CHAPTER TEN

Courage

The rain poured outside, falling across the metal roof and the trees, making the soothing sounds Ellie loved. Her, Vera and Johnny were walking in the town, returning from another day at the shooting school. Ellie still hadn't warmed up to him completely, but under Vera's watch, she made sure not to scare him off either.

'Wait, so if the safety's off, and the gun is in my pants,' Johnny asked, looking at Vera and Ellie, 'Can it uhh . . go off?'

'Yeah, duh,' Ellie said. 'It's called safety for a reason. I actually know a person whose head got blown off with his own gun, even when the safety was on,' she made a motion, imitating a gun shooting her temple. Vera nudged her hard on the elbow, sent Ellie laughing. Johnny looked like he had lost all the blood from his face.

'I'm just fucking with you, calm down,' Ellie giggled, patting his shoulder.

They walked along in the drizzle, in a street that was nearly empty. Some of the people sat in their balconies and porches, looking out into the rain, talking, smiling. But mostly, it was quiet.

'Hey Johnny!' they heard a familiar voice from the back, and Ellie immediately knew who it was. She stopped and casually turned back, even though Johnny told her to ignore them.

'What's with you and that lesbatron?' Dom yelled, walking towards them, his two other friends following him, jumping over a fence to enter the street.

'Ellie, ignore him,' Johnny mumbled to her, his eyes on the ground.

'You're a fucking pussy, you know that?' he continued, smiling cockily at Johnny. 'Running off, and that too to this loser,' he taunted, gesturing towards Ellie. He stood a few feet away from her, eyeing her with that same look Ellie despised. He was taller than her, but he was lanky, barely had any muscle. Ellie had almost punched his jaw off once, and would've, if his idiot father hadn't intervened.

Dom and his father lived in an apartment, secluded from the rest of the town. Joel pitied them too, especially since his father was a hopeless drunk that carried his rifle on his shoulder everywhere, waving it at whoever tried to threaten him. She remembered that Joel and Tommy had had a heated argument about the man once, with Joel demanding that Tommy make him leave the town, and Tommy saying he was helpless, because his wife had been one of the first loyal residents here before her unfortunate death in a bandit raid. He was bound by the respect he had for what she did. The argument happened on the same evening, after Ellie had fought with Dom and showed up home with bruises and cuts.

'Go away, Dom,' Vera said to him sharply. He just raised his eyebrows in return, giving her a once-over.

'You girlfriend and I go a long way back, you know,' he said to her, gesturing to Ellie. 'She's a fiery one, trust me. You'll have fun with her.'

'Fuck off!' Ellie spat, stepping forward menacingly, her cheeks red with fury. 'Get lost or I swear to God I'll put one right between your eyes!'

'See?' Dom shrugged, amused. 'I loved it when she went dirty on me once. Pity you weren't around to witness it,' he said to Vera.

'Go away!' Johnny suddenly exclaimed, finally bringing up his eyes to look at him. The three boys paused for a second, and burst out laughing, pointing at him.

'Shit!' one of them said, 'Did these girls actually help you find some balls down there?'

Vera put a hand on Ellie's shoulder as she stepped towards him, and gently pulled her back. 'He's not worth it, Ellie,' was all she said.

'Come on Ellie, try me,' Dom stepped closer to her, bending down to look into her eyes tauntingly. 'You know I can make you feel good, baby.'

Ellie's thin string of patience broke, and she raged ahead, raising her fist, yelling, but Dom reeled back groaning in pain before she could land it on his face. She watched, shocked, as Johnny ambushed him, threw him to the ground and continued punching his face repeatedly, yelling cuss words in angst.

The other two boys joined in, trying to attack Johnny, but Ellie and Vera pounced on them before they could get to him. Ellie kicked the smaller one hard between his legs, felt the other one pull her back by her hair, his knuckles landing on her nose. Vera punched him before he could hit her once more, while Dom struggled with Johnny's sudden fit of rage.

Blood splattered on the rough gravel road as Ellie felt another punch landing on her jaw, heard a small crack inside her face. She pushed the boy down and landed both her fists on his head twice, trying best not to kill him, which took every last bit of her resolve.

Suddenly, they all heard a click of a rifle, and paused dead in their tracks. Johnny froze, raising his hands slowly as he saw the barrel pointed at his head.

