THE UNEXPECTED

23

"I think we make a good team." David exclaims, wiping his palms on his jeans and breathing out in relief. His stance is crouched as he regains his breath after running away from and killing the infected. A whole hoard of them had come out of nowhere.

"Let's agree to disagree." I murmur, checking on the meat as we return back to that cabin. Ellie looks flustered as she takes a seat beside the glowing embers which once emitted fire. There's still warmth luckily.

"We got lucky." Ellie then says, taking a breath.

"Lucky?" He repeats, then shakes his head. "No, no, no such thing as luck, you see I believe everything happens for a reason." David says cryptically, eyes flickering from the dying fire to us.

"Right," I reply skeptically.

"I do. And I can prove it to you." His lips upturn slightly and I get the feeling he's hiding something from us, "Now, this winter has been especially cruel. A while back, I sent a group of men out to a nearby town to look for food. Only a few came back."

A feeling of unease settled in the pit of my stomach, unsure of where he was going with his story,

"They said the others had been slaughtered by a crazy man. And get this..." He pauses, lifting his eyes to mine. "He's a crazy man traveling with a little girl. And a young, beautiful may I add, woman."

My limbs involuntarily stiffen, and goosebumps litter my skin in a panic. I'm certain that this man is no good and if I don't get us out of here quickly, I'm afraid he'll do something bad. Just like all of stories I'd heard, I was now part of it. And that scared the shit out of me.

"You see?" He has a wicked smirk on his lips as he eyes both me and Ellie to gage our reactions, "Everything happens for a reason."

I feel Ellie slip her hand into mine and grip it tight, and I try to reassure her by squeezing her back lightly. But it's so obvious that we're both terrified, I wish that Joel would swoop in and save the day like usual.

David notices our discomfort and almost looks pleased, "Now, don't get upset. It's not your fault." He paused and looked behind us, unfazed, "James, lower the gun."

I turn around so quick and find the younger man from earlier had returned, but he was blocking the exit with a gun pointed at our heads.

"No way, David. I'm not lettin' them go." He spits out in fury, gritted teeth and tensed jaw.

"Lower the gun," David repeats himself slowly. "Now, give them the medicine." He nods to himself when James obeys, reluctantly of course.

"The others won't be happy about this," James says, throwing the bottles and syringe to the ground in a huff.

"Yeah, well, that's not your concern," David deadpans, it's clear that he's the ringleader of their group.

Ellie wearingly nears towards the medicine and snatches it from the ground, cradling it to her chest as if one of the men will pounce and take it from her.

"You won't survive long out there. I can protect you, both of you." David says firstly to me but then glances at Ellie which ultimately makes me feel sick to my stomach.

"No thanks." We don't look back, me and Ellie bolt it from the cabin to where we left Clarke and quickly make ourselves as far as possible from David and James.

David was a horror story waiting to happen and James was his accomplice, I was practically shaking by the time we got on the horse and rode off.

"That guy give you the creeps too, huh?" Ellie then says, she's clutching the middle of my torso from behind tightly.

"David is a bad man, Ellie. I want you to stay as far as possible as you can from men like that, you understand?" I feel Ellie nod against my back,

"I understand." She mumbles and clutches to me tighter. I'm so thankful that I managed to keep Ellie safe.

At long last, we've returned to Joel and I'm incredibly eager to tell him the good news and hopefully heal him quicker. It was time to play nurse.

I tried my hardest to erase David and James from my memory but a part of me is still nagging at the pit of my stomach, it's telling me that he's close by and isn't done with us just yet.

Leaving Clarke in the garage, myself and Ellie make our way down to the basement to where Joel is resting. He's still out cold, but his chest is moving up and down rhythmically which is a good sign.

"Oh, Joel." I mumble, falling to my knees beside the mattress he's laying on, "Please don't leave us, don't fucking leave us, cowboy." Grasping his calloused hand, I press a chaste kiss to his knuckles and sigh audibly, "Ellie, lift up his shirt."

She does as she's told and gingerly lifts the end of his plaid shirt to reveal the bloody mess of his wound, the skin is messily stitched and swollen around the edges. If I wasn't so determined, I'm sure I would've been sick at the sight of it.

"Okay, let's do this. You can do this, Emily." My eyebrows pull into a frown as I attempt to pep talk myself, but my hands are visibly shaking as the syringe nears his broken and marred skin.

"Don't think, just do." Ellie says, eyeing my movements as she holds up his shirt. I nod, glancing at Joel momentarily before plunging the needle into his wound and injecting the medicine. He flinches at the abruptness of it all but that's all the movement he makes before little breaths escape his parted lips again.