Soon, Joel came back with a smug smile on his face,
"Come on through, ladies." Ellie goes first with me following behind her and I'm just glad that Joel's okay. I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't.
"Hey, I was thinking I would've wanted to be an astronaut." The teen says out of the blue which has me chuckling a little, she sends me a look in return which makes me snort at her.
"That a fact?" Joel raises his eyebrows to which Ellie shrugs nonchalantly,
"Yeah! Can you imagine being out there all by yourself?" I personally couldn't think of anything worse but that's just my opinion, "Would've been cool, I'm just sayin'." She looks at Joel first. "What about you? What'd you want to be?"
I already knew the answer but I sat up a bit on Clarke, suddenly interested in the conversation to gage Ellie's reaction, "Oh, well...when I was a kid, I used to want to be a..." He paused, then exhaled, "A singer." It was silent for a moment but as soon as I noticed Ellie's baffled expression I grinned,
"Shut up." Ellie laughs with a shocked smile.
"I'm serious, ask her." he tells Ellie, gesturing to me.
"No way, really?" She then turns from the back of Callus to ask me, I nod which earns another shocked laugh from her. "Sing something." She then requests, and Joel shakes his head rather quickly.
"Ah, no." He chuckles.
"Come on, I won't laugh." His eyes meet mine momentarily and I smile reassuringly, I'm quickly reminded of the time he sung to me all those years ago. My heart bursts in remembrance and I think he remembers too. I look away all flustered.
"I don't think so." I can't help but be a little disappointed, I miss hearing the sound of his voice all husky and deep when he sang. It was beautiful.
"Not to flex on you, Ellie, but Joel has sang to me before." I say smugly, teasing her a little. Ellie's head whips round so fast to stare at me with a parted mouth.
"Shut up! That's so not fair!" She whines and Joel immediately shakes his head at me which earns a laugh from me.
"So, Emily, what did you wanna be?" Joel quickly changes the conversation from him over to me, he knew the answer to my question already so I knew it was calculated from him.
"It's a little embarrassing but I always loved to dance when I was younger and I performed in these competitions growing up...so maybe that if the outbreak didn't happen." I trail off, feeling my cheeks heat up a bit. It felt so juvenile to talk about.
"That's so cool, so what, are you like pretty flexible then?" Ellie asks excitedly, once again so interested in what I was saying.
Joel perks up at this, looking at me suggestively which has my cheeks flush even more. Was he hinting at what I thought he was? His eyebrows raise and he runs his tongue over his bottom lip, wetting it before turning back ahead of him. Suddenly, I feel all flustered and I have to calm myself down before returning my attention back to Ellie.
"I mean I was very back in the day, but I guess I've still got it." I shrug, eyes trained on Joel as he stiffens momentarily before relaxing again. My lips tug into a smirk at that.
"Aww...are those monkeys!?" Ellie abruptly exclaims, her finger pointing into the distance. Squinting a little, I just about make out a cluster of monkeys playing and running not far from us.
"Yeah, a whole mess of 'em." I say, smiling a little at the girl's excitement.
"First time seein' a monkey?" Joel asks,
"First time seeing a monkey." The teen confirms with a nod, her lips are contorted into a wide smile as her eyes flicker to and fro from the monkeys.
The excitement is short lived, however, as soon, we notice more and more firefly symbols were painted amongst the walls and signs within the campus grounds. But still, no people, nothing, zilch. I can't help but have a bad feeling about this.
"Where is everybody?" I can't help but ask nervously, we'd been on our own for far too long now it seemed.
"Hellooooo! Cure for mankind over here!" Ellie calls out which immediately myself and Joel shush her. Surely by now we should've seen a firefly, Tommy did say this was the right place but I was having my doubts.
At last, we'd located the science building and had safely tied up the horses outside. The hard part was finding a way in, which we eventually did find too,
"How do you think they'll do it?" Ellie asks randomly, although I'm not too sure what she's referring to. Joel turns back around to look at the pair of us - he'd been looking around for some sort of clue to where the fireflies would be.
