Apocalypse [Ellie Williams]

◜chapter twenty three◞

Cassie felt more at peace in that moment than she had ever done before, Joel had already told them the chances of running into infected out there would be slim. Surrounded by more nature than she had ever been before, she had been putting her now almost dead camera into use.

Her fingertips grazed the waist high grass and she basked in the sun on her skin. Despite the other two telling her not to, the girl had rid her body of the jumper and the jacket she was wearing and had shoved them both into her backpack. True to his word, they had walked for a while, leaving the packed woods and coming to more open land. They had found themselves on a road.

"you gone this way a lot?" Ellie asked the man, they had walked in silence the entirety of the trip. Cassie, who usually couldn't shut up, was too focused on the foxes and butterflies that travelled so carelessly around them "no infected?"

"not often, no" Joel replied

"what are you looking out for?" The girl asked again, taking note of the cautious glances he kept taking.

"people"

"are bill and frank nice" Cassie asked, she was a few paces behind them but jogged to catch up, her arm looping around Ellies

"frank is" Joel assured them

"how'd you get that scar on your head" the brunette questioned the man, Cassie smiling as she turned her head and spotted it herself

"looks badass" The blonde haired girl nodded, Joel just sighed at the question

"what? is it something lame?" Ellie interrogated "like, you fell down the stairs or something?"

"i didn't fall down any stairs" Joel responded

"so what then?" Cassie questioned, her arm looped with Ellie's

"someone shot at me and missed" The man told the teens

"see that's cool" Ellie exclaimed "you shoot back?"

"yeah" Joel answered abruptly, clearly fed up of the girls interrogations

"you get him?"

"no, i missed too. It happens more often than you think" The man never once turned to face the girls

"cause you suck at shooting or like, in general?"

"ellie" Cassie gasped, smacking the girls arm. They had seen him shoot and the girl knew Ellie was just joking around but in no way was Joel a bad shot. It was only at this statement that the man turned to the girls for a brief moment.

"in general" He spoke before turning to face the road again

The trio then fell into silence again, Cassie in a dazed daydream, her eyes never leaving the forest that surrounded them. Maybe she had read too many fairy tails during her life in the QZ but she swore if any of them looked closely and for long enough they would find fairies in there, that's how pretty the trees looked. Magical. The sun reflecting on the grass which lit up the first metre of forest before it went pitch black.