Firefly

Forty-Three

After leaving the neighborhood, we ran until we came to a motel. We were far enough away from the chaos that happened in the neighborhood that we didn't need to worry about the infected following us. Joel and I were sitting on the floor, his arms wrapped around me, holding me close to him. Henry was sitting on the other side of him on a stool eating jerky. All of us were looking into the bedroom where Sam and Ellie sat on the bed, looking at a comic book. 

"Think they'll be okay?" Henry asked, watching his little brother with a concerned expression. I looked from him to the kids and back to Henry. "Yeah, I think…it's easier when you're a kid anyway," Joel said. Ellie was softly reading in the other room with Sam watching her finger glide across the page so he could follow along. Henry looked at me then to Joel. "You don't have anyone else relying on you," Joel clarified. Henry nodded his head and looked down at the jerky I'm his hands. "That's the hard part. Well…I guess we're doing a good job then." 

I leaned my head on Joel's shoulder more and closed my eyes. The last few days have been exhausting. "What's the comic book say? Endure and survive?" Joel said. He pulled me a little closer and rested his cheek on top of my head. "Endure and survive," I heard Henry say. Silence. "That ship's redundant." He had a slight amusement in his voice. Joel hummed, "Yeah, it's –it's not great." Henry let out a small laugh and let more silence fill the air. I could feel Joel take a deep breath, his fingers playing with hair. 

"Look, I don't know exactly how we're gettin' to Wyoming. We're probably walkin'. But…you know, if you want." I opened my eyes, looked at Henry, and gave him a small smile. "Yeah. Yeah. Um…yeah, I think it'd be nice for Sam to have a friend. I'll tell him in the morning. New day. New start," Henry said. He gave Joel, and I nodded as a thanks and got up to go into the room. 

I looked up at Joel and then kissed his cheek. "That was very kind of you. I think you're becoming a big softy again," I said. He gave me a side eye before rolling his eyes. "I am not. They can't just be out there on their own. Besides, she might even be less annoying." He had a ghost of a smirk on his face. Turning his head, he kissed my forehead, and we went back the way we were sitting. Henry came back out, shutting the door behind him. The three of us talked some more and then settled down to go to sleep. 

The night was sound and almost peaceful. I never fell into a deep sleep, but I was deep enough that I got a half good night's rest. We were woken up by Ellie yelling Sam's name and her running out of the bedroom door with him close behind. When she fell onto her back, he jumped on top of her. San had turned, which means he was bitten sometime last night. Ellie was screaming and trying to hold him back. Joel, Henry, and I were all on our feet the second she came out into the living area of the motel room. 

 I were all on our feet the second Ellie screamed and came through the door. I tried to run over to her, but Joel pushed me behind him. He raised his gun to shoot Sam, but Henry stepped in and demanded Joel give him the gun. Ellie was struggling to keep Sam from biting her as she cried. Joel handed it over to him, and he pointed at us. “Joel!” Ellie cried. The next few seconds were all a blur after that. There was a gunshot, then Henry yelling at me not to move, then I was facing Joel, my hands fisting his shirt as another gunshot rang through the small room. A second later, I was pulling Ellie into me and cradling her head to my chest while she sobbed. They were both gone. Sam and Henry were gone, and we were on our own again, making our way to Wyoming to find Tommy. 

It's been a month since then. The weather was starting to grow colder the closer to winter we got. We got lucky when we found a house to hold up in. They had winter jackets, gloves, hats, and scarves. I made sure Ellie would be nice and warm when we started to get snow. Tonight, we were in the living room of a house in front of the fireplace. Joel had started a small fire; just something to keep us warm for the night. Ellie lay on the floor bundled up in blankets fast asleep. 

Joel stood beside the window, insisting he kept watch, and I sat on the couch. What had happened to Henry and Sam affected all of us in different ways. It took weeks until Ellie was back to somewhat herself. Joel and I pulled away from each other a little again. This world was cruel; it always has been. I stood from the couch and walked over to Joel. "So, which way are we going tomorrow?" I asked. He shrugged, "I don't know. I guess we'll just keep going the way we have been until we run into trouble." 

That's exactly what we did; we kept going until we ran into trouble. We ran into a lot of infected; large groups of them. They mostly stayed in the cities where QZs used to be. There weren't a lot of QZs left anymore. A lot of them fell years and years ago. Some lasted longer than others. Boston was one of very few QZs that was still running since the beginning. There were times we had to go completely out of our way just to avoid going through cities and some towns. 

October turned into November, and November turned into December. The snow covered the ground, and the air was chill. It was harder to trek through the snow at times, and, at one point, we had no choice but to stop and hold up in a small cabin to wait out a storm. December past and January came. Another year in this messed up world.