CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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         ONE THING LUCIA LOVED MOST ABOUT BEING OUT IN NATURE WAS THE LOUD CHIRPS OF THE BIRDS AS THEY AWOKE. The smell of strong coffee wafted through their camp and she inhaled it greedily. The brunette never really enjoyed the taste of it, but the smell, that was something she had always loved.

Ellie, whom had been snoring moments ago, rolled over in her bedroll and squinted at the bright morning light. The teen wiggled around like a worm and scooted closer to the brewing coffee on the stove. Opening the lid, she sniffed at it before quickly recoiling. 

"Ew, what the fuck is that?"

Lucia snorted as Joel turned somewhat offended from his spot near the truck. "You don't like coffee?"

Ellie glanced at the man, face contorted in disgust and Joel raised his brows in await of her answer. The teen turned back to watch the dark liquid sputter as it cooked. With a roll of her eyes and a groan she flipped the lid shut and let herself fall back onto the soil, pulling the covers over her head.

"You should take that as a no." teased Lucia, shooting the man a small grin as she tied her bedroll together and threw it in the bed of the truck. "Get up, Ellie. We're leaving in ten minutes."

There was incoherent grumbling coming from underneath the covers before she sat up, abruptly. Joel shook his head, bemused as he continued to pack up their stuff and stuffing it into the truck. The teen worked slowly, trying to keep herself awake as Joel filled a his tumbler with the coffee.

"How long till our next stop?" questioned Ellie as she hopped into the backseat. 

"We haven't even left." stated Joel, shooting her a grimace through the rearview mirror once he took his seat. Lucia was the last to sit down, putting on her seatbelt and revving the engine to life. "We're going to be driving till the morning. Not sure where we're gonna make camp, as long as it is out of state."

"Hm," hummed Ellie, nodding her head slowly. 

The brunette shifted into first gear and the tires lurched forward, taking them through the small path Joel had created the day before. Ellie leaned forward between the two seats as she eyed her movements in interest.

"When are you going to teach me how to drive?"

"Whenever you want." said Lucia, pressing her foot on the clutch before pulling on the stick. "It's quite easy once you get the hang of it, took me a couple of days before I could drive without stalling the car. Would you like me to explain some things now?" Ellie nodded eagerly and awaited for her to continue. "This is a manual car which means a bit more work than an automatic. This stick," she rested her hand on it. "changes gears."

"What are gears?" she wondered.

"You need to be in different gears for different speeds." she explained and Joel hummed in agreement as they continued on the highway. "To change gears you need to press down on the clutch, which is the paddle on the left. Do not press the gas or break peddle at the same time, you need to keep your foot off of it."

"I'm confused." Ellie rubbed at the back of her head, taking in the information. The girl knew every single thing about spaceships, but she hadn't read any manuals about driving a car and this information was all unknown to her. "How do I get it to drive?"

"You'd have to put it in first gear and then slowly release the clutch while pressing down on the gas."

"Can I try?" she pressed, eyes bright.

"Sure," agreed Lucia as she shot her a smile over her shoulder. "next time we get gas I can show you."

"Awesome." she grinned, turning her head as she eyed the smuggler once he opened the tumbler and took a swig of coffee. The foul smell hit her in the face and she grimaced as he watched the older man. "Is that really what those Starbucks in the QZ used to sell?"

"Well, theirs was a lot fresher than what Bill saved up," he began, taking another long sip. "but yeah, this is what they sold."

"Smells like burnt shit."

"It tastes like shit," corrected Lucia with a scrunch of her nose. "smells great though."

Joel thrust their map in Ellie's direction, not bother to turn around as he took another obnoxiously loud sip of the dark liquid. "Eyes on the map, kid. Go over what i've taught you."

The teen rolled her eyes and traced her fingers over the lines which indicated the roads they had to take. "Seventy-six west and then, seventy west, for like ever. Where in Wyoming did you say your brother was?"

"Last contact came through a radio tower close to Cody." answered Joel, he had spoken to an associate back in the QZ to get that information.

"Cody," repeated Ellie, trying to find the spot on the map. "Cody, Cody ... Ah, man. That's deep up in there. What if he's not there?"

