Apocalypse [Ellie Williams]

◜chapter thirty five◞

They made it a majority of the way through the tunnel with ease, it was empty with the exception of a few (probably diseased) rats. The tunnel led them to a painted room with a lone door on one side, the paint was chipping and seemingly was done by children as it had a castle and childish flowers, superheroes and fairies. Cassie didn't have a great upbringing however the images where somewhat nostalgic, a portrait of what could have been.

Sam walked forward, attempting to get to the door when Joel held him back, forever the protector. The man then carefully pried open the door revealing a children's play room, toys and small tables scattering the floors, a goal post painted on the far wall. To one side, there was supplies, all out of date or degraded but whoever was once here was clearly well off before whatever occurred, occurred.

"i heard about places like this, people went underground after outbreak day. Built settlements" Joel told them all

"what happened to them?" Ellie questioned

"maybe they didn't follow the rules and they all got infected" Joel signalled to the whiteboard in front of them. Cassie shrugged and shifted through the supplies, searching or anything that could help. Bar a few old bandages and alcohol wipes, there was nothing. So, she took a seat in the corner of the room and picked at her nails, scraping the dirt from under them and picking at the skin on her fingers.

And while everyone was distracted, she lifted her sleeve and studied her scarred arm. Some of the scabs had healed over, now forming white stripes in their wake. Others, still scabbed over, still occasionally bleeding from where she had caught it on her jacket. Her eyes welled with tears, Cassie was a proud girl. She loved the way she looked even when she was a acne ridden teen, she loved her hair and her eyes, she loved the way her body looked. She was the perfect weight, big enough to be considered 'fat' by her bullies but skinny enough to be told that she should put some weight on.

Comments from others never effected her, she was proud of who she was. She was happy in her own skin. She didn't like her scars though. They told a story, yes, but they told a story she would like to forget. A story she shouldn't have lived through. She didn't care that they were on her body, nor did she care if people would stare because of it. She cared because she didn't want a constant reminder of the hell she lives in. She wants to be able to forget. To move on.

Cassie looked up from where she sat over to where Sam and Ellie where talking, she smiled. Cassie was glad that Ellie found people that she was happy with that weren't just her and the hanging memories of riley.

"Hey, keep it down, were not out yet" Joel instructed the kids, ellie giving him a deadpanned look

"c'mon, cant we just rest here for a while? There's like actually shit to do here!" Ellie asked, Cassie sighed quietly. She didn't mind resting but honestly? she wanted to get out of that dark and dingy place

"wouldnt be so bad to wait the light out a bit? Safer in the shadows when we pop back out on the other side?" Henry told the man, Joel then turned to cassie who simply shrugged. The man simply cocked his eyebrow and shrugged, turning to do something else whilst ellie practically dragged Sam to play football ((soccer?? idk american terms)). She also signalled Cassie over who then sat in the corner of the room to watch, knees pressed against her chest and her chin rested on her knees.

Cassie watched the two play, her eyes trained solely on ellie. A lovestruck look in her eye that even Joel could pick up on. The two girls made eye contact after Ellie scored a 'goal' against Sam, neither broke that eye contact. All else seemed to disappear in that moment, no one else in the room, no zombie apocalypse. Just them. Ellie smiled slightly as Cassie tilted her head a little. And then, all of a sudden, their gaze was broken by the ball flying into Ellies side. Cassie laughed as she started running around with Sam, chasing him around the room.

Cassie had to physically shake her head to snap her out of the trace she was in, the butterflies still present in her stomach from where they had emerged the second they made eye contact. Maybe what Cassie was feeling wasnt just a friendship, maybe cassie knew that for a fact. She knew ellie liked girls and only girls, they had talked about it one night before but Cassie had always been adamant that she liked boys because that's what was normal, right?

Growing up in a toxic environment where her school only taught her about survival and then seeing everyone being paired up when she lived alone for the sole purpose of reproduction, Cassie had never been told it was okay to love whoever you loved. She was taught that love was about having babies together and you couldn't do that when a girl was in a relationship with a girl. All she needed was one person to tell her it was okay, one person to assure her that her feelings are valid and Cassie would crumble.

She would crumble and shatter into a million pieces but all would be okay because ellie Williams would spend forever building her back together, piece by piece.

i know ive been severely MIA but i have no other reason than the fact that i am living my life to the fullest. Im now a working girl and have been spending a lot more time with friends and family, college has been stressing me out but im almost done for the year so that's awesome! And as you know, i turned 18 last month so there's been a lot of nights out.

Again, im so sorry for disappearing on everyone, i will try and be more consistent with my uploading (by that i mean hopefully at least one chapter a week).

Anyways, i love you all. Take care of yourself, drink some water and sleep if you need to <3