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🧪 thirteen. art of disappearing ☆ ⊹ ࣪.⋆༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚
"Valeria?..Valeria!"
Valeria slowly woke up to the sound of Ellie's voice calling out her name and she blinked wearily to the sight of the darkness. The candle within the lantern had died out a long time ago and she reached for the flashlight that was packed away in her backpack. Valeria tensed up at hearing a click from a gun and she slowly turned, seeing a man holding a gun towards Ellie with a boy pointing another gun straight at her forehead. Joel was still asleep a few feet away and it made Valeria wonder if he was deaf or hard of hearing. Surely, any normal human being would hear the clicking of guns and the sound of heavy breathing. The boy looking down at her had some sort of war paint spread across his eyes and he held a small finger to his lips, silencing her.
When Joel awoke, the other man looked between the two and he kept his gun pointed at the back of Ellie's head. The two of them stared down the blackened barrels of the two guns. Valeria swore that her life would probably end there, mentally cursing herself for not bringing a rosary or something to pray for her life and hope that God would have some mercy on her soul. "We don't want to hurt you. We wanna help you." said the man, who sounded younger and his voice was on the edge of nervousness with the way how funny his voice sounded.
"Okay." said Joel, his voice was gruff with sleep.
Through the darkness, Valeria could see the way the younger man looked funny. His eyebrows were pulled together. "Okay, um..I don't know what the next step is with something like this, but if I lower my gun..we didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us..right?" asked the younger man, causing Valeria to roll her eyes in annoyance and utter disbelief.
"That's right." answered Joel, his hardened eyes squinted slightly.
"That's a weird fuckin' tone, man."
"That's just the way he sounds. He has an asshole voice. Joel, tell him he's okay." said Ellie, her words quickly tumbling out of her mouth at a rapid speed and it was evident that the adolescent girl was panicking. She was probably nervous too, but who could blame her? One squeeze of a trigger and she would instantly die.
"Stop, stop, stop. Just lower your guns and we..we can talk this out." said Valeria, her eyebrows were furrowed and she suddenly felt alive and awake. She tried to remember what her older sister said about the steps in debate: introduction, statement (or facts), proof, refutation, and conclusion. But she instead said,"We have whatever you need. Food, medicine, clothes. Just..lower your guns. Please."
Another tense silence hung heavy in the air before the young man lowered his gun down and signaled for the boy to the same. "My name's Henry. That's my brother, Sam. I'm the most wanted man in Kansas City."
