Hello people. I listened to your helpful feedback and I'm trying out something new. If it works, then well great, if it doesn't, I could use some feedback. Enjoy.
"Hey kid, how about tagging along with us?" the older man, Apparently Joel said.
I was just reading, I was just Goddamn reading, When some girl around my age popped open my tent. Naturally being caught off guard with a gun several feet to my face, I almost shit my pants, Almost. Now I'm being told by some stranger that my family was ripped to shreds by the infected, and though I did my best to contain it, I had a bit of an emotional breakdown.
I sat up wiping some of the tears on my jacket. "So let me get this straight. My Dad, My brother, and my uncle leave to go scavenge for supplies at a gas station a few miles down three Goddamn hours ago and now I'm being told by some guy and his daughter that they were ripped to shreds by a bloater and now suddenly I'm being asked to go with them?"
"Yeah, I guess." The girl, Ellie said.
"Look can I see the bodies?" I said finally composing myself. "I have to know. I just have too."
Joel sighed; I couldn't tell whether it was out of irritation or frustration. "Look kid, you don't screw around with bloaters."
"I don't care. How do I know you're not lying?" I said trying to find some way I can go back and check.
"Look you're gonna have to trust me on this one." He looks me dead square in the eye. "We'll take care of you. We're heading towards the fireflies and when we get there, we'll drop you off with them. Okay?"
"Fireflies great, just good." I sighed not knowing what to expect from a militia group I've heard so much yet so little about. I know what they did. Raid armories, attack Fedra, try to get people to join them, but what were they trying to accomplish. I heard my dad rant for hours about them. The thought of my dad raised another wave of shock through my body. He's dead, he's fucking dead. Jesus. Oh my god. Fuck. He left only a couple hours ago, how can he be dead?
"You know what? Fine, I'll tag along." I sighed. "I've got nowhere else to go."
"Alright we'll pack up the supplies, and uh kid?" Joel said
"Yeah?" I said, already crouching down to pack up my stuff.
"I never got your name." I glanced at him for a second thinking about how quickly my life changed.
"Jake. Just call me Jake."
Ellie's POV
"What the fuck did we do Joel? We killed his fucking parents!" I said keeping my voice low, trying to keep quiet so he couldn't hear us.
I know, I know just, I never would've thought that they'd be a kids parents." Joel said at a loss for words trying to explain it.
"Look." Joel continued. "We'll just have him around with us until we get to the fireflies then they'll take him in."
"How do we know they'll take him? " I said guilt running rampantly through my mind. "I mean, shit, Joel."
"Look. Marlene will understand. She has too." Joel replied
Jakes POV
Turns out I didn't have much to pack, another pair of jeans, a shirt, some books, and a few granola bars. I packed it all in to my old torn black backpack I had found in the back of a car. It brought back nostalgic memories from back at the zone. I quickly shook my head. No time to be getting nostalgic I thought, as I zipped up my bag.
When I walked back outside Joel and Ellie seemed to be having a conversation against their truck. I got closer look at them. Joel had a heavy build and a look in his eye that at any moment he could kill you without second thought, Early fifties maybe late forties. Ellie was cute. Auburn hair tied up in a pony tail, a scar running down her eyebrow. Green eyes, a soft face, around my age. Cute.
"That was fast." Joel acknowledged as he took a few steps toward me.
"Well I didn't have much to pack." I responded. "So where are we gonna find the fireflies?"
"Their supposed to be holed up in a university not too far from here." He said. He then motioned towards his truck "By car, that is." He added.
"So, let's go." I said already moving towards the truck.
"Actually do you mind if we camp here? We're probably not gonna get a chance on the road." He said, with a somewhat sympathetic look in his face. Probably afraid of forcing too much on me at once.
We quickly started a fire before dark; Joel started handing out to Ellie and me what could've once been canned peaches while he chowed down on a pretty gnarly looking apple. At which point Ellie started asking me questions.
"So where are you from?" she said looking at me with her green eyes.
"Texas. They had a quarantine zone there in what was once called Houston." I said with some resentment in my voice. Not too many good memories there.
"The military abandon it? She asked with a sense of certainty in her voice, like she already knew the answer.
"No, military started withholding food and the citizens rebelled. Formed the New Texas republic. Those who were soldiers or didn't agree were booted from the city." I said hoping she would change the topic.
"That's how your here now?" she asked now piqued with curiosity.
"Yeah, pretty much." I said, Waves of bad memories flushed through me. During the rebellion it was truly hell
"Me and …. My families were just drifting until…."I said forcibly choked out now feeling sick to my stomach.
"You don't have to explain." Joel said finished with his apple.
Ellie changed the subject "I'm from the Boston quarantine. Snuck out before it could fall." she said. I shrugged finishing off my peaches.
"About what you said back there, We're not actually related I promised a friend I'd look after her." Joel said.
Once again shrugged "Alright, good to know I guess." Not sure what to say. We sat in silence for another good few minutes before I decided to go to bed.
"Night Jake." Ellie said to me as I got up to leave.
"Night." I said weakly as I walked back to my tent I used my back pack as my pillow and listened to the faint murmurs of outdoor life as I fell into a deep sleep.
I wrote this all day for you guys. I literally have buttsores now. Don't let this hard work go to waste and leave a review on why you hated this chapter XD
But in all seriousness I'm open to constructive criticism and I'm also trying out a new style so tell me how I'm doing.
Until next time
-Jogman