I own nothing but Ellie and Gerty
Useless
It had to be done.
The laundry, that is. Seeing as Ellie was the newest recruit the Grimmes Gang, she was stuck with the rest of the 'fragile bodied woman'scrubbing out their laundry in the pond next to the old farm did not approve of this sudden classification of her being weak.
Sure,she thought to herself, I'm not the strongest with my aim, but I'm not a pansy.
She huffed, ringing the soaked shirt out before tossing it onto large rope. Carol, the older woman, reached forward and examined it, her eyebrows raised. She had been doing that to every single piece of clothing Ellie had cleaned and it was getting on more than her last nerve. She felt the distinct urge to grab her by her shirt and shake her.
She settled for asking if something was wrong. Best not to shake someone on your first few days on the farm.
Carol gave her a motherly smile in return, taking the clothing from the rope and putting it back in the dirty pile. "Have you ever washed clothing before?"
"Uh, with a washer? I mean, the whole Zombie Apocalypse shot that horse in the mouth."
Carol smiled at Ellie, as if she was the mother lecturing the teenager for foolish behavior, never mind that Carol was probably only 15 or 16 years older than Elias. The greying hair had easily been explained when Lori leaned over, whispering in a gossip fashion that Carol's husband had been abusive to both Carol and the missing girl.
While she felt for both Carol and the girl, Elias also felt as if she were reading a gossip magazine in the grocery store checkout line. Lori had only known her a few days and had already spilled the juicy secrets on everyone.
Making a mental note, Ellie told herself to never trust Lori with any sort of secret ever. That is, if she wanted it to stay a secret.
Carol clucked her teeth, dunking the pile of clothing into the ponds edge."I meant like this."
"Oh. Uhm no. When our clothes were to covered in filth, we dumped them and grabbed new ones."
"Well,I can tell. The things you've done are filthy."
Ellie suppressed a glare, but the older woman continued on with her daily chores, completely happy with the simplicity of it. It was easy, mind numbing work, and all Carol struggled to do since the day they had arrived at the farm was keep her head above the water. The thoughts of Sophia haunted her. She was lost. Starving. Dead.
"Why don't you go up to the house and see if Rick has anything to do for you? Or maybe Patrica."
Lori chose that moment to jump in,her hands wet and covered in soap suds. "Its okay, , we have it covered. We'll have this done in twenty minutes flat."
With a shrug and minor offense, Ellie consented, ambling back towards the house, a small frown on her face. She hadn't meant to be sent away,despite all her inner griping and moaning, she had been trying her best. But maybe she would be thrown into the action. Well, whatever action was happening. Anything was better than scrubbing someone elses dirty panties. End of the world panties at that.
xXxXx
When she finally found Rick, he was on the porch, surveying the the land with the face of a a man who belonged there. Years of being a cop had given him that look. The look of a man who could protect you with just a lamp and rusty bottle opener. It had also given him the the amazing ability to persuade you that he, no matter what the situation, was calm and collected, knowing exactly what to do.
It was a gift he had received from his father and his wife had pointed it out to him countless times. But he knew he was nothing like his father. Or atleast he hoped.
He looked up slowly as he noticed the new member approaching him,sauntering as if she had no problems in the world to deal with. He sighed, wondering if the group of danger attractors had taken up yet another attractor. It was too soon to tell, but birds of a feather did tend to flock together.
"Hey copper." Elias an easy smile on her face and her hands in her pockets. She was small, and the cop briefly wandered how someone her seize had managed to survive so long. "Whats crackin?"
"I was looking for Glenn but got distracted by this view." Rick answered easily, motioning towards the farm. It was beautiful. There was no denying that. The fields were still sprouting wildflowers amid the green, and the trees were still in full green, but would slowly start turning shades of yellows, oranges, and reds. Fall was slowly creeping up on them, and Rick feared for the safety of the group once winter full hit. It meant cold weather and snow. And that meant starvation and frostbite and maybe even death. It would be their first winter since this fuckin hell started.
With a content murmur from Ellie, she agreed.
And they stood in silence, their thoughts drifting as they gazed out into farm fields, the barn sitting near the edge and small smudged figures of the group making their way from one place to the next.
He didn't want to be the one to tell them they had to leave, and that this wasn't anything but temporary. Rick didn't want to always make the shots and later have them analyzed and shoved into his face.
But now Ellie was staring at him, her head cocked as if she had said something to him, but he had been to lost to even know what she had said. She raised her eyebrows. "Why do you need Glenn?
"Oh,just sending him to town on a routine run with Hershel's oldest,Maggie. We need some more supplies. Might as well stock up while we have the chance, right?" Rick smiled at the blonde, before turning to take a step around her, his hand on his walkie, but she took another step, blocking him.
"Why don't you just send me instead?"
Rick blinked, confused at her sudden bluntness."What?"
