Safe and Sound// Ellie Williams

Hospital

"Isabella we have to go. It's time for the elders to decide your duty." My mother tells me as she drags me out of our hut.

"But I'm scared mother. What if they make me a wife? I don't want to be a mans wife."

"You will do what they say. It would be an honour either way."

"Is that how you felt when you were chosen for father?"

"Your father is an idiot, but I got you out of it. And I am sure you will make me proud." Mother stops and crouches down in front of me. She pushes a loose strand of my curly hair out of my face. I look into the face that is identical to my own, "I know you will make me proud Isabella. No matter what you're assigned to." I nod at her.

"Yes mother."

"Good. Now let's go, we don't want to be late."

"Tate." Ellie hesitantly says. I blink away my tears and look at Ellie.

"That was my mother." I say quietly.

"Shit... you uh, you guys look a lot alike." Ellie says, "Why didn't you try to go talk to her?"

"Because if I did she'd take the first thing she can find and try to kill me with it."

"Your own mom?" I nod at Ellie, "Fuck."

"Let's just go. Most of the residents are at the church today since it's Sunday. There will be a few patrol routes, but the chances of us running into them are slim." I say and Ellie tries to say something else but I keep moving. As we climb higher the state of the building decreases and we have a lot more physical barriers to cross. There are four bars in front of me, and I jump on each until I'm on the other side. When I look back at Ellie's looking at me with her jaw dropped.

"Yeah Tate, I can't fucking do that." Ellie shouts back. I point to the door next to her and she nods before opening it and meeting me on the other side. We keep going and I jump over another big jump and turn back to Ellie to see her moving slowly against the wall, "Show off." Ellie mutters when she gets to me and I smile at her. We keep moving until we reach the bridge and Ellie stops to look around, "This is really fucking high Tate. Is that even safe?"

"I used it for 17 years, so yeah." Ellie looks skeptical but follows me anyways. I see her shake a bit at the height. Even if you're not afraid of heights this climb can be terrifying, "Hey. Just keep your eyes on me." I tell Ellie and she nods, locking her eyes with mine. I carefully walk along the half-broken bridge. Making sure I stay near Ellie for support. When we are getting closer to the end I climb down to the side and keep a hold on Ellie's waist as she climbs down to my level. Before we can move I look down at the window of the roof of the building below us.

"Be careful. Looks like someone fell off and through the window down there." I tell Ellie and she nods.

"You know, that's really not the thing to say to me right now."

"You're doing great El." Ellie nods and I grab her hand to help her move along the bridge. When we get to the other side I jump down and grab Ellie's waist to support her jump down as well, "You did it Ellie." I tell her with a smile and she nods at me.

"Yeah. That was fucking terrifying. Let's agree to never use one of those bridges again and just accept the longer travel time."

I nod with a small laugh, "Okay." I don't realize my hands are still on her waist as I slowly remove them after Ellie looked at the placement, "The hospitals just over there. There's a way down so we will be in front of it." I tell Ellie.

She clears her throat, "Right. Let's go." Ellie and I move down the building. There's always an awkward tension around us, like we need to speak about everything, but our situation isn't exactly the best for that. When we reach the hospital we crouch down and scan the area for all of the Wolves, "Well you were right about this place. Lot of Wolves here."

"Yeah. Let's just hope someone from the group that came to Jackson is here." I tell Ellie.

"What's our plan?" Ellie asks as she looks around.

"I can think of two options. The first being I can distract them while you go in and look for anyone you recognize."

"And the other?"

"Try to fight through them all." Ellie furrows her eyebrows as she thinks over the options. We duck lower when we see a new WLF truck drive into the base.

"We're here for the other shipment. Has Nora finished up on the third floor?" The WLF soldier says to the guard at the front gate.

"She's still up there. Abby went missing, so we're dealing with that." The guard replies.

"Abby was here?" Ellie whispers.

"Seems like it. Nora, that was one of the people in the group, right?"

"Yeah. Seems like a good option to get to."

"I think I could lead the front guards away. If you want to sneak in to go interrogate her." I suggest. Ellie hesitantly nods.

"What about a meeting place after?"

"Hand me the map." When I look at it I point to a location, "Want to meet here by the park? This area doesn't get patrolled often by WLF or Seraphites. There's too many demons, but most of them are locked away in the buildings."

"Okay." Ellie nods and I give her back the map. I get up to go lead the Wolves away, but Ellie grabs my arm, "Just, uh, don't die. I kinda need you here."

I give Ellie a small smile, "As long as you don't either. Good luck."

"You too." Ellie lets go of my arm and starts to crawl in the grass into the area with the WLF. I see her put a silencer on her pistol as she starts to shoot at some of the Wolves who are farther away from the other group. I turn back and crawl towards one of the hills on the opposite side of Ellie. I put my fingers in my mouth and blow out a loud whistle to get the Wolves attention.

"Is that a fucking Scar?"

"Why the fuck is a Scar here?"

"Don't sit around! Go get them!" The Wolves start to leave the area where Ellie is and come in my direction. I load my bow and start to shoot at the Wolves as they come near me. I duck as they start to shoot and turn around to make a break for it.

"She's fucking running! Go!" The soldier yells and I hear multiple feet come out and chase me down. I zig zag through the trees to try and avoid their shots. My heart beats rapidly as I'm brought back to my old days of running from Wolves. I guess no matter how hard you try you can never escape them. I cry out in pain as I feel one of the bullets go into my shoulder. I fight through the pain as I continue running. I make a sharp turn to the right, but don't see the hill as I slip and fall down. My body screams in pain as I tumble down the hill. I can feel the bullet wound scream at me from all of the damage it's enduring. At the bottom of the hill, there's a lake that I fall into. I clutch onto my shoulder and swim underwater for as long as I can before I'm forced to emerge from the water to get air. I keep my head low and search for anymore WLF.

"Can you see her?" One of the soldiers ask.

"No. She probably fucking drowned."

"Should we even take the risk?"

"It's just one fucking Scar. They'll be dead in no time."

"Yeah. Make sure to remember her face. When we attack their camp tomorrow I want to be sure to put the bullet in her fucking head after she hit me with her arrow." They're attacking the Seraphites camp tomorrow? "Let's just fucking go. Issac will be pissed if we don't get the supplies back to him soon." I hesitantly look out and see their retreating figures. I let out a deep breath as I slowly swim to the edge of the water and lay down clutching my shoulder. I open up my backpack to see if there's anything in there that can wrap my shoulder. Unfortunately, Ellie has all of the medical supplies in her back pack, so I'll just have to leave the wound for now. I painfully push my body up into a standing position and look at my surroundings to see if I can figure out where I am. I am not super familiar with this area, but I think I can find my way somewhere to figure out how to get to mine and Ellie's meeting spot.

"I hope you made it okay Ellie." I whisper to myself before swinging my backpack back on and start to make my way; which will hopefully be to the area we agreed to meet at, and pray that Ellie will be there and be okay.