Haunted

Chapter 17

We're sitting in the RV once again, still waiting for those who left to get Merle to come back. "Hey," I whisper to Ellie. She fell asleep with her head resting on my arm. I move my arm a bit to wake her up.

"Huh?!" She abruptly wakes up. She looks around and calms down. "The hell was that for?" she grumbles.

"I was thinking of going hunting. Care to come with?" I ask. I have plans I need to discuss with her.

"Sure," she says. I grab my backpack and bow and arrows, and she grabs all her shit as well. We head out into the woods.

"So," I say quietly as we walk, "I'm thinking we should get away from the group. We can move faster on our own, and the Merle search party hasn't come back yet. Honestly, they're probably dead, and I don't wanna be around for the Festival of Tears when everyone figures that out."

Ellie thinks for a moment. "Sure-- wait. When you say 'we', who does that include?" Shit.

"You, me.. Ella...... and Finnick," I say.

"Nevermind then," she laughs bitterly.

"Why can't they come?" I ask. It came out a little more angrily than intended.

"They'll only slow us down! Plus you'll be too distracted by him to get anything done," she says, saying 'him' very disgustedly. "We go now, or not at all."

"Why do you hate him so fucking much?!" I yell.

"I have my reasons," she grumbles. I won't push it.

"Fine, whatever," I say, "let's go then."

We head deeper into the woods. We already had all our shit with us, so there was no need to head back to tell everyone we're leaving. I don't want to go back either, because seeing him again, for possibly the last time, will crush me for sure.

"It doesn't feel right just flat out leaving without them," I say after about half an hour of walking.

"Since when was Ella so important to you?"

"She's the only friend I've had since the world went to shit." I immediately regret saying that. Ellie looks down at the ground. "Ellie, I--I didn't... That didn't mean..." I don't know what to say. I feel so awful. I sigh and look at the ground as well.

After a few minutes I hear rustling in the underbrush. I load my bow and aim it towards the noise source. I'm relieved when I see it's only a deer. I almost shoot it, but stop when I see Ellie walking towards it. She has her hand stretched towards it, as if she wants to pet it. I can't help the smile that finds itself on my face. She deserves time to be a kid since the apocalypse took her childhood away from her. She's really close to the deer.

"Hey," she says softly to it. It rears up, spooked. "Shh, I'm not gonna hurt you," she whispers. She reaches out and strokes its neck gently, and it seems to calm down somewhat. I smile again. Ellie looks over at me, eyes lit up like a little kid's when looking through a pet shop window. "Can we keep him? Please?" she begs.

I can't say no to that face. "Fine, but he has to be quiet. If he attracts one infected I'm sending an arrow right through his eye," I say.

Ellie grins. "Yay! Thank you so much!" she yells happily.

I roll my eyes with a smile. "Shush, you'll bring all the infected in five miles right to us," I say with a laugh. I love seeing her happy. She hasn't been excited over anything since the world went to shit, for obvious reasons.

"I'm gonna call you Raleigh," Ellie tells the deer, breaking through my thoughts. I laugh.

"What kinda name is that?" I ask.

"Shush, you can't really judge. You named a lizard Lizzy for god's sake."

"Oh shut up, I was eight," I say, rolling my eyes. She sticks her tongue out at me. "C'mon, let's see if we can ride Raleigh into battle," I say, emphasizing the deer's name.

Ellie laughs at this. "Okay."

"Stand clear," I tell Ellie as I approach the deer. I carefully climb up onto his back. He tries to buck me off a couple times, but calms down. "Okay, get your ass up here," I instruct.

Ellie struggles a little bit, and I have to help her up. "You're short," I say with a laugh.

"Shut up," she says, punching my arm jokingly.

"Nope. You seem to forget that I'm older than you, so I can tell you what to do, but not the other way around," I say matter-of-factly.

"Whatever," she says, probably sticking her tongue out at me, but I can't see.

"Let's just go," I say, kicking the deer into movement.