015. sam and henry

Aurora feels as if she's lost the ability to breathe, her body frozen in place as the young boy points his gun straight at her. The duo easily keep Joel at bay by pointing their respective weapons at the girls, threatening to shoot if he so much as looks at them the wrong way — she doubts they're lying about it either.

"Eyes on me," the older of the two says, not straying his gun away from Ellie who is holding her hands up in surrender. Joel seems to follow the order however, wanting to make sure that nobody is shot at this moment. "You don't have to worry about what to say. We don't wanna hurt you. We wanna help you,"

Aurora finds it a little hard to believe, considering there is still a gun being pointed directly at her skull.

"Okay," Joel says, almost as if he is believing the boy's words but Aurora knows him a little better than that.

"Okay, um, I don't know what the next step with something like this but if I lower my gun — we didn't hurt you, so you don't hurt us, right?" The older boy sounds so unsure of himself, his hand trembling ever so slightly.

"That's right,"

"That's a weird fucking tone, man,"

"That's just the way he sounds," Ellie interjects. "He has an asshole voice. Joel, tell him he's okay,"

"Everything is great," Joel's voice is as deadpan as ever, sounding exactly as he had before.

"Dude,"

"Listen, I'm gonna trust you," the boy states, looking to the one who is pointing a gun at Aurora and communicating through sign language. The younger of the two replies before getting a nod of confirmation. "But if any of you try anything..."

Aurora almost sighs in relief when the gun is pulled away from her, taking the opportunity to push herself up into a seated position. Joel is now also sitting up, giving his niece a slight questioning look, to which she responds with a nod.

"My name is Henry. That's my brother Sam," Henry still has his weapon pointed at Ellie but it's obvious that he's starting to let his guard down. "I'm the most wanted man in Kansas City. Although right now my guess is you're running a close second,"

Henry lowers the gun and looks back at Joel who has eyes narrowed. Aurora can sense the apprehension rolling off her uncle in waves, so she decides to intervene before anything drastic can happen. "Why don't we sit down and talk about this, okay? The last thing we need is a fight that doesn't need to happen,"

Ellie seems to agree, nodding her head and moving to sit beside Aurora. The brunette woman pulls her bag over and opens it up, pulling out some of the remaining rations that they have and eyeing up the brothers. "Are you two hungry?"

That seems to gain some sort of trust with them, because Sam and Henry sit down across from the other trio and eat some of the leftover jerky.

"Where'd you get these?" Henry asks.

"From Bill. He's dead," Ellie's words as so blunt that it's hard for Aurora to stop herself from cringing.

Joel looks down at the food in front of them and wraps some more of it, passing it over to Sam. The young boy communicates with his brother through sign language, leaving Henry to relay his message.

"He says thank you," Henry says to Joel. "I'm guessing you don't have much so this means a lot,"

That's an understatement. It won't be very long at all until they have no food left at all, quite a bit of it still stashed back in the car they'd driven here. There is absolutely no way they can go back for that now, the place swarming with the same people who had attacked them only hours earlier.

The two kids engage in some light conversation, introducing themselves to one another as Henry signs to his younger brother. The look that Ellie gives Joel after they finish is comical, judging him slightly to get him to participate as well. Joel moves his gaze to her before looking back at the two boys.

"I'm Joel. Look, you ate, we didn't kill each other, let's call this a win-win and move on," Joel speaks.

"Great introduction, Uncle Joel. I'm Aurora, you'll have to excuse him, he isn't one for social interaction," Aurora interjects, give the man a sideways glance before smiling at the brothers.

Henry gives her a small smile and a nod of acknowledgment before turning his attention back to Joel. "Well, I'm betting that y'all came up here to get a view of the city and plan a way out and when the suns up, I'll show you one,"

Aurora had grown up in the care of Joel, and Tommy for a while, and she learnt to never put your trust in a stranger. This world is shit, people will turn their back on you in a second if it means that they survive. Yet, as she sits here looking at the two of them, she finds herself putting her trust in them quite easily. There are some similarities between Joel and Henry, the need to protect somebody so much so that you're willing to kill for them.

