I Hold On

Dead grassy fields and dense forests alternated every quarter of a mile or so as the two survivalists drove on, heading for the enclosed neighborhood where they would start their search for Sophia. For the past ten minutes, neither of them had said a word. Ellie had her arm propped up against the door on her side of the car with her head leaning against it. She watched as Shane drove by other old farm houses where a few walkers were seen outside just aimlessly walking around. In an instant they would pass them though and a cloud of dust would fly up, clouding the mirror so she could no longer see if they followed after them. Not that it mattered though, they'd never catch up with them.
"You alright there? You haven't said a single word since we got in the car. It's ok to talk ya know."
Shane's voice makes Ellie turn to him and she sighs softly, briefly glancing at him before turning back to setting her gaze out the window once more.
"I'm fine. It's just..."
She pauses, unsure if it would be even worth telling him a small detail in her life; Shane doesn't seem like the type to really care about sentimental things.
"Go on, you can tell me."
He encourages her, which only makes her sigh once again before facing him, her eyes unfocusing and then refocusing on his coffee brown ones.
"I always liked car rides, even if they were for a short amount of time. I use to drive up to New Hampshire with the family and visit my grandparents every summer and spend a week or two up there. It was kind of a tradition. I imagine now would be right around the time my Dad and Mom would run around and start packin'. I'd be out of school by now and it would be Ariel and I's job to get all of the food and water together..."
Ellie stopped herself short of finishing her story and shook her head, not even realizing Shane was actually listening to her.
"I'm sorry. It's so stupid of me to bring up the past. My parents are dead and most likely my grandparents too. There's no point in even rememberin' somethin' like that now that their gone."
She felt guilty for even thinking about the life she once had; the last thing she needed was Shane seeing her softer side and perceiving her as weak. Nostalgia was a distraction and that's what got people killed.
"What the hell you sorry for? You miss 'em. I git that. It ain't stupid to reminisce 'bout the good times you had. Shit, I do it all the time. Jus' remember not to let those memories cloud what's right in front of you though, that's all. If anythin', we still got time to make new ones."
For a second he took his eyes off of the road to give her a soft smile and just like that, his eyes were back on the road again. Ellie nodded to herself and also smiled, not feeling as guilty as she had before. Just as she went back to peering outside her window, they were driving into a neighborhood of various sized houses. The houses were lined up on either side of them and then led up to a dead end where they'd have to turn around to get out. Garbage cans were over flowing with trash in each and every driveway and the place itself had the eerie feeling that there was absolutely nobody around, not even the undead. Shane pulled up to the side of the street close to where the road ended and Ellie unbuckled her seat belt.
"Hang on."
Shane reached out right over her chest and opened the glove compartment. A couple bottles of water had been stuffed in there along with a box of ammo; the same type that would fit her pistols. He took the box out before shutting the compartment again and offered her the ammo.
"Here. You're gonna need to fill up them guns o' yours if you're gonna be my back up. Can't have you shootin' blanks now can I?"
The wink and smirk he gave her made her roll her eyes and she took the bullets from him after she slid her Winchester's from out of either side of her shorts. Carefully she loaded each one until they were full and put the rest of the ammo back where Shane had taken it from; there were eight bullets left in the box. After shimmying the identical guns back into the sides of her shorts, she hopped out of the vehicle and shut her door quietly, joining Shane on his side where he was scoping out the neighborhood with his binoculars.
"We're gonna have to go house to house, start at the far end and work our way back."
He commented before lowering the binoculars and turning to her.
"Sounds like a plan. You really think that Sophia could have made it this far?"
Ellie questioned to which Shane just shrugged. He didn't seem too enthusiastic about trying to find Carol's little girl. Without another word, the two walked side by side to the end of the road which brought them to a big white house with filmy windows thick with dust. The man slid his own weapon from out of the front of his tan cargo pants and motioned for Ellie to do the same.
"I'ma kick down the door and see if we can rustle up anythin' that may be inside. Watch my back red."
The woman took her right gun out of it's make shift holster that was her denim shorts and took a glance around to make sure there were no walkers or people in sight. Just when she turned back to her companion, he gave a swift kick to the front door with his right foot. The door slammed wide open and dust and dirt filtered down through the light they had let in from the outside. Shane walked inside first, holding his pistol up high in case anything jumped out at him. Ellie soon followed him inside, mimicking his stance and the way he held his gun.
It was too dark to see much other than the outlines of overturned tables and chair. The only light that came in was from the open door behind them so the redhead took a moment for her eyes to adjust to her new surroundings before taking a few more steps forward.
"Anyone in here?"
She called out, only to have Shane glance back at her and shush her with a finger to his lips. Ellie bit her lip and nodded, her gun wavering in hand. The silence around them was suspiciously deafening. As the two of them walked further through the first floor of the old house, floor boards creaked and more dust fell around them. Upon reaching a seemingly dead end in the farthest hallway where it appeared to be closed off by a recently built wall with a hole in the bottom where someone or something had broken though, Ellie gave Shane a slight frown.
"They walled off the hallway?"
She questioned curiously with a soft whisper.
"They tried to make a stand here."
Shane replied in the same tone of voice before crouching down and heading through the hole in the wall. She soon followed. Once they were on the other side they found out that just around the corner of the other side of the wall lead downstairs to a basement. The moment they reached the last step, green eyes went wide and her free hand went to cover her nose when a putrid stink that could only come from dead bodies invaded her nostrils. A few feet away about a dozen bodies all in various states of decay laid before them.
"I don't think she was ever here."
