¹epiphany ─ j. miller

The Quarantine Zone

CHAPTER TWO
SUMMER
THE QUARANTINE ZONE

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"Go!" Elva yelled, her hands pinned behind her back by FEDRA officers. Tommy attempted to shoot at the three of them, but they shot his shoulder in return. Joel held a sniper in one of the buildings, his hands shaking due to his fear of losing his friend.

"Elva!" Tommy yelled, falling to the floor as another two gunshots hit him, one in the thigh and the other in his shin.

The woman was laying on the ground, the barrel of one of the officer's guns pressed against her head. "Go back to Joel, now!" She yelled, watching him crouch down and attempt to crawl away into the shadows.

Elva screamed in pain as they pulled her up onto her feet, her arm riddled with two bullets, excruciating pain bubbling up her shoulder. Joel placed his sniper against his back, jumping out the side window and meeting Tommy.

He watched as Elva was continuously kicked in the head until she passed out, blood seeping from every inch of her face. Her body went limp, eyes rolling to the back of her head due to the blood loss. Joel attempted to scramble towards her, but one of the officers hiding in the trees shot him dead in the side, grazing him slightly, but it was enough for him to fall down in pain.

"Get her out of here. Fuckin' firefly-lover." They picked her up and loaded her into their van, leaving Tommy and Joel to watch after her.

"She'll be fine. She's a badass, and you know that." Tommy explained, grunting in pain as he got up. "C'mon now-"

"No."

Tommy looked at Joel in disbelief. "What do you mean 'no'? Joel you need to get back with me to Jackson. You've never been-"

"I'm going on my own now, Tommy."

"And what the hell made you think that you can handle yourself?"

Joel glared at his brother. He loved Tommy, but he got on his nerves quite a lot. "I don't think I can go on with the whole Firefly thing, Tom. You go off and do whatever. Go settle down in Jackson. Let me be."

Tommy scoffed. "This is about Elva, isn't it?" Joel looked at him in confusion. "You've been in love with her since you left Texas."

"No. I haven't Tommy. This isn't about her. This is about you. You deserve that goddamn apple pie life. I don't want that. You know that."

His brother rolled his eyes. "You had that life before the infection. So, the infection came, you didn't want that life. Elva came, you wanted that life. Now that she's gone you don't want that life anymore!" Tommy yelled. "When the hell are you going to figure out what you want in life, Joel?"

"Not anytime soon, Tommy."

"Well you better start thinking. You ain't getting any younger here, Joel."

Joel sighed. "Go to Jackson. You belong there, Tommy. I'll just- I'll find a city to stay in or something, try to find Elva."

"Joel-"

"Just, leave me. Okay?" Joel spoke, looking his brother in the eyes. "I'm sure we'll meet again sometime."

Tommy nodded, not even sparing a goodbye as he walked away towards where Joel assumed the way to Jackson was. He sighed and turned back, pressing himself up against a building and trying to patch up his wounds.

"We got another one!"

TWENTY YEARS LATER

Joel woke up in a cold sweat, panting heavily. It had been the same dream, plaguing his sleepless nights for the past decades. He did what he told Tommy he would do. He looked for Elva, but all ends came up dead, and he only assumed they had either killed her or taken her to another base somewhere out of the United States. Joel hoped for the latter.

As usual, he slept in his clothes. It was efficient if any FEDRA officers decided to do a raid, or if any infected decided to jump through the window.

A knock from his apartment door snapped him from his thoughts. A few more got him a bit more annoyed than he already was. "I'm coming." He announced, walking up and opening his apartment door.

Tess walked in, grasping one of Joel's liquor bottles and pouring a drink. "How was your morning?" She asked, sipping down the drink. "Want one?"

"No, I don't... want one." He spoke softly, not wanting to get blackout drunk so early in the morning. Especially not with Tess.

"Well, I have some interesting news for you." She stated, rolling her eyes.

"Where were you, Tess?" Joel asked, only then just realizing her bad face wounds. He winced, remembering Elva's face when she was taken.

"West End district." Tess explained, rolling her eyes as Joel looked at her with a condescending face. "Hey, we had a drop to make."

"We. We had a drop to make." He explained, pointing his index finger towards his chest as he spoke.

"Yeah, well, you wanted to be left alone, remember?" He watched as Tess doused a rag in alcohol and cleaning her face wounds, wincing every now and then due to the sting of the alcohol.

"So, I'll take one guess." He proposed, sitting down on a chair. "The whole deal went south, and the client made off with our pills. Is that about right?" Joel asked cockily, tilting his head as his Texan accent came through thicker.

"Deal went off without a hitch." Tess responded, smirking at Joel. "Enough ration cards to last us a couple of months- easy."

They stayed in silence for a few moments. "You want to explain this?" Joel asked, pointing towards her face.

"I was on my way back here, and I got jumped by these two assholes, alright?" She explained, continuing to clean her face wounds. "Yeah, they got a few good hits in. But... look, I managed."

"Are these assholes still with us?" He bounced back.

"Now that's funny." Tess rolled her eyes, patting the last of the dried blood off of her face before moving onto the bigger cuts.

"Did you find out who they were?" Joel asked, more serious that time than before.

"Yeah, look, they were a couple of nobodies- they don't matter." Tess explained, smirking at Joel's scoff. "What matters is that Robert fucking sent them."

"Our Robert?"

Tess nodded, taking another swig of her drink. "He knows that we're after him. He figures he's gonna get us first."

"That son of a bitch, he's smart." Joel admitted, stealing her drink and sipping it briefly.

"No." She spoke, startling Joel. "He's not smart enough. I know where he's hiding." Tess stated, looking Joel dead in the eyes.

"Like hell you do."

"Old warehouse in Area 5." Tess replied, peeling the damp rag off of her face and setting it back down on the table, finishing her drink. "Can't say for how long, though."

"Well, I'm ready now. Yeah?" Joel asked, standing up. Tess did the same, both of them walking over to the door.

"Oh. I can do it now." They both walked out the door, Tessa never knowing what had happened just before she walked into the apartment.

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