Joel Miller x Reader

Two

"Ah, shit!", with an annoyed growl, Tommy kicked against the loose fence.

"Hey, be careful. Ripping your leg apart doesn't seem like a good idea.", Joel pushed his brother aside and squatted down to take a look at the wire mesh fence himself. "There's a loose hole. You got some pillars?"

"Do I look like a workshop to you?"

Joel rolled his eyes.

"Tommy, I'm freezing my ass off. You got one or not?"

With an annoyed expression, Tommy threw a quick gaze into his backpack, pulled something out and offered it to his brother with a quick, apologetic shrug of his shoulders.

"I got a knife.", he said and tried cutting the thin metal strands with the big blade. "Ah shit, doesn't work like I hoped."

Next to him, Joel growled.

He was freezing cold, his lips were as blue as the ice that cut his skin over and over again.

He and Tommy had gotten caught in the storm just as they were patrolling the area. It was strange, he could have sworn that the thing had been miles away and wasn't supposed to arrive before noon.

With the sudden loss of visibility and all the snow, it had been nearly impossible to stay on the usual path. But they hadn't been able to wait in place either, because they would have frozen to death there for sure.

The horses had begun to get restless after a few failed attempts to return to Jackson and Tommy had lost control.

Fortunately for him, the cattle had brought him to this building. It would provide enough shelter from the winter cold and might even house some things that were useful for the future in Jackson.

"Oh come on!", Joel cursed with trembling lips when the knife wouldn't cut through the thin mesh of the fence.

His fingers already frozen stiff from the cold, Tommy suddenly grabbed his hands and yanked the knife up with a strong jerk.

The fence creaked protestingly under the sudden force, but all it caused was a worn-out hole through which Joel couldn't even squeeze his shoulder.

Tommy shrugged.

"Do it again, then.", he leaned down to his brother. "If we pull hard enough at the same time, we can wear out the mesh at the bottom and it will snap. There you see?"

He pointed a trembling finger at the lower part of the fence, where the thin threads of metal were connected to the long pole that supported the weight at the top and bottom. One of the threads had come loose.

Now it hung on the pole with only tension, threatening to break at the soldered point.

Joel nodded.

When he exhaled, the air was so cold and dry that his throat began to ache.

"I'm too old for this.", he complained, and with Tommy's assistance, tugged once more at the knife. "Come on, Tommy. A little more force."

"I'm trying but I'm not getting any younger either!"

The two men leaned in further.

This time there was a strange sound, metal scraping over metal, and it sounded like a thick thread of nylon snapping.

"A little more.", Tommy gasped, tugging so hard on the knife that it hurt Joel's frozen hands. "Up!"

Suddenly the resurrection gave way.

It was so surprising that Joel lost his grip and the knife slipped from Tommy's hand. Both stumbled to the side and threatened to fall into the snow, but Joel managed to hold on to the fence with one hand.

Out of reflex, he reached for his brother and tried to catch him but missed his hand and instead grabbed right into the knife's blade.

Through Tommy's semi-tight grip and his weight from the fall, the blade chased down with him.

Cold, sharp metal dug through the leather of Joel's glove and into the skin beneath. Drops as red as wine fell into the fresh snow, staining the pure white.

A sharp pain ran through his hand up to his elbow, he cried out in surprise but bit his tongue to avoid attracting attention. If anyone or anything lived in these buildings, he didn't want it to know there were visitors.

"Oh shit!", startled, Tommy jumped back to his feet.

As he did, he dropped the knife.

Like a stone in the sea, the blade sank into the knee-high snow and was hidden the next moment by the raging blizzard, never to be found again.

"Tommy, you idiot!", Joel gave his brother a light blow with his fist. "We could have used that knife."

Tommy frowned.

"Your hand is hurt and you're getting upset because of a stupid knife?", he pointed at the cut in Joel's hand, from which blood was pouring like from a waterfall.

With a quick glance, Joel shrugged.

"It's just a scratch."

"You're bleeding like a pig. Don't fuck around, Joel, it needs to be bandaged."

"We'll have plenty of time for that in a minute.", with a nod of his head, Joel pointed to the hole that was now gaping in the fence. "Let's take a look inside the building and then see if we can find an entrance for the horses."

Tommy hesitated briefly. His eyes were glued to the wound.

Joel sighed.

"I'm not going to die from this, now move your butt. I'm cold and I think I'm going to freeze to death.", with his uninjured hand he pushed aside the remaining meshes in the fence to make enough room for Tommy to climb through.

On the other side, his brother did the same for him and together they fought their way through the snow, directly towards the building whose outline was visible in the veil of white.

"What do you think this is?", Tommy asked as they stood in front of the snow-covered door. "Looks like something important. A prison? The walls are definitely solid."

Somewhat annoyed by his brother's talkativeness, Joel just nodded and tried to find something in the snow flurry that could give them a way into the building.

As his eyes wandered through the world of white and storm, his gaze got caught by something unusual.

"There's light.", he said, totally surprised.

"Huh?", Tommy stretched his neck to see what his brother was seeing. "Oh shi- you're right!"

"Let's go there."