Chapter 5: Dream and Reality

The hallway was the same, the red light too, as well as the already well-known alarm sound. She remembered every corner of St. Mary's hospital that changed her life forever, every moment that seemed eternal since she found the doctor lying in a pool of his own blood as she entered the operating room. But she knew needed to keep going, even though she was going to see it all over again.

Before heading for the well-known path, however, she tested some of the other nearby doors and found it odd that were not locked. Whatever the scenario wanted to show, staying there without going ahead would mean she was scared, and even if didn't like meeting her father in these circumstances, there was no other option to follow at the moment.

She entered the operating room and was immediately surprised to see him standing, without any injuries, as if he was waiting for someone. Then she looked at the floor and there was no blood marks, though the alarm continued to sound loud.

"Dad?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, her attentive blue orbs landed on the immune girl's body, which was lying comfortably on a stretcher. But, instead of being fourteen like she was back then, Ellie was about nineteen. Jerry Anderson's daughter's eyes went from him to the person lying there, unable to understand what had happened.

"She's… Dead?"

"Nope. But the mission is yours now."

"I didn't get it. What are you talking about? What mission is that?"

"I can't talk about something I can't opt for. The choices are yours from now on, you need to decide what to do: whether to kill her or let her live. No matter what you choose, I will support you always."

"I wouldn't end her life if there wasn't a possibility of healing."

"But what if there was? Would you protect her like Joel did, or deliver her for a vaccine to be made?"

Again, her eyes turned to the girl in question, while reflect on the question she had just heard. They focused on the small body – because if she compared it to herself Ellie was indeed a little smaller – and soon after, they made a slow way to the face of the young woman lying there. Then, a sudden urge to approach so she could touch her was present, yet she turned to her father with some abruptness.

"There's no fixing the past, Abs." The man spoke again. "You've tried to get revenge and you know very well what you've attracted to yourself. But there's a chance that in the end, this was valid. It all depends on what you will choose. Whether you would rather continue to look the light for humanity, or whether you will choose to do so for yourself. If your option is the latter, don't give up when there are difficulties."

"If a cure exists… Even if it's a small chance of getting it… I'm not going to be able to leave behind what you started."

"Think about it calmly." He spoke. "Because maybe there's not much to be saved."

She was about to question why, but the scenario had changed drastically. Suddenly, she found himself in an open space, something like a village completely on fire, and next to a clearing were the bodies of Lev and Ellie, shot by enemies.

"You need to choose what's worth saving, Abs." She heard her father's voice in the midst of the fire but could not visualize the doctor; all that was around him was a dantesque scene of corpses and of blood everywhere.

The woman woke up with a start and sat up after moaning in pain. As the kid slept in bed inside the cabin and Ellie on the bench, she thought it best to sleep on the deck floor of the vessel. It wasn't comfortable, but it was all they had for now.

She ran her hand through the short strands of her hair, without really getting used to the fact that they had been cut it. The long braid had become so characteristic to her, it was as if she no longer recognized herself. 'That's why I'll would make the choice to let my hair grow, no matter how long it took'.

Choice. She thought again of the dream she had just had and took a deep breath, going back to lying on the hard, cold floor of the yacht. Maybe it was her mind that played tricks on her, because she definitely didn't believe there could be warnings through nightmares or dreams. But if didn't believe in things like that, why couldn't just forget it?

Maybe it was because it had been so long time since she had dreamed of her father which brought a different emotional charge, or because she had been sufficiently surprised by the sudden change of scenery and the deaths of Ellie and Lev? Unfortunately, Abby Anderson didn't have the answers she needed either for the questions she was asking, nor for the dream she had just had.

After sighing heavily, she closed her blue eyes and tried to sleep, though the lifeless bodies of the immune boy and girl wouldn't leave her thoughts for a moment. She considered going to the cabin to check that the two of them were okay but didn't take the idea any further because she didn't intend to wake them up. She closed her eyes and after a long time, managed to fall asleep.

The next morning, when Abby got up, the boy had already caught the fish for breakfast and, along with Ellie, had prepared them in complete silence, since the blonde had slept until a little later than usual.

So that the three of them could go out in search of resources through the houses they had spotted by the sea, the girl lent her bow to the Serafita. Abby had only one pistol with little ammunition, but still decided to go ahead of the other two, thinking that even if she was wounded, the physical strength she had could better protect them should they come across enemies.

The beginning of the route was done in silence, since they were focused on looking at the surroundings, precisely because they had never been to the region and did not know if they would have to deal with violent groups.