"Why don't you send me instead of Glenn?" She smiled a large smile,her eyes big. It was actually quite frightening.
"Well,Ellie, ya see Glenn's our fastest and most experie-" Rick sputtered. He didn't know what to say. What could he? He didn't trust her yet, but he had never had someone so eager to do something like this before.
"I went to Standford on a track scholarship. I'm fast. Incredibly. How do you think I've made it so long?"
"Well-"
"Please.I am not cut out for this womanly chore thing." She was begging now. He felt that at any moment the blonde was going to get on her knees. And he couldn't deal with that. "I want to prove myself."
He sighed, nodding his head and unclasping the walkie from his belt."Fine. But Maggie's going to report back to us every half to make sure everything's going well. You can take this one out to Daryl." Ellie squealed, throwing her arms around the older man, her heart pounding in excitement. "Are you sure?" He inquired again. "This is serious."
She nodded her head ecclesiastically. "Of course!" She was already turning towards the steps and making her way down them.
"I'll tell Maggie!" Rick called after her, and she raised her hand to show she heard.
Well,Rick thought to himself as he walked to the front door,its nice to have a little enthusiasm for once.
xXxXxXx
She walked toward the RV, a skip in her step and a swing in her arms, her excitement was unreal. She wouldn't let him rethink her going out into the town. It was to late. She couldn't even figure out why she was so excited to go. She had lived it the past couple months, but now she seemed unable to just slink into normal, everyday life.
She gripped the rungs on the ladder, pulling herself up with ease, but awkwardly clambering onto the top, the man in the lawn chair turning his head to peek at her from the corner of his grey blue eyes. She gave him a small smile.
"What the fuck ya want?" He grumbled. He was working on carving something, his hands moving the knife over the wood with extreme precision, like he had done it a thousand times before. Ellie figured he was making arrows for his crossbow.
She raised an eyebrow, the walkie still in her hand. She felt the sudden urge to yank his chain. "Well, I'm being sent on a perilous journey forth from the unyielding grasp of the camp dwellers to fetcha colossal-"
"God,ya don't need to talk to me like I'm some dumbass. All ya college graduates all the same and shit." He snarled, his hooded eyes narrowing at her. Did she look like a college graduate? Or did Gerty spill the beans?
"In ever graduated. I dropped out. I went to Standford on a scholarship.I only lasted 3 years." Ellie shrugged her thin shoulders. If this had been a normal day, where people weren't eating other people,she wouldn't had said anything. It wasn't something she was ashamed of, but it was something she hated being judged on.
She would always be asked why, and she would always give the same bland response back about wasting someone elses spot who wanted to be the remorse than she did. The real answer, one she knew no one would ever understand, was that she had always felt that her time on Earth was limited. Not as in the normal, spend 90 years and then your done, but as in i'm-not-going-to-make-it-past-23. So she went home. Got a job as a waitress, and spent her remaining time with Gerty and her parents. Her father was never able to understand, how she could just throw her life away.
The world ended two years later, so it didn't really matter.
"That's probably the most fuckin' stupidest thang I ever heard." Daryl muttered, shaking his head at the blonde. "Ya fuckin' idiot."
With narrowed eyes she shoved the walkie-talkie into his hand. "Here,Rick said to give this to you. And at least I made it to college. Did you even graduate?" She hissed, turning to climb down the ladder.
With a huff he returned her glare. "Piss off!"
"How about you go fuck yourself." She shot back, jumping off the second step of the ladder and storming off, not hearing anything else that he grumbled after her.
"UGH!" She snarled to herself. "What a complete jackass."
He was not going to be easy to get along with.
xXxxXxXx
Maggie wasn't happy about Ellie coming with her instead of the sprightly Asian, and Ellie could tell this just from the looks of annoyance Maggie was sending in her direction as they got out of the car.
Don't look at her or you'll turn to stone from that glare she's sending you, Ellie thought to herself bitterly as she unzipped her bag, grabbing what was left of the tampon selection. Sure it wasn't on the list, but there was no way she was going to rough it once her monthly problem started. Maggie, in the corner, stood shoving pills into her bag, her brown eyes flashing over the labels quickly.
Ellie walked around small pharmacy quickly, stepping over the discarded packages and bottles towards the front counter. Not that there was anything everything useful had been picked off a long time ago, this was evident from the large amounts of dust that covered nearly everything. But she wasn't looking for anything that someone would want to take.
She hopped up onto the counter, sliding her way over the top and to the ground on the other side. Her eyes swept over the ground, seeing nothing but receipts and coins. And then she saw it. Tiny and rectangular with the black words printed neatly on the front bent down, leaning under the counter to scoop it up.
"What are you doing?" Ellie jumped, her head whacking against the underside of the counter. She pulled herself back, rubbing her head from the pain.
