𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐎𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 - 𝐓𝐋𝐎𝐔

𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐬.

𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑.

𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘, 𝐔𝐓𝐀𝐇.

Ciri stared off into nothing as she walked the highway and mindlessly drifted ahead of Joel and Ellie. She was first brought out her thoughts when a familiar squawk reached her ears, causing her to slow her footsteps and looked up to the source.

She raised her head up to her right and spotted the crow perched on top of the blue sign that read 'hospital'. She now peered up at it as it looked back down at her, and she felt all the hairs down her arms and on the back of her neck stand up.

A sudden rush of deja vu overtook her for the moment she was hypnotised by scavenger bird. It flew down from the signpost and fluttered down to stand upon the trunk of the car in front of her.

Then she found her feet carrying herself towards it without a thought.

Standing proud in front of her, the crow didn't react or appear weary in any way to her presence. Ciri read deep into its behaviour and sudden appearance, recalling the very same bird that she had seen at the old Firefly hospital in Colorado.

A bad omen. A harbinger of death. More death is to come.

She had got just a few feet away from the crow before - "Ellie!"

The bird cawed loudly and shot up into the air, just inches from the top of her head which caused her to throw her arms up in front of her face. The third and loudest call of Ellie's name from Joel spooked them, as the teen had been stood staring at the deer engraved in the wall.

"Fucking bird." She muttered, holding her chest as her heart hammered and turned around to finally face Joel and Ellie.

"This is where we get off. Let's go, kiddo." He waved the auburn-haired girl over before continuing forward. When he faced Ciri, he frowned as he saw her letting out heavy breaths with one hand on her hip and her other falling from her chest to dangle at her side.

"Hey... you good?" He asks softly, gently reaching forward to brush his fingers against her arm.

She looked up at him, still slightly wide-eyed but she nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

She pursed her lips, nodding again but mutely with a slow blink, which didn't convince him but he decided to leave it be for now.

"Okay... let's keep goin'. Almost there now." He resumes walking and she follows suit.

A light wind picked up, causing a few goosebumps to appear on their arms and wisps of hair to fly up. Joel smiled softly to himself, "You feel that breeze, huh? I tell you, on a day like this, I'd just sit on my porch... pick away at my six-string."

Ciri began to smile a little herself as she imagined the scene in her head and thought about what she would do too.

"Yeah, once we're done with this whole thing, Ellie - I'm gonna teach you how to play guitar." Joel then follows on, addressing the teenager who had her thumbs tucked under her bag straps and dragged her feet across the tarmac just ahead of them.

"Yeah, I reckon you'd really like that. Whaddaya say, huh?"

Both Joel and Ciri frown when no reaction is earned from Ellie and she continues staring down as she walked.

"Ellie, I'm talkin' to you." Joel lightly taps her shoulder.

"Huh?" Her head shoots up. "Oh yeah, sure, that sounds great."