AFFLICTED

Chapter 4

The snow had stopped but the horses were struggling, the sheer amount of snow that had fallen had caused it to drift across the hills, thick mounds of it.

"Ellie I think we might be better walking?" Rosalia could feel her horse's muscles working overtime, his strong shoulders pulling with each heavy step he took.
"Come on we can leave the horses here," snapping the reigns she stopped and jumped down, grabbing her bag from the saddle and helping Ellie do the same.

"We have to be quick. We have to find them." Ellie's voice was stung with desperation her worry for Joel and Tommy was clouding all judgment and all she could do is drag Rosalia further through the trees and the snow.

"We will Ellie, just take a breather okay? I'm worried too," putting both hands on Ellie's shoulders she looked into her eyes.

"I have a really bad feeling about this Lia," her voice was barely a whisper as she hit her lip clearly trying not to let the tears fall. Ellie's usually hard demeanour was cracking, her eyes were soft, eyebrows furrowed and she was playing with her ring finger anxiously.

"Me too. Let's just go get them and take them home yeah?" Ellie nodded in response the two of them setting off on their way further up the hill.
The snow was falling in small flurries across the valley so their long distance vision was obscured. After ten minutes or so Ellie stopped silently pointing down to the old ski lodge that was sitting on the hill. There was a soft orange light emitting from the windows and smoke billowing out the chimney.

"Ellie look down there," Rosalia herself pointed down the the gate that was situated at the front of the building. There was piles of burnt bodies lying at the outside perimeter.

"Fuck," the two girls hurried down the slope and found a crack in the fence where they squeezed through.
"Here there is a back door," the glass door was wide open the curtains blowing out in the wind a small pile of snow had gathered at the entrance of the building. They rushed in and down the stairs Rosalia's heart racing as they started looking around the lodge trying to find clues.

"Ellie," she warned as they turned a corner to see a pile of sleeping bags and stuff set up on and around the old sofas next to the hearth fireplace. Suddenly a crash came from within the building followed by a shout. Joel.

Ellie rushed forward Rosalia hot on her heels as the two saw a staircase leading down to what was probably a basement. Rosalia could hear grunts coming from the locked door at the bottom of the stairs, so she pulled her pistol from her jeans, her switchblade hidden under her sleeve. Ellie held her ear against the wood as her eyes widened as she grabbed the door handle swinging it open her gun held out in front of her, Rosalia right behind her with her own gun out.

The sight of Joel lying groaning on the floor, his face covered in blood and his knee blown apart, the bone sticking out at the knee made her stop in her tracks. Looking over at the bar in the corner she saw her uncle Tommy crumpled on the floor a bash on his forehead from where he had been knocked out. She jumped back as a man grabbed Ellie and dragged her down to the floor as she felt the warm body of a large man hit her back his arm wrapped around her neck and she felt the barrel of a gun smack her head and everything went black.

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Ellie hadn't left her house since they had been brought back to Jackson.

After she came to from being hit across the head so hard she was knocked out unconscious Rosalia had been woken up still in the lodge Tommy leaning over her body as he begged her to wake up, Ellie was lying in front of her sobbing as she lay there blood running down her face from her burst nose, as Joel lay dead on the floor by the window. She felt Tommys body shaking as he too sobbed over his niece and his brother. As he noticed that she came to he grabbed her shoulders pulling her into a hug his hands clasping onto her relived as he realised that she was alive and awake. Her head was pounding and touching the area gently she felt her fingers become slick with blood where the gun had actually broken the skin.