I awoke to the sound of a loud banging on my door. I sat up quickly and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and pushed the assortment of blankets off me and got up to open the door. I yanked it open to find my sister standing there, still in her pajamas.
"What do you want?" I asked groggily
"Mommy and Daddy thaid to tell you to come downthtaiwth" she answered with a look of satisfaction on her face. I always had to watch her and take care of her while mom and dad were out of the house so any chance she got to boss me around, she took it.
"Ugh, alright I'll be down in a second" I groaned as I shut the door again and maneuvered my way through my disaster of a room to my closet. I quickly pulled off the white muscle shirt I had put on before bed and replaced it with a faded black shirt I had found in a house we had come across before we found the dam. It looked like it had had some words and a design on it before but all that could be made out on it was part of a skull and the word "Seven". I also pulled on some worn out jeans, buttoned them, and slipped on my boots. I raked my hand through my dark brown bangs and pushed them out of my face and grabbed my watch. I glanced at my watch which read 8:10. I sighed then exited my room. As I made my way down the hallway I heard the voices of my mother and father and another voice I didn't recognize. I turned the corner and went down the stairs and into the kitchen to find my dad standing at the sink with his construction hat in hand, my mom sitting at the table with Abby on her lap, and a tall man and a young girl standing next to him. The man looked to be early in his fifties, with a slightly graying beard and just by looking at his grizzled face and his heavily calloused hands, I could tell that he'd seen some shit in his life. He had a stained and disheveled gray button up shirt on with a extremely faded brown backpack over his shoulders and some equally faded jeans and boots. The girl next to him had her messy auburn hair pulled back into a loose ponytail and had a fairly pretty face dotted with freckles. She also sported a worn out blue backpack with a few key chains and pins attached. She was also wearing a light red flannel jacket with a gray t shirt underneath accompanied by some dark jeans and a pair of overworked sneakers. As I walked into the room everyone's attention turned to me and my dad motioned towards the two.
"Hey son, these are our new housemates, Joel and Ellie" he said smiling.
"And Joel and Ellie, this is my son Zane" he said, introducing me. I forced a smile and greeted them.
"How's it goin'?" I asked politely. Gotta be polite in an apocalypse ya know. Joel smirked and replied.
"Well pretty good besides all the face-eaters wandering around out there" he chuckled, garnering a laugh from my mom and dad. I noticed Ellie didn't really react. She was just staring down at her feet, silent. Joel noticed this and nudged her. She looked up quick at this.
"Come on Ellie, be a little sociable" he said with a smile. She muttered a small "Hey" and went back her regularly scheduled program of "Ellie's Shoes". I groaned internally. Now I'm gonna have to deal with this too. I snapped out of my own mind and focused back on the conversation going on.
"Well me and Joel better get out of here and head down to the dam so we don't get Maria barking at us" my dad proclaimed as he placed his hat on his head. He leaned down and kissed my mother and Abby. Joel nodded to my dad and looked to Ellie.
"Ellie stay here and behave" he said with his hand on her shoulder. I half expected her to object like a normal teenager but she just shrugged.
"Okay, whatever" I could see a worried look in Joel's face but he just took his hand away and turned to my dad.
"Alright Earl, I'm ready" My dad nodded and the men made their way to the front door and slammed it behind them as they left. I turned to my mom and sister who had gotten up from their seats already and were cleaning up what looked like breakfast. I usually skipped breakfast because I always slept in late. Kinda my bad habit I guess.
"Mom I think I'm gonna head out no hang out with Joe, is that ok?" I asked already knowing what her answer would be.
"Sure hon, just make sure-" I interrupted and finished the sentence.
"-I stay out of trouble and be home for dinner, I know, I know" I completed with a smirk on my face. She rolled her eyes at me and then pointed at Ellie, who was still extremely interested in her shoelaces.
"And make sure you bring Ellie, show her around, ok?" I shook my head.
"Alright mom" I said grudgingly and I looked to Ellie.
"You comin'?" I asked as she looked up again.
"Oh, sure, I guess" she dully and she followed me as I walked towards the door. I opened the door and motioned for her to go. As she went out I slammed the door behind me prepared for an awkward day.
"So uhh, how old are you?" I asked as we walked down the road to Joe's house. I was trying my best to make small talk, but it's kinda hard when you're talking to someone who never talks.
"Umm do you…have any hobbies?" I waved my hand in front her face and still no response. Jeez what is up with this girl? After a little bit more of walking I was fed up.
