𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐘. ❝I'd go to hell and back for you, Joel Miller. Don't you ever forget that.❞
In which Kathy Williams is determined to keep her niece safe during the apocalypse, even if it meant having to accept the help of a smuggler th...
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𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞
- CHAPTER EIGHT - BILL'S TOWN
A DAY OR so had passed rather slowly as the trio travelled over to the next town, Lincoln, where Joel claimed an old friend would be. Bill was his name and apparently he owed Joel and Tess for when they'd saved his ass in a deal gone wrong. Although, Bill had taken a liking to Tess much more than he had Joel and Kathy could understand why. Joel could be a real pain in the ass and seemingly a lot more irrational when he got angry.
Ellie, Kathy and Joel were trekking down a forest road when Joel spotted their destination in the distance behind the trees, "Now there we go..." He walked up to the road barrier and swung his leg over, "Yeah, it'll be faster to go through here."
So now they were off the road and into the forest that surrounded the outskirts of the town. Everything was overgrown and vibrantly green, having been left alone to grow for twenty years without major pollution or disturbances.
"Man..." Ellie's eyes sparkled with awe as she gazed at the nature surrounding them, almost looking like a child at Christmas. She was so used to the run down houses and buildings in the quarantine zone. It felt...amazing not being surounded by fences and concrete walls, trapped like some sort of prisoner.
"What?" Joel asked the girl, he'd been a lot nicer to them in the few days of travel after Kathy had put him in his place. The two adults were barely at each other's throats as much as they were when they first met. Now they had a mutual respect for one another.
"Nothing, it's just - I've never seen anything like this, that's all." She replied.
"You mean the woods?"
"Yeah. Never walked through the woods. It's kinda cool."
"Used to go camping with your dad way back before this all started. He never figured out how to set up a tent, so we'd just put our sleeping bags in the back of my pickup truck and toast marshmellows around the small fire we'd made." Kathy voiced through the calming sounds of chirping birds, Ellie's head shot straight to her after hearing that. Kathy never talked about her brother.
"Really?" Ellie asked, eager to learn anything she could about her parents.
Joel listened to them quietly, letting them have their moment. Sarah had always asked about her mother, but Joel never knew what to say. Sarah's mother had ran away as soon as she was born, couldn't handle the responsibility of being a young mother. So, Joel had been left with a daughter at the age of sixteen. He'd done the best he could, but he couldn't protect her enough in the end.
"He was...clumsy and unorganised, terrible with instructions, but he was a very reliable man and he was proud of the little things he could achieve." Kathy reminisced as they walked, casting a glance at Joel who she knew was listening just as much as Ellie.