"How about we get some sleep then, yeah? It'll be better for us to be rested before we go out there," Aurora suggests, looking between the other four in the room. She notices Henry signing to his brother, the younger boy nodding in agreement. "He can take where I was sleeping, it'll be more comfortable for him,"

Henry looks up at Aurora who is gesturing to the old couch cushions she had been laying on earlier. "Thank you,"

"You want mine then?" Joel asks his niece who shakes her head with a small smirk.

"Wouldn't feel comfortable making you sleep on the floor, grandad. It would be much too cruel," Aurora quips, ignoring the way he rolls his eyes at her.

"So much like your mother,"

"Welcome to Killa city," Henry gestures out one of the windows, the large city seemingly deserted.

"No FEDRA," Joel comments, eyes narrowed as he surveys the area.

"Not as of 10 days ago, no,"

"We heard KC FEDRA was —"

"Monsters? Savages? Yeah, you heard right. Raped, tortured and murdered people for 20 years. And you know what happens when you do that to people? The moment they get the chance, they do it right back to you,"

"But you're not FEDRA,"

Aurora watches the slight twitch in Henry's expression, as if he's trying to express himself in a way that won't cause any trouble. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that something had gone down between Henry and these rebels, something that they'd deemed unforgivable. All these people out searching for a one guy and his kid brother, there's a story there.

"No, worse. I'm a collaborator," Henry speaks and Aurora watches Joel's face sink into disbelief.

"I don't work with rats," Joel responds, his posture screaming that he now feels threatened by this man in some way.

"Yeah, you fucking do. Today you do 'cause I live here and you don't. That's how I followed you here. I know this city and that's how I'm gonna help you get out,"

The tension is palpable, Joel staring down the younger man with a deep distrust. Aurora is ready to jump in if the disagreement turns physical, not that she would really be much help — both of them would be able to overpower her easy, even with her uncle being thirty years her senior.

"Why help us?"

It seems Joel has decided to use his words which, quite frankly, is rather surprising to his niece who relaxes slightly beside him. Not only has he gone for communication over straight up assault, but he's asking valid questions as well.

"I saw what you did, the way you killed those men. Now I know where to go but I don't know how to make it through alive. Not if it's just me and Sam," Henry replies, sneaking a glance at his brother who is sitting over with Ellie.

"You seem capable enough. You're armed,"

"Wrong and wrong,"

Aurora has a hard time believing that, considering they'd pointed a gun at her last night.

"Never killed anyone and pointing an unloaded gun at you was the closest I've ever come to being violent," Henry admits.

Aurora's gaze moves over to Sam and Ellie who are laughing amongst themselves, a small smile flickering onto her face. Throughout the time they'd been traveling together, Aurora has seen the girl happy before but this is certainly different. It's genuine laughter, childlike glee that she imagines Ellie hasn't experienced much.

"Been a long time since I've heard that," Henry comments, the two men now looking where she is.

Aurora glance back to her Uncle and Henry before deciding she will leave them to their conversation, walking over to where the kids are still giggling. The brunette notices the book in Ellie's hands and rolls her eyes fondly, recognising the joke book she had smuggled in her bag.

"Rory! Why don't eggs crack jokes?" Ellie asks as the older girl slips into the seat beside her.

"I don't know, why?" Aurora smiles.

"They'd crack each other up!"

It's so stupid but that small part of her that yearns for normality, for fun, practically forces the laugh from her lips. Ellie and Sam are also chuckling, Ellie pointing out the joke she'd told Aurora so that all three of them are clued into what's going on.

Ellie shares a few more of her jokes as Joel and Henry talk, the two of them figuring out some sort of plan as to how they will get out of the city. It's Sam who scribbles the word 'tunnels' on his board when his brother asks, signifying that the maintenance tunnels are the way to leave this city.

No FEDRA, none of this mysterious Kathleen's people nor any infected — according to Henry anyway. It's almost too perfect of a scenario, Aurora having been on the end of things like this before where it goes terribly wrong. However, it certainly beats the alternative which is dying, something she's not overly fond of.

So, as she swings her backpack over her shoulder, the brunette takes a moment to believe — to believe that something might finally go their way.

sign off made by fireandbloods