Chapter Seven
Boring Ants
The next morning was a gloomy one, they'd travelled a fair distance away from the capital building, now deep into the forests that surrounded the Boston area.
When Fran woke up, Joel wasn't there, but his bag was still sitting against a tree, jacket over Ellie. She was sat silent and unmoving, back against a tree.
She walked down to the small creek that sat just behind Ellie, and put her hands into the fresh water, splashing some into her face in hopes of waking up and making her skin feel so puffy. There was a heavy feeling in her heart she was hoping the cold water could cure.
"Do you think Joel's being weird?" Ellie asked Fran, not looking in her direction, but projecting her voice enough for the older woman to hear. Fran sighed, pushing her hand through her hair and standing up tall.
"I think he's just processing what happened," She said back, moving to go and stand by where Ellie sat, "these things take time."
"Doesn't mean he can be a dick to us," Ellie mumbled, kicking some dirt by her shoes. Fran sighed, moving to take a seat next to the girl, shoulders touching.
"Everyone handles it different," Fran says, sticking up for the man who had been basically silent since leaving Tess behind, "It's not his fault."
Sounds of footsteps behind her made Fran fall silent, Joel wordlessly passing her as held her arms around her middle.
Both her and Ellie watched as he leaned down to his bag, grabbing it rather aggressively and starting to open it.
"You want your jacket back?" Ellie asked him, trying to create some form of conversation or small connection. Fran watched as he froze for a second, before shaking his head and beginning to rummage through his backpack.
He pulled out a small parcel of jerky, eating a small piece before packaging it back up. He went to put it in his bag, hesitating, and then threw it towards the two girls.
It landed by Fran's feet; Ellie picking it up as the older woman kept her eyes on the man in front of her. She knew his pain, she'd felt it before, she just wished there was something, anything she could do to help - there wasn't.
Ellie however couldn't seem to hold the same level of sympathy, or empathy, quickly beginning to chew on a piece of jerky.
"I've never been in the woods. More bugs than I thought," Ellie spoke, looking around her, and over to Fran upon Joel's silence, "you spend a lot of time in the woods as a child?"
"No," Fran said quietly, "I preferred the beach."
"Beach sounds a lot cooler than here," Ellie said to her then, Fran sending a small nod as she looked down at her shoes.
Ellie fell silent once again at Fran's clear discomfort. The woman didn't do well with negativity, that much was clear. Knowing she'd dragged her into this, put her through this, was enough for her to try and set it right.
Ellie sighed, looking back to Joel, "Look, I've been thinking about..."
"I don't want your sorries," Joel cut her off right away, standing up to his full heigh and putting his bag on his back.
"I wasn't gonna say I'm sorry. I was gonna say that I've been thinking about what happened," Ellie corrected him as Fran hugged herself closer, just the sight of her so small had Joel more annoyed than before.
That woman sat in front of him would not survive on her own, how she was fine and Tess was gone was a complete mystery. The worlds way of saying 'fuck you' once more to him.
"Nobody made you or Tess take me. Nobody made you go along with this plan. You needed a truck battery or whatever, and you made a choice. So don't blame me, or Fran, for something that isn't our fault." Ellie was strong as she spoke, not even a little intimidated by him. At the end of her speech, Fran dared to look up at the man, only to see the same glum face on him as he processed her words.
He sent Ellie the smallest of nods, prompting Ellie to stand and walk over, passing him his jacket as he grabbed his gun off the floor.
Fran stood up herself, grabbing both her backpack and Ellie's, taking a deep breath as she did so.
"How much longer?" She heard Ellie ask as she turned towards the two, slowly making her way over.
"Five-hour hike," Joel answered shortly.
"We can manage that," Ellie nodded, grabbing her pack off of Fran and throwing it onto her back.
Joel walked ahead, letting the two girls follow behind him quietly. The sun had now made an appearance; breaking through the canopy of trees as the trio walked through.
Joel was still on alert as they crossed over a bridge. Walking out onto a foot bath that cars could most likely get through. The place was beautiful, and it was nice to have fresh air. In the QZ Fran always felt like she was suffocating on smoke, her place not far from where they used to burn those who were infected.
