Chapter Text
Abby couldn't breathe. Hands were clamped around her throat and the salty water burnt her eyes as she struggled to keep them open.
She wouldn't have made it. “This is my end” she thought — just one of the hundred thoughts her mind was pushing out just as she uselessly tried to find air.
Her lungs gave up. Bubbles of water escaped her lips as she involuntarily drew in a breath just for the unforgiving water to burn in her lungs. Her limbs were tired of fighting, her muscles drained of all the little energy they had, but her hands didn't stop trying to grip on the arms pushing her down.
Another wave of water rushed down her throat and her eyes rolled back behind her eyelids. Abby stopped fighting — her ears and nostrils had clogged. She had lost.
And she resigned to it.
Suddenly the pressure on her throat loosened all at once. Only for a second she thought of being already dead, but all her body was still screaming in pain. No, she wasn't dead. She could finally move her head and with a terrified push of her hands she managed to get her head out of the water, rolling on her side and falling on her elbows.
Water shot out of Abby's lungs as she coughed a few times — hyper aware of the girl next to her — and immediately turned her head towards the boat to see if Lev was in danger.
Instead she saw Ellie, who just a few seconds before was on the verge of drowning her, sitting down — head lowered in between her knees, gritting her teeth and wheezing — surrounded by the shallow water, abandoned to herself.
“Go” Ellie said as she started sobbing “Just take him”. The girl was heavily panting and even if Abby couldn't see her face she could tell by her tone that she was struggling not to cry.
Abby immediately ran as fast as her weakened legs could take her to the small boat and looked inside. Lev was still unconscious and Abby shook him slightly.
When he didn't move Abby just jumped in the boat and started the engine. After a few attempts the motor started rumbling and the girl checked the steering lever. When she assessed it moved smoothly enough she glanced at the other side of the large expanse of water.
If she squinted her eyes — still hurting from the ocean water burning in them and blood creeping in from her eyebrows — she could see only the grey placid ocean, the image of it blurring in tears and red glueing her eyelids. She had to be quick. Shots and screams still echoed from beyond the wall of thin trees that separated the hell she escaped from her freedom.
Abby was about to accelerate away from that nightmare when a few men came running — weapons raised and screaming — from the land behind her.
Her eyes fell on Ellie. The girl had turned on herself and pulled herself up, her eyes wide and hands raising in immediate surrender. Ellie could do nothing else. She didn't have enough time to reach for the other motor rowboat before the men would open fire on her.
A few shots rang in her ears, piercing the water behind her in a loud whistle that seemed to hurt the ocean itself. Ellie shrank on herself, bending her knees and raising her arms — knowing perfectly it was futile.
“Here!” Abby suddenly called. She had her hand ready on the steering lever and her scared wide eyes were darting in between Ellie and the two men. Ellie looked confused for a moment, but she still would've preferred getting away with Abby than dying on the cold ocean shore.
With two sudden long strides Ellie reached the boat. She gripped on the edge as Abby kept her gaze on the two men. One had been shot down from behind, by someone further into the land, and the other had turned to search for the attacker.
Abby only heard a thump and didn't wait longer. The moment the engine started rumbling louder the man close to the shore turned around again and fired blindly at them. The bullet pierced the side of the boat, next to the back of it — splinters of wood exploded around Abby as she let out a scream.
“Hold on tight!” She shouted in Ellie's direction as she accelerated. Another shot followed, but it only plunged in the ocean next to the boat, raising an explosion of small splashes.
Ellie was out of breath, the panic of being about to die was only starting to subside. She didn't dare to look at Abby. Not now. She knew for now the girl wasn't a threat, instead she turned her head towards the kid laying next to where she was crouched.
She had almost forgotten about him and as the boat jumped on the small waves as Abby accelerated, the kid's small frame shook against the wooden sides. Without thinking, Ellie grabbed on his shoulder to keep him steady and prevent his head from bashing on the wooden planks — her other hand gripped tight on the edge and her eyes focused over the bow.
“Left!” She suddenly shouted.
“What?” Abby replied in a raspy scream over the sound of the boat cutting through the water.
“Land! On the left!” She replied, raising a hand.
“We have to go further away!” Was all Abby could say, but she had also noticed the water slowly flooding the bottom of the boat from where the bullet had pierced it.
“It won't hold!” Ellie shouted above all the noise around them.
Abby turned her head to where Ellie's finger was pointing and tried to make out the shapes over the curtain of blood clouding her vision. Soon enough she saw what Ellie was talking about — a small inlet in the rocky wall on her left.
