take on me, e.williams

six

—finally
clean—

———odessa sobbed as the lower level of the building exploded and caught fire. inhuman screams echoed around them as joel kept his gun trained on the clickers that exited on fire. ellen had not returned. she was dead. tess was dead. the two people odessa knew to be mothers to her were gone. just like her actual mother. ellie watched the girl break and bent to wrap her arms around the girl.

odessa thrashed in ellie's arms, she let out screams she had been holding back. joel pushed ellie out the way, saying something odessa hadn't heard. the man scooped odessa up in his arms, bridal style, and carried her away, ellie trailing after.

it has grown dark as joel laid a sleeping odessa on the grass gently. her face was red and puffy from crying. he told ellie to stay with her so he could look around. when joel disappeared, ellie looked down at odessa. feeling so sad and heart broken for the girl she had come to known in the last few days. odessa stirred in her sleep, whimpering. ellie was quick to run her hand over her shoulders softly. this seemed to calm her.

odessa scooted closer to the body heat next to her, her head resting just at ellie's chest. ellie's cheeks heated red, but on instinct, she rested an arm over odessa's shoulder and pulled her closer. the duo of girls slept like that through the night. when joel found them, he almost smiled to himself. he removed his jacket and laid it across their bodies.

                    morning came and odessa stretched awake. her eyes barely able to open from crying. she sniffed and sat up, head pounding. ellie watched her wake up from a nearby tree. her and joel had been up for hours. speaking of joel, he had left ellie again to go somewhere.

                   "hey." ellie said to the waking girl, odessa turned to see ellie. "how'd you sleep?" ellie asked odessa quietly.

                 "uh, fine." odessa mumbled, moving to lean on the tree next to ellie. "where's joel?" odessa pulled his jacket closer around her shoulders.

                     "he's at the creek that way." ellie pointed. odessa grabbed her bag and got up, ellie jumping up after her. "what are you doing?" ellie questioned.

                       "i'll be right back." was all odessa said as she walked down to the water, she could hear it from where she stood. joel kneeled at the edge, stacking two piles of stones. unmarked graves. bodiless graves. it reminded her of a poem her mother used to say.

                   "dessa?" joel looked up at the girl next to him, she kneeled beside him taking out her sketch book. odessa flipped through the pages until she found two.

                   the first one was of tess. tess and odessa hasn't been close close. but tess always cared, she always fought for odessa. even when her words and actions were sharp and angry, tess and odessa had loved each other. the drawing was of tess, standing in the kitchen holding her mug of awful qz coffee.  odessa ripped the page out, joel watching her carefully, and laid it in the rocks at the bottom of one pile. the water soaking it instantly.

                the other was of ellen. ellen had been apart of odessa's life since she walked through the qz doors. and before that, joel and ellen had fallen in love. they didn't live together or display much if not any affection for each other. but their love was so strong you could feel it. this drawing of ellen depicted the red haired woman leaning across the table and smiling, posing, for odessa to draw her. joel felt himself choking up, watching odessa do the same for ellen's rocks.