Firefly

Thirty-Nine

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. I just really needed a break.

Kansas City

We've been traveling for a few days now. Right now we're in Kansas City. We were able to find a car in a parking garage in Ohio but that didn't last long when we ran out of gas only an hour into the drive. From there it was a lot of walking for hours and hours, stopping for only a few minutes to rest until night fell. We would find a place to sleep and then head out early in the morning.

The first thing I noticed when we got into the city was that it was empty and didn't look like most cities. There were no signs of infected anywhere, let alone people. "This is fucking strange," I said, looking around. The city simply looked like it was evaluated and abandoned. It was the complete opposite of Boston. "Where I'd everyone?" Ellie asked. Joel was being extremely cautious with every step we took. He was ahead of Ellie and I, gun drawn. "They're here somewhere. It's way too quiet."

It was quiet and it made everything that much more unsettling. Joel put his arm out signaling for us to stop and stay behind him. A man came stumbling out into the street, holding his stomach. "Help. Please, help me!" He called out to us. I grabbed Ellie's hand and moved her closer and slightly behind me. Joel walked backwards towards us so he was directly in front of us. "Please. I need help!" The man called out again. "Go. Now. Run."

I didn't need Joel to tell me twice. I gripped Ellie's hand tighter and pulled her with me as I ran back the way we came. Joel was on our heels directing us towards a building. As we got closer to the building, an old corner store, someone started to shoot at us. We ran inside and ducked behind the counter. "How did you know that guy was faking it?" Ellie whispered.

"It's not the first time we've come by people that do that. Hell, we've done it," I whispered back. I looked around and nudged Joel. "She could fit through there. She'll be safe while we take care of these assholes," I said. He nodded and I pulled Ellie over to the hole in the wall. It was big enough for her to fit through. "Okay, I need you to go through to the other side and hide. Don't come out no matter what you hear! Do you understand?" She looked from me to Joel and back. “I can help. If you give me a gun, I can help you.” I shook my head, “not this time. Just please hide and I will come get you when everything is over.” She looked like she wanted to argue, but she held back and climbed through the hole. Once I was sure she would be hidden and safe I walked back to Joel.

“So what’s the plan? We don’t know how many there are.” He didn’t answer at first, but I know he was just trying to come up with a plan. He shook his head and let out a sigh.”We take care of whoever comes after us then we run and find a place to hold up until we can figure out how to get out of here.” I nodded my head, taking a deep breath, “okay, sounds as good as any plan. This whole place is suspicious.” We ducked down when we heard voices getting closer to where we were hiding. I pulled my gun out and cocked it, making sure the safety was off. “I saw them coming in here.” gravel crunched under heavy footsteps, shoes scraped against the floor, kicking debris out of the way. “You check around outside, I’ll look in here.” One pair of footsteps faded as they made their way out of the store, glass crunched under the weight of the person. I peaked around the counter to see a thin man with his back turned towards us. It took one look back over my shoulder for Joel to move around me and creep up behind the guy.

He grabbed the guy, swinging an arm over his head, putting him in a headlock, and cutting off his airway. Joel tightened his arm more, slowly sinking to the ground as the man went limp in his arms. “Over here!” I jumped up from behind the counter and shot the second guy before he could pull his trigger. Two more men came around the corner, I took one and Joel took the other. The guy I was fighting pinned me under his weight after he knocked me to the ground and kicked my gun out of my reach. Joel was too busy taking care of the other one. The asshole who was on top of me wrapped his hands around my throat. My hands flew up to wrap around his wrist, digging my nails into his skin and trying to pull his hands away. He pressed harder, cutting my air off. My vision started to fade at the corners threatening to turn everything black when a gunshot rang out, then another. A few minutes later the weight of his body was being lifted off of me.

I was sucking in air and coughing. I looked up to see Joel holding out his hand. I took it and let him pull me up. When I looked around I saw Ellie standing a few feet away, looking at us with wide eyes, a gun was in her hand. Joel walked over to her and gently took the gun out of her hand. "I'm sorry," she whispered and looked up at me. I shook my head and pulled her into me. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I know you said to stay hidden no matter what, but he was going to kill you and Joel couldn't get to you." She wrapped her arms around my waist. "It's okay. You're not in trouble. But we need to go, okay. I need you to climb back through that hole and look and see if there is a way for me and Joel to get in. Can you do that?" She nodded her head and pulled away from me.

Ellie went back through the hole and looked around. "There's a door on the other side of the room, but it's blocked," she said. "Okay, we're going to go around and meet you over there. Start trying to move whatever you can." Joel and I carefully made our way around to the other side until we found the door and then we helped Ellie by pushing on the door to move whatever was in front of it.

Once it was open she laced her hand with mine and we made a run for it, going from building to building until we were far enough away from the store. We climbed several flights of stairs, Ellie made it to the top before us. "Come on, it's not that hard!" Joel and I stopped and looked at her. "I'm fifty-six you little shit!" He said. I laughed and pushed past him. "Yeah, Ellie, he's old and has bad knees. Give him a break," I said. Joel glared at me and I laughed harder.

Once we were as high as we could go we found a room and set it up for us to sleep. Joel found some glass and spread it on the floor in the hall and in the room by the door. He said it would wake him up if someone tried to sneak up on us. We took cushions from chairs and couches and put them down on the floor to sleep on. Then we laid down.

We laid there in silence until Ellie decided it was a good time to tell a joke. "Did you know diarrhea is hereditary?" I sighed and tried to ignore her. "What?" Joel asked, confused. "Yeah, it runs in your genes." I didn't try to hold back a laugh. "That's so stupid!" Joel said, but he wasn't able to hold back a small laugh. "You laughed!" Ellie said. "I did not. Go to sleep!" It went like that for about ten minutes, the three of us laughing until we actually tried to get some sleep.