She quickly turned her head to check on the shore behind them, but in doing so she briefly lost control of the steering lever and the whole boat jerked right. Ellie fell on the bottom of it, but quickly pulled herself up. Abby was staring down at her — her hand detached from the lever as the boat marched on undisturbed.
“Pilot this damn thing! I'll check behind us” Ellie grunted as she pulled herself on one knee and gripped again on the edge of the boat. Abby started piloting again, her chest heaving and her eyes so wide she almost scared Ellie.
The small boat hit the bottom with a hard thud. Abby wasn't paying attention at the water level on the rush of the escape and completely crashed the boat on the shallow water, shooting both her and Ellie towards the bow.
“Fuck” Abby murmured as she bashed her knees on the wood, but quickly turned towards Lev to pull him up. The boy seemed to be briefly moving his eyes behind his closed eyelids and Abby ran a hand through his hair before pulling him up.
“You'll be okay” she said in a low voice, her cheek closed to Lev’s closed eyes as she dragged them both out of the boat. Her bare feet splashed in the water — droplets raising at every tired step towards a small sand patch that seemed to recede, shielded by the rocky wall.
Only when she felt no more of the water pressure dragging her down did she realise she had made it to the shore. She let out a breath she had been holding for so long it hurt her lungs, still coughing out water in the process.
“Hey! Hey wake up” Abby shook Lev slightly before wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling him up, leaning him on her side as she tried to put one foot after another to get deeper in the inlet. Her legs collapsed after the second attempt and her knees hit the sand, pushing a gasp out of her throat.
Abby's eyes teared up. She pushed the tears back as best as she could, but a few escaped the corners of her eyes.
“Please wake up” Abby felt a hand on her shoulder and immediately recoiled to the side, shielding Lev as her torso spun around. She had forgotten Ellie was also there.
The girl had splashed the water one step after another to get to the shore, yet the sound was lost to Abby — her mind fogged with the thought of having escaped death because of a miracle.
Ellie, the man had screamed in the theatre. Abby couldn't forget that name even if she wanted to.
“Let me help” Ellie crouched down on the opposite side of Lev and threw his arm around her shoulder. Abby's eyes widened for a moment, just a fraction of a second before grabbing Lev's other arm and mimicking Ellie.
“We gotta go further into the inlet” Ellie said with a gasp of breath and stood up. Abby forced herself on her feet and both of them started to walk towards where the rocks would completely hide their position.
The ocean water flooded into the inlet, creating a small space surrounded by high rocks. As much as Abby was trying to search for a safe place, her mind and eyes were too exhausted. She had to rely on Ellie.
The other girl dragged both her and Lev on the right, walking on a stretch of rock large enough only for two people.
“I'll bring him” Ellie said without hesitation, picking up Lev with a lot of effort and walking through the thin stretch, followed by Abby who was still coughing once in a while.
At the end of it they emerged on a clearing hidden behind the corner of the rock wall. Ellie took a few more struggled steps before slowly lowering herself on her knees and placing Lev on the pavement.
Abby didn't know if she should've thanked her, or if Ellie should have done the same to her — she had saved her life after all — and she decided to simply sit next to Lev and check on him for any wounds.
A bullet had scratched his left leg side. How was that possible? Abby had made sure Lev was hidden in the boat — the bullet that pierced the side of it had grazed Lev's leg.
Abby quickly ripped a piece of her shirt and wrapped it around the boy's leg — the fabric immediately starting to stain in red — before looking up at Ellie.
The girl was lying down on the sand, eyes closed and letting out shallow breaths. Blood covered them both. Wounds they caused themselves to each other.
Slowly Ellie's eyes opened and she stared at the girl in front of her. She was looking at her from a horizontal angle. She almost couldn't recognize her. Abby didn't have her long braid anymore. She didn't have her muscles, her bearing.
“Thanks” Abby suddenly said “For sparing me”
“It was only fair. You spared me two fucking times” Ellie huffed out a self-deprecating laugh “And I still came for you, to kill you”
“But you didn't” Abby was still breathing heavily and Ellie took a moment to scan her features more clearly than she had the time to do before.
Her face was thinner to the point of being almost unrecognizable. Her body was bleeding all over — cuts she had caused.
“You did it first. This shit of revenge would've been a never ending cycle” Ellie propped herself up on her palms and sat down on a flat rock.
“It wouldn't… I lost all my friends. I'm so far from Seattle. They had captured me. I had nothing to lose” Abby shook her head slightly and her brown eyes fixed on Ellie's.
“What about him?” Ellie raised her chin to point in Lev's direction.
Abby froze for a moment. Her heart started racing, her hands were almost shaking as she touched the boy's shoulder.
“I don't even know if he'll recover” Abby muttered under her breath. She wasn't even sure if she was talking to Ellie or to herself.
