Firefly

Sixty

Yn

When I woke up again, Ellie was gone. I quickly sat up and looked around the basement for her, but she wasn't anywhere in sight. I sighed and swiped my hand down my face. My gaze found Joel's face. He was pale and clammy looking. I moved the blankets off him, unzipped his jacket, and pulled his shirt up. The wound was an angry red and a little warm to the touch, which told me it was infected. “Fuck.” I pulled his shirt back down, zipped his jacket back up, and threw the blankets over him again.

“I'll be right back. I need to go find Ellie and try to find you some antibiotics.”  I kissed his forehead, his skin warmer than normal against my lips. When I went to pull away his hand cake up and grabbed onto my jacket. “Get back to Tommy. Take–take Ellie and go back to Tommy's.” I pushed his hand away and looked into his eyes that were barely open. “You're fucking delusional if you think I would just leave you here to die alone. Now shut up and rest, I'll be back soon.” I covered him up and hurried up the basement stairs.

I went through the house looking for Ellie. When I went into the garage the horses had fresh buckets of snow, so I knew she couldn't have gotten far, and luckily for me it would be easy to track her. I walked around the horses to open the garage door to see a note stuck to it. The paper was yellowed with ripped edges.

“Went to go hunt.”

I sighed and balled the paper up, throwing it on the ground. I wish she would have just woken me up to tell me that she was going to hunt. I pulled the garage door up enough to slip underneath, closing it behind me. I looked around and decided to just search the houses instead of going after Ellie. She was a smart kid and I figured I better start letting her take more responsibility. Better than fighting with her all the time. I remember being her age and wanting freedom. Of course, I wouldn't be giving her too much freedom. I was going to search a few houses and if she isn't back within the hour then I would go looking for her.

A lot of the houses were boarded up and the houses that I was able to get into didn't have much inside. I found a couple bandages and some rubbing alcohol, there wasn't much of it but it would be enough to at least clean the wound. I also found some sugar cubes, which would be great for the horses. I could give them a couple when I get back to the house. I looked through a few more houses but came up empty so I headed back to the house we were staying in. When I got back I gave the horse a couple sugar cubes and went down to the basement.

Ellie was there, kneeling beside Joel with a syringe in one hand and a vial of something else in the other. “What's that?” I asked. She jumped and turned to look at me. “Antibiotics,” she said, standing up and handing the vial to me. I turned it over and read the label. ‘penicillin’  “Where did you get this?” I asked her. She looked nervous and a little rattled. “Some guy. I was out hunting and shot a deer but It ran off. I followed the blood trail to an old mill or factory and there were two men there who found the deer before me. The one made a deal with me. They would give me antibiotics for half the deer.”

I looked around not seeing any deer or meat from one. “Where's the deer now?” I asked. She sighed and started to pace. “When the other guy went to get the medication we stayed back to wait for him. The man, I think he's the leader of his group, started a fire and we were talking. We had to fight a few runners off while we waited for his friend. When his friend came back and gave me the antibiotics I ran straight back here. But, yn…the guy Joel killed, he was part of their group.”

It didn't take long for those men to track Ellie. I had quickly given Joel a dose of the penicillin before forcing a knife in his hand. “Joel, I'm going to need you to listen to me.” I tapped his cheek until he opened his eyes slightly. “Those men from the university are here with more people. If someone comes down here you need to protect yourself. I won't let anything happen to Ellie. I love you.” I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips, then I was up the stairs. I pushed a cabinet in front of the door so it would take longer for someone to get to him if they found it.

Ellie was already getting the horses saddled. I didn't like the part of our plan to split up but it made the most sense. We could already hear voices growing closer. They had tracked Ellie back here and would find us in a matter of a minute. We had to drive them away from Joel and take them out. I opened the garage door and Ellie led the horses out so I could quietly close the door again. We both got on a horse, went over the plan and put it into action. She went one way and I went the other. 

There were more men than I thought there would be. It didn't take too long for them to take both Ellie and I down. They shot the horses which was incredibly sad. Now Ellie and I sat in a cell in some building. The sign we passed said we were in some kind of resort or something. I was guessing it was a town that used to get a lot of tourists during this time of the year. They had brought us here and threw us in a cell. There was a wooden table by the door that looked like it was used to cut meat on.

“We need to get out of here,” Ellie whispered. “I know.” I looked at her and sighed, “Okay, I need you to listen. If they ask about Joel, you say nothing. Pretend he didn't make it.” Just as I finished my sentence the door opened and the guy Ellie dealt with while she was out hunting walked in with two trays of food. He slid them under the bars and smiled at us. “Thought you'd two be hungry.”  There was no way in hell I was going to let Ellie touch that food. God only knows what they did to it.