Chapter 7: The Crossing

A/N-I sincerely apologize about the lateness of this update, I've been busy... but I hope this makes up for it, enjoy! :)

"You think you know me?! You have no idea of what I'm capable of!"

Ellie struggled with all of her might as the vile monster on top of him began strangling her! She couldn't breathe and her only hope was to reach for that machete which was only inches away from her right hand. The smell of burning wood and the suffocating smoke added to the fact that she could barely see. Her vision of the fucking animal David on top of her with an expression of frustration and rage, she knew what he was going to do... he was going to-! Where the hell was that machete?!

It was gone... she couldn't find it... and he just continued his assault on her... and ripped through...

Ellie shot up flailing around to put an end to her horrible nightmare. "Don't fucking touch me!"

" *cough* *retch* *cough* ...Ellie?" Rylan was in the corner of the room throwing up for some reason. He was standing up while resting his hands on his knees trying to compose himself. He spit a little more and went back to the redhead who quickly realized she was awake. "You have a bad dream?"

"No!" Ellie hissed. "I always fucking wake up like this!"

"Sorry... I didn't exactly sleep like a baby either..." His eyes shamefully wandered to the corner where his vomit had been spit up. "... I had a bad wake up call."

"Gross, why'd you puke? You sick or something?" Ellie was disgusted as she began packing her things, the slight throbbing of her head now being noticed while she rolled up her blanket and put it into her backpack.

Rylan sadly informed her. "No I just had a nightmare too... and I remembered something..."

"Well what the hell kind of dream makes you throw up?" She winced at the slight scent of bile that invaded her nose; they had to get some fresh air.

The sun was shining again, and it was beginning to heat up the interior of the building they were in. Rylan walked over to peer through a crack between the wooden boards on the windows to see if anyone was around. Luckily from his field of vision, it looked like the coast was clear. "One of the worst kind... we should get moving, Ellie."

She was all ready to go and attempting to push the shelf out of the way. "Then help me with the damn door already." He nodded and joined her in unblocking their exit.

In mere minutes, they were out the front door of their temporary shelter. The sun was clouded, and the air was humid, There were also some more meancing and foreboding clouds in the distance coming around the mountain from the North. "It might rain later..."

Ellie affirmed as they began walking. "Let's keep moving... hey," She turned towards him to address a potential serious issue. "Are we going to talk about last night?"

Rylan glanced at her, slightly blushing at the foggy memory of their lips meeting. "What's there to talk about?"

"You better goddamn know." She quipped it right back to him with a smirk with a glint of anger in his teasing. He merely laughed her off and poked her right on her little nose. She quickly swatted him away and pushed him back playfully. "Jerk..."

"Princess."

"Hey! I'm no princess!" Ellie chuckled. "If anything, you're the princess..."

"I thought I was a jerk?"

"Princess Jerk." Ellie dubbed with a smile.

Rylan shook his head. "That's not going to stick. ...How about...?"

They made it down a hill and rounded around a huge tree to have their ears filled with the sound of running water. And sure enough there was a river blocking their way to the path of the cabin needed to get to. The river looked deep and there were some mean-looking rapids, making it treacherous to cross. Beyond that was a farm full of crops with a few canals running through its field. Maybe they used irrigation from the river to water the crops over there?

"Oh shit..." Ellie said as the two of them came to the river's edge. "...Did I forget to mention that I can't swim?"

"...Wait what?" Rylan raised an eyebrow. "You can't swim? Then how are you getting across?"

"I don't know. Do you see any wooden pallets lying around?" Remembering how Joel always got her across on one of those stupid things.

She looked around...

...and there were no wooden pallets...

Rylan scratched his head, thinking of any ideas. "Okay, we'll figure this out... you have any rope?"

"Uh yeah... let me just pull that outta my ass." She chided but then she asked. "Hey wait... can you swim?"

Rylan was still brainstorming, probably just shrugged off Ellie's last comment. "Huh what? Oh, just the doggie paddle. Not the strongest swimmer but..."

"Even dogs know how to swim better than me! ...You think you can teach me?" She excitedly asked while looking up and down the stream. "I don't see any other way to cross the river."

"Hmm... this isn't really the best place to practice." Rylan noticed a long stick on the ground next to him. He picked it up and kneeled down and stuck the stick in the river to get an idea of its depth. The stick's length would only go in halfway underwater. "...Looks like it'll only come up to our waists..."

"...I can manage that... kind of." Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "You going first or-"

Rylan had already slung his crossbow onto his back and he stepped into the water while he turned around and held out his hand to the redhead with a smirk. "Take my hand if you want live..."

