Author's Note:

I felt guilty for posting such a short chapter when I have a lot more written up, so here's some more. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10: Contests

"Hey, freak!" Marcus hooted from across the mess hall as Ellie sat down in her corner.

"Fuck off!" She snarled back. She looked at her tray of food. She'd been in Jackson for a week and she already disliked eating in the mess hall. Most people were kind to her or just gave her a wide berth because of her immunity, but Marcus and his two goons, Travis and Neil, harassed her every day.

Marcus was fifteen years old, tall, skinny, but he had some muscle. His hair was brown. He actually reminded her of a young Joel without the muscle or the height that came with full adulthood. Travis was also fifteen, but he was a good head taller than Marcus, with broad shoulders and a lot of muscle, but little to no brains compared to Marcus. He kept his head shaved and wore a hoodie half the time with the hood over his head. Neil was fourteen, as short as Ellie, and extremely wiry. He always wore a beanie on his head. He was actually the quietest of the three because he was the smartest. Why Marcus seemed to be in charge of them made Ellie wonder how they had actually made it this long.

"Hey!" Came Travis's voice, "Sprout! You want us to call you sprout instead?"

"I said fuck off!" Ellie growled before angrily shoving a potato chunk in her mouth. Much to her chagrin, they pulled away from their table and came over to hers. It was just like at military prep. Marcus and Travis sat across from her and Neil sat uncomfortably close to her.

"Well, that's not polite, is it?"

"Don't care. Fuck off."

The three boys made a collective, mocking "Oooh," before Marcus spoke.

"You gonna cry, freak? You gonna cry?"

"No. Fuck off."

"How about orphan? How about we call you orphan?"

That hit a sore spot. Ellie stood up, fork in hand, and pinned Marcus's sleeve to the table with a savage stab, "I should stomp your fucking balls!"

Neil grabbed her by the shoulders, "Get over here, you little -"

Ellie spun out of his grip and smashed Neil's face with her fist, sending him sprawling. Marcus wrenched the fork out of his sleeve and stood up, ready to fight. Travis stood and reached over, but Ellie's switchblade slashed at his hand. Neil stood up, holding his face, and the three of them backed away slowly.

"I SAID FUCK OFF!" Ellie roared.

"HEY!"

The four of them turned to see a woman in a blue ballcap advancing on them, "What the hell is going on here?"

"She's trying to kill us!" Marcus blurted, and his goons nodded vehemently.

"Uh huh," the woman stopped and stood, fists pressed against her hips, "And what if I told you that that's because you've been giving her shit since she got here?"

"Oh come on, we were just joking around."

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England," the woman snorted.

"Well, she still can't pull a knife on us!" Travis pleaded.

"Considering that she's been out there for almost a year, I'd say she let you off with a warning by pulling the knife. If three guys like you came after me like you did with her, there'd be three funerals. Now, she asked you politely to leave. I suggest that you do that right now."

As the three boys turned away, Neil glared at Ellie and muttered, "This isn't over, bitch."

The woman's face twitched with anger, "Get back here! Now!"

The three boys grudgingly returned. The woman continued, "This shit is going to end right now. How about we have a shooting contest? If you win, you get to keep harassing her until she eventually chops your balls off. If Ellie and I win, you back off and don't come near her again unless you're willing to play nice."

Marcus puffed up his chest, "Or what? You gonna tell Maria?"

The woman's grin was almost pure evil, "Nope. I'll tell Joel."

The color drained from their faces. Joel had a bit of a reputation in Jackson, and the thought of him making those dumbass thugs shit their pants made her smile. Marcus summoned as much courage as he could muster, "Fine. We'll do it your way. Just remember that if we win, we get our way."

"Fine."

They turned and left. Ellie turned to the woman, "What if we lose?"

"We won't."

"But what if we do?"

"Then I'll tell Maria, she'll bring the hammer down, and this whole problem will sort itself out. But you could neuter them if you wanted first. I'd back you up," the woman put a hand on Ellie's shoulder, "Come on. Shooting range is this way."

"You ready to do this?" Marcus sneered.

"First off, ground rules," the woman said, holding her rifle pointed toward the ground, "No sabotage and no fucking around with the guns. We need them in top condition for watch duty. No horseplay either. We don't want a trip to the infirmary or worse."

Marcus and his lackeys solemnly nodded.

"Alright, here are the rules for competition," the woman stood and set her rifle against the fence before pointing out to the target boards, "Bull's-eye is ten. Inner ring is eight. Middle ring is four. Outer ring is 1. Miss is zero. Each shooter gets three shots. Two teams of two people. Each team gets a shot per person before the other team goes. That means you three are gonna have to sit out one of your guys. If you're smart, it better be your worst shot who sits out."

Neil spoke up, "I'll sit out. I can't shoot as well as my boys."

"Okay, then. Any questions before we start?" They shook their heads, "Alright, you two start first."

"You're going down," Marcus grinned before picking up his rifle. He stood tall, placed the rifle's stock into his shoulder, took aim, and fired. The bullet pinged off the target on the outer ring, "Fuck!"

"He didn't adjust for windage," the woman whispered in Ellie's ear, "He didn't rest the rifle on the fence, either."

Ellie had noticed both of these and nodded as Marcus stepped back and Travis took his place. His shot didn't fare better either. In fact, it missed entirely. The woman stepped up and knelt down, taking aim, barrel of the rifle resting on the fence.

