lumy12

Page One Hundred Eighty-Six

You don't know if you have the balls to jump from this high. Sure, you've jumped into water before, but that's different! (And, at the time, you didn't know that it would still hurt like fuck to hit that water.) Hopefully this dude left behind to babysit you is 'smart' enough to come up and check on you before too much longer... make sure you didn't work your way out of your bonds and jump out the fucking window or something...

You think you would hear the creaking of the staircase, or like... feel it through the floor? when he comes up, so you don't need to be uber-vigilant while you wait there by the door. You do stand, though, because you've had enough sitting for a while. You try to listen for evidence of anyone else being in the house, and you hear nothing. You can't hear what the guy's doing down there, either. You're pretty sure he's not sleeping, because you do hear muffled, indistinguishable sounds from time to time (...distinguishable enough for you to deduce that it's not snoring, however). Concentrating on deciphering noises, and even simply imagining what the guy might be doing, like reading a book? keeps your mind from going to dark places. (Which is a very good skill to have.)

After what feels like a considerable amount of time, you finally hear some movement on the stairs! You wipe your clammy hand on your jeans and make sure you have a nice, tight grip on the knife. You may only have one chance to do what you need to do...

The guy doesn't come right to your room, though. ...What the fuck? Where else would he want to go up here... is he going to bed?! It's starting to get dark out. Maybe they need to conserve battery power on their lights or something so they go to bed early. You and Joel usually go to bed early Outside, too. That way, you can get up with the sun and be ready to go shortly after. ...Oh, is he coming back now?

No. He's going to the other side of you now, down the hall.

Is he doing some kind of mindfuck thing? Making me think he's coming up here to see me, and then... you wonder what sort of mindfuckery he's going for. Is he trying to make you hope for him to come in with food, or dread for him to come in because maybe he'll kill you?

You hear his footsteps in the hall again...

-Finally, a hand on the doorknob! GET READY--

The door opens -- you fly at him with your knife, but he fucking grabs your wrist -- WHAT THE "Joel?!?!"

"Ellie!" He drops your wrist and shakes his head. "Whoa... déjà vu... -Are you okay?" He starts looking you over, and you leap at him again -- to hug him this time, of course. He holds you tight...

...while you babble into his shoulder (your tongue feels all thick... but it still works!). "I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was you! ...uh, obviously... yeah... I was tied up in that chair, see, right there? But I worked and worked and finally got my hands out and then-- I thought about jumping out that window, but I was scared to do that, and it seemed like there was only one guy left -- there were more, before -- did you see the guy? Downstairs?"

"Calm down a little," he says gently, extricating himself from your embrace and looking you over again. "Did they hurt you?"

"Just... they must've hit me on the head when they took me. I don't remember it, but my head hurts... I have no idea where we are... I just woke up and I was in the chair... so you killed the guy down there. Right?"

"Yes. I was searchin' around here, an' got suspicious when I saw him... knew for sure when I saw your backpack."

"You know, I think you looked in the very last room possible to find me. It was nerve-wracking, listening to you."

He chuckles. "Sorry. This was the only door that was closed. Had to check the other ones first for hunters."

Of course Joel would think about clearing the floor first, you snort to yourself. If you were in his shoes, you probably would have just busted through this door, shouting his name, undoubtedly alerting anyone else in the house to your presence, but you'd be too excited at the prospect of finding and freeing him to care about that. "I don't know where the other ones went but we better get out of here before they come back. There might be a bunch of them. There's at least, like... four. At least."

"One less now." Joel sighs. "I hate the thought of lettin' 'em get away with it. I don' know if--"

"Oh, please, Joel, can we just go? I really wanna get out of here... please!" You give him a pleading look that usually gets you whatever you want...

...but maybe not this time! He scowls. "They snatch my baby girl from practically right under my nose, an' I'm s'posed to just--"

"Yes! I think they might be really... they might have lots of guns and stuff, you know?"

"Well, we have--"

"I know, but--"

"Guy downstairs only had one. An' I didn't give him a chance to use it."

Joel must have strangled him. If he had done anything else, you would have heard some kind of tell-tale noise down there. "I don't fucking care -- please, Joel, it's too risky!" You grab his hands and try to get him to look you in the eye. "You're the one who always says sometimes it's better to run. It's true, and now is one of those times!"

"But runnin' away, lettin' the bastards off scot-free after what they did--"

"That's just your pride talking. I'm okay! Please... I'm begging you... I'll get on my knees if you want me to..."

"Fine -- let's go. Quick, before I change my mind."

