Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

Day drinking

The days ahead passed quickly with both Ellie and Joel being kept remarkably busy with either school work or their rota'd tasks for the day. As treacherous as their cross country journey had been, the bleak events that entailed only seemed to blind them from the fact that their days had been mostly filled with endless walking and nothingness. It was astonishing just how busy their daytime hours could become with some simple routine.

Joel had been working on various building repairs around the community. Patching up leaky roofs, replacing worn down doors and securing the structural integrity of various inhabited homes that were undergoing development. Twenty years ago he couldn't ever imagine that he'd ever miss the trade that he dedicated the first part of his life too with the gruelling hours and with what at the time seemed like hard labour but he had to admit that he quite enjoyed being back at it. He found it quite nostalgic in a strange way. The days were quite long, starting just as the sun rose and finishing sometimes not until late afternoon but it gave him a sense of purpose, belonging.

On the days where he finished up early enough, he would encourage Ellie down to the lake in order to keep up with the swimming lessons. She was improving day by day, proving herself to be a quick learner. She wasn't quite there yet but she could now confidently float on both her front and back and had attempted some sort of version of a doggy paddle, her kicks thrashing around enough to warrant her, her own splash zone.

The week flew by before landing on Friday and the usual routine took place. Joel woke up and knocked on Ellie's door to ensure she was awake and up for another enlightening day at school. This was something that had also improved as the days went by. The teen insisted that she hadn't made friends but he had spotted her a couple of times conversing with a couple of the resident kids and it appeared to be in a friendly manner. Once certain that Ellie was awake and actually moving, he focused on getting himself ready for the day before setting off with a canister of steaming coffee and a slice of moderately overdone toast between his teeth, leaving behind a couple of additional slices on the counter for when the young girl eventually emerges from the bathroom.

He took his usual route, heading over towards the central hub which was just that- a building in the center of the community where people would enter to check into their day to day tasks. It was also where people would go to notify the board if they were too sick to work. Not to dissimilar from the set ups within the quarantine zones.

In his usual manner, he apathetically made his way over to the board, avoiding the 'good mornings' as best as he could but acknowledging those he could escape with a simple stoic nod, to see where he would be stationed at for the day and what it was that needed doing. It was rarely the same two days in a row, they seemed to enjoy mixing it up...He searched his name and could see he was grouped into small team inclusive of Tommy and one other to fix up a deteriorated roof on one of the small terraced houses. He took a step back once he obtained the information he needed, allowing other to take his place. His eyes scanned meticulously over the filling room, spotting Tommy further back in the queue.

Striding over and tapping Tommy's shoulder to get his attention, "Mornin'. We're both down for fixing the roof. Twenty Willow walk. Thought I'd save you the hassle of waitin' in this"

Tommy stepped out the queue with a nostalgic grin across his cheeks, following Joel out of the building.

"Just like the old times" the brother joked, patting his sibling firmly over the shoulder.
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By the time the two brothers arrived at the house, the third member of the team had already arrived, busy getting set up for the job.

Tommy went straight over to him, patting him on the back in a friendly greeting. Clearly they were already familiar with one another, not that it was a surprise... It still wasn't massively clear how long Tommy had been residing here. The guy seemed to be around the same age range as him with a short scruffy beard and brown greying hair down to his ears.