Ends With You: Joel Miller

CHAPTER 20

I didn't realize that the entrance to the sewer would remind me so much of my bedroom window back in the day, making Aaron flash through my mind, always haunting me. I stare back out to the beach as Joel and Henry close the gate, the feeling of never seeing the sun again heavily on my mind and I have to try so hard to not let it get the best of me as the heavy gate finally slams shut.

Joel turns to me and notices the look on my face, but I don't have the courage at the moment to deal with him worrying about me, so I just turn and make my way further into the darkened sewer.

All our footsteps echo through the ankle-deep water as we make our way through, pulling out our flashlights. The pipe levels out into a wider room as we continue on so at least we won't be stuck in just a pipe the whole way through. The smells are not pleasant when we make it deeper in, the room splitting up into a fork, "Which way?" Henry says, his voice echoing off the walls.

But he answers himself as he goes to the left and I just make the decision to go to the right, Ellie turning to face Joel, "We should see what this way is." She says and jogs up to follow me.

We wade through more water and Ellie comes up beside me, "I'm not a fan of this place." She says disgusted.

"Me neither." I says shivering at the idea of us walking through waste.

"But we ain't got much of a choice." Joel buts in and he's right, this was the only way to go. I turn a corner and find a chain-link fence gating off an area before us with some supplies and Joel tugs at the door but doesn't budge with an old toolbox blocking it.

Ellie runs over to a vent and looks through it, "If you can get it open, I can crawl through and clear that door." She looks back to Joel.

I shine my flashlight to him expectantly, knowing that it's the only option for us to get in there. He sees my look and nods before going over, tugging at the grate that's blocking it. As he does that, I take a moment to look at our surroundings and notice that there's a tunnel leading behind us back to Henry and Sam, which I can see them through.

I see Sam wave to me, and I wave back as I hear Joel get the grate off and I turn just as I see Ellie crawl through, wasting no time. In a matter of seconds, she's through to the other side of the fence and runs over to the cart before pulling it out of the way.

Joel's there in a heartbeat, opening the gate and waltzing in to check for supplies. I walk in after him and hang back to let him check the place over and I lean against the wall to watch him, "Do you think they'll join us all the way to Tommy's?" I question him, my gaze flicking back through to Sam and Henry having a small discussion of their own.

"Well, I don't know. We're just gonna have to see how everythin' pans out." He answers unsure of himself.

My eyes flick back to him, "I wouldn't mind the extra company." His eyes find mine in the dim room and I smile, "Company that's up for some conversation." I tease and he shakes his head amused but doesn't say anything.

He finishes his looting and makes his way out of the place and in the tunnels towards Henry while Ellie comes up to me, "You're really pushing it." She chuckles.

I flash my light in her eyes, "What ever do you mean?" I say, playing clueless and it just makes her laugh and continue after Joel.

"Hey, this way!" I hear Henry call and it snaps me out of my mood and I continue off to them, "Looks like there's a path up ahead." He finishes and continues through the tunnel.

We finally get out of the water and up into the main part of the sewer where they probably did maintenance back in the day and make our way through to find a flood gate and more water. I groan, already sick of being wet and come up to the railing to look down into the water, seeing that it's deeper, "We'll have to swim over to the other side." I point to the ledge across the water.