Lucia peered at the man beside her for a moment before refocusing on the road before her. Joel's brother had been a Firefly, and hopefully knew where around the states they were stationed. They hadn't spoken about what would happen if they wouldn't find a him and frankly Lucia didn't want to think about that just yet.

They had no where to go if they wouldn't find him. The three of them would be stuck in an unknown state and they'd probably search for a very long time before they'd stumble across the rebels.

"The odds are he'll be near a settlement, probably close to another city out there. Ain't too many of 'em in Wyoming."

"Chee-yan ..."

"Cheyenne." corrected Lucia, furrowing her brows as she swerved around a stranded bus. They were close in passing a town and most of the road was littered with corroded cars, but she could make her way around quite easily.

"Che - really?" she raised a brow in her direction. Ellie focused back on the map and traced her fingers all over Wyoming to look for more places. "Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper? What's his name?"

"Whose name?"

"Your brother."

"Tommy," 

"Younger or older?" 

Ellie was a curious girl, asking the most questions at all times. Lucia had thought to find them annoyance, especially after being by herself for so long but she found herself not caring as much. Her presence was actually quite comforting to her, as if she was transported back to her own childhood with her siblings running around. 

"Younger."

"Why isn't he with you?"

"A long story."

"Is it longer than twenty five hours?" she pressed, grin overtaking her features. "'Cause I think that's what we got."

Joel heaved a sigh, leaning back in his seat as he said, "Tommy is what we used to call a 'joiner'. Dreams of becomin' a hero. So he enlisted in the army right outta high school. A few months later, they ship him off to Desert Storm." Ellie furrowed her brows. "It's what they called that war. It doesn't matter. Point is, bein' in the army didn't make him feel much like a hero."

"Cut to twelve years later, outbreak happens." he continued. "He convinces me to join a group makin' their way up to of Boston, which I did, mostly to keep an eye on him, keep him alive. It's where we met Tess. The whole crew, uh, well for what it's worth it worked at the time. And then Tommy meets Marlene. She talks him into joining the Fireflies. Same mistake he made when he was eighteen. Wants to safe the world. Pipe dream. Him, Fireflies, all of 'em. Delusional. Last I heard he quit the Fireflies, too. Now he's on his own out there and I gotta go get him."

Ellie and Lucia were quiet for a moment, only the sounds of their breaths echoing through the truck. Tommy sounded like a nice guy, a guy who wanted to safe the world even if there was nothing left to safe.

"If you don't think there's hope for the world, why bother going on? I mean, you gotta try, tight?"

"You haven't seen the world, so you don't know." said Joel, looking out the window. "You keep goin' for family. That's about it."

"I'm not family?" questioned Ellie, watching him.

"No," he denied, shaking his head. "you're cargo. And I made a promise to Tess. And she was like family."

Lucia blinked at that and steered the wheel toward highway seventy. Ellie had leaned back in her own seat, defeated as she folded the map across her lap. 

"What if we don't find him?" asked Lucia, already knowing his answer.

"We will." he stated. "I'm persistent."

"Get some sleep, Joel."

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NINE HOURS HAD PASSED AND LUCIA AND JOEL HAD CHANGED SEATS AFTER HE'D GOTTEN SOME PROPER SLEEP. The brunette laid half awake in the passenger seat, Ellie snoring softly behind her. Lucia watched the world whizz past through the window, blurring her vision and she heaved a sigh.

"What did you do before the outbreak?" wondered Lucia, turning her head lazily as she watched the smuggler beside her. "For work I mean. I thought I could figure it out but I keep coming up blank."

"What were your options?" he asked, meeting her gaze briefly.

"Don't laugh," she chuckled, cocking her head to the side. "at first I though you might have been a cop or something but that doesn't really suit you. Then I thought you could have been a security guard but I know that's not true either."

"Definitely not."

"Perhaps it's the fact you radiate authority." she shrugged. "That may also very well be because of the world we live in." he hummed at that in agreement. "Well, are you going to make me keep guessing?"

Joel snorted, bemused and said, "I was a carpenter. Same as Tommy, we worked together."

"Huh," she nodded. "i'd never have guessed that."