Ellie managed to choke out while watching the man walk around the room as he kicked at a few of the bodies to make sure they were dead.
"We're gonna have to tell Carol the bad news- Shit!"
The woman watched as the once deputy yelled out and an arm from the pile of the charred and rotting corpses shot out and grabbed a hold of Shane's pants leg, bringing him down, causing him to fall to the hard concrete floor below. Just as a set of black teeth went to take a bite out of his lower calf Ellie quickly nailed it between the eyes without a second thought, killing it once and for all. The shock in the man's dark eyes was so clear, even with as dark as it was in the garage. She ran over and helped him up as best she could but not before a chorus of hungry groans echoed from right outside the slightly open garage door. That was when her own green hues turned into narrowed slits from fear.
"Come on, let's move!"
She heard him shout before Shane grabbed a hold of the hand she wasn't holding her gun in and pulled her back up the way they had came from. If there was a record for clearing a house in under a minute, they both deserved it because in no less than sixty seconds, the two of them together were back outside on the front steps where they had first come in through. The only down side to that was that there were flesh eaters just about everywhere now, coming from out of the woods, from inside some of the other houses and even seemingly out of no where. Before the panic set in of being surrounded, Shane thankfully took charge.
"You cover that street, I'll clear the car."
He ordered and instantly afterwards turned away and began gunning down the zombies that had huddled around the Hyundai. Ellie took a couple of steps away from the house and took her other pistol out of her shorts before aiming at the herd of undead coming down the street towards them. Both of her guns were loaded, steady and ready to fire. She could actually focus now that it was just the matter of shooting at the cannibalistic freaks trying to come after them and eat them; this was so much easier than at practice when Shane had been buzzing in her ear with that annoyingly attractive deep southern drawl of his.
One by one she put a bullet through every one of the walking dead that dared to take another step towards her. Blood and brain fluid gushed out of their skulls the moment a bullet whizzed through them with deadly impact and precision.
"Come on red! We gotta go!"
By the time Shane was calling her and telling her they had to leave right that moment, there were about twenty or so permanently dead bodies laying about the concrete in there own bodily fluids. Ellie made her way to the idling vehicle and slid into the passengers side before slamming her door shut. In a flash Shane took off down the road, flooring the peddle into the floor to make a hasty escape. A hoarse laugh left the redhead's lips as she wiped the sweat that had collected on her brow.
"What'chu laughin' for girl? We almost were walker bait."
The man took his police hat off, wiping off his own forehead before putting it back on, checking his mirrors every second or so to make sure they weren't being followed while he continued to drive.
"But we weren't."
She gave him a smirk, proud of the work she had done.
"Yeah, yeah. But you see, I did most of the work so..."
Shane gave her a sideways glance and a smug smirk to which just rolled her eyes at him, boldly reaching over to lightly punch his shoulder.
"Oh, come on now. You know I killed at least two more of them things than you did."
Ellie teased.
"Who said we was countin'?
His brown eyes caught hers in a playful stare before he turned his attention back to the road and reached out to punch her arm back in the same friendly manner.
"Hey now! Personal space please?"
She said aloud half kidding. The fact that he had actually shoved her back had caught her off guard.
"Oh, it's alright for you to shove me but I can't shove you?"
While still watching the road, he reached over and gave her another shove as if to prove a point, slightly harder this time.
"Ow! I bruise easily you know!"
She bit her lip and flinched away from his touch, her shoulder suddenly becoming a bit sore.
"You're a grade A zombie killin' machine and a lil' push from me has got you hurtin'? Spare me."
He joked, glancing at her again and then back at the endless road of asphalt.
"Yeah, it does. I ain't got guns for muscles like you in case you haven't noticed."
Rubbing her shoulder she pouted as her eyes cut him a slight glare and she boldly pushed him back yet again but with both arms this time so he swerved a little on the road. He glared back at her when he was steady again.
"You wanna make a war of this red? 'Cause I'm gonna win."
Just as he reached out to push her again, she grabbed his hand with both of hers and pulled it down into her lap, holding it there so he had only one hand on the steering wheel.
"Aw, looks like I win Shane."
Her vibrant green hues sparked with a teasing light and she let out a soft laugh when he just snorted.
"Yeah, you won alright..."
Silence ensued shortly after that. Ellie was content with winning their little game and had pretty much all but forgotten about Shane's hand in her lap since she was now holding it less strongly. Halfway back to the farm, the oblivious redhead had been gazing out of the passengers side window again just as Shane pulled his hand from her loose grip but placed it on her thigh. She immediately turned to him with a questioning appearance about her, wondering what he was up to.
"I never thanked you properly for savin' my ass back there. That walker almost took a hearty chunk outta my leg. Instead of jus' puttin' that geek down, you'd of had to put me down too."
As he talked she felt his hand getting closer to her inner thigh, rubbing circles into the fabric of her shorts; he never once looked at her. Biting back a rude remark as to how his hand was wandering too close for comfort, she decided to ignore what he was doing.
"No need to thank me. That's what back up is for right? I was just lookin' out for you."
She dared a glance at the hand that was now deliberately rubbing and caressing her inner thigh, his fingers massaging her skin in a thorough way. She felt a spike of heat shoot up in between her legs and just as she moved her attention to the man driving, he pulled over on the side of the road, nothing but trees and thicket on either side of them.
"But I wanna show you how much I 'ppreciate what you did fer me. You saved my life Ellie. Let me repay ya."
His southern accent was suddenly thicker than she had ever heard it and his eyes which were usually a deep chocolate brown were now black and dilated with a smoldering gaze that could only be described as lust. Ellie didn't even have a chance to retort back because as soon as she tried, Shane's lips were suddenly on hers, his tongue invading her mouth, stealing away any words she had wanted to speak.

Notes

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