PetrA

Chapter four: Ellie

Ellie sat on the couch between Kim and for some reason Henrik sat on the other side of her. They all stared at the TV showing reports from all around the world. All the footage made her feel like she was sitting back home in her room watching The Walking Dead after the dark had broken outside. By every little sound coming from somewhere, she'd jump and pull her duvet over her head or skip the bad parts, but now she couldn't. This were real, and she were probably crushing Kim's hand as they watched and listened. A video of a man being eaten alive while still screaming and kicking wildly made Ellie finally hide her face in Kim's chest unable to watch it anymore. Finally, Cody turned it off and Daniel looked around his eyes lingering on Ellie and Kim. "We should get some sleep. We can't stay here, it's only a death trap awaiting us. Lesley, Cody and I will take the rooms upstairs with Henrik. Ellie you'll be in charge down here." She nodded quietly and watched as the four of them walked up the stairs.

As she walked around checking windows and doors with Gemma, she had a bad feeling churning in her stomach. "You seem very tense." Gemma said after a long silence. "Yeah, I just have a bad feeling. Like somethings about to happen. She peeked out from one of the heavy curtains and noticed a shadow moving clumsily in the dark by the neighbour's house. She stepped back when she saw the face illuminated by the sun driven garden lights. The gruesome sight had all hairs stand on edge. "Gemma take the couch with Joachim, it's possible to pull out two beds from underneath it." She nodded and put a hand on Ellie's arm. "You shouldn't sleep alone." She said. "I won't." she looked over at the master bedroom where Kim were securing the window and putting up as many things to make sure no light would get out. Gemma followed her line of sight and smirked. "So that's your mystery man, huh?" Ellie turned red and looked away. "Can you take the first watch? We don't want any nasty surprises." Gemma nodded, "Yeah I don't sleep much anyway."

"Everything alright?" She asked standing in the doorway of the room. Kim looked over his shoulder, "There shouldn't come any light through." Ellie scratched the back of her neck, "I'm sorry I pulled you with us like that." In the faint light coming from a candle, she could see a small smile forming on his face. "Don't be. You saved our lives," or made them worse... Ellie thought quietly. "I hope it's alright I sleep in here. I don't want to sleep in the living room." He nodded and mentioned towards the bed, "I'll just sleep on the floor." Ellie quickly shook her head, "It's big enough for us both to sleep there." He shrugged. Ellie cast a look towards the living room. She still had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something were going to happen, sooner than any of them would have liked.

After closing the door Ellie crawled into the bed still fully clothed, there were a baseball bat by either side of the bed. Lying down in the bed Ellie stared up at the ceiling while listening to the silence of the house and the streets. Every so often, she thought she could hear screeches like howls tearing through the night. At some point, she had managed to wriggle herself into Kim's arms. She envied how he were able to sleep at all. So many things ran through her mind, like would she see her friends die in front of her, are her family and other friends still alive, or have these things already eaten them or did they kill themselves? What would happen after this night, and what did that feeling she had in her stomach mean? The last question was answered only minutes later, a loud creaking sound came from just outside the room, and then a scream. Ellie sat straight up in the bed, grabbed the baseball bat from beside the bed. Groggily Kim sat up and stared at her, "What..." "Stay here. Don't make a sound." She snuck out of the door and saw Gemma lying on the ground screaming, Cody's mother on top of her screeching loudly like a howling animal. Joachim were frantically trying to get her off Gemma.

Without thinking Ellie swung the bat directly at her head causing Cody's mum to fall off Gemma with a loud screech. Noise upstairs told Ellie that the others had woken up too and were running downstairs. Daniel reached first, a large lamp in his hands. Cody stood frozen in shock and horror staring at his mother. Only a second later she attacked them at an alarming speed. Daniel swung the lamp hitting her straight in the head causing her to fall to the ground. "Ellie hit it before it gets up!" Daniel yelled. She started to hit Cody's mother repeatedly in the head until it was only one large bloody pool of brain goo and shattered cranium. Shocked Ellie dropped the baseball bat and stumbled back backing up against a wall before she broke down into a sobbing mess. Killing somebody you don't know is one thing, but a friend's parent or your own...

