The Last Ones Left

Chapter 13: Unwelcome

SIX DAYS LATER

"Hey sleepyhead, wake up" Joel nudges me with his shoulder, my eyes slightly open and I yawn, Joel told me we'd be there finally after about 6 days, so I decided to take a short nap before we got there. "What'd I miss?" I ask sleepily, "Nothin', you've been out for about for maybe an hour or two, I lost count" Joel says, he sounds very tired. "Oh, okay" I mumble, I stretch and rest my hands on his shoulders, I lightly rub them only because he seems tense. He immediately relaxes "Man riding a horse for so long can make you real tense" I mumble, Joel hums in response. I rub the knots out of his back, "You might want to stop before you put me to sleep" Joel says. I nod even though he can't see me, I retract my hands and wrap them around his waist again. "Do you want me to guide the horse while you take a nap?" I ask, Joel hesitates but then shakes his head no "No, I'll be fine. Thank you, Ellie" he says, I can't even imagine how tired he is. Even when we stopped each night and found a place to sleep he'd stay up for a few hours to make sure no one attacked us, I feel horrible that I didn't stay up with him. "This is nice" I mumble, "Yeah" Joel sighs. We stay in a comfortable silence for a while before we pass a sign that says "Home of the Big Horns!" Joel stares at the sign for a while before sighing and moving us past it "What?" I ask concerned "It's hard to believe that people used to go here, that I used to watch sports on my TV" he stops talking then rubs his eyes trying to stop himself from falling asleep.

"Well tell me about the sports you used to watch, what's that one called?" I ask as I try and remember the names of all the sports Winston used to tell me about. "Football?" He chuckles "Yeah, that one! How do you play?" I ask, "Well I'll just explain the basics, when you mess up your fourth down you hand the ball to the other team, it's called a turnover" he explains "Okay" I say and he continues "And if you clear the ten yards then you're back at first down". "Man, that seems confusing" I admit, Joel chuckles again "You just gotta play it a couple of times, it'll all make sense" he says. "Hm" I say. We sit in a comfortable silence while Joel rides around the campus "Okay, none of these buildings look like a giant mirror to me" I say as I look around. "We'll head to central grounds. Should be able to see most of the campus from there" Joel says as we ride through a set of gates. We jump over a barrier parapet and continue riding along "Ha, that was fun" I say giddy, I look up to see a huge Ram painted onto the side of one of the buildings "That's a giant Ram" I say out loud, Joel looks back at me then towards the painting I'm pointing at. "You guys were like some idol worshipers" I add, Joel chuckles "When it came to sports? Hell yeah" Joel smirks then whips the reigns so that we move forward again. "Oh man, it's getting chilly" I say as I cuddle closer to Joel, "It's that time of year" he says, I can hear the smile in his voice. 

I'm finally happy, all this time I've been trying so hard to get Joel to notice me, and actually care for me. And he finally does, I've never been this happy in my entire life. My grin stays on my face while we ride all around campus, we ride into the middle of the entire college and I finally see a building that looks like what we're looking for "Hey, over there, is that it?" I ask Joel, he stops the horse and looks at where I'm pointing. "Hmm, it does look like a giant mirror" he mumbles, we walk into one of the buildings that has a giant hole in the wall big enough for Callus, our horse, to fit in. "How many people do you think are there? Fireflies I mean" I ask, "Reckon it takes quite a crew to run that operation" he says. "You think there will be other people my age?" I ask, I seriously hope there will be, as much as I like Joel, talking to someone my age will make me feel better. "Ah... I'm not sure" he says honestly, I sigh "Yeah" I mumble. Joel stops Callus in front of a gate, "Stay, Callus" Joel says as he jumps off the horse "What kind of name is Callus, anyways?" He asks and looks up at me, I smile and shrug "Not my fault you forgot to ask Tommy his name" I say, Joel smiles a bit then shakes his head "Callus" he laughs softly then walks over to the gate. As Joel's opening the gate doors the horse starts to neigh as if he heard something, "Woah, woah, woah, woah... What is it boy?" Joel asks the horse, I look up at the windows across from us and see a person walk by "Runners" I mutter.