Ellie was aware of warmth surrounding her body as she returned to the realm of consciousness, blinking against the sunlight coming through the window. Cody's arm encircled her, and she quickly discerned she was using the second one as a pillow. His breaths were deep and even, pleasant against the skin on the back of her neck. Cody was loosely curled around her, his nose was nestled into her auburn hair, gently breathing in her scent with every inhale.
Ellie had never been held like that before, and her first instinct was to break free of the constricting trap his arms created, but that thought eventually disappeared as she gradually relaxed, settling into his unconscious embrace. In fact, she even began to enjoy the feeling of his physical contact, smiling a bit as she closed her eyes.
Of course, now that she was conscious, other thoughts began to invade her mind as her brain became evermore alert. How did we end up this way? Do Joel, Tommy, and Maria know we're gone yet? Are they looking for us? She wasn't even sure if she wanted to go back to Joel. He killed Marlene, and shot Cody's chance for getting his eyesight back in the face. He destroyed any chance of creating a vaccine to end this infection and saving people's lives, at least from Infected. A tiny voice in her head kept hissing.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an incoherent murmur from Cody, and Ellie felt his head shift as he took a deep breath, coughing a few times. He was awake.
"Hey, Cody. How'd you sleep?" the redhead tentatively asked, anticipating his reaction to the excessive (though unintentional) human contact he had initiated sometime during the night.
"Awesome," Ellie heard rather than saw the smile on his face, "and I'm not kidding. I haven't slept so well in months."
Ellie started a mental countdown to when he would notice their current situation. Counting down from ten, she got down to five before she felt him tense. His arms disappeared and Ellie turned over to see him scramble off the bed.
"Wh-what h-h-happened last n-night?" Cody stammered, hastily standing up. His long hair was disheveled, lank, and greasy. His shirt was wrinkled, and he smoothed the fabric down out of habit.
Ellie rolled her eyes, sitting up and retying her messy ponytail. "We ran away from Jackson and now we're at a ranch house. You had a mental breakdown, kissed me, and somehow ended up with your arms around me during the night. How do you not remember all that?"
Cody shook his head, running his fingers through his black hair. "My head really hurts right now, so I can't make myself remember much…do we have any water?"
"No, not unless you want to go outside, find some, bring it back, and boil it," Ellie drawled in reply.
"Ugh, you're no help. How long are we planning to stay here?" the ebony-haired boy groaned, rubbing his eyes with his palms.
Ellie shrugged, "I don't know, until Joel and Tommy find us? I don't want to come crawling back."
Cody let out a low hiss; it wasn't even noon and he was already pissed off. He already seriously regretted coming on this hare-brained escape, now that he thought of the many negative consequences it would have. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble we'll be in when they find us? Does Maria lock people up for nighttime escapes into the woods? Or horse-thievery?" His voice was more anxious than annoyed now.
"Maria wouldn't do that to us. Plus, it's not the first time I've run away from Jackson…" Ellie answered, letting her legs hang over the edge of the bed.
Cody picked his head up, narrowing his murky eyes at her. "'Not the first time'? You're a regular escape artist, aren't you? Jackson, then Driggs, and now Jackson again? And what was with that whole 'immune' thing Joel was talking about last night?"
Ellie stood up, rolling her eyes as she walked past the boy, gazing out the window at the cloudless sky. It was like the storm never happened. "Okay, what is with you and the fucking interrogation? I should be the one asking you the questions, like 'how the fuck could you be so stupid and trust Sophia?'"
Cody sighed, clicking a few times so he could locate the bed again. He sat down, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm just worried, okay? And Sophia…well, I've known her for a long time. She wouldn't make empty promises like that, at least not to me."
"What the hell are you talking about? Do you not realize that she manipulated you, used you for her own gain, and made you hurt the people you care about? Even if the Fireflies in Salt Lake City were still alive, she wouldn't set up a surgery for you," Ellie countered, feeling the usual irritation and frustration boiling inside her whenever she talked to Cody.
