take on me, e.williams

three

—negative
nancy—

———sunlight shown down through the large hole in the ceiling. odessa could hear ellie stirring beside her in the grass. the girl peeled her eyes open and saw ellie sitting up, rubbing her eyes. a creaking noise alerted both teenagers and they turned over their shoulder to see ellen, joel, and tess sitting. they watched the two girls carefully, joel had a gun now, stolen from the soldier.

                      "morning." ellie scowled and turned to sit facing them. odessa did the same, running her fingers through her hair. ellie went to stand up and joel moved his gun to follow her.

                   "for fucks sake." odessa scoffed at her uncle. ellie fell back onto her knees.

                     "do i look like i'm infected?" ellie deadpanned to the adults, raising an eyebrow.

                  "show us your arm." joel demanded in a soft voice. ellie swallows thickly and rolled up her sleeve, revealing the old bite that has scarred over. ellen, joel, and tess gazed at it from a distance.

                 "see, it's not getting any worse." odessa pointed out, staring down at the old wound. joel shared a look with ellen as tess sighed.

                "if we're out in the open city, how come we aren't getting swarmed?" ellie asked, changing the subject and looking around the abandoned building.

                      "don't worry about that." joel told her in a monotone voice, holding the gun firmly.

                    "well, i am." ellie quipped back.

                       "what was marlene doing with an infected kid?" tess asked through gritted teeth. she often reminded odessa of some massive predator, she was cold, always serious.

                    "first of all, i'm not infected. second of all, i have a fucking name." ellie told tess, who's eyebrows shot up at her back talk. "she found me after i was bitten." ellie recalled.

                 "and she didn't shoot you?" joel questioned, ellie let out a bitter laugh.

                     "obviously she didn't, stop being naive joel." odessa cut in, her uncle giving her a look as if to say shut up.

                     "she locked me up and had her guys test me everyday to see if i was getting sick." ellie explained to them, rocking back and forth, her hands playing with the grass.

                   "test you how?" tess continued to interrogate.

                     "i have to pee." ellie announced in a bored tone, odessa lowered her head to avoid being seen laughing.

                    "test you... how?" tess repeated through her teeth. ellie sighed.

               "they'd make me count to ten and hold out my hand and then keep it steady." ellie held her arm out in example. "but, you know, i think what really impressed them was the fact that i didn't turn into a fucking monster." ellie's voice raised as she practically yelled back at tess. when tess didn't speak, ellie stood up. "now, can i go piss?" she finished, joel stood from his seat as ellie did. raising her hands in defense.