4
...
Ellie didn't think she'd ever been so beat up in her entire life.
Her ribs just ached. She wondered if David had perhaps broken one when he nailed the rough tip of his boot straight into her torso. Her cheeks were swollen and tasted of blood when she ran her tongue over them - she probably looked like a chipmunk. And her hair was still entirely damp with blood, some of which had dried and some still oozing from the mysterious wound she couldn't quite find. It hurt just to touch as gently as possible with the tips of her fingers, and she didn't want to add too much more pressure.
Whenever she and Joel went out on runs or whatever, sure she would end up with a few scrapes and bruises from all the crazy shit they did. But never like this. There had never been someone intentionally slapping her, kicking her, pulling on her hair…
The young girl had been rather glum the entire day after that miserable morning. Her stomach relentlessly growled in hunger; she was never given breakfast. Her body hurt. She missed Joel, especially since she had never been able to see him after all. She hoped he was okay. Hoped he hadn't been chopped up and turned into...
Ellie was shaken from her dark thoughts as the door started creaking open. She tensed at the sight of David, gingerly approaching her in the dimly lit room with something in his hands. Upon moving closer to her, she soon realized it was a tray of food.
"Hi there, Ellie," the man's voice was softer now, a distinct contrast to the frightening pitch she had heard him use earlier. He set the tray down on the ground, sliding it through to her side of the cell. "Brought you some food. Figured you might not want to eat with me in the dining room after, erm… all that this mornin'."
She chose not to look at him and instead stared at the offered meal, unsure of its contents.
David leaned down to match her height, resting a hand on his knee as he did so. "I'm sorry for what I did, Ellie. I shouldn't have hit you… you're special to me, and I don't want to have to hurt you. But you can't go overreacting like that. It makes me overreact back, you hear?"
"You didn't have to. You chose to." Ellie corrected him bitterly, not even wanting to comment on the overreacting part of his stupid spiel. Overreacting would have been killing him and that idiot James, not freaking out like some dumb kid and running away.
"I-I know. I know, and I'm sorry... okay? I really don't want this to become a problem. I don't want this to come between us." David pleaded with her.
"There's no us." Ellie stated firmly. She would cross her arms in front of her chest if she could.
"But there is, sweet girl. There is," the man's voice only got more breathless as his desperation rose. "I'm just trying to help you adapt to your new life as easily as I can. And that may involve you learning a few lessons along the way, just like today."
Ellie wanted to scoff. "Lessons in what, exactly? What is so important that you're trying to teach me?"
"To behave." David answered simply.
Ellie furrowed her eyebrows, unsure of how to respond. She didn't want to behave. She didn't want to be here at all, trapped with these crazy people… she didn't want to adapt to her 'new life', whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean...
David interrupted their short period of shared silence. "Are you scared of me, Ellie?"
Yes. "No," the girl replied.
"I'm glad," David said, a smile stretching thinly across his lips. "Because I'm not the enemy here. I'm the only one here that's on your side. The only one that wants to keep you alive. Everyone else in this camp wants you and your friend killed, you understand? I'm preventing that from happening. For you."
Ellie shook her head, disbelief evident in her tone. "How can I believe my friend is still alive when you wouldn't even let me see him?"
"He is. He is, I promise." David put his hands up in the air as if to calm her down.
Ellie looked at her plate, eyes drilling into the disfigured meat. "I bet this is him right here. You people are fucking sick."
"It's not," he tried to reassure her. "We do what we have to, to survive. You're a survivor, aren't you?"
"I'm not like you," she spat.
"We're not different," David insisted, ignoring the highly dubious expression resting upon Ellie's face. "We sometimes have to resort to eating our own, when times are tough. You and your friend had to resort to killing off a whole bunch of men, 'cause times were tough. You understand, don't you?"
Ellie was just so sick of him. Sick of hearing his voice. Sick of feeling his disgusting presence darken the entire room time after time. She just wanted him to leave her alone.
Pointing to her plate, she said, "Be honest with me. Is this human?"
"No. I would never do that without telling you." David shook his head back and forth violently, acting like the idea of tricking her was completely blasphemous.
Ellie huffed out, "Is my friend still alive?"
"He is," David nodded. "I'll take you to him tomorrow. I promise."
Yeah, and I've heard that one before... she thought to herself. Unsure if he was telling the truth, Ellie averted her gaze to the side.
