"Come on; we better get a move on."
It has been a week since Ellie and Joel went on their first run to get supplies. They were still going on runs, but not often; they were posted to guard the gate. Ellie was still apart of the guard team, but more people have joined. Most of the teens that joined were over their head, and quit within a day. Only a few teens remained; Ellie, Arthur, Baneyu, and Will.
Ellie didn't think Will was that bad; he was one of Arthur's friends, but not as stuck up. He had dirty blond hair, like Arthur, but dark brown eyes. Will was the son of the lead technician, Nick.
Baneyu had become one of Ellie's best friends. She was only a year older than Ellie; fifteen. She had light chestnut skin; half Blackfoot Indian. Her parents were ambushed by hunters, and killed. Baneyu had lived in the woods; hunting and scavenging for food. She had found the hydroelectric dam only a year later.
Joel hadn't been as lucky as Ellie, friend-wise; he remained quiet, and distanced himself from the townspeople. He had only really talked to a few of the guardspeople about strategies and construction, never telling them personal information.
"Come on, Arthur, we ain't got all day." Ellie, Joel, and Arthur were coming back from their last run of the day; trying to stock up for winter.
Joel could tell that they only had a few more days until the temperatures fully dropped, and crops would go to waste.
They had found canned soups and peaches, cloth, and a first aid kit. Arthur was starting to help; little by little. He would stand watch as Ellie and Joel would loot. Arthur was the same age as Will; seventeen.
Ellie, Joel, and Arthur rode their horses through the woods, firearms out and ready.
Ellie had grown closer to Maria. She knew that Maria wanted to become a mother figure for her; wanting Ellie to come and live with them permanently.
Ellie still didn't know if Joel was going to stay, or leave to go back to the QZ. She knew that if Joel left, there was no way she would stay. She wouldn't leave Joel.
Ellie, Joel, and Arthur arrived back to the dam near night fall. Needless to say, Maria wasn't thrilled that Ellie was still apart of the team, but kept her mouth shut.
When Ellie took Callus' saddle of his back, Baneyu appeared on her left, and stroked Callus' head.
"Did you find anything?" Baneyu had a strong accent. Ellie couldn't pinpoint which one it was; a mix between an English and Boston accent.
"Canned foods, some cloth, and a first aid kit. You?" Baneyu had gone out on a run with Tommy, Ashton, and Tanner.
"Not much. Salt, bags, and blankets." Ellie knew two kind of Baneyu's; the first always in the 'I don't give a crap' mode, and then there's the friendly and nice side of Baneyu.
Ellie put a blanket over Callus back, and lead him to the stables.
She was ahead of Callus, leading him with a rope. Ellie heard Callus whinny, and turned around to see Tanner, no older than twenty five, taking Callus' blanket off.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tanner sighed, and faced Ellie.
"Tommy said not use the blankets for the horses. They can keep the saddle on or something. We need the blankets more than they do." Ellie narrowed her eyes, and turned back around.
She went to Callus' stable room, and shushed him. Ellie took off her winter coat. She laid it on Callus' back, replacing the blanket. She only had her red hoodie on, and a blue t-shirt.
Ellie shivered, but didn't take her coat back. She gave Callus a few of the home made horse treats that a few of the woman had made.
She kissed the top of his nose, and closed the stall door. Ellie started to go and check on Joel's horse, Kai, but heard a whinny coming from the stall next to Kai's. She opened the door, and saw a golden, light yellow horse, with an almost white mane come up to her.
Ellie could tell that the horse was pregnant; she had a round belly. Ellie smiled through her chattering teeth, and approached the horse. She petting her back, and carefully stroked her belly.
The horse nudged Ellie in the arms, wanting for her to pet her head.
Ellie smiled, and started to pet her head, "You just wanted some company. You were lonely, weren't? you?" Ellie played with her mane, "Yeah, you just want some company." She gave her a few treats, and stroked her neck.
