Look for the Light (Joel Miller fanfic)

What Town!

Joel's POV

Flickers of sunlight crept into the stillness of your closed eyes. Your head throbbed from the gun that was bashed against your skull. As you faintly moved your arm over your eyes, you felt a cold nose brush against your cheek, nudging you to get up. You slowly opened your eyes, and the sunlight burned your vision. You rolled to your side as you rubbed your blinded eyes. Another nudge pushed harder against your shoulder. You opened your eyes, your vision going from double back to normal as Shimmer took form in front of you.

"Shimmer," your voice came out hoarse, just like you woke up from a deep sleep. You slowly pushed yourself out of the cold snow pile you laid in, your back spasming as you came to a sitting position. Your head still ached as you placed a hand on the back of your head, massaging it to ease the pain away.

Shimmer nudged you again with her silky muzzle, this time with more urgency. "What is it, girl?" You took a minute to clear the fog from your head and leaned on her as you got to your feet. You felt as if you had a huge weight on your back. Once you were up, you remembered the events that took place earlier. You remembered some men carrying Aly away, how one of them knocked you out cold with a gun. You remembered the horrified cry you heard come from Aly's mouth as she screamed your name. How you had desperately tried to get to her, but you had failed her.

"Shit, Aly!" you screamed to Shimmer. She neighed in response and took a couple steps in place. You had to get to her. You had to get her back. You ran into the cabin and grabbed up any supplies you might need. You grabbed the rifle that leaned against the cabin wall and grabbed your backpack up. You made sure the rope and tape were secured inside. Next you slipped the hunting knife into your jeans pocket and grabbed up Aly's pistol that laid on the bed. It made you sick to your stomach that she didn't have her gun on her for defense. You looked toward her purple backpack that laid against the foot of the bed and saw her knife resting in the outer pocket. Fuck. She was completely weaponless. Dread ran through you as stress took form on your face.

Your heart raced at the thought of her being all alone with those men. You didn't know where she was or how to find her. You swear to God, you'd find her though, one way or another. You'd get her back. You had to. You weren't going to lose her. You couldn't. Not again. You already lost her once, the moment she stepped out that door. You couldn't let that be the last time you set your sights on her.

You ran out the door and slammed the door shut behind you. "Come on Shimmer, we're going to get our girl back." You jumped up onto Shimmer's back and situated yourself on the saddle. You grabbed the reins tight and kicked your leg against her. She sprung to life and ran forward swiftly, going in the direction Aly was taken. "Run as fast as you can, girl. We need to find her."

The wind blew swiftly through your hair as traces of snowflakes were falling all around you. The sky towards the north was darker now, a snowstorm blowing in quickly. You prayed you could make it to Aly in time before the storm hit. You needed to get her back to the cabin and fast. You couldn't tell how long you had. It could be another day or just mere hours from now. Time was of the essence. The timer ticking with every second that passed by.

The further away Shimmer carried you from the cabin, the more you thought of the fight you and Aly had. This was all your fault. Again. God, you were such an idiot. If you wouldn't have yelled at her and reacted the way you did then she wouldn't be in trouble. She would've been inside that cabin safe and sound, out of the storm's way, away from those dangerous men. She was only trying to get you to open up more to her. None of this was her fault. Absolutely none of it. She was probably blaming herself thinking she had done something wrong, and that made your stomach drop even more. You had to find her and apologize, but first you needed to take out those men.