Separated

by Michael Blue

  Once Joel looked back at Josh's face, he noticed his eyes were watering.

  "Is everything okay?"

  He sighed and placed his hands over his eyes to hold back the tears. The painful memory of the church and the thoughts of his mother arose. He began to realize how much of a desperate situation he was in; he needed help and this guy could probably contribute somehow.

  "Oh man," he said sitting forward and pressing his palms together, "The reason we're here...is...is because we got separated from my mom a couple of months ago. We were ambushed by some gang of survivors and they separated us from my mom," his nose turned red and tears streamed down his cheeks as he blinked, "I don't even know how long it's been," his voice began cracking, "I always tell her that I know my mom is alive, but truthfully, I'm not even sure if she survived that day,"

  Joel sat up intrigued to hear what the youngling had to say. The old Joel wouldn't have shown a care in the world to something that didn't involve him, but these past months had been an altering experience. It bothered him and if there was anything that he could do that was going to help just the slightest, he was willing to do it.

  "I miss her so much. And what kills me even more, is wondering if she's dead or alive. I treated her like so much shit the last time I saw..." he stopped speaking and buried his face in his palms.

  "Did this happen here in Colorado?"

  There was a long pause as he tried recollecting himself.

  "Crawford, Nevada..." Joshua said clearing his throat and looking up.

  Joel reached into his backpack that sat on the floor beside him, and he pulled out a folded up map. Unfolding it, he placed it on the stained coffee table that sat in front of them,

  "Sit over here," Joel said patting the seat beside him.

  Josh looked up at him with his tense red eyes and pulled himself together. Getting up, he walked over and sat beside Joel and overlooked the map spread across the table with notes written on it. Within that time that Joel and Josh spent together, Joel explained his travels from Boston to Wyoming, and that passing a little through Nevada was an option. Odds were that Pamela was very much dead; he didn't tell Josh that, but he did tell him that her odds were that she was much likely in Wyoming or Colorado. With all the time spent in Colorado, Pamela hadn't been spotted once. The next option would be to check in Wyoming. Only if Joel would've realized that he and Pam had crossed paths before this would've gone way different.

  "What makes you think she could be in Wyoming?"

  "My brother owns a power plant. He began a settlement..."

  "Joel, not to sound like a pessimist, but I highly doubt that my mom would be found at your brother's plant?"

  Joel paused and folded his hands in between the opening of his legs. He looked down, sort of ashamed by Josh's lack of confidence in his mother,

  "Ever heard the expression 'it's a small world'?" Joel asked looking up at him.

  Joshua nodded.

  "Well, it's gotten much smaller since," Joel said reaching up and patting Joshua's shoulder, "Have a little more confidence in your mom, son. You're not a bad kid, and I'm sure it's all your mom's doing."

  Disappointed within himself, Joshua nodded in understanding. Joel was right; he did lack confidence in his mother, but only for various reasons. She was too much of a soft hearted woman at times, and in this world, you had to be cold and hard as a rock to survive Joshua pulled out a couple of sheets of crumbled up paper from his back pack and drew exact replicas of the state maps with a dying maker.

  "If you want, you can follow me and Ellie to Utah since we ain't too far from there, and from there on out, I'll tell you which way leads to Wyoming. It won't be too far."

  Josh handed Joel back his maps, and give a satisfied smirk,

  "Thanks, Joel."

  "No problem, buddy..." he said placing the map neatly in his backpack.

  His stomach growled afterward and Joshua sharply glanced up at him, trying to hold in laughter. Joel looked over with a smirk,

  "Pretty hungry..." he said patting his stomach.

  "Well," Joshua said standing up, "Get ready old timer, we're going hunting."

  * * *

  After a couple of minutes of getting ready, Joel, Ellie, Josh and Erlina were traveling in a group of four. Instead of going through the woods in the back of the house, they decided to go scavenging in the mini markets near the area. Just in case animals weren't around, they would probably be lucky enough to find some well-preserved or canned goods. Erlina and Ellie walked in front of the older males, both girls kept a look out for both infected and food.

