Chapter 13
"We need a car," mentioned Sarah as she was sitting with Ellie and Sabine at the kitchen table, eating some leftovers from last night's MREs.
It was very early in the morning. The sun hadn't come up yet and the Cordyceps fungus was still ruling the streets, forcing the hunters to stay put in their hideout as well.
"I know where to find one," answered Sabine, chewing on some dried bread with corned beef.
"Where?" replied Sarah, eyeing her like a hawk. "Hopefully not with your friends."
"Firstly, they're not my friends. Secondly, I've a condition," returned the younger woman cheekily with a victorious smirk and crossed arms, which caused Ellie to look with a raised eyebrow at Sarah, who's glare was piercing daggers.
"You're in no position to set conditions!"
"And you're in no condition to walk for miles. So, take it or leave it."
Taken aback, Ellie glimpsed at her guardian, asking "What does she mean with, you're in no condition to walk for miles?"
Sighing heavily and blushing upon the reveal of a weakness, Sarah replied "When I fell into that fuckin' hole, I cracked a few ribs. Don't worry, it'll heal, but it sets me back a little." Then she looked angrily at Sabine again, hissing "What do you want, besides fuckin' me over? Food? A free ride?"
"I wanna come with you."
"Forget it," Sarah scoffed in return, crossing her arms. But Ellie saw it differently, signaling it with a snippy tone.
"Why not? Sabine hasn't done anything wrong. She…"
"Yet!" underlined her guardian harshly, before focusing back on Sabine. "Let's assume that we take you with us, what use would you bring us, huh? You'd occupy more space. Space that we can't use for supplies, plus that we also need additional supplies to feed you through. That's an equation that doesn't add up. Especially, since we still have a lot of mileage to cover."
"You really compare her with some motherfuckin' space?! What the fuck, Sarah!?" blurted Ellie furiously, almost jumping up as she couldn't follow Sarah's cold, rational thoughts. Sabine, on the other hand, stayed relaxed, leaned back and watched the fight in front of her eyes unfold, which got more and more heated with every argument.
"That's pure economic thinking, Ellie. Something you don't understand, yet."
"Oh, so I don't understand economic thinking, huh?! Where was your economic thinking when you thought about taking Carla with us? Wouldn't she have taken even more space? Or was this okay, because she would've been a nice fucktoy for you?"
"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" now hissed Sarah in return, slowly standing up to underline her superior authority. But Ellie always had a problem with authority and got up as well in order to make clear that she didn't agree with her status. "And stop talking shit about Carla!"
"I don't talk about her, but about you and what an egotistical, sex-driven, self-pitying asshole you are!"
The smack came fast and hard, emitting a loud slap that sounded through the entire room that was followed by silence. It's been months since the first and last time Sarah had hit Ellie. Both had thought that they had left this behind, yet both were surprised that they hadn't. They were just looking at each other in shock until the young girl broke out in tears and ran upstairs, leaving Sarah alone with Sabine.
The blond woman couldn't believe what just happened as she was staring at her shaking hand.
"Puberty, huh?" joked Sabine with a scoff. This, plus how arrogantly she was still sitting in her chair drove Sarah over the edge since she saw in her the main cause for this fight. With a groan she launched at the younger woman and punched her right in the face, letting her fall over with the chair.
"You think that's funny?!" she whisper-yelled, grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up, ignoring the pain that was rushing through her body from her broken ribs. "Now tell me where this fuckin' car is or I'll kill you right on the spot!"
"Only…" she groaned, her face hurting as Sarah had hit the same spot as Terry, the day before. "Only if you take me with you!"
Having not received the wanted answer, Sarah slammed the young woman back onto the ground and began to choke her.
"Where?!" she hissed again as she intensified the pressure and saw how Sabine was fighting to get some air.
"G-g…garage…" she eventually groaned with a hoarse voice and, right away, Sarah let go of her and stood up.
"Fuckin' finally!"
Still gasping for air, Sabine said "You… you say I'm a hunter… But you… you're actually acting like one, here."
Sarah stopped for a moment, but didn't turn around. Instead, she stayed silent and moved on, leaving the younger woman alone.
It took Sabine some time to get up, but eventually she managed and then walked upstairs, trying to find Ellie.
"Ellie?" she called down the hall and began to look into every room, only to realize that the door to hers was locked. She knocked, now saying softly "Ellie, you in there?"
She heard steps, followed by a click as the door got unlocked and opened just a gap. The young girl's cheeks were wet from tears and her green eyes red from crying.
"What?" she returned with a brittle voice, not making the impression that she was fond of seeing Sabine.
