Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

     “Don’t even think about it.” Joel groaned rubbing the bride of his nose between two fingers. 

     “Come on,” Jesse argued. “What could go wrong here? We take one of the trucks speed through the patrols and be back in time to check on Maley’s. It will fix the shorthanded problem.”

     “You can go wrong,” Joel said earning a few snorts from the group. “With your driving I think we'll lose even more hands.”

     “It’s not that bad.” He defended with a frown.

     “It’s great.” Dina jumped in, “If you’re a fan of changing tires, getting stuck in the mud, hitting deer, hitting other cars that aren’t even moving, ” The entire group burst into stifled giggles as she trailed on to several other specific fuckups. 

     “Good god.” He sighed watching the entire meeting derail. It didn’t help that everyone stacked on the roof the abandoned car were now getting into an intense kicking match swinging their feet around wildly trying to hit those standing below. “Hey! We’re not done yet.” Joel called out in a weak attempt to maintain order. “You guys are worse than herding cats.”

     “Not true. There’s only five cats in town right now.”  Ellie stated before she slammed her foot into Jesse’s shin causing him to jump back violently.

     “Ow, shit!” He nearly fell backwards into the hood of the car. 

     “Ellie!” Joel growled. 

     “Joel.” She copied dropping her voice lower her face flat as if she had done no wrong. 

     “It’s actually nine cats now.” May chipped in. “Molly gave birth a few days ago.”

     “Awwww, that’s nice.” Ellie cooed pausing for a few moments before attacking again with a roar.

     Joel glanced to Tommy his eyes begging for help. Tommy didn’t seem to notice as he sat grinning at the mayhem. Joel gave up and let the kids bicker for a few more minutes before letting out a piercing whistle to grab most of the group’s attention. “Goddammit, Ellie would you let Jackson go?” She didn’t seem to hear as she intently held him in a headlock. “Ellie seriously.”

     “Fiiine,” She groaned slowly letting Jackson go. He immediately stretched back out to stand a good four inches taller than the entire group acting as if nothing had happened.

     “Okay now that you all listening,” -he emphasized with his hands stretched out-, “ I know this is unusual to break everyone up from the usual groups but after that fire and flu outbreak we are really hurting for hands. We need a supply team to Pocatello, three patrol groups and one to check up on Maley’s. We need at least five for Pocatello so everyone else is going to have to divide accordingly. Yes, the supply team will be driving, and Jesse you’re on one of the patrols.” He added on before he could get any bright ideas. Everyone slowly broke off into groups but half were still arguing about taking the supply run. Not to mention there were still only four of the five needed teams. 

     Ellie had already stepped out to better inspect the mess. “I think May could learn to drive. This is a pretty safe run and Ricks is going to be leading it right?” She observed before glancing up at Joel her arms crossed still trying to mentally sort everyone out. 

     He looked down at May who was standing to the side nervously bouncing on the balls of her feet. Having just turned sixteen this would be the first time really leaving the town. But she had been more than prepared for the last few months. “I can agree with that.” Joel hummed scratching at a graying beard. 

     “You would teach her to drive rather than let me go!?” Jessie complained. 

      “So far she's had zero wrecks, how many are you at exactly?” Joel glanced up unmoving. “What do you think May?” 

     “Oh hell yeah.” May nodded eagerly her blonde hair flying around as she skipped to the supply group. Joel then picked off most the kids until there was a reasonable team left.

     “Any complaints?” He asked looking staring down the crew. No one dissented and he nodded approvingly. “Y’all know where to go. Go get your gear ready and meet Ricks after lunch tomorrow.” They cheered and ran off. “Now I don’t really care about who’s in what patrol but we need at least three of you to go out to Maley’s.” 

     “I’ll take it.” Ellie immediately volunteered. 

     “I think you should stay back for this one.”

     “Should? Come on.” She exhaled sharply. “The only reason we’re going out that far is since no one from Maley’s showed up yesterday. It’s going to be at least four days round trip to get there with horses. And as far as I know, no one in this group has even been out there before.”

     Dina stepped out to Ellie’s side. “I’ll go too.” Joel frowned biting his lip. 

     “Oh come on dad,” Tommy interjected. “The kid’s right. She could probably run the whole thing by herself. Dina’s not too shabby with a gun either, if they even run into trouble.” Joel’s jaw tightened and he leaned heavily on his cane. “Joel it’s more than likely Maley’s are running late and they meet them on the road. It’s about time you let Ellie take more of a lead.” 

     “I agree with Tommy.” Ellie piped in. “Considering I’m the one who dragged you back here after you tried to get your leg cut off by that rusty stop sign. If it’s just the two of us we could travel pretty light and probably leave in a few hours.”

     Tommy turned raising a brow waiting for Joel to budge. “Okay.” He broke with a small huff. “We’d still need another person though.” He looked at the remaining teens who all suddenly seemed interested in studying the details of their shoes. 

      “I’ll go.” Jesse rose a hand. 

     Joel stared at him for a full second before looking back to the pair. “You promise to come get back up if it’s something serious?”

     “Yes sir.” Ellie saluted. 

      He turned to Dina. “Will you,”

     “I’ll keep this asshole in line. All else fails I’ll shoot her before someone else can.” Dina stated flatly grabbing Ellie’s shoulder her face held in a poor attempt of complete seriousness.

     Joel gave a stiff snort. “Fine, leave when you’re ready. We’ll have two horses at the gate.” They both nodded before breaking off from the group. “Alright for the rest of you first patrol starts tomorrow morning….”

                                                                                                                        ****X****

     “Come on man, what the fuck was that?” Ellie laughed. As they weaved through the crooked alleys between the houses. 

     “What? Don’t tell me you want to spend four days with Jesse’s snoring.” Dina grinned.

     “I think I’m referring more to coming with me in the first place, and the asshole part.”

     “Oh don’t worry. You are a complete and utter ass. Besides, I hardly ever get to go out that far since I’ve been stuck on the same patrols and clinic work for so long.” 

     “Since I’m in charge you’ve got nothing to worry about. I might even go as far saying this will be a walk in the park.” They eventually stopped at the back corner of Dina’s house. “Think you can be packed in two hours?”

     “Make it one,” Dina smirked kissing her on the cheek before wrapping her arms around Ellie’s waist. Her voice dropped suddenly as she stepped side to side slowly swinging back and forth. “But, you and I both know we’ll be out of the gate thirty minutes from now. And I’m pretty sure you’ve already packed.”

     “Me? How could you ever suggest such a thing?”

     “It’s not like you live in the house were all the patrols get planned and probably overhear what’s going on before anyone else.” Dina shifted pulling her arms back. “And you’ve already moved your knife from its usual pocket. A sure sign you were planning something.” She held up the weapon she had stolen from Ellie’s back pocket. She pushed the knife against Ellie’s chest with an impish grin. “You really should keep that somewhere more secure.” She backed away slipping through the sliding door.

                                                                                                             ****X****

     “I’ve just thrown a few basics in the bags for you since I know you’re trying to travel fast. There’s not much food so you’ll need to pull from the land when possible.” Notch said pointing the saddlebags on the ground. 

     “That’s alright. Is there a tarp somewhere?” Ellie asked throwing the bags behind the saddle on the pale horse. 

     He ground a small twig between his front teeth. “There’s a little one, little patchy but should work fine for the two of you.” Ellie nodded double checking that everything was tied down. She looked up to see a familiar face heading her way and unknowingly grinned at the ground while Notch listed off all the other basic supplies he had added.

     “Jesus Ellie are you trying to take the entire armory with you.” Dina glanced weaponry from any available space on Ellie’s form. “I thought you said we were traveling light.”

     “We? You look like you’re getting ready for a vacation.” 

     Dina rested her hand on the worn silver handgun on her leg. “Not everyone has nice toys. I was finally able to get a decent knife on my last patrol.”

     “Really, where’s that now?” 

     “Why don’t you come find it.” She taunted. Ellie’s brow quirked up at the implication knowing that knife was probably not up her sleeve. 

     “Well,” Notch intruded, “I think you two are all set to go. Gate will open whenever you’re ready. And I would leave quick before your old man changes his mind.” He sauntered back into the barn parting through a sea of chickens. 

     Ellie took the halters of the two horses and walked them out of the barn. “Big question here Dina. Do you want to take Thistle or Dumpling?” 

     “Is it pork or chicken?” Dina asked inspecting Dumpling, the pale horse with brown boots. 

     “Uhhhhm”- Ellie pondered- “I think its horse.”

     “That works too.” Dina took the halter and started walking towards that gate. 

     “One more thing.” Ellie un-slung the hunting rifle from her back and passed it to Dina. “You can hang on to this one.”

     Dina grabbed and quickly inspected the gun testing the weight. “Shit. This is nice.” She pointed it at the ground testing the scope. “Are you sure about giving it to me?”

     “Well, I want it back eventually.” She cleared her throat and adjusted the bow on her shoulder. “Besides, you need something that has a little more range.” 

     Dina grinned throwing rifle over her shoulder. “If you die I’m keeping it.”

     “Damn.” Ellie laughed. “I see how it is. You just love me for my guns.” They walked the horses to the gate, there were pretty strict rules about riding them in town. There had been a few too many, incidents. A piercing whistle could be heard signaling for the gate to open.

     “I mean, you’re almost right.” She hooked her foot in the stirrup and pulled herself onto the horse with practiced ease. “The guns I’m really looking for are usually trapped under a ratty flannel.” She bit her lip to hold back a grin as Ellie’s face when through multiple stages of processing. As soon as the gate opened wide enough she started slowly trotting away. “Are you coming or not?”

     “Hey!” Ellie called out. “You don’t even know where we’re going!” Dina kept on trotting while Ellie tried to catch up. Behind them shrill whistles cut through the air again, a sign that the gates were closing. Ellie was leaning out of her saddle in order to smack Dina’s arm. “Hey look at this.” She said stone-faced holding up her middle finger. 

     Dina buckled forward cackling and the sound was enough to break Ellie’s blank demeanor. “God. Sorry I insulted your fashion sense. But you have to admit most of your clothes are getting pretty worn down.”

     “What, would you prefer I just take everything off.” Her brow quirked. “Because I can make that happen.”

     “Oh,” Dina her voice rose as if she was actually considering the offer, “Ohhhh. Is that by request or more of a bribe situation?”

     “Yes.” Ellie snorted checking her watch. “The timing should work pretty well,”-she conveniently changed subject.- “we’ve got about five hours until sunset. We should be able to make it to the lake houses before then since this area usually isn’t too bad.”

     “Yes captain flannel.” Dina saluted with only her middle finger crossing her brow. 

     Ellie shook her head with a groan. “Just try to keep up.” She kicked Thistle’s flank and started off into the trees. “Also watch your head.” Ellie said barely managing under a low branch.

Chapter Text

      “Have you been to the lake houses before?” Ellie asked breaking a silence near the end of the fourth hour. She was nearly bouncing up and down in the saddle with excitement.

      “Can’t say I’ve ever been this far north,” Dina noted.

      “There’s talk that we could expand out here since it’s a pretty secluded area and the houses are practically untouched. I think they’re just looking for some good generators and about 40 more people to set up. It’s a plan that could still be years away but these houses are fucking nice.”

      “Like they all have roofs nice or,” Dina paused. 

      “These were like millionaire second homes nice. If we can’t move out here I know some of the older guys at least wanted to bring back a pool table.” 

      That earned a laugh. “Those things are only what, 900 pounds?”

      “I said try, didn’t I? Maybe that’s just another reason they want to move out here. Between us and Maley’s a few of the buildings are sort of maintained.”

      “I’ll take sort of maintained any day. Sleeping on a moldy couch is something I can live without.” Dina shivered at a distant memory.

      “Ohpff,” Ellie’s nose scrunched up sympathetically. “At that point just take the floor.”

      “Oh don’t worry. We only found the mold after I woke up. Do you have any clue how tired you have to be to not realize the floral pattern wasn’t actually part of the couch?”

      “Nooooho.” Ellie cringed laughing “That’s almost as bad as sitting up and realizing there was some dead animal right next to you.”

      “God. Like that raccoon?!” Dina countered.

       Ellie abruptly shook her head confused. “What raccoon?”

      “You’ve never heard about the raccoon! Shit, how have I not told you about that one?” Dina snapped her hand before pointing into the air. “I think that happened when you and Joel were out running around Oregon looking for the other town we keep hearing about.

      “That was a boring two months.”

       “Wasn’t much else that happened while you were gone. Anyway the raccoon story is awful, still gives me nightmares. I’ll have to tell it to you when we get back since Jackson has a great impersonation to go with it.”

      “Damn. If he’s involved it really must have been bad.” Ellie glanced back to see Dina’s wide eye nod. They both started laughing at the expression. “Well don’t let me forget to ask.”

      “What about me. I will never forget. Never.” The trees thinned out and they could suddenly begin to see a dozen massive houses dotting the side of an equally large lake. “Woah.” Dina urged Dumpling to walk beside Thistle as soon as the path widened. “I thought there would be like three houses. This is ridiculous.”

      Ellie shrugged. “There’s probably about seventy in total. You can kind of see the spots up in the mountains where there’s even more. We’ve only looked at a couple right by the lake. The one with blue siding is the best kept.” The sun was barely bright enough that they could tell the difference from this distance. “After we check that everything’s clear do you mind taking care of the horses and setting up while I find something to eat?”

      “Yeah, no problem. It’s clear enough to let them wander right,” Dina asked. 

      Ellie nodded. “Should be.” There was no sign that anyone had been through the area in the last few months. They entered leaving prints in the thick dust that covered the floor. “Well,” Ellie shrugged her bag off and tossed on the couch creating a small mushroom cloud of dust. “I hope you like fish. There’s a fire ring out back,” Ellie said already heading towards the small lake.

      Dina hummed a little song to herself as she brushed down both of the horses. She happened to glance up in time to see Ellie fumble a huge flopping mass and it escaped back into the water. She chuckled imagining the string of profanities and the grumpy little face that was probably happening to match the posture. It was such a cute face Ellie’s nose scrunching up and lips quirking to one side. Dumpling stepped forward bumping into her shoulder. “Sorry I stopped babying you for one second.” She cooed scratching his nose. “You must be ready to run away and never come back, you big old baby.” Dumplings ears flicked in up unison dark eyes staring soullessly at her. Dina finally took off the bridle and gave Dumplings neck a pat. “Be free.” She threw her arms out in a wide and dramatic gesture. Dumplings idea of freedom was to wander thirty feet away and start munching on a raggedy bush. Thistle seemed to be more excited about and pranced around for a few minutes before settling on the same bush. 

      She had just started a little fire when Ellie finally rolled up with a decent sized trout that was still twitching. “You know what I really hate.” She held up the fish. “These things. God thought they were so ugly he hid them in the water.” She sat on the grass and began carving into the fish’s side. 

      “That seems a little harsh,” Dina said absently digging through the saddlebags. “I’ve seen plenty of cute fish.”

      “Oookay?”

      “Yeah. Right here.” Dina looked up with her cheeks sucked in and lips pursing out.

      Ellie stared at the cross-eyed display before returning to dismantling their dinner. “I’d say mediocre at best.” 

      “Oh bullshit!” She threw a clump of dirt that hit Ellie’s knee. “I’d make a cute fucking fish.” 

      Ellie gasped looking up scandalized. “You did what to my fish?!” 

      Dina’s jaw dropped. “ELLIE NO.“ Ellie only cackled while weakly trying to defend from the rainstorm of dirt and grass now being pelted at her. 

      “Okay stop, stop it.” She said between chuckles and trying to swat away the projectiles. “You’re going to get dirt in your food.”

      “Fine,” Dina huffed throwing one more pebble the bounced off Ellie’s arm. “See if I ever volunteer to go somewhere alone with you.” Ellie grinned and tossed the two filets on the pan sitting on the flames. 

      “Speaking of which.....” She moved to sit directly in front on Dina. “Why would you volunteer to come on the longest trip with just little ole me?” Ellie asked arms crossed over her knees. “And doing so knowing that we, would be alone, possibly for days?” Her brows wiggled and she leaned forward a few inches. 

      “You make it sound like I’m scheming something,” Dina replied. “Would you have rather come out alone with Jesse? Wait no,” she tapped her chin with a finger. “Joel would never allow that. The combined cocky arrogance would set the whole forest on fire.”

      “Sure. But that doesn’t explain why you would volunteer to come with me.” She emphasized. 

      “Brilliant observation Ellie. I’ll give you three guesses.” Ellie just sat wiggling her shoulders like a cat setting up to pounce. “God,” Dina laughed. “You’re such a dork.”

      “Hey,” she started to defend. 

      Dina kissed her palm before lightly sliding her hand across Ellie’s entire face. “Shush.” Ellie gave up and dropped her head down to rest on Dina’s shoulder. Dina chuckled kissing the top of her head and she sat lazily scratching Ellie’s back. Dina broke the comfortable lull after a few minutes of fire crackles and insect chirping “I know you’ve decided to get all comfy down there but I think the fish is two seconds from burning.”

      Ellie groaned stretching back up. “Fine.” She over-exaggerated an eye roll and took the pan off the fire. “Guess you still have feelings for the fish after all.”

      “You’re just jealous it’s better looking than you.” Dina quipped.

      “Excuse you.” Ellie pointed a narrow fish bone accusingly at her. “I’m a fucking catch.”

      “Sure.” Dina’s brows rose and she deliberately began eating instead. As much as she tried to ignore Ellie’s squinting glare she failed to cover up a few snickers. Nearing the end of the meal Ellie kept checking watch biting her lower lip with concentration. 

      “Something up?” Dina asked casually flicking the remaining scales and scraps out of the pan.

      “Just doing math.”

      “That explains the smoke coming off your ears.”

      “Haha.” She said. “Usually we don’t leave in the afternoon to go to Maleys….. We could make it there tomorrow night if we left early and rode for eighteen-ish hours.” She cringed brow scrunching together as she said the estimate. “How comfortable are you with that?”

      “I don’t think comfortable is the right word for sitting in a saddle for that long. It’s doable.” Dina’s brow dropped considering the offer. “That would mean leaving at what, four in the morning and getting there an hour or so after sunset?”

      Ellie nodded gathering the few dishes. “Last time Maley’s were late it was since a portion of the farm had flooded. I’m not sure if it’s worth it or not to push that hard to get there. Then again there’s not really any good places to camp on the way. Timing wise getting here we were fine but everything else is pretty, awful.”

      “I think we could do it. Like Tom said were more than likely to meet them in the middle, and worst case scenario we sleep in some hole in the ground.”

      “God not the dirt. Anything but the dirt.” Ellie exclaimed before ending with a weak laugh. “If you want to wander around the house I’ll clean up.”

      “Oh hell yeah.” Dina hopped to her feet. “Rich people houses are so impractical.” She was already halfway through the door.

      “Come on, you’re supposed to decline and offer to help anyway.” Ellie pestered.

      “Uhhhhhhh,” she hummed her eyes following an invisible bug before snapping back down. “Nope.” She grinned sliding the door shut behind her. Ellie wasn’t surprised by the reaction at all. Some of these houses had, let’s say, interesting features. She made quick work of cleaning the dishes off and washing them in the stream that cut through the backyard. She checked on the horses who seemed to have settled near the lake finding some thicker grass rather than the coarse shrubs surrounding the houses. She looked up at the half moon that was reflecting perfectly in the lake. At least that was something she could understand about living in a place like this.

********

      “What the hell is this?” Dina asked admiring a mediocre painting of a gray tabby cat hanging in one of the rooms.

      Ellie laughed in the doorway. “I think that one was Gertrude.” She entered the room setting her backpack on an old desk.

      “Gertrude looks like she got hit by a bus.”

      “If you think that one’s bad there are about four more paintings like that in the house next door. Someone in the neighborhood was mass-producing these; there was one with the white rat looking dog with its tongue sticking out. He was practically melted from water damage.” Ellie laughed at the memory. “We gave Dave a proper burial, set him on fire and floated it off into the lake.”

      “Rest in peace Viking Dave.” She saluted before dropping onto the bed and digging through the draws of the nightstand. “Any other works of true art I should keep a look out for?”

      “Not that I can think of right now. But, this is only the third time I’ve been up here,t here’s bound to be more of them.” Ellie turned to see Dina sporting a pair of golden reading glasses with a wide grin. “Okay?”

      “Oh man, am I blind?” Dina questioned pushing the glasses up and down repeatedly. “Wait no, that’s just a headache.” She paused still squinting through the frames.  “Ellie stop staring and get your butt over here already. I promise there’s no mold.”

      “What a great sales point.” Ellie sat causing the bed to bounce. She forgot what she was going to say next and caught herself admiring Dina instead. Her nose kept scrunching up as she tried to focus on distant objects. She cleared her throat and dropped her gaze to the floor.

      “Hey Ellie.” Dina tapped her hand several times. “Come here.” She grinned pulling the glasses off and gently pushed them up onto Ellie’s nose. She took a moment beaming at her handiwork. “I always knew you would make a great fifty-year-old man.”

      “Aww, thanks,”  Ellie said slightly adjusting them. “I’ve always wanted to be an old man.” She hunched her shoulders over and squinted her eyes close, then said in a gruff deep voice. “Taxes.”

      Dina snorted. “You sound just like one.” She teased her voice wavering from a small laugh. Ellie broke character for a minute trying to contain her own snickers, but her deep voice kept cracking as she tried to impersonate a certain old man complaining about the past.

      “Okay.” She sighed pulling away from the gravelly voice. “We really need to get some rest. We’ve got a long way to go tomorrow.” Ellie wound down before impulsively leaning over to kiss Dina’s cheek.