"What the hell is she doing?" Marcus murmured, but the woman ignored him. She was still for a few moments, and when she finally took the shot, it startled everyone. Ellie looked at the metal target. It was a perfect bull's-eye.

"Holy shit!" Ellie breathed. The woman stood, gave Ellie a look and shrugged as if to say, "What'd I tell ya?" before giving up her spot for Ellie. Ellie took her place. She aimed a little to the right of the target, as the wind was coming from the right. She squeezed the trigger. Bull's-eye.

"What?!" Marcus snarled, "There's no fucking way that the freak is that good a shot!"

Ellie stood up and turned to him, grinning, "That's 'cause when you were spending all your time whacking off in here all winter, I was out hunting food to keep myself alive! Maybe you shouldn't be on watch duty. But hey, you've got two more shots."

Marcus growled as he took his place. His next shot went wide, not even hitting the target at all, "Motherfucker!" he tossed his rifle to Neil before angrily sitting down next to him.

"You want to concede now before we hand you your asses on a silver platter?" Ellie smirked at them.

"Oh, fuck you," Travis said before taking aim. His next shot actually hit the inner ring, but Ellie and the woman basically had to shoot the ground in order to lose.

The woman said nothing, just taking her sweet time before executing another, perfect bull's-eye. Ellie took her next shot. It hit the inner circle. Ellie turned to them, "Even if you both got bull's-eye's in the next round and we missed completely, there's no way you'd win."

Travis and Neil looked to Marcus, who grumbled and swore under his breath. He gave a nod to his goons before muttering, "Fine. You win. We won't fuck with you again."

"Good, I'll hold you to that," the woman said, standing, "Now, why don't you three brush up on target practice while Ellie and I have a little lunch?"

They grumbled but did as they were told, taking their rifles and starting to practice at the range as Ellie and the woman walked away.

"We showed them, huh?" Ellie looked up at the woman, who smiled down at her.

"Yes, we did, but more importantly we got them off your backs and doing something useful for a change."

"I didn't catch your name."

"Amanda. Nice to meet you, Ellie," she said before patting Ellie on the head, "I think we're going to get along just fine.

A week later, Ellie sat in the mess hall again, eating, when she saw a shadow pass over her tray. She looked up. It was Marcus, alone. Behind him, Amanda was moving to get up, but Ellie's look made her stay down. Ellie knew she had to handle this alone.

"What do you want, Marcus?"

Marcus didn't have his customary sneer or an angry expression. He looked nervous, "I…I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that I was dick when you first showed up."

Ellie was unsure how to respond, but Marcus continued, "I guess I was just jealous that some new kid showed up and had special treatment, you know, getting to be in a watch tower, eat with the grownup table, that kind of stuff. Then…well…I turned sixteen yesterday and just got off my first shift an hour ago. I didn't know about how tough it is."

Ellie considered his apology for a few moments, "Apology accepted."

Marcus turned to leave, but then stopped, "Look, uh… we got off on the wrong foot. Do you want to restart?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, maybe we could do dinner or take watch together or something?"

Ellie suddenly realized what was going on, "You like me, don't you?"

"What?"

"You've got a crush on me and you're asking me out, aren't you? That's what this is about, isn't it?"

Marcus stared at the floor, "Not…not all of it. I'm seriously sorry I was a dick," he mumbled.

His words made Ellie giggle a little, and he smiled a genuine smile. Ellie was flattered, but she had to tell him why she wouldn't ever date him, "Look, that'd be nice and all, but…I'm into chicks."

"Seriously?" He looked shocked

"Yep."

"So…you're…"

"Yep."

He was taken aback, "Um…wow…I've got to process this," He returned to his seat by Travis and Neil. Ellie strained to listen.

"She your girlfriend now?" Neil sneered.

"Oooh! Marcus's got a girlfriend!" Travis said as he jabbed Marcus in the rib.

"Man, fuck off," Marcus growled, stirring his food.

Ellie couldn't help but smile a little. Amanda sat beside her.

"What was that all about?"

"Nothing. He apologized for being a dick."

"Uh-huh. Why are you grinning like you just won the lottery?"

"He just asked me out."

Amanda suppressed a snort of laughter, "Really? That's ballsy."

Ellie chuckled, "Yeah, I suppose that is."

"You shoot him down?"

"Gently."

"Can't ever be gentle, that's why it's called 'shot down'."

"Well, then I shot his plane down, but he landed safely."

"So, no harm, no foul?"

"No harm, no foul."

Amanda patted her shoulder, "Good. I'll see you at watch tomorrow."

"Amanda?"

"Yeah?"

"What's the lottery?"

I was bullied as a kid, and the one thing I always really wanted to happen was for someone to step in and help me out, specifically an outside party. It didn't usually mean much for my brother or my parent to step in, because then I was just called a coward as well as a weirdo. But if an adult or an authority figure came in and told the bullies to knock that crap off, I appreciated it a lot. Unfortunately, that never happened and I ended up transferring out because nobody told them it was unacceptable behavior.

Also, this is the first time we see Amanda, and we're going to see a lot more of her. She's loosely based on the woman in one of the conversations you can miss at Tommy's Dam.

Thank you for reading, and I shall see you at Chapter 11

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