"Owww." She moaned, the card in the hand not clutching her head. "Uh, well, me and Gert, we have this thing we do. To remember everywhere we've been." She stood up,pushing her self onto her knees, unzipping her bag and sliding the business card into the front pouch. When she got back to her tent she would add it to her own backpack, rubber banded to all the other assortment of business cards. "We always take one of the little business cards from the store we take from. They always have them on the counter, and if not, we make our own and write down the address."The blonde stood up from the grime covered ground, examining the brunette.
Maggie nodded, smiling softly at the other girl. It was the first real look she had given Ellie with any sort of emotion. "My family likes to think that if they were here, they would want to help."
Ellie smiled back and nodded. She knew that wasn't true better than anyone else. If they were alive right now, they would probably kill , still, it was a nice thought to have.
Maggie turned around, done talking, reaching out for another bottle.
And that's when she started screaming.
Maggie had been grabbed. A walker had shoved his hand through the wood of the shelf and was tearing his way though more every second Ellie stand stared from the top of the counter. It was almost surreal.
"HELP!"Maggie screeched, her face red with fresh tears of terror streaming down it.
That's when she snapped back to reality. Ellie scrambled off the counter,falling onto her face before she pushed herself back up, her hand still scrambling for her gun. She struggled with the holster, the buttons had always been finicky, and always during the time of trouble. She always knew it was more trouble that it was worth.
Maggie continued to screech as she struggled to keep her arm from becoming a zombie lunch-able. Kicking and struggling with,tugging her arm back from the monster only to have to ripped could they be so strong, when their muscle was falling away?
Ellie, with a pounding heart, managed to rip the gun from her holster, and with a flick of her finger turning the safety off,she pulled the trigger, the gun pressed against the rotting flesh of the zombie.
Then everything was silent. Maggie,silently sobbing in relief, falling to her knees, and Ellie slowly following her down, blood splattered over both of them. And they sat, gasping for air, resisting the urge to grab onto the other and hold on. Not because of any emotional connection, but because they wanted the human comfort.
"That was a close call." Ellie whispered, placing her gun back in her holster, and then clutching her backpack tightly to herself.
All Maggie did was nod, and they continued sitting in their shocked silence.
But then, a groan filled the room. The girls both stood up quickly,backpack back on Maggie's shoulders, and faces tense. Their eyes,blue and brown, darting wildly around the room, and to their left,the front door stood, propped open with a walker that had crawled its way in. And the others, they were trampling over its decaying body in order to make their way in.
Maggie stiffened, her eyes wide and darting for an escape. But there were to many. That door was the only one leading outside, and the other, an archway, just lead to a set of stairs. And if horror movie edict taught them anything, it was that running up stairs would probably be what killed them.
"Where did they all come from? They weren't outside a minute ago!"Ellie gasped, stepping backwards, getting as far away from the walkers as she possibly could. "Maggie, you've been here a thousand times, how do we get out of here?!" When Maggie didn't respond, she reached and tugged at her hand. That snapped the brunette back to attention, her breathing coming out faster. She was terrified. But so was Ellie.
" ! Follow me! I think there's a fire escape upstairs!" And then Maggie tugged her hand, yanking her through the archway, and disregarding every single horror movie they had ever watched. They stomped up the stairs quickly, their chests heaving at the stamina it took.
It was a tiny office with a desk pushed against the wall, and a giant pile of blankets laying in the corner like a nest and in it...Ellie looked away, surveying the room quickly. She didn't want that crumpled rotting body to be the last thing she ever saw. She could hear them stumbling their way up the stairs, moaning out to them.
Maggie gasped, pointing out when she saw the window. "The fire escape is that one!"
Ellie ran forward, shoving it open and peering out. "Maggie." Her voice was void of emotions, almost a whisper.
"Hurry!"Maggie insisted, shoving gently at the girl in front of her.
"I cant!" Ellie hissed."This is a balcony, not a fire escape."
But the monsters were already up the stairs coming through the door."Just hurry!" Maggie hissed. They had no choice, crawling through the window quickly, to escape the 6 walkers cornering them in that office. Ellie reached back to help Maggie out of the window,before quickly slamming it shut behind her. It was to small, they were basically pressed against each other, gasping for breath as the monsters started to slam their bloody palms against the glass.
"We're going to have to jump." Ellie said lowly, pointing to the building next door. "Its only a story down..." She may have only been a story to the next building , but if they miss shot, they would both end up crashing through the sky lights on top of the roof, or two stories down in the alley with broken legs and a easy meal for the walkers. They were swarming around in the alley now. Nine of them mulling, their heads pointing up and their vacant eyes trained on the two girls peering down at them.
"But what about the hoard on the ground? What if we miss and fall into the alley. There are like, twenty of them." They had both climbed atop the railing, clutching onto each other for support.
"Well...don't miss."
And then they leaped, hitting the roof, but also crashing through the glass.
