THE WOOD BURNS SLOWLY, EVERYONE CROWDING AROUND, EATING THE SQUIRRELS THAT DARYL HAD CAUGHT FOR THEM NOT TOO LONG AGO. It was a nice night tonight, not too hot, not too cold. The wind was blowing lightly, Ellie's hair moving around her face while she stares at the burning wood in silence.
Ellie flicks her eyes up at Jax, who was standing a far distance away from her, his hand on the knife that sat in a sheath on his hip. Tonight was his night on watch and he made sure he would be the perfect person for it.
Faint footsteps are heard from the bushes, alerting the group. Ellie gets up from her spot, holding up her knives up in a threatening manner.
The figure emerges from the bushes, holding up their hands in surrender. "Woah..."
Ellie sighs in relief, putting down her weapon when she see's Rick and Daryl back from their hunt. They stare back at her, a look of excitement in their eyes. "What? Did you guys find something?"
"Yeah, we did."
Ellie's jaw drops once she see's the prison yard that Rick and Daryl led them too. Everyone else seemed to be in shock as well, eyes roaming the land. Rick, T-dog, Maggie, Daryl and Glenn ordered the rest of the group to stay behind, incase something went wrong while they went to clear out the walkers from inside the prison.
"How are we gonna get through all that?" Beth whispered to Ellie, the girl turning to give her best, reassuring smile. There was walkers roaming around the yard. A lot of them.
"I'm sure we have some sort of plan." Ellie reassures the girl. The blonde nodded slowly, unsure of her response as she tightens her grip on her knife she held.
Jax moves beside the two, making Ellie tense up, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. He blows out a breath, shooting the girl beside him a nervous glance that then moved to his brother across from him, a focused look on his face as he looks at the scattered walkers across the prison yard.
Glenn comes back panting, pointing behind him. "I've got the gate opened, Rick and the others are already inside."
"Okay, let's go." Jax says, leading the others behind Glenn, making their way through the gate. Each person makes their way through cautiously, keeping an eye out for the sharp edges of the fence.
As Ellie goes through, she inhales sharply once she feels the metal scrape against her palm, blood dripping onto the floor. Her blue eyes stay on the wound as the blood gushes out rapidly, dripping onto her converse that already have previous blood stains on them, turning a dark brown color from time.
"El." Maggie calls out, pulling out a rag from her pocket before moving towards the girl, wrapping her hand tightly. Ellie watches as she does this, furrowing her eyebrows in pain. "There. That won't help but it'll stop the bleeding for now. C'mon." The woman says, motioning to the walkers roaming around the yard which was waiting to be cleared out.
Ellie sniffs, wiping the stray tear that fell from her eye. "Okay, lets go." The two jog up towards the group, or half the group anyway as the rest were off killing the dead.
Glenn stood in front of the small gate, motioning for everyone to go through. "Okay, Maggie, you go with me. Ellie..." Glenn trails off, looking to her hand. "What happened?"
Ellie looks to Maggie momentarily, weirdly wanting her to answer for her. "Uh... it's a cut. I cut myself on the fence."
Glenn gives her a nod of acknowledgement before making his way through the gate, giving her one last look of concern before running along the side of the wall, out of sight.
"El will come with me." Jax says, moving closer to the girl, his large hand wrapping around her upper arm gently, almost as if she'd break under his touch.
"Okay, good. You guys are gonna help Carol clear out the ones in the yard and Maggie and I are gonna help Rick with the walkers inside." Glenn orders, looking to everyone for confirmation. They all nod their heads. "Good luck. Don't die."
Ellie nods curtly before moving to walk, but stops, realizing Jax's hand was still wrapped around her arm. "Jax."
Jax clears his throat, letting go quickly, like her skin had burned him. The pair make their way to the yard, swinging their weapons toward the dead, dying only after head shots. Ellie was using her throwing knife and her small pistol that she stole from her father which felt like forever ago. Jax uses his axe, which he enjoys much better than any other weapon.