'Get the fuck away from 'im, little dipshit,' a hoarse, malicious voice snapped, and he looked up to see Dom's father waving his rifle at him. He moved away immediately, while Dom retreated and stood up beside his dad, cleaning the blood from his nose.

Ellie and Vera walked backwards cautiously to join Johnny's side, their eyes peeled on him. He still held his rifle up, pointing it at the three of them.

'You think you can just up and attack my son like that?' he snapped, looking at them through the aim.

'It was his -' Ellie began, but stopped immediately as Vera discreetly put a hand in front of her chest, asking her to calm down. She saw Vera's wide, panicked eyes. She looked back at the old man's face, and immediately knew that this was serious. He was crazy, and reeking of alcohol. His fingers trembled at the trigger.

'It's okay, papa,' Dom mumbled, clearly sensing the intensity of the situation. He gently put his hand on his father's shoulder, only to have it brushed off. 'Shut up you worthless can of crap,' he grumbled, eyes still on the three.

Dom looked at the three of them, the blood draining from his face. His two other friends stepped back and scurried away. Then his eyes seemed to drift elsewhere, somewhere behind them, and he tried to coax his father again, whispered to him. His father immediately shifted the rifle to what Dom was pointing at.

'Walk away, Ramone,' Ellie heard Joel's voice - the wolfish tone he took, maleficent tone she knew perfectly well. She could almost hear the growl beneath the words, saw him stepping forward from in between her and Vera, his hunting rifle aimed at Dom's father.

The old man simply snickered, but Dom had already begun to cry. 'Papa, let's just go,' he mumbled, only to be brushed off and snapped at again.

'Listen to your son,' Joel growled again, the scowl on his face deepening.

Ellie felt another presence beside her, and saw Kenda appearing ahead beside Joel, her gun in her hand.

She looked at the man sharply, loaded her gun with a click, keeping it pointed at him.

The man looked up at the both of them, slowly lowering his rifle, his lecherous gaze lingering on them as he stepped back.

'I'll get ya,' he mumbled, looking at Joel, and then down at Ellie. 'You too, ya little bitch.'

Joel clenched his teeth, his breath ragged as he tried to contain his anger. If they were outside this town, he would've broken the bastards skull against his own knee. He watched in curdling rage as Dom and his father turned around and left, the old man staggering and struggling with balance.

'Joel, I tried not to fight,' Ellie mumbled, as he put his gun back inside and walked to her. Without a word, he held her head and pulled her into a warm embrace. Ellie hesitated for a second, and then wrapped her hands around him, taking in the comfort he provided her, the place where she would always find a safe haven.

Kenda muffed Johnny's hair and put an arm around Vera's shoulder, smiling down at the the two of them, the fresh bruises and cuts on their faces, the blood trickling from Johnny's nose, and their complete indifference to the pain.

'You guys are fricking wolf pups,' she said, and then looked at Ellie. Her look of admiration slightly embarrassed Ellie, but made her feel proud.

When Maria heard about the incident the next morning, she pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose and sighed, disappointed. She knew what she had to do, and she wasn't very happy about it. It wasn't only Joel that had been complaining about Dom's father, but several others as well. He was infamous for waving that rifle around and scaring people off, but yesterday he had crossed his limits by pointing it at a couple of kids.

Within two days, they had him sacked and forced out of the apartment with as much respect as they could muster up, but it ended in an ugly spat at the gate anyway. He had shot several blind bullets, before they held him down and pulled his rifle away. They had offered for Dom to stay back, find a home separately in the town, but he had refused out of fear when his father glared at him.

Tommy stood on the wall, ordered the gates to be closed, saw their faces outside. Ramone still yelled curses at him at the top of his voice. Joel stood beside him, hands folded across his chest.

'It's better this way, Ramone,' Tommy said to him aloud. 'You'll find a military camp outside, a few miles up the highway. You'll be safe there. There's enough supplies in that bag to last a month.'

Ramone spat on the ground, flipped him off and walked away, Dom following him obediently, glancing back once in a while with fear in his eyes. In a few minutes, they had turned and disappeared at the river bank, walking among rocks.

'The kid could've stayed back if he wanted to,' Tommy mumbled, in a low voice. 'They ain't gonna survive a week out there.'

Joel sighed, patted his brother on the back once and left.

A/N: Raise your hands if you imagined Tom Felton as Dom. It's who I had in mind the entire time.

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