Firefly

Forty

At some point in the night, I was woken up for two different reasons. The first reason was because I had to pee, and the second was because I thought I heard something. When I tried to get up, I noticed a weight around my waist. Joel had his arm wrapped around me from behind. I don't know when or how that happened, but it felt nice. I needed to get up, though, because my bladder was screaming at me. I lifted his arm up and slipped out from under it.

When I was coming back, I heard voices in the room. The sound of Ellie waking up Joel. "Joel!" I stopped outside the door and listened. I didn't want to just burst in, and somebody get hurt. "Eyes on me. You don't have to worry about what to say. We don't want to hurt you. We want to help you," the voice of a man said. Then I heard Joel say okay in that tone of voice that made you double think about your decision or what you had just said.

The guy was extremely confused by Joel's answer. "Okay, um... I don't know what the next step is with something like this, but if I lower my gun... we didn't hurt you... so you don't hurt us... right?" He asked. I decided I would slip into the room at that point. I stayed in the shadows and pulled my gun carefully out of the holster. "That's right," Joel said. "That's a weird fսcking tone, man," the guy who had Ellie at gunpoint.

A younger boy only a few years younger than Ellie stood in front of Joel with a gun pointed at him. That's just the way he sounds. He has an asshоlе voice. Joel, tell him he's okay," Ellie demanded. I would have laughed if there weren't guns pointed at him. "Everything is great," Joel said in the same tone as before. "Dude." I could picture the face Ellie must be giving him right now.

"Fսck! Okay... listen... I'm gonna trust you," the guy, who couldn't have been any older than early twenties said. "Yes. But if either of you guys try anything… yeah. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Ellie said. I heard Joel let out a deep sigh. "Can I sit up?" He asked. "Yeah. Slow. Get up slow." I took that moment to quietly walk up behind him and press the end of my gun into his back. "And if he doesn't, you'll what? Shoot them?" I asked. His whole body tensed and he threw his hand in the air. Joel moved forward and took the gun out of the younger kids' hands who willingly let it go and stepped back. I took the other gun and stepped away from the older one, putting my gun away.

We sat down across from each other and nibbled on the little food we had. "Who are you?" I asked. "My name's Henry. That's my brother, Sam. I'm the most wanted man in Kansas City. Although right now... my guess is you're running a close second," Henry said. We sat there and talked for a little bit. Henry explained what happened and why he's wanted. He told us he knows a way for us to get out of here, out of the city. 

"Tunnels?" I asked. "Yeah, when everything first happened, FEDRA drove all the infected down there. That's why you don't see any around the city." I looked over at Joel. His arms were crossed and he had a hard look on his face. "And you want us to go down there?" He asked. Henry shook his head, "that's the thing. They took care of them. The tunnels are clear now," he said. "You know this for sure? You've been down there?" I asked.

He again shook his head, "well, no. But you guys know how to fight them!" He argued. I threw my hands in the air. "You had a gun pointed at a fourteen year Olds head!" He winced and looked over at Ellie apologetically. "The guns aren't loaded. I've never shot anyone before or killed anyone for that matter."

We found ourselves waiting for night to come again. Ellie was playing with Sam, the two of them laughing. "I haven't seen him smile in a long time," Henry said. He was looking over at Sam with a fond smile on his face. Later on I found Joel in another conference room looking out the large windows that looked over the city. "Hey." I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. His right arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him.

"Do you think we can trust him?" I asked. Joel took a deep breath. "I don't know. But we don't have any other option." We stood there for a little while just looking out at the city. The silence was a little unsettling. Normally you would hear the howls of the infected. Maybe screams of someone trying to get away or gunshots going off. But here in Kansas City, you heard nothing. Once it was completely dark Henry led us down the stairwell and into a bank. Then we were led to another stairwell that led to the maintenance tunnels under the bank.

We were lucky enough that they were completely empty. No infected and no humans lurking about. "See! What did I tell you? No infected!" Henry said loudly. Joel and I both shushed him. "Just because you don't see or hear anything doesn't mean there isn't someone or something down here," I hissed at him. "Keep your damn voice down!" Joel said at the same time. Joel pulled his gun and I turned towards Ellie. "Get your gun out." She pulled her back pack off and pulled the gun Joel had given her after the hotel.

"Remember what Joel told you?" I asked and she nodded her head. "Don't fire it unless you absolutely have to." She gave me a nod of agreement and we headed forward. "Your parents are hard asses," I heard Henry say. Joel, Ellie, and I all spoke at the same time in response to his comment.

"They're not my parents."
"We're not her parents."

We continued on slowly down the tunnel until we came to an old bomb shelter. Joel opened the door and we walked inside. People had definitely been down here at one point in time. There was an area that was just for kids to play and learn. "I heard people tried to take shelter down here," Henry said quietly. After a little convincing we decided we would take a small break and let the kids rest. They played with a soccer ball before sitting down and looking at a comic book together.

Seeing Ellie smile and laugh made it worth all the shit we were going through. But I was still worried about what they would do to her once we got to that lab. I didn't know what they would need from her to create this cure and it made me want to just turn back and settle somewhere together…the three of us and maybe even Sam and Henry if they wanted to.