PetrA

Chapter seventy-four: Ellie

Ellie watched the sun set as she listened quietly to everyone around her. The room was buzzing with unease. Timothy stood beside her a scowl on his face. "If they're not back soon. We'll send out somebody to look for them." He said over the other voices. "I understand that you're growing anxious, but we'll have to hope for the best." Even with the things Travis, Justin, Grant and Marcus had brought back from their daily trips, they would soon be out of food and they would starve. Ellie didn't listen to half of what her brother was saying her eyes were fixed out of the window at the road. Her brows knitted together as she saw two small shapes move towards the camp at an alarming speed, at first, she thought it was just animals but then she realised that it was two cars. She jabbed Timothy hard in the side and pointed out of the window. At first, he didn't seem to understand what it was, but then he hurried after Ellie who had already reached the door. Everybody followed them outside despite the extra cold weather that day; it was easily -30 Celsius degrees.

She watched with wide eyes hoping that it would be them; somewhere in her stomach she knew that it was them, but something was wrong. "Open the gates!" People jumped into action and the gates opened, the cars stopped just inside. Desiree, Joachim and Kim shot out of one car and dragged an unconscious Lewis from the back seat, Henrik and Anthony was dragging a groaning Nigel between them. Stella came running out of the medic house and took one look at them, "Get them inside here, quick!" it was like a mad rush and Ellie had to fight her way through people in order to follow. "What's going on?" She asked squeezing through the door just as it was about to close. "We stopped not far from here when they showed up." Desiree grunted as they helped Lewis down on one of the makeshift beds that Ellie had seen the military use. Nigel let out a small cry of pain as his leg hit the edge of it. Stella had already torn his trousers apart to reveal a small bite on his ankle, and something that looked like a stick sticking out of his thigh. Ellie felt queasy from just looking at it, but when she turned to look at Lewis her insides wrung themselves, his leg from the knee down only hung on by a muscle as if something had ripped apart the muscles and bones on his leg. Ellie turned around and found herself in a pair of warm and familiar arms. Stella was more focused on Nigel, as it seemed like the stick sticking out of his leg was the thing that bothered him. "That's odd." She murmured studying the bite on his ankle. "What, the fact that I have a stick running through my leg, or the bite on my foot?" Nigel grunted gripping the side of the bed so hard he left a print of his hand in the metal.

"The bite." Stella said frowning at it. She grabbed a glove and pulled it on before poking the wound. Nigel hardly made a sound, "Look at this." She said mentioning for Ellie to come closer. Slowly Ellie let go of Kim and moved over. Then she saw what Stella was talking about, the bite was obviously from a Munchie, but the infection in the wound... it looked like it was running from the flesh rather than infecting the rest of his body. Stella looked at Ellie for a moment, "I think he might be immune." Ellie's eyes widened as she looked at the wound. Immune... it was possible to be immune. She'd been mulling the idea ever since she saw those Eaters as Timothy called them. How it was possible for them to eat dead and infected people, without turning themselves. Suddenly a memory flashed in Ellie's mind. Something Timothy had told her when they first met at the house. Dad... she frowned and looked at the wound again.

"No, he didn't, I misjudged my aim and hit through the heart after they bit him, but he didn't change... We found his body a couple of days later almost untouched." Timothy's words rang through her head. Almost untouched. Didn't change. Shot through the heart, not head... Ellie lost her balance and fell to the floor as it hit her. Her dad had been immune. Immune! The world swam before her eyes as her mind worked furiously. Did that mean that she was immune? Was Timothy immune? What about Gordon? Her family back home. Could they too have been immune?