The Last Ones Left

Chapter 9: Persistent

I hop inside the room and see a tall but young dark man trying to choke Joel, I run up to him and try to hit him but he shoves me back. I fall on my ass and yelp in surprise, "Sonofabitch" Joel yells, he grabs the dark man's head and slams it into the wall behind him, Joel throws the man over his shoulder, the dark man falls down hard on his back, Joel crouches over him and hits his side repeatedly with great force. I'm about to jump over to aid Joel, but then I look up and see a smaller looking boy, about my age aiming a gun at Joel. "Joel" I say, as I frantically look between Joel and the smaller boy "Joel, stop!" I yell, he looks up at me so I point to the boy "Look" I say. I hold up my hands to show that I mean no harm, so does Joel "Easy, son. Just take it easy" Joel says, he stands up and walks in front of me, just this small action makes my heart do a little flip flop. "It's alright" the man says to the boy "they're not the bad guys, lower the guy" the boy reluctantly lowers his gun, the man sits up and winces in pain "Man, you hit hard" he groans "Yeah, well, I was trying to kill you" Joel says and I snort, Joel's bad with meeting new people. "Yeah, I thought you were one of them too" the man says "then I saw you" he points to me, Joel turns around and looks at me too.

"If you haven't noticed, they don't keep girls around" I frown. "Survival of the fittest" the older man scoffs, he walks behind the younger boy and searches through his bookbag "I'm Henry, this is Sam" Henry says and puts his gun in his backpack. "I think I caught your name was Joel?" Henry asks as he pulls out some bandages for his arm, "Ellie" Introduce myself with a small wave. Joel gives me a stern side glance, trying to tell me to let him handle it, then looks back at Henry "How many are with you?" he asks "They're all dead" Sam says quietly, Henry's head whips up and looks at Sam with a sharp look "Hey. We don't know that" he says sternly. Henry goes back to wrapping his arm "There were a bunch of us, then someone had the bright idea of entering the city to look for supplies" Henry finishes wrapping his arm then rips off the excess bandage "Those fuckers ambushed us" he says bitterly while stuffing the extra bandages back in Sam's backpack. Henry clears his throat "Scattered us" he corrects himself, why is he trying to be so positive in this situation? "Now it's all about getting out of this shithole" he finishes "We can help each other" I pipe in, Joel holds up his arm behind him "Ellie" he says sternly, trying to get me to stop talking.

"Safety in numbers and all that" I say and look at Joel. "She's right" Henry agrees with me "we could help each other" he adds, "We have a hideout not too far from here" he says and looks between Joel and I "It would be safer if we chat there". Joel stares at Henry for a few seconds then looks at me, silently asking if I'm okay with that, I nod. He sighs then looks back at Henry "Alright, take us there" he says gruffly. "Follow me" Henry says as he starts to walk down the hallway of the apartment building, "Sorry about the whole gun thing" Sam says to me, I smile at him sympathetically "Don't worry, I would've done the same thing. Where are you from?" I ask him, I see Joel glaring at us out of the corner of my eye, he shakes his head then walks out of the room, what was that all about? "All the way from Hartford" Sam replies as we both walk out into the hallway "Really? I heard some bad stuff going on down there" I say then look at him "Yeah, the military abandoned the zone. It's why we left. Place probably looks like this now" Henry adds in. "We gotta be careful. We're right next to one of their lookout areas" Henry says once we reach a second flight of stairs "It's just you and your daughter?" Henry asks, I snort and cover my mouth quickly to hold in the fit of laughter I'm having, Henry looks at me confused "She's not my daughter" Joel says awkwardly, I cough to cover up my laughing, yeah if I was his daughter then what we did earlier would have been really wrong.

"I promised someone I'd look after her" Joel mutters, he refuses to look at me, "Yeah... I can appreciate that" Henry says, he looks at us but then shakes his head and continues walking, he knows something's up. We walk into some sort of toy shop but Henry stops us as soon as we walk through the door "Wait, wait. Everyone be quiet" Henry whispers, I hear the low rumble, like the sound of a car driving on the road. "Get away from the windows" he instructs, I crouch down beside Joel and watch as the hunter's truck drives by, Henry sighs with relief "They're gone" we all stand up "Man... That fucking truck. It's been hounding us ever since we got in this damn-" Henry stops mid sentence. I see that he's looking at Sam "Sam what are you doing?" he asks, I look over at Sam to see that he's holding some sort of action figure "Nothing" Sam says honestly, I don't see what he's doing wrong. "Get rid of it" Henry says sternly "But my backpack is practically empty" Sam says disappointed "What's the rule about takin' stuff?" Henry asks angrily. "It weighs like nothing" Sam argues "The rule - what is it?" Henry glares at Sam "We only take what we have to" Sam says disappointedly and throws the toy on the floor "That's right" Henry says. Henry looks back at us awkwardly then back at Sam "Now come on" he says and starts walking to the back door, "How far is this place?"Joel asks, all of the boys turn their backs to me so I quickly reach down and pick up the toy and put it in my backpack.