Silver ||Joel Miller||

one step ahead

JOEL

2023

All Joel could do was sit in silence, his gaze shifting between Ellie and Laura. While the kid had wide eyes and an open mouth as she tried to suck in air, Laura was lying still on her makeshift bed, holding a hand towards him to tell him to keep still. He wasn't sure how long he could obey the wordless order for.

"You don't have to figure out what to say because we... we don't want to hurt you." The one in front of Laura spoke. He was older than the other one by quite a few years, and was likely standing over Laura to keep Joel under control. It would work for the moment, but at one point or another those guns would be tucked away, and he was happy to wait for an opening if he had to.

"Okay..." Laura trailed off, slowly pulling her hand back. It wasn't her saying that he could move, it was so she could lift her hands above her head and make the blood in his veins run cold. "It's clear you don't want to hurt us, or you would have done so already. If you put the guns down, we can talk through this rationally." Joel could already hear her accent shifting, to match the kid who had a gun in her face. The technique was something she used to gain people's trust, but it wasn't working quite yet. "Hey, it's alright. We'll work this out." Look at me so I know you're okay. For the love of god, look at me, Quebec.

"We didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us, right?" The kid endangering Laura asked as he turned to look at Joel.

"That's right," Joel replied. His voice probably came out a little deeper than intended, a little more threatening than he would have liked–but only because of the position they were stuck in.

"That's a weird fucking tone man."

"That's just the way he sounds, he has an asshole voice." Ellie cut in, trying to diffuse the situation. "Joel, tell them he's okay." He had a feeling it wouldn't help in the slightest, but he would give it a try for the sake of getting the guns away from his... what were they to him?

"Everything is great." Laura's eyes turned towards him, a warning look in them that he understood perfectly. She was going to do the negotiations from that point forward, which seemed fair if he was honest. He was just glad she looked at him.

"Dude," Ellie sharply replied, just as disappointed in his response as Laura had been. That was also fair.

"Please ignore him, he is not a people person, but he will listen to me when I tell him that everything is fine," Laura said. It was a lie, because he wouldn't listen. He wasn't sure what he could do in this situation, but putting trust in these kids was not a sane option. "He would be less on edge if there weren't guns in our faces." That was the truth.

"Okay, okay... we'll trust you. But if you try anything-"

"We understand, and we won't. Can I sit up now?" Laura asked. Joel's heart sat in his throat, each passing second was making his lungs coil tighter.

"Yeah, slow. Get up slow..." he watched her move, watched her fingers stretch towards her bow before they relaxed again. If Laura thought she could talk her way out of this, then he would let her try, even if it was getting hard for him to breathe.

"You can put the gun away, we won't try anything as long as you don't." She said, raising her hands next to her head. The guns in the room were lowered, the older one signing to the younger to do so. "What are your names?" She let her hands slowly fall to her sides, her shoulders relaxed as she tilted her head back to look up at the kid.

"I'm Henry, that's my brother Sam." Henry pointed to the younger child. Sam must have been deaf, it explained the sign language at the very least. "I'm the most wanted man in Kansas City, and I'm guessing you guys are running a close second."