I hope you enjoy this. The idea has been bouncing around in my head for awhile and I finally bounced it onto some paper. It's a little rough, but very enjoyable to write. Updates may be slow because it's hard to stand up to Cronin's writing style. I don't even know if people really read Passage fanfiction anyway. But here it is nonetheless.

Ellie

Chapter 3

"Don't be afraid of the dark."

That's the only thing I remember hearing my mother say. I was eight when the virals came.

I hardly remember my father except that my mother always told me he was away at work and that he was gone a lot for the year and half or so before the outbreak.

Now I know what really happened.

Virals always go home.

One night there was a crash in our living room and my mother told me to go up the attic and hide in the trunk.

The trunk was an old metal traveling case that my father used to use when he would take experiments to conferences and on business trips. When my mother heard about the outbreak of virals she took me up to the attic and stripped all of the casing out of it and put in some padding, cans of food and astronaut food we bought at the store. And a .22 revolver. She told me that when she said to go to the attic, I was to go straight up, close the hatch behind me and crawl into the trunk and shut it and not make any noise.

That's exactly what I did.

I heard gun shots and screams and horrible clicking and growling noises and then there was a ripping sound and I could hear the viral moving around near my trunk. I tried not to make any noise, just like my mother said, but it was hard because it was dark and there was a monster. I felt the trunk lifted into the air and then thrown across the attic, it smashed into the wall and cracked open. The last thing I remember from that night is looking into the strangely orange eyes of a viral and then blacking out.

I woke the next day, strangely unharmed.

I was still in my trunk, like I had been when I blacked out the night before, but all of the food that had been in it had been ripped apart and thrown around the attic. The attic was mostly intact except for the large hole where the hatch had been. It looked like the viral hadn't been able to get its hands to work on the cord so it simply burst through the ceiling instead. There was a large hole in the window where the viral must have smashed his way out to find shelter from the approaching sunlight.

I realize now that, that was the most scared I've ever been. I had to jump from the attic down the rest of the first floor. Pieces of ceiling plaster crunched under my feet as I walked toward the living room, clutching the revolver my mother had put in the trunk with me. There was blood on the floor near the chest where my mother kept the shotgun and it wasn't open. That scared me. My mother hadn't even had a chance to try to defend herself.

I went into the kitchen and climbed onto the counter so that I could reach the cabinets. I pulled out the cereal and a bowl then climbed down off the counter and got the milk out of the fridge. I fixed myself some breakfast, ate and then put the cereal bag and some of the can foods into my school backpack.

I walked into my room and changed out of my pajamas and put them in my bag along with a couple extra pairs of underwear like my mother always did when I went to a sleep over. I hoisted my backpack onto my back and walked out the front door. That was the last time I ever saw my home. I walked toward the direction of my school and never looked back. It was only when a soldier directed me toward a group of survivors getting ready for the train that I broke down. My third grade teacher was there with a big group of kids from my class. Most of the kids were crying so it was really hard for me to stay strong, so I didn't. My teacher rubbed my back and told me everything was going to be okay.

The soldiers took the food out of my backpack and the gun out of my hand and asked where my mother was. I told them that I didn't know. I told them about the crash and hiding in the trunk and staring into the viral's eyes and then waking up with my mother gone. They looked scared then. They made me go sit in a janitor's closet. I know now that they were afraid I had been infected by the viral, but I wasn't. Eventually they let me out. From that day on the world had changed.

Chapter 4

The bell rang and I shut the old leather-bound book. It had been my mother's. She was killed two weeks ago when a viral breached the wall at her post. My mother was tough as nails. She'd been able to shoot since she was eight after all and it was just a simple fluke that her rifle jammed when it did.

I didn't like to use the rifles for that very reason. My father was taken when I was thirteen. He was the one who taught me how to use one of the crossbow-like weapons that I prefer. He always called it a balest, but no one else had ever heard of it before. He made it out of a broken crossbow and some old scrap metal he found. They're almost like over powered slingshots. One thing about balests that makes them so effective is that you can retrieve your ammo. A couple weeks ago I shot a viral that was climbing up the wall; it was the third in the last month to try the walls. I used the same balest bolt to shoot one last night.

