Melanie grumbled to herself as she made her morning coffee, wincing at the noise of the machine crushing the coffee beans. It had been almost a week since she and Joel had split up and she had started having a glass of wine most nights and then suffering a hangover the next morning.
Her cell began to ring and she let out an annoyed noise at the sound of the phone vibrating on top of the counter, "This better be important," she muttered, picking up the cell and holding it to her ear.
"Hello, is this Melanie Colt?"
Melanie frowned, "Yes, can I ask what this is about?"
"I have Sarah here, she isn't feeling well and requested for you to come and pick her up? This is the receptionist at her school."
With-holding a sigh, Melanie ran a hand through her hair, "I'm sorry but it wouldn't be right of me to pick her up," she said, rolling her eyes at the fact she was explaining her love life to a receptionist, "her father and I aren't dating anymore and it would be…"
"Awkward?" the receptionist said sympathetically, "don't worry, I have her uncle's number here. Sorry to disturb you Miss Colt."
Melanie ended the call and shook her head as she put the phone down, "Sarah, don't do this to me…" she murmured, feeling guilt that she wasn't going to pick her up but she knew it was for the best. Trying to put her out of her mind, Melanie began to clean her already tidy apartment and wished it wasn't her day off.
It was around about 4pm when her door went and leaving her dusting, Melanie got up to answer it. She opened the door and felt her eyes widen slightly when she seen Sarah standing in front of her.
"Sarah… what- what are you doing here?" Melanie asked, frowning slightly at the young girl.
"We need to talk," Sarah said firmly, "you and Dad need to get back together."
"Yoo-hoo! Fireflies? Cure for mankind over here! Anyone?"
Melanie resisted the urge to laugh at Ellie's comment while Joel just shook his head as the young girl ran ahead of them, "How 'bout we keep it down until we figure out what's going on?" he suggested, "don't wanna go attracting trouble."
Ellie rolled her eyes at Joel as they explored the inside of the building, "Was this place as run down as this when you and Tommy were here?" she asked Melanie curiously as they went further in.
"Kinda… all they were concerned about was finding a cure," Melanie said slowly, her gun in one hand just incase, "they weren't really bothered with making this place homely."
"Great… well if this is the place I'm gonna stay while they make a cure, I'm gonna have to at least put up posters and clean up," Ellie said, stopping by a large trolley filled with reports and files, "place is a fucking dump."
Sharing a look with Joel, Melanie sighed: from the looks of things there were no Fireflies here but she didn't want to be the one who said it. "Anything worth taking there?" she asked Ellie, dropping her backpack on the floor and searching through a wad of reports.
"Nah, nothing useful," Ellie said glumly, "unless we want to start a fire. Then we're golden."
Joel grumbled to himself as he picked up a report and couldn't make any sense of it, "Ain't nothin' here but a bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo," he muttered irritably.
"I don't get it," Ellie whispered, looking around the room desperately "why is there no one here?"
"Looks like they all just packed up and left in a hurry," Joel said rubbing his temple tiredly.
Melanie stretched out her back, "Well, if that's the case…" she said, wishing the pain in her lower back would go away, "maybe they've left a note or something saying where they-"
A loud noise overheard silenced them all and Melanie slowly watched the roof as the noise died down and then it was eerily quiet again. Tightening the grip on her gun, she tried to even her breathing and stop her heart from racing in her chest.
"Maybe there's still some here," Ellie whispered, looking both excited and scared, "we should go check it out."
Joel took out his shotgun and nodded, "Stay right behind me," he said glancing at them both quickly "and if I say run… run."
As they followed Joel up the stairs and out to the balcony, Melanie couldn't help but be on high alert for any trouble and found herself almost jumping at the shadows, imagining runners or worse coming out at them. It reminded her of Boston when they first arrived, break-ins happened all the time, fights even murders. She had just been glad she had Tommy and Joel with her… then Joel met Tess and everything changed.
"There are no bodies," Ellie said suddenly, dragging Melanie out of her dark memories as they stepped into the other side of the building, "that's good right?"
"If we find out where they went," Joel whispered, his eyes ahead and shotgun at the ready.
Melanie sighed softly, "Let's just hope this place is empty… I don't fancy dealing with runners or clickers today."
"I don't wanna deal with them anyday," Ellie whispered, "especially not clickers, freaky fuckers that they are."
The corridor was streaked with cables and Melanie wondered if this was the area where they did their scientific experiments, she and Tommy hadn't been allowed anywhere near incase they spread their germs or whatever. Melanie just put it down to the Fireflies being secretive. "There's still some electricity," Melanie pointed to the lamps that were on in front of them, "that's a good sign."
"Solar panels must still be working," Joel nodded, "that might come in handy."
Another crash could be heard, but this time louder and closer, "Oh shit!" Joel cursed and indicated for Ellie and Melanie to duck down. The door behind them opened and then closed shut and Melanie resisted the urge to go down and shoot whatever was making the noise.
"Um… so it's probably clickers, right?" Ellie asked in a quiet voice as Joel ducked down behind a desk.