"Whatever, it's useless now. I don't need to work for her anymore…" The boy seemed to instantly lose all his fight, falling back on the bed. He unconsciously traced the cuts on his wrist, becoming quiet as the muffled, distant chirping of the birds outside filled the silence.
Ellie observed him as was her habit, watching him as he moved his hand to his shoulder, rubbing it like it was sore. She figured it might have been more out of self-consciousness than need, but something else was bothering her.
"You do it because of the guilt, don't you?" she asked softly, and by the way Cody tensed on the bed, she could tell he knew exactly what she was talking about.
"You mean the starving and the cutting? I guess that's part of it," Cody mumbled, closing his eyes.
Ellie cocked her head, dangling one leg from the pink window seat as she leaned back on it. "Yeah, well what's the other part?"
Knowing he would probably get something heavy thrown at him if he told her, 'you wouldn't understand' one more time, Cody opted for, "Let's just say Sophia isn't a very nice boss." He blew his bangs out of his face, rolling over onto his stomach to rest his head in the crook of his elbow.
"I can tell. What did she do to you to make you like this?" Ellie knew she was treading on sensitive territory, and by the way Cody's jaw clenched, she knew she just made some unwanted memories flash in his head. He glared at her, indicating he wasn't going to say anything else on the topic. "Okay…sorry I asked, no need to give me a death glare," she huffed after a tense silence.
Cody let out a long breath, softening his expression. "So…if you're immune, and you have the infection in you, does that mean you can pass it on?"
That made Ellie furrow her brow; she hadn't really thought of that. Could she pass it on, or was it neutralized by her immunity to it? "I don't want to test that theory…" she chuckled awkwardly, half-wondering why Cody hadn't tried to kill her yet because he thought she might turn.
"I guess not…Remind me not to kiss you on the lips. Not that I would want to," Cody smirked, a bit of colour tinging his cheeks.
The mention of kissing brought Ellie back to the previous night, and she remembered the feeling of Cody's lips on her skin a little better than she intended to. "Yeah, why did you kiss me last night?" Without her permission, the skin on her cheeks became a few degrees hotter at the memory.
Cody squeezed his eyes shut, looking like he regretted bringing the subject up. "I don't know, I do a lot of things that don't make sense. All I know is that it's not going to happen again. I don't even like you, so don't get any ideas," he sneered, his usual sarcasm coming back into his voice. For some reason, his tone sounded odd to Ellie without it.
"Don't worry, I won't. For the record, you're not exactly boyfriend material, either," Ellie scoffed, but frowned when she saw the brief flash of pain across Cody's features. It was so fast, she doubted she had even seen anything more than a simple twitch of his lips.
Another silence blanketed the room, and Ellie stared out the window once more. The forest extended as far as her eyes could see, and the blue-hued mountains jutted upward from the distant horizon. The dam was somewhere out there, and beyond that the town of Jackson. Conflicting thoughts buzzed around in her head; on one hand, she wanted to talk to Joel about what he did, and on the other she resented him for it. She wasn't sure if she could fully trust him again.
Things couldn't be the same.
"So what do we do now?" Cody queried from the bed, coughing a little.
Ellie's throat felt dry as well, and there was nothing else to do. "We could go find water, I guess. The dam and the river aren't too far from here."
"I thought the whole point of running away was that we wouldn't go back to Joel, Tommy, and Maria," Cody remarked, sitting up and running his hands through his hair again. He did it so often that parts of his bangs were pushed back, too.
"Well, if we see them, we'll avoid them," Ellie decided, standing up and listening for any unwelcome visitors at the doorway, hearing Cody come to stand beside her. She didn't hear anything, so she discerned it was safe to go downstairs, and she returned Cody's weapons to him from, with the exception of the razor blade. Cody didn't complain, and his clicking started up as he followed her down the stairs, and then out the front door.