They like my post. I'm always at this post. It is mine. I shot the viral that killed my mother from this very spot. I retrieved the bolt from it and it was purged by the flames that burned her body.

"You know you aren't supposed to have that up here," Wesley said as he walked over to the ladder behind me. Every other post had a ladder, Wesley's didn't.

"It was a quiet night," I replied with a shrug as I put the journal back in my satchel. "You gonna tell on me, Wes?"

"Do I ever tell on you, Ellie?" Wesley joked as he motioned for me to follow him down the ladder, his floppy, light brown hair falling in front of his muddy river colored eyes.

I shook my head then nodded out toward the tree line. "Brother's been sticking close lately and I want to make sure he leaves before they let the cattle out, if not I'll call the Burns."

Wesley pulled a face but then nodded and started to climb down the ladder. Wesley didn't like the Burns. It's their job to clear out any virals that were still in the fields. Burns are the toughest people in the District. Riggs is one of the Burns. He used to be a Shoot like Wes and me, but the Burns picked him out after he survived being knocked off the wall by a viral and still managed to kill the bastard with his shiv. He spent thirty days in quarantine with two cracked ribs and a broken leg. He has four scars running down the right side of his face and down the back of his neck where the viral slashed him; that's why he was in quarantine. As soon as they cleared him again, the Burns snatched him up and turned him in to one of them.

That hurt Lyra a lot. Lyra is one of the cattle runners and I know that it kills her every time someone calls the Burns out. I've never been a big fan of Lyra, but I do pity her having a husband in the Burns. A lot of Burns didn't last very long. Each team of Burns was responsible for an area and Riggs is part of the team that responds to my post. And my post is popular.

Brother likes to hang around my post and Brother is a very gifted killer. He never runs the wall when I'm at my post, but he's taken down at least ten Burns since he showed up. A lot of the time he makes a lunge at them and then disappears. It depends on who's there.

Brother turned up a little after I started the wall four years ago. The joke went around the rest of the Shoots that he could be my brother, looking for mercy. I was seventeen and I was offended at first. I told my mother about it and she laughed, telling me that it was just a joke. From that point on I called him Brother and the name stuck.

Brother is big, bigger than the other virals and smart. He didn't rush my mother's post. He only rushed my post, but only after my shift was up. And sometimes, early in the morning, I swear I hear him talking to me. Sometimes when I'm not on shift. Sometimes when I've had a little too much. Sometimes when I haven't gotten enough sleep. Never when I'm in my right mind.

Stella, he whispers to me, Stella, come to me. The wall, Stella. The wall lies between us, my Stella. Stella. Stella. Stella. My Stella. My Only. My Stella. My Queen. Stella. Stella. Stella.

I looked out over the edge of the wall and saw Brother watching me. Dawn was just starting to break over the horizon and the rest of the virals had retreated to wherever it was theywent to, but not Brother. Brother sat on his haunches under a large pine tree a couple hundred yards out. The cattle gate was under the post to the right and any minute the second bell would ring and those gates would open and six people would come out with thirty head of cattle. And Brother would be waiting.

He was waiting. Of course, he was waiting. I jumped to my feet but he was already moving. He was slinking toward the gate, along the tree line. The second bell was suddenly tolling and I was trying to scream over it. They couldn't hear me. The Burns from my post- Riggs and his boys- had seen me and were sprinting for the gate. The bell was too loud and the Burns at the gate post couldn't hear us. The gates were opening and the cattle were coming out. Lyra and Sierra were the first out along with the cattle. I looked down and saw Riggs sprinting along the line of the wall at its base, just as I was along the top. I looked back toward the post over the gate and saw that Jeremy had already left for the morning. He had remembered to untie the tug though. I loaded my balest then reached for one of the flash grenades all the Shoots kept on their belts.

