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

Chapter 55 - Joel

Spring

After the hunters, the three of us moved and kept moving. Never staying in one place for too long. I think we were all a little skittish after that. But that wore off of Beth and me pretty quickly. Ellie was a different story though. Before all that we'd gone through, she was always extremely talkative. That changed once we had made it out of that place. She hadn't said much and when she did, it was only to tell us when she was hungry or to ask where we were. Beth and I had talked about what to do. We were sure that she had gone through something that she never had before and we agreed that we needed to give her some space. But the silence was becoming even more deafening recently. We had finally made it to Salt Lake City after the last car we had failed on us. The hospital could be seen from where we stood.

"We're gonna walk from here," I told Beth.

"Yup. We should be there in a few minutes," she said.

We both looked to Ellie who was looking at a deer that had been carved into the wall of the express way. We then looked back at each other.

"When is she gonna open up to us?" I asked her.

"You've gotta give her time, Joel. We talked about this already. Whatever it is that she went through, she'll tell us when she's ready to. We can't force her to do so," she said.

I sighed.

"Yeah...yeah you're right. You always are," I said.

She came up to me and kissed me.

"I just know things," she said when we parted.

I scoffed.

"We better get moving," I said.

I then turned to Ellie.

"Ellie," I called.

She didn't respond.

"Ellie. Ellie!" I shouted.

"What?" she asked turning to look at us.

"Did you hear me?" I asked.

"No. What?" she said.

"Look. The hospital. Let's go, kiddo," I said.

Beth waited for Ellie to go ahead of her before she followed us.

"You feel that breeze, huh? I tell you, on a day like this, I'd just sit on my porch, pick away at my six-string. Once we're done with this whole thing, I'm gonna teach you how to play guitar. I'd reckon you'd really like that. Whatddya say?" I said trying to get Ellie to talk some more.

I looked back at her when I didn't hear anything.

"Ellie, I'm talking to you," I said.

"Huh? Oh yeah. That sounds good," she said.

I looked to Beth. She made a gesture with her hand that said for me to keep going. I was about to say something else but Ellie decided to first.

"I dreamt about flying the other night," she said.

She was looking at a banner of an airplane that was on a bus we were about to pass.

"Yeah?" Beth asked.

"Yeah," Ellie said.

"Go on, tell us about it," I said.

"So I'm on this big plane full of people. And everyone is screaming and yelling cause the plane's going down. So I walk to the cockpit, open the door but there's no pilot. I try to use the controls but...I obviously have no clue how to fly a plane. And right before we crash, I wake up. I've never been on a plane. Isn't that weird?" she said.