CHAPTER NINE:

BILL AND FRANKS

THE CLOUDS CONTINUED moving in one direction with each second that was going by throughout the new day for the survivors. The sky was a bright blue, having gotten brighter as late afternoon was coming. The occasional wind was blowing by, causing the leaves that had fallen off of the trees and were now on the ground to fly around in the air.

Y/n had her hands stuffed in her jacket pockets as she looked around at the small and abandoned town where Bill and Frank lived. It was nice, she wouldn't lie. It was much better than the QZ. She trailed behind the group as Joel punched in the passcode to the fence, the door opening with a buzz.

The man pushes the door open, holding it open for the other three to step inside before he closed it behind them, causing the fence to immediately lock back up. He led them in the direction of the house he knew Bill and Frank lived in, stopping at the sight of a pot of flowers laying dead near the front, which made him suspicious.

He knew Bill took care of his plants every single day.

The group of four ventured towards the door and Joel opened it, leaving a small crack when he didn't hear the piano, nor even Bill and Frank's voices. The door creaked loudly as he pulled it open, walking inside. The house was way too quiet, and neither of them liked the sound of it.

"Bill? Frank?" Joel calls out, his voice echoing in the house. When he didn't get a response, he turns to the others. "You three stay there. You hear anything, you see anything, yell."

"What if they're gone?" Y/n speaks up, voice shaky. Her father figure just turns around and stares at her for a couple seconds before he walks further into the house.

The youngsters stayed by the front of the house, glancing around. Y/n had to admit, it was a nice house. It was much better than the apartment she lived in back in the QZ. Ellie pressed her fingers to the piano keys when Alec called out hers and Y/n's names, holding an envelope in his hands.

Joel had been outside of Bill and Frank's bedroom, knocking on the door, only to get no answer when the front door slammed shut by the window, making him call out their names as he moved to the front, seeing they were sitting in the dining room. Y/n stood at the doorway, arms dug in her pockets.

"It's from Bill." Alec tells him, grabbing the paper from the envelope that Ellie had opened. He reads off the back of the envelope, "'To whomever, but probably Joel'."

"I figured we fell under 'whomever'." Ellie admits with a shrug to show why she had opened the letter. She grabs a key, gliding it towards him on the table. "Came with this."

Not saying a word, the Miller man shrugs his backpack off, letting it fall to the floor as he takes a step towards the table, grabbing the key. His eyes examine it, fidgeting it between his fingers.

"So they're dead?" He asks, getting nods. "Go ahead. You read it." He nods at the only other male in the group.

"'August twenty-nine, 2023. If you find this, please do not come into the bedroom. We left a window open so the house wouldn't smell, but it will probably be a sight. I'm guessing you found this, Joel, because anyone else would've been electrocuted or blown up by one of my traps'--" Alec reads with a serious expression.

"'Hehehehe'..." Ellie was the one to speak up next when her brother stopped, staring over his shoulder. Her eyes look at the others, awkwardly scratching her neck.

Alec sighs, continuing, "'Take anything you need. The bunker code is the same as the gate code but in reverse. Anyway, I never liked you, but still, it's like we're friends... almost. And I respect you. So, I'm gonna tell you something because you're probably the only person who will understand'."

While she listened to the nineteen year old read the letter, Y/n ran a hand through her hair as she stared down at her feet. She let her eyes hesitantly cast up towards her father figure, noticing the clench in his jaw. She had never met Frank and Bill, but she heard a lot about them from her mother.

"'I used to hate the world, and I was happy when everyone died. But I was wrong because there was one person worth saving. That's what I did. I saved him. Then I protected him. That's why men like you and me are here. We have a job to do. And god help any motherfuckers who stand in our way. I leave you all of my weapons and equipment. Use them to keep'--" Alec comes to an abrupt stop.

At this, Joel found himself growing curious as to why the younger boy had suddenly stopped, so he took a step forward and snatched the letter from his hands. The man felt himself freeze as he read the words "to keep Tess and Y/n safe" written on the paper, understanding why Alec didn't continue.

Y/n straightens up as the letter falls from the man's hands and onto the floor. Joel doesn't give them much time to say anything as he tells them to stay put before storming out of the house, his boot covered feet stomping on the porch and then on the grass. Dropping her hands from her pockets, Y/n steps to the letter.

Alec quickly grabs her arm before she could. "Don't." She looks at him curiously. "You don't wanna read it. I promise." For a moment, the two of them just stare at each other.

Alec sighs and opens his mouth again when Y/n snatches her arm out of his grip, bending down and grabbing the letter. She takes steps away from him when he continues to protest, her heart feeling like it came to a full stop when she read her mother's name, followed by her own written on the brown paper.

