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

twenty four

The way Leah's body was positioned was unnatural. It was as all of the bones in her body had been broken, her limbs were limp and lifeless. Her eyes were empty and cold, if I looked into them too long it freaked me out. Three wooden arrows stuck out from her chest, bent slightly at the end on impact. Ellie shook her head and sighed.

"Guess the universe really wanted her dead," I muttered, kicking her hand slightly with the toe of my boot to make sure she definitely wasn't moving.

The sound of static and muffled voices filled the room. I bent down to pluck the radio from her belt, holding it to my ear as Ellie searched Leah's body.

"Six, this is Two, do you copy? Six, acknowledge, over," The voice on the radio barked.

Ellie began to flick through a stack of Polaroids, her hands shaking when she reached the one labelled 'Abby and Owen'. Her features hardened as she studied the blonde's face.

"It's her," She nodded, "This is the one who killed Joel."

"Abby..." I murmured as I surveyed the picture in her hands, "We'll find her but we need to go now before more of these fuckers smoke us out."

She shoved the photos in her bag and flung it over her shoulder, heading down to the main area that we were in before. I wasn't wrong about another group hitting us before we had a chance to leave. We played it as quiet as possible, attacking only as and when we needed to before escaping from the building.

"How do you feel about Leah being dead?" I asked as we trudged down the large mud hill to the street.

"I'm pissed we couldn't talk to her," Ellie snorted, watching her footing as she clambered down with ease.

"Yeah. But she didn't hurt Joel. It would've been pretty fucked up to make her talk..."

"She traveled hundreds of miles to torture him. I don't care whether she held the club or not," She spat.

"I understand,"

We dropped down into a withered walkway, the crumbling road towered above us on either side. Every corner we turned I was discovering just how much of the city had been ruined. I couldn't believe they ever had the man power to fuck up a whole city the way that they had.

"Trespassers! Over there!" A voice called loudly from above before gunshots began to spray rapidly along our path.

"Ellie!" I screeched, grabbing her arm as I began to sprint, "We've gotta lose them!"

I slipped as we sprinted, Ellie ran up behind me and pulled me to my feet, holding my hand as we ran as fast as we could. We were cornered from every angle. I felt my stomach sink to the ground. I didn't even want to know what these people would do to us if they caught us.

"Charlotte! In here!" Ellie called from a nearby doorway to the left.

I darted inside, watching as she pushed a vending machine to the ground with a crash to cover the entryway. She took a few steps back, her hand on her chest as she breathed deeply.

"That'll do for now.." She nodded as our attackers pounded on the door, "We can't stay here."

I searched the room for any escape route, spotting a small entry point beneath the rubble and debris that'd caved in and obstructed the path. Falling to my knees, I peered through to see if we could get to the other side but it was too dark even with my torch. I wouldn't be able to tell until I tried.

"Ellie, I think we can get through this way," I said, beginning to crawl my way through the narrow pathway.

"Spores. Put your mask on," Ellie instructed, grabbing my leg to stop me from crawling any further ahead.

When we eventually emerged out the other side, I studied the setting. We appeared to be in some sort of wrecked subway station. The room was flooded red, the atmosphere thick and foreboding. A group of masked Wolves dropped down into the room, searching for us behind every possible obstruction and hiding place. Ellie swore under her breath.

"Els, do you hear that?" I asked, pointing to the ceiling to command her attention to the faint clicking that could faintly be heard in the room we were in.

"Clickers..." She nodded, searching the floor for something that she could use to grab their attention.

She plucked a glass bottle from the ground, pulling her arm back to launch it at the gathered group of attackers in the middle of the room. The Clickers emerged from side rooms, darting for the source of the noise with flailing arms and screeches. Ellie grabbed my hand, running towards the door on the far side of the room we were once trapped in. She slammed it shut behind us, wedging a pipe in the handle before setting off down the dim hallway.

"Ellie, can you wait up?" I groaned, panting as I kneeled over with my hand gripped to my stomach.

I'd barely eaten a thing in days and I was burning more than I was consuming. Food and rest seemed to be the last thing on Ellie's mind. I didn't think she even had a chance to think about it with everything that was going on. I didn't blame her, but now I was struggling to keep up.

"Are you okay?" She asked, rushing to my side to place a hand on my shoulder and meet my eyes.

"I'm okay, just really tired,"

"We're gonna get out of here and then we'll get some rest, okay?" She smiled softly, leaning in to press a kiss on my forehead before continuing on her path.

There wasn't an easy way out of the subway station. We looted for a while, pocketing anything that could be of any assistance. Every door was blocked and we were so far underground I didn't think we'd be coming across any windows.

"That vent," Ellie began, pointing to an open pathway a few feet up, "I'll get you up there."

I nodded my head, watching as she positioned herself against the wall before taking a run up and throwing myself into the vent. I manoeuvred myself so that I could reach my hand down, pulling her up before beginning to crawl across.

My head snapped to Ellie upon hearing a deafening howl. We peered through the gaps in the vent but our vision was obscured by large clouds of smoke. The screams of agony below us were unmistakeable traumatising, soon followed by another unidentifiable roar.

The creature was huge. Bigger than a clicker, bigger than a bloater. It's entire body was covered in pus filled buboes, blood leaking from every crevice of its decaying limbs. It's bellows echoed throughout the station as it ripped soldiers to shreds with ease. I felt my face flush as I tore my eyes away.

"What the fuck is that?" I asked in a low whisper.

"I don't fucking know... but I have a feeling we will soon,"