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...
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Curled in front of the fire with Joel's jacket wrapped around my shoulders while mine dried on the fireplace. My chin rests on my knee, eyes set forward on the flames. The crackles and pops of the burning wood was a sound I've always found comforting. It went along with fond memories of calm nights and enjoyable conversation. Strangely enough, those felt like simpler times – when it was only the three of us. Not to imply that I don't love where we are now. Of course, I'm happy – that hasn't changed. But there was that small point in time, between Colorado and Utah. Despite our obstacles, we made the best of what we had. All we could do was look at the bright side of things. Talk about what our future would look like, what the world would look like. Five years ago, when there was an idea that the world might change.
That feels so long ago now.
"Feelin' better?"
I tear my eyes from the flames, tilting my head upwards to see Joel, the corner of my mouth quirks. "I am, yeah." He finds a seat beside me, and I move to be closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder.
"Tommy and I did a little more investigating. Someone was here. Thinking they left late last night or early this morning," he explained. "Thinkin' about puttin' extra security around the walls tonight in case they make their way to us."
"If they're alive," I said.
"We are," he countered, and I couldn't argue with him on that.
"The winds died down a lot," I noticed, veering my gaze out the nearest window. Tree branches were no longer smacking wildly into the glass. There wasn't a white haze obstructing my vision and I could see out past the black iron gate. A few stray infected wandered aimlessly back and forth. Easy enough to sneak up behind and take out without making a lot of noise.
Tommy walked in then, pulling our attention. He sent us a questioning glance, asking, "You two ready?"
We nodded with enthusiasm, climbing quickly to our feet and gathering whatever was ours before heading to the garage. Upon leaving, I mentioned keeping Nina at one of the cabins on the way up here. There wasn't a chance in hell I was leaving the mountain without her, and they promised we would stop to get her.
The trek down was much calmer. No infected, and I wondered where they all disappered to. Maybe the blizzard scared them off to some hole they were hiding in. There was still a slight wind, but it was bearable compared to earlier.
With our stop for my horse, we made it back to Jackson within a couple hours. A large group greeted us at the gate – Maria being front and center. The worried wife pulled her husband into a hug the second he passed off his horse. A few others checked up on me, and I reassured several times that I was okay. I looked out farther down the street, and had I looked a second later I wouldn't have seen Ellie turning around to walk away.