Brother was moving toward the herd pouring out of the gates to graze. I reached the post and hooked the tug to my belt before jumping over the edge of the wall, counting on its counter balance to catch me before I hit the rocks below, I unclipped the tug just before I hit the ground. I threw the flash grenade between Brother and the herd then shouldered my balest and took aim. I closed my eyes and traced his movement with my mind before the flash went off. I opened my eyes and fired.

He'd been right where I thought, but angled wrong and I had clipped his chest. He had been heading for Sierra, not Lyra or the closer cows, like I'd thought. He let out an inhuman roar and swiped out with his hand, slashing into Sierra and her horse and knocking her to the ground. He wasn't going to stop. I grabbed another flash grenade off my belt and threw it at him.

If I could just distract him for a second more.

I loaded my balest again and shouldered it. "Brother!"

Brother turned, his bloody claws still hovering above Sierra, and clicked at me, recognition flitting through his eyes.

Stella.

The grenade went off with a mighty bang and a flash of light so bright it blinded me to what happened next.

I shot the bolt and I heard Brother scream again, another joined him. My vision cleared just in time to see Sierra flip. It was the fastest I've ever seen a person go. That first slash must have been the one to do it.

I blinked the last of the stars out of my eyes in time to see Brother leaping at me. There was a thunderous bang and Brother was knocked off his path, giving me time to roll to the side and regain my feet. I looked up and saw Riggs standing ten feet away, Lyra cowering behind him. I ran toward them, loading my balest as I went.

"Ellie! Down!" Riggs called and I looked up in time to see the terror cross his scarred face before something hit me in the back.

I hit the ground, my balest flying to the side. I grabbed my last flash grenade and flipped over as fast as I could, coming face to face with Brother. He leaned over me; his inhumanly flat face less than a foot from mine. I would have to be fast. I looked him in the eye and it seemed to startle him. He stared at me and I could feel his breathing.

Stella. Stella. Stella. My Stella.

My Stella.

I shoved the armed flash grenade into his gaping mouth just before it went off. There was a thunderous clap as the grenade went off and I was blinded. Brother screamed and ichor dripped onto my cheek, neck and chest. I felt his claws on my chest, a great weight on me, I was suffocating. I tried to scream but no sound left my mouth. I knew my eyes were open because my world was white, but I could see nothing. My world was empty except for a man. He was standing in front of me. He was probably in his mid-thirties, he had five o'clock, dishwater blonde hair and lightly rimmed glasses. He was wearing a white lab coat with a nametag on it that read Liam Fairley. He was looking down, muttering something. He looked up and I could suddenly hear him.

"My Stella," he whispered as he reached toward me and then his face began to twist and distort, flattening and losing its humanity.

A shot rang out and the man was gone.

"Ellie," someone whispered but I couldn't tell who. "Ellie."

I groaned and opened my eyes, still I saw nothing.

"I'm blind," I said as deadpan as I could manage, because of how afraid I was that it was true.

There was a chuckle from somewhere to the side of me. "Not permanently."

It was Riggs. That meant—"Ellie, we were so worried."

I sighed, Lyra was here too. "Eh, I'm fine."

"You've got guts, Elle," Riggs said and it was then that I realized how far away they both sounded.

I must have pulled a face because he chuckled again. "Quarantine?"

"Yes, ma'am," Riggs said, "You had shit all over you, Ellie. His face was half off by the time any of us did anything."

"It didn't kill him," I said and I could feel that I was right.

"No," he replied with a sigh, "Wesley got him with his rifle and he bolted."

I quirked an eyebrow, Wesley doesn't miss. I didn't understand how Brother was still alive. "He missed?"

"He was at weird angle. I swear that Brother of yours is one smart son-of-a-bitch. He could have killed you, Ellie, but he didn't. He just sat there and stared at you," Riggs said and he sounded disturbed.

