𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐖𝐎 & 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 || ᴇʟʟɪᴇ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs

Chapter 18 - Come Find Me

The giraffe's skin — fur? I'm not sure, but I could feel it under my hand. So soft, so pure as my fingers glided across its neck. Ellie beside me fed it leaves from a tree that had branched into the side of the building, Joel standing behind us smiling.

Her sweet laughter filled the air as the animal ate from her hands. I couldn't help but smile too. Her dark hair, her dark eyes. They were melting me inside out. I'd do anything to protect her. Anything.

I startled awake, gasping for air, my head throbbing. Wow, well that seemed to be common. My hand cradled my left temple, the room spinning like crazy. My several concussions from a few weeks ago, back with David, probably had been renewed after the hit to my head. Hit to my head? Where was I? Who knocked me out? Where was Ellie? Ellie! She had drowned! At least — that's what I remember "Ellie" My voice escaped from my throat. "She's alright, getting prepped for surgery now." A female voice spoke. a familiar one at that.

The room came to a halt when I caught sight of the woman in front of me, leaning against the door frame. I was in a hospital room, sitting on a bed. At least that's what I gathered from the corners of my eyes. Everything froze when I realised who she was, and where I must be. "Marlene?" I questioned. I almost pinched my arm to make sure I wasn't dreaming, because after all this time, were we really, actually here?

"You remember me" She replied with a nod, uncrossing her arms and approaching the bed I was now sat up in "Madam Loverquitch spoke a lot about you, we were excited to have a new recruit, all this time.. we thought you were dead." She explained. I don't know, but the thought of me being dead rose goosebumps up my arms, gulping slightly as the saliva hauled down my dry throat. "Well.. I'm not" I managed to shrug, then my mind went wild again "Where's Joel? What do you mean Ellie's surgery?" I quickly began demanding.

You see, Marlene had visited The Monarch a few times, I hadn't actually talked to her before, but I'd seen her from a distance, heard her talk. She seemed like a wise woman, a respectable woman. But that didn't make me want to stay here with her.

"Joel's fine as well, he's still waking up from the hit. Our soldiers didn't know who you guys were, you got lucky, a few more minutes more until they found you three and Ellie probably wouldn't of made it" Marlene spoke, in a calm voice too, one that for some reason made me feel uneasy. "And as for Ellie, our surgeon, let me assure you that he's the best in all of America, probably the whole world" She presented, but I cut her down with a "Not very hard to achieve at the moment" She rose her hand at me, as if to tell me to shut up and I obeyed. Not sure why, maybe I was a little scared of her. Maybe my time crossing the country made me realise I shouldn't test people's patience, because they can be a lot scarier than you realise. "He thinks he can find a cure, cut out the cordyceps and reverse engineer it into a vaccine. A cure. A real cure" She spoke, using her hands to make sure I really got the point. A cure. It was what we had all worked so hard for, wasn't it?

"It won't hurt her?" I questioned. And then the room went silent. "No" I shook my head, standing up. I knew what silence meant "What will happen to her?" I demanded, shouting my words. Now I didn't give a shit about not risking my head, if she was going to hurt Ellie I wouldn't allow it. "Y/N, you don't have to worry about her anymore" Marlene replied, coldly. I reached into my pocket. But it was empty. Where was my knife? I knew exactly what she meant, and my head started spinning again. Cordyceps grow in the brain. Cutting them out would mean Ellie would — god I couldn't bring myself to think about it.

Then I lunged. I grabbed onto Marlene, and the forced of me throwing my body at her send her back into the wall behind her. Surprisingly, my grip was strong, but I wasn't quiet, because almost immediately guards rushed in. "You can't! You can't! We won't let you!" I began screaming at the top of my lungs as the guards pulled me off her. I could feel the soft trickle of tears roll down my cheeks, then the stab of a needle in my shoulder and the anger started to slip away. But I didn't want it to. I wanted to hurt anyone that had anything to do with killing Ellie. "You can't" My voice crackled before I slipped back into the darkness.