“He will" Ellie stood up as her legs shook a little and walked towards the other two with uncertain steps. Abby put her emaciated body in between Ellie and Lev, determined to protect him until the end.
“I'm not trying to hurt you” Ellie said as calmly as she could, kneeling in front of them.
“You just tried to fucking kill me!” Abby shouted — as she shouted Lev's eyes fluttered open.
“Where… “the boy murmured and Abby almost pivoted on herself.
“Fuck, you’re alive! “ she said almost in a panic, but the emotions stirring inside her were so positively loud. Ellie saw her caressing the boy's hair, almost hugging him in the process.
“Can you walk?” Ellie asked as she grabbed her own leg to stand up straight.
“I guess… yes I guess I can” Abby replied — voice shaking, hands trembling — she picked up Lev as best as she could, again leaning him on her side as she followed Ellie.
The other girl had walked past them, exploring the environment with her eyes only, trying to make as little sound as possible as they got swallowed by the inlet. Abby looked around for any signs of her captors — a weapon, a uniform, anything that could be them, but the only thing she could see were bloodshot shadows, morphed by her blurry vision and blood still dripping down her face like a grim theatre curtain.
The sky was completely grey above them. Ellie took a glance at the sky, wondering if it would've rained and silently hoping that the weather would hold. She asked herself why Abby had decided to save her at the last moment — her eyes wide as she had waved her hand motioning Ellie to get in the boat.
She couldn't wrap her head around it. She was sure she had done Abby so much wrong the other girl surely had plans for her.
Dark plans. Had she saved her to later give her a proper death by her hand? Ellie thought. She saw a small piece of rock — flat and pointy, rather smooth — and picked it up, hiding it on the waistband of her jeans. She had lost her switchblade. The thought of it pierced her heart, she had lost her only connection with her mother, Anna.
All that was left was the memory of the fact it had been used to fight Abby. With a slight grimace Ellie turned her head towards the other girl, but her expression softened against her will.
Abby was kneeling on the ground, checking on Lev's wound and whispering words that were lost to Ellie for the other girl was talking too low.
“What's wrong with him?” Ellie suddenly asked, turning fully towards Abby and the boy “Why is he still unconscious?”
“He received the same treatment as me when… when we tried to escape” Abby's brows furrowed in an angry expression “Just fucking guess why” she added a little more bitterly than she wanted to.
Ellie scanned the other girl once more. She didn't know why she was paying so much attention to the details. Her body had been beaten. She could clearly see blue and purple bruises on her arms… as well as the cuts she had inflicted on her.
For some reason she thought of helping her, maybe even telling her that she was sorry, but she held the words back pressing her lips together and swallowing them into her stomach.
Abby once again grabbed on Lev. She lifted him and held him a little more confidently, then looked up at Ellie — her lower lip trembling as if she was about to say something, but both of the girls remained quiet.
The other girl turned around and walked a few steps into the inlet, finally finding what she was looking for: a shielded place to the sky above. A hole wide enough in the rock wall for the three of them to fit into.
“Here” she instructed as she crouched and slipped into the small hole. To her surprise it exited on a wider cave — the walls of it dripping down with water rivulets.
Almost immediately Abby followed, dragging in Lev with a groan when his shirt got stuck on a pointy piece of rock on the pavement of the hole.
Nevertheless they were all inside. Abby fully stood up and looked around. She felt suddenly trapped in that cave. A small set of holes on the ceiling that resembled bullet wounds let some light filter inside, just enough for them to see each other, but not enough to grasp on the details.
They were all safe for what Abby thought. Just an hour before she was tired up to a pole, dehydrated and exhausted.
Then she had to fight for her life with the girl she was now sharing the cave with and behind Abby's eyelids the pictures of Ellie drowning her didn't want to leave. Yet she had saved Ellie's life once again. Maybe because in the end, Ellie had changed her mind and allowed her to escape. They had broken the cycle.
Though her motives were unclear in Abby's mind.
The girl saw Ellie sitting down against the far corner of the irregular shaped cave. She just sat down with her head in between her knees — just like Abby had seen her on the shore — and stared down, not addressing either of them.
But Abby had more important things to think about. She gently leaned Lev sitting against the wall of the cave and knelt in front of him, shaking him a little by gripping on his arms.
“Come on. Wake up” she said in an urgent tone upon seeing the boy had started to slowly open his eyes. His eyelashes fluttered a few times before his eyelids rose just enough for him to see Abby's worried expression.
He was used to seeing her like this. Nothing like the girl he had met — bold even when scared — she now looked only desperate and lost.