As Ellie goes to throw the knife, a cold hand gripped her shoulder, inching it's teeth closer to her flesh. She shrieks, pushing it's head away from nipping at her ear. She turns around completely, aiming her pistol under it's chin, pulling the trigger just as fast. Once the gun goes off, she gasps in pain, holding her head as the sound of the bullet was too loud and too close to her ears.
Jax notices this, almost sprinting to her. "What happened? Are you bit?" He hesitates on reaching out to scan her body for bites but he stops, searching her eyes instead.
Ellie pants heavily, holding her head. "I-I'm fine, I'm fine." She says, eyes closed tightly in pain.
Jax turns his whole body around, scrambling to grab something out from his bag. He finally grips onto what he was looking for, handing her the canteen of water. "Here."
"Thanks." Ellie takes a couple gulps then hands it back to him, noticing the walkers were inching closer to them.
Jax stands there for a moment, trying to slow his heart rate down from feeling so much fear.
"Here," Ellie says, handing the water back to the Grimes boy. He took it out of her hands, their fingers brushing each others for a moment. "Let's go."
Jax follows Ellie as she sprints back to where the walkers were. There still about a dozen in the prison yard and although they had help from Carol in the tower, it was still a struggle to kill the walkers roaming around.
Ellie shoots at the walkers, getting a head shot almost every single time. Jax is beside her, piercing the dead's skulls with his axe. The teenagers grunt and pant loudly, the sun beaming on them, making sweat drip down their faces and all crevices. There was about 5 walkers in the field now, Carol shooting them down in the guard tower.
Ellie felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders once she saw the field was clear. Her blue eyes roam around, the woods behind the prison catching her eye.
"You guys alright?" Rick calls out, making his way towards the teenagers. "Wow," He breathes out, looking around astonishment. There was about 2 dozen walkers, maybe more in the yard and they cleared all of them with ease.
"Home sweet home." Jax chuckles lightly, flashing El a smile from beside him. She smiles back, a genuine smile as she looks around the yard.
Carol comes over, the sniper on her back as she holds out her arms. "We haven't had this much room since the farm!" She chuckles.
Ellie looks to Jax, seeing he was already looking back. However, he looks away just as she makes eye contact, looking to his feet instead.
"Let's get goin' inside." Rick says, the trio following him.
Ellie's eyes adjust to the dark quickly, weapon in front of her just in case a walker comes out of nowhere.
"It's safe down here, we cleared it out." Rick lets the girl know, her nodding slowly before tucking her knife away, glancing at Jax in front of her.
"Pick your cell." Rick orders, the teenagers obeying.
Ellie walks down the way, finding the middle to last end, planting her backpack onto the bed. She sighs, letting herself fall back to touch the mattress. Or the closest thing to a mattress, anyway. Ellie closes her eyes, thinking about everything and anything at the moment. What her father would think of this prison if he was still alive. Would he like the person she has become in two months? Her eyes snap open when she hears footsteps coming near her cell.
"I was about to pick this exact one." His voice says, sighing heavily at the end of his sentence. "I see you already got it."
"Great minds think alike." El chuckles lightly, not even moving from her spot on the bed. "I think there might be one more on the end, if you want one right by the bathroom, anyway." Beth was a couple cells down and Lori was next to her, Hershel on the other side of Lori.
"One near the bathroom sucks." Jax scoffs, a smirk playing at his lips. "Wouldn't even wish that upon my worst enemy, Walsh."
Ellie freezes, not used to hearing him call her by her old nickname, or her fathers last name. She hides her reaction, chuckling softly. The two stay silent, Jax standing in the doorway with his hands on his hips out of nervousness.
Ellie closes her eyes, not realizing how tired she really was until she hears Jax's voice get quieter and quieter. He stops talking, noticing that the girl was half asleep on her bed. "Sweet dreams, El." The boy speaks softly, walking away and into the cell beside hers.
Not moments pass before Ellie completely falls asleep, exhaustion taking over.