finally decided to update. It's been a long time coming, and some of you have been harassing me on Tumblr. So, here it is. Kind of cut short, mostly for word count purposes, but I will be putting the next chapter up either tomorrow or Monday. So, here it is!
Joel headed up the stairs, yelling to Ellie.
"Get up, we're leaving," he said, and threw their packs onto his bed. Joel slipped his coat on. "Come on, Ellie. We need to get going."
She pulled on her socks and shoes. "What's going on?"
He shook his head. "I don't know, it feels wrong, we're going to get out of here." They ran down the stairs, but Joel slipped on the last few. "Take Jemma out to the car," he said.
...
"Get your fucking hands off me!" Ellie could hear Jemma yelling down the hall. "Stop it, you fucking freak!"
Ellie threw the door open to Jemma's room. The older nurse had Jemma pinned down to the bed, and the other had a syringe in her hand. Jemma kicked her in the stomach, and she fell back. Marie turned to Ellie, who was aiming her gun at her.
"Move it," she said, and took a step forward. Marie scuttled away. Ellie picked up Jemma's clothes.
"We're leaving," Ellie announced.
"No, no you aren't. None of you are leaving. I can't let you." Audrey lunged for her. Ellie grabbed the syringe out of her hand, and stabbed her in the neck with it. She flailed about, blood dripping down her shirt.
Jemma hobbled out of her bed. "Shit," she whispered, and grabbed Ellie's arm to keep from falling. The two moved as quickly as they could to the car. Jemma wasn't wearing shoes, so she gingerly stepped on the front rocks. The night air was so chilling it took their breath away.
Ellie got into the passenger seat, and Jemma sat in the back, pulling on her shoes. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Sorry for what?"
Jemma sighed. "Everything. The moment I walked into your life it's been screwed up. Everything has been going wrong."
Ellie turned back to her sister. "No, don't say that."
"Where the fuck is Joel?!" Jemma wiped at the window, trying to clear up the fog.
"What the hell is going on?"
Jemma hesitated, but didn't want to lie. "They were going to kill us."
...
Joel kicked in the first door he saw. There were several cabinets filled with all sorts of medical supplies, so he grabbed what he thought they could use.
"Come on, come on," he heard the girls leaving the building. He tried to next room's handle, and it was unlocked. He entered, but the lights were already on.
There was a single desk in it, with one chair. A filing cabinet was crammed into a corner, and two folders were on top of the desk. He flipped open the first, and saw it was about Jemma. He shoved it into his pack, and headed back out into the hall.
Marie, the fatter of the nurses, was waiting. She held a scalpel up at him, as though it were going to stop him. Joel raised his gun. She backed off into the room Jemma had been in. Audrey was supporting herself on the bed. Blood ran down her neck, and she covered her wound with a dirty rag.
Joel walked past them, and out to the car. He threw open the back door. "Get out."
He watched as she slowly got out, wiping blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. She struggled to stand on her own, and leaned against the car as she closed the door. Joel grabbed her by the shoulders, and pushed her into the window.
"What the fuck was that?!" He yelled, and shook her. "Why the hell did you bring us here?!"
She tried shrugging him off, but he tightened his grip.
"Do you think I knew that was going to happen?!" She shouted. "Huh? Why the hell do you think I would've come here if I knew they were going to pull that shit?!"
"What shit?"
Jemma struggled to get away from him. He let go of her, but stepped closer to her so she wouldn't get away.
"They thought I was going to die after my child was born. When I showed up here, they were going to kill Ellie and me. I overheard them talking about it this morning."
Joel looked at her for a few seconds, and got into the front seat. He was silent as Jemma got back in, and he took off in the direction of Jackson.
About thirty minutes in, the engine sputtered, and the vehicle stopped completely.
Joel checked under the hood, but couldn't figure out what went wrong. It was starting to snow, so he got back in the car.
"We'll spend the rest of the night in here. If we have to, we'll walk the rest of the way tomorrow." He said to the sisters.
"I can't walk there," Jemma whispered. "I just can't."
"We can figure something out," Ellie answered. "I'll figure something out."
Nobody spoke for the next hour, and eventually Ellie fell asleep. Joel couldn't tell if Jemma had fallen asleep, but he dug her folder out of his pack. He read by the light of his dying flashlight.
A lot of the handwriting was illegible, but Joel understood most of it. Attached was a small photo of Jemma. Her hair was pulled forward on one side. She was heavily pregnant, and he realized it was taken shortly before she had arrived in Jackson. He focused on her face. She was looking at the camera, but she had a distant look in her eyes. He had seen that a few times before. When the façade fell, Jemma was sad.
He pushed the folder underneath his seat, and slid the photo into the front pocket of his pack. He dozed off to the sound of the wind, and dreamed of summer.