"I'm going to call you Reba. Hmm? Oh, you like that name, don't you?" She laughed, and kissed Reba's nose.
"I have to leave. I'll come and visit you later." Ellie turned away, but Reba put her head on Ellie's shoulder, preventing her from leaving.
"I can't stay. Joel will come looking for me." Reba whinnied softly, and Ellie gave in.
"Fine, but don't expect me to stand the entire time." Ellie continued to stroke her mane.
"Have you seen Ellie?" Tommy shook his head, and started to clean his other gun.
"She's probably with Boneyu." Joel felt something in the pit of his stomach; giving him an uneasy feeling.
Maria called them for dinner, and Ellie still wasn't there. Joel stood from the couch, and said, "I'm goin' to see where Ellie is at." The couple nodded, and watched Joel leave.
Joel walked towards the gate, thinking Ellie might be on her post. When he arrived there, only Ashton and Ben were on watch. He went through the rooms, and found no Ellie.
Joel huffed in frustration, and decided to go and check the stables. He ran to the barn, passing Buckley, and the few chickens the town had. Joel opened the stable doors, and saw a stall door was opened a little.
He grasped his pistol, and quietly made his way to the stall. Once Joel fully opened it, he saw a pregnant horse, protectively standing guard next to Ellie. What he saw next astonished him; the horse had Ellie's hoodie across it back.
Ellie only had her blue t-shirt on, shivering in the corner. Joel rushed to her side, and picked her up. Her eyes were closed, but she curled into Joel's chest, trying to fell the heat that radiated off of him.
"What the hell were you thinking?" He moved to get the jacket off of Reba's back, but Ellie managed to stop him.
"No... J-j-just take me back t-to the house." Joel sighed, and reluctantly followed Ellie's orders.
Joel exited the stall, and locked it back up. He ran to the house, noticing the small white specks falling from the sky. Snow.
Once he arrived back at the house, he opened the door in a hurry, thankful Maria and Tommy had started a small fire in the 'pit'.
Maria was the first one up, moving to get blankets. Joel laid Ellie out on the couch, piling blankets on top of her.
Maria had taken a cloth and dipped in hot water. She dabbed it on Ellie's face, and removed the blankets that covered her shoes. She carefully unlaced her shoes, and removed her worn socks.
"What happened?" Joel sighed and sat on the head of the couch, in front of Ellie.
"I found her in one of them stalls. She had taken her coat and jacket off; putting them on the horses." Tommy huffed, and sat down on the chair, across from the couch.
"I'll be damned. That girl cares about the horses more than her life."
The next few hours were focused on getting Ellie warm, trying to find out if she got frostbite.
Joel had relieved Maria from her duties around midnight, telling her to go off to bed. Joel sat next to a still shivering Ellie, and adjusted the blankets again.
"Why did you do that?" Ellie opened her eyes, and looked at Joel.
"I-I-I figured that the horses needed it more than me." Joel groaned, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Whatever you say." He moved to get up, but Ellie stopped him.
"P-Please s-stay. Y-You're warm." Ellie would have blushed if she could have felt her cheeks. Joel nodded, and sat next to Ellie again. He pulled her into his embrace, and adjusted the blankets again.
Ellie laughed through her chattering teeth, "T-That has t-to be the thousandth time you readjusted the blankets." Joel smirked.
"And that has to be the first time you haven't cussed." Ellie smiled.
Ellie woke up to gunshots. We're being attacked. She groaned, and pulled the blankets back. She slipped her shoes on, and grabbed a jacket of the rack. It had to have been Joel's because of it's size.
She grabbed her backpack, and her bow; 10 arrows. Ellie frowned at the amount of arrows, and looked through her bag for the shotgun.
Dammit. Joel must have taken it.
Ellie grabbed an arrow, and readied her bow. When she opened the door, she was stunned by a bullet penetrating itself in her left arm. She dropped her bow, and quickly took cover behind the deck. Ellie tore a part of her t-shirt, and tied it around the wound. She hissed in pain, but managed to get through it.
