by Michael Blue
"Sorry about that earlier, we just..."
"I understand," he replied, "It's not easy to trust people out here."
"Can say that again..." Joel said nonchalantly.
"Hell; some lady killed my dad and I didn't even know the broad..."
That's when things got awkward. It was too soon to spill feelings, and the rest of them wanted to avoid that, especially with someone they didn't know.
"Sorry," he apologized looking back, placing his hands in his pockets, "My name's Abel, by the way..."
They all gave him a blank stare, some even turning away or acting like they didn't hear him introduce himself. He ignored the fact that they didn't want to be known and continued speaking. That's when Joel made the decision to get ready and part ways with the stranger.
"Well, we're gonna get going." He said stopping and facing the opposite direction.
"Wait! Wait!" Abel said reaching his arms out.
Joel turned over and gave a smug look to the young man who attempted to touch him. Nervously, Abel placed his arms down,
"I think we should stick together...for now..."
"Look, we're fine. Okay?" Joel said.
"I know, but...what if those Infected come around again?"
"So?"
"I have no weapons...and," he hesitated, "You guys do so..."
"You want us to protect you?" Joshua summed up.
He nodded very nervously,
"Just think of it as escorting me back to the house. I really need my stuff and my backpack and then you guys are free to go..."
"You're not doing a good job with the convincing..." Joel bluntly expressed.
"You...?"
"Want something in return, yes," Joel completed.
The kid nodded eagerly,
"I mean hell yeah," he smiled and crossed his arms to think of the bargain, "The house I'm in use to be a small clinic, and since this part of town was pretty small and hick, it has tons of medical and first aid supplies. There's some food there too..."
Joshua looked over at Joel with a pleased face. The girls on the other hand, didn't have much of a say, but they didn't feel too comfortable with accepting something like that from a stranger. Erlina thought there was probably some catch. However, this offer was as good as it was going to get and it'd take a complete fool to turn it down. Joel took a while to answer but ultimately, he agreed to go. As much as Joel didn't want to give in to the softness, he had to agree that the kid had a kind nature and if he left the boy to fend on his own, there was no way he could survive unless he could run like The Flash. If getting to his house was all he wanted, there was no harm in that. The walk wasn't so long, but it they found out a little information about the boy. It turned out that he and his friend were also on their way to Wyoming, but Joshua thought it'd be wise enough to keep their mutual plans secret. The group finally made it to the house Abel spoke so fondly of. It was just like any other old house, but it was just like how he described it. It looked beaten up and overrun; it was hard to believe that this house still had items.
* * *
"Here she is..." Abel said walking towards the house.
The four followed him up the creaking stairs and entered as he pushed past the old, chipped up door. He stood by the doorway and waiting until everyone was inside, and when Ellie was the last to walk in, he quickly closed the door. Out of the blue, Abel pulled Ellie back the back of her collar and grabbed her throat. She groaned and swore in attempt to fight his grasp, and as Joel and Josh turned to see him assault her, they immediately whipped out their guns.
"Uh, uh, uh. Think about what you're going to do..." he said as he pulled out a blade hidden in his hoody.
Abel, the boy that appeared so innocent had transformed into a monster. He held his blade tightly in his grip and had the sharp end directly over Ellie's throat. Her face was flushed from embarrassment and fear, and she didn't know how to react.
"Put those weapons down!"
They didn't listen.
"I'll fucking do it!" he said slightly touching her neck with the tip of the knife
"Fuck!" Ellie cried.