The Williams siblings could only watch as she moved out of the house where Joel was. The man spins around at the sound of her footsteps, watching as she stopped a couple feet in front of her. With a deep frown, he watches as she tries to fight the cries that want to escape her, her bottom lip trembling, her eyes watering.

Y/n didn't expect for Joel to wrap his arms around her, pulling her tight against his chest. And finally, she let the tears fall as she quietly sobbed into his chest. The paper was clutched in the seventeen year old's hand tightly, the other hand gripping the man's jacket. From inside, Alec stared out the window at them with a frown.

For a few minutes, the father daughter figure stood there in each other's arms. Joel let a few tears fall down his cheeks, both of them finally grieving over the woman they both loved together. Alec and Ellie were still inside when Joel eventually walked back in, his eyes zeroing in on the younger sibling.

"Show me your arm." At his demand, Ellie stands up and rolls up her sleeves, revealing the bitemark.

"Where's Y/n?" Alec questions.

"She needs to be alone right now." Joel quickly tells him. "I just finished making a truck battery. It's charging right now. And I have a brother out in Wyoming. He's in some kind of trouble, and I'm heading out there to find him. He used to be a Firefly. And my guess is he knows where some of them are out there. Maybe they can get you to wherever this lab is."

Ellie nods. "Alright."

"Uh, listen, about Tess--" Alec begins.

Joel holds up his hand, making him stop. "If I'm taking you two with me, there's some rules you both gotta follow. Rule one, you don't bring up Tess. Ever. Especially around Y/n. Matter of fact, we can just keep our histories to ourselves. Rule two, you don't tell anyone about your... condition. They see that bite mark, they won't think it through. They'll just shoot you. Rule three, you both do what I say when I say it. We clear?"

"Yes." The siblings reply.

"Repeat it." Joel demands.

"What you say goes." Alec repeats.

The eldest member of the group nods in satisfaction before he was moving down to the bunker. Ellie immediately followed him. Alec went to trail behind them, but stopped when he heard a sniffle. Slowly, the floor creaks underneath his feet as he moved to stand by the door, staring at the back of Y/n's head.

Y/n sat on the stairs of the porch, her elbows resting on her knees that were close to her chest. Her cheeks were stained with tears after she finally stopped crying after about ten minutes. She doesn't look behind her when she hears the porch creaking behind her. She doesn't protest when Alec hesitantly sits down beside her.

Alec clears his throat, rubbing his clammy hands against his jeans. "I'm not really good at this kind of thing. But I figured, uh... sitting here beats pacing inside and pretending I'm doing something useful."

"You could've kept pretending. I wouldn't have stopped you." Y/n whispers, staring out at the town.

"Maybe." The older one agrees with a shrug. His brown eyes stare at the side of her face. "But you looked like you could use some company. And I... I didn't wanna leave you alone."

The girl doesn't reply. Instead, she rests her chin on top of her knees, her e/c eyes admiring the different abandoned buildings and shops around the small town. The two let a silence sit around them and surprisingly, it was comfortable.

"I wish I had told her." Y/n was the one to break the silence.

Alec looks at her, curious. "Told her what?"

"That I loved her." The girl doesn't look at him, her eyes now staring at her dirty hands. "I never really told her much. I always thought she just knew." When her eyes prick with tears again, she looks up to hold them back. "I keep... replaying her words in my head. She thought she didn't give me a good life, but she did. She thought it was her fault, but it never was. I made think that."

"You didn't."

"But I did!" Her desperate, wide eyes look at the older boy. "She died thinking that I didn't love her... that she failed me... but she never did."

"She knew that you loved her. She was tough, but she wasn't stupid. It was only a day, but I would see the way she looked at you. She looked at you like you were the light in her life, which I'm sure that you were." Alec's voice was firm and full of determination.

Y/n sniffles. "You sound like you've done this before." She wipes a tear that falls down her cheek.

The boy shrugs. "Not really, but I know what it's like to lose a mother."

"You lost your mother?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was only four, but I remember her a lot."

"What do you remember?"

"I remember how protective she was over the people she loved. She was really protective of me. I remember how she took care of me. She taught me how to fight, how to survive." He picks at his fingernails. "She died hours after she gave birth to Ellie. She was bitten."

Y/n frowns. "I'm sorry."

"It was a long time ago." Alec replies, shaking it off with a wave of his hand. "Once I joined the Fireflies, Marlene told me more about her. That's when I started remembering more. I remember saying I felt like it was my fault she died. Marlene told me the same thing I told you."

