lost & found || Joel Miller

Long way or short way?

ᖭི༏ᖫྀ

Joel opens the door slowly, welcoming in the sounds of birds chirping, but it doesn't look like he cares as much as August and Ellie, who looks like this is the first time they've heard birds.

"It's clear," He informs them, walking out hastily and they follow him, looking around in awe at the scenery.

Yes, it was scary how one of the buildings had collapsed on another, but there were green vines tracing along the cracks and it made it look almost peaceful like whatever happened to cause it to collapse was almost good.

"It looks way better in the daylight," August says, her eyes squinting at the view and Ellie turns to look at her and snorts.

She was standing like a grandpa with one hand holding the strap of her bag and the other above her eyes, to shield them from the sun.

"What?" She says, lowering her hand and looking at the little girl.

"Nothing," Ellie laughs as she begins to walk toward Joel, who was standing above some broken pieces of metal looking at something afar.

August was still in a daze, examining the broken buildings and the ones left untouched by time, she was always the kind of person to find beauty in crisis and she was doing exactly that.

"We should get movin'" Joel decides, stepping down from the piece of metal and beginning to walk, Ellie trails behind him.

"Come on, September! We're movin'" Ellie calls out, mimicking Joel, who looks over his shoulder, annoyed as the two girls follow him, with Ellie giggling to herself and August still looking around.

They walk through the messed up place, trying not to trip over the broken concrete and metals and glass as they did so.

But among the many bricks and metals and dirt and other broken things, Ellie spots a huge hole, "It's like a fucked up moon,"

Joel and August stop, turning around to see what she was talking about, "Is this where they bombed?"

August nodded, "Yeah,"

"It worked?"

"For a while, but the spreading just got too fast to slow down," August shrugged, "Did I not tell you this?"

Ellie shakes her head, still staring at the hole, amazed yet terrified.

And with that, they continued walking—with Joel leading the way and August and Ellie trailing behind, making stupid jokes and having stupid competitions which, sadly, Joel had to listen to.

After a while, Joel stops making August stop balancing on some random metal tube and hopping off, "Game over, I win,"

"Hey! I didn't even get to do my turn!—"

"So, the state house is across there," Joel tells August, looking over his shoulder as she fixes herself up, trying to look as professional and adult-like as he does, "It's about a ten-minute walk if we go straight,"

"So..." August trails off, looking at the distance, a bit confused as to what he was going on about.

"So," He says, clearly annoyed by August's ignorance to understanding shit, "Long way or short way?"

"Well, I mean you're the leader here, Joel," August informs, "But, based on my knowledge of horror movies; I vote long way,"

She then turns to Ellie, "What do you think, El?"