Ella

I wake up on my stomach, my face pushed against the pack, and my neck aching from the way I slept. Sitting up, I rub my eyes, before looking over and seeing Dean sprawled across the road, drool on the side of his face. My tongue is like a stone and my mouth is like sandpaper and my stomach is hollow, but I actually slept okay. The cold was blistering, but I'm glad he let me sleep next to him. I wouldn't have even moved if I wasn't so desperate, but my body was screaming for a good night's rest. I hope though, that he doesn't think I'm going to do that every night, no matter how much of a good rest we got.

"Dean," I cough, my voice hoarse and scratchy. I decide it's best not to talk, and settle with shaking his shoulders.

"I'm up," he groans, before sitting up and squinting at me. "How are you feeling?" His voice isn't very good either, but no where near as bad as mine.

"Thirsty," I mumble, and his looks change when he hears me talk.

"We need to get to that town, and fast. I don't know how much of a voice you'll have left if we don't find water soon." I don't say anything back, just nod my head in agreement.

I pick up the backpack before he has a chance to carry it, and sling it over my shoulder. He's carried it far too long, and if I'm a part of this trip like he happens to remind me every ten seconds, then I need to help out more.

I can see the town now with the sun lighting up the Earth, but a nervous feeling creeps into my stomach the closer we get. This is going to be a long mile, and with the wind towards us it abstracts our vision, but something is not right with the town. The buildings look as if they're leaning, some look like they're only foundations and the actual building itself is gone. "Dean, I think--" I cough, it hurting worse than ever to speak. "Something's wrong." I look over at him, and see that he's not even paying attention to where he's going. His eyes are cast down at his feet, but as my words register, he looks up. His facial expression doesn't change, but I can almost catch a hint of disappointment.

"Maybe something hit this town too. Or maybe the mini asteroid that hit a day before ours, hit near this one and the impact caused an earthquake. The asteroid hit miles from our town, and we were still able to feel it." My heart seems to have dropped as I realize he's probably right. The ruin we are about to come across won't help us mentally. I don't know how many more dead bodies I can see before I completely lose it. And the stench. I can't even imagine the smell.

I can't say anything back. I don't want to say anything back. I want to find people, even Norovians. I want to find another living breathing soul besides Dean so I can actually grip the hope that is slowly fading away. What is happening to my Earth?

Before I can process how to handle this information, I can feel my breathing rate pick up, and I find myself on my knees, the world around me blending into one color. Dean is automatically at my side, but I can't make out what he's saying, it's as if I can't even hear anything. I feel so weak and I realize that maybe I'm having a panic attack. A bit more heavy heaving, and the world comes back to a picture and my ears are able to catch what the boy next to me is trying to say.

"Ella! Ella, are you okay? Is it the heat? Is it--" but he stops when I feel a couple tears roll down my cheeks. I hate crying, I hate how emotional I have become during this trip. I hate that I argued with Peter before he died, I hate that I lost my best friend, I hate that I never got the stupid courage to talk to Brad, I hate that my world is falling apart around me and I can't do anything about it. Most of all, I hate that of all people, Dean is the only thing I have left. No family, no friends, just an enemy that constantly gripes at me no matter what I do. I lost everything, but him.

His body is close to mine as he crouches next to me. We aren't touching, but as I stand to my feet, I can't help but push him away. "I'm fine," I croak, not wanting his help. I'm tired of his help and I'm tired of him constantly throwing the fact that I'm the first human for everything he does in my face. I don't care, Dean, I don't care.

I wipe my eyes, adjust the pack on my back, and walk towards the town without giving him a chance to say anything. I can hear him behind me, though, as he catches up. "Are you sure? I--"

"You what?" I don't stop walking, despite how much I want to just so I can turn and face him and demand him to tell why he's so eager to help me. Demand him to tell me why he's so up and down and one time we get along and the next we're at each other's throat. I'm tired of this, can't he see we're too drained for this nonsense? And we're not kids anymore, for God's sake, we don't need to do circles around one another constantly. "You want to help me now, so later you can throw it in my face when we're arguing? So you can tell me I'm weak and acting like a baby and that I can go cry to mommy? I'm tired of this, you don't want to help me, you want to pretend to help me so when your mad you have ammo to shoot me with. We all know how this is going to go, we're gonna find survivors, we're gonna get separated, and we're never going to see each other again. It's what we both want, so stop trying to do whatever it is you're doing." I don't even know if I have anything left to my voice, after rushing the words from my mouth. But right now, I don't care. I don't care about anything but finding water and saving my planet.

"This is where you're wrong," he begins, and I can almost feel the tension in his voice. "You think everyone's out to get you, news flash, Ella, they aren't. I'm not helping you to throw it in your face, I'm helping you cause we're a team. No matter what baggage is between us, we're a team." He doesn't comment about never seeing one another again, and I almost wish he would, just to remind me how much he despises me like I do him. "Do you really hate me that much to believe I don't care about how you feel?"

I laugh, a pitiful laugh that sounds more like me choking. "Are you kidding? Of course I do. You give me nothing but hell and expect me to believe you care? What a load of horse."

"Fine," he sighs, and I can see I've made him angry. "You're right, I don't care about you. I've always hated your species and I'll always hate you. You're nothing to me but a nuisance and I can't wait until you're off my back." I swallow as I take in his words, my saliva cutting my throat like what he just said is cutting my feelings. Why do I even care? I don't know. I don't know why I don't expect him to treat me like this, I'm so used to it. My emotions should be callused, but sadly, they aren't.

My eyes burn and threaten to spill tears, but I don't let them. How does water pouring from your eyes, in any way help how you feel? It doesn't.

Luckily, we are closer to the town, interrupting our angry thoughts. The town itself isn't what bothers us, it's the fowl stench that hits us as the wind blows. We are still a ways off and if it's this bad far away, how much worse is it when we actually arrive?

I try not to gag, but the sun warms up the smell and I don't know how much more I'm able to handle. "Hold your nose or something, we need to find supplies then survivors. We need to work together, okay? Those two seconds of putting the past behind us are back." I want to tell him I can't, but I'm not weak. Breathing through my mouth doesn't completely take the smell away, and the thought of something flying inside my mouth as I have it open, doesn't help, but it's better then breathing through my nose and getting the whole effect.

Our feet carry us closer and closer and after what feels like hours, we make it. We're here. We actually found a town. Despite the stench and thought of how many people lost their lives, I can almost see a small glimpse of hope come alive.

"I wonder why we didn't hear about this on TV. Maybe it happened after the asteroid hit us? Because if it was from that mini one we would have heard about it and they would have shown pictures of the ruins." I don't nod or reply, but he is right. We would have heard about it if it happened before the massive space debris hit is, but we didn't, so it most definitely happened afterwards, but why didn't we feel it?

"Why didn't we feel it then?" I ask, not being able to hold it in.

"I'm not sure, or maybe the mini one shook this town like an earthquake like our earlier assumptions, but no one knew about it because everyone here was dead, and by the time they found it our town was already in ruins so we didn't hear about it." So many assumptions and they all sort of make sense. "No matter how it happened, we need to split apart and find supplies and survivors. I'll go this way, you search that way." He walks away and I want to shout at him that I can go whatever way I want, but that won't get me anywhere and I don't want to waste anymore of my voice on arguing with him, so I set off in the direction he pointed, and pray we find something quick.