to the ends of the earth || ellie williams (book one)

nineteen

SEATTLE
DAY ONE

"This hunter was on top of him... drowning him. And... Joel couldn't get to his gun,"

We set off from our camp at sunrise. Ellie didn't like to waste time. It took us approximately six weeks to reach Seattle. We were reaching the final stretch. The journey was tough, demanding. I didn't know how we would've made it without Shimmer. We tried to give her as much rest as we could. Unfortunately, it wasn't a lot.

"Jesus.. were you scared?" I asked, holding onto her waist as she navigated the dense forest.

The trees stood tall. Glimmers of golden sunlight reflected through their leaves and onto the forest floor, bathing the lush green plants in a golden glow. Whenever we weren't talking, I'd close my eyes and listen to the birds singing softly in the trees. Their whistles echoed in the gentle breeze of the spring.

"Well, I didn't even think. I just... I just ran in there, grabbed his gun, and... shot the guy in the face," She explained.

"How old were you?"

"Fourteen. How old were you when you first killed someone?"

"Infected? Or?"

"No. Fully conscious, non-fungal person,"

I thought back to being on the road with my Dad. Back to Denver. It was the single most difficult thing I'd ever done taking a human life. I'd heard a lot of people comparing it to killing an animal, or an infected. But it was by no means the same.

"A long time ago now. I can't exactly remember," I lied.

"Everyone remembers the first time they killed somebody, Charlotte."

"I don't like to think about it..." I shrugged, "Hey, Ellie... how lost are we?"

"Have a little faith," She chuckled dryly in her best 'I know exactly where we are' voice.

"What about those crazy cannibals you said you and Joel ran into? They came after you guys once... maybe these WLFs are connected to them,"

"No. Didn't seem like the same group,"

"Maybe those black market smugglers back in Boston?"

"Charlotte, Joel crossed a lot of people... I don't see much point in guessing," She responded bluntly causing my eyes to widen slightly. I kept quiet after that.

We rode silently for a while.

"Ellie," I began, spotting something within the bushes, "Cars,"

"Yeah, we're getting close. Start keeping an eye out,"

I nodded my head as we dismounted Shimmer. Ellie held on to her reins as we paced through the forest, swatting hanging branches out of the way as we emerged onto a road. I sighed in relief. It had taken us a long time to finally get to Seattle.

"Here we go," Ellie sighed in relief as we reached a large wall.

I scanned the perimeter, checking the high points in case they had people on lookout. We didn't know how many of them were. Their group could be hundreds for all we knew.

Ellie began to search through buildings whilst I waited with Shimmer. I stroked her gently, my fingers tracing through her thick mane as I squinted in the sunlight. The sun was still high in the sky. I had a feeling that the day was going to be a long one.

"'WLF. Trespassers killed on sight," Ellie recited as she pointed to the scratchy words on the wall.

"At least we know we're in the right place," I shrugged, "What's with all the cages?"

"'Holding cells'. Boston had them too,"

Shielding my eyes with my arm, I looked up to see where the wall sort of crumbled at the top. It looked like the only entry point. These fuckers had the perimeter of the city real secure.

"Ellie. Up there. See if you can get over and let me in,"

"Okay..." She nodded, pacing towards me to wrap her arm around my waist and press a kiss to my cheek, "Keep your eyes open, yeah?"

"Of course," I smiled.

The past few weeks had given Ellie and I a lot of time to get to know each other more. She was Pandora's box. Every time I thought I knew everything, she'd surprise me with a hundred more things. It was like she'd lived a thousand lives. Countless nights we spent huddled around a fire, wrapped in blankets as she told me tales of times long passed. I listened intently every time, tried not to ask too many questions because I wasn't much of a pryer.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when the gate began to lift.

"Thinking about adding mechanic to my repertoire," Ellie smirked as I headed towards her.

"Doesn't sound half as badass compared to your other achievements. Cannibal killer, zombie hunter, bite survivor," I jested.

Suddenly the gate crashed to the ground causing Shimmer to whine, standing on her back legs and kicks forward. I grabbed her reins, stroking her mane and soothing her softly.

"That was loud... we better get out of here," I began, "Where to?"

Once Shimmer had calmed down, Ellie climbed on and helped me up. I wrapped my arms around her waist once more as we began to press forward.

"I found a note back there. Had codes on it and stuff," She shrugged, "Hey, look! Serevena Hotel."

"Serevena?"

"It's gotta be one of their bases,"

I sighed as we reached another gate, dismounting Shimmer to try my luck with pushing it open. Of course it didn't budge which was to be expected.

"All these fucking gates," I groaned.

"'Fuck FEDRA'. Very creative. Gets right to the point," Ellie chuckled dryly at the paint on the wall.

"Do you have the code?" I asked after punching '1234' into the pad and surprisingly getting it wrong.

"You're no Alan Turing," The taller girl laughed from behind me, moving me out of the way by my waist to study the key pad.

"Why do you know such random shit?" I asked with annoyance.

"Spent a lot of time on the road. Read a lot of books," She sighed as she began to scope around, "Look. Generator."

Ellie headed for the generator, pulling the string a few times to no avail. She sighed and knelt to her knees, opening the gas tap to discover it empty. She shook her head as she stood up again.

"It's outta gas," She grunted, "That note mentioned something about gas in the courtyard garage and the dome."

"All right. Courthouse garage and the dome. So what's the plan for finding these places?"

"We ride around and see what we see," Ellie shrugged.

So we climbed back on Shimmer and headed off to explore the city.