Chapter 15 – Blue
"Sorry." Ellie said, wiping her tears, "I don't usually cry. It's just.. I just kept it in me all this time, I had to let it out."
Ben cautiously pulled away from her and gave her a slight smile. "No worries. A tear or two occasionally can help."
"Don't tell Dina."
"I won't." Ben barely whispered in reply, giving her a weak smile. He blushed again when he realized that in these few heartbeats they were closer than they were months ago, and turned his head away quickly.
Whistles echoed between the buildings in the streets below them, but they seemed far enough away that they didn't have to worry. Rain seemed to stop for a moment, and chilliness in the air could be felt through the open windows.
"Scars?" he whispered asked, as if someone was going to hear him if he spoke louder.
"Yeah. Whistles are signals they're using. Whenever you hear a whistle, know that a Scar is nearby."
"Noted."
When he thought about it, he was very surprised that Ellie cried in front of him. I guess she couldn't take it anymore, he thought, trying to justify her tears.
"You know.." he began, "..you don't have to hide your pain, Ellie."
She turned her head towards him, raising an eyebrow.
"Listen. I know how it is. I know how it is to blame yourself and how hard it is to try and forget. Worst of all, I know how it is when you can't forgive yourself." she listened to him with eyes widened, "I don't even know why you blame yourself at all. It's not your fault, you didn't kill Joel."
"There is more to it.." she said. The way she was looking at him was as if she was saying You're telling me all this, but you still blame yourself for Tom's death.
"Joel is dead." he barely rolled the words over his tongue, "But there are still people who care about you and love you. Tommy, Maria, Jesse, Dina..." He paused for a bit, and scratched his chin, "She's your girlfriend now. Your relationship is something to look forward to, after that thing with Cat didn't work out."
He said Cat with obvious spite. Mentioning Ellie's relationship with Dina reminded him that he was actually jealous, but she didn't need to know that. She likes girls, dumbass. Why am I thinking about this now?
"So.." she said, "..you don't love me?"
He was dumbfounded by her question. How do I answer this? Why can't I be smooth as Jesse? "Yeah well.. I guess it's, um.."
She punched him weakly in his shoulder and smirked, "I'm just messing with you, idiot."
Ben sighed of relief and leaned back to the sofa.
"What happened to us, Ben?"
He was staring at the ceiling when she asked, "What do you mean?" but he knew well what she meant.
"The two of us were inseparable. We were best friends. And yet last year, we barely said hi to each other."
Sea of memories flooded his mind. There were so many of them that he could talk about them all night.
"We simply grew apart, I guess. I always thought that's what you wanted." he answered, his head tilted backwards, resting on the backrest. Their relationship fell apart about a year ago, maybe slightly more. He remembered Ellie running off somewhere, he didn't know where. He wanted to go after her, but Joel stopped him, and went after her instead. When she came back, she was different. But that was not the start. After Tom died, everything began to change.
"What? I always thought that's what you wanted." She said, sounding genuinely confused. "I kinda missed playing video games with you, and listening to techno."
"Kinda?" he asked, disappointed, "You didn't listen to techno?"
"Nope. I didn't have any tapes after I gave back those that you've borrowed to me."
"When we come back home, I can borrow you again."
"That's so sweet of you." an obvious dose of sarcasm was recognizable in her voice. "How's your face?"
He was so into their conversation that he totally forgot about his wounds. Now that she reminded him, he felt his face with his fingers. The lip was still throbbing painfully, but it didn't hurt as before. "It's better. Now that you mentioned home, I can't wait to go back. I'm getting tired of everything."
The way Ellie turned her head was a dead giveaway that she didn't plan on going home, not yet. "Abby is still out there."
He simply nodded. "Let's go. Tommy might still be out there."
The city looked pretty dead when they got back into the empty streets. There were no clues to show that the Scars were there, but Ben knew they were lurking somewhere. He pricked up his ears and paid attention to the whistles, but did not hear them. It gave him some faint hope. Hope is still hope, I guess, he thought as his eyes darted around their surroundings. The coast was full of corpses. The dead WLF soldiers were turned pale on the cracked asphalt overgrown with grass. In some places, the grass was tall enough that he could simply lie there and become invisible. At least until someone got close enough to him. They did not talk much, nor did they pay attention to the corpses. There was no point in searching them, since the upturned pockets and open jackets were proof that the Scars had picked up everything that could be valuable.
