PetrA

Chapter seventy: Ellie

Ellie sat around the fire with Mary, Marlene, Grant, Marcus, Timothy, Henrik, Kim and Joachim. After the rest had gone to sleep. "We need more food." Marlene said frowning. "The storage is running dangerously low. We have enough to manage a week at most." Ellie said frowning into the flames. Her eyes seemed to reflect the fire, "That and we still have Daniel camped out in the building under lock and constant guard." Henrik said matching Ellie's frown. "Where's Stella?" Marcus asked suddenly looking around. "She's in the sick bay. She is taking care of Maryanne right now." Timothy said. No one said anything for a while, "We'll have to send somebody out for more food and supplies." Mary said looking around. "Of course we do, but who would want to risk their own neck and go out there?" Joachim asked. No one said anything as they all knew that no one wanted to risk their own neck out of their own free will. They knew it was true, not many would want to go outside the walls of the camp. "I could go." Ellie said. "No!" the answer came immediately from almost everyone. Kim put a hand on her leg and looked at her, "You're not going anywhere." He growled. "I know, but I would have." She said scowling. "I'll go instead." He said. Ellie shook her head, "No." She said firmly. She wasn't about to let him go.

"Great then we have one down." Timothy said earning a hot glare from his sister. "I'll go too." Henrik said glancing over at Ellie. "Joachim too." Joachim spluttered and spit out his warm water. "What?" he asked. He was clearly not happy with Henrik volunteering him for the job. "Perfect, but we still need about four more, there's a lot to gather." Timothy said frowning. "Not seven!" Ellie burst shaking her head causing everybody to look at her. "Seven is an unlucky number, a ghost number." She said. "Ellie I think you're taking your books far too seriously." Timothy said. "Taking my books too seriously?" She demanded. "Have you looked in almost every ancient culture lately including our own?" She asked firing up at once. "Seven is the number of ghosts. It's unlucky like Friday the 13th." She said. Timothy sighed, "We'll see how many will go. I'm not forcing anyone into going, and we need food." Ellie pursed her lips not happy.

It took them two days to find more than two people willing to go. Both Timothy and Ellie refused to let Gordon leave. So it was down to three, a girl named Desiree, the twins, and some boy named Nigel. Desiree was a short girl built like a feather, Nigel was large and burly with dark skin and brooding eyes. He did not say much, but from what Ellie could judge, he had a deep bass like voice. Ellie didn't like it, she associated the number seven with unlucky things. It might have something to do with all the books she'd read, but no matter, she had taken it in over herself as many other aspects. Most importantly, she had found her interest for Greek mythology through reading books.

They were all wearing wet suits with a layer of duct tape underneath their clothes. "We'll come back." Anthony promised grinning like a fool at her. He wasn't the only one who'd noticed how uneasy she was about them leaving, Mary took Ellie's hand in hers. She didn't say anything, as she knew just as well that the chance of them all coming back alive was small. "I hate this." Ellie muttered looking at them all. Kim gave her a smile behind the buff he was wearing and gave her a hug. Ellie wrapped her arms around his waist, "I see trees of green." Mary sang teasingly wriggling her eyebrows at Ellie who turned a bright shade of red. Thank goodness for the cold... Ellie thought as she let go of Kim. "Just don't do anything stupid." She said. "I make no promises." She snorted and gave him a quick kiss. "Red roses too." Mary sang. "Mary!" Ellie whined letting go of Kim. Everyone laughed at her response. "You better get going, before it gets dark." Timothy said mentioning to the sky. Nigel looked up at the sky, "Get in." He said. Desiree got into the smallest car behind the wheel along with Henrik and Anthony. "I'll see you soon." Kim said getting into the other car with Nigel, Lewis and Joachim.

