CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD, Ellie Williams (2)

(2) The Calm Before

TWO. THE CALM BEFORE

MAYBE PATROLLING WITH ELLIE WASN'T SO BAD. Katherine didn't enjoy it but it wasn't bad. It wasn't good either. It was more in the middle. Ellie knew what she was doing and she didn't try to rehash anything, not yet at least, so most of their patrol had been calm (if you're not counting the tension between them).

"Woah," Ellie said as she pulled Shimmer's reigns slightly, eyeing the corpse of a moose on the ground.

Katherine's face scrunched up at the smell. Even though she could kill infected without a hitch, dead animals were never her forte. She hated the smell and she also felt bad for them. "You think whatever did that is still around?" she asked.

"Blood's fresh. It'd take a lot of infected to take down a moose," Ellie responded, hopping down from her horse. Don't look, don't look, don't look.

Katherine sighed. "Nothing's ever easy, is it?" she mumbled under her breath as she hopped off of her horse, Atlas, and tied him to a nearby pole. "Let's just get this over with."

"Read my mind," Ellie said as they neared an abandoned supermarket. Katherine heard the all-too-familiar groans of a runner, along with the eerie sounds of clickers. The duo, with some struggle, managed to clear out the first floor of the supermarket with ease.

Once they were sure there were no more infected, they began searching the place. "Seems pretty picked over," Katherine said, tossing some tool parts to Ellie. "Fix up your gun or whatever you wanna do. I'm gonna look upstairs," she said, not giving the other girl a chance to reply as she made her way out of the room.

Katherine was careful with her steps, making sure not to make any noise as she closed in on a runner that was hunched up in a corner. She quickly drove her knife into the back of its neck, slowly pulling it down to the ground and dropping it onto the floor. When she heard no other noises, she wiped the blood off on her jeans before beginning to search the drawers.

She found a few rags and a half-used bottle of alcohol, along with one of those trading cards Ellie seemed to enjoy. She sighed before pocketing it. Now's as good a time as any to make amends...

She made her way back downstairs, handing the trading card to Ellie. "Here," she said awkwardly, retracting her hand as Ellie took the card out of her hands. "I know you like collecting 'em," she mumbled as she pretended to interest herself with the broken bottle of vitamins on the shelf.

"Prenatal vitamins?" Ellie asked with a raised eyebrow. "Got somethin' you wanna say before we keep putting ourselves in harm's way?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Yes, Ellie, I'm pregnant. So sorry for not telling you," she said sarcastically, walking past the auburn-haired teenager with a huff. "And you're welcome for the card."

Ellie didn't respond and followed Katherine outside.

"Jesus, this storm picked up," Katherine mumbled as her face was hit with a sudden blast of cold air that made her cheeks and the tip of her nose turn red.

"We should find somewhere to hole up," Ellie said as they made their way to the horses.

"Yeah, there's a place nearby. Come on," Katherine said, kicking Atlas's side slightly as they ran through the storm. "Ellie?" Katherine called out and when she looked behind her, the auburn-haired girl was no longer there.