The redhead untied her horse's reins and led her down from the porch. She mounted the dapple grey mare, who was nibbling on the grass growing tall beside the front steps. Cody soon followed, climbing up behind her. It didn't take her long to come across a stream, and Ellie dismounted after Cody.
"We don't have anything to carry it in, do we?" Cody commented, filling his hands with the water and splashing it on his face. He doused his hair with it, shaking off the excess.
"No, and I am not drinking that. I'm telling you, if you want water, we'll have to go back to the dam," Ellie replied, copying Cody. The cold water felt refreshing on her skin, washing away the last bits of sleep with its frigid temperature.
Cody picked his head up and froze like an alert buck, still on one knee. He held up a hand for quiet, but Ellie didn't need to ask him what he was hearing. The screeches of Infected chilled her blood more than the water, and they were accompanied with gunshots. They were close.
Cody clicked a few times, and then grabbed the horse's reins before she could get spooked by the gunfire. "Let's get out of here," he said urgently, waiting for Ellie to mount first.
"It could be Joel and Tommy. Do you want to go help them?" Ellie furrowed her brow, climbing up on the mare. Cody hastily copied her.
The boy shook his head, reloading his revolver just in case. "It's not them, I don't recognize their voices. C'mon, let's go before those things know we're here, too."
Ellie listened hard for a few moments to the screams of Infected and the incoherent shouts of their victims. The men shouting orders to one another sounded too deep to be either Joel or Tommy, and there were at least three or four of them. Sighing, she urged the mare into a canter, heading upstream in the opposite direction.
Eventually the gunshots faded away, but the pair were still on high alert for any Infected being attracted to the skirmish far behind them. Ellie found another path etched into the forest floor, and she steered the horse onto it. She didn't know where it led to, but hopefully it would bring her to Tommy's dam.
The branches of the trees swayed in the gentle breeze, their leaves rustling softly. Birds chattered, unseen in the forest's canopy. It was the times like this that Ellie most enjoyed when she was on the road with Joel, letting nature's sounds relax her mind.
Eventually Ellie felt a light weight on her shoulder, and glanced back to see Cody nestle his head into the space between her shoulder blades. She allowed herself a small smile as she turned her attention forward again, letting Cody doze in silence. Ellie listened for the rushing rapids of the Snake, feeling her anxiety about being lost lessen the louder the sound became.
Ellie couldn't see the river yet, but the way the ground gently sloped uphill gave her some hope that she was nearing Jackson. Cody was still napping against her shoulder, murmuring incoherently every now and again.
He jolted awake as the mare suddenly bolted forward, whinnying in fear as the brush suddenly exploded in flames around her. Cody grabbed on tightly to Ellie as she struggled to stay on the horse herself, clicking rapidly to gain his bearings. The fact that Ellie heard no victorious shouts of bandits only added to her paranoia as she tried to calm the horse down. She strained her ears to hear anything out of place in the forest, and her eyes to see any bandits lurking in the undergrowth, but she saw nothing.
"What the fuck was that?" Cody kept his voice low as the mare finally slowed to a walk, her sides heaving.
"Somebody threw a Molotov at us, but I don't see anyone," Ellie replied, soothingly patting the gray mare's neck. They had come to a shallow pool of water, a remnant of last night's storm. Low, overhanging trees skirted the path, and Ellie held the branches out of her face as the horse passed underneath.
Ellie turned her head just in time to see another Molotov fly in her direction, accompanied by its distinctive whoosh, shattering just behind her horse. Ellie braced herself as the mare threw her head up, surging forward and breaking into a gallop again. She didn't get far as the path took a sharp turn, skirting a sheer cliff rising from the forest floor. The mare reared, throwing both of her riders onto the ground.
A cacophony of clicking guns replaced the birds' twittering, and a dozen men emerged from the forest, dressed from head to toe in hunting camouflage. Each sported a Firefly armband, and Ellie's blood ran cold.