      “You missed,” Dina complained.

      “Must be something throwing off my aim.” Ellie squinted at the nightstand. “Dina what are you doing on the floor?” Dina rolled her eyes taking the glasses back. Ellie jumped surprised at her sudden move between the floor and bed.

      “Would you just get over here and kiss me already?” Dina asked as if she hadn’t leaned close enough already. Ellie closed the last few inches still smiling as she pressed into Dina’s lips. Dina hummed happily as she closed her eyes savoring the moment. It seemed every time they even got close someone else burst into the room. (Sarah probably did it on purpose.  Boo is just excited anytime Ellie comes over.  Being such an energetic pup to begin with he had probably stolen more kisses then Dina.) She tensed for a moment when she felt a hand running over her thigh but then smiled once more as she enjoyed playing with Ellie’s hair. A few minutes later Ellie finally pulled away, her face deeply flushed.

      “We really need to get some sleep.”

      “Lame.” Dina heckled falling flat on the bed. More winded then she would care to admit.

      “We still have a job to do.”

      “I am well aware of the situation.” Dina reached out and pulled Ellie down with little resistance.

      Ellie settled on her side tucking an arm under her head. “Hey, I’m in charge of this run.”

      “Sure,” She said staring directly into Ellie’s soul in an overly attentive manner. “If that’s what you want to think.”

      “I have seniority,”

      She nodded slowly. “Of course.”

      “so you better listen to me.”

      “I am listening super very hard right now,” Dina said not making any effort to hide her gaze as it dropped to Ellie’s lips again.

      “Really? I kind of get the feelling you’re not taking this very seriously.” Ellie said lazily dropping her free hand on Dina’s waist.

      “Oh, so serious. If you die who’s next to be in command?” She couldn’t resist and popped forward kissing Ellie again before she could answer. She pulled away just as quickly acting as if nothing had happened.

      Ellie paused shaking her head with a grin. “Gertrude.” She bit her lip.

      “Well, Gertrude looks like she’s been through hell, I’d trust her with my life.” She tried not to laugh as she suddenly noticed the outline of Ellie’s messy hair as the light filtered in through the window. Who could have done that? She thought lazily letting out a soft snort.

      “Stop talking already,” Ellie said attempting to push her on to her back. “We have to be ready to leave in five hours. Not wake up, leave.”

      “Why don’t you make m-” Ellie had already guessed what Dina’s next words were going to be and had already begun moving. Dina froze staring up as she was pinned with Ellie smirking over her.

      “That was easy,” Ellie smirked watching Dina short circuit below her.

      “Fuck you.” She squeaked.

      She kissed Dina’s nose. “Goodnight Dibs.” She took her time to empty out her pockets before laying back down fully enjoying the speed at which Dina’s face was flushing. After a few minutes Ellie’s breathing had slowed leaving Dina alone with her thoughts.

      “Holy fucking shit. This fucking ass. Shit.” Her heart was still racing just at the thought of Ellie maybe doing that again…. “Damnit.”

Chapter Text

      The loud noise and sudden drop were like an electric wire hitting her system. She was suddenly jerked awake and reacted on pure survival instinct. “Fucking Christ!” Dina’s arm swung out wildly making solid contact with the perpetrator. She struggled to make sense of the dark room with tired and blurry eyes.

      “Owwwww.” A voice moaned from the floor. “You punched me in the boob.” Dina could finally make out Ellie kneeling on the floor clutching at her chest. “Are you always this violent in the morning?” She whined.

      “You asshole! What else did you expect screaming like that!?”

      “My boob.” Ellie painfully restated, as if that was the most current and pressing matter. Dina rubber her eyes still attempting to clear the morning fog. “I made breakfast and this is how you thank me.”

      “Oh my god.” She mumbled. “Stop complaining before I hit the other one.”

      Ellie hissed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

      “Oh,” she cocked her head to one side. “Okay.” In a flurry Dina kicked her feet to the floor and Ellie scrambled up to escape.

      “Fuck off.” She yelled right before ramming her shoulder into the door frame in the hasty escape. Ellie stumbled down the stairs four steps at a time. Dina had stopped chasing after a few moments but Ellie didn’t seem to notice based on the cursing she could hear trampling out of the house. She sat at the top of the stairs chuckling before heading back to collect her things.

      “You’re not going to try anything fancy are you?” Ellie said threating Dina with a knife when she made it outside a few minutes later.

      “You know that was entirely your fault,” Dina said flicking Ellie’s arm aside and planting an over exaggerated kiss on her cheek. “Did you already get everything ready to go without me?” She asked glancing at the already saddled horses and the pot of boiling water on the small fire.

      “I did try to wake you up earlier but you were dead. You didn’t happen to work late at the clinic again?”

      “This is too early for any human to be up regardless of previous circumstances,” Dina said tiredly her initial adrenaline rush wearing off. She almost felt that if she leaned any more onto Ellie she could fall asleep while standing.

      “And whose fault is it you stayed up that late?” Dina shrugged intentionally mumbling gibberish as she settled on the ground by the sparking fire and began to pick apart the remaining fish in the pan.

      “Sorry about your,” Dina waved a hand at the general area of Ellie’s chest. “Thing.”

      Ellie crouched beside her. “My thing? I’m sorry did you forget the word for brutally murdering my innocent breast?”

      “I’m sorry okay!” She shoved Ellie’s knee trying to knock her off balance. Ellie cackled easily catching herself with one arm.

      “Tell me one thing Dee, are they better than Jessie’s?”

      Dina’s face went blank for a moment before flashing into horror. “What the hell Ellie! You might make the record for earliest I’ve killed someone." She pouted angrily shoveling breakfast down.

      “Sorry.” Ellie grinned. “I will never reference Jessie or his man boobs again.”

      “I highly doubt that.”

      “You’re cute and probably right.” Ellie leaned down to kiss her forehead before moving off to finish packing. As much as Dina tried to keep pouting she could help the butterflies that raced through her stomach. Or maybe that was just because it was so goddamn early. She quickly finished up in order to help with the final preparations for the long day ahead. Within a few minutes the only sign that they had been there was the slightly smoking coals, even that would disappear in a few hours. “Ready to go?” Ellie asked. Dina hopped onto her horse nodding.  “Alright, guess we’re off then. You know maybe on the way back we can go swimming. The lakes pretty nice this time of year.”

      “That sounds better than the madhouse the river turns into every July.”

      “Only like three people had near death experiences last time. That’s better than usual.” It was still dark enough they both had to use their flashlights to avoid getting knocked down by a low branch. As the sun came up the sounds of the woods switched from the night buzzing to the morning chirping and skitters of all the wildlife. Ellie eventually started to mimic the more melodic chirps whistling back the patterns. Her face would light up anytime one chirped back like they were communicating with each other. “Did you know that most chirping is birds screaming about wanting to fuck?” Ellie interrupted herself. “I think I would make a pretty hot bird.”

      Dina had been punted out of the trance she had fallen into, she blinked heavily a few times. “What.”

      “A majority of chirping is mating calls.” Ellie clarified.

      “I heard you the first time. It’s just something I’ll never be able to not think of again. I’m truly thankful for that.” She said dryly.

      “Wouldn’t it be weird if people had mating calls?”

      “I think if I waved a comic book out of the window you would come running. Or maybe like, a really cool knife.”

      Ellie laughed. “Well if that’s my mating call what’s yours, weird shaped potatoes?”

      “Hey, you have to admit The Great Spudson was neat.”

      “You kept it for over a month.” Ellie suddenly gasped sitting up straighter in the saddle staring at Dina. “Wait, that’s how long you’ve kept me. Do I look like a potato?!”

      “What? No! I’ve been putting up with your shit for so much longer than that.” Dina broke out laughing as well. “Spudson was almost four years ago. I think my tastes have evolved a little bit since them.”

      “So what am I to you then, a radish?”

      “Mmmh-maybe.” She tapped her chin, “More like a gangly string bean. Oh! I could call you bean. That’s cute.” She replied with a little snap.

      “Come on Dina. Couldn’t you pick something more macho than a bean?” Ellie lightly tossed over her shoulder.

      “Okay fine,” She paused dramatically. “Dick.”                              

      “Hey!” Ellie stopped her horse abruptly just so she could turn it enough to pout.

      Dina let loose a hearty laugh. “Come on. You have to admit you set yourself up.” Ellie sighed turning back to continue. “Alrighty stringy beanie.” She could hear Ellie groan at the ridiculous name but she’s going to have to learn to love it. After a few minutes Ellie moved on from bird calls to whistling songs that sounded vaguely like the ones she had heard in some of the movies and different albums they had at the dam. She had tried to get Ellie to sing a few times but she always insisted she couldn’t. (A blatant white lie. She had herd small verses here and there when Ellie thought she was alone.) The partial serenade lasted for quite a while as Ellie absently filled the silence between steps.

********

      “I think my ass has fallen off.” Dina groaned awkwardly stretching her legs out after they had finally stopped for a break.

      “Do you need me to check?” Ellie pipped up her head barely peeking over her horse.

      Dina gave a flat smile. “Ha, ha.” She stated forcefully like a cat about to toss a hairball. They were in a small clearing that had a slow-moving stream running through it. Then again there were small rivers and streams passing wandering throughout the entire valley. “Please tell me it’s dinner time and were almost there.”

      “Nope,” Ellie said. “It’s just past ten and we’re only maybe a third of the way there. You see those mountains.” She pointed to peaks that were barely visible over the trees. “We hit those then go for another few miles. Not a real interesting trip unless you like looking at the same ten trees over and over again. You hungry?”

      “I could eat a horse.”

      “God, we went over this already. Dumpling is not for eating.”

      “I mean if you tried hard enough…” Dina said settling on a fallen tree near the stream.

      “I guess you could.” Ellie sighed sitting beside her. “But try explaining to Notch what happened to his horse and I doubt you’ll make it out alive.”

      “Come one. I’m his favorite, he wouldn’t kill me over something like that.” Dina chuckled swinging her feet below her. “I think more than anything he would only let me ride goats around for the next year.”

      Ellie put a hand on Dina’s leg to make her stop bouncing the entire tree up and down with her absent kicking. “I wouldn’t be sure about that, you could eat an entire goat a whole lot easier than poor dumpling.”

      “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to settle for leftover fish.” She said taking and unwrapping the sack. “Ohh, and travel biscuits. You’re really treating me today.” She said ironically trying to power through the dry bread. The both sat picking through the light lunch watching the horses drink the equivalent of a small lake of water. “Do you think it’s going to rain?” Dina asked acknowledging the growing humidity in the air. “I don’t have anything good for that.”

      Ellie nodded. “It’s always a little more humid out here but I don’t think it would be anything more than a sprinkle. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it.”

      “I’m running out of eyes to keep on things.”

      “Well if you took one off my ass that would help.”

      “Shut up.” Dina smacked Ellie’s arm and critically pointed a half-eaten biscuit at her. “If you call that book cover an ass you must get aroused every time you walk into a library.”

      “Oh,” Ellie snorted. “Is that why you read so much?” Dina inhaled sharply and began choking as biscuit dust invaded her lungs. “Aha, I win!” Ellie cheered throwing one arm up and nearly falling backward off the log. Dina sat coughing for more than a minute, as this biscuit apparently was in it for the kill. “Holy shit, are you okay?” She laughed rubbing Dina’s back.         

      “Fine.” She eventually croaked out.

      It had been another few hours before the first sprinkles had started. It was nothing more than a fine mist that would come and go but that was nothing compared to the sudden temperature drop. Dark clouds started forming on the horizon but hadn’t moved too far out yet. They took another short break and it seemed like the skies were clearing up, two hours later they were betrayed by the falling skies.

      “Well, this sucks,” Ellie said practically drenched, even with her jacket the water was starting to seep down from the collar. It had been pouring for nearly an hour and the ground was starting to pull at the horse’s hooves. They were one step away from having to shout to be heard over the pounding rain.

      Dina just made an exaggerated crying sound from the awkward tepee she was trying to make out of the tarp. She looked like a grandmother wrapped with a chunky blue and oversized shawl. “Are you sure you’re going the right way? And not straight into a very angry Waterfall God.”

      “I’m like thirty percent sure there’s not any water Gods out here.”

      “Okay but, are you sure? Absolutely sure there are no water spirits with a personal vendetta.”

      “Pretty sure. It has to stop pouring eventually.” In one way Ellie was right, it did stop pouring. Now the sky was completely dumping water and loud peals of thunder filled every few seconds. The temperature had dived drastically and they were slowed to a painfully slow crawl as each step sank into the mud. “Fucking hell we’re so close,” Ellie muttered as another bright flash raced right above them with a splitting crack.

      “What?” Dina shouted unable to hear anything. Each breath took in some of the water making it feel like she was drowning. Ellie turned, leaning out just to be heard.

      “There’s an old barn close by.” She shouted. “We’re not going to make it to Maley’s before freezing to death, I’ve been cutting t,” She wasn’t able to finish before a lightning bolt struck a tree that was barely a few yards away blinding them both. The horses both bucked on their hind legs startled by the deafening and blinding boom. Their screams were nothing compared to Dina’s,

      “Woah! Fuck!” Ellie had been caught so off guard that she was thrown off her horse and landed hard on the muddy ground. Both horses were still bucking wildly with fear, Dina was barely able to calm down Dumpling enough to be able to grab Thistle and drag him away from Ellie before he accidentally trampled her. “Are you dead?!” Dina yelled dismounting while still trying to hold down both of the horses who were still jittering at every thunderous roll.

      Ellie groaned rolling to her side coughing furiously before spitting out mud and a few clumps of grass. “I think so.”  She shakily got back up and went to grab one of the horses still mildly stunned and now covered in mud. She snapped back to reality when a bright light was shining on her face. “What the.” She flinched away hoping this wasn’t the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

      “You’re bleeding,” Dina repeated, slightly muffled with the flashlight in her mouth. Her free hand gently pushed away the soaked strands of hair to find the origin of the line of blood making its way down the side of Ellie’s face. Relief washed over her face as she found it was just a shallow cut above her temple. “Are you dizzy at all?”

      Ellie shook her head. “I’m good now that there’s two of you.” She was pulled to the side as Thistle began nervously jittering again.

      Dina’s eyes squinted for a moment still trying to make sure there wasn’t anything else wrong, but the heavy rain was already washing the blood away. “Okay.” She relaxed taking the light off of Ellie’s face. The tarp was really no use now since she was now effectively drenched from head to toe. “Where the hell is this barn of yours?”

      It another two hours to lead the horses through the woods. They were too skittish to ride and stubborn as they pulled them along. No amount of training could work out the animal’s survival instincts. After miles of slogging through the downpour seeing the half-crumbled barn in the middle of nothing might as well have been a brick of gold lying amongst beggars. If they had any energy left they might have even celebrated. “It’s locked from the inside, hold Thistle for me.” Dina nodded her teeth chattering violently. Ellie stood on the saddle and jumped up to a hole in the wall. After a few moments of struggling to get a hold on the slick wood she was able to pull herself up and disappeared over the side. Dina stood alone watching the light from Ellie’s flashlight traveling through the cracks as she moved throughout the barn. Ellie finally appeared pushing open the heavy doors, as soon as the opening was wide enough Dina shot in. The old barn reeked of rotting wood and was the roof was leaking from a dozen different places.

      “Home s-sweet home.” She tried to joke but was interrupted by violent shivers.

      “Hunting parties will use this sometimes but it’s still pretty beat up,” Ellie said running to uncover a pile of wood under an old car hood. She grabbed a handful of the logs thankful that they were only a little damp. It took some finagling to get a small fire started even using a lighter. “Thank god.” She mumbled turning to see Dina struggling to pull the saddles off since her entire frame was shaking so hard. “Holy shit Dina. Get over your ass over here and get out of those clothes.”

      “Is that supposed to be a pickup line?” She said almost drunkenly still trying to work even as Ellie was dragging her away from the horses.

      “I’m just really fond of the idea of you not dying because of cold water.” She parked Dina in front of the flames. “I’ll get the horses.” While Ellie cleaned up the horses Dina peeled off her sweater and wrung out what seemed like a gallon of water. She had stripped all the way down to her underwear before even being able to feel the fire’s warmth. There were some ratty blankets that came with the barn and they were the only thing separating her from the dirt. “Okay,” Ellie said finishing up with the minimum horse care and already moving to the fire. “I swear this trip usually isn’t this shitty.” She threw her jacket off in one fluid movement; there was a comically dry patch on the shirt underneath that was barely an inch across.

      “I thought you said there was nothing between the lake and Maley’s,” Dina said staring into the flicking red patterns.

      “This is usually way off the path, but I left that route pretty soon after the rain picked up. I didn’t want to be out too long after sunset, then it really would have gotten bad. Goddamnit.” She groaned trying to peel off the muddy jeans that had become glued to her legs.

      “Talk about worst date ever.” Dina tried to lighten the mood, but being curled into a sad chattering little ball in a dusty blanket didn’t help. “Here I was thinking that seeing you with your shirt off would be a lot more exciting.”

      “If I had known I would have worn my nice bra,” Ellie said tossing her jeans aside with a wet slap.

      “You have one of those?” Dina asked critically.

      “No.” Ellie snorted. “I’ll go see if there’s any food that survived. You hang tight.”

      “How are you not freezing?” She shivered again just thinking about standing up.

      “I at least had a raincoat, and Boston always had kind of shitty weather.” Ellie paused looking up on her way to the gear. “Do you have a raincoat? I could keep an eye out for one in the future.”

      Dina slowly nodded. “I have one. Just didn’t pack it.”

      Ellie made a disgusted face pulling her hand out of one of the bags. “We don’t have to worry about the bread being dry anymore.” She flipped her hands back and forth trying to rid them of the sticky goop. “At least there’s still some apples.” She made her way back with a bundled up t-shirt in her hand and tossed it to Dina. “This is literally the only thing that’s still dry.” She gratefully accepted the worn purple shirt pulling it on with trembling fingers.

      “If I knew we were going to be able to shower on this run I would have packed some soap.” Dina weakly teased.

      “Shit,” Ellie whispered distracted reaching out for Dina’s hands to look closer. “You look worse than a raisin.” She inspected the crumpled fingertips with both concern and a mild fascination. She kissed Dina’s knuckles before wrapping her hands tightly around them. Even with how cold she was at the moment she was shocked by their frozen feel. “God, you feel like a dead body.”

      “I am dead.” She stuck out her tongue and fell over on to Ellie’s shoulder, her entire body shook again. Ellie moved to pull her into a tight hug trying to share whatever warmth she had left. “This is kinda weird.” She chattered.

      “What?”

      “Yur neked.” Dina flatly stated a few moments later. She could feel Ellie’s heavy sigh.

      “Did you really have to say it like that? It wasn’t weird until you said it.”

      Ellie had barely started to move away before Dina shot out pulling her closer. “You’re not allowed to, to do that. She chattered before letting out a tired laugh. “Neked.” She could feel a droplet of water run down the back of her neck and that caused another violent shiver.

Chapter Text

       “Is it really still raining?” Dina groaned barely awake.

       “Yep,” Ellie confirmed listening to the constant tapping on the wooden roof. There was a hint of a glow confirming that they had slept in.

       “Shhhhhit.” She pushed her head back nuzzling into Ellie’s collarbone fully aware of how exposed she still was.

       “It bet it will stop by the time we're ready to leave.”

       “Last time you said something like that it started to rain harder. I think you really just need to stop talking about the weather.” Dina chuckled. “Cat.” Before Ellie could question that statement she felt a finger tracing along her collar. “You have a freckle constellation.”

       “Yeah bye,” Ellie said rolling up, her joints popping randomly. “God everything hurts.” She said trying to stretch out a kink in her neck.

       Dina followed her up with a similar percussive crackling. “Gotta love sleeping on nothing. I think there’s going to be a permanent indent in my ribs.” She gasped. “Would you look at that another constellation,” She poked Ellie’s spine. “It’s a string bean.”

       “Get out of here,” Ellie said waving her away.

       “I hate to break it to you but this barn is only one room.” Ellie hopped up rolling her eyes. They had done their best to hang things out to dry but her clothes still had a cool dampness to them.

       “Oh shit,” Dina mumbled clapping her shoes together creating a hail storm as the dried dirt flew off. “That was like two pounds of mud and,” She paused inspecting her shoes even closer.

       “What?”

       “There’s a hole in one.” She frowned poking a finger through an opening near the toe of her sneaker. “I really liked these.”

       “So sad. Do you want to come help pack or not?”

       “I was getting there asshole,” Dina said trying to send some of the dirt clumps in Ellie’s direction before shoving her shoes on and trying to tie back an extra frizzy mass of hair. She eventually made it over to the horses and threw the saddle up on Dumpling’s back. “Tadaa. I’m ready to go, don’t know about you over there.”

       “Just give me a second,” Ellie said double checking that nothing was getting left behind.

       “I see, there enough time to wait if it’s for you.” Dina teased.

       “Shut up.” She grabbed her raincoat and passed it up to Dina. “You can take the horses out and I’ll block the door.”

       “Yessir.” She mock saluted. “Do you think I’ll be able to steal all of your clothes before we get back to the damn?” She asked pulling the coat on over the borrowed shirt.

       Ellie grinned. “Do you have any clue how hard it is to find pants that are the right size? You have to leave me something.”

       “I can work around that,” Dina said walking the horses out. In moments the door was shut behind her and she waited under the hole in the wall. It was still sprinkling but the sun was peeking through the overcast.  Ellie was hanging from the edge of the opening in a matter of minutes, she let go and hit the ground with a cat grace. “I still think blocking the door on this barn is a little excessive.”