Once again, a silence overcomes the two of them. Their legs were touching now as they had moved closer beside one another. The birds chirping around them was all that they could hear, followed by sounds coming from inside the house.

Y/n peeks up at the boy beside her. "You're not what I expected, you know."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" Alec teasingly and curiously asks.

The girl lets out a tired laugh. "I'll let you decide." At this, they share a quiet laugh.

"Do you think..." Alec stops himself after a moment of silence, hesitancy in his tone. He almost doesn't continue. "...it gets easier? Losing people?"

Y/n stops and thinks for a moment, staring out at the distance before finally replying, "No. But I think you get better at pretending it doesn't hurt. And if you're lucky..." Her eyes meet his. "...someone sits next to you long enough to make you feel like it's okay to fall apart sometimes."

Their eye contact becomes intense, yet neither of them can look away. Alec's brown eyes stare into Y/n's e/c ones. He finds himself admiring them. Admiring her. They sit like that, quiet, hurting, but slowly beginning to realize that maybe... they're not alone.

Ellie suddenly comes running up to them from the garage, an excited smile on her face. "They have hot water! And soap! I'm gonna have a freaking shower!" Without another word, she pushes in between them and inside the house.

The two older kids find themselves smiling at the fourteen year old. At first, they don't move. With their smiles twitching up lightly, they look at each other again, their gazes now soft and full of amusement.

Y/n was the first to break it, wiping her hands on her pants as she rose up to her feet. Alec kept his eyes on her the entire time. He felt his heart skip a beat when she held out her hand towards him.

Without hesitation, he grabs it.

* * *

EVENING WAS SLOWLY beginning to come to some of the lasting survivors currently in the small abandoned town. The group of four had been able to all take a shower, Joel now currently in the shower as the other two waited for him, already changed into some new clothes for themselves. It was still bright outside.

Joel had been the last one to get in the shower as they continued waiting for the truck battery. The group had dug through boxes of clothes and found some good ones that would fit each of them. The Williams siblings were in the living room together, cleaned and showers as Ellie fidgeted with the grandfather clock.

Ellie jumps when one of the hands of the clock falls, clashing onto the floor. "Good job." Alec sarcastically tells her, swiping his now damp hair back before putting a baseball cap he had found on his head.

"You didn't see that happen." Ellie says, closing the grandfather clock with a sigh.

As she continued to move around, her older brother moved to the other side of the room as Y/n walked in, brushing her damp hair. Fixing the hat on his head, the nineteen year old felt himself stop as he admired her. Whether she was clean or dirty, Alec couldn't help but think she still looked... pretty.

Neither of them had noticed Ellie hiding something in her bag.

"Well, don't you look pretty." Ellie speaks up when Joel walks in from down the hall.

"Shut up." The man grumbles.

He tosses some deodorant to her, which she catches it with ease. The girl smiles as she uses it before giving it to the other two, which they use it as well. Once they were all good, the group of four grabbed their bags and the rest of the things they'd knew they'd need for the long travel before heading out to the garage.

Making sure the truck battery was finished charging, Joel got into the driver's seat while Alec got into the passengers beside him. The two girls in the group hopped into the back. With an eager smile, Ellie leaned forward through the two front seats to play with things, amazed by all the buttons.

"It's your first time in a car?" Y/n questions.

"It's like a spaceship." Ellie murmurs.

"No, it's like a piece of shit Chevy S10, but it'll get us there... I think." Joel states, reaching for his seatbelt. "Seatbelt."

The nineteen year old beside him had been leaning back in his seat, trying to get comfortable, too distracted to hear him. So, Joel leaned over him and grabbed his seatbelt, silently telling him to put it on, which he slowly did. When the man glanced back at them, the girls did the same thing.

Starting the car, the engine turned on within seconds. Joel didn't move right away as he fixed the mirrors to his liking. Y/n immediately turned to look out the window as Ellie kept glancing around. Curious, Alec leans forward and opens the glove compartment, pulling a music tape out.

Joel pressed his foot on the gas, driving out of the garage while Alec ignored the man's demands of leaving the tape alone. In his mind, he thought the young man didn't know how to work it. With a little smile, the older Williams sibling puts the tape in the radio, music soon playing throughout the vehicle.

When Alec goes to change it, Joel stops him, "No, leave it. This is good. This is Linda Ronstadt." He sighs in content. "Do you guys know who Linda Ronstadt is?"

"You know we don't know who Linda Ronstadt is." Ellie replies.

When they reached the fence, Joel was holding a remote up and pressing some buttons, causing the fence to open. When it was wide enough, Joel pressed on the gas and drove off, leaving the abandoned town and the two lifeless men lying in their bed together behind.