I thought for a moment. I could trust Riggs. I had always trusted Riggs, ever since we were kids. But Lyra…

"Riggs…" I trailed off, not sure how to ask.

"Lyra," Riggs started, "Have you checked up on Sierra's girls yet?"

I heard a chair scraping against the floor before the door opened and closed. Riggs sighed.

"Did Sierra..?"

"We got her, Ellie."

"I couldn't stop him."

"You did your best."

"I saw him, Riggs," I said and sucked in a deep breath.

"Saw who?"

"Brother," I replied.

"We all saw him, Ellie, what are you talking about?" Riggs asked, sounding a little put off.

"No, just after the grenade went off I saw him. I saw who he used to be," I said in a rush, afraid he wouldn't believe me.

"You were probably already gone. There's no way you could know who he was," Riggs argued.

"No, Riggs, it was him. I'm sure," I demanded as I sat up and blinked, trying to get the whiteness out of my eyes.

"How can you be sure?" Riggs pressed.

"Because I heard him. He told me!" I yelled and the silence that fell was deafening.

I could hear Riggs breathing.

"You're already in quarantine, Ellie. If you say things like that, they won't let you out. You were probably just hearing things. Tell me you were just hearing things."

He believed me. I could tell Riggs believed me and it scared him. It scared me too. I had seen Brother, heard him, what did that make me?

"You're right. I was probably just gone by then," I said as I leaned back against the old mattress.

"It was pretty traumatic."

"How long am I in for?" I asked as I closed my eyes and the white turned to black.

"Not long, once they hosed you off we could see there weren't any puncture wounds. As far as we can tell, he didn't want you dead, Ellie, and no one can figure out why," Riggs said and I could hear the concern in his voice.

I smiled in the direction of his voice. "How long is 'not long'?"

"Unless you start showing symptoms, probably late tomorrow or the next morning."

"Good."

"Good?" Riggs asked with a chuckle, "Why? You got plans?"

"Yes, sir," I replied with a nod toward him. "I've got to take down Brother before he can fully recover."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ellie, even after they let you out of here your vision probably won't be at full capacity for another week or two," he said, his voice bordering on scolding.

"I can shoot with my eyes closed, you know that. And anyway, I know Brother like the back of my hand. I know how he moves. I know his patterns. I could get him right now if I saw him," I argued.

"That's the problem. You can't see anything," Riggs said and I heard the sound of his chair scraping across the cement floor.

"You're leaving?" I asked and I was ashamed at how upset I sounded.

"I have to go man the wall," he said and I knew it for the evasion it was.

"Why're you going up the wall?"

"Someone has to do your job," Riggs said and I heard the door open and close, his footsteps echoed down the corridor after him.

Wesley

I should have visited sooner. I should have visited before Riggs got the chance.

I walked down the narrow slanted hallway that lead down into the quarantine bunker and marveled at the engineering of it. The hallway was barely a foot and a half wide and six feet tall and made entirely of reinforced cement. A viral would have a hell of a time getting down the corridor and maintaining any sort of inhuman speed. Their broad shoulders usually spanned more like two or two and a half feet. Or three in Brother's case. And they might dent the cement but they couldn't break it on account of the whole thing being more or less a cement covered steel cage.

And that was just the hallway.

The quarantine chambers themselves were even more impressive. They had the same basic structure of the hallway only on a larger scale. The rooms were basically jail cells. They were usually seven feet tall and ten feet deep and hardly six feet wide. And each one individually wrapped up in a steel cage. The doors to each of them were reinforced steel with hinges that were designed specifically to keep virals in. The hinges would lock down if they were pushed on from the inside of the cell. And each cell had a small window with a small steel cover over it. And all of the rooms could be made air tight. It took too long to suffocate a viral. It made everyone in the District nervous when someone flipped in quarantine so it was always just best to finish them as quickly as possible. The usual practice is to seal the door and reinforce it, shoot through the window with a shot gun, seal the window shut and then flood the chamber and wait 'til the poor bastard drowns.

