CYOA Page 234
Sep. 10th, 2013 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You're positive Joel is involved with that gunfire you heard, and this must be the hunters' turf, so they're your enemies. No sense letting them live. And you have the balls to kill them without it being strictly self defense; you're a regular cold-blooded killer now, aren't you?
Nick and Jasper are definitely more concerned with scanning their territory for threats than they are with protecting themselves from you. They don't even seem to have noticed that you're staying behind as they move up...
Do it quick, Ellie, you psyche yourself up for the deed. If they hear you even REACHING for your gun...
Five seconds later, both men are writhing on the ground with bullets in their backs, and you know Joel would be proud of you.
You sprint toward the building and look for an entrance. The doors in the back don't have handles on them, except for one garage-door type thing, but it won't budge when you lift it. You creep around front. Could it be as easy as walking through the front door? But before you reach it, you find a broken window to climb through.
Another gunshot!
"Joel!" you holler as you crouch in front of the window. You hold your breath and rise just enough to peek inside.
"Ellie!"
You exhale. AWESOME! You hear him, but you don't see him... all you can see is rows and rows of boxes. No hunters. You climb through the window and turn left, toward Joel's voice. This appears to be a storage facility for computer shit. Boxes and parts are strewn haphazardly through the aisles, but not so badly that you can't get around -- as long as you avoid the tipped-over racks, anyway. "Joel! Where are you? Are you okay?" You finally spot a hunter... a dead hunter.
"Back here! Are YOU all right? I heard shots!"
"I'm fine!" You've pretty much pinpointed his location now, right around that corner... -There, after stepping over a couple more bodies! You holster your gun and run over to him. ...Where's his shirt? He's only wearing his undershirt. You're relieved to see him, but-- "I don't know whether to hug you or hit you right now!"
"Hug me," is Joel's vote.
You oblige, sighing happily. "I was so worried, Joel. Why did you leave? Where the fuck is your shirt? What happened?"
He gives you a squeeze before letting go. "Sorry about that. I didn' know it would take so long."
"Know what would take so long?"
He puts his hand on your shoulder and turns you to your left. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."
You walk where he guides you, wondering what the fuck he's talking about. "Someone"? WHO? How did he know they were here? Something keeps you from asking him, though. You're not sure you like this. In fact, you're pretty sure you don't like this. Joel doesn't even like people, so who the fuck--
It's a girl... you think (it's rather dark in that corner). She's actually inside one of the boxes, like she was hiding there, and now she's peeking out. "You can come out of there now," Joel tells her. "They're all dead."
She doesn't move.
"You can trust him on that," you add, in case she needs reassurance. "He has sort of a sixth sense about this stuff."
Joel turns to you and lowers his voice. "Did you bring your other jeans? I don't remember."
You blink. Jeans? "Uh... you mean the second pair I wanted to bring in case we got rained on so I wouldn't have to wear wet clothes for ages? Someone told me I didn't need to. That we were bringing too much as it is. So no, I didn't."
"Oh. Damn. Well... hers should be around here somewhere. Unless the bastards burned 'em or somethin'. What about underwear? Did I talk you out of a second pair of those, too?"
"No, I have some... back with the horses, though." The girl is gingerly climbing out of the box now... and yeah, no pants. And no underwear? Now you know what happened to Joel's flannel shirt -- the bottom of which at least falls below crotch-level.
"Ellie, Shellie," Joel says by way of introduction (...and maybe it's Shelly with a 'y', but you totally hear it as 'ie').
The girl takes baby steps toward you; you wonder how old she is. She's about your size, but looks younger... dirty blond hair ('dirty' as in it hasn't been washed in a while, not like the color, although you suppose it could be both)... thin... pretty eyes, although you can't really see their color in here, even with the natural light coming in through the windows. And her face is discolored in a couple places... bruises? "Hi," you greet her with a little smile. "I'm Ellie. ...er... I guess he just told you that. Right! Uh, nice to meet you."
"Hi." Shellie returns the smile... but while staring at her toes, so it feels forced.
"She's comin' with us," Joel announces. "I'll let you two get acquainted while I go see if I can find her clothes."
Before you can even react, he's off. Typical Joel... leave the awkward shit to me... and you shouldn't be surprised at him wanting to take her with you, really. If she was living here with these hunters, and now they're all dead, what's he supposed to do? Judging from her appearance, you don't think she was living here by choice, either. Or... if she was, it was a shitty choice? "So. Shellie." What happened to you? How long have you been here? Where's your family? ...Where are your CLOTHES? Do you LIKE hanging out naked, or... "How old are you?" is the one you finally ask.