The boom rolled across the horizon, announcing the start of what the brooding clouds had promised since dawn. The boughs of the trees swayed in the strengthening gust, surrendering their spring leaves without a fight. Then came the first drops of rain like bullets from above. The outside was dark, the dense grey clouds blocked out the afternoon light, casting Seattle in a premature twilight. Far away, to the sea, a jagged bolt of white lightening split the chilly sky, and was then gone. The thunder was only a second behind, and Ben and Ellie exchanged tense glances.
"I hate this weather." Ellie hissed through her teeth, "And this city."
Ben couldn't complain. He had never feared the thunders and stormy weather, but the low, ominous black sky was surely giving him enough creeps. Combined with the fact that Scars lured somewhere around them, just waiting for the opportunity to strike. Except for the sound of the rainstorm, it was quiet. Too quiet.
Scars were nowhere to be found, even after Ben walked the whole length of the street to reach the Ferris wheel just like he intended when he first saw it from a distance. The upright wheel on the other side of the street rose nearly two hundred feet. It reminded Ben of St. Louis, the place where he was born and raised.
"I remember you mentioning St. Louis had a Ferris wheel too, right?" Ellie asked him and he nodded, happy that she remembered something that he said a couple years ago.
Ben opened his mouth to reply but he suddenly stopped, grabbing Ellie by her backpack. "Wait." he said instead of answering her question.
She looked at him, but when he returned her a worried look, she crouched behind a car next to him. Something was moving in the distance, a person. The person in question was walking towards them, and the way she was walking in a hunched pose resembled sneaking, looking at the way she was zigzagging down the street. Squinting his eyes, Ben tried to figure out who it might be, the Wolf or the Scar.
His eyes widened when he recognized Nora, who was eyeing fearfully at her surroundings. What is she doing here?
Sensing a movement beside him, Ben turned his head and noticed the gun in Ellie's hand. He had to wrap both arms around her shoulders to stop her from jumping out of the cover.
"Stop!" he whispered-yelled, "There might be more of them."
Ellie struggled to free herself, but his grip was iron. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt her relax.
"She's sneaking around, alone." Ellie stated, as if it was a fact, "There's no way someone's with her."
"We can't be reckless." Ben continued, still holding her. Her head was next to his, and their cheeks almost touched each other. "Be smart about this, Ellie. Let's wait for her to get closer. If you jumped out of cover, she would've seen you and escaped."
"Ben. She won't escape me twice." she said calmly, and Ben released her. "She will tell us where Abby is."
"Good." he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. However, no matter how confident he sounded, a dilemma and a thousand emotions swarmed in him. When he saw Nora, the first thing he felt was fear. Fear that she will recognize him and that Ellie would learn. Perhaps it's inevitable she'll learn? Should I tell her? And then sadness. Because Nora was going to die. Nothing and no one will be able to stop Ellie from killing her. He was not sad because it was Nora, perhaps a little bit, but because she was a human being first and foremost.
The downpour shot violently to the ground as the two of them crept up to Nora in a high squat, fifty steps behind. They easily slipped out of their cover, so she didn't notice them. Ben silently moved on his toes, zigzagging, from car to car, from wall to wall, sharpening his senses and watching for every possible movement around him. During the years and years of hunting, he had learnt to observe his surroundings so well that he could even notice a slightest movement. Dad would be proud, he thought, smiling.
Nora's pose straightened, looking more relaxed as she approached the Ferris wheel. Ben noticed a semi-automatic rifle hanging from her right shoulder. It seems that this rifle was part of the basic equipment of the Wolves, considering that he saw many people using it. Nora walked past the wheel and abruptly turned into the street to her left. Ben and Ellie quickened their pace so as not to lose her. They reached the corner and peered carefully at their heads. Nora could only go one way. The street in which she turned led in only one direction. Yet she was nowhere to be seen.
