The Last Ones Left

Chapter 8: Assassin

We walk through a conference room and into a large stairwell with half of the stairs gone, I sit down on the edge of the stairs then jump off. I lose my footing and fall on my butt "Ow" I groan and rub my rump. I look up to see Joel continuing walking, what a dick. "We need to get back out. Find that bridge" he says "Just tell me where to go" I say flatly. I stand up and rub the dust off of my jeans, I walk over to one of the desks close to Joel, and sit down "I hate this crap" I hear him mutter, well then maybe you shouldn't be a stubborn asshole and actually learn how to express your feelings. I roll my eyes as I huff out a breath, he comes back and walks down another hallway completely ignoring me. We hop over a desk and walk into a large ballroom, I walk over to the corner of the room to see a camera set up in front of a pretty backdrop. "Wow" I mean it's not as pretty as the actual outside, but i've never seen a beach before "That's a backdrop, people used to take their pictures in front of it" Joel explains, I look over to see him standing next to me, oh so now he knows who I am?

"Yeah, I know what it is" I snap, "Okay then, something on your mind Ellie?" He asks then turns to look at me. I sigh and glance at him "I didn't mean to disobey you back there, you were just taking a long time and I thought 'maybe he's gotten into trouble'" Joel sighs, his eyes look concerned but his body language remains rigid and unapproachable "It don't matter what you thought, I need you to listen to me" he says "I do... It's just... Whatever Joel" I sigh and walk away from him. I can't deal with him right now! I don't know why he's being so closed, he's acting like I'm a five year old who cant listen. I walk up on the stage with Joel behind me, "Reckon we could use this" he mumbles mostly to himself, he starts to push the piano and grunts "Goddamn, this is heavier than I thought" he grumbles then stops pushing and looks at me "hey, how 'bout a hand?" He says to me. "You sure you can trust me with that?" I ask sarcastically, Joel rolls his eyes "Ellie..." He sighs tiredly. I push the piano along with him "Push" he grunts out loudly "I am" I reply annoyed "Push harder!" He yells, I shove the piano against the wall with all of my might, it slams into the wall and I sigh from exhaustion "There. How's that?" I ask smartly "Let's go" Joel says irritated.

I scoff as I watch him climb up to the railing, I pull myself up after him and runs down the walkway after him, we walk out onto the balcony outlooking the park below us. Joel finds a hunting rifle, he flips it over and examines it, "Oh, shit" he mutters as he looks over the railing he waves me down "there's more of them" he says in a quiet voice. I crouch down next to him and look over the railing "Alright now... I'm gonna jump down there, and I'm gonna clear us a path" he says as he looks at the hunters, judging from how many I can see there's about 15 of them, not too many, but still too many for two people. "What about me?" I ask while I glare at him "You stay here" he says sternly. "This is so stupid, we'd have more of a fucking chance if you'd let me help" I snap at him "I am" he snaps back. He closes his eyes and sighs, he looks to his right and picks up the rifle, he looks into my eyes then sets the rifle down in front of him "Now you seem to know your way around a gun. Reckon you can handle that?" He asks me, I only shot his 9mm and now he wants to hand me a rifle??

"Well, uh, I sorta shot a rifle before" I say, I wipe my hands off on my jeans to get rid of the sweat, I wrap my hand around the rifle and slowly pick it up "But it was at rats" I hold the rifle up, it's heavy and bigger than my torso, this is the first thing he wants to trust me with? God, Joel's confusing. "Rats?" Joel questions "With BB's" I state and look at him, he looks shocked, I mean what'd he expect?. "Well, it's the same basic concept, lift it up" he commands, I put the end of the gun against my right shoulder and wrap my finger in front of the trigger, "Only put your finger on the trigger when you plan on shooting" Winston's words ring in my head, Winston was the first one to teach me how to shoot a gun. He was a soldier, one of the few nice ones, he was older but also the first guy I had a crush on. Huh, guess I've always been into older guys. Joel puts a hand on my shoulder and pushes the butt of the gun further into my shoulder "You're gonna wanna lean right into that stock, 'cause it is gonna kick a hell of alot worse than a BB rifle" he says and pulls his hands away.