Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

Out for blood ⚠️

There was absolutely no talking with Joel. He had made it perfectly clear that he was not giving up, not going home and not stopping to rest. He'd keep going until his shins splinted and back broke, and even then he'd sooner crawl to her than cease his hunt. That was his woman out there, his child. Ellie was home safe and so there was absolutely nothing in this damned world that mattered more. He wasn't going to fail her again- he couldn't fail her again, for the sake of the dregs of his remaining sanity. He'd never be able to live with himself... not again. Not after Sarah, not after Tess. He'd considered himself to be cursed, that every damn time he had a woman in his life someone, something was hell bent on ripping them away from him. He'd saved Ellie, used every last fibre of strength and blood fuelled fight to do so- it worked and so he'd do it all over again and again if he had to. God help the fuckers that dared to take his woman away from him.

They truly hadn't stopped since leaving Jackson, the horses beneath them beginning to slack and grow slow. Tommy wasn't even sure the last time his brother slept properly. A week on a run, overnight patrol the next day to be followed by this. It wasn't healthy. They all needed to rest, re charge but as much as Tommy believed that they needed to break for at least a couple of hours, he knew that Joel would never back down. He knew that his brother would just continue on without him and he wasn't about to sit back and allow his stubborn ass sibling to face this all alone. It would be futile to even suggest such a thing...

The younger brother had managed to simmer down the boiling tension between the two other men. They gave Rich the option to go back but he'd be travelling back alone, something that he wasn't comfortable with in the dark and so he begrudgingly stayed with the brothers to finish what they had started.

The issue now was that they had no idea where they were going. She went missing at some point between nine pm the previous evening and four am that morning. It was seven hours of unaccounted time and a further three before they had even spotted Chris. It was approaching twenty four hours now since Ava had last been seen, she could be anywhere by now.

They had searched the most obvious places with no avail. Where the fuck would they have taken her? Who even were 'they'?

Joel's mind went into overdrive as he tried to think of any possible leads to her whereabouts. His molars clenched so tightly together that they might break at any given moment, the discomfort of the pressure going unnoticed by his blocked receptors, his entire body running on nothing but adrenaline and persistence. That's when it clicked. Something that should have been on the very forefront of his mind from the very beginning. The first settlement they visited on the supply run one week ago, the one they passed up on. The settlement that had been inhabited by raiders.

He snapped up and out from his deep thought, jaw slacking ever so slightly and eyes widening at his illuminating realisation, "The raiders from last week..."

Tommy and Rich shared a knowing look. Why the fuck had it taken them so long to realise that this was a possibility? These raiders would have been out likely in search for their next settlement to target and Jackson wasn't all that far away. It was not unreasonable to believe that they had done this.

The men wasted no more time as they hastily mounted their horses and pressed on, tracking back onto the route they followed the previous week. They could make it by the early hours of the morning if they continued without stopping.
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The weather finally broke and the skies gradually cleared from cloud cover presenting a picturesque view of the night sky. A deep navy blue backdrop for a full moon that lit up their path between the never ending rows of trees.