"You've gone this way a lot?" Ellie spoke to Joel as they walked. "No Infected?"
"Not often, no," Joel spoke quietly.
"What are you looking out for?" Ellie asked.
"People."
The somber mood seemed to go even worse and Fran swallowed, her throat going dry.
When she was younger, and there wasn't a killer mushroom taking over peoples brains, the idea of seeing people when walking was much more appealing. Safer in numbers. Her mother had always told her to be around people when travelling alone, it was safer that way.
That had flipped now, the idea of people now being threatening.
"Are Bill and Frank nice?" Fran asks next, trying to move on from the subject as she kicks a small pile of leaves with her foot. Catching up to Joel and Ellie, and standing on Ellie's right side.
"Frank is," Joel responded.
Fran nods at that, looking down at the floor. Ellie however had noticed a small scar on Joel's forehead, interest peaking.
"How'd you get that scar on your head?"
Just the mention of it had Joel sighing in annoyance, the two accompanying him asking too many questions, the younger asking all the invasive ones.
"What?" Ellie asked, smile on her face, "Is it something lame? Like you fell down the stairs or something?"
"I didn't fall down any stairs," Joel shook his head, defending himself from the accusation.
"Okay, so what then?" Ellie pressed, Fran's elbow nudging her arm slightly as she shook her head, but Ellie was adamant, "What! I need to know it wasn't stupid now."
"Someone shot at me and missed," Joel said after a second, briefly touching on the subject.
"See, that's cool," Ellie said with a smile, and Fran tilted her head.
"I don't think that's cool," She argued, "Sounds traumatising."
"You shoot back?" Ellie ignored the woman, still intrigued.
"Yeah," Joel was getting more peeved by the second.
"You get him?"
"No, I missed, too." He said simply; "It happens more often than you think."
"'Cause you suck at shooting or, like, in general?" Ellie asked, the small jab making Fran hide a smile.
"In general." Joel said.
Ellie was silent for a second, before eyeing Joel's gun, a new idea in mind, "You know, seeing as it's just the three of us, I was thinking I should pro-"
"No," Joel and Fran were quick to cut her off, making her scoff as she looked between them.
"Fine," she mumbled, "what about you Fran, any cool scars?"
"Uh." She thought to herself for a second, before lifting her shirt just slightly, revealing a long line on her hip that had faded into white.
"That's cool!" Ellie said, poking it which made Fran slap her hand away, "how'd you get that? Did someone stab you or some shit?"
"No," Fran shook her head, "it was a stupid reason."
"I'm sure it's cool," Ellie said, making Fran shake her head again, "You gonna tell us or leave us in suspense."
"It's not as cool as Joel's," Fran argues.
"I'll be the judge of that," Ellie argues.
"It had nothing to do with weapons," Fran argued back.
"Could still be cool," Ellie argued again, making Joel close his eyes, the girls beginning to give him a headache.
"It's-" Fran went to argue again, but Joel cut her off this time.
"What have you the damn scar?" He asked; his tone nowhere near as interested as Ellie's.
She hesitated on answering for a second, before saying quietly, "I got hit by a car."
"Oh," Ellie said in a bit of shock, "when did that happen?"
"Before you were born," Fran answered shortly.
"Old-"
"I'm not old," Fran cut her off, deciding to explain more, "happened on outbreak day. New York drivers were reckless enough as it is. Wrong place wrong time."
"Did you go flying through the air?" Ellie asked, making Fran furrow her eyebrows and send her a look.
"No," she answers shortly. Her brain going to the face of her sister helping her up, saying they needed to keep moving. Saying they needed to get to their father.
"What about the scar on your hand?" Ellie asked then, pointing to the small red patch that trailed against the back of her palm and led to the inside. Fran looked down at it with sad eyes.
"Burn mark," Fran said quietly, and if she'd of been looking, she would've seen Joel's eyebrows furrow.
"When did that happen?" Ellie asked.
"Same day."