"Thought you might wanna talk. Can I come in?"
Sabine tried to sound as compassionate as possible. Apart from having been at the same age once, she never had anything to do with kids of Ellie's age, since she used to be a loner. But what she lacked in social competence, she compensated with smartness and pretending.
At first, it didn't seem like Ellie would let her in, but eventually she simply walked back into the room and let the door open. Sabine then followed her inside, seeing her sit on the bed with a sad demeanor. She closed and locked the door again, which caused the young red-head to frown at her.
"Just wanna keep the witch outside," she said with a smirk and then strolled around the bedroom. "I see you already went through my stuff. Found anything you like? Hope you didn't find my spicy collection with the dildo."
"This was your room?" Ellie asked in surprise, not falling for Sabine's teasing joke. Still, she chuckled.
"Yeah, haven't you looked at all those pictures? Even the uber-bitch had noticed it."
By mentioning Sarah, Ellie's mood immediately dropped again as she brought her knees to her head and laid it on them.
"Don't call her bitch, okay!"
This comment took Sabine aback. Sarah had hit them both and acted like a cold-hearted psychpath, yet still, Ellie seemed to be fond of her. A situation, the Asian woman couldn't understand. She then walked over to the bed and slumped down beside the young girl.
"But she sure as hell acted like one. I mean, she always says that she despises me for having lived with hunters, yet she acts like being one of her own. Beating up kids, choking me for gettin' some info… Shit, there's just the raping-part missing."
"You suck at comforting, y'know," Ellie replied with a stern demeanor. Sabine, however, simply scoffed and let herself onto the mattress.
"And you suck at having manners and she sucks at being a mother-figure. See, we all got our deficit. But y'know, if you go through the massive shit of this world, you just get numb to it at one point. You simply take it, swallow it down, shit it out again and move on. How do you think I survived this long? I just kept to myself and played my part, while everybody else just whined and complained, and eventually…died. That's it. Sarah's a survivor, which makes her a colossal bitch on an ego-trip, and believe me, she doesn't give a shit 'bout you."
"That's bullshit! She cares and guards me."
"Honestly, has she ever given you any love? I mean, like a mom does. 'cause she used to be a mom at one point."
"But she isn't my mom and I don't want her to be like a mother to me, no matter her past. I just need a friend, who brings me to Salt Lake City."
"A friend who beats you up? What a helluva good friend…Not! How about we ditch her? I can bring you to Salt Lake, too. No beating included. Just love."
"What?!" Ellie exclaimed, looking with wide open eyes at Sabine, who gave her a mischievous grin. "I'm not gonna ditch her! What makes you think that I'd do that? I don't even know ya."
Her mischievous smile turned into a wicked one as she grabbed Ellie's neck, pushed it down and hit it with her knee, hard. At first, the young girl was simply defenseless as she was crawling over the ground, blood dripping from her eyebrow, but as soon as she received an additional kick to the head, she went unconscious.
Whistling a joyful tone, Sabine took Ellie's gun and knife and bound her limbs as well as her mouth and then locked her into the bedroom. Gun in hand, she then went downstairs towards the garage, where Sarah was busy checking the car, a rusty station wagon, her head being stuck under the hood.
"What a piece of crap!" she murmured, not noticing Sabine who was closing in, the gun aiming at her, until she stepped on a cracking piece of debris.
Swiftly, Sarah spun her head around, but it was too late. A shot broke and hit her right in the arm before she rolled to the side and took cover behind the car. Another barrage of shots followed, which got answered right away, forcing Sabine to take cover as well.
"Damn, you're such a fuckin' hard nut to crack!" she called out, changing the magazine of her pistol. "But I'm gonna make it easy for ya. Ditch town without Ellie and I'll let you live."
"What do you want from her? She's just a kid. Let us go and we won't bother you 'n' your friends ever again."
Sabine just let out a wicked chuckle, replying "Already told ya numb-nut that I don't have any friends. Well… except Ellie. She's gonna be my friend and - who knows - I might even gonna make her my lover."
"You sick psycho-fuck!" Sarah yelled back furiously. "She's never gonna be your friend, because she's not crazy. She's never gonna come with you. Especially after you shot me. And if you dare to touch her…"
"Bla-bla-fuckin'-bla…" the Asian woman mocked, trying to lure out Sarah from her position by making her angry. "You're just jealous, aren't ya? Yeah, you wanna have her for yourself. Just admit it! You wanna touch her, fuck her and lick that cute lil' pussy. But you know what? You won't, 'cause I will do it. She will be mine and…"
"You talk too much!" chimed Sarah's voice suddenly beside her, accompanied by a cold barrel on her temple. "Drop it!"