       Ellie shrugged, “Better safe than sorry.” As she moved to take hold of Thistle's halter he shook out his mane unexpectedly.

       “What the,” to avoid getting hit Dina involuntarily stepped forward, directly into Ellie’s path. They nearly butted heads stopping just a few inches short.

       “Hi,” Ellie said looking down at an equally surprised Dina.

       “Horse pushed me.” She stuttered trying to back up. Ellie’s brow quirked as she stepped forward wrapping an arm behind Dina’s waist and pulled her in for an impromptu and playful kiss.

       She pulled away looking bashful. “Sorry.” She smiled.

       “Ellie,” Dina admired her suddenly softened face, “Just blame the fucking horse, you idiot. Who gave you permission to be this adorable?” She laughed wrapping her arms around Ellie’s neck hugging her tightly. Ellie groaned trying to stand straight but Dina’s hold was unbreakable. “Hey Ellie, you should kiss me again.”

       Ellie bit her lip smiling down at Dina who had never lost the over the top antics she was so well known for. “Those damned horses.” She mumbled before leaning back towards Dina. This kiss was, well awful. Neither of them could keep a straight face but both were still trying to make some sort of kiss happen between snorts and giggles. The horses, despite being constantly discussed, were much more interested in attacking the surrounding grass.

***

       “After this canyon we should be able to see Maley’s within a few miles,” Ellie said biting into her second apple. There were plenty of wild fruit trees scattered throughout the state.

       “Here’s a question. Are Maley’s the actual family living there or is it like most farms were there named it after whatever ranch sign survived?”

       “Rick Maley has owned and worked out there since before the whole apocalypse started. He’s a tough old bastard, you’ll love him.”

       “Cool,” Dina said before chucking her apple core at Ellie’s back.

       “The fuck was that.” Ellie turned looking for evidence of whatever had hit her. Dina suddenly seemed very interested in a far off tree.

       “Wait, what is that?” Dina whispered with genuine concern at something barely moving in the distance. Ellie stopped too they both fell into a deep silence. Dina slid the rifle off her shoulder to get a better view of what seemed to be a mistake in an otherwise consistent landscape. She sighed. “Looks like a clicker.”

       “Just one?” She asked in a low voice checking her surroundings with a new level of concentration.

       “Looks like it,” Dina said after scoping out the surrounding area for a full minute. “It seems dormant; must have been out here for a while.” She lowered the rifle and tilted her head back and forth stretching her neck. “But I guess shooting could attract more, if they’re here.”

       “I’ll get it,” Ellie said already lowering herself slowly to the ground. She walked slowly approaching it from behind. It swayed back and forth the hands occasionally twitching, Ellie could barely make out a red maple leaf pattern on the remains of the hoodie it was wearing. She pulled the machete off her backpack ready to make the final approach. She twisted her body preparing the swing and threw the blade towards its neck. The clicker didn’t even notice something was wrong until it had a new three-inch hole in its neck. It let off a maddening screech trying to turn but Ellie knocked it to the ground with a solid kick. Without hesitation, she sunk the blade into its back and pinned it down until the creature finally stopped moving. “Fucker.” She mumbled pulling the machete out of its body and setting it back in place.

       “You could at least act a little concerned,” Dina said once she had stepped back on the trail. “Usually people don’t volunteer to kill humanity’s biggest threat.”

       “I wouldn’t say they’re the biggest threat. Other people do just as much damage as infected.” She hopped up nonchalantly. “Clickers are blind; they don’t know what they are attacking.” She clicked her tongue prompting Thistle forward

       “Jesus, did you have to go into philosophy mode too?”

       Ellie shrugged. “I’m just saying that it’s a lot harder to predict what a person will do.”

       Dina took an elongated breath before exhaling sharply. “Nope, I didn’t want to have any existential realizations today. You can keep your nonsense to yourself for now even though you’re probably right.”

       “Awww, you admitted that I’m right.”

       “You do have the advantage when it comes to talking bullshit.”

       “You said I’m right.” Ellie beamed purposely choosing to ignore the last part.

       Dina groaned. “I will kick you.”

**********

       “Finally civilization,” Dina said catching the glare from the tall steel grain silos.

       “I don’t think anything can really count as civilized at this point.”           

       “Just because you live in a hermit cave,” she was cut off when Ellie rose a hand up, her face suddenly serious.

       “Can you smell that?” She asked. Dina paused aware of something off from the mountain air she was so accustomed too. Instead of continuing on the path that slowly cut down the side of the mountain Ellie dismounted walking closer the edge to look down into the small valley. “Oh shit.” She hissed motioning for Dina to follow.

       The first thing she noticed was a dark plume of smoke rising from the side of one of the main houses. Next was the number of bodies scattered on the ground below. “Damn.” She agreed pulling the rifle from her shoulder using the scope to get a better view. They were a few hundred yards above a massacre, most of the bodies had misshaped growths, and many of the misshaped forms were still moving about. “There’s still at least twelve clickers down there, and that’s only counting what I can see. Can’t tell if there’s anyone in the buildings.” She whispered.

       Ellie’s face was pained as she bit her thumbnail trying to assess the mess below. “Can I see that?” Dina passed the rifle and Ellie took a closer look. “That smoke has to be coming from a car. Those things can burn for days even with the rain.” She stood and ran a few steps over to get a better vantage point. “Damnit, looks like some of those bodies have been there for a while too.” She sighed lowering the gun.

       “Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do? If anyone’s still alive they're not going to last long enough for reinforcements to do anything.” Dina said thumb tapping nervously on her thigh.

       “I know.” Ellie looked through the scope again this time at the other side of the farm. “Fuck, I can’t see anything from here.” She passed the rifle back to Dina and started pacing one hand nervously running through her hair. “I can’t tell if the horses are still here. If we check that and they're gone it’s possible some people made it out. But they would have come to us, unless it was such short notice they ran somewhere else.” She angrily punched the air. “I can’t fucking leave until I check that.”

       “Ellie are you insane!? That many clickers would be hard enough to handle with an entire patrol.”

       “There’s over fifty people that lived down there. I’m not going to leave without checking for survivors.”

       “What good will it do if you just add two more body’s to that count?”

       “Stay up here.”

       “There’s no way in hell you can do that by yourself.”

       “I know,”-She reached out to Dina’s shoulder her voice dropping suddenly-“I need you to cover me. The echo in the valley should be enough that none of them can tell where the shot is coming from. I just need to make it to the barn.”

       Dina grimaced her hand kneading at her brow. “Then what.” She glared up, her dark eyes blazing.

       “I don’t know.”

       “I don’t know! You’re trying to run into a death trap and that’s your answer? Fuckin hell Ellie.” Dina threw Ellie’s arm and took a few frustrated steps away. “This is fucking stupid, even for you.”

       “I know it sounds ridiculous but what other options are there? I think I can draw most of them together and clear a decent path.” She said digging through her backpack for the bottles she had picked up at the barn. “That should be enough for me to get through.”

       Dina took in a sharp breath struggling to come up with any other plan that would deter Ellie. “Don’t you fucking die. Or I will come kick your ass back to life just to kill you again.” Her voice was cutting as she tried to restrain herself from knocking Ellie out on the spot.

       “I won’t.” She shifted around the items in her bag before pulling out her handgun. She dropped the magazine double checking how much ammo she had. “Whatever you do don’t shoot me.” She loaded the gun before tucking it in her waistband.

       Dina hissed still not satisfied with this suicide mission, “I’ll save that for when you get back.”

       Ellie weakly smiled. “Just trust me for the next ten minutes.” Before Dina could try to sway her she began working down the sloped face straight towards the mess below. Dina took a few deep breaths with her eyes closed trying to mentally clear everything out. She pulled the rifles bolt back listening to the familiar click as a bullet settled into place. Her jaw clenched tightly as she stated to follow Ellie through the scope. “You fucking idiot.” She muttered as she crouched down resting her elbow on her knee to steady the weapon.

       The mountain was steep enough that Ellie had to be careful about not sliding directly into a tree. But it wasn’t so steep that a horse couldn’t run up and down in case of an emergency. In the first few seconds, she already had a plan forming she just needed some decent cover. There was a crumbling well that she needed to get to first, there was a single clicker standing dormant nearby. It couldn’t have been to old since it lacked a heavy crown of hardened fungus. She slowly pulled the bow off her shoulder and fired at the still target. It was  clean and it fell to the ground immediately. She quickly collected the arrow and put it back in her bag taking the final steps to the old well. It was crumbling and she was easily able to pull one of the bricks free.

       She tested the weight for a moment still debating if she should just head back up the hill now. Instead, she stood and launched the brick at the metal silo before ducking back down. The resounding clang was more than enough to piqué the attention of several clickers who came running over with their trade mark screeching. God that sound was awful. Ellie peeked over the wall to see if the attracted beasts were close enough. She took another brick and threw that one just for good measure. It must have hit a sweet spot and resulted in a deep boom before falling and knocking one of the clickers in the back. A few more gathered in a close group. Satisfied she lit the fabric strip and counted to five before throwing it into the cluster.

       Even from a distance, the fireball was impressive; hardly any of the infected that had come to investigate completly escaped the flames. The cocktail alone had completely taken down over half of the group. Even then that was still nothing in comparison to watching Ellie tear through the clickers with a calculated ease. She managed to pick off a few more from a distance, arrows flying directly into their hearts, before being noticed. Three of them came charging at her; in one fluid movement Ellie threw the bow over her shoulder and pulled the machete off her bag. She swung into the first ones knee and it crumpled to the ground with a screech, the second was already heavily injured from the fire and was taken down as she nearly separated its head from the body. As she swung wildly at the final her foot slid a few inches in the mud throwing her off balance. Ellie stumbled sideways for a few steps and the other clicker fell with the machete still stuck in its ribs. The first one was still clawing at the ground towards her, Ellie stomped down on it still trying to work the machete out of the other. A blur of movement caught Dina’s attention she turned to see fresh runners sprinting towards the group. Dina followed one for a second before pulling the trigger, the body crumpled to the ground before she even acknowledged the recoil. “Fucker.” Without a second thought she flicked back the bolt and the empty shell sizzled past her ear. There was a second runner close behind her first shot missed, but the second tore through its skull.

       Ellie had barely reacted to the gunshots and instead moved to bashing in the head of another clicker with a shovel. Some of the bodies were still on fire but was apparent none of them would be moving again. She swerved making a final check and dropped the shovel before finally managing to pull the machete free. She took a few moments to gather her arrows and found two of them had broken. Another gunshot echoed through the valley, that one caused Ellie to flinch since the runners body had fallen right at her heels. “Holy shit.” She muttered. She could barely even see Dina crouched a hundred yards behind her but could faintly make out a raised middle finger. There was a slight flash from the scope glaring as Dina shifted back. She finally had a better view down the street and could see more clickers staggered between the buildings, but hopefully, she would have enough cover to avoid most of them for now.

       Ellie turned carefully making her way up the street she slid up against the side of a house taking a few moments to breathe. She could cross directly to the barn from here but that would require running through a long open area. She sighed dropping her head down to wipe at a bead of sweat. Just as she ducked a bullet ricocheted of the wall inches away from her shoulder. “The fuck!?” She jumped her heart racing franticly as she ran to the nearest cover. As she raced towards the truck anther bullet hit the ground near her, bits of rock and shrapnel bounced of her leg. She dove under the truck desperately looking for who was shooting at her, another shot rang as it struck the bumper just above her causing a shower of sparks. She had been to Maley’s a few times before surely they would have recognized her, but that couldn’t explain the shots after the first. “What the hell?” She thought to herself desperately trying to find a way out. From here she finally got a better view of what was causing all of the smoke. The truck was covered in graffiti and was obviously not one of Maley’s. Looks like the clickers weren’t the only thing to be worried about; apparently, they had just followed the raiders.

Chapter Text

      “What the hell?” Dina mumbled watching as Ellie suddenly start sprinting erratically. She watched as a cone dirt spat up behind Ellie and registered the sound of a shot that wasn’t one of her own. “Oh GOD DAMMIT!” She punched the dirt leaping up and running a few steps to the side in order to keep tracking her through the scope. Ellie was now trapped under a truck, and where she guessed the shots were coming from was way out of her sights. She watched Ellie try to slide out from the opposite side but another bullet struck inches away from her hand. She was too exposed and whoever was shooting would gladly sit and wait for her to come out. There was no way Ellie could get the advantage without putting herself in serious and most likely inescapable danger. “You goddamn little shit.” Dina hissed throwing the rifle over her shoulder, sprinting down the hill, feet sliding out occasionally sending rocks and other vegetation tumbling down with her. Ellie was going to owe her for so long.

      She had taken out most of the clickers in this area but there was no way to tell how many raiders there could be. Dina ran to the well but rather than follow the same path she went around the main house looking for an opening. There was a cracked window that was barely big enough. She rammed the butt of the gun against the pane until it shattered into a satisfying web. She broke out the remaining glass with her elbow and tossed her bag and rifle in before pulling herself through. It was a small and surprisingly tidy bathroom, with matching towels.

      There was already something pounding on the door moaning, it must have heard the breaking glass. “I don’t have time for this.” Her teeth gritted as if the harsh growl would deter whatever was on the other side. That was the fastest way out, so it looked like she would have to let the runner in first. She hopped up on too the sink and pulled a short hunting knife from a sheath on her forearm, Dina took a deep breath before kicking the knob down. The runner shot into the room flailing but she was able to jump behind and trap the young infected man in a choke hold. The knife found its way in his neck shortly after. He struggled trying to scratch at her arms but he weakened after a few seconds. Dina abruptly twisted his neck, with a sharp snap he fell limply to the floor. She didn’t get the time to worry about if this was a raider or one of Maley's. His eyes had started begun to bulge out and they were the puffy red circles around a bite mark on his arm. Either way, she was doing it a favor.

      She hadn’t heard any more gunshots, hopefully, that meant Ellie hadn’t tried anything completely stupid yet. “Where’s, the, fucking, stairs?” She chanted sprinting through the lower floor trying to ignore the smells coming from the bodies scattered on the floor. She finally found them and flew up into the room she knew had a window facing the other building. She crouched walking slowly into the room, the white curtains flowed back and forth from a gentle breeze. She wasn’t taking any risk of catching the attention whoever was on the other side of that window. What used to be an older woman was lying on the bed, dark red streaks webbed out on the wall above her missing head.

      She moved towards the window and was able to see the white edge of Ellie’s shoe peeking out from her cover. She parted the curtains enough to find the other shooter. They had a dark beanie with long strands of dirty blonde hair falling out of the bottom. The raider sat smoking a cigarette waiting for Ellie to move. This mother fucker was so confident that the entire top half of their body was resting on the window sill lazily waiting for Ellie to move.  It was an easy shot, just a few dozen yards. As soon as she lifted the rifle up they stopped breathing. The shooter crumpled backward and the cigarette fell forward pushed by a final exhale, and as far as she could tell there was no one else in the opposing house. A few moments later Ellie slid out from under the truck and began sprinting back the way she had come.

      Dina sighed pulling the rifle back finally feeling like she could breathe again. She turned leaning with her back against the wall, eyes pressed shut. Glancing down she noticed a tear in her sleeve and a shallow cut just above her elbow. Looks like that window got its revenge, but damn it’s hard to find new ones. She eventually went to inspect the body behind her. There really was no way to tell who or how old it was. And with a generally missing head it was a sight that made her stomach do a few dozen flips. She pried a revolver from the stiff hand and tucked it into her waistband. Just as she was leaving she heard a faint whimper coming from the closet. Dina paused walking up to the door putting her ear against the wood. There was definitely the sound of someone trying to cover up frightened breaths. In all her past experiences the raiders usually weren’t the ones that hid. She turned the knob and slowly pulled open the door.

      “Get away.” A small voice quivered holding up a steak knife. It may have been big for his hands but there’s no way it could do any real damage.

      “Woah hey.” She knelt down trying to appear as non-threating as someone splattered with blood and carrying multiple weapons could. From what she could tell the boy was barely ten and behind him was an even smaller girl. She put her hands up in the air, and was met with a hard sniffle. “I can help. I’m from the Dam, do you know what that is?” She asked steadily. He nodded slowly lowering the knife. There was just a bar of light coming in from the open door, but that was still enough to show his tired eyes and deep frown. “How long have you been here?”

      “Four days, I think.”

      She grimaced just imagining being trapped in such a small space for that amount of time.  “Have you eaten anything since then?” He shook his head and Dina’s chest nearly collapsed as she pulled out what food and water she had. They took it eagerly. “Well, me and my friend are going to get you guys out of here. I’m Dina.”

      He took it and turned to the young girl. “This is Maddie, she’s my sister and I’m Logan.”

      “Okay, nice to meet you. Can you guys stay super quiet and follow me?”

      He jumped up ran forward hugging Dina burying his head on her shoulder. “Yeah.” His voice cracked. Maddie nodded as she stood sucking on three of her fingers.

      She pat his back still a bit surprised from the sudden trust. “Hey, it’s okay. You did a really good job keeping your sister safe.” She finally pulled away and tried to block them from seeing the body on the way out of the room. They were halfway down the stairs when a form suddenly spun around the corner. Dina had her gun drawn and loaded pointing at the chest of the intruder in under a second. Ellie had only pulled hers up halfway before freezing.

      “Hey.” Ellie greeted immediately lowering her gun, her front was completely covered in clicker blood and mud. It would practically be impossible for a stranger to determine what color her shirt was. There was a streak of blood crossing her cheek from the re-opened cut on her forehead.

      “You had one fucking job Williams.” Dina said slamming the pistol back in its holster as she continued down the stairs.

      Maddie gasped. “Logan she swore!”

      “Sorry.” Dina turned instinctively apologizing to the two before storming up to Ellie. Ellie had just noticed the two and was trying to get a better look when Dina grabbed the collar of her shirt and forced her back into the living room. “I hate you so much right now.”-Her voice had dropped low with a threatening rumble.-“Could you just pay a little more attention to what’s going on? That would be greatly appreciated.” She let go of Ellie’s shirt with a shove just as the two kids came around the corner. Ellie cleared her throat and sheepishly glanced away as Dina wiped away the streak of blood with the end of her sleeve.

      “It’s Logan, right?” Ellie asked pulling away and crouching in front of the two. “Do you know where your dad is?”

      He shook his head obviously anxious. “I don’t know where anyone is.” He said, his voice still on the edge of crying.

      “Hey, that’s okay. You’ve been up there for a while. You must be super brave to protect your sister.” She put a hand on his trembling shoulder. “You need to be brave for just a little longer, then we can go back to the Dam. Alright?”

      “Yeah.” He nodded grabbing Maddie’s and she blankly toddled closer.

      Ellie stood turning to Dina who was still frowning, biting her lip in concentration. “Well, I take it there’s more than just infected here.” She finally said. “Sorry. I wasn’t paying enough attention. Looks like it’s shi-“ She cut herself off looking at Maddie whose big brown eyes were staring up at her. “Worse than I had expected. Reed was in charge of the towns defenses, I highly doubt he would have left his kids. Since there’s raiders here were going to have to cut through the other houses to get to the stables since I don’t trust being out in the open at this point.”

      “As if the houses will be any safer.”  Dina countered.

      “We’re a little past that point.” The both grimaced scouting through the windows watching for any other dangers. They went through a back door and followed the remains of a fence to the next house. It was bland with few windows, obviously, one that had been built in the last few years. It was entirely empty as far as they were concerned. They moved up to the side that was facing the main road. To get to the stables they would need to cross it to get to one more building in front of it. “We are going to need to run super-fast now, you guys ready?” Ellie asked, Logan nodded eagerly.

      “What is it?” Dina asked in response to a little tug on her sleeve. Maddie sat opening and closing her hands in the air.

      “Maddie can’t run very fast. She hurt her leg.” He filled in.

      “Okay, great.” Dina scooped up the girl in one arm who gratefully wrapped her arms around Dina’s neck. “Hang on tight.” She encouraged before nodding to Ellie that she was ready. Ellie led, first she slowly opened the door checking the surrounding road and buildings. Gun held at the ready she left the safety of the home and quickly motioned to the others as she started running across the open. Logan followed close behind and Dina took up the rear, Maddie in one hand and gun in the other. They approached the last house crouching by the door.

      “Where the hell is Taylor?” A deep voice could barely be heard from a small window.

      “You know her. Probably off popping clickers still. There were a few shots a while ago, that was probably her acting like hot shit. It’s really easy to hit something that’s barely moving. What an ugly mug.” The sound of glass shattering.

      “Shit.” Ellie breathed.

      “Do we go around?”

      “I,” She paused listening intently inside there were the raiders but all around this half of the farm, there were more clickers. “I think it’s just the two, but I don’t like the idea of having them behind us.”

      “Let’s make it quick then.” Dina agreed setting Maddie down. They inched the door open hoping to remain unnoticed and made their way into the living room.

      “You would think they would keep more food in here than this!” A cabinet slammed shut and a shadow passed a doorway down the hall.

      “Calm down Pike, these farm community’s usually keep all the food in one place. We'll find it once we clear out some of those infected.” The deeper voice seemed to be the leader. There was a snap as he bit into something. “You’re acting like your expecting to find pounds of bacon sitting in a golden platter.” His voice was muffled as he talked while chewing. There was a snort of amusement in response.

      “Wait here,” Dina whispered instructing the kids to hide behind a couch. “Also,” she motioned for them to cover their ears. Ellie was already stalking towards the door knife in hand, from here she could see the first raider sitting with his muddy boots kicked up on top of the table as he sliced chunks off an apple.