“Abby…” the boy murmured and Ellie's gaze pinned on him “Where are we?”
“Safe…” Abby stuttered “I mean, in a safe place, for now” she added, forcing a smile that came out crooked.
The boy turned his head to scan the environment and suddenly noticed Ellie's eyes fixed on him. Abby followed the movement of his head and also noticed the girl's stare. Abby was sure Ellie was confused at the sight, but she didn't stop to give her an explanation.
“We'll get out of here. Those people are gone. We escaped” Abby only focused on the boy, shaking his shoulder in an encouraging way. Lev's head dangled from one side to another, unable to fully register what he was seeing.
“Who's she?” He asked — his mind was tired and his body strained, but his curious and defensive spirit hadn't changed.
“She's…” Abby's words lingered in the air. Ellie waited, lips pressed together and knees up to her chest.
“She saved us. She cut the ropes” Abby felt a bitter taste in her mouth as she spoke. It wasn't blood, blood was somewhat sweeter and metallic. It was the fact she was hiding the truth not to alarm Lev.
“I didn't save you” Ellie suddenly replied. She hadn't moved from her sitting position, but her arms were wrapped around her legs.
“You did” Abby's tone was final. She spared a glare to Ellie that said he needn't know the truth.
Ellie shrugged just slightly. “Okay, as you say” she murmured, turning her head to the other side, suddenly more interested in the walls of the cave. Although she felt like an intruder in between them, Ellie stood up, groaning in pain as she moved one leg after another to get closer to the other two.
“What are you doing?” Abby asked, frowning. She still considered Ellie a threat and she didn't want her anywhere near Lev.
The other girl though only sat down barely a meter from them — enough to engage, but not enough to look threatening — and she tilted her chin up towards the boy.
“What's your name?” She asked.
“Lev” the boy replied and Ellie couldn't tell if his tone was defiant or proud. Maybe a mixture of both, but still Ellie raised both her hands, showing she meant no harm.
“I'm Ellie” she replied bitterly “And I did something really bad”
“Shut up” Abby suddenly interrupted. The cave fell in such a silence the drops of water falling from the ceiling resonated like gunshots on the stone floor.
“What why—” Ellie frowned. She wasn't used to lying. Her irises quickly moved from Lev to Abby a few times and what she read in Abby's unrecognisable face was a clear shut up.
The girl asked herself why for a moment. The only conclusion she could draw was that the boy was already in very bad conditions and didn't need more stress added to it. Knowing she was the girl who tried to kill Abby wouldn't have done wonders for his already strained mind.
“Ellie saved us, that's all” Abby frowned and in her almost disfigured face Ellie could read forgiveness, again. She felt she couldn't accept it. Not when Abby had let her live twice and yet she had travelled all the way to Santa Barbara just for… what? Was that even revenge at that point or some petty dispute?
Ellie slowly nodded, confirming Abby's partial truth. Yet, she couldn't stop staring at the boy's scars that travelled across his cheeks. She slightly tilted her head and picked at her bottom lip.
“You're a Scar” her tone was neutral, but for some reason Abby seemed suddenly enraged. Ellie backed off a little when Abby fully turned her torso towards her — her eyes bloodshot because of the wounds looked like ones of a hellhound.
“He’s a Scar as much as I'm a Wolf” Abby replied angrily. Ellie didn't understand. That was a matter of fact. Abby was a Wolf and the scars on the boy's face were clear indicators.
“What happened to you then?” Ellie asked, more out of curiosity than concern.
“I'm an outcast” Lev murmured, looking back and forth in between the two girls. He turned fully towards Ellie “But so is Abby”
“Lev please. Don't” Abby closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. The boy recoiled slightly in himself and fell silent.
Ellie had a million questions, but they all faded in a blurry mess when she suddenly thought of Joel. Of how he had taken care of her although he wasn't his daughter and could've never replaced her. Of how he didn't care how dangerous it was to travel alone with a young girl apparently infected.
She looked at Abby once more, almost incredulous of how different she was. Of how her imprisonment had made her skinny, famished and tortured. Her lips pressed together and she only realised she had been lost in thought when she heard Lev's voice.
“Why? What's wrong with the truth?”
“Lev, really this is not the time for—” Abby spoke urgently, trying not to be harsh, but Lev only shifted slightly, bending forward and raising his voice.
“You're not a Wolf and I'm no more a Seraphi—”
“She tried to kill me, Lev!”
The boy's eyes widened larger than billiard balls. His mouth remained agape, his words lost in the slight echo of the cave. Lev's lip trembled slightly when he looked back at Ellie again. All that blood. It covered both of them and Lev’s certainty that it was their captor's fault faded like the sun at dusk.