Tommy rose with the sun and sought out Joel before the girls were awake. Well, he did not know for a fact if Ellie was awake, he only decided to let Maria sleep for a little longer, and did his best to dress quietly, and slip out. His older brother was not hard to find. The air was crisp and cold, and though the sun in the day had burned away a good deal of the snow, the air was still enough to make one shiver.
Joel had arisen even before Tommy, and was stationed on one of the catwalks surrounding the main generator of the plant, silently soaking up the rising sun's glow. He heard Tommy's footsteps, but did not turn.
"Mornin'," Tommy greeted, and Joel just shifted his weight to his other leg, hooking a thumb through one of the belt loops of his jeans.
"Good to see the sunrise, ain't it," Tommy offered, and Joel grunted his assent.
"Can't deny that view."
They were silent for a minute longer, and Tommy inched his way into the periphery of Joel's vision.
"Everything alright?" Joel asked at length, and Tommy nodded.
"Yep. I left Maria sleepin' and I guess Ellie's probably gettin' around about now."
Joel nodded. "I bet you're right."
"You really do care about that little girl, don't you..."
"Tommy." Joel favored him with a hard look.
"Don't go bitin' my head off..." Tommy chuckled. "Just commentin'. She's a spunky thing."
Joel snorted. "That's one way to put it."
"I know you don't want no harm to her, none of us do –"
"Look, if you're feelin' bad about pushin' me to talk to Ellie about all this marryin' and havin' kids stuff, then I'd suggest you go about apologizin' some other way," Joel said, scratching his beard. "Because I'm wishin' we hadn't brought it up to her in the first place."
"Now, Joel –" Tommy began but his brother cut in.
"Don't you 'Now, Joel' me." He pointed a finger. "You know that I was right from the beginning."
"There ain't no other way," Tommy murmured. "You know that."
"Yeah, I do, because you keep remindin' me of it every blessed day. But even if Ellie got married tomorrow and had twenty kids, that wouldn't change nothin' out there." Joel stabbed a finger toward the horizon, and the general world it encompassed. "Clickers are still runnin' wild, survivors are still getting' infected, and it'd take a hundred generations for this to die out, and by then it won't matter."
"There would be more people who are immune –"
"There would be more people who are inbred, and miserable," Joel spat. "And you know that. It's a darn shame. And it's a terrible waste of Ellie's happiness."
"Now, you're talkin' like this is goin' to ruin her life," Tommy chuckled. "All we're sayin' is to be purposeful about this marryin' and havin' kids business."
"Tommy, if it was goin' to happen on it's own, it's goin' to happen on it's own!" Joel exclaimed, casting a look over his shoulder as Buckley began to bark. He dropped his voice. "All we've done is make it a bigger deal than it ought to have been."
Tommy took a deep breath of the chilly air, and held it for a moment, before letting it out again. "That's your opinion."
"Listen here, baby brother," Joel said, his voice sarcastic. "You ain't the one that had to look her in the face and tell her this. You ain't the one that has to listen to her cute stupid questions. You ain't the one that –"
"Everything alright up here?"
Both men turned to regard Maria, her arms crossed, looking at them pointedly in the warm morning sunlight. Tommy cleared his throat.
"Yep. Everything's fine."
She shook her head. "Stop talking about it already. Ellie can find her own way."
"Joel's just gettin' –"
"Just stop – talking – about it." Maria's eyes were cold. The patter of bare feet on the metal stairs was heard behind her and Ellie bounded to the top, panting, her hair askew, her clothing rumpled.
"Holy moly," she breathed. "The sun looks huge."
In the clear morning light Ellie's face looked young and clean, free of any shadow. Her shirt hung limply from her form, and Joel realized with some discomfort that Ellie had apparently not bothered to get dressed from the underlayers out... if that was a delicate way to put it. She folded her arms across her chest, and Joel cursed inwardly, hoping she had not noticed his staring. Maybe she used to be able to get away with this, but not now.
"Sun's always this size, kid," Joel murmured. "Just looks bigger when it's risin' or settin'."
