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RUE'S MIND KEPT WANDERING BACK TO Ellie. She wanted to check on her but she didn't know how to start. She kept asking herself if Ellie would even talk to her again or if she was ready to talk to her. Tired of her nerves, she went to sleep in hopes of them leaving her mind in the cold morning.
She was out bright and early to assist in fixing the turbines at the electrical dam after Jackson lost power in the middle of the night. It was her first time doing electrical work on her own since Eugene's passing. She misses their childish bantering— even if he had several decades on her.
Rue finished the job successfully, earning smiles and impressed affirmations from the surrounding people. Being able to make a mark on Jackson always made her euphoric.
"Look who finally decided to show up." Jesse jests to Ellie and Dina who were a bit late. He handed them their hunting rifles before yelling at members to open the gates that have been recently reconstructed.
"Settle down, children." Jesse tittered. "Alright. You all know the drill. Run your routes. Mark your logbooks. Clear any infected you see. You run into anything you can't handle, you come back.
Be smart about it."
Jesse didn't notice Rue silently approaching from behind, mouthing every word that came out of his lips as she dusted the snow off of her apparel. She's heard this speech a million times.
When she got close enough, he craned his neck to side-eye her which made her smile innocently.
"Alright. Get goin'." Jesse commands, wrapping an arm around Rue's shoulder as he pulls her off to the side with a grin. In the process, Rue's eyes slipped into Ellie's and she quickly looked away.
"Get ready. Maria wants us to relieve Joel and Tommy." Jesse informs.
"Yeah, about that... I'm allergic to working in the cold." Rue brought her balled fist to her mouth as she playfully coughed into it.
"You're full of shit." Jesse says, making them both laugh.
Ten minutes passed, then ten more passed, and eventually an hour passed with Joel and Tommy's missing presence at the northwest lookout. No one's supposed to be out on patrol for this long unless necessary.
"Jesse, It's been an hour. They would've shown up already."
Jesse cursed under his breath as he huffed. The storm was getting worse and the chance of them running into an increase in infected wasn't helping.
"Let's ride around and see what we can find. They can't be that far off," he says as he mounts his horse.
They searched for half an hour in the decreasing temperatures. Aeries didn't enjoy the snowy weather as he would neigh and jerk his head often. Rue patted him and spoke to him in hopes of calming him down. She could feel her toes stiffen from the cold in her heavy boots she'd only wear in weather like this.
