Safe and Sound// Ellie Williams

Mater

I barely get any sleep. My mind is just stuck on mine and Ellie's fight from last night. Sure we've got annoyed before, but we've never fought. I decide to explore the theatre and look for anything to do. When I get to the top floor I open one of the doors and there's an old electronic box sitting on the desk and a map is hanging above it. I grab the map and take it down, making sure I grab a marker off of the desk. I stare at the map start to mark up all of the WLF bases as I remember them. When I was with the Seraphites we always knew where the Wolves were based, they just didn't know where we were. I also write down where the Seraphites base is and all our patrol routes.

"Hey." I hear Ellie say softly and I look up to see her leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed.

"Hey." I reply and I put down my marker, "how'd you sleep?"

"Fine. You?"

"Fine." Ellie nods and starts to slowly move towards me.

"I just, I want to apologize for last night. You're right, I haven't been completely honest, so I shouldn't be mad at you for doing the same."

"No. I should have told you more about this place... it's just there's not a lot of good memories here." Ellie nods slowly and she goes to sit down next to me. I look at her and sigh, "The group that you saw in the TV Station, that's the Seraphites. I was born into that group and stayed there until I was 17. The Wolves call them Scars, which you've figured out is because we have these scars on our faces. It's what you do when you're of age or join the group. Have you seen all the 'feel her love' paintings around Seattle?" Ellie nods, "That is our Prophet. She started the group and taught us everything. It wasn't always so violent. Her teachings are peaceful, but when we started going to war with the Wolves, all of our teachings became violent. Just people taking her words and creating them into this new idea. Her love was unconditional, but the extremist took her sayings after she died and transformed this new movement to remove our world of all sin. That's what the hangings are for, it's sorta like a gift to her? To give her the sinner and free us of them. That's why I yelled at my friend, Lev, they would have killed him if they... found out he was a him." I turn to Ellie and she's still listening intently, "That's why I pulled away. In the library. It's not cause I didn't want to... I was just taught that I should never want that."

"You said you left because you met Ian?"

"Yeah. My group found him and brought him for hanging and I just... I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't fight in a war I never believed in." Ellie hesitantly places her hand on my knee, "I never stopped believing in the Prophets writing. I stopped believing the people who warped her ideas."

"I'm sorry." Ellie tells me quietly. She sighs, "I was bit when I was fourteen with my best friend Riley. We decided to wait it out together. Only thing is she changed and I didn't. 3 weeks later I met Joel and we travelled across the country together to get to the fireflies who were going to take whatever makes me immune and make a cure. When we got there... I was supposed to die in the surgery, but when I woke up I was with Joel and he was taking me back to Jackson saying they ran some test and there was no cure. I found out he lied and actually killed the fireflies and with it the possibility of a cure. That's why the group came to Jackson and... tried to kill Joel." Ellie finishes the story and it takes me a minute to process. 

"Wow." I mutter

"Yeah." Ellie replies and we look at the map in silence.

"I want to tell you everything Ellie... I'll get there at some point."

"I will too." Ellie mutters softly and she looks over at the map, "What's this?"

"It's a map of all of the Wolf bases. This section here, that's what they call the FOB. It's their main base. When I was at the TV Station they mentioned how they're all moving their stuff and retreating to the FOB, but I'm not sure why since they're usually pretty spread out. This here is the stadium. It's their home base where all of their men, women and children are."