"Good boy Japan, take me to her, take me to Ellie" I whispered as he galloped along the river bank

I was pushing him as fast as he could go, nearly falling into the fast running water ourselves a couple of times with how careless I was being. The water was running fast and the current was so strong I needed to find Ellie before it was too late. I knew she wasn't a strong swimmer and might need my help

"Woahhh" I called out, bringing Japan to a quick halt.

Kieren was just behind me "You good?" he asked breathlessly

My heart was pounding as I jumped off Japan and looked at the tree ahead of me. My eyes were glued in front of me and everything seemed to go silent as I zoned in on the blade sticking out of the tree. My feet slowly carried me over as if I was in a kind of daze. As I got closer I felt my heartbreak as I confirmed what I was looking at. It was my bracelet, the one I gave Ellie. It was hooked round her switchblade, the one her mother gave her. I lifted my hand and pulled it free from the bark holding it in my shaking hand along with the bracelet.

Kierens voice was soft behind me "What's that?"

I couldn't get my words out. I just turned to show him what I'd found. I could feel the tears dropping from my cheeks onto the ground below.

"Its" I choked out "Ellies"

I looked down at the two items clutched in my hands. The two things other than Joel's guitar that actually meant something to Ellie in this world. She left them here for me. Abby wouldn't have known what these meant to her so it wasn't a message from her. It was a message from Ellie to me. She was telling me to stop, to stop going after her. But how could I? After witnessing her on that bridge, her beaten body, the scared look on her face. Why would she want me to stop going after her?

"It doesn't make any sense" I spoke out loud without realising

"What doesn't make sense?" Kieren questioned

"Ellie, she's left these for me. To tell me to stop going after her" I looked up at him "but why?"

"Urm Dina, I think I can answer that one" Tommy appeared from the trees riding Dash

"What the fuck Tommy!" I spun round and matched over to him "What was that back there! I had her and you fucking shot them both off the edge of the bridge!"

Tommy dismounted Dash and tied him up to the tree next to him and put his hands up "Dina I didn't mean to, I thought. I thought I could get a clean shot, I'm not the shooter I used to be" He pointed to his eye. "I'm sorry, I wan't Ellie back just as much as you do Kiddo"

"I know, I know. Sorry" I took a breath and realised what he'd just said to me "What did you mean you could answer my question?"

He let out a sigh and walked over to a nearby log sitting himself down. "I wasn't sure when I first heard about it but now Abby has shown up and she's taken Ellie alive It's just confirmed it"

"Confirmed what?"

"Dina you might want to come sit down" He gestured to the rock beside him

"No just tell me" I was starting to lose my temper with him, why wasn't he just telling me what he had to say instead of dragging it out.

"While you and Ellie were out there and I was on my own alot I fixed up the old radio tower n started listenin', for anything really. Mainly lookin' for any sign of the two of you. I never really heard much apart from a lot of static and the odd raiders. I gave up on it for a while, but when Ellie came home and told me Abby was still alive I went back up there and started listenin' again" He shuffled on the log and gave his bad leg a rub "I know I shouldn't have but I couldn't help myself. The guilt of Joel's death wayed me down so much ya know. One day while I was up there I started picking up transmissions. It sounded like Fireflies. Since I used to be one I knew what to listen for and how to identify them. A large group of em were travelling to a new base, out west. It was in Chicago"

I looked at him with a puzzled look, I wasn't sure what this all meant. Why was he telling me about a new Fireflies base and why would Abby be taking Ellie there? I started to pace uncontrollably in front of him, the wet muddy ground squelching under my boots

"I don't understand Tommy" as soon as the words left my mouth it hit me like a ton of bricks and I felt sick to my stomach and my heart started to pound. I stopped pacing and turned to look at him. His head was turned away avoiding eye contact with me. I could see the sadness creeping onto his face.

"A cure" I whispered

"Wait, what the fuck. Can someone please fill me in on what the fuck is going on here?" Kierens voice cut through the silence.

I forgot he was here, I was so wrapped up in the thoughts rushing through my head.

Fuck he heard that.

"What do you mean a cure?" He asked again

"Ah shit" Tommy scratched his beard with his hand "Okay kid, your goin' find out some shit right now and your gunna have to just accept it, got it?"

"Okay" His voice shook

"So our Ellie see. She's. Uhhh. Shes''

"Immune" I broke off Tommys rambling

"What?" Kiren gasped "That's impossible"

"She is. She got bit when she was 14. Nothing happened. To cut the story short the Fireflies want to try make a cure from her but" I cut off at the thought of what I was about to say. I didn't want to say it out loud. I didn't want to admit it to myself, what could happen if I didn't get to her.

"It would kill our Ellie" Tommy spoke

"Fuck" Is all Kieren could say, his eyes were wide with disbelief at what we'd just told him.