"Don't move, or we shoot," one man warned, aiming his rifle at Ellie's head. She and Cody froze on the ground while another Firefly caught the horse. A third took away their guns.
"Who the hell are you? What do you want?" Cody spat viciously.
"I think you can recognize them," a light, Italian voice permeated through the trees, and Ellie glared daggers at Sophia as she emerged from between her men. Her raven hair was cut short, falling to the base of her neck. However, her dark eyes were still piercing, gazing right through Ellie. "They've been on the ground long enough, let them up," Sophia ordered, and one of her men forced Ellie and Cody to stand.
"What the fuck do you want? How'd you find us?" Ellie demanded in her most menacing tone.
Sophia flicked her hair back, smiling her predatory grin. She was dressed the same way as her cohorts. "Did you think I would be stupid enough to have only one spy in Jackson? No, there are more, and they are not useless, spineless whelps," she directed the last three insults at Cody, who averted his eyes and hunched his shoulders.
"Cody's not your spy anymore, the Fireflies in Salt Lake City are dead!" Ellie defended her friend, taking a threatening step forward despite the guns pointed at her.
Sophia pursed her lips, cocking her head innocently, "Yes, I know. Unfortunate, isn't it? But I have other uses for Cody, now that everyone in Jackson knows what he is. You're quite unique, aren't you, Ellie?"
Ellie stayed silent, clenching her jaw.
"I know your secret, too. I have eyes and ears in places you wouldn't believe," the black-haired girl smiled, motioning to two of her men. They restrained Ellie and Cody without question, pinning their arms behind their backs.
Sophia strode up to Cody, cupping his gaunt cheek, forcing him to turn his head to her. To Ellie's disgust, she kissed him on the mouth, softly, lingeringly, making Ellie want to gag, but at the same time she had difficulty averting her eyes. When she pulled away, the Italian girl forcefully punched Cody across the face, hissing, "I am disappointed in you, letting Tommy and Maria find out. You're a worthless piece of shit."
Cody remained silent, his head hanging low.
"Shut up, you've already damaged him enough!" Ellie spat, trying to wriggle free of the Firefly's grasp. It was no use, he was twice her size and three times as strong.
Sophia turned to her, her eyes void of any emotion. A wry smile stretched her full lips. "The mind is a fragile thing, isn't it? Twist it too much and it will break. But twist it just enough…and you can do whatever you please with it," she said, tracing a finger across Cody's sharp cheekbone, where a bruise was beginning to form.
"You're a sick fuck, Sophia! Leave him alone!" Ellie snapped, earning a sharp sting of pain in her arms as the man holding her twisted her arm.
The raven-haired girl smirked, her features otherwise smooth. "You care about this waste of skin…I'll admit, I'm surprised anyone would with the way he looks and acts. Ugly, rude little thing, it's a wonder how you tolerate him," Sophia sighed airily, nodding to her men. They roughly pushed Ellie and Cody forward, into the forest brush. It was much cooler under the denser canopy, and darker. Ellie had no idea where Sophia was going, but she was sure it was nowhere good.
After a few minutes of walking Ellie asked, "Why are you doing this? Kidnapping us and controlling Cody? Why not just shoot us and get on with your fucking day?" She didn't want to encourage the girl, but usually people didn't bother with the effort of taking care of hostages, so she had to wonder why.
"Those are good questions. You're a clever girl, Ellie. You see, you represent a valuable bartering chip to Tommy and Maria. Cody is valuable to Georgia. In shooting you, I would lose the advantage, simple as that," Sophia explained, agilely hopping across a wide stream, "As for Cody, he is weak and submissive. He is very easily manipulated, as you have seen. Do you know why I picked him instead of another kid from Victor?"
Ellie knitted her brow, shaking her head.
