FLOAT, ELLIE WILLIAMS

chapter nine

        Marlo followed Dina outside in the open hall of the apartment complex. "What took you so long?" She asked, a ghostly smile on her lips. The brunette shrugged through her grin, reloading her weapon. Ellie shortly appeared behind them as they entered the other house. It was much bigger, and cleaner. The curtains were still deteriorating, and the walls were molded, but overall it seemed like a nice place. Dina took long strides towards the open window, cursing under her breath. "We need to get to the street." As much as Marlo wanted to pretend for a moment that she had own quaint little apartment — she was forced back into reality. Which was them against WLF soldiers. Aimlessly she wandered, eventually pushing through a door to a room. Or what used to be a room. Now, it looked bulldozed with two open holes in the walls. Green paving ever inch of the area. Marlo scoffed at the view, surprised by the obnoxious holes in the wall. The freckled girl was close behind her, doing the same. Hastily, she peeked through the large holes, checking to see if anybody was able to see them. "All right, coasts looks clear." Ellie breathed, pulling something out of her pocket.

The brunette shoved her pistol into the holster on her hip. Leaning over the torn wall to look below them for any hints of the WLF. "Yep," She muttered, turning to face her. "All right... check this out." It was the note and polaroid she found on Jordan. The blood that seeped into the paper had dried into a brownish color, causing Marlo to clench her jaw at the memory. Ellie banded the item to her, the girl hesitantly receiving it. She flipped the photo over, raising her eyebrows at the girl in the photo. Dina was peeking over her shoulder, sounding with an admiring whistle. Marlo looked over to the auburn-haired girl gesturing to the beauty of the girl in the photo. A part of her was just doing that to get a rise out of the emerald-eyes girl — no harm in that. Ellie deadpanned, slipping out of her backpack. "She's one of them." She muttered, her eyes darkening going back to her bag.

"Hm... well, she can go to hell."

"Read the letter." Ellie hastily demanded, pulling out the map.

With a sigh, Marlo began. "Jordan, Isaac's got us posted up on a two week at the tv station. Scars spotted in the area. Here's something to hold you over. Leah." She glanced up, back to the girl with nothing but a goal in mind. Ellie planted the map on the table flat, pointing to a news station. Dina placed her hands on her lips, with a heavy inhale. "You think she's still there?" She raised her thick eyebrows. Leaning over the map, Ellie thought for a moment. "We gotta find out, right?" She shrugged, quickly glancing at the brunette beside her with uncertainty written all over her face. Marlo stood quietly for moments, listening to the two plan. "So? it's by all these tall buildings." Dina circles her fingers around the icon on the paper. The brunette scrunches up her features, looking over her shoulder at the building behind her. With a scoff, she taps the both of the arms with the back of her hand, lightly. "Ova' here." Marlo sighs, glancing at the two of them. "Okay," The freckled girl muttered. "Let's go get Leah."

In the pursuit of Leah, small conversation ensued. Ellie wasn't too much bothered by the numbers of the WLF. Marlo couldn't blame her, but it did make her nervous. There were three of them, maybe four, against God-knows-what — so fucking risky. She wasn't planning on giving up on the mission though, it was just becoming much more serious. But, she couldn't help but wonder why they left them — Ellie, Marlo, and Tommy. They killed Joel without expecting some sort of consequence to follow? It rubbed her the wrong way that they didn't seem to care — which made enough sense since two of them literally argued in front of their own hostages. Even in the little encounters, she wasn't really sure who they were up against. Speaking of, they had another run in eight the WLF in some abandoned laundromat. It was around five of them — which was less than she had taken on in the past few hours. With pent up aggression, she used the bat that she'd slyly taken from Ellie's bag, and hammered a few skulls in. The quicker they could get to Leah, the quicker they could figure out what the fuck happened. The woman who had attacked her first, began to plead for mercy. Marlo has never fit under the term of naive, so she most definitely wasn't gonna start then. She could've been beat to death with a pipe, so it wasn't worth the risk.