Don't Go|Ellie x Reader

2|The Path

My eyes fluttered open to reveal the morning sunlight shining through a crack in the curtains. The soft yellow glow setting on the hard-wooden floor next to the mattress I was now laid on allowed me to see all of the tiny specs of dust floating in the air. 'I could've sworn I fell asleep on the sofa downstairs.' Groggily, I wiped my eyes and let out a loud yawn which apparently caught somebody else's attention. They cleared their throat which caused me to look over at them sitting up on the mattress they'd been sleeping on. Their messy locks of hair fell loosely over their shoulders and around their face, framing it like a picture.

"Mornin' Ellie," I tiredly said.

"Morning," She replied with a long yawn. Stretching my arms, I heard the satisfying pop of the joints and threw the blanket off of my body and got up, continuing to stretch my arms again awaiting the exact same pop. Ellie just watched and got up as well. I went over to one of the drawers and pulled it open, revealing an assortment of clothes, only 1 or 2 different ones of each type, like 2 tops, 2 trousers, 1 pair of shorts, 2 pairs of socks, etc. I pulled out a F/C plaid flannel top, a black tank top and a pair of dark grey jeans. Whilst I knelt down to slip on my brown hiking boots and began to do the laces up, I heard the rustling of clothes behind me and assumed Ellie was changing. Just a few quick seconds, I turned around to see her back to me which no longer had a t-shirt over it. Before she could turn around to see me looking, I averted my attention back to my shoes and the laces I'd finished tying.

"I'll be downstairs," I told her, "Don't wait up."

Once I got downstairs, Joel was asleep on the sofa, softly snoring. His large body was sprawled out across the entire thing and I rolled my eyes at his sleeping form. Walking into the kitchen, I stood on my tip toes to reach for the cupboards and swing them wide open, revealing the few tins of food I had left. It all needed to be cooked before eating it which wasn't an option as the power was out still. I was going up with some others to check out the river seems as the water has stopped flowing so much through the dam. We all think it's some kind of blockage up the river stopping it. Ellie walked to the kitchen doorway, crossed her arms, and leaned against the door frame.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Only food left is stuff that needs to be cooked and the power's still out. I'm going with Tommy and some of the others to go checkout the river to see if there's a blockage in a bit," I shut the cupboards, "You wanna come with?" She smiled at me and it sent butterflies through my stomach.

"Sure, what about Joel?" She questioned.

"We could always wake him up and he could come with us?" I suggested, "I'm sure Tommy would appreciate his brothers' company." Ellie nodded her head in agreement, and we walked over to the sofa and lightly shook Joel to wake him up. He grumbled something that we couldn't understand so we shook him a little more and he began to wake up. He was still partially asleep and obviously not impressed by our wakeup call which was easy to see by the sleepy glare he was giving us. When he swung his legs over the side of the sofa he groaned a little, now looking down at the wooden flooring.

"What do you two want?" He grumbled, rubbing his face, and slowly standing up.

"We wanted to see if you wanted to come with us to go checkout the river," Ellie stated, "F/N's going with Tommy and some others and she asked if I wanted to go and we thought we'd see if you wanted to come along too."

"Fine," He mumbled and walked over to where our backpacks laid near the windowsill. He picked mine and Ellie's up and threw them over to us and then picked his own up and swung it over his shoulders to put it on. Me and Ellie caught ours and did the same before leaving.

"Tommy said to meet at the gate and they'd all probably be there waiting," I chuckled, "I'm always the late one to things like this... Because who doesn't like to sleep in?" Ellie laughed a little at my comment and I gave her a small smile and a wink. We continued walking through the compound until we got to the main front gate that led up to the dam. Tommy and a few other guys were there waiting.