Collision

Chapter Thirty Two

~ Chapter Thirty Two ~

Ellie's P.O.V.

It wasn't long before I tired out from running. My calves were burning and my inner thighs felt like they were beginning to form a rash from the friction of my pants. I kept my mind off the pain as I slowed down to a walking pace.

With the sun completely down, I stopped and took out the last match stick I had with me and struck it off the box, creating a small flame. Quickly I found a dry area around me, ripped up some grass as a substitute for kindle and created my own little camp fire. Though I knew I couldn't stay for long, I decided to grab a branch easy enough to handle, and ripped off a part of my pants to wrap around the edge of the branch. With that, I set the edge on fire and quietly stomped on ground, killing the small fire. 

It was going to be a struggle, being in the lonely forest with light. The infected would be attracted, but since we'd already scouted here, I doubt there'd be more than I could handle.

My eyes felt like drooping every once in a while, but every time that happened, an infected just seemed to pop out of nowhere and keep me on my toes. Never did I feel this thankful for the carnivorous beings that wanted to eat my flesh and bone. Without them, the adrenaline couldn't wake me up enough to keep going.

I hoped that it had at least been an hour of me walking, meaning that I must've made it more than five miles from the camp site. In the next hour, I'd have to walk more since Carol and Rick would wake up. It was odd, actually. Our body seemed to memorize our sleeping patterns and wake us up when we needed to and let us sleep when we needed to, except for the 'rare' events of stress. We didn't need anyone to wake us up anymore since our circadian rhythm seemed to remember every little detail of our unfortunate circumstances. 

Either way, I just hoped that it would take them long before they noticed I was gone so that I'd have more distance from them. 

As I kept fast walking with a steady pace, my arms began feeling heavy whenever I switched hands to hold the burning branch. I took it as an opportunity to take a break since I lost track of the seconds. Now, I really didn't know how long I'd been moving. While sitting down, I looked for another tree in which I could move the fire to, since the branch I was holding had already shrunken in size to about the length of my arm.  When I found one, I held it over the burning branch until it was dry enough to catch on fire itself. Afterwards, I put out the other one and discarded it underneath a bunch of fallen leaves.

It seemed that the night would last long, but I kept telling myself that it would be worth it. That when the sun hit the sky again, with light flowing around me, I'd be happy that I left. But I couldn't help and think about the next nights in which I'd have to spend alone, building traps around me so that I won't get eaten by the infected in my sleep. Who knew, maybe I wouldn't even be able to sleep.

All I knew was that nature became unforgiving to lone rangers in the darkness of the night, and I would be of no exception.

Carl's P.O.V.

When my ears started to get cold again, I covered them, wondering why the heat of Ellie's body wasn't keeping my head warm anymore. At first I thought she'd just lifted my head to give her thigh a break. But after a few moments of cold ears, I opened my eyes and noticed that she wasn't near me at all.

Standing up, I noticed that I was the only one still awake and it couldn't have been two hours yet because if it had been, dad and Carol would be awake already. I stretched my legs and walked around, trying to find Ellie. She must've just gone out to do her business, I thought, I'll wait for her until she's done.

And I waited.

But after the time went by, and Carol woke up, I sensed that something was wrong. Why wasn't she coming back? Was she attacked by a walker? No, even if she got bit, she'd be fine and besides, she'd probably yell so that would've woken us up. Did someone find our camp site and lure her out to take her as bait? 

Panic rose inside of my chest and bile couldn't help but make it's way to the back of my throat. Quickly, I went to Carol and informed her.

"Are you sure you've been waiting for a long time? Because you might've just woken up and waited for two minutes without realizing it was only two minutes. Time goes by slow when you're not doing anything, you know," Carol suggested, still rubbing her eyes from the rest she'd just gotten.

"I swear, I even counted mississippi's like dad taught me. Please, Carol, I think she's gone. She might've been taken or attacked," I rushed, grabbing my pack and walking to wake my dad up.

"Carl, even if she was gone, do you think this is the right time to be out and about? It's dark and we'd just put ourselves in danger as well as her."

I ignored Carol's words and went to dad, urging him to wake up. 

When he finally opened his eyes, I told him everything and he just agreed with what Carol said.

"You don't even care," I told them both. I was enraged. The fact that they could just let someone go off like that without worry. But the fact that this was Ellie made me both mad and worried, even more.

"Of course we do Carl, but we don't have to do this right now," dad spoke, holding out his hand to try and calm me down.

"Whatever, I'm going to find her and both of you can just stay here if you want," I stated, walking over the string of rusted cans.

Before I could leave far enough, dad rushed to my side, "wait, Carl. You're not going alone."

A smile made its way to my face. A sad one, at that. "Thanks, dad."