Of course, Sabine was surprised by the sudden change of events, but that didn't cause her to panic. Right on the contrary, she dropped the gun and started to giggle madly again, which distracted the blond woman enough that she ducked, grabbed her hand and punched her in the injured ribs.
Sarah groaned in pain and lost her balance for a moment, giving Sabine the chance to draw Ellie's knife and ramm it into the side of her body twice, making the blonde groan in agony and let go of her weapon before she let her forehead smash into the nose of her opponent.
Being disoriented by the hit, Sabine dropped the knife and stumbled a few steps backwards. Yet, she still had the upper hand as she was able to recover way faster from her pain, and Sarah seemed to know that as well as she was already gone, hiding somewhere.
Sabine loved hide and seek. Even as a kid she had played it all the time.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" she sing-songed, already spotting the trail of blood droplets. So, she wiped the blood from her nose, picked up Ellie's pistol again and began to follow it. "You're bleeding pretty bad, Sarah. Come out and I'll take care of it."
Silence. Not one word. Sarah was really hiding. Whereas hiding was very relative since the bloodtrail was painting the way she had taken very clearly. It was leading into the kitchen, where Sarah was simply sitting behind the counter, leaning against it. Her breathing was heavy and labored. It was pretty clear that she didn't have any strength left, not even for raising her gun.
Sabine stood above her, gun aimed at her head, and gave her a wide smirk.
"Found ya!" she whispered, causing Sarah to look at her one last time. In the end, the younger woman lowered the weapon. "Y'know, I'm not gonna shoot you." She then crouched down, right beside the blonde, smirking at her victoriously. "No, I'll let you live so that you can slowly bleed to death and use your remaining time to think about all the things you've done wrong in your fucked-up life."
"I'm…gonna…kill you!" Sarah groaned in return, trying to raise her pistol. But before it could align with her target, it got swatted out of her hand.
"Nope, you won't," Sabine then remarked plainly. "Why don't you just accept defeat, you insanely stubborn cunt? If you'd just played ball, I'd given you a chance to make this an awesome three-way relationship. You, me 'n' Ellie in love forever. And I gotta admit, you're an astonishing cute MILF."
The insane woman then got up again, saying "Well, time's money…or love…or whatever… Anyway, I better go 'n' grab Ellie and bail with her before we get uninvited guests. I guess you'll stick 'round for a while longer and…"
Suddenly, her calf got grabbed tightly as Sarah gave her the most deathly stare, replying with a weak voice "I'm gonna find you! I'm gonna hunt you down and get her back! And then, I'm gonna finish you off!"
But all Sabine did was to shake the older woman's hand off and chuckle, before she leaned down and whispered in an eerie tone "Yeah, you do that! Try to find us, good luck with that. Maybe you do, who knows? But even if you do, what then? You really think that she'll ever like some bitch like you? Or is she really just a job for you that needs to be done? Think about it!"
Once again, Sabine just chuckled and gave Sarah a soft push with her foot, that let her fall over. Satisfied with the outcome of the events, she once again whistled a joyful tone and made her way upstairs. She had almost reached her old bedroom as she already heard some commotion and groaning originating from inside. Giggling again, she unlocked and opened the door, finding Ellie fully awake and fighting her bindings.
"Hello, cutie!" she said happily, earning herself an evil glare. "Oh, c'mon, don't be mad at me. I just had to take care of something before we'd head out. Now, chop-chop! We got a long way ahead of us."
At first, Sabine tried to pick up Ellie and carry her, but no matter what she did, the young girl always squirmed out of her grasp.
"Damn, Ellie, you really wanna do this the hard way?"
Disregarding the threatening undertone, the young red-head kept on resisting until Sabine sighed heavily, went into one of her rooms closets and brought forth a brown bottle with an unknown liquid. She poured some of it on an old cloth and pressed it so long onto the girl's face until she was unconscious again.
Sabine hadn't lied as she had told Sarah that her mother used to be a nurse, but her father also used to own a pharmacy. And once the world had broken down, they had tought her daughter their vast knowledge, hoping that she could put it to use, once they were gone.
Well, she was using this knowledge now. Maybe not like her parents had intended to, but it was to her use…relativly speaking. Now she could easily carry Ellie to the car that was hidden nearby. She had waited for so long to finally find a worthy friend. For over two years she had prepared everything and now was the moment she had waited for.
She would find a suitable place for her and Ellie, and then, would live with her as a real family. A family that wouldn't betray and sell her. A family that would be full of love and trust.