Chapter 2

Ellie's mind raced as she dropped the photo like it was hot. Marlene? Why was a photo of her here? Was this her family home? But why was she scowling? Oh, this could be juicy! If she ever saw her again, the stuff Ellie could learn here could make her next encounter with Marlene one to remember. She hadn't had chance to see her before Joel had left the firefly hospital and she'd woken up in the back of the car. But that could wait. For now, she had to warm Joel up. That was more important than anything. And since there were no cigars in the keepsake box- surprise, surprise- there were no matches.

Placing the photo down, she got up and began searching the room again. She practically tore the place apart, looking in every drawer, cabinet and bureau she could find. But then an answer came to her. Looking around the ornaments that littered the room, tipped over and smashed as some of them were, she spotted one that looked promising. She was pretty sure Joel had called it a geode or something like that. There was a rock with crystals contained within and a hole that you could look through and see them. But that wasn't what interested her. With it, there were other rocks. There were various kinds of both crystals and plain rocks that must have formerly been lined up on the shelf at one point but now were all scattered at the back of the room under the pile of broken, rotten splinters that the shelf had once been. And seemingly the most boring one of them all was the one that interested her the most: the lump of flint that sat on the carpet. She snatched it up and pulled out her switchblade again, heading back over to the fireplace and trying to remember what the military school had tried to teach her in the fleeting time before she and Riley had been bitten. Her lack of practice was as obvious as her lack of attentiveness was regrettable. The first few strikes showed nothing. The fifth one even caused the blade to skitter off the surface at such an angle that she managed to slice into her fingertip.

"Shit!" she hissed under her breath as she stuck her freezing cold finger in her mouth. The pain was barely registering from the cold, but she knew it would only be a matter of time. With a scream of pure rage, she struck out again. By luck more than judgement, it worked. A shower of sparks erupted from the flint and scattered all over the fire, which then instantly took hold and became a flame. Now relying on the training Joel had given her, she kindled it with the paper and tipped the rest of the stuff from the keepsake box out onto the floor. Once she'd broken the bottom of it apart and started feeding pieces of it into the flame to stoke it up, it wasn't long before she had a decent blaze going. That was fine provided it didn't become a blaze of the whole house. From the look of the place from outside, the first one had done enough damage.

With the knowledge that Joel had everything he needed to be fine now, she turned her attention to the box again. Or rather the things that had been in it that now littered the carpet. The family photo was there, of course, but there were other things too. There were four little lockets with a letter on the front. C, D, M and R. The weirdest thing: inside each one was a small amount of hair. It was confusing beyond belief. She could guess that M probably meant Marlene. That meant the other initials were for the rest of the kids. But why hair of all things? There was nothing else for it. She'd have to ask Joel about it when he woke up. There was also something else. An old piece of paper that was hastily crumpled up. Had it been hidden in there? Carefully, she opened it out to read it. The left edge was torn. There was no doubt that this had been ripped out of a journal or something.

"It's Thanksgiving. Our whole family gathers around that time. But because of the apocalypse six years ago, no one shows up now. Dad thinks they're all dead. I know even though he doesn't say it. But someone came this year. That surprised us all. What worries me is that they weren't happy. Someone actually came to us for Thanksgiving and they didn't want her. Marlene moved out a while ago. I barely remembered her. Little Sis doesn't even know her. Our parents never even told her she existed.

I don't know what they're angry about. We all got sent up to our room and Cain is playing with the little one, so I can't hear much from leaning over the bannisters. I get caught, I'm getting my ass beat. Apparently they're angry because she became a terrorist. I don't know what that means. But she's family. And I'm thankful she's here no matter what she's done."

Ellie folded the paper back up and put it away. When she let out a breath, it was heavier than she'd been expecting. So Marlene's whole family had turned against her. No wonder Marlene had bee so regimented and bitter. To have lost your family was one thing, but to know they were out there and they hated you? She couldn't imagine what effect that would have, especially to someone who'd seen the world collapse around them as well.

She didn't know how long she sat there. At some point she picked up the family photo again and stared at it. It was calling to her in some way. But it wasn't Marlene. It was actually the youngest girl. Something about her was so familiar. It was like the answer- and in a way, the girl- were so close but just out of reach. But try as she might, the face was just too faded to establish who she was. That wasn't going to stop her, though. She was so determined that she was still staring at it when Joel began to stir.

