PetrA

Chapter twenty-two: Joachim

Joachim felt like he was trespassing as Timothy told Ellie about her family. She took it pretty well, considering her parents are both dead, and there's no word from the rest of her family. In a way, he was jealous. That she had two brothers still alive and a sister who might be alive. Even if the chances are, slim. And he could see that the others had it like him, jealous of Ellie's luck. "Dad did he change?" Ellie asked quietly. Her brother Timothy was quiet for a little while. "No, he didn't, I misjudged my aim and hit through the heart after they bit him, but he didn't change... We found his body a couple of days later." Ellie seemed relieved to hear it. She didn't have to face her own parents as dead human eating corpses. Joachim glanced over at the kid Jeremy; he followed Ellie's every move and didn't seem to like Kim very much. Gemma was obvious to the mood in the room and just bounced around the room looking at old pictures of Ellie. Joachim had been surprised when he found out that it was Ellie on some of the pictures with short hair and large teeth that stuck out and had huge gaps between them. She looked like a boy with bad teeth.

"I don't want to intrude, but we have a slight Zombie problem going on outside." Henrik said looking out of the window. Timothy looked over his shoulder. It unnerved Joachim, just how tall he was. He was easy 2m, Joachim knew that Ellie was tall, but he hadn't realised just how tall her family would be. "Don't worry. We have people on the roof, and in the tall trees around the area. If the biters manage to get past the poles, then they'll shoot them down." Daniel made a sound, somewhere between a growl and whimper maybe a laugh. "Guns, you're using guns?" He asked. Timothy turned to him, "No we're using radiation and rocks." His voice laced with sarcasm. Which seemed to annoy Daniel. Joachim started to like Ellie's brother. "Of course we're using guns. Did you expect us to just go up to them with a stick and say hey is it alright if we poke your eyes out and destroy your brain?" Ellie smirked, "Now that would be stupid. We're using silencers or whatever you call them. Sound attract those monsters." Timothy said calmly as if it didn't bother him at all.

Ellie watched the dead from the window with Henrik. It seemed like she was back to normal. Daniel tried to argue with Timothy, but Ellie's brother seemed to have a sarcastic answer to everything. Lesley had wandered off in the house scavenging and Cody had fallen asleep on the couch. Gemma was still preoccupied with pictures, Aiden was nowhere to be seen, and Kim was sitting on the couch again watching Jeremy who seemed to ogle Ellie's ass. "You've got yourself another competitor." Joachim said slumping down beside Kim. He looked over and frowned, "What do you mean?" Joachim mentioned to Jeremy who was ogling Ellie obviously. "Looks like he likes her too." Kim returned his eyes to Jeremy. "So?" He asked. However, Joachim detected just a hint of possessiveness in Kim's voice. Joachim looked over at Ellie who was talking with Henrik. She kept sneaking glances at Kim. "But I don't think you've got anything to worry about though." Joachim said slapping his friend on the back. Even he was a little jealous of Kim, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle Ellie. She was sure as hell pretty, but she was scary and was a downright mystery to him, and since she has pinned him against the wall several times managing to lift him of the ground he's not eager to be in the line of fire from her.

"Where's Gordon?" Ellie asked suddenly, Timothy looked over at her from whatever he'd been doing. "He should be here soon enough. He's out patrolling." That nearly sent Ellie into a fit. "PATROLLING?" she asked in a shrill voice. "Yes." Timothy said. The two of them stared each other down, "He's nine, NINE!" Timothy waited patiently for her to finish, like this had been an everyday thing. "I know he's nine, but we need people to patrol, and he's more than capable of taking care of himself." Ellie looked like she wanted to do more than just glare the shit out of her brother, but this was one of the only times Joachim had seen her force herself to not strangle or slam somebody into the wall lifting them off the ground. Joachim had a sneaking suspicion that Ellie would lose if she even dared to try.

