take on me, e.williams

nine

—breakin'
knee caps—

———the truck had been crashed into an old store, and now joel was yelling for the girls to get out of the truck fast. odessa grabbed her barbed- wire baseball bat as the trio hid behind the truck from gunshots.

"let's see you, motherfucker!" a man shouted, presumably the one shooting. joel opened the back door and grabbed his riffle from the back seat, shutting it softly.

"hey!" joel said to odessa and ellie through pants. "you see that hole?" he gestured to a small hole in the wall across from them. "can you squeeze through?" joel asked them, followed by more gunshots. ellie nodded for both her and odessa. "when i say go, crawl through that wall." he told them.

"what if they—"

"i'm gonna cover you." joel stopped odessa's worrisome words. "and you're gonna go through it and not come out until i say." joel instructed them, the window shattered above odessa, glass falling into her hair. "look at me! they aren't gonna hit you." joel said to ellie and odessa, the williams girl taking odessa's hand. she squeezed it tightly. "go!" joel shouted, ellie dragging odessa across the floor as they crawled into the hole safely.

odessa could feel another panic attack coming on and shook her head violently, glass falling from her hair. she gripped her bat so tightly she felt that she might break it. it was quiet now, but odessa could hear shuffling into the building, one of the shooters stepping on glass as he entered. ellie used her arm to press odessa and herself closer to the wall, if it was even possible. there was a gunshot, and then a loud thud. the two girls gasped and took cover in each others arms.

and then there was the sound of struggling and fighting. odessa peaked through a crack, and saw a man on top of joel screaming in his face. odessa knew what she had to do. she ducked out of ellie's arms and through the hole, watching joel choke. odessa raised her bat above her head and slammed it down onto the man's back. she could feel the pointed wires puncturing his skin as he fell back coughing and groaning. odessa wasn't going to let anyone hurt her family.

the man didn't look like a man as he begged odessa from hitting him again. ellie had now ran out to odessa's side, her gun pointed at the man. the man was rather an older teenager, perhaps only 18.

"it's over! it's okay. we're not fighting anymore." the boy raised his hand in defense, leaned against the door he must have come in.

              ellie didn't hesitate to shoot a bullet into the hand that was raised. he screamed in agony.

                 "i'm gonna come home, and tell everyone you're good." the boy cried out, his voice shaking.

                odessa's bat did not falter as she brought it down onto his knee, no doubt making it broken. he screamed in pain.

               "please! no!" the boy sobbed. odessa moved to break his other knee but ellie grabbed her by the elbow to stop her, but odessa was spaced out. she shoved ellie to the ground where her gun slid across the floor. the miller girl bashed his other knee cap in.

"odessa!" ellie shouted at the girl, feeling almost afraid of who stood before her. joel was now up, looming in front of odessa, ripping the bat from her hands. he grabbed her by the shoulder and steered her back to the hole, ellie following.