Joel quickly placed up his arms and put down the weapon in front of him. Joshua's hands were sweating and his nerves got the best of him. He began trembling and was breathing quite heavily. The longer he stood with his arms up, the tighter Abel made sure he grabbed her. He tilted his head to the side, signaling that Joshua better put his weapon down or else Ellie's neck would be slit. Joel placed his hand on Joshua's wrist and slowly lowered down his arms. When Joshua looked over, he could see a plea in Joel's eyes. Joshua, willingly lowered the gun on his own, and placed the gun by his foot. They kicked the guns over to him. Unaware of the men that crept up behind them, they all felt their book bags being pulled and arms tied behind their backs. Roughly, Abel took Ellie's backpack and pushed her towards the group, making her fall to the floor. Joel kneeled beside her and Erlina quickly ran to her side just as her bow and quiver slid off her shoulders as the men grabbed them. She helped Ellie to her feet and examined her neck; there were no cuts, and Erlina was satisfied that her friend wasn't harmed.
"Ellie..." Erlina said softly. She then looked over to Abel and tears began to form in her eyes, "Why are you doing this?"
"Take all their weapons and then lock them up in the basement for him to have a look at them..."
"What the fuck, Abel," Josh said looking at him with a demonizing side eye.
From afar, they all heard a voice coming from one of the corridors. They couldn't tell which one, but all that mattered is that it was coming closer and it seemed like this guy was the leader of the group since everyone in the room stood at ease as if they were at a military drill. Joshua examined all the men in the room. There was about four of them, all a little taller than he was. One with long hair looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Aha! Gregory! You got us some more people, huh?"
Immediately the man stepped out into the open and Joshua and Erlina were stunned to see who stood in front of them. It was almost as if time froze at the moment and a million thoughts raced through each of their heads.
"I see you got us our..." he paused after looking back and forth at the two brown pigmented, cousins who both stuck out like a sore thumb, "Holy. Shit..."
A ball formed in Joshua's throat and he tried to fight the burning sensation that filled his nostrils as the tears did the same to his eyes. Nearly losing his ability to stand, he looked over at Erlina and saw the mortified look on her face. She wouldn't even bother to look back at him.
The old man she stabbed back at the church, Juan, was coldly gazing right back at her. It was as if her worst nightmare came back to haunt her in the flesh. As the tears ran down her frozen face, it killed Joshua deep down to see that she would be facing this kind of treatment again.
"Hey little birdie," he waved teasingly, "Remember me?"
Spring
* * *
Erlina didn't remember much of what occurred after fainting. This was just too overwhelming for her, and she couldn't believe what was actually happening. It had been months since she had last seen Juan. Could this be a coincidence? Or was Juan lucky enough to find what he had been searching for? She remembered being face to face with her enemy and then unexpectedly being elsewhere. When Erlina had finally awoken, she was on a cold, musty concrete floor. She coughed a little after taking in a rotten smell. The basement was pitch black, only seeing two silhouettes in front of her. That's when she also realized that one of the lenses on her glasses had cracked. She used both hands to pull the spectacles from her face and felt around it, it wasn't bad, but she didn't know how it was going to look once she was outside...if she was ever going to see outside again.
"Erlina?" Ellie called.
"Oh!" Erlina exclaimed in relief, covering her mouth as she almost burst in tears.
"Are you hurt?" She heard Joel ask.
"No. N-no, I'm okay. My glasses are just broken..." she said trying
to differentiate their figures from the dark.
"Who the fuck are these assholes?" Ellie bluntly asked.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to answer the question, she noticed something was out of balance, and another word called out in instead,
"Joshua?" her voice trembled.
There was no answer.
"Joshua!?" she yelled.
"He's...still out there with them..." Joel said with sympathy. "Erlina..." After a while, he began hearing soft sobs. Joel, honestly felt bad for her, but he needed to know how serious this was.
"You've got to tell me who these men are," he said.
She stopped crying and wiped her eyes free from the tears that rinsed her face. She cleared her throat and sniffed her nose clear.
"Before my aunt got separated from us, we were attacked in a church. That old man, his name is Juan." she paused, "he ordered his men to try and kill us because he said we were trespassing. And he tried to kill me. But I-I stabbed him and escaped..."
"No way..." Ellie said in disbelief, "and you didn't kill that guy?"
