Enemies To Allies: Ellie And Abbys Story

Chapter 5

Ellies POV

*an hour and a half later*

I sat in the diner eating a steak sandwich I had saved from dinner the previous night, when Jesse walked in and sat beside me, "We have to head out now, and check on Abby's route."  He said with his usual smartass smile, "Ok, let me finish up here, then I'll be good to go." I replied.

When I was finished, I walked toward the gate we had let Abby out through, to see Joel, Dina, Jesse, Tommy, and Manny standing together, prepared to head out.  "Alright guys, we ready?" I asked, looking at each of them, "Yea, we are ready." Manny replied, "Ok then," I said, "Then let's get moving." And we left off, not knowing what we expected to find.

We arrived at the first lookout on Abbys route, on the creek trails, sometimes people come back to the lookouts on their route, so I thought Abby might be here.

"You guys stay here, I'll go up and see if shes there." I said, moving the palette.  "What if she's not?" Joel asked, "What then?", I didnt want him to worry about it, so I simply said, "I'm sure she's fine." And made my way up the rope, and into the lookout above.

"Abby?" I yelled, looking in the office room, but she wasnt there, I made my way of to the log book to check, but her name was nowhere to be found.  This instantly raised a panic in my mind, what if she'd been taken, or worse, I made my way down the rope, sweat dripping down my face, I could tell my face was getting red by the way it felt hot, tears were building up in my eyes, but I held them back.

"She's not here, and her names not in the log book." I said, "Maybe she went straight to the next lookout instead, in the mall?" Dina said.  "Maybe that's the case." I replied.  "Ok, here's what we're gonna do," I said, "Dina, you and Manny take one part of the region, Joel, you and Jesse take another, Tommy you're with me, we'll split up and try to find her, once you've covered your part of the region, meet up in the next town." I said.

"Let's get moving, we got no time to waste." Tommy shouted.  Tommy and I headed off, and cover a small portion of our assigned portion of the region, but Abby was nowhere to be found, we had walkie talkies so we could keep in touch with the others, I noticed a trail of fresh blood on the ground, just before the turn to the road by the mall, but I wanted to make sure Tommy didn't, so I told him to go on and check the mall, then to the next town to meet up with the others. And tell them I was staying back to look for Abby.

Once he was out of sight and earshot, It immediately started blizzarding, so I followed the blood trail, and shouting Abbys name.  "Abby! Abby! Where are you, Abby!?" I shouted repeatedly, but there was no answer.  Soon after, I realized the blood trail was becoming more fresh, and I started panicking, "Abby!" I screamed, worried that the worst had happened, it was blizzarding, so I couldnt  see, but I heard something shuffle in a Bush nearby, I went over to the Bush to discover Lev, who was shivering with cold, no jacket, I was too worried to be mad, and without thinking, gave him my jacket, leaving myself vulnerable to cold.

"Wheres Abby?" He asked, "I dont know, we are trying to find her." I replied.  I spotted Abbys horse coming toward us, so I did what I thought was sensible, "Lev, take Abbys horse and ride to the next town, I'll let the others know you're coming, now go!" I shouted, "ok, be careful." He said, "I will! Go!" I shouted.  I followed the ever growing fresh trail of blood, I was shivering, my nose running, at the point of giving up when I heard the thumping on the ground of what sounded like a backpack, and groaning. 

"Abby!?  I'm here!" I shouted, running toward the sound.  I arrived at the scene of the sound to find Abby on the ground, blood pouring from her nose and leg, she was barely conscious, and she was freezing, I pulled out an extra jacket and swapped it out with her freezing cold one, I only had my walkie talkie, so I took her pack and put it on, I wiped the blood from her nose, then rolled her over to her back, but when I did, she let out a loud groan, that's when I suspected she had bruised some ribs, and judging by her leg bleeding, she had been shot above her knee.

"Holy Fuck, Abby." I gasped as tears started streaming down my face, and I started deeply panting, almost sobbing, I knew I had to act fast, so I did what I though would save her life, I took a stick and made a tourniquet for her leg, then I grabbed her and hoisted her up onto my horse, I knew she wasnt going to be able to hold on to me on her own, so I used some spare rope to tie her to me, and I took off as fast as I could get my horse to go, toward the next town, where I know I would be able to save her.

"Tommy come in, I found Abby, I'm on my way there, make sure the doors to the gondola station are open!" I shouted over my walkie. 

"You got it." He replied.  When we arrived at the gondola station, both of us were freezing, Abby was almost unconscious from blood loss, and my finger were starting to turn purple.  When Tommy opened the door, I rushed Abby and myself inside, and immediately starting getting to work on her leg.

"Wait!  Ellie, you should be getting circulation back to your fingers!" Dina shouted, "I dont care about that right now, I'd rather Lose a finger than lose Abby!  Get to the hotel, I'll be fine!" I shouted back.  I pushed the bullet out the other side of her leg, and applied pressure till the bleeding stopped, then immediately gave Abby stitches, I layed her on a couch, when I stood back up, I became immediately dizzy, and the room started spinning, that's when I fell to the ground.

I was panting, and groaning in pain, I propped up on my right forearm and tried to slow my breathing down so I wouldnt pass out, but I failed, and blacked out, waking up about 5 minutes later with Abby sitting on the ground next to me, and it was dark out, about 6PM.  "The others went to the hotel to search for food, I woke up and saw you passed out on the ground, I started you a fire, and some soup, sat next to you while I waited for you to wake up." She said, "thank you, Abs." I replied.

We sat and talked for a while, ate some soup, and just talked about general life.  Abby then reached up to a string we had hung a few weeks back to dry our clothes if we needed, "I hung your jacket up while you were out, itll probably be warm enough now."  Abby said, handing me my jacket.  "Thanks Abs." I replied, putting it on, zipping the zipper and pulling the hood over my head, grasping the mug full of soup, taking small sips.

Abby sat up on the edge of the couch, interlacing her fingers, as if she was thinking about something.  "Ellie, can I ask you something?" She asked, looking over at me, "of course, always." I replied, wondering what it was she wanted to ask me.

  "I've noticed you havent been eating much anymore, or sleeping as much, to be honest, I'm the only one that's noticed, I want to know the truth, if you dont tell me, I'm going to bring attention to Joel and the others." She said, looking down.  "I dont want to talk about it right now, maybe in the morning."  I said looking into the fire.  "Let's head back, we need to get some sleep." I sighed, helping Abby up.

After the eventful day we'd had, I was finally glad to be home, I was able to give Abby proper medical attention to her leg, she had bruised ribs as I had suspected, but I wasnt too worried.  She would have to use crutches for a week or 2, all in all, this was the most eventful day I had in a while.