Ellie curiously noted that the other woman kept looking at a map with some insistence – a map she had probably found on the yacht, maybe with the goal of determining precisely where they in Santa Mónica at all.

"We're about a twenty-minute walk from downtown Los Angeles."

"Is that why you keep looking at this map, or would you have some other particular reason?" Ellie asked, in an attempt to hide a half-smile.

"It must be because I don't even have a backpack, funny girl." Abby snapped.

Lev muffled a laugh and looked from one to the other. He liked the atmosphere of plain tranquility between the two women. "Or would it be to use the map to beat up infected?"

"Ha, ha, I'm laughing a lot, kid." Abby commented wryly, pretending to be angry.

Then the three of them entered a house that faced the sea. As the door was ajar, they were very careful to find out if this could be a good temporary dwelling. Anyway, if they were choose her, someone would need to fix the front door when repairing the lock.

"I'm going to scour the rooms and bathrooms upstairs, you guys keep the living room, dining room and kitchen down here, okay?"

"Yes ma'am!" The boy and Ellie said together, which made Abby roll her eyes slowly before walking away.

"Thank you for what you're doing." He started the dialogue, as soon as he was absolutely sure that she had reached the upper floor.

"Me, how so?"

"You didn't treat her in a hostile way." Lev replied as he approached a piece of furniture in the living room.

"Don't think it's been easy, but at least I'm trying."

"That's what matters." He said as he looked curiously at a huge screen that was on top of the furniture. "What's that they put here?"

The young woman turned to where he pointed as she examined whether there was anything useful in the kitchen. "This is called television. The ancients liked to watch shows on this thing."

"I didn't understand... Watch?"

"Yeah. Movies or things like that."

"What are movies?" He asked.

Immediately the girl remembered herself when she was fourteen, because she also knew very little about what was outside. "You can read, can't you?"

"Yeah."

"So have you read some book?"

"Unfortunately, not. The elders said we couldn't touch things from the ancient world." He explained.

"Okay. Well, but you know that books tell stories, don't you?

"Yeah."

"So, movies too. With the difference that people are going to interpret this story." She replied.

The boy nodded as he rummaged through some drawers, also dusty. "There seems to be nothing here."

"In the kitchen there are knives, some cutlery and plates … As well as canned food. At least we'll be here for a few days or weeks until we decide what direction we're going to take."

Once again, he shook his head in agreement. "It's all so quiet up there..."

"Want me to go check if Abby is, okay?"

"I don't know if you'd feel comfortable doing that..."

The girl was about to say that her feelings were still mixed as far as the other woman was concerned but remembered that she might be looking for medicine for the wound on her leg. "Don't worry, I'll see where she is." She Sounded confident.

"Okay."

On the second floor, Abby was sitting on the bed in the couple's bedroom flipping through a photo album. In addition to this one there were two other rooms that had not yet entered, but the fact that the house had three bedrooms would be good for Lev, who could finally have a little privacy. She searched the entire place and, in addition to finding many clothes they could wear, she was happy to finally find two backpacks in good condition.

She hadn't been lucky enough to find a single gun, which made her take a somewhat impatient deep breath as she dropped the album. She walked slowly to a dresser, and when opened it, she finally found what she so desired: pistol ammunition and a loaded rifle.

"Someone definitely rushed out of this place," she mused as she picked up the items.

It was then that she understood why the person who had been in the residence had left, since she heard infected people go on top of someone. When she left the room quickly, she turned to the right and watched a Stalker bite Ellie's already injured hand, and before Lev could see the scene, Abby shot the infected with the rifle had just gotten.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Where is Lev?"

"I think that… Waiting for us outside." The girl replied, before putting her backpack in her shoulder. "He scoured the entire floor practically by himself."

"So, let's go. There's another room for us to look at... Let's do it."

"You're not getting it, Abby. He's going to ask about my injury, he's going to deduce that I was bitten because it has the mark..."

"Do you want me to tell him about his immunity?"

"Of course not!" Ellie closed her hands in fists suddenly, as if the other woman had hit her with a violent punch. She felt the blood boil and had to restrain herself because otherwise she would have gone for the aggression right there. "Don't you dare talk about something you don't even know what it's like, fuck..."

"Calm down. I'm not going to say anything at all if you don't want to." She assured her, before turning her back.

'What the fuck is going on with me...'? The girl wondered mentally minutes later as she ran her hand through her hair nervously.