Sophia smiled, seemingly happy to share her knowledge. "Did you ever think Cody could possibly do something like burn down a barn without anyone seeing him? Did you ever once think that this blind, pissy bastardo could be working for someone like me? Hmm?" she asked, eyebrows raised, and again Ellie shook her head. "That is exactly why I picked Cody, that and the fact that he is desperate for the one thing he can never have. He is insignificant to the people of Victor and Jackson, overlooked, and invisible. Because who would ever suspect the blind kid, right?"
The black-haired girl fell silent, letting her words sink in. Ellie mulled over them, glancing every now and again at Cody as they marched through the brush. He kept quiet, his head low, always focusing on the ground. Ellie felt a pang of pity for him, constantly subjected to Sophia's insults.
Say something enough times, and you'll start to believe it. The phrase popped into Ellie's head, only this time the words held a much heavier weight. She glanced over at Cody again, feeling another twinge of sympathy towards him.
They walked, silent, until Ellie's feet were sore and they were so far into the brush that she didn't hear the Snake anymore. Sophia led her captives into a clearing, where Ellie saw another dozen men and women around campfires, with eight horses grazing and numerous tents and bedrolls pitched haphazardly around the fires.
Men and women alike nodded to Sophia in greeting, smiling a little as she passed, Ellie noticed as they walked further into the camp. They didn't seem afraid of her. She and Cody were led to an empty campfire, where the two Fireflies forced them on their knees while their hand and ankles were bound.
"What did you do, move your whole fucking town?" Ellie snapped as Sophia offered them water bottles. Ellie and Cody gulped it down, reluctantly grateful.
"Actually, yes. I'm not going to wait for Tommy to come to my doorstep and shoot me in the face. I told you, I take care of my own. I'm not going to let them wait and die," the Italian girl answered, kneeling and kissing Cody again. While she moved her lips against his, she met Ellie's eyes, and they glittered with a silent warning that seemed to say 'He is mine'. Then Sophia pulled away with a smirk, sauntering off into one of the tents.
Ellie jolted awake from her dozing, her wrists sore from trying to break free from the rope binding them. Cody napped against the tree beside her, but from his shallow breaths Ellie knew he wasn't really sleeping. She wasn't sure how long it had been since Sophia captured them, but the sun was setting now, making the forest a land of shadow and things that went bump in the night.
Cody had been oddly silent during the hours spent sitting against the tree, staring up at the pine's branches or just listening to the commotion of the Fireflies around them. Ellie had been studying their patrol pattern, noting that they always went in trios, and they swapped territories every half hour. Each shift lasted an hour and a half.
Ellie had seen Sophia striding around her camp, monitoring her soldiers and helping with general upkeep whenever asked. It appeared that, contrary to Ellie's first impression, the men and women of Driggs actually respected and worked with Sophia voluntarily, instead of for her out of fear. It was clear she had authority, but why or how, Ellie had no clue.
When the sun had set and true darkness descended upon the camp, Sophia returned to her prisoners with cooked venison and water. Having eaten nothing for the entire day, Ellie gladly ate while Cody nibbled at his meat.
Sophia sat cross-legged in front of her captives, absentmindedly combing her fingers through her hair. "You know, before my father left, he always said that everything happens for a reason. Don't you think that's true? I mean, we seem to keep running into each other, don't we?" she giggled as Ellie picked her head up, choking a bit on her venison.
"What…?" Ellie spit out, swallowing her food with an audible gulp, "You keep fucking following us, how is that 'running into each other'?"
Sophia shook her head, "No, it was never intentional that I wanted to kidnap you. Today you were just a target that happened to ride into my territory. I didn't know it was you until we cornered you by the cliff. Last time you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Why'd your father leave?" Ellie spat, with only minimal interest.
The black-haired girl stared up at the emerging stars for a minute, pursing her lips in thought. "You know, I'm not really sure. He just took a bunch of men and never came back. Left me in charge, and here we are. My father taught me that the best way to gain loyalty is to gain trust and respect, and return it. It's worked for three years."
