What's up guys! I'm back from Cali! Between you and me, I already miss my big bro lol. Sucks without having him around in our home anymore :(. Well, this chapter was kinda rough for me. I still have jet lag since I JUST CAME BACK TODAY AND PULLED AN ALL NIGHTER ON THE AIRPLANE. I wrote this story up in the sky so think of this one as a special :) loljk bear with me if i made any grammar mistakes. I am one tired man right now lol. So this chapter basically takes place where Ellie and Maria go hiking to check out the rebel's base. So... It takes place during the Fireflies chapter!
So without further ado...
Chapter 8 – Ellie – Hiking With Infected
"So where do you want to start?" Maria asked
"Dunno," I replied, "You already told me about him and his wife Jane… They were divorced right?"
"Yeah. Right after the baby. It was harsh on him." Maria looked down and seemed discouraged. As if he didn't live up to her expectations. "You know he went through hell. He saved my brother."
"Yeah I know all about that." I answered. I looked out in the distance as we followed the trail of the pale man's truck tires. "I can trust you enough right?" I asked.
"Of course you can." Maria turned and gave me a reassuring warm smile.
Trust is hard to gain nowadays. It's hard to trust people if you just met them. Or If they lie. Trust could have gotten me killed back at Dave's. Thank god he's dead. I continued looking down the muddy path, dirtying my sneakers as I walked with Maria. The morning air was still present allowing mist to still lurk around our area. My dampened clothes and wet skin made me feel so uncomfortable and gross.
"So why'd he lie to me?" I asked her candidly.
Maria took a deep breath and said, "Tommy told me he's change a lot."
"So what difference does that make?"
"Change is hard to come by. Tommy knows that if Joel changes, it's for someone that is very special for him."
"Ok? So who's this person?"
"You." Maria said simply.
"Why would he change for me?"
"Because you're like his daughter. And he's like you're dad." Maria said softly
"Like hell he is. Dads shouldn't be telling lies to their chil-"
"He told that lie to protect you."
"I don't need to be protected"
"Parents are known to be protective."
"He killed Marlene."
"He killed Marlene to keep you safe." Maria began to pick up her voice, "Can't you understand that he's changed, he's more caring, and he's now different than he was. You seriously don't trust him at all? All the things he said to you? Look at yourself. You're anger is taking over. He's protected you all along. From the beginning, all he wanted were some shitty guns. But by the end of your journey? He gained something more important than that, and that was you. Don't tell me that he doesn't care about you because he would have definitely traded the guns for your life. He SAVED you. Ellie, he thinks of you as his daughter. Tommy once told me, you act just like Sarah. I bet Joel should have said the same. You cannot deny that you two have bonded in this journey. Don't tell me that. He loves you Ellie."
I stared at her, shocked. We stopped and I stared at the ground and kicked the mud. "So he really does care about me." I knew right from the beginning that he wasn't like the others that I knew.
"He's never abandoned you. Before he met you, he wouldn't even care if someone were to request help from him. He'd only do it the other individual is willing to trade him something. This journey Ellie, did he get anything from it? Does he regret any of it? No. Because he thinks of you as his daughter."
"How do you know this stuff?" I asked
"When you go home, I guarantee that you will notice."
I stopped walking and I looked down and kicked a rock, "You wanna know something about me?"
"Shoot."
"Back when my mom was by my side, I always wondered if there would be people like her. Someone who wouldn't abandon me. My dad left my mom and abandoned me. Then it happened. My mother abandoned me as well. I was only six at the time and I still remember that day exactly. I'm fifteen now. Everyone abandoned me. Marlene was always by my side when she was around… but she never really was with me the whole time. I guess you are right. Joel is different from the others. But that doesn't mean that he had to kill Marlene."
"He was left no choice."
"How the fuck would you know?" Anger began to flow through me. My eyes and nose flared and my mouth was pursed. "All these things, you could also be bullshitting me too."
"Ellie."
"No. Shut up. Like hell you know about all this shi-"
"Ellie. Quiet."
"What?" I stopped talking, closed my eyes, and began to listen. The trees rustled in the morning winds birds were chirping, the smell of fresh watery air consumed me. But I heard it.
The sound of a truck was headed our way. Maria looked at me and we ran to our right, climbing a hill. We laid on the soil on top of the hill and looked down at the road. A big truck was being driven down the road we were just walking on. When the coast was clear, I stood up and we heard it.
-Click Click Click-
"Clickers?" I asked.
As we moved on deeper in the woods, the clicking sound grew horribye loud – as if ten or twenty were all clicking at the same time. "What the fuck is happening?" I asked Maria.
"How the hell would I know?" Maria asked.
"Stay crouched and hidden. Let's go." I said to Maria, "Unless you're more experienced than me, I guess I'll follow you."
"You're the expert." Maria crouched behind me and took out her gun.
"That's too loud. Do you have a knife or something?"
Maria nodded and took out a small pocketknife. "Let's go." I said
As we walked the clicking of the clickers were endless. We finally found a clicker who was standing in place which was not what a clicker would have been doing.
Clickers should be moving.
As soon as I got close enough, I noticed the clicker was tied to a tree by a rope. Maria patted me on the shoulder and pointed to my left. The rebel group was just on our left. We went higher in elevation to check on the inside of their base. The place was well sheltered and had crops growing inside similar to ours. Not only were there people growing crops, there were also kids and women as well. I looked at Maria, "Holy shit. They're just like our home too."