  "Wonder what we're going to find today..." Erlina said placing her braids over her shoulder.

  "If we're lucky enough, we can probably catch a deer," Joel replied to the youngster.

  "Ah man, I fucking miss Callus, he made travelling so much easier," Ellie groaned.

  "Who's Callus?" Josh said looking over at Joel.

  "He was a horse we had. Those cannibals I told you about? They shot it..." Joel said disappointingly.

  "You had a horse?!" Erlina asked excitingly, "I've always wanted to ride a horse."

  "They have plenty of horses at the camp," Joel said looking over at Josh.

  Josh didn't look back at Joel, but he smiled. He couldn't have been anymore happier between the timespan of when he got separated from his mother and now. Erlina was the first to stop in her tracks and she looked back at Josh,

  "What camp?" she asked.

  "Joel told me about a camp back in Wyoming. We're heading over there...Joel's brother is in charge."

  As Josh and Joel walked closer to the young girl she looked up at them, fixing her glasses upon her brown button nose,

  "Aunty Pamela might be there?"

  He paused, thinking how to answer it,

  "She might..." Joshua said trying to not get the youngling's hopes up too high.

  Ellie was the only one ahead of the group. She kept her nose out of their businesses and did what they were initially supposed to do. Meanwhile the cold breeze blew through her red hair. The snow was beginning to pick up again but it wasn't as bad as it was a couple of days ago. After a couple of seconds of searching, Ellie saw a black chunky figure walking on all fours in the distance in between the small markets down below. Bingo.

  "I think I found something," she called for their attention.

  Joel turned his attention away from Josh and Erlina and gave a gesture to hold on for a minute. Joel walked beside Ellie and looked down at her. She extended her arm out and pointed down over the slope they were standing on top of,

  "Look, over there..."

  "Well will you look at that..." Joel exclaimed in astonishment.

  "What is it?" Joshua said wiping his runny nose with his sleeve. Joshua walked near the pair, and Erlina followed. After Josh got a good look at the creature, he knew exactly what it was; he remembered catching it only one time in his life.

  "Wow, that's a hog," Josh said, ending it with a satisfied chuckle.

  All four had some sign of joy shown upon their faces.

  "Hurry, let's follow it before it gets away," Ellie said stepping forward.

  Ellie was now making her way down the snowy slope with Erlina sloppily following after. The girls were so quick to act that it nearly took Joel and Josh by surprise. They followed them down the slope, but by the time they were sliding down, the girls were already making their way after the animal.

  "I see it!" Ellie shouted continuing forward.

  "Ellie! Girls, wait!" Joel said making his way down with Joshua simultaneously bumping into his arm.

  Just as Ellie turned the corner she assumed the hog went around, Ellie stopped in her footsteps to see three Runners crying and moaning silently to themselves. All the faces were buried in their palms and they all twitched and fidgeted. Catching up with Ellie, Erlina continued walking once she noticed Ellie stopped, assuming that Ellie cornered the animal. Erlina wasn't in full view of what Ellie could see, but when she walked be
side Ellie, she got a closer view of the expression on Ellie's face.

  "Is everything ok—..." Erlina paused once she realized that the Runners had heard her, and they all turned their mean, ugly red eyes at them.

  "Go!" Ellie said turning Erlina around with her arms and running off with her.

  The biggest mistake Ellie could make was running the opposite way of where they came from. Joel and Josh heard the growling and saw both girls being chased down by the three Runners. Ellie was ahead and Erlina was managing to catch up. Joshua and Joel began running, and Joshua was the quickest of his feet. While running, a Clicker happened to jump out of a building nearby and tackle itself into Josh's shoulder. Roughly, Josh was tossed to the ground and rolled on his back. He held the Clicker's face away by holding up its shoulders with his hands, but the Clicker's thirst was clearly overpowering.

  "Shit! JOEL! Get the girls!" Joshua shouted while slowly losing the fight to the snapping Clicker.

