𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎 & 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 || ᴇʟʟɪᴇ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs

Chapter 14 - Footprints In Trade

It was dark down in the basement, my vision was blurry from all the blood loss. Ellie had pulled a mattress down from the upstairs area and layed Joel down on it after we had dragged him off the horse and downstairs.

I groaned, my face coiling up in disgust as I sat on the cold concrete floor, lifting my shirt off from over my head. "It's going to hurt, like a bitch" Ellie explained, I nodded. "I'm very well aware." I panted, tensing my shoulder as her chilly fingers gripped the skin.

She had a pair of tweezers she had stolen from Jackson in her hand, which we had sterilised with some alcohol Joel usually used for molotovs.
"I hope you know what you're doing." I said, grabbing her hand to stop it from plunging into my flesh. "I promise I do" She said "Have you done it before?" I badgered "No.."

I sighed. It's fine, it needs to come out, if she can get it out then it will be fine. "Want me to count to three?" Ellie questioned "Not really.. Just do it" I replied.

I felt the tinge of metal hitting my skin, causing me to yell out in pain, though I still stayed relatively still as the tweezers dove deeper into my shoulder. I breathed out through my mouth, trying to stay calm. "Hold up, I've almost got it," Ellie said, moving the tweezers forward into my wound.

"Fuckk" I groaned out, pressing my eyes shut before a split second later I felt her pull out the tweezers. Something hit the ground, causing a small ting. I opened my eyes, feeling a splash of blood fall from my wound. "Is it out?"

"Yes, yes it is. Stay still I need to stitch it" Ellie replied, opening her last medicine kit, half full with most importantly a needle and stitched. "No, use it for Joel, he needs it more" I protested, covering the hole in my shoulder with my hand to stop the bleeding, feeling it melt into my skin.
"Even if I used it on Joel there's not enough to even finish one of the sides" Ellie explained, showing the amount of stitching she had left. I sighed once more, nodding.

Before I knew it, after she had cleaned the open wound there was a needle sticking into my shoulder. My eyes shut again, grinding my teeth at the pain as she weaved it quickly through my skin, trying to make it quick and easy. "Alright. Done." She spoke, tying the stitch and cutting the remaining centimetre off.

I panted, nodding and chucking on one of my clean shirts. "Aren't you going to put a bandage on it? It could get infected." Ellie pestered. "We don't even have any left, we used them all on Joel" I replied, raising my tone a little.

Ellie threw up her hands, "Alright! Alright! I just don't want it getting infected!" She defensively responded, "Sorry.. Sorry. I'm just – stressed" I replied, wiping the beads of sweat off my forehead.

I looked back at Joel, who was raised up on the mattress. He was out of it, he kept waking up every now and then, but when he did all he did was groan, toss and turn before falling back asleep. God I wish I could sleep right now. I'm so tired.

It was getting late, but I don't think even if I tried I could go to sleep. Not after today.

I looked back to Ellie who was putting away all of her supplies and cleaning up some of the blood from the floor with my original shirt, which was completely ruined now.

"We need to find food in the morning." I spoke up, Ellie nodding in response. "There's a forest basically all around this shithole, where we can hunt deer." She replied.

Sounded good enough for me.

The limited sunlight greeted my eyes as I woke. It was filtering in from slightly cracks in the roof. I felt a small groan erupt from my throat. It wasn't ever fun sleeping on the floor, but sleeping bags on concrete was always so much worse.