I stopped in front of the window for Ellie's cell and listened, trying to gage whether she was awake or not.

"Ellie?" I asked tentatively.

"Wes?" she replied and I heard movement.

"Hey, sorry I couldn't get in sooner," I said as I sat down in front of the window. I slid it open and looked in.

Ellie was leaning back against the old mattress in the room, facing the window, eyes open, but still wide and milky and unseeing. It made her usually moss green eyes look muddy and sick; they were flecked with a strange brown-gold.

"Don't worry about it," Ellie said as she waved her hand in my direction, the motion seemed loose and unfocused. "How're you feeling, Wes?"

I frowned. "I'm feeling just fine. You're the one who got tackled by a viral, how are you feeling?"

"Restless," she answered and I laughed because I knew she was telling the truth. "When are they letting me out?"

"You only have about eight more hours. Hang in there," I said and I saw her pout a little.

"Remind me that I owe you a drink when I get out," she said, closing her eyes again.

"A drink? Really?"

"Least I can do for the guy that saved my life."

I paused. "He wasn't going to kill you, Ellie. Anyone could see that."

It was one of the main reasons she was in here actually. The council was worried that Brother might have some kind of mind control over her. And I couldn't help but agree. She is unusually attached to Brother. I don't mean she cares for him, but he has become almost a distraction to her. She's become obsessed with him. Over the last couple weeks she's gotten more and more distant. Not just with me, but with everyone. She takes double shifts on the wall on some nights. And on the nights when she doesn't take double shifts, she's nowhere to be found. She eats alone. She sleeps alone.

"I think he knows me, Wes," she said, interrupting my thoughts.

"He's an animal, Ellie. He may be smarter than the others, but he isn't that smart," I replied, a little put out with her.

"I think he was that smart," she said, unperturbed by my tone.

"Was?"

"When he was human. I think he was really smart before," Ellie said. She sounded far away and I was worried.

"How do you know?" I asked, sighing back into my seat; preparing for what was sure to be a long conversation about one of my least favorite topics.

"I saw him."

"We all saw him, Ellie." Another sigh.

"No," she said, "I saw a man while I was on the ground, just before I passed out. He was tall; he had sandy hair and glasses. He was wearing a lab coat."

I balked at her. I was glad that she couldn't see me. "What do you mean you 'saw' him?"

"The world was white because of the flash grenade and that's when I saw him. He was standing right in front of me," Ellie replied, opening her eyes and looking through him at the image in her mind.

"You shouldn't say that, Ellie."

She scoffed. "What is with you two? I'm not mind controlled."

So she'd told Riggs too. He and Lyra were the only other people who had been to see her, and Ellie sure-as-hell didn't tell Lyra.

"Okay, okay, not mind-controlled, but still, how do you know it was him?" I said, letting her go. She was the Ellie I've always known. There was nothing different about her that I could tell.

"He talked to me," Ellie said and it was quieter.

"When you saw him?" I asked, alarmed, but trying hard not to show it.

"And before," she said, still quiet.

"How long?"

"A couple of years. Since I started the wall I guess. More often since my mother died," Ellie replied, her voice little more than a whisper.

"You never told me," I said, trying to keep the hurt out of my voice. I could tell by the look on her face that I didn't succeed.

"I couldn't tell you, Wes. Would you have believed me?" she said, pleading.

"Maybe I would have," I replied defensively.

"You would have thought I was crazy."

"I would not."

"You would have."

"But Riggs wouldn't, huh?"

That was the wrong thing to say.

"I didn't tell Riggs until yesterday and he thought I was wrong."

Well, that wasn't what I expected.

"He told me I had already passed out," Ellie said, and the sadness in her voice nearly killed me.

"Ellie—" the midday bell began to toll. I sighed. "I'll come get you when they let you out, okay?"

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "Thanks."

I hope you enjoyed. Please review and let me know what you think.