...
"I know where we are," Jemma said, when they all awoke. "There's a house not too far away. I wanna go check it out."
Joel was hesitant, but he couldn't think of anything else better to do. Jemma was looking well enough, so they left the car quickly.
"What are those?" Ellie asked.
Joel looked to where she was pointing. "Those are wind turbines. Kind of like the stuff we have at home." Home, he thought. He finally had a home. He had a family of sorts. He was almost happy, but-
"It's right here," Jemma said, and headed downhill. "Wait a second before you come in." The snow had melted during the morning, and the ground was still slick. She slipped a few times.
The house was average. One story, off white paint, a couple of trees... Joel noticed two trucks through the windows of the garage. He wondered if they were still working.
Ellie whistled as they waited. After about ten minutes, Joel went up to the front door to see what was going on. As he reached for the doorknob, Jemma appeared.
"Hi, hi! Come in!" She seemed out of breath, and slightly disheveled, but he wasn't going to ask.
The house had recently been lived in. There wasn't dust on the shelves, and the carpets were clean. The furniture was in near perfect condition. It even smelled clean, free of the ever so common stench of death and decay.
"Is someone living here?" He asked.
"Not anymore."
Ellie was ecstatic. The person who had been living there before had a ton of books. As she looked through them, she found a stack of Savage Starlight. Most of them were ones she didn't have yet. She greedily shoved them into her backpack.
Jemma headed off to one of the bedrooms to sleep, and Joel looked through the kitchen pantry for something to eat.
There was a lot of food, mostly rations from the military. There were also large cans full of things like oats, and flour, and a few soup mixes. He settled on a mushroom soup.
The water was running, so he boiled some rice, and set a table for the three of them. Whoever had lived there before kept good care of the place. All of the dishes were clean, and even the windows were spotless. He wondered how Jemma knew about it. And why it hadn't been raided yet.
"Smells good. What's cookin', Joel?" Ellie asked, taking a seat at the table.
"Some soup and rice. Not much, but beggars can't be choosers." He said, and set the food on the table. She dug in right away, piling the rice up in one side of her plate.
"Where's Jemma? Sleeping?"
"Yeah," she answered. "I'm not gonna wake her up. She's snoring really loud."
They laughed. As they ate, Joel forgot about what was going on, and why they were in that house in the first place. It was just him and Ellie, without any cares in the world. He told her about high school and the good times. He forgot about Jemma. He forgot about the infected, the Fireflies...
It was normal. For once.
"It's fucking freezing in here," Ellie complained, rubbing her hands together. "Can you build a fire?"
Joel looked for a fireplace, or something, but all he could find was a space heater, which was hooked up to a wall socket. The flipped the switch, and sure enough, the house had working electricity. He felt a small flutter of excitement.
"Well, it works. Good enough for me," she said, and sat in front of it.
...
Later that evening, Joel woke Jemma.
"You want something to eat?" He asked, standing in front of the bed. She had cocooned herself in the sheets.
"No."
"You need to eat."
She groaned. "You're not my fucking dad."
"You're right," he said. "But you aren't going to get any better if you don't eat anything."
"Go away. I'm sleeping." Jemma covered her head with the duvet.
Joel stayed there for a few moments. There was no reasoning with her.
"I'll have a glass of water."
When he got back, Jemma had brushed her hair and changed her clothes. She sat, perched on the edge of the bed. "Thanks," she said, and took the glass from him.
Joel sat next to her. "Where'd you get the clothes?"
"I crammed them in my bag. You know, if it fits, I'll take it." She laughed. "It's not like some woman was living here."
"Who was living here before?"
"Just some guy. He stole something from me, last time I came through. I took care of him."
"What, did you kill him?"
"No, but he got what he deserved."
Joel didn't say anymore. He could tell when she wasn't going to go any further, and he didn't want to push her. He knew so little about Jemma, yet he let her into his life. She was full of so many secrets, and Joel knew she'd always keep them from him. He wasn't sure he could trust her, yet, there was something about her, that he could confide in.
...
Both of the trucks worked, so the next morning, Joel piled all of the canned goods into the bed of one. Everything else that was worth something was in the other.
"I'm driving!" Ellie declared, and hopped into the driver seat.
Joel and Jemma went in the other. Ellie trailed behind them as they headed back to Jackson. Jemma didn't say a single word on the whole trip. Not that Joel wanted conversation, but the awkward silence was almost too much for him to bear.
...
When they got to the dam, Tommy was gone.
"He's tracking some infected. Bethany claims she heard one last night," one of the guards said. "Probably a fucking owl, but everyone here is so paranoid, Tommy had to look into it."
"When will he be back?" Joel asked.
The man shrugged. "I don't know, an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Where'd you get the trucks?"