"Why's that?"

"Dunno," she muttered. "maybe now that I think about it I could see it. I always wanted to be a pathologist when I grew up." Joel shot her an unbelievable look, brows pulled together at the thought of a child wanting a job like that. "My mother might have been a bit too obsessed with crime shows. Picked up a lot of weird shit back then."

More cars appeared on the highway as they drove toward Kansas City and Joel had difficulty manoeuvring through the masses.

"That's ridiculous." he scoffed, slowly putting the vehicle to a stop as he peered through the window to see a way through to the other side of the bridge. There were busses blocking their path.

In the back of the truck, Ellie began to stir, rubbing at her eyes as she opened them. "What's going on?"

"Stay put." instructed Joel, slipping from the car carefully. He glanced around but no infected jumped from behind the cars and he slowly made his way toward the busses, seeing if there was any way around them.

"Where are we?" wondered Ellie as she watched the smuggler crouch to the ground. 

"Kansas City." said Lucia, carefully surveying their surroundings while Joel was outside. The man made his way back with a shake of his head, slipping back into the drivers seat. He took the map from her and she asked, "How far back do we have to go to go around this?"

Joel didn't reply straight away, jaw set as he watched the blocked highway. He revved the engine back to life as he said, "Screw this."

"What are you doing?" asked Ellie, as he put the truck in reverse.

"We can jog around this tunnel." he explained. "Take the next ramp, and we're back on the road. Minute, tops."

"Are you sure about this?" questioned Lucia, knowing they'd have to drive through the city. There might very well be a quarantine zone here and that was not safe if they were to pass it while searching for the next exit.

The smuggler didn't answer her they went into Kansas City. The roads were abandoned, but that didn't mean that there was no one there. Autumn leaves floated around the car as Joel drove down the roads. This place looked a lot better than Boston did. There were no signs of bombings and all the buildings looked fairly well kept for an abandoned city.

"Where the fuck is the highway?" demanded Joel after five minutes of driving around.

"I can't tell from this." sighed Ellie, squinting at the map. The girl wasn't very good at reading it yet. Lucia watched along with her, but she was no wiser than the teen. "it's all turned around."

"Don't look at the state map. Look at the inset."

"I don't know where we are in that either! This is my first week in fucking car, man. I mean, I think we're heading north."

"It's gotta be on the right." stated Joel, turning down another street. "What the fuck."

"Stop!" said Ellie, and Joel slammed on the breaks in confusion. "Is that the QZ? Where the fuck is FEDRA?" 

The walls read 'Checkpoint North Seven' and it was completely abandoned. Most large cities in America still had quarantine zones like the one she had lived in. It was pretty unheard of of them falling, but she guessed the Fireflies might have liberated this one if it was abandoned.

"Hey! Please help!"

The brunette stiffened, eyes wide as she casted her gaze forward. Joel did the same, teeth grinding together as they watched a man stumble toward them from down the road. He had his hood up, hand covering his stomach in pain as he waved at them.

"Put your seatbelt on." demanded Joel and Lucia didn't have to be told twice.

"Aren't we going to help him?" asked Ellie, following his instructions.

"No," Joel stated, pressing on the gas peddle. "he ain't even hurt."

None of them had time to register the situation as bullets began to rain down onto the truck. They were impaling the metal from all sides and Ellie screeched when her window broke, glass showering down on her. The truck was going to fast as it swerved from side to side and Lucia couldn't get a safe view at them to shoot back. Instead, she and Joel ducked as best as they could to cover themselves.

"Joel!" screamed Ellie in warning, as one of the bandits released a large rock from the top of one of the buildings, smashing their front window. "Go, go, go!"

The truck swerved to the side, tires slashed from the spikes that one of them had thrown at the concrete. Joel did the best he could, but he lost control of the wheel and they soared into one of the stores on their right, smashing through the windows and colliding with the wall inside.

Lucia smacked her head forward, the seatbelt digging into her collarbones painfully. The woman gagged from the force of it, grimacing in pain and not a second later another bulled whizzed past her face.

They were going to die.

oh we're in kansas so we're meeting sam and henry soon and that is going to kill me.