"Alright you don't have to like me and I sure as hell don't need to like you but it would be nice to get an answer when I ask a question" I growled. Still silence. I just shook my head. But then I heard her mutter something.
"What's that?" I asked. Maybe we have hit a breakthrough!
"I said, I think I'm 15 I don't really keep track….haven't had much time to, are you happy now?" she snapped at me. I was surprised. It could talk.
"Yeah it's a start I guess" I shrugged it off. She just scoffed and before a knew it we arrived at Joe's house.
"Come on, back here." I led her over to the fence in between Joe's house and the one next to it. I lifted the rusty latch up and swung the creaky wooden door open and walked in, Ellie following me. As we walked into the backyard I heard some other people's voices. We turned around the corner of the house and, sitting at the picnic table was Joe, his two little brothers, Jason and Tim, Joe's friend, Halie, who he met at the schoolhouse here, and his other friend from school, Logan. Joe's little brothers were the first to notice us and they ran over and clung to my legs.
"Joe, Joe, your friend is here!" they said happily. I reached down and ruffled their hair and then they released my leg and resumed their wrestling match. Joe quickly jogged over to me and greeted us.
"Hey man how's it goin- wait who's that?" He gestured to Ellie, who was basically hiding in my shadow. I stepped over so they could see her.
"This is Ellie, she just got here and she is staying in our house." He smiled and waved.
"Hey Ellie, I'm Joe!" He said with that stupid grin on his face. She continued her silence and didn't answer him.
"Yeah, she doesn't really talk much" I said shrugging. He nodded and we all walked back over to the picnic table were Halie was once again hard at work on one of her wolf drawings with Logan watching over her shoulder. Ellie, me, and Joe both sat down on the opposite side of the table, in that order. I slammed my fist down on the table causing Halie's hand to tear a hole through the detailed drawing. She quickly glanced up and shot me a death glare. I smiled a little.
"Hey" I said simply. She growled at me and crumpled up the paper. As Joe was laughing uncontrollably, she wailed the ball at his face causing him to fall off the bench, that caused us all to all start laughing as Joe clutched his head, still, weirdly, laughing. Sometimes that kid has no self control. The only person not laughing was, you called it, Ellie. I nudged her but she continued to stare into space. I figured I'd just leave her alone.
"So who's the new girl?" Logan asked as we calmed down and Joe peeled himself off the ground.
"Oh this is Ellie, she just got here yesterday, she and her dad-" I was quickly cut off.
"He's not my dad…" I heard Ellie mutter. I made a mental note to question that later, maybe there was more to this girl than I thought. I continued.
"Well anyway she just got here and I'm basically her babysitter now"I remarked rolling my eyes. I noticed Logan was staring at Ellie a little too intensely.
"Hey Logmill, snap out of it!" I clapped in his face and he stopped staring and shook his head.
"Well if you don't want to, I can show her around" he quickly said with a smirk.
"Yeahhh, I don't think so" I said laughing. He proceeded to get up from his seat and before he could seat himself next to Ellie, he found himself lying on the ground clutching his stomach.
"Don't. Touch. Me." Ellie quickly stood up and trudged to fence and slammed through the gate. I groaned and stood up to go after her.
"Nice job, Logmill" I said sarcastically as he laid on the ground with his long brown hair covering his face.
"No problem, champ" he uttered weakly. I laughed and said my goodbyes and ran out to find Ellie. As I shut the latch on the gate. I looked around the street and she was nowhere to be found. I jogged down the street for a bit occasionally calling for her, but to no avail. There isn't many places to hide here so I had no clue were she could be. I figured the only place she could've gone was back to the house so I quickly trekked home to find nothing once again. I walked around the house to backyard. Still nothing until I heard the sound of splitting wood and a small cry. I looked up to find Ellie sitting in the big tree behind our house.
"What are you doing up there?" I asked in disbelief.
"What does it look like? I'm sitting in a tree" she snapped.
"Alright, alright, no need to get snippy-"
"What the fuck do you mean 'no need to get snippy'? Your little friend back there was being a fuckin' creeper, what'd you expect me to do?" She hopped down from the tree and brushed the leaves and pieces of bark off of her.
"Ok, yeah he did deserve that, but why'd you run off, we could've all just sat there and had a laugh-"
"Just stop, you don't need to be my friend and frankly I don't want you to be if those are the people hang out with, I mean seriously-" I quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes.
"Chill. The. Hell. Out." I said shortly and sternly. She abruptly pushed me hard but she didn't argue anymore. Then all of a sudden I had a great idea that might break her out of this funk.
