I awoke feeling fantastic. My body felt rested, which was very uncommon. Usually my body feels like I got struck by a car, and then struck by another one. I peeked outside my tent, and saw that Joel was not sitting near the fire, which was now extinguished. This confused me, because Joel usually gets up around five o'clock in the morning to check on the fire. If the fire went out, which happens every single time, he will try to get it going again. Where on Earth is he? I thought.

Realizing that there must be something wrong, I cautiously exited the comfort of my tent. I looked around, and saw nothing. It was very rare that Joel leave me alone. Every now and then, he would see a rabbit and go after it, but even then he would leave me a note. Worry began to flow into me.

My first instinct was to look at the ground, to see if he had left any footprints. If he didn't, then I'd jump off of a cliff. It seemed to always be snowing, and it was pretty much impossible not to leave tracks. Thankfully, I found some. I saw Joel's boots in the snow, but what I saw next terrified me. I also saw two more sets of tracks, and they weren't rabbit tracks. The footprints were not far apart from each other, so that indicated that they were walking. Joel was not being chased. But, that either means that Joel willingly went with them, or they had him at gunpoint, and I highly doubt that Joel would willingly go with anyone. He's one of the toughest men I've ever seen.

Joel always told me that if I woke up and he was not there, then I should wait at the campsite. If two days pass and he's not there, then he's most likely dead, and that I could either remain at the campsite, or try to find somewhere else to settle. Sadly, curiosity got the best of me. I knew that Joel was in trouble. So with that thought in mind, I set out to find the old man.

After about four hours passed, the footprints finally ceased. I never stopped to take a break, for fear that Joel would be dead by the time that I arrived. I saw a cabin in the distance. It was not small, but not very large either. I grabbed my gun, and slowly walked towards the house.

I slowly opened the door, which made a dreadful creaking sound, which, surprisingly, did not alert whoever took Joel captive. I seemed to be in a kitchen, because there was a cooler with drinks in it, and there were many cabinets. There was also food all over the counter. Carefully, I walked towards the next room. I peered around the corner, and saw that there were two men inside, sitting on a couch. They were deep in conversation, but I was sure that they would see me if I tried to sneak past them.

Knowing that this approach would not work, I turned around to exit the house, so I could crawl through one of the windows. To my horror, when I turned around, there was a gun pointed at my face. I looked up from the weapon to see that the holder was a woman, who looked to be around thirty years old. She had brown hair, which she did into a pony tail. Her eyes were also brown. While the lady was fairly beautiful, she had a cold, serious look on her face.

After we stared at each other for around five minutes, she finally opened her mouth to speak. "You are Ellie, I presume?" As soon as she said this, the two men from the couch got up and joined us in the kitchen. I slowly nodded my head in response. The lady smiled, and put her gun down. "Well Ellie, your friend is in the back room. If you wish to go see him, then I will escort you. Though, you don't really have a choice. After all, the Fireflies have been searching for you for a very long time."

Author's Note: Sorry that it's been awhile. I had a little bit of writer's block, and I have been focusing on school. It's obviously spring break this week, so I'll try to write another chapter if I have the time. Hope you enjoyed!

Songs:

Angel of Death – Slayer

Good Times Bad Times – Led Zeppelin

Achilles's Last Stand - Led Zeppelin

Wheels of Confusion – Black Sabbath

Forty Six $ 2 – Tool

Rooster – Alice In Chains

Would – Alice In Chains

Man In The Box – Alice In Chains

Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd

Hey You – Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd

Come Together – The Beatles

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – The Beatles

One Man Army – The Classic Crime

Young Again – The Classic Crime

You And Me Both – The Classic Crime

Warrior Poet – The Classic Crime

Sliver – Nirvana

All Apologies – Nirvana

About A Girl – Nirvana

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle – Nirvana

Drain You – Nirvana

Doctor Alibi – Slash ft. Lemmy Kilmister

The Final Countdown – Europe

There is a lot of songs this time. I've been listening to music a lot, as you can see. Bye guys!