"Huh...? What- what's going-" Ellie looked up and resisted the urge to run over and hug him.

"Just take it easy." Despite everything, she couldn't keep a grin off her face. "You had hypothermia. You're still sluggish." As she spoke, Joel carefully sat up a bit straighter and took off his jacket, throwing it over him too to try and hold in even more warmth.

"So where is this place?" He didn't remember, Ellie realised. That was okay. She still wasn't entirely sure herself. But she had more to go on now than she did before.

"I think it's Marlene's old family home." She got up and brought the family photo over to show him. "What are the chances, huh?"

"Huh..." Joel muttered, an almost haunted look coming over his face. "That a fact?" Ellie didn't know what it was about, but she decided to change the subject a bit.

"You know, there were all kinds of rumours going around about Marlene when I was growing up. There would be, I guess. They were trying to make everyone hate her. Make her seem weaker than she was. Like, did you ever see her run? Not a mid-pace jog, like, a flat-out sustained sprint like we sometimes have to." Joel thought for a moment. Ellie could see he still wasn't able to concentrate properly, but dammit he was really trying.

"You know, I don't think I ever did." There was no way he was keeping the tiredness out of his voice. "Mind you, she was wounded when we met properly. And I didn't see too much of her at the hospital. There was no reason for her to run so she just walked then."

"Well if there's any truth to it, she couldn't." Ellie told him. "Apparently she was in an accident not too long after the apocalypse and needed a double kneecap replacement. For obvious reasons, there weren't many surgeons that could do it properly since most of them were in hospitals when all the infected were brought in before anyone knew better. It left her severely restricted in what she could do."

"You know, I'm inclined to believe there might be a grain of truth to that." Joel nodded. "That sounds possible. And if this was her family home, what better place to learn about her? We'll walk the perimeter when I'm feeling a bit better. Maybe scrounge up some food too. I'm getting hungry."

"You're bound to." Ellie nodded. She knew that at that moment his body was burning through its energy reserves to try and restore his core temperature. She knew hers was doing the same and could feel herself getting lethargic, but she couldn't afford to fall asleep just yet. She decided to get busy and do something. "Listen, I'm going to go and look for food. They must have had some cans somewhere. Everything comes in a fucking can nowadays." She made sure her pistol and switchblade were secure as she grabbed her backpack and headed over to the door. "A big place like this must have something. As soon as you're feeling up to it, block the door behind me. Only open it for me."

"Yes, ma'am." Joel muttered sarcastically as he looked to be mentally debating moving closer to the fire. Ellie ignored his tone and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway.

She made sure the door was secured behind her and started towards the kitchen. She knew it didn't hold out a lot of hope since it appeared to have been a major victim of the fire and there was a hole in one wall big enough to see daylight through. Still, that didn't change the fact it was where food was stored. If there was ever a place to start searching, it was still there. Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed. As she entered the kitchen, she saw that it wasn't just daylight coming through but snow and ice as well. The fire had burned through that entire side of the house letting her see into all the floors above from the ground floor. People had obviously been in there since because it had been totally gutted. No surprise. With the amount of damage there was it was easily the least secure place in the house. She only checked a couple of empty cabinets before giving up and realising the kitchen was a lost cause. Raiders had gutted it for food. After this long, she shouldn't have been surprised. Although it was weird that the living room hadn't been touched too badly. Then again the journal entry she found had been from a few years after the apocalypse. By that point, surprisingly few people were stealing or looting valuables since they only weighed you down and there wasn't a market for them. Still, it was baffling that there wasn't more sign of human intrusion. She'd half expected to have to fight a group for control of the house, or at least find some sign that someone else was in there by that point.

As if on cue, that sign came as soon as the thought crossed her mind. There was a scratching sound from up above her and she looked up just in time to see a charred black shape sliding towards her from the listing end of the partially collapsed second floor room. She ran towards the door and combat rolled out into the hallway as what apparently used to be a writing desk smashed into the floor and broke through into a basement down below. She looked back, surveying the cloud of dust and debris that had bloomed behind her, the concrete rendered brittle by the cold and the floorboards on top rendered spongy by the damp. She couldn't say Joel hadn't warned her. Still, something about that scratching... That hadn't been from the desk. Still, she didn't know what had made them. Was it human? Infected? Some kind of animal? Was the floor simply too old to cope with the weight and wetness of the snow? Whatever the case, her best- and only- option was to stay sharp and watch out for any more 'accidents'.