CHAPTER SIX

Warning

The sky was covered in streaks of orange and grey, slowly blending into navy blue beyond the horizon. A pale moon appeared behind a cloud, and the town was engulfed in shades of the twilight.

The people were being brought back to their houses, or what was left of them. Trucks drove through the empty streets, and Joel and Kenda stepped back as one went past in front of them. They saw the forlorn faces in the back, all familiar, but bruised, hurt and red with tears. A distant building collapsed slowly, and it's roof shook as it fell in further, sending a puff of black smoke into the air, with saw dust and ashes.

'Where's Ellie?' Joel asked, continuing ahead through the narrow street, going in the direction where he had last seen her.

'There,' Kenda mumbled, and Joel looked in the direction she was pointing at. He caught a few familiar figures walking in from the left, and shortly, saw Ellie running in behind them. He made his way towards her, and overheard bits of the conversation she was having with Houser and the two other men.

'What's that supposed to mean?' Ellie's voice was loud, and her eyes held Houser's with a malicious gaze. Joel could see the panic in her demeanour, her shaky fingers, her wide, frantic eyes. 'She was in the town. If you looked harder, you could have found her. What about Johnny?'

Houser didn't even look at her. He gave her an indifferent shrug, getting back to some serious conversation with the other two men, a map in hand.

'Fucking look at me when I'm talking to you!' she exclaimed, tugging at his wrist hard. Houser looked down at her, taken aback, eyebrows scrunching together.

He saw his mouth bending into a scowl. He pointed a finger at her. 'Listen to me, kid, you touch me again-'

'Hey!' Joel barked, rushing ahead in between Ellie and Houser, an end of his mouth turned up in a growl. He pushed Houser's finger away from Ellie, and said, 'She's right, Houser. Where's the girl?'

Houser's demeanour stiffened a little after looking at Joel's glare. He cleared his throat and shook his head once, reluctantly. 'Look, Joel, I rounded up everybody I could find. It was a fucking circus. I couldn't find a few . .'

'So you just left them, is that it?' Kenda stated. Joel's eyes held Houser's in a challenging, dangerous glare.

He didn't reply, simply avoided Joel's gaze as he glanced at the houses and the street. 'I tried,' he finally uttered, looking at Joel. 'I really did.'

Ellie felt herself drowning, sinking lower and lower into black water as the worst scenes of possibilities played in her mind. She gulped, pressed her knuckles together a she took a deep breath and glanced around nervously.

She saw Kenda and Joel talking to Houser and shook her head once. She felt like everything around her was melting, and she found images flashing in her head- beautiful, blissful memories admixed with horrible possibilities. She didn't know what she needed to stress on.

Her eyes drifted behind, and caught a glimpse of the pawn shop a street away, right through an alley. A dark window shook, reflecting light for a second, and she caught a halo of yellow light flashing from the inside. She felt her heart skip a beat.

'Look,' she said, her hand reaching to tap Joel's wrist. He followed her finger and saw the pawn shop across the street.

Ellie's face went red, and she looked at Joel, and then at Kenda. Without a word, she rushed towards the pawn shop.

Kenda followed her immediately, Joel behind her as they rushed across the alley way and over a low fencing.

Kenda rushed ahead and gently placed a hand in front of Ellie's chest just as she was about to the enter the shop.

She leaned against the wall, and Ellie followed her example. Joel loaded his gun, and when he looked in through a window, he saw a flash of light moving, and then disappearing.

'Stay back,' Kenda mumbled, raising her gun in front of her as she appeared at the door, slowly opening it and stepping in.

The shop was dark, the racks and shelves toppled over, the products on the ground. The only source of light was from the streetlamp outside that gushed in through the windows.

'Stop right there.'

Kenda froze, her gun lifted towards the direction the voice had come from. She felt a chill go down her spine, as her eyes adjusted to the dark. She found a silhouette in the corner, a man, and as she squinted, she saw him clutching a familiar figure in front of him, elbow wrapped around the figure's neck.

Ellie stood beside Kenda, her gun pointed at the man.

'Ellie,' Johnny uttered, his voice weak. The man tightened his grip around Johnny's neck, his knife positioned right across his Adams apple.

'Let the kid go,' Joel ordered, stepping ahead from between the two of them, his rifle pointed at him. 'You're outnumbered. You ain't gonna make it.'

'Put your guns down, now,' the man demanded, stepping back, moving away from the shadow of a rack. Lamplight found his form, and illuminated them- the man's malicious gaze. Johnny's face was wet with tears, a drop of blood trickled down his temple.

'Put them down now or this kid is dead!' the man yelled, pressing the knife harder against Johnny's neck. Johnny uttered a faint cry, shut his eyes tight.

The man's face appeared clear in the light- ragged, rusty features and a red beard, a single grey eye. He looked at the three of them, and suddenly, his face changed. His grip still remained on the hilt of the knife, but his eyes squinted.

'Kenda,' he uttered.

She felt a jolt in her spine, and looked sideways from the aim, her fingers still tight around the gun. Joel glanced at her, his eyes wide, his mouth agape.

She gulped once, as the fact sank in and she drew in a sharp breath. She stepped closer warily, pointing her gun right at his face. Ellie gave a quick nod to Johnny, trying to comfort him, telling him that it'll be okay. He looked terrified, his hands gripped around his captor's arm, his cheeks red.

'Ed,' Kenda uttered, her voice low, indifferent. Her gun still pointed high at his head. 'The fuck happened to you?'