Chapter Text
Pittsburgh, 2023.
Her grip tightens around his small hand, her breathing laboured as she practically drags him along behind her. She feels the ache in her legs intensify as she pushes them to move faster, the echoing gunshots behind them motivating her to keep on the move.
“Olivia...” the boy whimpers fearfully, his hand momentarily gripping hers a little tighter for comfort.
“Just... a... bit... further...” she pants out, barely sparing him a backward glance as she turns a corner and ducks behind a rusted pickup truck, pulling his small form with her and signalling for him to remain quiet with a finger to her lips.
They wait, ears perked up for the sound of footsteps. It takes a moment before Olivia picks up on four heavy sets, they're quick and intimidating, sending her anxiety surging as she reaches out once more to take a hold of her brothers hand with trembling fingers.
She closes her eyes and holds her breath, praying that the hunters pass without noticing them. But to her dismay, the footsteps slow until they abruptly stop altogether on the other side of the truck they are tucked behind.
“We fucking lost ‘em!” the hunter furthest away growls.
“They can’t have gotten far. It’s just some bitch and a kid, we’ll find ‘em.” another says whilst swinging the pipe in his hand in a batting motion.
“Alright. Spread out. Let’s find ‘em and head back.” A new voice pipes up, his patience wearing thin.
“Joel...” the last of the four says, his uncertain tone catching Olivia off guard. This man sounded defeated, damn near ashamed and unsure of the role he was to play. It was uncommon, especially for a hunter.
“I said spread out,” the man with the Texan drawl repeats, a slight annoyance rising in his tone.
“This ain’t right,” the same hesitant man breathes to his fellow hunter quietly.
“We ain’t doing this now, Tommy. Get your ass walking and searching. I won’t tell you again.”
“Olivia,” Matt’s small voice captures her attention, she turns her head, offering him a reassuring smile. “Are we going to die?” he asks with fearful eyes.
Olivia feels her heart break as she shakes her head instinctively, “no, we are going to get out of here.” she assures confidently. “We just need to stay low and quiet. Okay?”
The boy nods, his hand squeezing her own as if to signify that he understood. The two share a brief smile before Olivia musters the courage to peek up above the cars bonnet, her gaze sweeping the area to locate each of the four hunters. She spots three of them walking the area just a few feet away, neither of them spotting her.
She leans back, her brows furrowing in confusion at the missing hunter she was unable to locate. She needed to know his location otherwise moving from their current hiding spot was more of a risk than it already seemed. She sighs quietly and turns to her brother, “we need to move, they’ll find us eventually if we don’t.” she explains.
“I’m scared...”
Her expression softens, “That’s okay, Matty. I am too. But we can do this together.”
“But-”
Matt’s sentence is cut short, not by Olivia but rather by a pair of large hands covering both their mouths. Their touch is firm yet gentle, however, that does nothing to deter Olivia from reaching out to land a right hook to the man’s face, hitting him square in the jaw. The man stumbles slightly but stays where he is, he raises his hands as if to surrender, locking his gaze with hers.
“I’m not gon’ hurt you.” he tells her.
Olivia scoffs, her eyes hard as she reaches for the knife strapped to her thigh, “bullshit. You’re one of them.” she gestures across the street towards the other hunters before curling her fingers around her brothers sleeve with her spare hand and tugging him closer to her side.
“Was.”
“What?”
The man breathes almost in relief to be saying the words falling from his mouth, his shoulders slouch as he drops his gaze to his boots. “I was one of them but I’m done killing innocent people.”
“That’s a good one,” Olivia says with a dry chuckle, being sure to remain as quiet as possible. “You just come up with that?”
“I’m serious,” the man insists. “I can help you - both of you.”
Olivia pauses, her head tilting to the side as she stares back at the man curiously. “Why would you do that?” her voice softens. She could see and hear his sincerity, he had been the man from earlier, the man who had sounded ashamed and defeated. The man who had tried to tell ‘Joel’ that what they were doing wasn’t right.
She wanted to believe him. She needed help getting out of this damn city but was she so desperate that she would willingly accept the help from a recent former hunter?
“Because this isn’t who I was before all this shit and I’ll be damned if I let it continue to be who I am during it.”
