Twenty minutes later, Ellie and Matthew stood waiting to get onto the truck.
The driver started the truck as six soldiers got in back. They placed a few newly filled gas cans on the floor between them.
Matthew leaned close to Ellie. "So, why Riley?" he asked quietly.
"Just the name I thought of, I guess," Ellie lied. "Why?"
"No reason," Matthew replied with a shrug.
The Captain walked up to Ellie and Matthew, lighting yet another cigarette. "We don't keep personal items, Riley."
Ellie hesitated. She realized he was talking about the guitar and glared at him. "That's nice."
"Do as I say, soldier!" the Captain ordered, raising his voice. "Leave it!"
"Not happening," Ellie snapped as she defiantly raised an eyebrow. "Besides, what exactly qualifies as a personal item? Because I'm pretty fucking sure cigarettes aren't on the list for standard military gear."
The Captain stepped in close, his face once again inches away from Ellie's. "You and I are going to have a real fucking problem," he growled.
"I'm not the one with a problem," Ellie countered.
The Captain held her gaze for a moment, then looked away. "I don't got time for this. Get in the damn truck."
Ellie relaxed.
Matthew's hand dropped away from his knife. "You must have been great fun to train," he said sarcastically.
"I had a friend who was worse," Ellie replied. "Though neither of us were subtle."
"Why does that not surprise me?" Matthew asked as he hopped into the truck.
Matthew reached down and grasped Ellie's hand, helping her in.
They sat down and Matthew let go.
Ellie was surprised to find that she didn't want to let go. She blushed and let the thought slide.
Matthew looked at the other six soldiers in the bed of the truck. "Where are we headed?"
"We got a base a couple hours southwest of here," one of the soldiers said.
The truck backfired multiple times as it started to move.
…
Joel reached the town moments later as smoke continued to rise from the church. He made his way into the town as quickly as he could. Goddamnit Ellie, where are you?
Joel ran into a house and took the stairs three at a time. From the second story, he saw a dark rectangle disappearing into the distance. That's a truck.
Joel hesitated for a moment. There was no way to track Ellie in the town. He had to risk that she was somehow on the truck. Joel made his way out of the town as quickly as he could.
…
"Riley."
Ellie looked up to see Matthew offering her a water bottle.
"Jesus," Matthew exclaimed. "You forget your name or something?"
Ellie rolled her eyes and took a long drink. After traveling for over an hour, they had entered the state of New Mexico. To their right, there was a field of grassy farmland. A small forest emerged on the left about half a mile away.
"Ammo check," the Captain ordered from the front seat.
One by one, the soldiers began to announce how much ammo they had in each weapon. There wasn't much.
Once they were done, the Captain handed a small device to a soldier through the back window. "Routine CBI check," he said lazily.
Ellie leaned forward to see the device. She immediately sat back.
Matthew leaned forward.
The scanner was being passed from soldier to soldier to check for infection. Each soldier checked the results of the previous man.
"Clear," a soldier said.
"I don't suppose your immunity fools the scanner," Matthew said quietly.
"Clear," said another soldier.
Ellie shook her head and looked over the shoulder of the man ahead of her. When the truck turned, she subtly looked around and saw that the forest was now behind her and Matthew.
"Get ready to move," Ellie whispered.
Ellie slowly reached her knife as Matthew retrieved his own weapon.
"Clear," said the soldier next to Matthew. Matthew grabbed the scanner and threw it hard at the soldier in front of Ellie.
The man batted it aside. "What the fu—"
Ellie lunged forward and stabbed him in the neck with her knife.
Matthew stabbed the man beside him in the chest. He withdrew the knife and dove over the side of the truck with Ellie. The sudden stop caused Matthew to lose his footing and he landed hard on his chest.
"C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!" Ellie said frantically, hauling him to his feet. "Move! Move! Move! Move!"
Matthew got his feet under him and they ran as fast as they could. They reached the tree line as bullets riddled the ground around them. The truck pulled to a stop and the soldiers got out to pursue them on foot.
Ellie and Matthew stopped in the cover of the trees. Ellie grabbed the guitar out of her backpack and placed it behind nearby tree. She locked eyes with Matthew. They nodded simultaneously. Ellie went right and Matthew ran left.
Ellie grabbed her bow and turned, drawing an arrow. A soldier came into view. Ellie released the arrow, sending it through his chest. She immediately turned and ran deeper into the forest.
…
Matthew hid himself behind a nearby tree. He heard two soldiers slow down behind him.
Voices followed.
"He's here somewhere."
"Just shut up and find him."
Matthew crouched and moved behind a large, fallen tree. He peeked out of his cover and saw that the second soldier was turned the other direction. He ducked down as the first soldier walked directly past him.
Matthew slowly stepped over the tree. He wrapped his arm around the man's neck and stabbed his knife downward. The soldier emitted a small gasp of pain as Matthew brought the dying man gently to the ground.
…
Ellie dove over a fallen log to her right and laid completely still. She swore quietly under her breath as the soldiers stopped to look around.
"Find her!" she heard the Captain say.
Ellie could hear footsteps receding into the distance. Moments later, a soldier started walking toward the log she was hiding behind.