"Do what?" I ask, cocking my head a little at the teen. She shuffles on her feet a little, looking around at the barren entrance foyer before turning back to me.
"...Get the cure from me." She reiterates, "Do you think it'll hurt?" I pause in my step and I notice Joel do the same, I'm not entirely sure how to answer that and I'm certain that he doesn't either. I can't remember learning much about vaccines in biology during school and better yet I was only thirteen when I last studied so whatever knowledge I did have was long gone by now.
"I'm not sure, sweetie, though I can't imagine it would hurt that badly. Perhaps like the prick of a needle during a blood test." I trail off, not before long realising what I'd just called her. It was clear as day that this little girl was growing on me hugely and I just wanted to ease her nerves at whatever cost.
"Hmpf." She mutters, before stalking off and finding Joel.
"Got anything useful?" I ask him as he flicks through what seems to be a load of old files,
"Ain't nothing but a bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo." He replies, rolling his eyes at the lack of information.
"Looks like they just packed up and left." I say, looking around again at all the mess left behind. Everything was in disarray. At that, a loud crash sounds from above us which has all snap our heads upwards at the intrusion. I visibly jump at the noise, then feeling Joel place his hand on my shoulder gently which immediately calm my nerves.
"Maybe not all of them?" Ellie shrugs.
"You guys go check it out, I'm gonna stay and see if I can find anything useful. Yell if you need me." I feel as though in a situation like this, it's best to split up and cover more ground. Besides, this place is fucking huge and would take forever to look around the entire thing.
Joel throws me a concerned look, his eyebrows creasing as he frowns at me, "You sure?" I nod, shooing them away as they cautiously make their way to the second floor.
So far, all is quiet as I rummage through more and more files and loose papers. My luck must be wearing thin because so far I've found jackshit.
"C'mon." I mumble to myself, it's clear to me that this place was a bust but I'd of hoped that there was at least something to indicate where they left to. And it was as if my prayers were answered, because at the bottom of this stack of papers was a map. Salt Lake City was circled aggressively in red coloured ink and within that circle was the main hospital underlined, I could've punched the air in excitement at that. I'd finally found something.
But just as I was about to call to the others, a loud commotion sounds, even louder than the previous one. Gunshots follow which ceases my movement and it's like my limbs stiffen, I'm frozen.
"Joel!?"
I hear what sounds like Ellie scream. A scream so guttural, I'm practically shaking with worry as I rush to the floor above myself. My legs nearly give way at the speed and urgency I'm running in, I'm trying to get there as soon as possible.
"Ellie!?" My voice cracks. My eyes immediately drift to the broken railing which has my heart sinking and stomach churning, surely not...
I sprint to the edge to get a better look, hoping that my thoughts were incorrect but what I see below me has my head spinning. No. No. No.
"What do you want me to do?" Ellie's panicked voice cuts me from my revery and I'm suddenly reminded of the severity of the situation, a metal fucking rod is protruding directly through Joel's stomach which has me feeling nauseous. Blood, there's so much fucking blood and all I can do is watch as Ellie is moving around him frantically. Tears are practically streaming down my cheeks at this point but It's like I'm frozen again, unable to move and all I can think about is Joel dying.
My lips involuntarily part as Joel is quickly pulled from the rod, that slick sound of blood moving along the metal has me retching and quickly I'm doubled over and vomiting the little food I'd eaten that day. Did I mention that I'm squeamish around blood?
"Get a grip of yourself, Emily!" I say to myself, wiping my lips and immediately stumbling to my feet, but what catches my eye is the movement from the doorway below me - hunters. Leaning over the railing, I spring back into action and cock my gun quickly. Pulling the trigger multiple times, I watch as their bodies go limp, "Fuck!"
"Emily, we gotta go!"
I only pray that Joel is okay, I can't do this without him.