David quickly took notice of her movement. "Don't be sad, Ellie. I know today was hard, but things will get better. It'll get easier." He was trying, rather pathetically at that, to cheer her up... "You can enjoy your meal, with or without me - I'll let you choose. Tomorrow you'll see your friend. Maybe I can even have a doctor look at you, too. Does anything hurt?"
Ellie almost laughed. She could still taste blood in her mouth, feel the throbbing of her cheek. "Everything."
The man's bottom lip tugged.
"Can you leave?" Ellie questioned irritably, her patience growing thinner by the second. "You said I could choose, right? So leave."
David took a breath as he rose, looking down at the girl unhappily. "You'll come around," he said, as if he was still trying to convince himself.
I won't, Ellie swore inside her head. She watched the man as he left, never taking her eyes off the door until it closed behind him, and even for a few moments afterwards.
…
Shockingly, the next morning, as promised by a liar, Ellie was taken from her cell to see Joel.
But not without updated restrictions. Her arms were bound from the elbow all the way down to her wrists, hung lifelessly in front of her like a straitjacket. Her ankles were now tied together as well, making it nearly impossible to walk. David hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack as they travelled.
It was absolutely humiliating, but Ellie was able to suck up her discomfort in exchange for confirming Joel's living status. It wasn't the longest walk, only about ten minutes or so, when David finally set her back down on her feet.
He pointed to a sleeping figure laid on a makeshift hospital bed, separated from the both of them by a clear wall. "There he is."
Ellie's breath got caught in her throat as she recognized all the familiar Joel-like features: his broad physique, scraggly facial hair, brunette hair peppered with flecks of silver. She couldn't take her eyes off of him, as if she was frightened the moment she did he would just simply turn to dust.
"C-can I go in? Can I talk to him?" her voice didn't sound like her own as she begged. Though Joel hadn't been very talkative at all the past few weeks, Ellie very much missed all of their conversations they used to have together.
"For right now… we can't let you two communicate," David said regretfully. "And, ah, he wouldn't be able to, anyway."
That comment caught Ellie's attention. Her head swiveled to glare at the man, an accusatory tone in her voice as she questioned, "What does that mean?"
"Guess this is as good a time as any…" David said with a sigh, placing a hand on Ellie's shoulder. "Your friend is... sick."
"I'm aware," Ellie snapped, jerking her shoulder in an attempt to remove his hand - unsuccessfully.
"And the medicine he needs… well, we know where to find it. But it's far." David tightened his grip, almost like a warning. "We'd have to send ten or twenty men out to get it, and frankly, not everyone is on board with the idea. Why waste the time? Why waste the men?"
Ellie held her breath.
David continued. "If you really want me to, I can convince them it's in our best interest to go out and get the medicine. But I'll - ''
"Need something in return." Ellie grumbled out. "What is it?"
If it was anything like the last time, she'd...
"Nothing bad," David reassured her, his hand slowly lowering to caress the side of her arm. "I just want to spend some more time with you."
Ellie's face twisted up. She already saw him every single day, wasn't that enough? "Time with me… doing what?"
"Nothing in particular," the man responded vaguely. "Just spending quality time together, like friends. Now, does that sound so terrible?"
Ellie's lips parted, a cold fear trickling into her system as she pondered the gravity of the situation. She looked over at Joel's still form, assessing every part of him that was visible to the eye. She fell into a nervous silence as she felt David's eyes on her.
"I bet you two used to spend a lot of quality time together, hm?" David's voice lowered, some type of emotion she couldn't quite decipher swimming around in there.
What's he talking about? Me and Joel…? "What's that supposed to mean?" Ellie demanded, mostly to avoid answering his question.
"Ah… nothing," David said, once again adapting a lighthearted tone. "So, what do you say?"
The more Ellie looked at Joel, the paler he seemed to get. "If… if he doesn't get the medicine, will he die?"
"Yes." the answer came quickly.
Ellie was more than slightly suspicious. She couldn't not be - she didn't trust these people. But Joel did look sick. And he hadn't been healthy for a while even before… and even if David was lying to her, it was far too big of a gamble. Joel's life just wasn't something she felt comfortable taking a chance with.
"Okay, then. I'll… sure, whatever. As long as he gets the stuff he needs," the girl seceded, shoulders slumping as she did so.