Her eyes turned to him, and they were cold and glistering as a snake. "Keep your mouth shut. Trying to take on Tim is like going against a bulldozer hell bent on crushing you." She snapped. Joachim stared at her, had he said that aloud? "No, I can just read your mind." Sarcasm dripped from her words. She glared once more at her brother and then stomped up the stairs slamming a door after her. Probably to her room, Kim sighed. "She's in a special mood." Timothy said amused. "It's been a while... Have she been around raw chicken recently, or is just that time of the month?" The question seemed odd to Joachim, but he remembered her reaction to that big oversized human eating dude she'd been trapped under. Ellie had almost stopped functioning, she shut down and looked about as sick as you can possibly get, if not worse. "Does it count to be trapped under a rotting fat man?" Joachim asked. Kim sent him a look, but he ignored it. "Trapped under a rotting fat dude?" Timothy asked scratching his head. "Suppose that can be why she's like that." Something crashed upstairs. "I CAN HEAR YOU!" Ellie yelled. Timothy just sniggered. "Oh man, how bad was it?" He asked. This time Joachim didn't say a word, he glanced at the others.

Gemma put down the picture she had been staring at for a while now. "She stabbed it in the eye and it crashed down over her. When we got her free, she was covered in stinking fluids and she well..." Timothy glanced at the stairs, probably expecting Ellie to come barging down and kill somebody, but everything had gone quiet upstairs. "Oh boy, that explains her mood. She's not very good at handling those kind of things." He said it slowly as if he was calculating his words carefully. Kim rose from his seat "I'll go check on her." Before anyone could say anything, he disappeared. Joachim wondered what that was about, but he didn't say anything. He'd rather get through the day without anyone trying to kill him. Timothy looked at them all, "So... you're Ellie's friends?" he asked casually. Daniel gave him a cold look, but it didn't seem to affect Timothy the least. "Yes, well, Daniel, Lesley, Henrik and I are." Gemma said. Joachim felt a little hurt by her not mentioning his name, but Ellie didn't seem to like him much anyways.

"What about the one who just left and him?" Timothy pointed at Joachim and he wanted most of all to leave, but it would be a little difficult without anywhere to go. Besides he didn't know this area well enough. "Joachim and Ellie is kind of frenemies, Ellie and... Um they're..." Gemma trailed off not knowing what to say. None of them knew how her brother would react to it. Suddenly Timothy laughed loudly, "It only took a zombie apocalypse for that to happen." None of them understood what was going on, but her brother kept laughing and then he called up the stairs. "Use protection!" Lesley broke down in hysterics, and Ellie stormed down the stairs. "Shut your fucking pie hole, and stick it in Donna." She glared daggers at Lesley who stopped laughing and pulled back a little. Timothy's smile vanished as he stared at his sister, "I'd never go near her hole." The tension rose between them. It became apparent to Joachim that both siblings had quite a temper. The door opened, but they didn't break their silent argument. A boy who must have been around 12 walked into the room, swinging a wicked looking knife. He stopped dead when he saw Ellie. "ELLIE!" He cried and flung himself at her. She stumbled back and landed on the floor with the boy over her. Timothy and the others started laughing.

"Gordon!" Ellie said lifting up the kid as if he weighed nothing. The resemblance between them was much more evident than between her and Timothy. Looking between them, you didn't need to be told twice that they're family, you could just see it. Timothy and Ellie had the same jaw, and hair but that was about as far as the resemblance went. Gordon had the same eyes as Ellie, a similar smile, and nose, but Gordon's jaw was narrower than Ellie's. Kim stood in the doorway watching them, in a way it didn't feel fair that Ellie's family should be alive when they have no clue about their own. Joachim remembered the sight of his family inside the house. Dead and hungry for human flesh. It chilled him to even think about it, "Tim, there's problems on the west flank. They've broken the shield." A new voice said running into the house. He looked around as if he had a hard time believing the scene in front of him. His eyes lingered on Ellie startled to see her.

"Okay,send in fourth and third cohorts and then the tecs." Timothy said without evenblinking. The kid nodded, "Good to see you alive El." He said before runningout. It seemed like Ellie knew everyone around here. "How many is alive?"Daniel asked. He seemed to be thinking hard. "About sixty people. Mostly aroundour own age, the elder were infected at the hospital and the other clinicsaround here. Many of the younger kids' infected too, through the kindergartenand school. We were lucky that our dad kept Gordon at home." Outside turmoil started,Timothy cussed loudly. "Stay here with Ellie and her friends. If anythinghappens go with her." He told Gordon directly and ran outside. The door slammedclosed and Ellie raced up the stairs, Gordon hot on her heels.