"Here follow me…" I motioned for her to come, and she hesitated but eventually she slowly started walking with me. As we walked through the backyards of the houses I decided to retry the conversation thing.
"So if Joel isn't your dad, who is he?" I asked casually as we walked. What happened next was astonishing. I got an answer.
"He's just a guy that protected me for a long time" she answered quietly.
"How'd you meet him if he isn't family?"I pressed on more.
She didn't look at me or even utter an answer.
"Alright we can take our time, we have enough of it" I said with small laugh. Finally we reached the large wall separating us from the wilderness.
"Wow. A big wall. Fun" Ellie remarked bluntly.
"Hey, have some patience there's more" I bent down and felt around for my secret patch of dirt for a bit until I felt it give away. I quickly dug it away just enough for us to squeeze through. I stood up and motioned towards the hole.
"Ladies first" I said with smirk on my face. She just rolled her eyes and crawled through the small space, followed by me. I put the dirt back in place and looked around at the woods. Just as beautiful as always with the birds tweeting, the sun shining, and Ellie holding my bow. Wait, Ellie holding my bow?! I quickly ran over and grabbed it from her hand.
"What are you doing, this thing is dangerous!" I quickly stuffed it back in its hiding place in the tree and stood back up to find her glaring at me.
"Jesus, you're just like Joel used to be, I know how to shoot a bow" she said disgusted. I thought about it. Well what's the worse she could do? I quickly pulled the bow back out and handed it to her.
"Fine, show me, shoot that acorn hanging off the tree there" I directed smugly. About 12 feet away there was a tree with a branch holding an acorn high in the air. Before I could even stand back to watch, I heard the string stretch, the arrow fly, and the acorn clunk to the ground. Without saying a word, she shoved the bow back in my hands. I was dumbfounded. I checked my watch to find it ten minutes till five. Before I had time to ask her the millions of questions I had just thought I went and picked up the arrow, then threw it with the bow back in the tree and ran.
"What are you doing?" She asked as I frantically dug up the earth.
"We aren't supposed to be out here so we gotta get back quick" she simply nodded and we both quickly crawled under and I closed up the hole and we sprinted back to the house. By the time we reached the house we were sweating and we collapsed near the front door. I was laughing and smiling from the adrenaline rush. I glanced over at Ellie and for a split second I thought she was smiling but she quickly noticed and erased the emotion from her face.
"Well.. That was fun right?" I asked her as we sat.
"Whatever, I guess" she answered quietly and the she suddenly jumped up yanked the door open and went in. Great now we are back to the silent treatment again. Shortly after, I got up and followed, closing the door behind me. We both walked into the kitchen to find my dad, mom, Abby, and Joel sitting at the dinner table enjoying, instead of canned beans, canned soup. What an upgrade. I greeted everyone and Ellie said absolutely nothing, even to Joel. We both sat down at the table and my parents started their daily dinner table conversation about how work was and if the plant was still up and running, with some extra commentary by Joel, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. For a majority of the time, Ellie just sat there and said nothing, despite being prompted by Joel a few times. After a bit she stood up.
"I think I'm gonna go to bed, were can I sleep?" She asked quietly.
"Oh dear, your room is the room at the end of the hallway across from Zane's" my mother answered. Ellie muttered a thanks and quickly shuffled up the stairs.
"Why she's awfully quiet" my father said loudly laughing.
"Yeah, she's been through a lot, her and me both, just give her a little time, she'll grow on ya" Joel assured. I was still a little worried, which was weird because I had just met Ellie.
"May I be excused?" I asked as I stood up from the table. My parents nodded and I disposed of my food and slid the dishes into the sink. I quickly made my way up to the closed door of Ellie's room. I stood there for a moment trying to decide what to do, but I just settled on the simplest thing, knocking. I only knocked once before I heard a response.
"Joel if that's you just leave me the FUCK alone!" She yelled. Wow that was extreme, something has to be going on between those two.
"It's not Joel, it's me….it's Zane" I replied calmly. I heard her footsteps slowly approach the door and she opened it up slightly. I had noticed she had a change of clothes, now wearing a striped tank top in place of the flannel jacket and gray t shirt and she had her hair down which went down a little past her shoulders.
"What do you want?" She asked coldly.
"I was just going to-" that was when I noticed it. On her right arm was what looked like a big nasty scar. It covered almost the entirety of her forearm and wrist.
"Whoa are you alright?" I pointed at the scar and she quickly covered it.
"It's nothing, just get out of here I'm in a bad mood!" She slammed the door in my face and that was the last I saw of her till the next morning. Something was definitely….different about this girl.