Chapter 2: Awakening
After she got close enough to the boat the immune girl was on, Abby reflected on the history of violence between the two but decided to go get her in spite of it. After all, the former WLF member didn't have much time to ponder whether or not to do so; the young woman had let her go when she could have killed her, rather than nearly drowning her in the middle of the fight. In a way, she felt grateful that she had been released, that she could protect Lev and, moreover, would try to help the green-eyed girl.
She held her as firmly as possible and returned as quickly as she could to the boat since she had left the engine running; after all, she was in a hurry to get out of Santa Barbara, precisely because she didn't know how many members of the Rattlers faction there were left after the battle against the prisoners, nor would she want to remain there to find out. For this reason, she laid the young woman down near where Lev was, so that she could return guide the boat.
Although she feared that the girl would wake up and try to attack the boy or herself, she knew that she needed to take the risk, because since Ellie had let her live, she wished she could do the same at least as a form of gratitude, so that in return she could leave her in as safe a place as possible, perhaps with the wound properly closed.
She continued to steer the boat for just over half an hour, until she reached the beach where she had anchored the yacht that had belonged to Owen.
Then the blonde picked up Lev with the rest of the forces she had and carried him to the larger vessel, not caring that the salt water continued to cause his wounds to burn; lay him down on a bench that sat at the back of the deck as comfortably as she could, evened his wrist and noticed that it was a little stronger, probably due to the water she had caused him to drink, so the woman repeated the procedure once more: she took out of Ellie's backpack the bottle and lifted the boy's head as much as she could and made him sip a little more water, until he opened his eyes, a fact that made her sigh relieved.
"Abby..." The boy babbled and coughed.
"Hey, try to stay calm... We'll be fine." She assured. " Can you wait for me to come here again?"
"Yes..."
"First I'll see something for you to eat... OK? Then I have things to do. "
Lev nodded in a slight movement of his head, just before the blonde moved away towards two small cupboards which she scoured for something she could hand him to feed on, so that she could return to the smaller boat to fetch the immune girl, too.
Since Abby had stored a good amount of canned food when the boy and she were about to flee Seattle, there were still a few cans available, mainly because, since they arrived in the state of California, both Lev and herself fed on fish, foods such as vegetables, and items they both exchanged with travelers passing by region.
She took a can of beans, a cutlery and handed them to the boy, before she walked away without uttering a word. Lev, on the other hand, didn't understand why she had put him so far from the deck, but he felt grateful that he was having a whole meal, something that hadn't happened in a long time. He felt the discomfort of sunburn, on account of the time he had been held attached to the pilaster, but as soon as his strength was completely restored, he would seek aloe vera for Abby and himself, so that the burns they had suffered could heal fully.
Meanwhile, in the smaller boat the blonde managed to lift Ellie without any difficulty, although her injuries hurt enough, the girl was so thin that she seemed to weigh very little, perhaps from poor diet, too. With the utmost caution, she carried her to the yacht, and just as she was about to lay her on the floor of the vessel, the young woman opened her eyes.
Startled and somewhat surprised to be taken by the former WLF member, Ellie's reaction was aggressive: she pushed her with the maximum force she had left and, as the blonde was debilitated from the time she spent trapped to the pilaster, slipped on the deck floor.
"You've got my backpack… Shit!" The green-eyed girl said as she tried to trap her with the weight of her body, not realizing it was insufficient for what she intended.
The two women were fighting on the ground under the apprehensive gaze of Lev, who resolved to keep his distance; while Abby stood aside to try to hold and calm Ellie, the immune young woman pushed her hard in order to overpower her. However, the clash didn't last long, not least because the blonde didn't intend to hurt her.
"Fuck… Calm down!" Abby said, just before pointing to the wound on the other girl's abdomen. "We need to stitch this together or you'll start bleeding again!"
"What the hell do you want with me?! Kill me?"
"Obviously not. If I wanted to see you dead, I wouldn't be talking about suturing your abdomen better. " She said, as she firmly held both of Ellie's hands, being careful not to touch the place where the young woman's two fingers, which had been torn off during the fight hours ago, should have been, a fact that made the blonde avert her blue eyes briefly. "I was almost leaving the beach near the resort when I realized you had passed out." She spoke. "And I decided to come back and help you."
"Why would you help me? Why would you care? "
"I don't know…"
"Damn… Don't tell me you don't know… Why, Abby?"
The woman took a split second to respond, feeling how beautiful her name sounded when it was uttered by the immune girl, despite the mood of evident tension between them. However, she tried to ward off such thoughts, because she needed to help the young woman and also, she had to take care of her own injuries afterwards.
"Maybe it's because you didn't kill me… Maybe? " She replied in a genuine way. " You let me of the pilaster and even though we fought on that damn beach, at the end of that unnecessary fight, you didn't finish me."
"I can change my mind still... believe me." Ellie tried to sound menacing, checking to see if her knife was in the back pocket of her jeans and finding that yes, the blonde hadn't disarmed her when she had the chance.
"No, you're not going to do that."
