Chapter 4

Another couple of hours went through, but at least Joel could sit on the bench now. The pair of peach halves still lied on the bottom of the bowl, since they both wanted to give them to the other.
What was it that Joel didn't understand? He had been going through the last conversation for a long while without realizing what the girl was talking about. His eyes wondered to her once a while, but Ellie had turned her back to him, playing with the tail of her shirt. She didn't move her eyes from the cotton.
"Good evening!" a shout woke them from their thoughts. Joel rose his sight to see the whole gang of five enter the room.
"We ate a while ago, and it would be the perfect time to taste that treat" Mike grinned at them, winking at Ellie's direction.
"The hell ya won't!" Joel raged, getting up from the bench. He grabbed a pair of bars in between his arms and tightened his fists. One of the guys reached for a gun.
"Easy..." Frank advised his friend with the gun, who put it down right after.
"Don't ya sick rats realize what you're doing?" Joel preached, making the five guys take a short look at each other. Andy stood quietly in the back.
"No, but you'll probably tell that to us"
"You bet your asses I'm gonna tell ya!" he shouted again, pointing his finger at Ellie. She was again more scared than before, as she had no idea what to do. She had turned her back against the wall, and tugged her legs to her chest. They could not escape, that's for sure.
"She's fucking FOURTEEN! You guys must be over twice as much! Back in the days, would you really have touched a girl who's fucking 20 years younger than you?!"
The words only resonated in one head, and that was Andy's. The others burst out a laugh after his speech. Joel's mind was breaking, and he could not understand them. It felt even worse that Joel had once been working with hunters such as them.
"Yeah, we would've. But it was considered sick then. Now it's just taking what we need!" Frank spat at the man behind the bars. He could not handle his rage any more.
"What the hell are you saying?!" Joel shouted, as Frank and Mike came to open the cell door.
"Don't worry old man, we'll bring her back for the night" Mike winked to Joel, who instantly reacted by kicking him on his knee.
"Oh, mother of fuck...!" Mike shouted, and Matt loaded his gun at Joel's direction. Mike was holding his knee for a while, but after getting over the pain he elbowed Joel's stomach. Joel fell backwards against the bars, holding his stomach. He was once again useless. Joel bit his teeth together, taking a long look at the guy with the gun. It was not the right time to start a fight.
"Okay, little girl. You're gonna see something quite new to ya" Frank grinned, grabbing her other hand.
"Stay the fuck away from me!" she shouted, kicking all over to dodge their hands. The two of them overpowered her in that battle, and they began dragging her out of the cell.
"Take me! Don't hurt her!" Joel shouted, as the cell door got locked by Matt. He sneered at him while making sure it's locked, and soon followed the others out of the room.
"Don't worry, I think it won't hurt! Ha ha ha!" one of the guys shouted while slamming the door shut behind them. Joel was left alone in the room.
"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck..." he muttered to himself after getting up, kicking one of the shelves in the cell. It fell over and made quite a noise, but his acts were not noticed. This was both great and horrible at the same time, thinking of what they rather focused on at the moment.
"Joel! Joel!" he heard her voice a few rooms away. Joel immediately threw himself at the bars, staring at the closed door before him. There was nothing he could do to help her now. He felt useless, sick and disgusted.
"Ellie! Hold on!" he shouted back, since that was all that he could do. Soon the voices stopped, but she probably just got gagged again.
"I gotta fucking do something" he told to himself, starting to turn the whole cell over. There was only a pair of shelves and a toilet seat, which was clearly not in use. He was full of rage, but now he had to stop and think.
He started pushing the shelves away, grabbing all the stuff he could. He went through a bunch of garbage, and kicked the toilet seat while so nervous.
"Fuck!" he shouted, and felt a movement underneath his leg. He stopped, and turned to see the toilet. It had definitely moved.
He knelt over and grabbed it on both sides. He sighed out once before starting to turn.
"Move... just... fucking... move!" he shouted, and made it crack. It was not too well attached to the floor or wall, and it slid away as he pushed. He noticed something useful, but maybe too late.
"Oh, hell!" he grunted, as he noticed a hole in the wall. It was too small for him, but Ellie could probably fit through it. Of course she was just taken away.
"If I had found this earlier... why did I have to fucking lie down?" he yelled at himself.

He didn't know how much time passed, but it seemed like eternity. He had pushed back the toilet seat to cover up the hole, and lied down on the bench. It was a bit too short, so his legs reached the ground in the other end. He had not heard anything from the other rooms for a good while, and was starting to think of the worst.
"Please come back... " he muttered to himself for the tenth time, and shook his head while staring at the roof. It was all he could do.
"Come on!" a man shouted from the door, as it was slammed open. Joel immediately popped up, grabbing a pair of bars in his fists.
"Ellie!" he shouted, as Oliver carried her from her shirt and hair. She was exhausted, and the guy seemed quite tired too.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck..." Joel whispered to himself, as she got thrown into the cell with him. He grabbed her as Oliver left the room, and it was just the two of them.
"The hell did they do to ya?" he asked all worried, sitting down on the bench with the girl in his arms. Her eyes must have flooded from tears, as she had probably fought like hell during the time she was away. Not only was she tired, but covered with new bruises and a black eye.
"Joel..." she whispered, turning towards him to grab his shirt into her palms as tightly as possible.
"Oh, baby girl..." he softened, putting his hand on her head. He petted her hair once, closing his eyes for a moment. All the trouble they had went through, and he had not been able to protect her from the world.

After a while of laying down, she opened her eyes again. Joel put his head down to see her face, which had been stuffed against his abdomen for the last twenty minutes.
"Joel...?" she whispered, rising her gaze to see him.
"I'm right here, kid" he answered, smiling weakly at her. Her black eye was more visible than before, and she seemed quite badly beaten.
"Oh fuck... I must have fell asleep..." Ellie shook her head, rising her head up.
"Take these" Joel offered, handing over the pair of peach halves. She grabbed them and ate quickly before crawling up from his lap. She felt odd. Joel watched her as she got up, and couldn't help but feel bad for her. He went through her face to see all the bruises, but it was not the time to talk, since they had to move.
"I know there's a lot for us to talk, but we can do that outside" Joel said quietly, getting up from the bench. He walked to the toilet seat, pushing it quite easily aside while watching their surroundings. The hole behind it seemed to be just fitting for Ellie.
"Joel..?" she repeated for the millionth time, as if it was all she could say. She got closer to the spot, and knelt down in front of the hole.
"I think you can fit through it. I forgot my rifle into the house we stayed in last night, go get that and get the hell outta here" he explained the situation, taking a quick look at the door.
"They won't probably miss us for couple of hours" he guessed, turning his head back at Ellie. She listened carefully, and nodded. Some strength had returned to her eyes, as she crawled to the hole. They took a last long look at each other before she was ready to get out.
"I'll come back for you, just don't get killed!" she promised while crawling through the hole. He looked after her, pushing the seat back to it's place after she had gone. Joel sighed and sat down on the floor.
"Right back at ya..."