While Ellie was a little confused on how Fran could have both injuries happen so closely, Joel was starting to piece together what had happened - the night of the outbreak major cities were bombed, fires were everywhere. Fran had appeared uncomfortable before when looking at the wreckage of a bomb in Boston.
"How did you get burned? Was it a fire?" Ellie asked, in Joel's opinion, a very obvious question.
"Doesn't matter," Fran said then, holding back tears.
"But-"
"Ellie," Joel stopped her this time, "leave it."
Fran looked over to Joel then, the man not looking in her direction as his eyes caught something ahead.
"Hang on a minute," He said as they approached a building with a wrecked sign.
"Cumberland Farms," Ellie said with furrowed eyebrows; "what's a Cumberland?"
"Type of sausage," Fran said; making Joel send her a look that read as 'are you completely stupid?'
"It's a place," Joel corrected.
"It's also a type of sausage." Fran argued.
"Yeah, it's a sausage, from Cumberland." He responded, and her mouth dropped open slightly at the realisation.
"Oh;" she said quietly.
"Yeah." Joel mumbled; shaking his head, "I gotta grab some stuff I stashed."
"Stashed? Why do you have stuff stashed here?"
Ellie asked following after him.
"You ask a lot of goddamn questions," Joel stated the obvious, the annoyance clear in his tone once again.
"Yes, I do," Ellie said, smile on her face as she followed him inside. Fran herself took a seconds on her own, sitting down on the small porch outside.
"You coming?" Ellie asked to Fran, the woman shaking her head.
"Go ahead; I'll be there in a minute," she sent a smile her way as she spoke, Ellie hesitating before nodding.
Fran could hear Ellie from outside still bombarding Joel with questions, and shook her head slightly.
She looked down at her hands, the scar catching her eye once again as she shook her head, trying to rid her thoughts of the night she'd not thought of in so long. The scar should've really healed, but the years following made Fran develop a nervous habit of scratching the wound. It now refusing to ever go away as a punishment.
She took a deep breath as her thumb caressed the small scar, not that she could feel it. The nerves in the small area were completely dead. Fran sighed, a sad smile on her face, "Cosa sto facendo?" She asked herself quietly, looking up at the sky as if a voice from the heavens would answer, "Perché è così difficile?"
She closed her eyes as they filled with tears, bringing her palms up to her eyes and pushing down how she felt.
She stood up after a moment, brushing off her legs with her hands and opening the door to go inside. Joel was on his knees picking at something on the floor with his knife.
"Where, uh, where is Ellie?" She asked, making him look at her for a second, before nodding to the room connected to that one.
"Do you need any help?" She asked another question, and Joel faltered, his annoyance back once again. He looked up at Fran, the woman offering a small smile to show she didn't mean to be annoying.
He could see the redness in her eyes even from the dim lighting, and thought for a second about when she'd just started arranging cutlery in the hotel to distract herself - her way of coping. He paused, and then he sighed, nodding.
"Grab the green box," he said to her, holding the lid of the secret compartment open. She nodded, leaning down next to him and picking it up carefully. She placed it next to the hole; opening it up.
There was a crash from the room over that made Fran and Joel turn their heads, sharing a look.
"Ellie?" Fran yelled out, receiving no reply. The silence made her heartbreak spike, standing up straight as Joel went for his gun.
"Ellie?" She called again, letting Joel move past her with his gun out, headed to where Ellie had been.
It was tense as Joel went to the door, only for the girl in question to walk out, smile on her face and a box of tampons in her hand, "picked over, my ass."
Joel rolls his eyes, going back to where Fran was and grabbing a couple things from the green box. He closed it up again, putting it back in the hole, along with his rifle.
"What are you doing?" Ellie asked him, confused as to why the gun joel had basically been holding the whole time she'd seen him now being put in the floor.
"There's not much ammo out there for this thing. Makes it mostly useless." Joel answered, closing it back up and standing up.
"Well, if you're just gonna leave it there..." Ellie said slowly, the suggestion clear, and it made both adults send her a dry look.
"No," Joel answers for the both of them.
