Separated

by Michael Blue

  "Joel!?" a young girl called running inside the house.

  "Ellie! Don't—!" he tried to warn before he was kicked in the groin by Josh's massive boot.

  Joel quickly fell back, releasing his grip on Josh's throat. Holding his crotch in pain, Joshua delivered some punches as hard as he could, making his own thin knuckles hurt. Joel had to admit, for a pretty thin guy, he definitely packed a punch. However, it was nothing he couldn't overcome, and slowly began to rise. Quickly, Ellie pulled out a concealed handgun and aimed at Joshua. Painfully close to pulling the trigger, Ellie shockingly looked over at Erlina who was already down the stairs, aiming her bow and arrow. Erlina never killed a little girl, and wasn't sure enough if she wanted to. However she wouldn't hesitate to shoot the guy beating on her cousin.

  "Joel," Ellie called out. He didn't answer the first time so she called out again, "Joel!"

  By this point, Joel already had Josh in a headlock, and he looked up to see that Ellie had an arrow pointed to her head. He released Joshua without question and he fell to the floor coughing for air. Immediately, Erlina let her guard down with no intention to kill the red-head. She shoved her arrow back in her quiver, and put her body through the bow so it could sit on her shoulder. She shoved past Ellie and ran past Joel to examine her cousin. As he was helping himself up, she knelt to his side and placed her arm on his back,

  "Are you hurt...?" she asked curiously.

  He winced as he softly clutched his throat,

  "I'll live..."

  Erlina rolled her eyes and glared up at the bearded man with a pestered look. He sighed in disappointment, ashamed of unwise actions,

  "Here, let me help," he said bending down.

  The middle aged man groaned as he bent down to help him to his feet and sit him on the sofa. Ellie, who was somewhat happy and cautious that they met others like them, closed the cabin door behind her.

  Winter

  * * *

  Eventually, Josh made an agreement with Joel that he and Ellie could stay around until they were fully prepared to leave. It had been awkward since then; the two groups didn't speak much. It was noticeable that Ellie was awfully distant when Joel would speak with her. All it could do was rise questions, Josh's only take was that they had previously been in a traumatic situation. Later that evening, Josh set the fireplace with a little help from Joel. There were a couple of small logs scattered throughout the house, so it was simple when it came to that part. All four sat around the fireplace, warming up their bodies. Since Joel managed to use Josh's head to break the window, the cold breeze had a much easier entry.

  "I, uh, I'm sorry about the window..." Joel awkwardly apologized as he sat beside Josh.

  "No worries, my head and back is just fine..." Josh replied sarcastically.

  Joel turned his attention back to the fireplace in order to avoid any complications with the young man. Joel glanced over at Joshua as he looked away for a moment and noticed the younger comrade that clung onto his arm beside him. Seeing that he was the oldest, he would at least like to try and attain a position for these kids. Even though Joshua was practically an adult, Joel could still be his father.

  "Is that your sister?" Joel asked, trying to warm up to the two.

  "Why?" Joshua answered coldly.

  "Well, I'm just trying to get accompanied here," Joel said trying to prove his point.

  Josh took a moment,

  "She's my cousin..."

  Joel nodded in understanding and stopped the conversation. It was an uneasy atmosphere, and most of the time, you just had to let things fall together themselves rather than doing it by force. Ellie tilted her head past Joel and looked at Erlina. As strange as it seemed, she recognized the pain on her face and it all felt so relatable somehow, but after an overwhelming amount of awkward silence, Joshua just had to make his way out. Peace and quiet was one thing he wanted, but it was different in a room filled with people. Straining to stand up, Josh made it to his feet and spoke,

  "Well...I'm going to take a nap," he said dusting off his pants, "You two are welcome to make yourselves at home. If you plan on choosing a bedroom upstairs, be sure not to open the door with blood on it."

  Immediately, Ellie and Joel looked at each other. Ellie shrugged, not knowing what to say. Joshua left the room after watching the initial reaction he wanted to get. Erlina followed after, making brief eye contact with Ellie, and paced up the stairs behind him.