  As troubling as the situation was, Joel was tempted to go after Ellie. He thought hard on it and leaving Joshua to die and Erlina to fend herself would be something Joel would regret. Ignoring Josh's request, Joel grabbed the Clicker by the collar and yanked it off of Josh.

  The Clicker stumbled backwards and attempted to go after Joel next, but Joel wasn't having it. Joel reached back and grabbed a blood stained pipe with scissor blades tied on the end. Giving a strong, firm hold to it, Joel flawless swung the pipe as it whistled to through the air, impaling the Clicker dead in its brain. The Clicker twitched a couple of times, and groaned as it fell flat to the ground. Joel watched it, making sure that it stopped twitching to guarantee that it was dead. After no more signs of movement or breathing, Joel walked over to Joshua and helped him to his feet. Joshua thanked him, and dusted himself off. By this point, the girls were out of site, and the Runners' yells were out of range.

  * * *

  Erlina and Ellie were running frantically through the snowy forest, passing through tree trunks as if it were all a crazy maze. They were the cheese while the Clicker was the rat sniffing them down. It followed their every foot step. It sensed every sound they made and it had the never-ending drive to catch its prey. Erlina jetted as quickly as her small legs could carry her, jumping over every log, and avoided every low branch. But she felt herself becoming exhausted. Looking up to see if Ellie was still around, she noticed that Ellie was nowhere in sight. Immediately, she stopped running. She turned around frantically, hearing shouts and clicks from all different directions and couldn't sense Ellie's presence; she felt alone. She shouted Ellie's name and her voice echoed. There was no answer. She called once again, but it only lured something other than Ellie. Turning around to a loud screech that was coming directly behind her, Erlina attempted to give the Clicker a blow with her bow. The Clicker used its strength and hardened arms to easily knock the bow out of Erlina's arm, breaking her guard. She watched it fly out of her arm and hit the ground beside her. Facing forward and bringing her arms up, the Clicker grabbed Erlina by the shoulders and reached in for Erlina's neck, relentlessly chomping and digging its teeth deep into her flesh. Erlina released the loudest and most painful shriek she could while tears burst through her tightly closed eyes. She tried wiggling free, but all it allowed was blood to spray fresh from her veins and stain the side of her face and box braids. Her shrieks echoed as everything went black.

  * * *

  "Hey!" Joel called looking over to Josh.

  Caught by surprise, Josh looked up at him,

  "You alright?" Joel asked realizing that he was falling behind.

  "Yeah..." he lied.

  "Daydreaming?"

  "Sorry, I'm just...really worried that's all. She's never left my side."

  Joel stopped and looked at him in curiousness. He was afraid of what this was going to lead to. It didn't take him long to notice that Josh was the type to overthink things that mostly led to a morbid thought.

  "...What were you thinking about?"

  "Erlina..." he paused, "I'm just scared she'll get Infected."

  Joel sighed and stopped walking, he crossed his arms and turned around, looking at Joshua while the young man walked past him,

  "There's nothing to worry about, son..." Joel walked after him, "Those girls have each other's backs. I doubt they'll let anything happen to each other."

  * * *

  Joshua's thought was suppose to give the reader a little feeling similar to the deaths during the game play of the game. A lot of people felt the same way I did when I played as Ellie and saw her death scene for the first time. It was hard to handle since I got attached to her character. I was trying to mimic the same thing to give the reader a similar experience, but with Erlina.

  Winter

  * * *

  Joel and Josh were continuing their trek through the ice cold snow. The cold mist escaped their nervous breaths every minute from their hard and heavy breathing. These past few hours all they had did was run. Joshua sniffed his nose constantly, avoiding his runny nose from dripping. Considering that Joel's features were more suitable for this weather, his toleration for the cold was somewhat okay, however, he was still trembled.

  "Their footprints end right over there," Joel said pointing to an open doorway that led into a clothing store.