"You never went looking for him?" Cody spoke up for the first time in what felt like ages.
Sophia cocked her head, smiling at the boy. "I always love to hear your voice, Cody. It's a shame you don't talk much when I'm around. My father was a wise man, and I listened to him, boring as his lectures were. He taught me many things, because he knew that one day I would take over his role as leader. You see? Everything happens for a reason," she giggled again at Ellie's wide-eyed expression.
"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" Sophia said, and for the first time her voice held surprise instead of smugness.
Ellie looked away, scoffing, "Nothing." After a few seconds of silence she queried, "What are you going to do when Tommy and Maria find us?"
For a few moments, Sophia merely scanned the people around the campfires, quiet. Then, satisfied, she looked back at Ellie. "I think we've talked enough for tonight, Ellie. Try to get some rest, we've got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow," Sophia stood up, walking back to her tent on silent feet.
Quiet settled on Ellie and Cody again, the only noise being the crackling of the fire, the crickets in the undergrowth, and the hushed conversations of the men and women around the other campfires. One or two disappeared into the abyss of the forest every now and again, coming back with an armful of firewood.
"How do you know Sophia?" Ellie asked to break the silence, now that the girl in question couldn't hear them.
Cody let out a long breath, hesitating before he answered, "I…she used to live in Victor. We grew up together, and then she and her father left seven years ago when a Firefly caravan passed through. They settled up in Driggs, but we visited each other before…you know."
They attacked you. Ellie mentally finished. "You seem awfully close," she commented offhandedly, after a short lull.
It got a smirk out of Cody, the first sign of emotion from him ever since they got captured. "I don't like her that way, thanks for asking. If I did, I would be kissing her back."
"If you could see her, you wouldn't be saying that. I mean, she's fucking gorgeous," Ellie bit her lip, glad for the first time that Cody was blind.
Cody chuckled, nudging Ellie with his elbow, "Is that jealousy I hear? You don't seem like the jealous type."
"I'm not! Sophia's just really pretty," Ellie protested.
Cody shrugged, resting his head against the tree trunk, "You know, looks aren't really important to me. But…then again, it's not like I should be deciding what to look for in a girl," his lips curled down into a frown, "Sophia said herself that I'm an unattractive, rude person, and if she can see me, why shouldn't I believe her? I haven't seen myself in a mirror since I was thirteen, and I sure as shit know I've got an attitude problem. You even said yourself that I'm not boyfriend material."
Ellie stayed quiet for a minute, feeling another pang, but this time it was guilt. How could she have been so ignorant? Here Cody was, getting his mind shredded and his self-worth ground under the heel of Sophia's boot, and she had essentially told him he would never get a girlfriend. Granted, Ellie had no idea how much her words affected him at the time, but now she wished she could take them back.
"Cody…I'm sorry for saying that. I didn't mean it. I bet there are a ton of girls in Jackson who think you're a knockout, but they're too shy to come up to you. It's probably because of your attitude problem, but it's not because of your looks. You just need to take care of yourself a little more, that's all. And stop listening to Sophia," Ellie encouragingly bumped Cody with her shoulder, who gave her a genuine smile.
"Thanks for telling me I'm hot, Shortstuff," Cody nudged her back, but Ellie didn't hear any sarcasm in his tenor. She smiled, wondering to herself if maybe the damage Sophia had done could be reversed. It would be worth a try, especially if Georgia and Mitch agreed to it.
Ellie closed her eyes, using the pine's trunk as a pillow. "Goodnight, Cody."
"'Night," the boy mumbled, yawning as he settled down onto the pine needles, ready for a night of uncomfortable sleep.
The redhead heard the last, faint snip of the rope binding her ankles, feeling the relief as it fell away. She glanced around for anyone who had been watching her, but thankfully there was no one. Ellie carefully pocketed her switchblade, glad at least one thing was going right.