The street led them to a closed wrought iron gate. The upright bars made climbing almost impossible along with the rain which only made the whole thing more slippery, while the spikes menacingly loomed at the top. Luckily, the gate was partially open, but quite enough for both Ben and Ellie to slip through.
The building Nora presumably entered did not look much different from the others in the city. The yard was overgrown with tall grass. Some trees could be noticed in a place where they were not planted on purpose. The round-shaped fountain was in the middle of the courtyard. A concrete fish statue rose in the middle of the fountain. Ben thought how water used to come out from a fish's mouth. Shallow water filled the fountain halfway, only because of the rain. Street lamps were arranged in a circle around the fountain and along the paved road, long overgrown. A wide wriggly staircase led up to the platform, on which was the entrance of the building, whose walls were overgrown with hedges. At the top of the wall, it read Seattle Aquarium.
Exchanging glances, the two of them walked up the stairs, both holding their pistols at the ready. Each step seemed slower than the last. They didn't know what to expect inside. Ben thought they might be wrong for not chasing Nora right away. But the biggest part of him was glad they didn't do that. When he was a step away from the double doors, Ben turned the lock. Nothing. The door was locked.
"Look for another way in." Ellie issued an order.
Ben turned his head to the right, and saw that the yard was widening in that direction. A low metal fence was the only obstacle leading to the side entrance. The door leading to the side entrance cabin was also locked, but the window on the wall was low enough to reach two people. Shattered glass pierced his ears as Ellie threw a brick straight at the window.
"Couldn't have done it a bit quieter?" Ben complained, rolling his eyes.
Ellie simply shrugged in reply. Intertwining his fingers, he boosted her up, and the girl slipped through an opening in the wall. He waited in the rain for a few seconds, then heard a short, muffled click. The door opened, and on the other side stood Ellie, who let him in. The interior of the cabin was nothing out of ordinary. Shelves next to the walls were full of old items, a hand lifter in the corner and some other work tools. What interested the two of them was the door on the opposite side of the wall. Ben walked up to it carefully, in three steps. He sighed with relief as the door opened when he twisted the handle. A wide room appeared in front of them. The kitchen space, a tall refrigerator with counters on the side were on one side of the room. In front of the refrigerator was a bar with a few high chairs without backrests, as well as a table for six. A couch was on the opposite side of the room. However, what caught Ben's attention was the blue wall. The light blue color melted into a darker shade as his gaze went down the wall. Fish-like shapes filled the sea along the entire length of the wall, many different shapes and sizes.
"Come look at this." Ellie whispered to him. In front of her was a dog bowl. Ben saw the leftover food in the bowl. "There's a dog somewhere around here."
I wish Khan was here, he thought. He wondered if the white wolf was feeling better and if he would recover by the time the two of them returned to the theater.
"Tread lightly." he whispered and headed for the door to the kitchen area of the room. The door led to the old pantry, which led further into another hallway. There was double door with a large red crab at the end of the hall. Both of them winced when they heard muffled voices on the other side of the door. Raising his hand to Ellie to stop, Ben proceeded forward. His body was drenched in cold sweat as he stepped towards the door in light steps. With his right fist, he turned the handle slightly and slowly pushed the door forward, praying to himself it won't creak.
".. we can beat her there." said a male voice that suddenly became much clearer.
"People don't come back alive from that place." a female responded. They were fighting. These are not Nora's voices, where is she?, he asked, more to himself and peeked through the door. His eyes noticed a man and a woman in the room to the left. A man had a short brown hair and styled a neatly cut beard, talking to a woman of short dark brown hair. Ben immediately recognized them from the photos that Ellie showed him. These two were Owen and Mel, they belonged to Abby's group. He could feel Ellie behind him and felt her anger, fearing that she would rush inside.
"How many times has Abby risked her life for you?" Owen asked, waving his right hand as if showing Mel something, before turning away.
"She chose this. I'm not fucking going there."
Owen turned back to her, his face furious. "Then don't!" Mel made a step back. Ben couldn't see her face.
"Go back." he finished, coldly.
"Fuck you, Owen!" she said and turned to walk away, towards where Ben was standing. Ellie pushed him away as she hurried past him. He didn't even manage to grunt, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a gun outstretched in her hands.