"Tough choice..." Ellie returned the grin as she firmly grasped her hand with his and she jumped in.

The wind was beginning to pick up, signs of a rain in the later afternoon based off of the clouds in the far distance. The forest must have been well traveled by survivors, due to the dirt trodden paths seen on the ground among the green. And from what they could tell they were almost to their destination.

Brad reloaded his pistol and he sped up to walk next to Joel. "Hey man, I got an idea."

"What is it?" Joel grumbled thinking it would be another game.

But Brad surprisingly offered. "How about you let me go on ahead and I'll scout out the land for us?"

Joel turned his head towards him in annoyance. "What? ...That has got be the stu-"

Claire interjected to defend him. "I think it's a great idea. If things get too bad then he can just come back and warn us."

"...I can do this Joel..." He smiled as he pulled out his golden compass again. "East, right?"

Joel sighed in defeat, two against one he supposed. But the thing is he had doubts in not only Brad's, but Claire's survival abilities as well. They've been more of a hindrance than a help since they escaped Jackson. And when he reunited with Ellie, he didn't know what he would want them to do considering that they were technically fugitives of the Fireflies. But maybe, this was a chance to prove him wrong, maybe he needed to let him do this, to see if recon was really Brad's specialty. "Alright... make sure you don't go more than a couple miles ahead. If you see anything, don't engage, ain't no reason you have to."

Brad gave a victorious toothy grin. "Gotcha. Anything else?"

Joel scratched his beard anxiously. "If you get into trouble, don't hesitate to shoot."

"...But he shouldn't have to, right?" Claire chimed in, worry in her tone.

"If he's smart about it. Yeah... he should do just fine." Joel nodded and pointed the direction they were going. "Go on, get going Scout boy."

"I won't let you down." Brad smiled as he quickly ran off down the path, leaving Joel and Claire by themselves still going at a walking pace.

"Be careful!" Claire shouted out to him, and then he was gone...

"You put him up to this?" Joel inquired from the blond girl.

"...Is it really that obvious?" She feigned innocence. "We just wanted to lighten the load. You seemed to be doing all the legwork for us."

"That's because I am." Joel responded with stern tone. "You and Brad are just along for the ride as far as I'm concerned."

"...Well, you don't have to make it sound so bad," She crossed her arms in dismay. "We want to help you."

"Yeah well sometimes not helping is the best help there is." Joel growled, but then he felt sort of sorry when he heard the ominous thundering in the now grey sky above them and the sad expression Claire was giving him. "...Brad will be fine though... it uh... he'll tell us if there's any trouble before we make it to the cabin."

Claire grinned at that. "Right. He will."

Joel and Claire marched off the nature trail and they were standing at the absolute edge of the forest. As they were looking out among the valley before them, they could see a wide river to their left running blue but the water was also running real rough because of the incoming storm which was now getting prevalent.

Joel pointed out past a cornfield which was about half a mile before them and it was the only thing standing in their way of the mountain beyond it, which at the foot it, resided the cabin. "Let's keep moving."

Careful... real freaking careful... each step was made blindly and it could have been their last... But this was their only option.

Rylan, with Ellie snugly grasping his shoulder and right hand in waist-high running water, was putting his entire weight against the current of the river.

"Almost there... this is so stupid..." Rylan took another step, using all of his strength to keep both of their balances. "Hold on... you alright?"

The rushing of the water wasn't doing them any favors; it was starting to get real difficult to keep going at this pace, wading their ways across the shallow river. The sky above them soon became grey and the fact that they were only halfway; it wasn't doing much for Ellie's mood. "I'm fine! Quit fucking asking me!"

"Okay, okay! Just... almo-!"

That was when Rylan lost his footing, slipping off the edge of a rock underwater and tumbling into the blue-grey rapids he was attempting to wade through. And when he fell, Ellie followed with a yelp of surprise. Quickly, the two of them were already swept away by the tough current, being thrown downstream in addition to the rising threat of a storm above them.

Coughing, spluttering, keeping their heads above water... hold onto each other, that's all they had or could do. The current of the stormy river was now too strong to keep their footing... they would have to grab onto something else... And that's when Rylan saw it: a large fallen tree with its roots barely touching over the water, hopefully they would be strong enough to hold their combined weight; he just had to grab it.

"*splutter* Ellie! Hang on!" Rylan held onto the girl with his left hand while he desperately reached out with the right... he had one chance...

"Got it!" Rylan exclaimed as he and Ellie latched on the roots of the tree.