      “Did you find any more ammo yet? These fuckers just about took all the small calibers.” He grunted.

      “I think I killed someone running for the back, I’ll have to check there.”

      “Pike, you serious? Why are you dicking around in the kitchen!” Pike indignantly threw up his arms and went to leave the kitchen. Ellie saw the opportunity and stood preparing to rush the man at the table.

      “Whoa, what the fuck!” A new voice appeared behind her she turned but not quick enough to dodge the massive hammer. It slammed into her hip throwing her against the opposite wall, her head snapped into the door frame.

      “Shit!” The boss yelped leaping up and throwing the kitchen table on its side. Pike came rushing back into the room fumbling with loading a shotgun. Hammerman was lifting the baby sledge above his head preparing for a deadly blow when three gunshots rang out. He dropped the hammer as blood spurt from his chest spraying across the hallway.

      “You motherfucker!” Ellie screamed her war cry slashing at the man’s throat before he fell. She grabbed the hammer and threw it at Pike making him drop the shotgun and sending the bullets rolling across the floor. The boss shot blindly over his cover, the bullet ripped just past them into the living room shattering a picture frame.

      “Bitch just killed Reggie!” Boss shouted at Pike who had taken cover after getting hammered. He fired erratically down the hallway again.

      “Shit.” Ellie spat out a mouthful of blood flattening her against the wall to avoid the blind fire Dina was against the opposite wall trying to edge close enough to get a shot over the barricade. “You killed an entire town and you’re getting shit on by a girl. How does that feel asshole!” She taunted.

      “Is there really just one!?” Pike panicked behind him. Dina had gotten close enough to get a shot over the table. She fired twice and rewarded with a sharp howl of pain.

      “Shoot her already!” He bellowed. Pike pumped the shotgun and fired at the wall Dina was hiding behind. She was hit by a torrent of wood shrapnel that cut through her jeans and bit into her arms she dropped her gun attempting to shield her face from the storm and stumbled back from the impact. Maddie let out high pitched wail completely terrified by the sounds of the battle. Pike grinned wildly retreating away.

      “He’s going for the kids,” Ellie shouted Dina was already backtracking to intercept him. “I’ll get this one.” She vaulted the table and stomped down on the raider behind it. He threw her off and she landed in a puddle of blood. He struggled to stand already bleeding heavily from a hole in his thigh.

      “Why do you stupid farmers always fight so hard just to die!” He spat down at Ellie. She fired up hitting his shoulder but was met with empty clicking after her last bullet. He laughed kicking her in the side and pressing one foot down the side of Ellie’s head. “Is that really all you’ve got?” He sneered.

      Pike rushed into the living room searching for the source of the screaming. He grinned stalking up behind the two children loading the gun. “Hey!” Dina shouted throwing a chunk of drywall at his head. It wasn’t heavy enough to do any damage but it distracted him long enough. She leapt over the couch grabbing the gun forcing it away from the trembling kids.

      “You killed my brother.” He snarled fighting for control. He was too tall and she was struggling to keep a grip on the gun as he kept pushing her backward. And over the pounding of blood rushing, she could faintly hear infected wailing outside attracted by the commotion.  

      Ellie gasped for air, he had moved to joyfully crush her neck driving his boot down with a wicked grin as she struggled to keep him from crushing her throat. Blood was dripping down the leg and splattering on to her face. Her knife was pinned under her back and in a desperate attempt she gave up on trying to throw him off.  She reached out stretching for a jagged piece of ceramic lying just out of reach. With only one hand holding back his foot he immediately pressed down harder. Ellie gagged arching her back up as she finally got a grip on the broken piece.  In one fluid movement, she forced the ceramic through the tendon on the back of his ankle. The force caused it to cut into her fingers as well. He stumbled backward cursing and barely managing to balance on one leg. Ellie rolled to her side kicking in his knee finally pulling in a thick breath. He buckled to the ground and Ellie was on him in seconds knife flashing out. “You piece of shit!” She wheezed stabbing down multiple times until there was a faint gurgle that meant he wouldn’t be breathing again. She spun to see Dina struggling with the ugly baldy, the gun fired into the roof raining plaster down on the both of them.

      “Give up you bitch.” His eye’s bulged with rage. “Maybe Reg would have let you live.” He spat. Dina was practically cornered with the two children cowering just inches behind her. Ellie flew down the hallway she had to jump just to get an arm around his neck.

      “Jesus, you’re like a fucking tree.” She was thrown off with a hard elbow. Pike had shaken Dina off and slammed the butt of the gun into her face and she fell to the floor unconscious. He took a bullet out to reload. Ellie ran at him clawing at his face from behind. The front door slammed open as something else ran into the room.

      Ellie’s eyes shot to the side to see an infected woman charging towards her. Unable to react quickly enough the runner screamed mouth wide open as it attempted to bite into her neck. Ellie jerked to the side just as its teeth began to sink in. Her movement caused the teeth to tear across her shoulder instead of locking down. She let out an involuntary cry as the massive gash opened on her back hot blood already pouring out. Pike being free shot the runner before it could come at them again and turned with a twisted sneer. “Shame to ruin such a pretty face.” He mused holding the gun leveled at Ellie.

      She froze, her entire body seized up as a loud shot echoed in ears. Ellie took a sharp breath as blood sprayed her face. Pike fell forward in a heap, and she saw Logan shivering still pointing the revolver up with both of his eyes squeezed shut as a trail of smoke floated up from the end. Suddenly the room was quiet, other than Maddie’s heartbreaking whimpers. She took multiple deep and shaking breaths trying to regain her bearings.

      “Okay kid, let’s put this down,” Ellie said slowly pulling the gun from Logan’s hands, his entire body was shaking hard enough to throw the freckles off his face. “Just breath for a second.” She comforted while sliding towards Dina.

      Ellie pushed the hair off her face reviling an angry scuff and already swelling cheek. “Ohhh man.” She mumbled to herself gently rocking Dina back and forth. “Come back.”

      It took a few seconds but Dina finally came too with a pained whimper. She slowly moved pressing a hand to her face quietly muttering almost unintelligibly, but Ellie knew enough to pick out a few choice curses. Ellie took a knee and offered to help as she haphazardly sat up. “You good?” Her hand hadn’t left Dina’s as she spat out another curse in Hebrew.

      “I think, brain is still shaking.” She sat blinking heavily; she tensed hands patting down her empty sides. “Gun?” She panicked.

      “I’m pretty sure you dropped it, I’ll go grab it.” As Ellie began to turn and leave Dina reached out grabbing her arm.

      “Shit. Wait a second,” Dina urged Ellie to turn so she could closer look and the rip on the back of her shirt. “This is bad.” The wound underneath had bled enough to soak almost to the bottom hem of her shirt. She pushed to her knees with a groan and began digging through her pack.

      “We don’t really have the time for this,” Ellie said to aware of the sounds of multiple infected searching for the origins of the previous fight.

      “Ellie in about ten minutes you’re going to pass out if I don’t slow the bleeding down.”

      Ellie turned finally seeing the extent of the injury from the runners bite. “Oh fuck.” She pulled back her shirt surprised by the long gash starting on her shoulder and jaggedly curving down to her arm.

      “How did you not notice?” She scrambled doing her best to close up the deep wound with nothing but gauze. “It’s not even from a knife, how the hell did this happen?”

      Ellie’s eyes went wide; Dina hadn’t seen the runner come in. “I’m not sure.” She lied.

      Dina swore. “You’re going to hate me later but this is the only thing I can to right now.”  She tore a few strips of duct tape off using them to keep the wrap tight around her shoulder. “If I can’t get stitches in soon you’re really going to be sorry.” She mumbled tearing another strip of tape off with her teeth. She wrapped it around her shoe, half of which was now detached from the sole and her two little toes were peeking out of the side.

      “That’s just going to have to work for now. The barn is close from here.” She pulled her shirt back up uncomfortably aware of how it was sticking to her back. “Logan buddy, how you doing?” He looked up and slowly nodded, she wasn’t entirely sure how to take that answer. She just prayed Maddie was still too young to understand what was happening. She picked up the shotgun before heading off to the kitchen. Dina’s gun was on the floor buried under bits of the broken wall. She shook off the dust revealing the initials J.B. carved into the grip before bringing it back to Dina.

      “Thank god.” She sighed accepting the weapon running her thumb over the initials before dropping the magazine to check how many bullets were left.

      “Hey, you still here?” Ellie asked breaking Dina’s thousand-yard stare. “He didn’t hit you hard enough to mess something up did he?”

      Dina blinked pushing the magazine back. “Just thinking.” She bit her lip not knowing enough to verbalize the idea but she knew something was missing. Dina picked up the hammer from the floor. “I’m ready when you are.” With that they headed towards the back door.  The stables were finally in their sight, along with a handful of infected that were actively stalking the area.

      “We should be able to get through without running into any,” Ellie mumbled mentally tracing a path. She picked up a massive boot before exiting. They slowly worked across the yard when reaching the edge Ellie took the boot and threw it across the street to divert a few more infected away from them. For once they reached the destination as predicted; they entered the barn and shut the heavy doors behind. She took a moment counting the horses with a frown. “Damn, that’s all of them.” She grabbed the bridge of her nose and kicked the ground with a few more murmured curses.

      “Time for plan ‘I don’t know’?” Dina had set Maddie on a pile of feed in the corner of the stable. She paused remembering a bit of the raider’s conversation before shooting over to Ellie. “Do Maley’s keep all of their food in the same place?”

      “Why?” Ellie trailed off.

      “It would be somewhere in the middle probably an old cellar, right?”

      “Probably, Dina why-,”

      “Ellie, no one left since they had no time to react, how else would kids get left behind?”

      “Shit, Dina your right!” Ellie jumped. “Logan do you know how to saddle horses?” She called out.

      “Yeah.” He nodded. “I can do that.”

      “Get as many horses ready as you can. We’ll need them to be ready to get out of here fast. Dina call down our horses and keep watch. I’ll see what we can use in here.” Ellie threw off her backpack and began digging through the corners of the barn. Dina’s shrill whistle probably could have been heard for miles. It would be a few minutes before they got here but knowing that there was a possibility of survivors made each one fly by.

      “Horses are good,” Dina said pulling them into the stable. They were able to run past the clickers with little issue, a fact that had always seemed odd. Even if they had attracted the attention of the infected they seemed to know the difference between people and animals.

      “Okay,” Ellie said shoving her pockets full of god knows what. “Even if half of the bodies I’ve counted are raiders there’s still a handful of our guys out there.” She threw her backpack on. “I would ask if you want to stay back but I think I already know the answer.”

      “Damn right I’m not letting you run off alone again.” Dina reloaded both the pistol and rifle before putting them in place.

      “Understandable.” She walked over to Logan who was working hard to throw the saddles on the horses that were twice as tall as him; a few beads of sweat were already forming on his small head. She crouched in front of him. “Okay Logan. Dina and I are going to go find the others. I’m going to leave this gun with you. If anyone comes in that’s sick or you don’t know-“

      “I know I’ve got to kill ‘em.” He stated. “Dad’s told me about the infected before.”

      Ellie pulled out the revolver and handed it over. “Do you know how to load it?”

      “I think so.” Ellie took a moment showing him how to handle the weapon just to be sure.

      “I know it’s hard to pull that trigger, but every time you do you’re protecting someone important. Make sure both of you are still here when we get back.” He nodded. “And also, keep your eyes open when you shoot.” With that she headed toward the door.

      “I take it you have some idea of where to go?” Dina asked.

      Ellie nodded taking her bow down nocking and arrow. “I really hope your right, about this.” She slid out the doorway bow drawn as she swung back and forth checking for threats. Dina followed close behind sliding the barn door shut behind. “Looks like most of them have been drawn back to the main road.” She sighed eyes darting to every nook and shadow. She glanced back to Dina’s who’s brow was dropped into a low line, eyes hard and scanning the area. She paused long enough to kiss Dina’s unbruised temple. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

      “You knew him?” Ellie nodded looking away as she pulled the arrow out of his chest. He had been standing in the middle of a porch and didn’t react as they had approached and didn’t react as the arrow had pierced his heart.

      “Just two more houses.” Ellie swallowed hard trying to look anywhere but at the body beside her. “The horde is practically on top of where we’re going. We’re going to have to push them in a circle to get in and back out. If that makes sense.” Dina nodded. Just a few dozen yards away was a mass of infected that they couldn’t have seen from above. The number of infected would have easily outnumbered the people who originally lived on the farm. Ellie pulled out an arrow with a weighted tip. “I’ll give you a head start.” Ellie spun and Dina started to spring across the face of the home she barely saw the bow draw from the corner of her eye and was startled by the shaking boom.

      “The fuck?” Dina turned enough to see a fireball but Ellie was already sprinting behind her.

      She grabbed Dina’s arm turning her back forward. “That will distract them for a bit.”

      “Distract? They know exactly where we are now.” She hissed.

      “Potato po-fucking-tahto. We just needed them to move” Ellie nearly tripped rounding the corner. Glancing back a hand full of clickers had managed to keep up with them. “Shit.” She hissed nocking an arrow and turned on a dime to hit one in the chest.  “Just die already, again.” She complained before flying at the nearest one knife at the ready. Dina taking the second one on with the hammer. After the second swing the head of the hammer broke off leaving a sizable dent in the ground. Not missing a beat she rammed the handle through the clicker’s chest like some sort of knock-off vampire hunter.

      “God, I’m starting to think you’re like a magnet for these things.” As Dina turned she saw a clicker running towards Ellie who was still struggling with the first one. She snapped the gun out of its holster shooting the stray in the head.

      “Damn.” Ellie gasped after feeling the heat of the bullet whiz past her cheek.

      “You would know if I was aiming for you.” Her eyes fluttered from side to side trying to pinpoint where the noise of the main horde was coming from. “We need to go.”

      “I said we’re close.” Ellie scampered to the final house and stopped suddenly. “Watch the alley.” Ellie threw aside the wooden crates that were stacked against the wall, even without the cover the casual eye wouldn’t have noticed the worn trap door. “Come on.” She said straining to knock the latch open.

      “What is it?” Dina said gun drawn as she watched for unwanted followers.

      “The things stuck.” She paused. “Wait no, it’s locked from the inside. God, I love it when you’re right.” She tried banging on the doors.

      “I don’t think they would answer if it sounds like your about to rob them.” Dina flinched as a clicker ran by, it didn’t see them and kept running forward.

      “First of all fuck off. And second,” she tried knocking in a semi-rhythmic pattern before speaking firmly to the door. “We’re from the Dam. Open the door if you want to get out of here. We’re from Tommy’s Dam.” This time they weren’t as lucky, a clicker noticed and came running down screeching, Dina took it out in two shots.

      “Anytime now,” Dina said gritting her teeth.

      “It’s Ellie, open up!” As she went to smack the door again a heavy clunk could be heard below. “Yes!” The celebration was cut short as Dina practically threw her down  as soon as the doors were opened wide enough. Dina slammed the door down behind them.

      “Ellie?” A young and heavily accented voice interrupted.

      “Yeah sure.” She squinted panting heavily looking at the mass of bodies cramped in the small space. Dina was half crouched on the stairs behind her barely avoiding hitting her head on the bottom of the heavy doors.

      “I can’t believe it, Ellie fucking Williams.” The small crowd parted as the figure came towards them. “Looks like we aren’t totally stranded after all.” Ellie immediately recognized the petite blonde as she broke from the cluster of bodies.

      “Sage. Are you in charge or just here to bug me?” She tried to joke through staggered breaths.

      “If it’s been this long I’m afraid it’s the first option.”                                                  

      “Well shit.” Ellie wiped the sweat from her face. “Dina, this is Sage Maley.” She introduced as Dina slowly came down the stairs already inspecting the people crammed in the small space. “She probably knows more about this town than the people that built it.”

      “Right. How many people are down here?” Dina squinting in the dim light.

      “Eighteen and the baby.” Sage motioned over her shoulder to a mother sitting in the corner. Dina’s eyes went wide as she made a beeline towards her.

      Ellie groaned. “That’s nothing.”

      “We had two minutes at most to react. Most people didn’t even have time to think about running until they were already dead or infected. My guess is the raiders hit a big pocket and tried to make a run for it. Dozens were trailing right behind their truck and I guess more have shown up since then.”

      “Jesus.” Ellie grimaced staring at the ground before popping back up with a glimmer of hope. “Is Danial Reed in here?”

      “I’m here.” A hand rose from the back, and an older man stepped forward; his white shirt was shredded and mostly covered in a rusty red.

      “We found both your kids.” He gasped with relief and falling to his knees. “Right now they’re safe in the barn saddling all the horses up. We can make a run for it as soon as we get there.” She paused turning back to Sage. “Do you have any weapons down here?”

      Sage shook her head slowly. “Anyone who had enough time to grab something stayed back to buy us time. There’s a handful of knives, a .22’ and some other ammo.”

      Ellie sat kneading her brow. “.22’ will just piss them off.”

      Dina interrupted from across the room fully aware of how much Ellie was internally pressuring herself. “Ellie, eat something first. We’re going to have to wait until the horde calms down before we have a decent chance.”

      “I never knew my mom but I imagine she would sound just like that.” Ellie quipped.

      “It’s not just you everyone should eat now since we’re going to be short on horses. We’ll be lucky to bring a days’ worth of food. And we will need to break into groups since it will be hard to move this many at once.”

       “Five per gun?”

      Dina frowned walking back to stairs. “It’s still going to be a shit show all the way back.”

      “How about you two just rest for a minute.” Sage butted in. “I’ll figure something out.”

      “You probably know who’s the best shot in here.” Ellie handed over the shotgun and her pistol. “Make those count.” Dina glumly unslung the rifle and added it to the pile. Sage nodded before heading off to figure out the groups. “You doing okay?” Ellie checked.

      “Absolutely dandy.” Dina slumped against the wall. “Half these people are injured, as far as I can tell the mom has broken her leg in two different places. The baby is running some sort of fever, you’re still bleeding,” She trailed off noticing Ellie’s back had a growing spot again.

      “That just happens every couple of weeks.”

      “I don’t need your bullshit today Ellie.” She sighed the lines between her brows deepening. “We’ll need two people just to carry her but that will still be slow, and with the horde just a few yards away one mistake and we're fucked.” They sat in a tense silence wolfing down the preserved fruits after going nearly the whole day on an empty stomach. They soft talking and planning was nothing more than a distant buzz. At one point Ellie noticed and plucked a large wooden splinter from Dina’s sleeve. She stared at it in shock wondering how the three-inch piece of shrapnel had managed to hang on this long. “Can you at least promise not to do any more stupid shit today?” Dina finally asked. “Your silence is scaring me.”

      “Well, I have one idea.” She said slowly. “Right now they're all pretty spread out. I could gather and possibly kill most of the clickers while everyone gets to the barn.”

      Dina’s eyes squinted critically. “Does this involve you running naked into the infected? I have a feeling it does.”

      “I think I could make a diversion with the raider’s truck.”

      “God.” Dina’s head sunk. “So it does involve running right into the middle. How are you supposed to get out?”

      “The groups are set.” Sage walked up interrupting. “You’ve got a nine mil pistol right, miss Dina? I think we have some ammo for that.”

      “That would be great.” Dina turned closing her eyes and taking a breath. “What kind of diversion are you talking about?”

**********

      Dina peeked out of the crack scanning the surrounding alley before dropping back down. “There’s just one to the right, Ellie?” She nodded before slipping out from under the heavy door. “You guys ready?” Dina asked the first group.

      They were being led by Sage who had kept the shotgun. That was a bit of a surprise to Dina since she assumed the recoil would be enough to send her small frame flying. Then again it’s hard to judge anyone you’ve only known for a few minutes. “I’ve been waiting three days for this.” She growled. This girl barely seemed to be over twenty but Dina was still impressed with how well she was holding herself.

      A few moments later Ellie tapped on the door and dropped back in. “Everything looks clear for the first bit. The hordes moved on but there will still be trouble about halfway. Looks like I’ll have to break off sooner than expected.”

      “As long as you don’t set my entire town on fire there are no complaints,” Sage added.

      “You can take the first group and start moving.” Ellie nodded to Sage. “Just knock before you run into the stable. Wouldn’t want to scare the two in there.”

      “Got it.” Sage exited her group following close behind. They had ended up with four different groups Dina had chosen to stay with Heather, the injured mother, in the third. After a few minutes, the second group left.

      “You sure you don’t need any backup?” Dina asked.

      Ellie shook her head. “Just get everyone out of here.”

      A tactical avoidance of an answer. Dina glanced back again at Heather who was barely standing with her jaw set in a tight line. Her entire leg was covered with a bulky fortified splint made of broomsticks and belts. There was even a belt around her chest to help hold the baby in place. There had been much debate about having someone else carry the infant but being with the mother reduced the risk of it crying at a bad moment. Or at least that was the hope. “Time for us to go.” She mumbled after counting the minutes. Just getting Heather out of the cellar was stressful; the five steps alone seemed to suck away all of her energy.

      “Sorry, don’t mean to be getting handsy.”  Gus, one of the young men who was tasked with supporting her, joked as he pushed her up the stairs.

      “About time you tried something on a lady.” She retorted. They were able to pull her from the cellar and move forward. Gus and Ben worked together and carried her for the most part. They reached the end of the lane to see the second group a few houses down. They signaled them and they passed the message to the first group to move forward in the world’s worst game of telephone. As the first group moved to a new area, the second moved to the old one, the third followed, and eventually the fourth was tailing. The hope was that this way they would never be completely surrounded should something bad happen. But the silence was painful each breath felt like an earthquake giving them away. And there was the fact that they were quite literally surrounded. Clickers could be seen standing just a few yards away in any direction, they were too far to be seen through the echolocation but one mistake, or babies cry… Uncomfortable was not a strong enough word.

