𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐬 : 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐎𝐂
September 27th, 2013 an infection took over the world. Twenty years later, a young girl is immune. Ruth doesn't expect her life to turn more upside down than it already has, but...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
•·················•·················•
Joel had my bag for me. I quickly searched through it making sure all its contents were still there. I felt dirty holding Anna's gun, so I threw it to the side and took out my own. It fits better for my hand anyway. I found myself looking over to the middle of the room where she lay as I loaded my clip. My stomach churned and my chest ached as guilt ate away at me.
It was self-defense. She was going to kill you. She had a knife to your throat.
I repeated those words to myself in attempts to convince myself that it was necessary. I did what I had to, to survive. However, that did not make it feel any less wrong. It didn't make me any better than her.
An alarm blared through the room we occupied, and the halls. A red light flashed, illuminating the dark.
Joel takes my hand pulling me onto my feet. "She's on the top floor. We gotta hurry." My backpack straps sit on my shoulders and my arms hang loosely at my side. I stepped over her legs sprawled out on the ground then walked out the door leaving that part of my past behind.
Voices shouted over the alarm followed by an orchestra of heavy footsteps. Joel and I follow the signs to the stairwell praying the Fireflies didn't catch up. They'd find Anna first – Queen Firefly. That's when we should start to worry.
The door swings open as we burst through. I slam it closed behind us and Joel takes a chair placing the back of it under the handle to slow them down. The farthest we could go was up to the next floor since the rest of the stairwell was blocked. Joel opens the door a crack and peaks through. I stand behind him keeping a trained eye behind us in case they tried to sneak up when we weren't looking.
"It's clear," he drawls lowly, opening the door completely for us to step through. The other stairwell was on the opposite side of the building. The only reason we knew that was because Fireflies started to come from that direction.
"Locate the targets and eliminate them. We'll search the other floors."
"Yes, sir. Search the floor. Find them and shoot them on sight," the Firefly relays to the others.
They're coming down from both sides. Crouched behind a wall, Joel turned to me. "You go right, I'll go left?" I nod, poking my head around the corner.
"There's a lot of them."
His hand rests on top of mine, and I glance back. His eyes pierce mine. "Stay low, stay quiet, and be careful. Please."
"You too," I said. He leans over to kiss my forehead then gives my hand a tight squeeze before his touch disappears.
I saw three light beams stray back and forth. They were grouped closely together, and there wasn't much in the means of cover. Separating the two halls was an office, maybe a lab. If I could cut across the hallway, there would be more places to hide there.