He shook his head, "No, clickers don't hide."
"Let's just keep going," Melanie said shakily after they heard nothing else, "the sooner we get out of here, the better."
"You're right," Joel agreed, standing up but still looking warily behind them, "let's push on forward."
They headed into the next room, shielding their eyes from the bright lights and came into another classroom. While Joel and Ellie searched drawers for anything useful, Melanie spied an x-ray on the windowsill and frowned when she seen it was an x-ray of an infected's head. The distorted skull was hard to look at and she put it back down, wishing she could erase it from her memory. Had the Fireflies really been experimenting on the infected?
"Did you ever go to one of these?"
Melanie heard Ellie ask the question and kept her back to both of them while Joel looked up at Ellie in surprise from the drawer he was searching, "What? A university?"
"Yeah."
"No, no," Joel chuckled as he stopped to pick up a ragged box of ammo "not as a student at least."
"Why not?"
"Uhh… I had Sarah when I was pretty young," he said quietly, pausing as he put the ammo in his pocket, "didn't really have the time or money to go to University."
"Oh," Ellie stayed quiet for a few moments before her curiosity again got the better of her, "Were you married?"
"For a while," Joel muttered, his face growing dark.
"What happened?"
Seeing the look on his face, Melanie shook her head at the younger girl, "Okay, Ellie. That's enough questions," she said firmly.
"Too much?" Ellie asked, guessing that Joel was getting uncomfortable.
He nodded and kept his eyes on the road ahead, "Too much."
As the other two left for another room, Melanie frowned when she stepped on something hard and seen that it was a small voice recorder, glancing ahead, she seen Joel scoping out the next room and stooped to pick it up. Pressing play, she held it up to her ear and listened to the recording:
"We lost two more guards to infected attacks," the male voice sounded exhausted and a little annoyed, "they're about to go have another goddamn meeting about the safety of this lab. All of our equipment is here. All of our data is here. All the personnel have gotten used to living here. I'm gonna run another test… otherwise this incompetence will drive me insane."
Before she could share her find with Joel, another loud noise came from behind the door in front of Melanie, looking up she seen Joel approach with his gun in his hand and his eyes narrowed onto the door.
"Get ready to shoot incase this turns sour," Joel whispered, his hand on the door handle and his eyes filled with determination.
Melanie took out her gun and nodded, "I'm ready."
Opening the door, she got a fright as she seen the cause of the noise had been another monkey raiding a bin, "Jesus!" Joel cursed as the monkey screeched at them and ran off followed by more of it's kind.
"I'm starting to get sick of these damn monkeys," Melanie muttered annoyed as she put away her gun.
Joel snorted "Well, at least it ain't clickers."
"Yeah," Instead of sounding amused, Ellie just sounded sad as she wandered slowly into the room and sighed "No Fireflies either."
Melanie shared a concerned look with Joel, "Ellie…" she started to say but the girl shook her head and forced a smile.
"Well, maybe in all that research they turned into fucking monkeys."
Joel nodded and walked into the room, beginning to search the desks "Just keep looking you two," he said "we'll find something."
Remembering the voice recorder, Melanie walked up to Joel, "I found this in the other room," she said handing it over to him, "apparently people were getting infected from their experiments and they were talking about finding a new base."
"Maybe that's why they left," Joel held the recorder up to his ear and frowned at what he heard, "damnnit, if only we got here sooner."
Melanie sighed, "I wonder how long it's been since they left?"
"Hey, guys," Ellie said, walking over with the tape recorder, "I've found another one of these things. It seems like a Firefly was recording himself."
Joel took the other one as well and hit the play button, "Maybe he can tell us more about what happened here," he muttered.
"That's four palettes of lab equipment all packed up and ready to go. Now – big question is what do we do with all you guys," the man sighed and the three survivors could hear the chattering of the monkeys in the background, "They say that the tainted batch needs to be put down. You know what I say? I say screw that. Who made a bigger sacrifice than you right? If anyone deserves to run free out there it's- HEY! EASY!" there was the sound of a struggle and Melanie looked up at Joel uneasily "Agh, shit! Oh no… it bit me. Oh my god…"
The voice recorder clicked off and Melanie looked warily at the door that the monkeys had escaped through, "How about we stay clear of those things?" she said weakly, "I'll never trust those little shits."
"I'm sure glad we didn't mess with them monkeys," Joel muttered, putting the voice recorder down on the desk, "it could've turned nasty."
Ellie looked a little worried, "He… he didn't say where they went," she whispered.
Putting a hand on her shoulder, Joel gave her a comforting smile "We'll be fine… don't worry about it."
Finding another door, Melanie and Ellie stepped back as Joel shoved his shoulder against it to move the desk out of the way. Hearing Joel curse under his breath, Melanie stepped into yet another abandoned classroom and seen the skeletal remains of a body sitting back on a chair. A small gust of wind blew through the open window and she sighed: another dead end. Literally.
"Maybe he recorded something useful on that," Melanie said, trying to stay positive, "might explain where the Fireflies went."
Joel rolled his eyes "I doubt it," he muttered but picked it up regardless.
