She could feel a tear fall onto her cheek. Ellie didn't want any of this to happen. She didn't want to be immune. She didn't want Riley to be dead. Ellie just wanted to be like one of the girls in the journal she read. They didn't have to worry about anything except if their outfit would go together. But she was stuck here, a place where a gunshot to the head was sane. She stood up from the grass and started to walk back to the compound. Ellie knew she was out too long today, Joel was going to go crazy and give her another lecture about how she needed to be careful.

Ellie jumped over a fallen tree log, lost in her thoughts. She fell out from her daydream to a noise. Something felt off. She couched over by an old maple tree and listened. Leaves and sticks crunched in rhythm. Footsteps.i knew something was off, Ellie thought to herself. She peered around the tree to see two boys, probably brothers walking out of the woods. One of them was about 15 and the other was 19 maybe 20. The younger boy glanced over at his brother and said something that Ellie couldn't hear. They walked closer and closer to her. She reached to her back pocket and grabbed her switchblade.

"Sam?Do you think we can kill a squirrel or something? I'm starving." the younger boy whined, kicking the dirt. His hair draped over his eyebrows so he kept flipping it away. Sam looked down at his brother and gave him a look.

"Nathan, we just ate. are you that hungry?" Sam sounded ticked off.

"The last time we ate was 6 hours ago."

" Once we pass through here okay?" They both stopped right in front of the rotten maple tree Ellie was hiding behind. Taking a deep breath, Ellie stepped out, the switch held out toward them. The two brothers froze in place, in shock. Sam pushed Nathan behind him and his expression turned sympathetic. "Hey, hey. we don't want any trouble. If you could just let us pass we will be on our marry way."

"Why are you here?" she asked, her voice demanding an answer. Nathan peered from behind his brother and his blue eyes boring into Ellie.

He pushed in front of his brother and spoke," We are just passing through." Sam looked down at his brother with a dirty look. Ellie stared at them both with a cold look, switchblade lingering in the air.

"where are you going?" She asked trying to make her voice not so cold.

Sam spoke," We are heading north, maybe california. Why?" the question lingered in the air for a moment while Ellie thought. maybe I can get away from the cold weather and from joel, she thought.

She put her switchblade away in her pocket and looked back up at them," can you take me with you? I can't take it here anymore."

Sam sighed and looked down at Ellie, " how do I know I can trust you?" " I won't pull anything I promise." Ellie said extending out a hand.

"If you do anything, I will Kill you. And we aren't going to help you, so keep up." Sam says shaking the hand.

"Thank you."