Ellie searched for her pistol, and loaded it with ammo. She quickly stood from the deck, and saw the guy that shot her aiming and shooting at Baneyu, missing every time.
Ellie smirked, and shot him in the head, "Die, you little f***er."
She threw a smoke bomb, and ran towards the turbine room. Ellie only saw four bandits, and shot three dead. She missed the fourth one, but continued on to the turbine room; unaware of the same guy aiming a bow at her head.
Joel stood next to Tommy, readying his shotgun. A loud noise came from behind him, and then a shooting pain coursing through his shoulder.
"Argh!" Joel squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to regain some sort of composure. He looked behind him, and saw a man with a bow; aiming at Ellie. Joel let a growl erupt from his throat, and grabbed his shotgun.
Joel shot him in the head, and saw Ellie run to his side.
She pulled him into a supplies closet, "Joel? What happened? Oh, f***." Joel was shot with an arrow, in his shoulder. He saw Ellie rip some of her t-shirt, and heard her say, "Don't kill me." Before he could ask why she asked that, she broke the arrow in half, and quickly took the remaining half of wood out of his shoulder.
Joel yelled out, but Ellie quickly shushed him. She bandaged his wound, and traded her arrow for his shotgun. Joel frowned at Ellie, but she said, "Oh come on, you have a f***ing flamethrower."
Joel grabbed El Diablo, and crouched down. His shoulder burned with pain, but he tried to ignore it. Joel opened the closet door and quickly stood, Ellie following.
There were more than twenty bandits left, firing at the guards. Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie saw two of the guards, Ben and Ashton, shot down by three of the bandits.
Ellie actually enjoyed Ben and Ashton's company; they were cool. They both had families. Ellie narrowed her eyes, and shot the three down, dead. She crouched down low, knowing there were plenty of more bandits to kill.
Joel stabbed one in the neck, leaving him to bleed out on the floor. He smashed another guys head out with his crowbar, and choked another guy from behind. Joel saw Ellie beating up another guy, punching him repeatedly.
Joel grabbed El Diablo, and shot it at the next four guys that tried to come at him. They all died; all shot in the head.
There were only a few guys left when Joel heard the bandit leader call a retreat. Oh, no you don't. Ellie managed to shoot two down before the rest had gotten away. Tommy called the guards into the room afterwards.
Ellie stood next to Joel, and looked at Tommy, waiting for him to say something.
"Peter and Will were taken."
A/N: Now... this is VERY IMPORTANT: I will not be updating for a couple of day. One of the reasons being; school is just on the horizon, and I really need to start getting ready. Two being that I am starting an Ellie/Tommy story called Taboo (ThatChickontheInternet- a huge thank you to you for coming up with the title, and your encouragement! :D). You can thank ThatChickontheInternet for making me update this chapter this soon. I was planning on updating much later, but she convinced me. :D
I know; it's a mean cliffhanger, and I know that y'all don't care for Peter too much, but just wait a few chapters... The jury's still out. :p
Thank you to the people that participated in the survey; I enjoy learning about my readers. I would really love your feedback on Taboo (keep an eye out for it... I am going to write a few chapters before I upload the first chapter. I may or may not continue Taboo- it's depending on what kind of feedback I get).
A HUGE thank you to DownintheDeep (thank you! I am going to try to update in the next few days), ThatChickontheInternet (LOL. Thank you so much for your ongoing support, and your constant help), Sr. Anonimo (Thank you! I love Kickass and Game of Thrones! I about DIED during the Red Wedding... I threw the book across the room!), Kirbster676 (thank you! Arthur will have a huge role in the upcoming chapters!), doomsta27 (aw, thank you! It's going to be a few more days until the next update, but hopefully not too far off), Elli89 (haha! I may or may have not Game of Thrones in my mind while writing about Arthur :D), and edgaryg (I don't mind at all! Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!).