LATE NIGHT TALKS

"No-one likes a mad woman, you made her like that."

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CHAPTER SEVEN

Late Night Talks

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The young girl's eyes opened. Her hair was pushed back behind her head, and she wore a light blue spotted hospital gown. She couldn't be more than fifteen years old. Her face was deeply freckled, but her eyes shone with confusion as she sat up in the backseat. She looked out the window, her eyebrows furrowing as they passed through the foreign city. Glancing up towards the front seat, the girl saw the driver, an older man who she seemed to know.

"What the hell am I wearing?" She asked, looking down at the hospital gown that was wrapped around her body. The older man glanced behind him, seeming startled that the girl had woken up so soon. He gazed back at the window in front of him, facing the road with a somewhat solemn look on his face.

"Just take it easy." He softly spoke, the large, greying beard on his chin making his voice muffled. "The drugs are still wearing off."

She looked at the man in confusion, laying back down on her side. The leather of the chair pricked at her cheeks, chilling her body. "What happened?" She inquired.

The man sighed, his eyebrows furrowing deeply. "We found the Fireflies." He began. "Turns out, there's a whole lot more like you, Ellie. People that are immune." He claimed. The girl's- Ellie's face contorted into one of sadness, maybe even anger. "It's dozens, actually. They ain't done a damn bit of good, either." He looked through the mirror at her. "They've actually st- They've stopped looking for a cure." The man paused. "I'm taking us home."

Ellie looked lost, confused, disappointed. She turned around, the back of her hospital gown facing the old man. He let out a breath of what seemed like guilt. "I'm sorry."

The girl simply screwed her eyes shut, furrowing her eyebrows and trying to make the nightmare of what had happened that day go away. But nothing seemed to work. A tear slid down her face as she remembered the words that the man had spoken to her.

There's a whole lot like her.

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Ellie blinked her eyes open, her body sinking into the old and hollow mattress underneath her. It was pitch black in the hotel room, the candle that Willow had lit on the nightside stand had gone out long ago. Speaking of the other girl, she was laying on the bed beside Ellie's, her body shivering in cold despite the clothes that she was wearing. Due to the constant flooding in Seattle, it was freezing at nighttime, no matter what season it was.

Willow stopped shivering, and Ellie watched as her blurry form sat up against the bedframe. Neither of them could sleep, apparently. The freezing temperatures were absolutely unbearable, and it made Ellie wonder just how comfortable the members of the WLF were living. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she continued to look out the glass doors that gazed out onto the balcony. The moon was the only form of light that poured into the hotel room, and still, it was barely bright enough to see anything.

"Fuck- it's so dark." Ellie exclaimed, sitting up against the ripped pillows. For a room that had been ripped apart by the infection and the wear of the past years, it was pretty luxurious. At least, to the girls it was.

The faint sounds of water crashing below them began to fill the silence, and Willow smiled. She adored the water. "I knew I should've stolen that stupid lantern." She exclaimed, rotating her body and laying back down so her head was at the end of the bed.

Ellie looked at her, furrowing her eyebrows. "What lantern?" She asked.

Willow shrugged. "There was this really fancy lantern I found when I was passing by an old camp. I thought it was abandoned, apparently not." She scoffed, rubbing her shoulder and wincing as she ran her fingers over a few of the scars that littered her skin.

"What happened?"

The girl scoffed. "I think you can guess." She replied. "They wouldn't stop trailing my ass for two whole days." Ellie looked at her, bewildered. Two whole days? That's insane. Ellie had gone through worse, but her legs would've given out by then, for sure.

"Wow." The older teen breathed. "That's impressive."

"Your turn." Willow turned over to Ellie, despite not being able to see her. "Give me a fun story."

"Define 'fun'." Ellie scoffed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. She looked down at her feet for a moment, she couldn't just tell this girl everything. "I had a run-in with cannibals a few years back. That was pretty crazy." She revealed, trying not to remember the man's wretched face. Ellie shivered a bit, almost feeling the machete handle in her hands. It was a memory she would have rather forgotten, but it felt good to speak about it again.

Ellie watched as Willow shuffled and sat up, her legs crossed underneath her. Her entire body had turned over to face Ellie. "Seriously? That's insane." She exclaimed in a tone of disbelief. Cannibals were common, but they weren't exactly good at keeping their locations disclosed. Everyone knew where they were, and how to stay away from them.

"Yeah, they were pretty damn good at catching us." Ellie winced, immediately regretting using the word 'us'. Willow tilted her head a bit, furrowing her eyebrows. She shrugged, though. She didn't want to get into a completely deep conversation. If Ellie wanted to keep something from her, it was completely understandable. They had just met, which was a big reason. And obviously she wasn't even a resident of Jackson.

