Ageless Secrets

Nine

I knocked on the door and waited for Joel to answer. When nobody answered the door, I knocked louder. “Joel! Hello, let me in!” I continued to knock until I heard the clicking of the locks on the other side. When the door swung open, I was met with a not so friendly face. “Tess ain't here.” I rolled my eyes at him, “No shit genius. She told me to come over here because she wants me to go with you outside.” I said the last part low enough only he could hear.

“Nah, we don't need your help,” he said, getting ready to close the door, but I slammed my hand against it. “Tess told me to come over here and wait for her, so that is what I am going to do.” I pushed past him and into the apartment. I didn't even notice the teenage girl sitting on the chair in the corner by the window. “Hey.” I spun around and looked at her. “Who the hell is that?” I asked, looking back at Joel. “Ellie.”

“And why is Ellie here? Who is she?” I asked him. “What did Tess tell ya?” He asked, walking past me to the couch. “She told me nothing. Just said she would explain everything when she got back.” Joel laid down on the couch and threw his arm over his eyes. “Then you can wait for her.” I rolled my eyes again and sat down at the table. The girl, Ellie, still sat in the chair by the window. “What're you doing?” She asked Joel. “Getting some shut eye.” She looked over at me, and I just shrugged. “What am I supposed to do?” she asked. “I don't really care.”

Ellie and I sat there in silence for about an hour before she got up and came over to sit at the table with me. “I'm Ellie.” I raised my eyebrows at her. “I've gathered that,” I said. “What's your name?” She asked. I let out a sigh, “yn.” I could already tell this kid was going to annoy me with her questions. “How do you know Tess and Joel? You don't look old like they do. How old were you when everything started? Do you and Joel not like each other?”

“You ask a lot of fucking questions,” I said. She nodded her head, “I know. Are you going to answer them?” I gave her a pointed look and she shut up. “Not that it's any of your business, but Tess is my older sister. We met Joel and his brother when we were making our way here to the QZ. And I was fifteen when all this shit happened. Now, why are you here?” Before she could say anything Joel woke up. He sat up and looked around, his eyes landing on the two of us. “You mumble in your sleep,” Ellie said. A few minutes later Tess walked through the door.

“Okay, let's get ready to go. Hey, kid, you got a jacket in there?” Ellie nodded her head and started to pull her jacket out of her bag. I stood up when Tess turned to look at me. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?” I asked. She grabbed her bag and put it over her shoulders. “I'll explain on the way. If we're going to do this we need to go now while we have the cover of the heavy rain.”

Joel made a comment when he walked past us on the way to the door. “She doesn't need to come along in the first place.” I looked at Tess and threw my hands in the air. “Well, then I guess I will be going home. Have a nice trip.” I grabbed my bag from the floor and pushed past her and then past Joel as I went out the door. “Wait. Yn, please wait!” Tess grabbed my arm and stopped me from walking any further.

“I do not have time for this, Tess!” I pulled out of her grip. “I am not going to be somewhere that I am unwanted. Definitely not going to be near people that look at me as just a burden. Good luck with whatever the fuck you're doing,” I said. Tess stopped me again. “I need you to go with us. We have to take the girl to the capitol building to the fireflies. There will be a vehicle for us there to go find Tommy.” I scoffed while shaking my head. “So you're working with the fireflies now? No way. Count me out!”

“Don't listen to Joel. Look, I know you don't want to be here. I shouldn't have told Frank to send you back. If you help us get the kid to the Capitol, we'll take you back to Bill and Franks. Or wherever you want to go.” She was right; I don't want to be here. I got out for a reason. I was conflicted. On one hand I wanted to go back, but on the other I didn't want to deal with Joel or my sister; mostly Joel though. I took a deep breath in, closing my eyes for just a second before I exhaled loudly with an annoyed sigh. “Fine, let's just get this over and done with.”

Under the cover of the dark sky and heavy downpour of rain we were able to sneak past the FEDRA guards and make our way to a hole in the fence by the front gate. Unfortunately, when we thought we were in the clear, we were stopped by a guard. “I thought I told you to stay in.” He was looking directly at Joel. Shit hit the fan from there. We were forced on our knees and he rested us for Cordyceps.

Then Ellie stabbed him in the leg which caused more shit to happen. Eventually Joel ended up being the shit out of the guy when he pointed his gun at Ellie. But I wasn't paying attention to that. No, my attention was on the scanner. Ellie was the last to be scanned. I looked up at Tess and held up the scanner to show her the red screen; Ellie was infected. “Joooell!”  She took the scanner from me and turned it so he could see.

“No. No. No. I'm not infected. I was bitten, but that was three weeks ago! Look!” Ellie pulled her sleeve up to show a bite shaped scar on her forearm. “We don't have time to discuss this here. We need to go now!” I said. We made our way to the hole in the fence and slipped through to the other side. “Joel! Joel, come on! We need to go!” Tess yelled. Joel stood there for a few minutes looking at the guard he just beat damn near to death before grabbing his rifle and running after us.