Olivia stares him down, scrutinising him for any sign of deceit. Then, with a conflicted heavy sigh she pulls her knife up into view, lifting it to his eye level just inches from his face. “You try anything, anything at all, and I’ll stick this right between your eyes. Understood?” Olivia threatens with a dark look in her eyes, the slightest tremble to her otherwise strong tone.
The man chuckles quietly and nods, his hands still raised as he gestures with his head for the two to follow him. “Understood. Now, stay low and follow my lead.” he instructs whilst moving back and to the right. Eventually leading them down an alley just off to the side of where they had been hiding, he turns abruptly and without an ounce of hesitance, he jumps through a broken window. Olivia frowns with uncertainty, watching as the man gives the area a brief once over before turning back to look at her with an understanding smile, no malice to be seen. “The bridge is on the other side of this building, that’s our only way out.” he explains, as if having heard her internal concerns.
She pauses, even when she feels a small figure slide up to her left side and slip his small hand into hers. “Olivia?” Matt whispers whilst looking up at her with doe eyes.
The brunette looks down at him, locking her green eyes with his ocean blue ones. She ponders their options for a moment, then with another conflicted sigh, she nods. “Okay,” she breathes as she reaches down to assist her brother in climbing through the window, her movements quick but careful. However, to her surprise, the man also takes it upon himself to assist them by moving her brothers arm slightly out of the path of the glass shards sticking out of the frame.
“Thank you mister.” Matt smiles.
“Call me Tommy.” the man tells him with a smile of his own.
“Thank you, Tommy.”
“Yeah, thank you.” Olivia whispers as she too climbs through the broken window effortlessly.
“Come on,” Tommy says gently, “it’s this way.”
▪︎○▪︎○▪︎○▪︎○▪︎○▪︎
Boston QZ, 2033.
She breathlessly swings her fist against the worn punching bag; the sudden hard contact breaking the raw skin on her knuckles causing blood to ooze out slowly, trickling down her fingers like an ice cream left to melt. She barely flinches, her hard gaze locked with an intensity on the equipment with no real acknowledgement of her minor cuts and the stinging that accompanies them.
She's numb to it.
“Olivia,”
Her head turns, her dull green eyes meeting a concerned set of blue ones. She straightens up, allowing her fists to fall to her sides as she nods to the older man at her door.
“Marlene is here to see you.” he informs her, his gaze only drifting down to look at her blood smeared knuckles for a moment before he clears his throat and returns his gaze up to hers once more.
“Send her up,” Olivia says with a shrug.
“Will do.” the man assures before pausing awkwardly in the doorway.
“Is there something else, Terence?”
He shakes his head quickly, then in the blink of an eye, he turns on the spot and rushes out the door.
“Good,” Olivia smirks with a chuckle as she reaches out to scoop up her damp rag. She moves to the other side of the room to be closer to her front door, seating herself calmly in the beaten up leather armchair with a sigh whilst lightly dabbing away the smeared blood decorating her knuckles.
It takes a moment before she hears footsteps echoing up the staircase to her small apartment. “It’s unlocked,” she says aloud when she hears the footsteps come to an abrupt stop just outside her wooden door.
The door opens slowly, then the dark skinned woman and a girl no older than fourteen enter the apartment, neither one looking all too thrilled to be there. They share a brief look before Marlene takes it upon herself to speak up first, wasting no time in getting to the point. “I have a job for you.”
“I’m not interested.” Olivia dismisses.
“Just... hear me out.” Marlene pleads with a soft sigh, desperation leaking from her very being.
“You got five minutes,” Olivia caves before flicking her gaze to the silent girl beside Marlene. “You can start by telling me who she is,” she gestures lazily to the girl, who in return mumbles a name. “I didn’t catch that,” Olivia says causing the girl to roll her eyes.
“My name is Ellie.” she repeats louder.
“She not a little young to be a firefly?”
Marlene shakes her head and moves to take a seat on the worn sofa opposite the armchair Olivia is sat in. She perches herself on the edge, leaning forward with her elbows resting on her knees, as if ready to share a dark secret. “She is much more than some firefly.” she breathes with a wide smile before turning to Ellie, “show her,” she encourages.
“What are you-” Olivia’s voice cuts out, her mouth drying as she reaches for the gun resting on top of the cabinet beside her chair. She scoops it up in one smooth motion, lifting it and aiming it at the young girls head with hard disbelieving eyes. “You brought an infected girl?”
