Can't Be Forgotten - 2nd book in the "The Last Ones Left" series

Prologue

Joel's POV

"Ellie! Ellie gimme your hand! Gimme your hand before-" I yell to Ellie, but she falls into the water before I have the chance to grab her.

The rushing water pulls her backward out of my sight, the bus hits the bottom of the river and I quickly take a breath before pulling myself through the slim entry doors.

The water rushes me toward a huge boulder, there's a metal pipe protruding out of the boulder, I grab onto it, steadying myself, before swimming towards Ellie's unconscious body.

I hold her in my arms tightly, afraid that if I accidentally let go then it will be our end.

My legs push off of the boulder and I propel myself toward the surface.

Once I finally break the surface I let in a huge breath, while doing so I make sure Ellie's head is above water as well.

I make it to the concrete pavement that leads out of the tunnel that we're still in, and I pull Ellie's body onto the pavement and take a few moments to catch my breath before I turn to her.

I lower my ear to her mouth to see if I hear breathing... I don't.

"C'mon" I mutter, I put my right hand on top of my left and I press both against her chest and start pushing.

After a couple of pushes, nothing happens.

"C'mon, Baby. C'mon" I say.

I lower my ear back to her mouth and still hear no breathing, I press my lips to her cold ones and blow into her mouth.

Her chest rises, but still, she doesn't move.

"C'mon, C'mon" I mutter again.

I go back to pushing on her chest and still, nothing happens.

"Hands in the air" I hear someone from in front of me command.

I don't bother looking up, I continue pushing on her chest since her returning to me is the only thing on my mind right now.

"She's not breathing" is all I say before continuing on, I notice whoever talked to me is starting to walk closer so I glance up at him briefly.

He has a firefly logo on his arm, but his gun is raised right at me.

"Hands in the fucking air!" he yells, I ignore him yet again and continue pushing.

"Come on, Ellie" my voice breaks as I continue on.

The fireflies gun hits my temple and I black out immediately.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

When I wake up I hear the slow hum of the light above me, I blink a couple of times to get my eyes to adjust to the brightness.

I feel someone staring at me so I snap my head to the right and see Marlene, the woman who used to take care of Ellie so long ago.

And here I thought she was dead.

"Welcome to the Fireflies." she says with a slight smirk, "sorry about the..." she trails off as she points to her left temple.

My hand goes up to my left temple and I feel a knot there, along with some dried blood.

"They didn't know who you were" she concludes.

My thoughts immediately go to Ellie, I look around the room and see no sign of her.

"And Ellie?" I ask.

Marlene nods, "She's alright. They brought her back" she says and I automatically relax, my head falls back onto the pillow.

The thought of Ellie dead makes my heart stop beating, if Ellie died I wouldn't know what to do with myself.