CHAPTER FOURTY EIGHT

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          THE SMUGGLER'S EARS WERE RINGING WHEN HE REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS, HIS HEAD FELT LIKE SOMEONE KEPT SMACKING IT WITH A HAMMER. He managed to get his eyes open with a squint and sat up abruptly when he heard a low painful moan to his left.

Lucia had a gash on her forehead and he shook her shoulders desperately, wanting her to open her eyes.

He peered around the area they were in, as if in some hospital room and they'd been laid on uncomfortable beds. He furrowed his brows when he spotted the red paint on the wall, the Fireflies sigil stark against the soft green of the room. Joel glanced back to the woman beside him and met her gaze once she hazily opened her eyes.

"What happen-" she breathed, confused when the door opened.

"Welcome to the Fireflies." The familiarity of the voice made Lucia want to sit up, but she winched at the pain in her head. "Easy, you got hit pretty hard. Patrol didn't know who you both were."

"Where is Ellie?" demanded Joel, images of her lifeless body protruding his brain as he helped Lucia steady herself. Though, he kept a firm gaze on the two armed Fireflies beside Marlene herself. One stood outside the door, keeping watch while the other stood in the room with them, gaze fixated on both.

"She wan't hurt." said Marlene, arms crossed over her chest as she looked at the two of them with an unreadable expression on her face. "Not even a scratch. She's mostly worried about you two."

"Where is she?" asked Lucia, blinking away the stars that came into her vision. "We want to see her."

"We lost half our crew crossing the country." said Marlene, ignoring the brunette as she continued, "I hade five men whose only job was to protect me, and I still almost got killed. How'd you two do it?"

"It was all her." confessed Joel with a shake of his head as he rubbed the back of his neck. "She fought like hell to get here."

"She would've been dead on day one." Marlene heaved a sigh in disagreement and she slowly glanced between Lucia and Joel, setting her gaze on the latter. "You are the one person I never wanted to be in debt to. But I owe you. I owe both of you."

"You don't owe me anything." denied Lucia, not having a care in the world for the stuff the woman had promised her when she delivered Ellie to them. It wasn't important to her anymore.

"My men are collecting your stuff." she nodded. "Might not be as much as we discussed since we lost a lot on the way here but it's still something to get you going on your way back." It didn't go unnoticed by her how Joel slid his hand toward her back and her lips tugged into a smile. "If you still need it."

"Just let us see her." began Joel, wanting all of this to be over so they could get the hell out of there. "She was so nervous coming here, she doesn't want to be alone."

"I can't." she said, thinking about how to choose her next words. "She's being prepped for surgery."

The smuggler narrowed his is in confusion and he felt Lucia sit up straighter at the revelation. He glanced around the room, unable to form the words before asking, "What surgery?"

"Our doctor," began Marlene with a troubled expression. "he thinks that the Cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth."

"Why is she in surgery." repeated Lucia, having gone eerily still.

"It produces a kind of chemical messenger." continued Marlene as she tried to explain it to them. "It makes normal Cordyceps think that she's Cordyceps. It's why she's immune. He's going to remove it from her, multiply the cells in a lab, produce those chemical messengers and then we can give it to everyone. He thinks it could be a cure. A fucking cure."

Joel was silent for a moment as they took it in, and realisation hit him like a punch to the gut. "Cordyceps grows inside the brain."

Marlene seemed to feel some sort of remorse as she nodded her head sadly. The woman took a few steps to her right to get closer to the door and she briefly met the soldiers gaze. "It does."

"Find someone else." Lucia said and Marlene bit the inside of her cheek as the tone of voice the brunette used. The Firefly felt uncomfortable under her stare and took another step backward, knowing how she could lash out if provoked.

"There is no one else." she confessed with regret. "We didn't tell her, we didn't cause her any fear, there won't be any pain."

"No, no, you take us to her!" demanded Joel, getting to his feet as he raised his voice and bellowed, "You take us to her right now!"

As Joel got closer to Marlene the Firefly beside her slammed the but of his rifle into his gut and the smuggler fell to his knees in pain. Lucia was on her feet beside him not a second later as she glared up at them. Oh, she wanted to kill all of them and it was difficult holding herself back. But she didn't know where Ellie was and if she started killing people left and right there was a good chance they were never going to find her.

"Please," Lucia tried to reason as she stared at Marlene with a desperate look on her face. "you don't understand."

"I do." she muttered, her brows furrowed and she seemed to be in genuine pain as she continued. "I was there when she was born. I promised her mother that I would save her child. I promised. So, I do understand. I'm the only one who understand. I'm sorry. I have no other choice."

Joel looked up from the floor, having been able to catch his breath. The flicker of rage that shot through him was all too familiar to him and he could basically feel it vibrate off of Lucia too. He looked up at Marlene darkly and glowered, "I do."

Marlene nodded her head glumly at his threat and said to her soldiers, "Walt them out to the highway, leave them there with their packs. And give them this." She took something from her pocket and Lucia almost attacked her right then and there at the sight of Ellie's switchblade. "They try anything, shoot them."

The two Fireflies barged in toward them and either of them grabbed a hold of them as they began to push them from the room. Marlene swallowed away the lump in her throat when she met Lucia's gaze as she passed her. It was a look of pure hatred and Marlene didn't know if letting them go was a good thing. 

Neither of them spoke as they were being pushed around the hospital. Lucia and Joel were tense, counting their footsteps as they walked and took in their surrounding areas. Lucia narrowed her eyes at the feel of the barrel of the rifle against her back.

The woman stopped in her tracks, ignoring the metal against her as she stared at the plaster on the wall with all the hospital floors on it. 

"I didn't hear anyone say 'stop'." said the Firefly and Joel let out a snarl when he heard the click of the rifle behind him.

"Which way?" asked the smuggler gruffly.

"Down the stairs." he ordered and they were pushed toward the emergency exit stairs. 

The staircase was wide enough that they could walk beside each other, the light flickering on and off above them. They reached the third set of stairs when Lucia couldn't contain herself anymore and bumped her shoulder into Joel's. He clenched his jaw, knowing exactly what it was she wanted to do. He inclined his head just an inch, but she noticed it.

Joel was the first to stop one on of the steps when the soldier pushed at his shoulder. "Keep fucking walking." When the smuggler ignored him and Lucia turned her head slighty he snapped, "I said, keep walk-"

The Firefly didn't have time to finish his sentence as Joel swung his elbow back and hit him in the jaw. Lucia's on her knees to get his rifle before he could even fall to the ground and pulled the trigger, killing the other soldier in an instance. A second bullet found home in the other Firefly's thigh and he cried out in pain.

"Where is she? Where is the operating room?" she snarled, such intense anger radiating off of her that Joel wasn't able to tear her gaze away from her. The man spit at them in anger and kept his mouth shut. "I don't have time for this." Another bullet lodged itself into his stomach and blood spurted from his mouth. "Where the fuck is she!"

"Top floor," he croaked, trying to get some air. "far end."

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Lucia didn't give him the time of day to respond and put a bullet between his eyes. The woman snatched Ellie's switchblade from his pocket and faced the smuggler.

"Shots fired! Shot fired!"

Joel took the rifle from the other soldier and told her darkly, "Let's get our girl."

lucia and joel are going to annihilate every single one of the fireflies and i am so excited. two more chapters till the end and then i can't believe it's all finished. might go crazy and write chapters afterward of their time in jackson