"I couldn't do it! I just couldn't!" Erlina panicked.
"You should've killed that old pansy asshole! Then he wouldn't have—"
"Ellie!" Joel's voice echoed, "This is no one's fault, alright?"
"I know it isn't, Joel. But I'm just saying," she looked to Erlina's direction, "You shouldn't have let him go..." she said trying to avoid sounding so aggressive.
Ellie could be heard exhaling in complete stress, and Erlina turned away from her direction. Ellie was right. You can't let murderers take the walk, or else they'll just continue brewing havoc. As morbid as it sounded, Erlina made a vow to herself that if she got the chance, she would make sure that he would meet his demise. She cornered herself along two walls and stopped at the feel of something she caught softly underneath her palm. She moved her fingers around, feeling movement and hearing a little squeak. Immediately, she shrieked, realizing that Ellie and Joel weren't the only ones down in this cellar with her. After hastily turning away from the corner she backed up into another wall, soon to turn to a doorway that opened at the top of the staircase that Joel sat beside. She looked up to see two figures standing by the doorway, and one of the slim figures had been tossed down. He made a familiar while, and Erlina immediately crawled over to the body.
"Joshua!" Erlina cried. She scrambled over to his body and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
Joshua could feel her fragile little arms pat his hair, and he immediately got up to embrace her closer. He groaned in pain of course.
"We'll be deciding what to do with you insects for now..." The man at the top of the stairs spoke, "And keep it down or you'll be killed."
Immediately, the man shut the door, and it could be heard being locked from the other side. They were all sitting ducks, all their weapons were taken from them, and they made sure to take both girls' switchblades this time.
"Are you alright?" Joel said looking at Joshua's direction.
"I'm fine." He groaned while attempting to stand up, "We've got to try and find a way out of here..."
Joel, Ellie, and Erlina were all standing on their feet by now. As pessimistic as it sounded, they all didn't believe there was a way out of there.
"They're probably going to let us starve," Ellie assumed.
"Well we aren't going to stay here to find out..." Joshua said looking around.
"What about that window?" Erlina pointed out.
There was a small broken window near the ceiling of the cellar. The window was too small, and there was practically no light outside. That's when it dawned on Erlina that it was already night time. She was unconscious for hours from the time they made it inside of the house.
"Ugh, I guess we're going to have to sleep here with the rats tonight..." Ellie groaned.
"Rats?" Josh said in curiosity. He looked in her direction.
"Are you scared of them too?" Erlina asked.
Joshua scoffed and quickly shook his head.
"No, no, no. It's not that." He stepped away from the window, "I have an idea...it's not the best though..."
"Better than what we've got." Joel reminded.
At this point, their eyes were getting much use to the dark, so it was easy to tell them apart. Just seeing their faces was the problem. Joshua paused, listening for a while. He shushed the group from their little mutters. After a couple of seconds, he began hearing some squeaking in the room with him. He tapped and shuffled his feet loudly, hearing the squeaks flee away from him. Like a bat, he used his hearing to guide him. Eventually, he ended up running into a wall. The walls were old and wooden and creaked just by leaning on them. It seemed easy to break through, and that's when Joshua can to his final conclusion; he just hoping that it would sound better orally than in his head. He knocked the wall with his thin knuckles, and it sounded hollow compared to the other walls.
"I was thinking," he whispered to the group, "Maybe if we camped here for the night, and waited for the sun to shine in, we could get a chance of seeing where the rats are coming in from..." He couldn't see their faces, but he was sure that he was getting some blank stares, "I'm saying if there's a way in, there's a way out. These rats aren't just coming from thin air; there's a hole in one of these walls, and there's got to be a way out..."
"We can't fit through a rat hole, Josh," Ellie truthfully said.
"Appreciate the support, Ellie!" Joshua sarcastically commented.
"Well then, what are you suggesting?" Ellie asked desperately.
