The snow had stopped but the horses were struggling, the sheer amount of snow that had fallen had caused it to drift across the hills, thick mounds of it.
"Ellie I think we might be better walking?" Rosalia could feel her horse's muscles working overtime, his strong shoulders pulling with each heavy step he took.
"Come on we can leave the horses here," snapping the reigns she stopped and jumped down, grabbing her bag from the saddle and helping Ellie do the same.
"We have to be quick. We have to find them." Ellie's voice was stung with desperation her worry for Joel and Tommy was clouding all judgment and all she could do is drag Rosalia further through the trees and the snow.
"We will Ellie, just take a breather okay? I'm worried too," putting both hands on Ellie's shoulders she looked into her eyes.
"I have a really bad feeling about this Lia," her voice was barely a whisper as she hit her lip clearly trying not to let the tears fall. Ellie's usually hard demeanour was cracking, her eyes were soft, eyebrows furrowed and she was playing with her ring finger anxiously.
"Me too. Let's just go get them and take them home yeah?" Ellie nodded in response the two of them setting off on their way further up the hill.
The snow was falling in small flurries across the valley so their long distance vision was obscured. After ten minutes or so Ellie stopped silently pointing down to the old ski lodge that was sitting on the hill. There was a soft orange light emitting from the windows and smoke billowing out the chimney.
"Ellie look down there," Rosalia herself pointed down the the gate that was situated at the front of the building. There was piles of burnt bodies lying at the outside perimeter.
"Fuck," the two girls hurried down the slope and found a crack in the fence where they squeezed through.
"Here there is a back door," the glass door was wide open the curtains blowing out in the wind a small pile of snow had gathered at the entrance of the building. They rushed in and down the stairs Rosalia's heart racing as they started looking around the lodge trying to find clues.
"Ellie," she warned as they turned a corner to see a pile of sleeping bags and stuff set up on and around the old sofas next to the hearth fireplace. Suddenly a crash came from within the building followed by a shout. Joel.
Ellie rushed forward Rosalia hot on her heels as the two saw a staircase leading down to what was probably a basement. Rosalia could hear grunts coming from the locked door at the bottom of the stairs, so she pulled her pistol from her jeans, her switchblade hidden under her sleeve. Ellie held her ear against the wood as her eyes widened as she grabbed the door handle swinging it open her gun held out in front of her, Rosalia right behind her with her own gun out.
The sight of Joel lying groaning on the floor, his face covered in blood and his knee blown apart, the bone sticking out at the knee made her stop in her tracks. Looking over at the bar in the corner she saw her uncle Tommy crumpled on the floor a bash on his forehead from where he had been knocked out. She jumped back as a man grabbed Ellie and dragged her down to the floor as she felt the warm body of a large man hit her back his arm wrapped around her neck and she felt the barrel of a gun smack her head and everything went black.
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Ellie hadn't left her house since they had been brought back to Jackson.
After she came to from being hit across the head so hard she was knocked out unconscious Rosalia had been woken up still in the lodge Tommy leaning over her body as he begged her to wake up, Ellie was lying in front of her sobbing as she lay there blood running down her face from her burst nose, as Joel lay dead on the floor by the window. She felt Tommys body shaking as he too sobbed over his niece and his brother. As he noticed that she came to he grabbed her shoulders pulling her into a hug his hands clasping onto her relived as he realised that she was alive and awake. Her head was pounding and touching the area gently she felt her fingers become slick with blood where the gun had actually broken the skin.
"Ellie," Rosalia cried as she kept one hand in Tommy's and she crawled over to Ellie's body pulling her into a hug herself the two girls crying with grief their body's sore and battered but happy that each of them were alive and okay.
"Ellie we need to go," she sniffled trying to pull her up off the floor.
"Ellie come on we need to go,"
Ellie had a dead look in her eyes, tears still running down her cheeks.
"Joel," she whimpered. "Joel fucking please wake up," her voice was quiet as she mumbled in Joel's direction. Jesse had joined them without Rosalia realising, he had pulled Tommy up off the floor and they were collecting their stuff that had been littered around the room as Rosalia begged ellie to try and stand up and leave.
"Ellie we need to get up please." Rosalia was begging now trying to pull her up under her armpits. Eventually she managed to pull her to her feet, Ellie dragging her sleeve across her running nose and wet cheeks.
"Rosalia, please get me out of here," she sobbed realising exactly where she was and that the man who was basically her father was lying dead across the room. Holding on to Rosalia's hand she pulled her towards the door stumbling a bit as she did so her legs shaking from being taken down by a fully grown adult man. Pulling her up the stairs the sleeping bags and all the stuff from that group were gone and the fire was only embers now glowing in the dark sunset. Reaching the back door they had come in through, Ellie lurched forward emptying her stomach on to the polished hard wood floors, her skin pale and sweaty, her hands leaving marks of sweat across her dusty jeans.
"Hey hey hey come on now Ellie let's get you home," she nodded still sniffling her head bowed low. Rosalia was ready to burst into tears herself but knew she had to wait until she got back to Maria and Tommy's before being able to breakdown fully.
The ride back to Jackson was quiet, Ellie had vouched to ride on the back of Patrick holding onto Rosalia's waist while shimmer trotted along next to them. Jesse had briefly mentioned meeting them back home but Rosalia's focus was making sure Ellie got back safely. She knew that Tommy would be okay, Tommy was bound to be upset but he would cope. She couldn't say the same for Ellie.
Eventually reaching Jackson Maria came running through the gates but stopped dead in her tracks seeing Ellie's head hung low, her chin resting on her chest and Rosalia's grief stricken face.
"Lia? Ellie?" She helped the girls down from the horse, gesturing to the stable hands to help bring Patrick and shimmer in.
