ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ

| PROLOGUE |

ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ

THE SUN GLARED DOWN AT HER HEATEDLY, the bandana covering her nose and mouth managed to keep her from inhaling any dirt that rose from the ground as the Fedra trucks passed by the workers. She rolled her neck on her shoulders, everything ached from top to bottom. But since the most physically consuming jobs were the most well-paid, she just had to suck it up.

Seeing dead bodies had become a normal thing by now. Women, men, children. . .death had no age, especially in an apocalypse. Getting accustomed to seeing the mauled and bitten bodies of people had not been the easiest thing in the world, especially when she'd have to carry them and throw them into the fire and leave them to burn.

The smell was the worst. It was sickening. She had experienced the urge to throw up right where she stood more than once, however, being surrounded by adults meant that she didn't want to appear like a weak little girl who couldn't handle the smell of burning and rotting flesh. So she'd swallow down her vomit and remind herself why she took the job in the first place.

Being an orphan and having a little brother to take care of was tough. It would have been much easier if she had just continued attending the "school" that the QZ provided. More like military training, as she liked to describe it. Very early on she showed signs of rebellion; breaking rules, evading authority, and basically going against everything that was ordered to her. She wasn't the least bit surprised when she got expelled, and even though she thought her actions would only affect her, it turns out the school wouldn't accept her brother in fear of him being the same and having to deal with another "difficult child".

So all in all, she guessed it was her fault that she ended up where she was, though she'd never admit it out loud.

She puffed out a breath as she wiped the sweat dripping from her forehead with the back of her hand, going over to collect another body from the back of the truck, only to freeze when she saw a young boy. His face was wrapped with some type of fabric, but Maeve could tell even then that he was around her brother's age.

Swallowing down her discomfort, she grabbed the boy's arms, tossing him over her shoulders. Her limbs screamed from the added weight, her body begging to just collapse on the ground and take a break, but she forced herself over to the roaring flames, tossing the child's body into the pile of corpses, watching as it quickly caught fire.

"Ain't you a little young to be working on somethin' like this?" said a voice to her right as another body was dropped.

She slightly turned her head, seeing a man. He appeared  to be in his fifties at least, he looked worn out, with his beard grown out and the grey that contrasted his otherwise dark hair. His voice was gruff, almost like he had forced himself to speak with her against his wishes.

"Young people still have to eat." she kept her answer short, as she made her way back to the truck.

Never trust anyone was practically an unsaid rule all around. Maybe before it had all happened — before the outbreak — people could go up to others and trust each other enough to start up a conversation, but that wasn't the case in the world they currently lived in.

If someone went up to you now, they would always have second intentions; whether it was to kill you, rob you, or worse, you couldn't know, but it was never going to be good. She had learned that the hard way, and she'd never make the same mistake twice.

She struggled to lift the body of a grown man, groaning when she almost dropped it on the dirt road. