prologue

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height



/. ELLIE



⠀⠀⠀⠀AT SOME POINT YOU HAVE TO ask yourself whether or not any of it matters. The running, the fighting, the surviving. It's easy to say you'd rather lie down and quit than endure another minute of it. But words no longer hold meaning out here, and you'd be surprised by the stubborn creature that becomes of all men instilled with desperation.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Ellie is far past desperate. She is one of two pinned down and wounded, running on nothing but adrenaline for a high. But even that will begin to wear off soon, and then they'll really start to feel more than just see the scrapes and lacerations ripped in along their bodies, dripping red and warm with their own blood.

⠀⠀⠀⠀They need to move. Now.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Night would not be kind to them—never is—and already Ellie knows they are running out of time. The Sniper hidden on the overpass is every bit determined, and there's no telling how he'll behave once it starts to grow dark. They don't know this area. He more than likely does. Hours of lightless night, a dozen blind spots, and the Sniper could sneak up along the highway and take them out from behind.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The Others, like this one, make killing look easy. They don't have to think about it. All they do is put their finger on the trigger and pull.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Felix," says Ellie, more like a demand. When he doesn't respond, she lays her loaded hunting rifle beside her and presses both hands against his face. He almost looks at peace with his head in her lap. "Hey!"

⠀⠀⠀⠀He finally opens his eyes, though slowly, before blinking up at her fast. "What?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh, you're giving me attitude?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀She expects him to smile, but he just sort of lies there. He's usually smiling; always smiling. And always in that sardonic way that Ellie so used to hate. But now... nothing. He's alive, but also very far away—not quite dead, but something close.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Don't you dare leave me," says Ellie.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Finally, right there, there appears a hint of amusement on his face."Trying not to."

⠀⠀⠀⠀He gives a sharp wince and attempts to move—squirms, rather, like a man on fire trying to tear his skin and clothes off—but his shot-up lower half just isn't cooperating, The makeshift tourniquet around his abdomen has begun to show-through red.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"That asshole still with us?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀Ellie tries to say 'maybe', but it comes out as a muffle. "I butchered my shots." Her face is taut with concern—even guilt. "And I dropped the handgun."

⠀⠀⠀⠀He blows out a shaky breath. "It's... okay."

⠀⠀⠀⠀It isn't, actually, but now is not the time for arguing. Silver lining: Felix is at least talking again.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Breathing heavily, Ellie glances around their immediate vicinity before spotting an in-tact side view mirror on the car they've been using for cover. She reaches up and yanks on it, feeling it loosen, though it doesn't immediately give. Her forearm is scraped up pretty bad from their earlier exchange of gunfire with the Sniper, and the brand new hole in her shoulder won't stop screaming at her. No telling if the bullet went through clean this time. Sure hurts like it hadn't.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"A mirror, Ellie Anne?" Felix coughs, watching her with glassy dark eyes. "Sure, check yourself out. Totally not dying down here or anything..."

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Die a little quieter."

⠀⠀⠀⠀A terribly timed joke, but she at least gets him to laugh for the first time in... Well, she can't quite recall right now. Days, maybe. He hasn't been the same since the cabin.

⠀⠀⠀⠀(My fault.)

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Sorry," says Felix. "I'm..." He won't stop coughing now. Decidedly, Ellie does not like the way the movement seems to hurt him. "Sorry... Ellie?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Shh." She can't hear any of this right now—can't look mortality right back in it's face; can't watch the only person she has left in the world die.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The thought alone recharges her. Seeing clearly through her fog of panic, she grabs her rifle and smashes the stock of it up against the bottom of the side view mirror. With another strike it springs loose enough for Ellie to pull the mirror free. Her reflection appears cracked and dirty in the lens—her dilated dark eyes and grimy face almost scare her—but, it will do.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Tentatively, she extends the mirror out along the front of the vehicle and angles it until, in the reflection, there appears the overpass some hundred feet away from them above the highway. Wherever that Sniper is, he's being awfully quiet, and hasn't shot back at them them for some time now. If only Ellie hadn't dropped that damn handgun during her panic further up the highway. Her hunting rifle can do little for them now.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Just as Ellie dares to think the Sniper has retreated, something flickers, and out of the darkness pokes a head of dark hair and the barrel of a—

⠀⠀⠀⠀BANG! In a breath of a moment, the side-view mirror shatters to pieces in Ellie's hand to the sound of a gunshot and her own scream; bits of broken plastic and reflective glass glimmering in the setting sun.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Fuck!" exclaims Felix, shielding his face.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Ellie pulls her hand to her chest. It isn't bleeding—that makes one less bullet hole to worry about—but it sure is shaking. "No wonder we didn't see him on the walk up," she grunts. "He's in the goddamn tree line!"

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Ugh, fuck."

⠀⠀⠀⠀She dusts bits of mirror out of the short curls of Felix's brown hair, hiding her fear behind another joke. "You need a new vocabulary."

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Sure. And a new Earth while we're at it."

⠀⠀⠀⠀Now there's a nice thought—a new Earth, a new planet, a new home. Although, before the Others in their Mothership arrived, Ellie had kind of grown used to their current one.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Ellie retrieves her rifle again. Checks the chamber. Three rounds left—enough to get a few more shots in at their hidden oppressor, but not enough to make an escape while he's distracted. Felix's own sniper rifle, lying breach and loaded against his side, makes four bullets left in total. But he's in no condition to shoot anymore, and when it comes to long range weaponry, Ellie had never bothered to learn. Sick cattle and old horses back on her family's ranch did not require that kind of power.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Not even people do.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Felix stirs abruptly. "Look, if I just—"

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Felix, don't—"

⠀⠀⠀⠀He tries to roll over and retrieve his rifle, and while Ellie, quicker and far more spry than him, grabs it first, it is immediately clear she needn't have had to. In Felix's attempt to turn, he has done more harm to himself than good, and the muffled cry that comes out of his mouth is more frightening to her than any gunfire.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Still, he tries to get up.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Still, he tries for her.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Stubborn as always.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Stubborn and gorgeous and dumb.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Stop it," warns Ellie. "Stop it!"

⠀⠀⠀⠀Felix clenches his teeth. "I can take him!"

⠀⠀⠀⠀He probably could. Which, in hindsight, is exactly why Ellie believes the Sniper on the overpass shot and incapacitated Felix over her first. He was the one holding the bigger gun. And he's good with it. Real good.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"You're in no condition to do anything right now, let alone shoot. If you want to help me here, then please, start by not bleeding out?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀His expression goes a little soft at this, and he quickly stops fighting. Ellie doesn't know if she'll ever get over that look of his. Or, if she even deserves it.

⠀⠀⠀⠀I'm not asking you to love me, Ellie.

⠀⠀⠀⠀She rubs one eye with the back of her wrist and finds it wet with tears on the drawback. She has been so horrible and distant to him lately. So horrible. For Felix's sake, they still need to move. Stay put, and night will come fast. Stay put, and he will bleed out.

⠀⠀⠀⠀No matter what... I'm with you.

⠀⠀⠀⠀(My fucking fault.)

⠀⠀⠀⠀Felix looks asleep again, and suddenly very young. The first time he ever looked that vulnerable, they'd been sophomores in high school, sent to the principal's office after Ellie "accidentally" flubbed a baseball match and had given Felix a black eye. He kind of deserved it. But never in her almost four years of knowing Felix Caraveo would she believe he deserves this.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hey, are you..." Ellie shakes him. "Felix?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀A chill rattles her teeth and bones; numbs her arm a little more—for now. If the Sniper doesn't kill them first, exposure surely will. And if not exposure, then—

⠀⠀⠀⠀"Felix!"

⠀⠀⠀⠀...No reply.









___________________


( ☰◍ ) A/N.
that sniper seems super bad i sure hope they're not an important canon character or anything



( word count: 1,475 )
[ Published: May 26, 2023 ]


You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net