THE SOUND OF LEAVES CRUNCHING UNDER THEIR FEET THE ONLY THING THE TWO COULD HEAR IN THE QUIET WOODS. Ellie was holding onto her knife tightly, ready for anything to come their way. Jax was beside her, eyes on high alert as he's in front of her.
"Remember when..." Jax started, clearing his throat. "Remember when your dad found out that you snuck out?" He chuckled.
Ellie laughed, throwing her head back. "Yeah, and then he found out that I snuck out with you. God, I swear he was about to kill both of us."
Their laughs died down as they walked among the forest. The sudden growl from behind Ellie made her gasp as she turned around, coming face to face with a walker.
Jax panicked momentarily once he saw her struggling. He didn't have a weapon on him and he didn't know what to do. "Hold on, Ellie." Looking around, he found a large rock and he smashed it over the walkers head, it falling to the floor, growling loudly, reaching out to get their flesh.
Ellie quickly got up and stabbed it in the head with her knife, blowing her hair out from her face. Jax looked to her left arm with wide eyes.
She looked to him as she breathed heavily, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, the hot Georgia heat getting to her. Once she heard nothing coming from the boy, she looked to him confused, considering he always had something to say. "What?" She spat out once she realized he was looking at her with wide eyes.
Ellie followed his gaze, her eyes shutting tightly once she realized he saw her bite mark from the day in the quarry. He breathed heavily as he started to walk away. "Jax, wait!" She ran after him, grabbing his arm tightly. He turned around, looking anywhere but her. "Look at it."
"What?" He said, his full attention now on her.
"Look at it. Does it look fresh?" Ellie elaborated, shoving her wounded arm towards him.
Jax sighed deeply and took ahold of her arm harshly, squinting his eyes at it. The skin around the bite looked shrunken instead of inflamed like some people's would. Although the bite mark was still there, it looked as if it was healing. His mind raced. How could this even happen? People die from walker bites. Don't they?
He huffed and dropped her arm, scoffing. The oldest Grimes son shook his head as he ran his hands over his face in stress, just like Rick does all the time.
"It happened at the quarry." She sighed, looking to her feet.
Jax turned to her quickly, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion once again. "What? The quarry..." He started to dart his eyes around, as if he was thinking about something. "That was a whole day ago!" He shrieks in a panic, running his fingers through his hair.
"Yeah, no shit." Ellie said, rolling her eyes at him.
"What's stopping me from telling your dad right now?" He expressed, moving closer to the girl.
"Cause he's got nothin' to worry about." Ellie chuckled under her breath. She took his hand and placed it on her forehead. "See? No fever."
Jax began to move his hand all over her face, his eyes wide in concern. Once he felt that she was at normal temperature he closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers, the girl smiling at his sudden affection. "I can't lose you, El..." He whispered, sighing afterwards.
"Hey, lovebirds!" She heard her father yell and Jax instantly moved away from her, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Why don't you come on back? We been looking for y'all." He told them.
Ellie looked down as she walked passed her father, pulling down her sleeve so he wouldn't see her bite mark.
"I'm going back." Was the first thing Jax heard from his father once he walked back to the camp.
"Going back where?" He asked, his face scrunching back in slight anger. The boy looked to his mother and she had the same look.
"Goin' back into town. There's a bag of guns and-" Rick started, but he interrupted him.
"Screw the bag of guns! You just got here." He said, Ellie noticing he was starting to get more angry.
"It's Merle." Rick sighed, putting his hands on his hips. "I handcuffed him to a roof. He's still there."
"Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?" Shane scoffed, stepping towards Rick.
"Hey, better choose your words more carefully." Daryl told him, going to pack his things in the truck.
"No, I did. Douchebag is what I meant." Shane told him. Ellie chuckled at that, rolling her eyes at the men arguing. In her opinion, she thought it was a little dumb for Rick to be willing to risk, not only his life, but three other men's lives to be looking for someone like Merle Dixon. He wouldn't save you if you were the two people on earth and the only way to save the human race was to keep the two of you alive.
Her father seemed to think the exact same thing as him and Rick argued about whether or not they should go or not.
Eventually, Shane gave in and Rick promised his family that he would come back safe. Ellie could only hope that he keeps his promise.