Willow leaned her head back a bit, her eyes screwed shut as she attempted to think of another exciting story to share. She had a lot of them, but none were really as good as Ellie's cannibal story. "One time, I stole a guitar from these guys, and they were so fucking stupid they didn't even notice." She laughed, recalling the memory.

Ellie watched with a small smile gracing her lips as Willow laughed. A guitar, that was pretty cool. She had her own, of course, but whenever she wanted to pick it up, it only reminded her more and more of Joel. Maybe she would give it to Jesse? Or even Willow? She didn't know yet. All she knew was that she wanted to either get rid of it, or paint over it. Before she knew it, her hand had begun to run against the ink-covered skin on her arm. Maybe she'd recreate her tattoo on the guitar. Yeah. That sounded good.

"Hey, Earth to Ellie?" Willow's voice snapped her away, causing her head to shoot up and face the other teenager. "You spaced out there for a second."

"Oh- sorry." Ellie replied sheepishly. She thought of another story for a moment, her eyes glancing across the walls and ceiling before landing back on Willow. She was eagerly looking at Ellie, awaiting another tale. "This is pathetic, but, when I was fourteen, I spilt chemicals all over my arm." Ellie lied perfectly, brushing her hands over the acid burn covering her bite mark. "So I got someone to tattoo over it."

"Chemicals?" Willow scoffed, laughing a bit. "Yeah, that sounds like something a 1950's housewife would get."

Ellie chuckled, smiling a bit. She wasn't wrong. "Yeah, yeah. But c'mon- you gotta give me some credit, I was like- fourteen." She exclaimed, making Willow laugh a bit more.

The younger teen got up, her feet shuffling across the floor. Ellie's bed dipped across from her, and she crossed her legs a bit. Her eyes had become adjusted to the darkness, and she could see Willow's face and body across from her own. Their knees just barely scraped against each other's, lighting their legs up from the contact. A comfortable silence fell over them as they stayed there, the only sounds crashing over them being the water from below.

A lot of people would wish to be in a moment like that, Ellie included. In a peaceful silence with someone. Willow leant forward, her head pushing against Ellie's shoulder comfortably. Her hair dropped down, tickling Ellie's leg just a little bit. They both wished they could've experienced what it might have been like before the outbreak. Maybe they would've been friends. Things would be very different if Joel had just fucking left her at the hospital-

Willow's voice stopped Ellie's thoughts again. "This is nice." She sighed, her eyes fluttering shut as her head continued to rest against the older teen's shoulder. The other girl nodded, her body slowly melting into comfort as she relaxed deeper into the mattress. It was nice. Awkwardly, in an attempt to become more comfortable, Ellie held up her hand, placing it against Willow's head. Her blonde hair felt almost itchy after years of mistreatment, but it brushed against Ellie's scars beautifully.

The sound of rain pattering against the windows and walls soon mixed with the crashing water below them, creating a warm atmosphere through the freezing hotel room. Willow shivered for a moment, sending a small chill down Ellie's back. The ripped-up curtains on the outside of the sliding door whipped against the walls, but the noise was drowned out from the fully enclosed room. Ellie could see the scratch marks from infected that littered the curtains, she wanted to memorize everything in the moment.

A loud thump from downstairs echoed through the halls, but Ellie paid no mind to it as she ran her hand through Willow's hair. The girl was drifting in and out of consciousness, so Ellie quickly repositioned, laying back against the headboard again. Willow's head was still resting against her shoulder, her eyelashes batting against her skin before her eyes shut. The noise was most likely just a runner, Ellie assumed. They blocked up the entrances to the second floor, they'd be fine.

Ellie leaned to the side a bit, her neck craning as she looked over to the unlit candle placed on the bedside table. The markings on the wood suggested there used to be a lamp sitting on it, and just like she guessed, there was a shattered light crashed onto the floor. It was wedged in between the table and the bed, the lampshade completely ripped and melted open from the ruined light bulb. Willow squirmed a bit, settling back down into a comfortable place against Ellie's torso.

Their backpacks sat on the end of their beds, Ellie's donned with all kinds of space pins she had gotten from her life. Willow's had her parents' Firefly chains attached to the zippers, which made the other girl's stomach churn even more. She tried to ignore the feeling- the feeling of knowing that Willow would find out one way or another. Ellie pushed it down, slowing her breathing down and attempting to focus on Willow's hair as she took a few strands and twirled them around her fingers.

Soon enough, the noise of water crashing against the walls and the rain falling down was enough to get Ellie's eyelids drooping. She slowly let her head fall to her side, resting gently on Willow's dirty blonde hair. Ellie's guard wasn't completely down, but she chose not to pay attention to the noises of windows breaking and footsteps on the lower level. Her mind drifted off to somewhere safe, and she imagined being in her room in Jackson with Willow.

For once, life on the run was something she wanted again. For her whole life, she had only wished to have something that could closely resemble the old world. But with Willow resting against her in the old hotel, she realized she had the perfect mix.

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