"Look, I understand if you don't want to help go after them anymore" I spoke in a hushed tone, scared of what he would think.

He looked up at me, his eyes had changed, he looked focused "no" is all he said

I took a step towards him ready to try persuade him to come, to still help us get her back but before i could say anything he spoke again

"Come on, let's go get your girl back. She's not getting killed for some cure" He turned around and strode over to his horse jumping straight onto the saddle "Tommy witch way?"

"Are you sure you want to do this kid?" Tommy asked

"Yeah, I'm not letting her die"

"What about the message she left for me?" I was still tightly holding onto the bracelet in my hand

"Fuck that. She wouldn't stop for you, for Tommy, not even for me" His words were so true, she wouldn't stop she would keep going to the ends of the earth for any of us

"Well that settles it, Chicago here we come" Tommy picked himself up and headed back over to Dash, pulling himself back up "Let's get our Ellie back"

I walked back over to Japan and took his head in my hands looking into his eyes "Let go get our girl back"

Since we knew where they were heading, we went straight for the highway, cutting through a short section of woods and onto the main road. We thought they would take the longer route and stay out of sight if they didn't want to get caught.

I looked down at my hands holding Japan's rains and laid my eyes on my bracelet that was now securely round my wrist. Ellie never took this thing off, it meant so much to her.

I'm so fucking angry with her. She promised she wouldn't leave me again and now she has done the one thing she promised she wouldn't. She must know about the cure. She must think it will work this time and she wants to actually do it.

"Dina" Kieren spoke

"Yeah" I replied

"We will get her back" he gave me a half smile and a reassuring look "and look, I don't care about the whole immune thing. If it was Olivia I couldn't do it either. It's a hard choice, give one life to save the many. But what if that life is the one thing that saves you?"

I gave him a smile "Thanks Kieren" His words were so true. She was saving me every single day. Before Ellie I was so scared all the time, always felt alone. Even when my mother and Talia was here I was always scared, always had my back against the wall. I kind of felt the same with Jesse. It had always been Ellie who made me feel safe. I met Ellie only a year or so after Jesse so there wasn't much of a difference in time. Since the day she strolled into Jackson stuffing her pockets with Jerky we became infatuated with each other.

The day I first met her I felt something inside of me, telling me that this silly freckled girl was somehow going to be special to me. As the years went on and we became best friends I trusted her with so much, she comforted me without even realising. She is the one constant thing in my life that has brought me true happiness in this god forsaken world and the thought of her not being here broke my heart. I don't care about a cure, I want her.

"So Oliva, you really like her then?" I asked trying to distract myself

His face flushed red "Yeah, I Love her actually" the corners of his mouth twitched up "When we get back I'm going to tell her. I want to do something really nice for her, show her how much she means to me"

"I'm sure she will love that" I smiled "I'm sorry you had to come on this trip with us, it's dangerous when you have someone you love back at home"

"Dina, honestly it's fine. I wanted to do this. Besides she will owe me big time when we get back" he chuckled

"That she will" I smiled

"So this Abby girl, is that the reason why Joel died and you and Ellie disappeared for all that time?" Kieren looked a little sheepish as the words left his mouth. Possibly thinking he had overstepped.

"Uh.. yeah"

"Fuck, thats messed up, I'm sorry you had to go through all that"

"Ummm Kieren could you keep this between us? We don't really like to advertise our Ellie's immunity n'all. With all the people who might think she's worth sumthin' to trade" Tommy spoke up

"Oh yeah sure thing, what immunity?" he laughed and gave me a wink

I liked Kieren he was a really great guy

It's been a week since we last saw Ellie and my nerves were on edge with every day that passed us by. Hoping and praying we would see and sign of them but nothing yet. We weren't too far from Chicago either so we stuck to the plan. Head there and hopefully cut them off before they got a chance to experiment on Ellie.

"You hear that?" Kieren whispered

"Sure do" Tommy raised his fist to signal to stop "Sounds like infected"

"Over there" I pointed to a large building in the distance on the other side of the highway. It was pretty far away but I could make out a small cloud of black smoke rising into the sky from what looked to be the car park

Tommy pulled out his rifle and took a look through the scope "Fuck"

"What is it?" I asked

"Everythings blown to shit down there! Trucks on its side, people on the ground, body parts all over. The infected ripping people apart. I dunno whats happened but it looks like a fucking massicar" He lowered his rifle and looked back at me "Take a look for yourself kiddo"

I closed my right eye bringing the scope of the rifle to my left and took a look. Tommy wasn't joking. It was carnage down there. Bodys and infected littered the carpark and the vehicles were in pieces.

"Shit, that looks bad, let's go round. There's way too many infected down there"

"Sure thing" Tommy replied