Even When the World Comes Down (Sequel to Always & Forever)

Chapter 36 - Beth

We came across some houses after we turned a couple corners.

"I think we should see what it is we can find. Wouldn't hurt to scope the place for supplies," I said.

"Not a bad idea. Let's go," Henry said.

We all split up into different houses to see what it was that we could find. Ellie followed me into the one closest to my left.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I'm just glad we made it out of there. How's your shoulder holding up?" she asked.

"It stings a little but I think it'll be fine," I said.

"I'm glad Joel has you," she said catching me off guard.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"You guys are good for each other. I can tell that the two of you are really dependent on the other," she said.

So she could see that too. And that made me sad.

"What's wrong?" she asked taking notice of my changed expression.

"Nothing. It's just...now I know that if anything ever happened to him, I'd die. And the thought of that...it scares me more than any infected or hunter ever could," I said.

She took my hand.

"You love him," she said.

I released a shaky breathe.

"Yeah. I do. I always have," I said finally admitting it for the first time in a long time.

"Why don't you tell him?" she asked.

"Not sure if he'd feel the same way. So much has changed since we were last together, Ellie. I don't know if things could get back to the way they were or if they ever will," I said.

"Doesn't hurt to try," she pushed.

Just then Joel came in and the both of us hushed up.

"You two alright in here?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said a little too quickly.

"We're just you know...girl talk and all that," Ellie said.

She saved me.

"Understandable. I was never one to be of much help in that department," he said.

"Don't I know that," I retorted.

He looked at me and smirked.

"You all find anything useful?" he asked.

"Nothing yet. But then again we haven't been looking long," Ellie said.

"Come on. There's not much here. Let's look in another," I said.

The three of us exited the house and went on to the next one. And then the rest after that. I wasn't sure how I'd go about telling Joel how I felt...well, still felt about him. So much had happened since we were last together. We lost people that had become important to us. Could our hearts really go back to how they had been for all those years? I had to hope that they could because I knew that my heart hadn't changed much. We found a couple of canned food and some extra ammo that we could use. We were all about done when I noticed that Ellie had stopped in front of what looked like an ice cream truck.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Oh. I know what that is. Henry told me about them. It's called...an ice cream truck," Sam came over and said.

"An ice cream truck?" she asked, not entirely convinced that that's what it was.

"Yeah. They'd sell ice cream out of the truck," Sam said.