Ellie grumbles about how Fran has one as all three head back out on the trail. The whole situation making Fran roll her eyes. Ellie was too young for that type of thing.
-
They were roughly three hours in to the four hour hike now, an hour away from where Cumberland Farms had been. Ellie was still persistent in her questions to both Joel and Fran, the adults now both over the constant chatter.
Ellie had caught on eventually, quieting down and stabbing a long stick in the ground as she walked, it was better than just walking and doing nothing in her opinion.
They were now no longer in the woods, but surrounded by fields, a small amount of trees guarding their path as they travelled. Joel was less alert, knowing if there was people he'd spot them a mile off.
Fran hadn't forgotten about the scar talk from earlier, her head still stuck on it as she stared at the ground. Ellie stopping in front of Fran was definitely not great either, the woman not noticing until she was tripping, and lanching herself back to avoid falling over.
"Che Diavolo?" She grumbled, looking at Ellie, only to see the girls eyes trained off into the distance.
"Holy shit," Ellie mumbled, looking at the wreck of the airplane on top of the hill, "You fly in one of those?"
"No; I got to this country by magic carpet," Fran said, Ellie not getting the reference, she huffed, "A few times."
"So lucky." Ellie said, still staring at it like it was a masterpiece.
"Didn't feel like it, at the time," Joel mumbled, adding to the conversation willingly, for once, "Get shoved into a middle seat, pay 12 bucks for a sandwich."
"Dude, you got to go up in the sky!" Ellie argued, voice full of wonder.
"Yeah, well, so did they," Joel said, gesturing to the wreck, and then walking.
"Grim..." Ellie mumbles, before trailing after him. Fran shakes her head, staring for a moment longer, before walking after them.
"So, everything came crashing down in one day?" She asked the two older people, Fran nodding her head as Joel spoke for the two of them.
"Pretty much."
"How? I mean, no one was infected with Cordyceps, everybody's fine, eating in restaurants and flying in planes, and then all at once?"
Ellie asked the same questions Fran had been killing herself over for two decades, "How did it even start? If you have to get bit to be infected, then who bit the first person? Was it a monkey? I bet it was a monkey!"
"It wasn't a monkey. I thought you went to school," Joel quipped.
"FEDRA school. They don't teach us how their shitty government failed to prevent a pandemic," Ellie responded, the answer being good enough for them.
"No one knows for sure, but, best guess... Cordyceps mutated. Some of it got into the food supply. Probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere, all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal... pancake mix. You eat enough of it, it'll get you infected. So the tainted food all hits the store shelves around the same time Thursday. People bought it, ate some Thursday night, or Friday morning. Day goes on. They started to get sick. Afternoon, evening, they got worse. Then they started bitin'. Friday night, September 26th, 2003. And by Monday, everything was gone."
"Happened in the morning in New York; people didn't believe me when I came running out saying something was happening," Fran then added onto his speech, "by midday everything was gone. From what I know, the government kept it quiet because they thought they could contain it."
"They did a shit job," Ellie mumbled.
"It was too late by then," Fran shrugged her shoulders, "when it's in the food supply... it's over."
"Makes more sense than monkeys." Ellie mumbles.
"I remember this scientist lady came into our school when I was around fifteen. We were doing a project on different bugs, and I chose ants." Fran started, "I found it cool how they had their colonies; stuck together, followed each other wherever they went."
"That's cool," Ellie mumbled, trying to sound interested in Fran's ramble, "monkeys are cooler though. Less boring than a tiny ant."
"She gave me this book she had about them, and one of the chapters was called the zombie parasite." She said next, making Ellie frown, "Cordyceps. It was doing what it's now doing to humans, to ants. And the ants that realised what was going on took the infected far away so that the fungus wouldn't infect and spread to the rest of them, and when the infected died, mushrooms grew out of their heads."
"So people knew about this, and did nothing?" Ellie asked.
"It was all a theory that it could happen to humans. Same way an asteroid could appear at any moment and we'd have no idea," Fran says to the girl with a soft smile, "that, and who wants to relate to boring ants?" She sends a knowing look to Ellie, who just rolls her eyes.