"Oh, they were abandoned," Jemma answered. "Found this food and shit there, too. We cleared the place out."
"Nice to see you," he said. "Lookin' pretty good." The guard looked at her for a moment, then back at Joel.
"Ah, well, we should be going. Catch you later." Joel started rolling up the window.
The man nodded, and stepped back.
"Fucking creep," Jemma muttered.
Joel chuckled. "He's not your type?"
She gave him a dirty look. "No, I prefer my men with fungus growing out of their head. They know when to shut up."
"So, um, you got a boyfriend or something, waiting back at home?"
"No way. My dad wouldn't let me out of his sight. Kind of hard to establish some kind of connection when he's hawking you every moment of the day. Besides, I'm not going back there. At least, not for very long." She looked away. "I'm thinking of taking Ellie to see her father when it warms up."
It shouldn't have stung, but it did. Joel didn't think of himself as Ellie's father, but he was as close as it got. To think that there was someone else in the picture, kind of made him angry. But, the man probably didn't know that he had another daughter, so what could he do?
...
The following days were uneventful. The snow came down in sheets, and most of the town stayed indoors. The three of them played cards all day, Jemma winning every time.
"I'm the greatest, bitches!" She yelled, and held her fists in the air. Ellie thought she cheated, and Joel knew he was awful at cards. They bet actual money, throwing down fifties and hundreds like they were nothing. By the end of most nights, Jemma had at least four thousand dollars. They didn't play for the money, but for the bragging rights. Ellie had made a sign on the fridge with everyone's scores, or, rather, Jemma's score.
"I don't want to play cards today," Jemma said over breakfast. "I'm bored of it. It's no fun winning all of the time." She smirked while she spoke, silently reveling in it.
"What do you suggest we do, then?" Joel asked.
"I'm going for a walk."
"Not in this weather."
She grimaced. "I can handle it, and I definitely don't need a chaperone."
She stood up, and headed for the door. She slipped on her coat and boots, and went outside.
...
It wasn't snowing anymore, and the wind wasn't blowing, but Jemma was still freezing. She just couldn't bear one more minute of being cooped up in that house. She felt a lot better, too. Better than she had felt in weeks. The pills she had were like horse pills, and she gagged when she swallowed them, but she knew it was for the best.
She walked for a while, and saw Tommy in the distance. "Hey!" She yelled, and trotted to catch up with him.
"Where are you headed?" She asked.
Tommy rubbed his hands together. "Town hall. Want to come?"
She nodded, and they walked quickly.
"Want a cigarette?" She asked, when they got into the mud room.
"You have cigarettes?" He seemed stunned.
"Yeah, military grade." She pulled them out of her coat pocket, and held the box out for Tommy.
He took one for him, and handed it back to her. She lit them, and they stood there in silence.
"It's so cold outside," she said. "I don't know if I can handle it."
"It gets worse," he joked. "Twenty, thirty below, easily."
"Shit, I'm going to go into hibernation." She laughed. "Seems like the easiest thing to do."
Tommy sighed. "I can't believe it's December already. Time flies so quickly." He flicked his ashes into a garbage can. "The town's having a holiday party in a couple of days. Setting up a tree, that kind of thing. Do you want to help set up?"
Jemma nodded. "Of course, as long as I get free food."
He laughed, and took a long drag on his cigarette.
The door opened, and a wave of frigid air came rushing in. Joel stood in the doorway. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Close the goddamn door, Joel," Tommy complained.
"I didn't know you smoked, Jemma." He said, taking off his coat.
"Only on special occasions."
"What is it today?"
"Happy Thursday. Special enough for me." She stubbed the cigarette on the cement side of the trash can, and tossed the butt inside.
"I just wanted to make sure you got here alright."
"You're following me around? I'm flattered," she rolled her eyes.
The three stood in a strange silence.
"Your shoe's untied," Joel said, pointing to Jemma's foot. She bent down to tie it, and a necklace slipped out of the collar of her shirt. Her knees cracked as she stood back up, and she laughed, nervously.
"Where did you get that necklace?" Tommy asked. The tone of his voice had changed completely.
"Someone who helped me-" She looked at Tommy, realizing what was going on. "Ben Affleck?"
Tommy nodded. "J. J for Janet Jackson."
"Do you two know something I don't?" Joel asked.
Jemma nodded. "We've met before, a long time ago."
Yeah. I know it kind of seems cut off. But, the next chapter is even longer than this! Haha. Please, please, PLEASE leave me a review! Even five words helps! I want to know if you guys like/hate where the story is going, or just stuff like that. Really. And, it lets me know people are actually reading my story. Which is nice, too. Haha. Anyway. If you have any questions, you can send them either here or on one of my Tumblr accounts, both of which are on my profile page. Thanks for reading, and come back soon! :)