  "Well, what do you think of 'em?" Ellie whispered.

  Joel strained to stand up and walked over to the old, limp sofa couch that wasn't too far back from the warmth of fireplace.

  "I can tell he's a good kid. It'll take a while for him to warm up," Joel sighed.

  He could definitely say that Josh reminded him of a younger survivor he met in the past. He just hoped that his fate didn't come the same way.

  * * *

  "Fuck! Joel! I need you more than ever and you still tell me I need to forget these things?! I can't just fucking forget shit like that!" Erlina heard Ellie scream from the doorway.

  She sat on the floor in the room with her older cousin and was silently reading a book she found back in Nevada, meanwhile Josh was taking a short nap. She was definitely caught by surprise, and caught by even more surprise at Ellie's use of swearing.

  "Ellie. Just calm down," Joel's voice echoed through the bedroom walls beside them.

  "You just want me to fucking calm down?!" She replied angrily.

  As Joel called out for her name, their bedroom door was heard being opened and then slammed.

  "Oh, I'll fucking calm down..." Ellie muttered to herself.

  Erlina peeked over her shoulder to see who it was; Erlina saw Ellie groaning in frustration. She wiped her eyes and sniffled trying to conceal her pain. She inhaled and exhaled sharply, giving the impression she was fine, but right afterward she walked down the corridor and made a right until she was out of sight. The strange thing about that route was that was the path that led to room the corpse was in. Erlina stopped reading, and looked over at Joshua, all he did was shuffle his legs around, but he wasn't awake. After closing up her book, Erlina stood up and grabbed her bow and arrow that leaned in behind the opened bedroom door. Making a full rotational turn to see if Joshua had noticed her by any chance, she continued after noticing he was sound asleep. Walking out of the bedroom, Erlina was caught by surprised and stopped once Joel walked out of his bedroom. He glanced over at her and looked down, revealing his stressed face,

  "Did you, uh...did you hear all that?" Joel asked.

  "Yeah..." Erlina answered lowly.

  "Sorry 'bout that."

  "It's okay..."

  Joel turned around and left the hallway as he climbed down the stairs. Erlina walked towards the bathroom, which was directly across the hall, to fool him. After hearing Joel's footsteps surface down stairs, she exited the lavatory and continued to her left, the same direction that led to the forbidden room. The smell intensified the closer she walked, and she covered her nose by placing her hand over the bottom half of her face,

  "Ungh..." she groaned.

  Pushing open the door, Erlina got a full view of the room. Closing the door behind her to hide suspicions, she faced her attention back to the bed. She didn't want to go near the corpse, but she noticed a note underneath its left leg. Curious little Lina walked towards the corpse to see if it could've been something interesting. She pulled the note from the corpse and shook off the maggots that clung to it countless times. She brought the blood stained note close to her face, and noticed some of the ink had been smeared by water or most likely tears. She read the note:

  "Dylan!

  I'm so sorry I had to kill Christa this way! I know she was my sister and I'm deeply, deeply sorry. She got bit by that Runner and she just never admitted it. I remember the talk we had about the change, but you weren't there! I just had to do it myself! When I began to see the changes, there was no gun around to make it quick. I feel so mortified at myself and I don't
know how I can move on without even taking my own life. I'm taking kids with me and I'm driving them to safety. I wrote the address on the fridge. Sorry, there was no more paper.

  Sincerely,

  Wanda"

  Erlina folded away the letter and added it to her collection of items in her bag. All she could imagine is what that poor family had to go through. Having to put down your own sister for the safety of her kids must've been tough. Interrupting her deep sea off thoughts, a strong cold breeze came in throughout the room. Looking up from where the breeze entered, Erlina noticed a sliding screen door within the room, which was opened and led to a balcony. To follow Ellie and to get out of the repulsive bedroom, she exited the room unto the wooden balcony and noticed steps leading down to the ground. Resting on the balcony, she scanned the yard of the cabin, and noticed a human figure bushing through the leafless bushes. She trotted down the stairs and jumped off a couple of stairs before the last. Pacing after her and making it past the bushes, Erlina made a quick stop and slid into the snow.