      “Wait.” A whisper cut the silence. Ben motioned to the group behind they turned to see a clicker slowly moving towards the tail. It walked unevenly one leg dragging behind the body as its head twitched side to side. Two people from the group slowly stood knives at the ready. The clicker paused for a moment croaking trying to locate the movement. The girl rushed first followed by Reed together. Working together the clicker was practically dismantled before falling.

      “Fuck,” Ellie whispered, she had been holding her breath just waiting for any reason to run back and help. They motioned to the group ahead that it was all clear and to continue moving forward. Her wary glances down through alleys into the main street were increasing every minute, just as the number of clickers in view was increasing. They passed the next house and Ellie moved forward crouching behind Dina, “There’s no way you’ll be able to move much further. I have to go now.” She judged by the increasing density of infected. 

      “I’ll be waiting for you,” Dina replied her voice low.

      Ellie leaned over lightly kissing the back of Dina’s shoulder. “I know.” She broke off towards the main road, Dina watched until she slipped out of sight. Once they passed the halfway mark the time it took was painful as each group took baby steps just to move a few yards. Dina had taken down two clickers with the help of the other girl in the group, Jordan, she was pretty sure that was the name. Based on signals they were getting it looked like Sage's team was dealing with triple the amount they were. Eventually, they came to a complete standstill the only signal was a pair of raised arms forming an ‘X’, looks like they were officially stuck.

********

      The raider’s car was still a few yards away but the runner had surprised her. It had taken a minute longer than it should have to take it down since she had been so caught off guard. Ellie had to get the staggered breathing under control before she could make the final distance to the car. She went to wipe the sweat of her forehead and noticed lines of blood dripping off her her hand. “Shit.” She spat glancing to the bloom of fresh blood surrounding her shoulder, looks like she had already fucked up the bindings. She panted leaning back against the wall trying to swallow the dry lump in her throat her right-hand wrapping around the shoulder trying to press down on the wound. At least that might explain the spinning and lightheadedness… Ellie forced three steady breaths pulling her eye’s close, at this point she could practically hear her heart trying to eject and find a safer place. She stumbled over to the window that overlooked the street. Dozens of clickers milled about screeching randomly at each other. “Do they talk to each other?” She wondered.

      “Hey mushroom face you stole my last kill, fuck off!”

      “Who are you calling mushroom face? Mushroom face. No, wait. Fung-eyes?”

      Ellie chuckled loosely at the intruding thought. Even on a good day trying to move past this many clickers was pushing the line of possibility. But it had to happen, she would make it happen. She pulled a heavy book from on of the shelves, the title barely triggering a distant memory. One more breath and Ellie stepped towards the door, there were so many ways this could go wrong but she had to push those thoughts aside. There was no room for them now. The door opened with a squeal, she froze waiting to see if any of them had noticed. It probably wasn’t even loud enough to be heard by anything more than a foot away but to her it sounded like an ax tearing through a rusty car door.

      And as some would like to call it, time to run naked through a horde of infected. Ellie took the book and pitched it down the street in a tall ark, the pages fluttering as it swung open. It landed with a dull thud attracting the attention of a few clickers who ran down the street to investigate. It wasn’t nearly as many as she had hoped but it would have to work. Ellie pulled down her bow nocking another explosive arrow. The clicker it hit disintegrated from the impact, an arm landed a good ten feet away. A few others were injured but more importantly another handful had been lured away.

      She crouched walking out into the open moving at a snail’s pace. There was a clicker facing her a few feet away trying to locate the movement. Ellie froze waiting for it to lose interest. It stepped closer. She felt a drop of blood rolling down her back, it was nauseating and all she wanted to do was wipe it away. Something behind her grabbed its attention and it began pacing in the other direction. The street seemed to get longer with every step forward. When she finally made it to the truck she noticed the driver in the front seat hunched over the wheel with a hole in his back. The front of the vehicle was crumpled beyond repair from the impact with the brick wall. A cloud of thick black smoke was still spewing from the front.

      Ellie pushed the body back revealing a dirty .45 pistol on his side. “Hell yeah.” She checked his pockets and pulled out a spare magazine. “Hell fucking yeah!” She made her way to the back of the truck to see if there was anything else useful. Constantly checking behind her to make sure none of the clickers were getting too interested. There was a big 50-gallon drum tied to the side of the bed she crawled up opening the top and was met by the bitter smell of gasoline. There were a few gallons swishing in the bottom and that was better than anything she had been expecting. Ellie cut the ropes holding it down and inched it to the edge of the bed. She gritted her teeth trying to lay it on its side without causing any screeching from moving metal on metal. She had almost gotten it all the way down when the barrel slid back and dropped with a heavy clang. “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.” She hissed dropping to the ground and rolling under the crumpled vehicle.

      Ellie’s heartbeat echoed through her skull as she watched more and more sets of feet begin to surround her. Ellie struggled to take her bag of since it had wedged between her and the bottom of the truck. Eventually working it over her head and was able to pull out two empty mason jars. The wreck had made it hard to find but she was eventually able to reach up and cut the fuel line. She pushed the jars under the two ends and waited as the golden fluid dripped down. “Don’t worry about the fact that the oil is still burning inches away and you might blow yourself up by doing this.” The stream of gas was falling at a steady rate but it would still take some time to drain the entire tank. There was a blast that could be heard in the distance. Ellie’s  head whipped to the side as if she could see the rest of the group. She was staring out at nothing but dead grass and worn shoes, her eyes flickering wildly trying to get any sliver of reassurance that the blast was anything but the group. Then another gunshot, and a third. By then part of the horde had become interested and started moving away from her and towards everyone else. Looks like they were finally out of luck.

**********

      Sage had always wanted to work on getting rid of the old cars that were sitting out and rotting on the edges of the farm. All they did was attract packrats and teens looking for a place to get away. But now she couldn’t have been more thankful that hadn’t happened yet. Her group waited leaning against an older van, they had already taken out several clickers but they were beginning to run into them with every move. They had purposely put the stronger fighters in this group for the sole reason that they would have to clear the way for those behind them, but it was taking its toll. “Dean, you doing alright?” She said keeping her voice low. He shook his head pressing the gash on his forearm, blood was seeping between his fingers.

      “Just give me a minute.” He gasped head falling back against the car. Up ahead there was what one could easily call a wall of infected. They could rush it and hope to take most of them out but the risk of losing more people was too high. She debated backtracking and meeting up with the second group, maybe for reinforcements or come up with a better route. But even she knew that daylight was just as important if they wanted to get far enough away. One of the clickers was starting to edge closer to them, despite their lack of movement it wasn’t stopping.

      It stepped forward again then again, and again. Two more started to follow. Her grip tightened on the shotgun her jaw set in a hard line. “Ellie, what’s taking so long you reckless bastard?” The clicker threw back its head letting out an awful cry and it started charging straight at them. “Goddamnit.” Sage snarled. She stood firing at the clicker. Suddenly they had lost the only advantage they had, the other two clickers started charging at them arms flailing and the swarm up ahead was moving closer.

**********

      “Shit.” The shotgun blast made Dina jump out of her skin after the elongated silence.  She motioned for the entire group to stop and they crouched by an old apple tree that barely provided cover. The pistol was in her hands before she even thought about it. A few seconds later another gunshot, the baby behind her whimpered at the sound. The whole group froze simultaneously as the infant took a deep breath before releasing a high pitched wail. Heather did her best to try to muffle the sound but it wasn’t enough. Dina stood eyes frantically scanning the area for what she knew was about to happen next.

      She could already see one clicker hastily making its way towards them from the houses. Ben grabbed a stone and threw it trying to distract another that was crossing the field, it wasn’t enough it started running at them. Dina pulled the trigger as soon as it was obvious it wasn’t stopping, the body dropped just a few feet away. Now the infant was terrified screaming as fiercely as its little lungs would allow. Then something even louder began drowning out that sound. The relentless blaring of a car alarm started going off in the distance. Now all of the clickers had found a new interest and were rushing towards the center of town. Several ran directly past them ignoring the infants crying. “You better have a fucking way out of this Ellie.” She worried signaling her group forward. At this point all of the groups had were running towards the stable knowing that this window would only be so long.

********

      “Well fuck me,” Ellie mumbled lying on the ground under the truck. Was this part of the plan? Nope. Should she have tried to move before setting off the alarm that attracted what seemed like a hundred clickers directly to her? Probably. There undoubtedly wasn’t time for sitting and thinking retrospectively but looking at the dozen pairs of feet surrounding the truck wasn’t exactly motivation to head out and join the party. The alarm stopped after several minutes but her ears were still ringing. The barrel in the back had finally emptied out too, now most of the clickers were stomping around in a puddle of gasoline. The ground was slanted and she hoped that meant the gas had spread out. Hopefully the houses were still too wet to catch fire, but that was currently a low priority.

      Ellie pulled a bandana from her bag and soaked it with the last of her water before wrapping it over her mouth and nose. The plan was to start the fire from a distance with an arrow. She pulled her flip lighter out pausing just to ponder how stupid this was. Dina is going to be pissed. She stuck her hand out with the flame lit and plunged it to the wet ground. The response was immediate as a massive fireball lit up spreading out twenty feet in every direction. She sat waiting under the car and the temperature began to rise. The clickers wailed as their bodies beginning burst into flames. “I’m absolutely not telling her.” Ellie sighed. She rolled out from under the car immediate pain rolled up her hands and arms as she was forced to crawl through the burning grass. A flaming body was running towards her and she was barely able to get a shot off without tripping on a fallen clicker.

      The thick smoke was blinding and cutting through the thin fabric she was trying to breathe through. Joel had talked about how some people would walk over fires for some rite of passage. She sure as fuck doubted it was anything like this as a pillar of flames shot up in front of her. Ellie hopped over another body and was launched into another world when the air abruptly cleared. She shot two more clickers before lighting one of the mason jars up. She chucked it behind her at the crowd that was following and was met with more screeching as the fire took hold. “Fucking hell.” She spat looking ahead at another cluster in the middle of the street. She took the last jar of gas and threw it in front of her watching as another fireball erupted. She skirted around the worst of it but almost body slammed a flaming clicker that was running out. It threw her off balance and she fell to the ground rolling and scraping the raw burns against the dirt. “Shit shit shit.” She mentally chanted scrambling up and continuing to sprint down the street. She did her best to pat out the embers that were slowly burning small holes through her pants. She was hit with a sudden wave of nausea, no doubt she was losing to much blood but there wasn’t time to check as every few feet there was still another infected that felt like giving chase. She was out of arrows and was now just using the bow to push clickers aside as she ran past.

**********

      “Dad!” Logan shouted running over as the last group made it into the barn. He jumped into Reed’s arms already on the verge of tears.

      “Hey, bud. Where’s your sister?” The reunion was cut short as he was already trying to throw Logan up onto one of the horses. The entire room was a chaotic jumble of tiny celebrations mixed with hasty packing of their limited supplies.

      “Shit.” Heather hissed in pain as she was lifted up to sit side saddle her splinted leg swinging precariously off the side.

      “Heather, you ready?” Sage was standing on the stirrups behind her doing her best to support Heather up and guide the horse at the same time. She whistled sharply drawing everyone’s attention. “Ben, take the lead and start heading up the canyon. Let’s get out of here.” Dina threw open the doors and watched as everyone started sprinting out towards the mountain. Dumplings ears where flicking back irritated with the commotion. Danial and his kids had taken Thistle she barely noticed as they passed. Almost all of the horses had two riders, hopefully none of them collapsed from the excessive weight.

      “Go get her!” Sage shouted as she exited. As soon as everyone was out Dina and a young sandy-haired boy mounted their horses veering out towards the town which now had an expansive cloud of dark smoke floating over it.

      His voice was deeper than expected for such a thin frame. “Holy shit.” He mumbled running towards what seemed like the end of his home.

      “Cover me,” Dina instructed as he waited a few yards behind, scanning the streets with the long rifle. She continued the dash towards the center of the farm before finally spotting a figure sprinting down the street. “Ellie!” She grabbed her attention. Ellie waved her arms frantically motioning for her to turn around. Dina ignored that still moving to intercept her, at the last moment she tugged on the reigns. Dumpling reared up on his hind legs dancing through a tight turn.

      “Fucking go!”  Ellie cried jumping on, one arm wrapped around Dina’s waist while she still held the other out firing into the crowd of infected just behind. She was barely hanging onto the side of the horse with one foot in the stirrup as they began galloping back towards the mountain.

      “Get on the damn horse already.” Dina reached around trying to help pull Ellie up while the horse was still running full speed. Ellie was finally able to throw her other leg over as they passed the other horse. Ellie yanked the bandana down from her face finally gulping in the fresh air with heavy gasps. “Did you fucking set yourself on fire?” Dina shouted. Ellie slumped pressing her head on the shoulder in front of her. Each breath seemed to match the speed of the horse’s steps thundering below her. She felt like she wasn’t able to hold on tight enough even with both arms wrapping around Dina’s waist. With each breath the world seemed to get dimmer her head was pounding and she felt, weak. “Ellie.” It sounded like Dina's voice was coming from underwater. "Ellie?"

Chapter Text

      “You really shouldn’t be out here by yourself.” Ellie continued to stare down at the swirls of grime floating away from her in the slow current. The stream was shallow and barely wide enough for three people to stand side by side. She sat kneeling in the middle entranced by the patterns as the blood and dirt washed away barely aware of Dina’s presence. It almost had a floral pattern. It seemed ironic that something created by so much death would wash away with such an imitation of life

      “I think Logan was here for a while.” Ellie scooped up some water and attempted to wash the layers she could feel coating her face. She was glad it was too dark to see a reflection.

      “He’s the only one that knew where you were.” Dina sighed and set her lantern down before walking into the water, she crouched in front of Ellie. “I really need to get to that shoulder before you pass out again.”

      Ellie glanced up slowly with half a smile. “If I’d known you’d come all the way out here just to see me without a shirt, a shirt on…” Her hands were shaking and she struggled with the first button.

      Dina reached out and softly pulling Ellie’s hands away, her eyes lingering on the swollen red burns and marks wrapping around her fingers. “You’ve never seemed too fond of keeping it on in the first place.” Dina teased lightly kissing her forehead before undoing the buttons. The dried blood crackled as she peeled the shirt back and dropped it into the water. A brown cloud immediately bloomed off the shirt. She turned to the side giving Dina a better view of her back. “Goddamn Ellie.” She stared startled by the bloody mess covering Ellie’s back and most of her arm. She wrung out the shirt out and worked to wash some of the blood off before undoing what was left of the wrap she had put on before. Her hands were soon covered in a watered down pink from the scrubbing.

      “I feel like your worrying a lot about me when you’re the one who actually got shot.”

      “I worry about you regardless of the situation; also the wall took most of it.”

      “Then you took most of the wall.” She smiled over her shoulder.

      “You know what,” her arms dropped with a splash. “It looks like I just got attacked by an angry swarm of bees. No one has to know I lost a fight with a wall. Heather on the other hand, broke her leg from jumping out the second story window to save her baby. That’s more badass then I’ll ever hope to be.”

      Ellie chuckled weakly. “I’ll tell everyone it was bees if you want.”

      “You better fucking not. I’ll remind you now that I’m the person that’s about to stab you multiple times. Come on.” She stood offering to help her up and continued to walk slowly beside Ellie as they worked towards the bank. “I’ve got to take the gauze off and it’s going to suck for you. I might need to get an extra set of hands,”

      “Don’t,” Ellie said sharply, a contrast to the tired and vacant tone she had before.

      Dina’s eyes narrowed with confusion. “Ellie I’ve already seen the cut and its bad. I would be able to do a better job with some help.”

      “Please don’t,” Ellie begged her jaw tensing. “I don’t think I can handle being around anyone else right now.”

      “Okay?” Dina reluctantly agreed still digging through her bag. “But don’t blame me if it scars.”

      “I really don’t care about scars right now.” Dina was a little confused by the strong reaction but Ellie was easily on the anemic side right now. “Just”- Ellie reached out grabbing her forearm uncertainly.-“I don’t really know how to say this. Just don’t freak out.” Maybe it was just the light but Dina was struggling to identify just what happening behind Ellie’s eyes. It was almost the same as when she first came to Jackson, an odd mix of pain and fear.

      “Dude, try to relax a little would you,” Dina said slowly working to peel off the tape that was holding what was left of the gauze. “Your acting like it’s the end of the world or somethi, holy shit.” She paused her voice suddenly rising like she was on the verge of tears. “Fuck.”

      “I told you not to freak out.”

      “Ellie this is a fucking bite mark.” Her voice cracked as she stood looking at the tale-tell red rash that was already surrounding the fraction of the wound she had uncovered. Even though it was still obscured with blood there was no mistaking it.

      “Dina I know it’s a bite but,”

      “You knew and you didn’t fucking tell me.” Her voice was barely audible her hands frozen hovering above the shoulder. Her mind was suddenly racing down a dozen different tracks. “How much longer does Ellie have? My best friend is going to die. Is she just asymptomatic? Is she still contagious? Fuck, have I kissed her since this happened. Am I in danger because of that?! If not I’ve definitely been in contact with the blood..”

      “Dina it’s okay. I’m not going to turn.” Ellie turned trying to explain.

      “Don’t fucking tell me this is okay!” Dina snapped out of her frozen state. “Ellie this was almost a full day ago you, you’re.”

      “Dina I,”- She stammered trying to form any solid thought through the pain.-“This isn’t the first time I’ve been bitten, okay? I know I’m not turning. I one of the only fucking people who’s immune to this bullshit.”

      “Ellie this isn’t a joke!” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I’ve seen bites before, I know what happens next. You know what happens next!”

      “I know. I know more than anyone what’s going to happen. Look at this.” She held out her arm pointing at the dark tattoo.  “Dina you can still feel that scar. I know I’ve always said it was a bad dog bite but, why would I make something like this up? Riley wasn’t the only one who got bit...” She pulled at Dina’s arm urging her to trace the ridge that was hidden under the ink. Instead, she pulled away.

      “Why doesn’t anyone know about this?” Dina’s frown deepened and she stepped back thoughts still reeling at the new idea that conflicted with everything she had ever known.

      Ellie’s pounding headache was starting to return just from standing more than a few moments and it felt like she had to force each word out. “Some did. Joel was supposed to smuggle me out to the Firefly’s six years ago.”

      “What?” Her voice twanged with pain even as she tried to sort out any fraction of the information between a never-ending stream of questions.

      “They were going to try to make a vaccine but it would have killed me. Joel, he uh.” She tried to step forward but was suddenly distracted by just how scared Dina looked. Ellie tripped stumbled forward and Dina barely caught her before she completely fell to the ground. “I didn’t even know that for a long time. I was supposed to die to save everyone else. He killed all of them and broke me out instead. Now I’m just worthless.” Her voice cracked. “I’m supposed to be dead.”

      “Don’t say that.” Dina pulled Ellie closer feeling as she completely fell apart. “Don’t fucking say that.” She gritted her teeth trying to hold herself together despite Ellie’s shaking. Five years and this was the biggest crack she had ever seen in the hard exterior. “You just saved twenty people don’t even think your life isn’t worth something.”

      “I don’t know.” She whimpered over and over.

      “You’re not responsible for the world Ellie. Even if the only person you save in the world is yourself that’s fine. But I know you’ve done so much more than that.”  She kept a firm grip as Ellie sobbed into her shoulder and she tried her best to hold back the tears burning in the corner of her vision. It took a few long minutes before she was able to guide Ellie back down; she sat completely drained of all physical and emotional energy.

      “You can’t tell anyone.” Ellie pleaded her voice was nearly gone. She weakly tried to rub the streaks on her face away with the heel of her hand.

      “I promise I won’t.” Dina cupped both sides of her face crouching to be eye level. “I know you don’t lie to me, Ellie. Just because I don’t know what’s happening doesn’t mean I’m going to treat you any differently. I’m not even going to ask about it, okay?” Ellie slowly nodded with a small sniffle leaning heavily into Dina’s hands. “If you want to talk about it I’m here for you, but I’ll wait until you’re ready.” She whispered before reaching up to kiss Ellie’s forehead. “I trust you. I’m going to stitch this up. And we are going to finally get a good nights worth of goddamn rest.” She bounced her thumbs on Ellie’s cheeks before finally getting back to work.

      Ellie barely even flinched as Dina peeled off the tape and soiled bandages. Despite having the wound cleaned out with alcohol she hardly reacted. After cleaning the gash up a bit more Dina had to admit it looked far too good for a bite that old. The rash was light and patchy compared to the inflamed dark rings she had seen before. It was still disconcerting to be stitching together something that was so often taken as a sign of death. She deftly worked to make a long line of stitches pulling together the ragged skin. There’s no way this would heal without leaving a mark but she could only assume it would be better than the scar on Ellie’s arm. Why would someone treat what they knew would kill them in a matter of hours? She cleaned over the wound one more time and cleared away the new streaks of blood that had rolled down her back again.  Dina was finally able to wrap her shoulder with clean rows of bandages. She pulled a clean shirt from her bag and helped Ellie pull it on with her restricted movement. “I should make you wear a sling but I know you’ll just complain the whole time. Just try to avoid ripping my stitches.” She tried to tease but the smile was barely passing a flat line. “Do you think you can walk back?”

