"Celery soup. It's been here since the start, you two are very brave." Olivia joked when Carol picked up the can of green soup. Eloise awkwardly laughed at the woman's joke. She was still a little out of it after what happened the last time she was in the pantry.

Carol made Eloise come with her and Eloise was not having it. "Well, I'm hoping the paprika wil mask the soups... celeryness." Carol breathed out. "Then you'll by stuck with something that tastes like paprika. No thank you." One of the other woman in the room, Shelly, sassed and Eloise held back an eye roll but Carol noticed and nudged her in the side before sending a fake sweet smile to the other women in the room. "Well, I figured since we're running low on staples, I'd take the things nobody seems to want."

Shelly laughed. "Is that why you have Eloise?" Everyone in the room froze as the lady continued laughing.

"What?" Eloise croaked, turning around to face the woman. When Shelly realized Eloise was actually hurt by the sentence she shook her head. "Take a joke, sweetheart." Eloise stared at the woman as if she were crazy before running out of the room.

Eloise ran home as fast as she could, running passed Carl who was taking Judith for a stroll but he didn't notice her. She threw the door open as she ran right to the couch, throwing her face into the pillow and luckily no one was home to witness it.

After about a minute of just laying there, the door opened but Eloise didn't look up to see who it was. "Lou. Come on. Get up." Carol said as she placed some stuff on the counter but Eloise didn't move. "Eloise! Get up!" Carol said louder and more demanding, almost in a motherly tone.

"Is it true?" Eloise said but her words were mumbled by the pillow. Carol sighed. "I can't hear you, Lou. Speak u-"

"Is it true?" Eloise spoke up louder, finally lifting her head from her pillow to reveal her red eyes. "Am I just some... some charity case, the girl with no family so you took her in, the kid your stuck with until one of us dies?!" Eloise screamed, tears running down her face and Carol quickly walked up to her, wiping her tears. "Lou, you're not a burden and you're not gonna die, okay? 'Cause only dumb teens get killed in this world, Lou. That's why you're surviving."

Eloise stared at Carol for a minute before nodding her head. Carol smiled at the young girl. "Now how about you help me cook?"

Eloise and Carol walked to the kitchen, taking the ingredients out of the bag as Lou's eyes drifted to the window where Shelly was walking back to her house, smoking a cigarette.

Eloise watched the woman as she swung the bag around with every step until she looked behind her and screamed.

The scream caught Carol's attention, turning to see what was happening.

A man ran over to Shelly, slicing her side open, her guts falling out as she tumbled to the ground. The man stood above her as she cried before he threw his machete down, slicing her head open.

Eloise heard another scream, a more boyish scream. "Get back!" The voice yelled and Eloise instantly recognized it. She ran to the window on the other side of the house and saw Jace fighting one of the masked guys. Dismissing Carol's calls, Eloise ran out of the house. She ran as quickly as she could to Jace and the man who seemed to be doing equally well in the fight.

She threw her knife forward once she got close enough to the two and watched as the knife wizzed past Jace and into the other man's head. Jace jumped in surprise when the man fell to the ground, turning to see who threw the knife and once he saw Eloise, he let out a sigh of relief.

"You gotta teach me how to do that."

Instead of laughing or smiling at her friends words, she hit him on the arm before grabbing her knife out of the mans head. Jace winced, rubbing the spot where she hit him. "Why don't you have any weapons?" Eloise scolded. "What do you mean, why don't I have any weapons? They took my gun when I got here!" Jace quickly defended, his voice getting higher and higher with every word.

Eloise rolled her eyes, tugging his arm after her. "Rick stashed a ton of guns at the house, come on." She quickly opened the door to her house, making sure no one was there before nodding her head to Jace, letting him in.

She ran to the broom closet in the hallway, grabbing the key off her belt loop and opening the door, showing off the different kinds of guns they had. Eloise swiftly took the shotgun, checking to see if there were bullets in it before turning to Jace. "Well, are you gonna grab something or not?" Jace nodded his head, picking up a normal pistol. He looked down at it as he abruptly spoke up.

"Enid told me she's planning on leaving." Eloise looked at him like he was crazy, shaking her head. "No. She wouldn't... she wouldn't just leave." Jace went to speak up but was cutoff by someone screaming Eloise's name from outside.

Eloise quickly ran out the door, Jace following behind her.

Ron came barreling towards her house, one of the masked guys chasing after him. "Lou! Help!" Ron screamed as he ran, flailing his arms around. In a quick instant, Eloise brought the gun up, making sure she had eyes on the man before pulling the trigger. The man chasing Ron falls to the ground but Eloise knew she missed, she didn't mean to but she only got his shoulder.

Ron continued running to Eloise and Jace meeting halfway. Eloise walked right passed Ron, pointing her gun at the man who was a crying mess. "Please don't kill me girl. Please kid. Please don't kill me! Help me please! My arm!" Letting her guard down for only a second, Eloise turned around to see what Jace thought but the man grabbed Lou's leg with his good arm, trying to pull her down.

Eloise tried to kicked her leg out of the man's grasp when two bullets hit him, one into his neck and the other went straight through his head. Eloise jumped back, shaking her leg out of the man's limp grasp before she felt someone grab her shoulder. "Louie, you okay?" Carl's voice rang from behind her and Eloise turned around nodding her head.

"Come inside. All three of you." Carl said, turning to Jace and Ron after looking away from Eloise. Ron turned to the front porch, his eyes landing on Enid and he instantly shook his head. "No." Ron grumbled before walking away. Eloise turned, watching as he ran away.

"Come on." Carl said, pushing Eloise towards his house as Jace ran in after Enid.

"Is... Is Judith okay?" Eloise asked, remembering she saw Carl pushing Judith around on a stroller just before the men started showing up. Carl nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, she's back here." He lead Eloise and Jace to the kitchen where Judith sat on her high chair and as soon as her eyes landed on Eloise, she let out a happy gurgle, reaching her small arms out.

Eloise laughed at the little baby excited to see her and quickly ran to her, picking her up and bouncing her on her hip. "Hi Jude." Eloise sang to Judith who mindlessly grabbed a lock of Lou's hair, gently pulling on it.

"Jude?" Carl asked, smiling as he made his way to his girls. Eloise smiled as she looked down at the baby. "Yeah. She needs a badass nickname."

Jace who was standing at the doorway of the kitchen after taking a water from the fridge, heard a thud by the back down of the house. Carl seemed to hear the noise too but Eloise was to engrossed with the baby to hear. Carl and Jace locked eyes, nodding their heads to confirm that they heard the same noise.

Carl turned to Eloise. "Stay here." Eloise cluelessly nodded her head, not knowing why he wanted her to stay in the kitchen but complied anyway. Both boys headed towards the back door, a note on the ground. They both knew what it meant.

They both crept back to the kitchen where Eloise was still playing with Judith, the two now playing peek-a-boo. When Eloise noticed their glum expressions, she stopped playing and turned to them, her brows furrowed as worry started to fill her up. "What's wrong?"

Jace shifted back and forth on his weight as he stared at the ground before Carl decided to be the one to break the news.

"Enid's gone."

Eloise froze. "Wh- What?"

"She left a note." Jace mumbled, handing her a little slip of paper with three words on it.

Just Survive Somehow.

—More Jace content has entered the chat✨
Shelly just aint it. 😌 🤚
Happy New Years to anyone where it's already 2021 for me its only like 5pm but still🙃
IM SO TEMPTED TO PUBLISH THE GLENN RHEE BOOK I HAVE IN MY DRAFTS NGJNGKSNK HELP
Anywayyyyy I love you all and I'll update soon.