A/N: Here's the next chapter! I hope you guys enjoy!
The group spent the next few days traveling to Ohio, managing to avoid the fireflies. Ellie found it much harder to travel with her pregnancy, finding herself to get more exhausted much easier than she would if she weren't pregnant. The four left the woods, finally able to walk along the road into the nearest town.
"Okay, we should be alright from here on out." Abby says as they entered the town of Kent. Amaria looked around, awestruck. She had never been this far east before.
"Any idea when we'll find this place that Rebecca told us about?" Lev asks, gently pushing Amaria ahead of him.
"Hopefully no more than a month or two provided that we all stay healthy." Ellie says, looking back at the two. She hoped they'd be able to find somewhere as fast as she and Joel had found Jackson, granted the two of them were able to make that trip at a faster pace since no one was obviously pregnant.
"So, do you think the baby will be a boy or a girl?" Amaria asks as she picked up the pace, trying to make small talk. She may only be the young age of twelve, but she knew that things were tense for Abby and Ellie with the pregnancy and wanted to make things the least tense as possible.
"Well, I think it's a boy, but Abby thinks it's a girl."
"It's going to be a girl." Abby says, making Ellie roll her eyes.
"I agree with Abby. I think it's going to be a girl." Amaria says, earning a high five from Abby.
"Well, I'm with Ellie. I think it's a boy. We have enough girls in our group." Lev says, earning a thumbs up from Ellie.
"Well, what do you guys say that we make this interesting? Since I'm the one going through pregnancy and childbirth, whoever is wrong get's diaper duty for the first month." She says, looking back at them.
"Oh, you're on." Abby chuckles, putting an arm around her girlfriend, "granted I was going to take diaper duty and nights anyway since you're doing the hard part."
Ellie rolled her eyes, "uh huh. Sure."
Abby chuckled as they came to a blocked intersection, blocked by cars and various debris. Ellie and Abby looked around, hoping to find a small hole or something that Ellie or one of the kids could crawl through.
"What do we do now?" Lev asks when no such open space could be found.
Ellie started walking along the blocked area, hoping to find building that the group could cut through. She didn't have the energy to go all the way back and find some other way to get around and all she wanted was to rest since the sun was going to set soon.
"Hey how about we go through that subway?" She asks, pointing to the stairs leading down to the terminal after a few minutes of walking. Ellie didn't wait for a response as she started to descend the steps.
"Hey, heads up. There's spores." Abby says as she and Lev descended the steps right behind Ellie and took their masks out.
Ellie took her own mask out and gave it to Amaria, helping her put it on.
"These things suck." Amaria whined, acting very much like a child now.
"Better a few moments of discomfort than getting infected." Abby says as Ellie tightened the pre-teens mask so that it was snug.
"Man, why can't I be immune like you? You're so lucky."
Ellie didn't say anything, too exhausted physically and mentally for a rebuttal. Her immunity was hardly a blessing when so many people were dying already. She was supposed to die nearly seven years earlier when she and Riley got bitten.
Ellie led them through the spores filled subway, trying to see as best she could. The flashlight was certainly no help when it came to seeing through all the spores. They just needed to find an exit before any infected showed up.
"Keep your eyes peeled for older infected." Abby says as they squeezed through a small gap into a train car. The water splashed under their feet, eventually getting deeper until it was up to their waists, up to the chest on Amaria and Lev.
"Amaria, stay here." Ellie says diving into the deep water. She needed to find a pallet or something to help Amaria get across bodies of water just as Joel had done. Ellie dove under the water, finding a pallet wedged between some debris. After some coaxing, she was finally able to bring it to the surface, gasping for breath as she brought it to the edge of the train for Amaria to climb on.
"Okay, come on Amaria."
Amaria climbed onto the pallet and Ellie swam her over to the ladder on the other side; Amaria pulling herself up as Lev and Abby joined them. The redhead started lowering the ladder, stopping when she heard runners and clickers in the distance.
"Amaria, go! Hide!" Abby whispered urgently, waving the girl away from them. Amaria nodded, quickly dropping the ladder, and running. The other three pressed themselves against the wall as the infected ran by, the clickers screaming as they homed in on their prey.
Abby and Ellie waited until the infected ran past before slowly climbing the ladder themselves.
"We need to find Amaria!" Lev says frantically, getting his bow ready.
Yeah, no shit. Ellie thought as she and Abby grabbed their guns and ran in the direction that the infected had followed Amaria in. The trio ran until they saw the group of infected banging on the door to a supply closet. Ellie put her gun away, finding a Molotov she had made earlier and lit it, throwing it into the group of infected.
The infected screamed as they were engulfed in flames, Ellie shooting them with her pistol to finish the job much faster. The clickers and runners eventually stopped screaming as they dropped dead in front of them.
"Amaria? Are you in there?" Abby asks as Ellie slowly opened the door.
Amaria was tucked in the corner, making herself as small as possible. Her hoodie was pulled over her face, her kneels pulled up to her chest. She almost looked like a scared bunny rabbit. Ellie slowly approached her, the girl not noticing her yet, and touched her shoulder. Amaria gasped, startled when Ellie touched her.
"Ellie!" She cried, getting up and wrapping her arms around her.
"Hey it's okay. You're safe now." Ellie says, rubbing Amaria's back, "now let's get out of here." She adds, turning and heading towards the exit.
Abby frowned at the trembling girl. She and Ellie had the time to desensitize themselves to these everyday dangers, but Amaria had never left the safety of the compound before to get used to these scenarios. The two women and Lev shared a look as they left the subway, ascending the stairs into the bright light and allowing themselves to breathe a sigh of relief.
Everyone took their masks off, breathing in the fresh air.
"Amaria, are you ok to keep going?" Ellie asks, looking down at Amaria, who still clung to her.
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
Ellie nodded and looked at Abby, neither one convinced but didn't say anything as they had no choice but to continue walking.
All they wanted now was to find shelter for the night.
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review!