  In front of the doorway were the sloppy foot prints of Ellie, Erlina and many Infected. Blood stained the snow, and that's what frightened Josh the most. Right away, Joshua entered the store without any second thought and Joel followed. The clothing store was in the same shape just as any old abandoned store would be in. It was dark, cold, and streaks of light shined in through the broken spaces in the ceiling. Little remained on the clothes racks and the cash registers by the entrance were just as dead. As soon as they walked in, they noticed a dead Runner to their right with one of its eyes stabbed in pretty gruesomely. The further they walked in, they reached another that was bleeding through a wound in its chest. Hopefully these were works of the girls and not the works of other survivors. Other survivors meant more trouble, and it was the last thing that the two men wanted. The two were nearly at the back of the clothing store at this point where there appeared to be another checkout counter.

  Unintentionally stepping on some broken wood and rubble, it triggered a figure from behind the checkout counter to jump up from hiding. It was Erlina, with her bow tightly gripped and her arrow pulled back. Josh and Joel jumped back, but smirked at the sight of her four-eyed face. Joel released a sigh, relieved that it was only her. He was still jumpy from his previous encounters with Ellie. She slowly lowered her bow and placed the arrow back in her quiver. She shined bright with a smile and ran out from behind the counter and into her older cousin's arms. He was more than happy to see her alive. Keeping her clenched in his arms, he looked over at Joel, who looked bewildered at one point. Joshua placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and shockingly looked down at her.

  "Where's Ellie?" he said looking at Erlina.

  "Ellie, it's okay. You can come out!" Erlina said looking at Joel. She didn't admit it, but a big guy like him frightened her.

  Ellie's head popped out from behind the checkout counter nearest the store entrance. Once her eyes laid eyes on Josh and Joel, she jogged out to greet them.

  "I knew you guys would find us," Ellie smiled, fixing her backpack upon her shoulders.

  "Me too," Erlina said looking up at her cousin who then pulled her in for another hug. Joshua rubbed her back in complete happiness that she was in one piece.

  "You know, you, uh- you saved my ass a couple of times back there..." Ellie said rubbing her head, "Thanks."

  "You saved me plenty of times too," Erlina replied.

  She released her grip from Joshua and immediately began to converse with her new friend. They both began to talk about the scary situation they just encountered as if it were a movie. Their voices overlapped each other as they recalled moments that frightened or surprised them both, ultimately ending in laughter. Josh placed his palms in
his pockets and shook his head as he shoved his lips to the side. Wasting time no further, that was when Joel ordered the crew to head back to the cabin. Besides getting almost killed, the girls and Josh were more bummed about their escaped hog.

  * * *

  Spring

  * * *

  "Run! Don't look back!" Joshua's voice echoed as the young red-head ran quickly in front of him.

  Her pony tail swayed with the air and she quickly dashed through the dark. Slowing down, Joshua quickly turned around to the yells and clicks behind him. He took out a self-made shiv that Joel taught him how to make, and proceeded with letting himself get grabbed by a chomping Clicker. Using the shiv, he aggressively stabbed the Clicker twice in it's throat. The Clicker shouted and held it's neck, and it collapsed to the ground. In the dark, multiple pairs of red eyes were seen swarming towards him. The first pair of red eyes reached him quite quickly, and before he knew it, he was face to face with a Runner. The Runner began throwing blows, but Joshua immediately threw punches to it's jaw, breaking it. It let out a massive shout of pain. Josh gave a final blow by doing a deadly spin kick, landing the back of his calf on the Runner's face.

  "Josh, there's too many!" Ellie shouted from the top of a car.

  Climbing over the abandoned automobile was their only way in and their only way back out. Joshua ran, leaving the rest of the Runner's behind. He beamed towards the car, sliding over the hood with ease and sticking his landing. As Ellie began to make her way down from the top of the car, she missed her footing, sliding down and ending up on her hindquarters. Her yelp echoed throughout the dark tunnel and Joshua quickly shined his light on her, reacting a little too late when it came to catching her.

  "Shit..." Ellie groaned as she helped herself to her feet.