In the other room the blonde had entered there were more infected: two Clickers who, upon hearing Ellie's slightly higher tone of voice during the small argument, were quite agitated. The young woman thought, once again, of leaving her alone to fight the creatures, because maybe that way Abby would eventually die. If that happened everything would be settled, she could go back to Jackson and finally pay off her debt to Tommy without having to lie to him – if there really was anything to be paid for. But no. Despite the resentment that still overwhelmed her, she could not simply allow them to kill her without more nor less.

Ellie didn't know why she cared, after all, the woman in question had murdered the most relevant person in her life and then, as if that wasn't enough, she had also killed JJ's father. But even with all the terrible things she'd done, she didn't think Abby deserved to die — she just didn't know or didn't want to figure out why thought that.

In possession of her knife she nimbly advanced down the hallway of the house until she entered the room, and when she did, she came across the stronger woman lying on the floor as she crawled under the bed in an attempt to escape the insane fury of Clickers. The girl liquidated with the creature that was standing in the middle of the room by hitting him in the back and soon after, advanced on the infected one who wanted to catch the blonde.

"Get out of her, you fuck!" She screamed, hitting him angrily the very instant Lev had entered the room.

"My God... Are you both okay?" He wanted to know.

"We are." They responded together.

"Someone needs to find a way to burn these bodies, if we're going to stay here." Abby commented, somewhat panting.

"I take care of it." The Seraphite spoke. "You can go explore the other houses if you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

The two women nodded, and with Ellie's help, Abby managed to stand. The girl had noticed that the taller woman hadn't been able to fight the infected like probably she used to, mostly because of the leg injury. This was, therefore, a great opportunity for them to look for the medicines.

It wasn't long before they both left the house, while Lev would do everything in his power to clean up the room and make it as livable as possible. Either way, however, before they left, Abby emphasized more than once that if he had needed any help, it has to whistle as hard as he could, that they would come running back, and as soon as the boy nodded positively, the two young women moved on.

Initially, they looked for a pharmacy to get antibiotics and other first aid items not only for the blonde's thigh injury, but in case it happened something to any of them.

Ellie was still silent as she walked ahead, because she knew she had let her anger speak louder when both were in a dangerous situation a few minutes ago; it was only the first day of living between them, and in the midst of such tension, she rushed to understand that the other woman would talk to the boy anyway about her immunity, when in fact Abby let her make the choice.

Then, the woman highest pointed to a location they identified as a pharmacy, despite the worn sign in front of the establishment. They entered him, and while Ellie remained at the door of the place watching, Abby searched to see if she would find what she needed.

"What are you looking for, after all, any specific remedy?"

"Antibiotics. I have to make this wound shit heal faster, so I need to find something that will help me."

"But... How do you know what's really going to take effect or not?"

"My parents were doctors." She replied as rummaged through another shelf. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

"What did you say?"

"That you can go help Lev if you want."

"Do you really want to be alone here in this shitty place, with that leg practically unusable?" Ellie asked. "You can fool the kid, but not me."

"I'm not fooling nor you nor he." She protested, before crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I've said he's been through a lot when we both were..."

"Imprisoned by the Rattlers... yes, I heard that." She spoke, raising her tone a little more.

With a heavy sigh, Abby returned to the task of searching for medical supplies, as she rummaged through items from an adjacent shelf. "I... I'm sorry I touched on the subject of your immunity back there. I imagine it must be a pretty delicate issue for you." She spoke again, her tone of voice calmer. "And I also think that's why you're angry."

"You're right." The girl replied as soon as she looked away, as if staring at her interlocutor was too much to bear. "But I understand why you said that and... I should say I'm sorry to be as defensive as I am now and as before."

"No problem. I imagine it shouldn't be easy for you to be around me all this time without punching me or even screaming... Even more so after everything I've done badly. But listen I'll only be able fix things, at least what's left, if I get a chance to make it work."

"The thing is that... You have the boy to take care of, you have a purpose for fighting." She retorted, remembering Joel's words about having a goal in life. "Whereas I... I have absolutely nothing."

So, Abby kept in the backpack she had found in the house where they were going to make a home, first aid kits and pills, strong painkillers which she considered a find in times as difficult as that. "The girl… Her name's Dina… Isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Did she have the baby?"

"Yeah, he's a boy."

"And you two… Were girlfriends, weren't you?"

The young woman was positively surprised at how easy the other woman was at dealing with the matter; after all, Abby had not been surprised that Lev was transsexual, and the moment they talked, she was not at all bothered to see Ellie's sexual orientation.

"Yes, we were."

"I might ask... Why did you break up... If at all?" She questioned, before going to the back of the store and making a hand gesture for the girl to follow her.

"Because I came after you." She replied, visibly sad. "I'd had rather get rid of you than continue the relationship I had."