"How'd you sleep?" Tommy asked.
Ellie shrugged. "Good. You?"
"Good." Tommy grinned.
"Maria let you come out here with no shoes?" Joel scowled. "Gettin' frostbite about now sounds like a great idea, don't it?"
Ellie rolled her eyes, dancing from foot to foot. "It's not that cold."
Tommy put his arm around Maria. "So, we all just goin' to have a family reunion up here?"
"Actually –" Ellie said, putting her hands on her hips. "Me and Maria made breakfast. It's –"
"-A surprise," Maria interrupted, her eyes twinkling at Ellie. "Come on down if you want to see."
"See?" She swore excitedly. "I hope you want to taste!" Ellie began to follow Maria down the stairs, and her voice drifted back up to the men. "Because I sure do..."
Tommy found himself chuckling, and thumped Joel on the back.
"Comin'?" he asked, beginning to descend the stairs.
"In a second..." Joel murmured, squinting, as he caught sight of something moving among the trees. Shouts were heard from the various look-out points farther along the dam, and Joel shielded his eyes with his hand.
"Tommy –" he called, arresting his brother's steps down below. "There's somethin' comin'."
More shouts were heard, and Joel descended the stairs two at a time to join Tommy on the ground, just as Houser hurried up and said, "Tommy, they're askin' for you at the gate. Some new arrivals."
"Bandits?" he asked, as their steps took them quickly toward the south gate.
"No. Refugees."
"The Oklahoma group," Joel breathed.
"I didn't think they were comin' until the spring," Tommy said.
"I didn't think they were comin' at all," Joel murmured. "I was beginnin' to think they weren't goin' to make it."
There was a great commotion at the gate as several of the men on duty argued with each other, and with the look-outs above. Shouting came from the other side of the wall, and Tommy lifted his voice above the racket.
"What is goin' on?"
"Group here!" a look-out called. "From Oklahoma, they say they're not infected –"
"Open the gate and let one of 'em through. Just one!" Tommy vociferated. "We'll talk. And stop pointin' your guns at the rest of 'em for Pete's sake. They can't do nothin' to us out there."
The gate was cranked open just a notch, and a ragged man was pushed through, wearing a dirt and blood-stained overcoat and bearing a military rucksack. His face was covered with a thick black beard, his head with overgrown dark hair, and his pale eyes shone brightly from his haggard face.
"Are you Tommy?" he said, the familiar southwestern accent tugging at Tommy's ears.
"I am. This is my brother Joel."
They did not shake hands, neither made a move to touch the other in any way.
"We're from Oklahoma. There were twenty-four of us to start out with, but there's only seventeen now. We lost a few people when the tornado hit our settlement –"
"Where were you living?" Tommy was searching this man's tale for credibility.
"Middle of nowhere, ghost town that we fortified."
"Any infected in your town?"
"We shot 'em all." The man pushed his hair from his eyes as a slight breeze arose. "Lived there for some time, population hit twenty-five when my wife had a baby, but it died."
Joel interrupted, "Cut the anecdotes and answer the questions."
"Fair enough." He took a deep breath. "Tornado hit early summer. Took out all of our defenses, killed five, and we had no more ammunition, so we hit the road. Heard about this settlement of Fireflies out east, so headed for them, but they were all dead before we got there."
"Soundin' familiar," Joel murmured.
"Has any of your group gotten infected?" Tommy demanded.
"Two. One not too far from home, we shot him. The other someplace near the border of Kansas, we tied her up and left her behind."
Tommy nodded. "Alright. We're goin' to keep you in quarantine for two weeks outside the plant, and after that you're safe to come in. We'll get you supplies, but you report any signs of illness immediately, you understand?"
The man nodded. "Thank you. We're real grateful to have made it this far. Name's Matthew."
Tommy took his hand and shook it.
"Alright, Matthew. Set up camp on the other side of the river, and let us know if you need anything while you're there."
Matthew nodded, and was let back out through the gate. Tommy let out a long breath.
"Well, they're here."
Joel nodded. "They are here."