𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎 & 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 || ᴇʟʟɪᴇ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs

Chapter 13 - Trust Is An Uneasy Road

The horses hooves softly and quietly stampeded on the morning snowy grassland. The anticipation I felt as we neared the University of Eastern Colorado only grew. Would the Fireflies be there? What would happen to me? What would happen to Ellie? Would Joel leave us, just like he planned to leave us before?

The calls of a thousand birds echoed the distance treetops as the clattering of horseshoes now clunked along the pavements of the city.

After a few days of riding my butt was starting to get sore, though my hips still eased into the saddle and got used to Larkin's movements.

"What did you want to be before the outbreak?" Ellie's voice piped up, causing my head to spike the direction of Ellie, Joel and Callus, who were walking on beside her and her own horse. "What did I want to be?" Joel repeated "I was a contractor, we already talked about it."

"No, but what did you want to be?" Ellie explained. "A contractor" Joel bluntly replied.

"Joel..." Ellie whined "Come on, seriously" Joel sighed before chuckling and replying "I would've liked to be a singer."

This was the point I chimed in, giggling a little as the words flew out of my mouth "You? A singer?" But then I quickly remember I had promised myself not to ease back into that friendly relationship with him. Not after he even considered leaving us. He had to earn my trust again. He had to earn it.

I was resentful, to say the least. But the relationship the three of us had built over the past few months to the point it was so hard to completely destroy just by one act. Even if it was a pretty shitty act.

"Don't make fun of me, can you sing?" He replied with a bit of banter. "I'm sure I could sing better than you" I snapped back, but my slight anger quickly curled back into a smile I couldn't control.

"Can you sing for us?" Ellie blissfully requested, her arms wrapped around Joel's upper torso. He laughed in response. "You wish."

"I do wish! I'm about to save the world, it's the least you could do" Joel had to think about that for a second, because it was true. Which just sent me into another spiral of thoughts.

Would Ellie's immunity really save the world? What would it mean for us? Would she be taken away from me, would I ever see her again? There were so many questions that were yet to be answers. I was probably just overthinking it, but the anxieties I felt towards the situation were ever continuing.

"Maybe." Joel finally answered, Ellie replying with a little victory laugh.

An hour or so passed where we chatted and clattered through the city, the University was big. Like real fucking big.

The rapid approach only spiked my anxiety again, the pit in my stomach deepening.

The massive green walls towered over the three of us, even if they were still over a hundred odd meters away. There were guard stands, sacks stacked on top of another to provide shooting shelter, yet as far as I could tell, there were no guards.

"It's empty?" Ellie spoke, in almost a whisper, a whisper of severe disappointment. "We don't know that.. maybe they're just inside." Joel comforted, halting up Callus and dismounting.

He picked the reins over the animals head, holding it in his hands before he moved back towards its back, Ellie swinging her leg out from the other stirrup and beginning to dismount.

She flung herself off, basically without any care, Joel only just catching her around the waist to ease the fall. "Jesus kiddo" He panicked for a second, chuckling after.

I threw Larkin's reins over his head, kicking up my right foot out of the stirrup and throwing that leg over to the left side, then I leaned into the saddle and removing my other foot from the left stirrup. I then them pushed myself off and onto the ground with a swift jump, much more classy than Ellie's fall.