to the ends of the earth || ellie williams (book one)

twenty seven

SEATTLE
DAY TWO

"Fuck!" I hissed as the radio sparked to life, pulling my finger away with haste before shaking it in the air.

The entirety of my morning had been spent fiddling with the radio in the control room. I'd woken up before Ellie, deciding to let her sleep in for a while after the day we had prior. I was a task driven person - and incredibly stubborn too. My father said it was a trait of my mothers to which I would respond "Have you met you?" and we'd argue about who was the most stubborn. The irony was that none of us ever backed down.

"You got it working?" Ellie asked, leaning against the doorframe with her tanned arms folded over her chest, her tattoo on full display.

"Somehow but I'm not gonna quit my day job," I jested, shaking my head as I marked areas on the map I heard the WLF talking about over their radios.

She chuckled as she knelt to the floor, studying the markings I'd made on the map in her absence before asking, "What's this?"

"So, the numbers are locations. The TV station we were at? That's Six. There's a lot of chatter coming out of Two, so I'm assuming that's their home base..." I shrugged, "They found our mess at the school."

"Good," Ellie nodded bluntly, shuffling over to where I was sat to wrap her arm gently around my waist.

I smiled softly before shaking my head at my tendency to get distracted when she was around. Reaching forward, I grabbed the Polaroids we'd found with Leah at the TV station.

"This guy... Owen. He went AWOL," I explained, pointing to his picture.

"Maybe Tommy got to him?"

"Maybe,"

"What about her?" She asked, pointing to the grinning blonde beside him.

"Nothin' yet," I frowned causing her to nod slowly. She was growing impatient.

The familiar radio static was interrupted by panicked voices once more, "Casualties reported in Fourteen. All available units report. Over."

"This is site Thirteen. Unit Lima nearby. How many Scars you got? Over."

"Negative on Scars. Lone male trespasser. Armed. Over."

"Lone male trespasser?" I asked, heading to the desk where I'd left my bag to begin shoving my things back inside.

"It's gotta be Tommy," Ellie nodded, tossing me my gun as she bent down to grab the map, "Where's fourteen?"

"Well... If this is Seven... Three... Twelve's all the way over here. I guess it's somewhere in this neighborhood?"

"Hillcrest. Okay."

The town itself was overgrown like most of the others in Seattle. The buildings were derelict and beaten down, their glass panes shattered and doors missing; shells of what they once were. I didn't often think about what the world was like before outbreak day. My father always says it wasn't good for me to focus on the past.

"Keep moving forward, Charlotte. You'll find your way," He'd mutter, swinging lazily on the porch swing with a steaming mug of coffee clasped in his rough hands.

When I did allow myself to think pre-outbreak day, I imagined all the places I'd want to visit. All the places I'd only read about in books I had no choice but to read when I was bored of staring at walls.

Ellie would pick me up in a shiny black car, holding the door open for me as I climbed inside. We'd hit the town, sit in a dimly lit bar and sip mojitos in a booth with burgundy seats. We'd ride in elevators and go shopping, we'd watch movies at the theatre and go to concerts, take the subway home drunkenly after a night in a purple haze.

"Where did you go?" Ellie asked with a soft smile as I snapped out of my thoughts.

A loud explosion in the distance cut me off. A black cloud of smoke grew at the source of the bang causing Ellie and I to lock wide eyes.

"At least we know we're in the right place," I chuckled nervously as we began to navigate through the run down stores and buildings in search for supplies.

Spotting a van we could hop over, I pressed my back against the metal and clasped my hands together to boost Ellie up. She pulled me up after her, ducking down as a truck whizzed around the corner.

"There's too many of these assholes..." Ellie scoffed, "Tommy can't be much further ahead,"

We couldn't seem to move any further than a few blocks without being hit by another group. They were advanced, we didn't quite know what we were dealing with but with every encounter the picture became clearer. They could afford to waste ammo, they trained dogs to kill on command, their clothes were always clean and fresh. It made me wonder where they were set up and who was in charge.

"I can see a bunch of them down there. Look." Ellie instructed, pointing from where we were hidden on top of a building down to another WLF patrol below.

My eyes widened at the sheer number of them. We'd come across larger groups and taken out ten to fifteen people at a time. But this was a big group, there had to have been at least forty of them. They grouped together in buildings, walked the streets heavily armed and guarded by dogs. My heart began to sink. There was no way we getting through unnoticed.

"How the fuck are we gonna do this?" I asked, "There's too many. There's gotta be another way around."

"We're a few steps behind Tommy. I don't want to lose him," Ellie responded with furrowed brows.

"Ellie. We're not getting through all those people. It's suicide,"

"I'm going with or without you," She spat, shrugging me off to begin lowering herself slowly down to the ground.

Shaking my head, I pulled my sniper rifle from its holster and laid on my stomach on the roof. Attaching the silencer, I adjusted the scope and began to survey the area. Ellie began to move, sneaking up slowly behind unsuspecting soldiers and taking them out with ease. I had to admit, she was good. She had a certain stealth that you couldn't learn.

I tore my line of sight away from her to look for more soldiers in attempts to clear her path, shooting at them silently and watching as they dropped to the ground like flies.

Suddenly, a large man grabbed Ellie from behind and held his baseball bat to her neck. He lifted her off the ground with his sheer strength causing her to writhe and grip at the wood that restricted her breath. My heart beat out of my chest as I tried to line up the shot, an inch off and I'd hit Ellie instead. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, watching the solider drop to the ground as Ellie scrambled to her feet.

She looked around with a confused expression, spotting me on the roof and squinting her eyes as if to get a better picture. I pressed my pointer finger to my thumb to signal an 'okay' towards her as she nodded in gratitude.

When it was finally clear, I dropped to the ground and slung my weapon back over my shoulder as I approached Ellie. She kept her back to me, didn't say anything but instead just pressed on.

"I saved your life and now you're not talking to me," I scoffed as I desperately tried to keep up, "Don't ignore me!"

I pulled on her shoulder, spinning her around as she grunted in frustration.

"I've been saving your ass since I met you," She growled in retaliation.

"What a tough burden to bear. You didn't have to bring me here!" I half-yelled, pushing her back before folding my arms.

"Yeah well I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't have," She hissed causing my stomach to knot instantly.

I took a few steps back, my eyes squinting to prevent the tears that I could already feel threatening to fall at any given moment. Spinning on my heels, I set off in the opposite direction and didn't dare look back.