

They hike through the forest until they start to hear weird sounds. Laughing and voices. "Put your weapons away and give me the rifle." Joel orders. Ellie, confused, complies quickly. Joel does the same with his own weapons.

Joel takes the rifle and dissassembles it, putting the parts into his backpack. "Now no matter what, no attacking people" Joel instructs, with an idea of what is happening. "Why?" Ellie says, a little annoyed Joel isn't telling her anything.

"Just... Follow me". Joel walks until they get to the edge of the forest. They walk out of the forest, revealing a park, with people, talking and children playing on a playground playing. Joel picks up a newspaper on a bench. He takes in a huge breath. He realeases it with an explanation, "We have somehow got ourselves to friday, September 27, 2013".

"But, isn't that a day after the world went to hell?" Ellie asks. "Yeah" Joel breathes out. "Do you know where we are?" Ellie says, staring at the happiness of the children playing. "Yeah... Three blocks from my house." Joel says.

Sarah! Joel suddenly remembers with a start. "We have to go to my house" Joel says with a newfound urgency. Ellie nods, understanding the flash of hope in Joel's eyes. They briskly walk until they get to his house.

"Damn it!" Joel growls, realizing he doesn't have his keys. He remembers how he found his wallet in his bag and looks there. He produces his keys after a minute of groping around. He opens the door and goes inside. He quickly runs up the stairs, and into Sarah's room. Her stuff is there, everything is fine, but where is Sarah?

Joel hears a scream from downstairs. It wasn't from Ellie. Joel runs down the stairs to see Sarah, looking wide eyed at Ellie. "Sarah!" Joel says as he runs to her.

He hugs her, eyes streaming with twenty year's worth of unshed tears."uh, dad?" Sarah says confusedly. Calming himself down, he looks at Sarah. "what is it?" he asks. "Where were you all day? And who is she?" Sarah says, pointing at Ellie.

"It's a long story hon" Joel explains. "This is Ellie. She's going to live here now". "Ok, nice to meet you" Sarah says to Ellie. "Likewise" she answers. Joel was a tiny bit puzzled as to why Sarah didn't care that someone she had never met before is moving in.

"What was that thing that pulled Ellie into the hole? And how did we travel in time?" Joel muttered to himself before bed.

Ellie was sleeping on the couch. Everything seemed peaceful. Joel woke up several times in the middle of the night, being startled by noises that are normal to living with people, but twenty years of caution and danger wired him to be a very light sleeper.

"calm down, I'm safe here" Joel reassures himself. He takes a deep breath and settles himself down.

He wakes up in the morning, feeling tired but not able to sleep longer. He checks the clock. It was 7:38. He goes to the bathroom and brushes his teeth. He stops short at the sight of himself in the mirror. He looked exactly like himself 20 years ago. Staring at himself strongly, he leaves the bathroom. Yawning, he starts to sort out his backpack. Some things were missing, but unimportant things like a few blades and some ammo. Joel didn't notice. Joel still didn't trust how things went, but pushed the thought away.

He found some other of his modern items in his bag like his phone and sunglasses. After sorting and putting away his things to their respective areas around the house, he checks a clock. 9:06. Joel starts to make breakfast. He opens the fridge, a refreshing sight after no electricity for 20 years.

Ellie wakes up to a delicious smell. Mouth watering, she gets off the couch and walks toward the kitchen where Joel was cooking. "What'cha making?" Ellie asks curiously. "ham and eggs" Joel replies, a little excited himself. Ellie hears a weird bubbling noise. "what's that?" she says, darting to the other side of the kitchen. "coffee maker" Joel says. "cool" Ellie says slowly while watching the dark liquid drip into the pot.

Ellie heard light footsteps on the stairs and instinctively whipped around. She calmed herself down and told herself that there is no reason to panic anymore. Sarah comes down the stairs rubbing her

eyes. "Good morning" Joel says as she walks into the kitchen. "mornin' dad and Ellie" Ellie smiles at her. She is just so cute.

Ellie wanders out of the kitchen and Sarah follows. "wanna see my room?" Sarah asks Ellie, already pulling her up the stairs. "uh, Sure" Ellie says. She and Sarah enter a room, pink and decorated with posters. She looks behind the door and sees a giraffe plush. She looks at it and before she can say anything, "breakfast's ready girls!" Joel calls from the kitchen.

Ellie and Sarah both run down the stairs to the table, where there are 3 plates filled with food and 2 cups of a strange orange liquid Ellie has never seen before. They sit down and start eating. Joel and Ellie both eat quick and a lot, as it has been years since Joel has eaten anything fresh and Ellie has never had anything like it.

Joel takes a sip of his coffee, smiling as the bitter coffee flowed doen his throat. He was fond of coffee, having it every morning before the world messed up.

After they had all eaten their fill, they sit back, drinking. "what is this anyway?" Ellie asks, holding up her drink. "It's orange juice" Sarah says, "Oranges! Coooool" Ellie says.

Sarah giggles. "Where did you come from Ellie?" Sarah asks. "Boston, I guess?" "Wow, thats far away" Sarah says, curious now. "Don't you miss your parents?" Sarah asks innocently. Ellie and Joel freeze.

Ellie's expression darkens. "they have been gone for a long time" Ellie says slowly. "Oh. I'm sorry." Sarah apologizes after seeing her expression. "It's fine, asking means you're being curious, which is learning" Ellie says with a smile.

"The first day of school is on friday." Joel says, breaking the silence. "Sarah, you know what to do, just walk to school and do whatever you need to do" "Ok, dad" she says while standing up to put her dishes away and go upstairs to brush her teeth and wash her face.

"So Ellie, you are going to have to go into ninth grade this year." Joel says gravely. "Why? Can't I just stay home?" Ellie argues. "It's the law, Ellie" Joel answers. "Ok, so what will I have to do?" Ellie asks. "Your going to high school, there will be drama and a lot of other stuff that you are probably not expirenced with. You will be with people. Lots of them. No attacking them or cursing at school." Joel runs Ellie through many rules.

Joel starts to explain the acedemic part. "So, you have to wake up at 7:00 to get ready and walk to school. Your school starts at 8:40. You can ask around for information, there will be a lot that you won't will also have to walk home from school."

Ellie nods, absorbing as much as she can. "Ok. I think I will be able to do this."

HAI GUYSS! Thx for reading! Now on to the serious schtuffs. 1. If it feels like things are going by too fast, then damn. 2. I tried my best to have Sarah not like Duck in the walking dead video game (play it!) (BTW, Duck is an insensitive little kid that is so annoying) but im bad at writing, so forgive me. 3. It's hard to have Ellie not knowing stuff but not dumb. It's weird. BAI MY SURVIVORS;)