World's End

Chapter Four

"Are you going to shoot me again?" Lincoln asked a few hours later, limping behind Marissa. For some reason, this was his number one concern and the fourth time he had asked that ridiculous question.

"I have five bullets in my gun. You really think I'm going to waste them on you?" Marissa asked dryly. She heard him curse at her back and she just grinned.

"So where are we going?" Lincoln finally asked after he had finished cursing Marissa and her future (if any) children and grandchildren.

"We decided to head towards the most unlikely of places." Ellie Rae stated in an airy, almost showman like voice." Away from all of... That." Lincoln ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"And where would that be?" The girls looked at each other in silence. There was a small part of Marissa that thought that if they told him, maybe he would go his own way. But then it would also be unfair not to tell him.

"Edge of the Wilderness." Marissa stopped walking as she said it, turning to face Lincoln. His jaw quite literally dropped.

"There?!" He practically squeaked. He came to a stop in front of her and leaned on his crudely made walking stick. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am." Ellie Rae jogged up beside them after having not noticed that the two had stopped. "It's like El said, the most unlikely of places."

"And what makes you think that being there is any safer than back home, aye? You realize that the Wilderness is just as bad, if not worse. We could die!"

"We aren't going in, idiot. We're going to make camp just outside it. Plus, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Marissa said with a sigh. "We need to get out of this place, that's for sure. I don't want to be here if an earthquake decides to hit again." Lincoln nodded. Ellie Rae adjusted the straps of her bag.

"Or if a horseman decides to show up." Ellie Rae added. Marissa gave her a curt nod. Lincoln just leaned on his stick and readjusted his backpack, opting to not say anything incase Marissa decided she would use one of her last bullets on him.

"Which would be just as unlucky as an earthquake, but I'd rather have the horseman." Lincoln cocked an eyebrow.

"I think I'd rather have the earthquake." Marissa didn't know what to say after that. She just pursed her lips and breathed heavily.

"Shall we continue?" Ellie Rae asked, looking between the two of them. They took off at a slower pace, Marissa taking point, Ellie Rae in the middle and Lincoln hobbling along in the back. Marissa hadn't voiced the reason for him to bring up the rear, he had just done it. For the first time that day, (and hopefully not the last), Lincoln had understood the unspoken requirement that as the weakest link, if someone gets them- either animal or human- the girls would be able to make a run for it. Marissa had nodded her thanks at him when she had turned to make sure everyone was still present. She didn't like the guy- he was also self-centered and obnoxious- but he seemed to understand that right now was not the time to whine.

They walked a couple of blocks before Ellie Rae stopped them, having bent down to pick something up off the ground.

"Hey Mar? Didn't you draw this?" She turned the paper until it was the right way up, the edges of it burned and flaking in the wind, crumbling between her fingers. Marissa's looker over her shoulder and frowned.

"I... I think so?" She turned and carefully took the page from Ellie Rae and could see through the bits of unburned paper that it was, in fact her notes. "Oh yeah, I drew that yesterday." She swung her head around, looking for where it possibly could've come from.

"Uh ,guys? I think I found the rest of your stuff." Lincoln had hobbled over to a nook in between the buildings and had struggled his way to the ground and was prodding at a sad little pile of ashes. Marissa scowled at the name but ran over and knelt beside him and picked up a small, smoking piece of what was left of her leather notebook. She scoffed and shook head before dropping it back into the pile of ashes.