"Look." he said walking a little further back to the wall, "I just knocked that wall and there seems to be some space behind there."
"You're saying we could break it apart, follow the trail, and hope that it leads us out of here?" The Texan asked.
"It's not exactly gold, but... yeah." He said nervously.
Joel sighed and rubbed his eyes with one hand while the other was on his hip.
"It can't hurt to try..." Joel said with little hope.
* * *
For the rest of the night, the group decided to lay back and reserve some energy for their plan. Fortunately for them, they were able to get back their belongings in their backpacks. Their weapons, ammo, and other appliances were the only things missing. In addition, they finally got back their flashlights. The flashlights would've come in handy earlier but it was too late now. Joel and Joshua were the two to stay awake since the girls fell asleep after all the noise from the upper rooms had stopped. They both sat up against the wall, keeping their eyes on their little companions.
"Do you ever think that she'll be able to live a normal life?"
"Who?" Joel said looking over at Josh, "Erlina?"
"Ellie."
Joel sighed.
"I-I don't know." He hesitated, "I'd like to think so."
"Me too." Josh paused, "They're both so brave."
"They sure are. They're the future believe it or not. They're like super kids now, imagine when they get older."
Josh placed one knee up and rested his arm upon it after deep thought.
"I blame myself a lot... for everything that happens to her..."
"Now stop that," Joel said aggressively, "Stop that."
Josh looked over at him with a tearful face. Joel heard him sniffle.
"I have never, and I mean never, seen someone watch over their loved ones the way you do."
"Heh, you're the one to talk..." Josh chuckled, "It's hard to believe that she's not even your daughter.
Joel didn't answer after that. Joshua began again after noticing it was his cue to say something.
"Look, I know you tell me all the time that it's a long story..." he nervously shook his leg, "But we've been together for so long and-and I think it's time—"
"She's immune."
Josh paused. Joel couldn't see his reaction in the dark, but he was sure that it was a positive one.
"Wow..." he expressed, "I mean...I-I guessed, but I never thought it'd actually
be true."
"You knew?"
"Well, I guessed..."
"How?"
"When she mentioned the facility and the fire flies, it wasn't hard to tie together."
Joel looked impressed.
"What's the plan...for this...immunity of hers: A vaccine?"
"Yeah, a vaccine..." Joel said scratching the back of his head.
"And then what...?" Josh said sort of skeptically. He didn't mean to disperse the amount of hope for the world Joel had left, but a little brutal honesty would probably help clear any clouded thoughts or feelings.
"Joel. This world is big...and... I don't think a little vaccine and a couple of fire flies can change it back."
Joel didn't answer.
"Sorry."
"No, it's...it's okay. I understand why you'd see it that way."
After a long awkward moment of silence, Joel decided that it'd be fair to avoid any more talking of Ellie's immunity. It already got him thinking, and talking about it in an enemy's house wasn't the smartest thing to do.
"Look, how about you get some shut eye. I'll keep watch..."
"Are you sure?" Joshua asked.
"Yeah..."
Josh placed his hoodie up over his head and turned his back to Joel as he slid down on his side and closed his eyes. Before he knew it, he was knocked into slumber. As Joel stood up by himself, he couldn't help but pray that the plan would go through as expected.
* * *
The sunrise had finally arrived, and Joshua was awoken by Joel. The girls were the next to wake up, and they were all prepared for the plan. Just like Joshua said, the bright blue skies from the outside helped lessen the dimness of the room, and everyone was more than happy to see each other's faces. However, Josh was distraught when he noticed that one of the lenses on Erlina's glasses had been cracked. She reassured that everything would be okay, and that her vision wasn't as bad as she thought it'd be, but it took Joshua some time to get it off his mind.
Carrying on their task, the group searched the whole room for something they could use to break down the walls. They had to be as quiet and careful as possible, because even though they assumed that everyone was asleep, it would probably be safer doing it while they were wide awake and making noises.