"Fourteen."
She is a lot younger than you! But she's about your height, if not a smidge taller. "Oh. I'm sixteen."
"I know. Joel told me. He said... he's like your dad, except not really," she tells her feet.
"Yeah. I met him when I was fourteen." You feel a strange pang of jealousy, for some reason. Like... maybe this new girl is going to steal all of Joel's attention now or something, because she's younger.
"He seems nice. Is he nice?" she asks so quietly that you have to strain to hear her.
"Totally nice. He's not like... super friendly with people? I guess? But he's... um..." You're distracted by the girl wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Oh shit... I think she's crying... what do I do? Pretend I didn't notice? ...yeah, that seems safest... "He... he's nice. I mean, he's a good guy. He's not like... these assholes here." You wonder if she'll bristle at her companions being called 'assholes.' -She doesn't, and you assume she agrees with your assessment -- in which you judged the group based on the two you met. Well, what's that saying... birds of a feather frolic together?
Shellie nods, wipes her eyes some more, and finally makes eye contact. "He rescued me from that room over there. I've been here for... I don't even know how long. At least a few weeks."
You look where she's indicating... the bashed-in door... That's not a room -- it's a CLOSET. You don't even have to go inside to know that. "You were living in there? In the dark?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. All by yourself?" ...Well, duh, who the fuck else would even FIT in there?!
"Yeah. Most of the time. Just not when they... visited me."
"They brought you food? Took you out for... bathroom stuff?"
"There's a bucket in there. They emptied it sometimes... they'd take it out of there when they were... when they came in. But sometimes they'd forget to put it back." She bites her lip, and seems to be trying not to cry as she looks at the closet. "And they gave me a towel to sleep on."
A towel? How fucking GENEROUS of them. "I'm sorry." Your heart goes out to the girl; you don't have to be told that these visits weren't friendly social calls. You don't know what else to say. "That sucks" is nowhere near adequate.
"One of them was sort of nice. I thought maybe he might even let me go. I begged him to, and he said he couldn't, but... I still thought maybe... eventually..."
"Did he, um... visit you... like the others?"
"He was usually the one who brought me food and dumped out the bucket. But he didn't... hang out, afterward... no. And he never hit me."
If he had let her go, he'd probably be alive right now, you think. You idly wonder if it was Nick or Jasper, but dismiss that thought pretty quickly because obviously it wasn't since they were both total douchebags! ...and they were going to fucking throw me in there with her! you realize with horror. Either there, or somewhere like it. (If you didn't kill them first, of course.)
"They killed my family," Shellie continues... with an odd lack of emotion. "My mom, my dad, my brother, my little sister... but they didn't kill me. They could have, but they didn't."
"Found 'em!" Joel calls out, saving you from having to give another inadequate reply. You turn and see him approaching with a little stack of clothes topped with shoes. "These don't look like they'd fit any of those bastards so I assume they're yours, anyhow..." He brings them to Shellie.
This nearly makes her cry... even though talking about her dead family didn't. "Thanks," she mumbles as she accepts the bundle.
"If you wanna change in the--" Joel cuts himself off. "Well, no, I reckon you don't ever wanna see the inside of there again."
"Yeah, no, I'll just..." She drifts off.
You wait until she's around the corner before turning to Joel. "How did you know she was here?"
"After I told you to stay put, I went to answer a call of nature... heard voices, sorta close but sorta distant... went to check 'em out..."
"And you didn't come get me?" you say accusingly (and he obviously didn't, so you really didn't need to phrase it as a question).
"They didn't see me," he replies (which doesn't even remotely answer your question-that's-not-a-question), "an' I found they weren't comin' this direction, so I had to follow 'em a bit. There were three of 'em. One guy says he's gonna 'head back,' an' he's got a couple rabbits... I think they were just huntin'. Ellie, I knew..." His expression darkens a little. "From the way those guys were talkin'... I knew they were keepin' a girl here, an' that they were... ..."
"Not being nice to her," you supply. "Yeah, she told me."
"If I had turned back to come get you, I wouldn't've seen where the guy went," he says, apologetically but... not remorsefully. "They were headed away from you, so... I figured I could go, get the girl, come back for you, an' if there were any left, we could take 'em out together." -And he even says that last part with a straight face.
"Really." You eye him dubiously.
"Yes. But they found you? How did you--"
"I found them. When I went looking for you. You were gone a long time, Joel."