"If you're looking for the Fireflies… they've all left."
Ellie scoffed as she flipped through a book, "Yeah, no shit."
"I'm dead… or I will be soon. Got me some time to reflect-" making an impatient noise, Joel fast forwarded through the man's recording and ignored the frown from Melanie "-been years that felt like we were…" the voice made a high pitched warbling as Joel continued to fast forward, "-fucking thing was a giant waste of ti-…. Not gonna do this anymore."
Melanie tried to take the recorder off of the impatient Joel but he held it out of her reach, "Will it kill you to listen to the whole recording?" she asked angrily with her hands on her hips, "You might have missed something important!"
"A dying man's ramblings is a waste of our time," Joel told her heatedly "I just wanna know where the fucking Fireflies are."
Ellie glanced between them both, "Don't argue… please?" she asked sounding tired, "Been a shitty enough day without the two of you going at it."
"… looking for the others, they've all returned to Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City. You'll find them there," Ellie looked at Melanie and Joel with hope in her eyes as the voice on the recorder laughed bitterly "they're still trying to save the world. Good luck with that."
Irritated, Joel flung the recorder to the floor and ran a hand through his hair, "Do you know where that is?" Ellie asked him, raising an eyebrow slightly, "Or are you just taking your anger out on that thing?"
"I know the city," Joel answered, ignoring her other comment.
Melanie sighed as she leaned against the counter, "Salt Lake City isn't exactly close," she said softly, "and we're running out of supplies as it is."
"Well, we are on horseback, so that'll…" Joel stopped and frowned at something over Melanie's shoulder.
Ellie gave him a worried look, "What?"
Melanie was about to turn to see what had captured Joel's attention when he suddenly pulled her and Ellie to the ground, "Get down!" he ordered just as a bullet burst through the window pane, Melanie shook a little knowing if their attackers had remained unnoticed, she would have been shot dead.
Sarah sat moodily on Melanie's couch as she watched the older woman make a call, "I can't believe you're phoning my dad on me," she muttered, folding her arms, "so not cool."
"I am not phoning your father," Melanie sighed, hoping that Tommy would pick up even if he saw that it was her number, "that would be too awkward, I'm phoning your uncle to come pick you up."
Sitting forward, Sarah frowned "It wouldn't be awkward if you guys just got back together.
"It's not that simple Sarah," Melanie said closing her eyes and wishing for the younger girl to stop talking about her and Joel and was thankful when Tommy picked up the phone, "Tommy? Hey, it's Mel. I need you to come pick up Sarah. She stopped by and- oh? Oh… she gave you the slip did she?" she turned and narrowed her eyes at the younger girl, who averted her eyes and stared at the floor, "well, she's fine. Must have got the bus or something. Okay, see you soon."
Putting down her cell, Melanie looked at the younger girl and felt sympathy for her: first her mom abandons her and then her dad's girlfriend who she liked. "Sarah, you can't just run out on your Uncle Tommy like that," Melanie said softly, coming to sit next to her on the couch, "he was really worried and was gonna phone the police."
"I just needed to talk to you," Sarah muttered, picking at a hole in the couch, "dad won't tell me what happened and I wanna know."
Running a hand through her hair, Melanie didn't know whether or not to tell Sarah the truth… "Your dad is upset because… because it was me that ended things," a lie would be easier, she didn't want Joel to be the bad guy, he didn't deserve it, "I wanted excitement in my life and… your dad wasn't giving me that so… so I found someone who did."
"You… you cheated on dad?" Sarah asked, her eyes widening "I can't believe you would do that!"
"I'm sorry…"
Standing up, Sarah glared at the woman "And to think I was giving him a hard time, thinking that he was the one who ruined things! I can't believe I liked you!"
"Now you know…" Melanie said quietly looking down at the ground, "so I… I don't want you coming by anymore, okay?"
"Don't worry I won't…" Sarah spat angrily, "I hate you!"
There was a knocking at the door and Tommy opened it and came in, "There ya are," he said relieved "don't go doin' that to me again, ya hear?"
"I won't ever be coming 'round here again," Sarah sounded close to tears and Melanie looked up guiltily.
"Sarah-" Melanie began to say but the younger girl just ran out of her apartment while Tommy looked confused.
"What the hell is going on?" Tommy seen how upset Melanie looked and frowned, "You okay?"
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Melanie nodded, "Yeah… I'm okay," she said, hoping he was convinced, "can you do me a favour and not tell Joel about this? I don't wanna give him anymore grief."
"Sure thing…" Tommy said slowly and then shrugged "well, I'd better get her home and fed before Joel comes home. I'll… I'll maybe see you around 'Mel."
As he left, Melanie covered her face and let out a shaky sigh – she really needed a wine now.
A/N
So SO sorry for really long gaps between chapters but I felt no inspiration to write after working so many bloody hours but wrote one tonight and hope you like.
Next chapter will be filled with angst and maybe a little more action with Melanie and Joel? Hmm, we'll see. Leave a review and tell me what you think. I love hearing reader's opinions.
~ BSI