PetrA

Chapter thirteen: Ellie

Ellie woke to heavy footsteps in the hallway and the door opening. Somebody stood hovering over her. She opened her eyes and stared at Joachim. "I'm awake." She said careful not to wake Kim. Joachim left the room and Ellie untangled herself from Kim's arms. She looked at him for a moment, before walking down into the hallway. She took the seat on the chair and stared at the door. A few minutes later Gemma joined her. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" She asked. Gemma snorted, "I haven't been able to sleep since Henrik went to bed. Ellie frowned at her through the darkness, "Gem you need to sleep. Three hours is not enough to keep going."

The two girls sat there talking quietly keeping an eye on the door until the sun rose high on the sky. "Go wake the others. We need to leave as soon as we can." Ellie said pulling the curtain away from the window letting in the sun. She took a step back by the sight that met her, the girl from yesterday were lumbering around like a braindead animal. Her arm hanging on by a thin muscle. The rest eaten or torn away as if her shoulder had been a free Happy Meal. "Poor girl." She whispered to herself. Daniel were the first to come down. "Might as well take care of her and burn her with the rest." Ellie nodded. "Probably, but take somebody with you. Just in case." Daniel smirked. "Can I use Joachim as live bait?" Ellie rolled her eyes, "As you please, but make sure none of you get bitten or scratched." She said giving him a stern look. "Whatever. JOACHIM GET DOWN HERE!" a groggy Joachim walked down into the kitchen. "You got the honour of helping me brain that chick." He pointed at the girl who must have heard Daniel yell as she had turned towards the house.

Ellie watched with the others as Daniel used Joachim as bait. She shook her head as he drove a wooden stick through the girl's eyeball. After eating, they packed up the car and Cody made sure that it was ready to drive and had enough fuel and extra fuel. "Okay let's go. Daniel you'll lead, Cody you take up the back with Gemma and the rest of us will drive between you guys. Lesley grabbed the bike he'd be riding while Joachim got on behind Henrik and Ellie behind Kim.

The road seemed dead and endless to Ellie as they sped past towns, (They didn't even think about going into towns unless necessary) at one of their few stops Ellie walked out into the woods so she could relieve her bladder. Of course, she didn't go alone, Gemma went too with a knife from the kitchen. "Do you think we'll all make it?" She asked. Ellie stared at Gemma wondering if she should tell her the truth. After a while, she answered "No. I don't think so. Heck I don't even know if any of us will." Maybe the truth was hard to say, but there's no use in beating about the bush. They might as well just say things, as they are, the world, as they knew it had already ended.

The snap of a branch made Ellie forget her conversation with Gemma and listen intensely, "Ell..." Ellie hushed Gemma "There's something close by." In a swift move, she stood again. From the ground, she took the largest stick she would be able to carry and move with force. More branches started to snap closer this time. Whoever or whatever moved closer to them obviously didn't know how to move silently. From the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow move between the trees. "Gemma get back to the others." She ordered. Gemma hurried away, making far more noise than necessary. Ellie swung the trunk of tree towards the shadow, but managed to stop it just in time, when she saw a little boy coming stumbling through the trees.

He stopped just a few metres from Ellie and stared at her with large dark brown eyes. They stood and stared at each other for a long time, the sight of a child seemed so unrealistic to Ellie right. Even if it only had been a few days since it all started, she never expected to see young children again, much less other people. The decease spread so fast. Ellie shook her head and held the wood level with the boy's head, "You've been bitten?" She asked. He shook his head, "Scratched or been in contact with them?" Again, the boy shook his head. "Are you sure?" she asked. There would be no room for mistakes, and Ellie knew that she couldn't just let this boy stay on his own. He'd get bitten or worse faster than you could say Zombie. She lowered the stick and mentioned for the boy to come closer. He inched slowly towards her, "I just have to check." She started to check every visible part of his body and his clothes for holes that might've been caused by those things.

"Ellie?" Daniel called. "I'm fine. I'm coming." She called back. She grabbed the kid by his shoulder and gently pushed him along. They all stood along the road weapons raised. Clubs, bats, knives and sticks. "Don't do anything." She said. All eyes trained on the boy beside her. "We can't take a kid with us." Daniel said immediately. Ellie looked down at the boy. "Go to Gemma." She pointed at her and mentioned for Daniel to follow her. "We can't leave him." She said. "And we can't take him with us. He's a kid. He'll only drag us down. He can't carry his own weight." Ellie narrowed her eyes at him. They couldn't leave this boy to die. "We can't leave him to die Daniel! He's just a kid and he's managed to survive this long without scratches or bites. I believe he will be able to pull his own weight. Besides, he'll learn it pretty quick, if he wants to live." Daniel shook his head. "No, we cannot take him with us. That's it." Ellie turned towards the others who had gathered around the kid. "We are taking him with us. If you like it or not. I am a 100% sure that the other's will agree with me." Daniel didn't back down and they stood and argued for a while before Ellie had, had it. "That's it. We vote." She marched over to the others who'd been following them. "Daniel and I have been unable to come to agreement. So we'll vote on this." She looked directly at him. "Daniel say that we can't take him with us because he is only a child and therefore unable to hold his own." She sends a murderous look at Daniel who returned it. "However, we can't leave him. That would be signing his death warrant. So those who wants to leave him to die raise their hands." Only Daniel raised his hand "And those who say we take him with us raise their hand." The rest of them raised their hands.

Ellie looked over at Daniel with a smug smile and said, "It's decided, we take him with us. Cody, Gemma. You will take him with you in the car." Daniel hopped on his bike "If once he can't hold his own, he's out." He said.