Maria didn't talk and stared off into the rebel's base.
-CLICK CLICK CLICK-
One of the clickers heard where we were and began to thrash at our direction. Within five seconds, almost all the clickers around us began to grow noisy as hell. "We need to move." Maria continued to stare at their base, "Ellie." She turned to my direction.
"We've got to warn the others. They need to know what hap-"
-Bang -
A patch of grass exploded next to my leg. "Oh fuck. C'mon! We gotta get the hell outta here!" I screamed and yanked on Maria's hand, grunting and bringing me and her up onto our feet. We sprinted as fast as we could over every broken log or tree branch, praying that the bullets wouldn't shoot us. Bullets whizzed past us – hitting trees, twigs, dirt, and rocks. "Fuck!" One of the bullets were aimed at me and nearly missed. The bullet cut my face and I felt blood creeping down my check. My heart began to pump faster and faster, but it started to happen again. Stars began to show up in front of my eyes. "Not now." I said to myself.
We continued to sprint as my eyesight grew began to waver. My legs felt numb and bendy like the Italian food me and Joel ate in cans. "Over here. Let's go!" I yelled to her and we dove to our left inside a bush with small red berries. We laid down chest first and that's the time where I blacked out. The last thing I heard was Maria patting me on the shoulders.
Waking up sucked. My head hurt and I grumbled. "Uhh… Wah?" I looked around and stood up, but a hand pushed me back down. Maria covered my mouth and put her finger on her lips telling me to stay quiet. Her eyes were wild and she had dirt covered all over her. I looked at myself to notice the same thing had occurred to me. Mud was covered all over my hair, face, shirt, and jeans. Maria unclenched my mouth. "Next thing you pull that shit on me… I swear to GOD!" She whispered trying to keep quiet.
"How long was I out?" I asked. My head had a swelling pain and my eyes still caught glimpses of stars. "Fuck my head."
"You have been out for a good hour. What exactly is going on with you? I saw no wounds! Except for your face."
"We'll talk about it when we get back." I said
"What if that happens again? When those rebels ACTUALLY find us? What if-"
"It's not gonna happen again." I got up and began to walk back to our home. "Ellie. I'm worried about you."
"Don't be. I can take care of myself." I continued to look off down the path hoping for a glimpse of our home, but nothing showed up for another half-hour. So I decided to bring up Joel again.
"I'm not mad at Joel anymore." I said randomly
"Well go tell him that."
"I just don't think that what I did was worth it. Marlene wasn't a good person in the long-run anyways."
"Good to know you guys are back together again." She said sarcastically.
"Hey fuck you man, I just saved your ass back there. If it wasn't for me-"
"Fuck me? You had me worried about you. I thought you were going to die!"
"Well I'm not." I glared at her.
"I seriously don't have time for this." Maria walked ahead of me and I looked passed her to notice we were nearing our base.
"What is wrong with you?" I caught up to her.
"Nothing is wrong."
"Then what the fuck just happened back there?"
Maria laughed hysterically. "I guess everyone has a child in their hands to worry about. Everyone but us." Maria walked ahead of me and got to the entrance first with me following her. As I got back, Joel went up to me and asked, "What happened?" I stared at Maria and Joel left right after. I took a deep breath, went to me and Joel's room, and began to write in my diary.
Dear Diary,
Today was the craziest day I've ever had for a long time. Me and Maria talked about Joel and I guess I kind of forgive him. Maria wasn't that great of a person to me anyways. She was always too busy caring about her fireflies. The rebel group had infected that were used as a defense mechanism. We almost didn't make it out there, but luck was with us today. I passed out again and Maria got pretty worried and pissed off at me. What a baby. I don't know if my black outs are going to be more frequent, but an asshole once told me that things happen for a reason. I wonder how I'll make up with Joel now that I forgive him. I'm always scared that he'll leave me one day. That I'll just be left alone. Out there. I don't know if he thinks of me as his daughter. I'm not sure if I think so either. But things change for a reason as well right? –
I was interrupted by a click of the doorknob. Joel walked in and I could tell that he forced a smile as he said, "You want to go take a hike?"
"Fine," I got up and quickly put away my diary into my backpack. "Let's go." I walked by him and left the room, waiting for him outside. The afternoon air was crisp with colorful flame colors that were patched in the sky. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. So this is as close to home as it gets. I looked back at where Joel was and called back for us to go. He grabbed his backpack and he left the room. I stopped leaning against the wall and we walked past the gate entrance. "Where you wanna go?" He asked me.
That's weird. He's never said that to me. Ever. "Uh, let's see," I looked around and saw the forest – The place that I loved the most. "Let's go hiking there." I pointed to the left where the forest was, "Second time going hiking through the forest with you." I said as I moved back behind him. "Alright," Joel turned around and surprisingly said, "You can lead the way this time."
I couldn't help but smile, but just to make sure, I said, "Wait what? Seriously?"
Joel nodded his head and said, "Yeah. Seriously. Still gotta be careful though. Don't know what would be roaming around in the fore-"
"Got it! Let's go!" I smiled and jogged right back him. This is going to be the first time I ever lead the way. I guess Joel's me and I'm him today. I couldn't help but laugh as I jogged through the forest. Knowing that Joel's giving me a chance to do something I've never done… Damn that's the best feeling you'll ever get.
Thanks Joel.
For not giving up on me.
You really are like a dad.
