Collision

Chapter Thirty Three

~ Chapter Thirty Three ~

Carl's P.O.V.

After hours of searching and more searching and investigating the area around us, I fell to my knees exhausted. My eyes were brimming with tears.

"We are going to find her, Carl. Nothing we haven't done before, right?" Michonne tried lightening me up.

I shook my head, letting my face fall in my hands. "I can't believe she's gone."

"She's not gone. Now get your ass up and tell me whether this looks like it was her doing or not," Daryl demanded. I could tell he was worried, not annoyed about my state, which made me feel worse that I was now in a place of pity.

"What is it?" I asked, taking a look at the ground he stared at.

"You know what this is?" Daryl held up his hand to reveal a match in between his fingers. "It was near that black spot right there."

"I don't know, that could've been anyone's match. I don't even remember what was in her bag," I sighed, ready to collapse of defeat.

"You go on and find Joel. Tell him we found something, but we need his help because he might know if this was hers or not."

I nodded and walked around the camp until I found dad walking alongside Joel, scanning trees for anything broken. "Joel?" He turned around. "Daryl thinks he's got something, but we don't know yet."

And just like that, Joel ran to the direction I pointed in.

Joel must've felt like hell. He pounced on me the minute he was told that Ellie was gone. I already knew I was to blame for sleeping like that, but I didn't need any more reminders.

Within about a minute or two, Joel's sprinting back to us, his heavy breathing loud and exasperated. "We've got it, she went in that direction."

With that, I followed them back to where Daryl was and finally had just a little more surge of hope that Ellie was alive.

Ellie's P.O.V.

It took me half a day until I found a place high enough for the infected not to get to me. It was an abandoned RV with windows smashed all around. Inside the RV, there was nothing much except for a wool blanket which I took. It would be handy for those cold nights.

Looking around, I found the small ladder at the side of the RV and climbed up. Then I raised up the ladder so no one could get to me.

The sun was already rising but since my body hadn't been getting sleep, I let myself rest, forgetting about all the worries that brought me there.

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When I awoke, I looked below and found two of the infected roaming around. They must've heard something since they completely ignored my scent and kept continuing the same direction. I looked to where they were facing and saw a truck approaching. Immediately, I ducked down and flattened myself to make sure I couldn't be seen.

My heart stopped when the truck parked just a few feet near the RV. I stayed silent and hoped that none of them saw me up here.

"Grab anything you see," a voice commanded from below. It was a raspy voice, a woman's.

"You mean, anything that could help?" Another voice yelped. This one seemed off, like there was a familiarity to the tone and I couldn't quite place it.

"Yeah smartass, just do your job," the woman shot back.

There must've only been the two of them, probably with a larger group to head back to.

"Nothing in here, let's head back."

That was when it hit. The voice that was so familiar.

I looked down, not caring about the fact that they'd see me anymore. I just had to prove that I wasn't hallucinating. That this wasn't a dream. "Aaron?"

Instantly, the head of moppy curls looked up to where I was and my heart burst with excitement. "Ellie?"

Letting the ladder lower, I climbed down and walked towards the guy. He was the first to speak, "where've you been?"

"Places," I answered, breathless.

"You two know each other?" The woman asked, with a hint of a farmland accent. She couldn't have been more than ten years older than me. She had short brown hair, cropped to angle her jaws perfectly.

"Yeah, she was in the group I was with," Aaron explained, leading me towards the truck.

"Then how come you're out here all alone?" She asked, clearly not trusting me. I couldn't blame her.

"I left. It's a long story, not much to it anyways," I shrugged, hoping that none of them would ask anything more.

The woman stared at me for just a minute longer before Aaron stepped in, "she's trustable, Maggie. If she does something stupid, I'll take responsibility for it, alright?"

"Alright. But it's not my choice whether or not they'll let her in," Maggie huffed, opening the door to the driver's seat and getting in.

Aaron motioned me to get in as well, and I did, squishing in between him and Maggie.

During the ride, Aaron explained to me how he'd ended up with a new group. He told me that the Fireflies found him wandering around, alone, so they let him work to earn his keep. Ever since that, he'd been with them, and they'd been trying to find more people to recruit. "We even found Maggie here, out in the woods with a bunch of other guys- who you'll meet once we get there. They just hopped with us because she's trying to find her husband."

"Your husband?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Yep. His name's Glenn. He's a Korean guy that's got a set of hair almost as long as mine," she smiled with sad longing, keeping her eyes on the road.

"How did you two lose each other?"

"Well, something happened in the prison we were living in. A bunch of people came to try and kill us, but we fled. During that, I left him on the bus because I had to find my sister, but in the end, I couldn't find either."

I stared at my feet, unable to speak. Maybe other people really did have it worse than I did. A sudden pang of guilt hit me when I realized how selfish I'd been. Washing away my thoughts, I focused on the road ahead. There's no turning back now. Don't even think about going back.