A smile rose to David's face. He squeezed along her arm. "Thank you, Ellie. Really. Tonight, then?"
The girl sighed. "Do I have a choice?"
David chuckled. "You've already made one."
…
The rest of Ellie's day continued as usual, except with an added layer of anxiety shadowing her every thought.
Her life in captivity was rather boring, she had realized. Not as bad as the days where she just lounged around Joel's unconscious body, throwing imaginary darts around the room and had conversations with someone who couldn't even hear her, but it was along those same lines. All she was allowed to do was sit in her cell, sometimes trying to get information out of James if at any point he entered the room she was being held in. No attempts were successful, seeing as Jamees wasn't very pleased to see her after she had apparently elbowed him in the ribs the other day.
"David should have killed you," he had told her bluntly, receiving a brutal glare immediately afterwards.
Though Ellie was kept very secluded from the other people living in this camp, she had been able to piece together little tidbits of information throughout the few days she'd been there. The people were cannibals, first of all - which completely grossed her out. A lot of things about this weird place were off-putting, but people eating other people took the cake by a landslide.
Another thing she found interesting was that from what she had seen thus far… it didn't seem like David's people had much faith in him. It was very different from Tommy's town, at least. Over there, nobody really questioned Tommy. They all respected him, all liked him, and they definitely trusted him to keep everyone safe.
Here, the townspeople were constantly questioning David's authority. Even James didn't really agree with whatever decisions David was making, especially in regards to Ellie… David was always trying to convince her that he was good and everyone else was bad. That he was the only one who wanted her to live. And while Ellie didn't doubt that he was trying to keep her alive for whatever… weird purposes he had, she was unsure of what would happen afterwards. She hoped she could escape before she found out firsthand.
Ellie hadn't gotten a spectacular vantage point while being escorted over to see Joel earlier, but she was moderately confident that if she was able to sneak out of her cell somehow, she could retrace the steps well enough.
The main issue was that she was still being restrained. She could feel the uncomfortable burning sensation running up and down her arms and circling in a red ring around her ankles, painfully keeping her constantly on edge. To do anything, she would first have to be freed from her bindings...
Ellie felt frightened for whatever David had planned, even though that was rather difficult to admit to herself. But she had to stay focused. She had to remember it was for Joel. She could use whatever this was as an opportunity to learn more about this place, and get one step closer to escaping. Once Joel had his medicine, they were going to be out of there as soon as possible.
So when David eventually arrived later that day to collect her from the cell, she didn't show him any type of emotion. He scooped her up and carried her from the room as Ellie's eyes shifted towards the ground, trying her best to memorize any patterns or markings.
Ellie was surprised when she was set down softly onto a cushiony sofa just a few minutes later. She blinked, taking notice of the surroundings: she was in what looked like… some kind of entertainment room? There were board games and piles of books organized neatly into a large cabinet, a dartboard lined up on the wall, little posters and things hung all around the room that made it feel vibrant. She had never seen anything quite like it.
"What is this place?" Ellie asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.
David chuckled. "You like it?"
The girl didn't offer any response, prompting David to continue. "This is what I like to call… the fun room. It's a place you can come to when you're being rewarded for good behavior. There are games, and books, and other fun things."
"Then why am I here?" Ellie asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not being rewarded for anything, so..."
David retrieved a tray of food from a stray table in the corner of the room, speaking softly to her as he approached the sofa. "We have our little deal, you remember? And on top of that, I want you to make yourself comfortable, Ellie. If things go well, we can start spending some more time in here together."
I would gladly stay in here by myself, she thought. With this guy, not so much.
"Now, look at all this food here. You're hungry, aren't you?" David held the tray in his hands.
"I'm hungry because you don't give me any breakfast." the words simply slipped out from Ellie's mouth. She flinched as David's fist jerked up from his side, preparing to strike her. He paused for a moment, shaking with anger as he glared down at her, then sat back down on the sofa with a troubled expression.
"You're always testing me," he hissed at her. "I don't want to hurt you today, Ellie, and I'm not going to let you ruin this for me."
Just today? "Ruin what?"
David shot her another look. "You're on thin ice, you know that? I'm going to take a moment to go collect myself, and when I come back, I expect you to behave. If you choose not to, then no run. That means no medicine for your friend. And you know that around here we don't waste any of our meat."
He left the room, but Ellie could hardly hear his footsteps.
...
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