"She got a huge bite taken out of her ankle and wrists." Daniel said calmly, Ellie couldn't grasp how he could look at this so calmly. She'd just fucking killed Cody's mum. One of her friend's mum! "Ellie you did the right thing" Daniel continued as he put a hand on her shoulder and crouched to her level. Somebody sat down beside her and put their arms around her. Daniel disappeared with the others to depose of the body somehow. Ellie's crying turned into hiccups, as she struggled to breathe properly. "Take it easy, deep breaths." A soothing voice said in her ear. Ellie shivered and tried hard to calm herself down, though it just weren't that easy. She felt dirty and like she'd just murdered her own best friend. What had the world come to?

Once again, they all sat huddled around the dining table only a candle to light up the room. "There's still 3 hours until dawn, and we can't risk leaving until it's light. It is too dangerous. Besides, we need cars, bikes. Not the ones we use to get to school, at least we need them for the long run." Daniel looked around at everybody. "We have one each at home." Henrik said mentioning to him and Kim. Daniel nodded and Ellie wondered how on earth she'd be able to ride one of those. "My neighbour has a motorbike. Like one of the big ones." She said shakily. Daniels head turned to her, "Perfect, we'll need whatever we can get. It's easier to change under way if we find something better." Even though she's still pretty shaken from just half an hour earlier Ellie tried to collect herself and said, "We need a car too." Daniel scowled at her. "They're unpractical." Ellie shook her head. "No, well depends on the car, but a car can hold more supplies than a bike, and if let's say our camp get run over by whatever those are..." She shivered as if a cold hand ran down her spine. "Then by keeping a certain amount of supplies in the car we can leave whatever in the camp and not have to worry."

"Ellie's right." Lesley said nodding. "Of course, only one or two are going to drive it, but a car can come in handy." Daniel nodded, "Who's driving it then, I'm taking that bike." Said Daniel. Ellie looked around the room "Greed would drive it. He's the best driver of us, if we don't count you in. Personally, I have never even driven a car." Ellie looked at Cody. He nodded as if he were pleased with the decision. "The rest of us take bikes, though we need to move fast..." Daniel nodded, "Or else we're going to have some serious trouble. The best time to leave would be at sunrise. That way we're able to see and not have to worry about torches. Because we're not taking torches with us." He said looking directly at Joachim with a killer look. "Calm down Wrath, there's no need to kill anybody, yet." Ellie added the last part looking around.

They all waited in silence for the sun to rise. Once it did they had to move fast. The loud screeches of those things only intensified with every human infected, bitten or torn to pieces. When there only where half an hour to the sun would rise Daniel broke the silence. "Okay, we got to move fast. Like bats out of hell. There's no room for any sort of mistakes, once we get a hold of the bikes and car we have to leave towards higher grounds. There's a less chance that they will move up into the mountains for as long there's food down here. Of course, we can't just rely on the mountains. We need to find somewhere we can be safely." He paused and looked around at them all. Ellie knew that Daniel hated to include Joachim, but he knew that there's nothing he can do about it now.

"Eat what you can, it's probably going to have to last for a while." Gemma said sorting out bread to everyone. Ellie didn't have much of an appetite, though it seemed like none of them did. They had to force down at least two slices of bread on Gemma's order. If you didn't eat she'd find a way to annoy you until you did. Actually, Ellie knew very well how good she is at annoying people. 

Authors note: Here's the last one for today, I'll probably post more today and runningly as I find time during my day between my studies and preparing for exams coming up in May, enjoy and please do leave comments telling me what you think of it thus far, I would love to hear your opinions to help me tailor the story better as I edit it, hope you enjoy it! (: