Collision

Chapter Fourty Eight

~ Chapter Fourty Eight ~

Ellie's P.O.V.

"What's going on, Joel?" I asked as I saw the huge herd of people hustling down the stairs. Joel scratched the back of his head without answers.

"I don't know. Something wrong out there, maybe?" He groaned, giving me a response of no help.

"Let's go check it out. Maybe it's something we can help with," Maria suggested, lacing up her combat boots and taking her shotgun with her.

The community had been treating us fairly, equal to the rest of the people. We were allowed to keep our weapons, thank goodness, but it's 'illegal' to use them for directed harm at another person in the community. 'Everyone's family here,' I remembered Damien stating, but also warning. The tone in his voice insured that he deeply cared for his people. The split second of which, reminded me of Rick.

As we joined the crowd and fled down the stairs, I saw a glimpse of the outside from the wall. There were people gathering in front of the gate. The men at the front were armed while everyone else behind them were 'civilians' and were opening and closing their mouths in silent gossip.

"Infected breach?" Joel asked as we hustled down the last flight of stairs.

Maria shook her head, "no, it's too small of a deal to be a breach. We'd all be in the safe house by now if the infected made it in."

"Maybe it's just one of the infected that they accidentally let through the gates," I shrugged, opening the door and heading out of the building.

Outside was a rush. People were coming from left and right, all heading to the same direction. The three of us followed in their footsteps. Joel stopped dead in his tracks when he heard it. That same voice we'd been travelling with for months.

Rick?

"We don't mean any harm," the familiar gruff voice stated. I could envision his hands raised up in the air as a gesture of no threat.

"Is that..." Maria's voice was wavering. She was as shocked as I was. "Is that who I think it is?"

Before Joel and I could respond, Damien's voice sliced through the air. "I will not let an unknown walk into these premises, whether uninfected or not." Cheers erupted from the crowd while some faces frowned at the immorality of their leader.

"But we know someone in there! I swear we do!" Another voice pleaded. This voice, being all too familiar, urged me to run towards the gates, not bothering that I pushed a few people in the process.

"Carl?" I breathed, staring at him through the small square in the metal gate.

"Ellie," his one worded response was enough to send me into tears. I sank to the ground, unable to control the relief that he was fine. He was alive and he was standing right in front of me.

"Do you know these people?" Damien inquired, walking towards me and lowering his gun to the side. I nodded, unable to utter a single word. "Trent, let them in."

"Roger that," the man named Trent uttered, pulling constantly on the chain that opened the gates. "Gates 1 and 2 are open, hold shots on side."

I watched as the sharpshooters on the busses shot down the infected walking behind Carl, Rick and Michonne. There were only the three of them again? I didn't bother questioning my thoughts as I got enveloped by Carl's arms. He nudged his face into the crook of my neck and I held his hair, sweaty but real. This was all real. "You have no idea..." He whispered, tightening his arms around me as I was about to let go. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to hold you like this. Please, don't let go for now. Just stay like this for just a little bit longer."

A tear escaped from my left eye and I smiled, more than I'd ever smiled in three weeks of not seeing him. From the corner of my eye, I saw Joel and Maria walk towards Rick and Michonne. The four of them exchanged hugs and welcomes, each with-holding a pang of sadness from every event that's happened.

Around us, spectators were in a mix of reactions. Some were excited that we just added news members to the community. Others, well, they were in a hurry to leave, either feeling threatened or bored.

"Let's get you three settled," Damien interrupted the reunion. Carl let go and intertwined my hand in his, watching our fingers closely fit together perfectly. "Now we usually do groupings by who you came with, but since you six seem so close, we're going to let you all stay on one level and save space that way."

Every one of us nodded, glad that we'd be close together again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the three of them settled in to their own rooms, I took the time to go to the town dining hall and ask for food. Paula, the community's main chef, handed me a tray full of mashed potatoes, milk and white bread. Apparently there was a farm just outside of the town, watched over and growing a field full of potatoes. Back then, I always hated potatoes, but now, living off of them was better than dying of hunger.

After climbing the flights of stairs, I was out of breath but I managed to knock on Rick's door without my arm falling off.

"We'd better eat this together, as a family," Rick stated humbly, taking the tray from me with a smile. "Could you call my son over? I'll go grab Michonne."

I nodded and obeyed, walking over to the next room and knocking on Carl's door.

It all felt so surreal. One minute, we were outside the borders, fighting to stay alive and keep our asses in check. And the next? We were living in a skyscraper in the city of New York, with more protection than we could have ever started ourselves.

The door opened wide in a few seconds, revealing a half naked Carl, only covered by a white towel. Instinctively, he shut the door in my face and I had to bite my cheek to keep myself from laughing. Then, after a few moments he reopened the door, this time with a fresh set of clothes on, and let me speak.

"Your dad wants you to go eat with him," I stated, trying my hardest not to laugh or even chuckle. His cheeks were on fire, red and making his milky white skin look even paler.

"Yeah, uhm, thanks," he coughed out. "Sorry, if I'd have known it was you I would have opened that door differently."

"It's all right. Now, at least I now that you've got abs," I teased him, causing his cheeks to burn brighter.

Carl went into his dad's room, along with Michonne, with his face still flushing red. In that moment, I went back to my own room and wondered. Wondered how long it would be until I had to tell him that I'd already started my treatments. Or how long it would be until he found out that they were already working on salving the cure from my body.

No, I thought to myself. He just got here, don't give him the news just yet.