"Hands up." she commanded, her voice shaky. Damn it, Ben thought and entered the room that expanded into a wide circular chamber. There was a painting of the city on the opposite side of the chamber, below the double stairs that rose and curved along the wall. The walls were similarly colored as the kitchen, only they were much richer decorated. It resembled as if they were underwater. Owen and Mel, who were already looking surprised, looked totally dumbfounded when they saw Ben. "Where's Abby?" Ellie asked, her voice regaining some composure, sounding much colder now.
"You're that girl from Jackson." Owen said, looking much less scared than Mel.
"Tell me where she went." Ellie said, ignoring his previous sentence. Her gun was pointed at Mel for a moment, then at Owen. Ben mimicked her and outstretched his own gun towards them. His heart threatened to jump out of his chest. These are the people that killed Joel. A drop of sweat ran down his cheek and he had to make himself swallow the lump in his throat. The two Wolves were unarmed, but Ben noticed some weapons on a table ten feet behind them, too far for both of them to reach it. Three rifles and three pistols.
"How do we know you won't kill us?" Mel asked, her voice trembling just like her raised hands. Her dark brown hair that was cut short was wet, either from sweat or from rain, Ben couldn't tell.
Owen frowned, "You give her what she wants and we're dead."
Are they dead once they tell you what you want to know, Ellie?, he thought, his eyes turning to Ellie's back in front of him. Are you going to kill all of them?
"You guys can survive this. I just need her." Ellie stated. Ben was unsure whether or not she was lying. Where is Nora?
"Bullshit." Owen said calmly. If he was scared, like Mel, Ben didn't know. His face was expressionless and calm. Just like a true soldier. Ellie's left hand suddenly wandered off to her backpack, and she pulled out a map of Seattle out of it.
"You. Come here." Ellie commanded, pointing her pistol at Mel. Woman hesitated to make a first step, her eyes locked on Ellie. Ben could swear Mel looked away for a second. "Fucking get over here!"
Mel carefully approached her, her footsteps slow. She stopped when the barrel of Ellie's pistol was just a few inches away from her forehead.
"Point to where she is on this map." Ellie explained, then turned her pistol at Owen. "Then you. It better fucking match up."
Tension could be touched in the air. Heart was beating harder and harder in Ben's chest. The strategy that Ellie was using reminded him of Joel. Two years back, she told him how Joel used a same tactics to interrogate two men, by asking them a same question separatly and seeing if their answers matched up.
"Okay." Mel agreed, looking down as if she was ashamed.
Owen made a step forward, but stopped when he saw Ben's gun pointed at him. "What are you doing, Mel?"
"She's probably dead anyway!" a woman answered, her voice trembling more than before, and then she looked at Ben. Or rather behind him. What is she looking at?
Ben didn't get to turn around when something hit him hard, and his whole head rang. He staggered forward and fell to his knees.
"You're all fucking dead!" Ellie's voice was only a muffled murmur. Then, something loud exploded in the room. A gunshot? He couldn't tell. Someone lifted him up back to the floor, holding him by his collar. Raising his head, all he saw was Owen's grimace before the latter swung his fist in a wide circle. In a second, he managed to react in time and move his head to the side, then buried his elbows in Owen's hands from above and released himself. A quick glance to the side revealed Ellie fighting Mel and Nora at the same time. The knife flashed in her hand as she swung it at the two older women.
A sudden gush of pain jolted throughout Ben's body. His stomach ached, his arms lost tension and his legs began to weaken. He will not get better of me, he thought as he dropped to the ground. His tongue was soaked in the taste of blood. A taste of iron. He will not get better of me! Jumping back to his feet, Ben noticed the surprised look on Owen's face out of the corner of his eye. It only took half a second before that facial expression was replaced by an angry grimace again. A pair of rough soldier's hands tried to seize him, but Owen was too slow for Ben's agile movement. Whereas Ben was never the strongest, he was among the fastest in the settlement. Ben's right shot out, a simple straight jab. His fist was not accurate enough, brushing off against Owen's cheek, but it was enough to disrupt the poise. Left fist followed through, only a moment after, in a wide roundhouse. With a gurgle, Wolf staggered backwards, almost falling on his back.
