when i look at you | TWD

chapter fourteen. flames

THE COLD AIR MADE HER FEEL RELAXED ON HER BURNING SKIN. It felt like forever once Eleanor stopped crying over her father's body. The only reason she left his side was because Rick and Carl started to tell her about a herd of walkers coming her way.

Ellie felt her hand slip out from her father's one last time and then followed the two to the barn, where Rick ordered her to pour out the gasoline.

"Okay. When I say, drop this." Rick told her, the girl nodding quickly before her and Carl climbed up the ladder, Rick leading the walkers inside. "C'mon! Come and get me!"

The groans of hunger were enough for Ellie to already have the lighter lit, just waiting for Rick's que.

"Now!"

She exhaled sharply and dropped the lighter, the undead bursting into flames, her feeling the heat on her face from up on top.

"Let's go!" Rick urged. Ellie grabbed Carl's hand and the three ran outside the barn, seeing an RV pull up in front of them. They jumped on top quickly, hoping that they'd get out of here soon.

The RV suddenly stopped and Ellie didn't have to ask why when she saw the blood splattered on the windows and screams of... Jimmy?

"Ellie!" Rick yelled to snap her out of her shocked state as she just stared at the window, the screams echoing in her ears. He held out his hand at the bottom of the RV and she sprinted to the other side, walking down the ladder with Rick's help.

Ellie saw Lori from a distance, her hands on her head as she frantically spoke to Carol about something.

The girl shrieked in fear once she felt a hand wrap around her arm, loud groans in her ears. Ellie used her free hand to push the walker off from her, which just resulted in the thing trying to bite off her hand.

Just as she felt it's teeth graze her shoulder, a bullet was in it's head, it falling to the ground. Ellie looked towards her savior and saw it was Jax.

He sprinted to her with a gun in his hand, flames being seen in his brown eyes as they darted around frantically. "Are you okay? Where's my dad? Mom? I-is Carl okay?"

Ellie swallowed nervously and quickly nodded her head, her now realizing that his hands were on her face. "Yeah they're fine-" Her sentence got cut off once she heard the loud crack of the barn, flaming walkers stumbling out from it.

"C'mon!" Jax screams out, gripping her hand tightly and running to one of the cars that he knew worked, which happened to be Shane's old green Honda he found at the beginning of the apocalypse at a gas station they had stopped at.

The two teenagers got into the car and Jax spotted the keys in the coin holder (as he calls it) and placed it in the ignition, turning quickly with shaky hands.

The engine sputtered and he groaned angrily, Ellie clutching her side in pain as it suddenly started to hurt. "Damn it!" Jax turned the key one more time and the car came to life, a large smile breaking out onto his face.

He put the car in reverse and quickly started to make his way out from the farm, Ellie not even protesting and instead, looked at herself in the rearview mirror, her fathers blood still on her face.

-

They have probably been driving for about thirty minutes before tears started to pour from Ellie's eyes and down her cheeks. A lump formed in her throat as she tried her hardest to stop herself from crying. All that did was cause a whimper to escape her mouth, making Jax turn to her quickly.

"Hey, El..." He quickly pulled over on the road and completely focused his attention on her. "Ellie? Hey, look at me."

Ellie turned to the boy and when she caught his eye, a sob racked her body, not being able to hold it in any longer. "I-I'm sorry."