      “I think I’m good.” Ellie stood slowly and made it a few steps before stopping as sudden vertigo overwhelmed her.

      “I take that as a no. With your luck I’m surprised you didn’t drown in the four inches of water while you were out here alone.” She moved to nestle up under Ellie’s good arm as a support. “Let’s go.” She glanced up just wanting to kiss Ellie’s stupid face again but there was still the underlying fear. Ellie could still be contagious, and for how long she had no clue. Dina thrust the lantern forward with her free hand, “Follow the light.”

      “Wow. Amazing how you fireflies have lasted this long with such, talented people.” She tripped on a branch.

      Dina steadied her easily. “You’re the one to talk. You can’t even walk straight, or straight anything really.”

      She exhaled. “Really, these jokes again?”

      “You say that like they will stop at some point.”

      Ellie half smiled looking back down at her feet trying to not trip again. “You know I’m legally allowed to start making them about you too now, right?”

      They entered the edge of camp Jordan was standing guard. “You doing alright?” She asked wearily glancing at Ellie who was barely looking better than shit.

      “She’s just a little anti-social,” Dina replied without hesitation and received an indifferent nod. Dina cut through the side of the camp to a small flat area, Ellie's bag and their two saddles were already waiting. “All of you stuff is here and the watches are already set up for the night. So please just get some sleep and don’t pull any more heroics.”

      “You’re not staying?”

      “You just happened to be on the top of the list of most likely to die. I still need to check with a few other people.” Dina habitually pushed back the stray piece of hair that always fell over Ellie’s face. “I’ll be back soon, but don’t wait just for me.” She waited until Ellie had settled on the ground before standing back up. She then began picking her way around the other resting bodies that were scattered haphazardly around the small fire.

      Ellie took a minute to adjust the backpack under her head; it was too cloudy to see any stars so her eyes just followed Dina instead. She had gone straight to check on Heather and the baby. She blinked and Dina had moved to work with a gash on some guys arm. Ellie guessed that she would sleep for a few hours then get up and help with the final night watch, or maybe go out and get some food. When blinked again and the sun was already breaching into the morning sky.

**********

      Ellie whined squinting up at the pale sky, everything had a damp layer of dew on it. She tried to sit up and was immediately met with a painful throbbing throughout her entire body. “Holy fuck.” She sighed, staying on the ground. It didn’t sound like many people were really awake yet so she didn’t feel too guilty about laying here for a few more minutes. Dina was next to her curled in a ball under the grey raincoat.

      “You stuck?” Dina asked softly after a few moments.

      “I feel like Chuck's pants after he hangs them out to dry.”

      “That bad?” She groaned rolling to her back stretching her legs out momentarily before curling up facing Ellie. “I thought you were dead when I got back. Rocks don’t sleep as deeply as you did last night.”

      “Oh shit,” Ellie said noting the huge bruise curling around Dina’s eye and covering most of her cheek. She could feel a twinge of pain on her own face just from looking at it. “That one has to hurt.”

      Dina’s hand went up with a groan to cover the side of her face. “That’s the side I sleep on too. I kept hitting it in the middle of the night.”

      “Looks kinda badass, like The Phantoms mask.” Ellie snorted suddenly remembering the dull pain coming from her hip. That’s a bruise she definitely didn’t want to check.

      “Living the dream. I’ve always wanted to look like some singing dick with personal space issues.” She watched Ellie’s face contort with pain while she stubbornly tried to sit up. Dina lightly put a hand on her chest to stop her from trying. “I would stay down as long as I could if I were you. But you know what will help with the pain?” Dina’s brow quirked up, and she grinned smugly. “It’s called stop being a little bitch.” Ellie rolled her eyes before poking Dina’s bruised cheekbone. “Ow.”

      “Come on Dina don’t be a little b,” Logan walked by holding Maddie’s hand with blurry eyes, “Blessing to this earth. Amen.” She corrected putting her hands together with a small nod.

      “Wow, great save.” Dina snorted sitting up and pulling the jacket on. There were a few more people sitting up and blinking wearily, while someone sat starting a small fire. Her head was still flirting with a headache but for the most part, it was just a dull buzz near her temple. “Before I forget,” Dina mumbled digging through her pockets. “You dropped this last night.” Dina passed the red switchblade over to her. Ellie took it surprised that she hadn’t already noticed it was missing. Ellie swung the blade open and slowly inspected it checking for any damage. When satisfied she put it back into its pocket. She reluctantly relaxed back down her hand seeking out Dina’s. She gave a little reassuring squeeze before letting her fingers slide between hers. They sat in silence for a few minutes just staring out into the trees and watching the slow movement of the camp waking up.

      Sage was one of the first people to approach them she momentarily glanced down at their hands. “Do you think there’s any chance we’ll make it to the damn tonight?” Sage asked bushing back a piece of hair that had fallen out of her braid and nervously playing with an untucked portion of her shirt. “I’ve honestly never been out this far.”

      “I,” Ellie started confidently before pausing looking around at the generic surroundings. She stared at Dina for a moment. “I don’t even know where we are right now.”

      “I’m pretty sure you passed out before we made it through the canyon.” Dina consoled patting Ellie’s leg. “I’d say it’s possible to make it all the way back to the damn but that would be bad on the horses. Since no one’s at immediate risk of dying it would be safer to take another night.” She then said for Ellie’s sake. “We should be able to make it to the lake houses before nightfall if we leave before the hour.”

      Sage nodded a slow thanks still looking troubled by Ellie’s spacey mental state. “I’ll get everyone up and going then.”

      “Is it just me or does she seemed oddly concerned about you?” Dina muttered as Sage walked away. She helped to tug Ellie up and was met with minor grouchy noises.

      Ellie shrugged cringing at the heavy metallic taste of the water that had been sitting in its bottle for far too long. “Well if you had come back covered in blood you might be getting the same reaction.”

      “Are you sure you’re okay, no unusual,”-She paused-“cravings?”

      “I’ll just have to bite you and find out.” She joked absently drawing lines in the dirt with her shoe. Despite all the snarky remarks, Dina could tell Ellie was still hiding most of the pain, physical and otherwise.

      “Kinky.” She flicked Ellie’s leg and was met with a weak complaint. “Well, let’s go see what dead rat they cooked for breakfast. It probably still looks better than you.” There was barely enough food for everyone to have a few bites. The combination of a few jars from the cellar and a few wild fruits was more of an insult to an empty stomach than an actual meal. There was no reason to wait around, as soon as the meal was finished everyone gathered up their few things and worked to ready the horses. Those that were injured had priority, and the rest would just have to rotate between walking and riding for the following day. “Okay,” Dina pat Thistles back waiting for Ellie, “This guy’s for you.”

      “Alright.” Ellie nodded slowly stepping up beside her. Dina’s brow quirked up for a moment surprised that Ellie didn’t argue about taking one of the horses. “Before we go at least,”-Ellie’s voice was weak and softer than usual- “Trade shoes with me. You might as well be walking barefoot with those things.”

      Dina glanced down at the now sad excuse of shoes she had on. Even the tape had started to break from the strain. “That’s fair.” She nodded accepting Ellie’s black converse in exchange for the remains of her sneakers. Most of the group had already started to break away heading down the trail. “Just wait until you feel how good the ventilation is with those.”

      “Don’t worry, I can feel it already.” Ellie pulled herself up onto thistle her eyes freezing shut for a few moments after she had settled. “So breezy.” She wiggled her toes around with a forced half-smile.

      “Hey,” Dina said softly resting her hand on Ellie’s foot as she leaned her chin on Ellie's knee. “If you need help, tell me alright? You’re kind of a shitty actor, but I get it if you want to wait until we get back home.” Ellie’s jaw twitched and she just slowly glanced away. Dina could swear Ellie’s jaw was clenching the entire day, her entire body rigid and eyes locked onto the horse's mane. Hours would go by without her making any quips to pass the time, and most the Maley’s were glazed over as they moved forward. Hell, most of the talking only came from the few people that were sharing horses asking to switch. The caravan was moving even slower than they had estimated and they were barely able to make it to the lake houses before the sun had disappeared.

Chapter Text

      Reed continued to fiddle with the ring on his finger. Spinning it around and around gaze somewhat distant as he leaned back against the wall. There were a handful of houses right next to each other but most everyone had decided to stay in the blue house she and Ellie had stopped at before. Although many people would break away for some time for much-needed privacy and time to grieve for what they had lost.

      “Has Ellie come through here recently?” Dina asked quietly not wanting to disturb those that were sleeping.

      “I haven’t seen her since we got here,” Reed answered with a small cough. “I know she took one of the watches.”

      Dina nodded with a frown. Ellie had insisted on helping but that shift had ended hours ago. Reed spun the ring again. It was a polished steel nail bent to fit. A common type of wedding ring since it was one of the few resources that could easily be found.  “Did you just lose someone?” She awkwardly asked. A pointless question since a majority of the settlement was gone.

      “Oh no.” He smiled looking down at Logan and Maddie. “She’s been gone a lot longer than that.”-spin- “I don’t think I could forgive myself had you not found these two though. If you need anything don’t be afraid to ask. And if I see the other one I’ll be sure to tell you.” He coughed again shaking hard enough that Maddie shifted with a small complaint. “Sorry bug.” He whispered rubbing her back.

      “Well that’s a generous offer but I don’t think I’ll to hold you to it. Just watch that cough. I don’t need anyone else getting sick on me.”

      “I’ll try my best.” He agreed tiredly.

      She wandered away trying to guess at the time but someone had taken the watch. Dina rubbed her eyes not even wanting to think about every little cut and scrape that needed to be treated didn’t have the skill to treat everything. Not to mention several people seemed to have picked up pneumonia just from the stress. Ellie was still nowhere to be seen, which frankly, was irritating. The little pest couldn’t sit still for more than a few seconds, “Gihe.” Dina stumbled over her own backpack lost in thought.

      There was a brand new pair of hiking shoes sitting next to it. Her gaze shot around the room looking for any sign of who left them. Hardly anyone was awake at this point so it was likely no one saw her to begin with. She shot out to the front door eyes searching the surrounding area but there was only a tired looking teen wandering through his watch. Dina took a deep breath staring down at her current pair that was more tape then shoe. As much as she wanted to be mad, Ellie had found ones that were her exact size. Honestly Ellie was probably passed out in a ditch somewhere and she was too tired to care. Well, she cared, just a little bit.

      “Hey, I think I found something good.” Ellie popped in like she hadn’t been missing for hours.

      “Where the hell have you been?” Dina whispered noting the rifle slung around Ellie’s shoulder. It was hard to appear threatening as she bounced back and forth trying to sooth the baby so Heather could get some well-needed rest.

      “Checking a few of the other houses,”

      “Alone?”

      “Yes?”

      “Ellie,” Dina sighed. “Why can’t you just… You know what doesn’t matter. Just hold this.” She handed the baby over to Ellie, and he immediately gave a soft cry. Ellie glanced up panicking that she had already broken the child.

      “Jeez, have you never held a baby before?” She laughed at Ellie’s sudden terrorized look. “You were gone long enough; surely that means you found something.”

      “There wasn’t a whole lot in the houses I checked. There’s some antibiotics other stuff that might work,”

      Dina’s brow quirked up. “Where?”

      “First zipper.” Ellie motioned to her bag. “I found some more alcohol too. I know you needed more of that.”

      There was a rattle and a short sigh of relief. “Thank god.” She paused coming back to face Ellie. “This doesn’t change the fact that you’re still in trouble. Don’t even think about moving. I’ve trained Duncan to kill you if you so much as blink in the wrong direction. I’ll be back in a bit.” Ellie breathed getting ready to speak but Dina just pointed threateningly. “No.”

       Ellie stood confused for an entire minute before looking down at Duncan’s tiny hands. They kept rising and falling through the air randomly. She had never expected a baby to be used as a paperweight, but Dina had always been on the unorthodox side. His hands stretched up grabbing at the air, for a split second she wondered what could be so fascinating before feeling a sharp tug on her scalp. Duncan had grabbed a loose chunk of hair and seemed intent on never letting it go. She had lost plenty of fights, but never one with a baby…

      “Okay.” Dina sighed returning a few long minutes later to find Ellie contentedly playing with Duncan. His tiny hand was wrapped tightly around one of her fingers as she waved it back and forth. She stepped over a stray arm from someone sleeping on the floor. “I know your hair does whatever it wants but you should really watch those strays. He will try to rip them out.” She pushed back the few runaways.

      “Hmm.” Ellie hummed surprised there was even hair left. “I still need to get more,”

       “Budishzipdihip.”

      “I could get,”

      “Hubupdihuba.” Dina cut her off with a string of gibberish every time she tried to mention leaving again. “Ellie we're just a few hours away from home. No one’s dying tonight, unless you run into something while you’re out there by yourself.”

      “There was one house with a decent stockpile of guns we,”

      “Ellie we’re fine for now. There’s literally one more person I need to talk to and you’re going to bed. If you can get that dude to sleep I might just marry you a little.”

      “A little?” Dina had already disappeared with a handful of items before she could question the mechanics of that statement. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to ask you then.” Duncan grinned and sneezed a fine mist directly at her face. “Lovely.” She cringed. This time Dina was gone for much longer. Ellie had dropped her bag in the corner, which was not an easy feat while holding the infant, and had started slowly pacing back and forth. Every time Duncan was close to falling asleep someone would cough or the fire would pop and he would snap back to attention. Although with the crowded floor the pacing was limited to just a few steps in each direction, it was more like she was running an aggressive circle. Duncan was still refusing to settle down despite the obvious signs of sleepiness. “Do babies even know about, time?” She thought settling against the wall with her eyes closed.

      “I’m pretty sure that’s everything,” Dina said softly tapping Ellie’s elbow. The touch was nearly enough to make her jump. There was a fresh splatter of blood on the bottom edge of Dina’s shirt but she didn’t seem to notice. She led Ellie to a folded blanket on the floor and motioned for her to set the sleeping child down. “Come on.” She took Ellie’s hand and slowly dragged her out of the house behind her. Dina blindly felt Ellie’s arm behind her until she found the watch. She tugged Ellie’s arm under her own glancing down at the time.

      “Hey,” Ellie complained as she was practically smushed against Dina’s back.

      “Does this look like an acceptable time of night young lady?” Dina said holding Ellie’s hand up and also forcing her awkwardly closer. Ellie’s foot caught the back of Dina’s and they both stumbled forward. They both managed to stay standing and Dina let go with a chuckle.

      They entered the next house and there were a few people crashed on various couches. Dina picked her way through to a side room clicking a little song with her tongue. This office had such a calm feel to it, albeit a little dusty. Bookshelves lined all the walls and various trinkets from different travels dotted around. Had she been alive before the outbreak she imagined her home would have looked similar to this. “Come here dumbass.” She pulled Ellie into a tight hug while trying to avoid hitting any injury’s.

      “God, Dina I’m fine.” Ellie groaned trying to shy away; Dina just grinned and kept leaning all of her weight onto Ellie forcing her to step back.

      “Accept my physical affection.” She pestered burying her head into Ellie’s shoulder forcing her even further back.

      “Okay, fine.” She sighed wrapping her arms around Dina in return. Then she walked backward with exaggerated rocking steps “You win. Happy yet?”

      “Is that a knife in your pocket or are you just excited to see me?” She mumbled hands drawing across Ellie’s waist. “Oh nope, gun.” She slid the pistol out from the front of her waistband and set it on the small end table. She dropped to the couch motioning for Ellie to join.

      Ellie sat staring solemnly at her weapon that was just out of reach, then down at the pistol strapped to Dina’s thigh. “Well that’s not fair.”

      “When you get an actual holster and stop randomly shoving things in your pants I’ll trust you.” She kicked her feet up onto the couch and leaned across Ellie’s chest like a seatbelt. “You better get comfy.” Her head thumped awkwardly down on Ellie’s collar.

      “It would be much more comfortable if you weren’t sitting on me.”

      “If I wasn’t sitting on you, you would already be trying to escape. My neck is going to be fucked up tomorrow and it’s your fault.” She complained at the position she had willingly entered.

      “Sorry. If only there was a way I could fix that.” Ellie sighed slouching back into the cushions. “Maybe you could just,”

      “I’m not moving. Already asleep.” Dina reached out and grabbed Ellie’s arm dropping it unceremoniously across her lap. “Forgot my blanket.”

      “Did I just get demoted to a blanket?” Ellie tried to act shocked as she adjusted her arm wrapping it closer to Dina’s waist. She kissed Dina’s forehead and was met with a happy hum.

      “Blanket it a very high rank, almost as high as Boo. Who is ironically also a blanket most nights.” She murmured trying to resist the tempting pull of sleep for a few more minutes. Her mental timer was still counting the hours to the two-day mark of when Ellie was bitten. For all she knew she could still wake up to find her best friend was gone. Most people showed signs within a few hours. Deep down she knew that Ellie had to be telling the truth but so many other things were still off. It’s as if Ellie was holding her breath with every action and word…

      “You good?” Ellie whispered.

      “Hm?”

      “You’re kinda stabbing me.” She motioned down to Dina’s hand which was clamped around her arm.

      She lifted her hand surprised by her own reaction. “Sorry. Just thinking.”

      “That’s dangerous.” She droned.

      “Hey,” Dina reached out cupping Ellie’s cheek turning her face. Her entire demeanor was sullen and dark. Even the endearing little scar on her brow seemed deeper than usual. Ellie’s eyes were almost as sad as when she had shown up at Jackson. And just like then she struggled to decipher what that meant but now she was barely starting to get an idea. Dina let out a slow breath. “Does it hurt?” Ellie’s brow dropped confused. “The bite.” Dina clarified.

      She felt a small shrug. “I would think it’s the same as if someone had got me with a knife.”

      “No, I mean,” She hesitated. “Now.”

      Ellie paused for a few minutes trying to piece together something. “It itches? I don’t know.” Her voice caught still unsure. “It helps to keep moving but even then that just kind of helps me to ignore it.” She cleared her throat shifting uncomfortably. “You’ve broken an arm right?”

      “It was technically my wrist.”

      “Well,” Her lip twitched. “When you had to reset it. All the bones moving and getting mushed back together. That’s pretty bad, but just imagine feeling that, constantly, everywhere.” She looked away still knowing that wasn’t a close enough comparison. Her eyes were repetitively shifting she absently scratched at her arm.

      Dina frowned trying to pull apart just what that meant coming from the girl who usually referred to breaking her arm as ‘not great’ and ‘annoying’. How bad does it have to be for her to actually say it’s bad?

      Ellie sighed. “It fucking sucks. I would rather get hit with a branding iron.”

      “Jesus.” Dina cringed staring up, she could feel the moisture building in her eyes.

      “I don’t know. My right leg is all tingly too.” The corner of her mouth twitched up contrasting the dark lines in the rest of her face. “Wait. That’s just because you’re crushing it.”

      “Don’t end with a fucking joke.” Dina frowned. “Whatever it is that’s stopping you from turning is driving your body bat-shit crazy. I should have guessed it would be excruciating for you. I,” She growled her brows pulling into a tight line not sure what would even help with that level of pain. She pulled Ellie down into a fierce kiss as if it could stop the ache for just a few seconds.

      “It only took a few days to clear away last time. I’ll be okay.” Ellie reassured when she was finally able to pull back. “You shouldn’t be the one crying.” She noted the wet streak tracing Dina’s cheek. 

      “Don’t tell me what to do.” Her voice cracked and she buried her face into Ellie’s chest. “I don’t like it when you’re hurt. It happens to fucking often and I’m not always there to help.”

      “Dina,” Ellie lightly traced her thumb down her arm. “You’ve always been there for me. Probably more then you even know.” Dina sniffled. “It’s late, the best thing you can do to help is just staying here. I promise I won’t leave again. I… Just get some sleep and we’ll be home tomorrow.” Dina slowly agreed, and they shifted together into a more comfortable spot. “I love you.” Is what she wanted to say. The phrase shuffled across her mind repeatedly but she just couldn’t say it yet despite knowing it. Dina’s breaths finally fell into a slow and calm pattern. Ellie kissed Dina one last time before falling into the same slumber.

********

      “Someone’s coming in a car.” Sage burst into the room causing Dina to jolt up her, head knocking into the underside of Ellie’s chin. “We’ve maybe got a few minutes before they get here.”

      “Where?” Dina replied rapidly trying to shake off her weariness, completely unaware of Ellie massaging her jaw as they awkwardly scrambled off the couch.

      “Northeast, here’s your shit.” There was a thud as she threw the backpacks down before sprinting off.

      “Could that be those raiders again?” Dina pondered already throwing her backpack on and grabbing the rife.

      “There’s no way their truck would have made it, even if there were some that we missed…” Ellie trailed off brow dropping critically as she tucked the pistol into her waistband. “Does it really matter?” She strode across the room catching her backpack as Dina tossed it up. They rushed through the living room watching as a few people worked to pack up their few meager belongings, others sat nervously waiting.

      Shouting could be heard outside as someone struggled to pull the horses out of sight. “There’s been multiple fires going all night. Whoever it is would have seen the smoke, there’s no way they don’t already know we’re here.” She pulled back the bolt loading the rife. “I just want two fucking days were something doesn’t go wrong.” She sighed. They hurried down the road meeting up with the few other armed people creating a small line between the houses they were in and the open area where the car would be coming through. The faint rumble of the engine could barely be heard echoing through the trees.

      “Maybe it’s just a really big bear.” Ellie quipped as they crouched behind an innocent picket fence. Dina snorted glancing sideways at her dorky half grin. “What?”