"Girls what happened?" A grave look came across her face as she realised that someone had obviously died.
"It's Joel," she felt Ellie take a deep breath in, her shoulders shaking slightly as she tried to stop the sobs coming through.
"Uncle Tommy is fine, he's a bit bashed up," she pointed to her head where the blood had congealed and crusted over, but a headache still thumping away in her temple.
"You need to go to the infirmary, is Tommy and Jesse following?" Maria put a reassuring hand on Rosalia's arm a sorry expression on her face.
"Yeah I think, I just I need to go lie down," she mumbled Maria only nodding with understanding.
Taking Ellie's hand the two girls walked through Jackson ignoring people's stares as they realised that they were walking through covered in blood and dirt before reaching the infirmary. Ellie stopped dead in her tracks as she looked up at the banner that held a cross on it.
"I just want to go home please?" She whispered softly as she looked up at Rosalia, the tears still falling silently down her cheeks.
"But what about my head-?" Ellie cut her off shaking her head.
"I'll stitch it. I just need to go home please?" She was practically whining with her defeated her voice sounded. Rosalia no doubt could imagine she was just watching Joel's death over and over and over again in her mind.
"Okay let's go," she led Ellie further through Jackson the two girls making their way into Ellie's small little cottage like house and sitting down on the bed.
"We should try and get cleaned up Ellie," she whispered gently. The silence was deafening all she wanted to do was curl up with Ellie and distract herself from what they had witnessed.
Ellie only nodded as she kept her eyes focused on the wall in front of her.
"I'll go get the bath full for us," she walked through to the bathroom, Maria had dropped off a few pails of water for Ellie has the waterworks system had been playing up recently. While yesterday she had been able to run a bath through the pipes today she had to boil the water manually. Luckily Ellie had a stove and a small kettle she could easily heat the water up. The sound of the boiling water was enough to cover the sounds of Rosalia's sobs as she finally broke down in tears her back sliding down the bathroom door as she felt her stomach heave. Her headache was only getting worse and she felt a sick feeling rise up inside her as she crawled across the bathroom tiles and dry heaved into the toilet.
Every time she shut her eyes should could see Joel lying there Tommy next to him, his head completely smashed to pieces, that girl with the braid standing over him with a golf club held in her hands. She could see Ellie held down by a strange man, her arms, hear her whimpers as she pled for them to let them all go and to stop hurting Joel the cold hard concrete floor of that basement room.
In between her sobs she felt arms wrap around her body pulling her into a chest, opening her swollen eyes she saw Ellie's tattooed arm wrapped around her chest her own sobs matching up with hers as the two girls sat still dirty their tears running down the cheeks on the cold dark bathroom floor just grateful to have each other in that moment.
Rosalia woke up, still on the bathroom floor but leaning on the door with Ellie asleep with her head on her lap, dirt and blood still coating her face but the obvious tear marks down her cheeks. Where she had been hit or kicked a bruise had blossomed under one of her eyes and there was a scrape across her cheekbone from hitting her face on the floor.
"Ellie wake up," she whispered shaking her shoulder gently. She woke with a jolt almost smacking her head against Rosalia's chin.
"Fuck what time is it?" It was like she was in automatic mode, straight away thinking she was late for patrol or something but after a couple of seconds she came to and realised why she was lying dirty in her bathroom across her best friends lap. Ellie's shoulder sagged in defeat as she started down at her lap her fingers twisting against each other.
"Do you want to try have a bath?" Rosalia whispered, her throat horse from crying. The boiling water from the night before was now cold again, the cool winter air had seeped into the bathroom through the crack in the window and Rosalia had goosebumps over her arms. Standing up she went over to the water heater, Ellie stayed sitting on the floor, moving so her back was against the door.
"Can you please stay?" Looking down at her Ellie's face showed nothing but innocence, a scared young girl who had just lost the only father figure she had ever know as well as witnessing his death at the same time.
"Of course I can,"
Placing the water back on the heater she waited for it to boil before filling the bath up. Helping ellie off the floor the two girls helped themselves undress and climbed into the hot tub of water together.
Most people would see it as a sexual intimate action to bathe together but for ellie and Rosalia it was the norm, a way of supporting each other when they had had a bad day, they would spend the time helping each other clean up and wash, clean the blood for their faces, rub shampoo through their hair when they were too mentally and physically exhausted to do it themselves. Seeing each other naked was never an issue for Rosalia. Although she had obvious feelings for Ellie it was never a case of seeing her bare body that made her nervous and jittery, she was so used to seeing her topless or just in a tee shirt and boxers, it was the small intimate ways hugs and touches, and playing with Rosalia's hair. Sometimes she would wake up after falling asleep during a film and Ellie was running her fingers up and down her arm while she cuddled into her side. So this was nothing to her, just two friends trying to help each other.
Pulling herself out her head she felt Ellie run a washcloth across her cheek, it came away with old brown blood crusted in the fiber, she felt the dull ache of the wound behind her temple her eye feeling swollen from the impact of the gun against her skull.
"It doesn't need stitched," Ellie mumbled cleaning away the rest of the blood.
"It's just a graze," she handed the soap and the washcloth to Rosalia who then did the same to Ellie, cleaning off the grime and blood from her face.
"You're the same, you'll get another scar though on your lip if you pick at the scab," she tried to smile and joke but it was short lived as she remembered why Ellie had a cut on her lip in the first place.
"What are we gonna do Ellie?" She leant her head against Ellie's shoulder feeling the cool skin against her cheek.
"I'm gonna find." She paused as Rosalia looked up at her face, desolate and void of emotion. "And I'm gonna kill every. Last. One of them."