ELLIE: CHAPTER 9: Some life

Ellie put on her jacket, and head outside into the snow. Colder than usual. She thought to herself. Ellie continue to make her way into the snow, and notice a camp fire near the wall. It turned out to be Captain Pineda, and his crew of Texan soldiers.

I guess those are the soldiers Tommy told me about. She told herself inside her head. Captain Pineda was awake while the rest of them were asleep in 5 different tents. Captain Pineda was awake trying to keep warm. How could those soldiers sleep in this cold? Ellie again thought to herself.

She started to walk up to Captain Pineda siting on a log. "How do your men sleep in the cold?" Ellie asked Captain Pineda.

Captain Pineda trying to keep warmth threw some more logs into the fire, and then replied, "We've seen harsher days. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I don't know" Ellie said.

"Okay then." Captain Pineda said.

"Did Tommy tell you that he agreed to your deal?" Ellie asked.

"No, he did?" Captain Pineda responded.

"Yeah" Ellie said. Ellie could see the expression on his face, it looked like he just lost someone.

"What's up with you?" Ellie asked him.

"Come take a seat on the log" Captain Pineda said.

Ellie took a seat on a log near Captain Pineda. "Before I tell you what I am going to tell you, I need to do something" he added. He took out his satellite radio and started talking into it, "Bravo 6, do you copy, this is Austin 2-1."

"Austin 2-1 we copy" Bravo 6 said.

"Tell command that the deal is sealed." Captain Pineda said.

"Copy that, transport helicopters inbound, ETA 15 hours. Bravo 6 out."

Captain Pineda moved his backpack, so it would be in front of him. From there he shoved the satellite radio into his backpack. After placing his radio into his backpack, he then moved the pack, so it would be on his back. He turned to Ellie, and said, "What's your name?"

Ellie was questioning herself to whether tell him her name or not, but he seemed to be trusted. "Ellie" she said.

"Nice to meet you, Ellie." Captain Pineda said and went back to feeding the fire.

"What about you, what's your name." Ellie asked.

Captain Pineda continued to throw logs into the fire, and said, "Captain Edward Joseph Pineda, formally apart of the 2nd Regiment's 3rd Battalion."

"That's a long name." Ellie said.

"Yeah, you can call me Eddie for short." Captain Pineda said.

"Okay" Ellie responded. Captain Pineda grabbed a stick and pointed to Ellie.

"When I was your age, 13 right?"

Ellie hated that lots of people couldn't get her age right, "15," she corrected.

Captain Pineda continued, "Well, back in the day, about 16 years back."

"I was your age, 15, I was in the Brownsville QZ. I lost my family. I was in that school for the military. This was a time when soldiers were starting to have different uniform. Blue was starting to be more common, than camo. It wasn't that long until the military withdrew from the QZ. The people of the QZ had to become independent. We found lots of weapons in the military barracks. We trained and decided to make our own country. So, we reformed Texas, after we had lots of people to be in our Army we headed out for Austin, its original Capital. We made Austin our Capital. Then that's how everything started to work out."

"Then, I met Cruz, about 10 years back, and he became part of my squad. Then came the others, not these guys" he said, while pointing to his soldiers in the tents. "They didn't come until like a year ago. From then on, Lieutenant Cruz and I had been through a lot. We've seen a nuclear bomb destroy an entire city. Fought against the ugliest of infected. Seen squad mates die, friends, and brothers. That's my story. So who's this Joel guy? I've been hearing about him."

Ellie didn't know what to say. She decided to tell him everything, up to the point after they arrived at Jackson. After that, Captain Pineda's face was amazed. "Wow, so where is he now?"

Ellie didn't tell him that he went missing. "He has been missing for about a year now." She said. After she said this tears couldn't hold anymore, they were released. Ellie then turned towards Captain Pineda, she gave him a hug.

"Woah." Captain Pineda didn't know what to do, so he just went along with it. "You got to be a big girl, Ellie." Captain Pineda said. "I understand Ellie, when I lost my Family- I couldn't… it was hard for me to recover." Captain Pineda said.

"It's just so hard" Ellie said weakly.

"If it makes you feel better, I and my squad can go look into the forest." Captain Pineda said.

"Okay" Ellie said. Ellie ended up falling asleep on Captain Pineda. Captain Pineda then carried her to into her house.