Firefly

Thirty-Two

Pittsburgh 2023

"How did you know that guy wasn't hurt?" Ellie asked. I looked over at Joel, who was clearly trying to avoid answering the question. "Because we've been on both sides," I told her. She looked at us, and Joel opened the door. As soon as we stepped outside, we saw a pile of ash and bone. "You killed people?" She asked, looking at the pile of bones and ash that was still smoking. "We did what we had to do," Joel told her. 

He jumped up onto an outside air vent and up into a fire escape. Ellie and I jumped up to stand beside him. He pointed his finger towards the distance, "we need to get over there to that bridge," he said. In the distance stood the Fort Pitt Bridge. The yellow arce was not hard to miss. "Looks so far away," Ellie said, then jumped down over the fence that was below the fire escape. 

"El, wait up!" I said, jumping after her. Joel climbed down after us, and then we jumped down onto the road that led into the QZ. "Is this the same road we came to before turning around?" Ellie asked. Joel hummed. The road was jammed with cars, trucks, and buses. Some cars were just blackened shells, and some had the skeletons of those who never made it into the zone. 

"Your hunter buddies do this too?" Ellie asked. Looking down at a pair of skeletons. I walked up beside her and took a deep breath. "No. Back when they announced there would be quarantine zones, everyone was trying to get in. And when the zones came to their capacity…" I clicked my tongue, and she looked up at me. "They just killed them? Even if they were infected?" 

"Yup. Even if they weren't infected, they still killed them because it was better than taking the chance of them getting infected. Less people…less infected," Joel said and continued walking. We walked through the cars, occasionally looking inside to see if there was anything of use. As we got closer, we came to another bus, blocking the main entrance into the zone. Joel's arm shot out in front of Ellie and pulled her behind a car with me right behind them. 

There were three men up ahead on top of the bus. "Shit. What're we doing?" I asked. Joel gave me a look that said that was a stupid question. He was going to kill them. I mean, it was only three of them. Or at least that we would see. There were only three. Joel pulled his gun and shot. "Fuck!" Ellie said, covering her ears. "I pulled my own gun and shot one of the three men. Before the other one could even process what happened Joel shot him. 

After they were taken care of we continued on our way. We walked around looking in the vehicles. "Okay, we need to lighten the mood, ready?" I turned my head to look at Ellie, who was following behind Joel and I. She had her joke book out. "It doesn't matter how much you push the envelope…it'll still be stationary."

Joel looked over at me before directing his attention to her. "What is that?" He asked. "Joke book. No Pun Intended: Volume Two by Will Livingston." Joel sighed heavily and turned around. "Let's keep going." Of course, Ellie being who she is kept going with her jokes. "What did the mermaid wear to her math class? An algae bra.” she chuckled a little at that and kept going. 

"I stayed up all night wondering where the sun went, and then it dawned on me," she looked up at me with a smile on her face. Joel jumped up on top of the bus and Ellie put her book away. "Okay, fine. But there will be more!" She climbed up after him and I was last to climb up beside them. "Another abandoned zone?" Ellie asked. 

"Yeah, there aren't as many around anymore. Boston is one of few that are still functioning " I told her. We jumped down onto the other side and on the wall read: "give us our reactions." Ellie had stopped and looked at the wall. "Why weren't they giving them their rations?" She asked. Joel stopped beside her and looked at the wall. "It's a way to control people and they started running low on food and supplies." 

"That's never happened in Boston," she said. We walked through the line area to get to the entrance into the QZ where they would get people registered. "Happens more often than you know," Joel mumbled. As we got closer we heard voices. "There's more people," Ellie whispered. 

I turned and looked at her, "you stay behind me or Joel at all times. If you can't stay behind one of us then you hide until we say it's safe to come out." She nodded her head and followed Joel and I as we crouched down and made our way around to the other side to get a better look. We were outside a bookstore. 

Two men were standing outside until the canvas tent that FEDRA had out up. "There are probably more inside. We take them out silently then head inside." I nodded at Joel and followed him around the side of the metal wall. Joel took the one on the left and I took the one on the right. We put them in headlocks, cutting off their airway and then snapped their necks. I heard Ellie whisper, "Jesus." Before we quietly and carefully made our way inside. 

Inside on the bottom floor was where people had been registered before being allowed into the zone itself. Joel had separated from me and Ellie, who stayed behind me but also stayed far enough away that if she needed to run she could without getting caught in the crossfire. 

I counted four on my side that I could see and when Joel finally made his way back to us and didn't look happy. "There  are more upstairs. At least five of them," he said. "There's at least four down here," I told him. He nodded, "okay. We can try and distract them. Get them separated and take them out so they don't gang up on us. Take her and go back outside where we came in. I'll make a distraction and wait near the alley on the other side." 

Ellie and I made our way back to where we had come in. Then we heard a big bang and saw Joel quickly making his way to the otherside. There were voices from inside the building. Cm"what was that?" One voice asked. "I'll check it out." One of the men, from where we were just at, came out the front door. He slowly walked further out, looking around as he got closer to where Ellie and I were, I quickly grabbed him and shoved my knife into his throat. 

There was a strangled cry from the other side indicating that Joel took out another one of them. I grabbed a brick off the ground and threw it at one of the windows causing more men to get curious about what was going on. We took about two more before moving back inside and shooting it out with the rest. 

Of course, there was that one that thought hebwas sneaky. He came up behind me, wrapping his arm around my neck and holding a knife to it. The darkness in Joel's eyes would have scared anyone, and it did at least for the asshole behind me. His voice shook as he demanded for Joel to back up. What he wasn't expecting was for me to twist in his arms and stab him just above the waistband of his pants. 

Then when he fell to the ground, my hands wrapped around his head from behind and I snapped his neck. Ellie looked at me with wide eyes. "You're fucking scary. You know that? Isn't she fucking scary, Joel?!" I could see Joel wanted to say something. To lecture me on needing to be more aware of my surroundings. But he didn't. For once in his life he didn't say anything and we moved on.