Chapter 5

Some time passed. Joel lie on the bench more nervous than ever. If they caught her outside, they would most probably beat her to death. She was already quite bruised, but her escaping would be a bigger piece of news. Joel was hoping that the men wouldn't notice her leaving. Meanwhile he waited for the day pass by, he thought about what had happened during that time when Ellie was taken away. After shaking that out of his head, he went back to the time when he woke up in the cellar without a clue of Ellie's whereabouts. He felt disgusted while just thinking about what she had to go through, but thinking about it could not be even near to actually living it. Joel shook his head once again, staring at the ceiling. She was one strong girl, and to be honest, he would not be ashamed to call her his own.
"I'll go check on them" a familiar voice shouted from the other side of the door. It was Mike. He entered the room with a weird look on his face, and Joel was a bit happy that he didn't seem too glad about their day so far.
"Well hel-, hey?" he asked in the middle of his own sentence, and closed the door behind him. He grabbed his pistol and loaded it while checking the cell with his eyes. Joel rose up from the bench to look at him.
"Where's the brat?" Mike asked, frowning his face.
"What? You're asking me?" Joel answered, trying to lie for as long as he could to buy Ellie more time. He took a step closer to the cell door, staring Mike straight in the eyes.
"Yeah, I'm asking ya! Where's the girl?" the man shouted at him, spreading his arms in confusion. He seemed to get nervous.
"How the hell should I know? You took her away a good while ago, you dumb asses". Joel's eyes didn't wander, and the confident look on his face made Mike even more nervous.
"No... nah. That can't be. Oliver..." Mike tried to explain to himself, and turned on his heels. Maybe this Oliver guy was not that well trusted among them. He ran out of the room, leaving Joel wonder if the time would be enough.

After so many hours, Joel was quite sure they hadn't caught her. If they had, they would have brought her to the cell, or at least celebrated to Joel about beating her to death. He was lying on the bench again, trying to get a feeling what was happening outside. It was windy again, and according to the men's clothes as they came in once a while, it was also snowing heavily.
Now it was Frank's turn to get in.
"You fucking useless piece of fuck! Where the hell is she hiding?" he shouted at Joel, who didn't even bother getting up. He stared at the roof, squaring his shoulders for an answer. He was keeping a rhythm with his toes, which annoyed Frank even more. His silence didn't please him either.
"Hey! Listen to me you sack of crap! We have to get her back!"
"Yeah? And how's that any of my goddamn business?" Joel answered impolitely, turning his head to see Frank. He was getting real angry.
"Well, let's see about that.." he mumbled while rushing to the cell door. He grabbed the keys from his waist, opening the door with his gun in the other hand. Joel felt that the playing should end here.
"Get in here!" Frank shouted, nodding towards the front door.
"You're gonna help us!"
Joel had no choice. He got up slowly, lifting his arms in the air as he asked him to do that. On the way out, he saw their bags and even Ellie's switchblade stuck into the side pocket of his backpack. He acted as he wouldn't notice their stuff, as they finally got outside.