The two of them fought against the growing rip current of the down-flowing river, until the point they were finally able to pull themselves out of the water and back onto solid green land.

Trying to catch their breaths and realize that they actually made it across an almost impassible river, thinking it was passable... The sky above them had by now declared that at this time the valley they resided in was in for a storm, and a rolling of a deep thunder was the signal for the mountain tempest to begin...

"You okay?" Rylan reached out to the still coughing girl. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind..."

"Next time..." Ellie coughed and got herself up. "You teach me how to fucking doggie paddle."

Getting the message, Rylan nodded. "Alright..." The two of them turned their backs on the river, and they were facing a tall and rather large fully-grown cornfield in their way. "Looks we have to keep our eyes and ears open..."

"Not the best time for making corn puns..." Ellie crossed her arms in exasperation.

"What? I didn't even mean t-!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Get down!" Ellie had grabbed Rylan and the two of them dove into the cornfield ahead, hiding from the unknown gunfire.

They just had to run, run and run, and run some more just to get some distance from those random bullets being shot. Was it at them? Or was it something else? Either way, Ellie and Rylan ran side-by-side as they dashed between the stalks of the corn crop. The storm began to rage above them as an endless amount of rain landed and made the pitter-patter noises on their heads and shoulders. The rain also resulted in the dirt beneath their feet quickly becoming saturated and turn into squishy mud and puddles.

Ellie whispered to him as they kept running. "Listen we have to stick to- oh shit!"

Rylan and Ellie split in opposite directions as two bandits came rushing towards them, arguing about something as they ran past the two teens who were still undetected.

"Where'd those kids go?!"

"I don't know! But if you ask me, we got enough problems with Carter and that other guy!"

"Boss ain't gonna like this. Stay alert!"

The sounds of brushing and crunching of corn stalks soon faded away, leaving Ellie and Rylan to silently converse on what to do next. Rylan gave a stern glare at her. "Stay in sight, we're going to sneak past them."

Ellie agreed as she got her switchblade in hand as did Rylan with his crossbow. The both of them traveled parallel with each other in the same direction. They gave one another encouraging glances and they believed that they would be on their way of getting out of this, with little to no resistance.

...But that was when Rylan looked back, and he lost track of Ellie... where was she?! He had lost her in the cornfield, and the storm still raged above as the thunder mirrored and even symbolized his frustrations for the situation. "Dammit, where are you?"

Rylan moved low and slow now, he was alone for the moment and when he came out to a small clearing where a rusty red tractor was parked at. Surrounded by stalks of corn on all sides, Rylan felt exposed. He was about to dive back into the cover of the tall field when he noticed another bandit by the hood of the tractor, his back was towards him...

Taking him out would be one less guy to worry about... and if he was lucky, taking him alive and using him as a hostage if he got caught... either way, let's do this quietly...

Rylan lined up his crossbow and aimed it at the guy, it was getting darker, and the rain surely wasn't helping. Before he could pull the trigger, the bandit spun around and fired his pistol!

Rylan dived into the mud in an effort to avoid the shot, and he must have since he felt no bullets penetrating his flesh, but when his body slid into the mud he dropped his crossbow in the dark...

Rylan was about to pull out his hunting knife when the bandit in front of him approached him, his pistol aimed right for his head. "I wouldn't if I were you!"

Rylan, his face and shirt sopped with wet mud, faced his opponent putting his hands up defensively in surrender. "Okay... just don't shoot me..."

And then something odd happened. The blond man who stood before the teen at gunpoint, his demeanor changed, it softened... it was hesitant.

"You're... just a kid..."

And not another second had passed when a bullet, guised in the sound of the deafening thunder had made its mark and it blew out the brains of that man, and he died before his body met the wet ground with a thud...

In disbelief, Rylan looked at the body before him and then off to his right to see a panting Ellie stumbling out of the cornstalks. "Oh man... Did I get him?"

"Y-yeah... you got him good..." Rylan picked himself and retrieved his dirty crossbow from the mud. "Let's keep moving... quietly..."

"Right, let's go..." She nodded.

But before he and Ellie kept going... even still in the rage and chaos of their situation and the still roaring storm, something caught Rylan's eye. A rare color he did not see commonly among the bodies of the dead. He picked up the golden item that had fallen out of the man's pocket, and he stoically collected at his fortune.

They needed a new compass...

A/N- I hope you realize what happened... Will they all reach the cabin next chapter or will something else disrupt their journey? Find out more next time, stay tuned! :)

And btw thank you much so far for the reviews, favs, follows, and advice. Keep it up!