Set Me Free ▪︎ Joel Miller ▪︎

▪︎○ Twenty ○▪︎

Joel’s face contorted with anger, his tone dropping to a low growl. “Fuckin’ hunters,” he scanned the dead bodies scattered around the room surrounded by their supplies and others that had been stacked on metal shelves at either side of the room. “See, this could’ve been us.”

Ellie sighed beside Olivia, her gaze drifting from one body to the next. “Man, that is a lot of people that didn’t make it.”

“Yeah...” Olivia agreed in a whisper.

“I knew I should’ve turned the damn truck around,” Joel chastised himself, shaking his head as he gathered supplies from the shelving units.

“We lived,” Ellie shrugged in an attempt to make him feel less annoyed with himself. But as expected, her words only seem to fuel his self aimed anger.

“Barely,” he grits out as he storms across the room, ignoring Olivia’s forgiving expression as he does so.

She didn’t blame him for driving into the city, it was the quickest and most promising route to Tommy’s and they both knew it. He couldn’t have known how big his former hunter group had grown to be or even if they were still around. Especially since there had been recent rumours about the military trying to gain control back.

She didn’t like the idea of him beating himself up over something he was now unable to go back and change. Sure, he’d drove them into a dangerous situation but that didn’t mean they had no chance of making it out alive. They were skilled, far more so than the last time the two were in the city. That was an advantage and Olivia gripped that thought tight, keeping it in mind for whenever any doubt tried to seep in. She trusted Joel wholeheartedly.

“Come on,” she sighs whilst motioning for Ellie to follow the grumpy muttering man up the stairs.

They make it half way up the set of stairs when Ellie speaks up, a question slipping off her tongue with obvious curiosity. “How did you know?” it’s a simple question with a very complicated answer which made Olivia all the more grateful that it was aimed at Joel and not her.

She heard Joel pause on the step momentarily, “know what?” he asked, playing dumb.

“About the ambush,”

There was another silent pause, followed by a heavy sigh as Joel continued up the stairs and pulled open the metal door. “I’ve been on both sides,” he answers hesitantly.

Ellie’s eyes widen slightly, clear surprise on her face causing Olivia to shift uncomfortably, silently hoping no questions would be thrown her way. “Oh,” Ellie thinks for a moment then she throws yet another heavy question to the older man. “So, ah, you kill a lot of innocent people?”

“El...” Olivia sighs with a stern look sent the teens way.

Olivia of course already knew the answer to that question, she had been there first hand to see Joel’s hunter days – or at least a snippet of them. She hadn’t enjoyed those days nor the thoughts she had when she allowed her mind to drift to things he and Tommy had done in those ten years. It wasn’t a part of them she wished to focus on, she’d rather forget it if she could. But of course that was an impossibility and so, she decided to accept it and move on.

“Hmm...” Joel hums, clearly having not heard Olivia as he walked into what looks to be a camp of sorts where the group of hunters had slept. As usual, he searched the room for anything useful while Ellie continue to push the conversation along.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” she mutters.

“Take it however you want,” he shrugs, no longer interested in hiding or denying his previous lifestyle.