ELLIE.
You always wanna give a moment a name.
Wanna categorize things.
This moment was good.
This one was bad.
Sometimes that works. Sometimes that makes sense.
Sometimes it doesn't.
Sometimes a moment is too full, too big, too tangled and unruly, to withstand a name. To let itself carry a label.
Ellie sinks into the mud, can hear only her own shaking breath. The tears cut a harsh path through the blood and soil on her face. The world is slow and steady and yet altogether too fast. She is anchored firmly to the ground and yet she is freefalling through some empty space inside herself.
The loss is too deep and the gain is too much.
...
ELLIE.
It doesn't take long to find the boat ramp cutting into the current of the river-but there's no boat.
Ellie brings the bike to a stop and surges toward the water; they have to be here- they have to be .
"Fuck," Ellie breathes, looking out at the empty stretch of river, "Fuck-"
"We'll find them, Ellie-" Dina says, catching up to her through the thick undergrowth on the bank.
"If we didn't catch them here then they could be anywhere- " Ellie says, "That fucking psycho is going to get all three of them killed-Dina, we have to find them-"
"Ellie- look."
Ellie lifts her gaze, follows Dina's gesture down along the river, where the water has overtaken an old stretch of highway. There's a staggered line of rusted cars jutting out into the current-and there, trapped against a decrepit, half-submerged minivan-
"The boat! Shit, Ellie-hurry!"
They both sprint down the bank of the river, racing over tangled weeds and and damp foliage, Ellie in the lead.
She can see the raft more clearly now, a well worn and patched yellow thing, and she can see Evie, trying to climb onto the roof of the minivan-but a hand reaches out, tries to drag her back in. Evie kicks hard, but it's clear she's exhausted and at her limit-
"Evie!" Ellie calls out to her, " Evie, hold on!"
Ellie scrambles to a stop at the bank, trying to figure out how to get to her. Evie's fighting against Redford but losing and Ellie has to reach her-
Ellie makes a wild jump onto the trunk of a submerged sedan; it shivers under the impact, threatens to come loose and wash away with the current, but it holds firm. Ellie climbs over the roof, onto the hood. The water rushes up and over, sinks into her shoes.
"Ellie!" Dina falls from the bank, "Be fucking careful!"
But she's only two cars away now, she can make it.
She jumps onto the windshield of an SUV and the glass shatters; her leg sinks through up to the knee and she's pretty sure she feels the skin being sliced.
"Fuck, " She breathes through clenched teeth and pulls at the leg, frees it, keeps going.
"Evie!" She calls as she climbs onto the roof of the SUV, but when she gets her footing, she sees that Evie is standing, free and clear, on top of the minivan-with her hands raised and trembling.
Down in the raft, Redford is training a pistol on her.
Evie looks so small, more vulnerable than ever with her swollen belly and drenched, spattered clothes. But Redford is sporting a swollen lip and Ellie knows that Evie has put up a hell of a fight.
"Evie…" Ellie says slowly; the raft is swaying in the violent current, nearly ready to capsize, and there's no way Redford can keep a steady aim, "Evie, just come toward me-slow-"
One of Evie's trainers lifts from the slick metal roof, edges slowly back toward Ellie on the next car over.
"Don't fucking move!" Redford screams, hair damp and disheveled, "You don't understand, you don't-"
Evie takes another step toward Ellie.
POW.
A shot rings out, ricochets off the frame of the minivan, but it startles Evie and in that single, frozen second, Ellie watches as Evie loses her footing.
"EVIE-" Ellie makes a wild grab for her hand but Evie topples over the edge and into the water, into the wild current.
The water surges and the raft with Redford on it is upended.
Ellie goes in, without thinking, without wondering how in the fuck she was going to get either of them out.
The water rushes over her and for a moment everything is silent; but the current pummels her on every side and she fights to find the surface, to find a breath.
"EVIE-" She calls out when she finds the air, " EVIE."
She can see the girl ahead of her, sinking and rising in the current, treading for everything she's worth.
"Ellie!"
"Hold on! Hold on!"
She fights against the push of the water and finally, finally , she puts her hands on Evie, grabs a fistful of her shirt, starts pulling them toward the bank.
In another moment, Ellie's feet find purchase, find the muddy bottom of the river and she pulls Evie along until Evie finds it, too. They stagger out of the current, onto the shallow bank, sink into the mud.
"Ellie!" Dina, running along the bank, trying to catch up, pointing, "WATCH-"
Ellie turns in time to find Redford staggering out of the current behind them. The old woman raises the gun, groggy and slow but with a wild desperation in her face.
Ellie throws herself at the woman and they both tumble into the shallow water of the bank.
"Christ," The woman croaks in a water-logged voice, "It's really you- oh, Jesus-you're immune-" She starts to laugh even as she's still fighting Ellie, fighting to keep the gun, "I put spores directly into your fucking blood stream and here you fucking are-fucking glorious-"
"You're out of your goddamn mind-it's fucking over, you lunatic, we burned everything to the ground!"
"It's not over, not as long as there's you, and this baby- two of you, oh god-we can really do this, we can really end all of this-"
There's a moment of concentrated effort, a wrestling match for the gun, and Ellie is afraid to take her hands off, afraid of what will happen if she lets go-
It goes off.
A deafening silence follows.
There's only the sound of the water behind them, rushing against the bank, lapping at the mud.
"Ellie?"
Ellie stands, frozen, as she watches the red begin to bloom across Evie's chest, slow but steady, steady, steady.
oh.
The sound slowly drains away from everything, replaced by a crushing silence. She sees Dina running across the bank, running toward Evie, but she can't hear any of it. Can't hear anything.
The gun lays in the mud, and Redford is on her hands and knees, watching as Evie drops, heavy, to the mud.
Dina is screaming something at her. It looks like help me but she's deaf, she's dumb, she can't move. The shallow water around her feet begins to fill with blood.
Ellie leans down, picks up the gun.
"She's in labor," Redford is screaming at her, but she sounds impossibly distant, "You have to save that baby- she's all that matters, the only thing, she's everything-you have to test her, you have to find out for sure-"
Ellie raises the gun.
Fires into Redford, a single shot, through the head.
She throws the gun back to the mud.
"Ellie," Dina is saying over and over, " The baby- I need your help-"
Ellie drops down next to Evie; there's too much blood, too much. It's everywhere, in everything. Evie is already pale, her face wrenched in terror, her breath shallow and frightened and Ellie doesn't know what to do, doesn't know how to make this better.
"I can...I can stop the blood…" Ellie says in a daze, and she starts pulling off her flannel overshirt, breaks a few of the buttons in the rush, "I-I can-"
"Just save her-" Evie says, and she clamps her hand over Ellie's, " Save her, Ellie, please-"
Evie squeezes her eyes closed in agony and Dina reaches forward, grabs the flannel out of Ellie's hands.
"I'm sorry, Evie," Ellie says, thick with tears, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"
"Just take care of her, Ellie," Evie says in a rattling whisper.
"Always," Ellie whispers, "Always."
And then Dina is pushing a bundle into her arms, not ungently, but with urgency; take her , Dina says, and Ellie does, Ellie takes the baby swaddled in her blood-drenched flannel shirt and Dina leans over Evie, trying to help, trying to do anything.
Ellie sinks into the mud, can hear only her own shaking breath. The tears cut a harsh path through the blood and soil on her face. The world is slow and steady and yet altogether too fast. She is anchored firmly to the ground and yet she is freefalling through some empty space inside herself.
This moment is bad.
But this moment is good.
Because she looks down into her blood-stained flannel shirt, cradled there in her arms.
Looks down into little Talia's face.
...
END.