"I'm sorry."
You're pretty sure Joel is fibbing about the "take 'em out together" part; it's hard for you to imagine him turning his back on a band of rapists when he could just kill them. And he would worry about what would happen to you if he got killed, and you were there... (you don't really worry about that because if Joel dies, your life is over anyway). But, it's also possible he made the girl's safety top priority... that if he could bust her out of there quietly and bring her to you, then-- yes, that's what he would do, you decide. He'd leave her with you, charge you with protecting her, and then go kill the fuckers himself. Or try to go by himself (yeah, you probably would have gotten into a fight over whether you should go or not). "That was... very heroic of you, to come and save her," you tell him, because it's true. You really can't be annoyed with him for it.
"Psh. I couldn't've lived with myself if I walked away."
You wonder what he overheard, but... you get the feeling Joel wouldn't tell you even if you asked, and also, that you probably don't really want to know. "Did she tell you they killed her family?"
"...Shit. No, we didn't get much chance to talk."
"Yeah. So I guess she's coming to Jackson with us?"
"Guess so." He studies you for a moment. "You okay with that?"
"Yeah, of course! Why wouldn't I be?" You feel ashamed for being jealous earlier.
"No reason. She don't have to live with us, necessarily. Plenty of folks there'd prob'ly be happy to take her in."
Now you study him. "Huh. So you don't want her to live with us."
"I didn't say that. It just... might not be the best place for her, is all."
"Why not?"
"I mean there might be... better places."
"Um, that's pretty much the same thing you just said -- it doesn't tell me why." But you think you know why: Joel doesn't know how to deal with a girl who's been through what she's been through. But he doesn't have to know -- you know he'd be great at it! "Whatever, Joel. You're prob'ly right. Except for one thing..." You let that trail off mysteriously.
"An' what's that?"
"Shellie and Ellie. I mean, come on. How awesome is that?"
He chuckles. "Pretty damn awesome, I guess."
You look in the direction where Shellie disappeared around the racks and wonder how far away she went to change. "Shouldn't she be back by now? It only takes a minute to get dressed."
"Maybe you should go see if she needs help," Joel suggests.
"She's fourteen, not five," you scoff.
"She's fourteen?"
"Yeah. You didn't even know?"
"Nope. You were fourteen when I--"
"--when we met, yeah, I know. That's the first thing I thought of when she said it, too." You smile at him. Man, I don't even have reason to be jealous. No one can fuck with our bond: Joel and I have been through a ton of shit together. Poor Shellie's just been through a ton of shit on her own. And if we can help her TOGETHER... "I'll go check on her anyway. Make sure she's okay."
And you can't fault Joel for tasking you with this because... yeah, more awkward for him AND her, probably. Although she was obviously naked when he found her, since he had to give her his shirt. You wonder if she knew she was getting rescued, or if she thought "oh great, here comes another one of these motherfuckers..."
"Shellie? Are you okay?" you call out, uncertain of her whereabouts.
"Yes!"
But when you find her, you see she's been crying again. "Sorry," she says, swiping at her eyes and nose and rising from... where she was sitting? Why was she sitting? At least she's dressed now. Over here, you can see her eyes are a striking shade of blue.
"I haven't cried this much in... I mean, I stopped. A while ago. I just... thought I was going to be in there the rest of my life... that no one would ever find me cuz why would they..."
She's kinda pretty, you think stupidly. Like, why are you even thinking about that now?? "You might've escaped eventually, right?"
She shakes her head. "I... almost did, one time... but then... they, um..." She chokes up again, and this time, you pull her into a hug without even thinking about it. She buries her face in your shoulder and you can feel her silent sobs.
You hug her tightly, stroke her greasy hair... and you even find yourself soothing her with "It's okay" a couple times, which you usually think is kind of lame, but... it's true this time! She starts sobbing in earnest and you just keep hugging her, figuring she'll pull away when she's had enough.
You want to tell her it really is going to be okay. That she's safe now. That you'll never let anyone hurt her ever again. That yes it sucks to lose her whole family... but it's not the end of the world. She can be part of a new family, and although she might feel like she'll never be happy again after everything she's been through... she will be. In time, she will be. She'll love again, she'll laugh again. It just takes time.
But your instincts tell you she's not ready to hear all of that yet. There's plenty of time to express sentiments like that later. Right now, she just needs to know she's safe. You and Joel can at least give her that much.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2020-12-27 01:01 pm (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2020-12-27 02:22 pm (UTC)