"What? How do you know what I'm going to do or not? "
"You're not going to do any of that, because you've had multiple opportunities to kill me. When I was trapped to the pilaster, it was just you shooting me that we wouldn't be having this conversation. Then, while we were fighting, you had several chances to do the same, but you also didn't complete your revenge. I think in a way you realized that there would be no point in killing me." She spoke.
The green-eyed girl took a deep breath but didn't answer a word. She wouldn't give Abby reason anyway, so she just tried to stand up to leave, however a sharp and sudden pain in her abdomen made her pull back and sit back down again, moaning for the intense pain.
"Shit!"
"This wound needs to be sewn together, otherwise it will become infected and you will die. .. That's if it doesn't bleed again." Abby spoke. "And at the moment, unfortunately, you only have me on hand to help."
The girl remained silent for a few moments, in an attempt to find arguments for pushing the blonde away for good, but couldn't find anything useful she could say. She felt weak, needed help, and even had to feed herself, otherwise she wouldn't really get very far. And as much as the possibility of finding Joel somewhere better enough than that was quite interesting, Ellie admitted to herself that she wasn't ready to die… At least not yet.
"Okay. Do it all at once." She muttered half-heartedly.
Abby nodded and proceeded to carefully suture the wound on the green-eyed Young Woman's abdomen, who remained still Looking at her surroundings intently. The boat was large enough that the boy and blonde woman could live there, at least as far as she could see. Then she looked at the Seraphite boy who was lying on a bench after having fed and the idea that the strongest Woman had the ability to be kind to someone suddenly hit her.
And with that thought in mind, she wondered what would do after her wounds were sutured. However, the fact that she did not find a convincing answer to this question left her distressed.
Because if she were to go back to Jackson, would have to lie to Tommy about what happened – she would say she murdered Abby just to put an end to it. However, since she didn't intend to lie to anyone, least of all the more so after everything they went through, returning to Wyoming was out of the question; she could Search for the Fireflies so that she could surrender to be the cure and thus put an end to the damn infection caused by Cordyceps. However, didn't even know where to start Looking for traces of them, as the address of 2425 Constance Street in Santa Barbara might have been a base, but Ellie still had not her clue where they had gone to settle after.
'So, what would I do'? She questioned.
Little did she notice when the blonde Woman in front of her had finished her suture and bandage, and even for a brief moment, the two exchanged a look that demonstrated how overwhelm mad they both felt, emotionally and physically. She then also took care of the wound she had caused to Ellie's left hand, though she remained completely silent.
"I'll going to take care of my injuries and then… I'll let Lev know you're here." Abby said in a whisper as soon as she finished the task. "If you'll stay or not I don't know, then the decision is up to you, but for me… You can stay with us."
"Where are you going?" The girl managed to ask, without turning her eyes to her interlocutor.
"Santa Mónica."
"Where is that?"
"Very close to Los Angeles." She replied, while suturing some of his wounds with undeniable skill. "We need to put the maximum distance to the Rattlers, assuming that some of them are left. But anyway, I'm not in a position to Fight any one right now, so this plan is the best I have, until Lev and I have re-established ourselves."
"And what about me?"
"I've already said... It's okay if you want to stay, as long as you don't kill me, obviously."
"Are you leaving now?"
"Nope. I need to finish this and try to feed myself after wards."
"Okay."
Without saying anything else, Ellie put her backpack on her shoulder sand left the yacht. She needed time alone to think about what she would do next, though she admitted there weren't many alternatives to choose from. As she walked to wards the sand with the wave shit ting her knees, she felt desperate to have left Dina and JJ behind on the farm. However, the young woman knew that she had no way to return, because the brunette would never accept her again, not after she had abandoned them to go after revenge. What's more, patching up a relationship was never the best choice to make.
"Continuing to travel with these two is also not a good option." She said in a whisper, as soon as she left the sea behind.
After all, Abby was Joel's killer, so there would be no point in pursuing her, given the recent history. 'But what about the boy?' Ellie wondered mentally.
The Only Thing The young Woman knew about him was that he had run away from the Seraphites and that him name was Lev because it had been pronounced earlier, but nothing more than that. Not even she knew why the blonde Woman helped him, as the two had belonged to rival groups When They lived in Seattle.
The girl took a deep breath before returning to ponder her meager options, concluding that she would not be able to guide a boat because of the wound in her abdomen that had just been sutured.
Maybe the Only viable alternative for her was really to follow along with Jesse's killer and Joel and the boy Seraphite, but she was far from liking that option and staring at it with excitement.
However, there were Other very relevant reasons that would make him continue with the two: Fireflies. If Abby was looking for them, maybe the young woman could finally give herself up for healing and, besides, there was the possibility that by not getting News of Ellie, Tommy could travel to California. And as Much as she thought the blonde deserved to be chased after having killed Joel because the vaccine had not been made – at least that's what the green-eyed girl believed –, there was an innocent boy in the Middle of it all, who didn't deserve to be a victim of the cycle of violence that had perpetuated itself between them.
"Nope. As Much as I don't want to be Around her… Walking away now would be a mistake."
And with that thought in mind, the Young Woman decided to return to the Yacht to head to Santa Mónica, even though the person she hated the most was going to be there, too.