PetrA

Chapter sixty-six: Joachim

Joachim listened quietly as Ellie talked. "Gemma's the reason I met Mary and Marlene. Two of my best friends." Ellie's eyes were unfocused as if she was lost in memories, "I may never have seen eye to eye with Gemma and found her extremely annoying at times." A ripple of chuckles went through them all. "But she introduced me to almost all of my friends, Lesley, Cody, and my former friend Daniel..." murmur went through them all as Ellie mentioned Daniel's name. "She understood that I had days where I didn't have energy to do a single thing, where I'd rather just be left alone." She paused pulling out the matches from her pocket. "It has been almost been three years, and yet I feel like I've known her for a lifetime." She lit a match and held it in front of her. "We've been through it all, since the beginning of this. Gemma Jasmine Louis, Helium. We will never forget you, you'll be in my heart our hearts until the day we die. Rest well my old friend." She threw the match and watched the flames rise with a roar. Then Ellie pressed three fingers to her lips and raised her hand. Joachim had seen it in the films of The Hunger Games. He did not know what it meant exactly, but he knew that Ellie was giving her friend a last sign of goodbye.

Kim wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in her chest. Joachim was jealous, but he forced the feeling away. It was no use, he would have to get over it and move on. He walked back into the house with most of the others, only Ellie, Kim, Cody, Mary and Marlene stayed watching the flames take their friend away. "Why aren't you outside with um Ellie and them?" Maryanne asked looking up at Joachim and Henrik. "You knew her didn't you? Ellie mentioned you." Henrik looked down at her with a sad smile. "We did know her, but only later. Ellie, Mary, Marlene and Cody was Gemma's friends. They knew her better than us, better than anyone." He said. The girl Maryanne looked out of the window as snow began to fall once again. "I liked her. She..." Maryanne stopped for a moment before taking a deep breath. "She helped me after, after he raped Me." she shuddered and looked away. She left and went over to her brother and his friend.

It was way past midnight when Ellie finally walked back inside. She didn't talk to anyone, she just walked past the fire and out of the back door to where the auto-camper was parked, Kim followed her and Joachim sat down in one of the empty chairs, not many were still awake. Most had gone to their beds around the small cluster of buildings of what once must've been a tiny village.

Over the next two months, Joachim noticed a change in Ellie. Her mood was extremely unpredictable and she was easily overwhelmed. Joachim often saw Ellie talking in hushed voices with Marlene, Mary or Stella. Joachim was walking towards the gathering house when he heard voices a little up ahead. He moved slowly and peered around the corner. Ellie was talking with Stella and Mary. He couldn't see Ellie's face, but it looked like they were having an argument. "Ellie you can't be on patrol anymore." Stella said. "Of course I can!" Ellie shot back she sounded highly annoyed. "Ellie listen to me." Mary said putting her hands on Ellie's shoulders. "You need to think about the baby, you can't be out in weather like this, you will get sick." Joachim froze. Baby? "If I ask to be put on another job that's inside Timothy will know that something's up!" Ellie said. "He'll freak out if he finds out, and I don't want to set Kim in danger from my brother's overprotectiveness." She said desperately. "Ellie, isn't it better having a pissed off Timothy for a couple of days, then ending up sick and then losing the child?" Stella asked. "But..." Ellie began. "Ellie, we don't have medication to cure a flu. It'll take days before we can get a hold of it because somebody have to leave the camp in order to get it, and even then it's not even certain that they'll come back in time or at all." She said. "I can be there with you when you tell Timothy." Mary offered gently. Joachim heard somebody walk towards him and he quickly ran off in the other direction.

Baby, losing child, put Kim in danger from my brother's overprotectiveness... Joachim's head was spinning as he walked to where he was supposed to be. "You're late." Marlene said coldly. "I know." He grumbled taking a gun from the box. He started to walk along the outer fence they'd built to increase the defence. His head resolved around the conversation he'd heard. He couldn't make the pieces fit. Ellie couldn't be pregnant. Could she? He frowned at the trees trying to make sense of it.