Ellie!
When he saw her, he noticed that she was still fighting savagely, without fear and completely filled with hatred. The look on her face said it all. For one soldier, Mel was moving very sloppily while Nora handled Ellie in a bit more skilled manner. In two steps, he found himself between Nora and Ellie, pushing Nora hard, who fell on her back. All he could see was the surprised expression on Nora's face when she recognized him. He didn't have time to stand and watch after he noticed that Owen was back on his feet. Back to back with Ellie, Ben groped the holster where the gun was supposed to be, but felt only the void. In the blink of an eye, a military knife appeared in his left hand, which Ellie had given him before they left the theater, and raised it to the height of his head, holding his guard.
"Mel, stay back!" Owen shouted to the short haired woman, motioning with his right for her to move away.
A few moments as long as years, they were just looking at each other. There was silence. Who will make the first move? Who will attack? The moment a drop of cold sweat fell on the dusty floor beneath his feet and, Ben lunged forward at Owen, the knife seeming to come to life in his hand. Owen bounced to the side, avoiding bumps and swings, but Ben followed, pressing even harder. Each swing of the blade was faster and more violent than the previous one. As soon as Owen escaped or redirected the blow, another would follow, then another and so on, seemingly indefinite. Ben's blood sang. He suddenly realized that he had never felt more alive, but he couldn't allow himself to be surprised by it. He's fast. I can't connect with my knife.
He didn't dare look at how Ellie was holding up. Even the slightest moment of inattention would cost him the advantage he had. A knife the length of his forearm gave him a much greater reach than Owen who was bare-handed. Whenever he ran into his gun on the floor, Ben would kick it to the side, as far away from enemy hands as possible.
A shout from the side made him jump back to avoid the swing of the knife Mel was clutching in her hands. Instinctively, in self-defense, Ben swung his weapon to the right. The blade crossed the cheek of the short-haired woman, releasing blood in thin streams. Mel screamed, and Owen angrily pounced on Ben behind her, growling as he attacked. Ben greeted him in a squat, avoiding his frantic swing of the right fist, finding himself just below him. With all his might, and with both hands, Ben pushed the knife up against the gravity, digging it into Owen's stomach. The older soldier suddenly lost his breath and strength, and both hands fell on the knife that protruded from his body. With his left he clenched Ben's fists, and with the right he tried to pull the knife out of his stomach.
"Owen!" Mel screamed madly, her face a mixture of fear and anger, and her eyes filled with tears. The knife in her hands, a toy compared to Ben's, flashed towards his face.
Bang.
Blood splattered on Ben's face, turning it red, and in the middle of Mel's forehead was a bullet hole. Her lifeless body fell limply on the dusty floor, raising a small cloud of dust. Owen, with the knife sticking out of his stomach was already on his back, and his dark eyes began to roll around, searching for Mel. He saw her wide-eyed, then looked at Ben and his eyebrows furrowed and eyelids narrowed as he stared at Ben with hatred. His right hand, bathed in blood, lifted up as if the soldier was showing him something. Owen tried to speak, but he only gurgled as thick, dark blood leaked from his mouth, painting the sides of his face.
Before he even realized what had happened, Ben turned around and saw Ellie holding a gun outstretched toward him or rather, toward Owen and Mel. Nora sat, leaning against the wall with her head down, blood dripping from her right foot.
"You okay?" he asked Ellie, breathing deeply.
The girl stared at the bodies behind Ben for a while, then abruptly jerked and looked at Ben, then nodded sharply.
"Nora?" he asked another question, furrowing his eyebrows. "Did you kill her?"
"No." she replied, wiping the blood from her switchblade. The tone of her voice was dark and vicious. "I cut her Achilles tendon. She won't run away this time."
The shadow moved cleverly behind Ellie at a speed the man could not reach. The shaggy body jumped off all four toward Ellie, and its jaws full of white sharp teeth spread.
