Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Just eat it."

He pulled back from me, "I will not-"

"Oh my god, Ellie you need to eat something so just put the damn food in your mouth and swallow."

He stepped away, "Ripley that is not sanitary and I advise you not to eat it as well."

"You haven't eaten in hours, God, it could have even been over a day." I shoved the small bag of chocolate into his hands, but he refused to grip them, making some of the chocolates fall onto the ground.

"Why won't you eat it?"

"Why are you trying to make me eat it?"

"Because you're skinny and frail and you look like you're dying."

"I look no different than usual."

"Exactly you moron."

Ellie and I have been walking for nearly four hours. We managed to stumble across a gas station where I just so happened to notice a bag of half eaten chocolates in a trash can. I figured Ellie would actually eat it, since it was candy.

I seemed to be wrong.

"You know, you're not making any of this easy." I told him, "The least you can do is cooperate with me."

"Am I not cooperating with you, Ripley?"

"No, you aren't."

He was silent for a few moments, as if contemplating what I said, "Is not eating your garbage chocolate dis-cooperation?"

I grunted, "Yes."

"Then I do not want to cooperate with you."

Annoyed I walked faster, leaving him a few feet behind me, "Fine, if you want to starve, then starve. I'll eat the damn candy, and you'll wish you had said yes." I took a piece of chocolate from the bag, opening it from it's wrapper I couldn't help but cringe at how moist it was. Still, my pride wouldn't let me put it down. I was about to put the piece in my mouth when Ellie rushed up to me, grabbing it and chugging it out onto the road.

I glared at him, "What the hell-"

"Unsanitary." Was all he said, as he knocked the bag out of my hand, making me drop it onto the ground.

"Starving people don't care about the sanitization of their scraps." I muttered.

"You could get sick."

"I don't care."

"I care."

I opened my mouth to yell at him for acting like my guardian, but when I looked at him, the words of protest died in my throat. He stared at me as if his complete content and focus was on me. I realized I guess that was true, I'm all he has, of course he cares about me getting sick, if something happened to me, what would he do?

If something happened to him, what would I do?

I sighed, "Fine, you win." I kicked a broken cellphone that was lying on the side of the road. It was strange how many smashed phones you'd find out here. Part of me wondered if they were placed here on purpose. Surely people couldn't be this careless, right?

As the sun was now high in the sky, more people were out, and I found myself holding onto Ellie's arm out of sheer comfort. So long as I had a hand on him, I had control.

I kept telling myself that, anyway.

Not far from us, there was a little boy walking down the road. He looked no older than twelve, and had a backpack indicating he was walking to school. He was an adorable little thing, with glasses and messy hair and in his hands was a paper and pencil. I assumed he was doing his homework last minute, which despite my anxiety for Ellie to be near him, made me smile.

"He's innocent." I stated, as Ellie caught sight of him. "He's not a threat."

"Not a threat." Ellie repeated, and I could sense how nervous he was by how frigid his body became.

"He's just a little kid."

"A kid."

I slowly pulled his arm towards my chest until I was practically hugging it. I leaned my head on his shoulder, "We're safe, Ellie."

I swear, for a moment, he relaxed.

The kid only glanced at us once as he passed. The moment he was behind us, I sighed in relief. Ellie's shoulders slumped from their previous tense position, but I held tight to his arm.

"I get it." I said to him, "People make you nervous. I get it."

He was quiet, so I kept talking, "But you have to understand that people make all of us nervous -strangers, I mean. You're only comfortable with me, but that doesn't mean that everyone else is bad." I bumped my body with his in a light manner, "Besides, once we get to Uncle Riley's house, you do know that we're probably going to be staying there if he lets us, right?"

He only blinked at me.

"Which means he may want to examine you."

"Examine?"

"Kind of like a doctor." I said, trying to make it sound not as bad as it was. "And I can't have you biting his head off because you have anxiety."

There were more kids, a group of them, walking in the distance. They were screaming and laughing and chasing each other.

I don't think I have ever held onto something as hard as I did Ellie's arm.

"Remember what I said." I said in almost a whisper, "These are children, they will not hurt you."

"Ripley I don't know-" His breathing became erratic, "I don't know how to stop this."

"You have to learn." I could see the veins in his hands get darker and darker, and I wanted to hold him so close to me, but also shut him away from everyone in the world all at the same time.

As the kids neared, I could hardly make out the color in his eyes as they molded into a pure black. He was shaking, and I didn't know what to do. He was going to hurt these children, he was going to hurt himself. I panicked, I felt like crying, but it all was happening so quickly that I did the first thing that came to my mind. I pulled him off the side of the road, practically jerking him into the trees surrounding ourselves with nothing but bushes and crimson-colored leaves.

I grabbed his shirt, lowered him to my reach, and forced my lips onto his.