Ellie watched them drive down the main road. Once she couldn't see them anymore she turned around and walked back to the main house. People with night shifts had already gathered around the fire eating before they would have to walk around outside in -20 Celsius degrees. Ellie shivered at the thought of having to walk around out there in the biting frost. Mary joined her over by the empty couch in one corner. "I don't like it Mary." Ellie said frowning. "I have a bad feeling." Mary looked at Ellie for a while. "There's not much we can do. Now all we can do is hope that they'll come back in one piece." Ellie scowled at Mary. "Thanks, that was just what I needed. Another image of them coming home bitten to shreds." Mary pulled a face. "Don't be so negative Ellie. It's probably just your hormones." Ellie doubted it, but she nodded her head slowly.

The food went faster than Ellie would have liked, and her nerves was on edge as the days passed. Soon almost a week had gone by and there was still no sign of them. Ellie anxiously passed the roads leading into the camp, several times a day. "Ellie you need to do something to keep you busy when you're not doing the regular check on our food storage." Marlene said when Ellie passed her for the millionth time that day. "I'm sorry." Ellie muttered looking down the road hoping to see something, but there was nothing. "Nala take Ellie inside." She said to a bypassing girl who was carrying several boxes filled with things. She glanced at Ellie, "Yeah sure. Can you maybe take a box or two?" She asked. Ellie didn't answer but took two of the boxes she was carrying. "I've never had a chance to talk to you." Nala said walking towards their storage building. "I guess not." Ellie said glancing sideways at her. She had long fiery red hair that covered half her face, making it impossible for Ellie to get a better look at her. "I'm Natalie Morgan, but people call me Nala." Ellie offered a smile as somebody opened the door for them, "You can set the boxes down over there." Nala said pointing at a corner with at least another twenty or thirty boxes, just like the ones they were carrying. "What's in all those boxes?" Ellie asked curiously peering into one of them. "Tools and things we can use." Nala replied brushing the hair out of her face revealing a freckled face, and a set of Mitch matched coloured eyes. One brown and the other a blue green colour. She sneezed suddenly scaring Ellie so she tripped over her own feet and almost fell into the stack of boxes. "Bless you!" Somebody called. "Thanks." Nala said wiping her nose. "Sorry about that." She said.

"So you want to see something cool?" Ellie didn't feel like she had much of a choice as she followed the girl Nala back outside. She walked around the cluster of buildings and led Ellie towards a small out of the way spot close to the fence. Ellie watched Nala walk around for a moment before she stopped and searched for something on the ground. She pulled away a white piece of plastic revealing an old well. Ellie walked over her curiousness getting the better of her. She peered down into the well and heard several low growls coming from down there. "Is there dead people down there?" Ellie asked backing up. Nala looked down and threw a stone. It hit something soft and mushy. Ellie gagged when the smell hit her, it was much worse than anything she'd ever smelled before. "Yes the smell is quite foul, but I find it amazing really. They've been down there probably since the beginning." She said throwing another rock. "You've been feeding them?" Ellie asked shocked. Nala gave her a weird look, "Of course not. That would be stupid, but they have survived months down there with nothing to eat. Amazing when you think about it, it shouldn't be possible, unless there have been some sort of eatable flesh and meat down there. Those guys prefer it warm and bloody." Ellie snorted, "They prefer it alive, trashing and screaming. They adore tearing you apart until you're nothing but a hollow burger." Nala grinned.

Nalathrew a few more stones down there before getting a bucket and filling it withwater from the sea. "You want the honour?" She asked holding the bucket towardsEllie. "You do it. I'm afraid I'll slip and end up down there." Ellie saidshaking her head. Nala shrugged and threw the icy water down into the well.They heard the splash and low growls, Nala threw several more buckets of waterdown there before she spread the plastic over the well again. "Does anyone knowabout that?" Ellie asked as Nala put the bucket back. "Timothy does. I told himonce I found it, at first we wanted to use the well as a water source until wefound out about the Biters down there." Ellie nodded. "Would've infectedeverybody." Nala said shrugging. "Too bad though, would have made for a perfectsource though." Nala nodded, "It would."