"Ellie, watch out!" he screamed, lunging forward with a knife raised. The dog moaned painfully as it landed on Ben's knife which plunged into its chest almost all the way to the hilt. The weight of the animal knocked him on his back. He felt warmth in the chest area, where the dog had bled on him. The animal did not move. It was dead.
"Holy fuck!" Ellie said, pushing the dog off of him and helping him up. "I totally forgot about the dog."
Ben just shook his head away and allowed himself to take a few deep breaths. It almost killed her. Damn it! How could we forget about the dog!
Nora was breathing fast, leaning against the wall, her head down. A small red puddle of blood formed under her right foot. Ellie cut her deep, and the dark-skinned woman couldn't move anywhere. Trembling, she raised her head and at looked Ben straight in the eye in astonishment.
"Abby should've killed you when she had the chance!" she hissed at him, growling with rage. She pulled out her knife and raised it as if to attack him, but Ellie kicked it violently from her hand. A small blade took off and disappeared into the darkness. Ben could feel Ellie's gaze on him, but he didn't dare return it. She will learn. God. She will learn.
"What's she talking about?" Ellie's voice was calm and composed when she asked.
Nora grinned defiantly, her teeth bloody, "You don't know?"
"Know what?" Ellie asked, her eyes turning at Nora, then at him, "Ben?"
"I should've known you were one of them-" Nora admitted, quieter this time.
"Ben?"
Ben closed his eyes and swallowed a lump in his throat. I guess there isn't point in hiding it anymore. When he opened his eyes, he started, "I met Abby at the hospital."
"What?"
"At the time, I didn't know she was the one that killed Joel. So I-"
"Did you ever consider telling me about that?"
A sudden rush of guilt filled him. He should have told her as soon as he saw Abby's picture for the first time. Why didn't he tell her, he wondered. Was he afraid of her reaction? Was he that cowardly?
"I should've.." he tried to say something, but Ellie interrupted him. "Yes, you should've!"
Nora's provocative smile silenced them both.
"You." Ellie said menacingly, closing in to Nora who tried to back away, but the wall behind her forbade her. "Where's Abby?"
Ben just watched the scene that unfolded before him. He hoped Ellie wouldn't do anything stupid that would force him to get involved. He hoped.
"You don't know what we had to endure after Joel murdered everyone." Nora said, making a painful grimace. She was turning pale from blood loss. Her black curly hair, tied behind her head, was sticky with blood. "He-"
"I don't fucking care what you had to endure!" Ellie snapped at her, "Where's Abby?"
Nora's chest rose and fell evenly, but her breaths were deep, and her face was drenched in sweat. "I'm fucking dead anyway. Why would I tell you anything?"
Ellie turned and walked past Ben without even looking at him. Her face was dark. After a few seconds, she returned with a metal bar that used to be a tripod leg. She squatted next to Nora in a threatening proximity.
"I can make it quick." Ellie said, almost whispering, "Or I can make it so much worse."
Nora gave her a defeated look. There was no more defiance in her eyes that were filled with tears. She knew what Ellie would do. Ben wanted to do something, to stop her, to reason with her. Nora didn't kill Joel.
"Think about what he did." dark skinned woman pleaded, "How many people are dead because of him?"
What exactly did Joel do? Who did he kill?
"Last chance." Ellie announced, "Where's Abby?"
With the last atom of her strength, Nora tried to straighten up, and gazed at Ellie from below, "I'm not giving up my friend."
For the next few seconds of complete silence, Ben could feel, smell the anger radiating from Ellie. It wasn't anger, it was pure hatred.
"Ellie." he said, trying to reach out to her, "She didn't kill Joel. You don't have to do this."
Ellie was quiet.
"If you do this, you'll be just like her." he said again, hoping that she'd see reason, "You'll become just like Abby."
At the mention of her name, Ellie gave him a sharp look that froze and buried him in place. She was quiet, but her gaze said it all. Don't interfere. Her breathing quickened that reminded him of a wild animal. An animal that will tear its prey to pieces. For a moment, Ben managed to notice Nora looking at him, begging him for help with her own dark eyes. And then a metal bar bounced off her cheek. With a grunt, she collapsed on the floor, and two white bone pieces flew out of her mouth, leaving a bloody trail behind. Nora coughed out blood, a tear slid down her cheek.