Ellie crouched as low as she could and grabbed her knife. She grabbed a fallen stick with her other hand and tossed it in the opposite direction.
The soldier turned away. Ellie jumped on the man's back and stabbed him multiple times with her knife. As Ellie and the dead soldier hit the ground. She quickly rolled to her knees and looked around.
The Captain ran around a tree and leveled his pistol. Ellie half crawled, half ran to the cover of a nearby tree. Bullets embedded themselves in the bark.
…
The solider in front of Matthew turned toward the gunshots, spotting the young man immediately.
Matthew charged the soldier, batting the man's pistol to the left as the gun went off.
Matthew slashed horizontally across the man's neck with his blade before glancing around for further threats as the soldier fell to the ground, gagging on his own blood.
…
Ellie ran behind another tree the Captain opened fire again.
After a few rounds pinged off the tree, Ellie heard the Captain start to reload his gun. She drew another arrow and swung around the tree.
The Captain was waiting for her.
Ellie was kicked hard in the chest before being thrown to the ground a few feet away. Her bow fell out of reach.
The Captain walked forward and threw away his pistol. "I'm going to enjoy this," he said, cracking his knuckles.
The Captain charged forward as Ellie rose to her feet with her knife in hand. The Captain swung his right fist. Due to a swift partial block with her left hand, Ellie took a dulled blow to the side of her head as she charged straight into the Captain, stabbing inward.
The knife went deep into the Captain's chest three times. Ellie quickly withdrew the knife and backed up, rubbing the side of her face. The Captain knelt to the ground, pressing a hand to his wound. After a moment, he let out his final breath and collapsed.
Ellie glanced at her knife arm. She was surprised to find that she was in the same defensive position that Matthew had taught her.
"Son of a bitch," Ellie grunted, flipping her knife. "It worked."
After looking around for further threats, Ellie retrieved her bow and grabbed the Captain's handgun. "Fucking asshole."
A twig snapped to her right as the driver of the truck came into view.
Ellie immediately raised the pistol in her hand and pulled the trigger. The gun was still empty. "Shit!"
The driver of the truck leveled his assault rifle as Ellie turned and ran. She kept running as the bullets ripped into the trees and ground around her. The firing finally stopped and she heard the driver swear as the gun clicked repeatedly.
Ellie jumped over a ledge of rocks and was suddenly grabbed and yanked into darkness. A hand clamped over her mouth.
Ellie attempted to swing her knife around.
"Ellie, relax! It's me!" her captor said in a fast whisper.
Ellie stopped struggling at the sound of Matthew's voice.
The driver ran past the cave without seeing them.
After twenty seconds, Ellie felt Matthew relax behind her. He let out a breath of relief. "Alright," he said quietly. "I think we're good."
Ellie relaxed as well. Then why isn't he letting me go? Hmmmm… This should work.
"Ugh! Really?" Matthew exclaimed as he removed his hand.
Ellie turned and stuck her tongue out at him.
Matthew shook his head and wiped her saliva off on his pants.
Ellie simply grinned.
A soft, squawking sound came from the back of the small cave.
Ellie and Matthew turned quickly, searching for the source of the sound. A small, black bear cub crawled into the light of the cave's entrance.
Ellie knelt. "Aww," she said, putting her knife away. "It's so cute."
Matthew swore under his breath.
Ellie glanced at him. "What," she asked with a small smile. "You don't like cute, adorable, baby animals?"
"I'm more concerned about who lives with the cute, adorable, baby animal," Matthew replied, looking at the cave's entrance.
The cub let out a particularly loud, agitated squawk. It was followed by a loud roar outside the cave.
Ellie snapped her head around to look at the entrance. "What the hell was that?"
"That's most likely mom," Matthew said nervously. "Any ideas?"
"My gun's empty. And I doubt an arrow is gonna do anything."
They heard another roar much closer to the cave.
Ellie stepped forward, thinking quickly. The book I was reading. Last night… Bears hate… "Fire!" she said loudly. "We need fire!"
Matthew grabbed a lighter out of his pocket. "This isn't going to do much—wait! Grab the hairspray out of my backpack," he said turning his backpack toward Ellie. "It's in the biggest zipper!"
Ellie quickly opened the backpack and started to rummage through it. She glanced over Matthew's shoulder and saw a large black bear running toward them.
Matthew saw it as well. "Hurry it up, Ellie! It's the cylinder container."
"I know what fucking hairspray looks like!"
The bear was now less than twenty feet away from them. Matthew hit the trigger on the lighter. "Ellie, now!"
Ellie found the container and grabbed it. "Oh man!" she said nervously. She held the canister front of Matthew. "Here!"
Matthew grabbed the canister and sprayed it into the flame as the bear came through the cave entrance. The bright fire lit up the cave.
"Woah!" Ellie exclaimed in reaction to the flames.
The bear let out a cry of pain as the fire burnt its face. It took a swipe at Matthew with its paw. Matthew moved forward with the flame. The bear let out another cry of pain before retreating.
Ellie and Matthew wasted no time in running from the cave and out of the small forest.