“She’s immune,” Marlene says whilst pulling herself to a stand and stepping between the gun and Ellie confidently.
“Bullshit,”
“It’s three weeks old,” Ellie speaks up, “I swear.”
Olivia shakes her head incredulously, “that’s impossible,” she breathes as her gaze flickers to the visible bite mark on Ellie’s arm.
“Nothing is impossible, just rare.” Marlene tells her with a smirk.
“Why bring her here?”
“I need to get her out of the city; we still have doctors working on a cure.”
Olivia scoffs, her hands only now lowering the gun and placing it back on the cabinet. “Let me guess, you need me to escort her to said doctors. That right?”
“Look, my people are being killed off by the dozen. The way I see it, you have the skills and strength to get her where she needs to be. Now, I can get us some help but the fact is, I can’t do this without you.”
“Yes, you can.” Olivia mumbles as she leans back in her armchair and folds her arms.
“Okay, I can but I don’t want to.” Marlene admits, “I trust you more than most. I need you to do this for me.”
“What’s your big plan, Marlene?”
“I have a crew of fireflies coming all the way from another city, they’ll meet us at the capitol building tomorrow morning.”
“That’s not exactly going to be easy,” Olivia says through a heavy sigh whilst running her hand down her face in frustration with herself, already beginning to regret the words about to fall from her mouth. “What do you need me to do?”
Ellie smiles, her head snapping upwards to look directly at the woman. “You’re going to help us?’ she asks with hopeful eyes.
Olivia nods, “I swore to myself that if I ever got the opportunity to help put an end to all this shit, I’d take it. So, here I am, taking it.” She confesses with a shrug.
“Thanks,” Ellie nods appreciatively, her smile widening a fraction.
“Don’t thank me yet, kid. We’ve got to get you there first.”
“Okay,” Marlene draws out, her focus locked in on Olivia as Ellie moves to sits beside her on the sofa, having grown eager to learn of the plan herself. “I need you both to head to this building, there is a back office you can wait safely in.” she instructs whilst pointing at the map Olivia had already laid out from her last trip out of the city borders.
“What about you?” Ellie wonders upon realising that Marlene didn’t include herself in her instructions.
“I’m going to find us some extra help, I don’t have any spare men in the city to help us.”
“But-”
“Its better she goes on her own, Ellie.” Olivia interjects after already having picked up on Ellie’s hesitance. “We need to keep you safe and Marlene is already a moving target, better to let her do this on her own with a low profile.”
“She’s right.” Marlene agrees, “you’ll be safer in the office with her. I won’t be long.”
A beat of silence passes before Ellie eventually admits defeat and with a slight huff, she agrees to leave with Olivia to the designated building.
“Who are you going to strike a deal with?” Olivia asks Marlene when Ellie excuses herself to use the bathroom briefly.
Marlene shrugs, her gaze following Olivia’s movements as the young woman packs her bag pack with all the necessities before reaching for her weapons – a hand gun, a hunting knife, throwing knives and her bow and arrow. Accompanied by plenty of ammo. “You preparing for a war?” she jokes with a smirk.
“I prepare for everything when going out there,” Olivia replies, not a hint of amusement in her tone as she discreetly slips a small toy truck into the front pocket of the bag. “You didn’t answer my question.” she notes whilst flickering her gaze up to the dark skinned woman once more.
“I have a couple in mind,” Marlene thoughtfully mumbles as the bathroom door opens.
“Okay,” Olivia nods, already acutely aware that Marlene would keep those details to herself until it was necessary for she and Ellie to know them. “You ready, El?”
“Yeah,” Ellie nods with a small unsure smile.
“Just follow my lead and you’ll be fine.” Olivia smiles encouragingly. “I got you, okay?”
“Okay,” Ellie breathes out, mentally psyching herself up for the short trip. Then, she turns to Marlene as they step out of Olivia’s small apartment and into the long corridor. “Be careful,”
“I won’t be long, just listen to Olivia. She knows what she’s doing.” Marlene tells her comfortingly as she offers Olivia a short nod before turning on her heel and sneaking out the back of the apartment building.
“She’ll be okay,” Olivia reassures upon seeing Ellie’s growing concern.
“I know,”
“Good, then let’s go.”
“Following you.” Ellie mumbles.
▪︎○▪︎○▪︎○▪︎○▪︎○▪︎