      “Nothing.” She peered back through the scope scanning for the first sign of the approaching strangers. It was a painful minute as they sat waiting and the rumble grew steadily louder.

      “Over there,” Gus called out drawing their attention to a puff of dust and reflection that could barely be seen through the dense trees. Everyone shifted preparing for what was to come.

      Dina’s shoulders squared taking aim at the approaching target. With a few hundred yards between them and the truck, her face split into a grin. “Don’t shoot. It’s ours.” Everyone waiting behind the cover sighed with relief, Jordan began running back to tell the rest not to worry. Now she was just beginning to make out more features on the red truck, the way the bumper hung sideways, and the long silver marks grating along the passenger side.

      “Who the hell is it, there weren’t any patrols out here for another week.” Ellie wondered. 

      “I think it’s the supply group?”-She squinted-“That has to be May, I don’t know who else would barely be taller than the steering wheel.” Another moment of concentration. “Ahh gross Jesse’s in the back, I thought he was banned..” Dina grinned spitefully. “Maybe we can shoot at them, just a little bit. I could hit his arm from here and make it look like an accident.”

      Ellie snorted. “With a moving target you might accidentally, accidentally kill him.”

      “I can totally make that shot. I should do it just to prove you wrong.”

      “Yeah okay.” Ellie sighed pulling the rifle away from her. Dina pouted like a child about to lose their toy. “We’re going to go greet them like normal people.”

      “Lame.” She sighed reluctantly trudging along. Ellie eventually handed the rifle back over and Dina grinned wildly slinging it over her shoulder. They went to stand out in the middle of the street waving down the vehicle. A shrill whistle could be heard. Dina lifted a hand to her mouth and responded with another loud wolf whistle. A minor communication that they weren’t trying to rob them. “Who talks? Do I talk, or are you in charge still? Let’s pretend neither of us can hear. That will throw them off.” Dina rambled.

      “I’ll be deaf your dumb,” Ellie chirped. “But I mean the kind that talks to much.”

      “Looks like you’ve healed enough make jokes. Too bad you’ll never be healthy enough to make a good one.”

      “Ouch.” Ellie dramatically rubbed a hand over her heart as if to relive the sting of the blow. The red truck pulled to a jerky stop a few feet away. As soon as the engine switched off May flew out of the driver seat.

      “Ellie!” She cheered before ramming into her with a tackling hug. “Driving is fucking awesome.”

      “I promised I would get you on the supply run didn’t I?” Ellie tried to hide the shock of pain from the attack. “Back up a bit.” She politely urged trying to save her screaming body.

      May let go and stood grinning. “I didn’t even hit anything. Ricks said I was doing great.” While Ellie and May chatted away the others piled out of the car stretching.

      “I guess it’s not too surprising to see you guys heading back.” Ricks sighed. He was probably a few years older than Joel. His balding gray hair often covered by a grayer baseball cap. “Although there seemed to be a few, extra.” He glanced at the alarming amount of people from Maley’s.

      “You scared the shit out of us driving up. We didn’t know what to expect.” Dina said leaning on the hood of the car.

      He chuckled. “I guess it is a little out of the way. We had a few item requests from town and figured it would be best to look out here.”

      “Let me guess.... six frying pans and a bunch of winter coats?” Ellie chipped in finishing a long custom handshake with May.

      “Almost.” He grinned. “You forgot a deck of cards that isn’t missing all the aces. As much as I’d love to chat it looks like Maley’s really had some trouble if you’re bringing some of them back with ya.”

      “This isn’t some this is all that’s left.” Sage had come up behind the group. Shotgun open across her shoulders her hands resting on either side of it.” She frowned. “Don’t know how many more we would have lost if these two hadn’t come by.”

      “Bunch of raiders caught them off guard and wrecked most of the town.” Ellie conveniently glazed over the infected. “We could use help getting some of the injured back to the Dam.”

      “Well, the backs pretty full but I reckon we could shuffle around and squeeze a few in.”

********

      “It’s only a couple hours I can handle it,” Dina muttered running a hand over the small yellow blanket she had found. She tucked it in her bag beside a few medical books. Based on the multiple degrees hanging on the wall this was a place she would have to come back to again.

      “Are you sure? Last time you two were a room together I think the next three hours consisted of complaining about ‘get a fucking haircut you nasty rag.’” Ellie prodded.

      Dina grimaced. “God it’s so gross. Boo looks better after rolling around the barn floor.” They were waiting for any final adjustments as Heather, Reed and the kids were loading into the truck and everyone else searched for the final miscellaneous items in the houses. Only Ricks, May, and Dannie were driving back, leaving the rest of the supply crew to walk. That, unfortunately, included Jessie. “It’s fine as long as he stays in the back, very far in the back. where I can’t see him or the dead animal living on his head.”

      “Mmmhm.” Ellie hummed slowly still not believing the defense.

      “Stop giving me shit about it.” Dina huffed throwing a decorative pillow at Ellie. She just chuckled as it bounced off.

      “I’ll stop eventually. We should be back home in what,” she spread her arms out over the top of the couch. “Six-ish hours?”

      “Honestly, if you could keep that up for six hours I’d be impressed.” She glanced out the window, it looked like the truck was just about ready to head out and all the horses had been ready to go for over an hour. “Are you doing, alright?” She asked concerned. Ellie had just past the two-day mark but she could still tell the pain was more than just lingering.

      Ellie shrugged. “I’d still rather roll through burning gasoline again.” She scratched absently at the swollen red marks crawling up her arm.

      “Stop picking at the burns.” Dina sighed. “They aren’t too bad and should heal fine if you leave them alone.”

      “Don’t. Tell. Me. What. To. do.” She made an exaggerated scratching motion waving her hand up and down wildly.

      “I’m more than aware you only hear what you want to hear. It doesn’t really matter what I tell you to do.”

      “What did you say?” Ellie grinned.

      “I said, move your ass I want to get home before Sara uses all the hot water,” Dina said trying to shoo Ellie off the couch.

      “Oh god. I didn’t realize it was that important.” She stood up straight holding out hand out ready to escort. “Stinky lady requires a shower.”

      Dina rolled her eyes and lightly grabbed the outstretched hand and pulled Ellie closer. She kissed her softly before pulling away. “You’re dumb.” Ellie bit back her grin as she followed Dina back out. She headed towards Heather who sat in the back nestled between stacks of burlap bags. “Finally hit the final stretch, we’ll have you taken care of in no time.”

      “You’ve done more than enough” Heather thanked. Her eyes drooped tiredly down at Duncan who was sleeping soundly.

      “I just wrapped some nice looking sticks to you.” Dina joked. “When you get to the Dam my sister will probably be the one to help you. You’ll be walking before we even make it back.” Heather slowly smiled nodding another thanks.

      Ricks slowly walked up with his thumbs in his belt loops. “We can fit two more if someone doesn’t mind standing in the back, other than that it looks like we’re ready to go.”

      “Dean and Ben are probably the next worst.” Dina hesitated watching as Ellie pet the nose of a nearby horse. Even at gunpoint she doubted she could get her to take one of the spots. “I’ll go grab them and you can go.” He nodded and went to work on tying down the rearranged supplies.

      “I know what you’re going to say. I’ll just get on the fucking horse.” Ellie sighed as Dina approached.

      “We almost have enough for everyone now. If you really want to walk I won’t stop you.” She walked up and hugged Dumplings neck. “Ohhhhh, I missed you big guy.”

      Ellie gladly hopped onto Thistles back. “I think Jess needs the work out more than I do.”

Chapter Text

      “We might need to double-up on patrols, or at least the watches for a couple of weeks. It seemed like the raiders were part of a bigger group.” Notch nodded already mentally preparing a list of who was available to help. A few of the other stable workers had been called to help with all the extra horses.

      “I doubt we’ll be able to add many more patrols at the moment.” He scratched through his wiry hair. “We might be able to get away with more people on watch; I’ll see what I can do about that as soon as we get all the animals cleaned up.” Boo sat patiently resting his head in Ellie’s lap while she methodically scratched around his ears. “Have you talked to Tommy at all yet?”

       Ellie shook her head. “I’m sure I’ll run into him eventually.”

      Notch waved already backing away. “Sounds good. I’ll see what I can do about those watches.”

      “As glad as I am to be back, I’m going to have so much work to do for the next couple of days.” Dina groaned. “Is it bad to wish I got a concussion and everyone had to take care of me for once?” She held out a hand and Boo licked it a few times before going back to Ellie. It’s almost like he could sense which one of them was hurting the most. She gave up on attracting his attention and let her head fall to Ellie’s shoulder. “Have you figured out what to say to Joel yet?”

      “Nope.”

      “Whatever you come up with you better make it fast. I doubt he’ll be too happy about,”

      “Ellie what the fuck?!” A familiar voice cut through, they turned to see Joel angrily marching towards them cane striking the ground with each step. “I let you go off on your own under one condition. And next thing I know a god-damn ten-year-old is ranting about how many infected you had to deal with. Then he’s going off about how close the raiders were to killing you.”

      “Joel,” Ellie started.

      “Don’t try to talk your way out of this one kid. Don’t you try either.” He glared at Dina.

      “I plead the fifth.” She innocently held up her hands.

      He groaned rubbing a hand tiredly down his face. “I swear you jump at every opportunity to get yourself killed. You’re coming home now and you’re staying there for the next month.”

      “You’re seriously grounding me?”

      “If that’s what you want to call it, yes.” His foot was tapping irritably. He nodded to Dina. “You better get back home too. I doubt Sarah will be too happy about what happened.”

      “Sorry,” Ellie whispered before kissing Dina’s temple. She hopped off the hay bale and began sulking out the door. Boo started to follow her out before Dina called him back and held him back by the collar. Joel happed to glance down and noticed burn marks on her forearm.

      He briefly held up her arm to get a better look at them. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He groaned. Ellie’s head dropped guiltily as she subconsciously tugged her sleeve lower. She glanced back at Dina, and she gave her best-encouraging smile in return.

      “Well shit.” Notch sighed after apparently watching the whole thing. “I thought you girls did a fine job.”

      “Just not the one he was expecting.” Dina groaned stretching out.  “Thanks for taking care of the horses for us. I’m going to go home and die now. Buddy-boo lets go.” She said with her voice suddenly pitching two octaves higher as she pat her leg motioning for the dog to follow. Boo kept winning throughout the entire walk home trailing behind Dina. “Ellie’s fine, stop worrying about it.” She said trying to comfort him, and also herself. The house was empty when she got back, Sarah was most likely out working on all of the people they had just brought in and Chuck probably got dragged into helping. She took her time cleaning up and changing into something that wasn’t layered with mud. She sat waiting in the living room for a few hours before falling asleep with Boo curled on top of her lap.

      “Dibs hey,” She was awoken by soft pokes to the forehead. “You dead?” Dina made a soft grunt shaking awake. The sun had sunken low in the sky and Boo had been replaced with a worn blanket.

      “What the,” She squinted through blurry vision.

      “Welcome back. Chuck and I already ate but we left some out for you.” Sarah tapped the back of the couch a few times. “Did you break anything or is it just your face that got trashed?” She asked.

      “Does it really look that bad?” Dina groaned sliding the blanket off.

      “I can’t wait to see the tree you ran into. I bet its ten times worse, right?” She grinned. “The eh, Sage? Yeah that’s the name. She already told me what happened and you did a badass job patching up all those people.”

      “You’re not mad at all?” Dina asked.

      “Why would I be? Oh,” She snorted. “Ellie got grounded again didn’t she? It’s been a while since that’s happened. Whatever, I doubt Joel will be mad for long. There wasn’t really a right answer to what you two had to deal with. I’m sure he already knows that.”  Sarah sat rubbing her belly for a few moments. “Eat some dinner and just go to bed, I’m going to need you at the clinic by seven-ish.”

      “That’s fair.” Dina nodded and starting towards the hallway.

      “Hey hold up. You’re not getting away without a fat hug.” Sarah threated looming closer with her arms spread out.

      “Wait, no.” Dina grinned trying to speed away.

      “Deal with it Dibs. This asshole has been kicking my liver for hours, I have to share the pain.” She trapped Dina in a tight hug, intentionally trying to crush her with a swollen belly. “Look at me Dina,” Sarah leaned forward squishing her further rubbing her face into Dina’s. “This is what happens when you have sex.”

      “Whhhhhy would you say that?” Dina complained struggling against her hold.

      “Don’t do it Dina. It’s not worth it.” Sarah paused for half a second. “Well, technically I guess right now……”

      “Oh god. Sarah NO!” Dina could feel all the blood shooting into her face. “No, fucking no!” She ducked down finally escaping from her grip and shot down the hall her face burning a bright red. Sarah sat against the couch cackling as Dina slammed to door behind her.

      “See you tomorrow.” She sang.

********

      Dina set down her book interrupted by a quiet tapping on the sliding glass door that led to her room. She lazily looked over to see if it was Boo trying to get in or just a gust of wind. There was nothing out of the ordinary so she turned back to reading. A few moments passed and she heard another less subtle knock. “the hell?” She muttered to herself finally getting up to check what was causing the noise. She swept her hair to one shoulder before opening the door. She scanned the backyard for anything out of the ordinary.

      “Hey.” A voice below her whispered.

      “Jesus!” She jumped looking down to find Ellie crouched with her back against the wall of the house.

      “Umm, not quite. Can I come in?” Ellie said glancing up with the saddest of puppy dog eyes.

      Dina glanced around to see if any of the neighbors happened to be up and about before beckoning Ellie in. She closed the door than the curtains quickly behind her. “Ellie, what are you doing?” She asked keeping her voice down to avoid waking Sarah and Chuck.

      Ellie answered by pulling her into a tight embrace. “Can’t sleep.” She whispered tucking her head down to Dina’s shoulder; her voice had the slightest waver. “I needed to make sure you knew I’m fine.”

      Dina gladly hugged back one hand covering the back of Ellie’s neck as she pulled her closer. She took a few moments just to indulge in the warmth. “Is it… Does it still hurt?” She felt the slow nod.  Dina had been feeling guilty about not being able to check in on Ellie in the last two days. But she was completely blown away by how much relief came finally being able to see her. “I take it you’re still grounded too?”

      “Did you think I came through the back door this late for fun?” Her words were soft and warm on Dina’s neck. “I’ve heard how busy it’s been at the clinic, I wasn’t even sure you’d be awake still.”

      “I don’t even know if I’m awake.” Dina slowly pulled back far enough to see her face, her hands now resting on Ellie’s arms. “Other than that are you okay?”

      “Mostly just bored. I’ve been stuck in my room for two solid days. Also, check this out,” Ellie stepped back and undid the lower buttons of her shirt enough to show her right side. The prospering dark purple and bruise covered her entire hip streaked up to her ribs and disappeared below her waistband.

      “Ooouch.” Dina cringed looking at the mark. She traced over the edges that were beginning to take on a yellow tone. “I’m still amazed that guy didn’t break anything.” Ellie shrugged before dropping her shirt back down.

      “Lucky day I guess.”

      “I feel like lucky is one of the last words I’d use to describe that. Have you had the, stitches checked at all?” She asked still unsure how to approach the fact that her girlfriend might be the only person in the world who’s body just straight up rejected a nearly unstoppable infection.

      “They seem fine. Are you doing alright?” She asked poorly to divert the attention while rubbing her neck with a hand.

      “Ellie. That was a deep cut without the zombie side of it. Please tell me you’ve at least been taking care of it.”

      “I checked it when I showered and redid the bandages.” She said nervously shifting weight from one foot to another.

      “You redid them. Ellie are you trying to die?” Dina angrily whispered taking a step forward fully prepared to rip the shirt off this idiot. “Did you even tell Joel about it?”

      “He was already pissed that we didn’t come for backup and I put both of us in danger. I didn’t want to add to that with, uh hey, sorry I got bit by an infected, again. He wouldn’t let me leave for another ten years.”

      Dina sighed holding the bridge of her nose. “Let me see it.” Ellie grudgingly agreed and let Dina pull down her collar to check the spotty work. “Damnit Ellie, you’re usually so good about these things. But if you pulled some of the stitches sneaking out your window I will march you back over there and tell Joel myself.”

      “Dee, wait.” Ellie tried to explain but was interrupted.

      “Sit over there. I’ll go get something to clean this up.” Ellie obliged and sat on the floor leaning back on the bed. She could hear Dina’s steps fade down the hallway and barely make out a short conversation between her and Chuck. Ellie guessed he had been sent off to find some odd food combination for Sarah. After a few minutes of waiting she boredly looked around and noticed Dina’s guitar was missing two strings. The replacements sat next to it still wound up in little bags. She pulled it off the stand and tried to wind one of the strings in without making any unwarranted noises. (On second thought these looked suspiciously like the strings that had gone missing from her own stash.) She was almost done with the second string when Dina finally came back in. She glanced down at Ellie with an amused smile. “You still owe me a song.”

      “Can I just scream about socks?” Ellie asked stretching to put the Guitar back up on its stand. Dina tilted her head playing with the idea

      “I bet you could manage to make that sound great.” She motioned for Ellie to scoot up so she could sit behind her on the bed. “Take your shirt off.” Her voice dropped playfully as she patted Ellie’s head.

      Ellie sighed trying to ignore the context of that and unbuttoned her shirt far enough to drag it off her shoulder. “Was that Chuck in the hallway?” She asked while Dina worked on unwrapping the soiled bandages.

      “He’s on a night watch today.”

      “I thought he was staying put until the baby came.”

      “We’re still shorthanded, and he’s just going to one of the towers. Since I’ve been back he’s been taking a break from pickle duty. I swear Sarah would eat a rug at this point if it was pickled.” Ellie’s laugh quickly turned into a wince and the last layer was peeled off. “It doesn’t look too bad,” Dina said tracing the long row of stitches nearly all of the swollen infection rashes had disappeared. She shook her head still not quite believing what had happened. Maybe in time she could at least get Ellie to run a few blood tests. “Alcohol.” She warned before pressing the soaked rag over the wound.

      “Shit.” Ellie’s entire body tensed up from the burning sensation. The pain slowly resided as Dina worked outward cleaning the surrounding area as well.

      “If you bleed on my bed you’re not allowed to come back here.”

      “How am I supposed to control that?” Dina just hummed pushing Ellie’s chin so she was facing forward again.

      “Looks like the stitches are holding up still, but I highly recommend trying to limit how much you’re moving for a few more days.”

      “Being grounded seems to have covered that.”

      “For some reason I don’t believe that Miss jump-out-a-window-as-soon-as-she-has-the-chance.” She lightly lifted Ellie’s arm up and motioned for her to keep it there while she tightly wrapped the fresh bandages to cover the wound. “Are you planning on actually coming to the clinic or-?”

      Ellie shook her head while slowly pulling her shirt back up. “It still looks like an infected bite. Not really something I want to have to explain again.”

      “Fine, make me do all the work.” Dina wrapped her arms over her shoulders and, rested her chin on top of Ellie’s head intentionally driving the point down as she wobbled back and forth. “Just being a stubborn-ass, as usual.” Dina chuckled lightly and kissed the top of her head.  “Stubborn and messy.” She noted before undoing the poorly tied ponytail. She hummed slightly while running her fingers through Ellie’s hair to straighten out the chaotic pieces. Ellie waited accepting the fact that she couldn’t escape quite yet. “Out of all your talents, I’ll have to admit I’m impressed by your ability to alternate which arm gets fucked up.” That earned a small laugh. Dina pulled the front sections back with a small twist and tied her hair back up. “Beautiful.” Dina complemented her own work before scooting back to sit cross-legged on her bed. “Are you planning on staying all night?” Dina asked fidgeting with her bracelet.

      Ellie stood up with a small stretch.  “I probably can’t. Joel trusts me enough to not check that I’m home every two seconds but if it’s to quite….” She sat next to Dina with one leg hanging off the bed.

      “That’s reasonable.” Dina nodded stealing Ellie’s right arm and checking the light burn marks tracing around. “As far as stiches go I can probably take them out Sunday-ish. Most of Maley’s should be out and I can get an empty room,”- She pointed threateningly. -“If you try to take them out alone I will kill you.”

      “I won’t touch them.” Ellie held hands up.

      “Give that back,” Dina complained pulling Ellie’s arm back down. She bit her lip focusing on wrapping a small leather band around her wrist.

      “Dee? What are you doing,” Dina finally freed her hand and Ellie flipped it over the see the silver Hamsa charm Dina had worn every day since she had known her. She looked up at Dina’s beaming grin and back to the bracelet. “Dina I can’t take this.”

      “You’re not taking it. I literally just gave it to you.” She curled her fingers into Ellie’s preventing her from trying to take it off. But the faint blush and awkward neck rub told her that wasn’t going to happen. “Besides you’re always the one getting into trouble. I figured a little extra luck and protection wouldn’t hurt.”

      “I, uh,” she cleared her throat looking away at her knee. Dina smiled watching Ellie trying to shy away and waited until she was ready to continue.  Ellie finally looked up with that half smile of hers. “So if I have the extra protection what’s supposed to keep you safe?”

      “You.” Ellie’s face flushed deeper and she looked down again.

      “Fuck.” She squeaked biting her cheek.

      Dina giggled. “You’re so fucking bad at flirting.” Dina placed a hand on each cheek encouraging Ellie to look back up. “It’s almost like you don’t want anyone to see how cute you are.” She could practically feel a small fire starting under her palms as she leaned in to kiss Ellie. It was slow and deliberate and pulled away almost as slowly as she had started taking in every detail and line of Ellie’s soft features. Including all the freckles, small scars, the way her nose veered slightly. She eventually scooted so her back was against the headboard and prompted Ellie to do the same. “One day you might even come over when you’re not in trouble.” She gave a comforting smile as Ellie moved next to her.