  Groaning, she got up and brushed the snow off of her hindquarters and coat. Looking around in the meantime, she screamed as soon as she heard a voice speak to her.

  "Why are you following me?" Ellie said walking from behind a tree.

  "I. I was... just," Erlina anxiously glanced away and twiddled with her fingers.

  After a moment of silence, Ellie tilted her head to the side and examined her. She seemed like a pretty timid girl that just needed to come out of her shell a bit. Ellie believed she was the perfect girl for the job. Besides, it had been a while since she's hung out with someone her own age. A forty year old man couldn't understand what Ellie was going through, so maybe Erlina would.

  "Are you good with that bow?"

  Erlina nervously glanced up at her and nodded.

  "How good?" Ellie asked taking slight interest in it.

  "Well, I'm not really sure how to answer that... but I once shot a bird while it was flying..." Erlina brightened.

  "No fucking way," Ellie said a bit skeptically.

  "Yeah, you could ask my cousin."

  From that point on, Ellie and Erlina carried on their conversation but carried it on to somewhere else. They knew what they were doing, but they just wanted to get the adults out of their way for some time. They both knew if it was realized they were both missing, tensions would be high and that they would be in so much trouble after they got back. After some time of getting to know one another, the girls managed to climb a tree and sit on branches. The trunk was in between them and both of their little feet freely dangled.

  "So, how old are you?" Ellie asked.

  "Twelve. You?"

  "Fourteen,"

  "You're so lucky to be a teenager..." Erlina said digging into her bag and taking out a carrot to eat.

  "What's luck got to do with it? You'll be a teenager in a year," Ellie looked over to see Erlina munch on something, "What's that?"

  "Carrots," Erlina dug into her bag and picked on out of a plastic bag and offered it to her, "Want one?"

  "Eh, you got anything else?" Ellie said curiously.

  "Just one grapefruit," she said placing her carrot back inside her bag. She reached in again and after some time, offered it to Ellie.

  "Are you sure...?"

  Once Erlina nodded, Ellie took the grapefruit and realized its similarity to an orange. She knew not to eat the skin when eating an orange, so she guessed the same method to eat a grapefruit applied. Taking her pink fingertips, she peeled a little yellow layer of skin off and bit into it. After taking a bite she stopped and looked over at Erlina in complete astonishment. Erlina looked back at her,

  "Holy shit," Ellie said impressively looking back at the fruit, "This is the best thing I've tasted in a long time."

  "You've never tasted a grapefruit before?"

  "No," she said taking out another bite, "Ever tasted pomegranate?"

  "Uh," Erlina took some time to think, "What's that?"

  "We're even," Ellie laughed, and Erlina chuckled in with her.

  "So is that big man, like, your dad or something?" Erlina asked, trying to further the conversation between her and the ginger.

  "Joel? Nah, he's just looking after me for a friend," she somewhat admitted, "We're headed to Salt Lake City."

  "Oh."

  "Yeah..." Ellie said looking away with an uneasy look, "I never knew much of my dad...or my mom for that matter,"

  Erlina gave the same nervous look. She felt somewhat sorry, but she felt like she could try relating to the red-head to some extent. Ellie looked smart enough to know that she wasn't the only one in the world who lost people, but sometimes, all a girl needed was a shoulder to lean on. Of course she knew of all the mixed emotions and feelings that were possibly going on inside a young girl's head, because she's gone through the same thing. She took the last bite out of her carrot and spoke,

  "Sorry about that," Erlina said biting her bottom lip, "My mom left when I was really little and my dad died last year..."

  "Ugh, sheesh," Ellie groaned, "Fucking Infected?"

  "Worse: A 'living and thinking' soldier."

  "Fuck those guys, man," She said getting serious, "All those dicks are no different from the Infected, at least the Infected have an excuse as to why they're so shit-crazy."