"What if you went back to Wyoming... Wouldn't she accept you again?"

"Nope. Dina told me that if I went... I wouldn't have to go back."

"Well, she must have her motives that I don't know what they are, but if it were me, in her place, I would definitely accept it."

Again, taken by surprise, Ellie took a step back and remained silent, as if she needed a few seconds to absorb what had been said by the other woman. "Wait... You said that... That..."

"That if it were me in her place, I'd accept you back without reservation." Abby repeated, after turning to the girl and looking into her green orbs.

Visibly embarrassed and why not say without knowing what to speak, all she could do was nod in a light motion as the woman continued in her exhaustive search for the necessary items. The last words exchanged between them had a more conciliatory tone, however the girl did not know when or under what circumstances she would explode once more, although she wished not to.

Because medicine was precious resource in the world they lived in, the two young women had to go into more than one pharmacy to get all the supplies they needed, which took more hours than they really wanted.

When they returned to the house that faced the sea it was early afternoon, and as soon as they entered the residence, the unmistakable fishy odor made them exchange a quick glance, although Ellie avoided keeping eye contact with the blonde for a longer time.

"I was in the kitchen." Lev spoke quickly as soon as he arrived in the living room. "I was already getting worried about you two because I thought you would be leaving for a few hours and..."

"It's all right, kid… We're fine." Abby assured him as soon as she was embraced by him and that she reciprocated the gesture.

The young woman tried not to pay attention but thought it impossible not to do. Their friendship was poignant and made her think of herself and Joel years ago, though the boy's approximation with the former WLF member occurred in another way.

Lev pulled away to repeat the gesture with the other girl, who hugged him awkwardly. He noticed this and laughed softly, feeling that his attitude could have been somewhat hasty, precisely because they were not close. But it was so genuine, that Ellie was not able to repudiate it, quite the opposite.

"He's afraid he's going to lose the people around him..." Abby explained as soon as the boy returned to the kitchen. "I don't know what he told you about what happened on the island..."

"A lot. He said that you fled a war, that Wolves and Seraphites were killing each other and that they also wanted to end you."

She nodded. "He lost his mother and sister that day ... So, it's not like he felt safe, especially after what happened to us, when the Rattlers kidnapped us."

"I get it." The young woman replied, again seeing some similarities between the Seraphite and herself.

As soon as Lev brought the generous pieces of fish and lobster he had caught, they ate with the boy in the midst of mild dialogue. They decided that he would keep the smaller room that was near the balcony, while Abby would use the room next to his and Ellie, in turn, would keep the larger room with the double bed.

Not that the girl needed such a large bed just for herself, but the fact that the room had a desk was enough for her to ask the two of them use the other rooms, to which both the boy and the other woman agreed without any reservations.

As soon as she finished the meal, she climbed up so she could organize her belongings. She felt a little emotionally exhausted, because being around Abby made her experience various sensations, some of which she could handle very well, and some of which could not. For this reason, he needed to put his thoughts in order, and the best way to do this since forever was to write and draw in his journal, at the same time that Lev and Abby were busy fixing the lock on the front door and also making the generator of the house work, so that they would have greater convenience, since the boy had discovered one in the basement of the house.

As for Ellie, tried to write something about the last few days since arriving in Santa Barbara, and as she drew the first lines and dedicated them to talking about Lev, the text flowed without any problems. When it was time to write about Abby, however, she didn't feel able to do so. More than three times he began to write, erase and rewrite, judging that the words had not been well chosen.

"Shit." Mumbled. Visibly frustrated that she couldn't explain herself even in the diary that had followed her for years, she decided to draw.

She left her room and walked over to the balcony, thankful that most likely the boy had arranged the place so they could sit and contemplate the beach ahead. The scenery was beautiful on a sunny day, which led her to occupy one of the chairs there and draw the beach on one leaf and, on the other, the imposing figure of Abby, as she met her, on the day Joel died.

However, the image she had just drawn was different from the others, the dashed less charged with anger, a fact that made her smile. Then, as she contemplated the blonde's portrait, a thought came to her mind: 'What if Tommy decides to kill her? No... I can't allow it. I need to go back to Jackson to put an end to this...', he reflected.

The girl hated lying, but if it was for Abby and Lev's sake, she wouldn't see the slightest problem doing so. Because just like Joel and herself in the past, the boy trusted only the former WLF member, and if he lost her, he would be alone in the world.

She was determined. She would travel to Wyoming as soon as she confirmed with Abby that they would go to Oregon. After all, she needed to make sure that Tommy's thirst for revenge was under control and that he wasn't going to do anything stupid.