𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒓 ᖭི༏ᖫྀ 𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖𝚜

chapter fourteen : cold

[XIV]

COLD.

That's what parading out in the storm like an idiot makes you.

I shivered in the store. Ellie managed to find some old curtains that had been torn down by their rings in the back of the store, and we used them as makeshift blankets. She also found a few boxes, which we dismantled and used as a base to sleep on. All we needed to worry about right now was resting. Insomnia could make you just as crazy as a clicker.

But it was so hard because, every time I thought I was about to drift off, my body tremors started again. My clothes were still soaking and stuck to my skin persistently. Ellie wasn't finding it much easier either; I could feel the cardboard below us shake with her shivers.

"S-shit," I whispered. "It's so c-cold."

Having enough of it, I decided to do what I had done at the lake. I shuffled out from under the covers, and started taking my clothes off. Turning to see what I was doing, Ellie turned to face me, still shivering, and then wide eyed as she saw me taking my shirt off.

"What the fuck, don't look," I said awkwardly, knowing full well that Ellie had already seen me in my underwear. I flipped over the wet cardboard; the other side was still dry, thankfully, and tied my wet hair up to keep it from touching my neck or shoulders.

It wasn't ideal but, it was better than nothing.

"You should get out of your clothes, too, Ellie," I mumbled to her back.

"Uh...I'll pass...t-thanks," she chattered. I couldn't force her to, so we slept on opposing sides of the cardboard, until sleep took me once again.

It was disorienting waking up in the store. We had barely been able to see anything the night before, and if we did see something we weren't really paying much attention, so the environment was very new.

The small windows in the shop let in the daylight now, and I breathed in slowly, stretching my arms to the sound of peace and quiet.

"A-choo!"

Well, almost.

I turned around to find Ellie was not in our makeshift bed, and when I peered around the room, she was already up and about, making sure no one was outside and trying to find anything useful on the shop counter. But she was sort of...muddled. She bumbled about a little, stopping for rests and accidentally knocking things over.

Ellie never knocks things over.

"Ellie?" I called to her, making my way over to see what was up. When she turned to look at me, she had the most horrific rings around her eyes. She sniffed, and coughed, and I could see (and smell, frankly) that she hadn't changed out of her wet clothes yet, which were still drenched in rain.

Sniff. "Hey, Crumpets," cough, splutter. "How's it hangin'?"

She said all of this with an exhausted smile on her face, almost trying to prove she was fine, but failing miserably, her now-nasal voice giving her away.

"Motherfucker, Ellie! I told you to take your clothes off!"

She smiled awkwardly, and coughed out, "I'm not that easy...ya know."

"Shut the fuck up."

She whined a little but went along with my demands once I threatened to take them off for her, peeling the filthy clothes from her body. I checked her cardboard, which was soaking wet on both sides, and switched it with mine discreetly, knowing she would never sleep on it if she knew it was mine.