  Erlina looked over at Ellie as soon as her outburst took place, and looked away smiling. She liked Ellie's attitude. Even though they were total opposites, Ellie's spunk was the highlight of her day. Truthfully, Erlina wished she was more like her. Her attitude would've probably gotten her much further. It just seemed like Ellie never seemed afraid of anything. Looking up, she noticed the skies becoming dimmer. Sooner or later, the two girls would have to go home, but Erlina wanted to spend some more time with her.

  "Let's go do something..." Erlina said eating one last carrot.

  "Like what?" Ellie said eating her last piece of grapefruit and spitting out the seeds.

  "I don't know. I just...like hanging out with someone my own age. It's different."

  Ellie smiled and wiped her runny nose with her sleeve,

  "Well, it's getting pretty late. We can just sneak out and do something again tomorrow."

  Erlina nodded,

  "Agreed."

  * * *

  The two girls carefully clung unto the branches as they made their way down one after another. Safely making it to the ground, they both walked off. They bonded on their way back to the house, and snuck back inside the bedroom through the screen door they left open. They even bonded over that topic as well, realizing how dangerous that might've been. Thankfully, for both girls, no one was penalized because the two males were sound asleep. Joel fell asleep on the couch downstairs, so her bedroom was free. As both girls bonded in the bedroom, Ellie made Erlina promise her something that was a bit out of the ordinary.

  "Erlina," Ellie said placing her head down.

  Resting against the wall beside her, Erlina looked up and fixed her spectacles upon her nose.

  "You're a really cool girl and I don't know if you see me the same way, but you're my friend..."

  "You're my friend too," Erlina said cheerfully.

  "Just..." Ellie sighed and tilted her head back, "Just promise me you won't die..."

  Erlina was caught completely off guard, and she didn't know how to respond. At first, she thought it was Ellie's crude sense of humor, but not one smile was on her freckled face.

  "I...I won't die. At least I'll try not to."

  "I'm just tired of losing so many people I get close too," Ellie said looking down, "Joel will just tell me I'll have to forget about it again..."

  Winter

  * * *

  It was the next morning, and Erlina and Ellie were already joined to the hip. The two young females followed one another to the point where it mystified Joel and Joshua. They both began to wonder when the girls became so close. As off guard as it was, they were both really happy for them. Smiles were constantly seen on their
faces and they constantly had someone to turn to or talk to. Honestly, it gave Joshua and Joel some arm-room to themselves, but most importantly, it gave them something to learn from,

  "When did those two become so close?" The large Texan asked looking at Joshua.

  Joshua shrugged. He couldn't really say anything, but he did have a smile on his face just hearing Erlina's creepy laugh from upstairs. It was still the same after not hearing it for so long. He was slouched across from Joel in the joining room on a small sofa couch, resting both legs on the leg rest.

  "If you don't, uh... mind me asking," Joel said sitting back and placing his hands on his thighs, "What exactly are two young kids like you and her doing out here? It's not safe around here..."

  "How do you know it isn't safe?" Joshua questioned lifelessly, "and I'm not a kid. I'm twenty,"

  Joel ignored his comment about not being a kid.

  "Well, Ellie and I travelled from a town a couple of miles back from here. There was a camp of cannibals that tried to kill us,"

  Personally, as much as Joshua didn't want to show it, he got goose bumps and Joel noticed the change in his expression

  "Cannibals...?" He sat up and became interested in Joel's story, "How'd you get escape?"

  "Honestly, I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for that girl..." he said pointing to the ceiling.

  Joshua didn't know how to reply to that. He already got the point that these two cared really cared for each other. The only thing that freaked him out was just how similar it sort of was when Josh was in danger at the church.

  "I got really wounded when we were attacked by those men. I don't remember much, but she put her life at risk just to get me better," he paused trying to remember the glimpses, "She stitched me up, gave me penicillin..."

  "Wow..." Joshua said largely impressed.

  "Then it just turned out that the guy who gave her penicillin was a twisted survivor. He was the same man who sent those goons after me, and he tried to...well he almost did something unforgivable to Ellie. But she defended herself. When I got to her, she gashed his face so bad, I couldn't see how he looked."