"Ellie!" Ben yelled and grabbed Ellie by the wrist that held the metal bar.
"Don't you fucking touch me!" she shouted back and tore her hand from his grip.
"Just stop!" he tried and tried, but she was deaf to his pleas. She was breathing through her mouth, through her teeth, and her eyes were burning with the hatred she directed at the woman in front of her.
"Where's Abby?" Ellie asked again, kneeling down to lift Nora back to a sitting position. She coughed out more blood that was mixed with her tears.
"Fuck you." was all Nora said before being struck in the face for a second time, now on the other side of her head. Blood splattered on the floor in front of her, and Nora screamed from each subsequent blow. She did not give up, she did not want to reveal the location of her friend. She remained loyal to the end, even after a dozen blows with a metal bar. Every next blow, each time Nora screamed, each time Ellie inflicted her pain jerked him. Ben felt immense sadness and fear watching Ellie do this to her.
Is this what you've become, Ellie? A monster?
After the twelfth blow, Nora fell for the last time. She was motionless, and her head was completely painted red. But Ellie didn't stop there. She picked up the bar and kept hitting, screaming all the time. Those screams were manifestations of her sadness and anger, which Ben himself felt watching her. He had to put an end to it.
"Stop it!" he said, grabbing her from behind, pulling her away, "She's dead, Ellie! Dead!"
Ellie stopped as if awakened from a terrible dream. She stared at Nora's bloody corpse, saying nothing. The bar fell from her hand, echoing as it fell to the floor. Ben turned her around to face him and put his hands on her shoulders. "It's over."
Strange. Just a moment ago, he was terrified by what he saw, terrified by the person she was turning into. Yet in the next moment, nothing else mattered to him but her. Her face, a mix of bloody surprise, disappointment and sadness, was turned towards him, and her bright green eyes were looking at his own, filled with tears.
"It's over." he whispered again, locking his eyes on hers, "Just stop, please."
Her eyebrows rose as she looked at him.
"Please."
His eyes suddenly went down. Ellie's hands were shaking. The knuckles were torn and bloody. There was a bracelet on her right arm. She regrets what she's done. She can't cope with it, his brain was telling him. Despite the monster she was turning into, he still couldn't abandon her, nor give up on her. Fingers of his own hands closed around hers. He took a deep breath and looked at her again.
"I know what you're going to say." her voice was silent, trembling. "But I can't stop until she's dead."
He looked away, trying to hide the sadness that was visible on his face. "Let's just go back home."
"You know I can't."
"You can." he was persistent, but he still didn't look her in the eye. "Just forget this revenge business. Let's find Tommy and go home."
"Ben.." she said, her voice as low as his own, "I can't."
Ben took another deep breath, and nodded in defeat. In a way, he knew Ellie would never listen to him. She would never give up her revenge, but he had to try. He knew he would have regretted not trying. Everything is so messed up. Her hands left his and he shuddered at his thoughts.
"You should've told me." she said, gritting her teeth "I deserved to know that you met her."
Out of embarrassment, he didn't dare look her in the eye. Shame and disappointment.
"Let's just fucking find Tommy and go back to theater." she finished and walked past him, brushing against his shoulder. Ben's eyes wandered away from Ellie, and landed on her. Nora was lying motionless in a pool of blood. Her face was unrecognizable and disfigured. Ellie had no mercy on her. She was not holding back at all
"I'm sorry." he whispered at the corpse below him, his voice almost betraying him as he felt something hard pressing him inside his chest.
"Oh my god!" Ellie cried behind him, her voice trembling. Ben's muscles moved on their own and he found himself next to her in ten steps. Ellie fell to her knees and began vomiting. Only yellowish water was coming out of her mouth, a sign that she hadn't eaten properly in days. In front of her was a corpse of Mel. The bullet that hit her forehead knocked her to her back. And her sweatshirt was unbuttoned, revealing..
She was pregnant, he realized with his mouth open, looking at the belly of the pregnant woman they had killed. The thoughts were accelerating inside his head. He tried to slow them down, but they bounced inside his head, making him dizzy.
What have we done?
