Through The Valley

Chapter Seven

E L L I E

The auburn haired girl was glad to back in the familiar woods surrounding Jackson. The girl had mapped out the closest patrol spot where they could camp the night, before making their way to the town the next day. Robyn however seemed to be a mess of nerves, often rambling on about various topics, that often confused Ellie. 

Currently the girl was rambling about dogs, a phobia of hers that Ellie told her she quickly have to get over if she wanted to live comfortably in Jackson as there was a decent amount of dogs there. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to have said though as the girl only spiralled further. 

Annoyingly enough for Ellie, Joel seemed to take great amusement in the Seraphite's worries, though the blonde in question never seemed to notice. Lately however Ellie found herself frowning at Joel no matter what he did.  When the sight of the familiar bar same into view, Ellie sighed in relief, gently nudging her companion to grab the girl's attention. "See that? Over there," Ellie asked, pointing down the hill with a tanned hand. The blonde nodded, resting her hands gently on Blue's mane. "That's where we're staying the night." 

Robyn hummed under her breath pushing a stray fly away hair behind her ear. "Is there good food there?" She asked eagerly. Ellie chuckled but nodded, urging Shimmer down the hill with a gentle nudge of her heel. While she laughed, their food situation for the past week had been dismal, even with the two girls combined efforts in hunting. The woods had been scarce of animals and the surrounding houses and buildings picked clean. 

The auburn haired girl knew that the patrols often kept food in the different bases encase a group of them were ever trapped there, either by infected or a storm. Robyn nodded happily, following after her, Joel trailing after her silently. 

Ellie would normally try to included the man in their conversations, but after finding out the truth about the Hospital she felt nothing but animosity to the man she used to think of as a father figure. 

--

The bar was empty as per usual, the small backroom with the usual clipboard showing their patrols routes and who was last there. It was there that Ellie rushed to, Robyn following her like a lost puppy. Throwing open the cover of the book, Ellie trailed her finger down the paper, to the last date written down. The girl was quickly distracted though when she felt Robyn place her hand on her shoulder, standing up on her tiptoes to peer over Ellie's shoulder and down on the book. Smiling fondly, she chuckled turning her head to look at the blonde, who was so much shorter then her, despite Ellie only standing at five foot seven inches herself. Robyn grinned, a rosy red stain spreading across her cheeks when she realised how close Ellie's face was to hers. The girl in question fought off her blush, green eyes focusing on the now shy girl so close to her. "Here," Ellie managed to utter out, stepping to the side so Robyn could look at the dates scrawled on the sheet of paper. Just like Ellie had done she trailed her finger down the paper, stopping at the last entry. 

"A week ago," she commented, looking up to Ellie, "when should the next patrol come through." Ellie smiled, "Tomorrow."

 Robyn's grin widened, "Do you know who'll show up?" 

Ellie shrugged, looking down at the clipboard, "pretty sure this is Jessie's route, so it should be him and whoever he decides to bring with him. Probably Dina or Cat, maybe even Tommy."