You collect your backpack from downstairs and walk right out the front door. (Joel takes the hunter's gun, too, because why let the other assholes have it?) Your heart is racing as you try to keep pace with Joel striding to the place he parked the horses. You keep looking over your shoulder, expecting them to show up at any second. Even once you've made it far away from the house... because you have no idea where they went. They could be anywhere.

Joel grumbles to himself, saying things like "can't believe I'm just leaving them be" and "goddamn bastards need to pay"... you try to placate him with things like "imagine how pissed they're gonna be to come back and find their buddy dead and their hostage gone!" ...but it seems to have zero effect on his mood.

You ride well past your intended quitting time of dusk-at-the-latest, and you really want to stop, but Joel wants to put as much distance as possible between you and the hunters he 'let live.' (You should be glad for that, because at least he won't be tempted to go back and kill them later, right?) They might want revenge, or to reacquire their hostage. You feel like you've gone far enough, but he doesn't listen to you. You even remind him that he doesn't like pushing the horses in the dark... to which he only agrees to slow down and stick close to the roads. No flashlights; Joel is paranoid about that -- and tonight, you are a bit, too. There's a half moon, so... not the darkest, but not the brightest moonlight illuminating your way.

When you spot a couple buildings whose silhouettes would suggest they're farmhouses, far enough off the highway that Joel should be satisfied of their security, you beg him to call it a night. "If they somehow track us this far, which I doubt, they'll never see us all the way over there. There's prob'ly a barn for the horses, too. Please, Joel?"

"I think we can go just a 'lil bit farther--"

"You said that like two hours ago!" you whine.

"One hour, tops."

Man, I hate to do this, but... "It's just... I don't wanna be a baby or anything, but my head hurts, and I'm kind of... dizzy... nauseous, even..." You bite your lip, hoping he doesn't tell you to just suck it up. What a pussy I am!

He does seem annoyed, but he doesn't scold you. He just sighs.

"Maybe... it would help if I rode with you?" you offer, hoping he'll turn you down and agree that it's time to stop.

"All right. Come here."

Ugh, okay, well it probably WILL be better if I can just lean on him and rest... You dismount, then take his hand and pull yourself up behind him, handing him your reins as you do. "Thanks." You settle yourself behind him and try to pillow your head on his backpack. You're so preoccupied with trying to get comfortable that at first, you don't notice where you're going... what?? "Wait... we're going through the field... are we gonna stop at one of the houses?"

"Yep."

"For the whole night?"

"Yep."

"Awesome! Thank you! I could've kept riding on my own, in that case."

"You prob'ly shouldn't've been ridin' in the first place. I'm sorry. I forget how tough you are sometimes."

"Huh. You think I'm tough so you... want me to ride with you instead of by myself?"

"I just mean you downplay things. Things that maybe you shouldn't."

"Hmm, wonder who else does that around here."

"Yes, it's prob'ly a bad habit you picked up from me," he admits. "I should've realized, though... I was too busy bein' pissed off about the goddamn hunters. Glad you finally said somethin'."

Happy as you are to be getting your way, you do feel a teensy bit bad that you've exaggerated your condition a little to do it. You have felt worse than this before and pushed through it. "Well, hey, I am the one who made you leave those ~goddamn hunters~ back there. So who am I to complain when you want to leave them reeeeeeally far behind?"

He snorts. "You're too nice."

"Ha! No one's ever said that to me before."

"You're a hell of a lot nicer than me, that's for sure."

You almost make a snarky remark about that not being hard to do, or how pretty much everyone is. But you catch yourself... because you don't really feel like teasing him right now. "I'm not. You're just a hell of a lot nicer than you're willing to admit."

"Uh-huh. So nice that I kept sayin' no when you asked to stop?"

"Because you want me to be safe. That's nice." ...and unnecessary, because you know Joel will wake up before the hunters get anywhere near you anyway. You could've just stopped a couple miles away or something.

"I... hate that you got hurt. I should've been... it jus' shouldn't've happened."

"Joel--"

"--but. I'm glad that you're... mostly all right. If anythin' really bad had happened to you--"

"But it didn't! It didn't, and it won't."

He chuckles. "An' you're the one comfortin' me, instead of the other way around. See, that's how nice you are."

"I don't need comforting." ...except I probably just tempted the fates to give me nightmares about this FOREVER now... ugh! "I like to think we... you know. Look out for each other. Like a real team. Like partners."

"Like family," he supplies.

Aww! You know Joel thinks of you as family, but it still surprises you when he verbalizes it. "Yeah... like that. That's exactly what we are."

You're not feeling anywhere near one hundred percent, but warm fuzzies have now displaced the... queasy ickies in your stomach, at least. And you know you'll feel even better tomorrow.

THE END

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