"Do you see anything else, Marie?" Coach asked, crumpling up the wrapper of their now devoured treasure. Sharing the candy bar between the two had only satisfied the survivors for a brief moment. Marie had returned to crawling around the dusty floor under the toppled over shelves, but wasn't as successful this time around.
"That was the only one," She said solemnly, shimmying out from between the floor and the rotting wood. "There's just a bunch of opened, smelly packages in there…"
"That's a shame," Coach mumbled in disappointment, giving the young girl a reassuring pat on the head when she stood straight again. "Don't let that get to you."
Marie looked up at the man from under his kind touch, "Do you think Ellis found something in that back room?" The older survivor glanced over at the door behind the counter that the mechanic had disappeared through. "You know what?" He said in over exaggerated realization, bending down so he was at a better level with the child, "I bet he did!"
"You do?" The little girl asked, instantly looking hopeful again. Her face lit up again at the idea of more food- whether it was candy or not.
"I do, and you wanna know what? I bet he's hogging whatever he found right now."
"All to himself?"
"Uh-huh."
"He wouldn't!"
"Oh, he would," Coach said with a grin, "He's awful at sharing. You should go teach him a lesson." He gave her another pat on the back, gently pushing the girl towards the room Ellis went into.
Marie seemed to hesitate a moment before giving a cheeky grin that often crossed little kid's faces- Exactly the reaction Coach was hoping for. He wanted to do what he could to get the poor kid's mind off her current situation. She enthusiastically nodded at the idea.
Marie snuck over to the counter, slipping around the door just as the older survivor gave a grunt and slowly stood back up. "I'm getting too old to babysit kids," He muttered to himself, rubbing his sore back. If they didn't find a safe house, let alone Marie's group, Coach wasn't going to let the group hear the end of how exhausted he was. They had been traveling way too long without a break.
Marie slipped through the door with hardly a squeak out of it. She scanned the room, looking for the tall, peppy mechanic. "Ellis?" She whispered into the seemingly empty room, half hoping he'd answer and half hoping he wouldn't hear her. She slinked across the floor as slow as a cat on prowl, looking between the shelves. "Ellis?"
Her feet paused a moment when she heard a faint rustling further back in the room. Her cheeky little grinned returned and she whispered happily to herself, "Aha!" Carefully walking around the shelves, she could see two figures at the end of the room, in front of a desk.
Wait. Two?
Marie froze in spot, staring wide-eyed at the two near the desk. One of them was unmistakably Ellis, she could hear him mumbling something quietly to the other person behind him. "...If you just take what you want… don't hurt anybody…" Marie though she could make out the older man saying. The other person was holding a gun, their back facing the little girl. "Just shut up would you," The other person hissed, effectively getting the mechanic to shut his mouth for once with a jab of their gun.
The little girl's hands clenched, her eyes welling up with tears as she charged the person rummaging through Ellis' bag and threw her tiny arms around their waist. The person immediately sputtered in surprise at the sudden weight thrown against them, dropping their gun. As soon as the weapon hit the floor Ellis whipped around in equal surprise, no longer threatened to face one way without it in the assaulter's hand. He locked his eyes on Marie and froze a moment in panic, quickly realizing he had a very brief window of time to assure his own and now Marie's safety.
He certainly wasn't ungrateful for her help. It gave him a perfect opportunity to turn the tables on the stranger. Scrambling for the gun, he quickly told the younger survivor, "Marie! Run for the door! I'll-"
"Alyssa!"
"-try to… Wait," Ellis paused in confusion, looking over at the girl, "What?"
Marie hadn't attacked the stranger, in fact, she was hugging them very tightly, tears streaming from her eyes. Ellis got a better look at 'Alyssa', realization instantly dawning on him now that the panic was gone. What were the odds of running into other people in this area?
Unless they were from Marie's group.
The older girl in Marie's arms stood stock still, staring down at the little girl with a look of pure shock. "Marie…?" She whispered almost numbly at first, lifting a hand to touch the other's soft cheek. "...Oh my god," She gasped in disbelief when she realized that the child clinging to her was a very real Marie. "Oh my god, Marie…!"
Alyssa collapsed on the floor next to Marie, pulling her to her chest like she'd never let the girl go. Marie hugged back with equal vigor resting her head on her shoulder and looking up at Ellis. "It's Alyssa!" She said happily through the tears, almost in disbelief herself, "It's Alyssa- My sister- She's here! This is her! I knew she wouldn't leave me!"
"Your sister tried to shoot me," Ellis said a bit uneasily, but tried to sound genuinely happy for the little girl. He was truly happy for the reunion, but was a bit put off from almost being mugged.
"Yeah, that's her!" Marie said as if it wasn't a problem. "Great," The mechanic replied, slowly picking up the gun on the floor as an extra precaution. As he carefully stuck the pistol in his back pocket Alyssa pulled back from her sister.
"I thought you were dead!" She shuddered out, squeezing Marie's shoulders at the mere thought, "I looked every where for you..!"
"It's okay! I got away from the scary people!" Marie explained to the older girl, putting her own hands over Alyssa's, "I ran really fast and hid! Then these nice people found me and decided to help me!" She looked up at Ellis and her sister's gaze shortly followed.
"Heya, I'm Ellis," Ellis said awkwardly, waving his hand slightly, "I'm the guy you tried to mug.."
"Ah, right.." Alyssa said with an equal awkward tone in her voice, "I uh… I wouldn't have took your stuff if I knew you were helping my sister."
"Oh, no. I'm sure you had a perfectly good reason to try and take my things at gunpoint."
"Well, you probably weren't just going to hand it over, I needed-"
"Alyssa?" Marie piped up, slowly lifting up her hand to look at it, "...Are you okay…?" Both of the older survivors looked at her raised hand. It was coated in blood. Ellis' face paled a bit and moved closer to the two to see what was wrong.
"Holy shit!" Ellis gaped, pointing at Alyssa's side, "You're bleeding!"
"Thank you for that brilliant deduction," Alyssa huffed in irritation, clutching her side as if she had just remembered the wound, "Bandages. I needed bandages. I was jumped by a hunter while I was looking for my sister, so I came in here to see if they had any medical supplies…"
"...And there wasn't any.. Then I showed up," The mechanic said, remembering he had seen the dead hunter on the street outside, "Well, if that's what you wanted you could've just asked!- Rochelle doesn't let me hold any medical stuff because I told her about this one time when me and my buddy Keith-"
"Ellis!" Marie exclaimed in distress.
"Right, right," Ellis sputtered, cutting his explanation short, "Anyways, the rest of my group is outside- Let's fix you up before you bleed out." He held out a hand to help the girl up. Alyssa stared at his hand a moment before grabbing it with her free hand.