      “I might be,” Ellie muttered staring out absently rubbing her thumb across the bracelet. “At the stream I,” She held her breath for a moment. “I said some things…”

      “Hey, I already said you don’t have to tell me anything until you’re ready.”

      “It’s not just, that,” She looked down again her face moving as if she was still fighting her own words. “Someone recognized me, on one of the patrols me and Joel were on a few months ago. That’s why he told me what happened with the firefly’s, since apparently… Apparently some of them are still looking for me.”  Dina’s brow dropped with concern as she listened. “That’s why he’s been getting so picky about the patrols I can go on and, well just about everything lately. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” She glanced anxiously over to Dina for a few moments before dropping her head back down.

      “Well,” Dina thought running her hand across Ellie’s shoulders. “Can’t say I know what to say about that.” She took another minute trying to gather her thoughts and had pulled Ellie down to her shoulder. “I’m guessing this was about four months ago?” She felt a little nod.

      “This might seem a little off topic but, that’s when you really started to distance yourself, more than usual. At first I just thought it was because I was dating Jessie. Then  I started to realize you maybe liked me as more than a, well.” She waved her hand out in a little circle. “Ellie you’ve always gone way out of way to protect me. As soon as you realized you might be the danger you tried to hide. Does that sound about right?”

      There was a pause before Ellie whispered. “…How?”

      “I guess I know you too well.” Dina flicked her arm and Ellie’s nose scrunched up in a more than adorable response. “What I’m getting to is that those months sucked. You’re my best friend and I trust you more than anything. When you were barely talking to me I felt like shit. I don’t know how I would manage if you disappeared completely and I didn’t know why. Whatever happens, good or bad, I want to be there. I want to help you. It doesn’t matter what you decide to do because I’m not going to leave your side.” Ellie didn’t respond immediately but Dina could swear she heard the weight drop. Ellie ultimately dove into Dina’s arms wrapping into a tight hug with her head tucked under Dina’s chin. “Hey, easy there.” She tried to tease as she feel Ellie’s jaw quivering. “It’s no fun getting into trouble by yourself.”

      “You’ve started alone plenty of times.” Ellie sniffed.

      She could feel Dina’s chuckle traveling through her chest. “It usually didn’t take long for you to join.”  They stayed in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Dina sat tracing the tattoo and the un-even scar hidden underneath.  “Remember the first time you got grounded?”

      “Oh god. What was it, the church?”

      Dina giggled nodding her head. “I think so.”

      “That one was entirely your fault.”

      “You’re the one who didn’t tell Joel where you were going. The next morning he’s running around town asking where Ellie went, and hardly anyone knew who you were.”

      Ellie laughed too. “Sarah was apologizing for months about your bad influences, as if there weren’t nine other people up there that night.” They both sat for a moment snickering at the memories of that event.

      “I don’t think he’s really mad at what you did. If anything you just scared him.”

      Ellie sighed. “I’m not so sure about that. I went directly against the one rule he set before we left.”

      “As if you’ve never had a problem with authority,” Dina said sitting up giving Ellie a little nudge. “If he was really mad he wouldn’t listen to you practicing guitar all day. When that happens he finds an excuse to leave.”

      “Stalker much?” Ellie pestered.

      “Hey, your window practically faces the clinic. I’ve walked by more than a few times when your foot is hanging out the window while you play. And Joel really likes to hang out on the porch underneath.” She paused. “Do you honestly think he would be mad about you saving those families? I bet if you would just talk to him you would be able to go out again.”

      Ellie frowned. “I don’t think it’s that easy.”

      “I know your shit at talking, but it’s not that hard once you start. Talk to your papa.” She emphasized with a flurry of pokes.

      “You know he’s not really,”

      “Yeah, and Sarah’s just my cousin. That doesn’t make her care any less about me.” Dina smiled. “If anything goes wrong just blame me and my bad influences.”

      Ellie sighed after a long pause. “Fine.”

      “There you go. You got to learn to talk to people besides me eventually.” Ellie grumbled not wanting to fully agree to her own flaws. “Also, I’m pretty sure he got all of his information from Logan. Literally anything you say will be an improvement.”

      Dina had always loved these late night talks.  Their voices always softening to avoid being heard, trying to contain outbursts of laughter with even more ridiculous faces, even just talking about plot holes in the last movie they watched. Then there was the time Ellie had broken her arm, and she had snuck though the window to build a room-wide pillow fort. There were times where they would just sit together and say nothing since it hurt too much to talk but the company could ease the pain. They were pulled from shared thoughts when footsteps could be heard slowly coming down the hallway. Ellie tensed up immediately ready to jump and roll under the bed at a second notice. They passed by without slowing, and on the way back they could hear the faint ‘pop’ of a glass jar being opened. The both paused chuckling at Sarah’s late night snack.

      “We should do that again sometime,” Ellie said during a small silence. “Get a group to the church for a night.”

      “Hmm.” Dina was lying on her stomach, it wasn’t an entirely comfortable position but she didn’t plan on moving anytime soon. “It’s been a while hasn’t it.”

********

      Ellie swore blinking at the dim glow of the rising sun, “Shit.” She mumbled realizing she had fallen asleep and spent much more than an hour here. She slowly tried to ease out from the arm that was resting on her chest and froze when Dina’s head twitched ever so slightly. She was able to escape and lightly kissed Dina’s forehead before padding through the room to the door. Her hand was on the handle when,

      “I love you.” Dina sleepily said. Ellie paused wondering if she was even aware of what she said or if it was just sleeptalking. Either way she grinned turning back,

      “Love you too Dina.” She responded softly unsure if could even be heard.

      “Damn right you do.” Dina curled up pulling the misplaced blankets up to her chin. “Get out of here before anyone notices.” Ellie beamed slipping out the door and closing it softly behind her. She had to hurry through the town since most people would be waking up soon. She slowly approached her own house quickly peeking in a lower window to find that Joel was still asleep in his room. It looked like someone was already in the kitchen, probably Maria. She carefully went around to the back porch not wanting to make any movement or noise that would grab unwanted attention. She set one foot up on the short railing and boosted up to the roof. As soon as she had a decent grip on the shingles she threw her leg up and pulled herself on to the overhang. There was an involuntary gasp as the effort pulled at the wound on her shoulder.

      She crawled up to the window and pushed on the glass with both palms to get it open. She dropped into her room and closed the window behind her. She sighed brushing the grit of her jeans that always came from the shingles. She brought her hand up to rub her eyes and was almost surprised by the bracelet that was there. She traced over it with her thumb admiring the simple blue beads and charm in the middle. She smiled just thinking about how concentrated Dina had been putting it on her wrist. She probably should have hidden it for a few days since it might give away the fact that she had left, but it would take much more than a harsh talking to for her to take it off.

Chapter Text

      “Well, aren’t you looking hot today.”

      “I thought you had to work at the clinic all day.” Ellie glanced up at Dina’s whose head was just peeking over the roof.

      “Do you see where the suns at right now?” She pointed to the horizon. “I’ve been working non-stop in that cramped building for the last week.” She pulled herself up onto the porch roof with practiced ease. “And it looks like you’ve barely bothered to get dressed.” Ellie grinned looking down at the cat on her lap. She was wearing oversized pants with a long untucked belt hanging off the side. A worn tank top did a poor job of covering the bandages wrapping around her entire shoulder.

       “I haven’t exactly been expecting guests.”

      “Wait is that Simba? I haven’t seen him in ages.” She glanced down at the massive orange and white cat. He wasn’t even a fat just straight up massive, hence being named after a lion.

      “Yep.” Ellie picked him up under his front two legs lifting him to show of the entire length of cat. “He’s been hanging out at the barn lately. Guess I’m just lucky enough for him to visit.” She wiggled the unamused cat back and forth in the air.

      Dina found a comfortable spot on the sloped roof admiring Ellie’s coddling of the animal. “I take it you told Joel about the,” She referenced the exposed area.

      “Sort of. If he asks say it was a raider with a knife. We’re still working on the other stuff but I should be able to leave the house by tomorrow. Although, I’ll probably be stuck cleaning stables for a few weeks.” She sighed patting the cat’s paws up and down. “Guess I have to listen to Dina sometimes, huh Simba.”

      “Come on. We both know you’re going to end up in the greenhouse. Stables are for whoever pisses off Notch.” She rolled her eyes placing a hand on Ellie’s leg. “I’m not going to get you in trouble by being here am I?”

      “Don’t worry about it.” Ellie momentarily glanced down at the hand smiling. The door opened below them. “Although I could check, hey Joel?” She raised her voice slightly to be heard from below.

      “What is it kid?”

      “I know it’s early but can Dina come over for a bit?”

      “Can she, or is she already here?” He called up.

      “Uhhhhhhh,” Ellie paused. “Yes?”

      Joel stepped out from under the cover squinting up at the two girls. He sighed, “You coming back from the clinic Dina?”

      “Yep.”

      “Is Heather doing alright? I heard she was having a rough time.”

      “She’s been doing a lot better the last couple of days. I think it’s confirmed that she’ll be able to keep her leg, too.”

      “Alright. I assume the baby’s good as well.” He put on a large brown cowboy hat.

      “Yes sir. The fever was probably just from stress. They should both be able to leave soon.”

      He nodded. “Say hello to Sarah for me whenever you head back. Ellie I’m headed to the Damn, Tommy and Maria have been talking about shutting down the generator for some repairs and needed some extra help.”

      “Kay.” Ellie gave a big thumbs up and Joel began making his way down the street. Simba saw the movement and decided to follow jumping off the roof like it was nothing more than a tall stair. “Noo.” Ellie cried at the loss of the tabby.

“So,” Dina interrupted the morning after a few seconds. “What’s up with Joel’s hat?”

      Ellie laughed and grabbing hand that had been resting on her leg. “One of the patrols found it and brought it back as a joke, but I think he loves it. Reminds him of good old Texas.” She dropped her head onto Dina’s shoulder chuckling at the huge hat again.. “I think it’s kind of cute how much he’s worn it around the last few days.”

      “I think you’re kind of cute too.”

      “Shut up,” Ellie said turning further into her shoulder. Dina just laughed kissing the top of her head and twining their fingers together. They sat for a minute staring out at the sky slowly turning orange.

      “Logan hasn’t left the hospital since I’ve been there. He’s still waiting for his dad to get out.” She sighed. “He keeps asking where you are, he doesn’t believe that ole’ bean was grounded.”

      “You didn’t actually call me bean did you?” Ellie groaned.

      “No. That one’s just for me.” She grinned.

      “God. This isn’t fair, I need to get something embarrassing for you.”

      “Why do you not like bean? ‘Ell’ just doesn’t sound right. I might be able to got away with 'Lee-lee',” Dina glanced down and noticed a light blush. “Oh, you’re just afraid to admit you like it.” She teased.

      “Stop it.” Ellie pouted.

      “You’re going to be bean until the day you die, which hopefully is much further away since I’ve been babysitting your ass.” Ellie had sunk off her shoulder and appeared to be melting off the roof; her bare feet were starting to hang over the edge. “Where do you think you’re going string bean?” She teased. Ellie was now covering her face with both hands. Dina laughed leaning on an elbow. “Hey, come out of your little bean-pod.” She lightly played with one of Ellie’s fingers trying to lift it away.

      “No,” Ellie whined, voice muffled by her hands.

      “Come on. Ellie bean.” Dina gasped sharply realizing something. “Jelly bean.”

      “Oh my god.” Ellie groaned from behind her wall.

      “My jelly Ellie belly bean.” Dina practically sang trying not to laugh at her own jokes. “Come on, I’m just kidney around?”

      “That was a stretch.”

      “Shhhhush.” She continued pulling at Ellie’s fingers trying to uncover her face. Ellie finally let Dina lift one hand away from her face after a few more moments of taunting. “One more.” She pulled the other hand back wrapping it in her own. “Look at that. It’s an Ellie, the girl I love.” She grinned staring down before she felt a hand wrapping around and lightly pressing down on her neck. “And the girl that wants a kiss apparently.”

      Ellie scrunched her nose, “I just want you to stop talking.” She grinned before popping up into a short kiss. “It was a lot nicer before you got here.”

      “That’s just rude.” Dina grinned falling on top of Ellie. Ellie chuckled wrapping her arms around Dina. They laid like this for much longer just feeling the rhythm of each other’s breath as their chests rose and fell together. The crickets had started chirping as the suns glow continued to fade.

      “There is one thing I wonder about.” Dina finally broke the silence.

      “What?”

      “How did you know exactly where that cellar was?”

      “I, ahm,” she noticed Ellie tensing unusually below her. “I’ve been there before.”

      “You’ve gone out to Maley’s a total of three times. Why would they show you the food storage?” Dina asked propping herself up staring critically at her.

      “We were just looking for something.” Her eyes diverted away her voice cracked slightly.

      “We?” Dina studied her face. “Was there anything, in particular, you were looking for, or at?” Her brow rose. “Oh my god.” She whispered sitting up.

      “Dina wait!” Ellie sat up her hands flying wildly as if they could grab her words and take them back. “That was like a year and a half ago, we-“

      “Oh my god.” She said with a little more force. “Is that just the fuck-buddy dungeon?”

      “What?! No, she actually seemed interested, there really wasn”

      “She. SHE. Was it Sage? Ohhh, I bet it was Sage, the way she kept looking at you.”

      “Dina, that was so long ago. Please,”

      “It was Sage?”

      Ellie sighed knowing that she had already lost. “Yeah.” She said sadly.

      Dina cackled throwing her head back. “I can’t believe you’ve made out with tough as nails Sage. Isn’t she Maley’s granddaughter? That makes her what, the farm-princess?”

      “It’s not like there were a whole lot of options here.” She pouted.

      “Oh shit,” Dina said on the verge of tears. “I can’t believe how predictable you are. Or are you just that into, older women.” Her voice dropped at the end. Ellie groaned painfully and crawled back through the window flopping on her bed.

      “You only have like four months on me,” Ellie mumbled.

      Dina had finally calmed down enough to lean in the window. “I guess we’ve both had our mistakes.”

      “That was not a mistake.” Ellie tried to defend yet her voice had risen an entire octave. “I very polity asked her to go somewhere else and it was nice.” She threw her pillow at Dina who was still shaking in the window and buried herself into the mattress.

      “Nice? If that’s what you want to call it.” Dina sat giggling outside for what seemed like a full hour. “Can I come in?” She asked between poorly managed laughs. Ellie kicked a foot up trying hit her, as another snort escaped. “I think I have something better than kinky dungeon make-out.” Ellie turned barely looking at her. Dina was pretty sure her face had taken on a shade of red never before seen by man.

      Ellie took a deep and slow breath. “You can come in.” Dina grinned biting her lower lip as she climbed in.

      “Hey. Stop being dramatic.” She sat on the narrow edge of the bed and gently pushed Ellie’s hair out of her face. She leaned down and kissed her temple before lying down on the small sliver she was left with.

      “You started it.” Ellie pouted.

      “Should we invite her over for dinner sometime? I bet there isn’t a whole lot to do in town right now.” She paused still playing with Ellie’s hair. “Well, I guess there’s you.”

      “Dina.” Ellie’s voice was painfully strained as she had apparently stopped breathing.

      “Sorry. I swear that was the last one.” She grinned waiting a few moments for Ellie. “But seriously you know about all my dates, good or bad, it’s only fair that I have one to make fun of. At least you didn’t get food poisoning after.”

      “God.” Ellie snorted turning towards her. “Wasn’t that the guy who was only here for two weeks? It’s probably the closest you’ll ever get to an attempted assassination.”

      “Probably.” She laughed. “A real hit and run. Has anyone seen Peter since he left?”

      Ellie sighed. “He's probably changed his name to Gustavo or something by now.”

      “I’d date Gustavo the assassin. Sounds hot.”

      “Hey.” Ellie protested.

      “What?” Dina gave an impish grin. “Also could you like, scoot over a bit? My ass is hanging off the bed here.”

      Ellie propped herself up to check. “Well, that’s an easy fix.”  She reached out to playfully bopping Dina’s hip. Dina made a shocked squeak as she lost her balance and fell to the floor with a thud.

      There were two full seconds of ringing silence. “You DICK!” Dina shouted.

      Ellie sat frozen on top of the bed her mouth wide agape with surprise. “I was just,” She stammered staring down at Dina as she rubbed her backside.

      “Ow.” Dina groaned sitting up in the tight space between the bed and the wall. Spotting the pillow on the floor she grabbed it and whapped Ellie in the face as hard as she could. “You fucking asshat.”

      “Sorry.” She pleaded. “I was just messing with you. I didn’t think you that close to the edge.” She struggled to sit up wincing as her shoulder bent at an odd angle.

      “Why do you think I asked?” She whapped Ellie again.

      “Please come back.” Dina pouted pillow locked and loaded for another strike. “Dee.” Whap.

      “Ass.” She smacked Ellie again but based on the grin she was just doing it for fun at this point. Ellie held down Dina’s arm to try to avoid another pillow the head. “I will break your arm, again.” Dina threatened. Ellie grinned and leaned forward, she was almost bent in half just to reach her mouth. Dina softened into the kiss immediately tilting her head back so Ellie’s lips could move better against her own.

      “Come back here,” Ellie said softly. She held out a hand to help Dina up.

      “Suffer.” She smacked Ellie’s hand away with the pillow trying to pull her grin down to a straight line. “You need to get a bigger bed.”

      “So, you do want to stay?” Ellie asked confused.

      “Kiss my ass, ass murderer.” She threw the pillow up and missed, it landing on the bed just out of her reach.

      “Sorry?! I was just trying to mess with you.” Ellie pleaded

      Dina laughed at the statement. “No wonder you’ve hardly dated anyone, you probably accidentally threw them out the window.” She was distracted by something under the bed, she immediately began digging around and pulling items out at random. “What the hell?” She muttered catching what seemed like a glint of steel just out of her reach. “What else have you forgotten under here, maybe there’s actually good jokes.” She attempted to dive under again but was intercepted by Ellie.

      “I don’t even know what’s under there.” Her face scrunched up oddly trying to figure out how she had ended up needing to defend her odd collections. “Stop touching my stuff.”

      “Silence nerd. I’m touching all of your stuff” Dina ignored the pleas and continued digging through comic books, random dice, and other knick-knacks. “Is that a fucking sword?!”

      “I don’t know, probably. Wait, Dina no!” Ellie dropped down to a knee trying to force herself between Dina and the bed. She could see the roguish fire building in Dina’s eye and introducing a sword would not help matters.

      “Dina yes.” She growled struggling to bypass Ellie.

      “No. NooO.” She kept swatting away Dina’s hands. Each attempt was now accentuated by a laugh. “Stop it.” Ellie snipped watching intently as Dina flinched back and forth trying to throw her off.

      She finally gave in with a sigh and crossed her arms. Ellie tilted her head, clearly unimpressed. “Party pooper.” Dina stuck her tongue out eyes squishing shut. Ellie had barely a moment to react but she took it. She pushed forward just catching the tip of Dina’s tongue with her own and kissed her with a newfound intensity. Dina buckled in an instant throwing an arm to the wall for support. It was another minute before she remembered to breathe taking in short and sharp breaths in what little time Ellie was giving her. She let out an involuntary whimper as fingers began tracing along the back of her neck and up into he hair. When Ellie finally began to back away she followed completely intoxicated, and not wanting it to end. “H-holy shit.” She panted. She was pretty sure her hands were shaking, but she was still in some sort of shock. Probably because all of her blood had ran to her face, she could feel the tips of her ears burning. “You,” She stammered.

      “What.” Ellie licked her lower lip nonchalantly. “Something catch your tongue?”

      Dina was pretty sure she could hear something in her brain snap as she continued to short circuit. “Fuck,” After a few more stumbled phrases she completely gave up, “Do that again.”

      Ellie grinned widely before retreating away. “Suffer.”

      “Hey!” Dina reached out trying to grab Ellie’s leg and pull her back. “Get back here asshole. You’ve been holding out on me!”

      “Nope.” Ellie popped still crawling away. Dina jumped up still trying to keep her from retreating away. She knelt pinning Ellie under her.

      “Kiss me.”

      Ellie took a deep, slow, and considering breath. “No.” She smirked up.

      Dina leaned close with a growl. “Kiss me damnit.”

      “I really do love it when you start begging.” Dina’s jaw dropped and she grabbed the pillow and slammed it down on Ellie’s face attempting to smother her. She sat sulking trying to ignore the muffled cackling below her.

      “Let me out.” Ellie muffled patting Dina’s leg. She reluctantly let go and Ellie pulled the pillow off and dragged it under her head. “My god that’s quite the pout you’ve got.” She grinned.

      “Shut up.” Dina sat with her arms tightly crossed as she refused to make eye contact.

      Ellie propped herself up on her elbows studying Dina’s face. “Ask again and I bet you’ll get a different answer.” She cooed. Dina’s lip twitched but she still refused to move. “Dina,” She reached up tracing along her jaw, “Come here.” She eventually turned, cheeks still showing a faint rosy blush. Ellie smiled up and Dina was unable to ignore the genuine admiration written over every inch of her face. She cautiously leaned forward waiting for another joke or escape attempt. Ellie stretched up with a gentle press, almost as if the soft kiss was an apology. “See?” She pulled far enough away to whisper. “You’ve got nothin’ to worry about.” With each kiss Dina seemed to collapse further. Ellie kept pushing and exploring her lips knowing that each breath could easily knock her over.