All the other men were standing in a circle, and Mike was carrying a piece of rope. Wind blew hard and they all had to squint their eyes to avoid the snow getting into their eyes. Being inside for a long time affected Joel, and he felt especially cold when being there with no extra clothing.
"Get in there!" Frank kicked his back, making him fall on his knees. He winced while falling, and caught the ground with his palms to avoid hitting his head. Mike hurried to him, and shook his gun in the air.
"Hands behind your back!"
Joel followed the orders, and his hands got tied with the rope Mike was carrying. After leaving their remaining prisoner in the middle of their circle, they started looking into all different directions.
"Alright girl! Come out if you want your daddy to survive!" Mike shouted while waving his gun through the air. They all looked around them to see any kind of movement, but she was nowhere to be seen. Another storm was rising, and the snow made it quite hard to see anything. Joel didn't look around him, just to make sure his motions wouldn't give out her possible hiding place. He stared at a pile of snow on the ground, trying to breath in and out as calmly as possible.
"It's not working. Get into it!" Frank advised Mike, who was standing the closest to him. He didn't even nod for an answer, as he already craved to beat him up. He took a quick step closer before using all his power to kick his side.
"Aah!" Joel grunted as he fell down. He closed his eyes, trying to handle the pain. Meanwhile, he was kicked again.
"Okay, okay..." Frank tried to calm him down, but he landed one more kick on his side while raging. It was the hardest one so far, and a crack followed. He probably broke a rib.
"Hngh.." Joel mumbled, breathing very heavily. He was lying on his better side and winced from the pain, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Stop it!" Frank shouted, but Mike was not there anymore.
BLAM
"Mike?!" Matt yelled, as he saw Mike fall down dead. A bullet had pierced his head. A splash of blood got spread out by the wind, and it got stuck in everyone's clothes.
"What the fuck?!" the most of them shouted, but Joel was not well enough to pay attention to it. He was drowning to the huge amount of snow, trying to breath out the pain. He had opened his eyes while he heard the gunshot, and saw Mike lie beside him in the ground. Luckily Mike was the one of them to be swimming in blood.
Another gunshot echoed in the air, and it made Matt fall like his brother. He was the only one to stay near the body, and it had made him one.
It seemed like no-one cared about Joel no more, but he wasn't able to get up just yet. Frank, Andy and Oliver had ran into the house, and the situation quieted down. He could still hear some noises from around him, and couldn't be sure who was moving. The three remaining men clearly panicked and tried to figure out their next plan.
"Ellie! Don't come out!" Joel shouted, coughing right after it. He turned on his side, slowly getting his breath back. He was gathering his strength to get up, but it was harder than usually. Meanwhile he was able to see Oliver and Frank through the window.
"Where is she?!" Frank spat out with a huge amount of anger in his voice. Oliver seemed to be most scared, as he turned around uncontrollably while searching for her. No shots were fired during those moments. Joel closed his eyes for another moment. Maybe that way the men wouldn't pay attention to him.
"She must be in some of the houses! Go search for her, and stay covered!" Frank ordered, and Joel heard a bunch of quick steps circle around him. Everyone seemed to think he wasn't there even though he could barely move.
"Fuck..." he murmured, while turning once more to get a good position. He gathered all his strength to fight the pain, and pushed himself up to his knees in spite of the broken rib.
"Aah...!" he grunted loudly as he finally rose to his feet, and pressed his eyes shut for a moment. After finding the right way, he started walking against the wind, towards the house he had seen their stuff in. Walking hurt and he was not standing with his full height. After reaching the door, he squatted down to listen for any possible movement behind it. It seemed to be empty, or at least it was quiet. He pushed it open and got inside, instantly rushing to get their stuff. He had been working on the rope behind his back, but wasn't able to get it open without help. As he got closer to their backpacks, he stumbled upon some of the hunters' stuff and fell down.
"Joel!" a female voice whispered loudly behind him, and the same person pushed the door shut after her. He turned his head, even though he knew what he would see.
"Ellie, I told you not to come here!" he ordered, taking a short look out the window. He saw Frank and Oliver walking on the other side of the street.
"Shut up and let me help you with those" she answered, not giving any attention to his words.
"Fuck... Ellie, you promised you'd obey my..."
"Not the time or place, big guy" she denied while rushing to open the ropes. Joel put his head towards the ground, waiting for his arms to be free. As the rope fell down, he used his arms to get up from the ground. Every little movement hurt, but he could not let it bother him.
"Okay, let's take our stuff and go" Joel ordered, grabbing Ellie's bag first. He threw it at her, and she quickly put it on her back. As Joel leaned forwards to take his own bag, he didn't even get it on his back before hearing another safety go off behind them.
"I don't think so, old man"
He turned around, seeing Andy right behind Ellie. She had taken a few steps towards Joel for safety, but not grabbed any weapons. Joel lifted his hands in the air, looking at the guy.
"If you think you can go on assaulting this little girl on your way, you're fucking wrong!" he shouted, with a bit of fear in his voice. He didn't seem like a confident leader or anything like that, but he had made his mind up about this. Joel frowned his face, taking a quick look at Ellie.
"Wha-… assaulting?" he wondered out loud, and Andy nodded to his words.
"Yeah! I fucking saw how she feared you while you laid your hands on her!"
The conversation was absurd.
"How could you do that to your own child?!" the hunter shouted, and it seemed just a bit odd to hear that from his mouth.
"What?" Ellie interrupted him, before Joel had the time to correct him.
"He's not my… I mean… " Ellie started to mumble, getting all confused. She wanted to correct the faults in his accuses, but the parenthood was one of the things she didn't want to deny out loud. As Andy saw her fade away, his accuses gained even more evidence in his mind, and he stumbled a step towards Joel with his gun pointed at his forehead.
"Stop!" Ellie shouted, getting into his way and pushing him further away from Joel.
"He's done nothing! He's been protecting me, so back off!" she shouted at the man, who frowned his face. Joel held his hands up in the air, but after seeing Andy's gun lower, he dared to put his hands down.
"Nothing in here!"
"Here neither!"
The three of them turned their heads to look out the window. They didn't see the ones yelling, but they knew the other hunters were coming back. In unison they turned their heads back to see each other, and stood quiet but nervous for the shortest while.
"We ain't got time for this…" Joel mumbled, grabbing his gun from the holster, pointing it at Andy, who already had his gun pointing back at him. Two safeties got off.