Collision

Chapter Thirty Four

~ Chapter Thirty Four ~

Ellie's P.O.V.

When we arrived at their camp site, Aaron led me around the cars and trucks. It seemed that the Fireflies had been going around, looking for vehicles and other motives of transportation. Although, I wondered. The Fireflies, I once thought, were a group found only in Wyoming. For them to have come here with a two thousand mile journey was amazing.

"Here are the two people Maggie escaped the prison with, Sasha and Bob," Aaron introduced.

The African couple managed to smile at me while nodding in acknowledgement. The woman, Sasha, seemed to be tense, as if she couldn't wait to get out of there when she got the chance. While the man, Bob, was quite the opposite. He seemed relaxed and genuinely kind.

"C'mon, I'll show you who's been running the whole group," Aaron said with excitement. I couldn't share it as he dragged me by the hand, walking past groups of strangers that didn't seem nice, but didn't seem like murderers either.

"Maria! I've got someone you might be interested to see!" Aaron called out, his smile made me raise an eyebrow.

"I'm busy at the moment, Aaron. I'm sure they can wait," a woman responded, impatience was unfiltered from her voice.

"Oh, this really can't."

The first thing I saw was the head of blonde hair, but as the woman turned around, my face dropped with shock. "Oh my goodness," she said, taking the words out of my own mouth. "Ellie?"

I ran to her, enveloping her in a warm hug. She dropped the tools she was holding and wrapped her arms around me. "I thought you were dead!" I exclaimed, not letting go from the reunion.

"Well, I'm not!" She chuckled, bringing a hand to my head and stroking my hair. "How did you get here?"

When we let go, she took a closer look at me and I also did with her. Her features hadn't changed much, but instead of the stern and full-of-life eyes, they were tired but gentle.

"I left the group," I started, sighing and leaving her with a look of concern. I told her the whole story as I helped her fix up the red van, she never once interrupted me. Once I finished, she stopped working and turned to face me.

"So Joel's out there right now, probably looking for you, and you're here relaxed as ever?" I nodded. "Look, if I know my husband's brother, he's not so easy to give up on people. Besides, as different as Tommy and Joel were, they both had one thing in common: perseverance. So if I were you, I'd be worried as hell about Joel right now."

"It's not that easy to explain. He was so great with those people, but I can't just seem to fit in with them. You've gotta understand that they're better off without me," I tried reasoning with her.

Maria shook her head, cleaning the dirtied wrench in her hands, "Then you talk to them about it. You don't just abandon and leave." I sighed, not able to come up with another reason to defend myself. "When I finish this, we're going out to find them. You need to bring them here and tell them the truth."

"But they've probably already gone off. It'd just be a waste of time and gas for us to go back there. Besides, Joel's got this new friend now- Rick- and Rick's basically a brother to him," I explained, shrugging my shoulders as if it were no big deal even if my heart was breaking just at the sound of their names.

"Rick?" I turned around to see the African woman I'd just met earlier, Sasha, was her name I think. She slowly walked to us with adrenaline in her eyes.

"Yes, Rick," I nodded, wondering why she was so interested in his name.

"Rick that's got a Southern accent and has a full grown beard growing on his chin?" Her eyes lit up as she kept speaking, nodding when I agreed with her. Wait, how did she know that Rick had a beard? Was she, perhaps, one of Rick's people? "Oh, I've got to go tell Maggie."

Sasha ran off in the other direction and I stared at Maria for an answer, but she could only shrug at me, "I know as much as you do."

Curious, I followed Sasha until she stopped with Maggie and Bob. I decided that I didn't want to eavesdrop, so I just made myself appear so they wouldn't be surprised. Sasha told the two everything she heard from me which led them all to turn my way. "What?" I exclaimed, suddenly scared of all the attention I was being given.

"You were with Rick's group? Our group?" Maggie questioned, slowly stepping towards me.

I gulped, "yeah. That's the group I told you about."

"Were you with an Asian boy?"

"No," I responded, remembering the talk in the truck about her husband. "If he were with us, I would've told you while we were on our way here."

"How about a blonde girl by the name of Beth?" My eyes opened, and it must've gave her a glint of hope, but I shook my head.

"I've heard her name being mentioned, but she wasn't with us," I sighed, remembering my jealousy when I heard Carl speak about Beth.

"What do you mean, you heard her name?" It was Sasha who spoke.

"I remember someone, Daryl was his name," their ears perked at the sound of the familiarity. Maybe they knew Daryl too. "He talked about being with her and her being abducted by some people. And that he tried running after the car, but he couldn't make it and that was where we found him- lying in the middle of the road."

"Oh my God, she was taken," Maggie said, distressed. I hated to be the one to tell her the news. Horror struck her face as Sasha and Bob rushed to her side to keep her standing. Otherwise, she'd be on the floor collapsed.

"Take us there, please. Take us to Rick and them," Bob spoke, pleading with his eyes.

I was hesitant. I'd just left the group and now everyone wanted me to go back. "It's- It's not that easy. I remember where they were when they left, but now it's different. Who knows where they are."

"And so we'll try finding them, as easy as that," Sasha demanded, leaving Maggie's side and getting ready to leave. Panic started to make me sweat. "Hurry up, we're leaving."

Maria came and turned on the red van, probably done with fixing the engine. "Hop on," she invited. Maggie, Bob and Sasha didn't hesitate. "Ellie, you're coming with us whether you like it or not."

"No, please. I'll tell you the last area of their campsite, but please don't make me go," I begged.

There were murmurs in the car as they watched my eyes brim with tears. "Alright, where is it?"

"It's in the abandoned military base about ten miles from here. Go to the forest with the least trees and you should be able to find them there, or around there," I informed, already thinking about what I was going to do once they got back.

"Aaron?" Maria called out, and he came in a whim. "Be ready to tell Julio to drive the truck where we are, in case we do find people." Aaron nodded as Maria drove out of our sight.

"Where are they going?" Aaron asked.

"To find Joel and the rest of the group," I sighed, taking a seat on the ground.

How was I going to explain myself now?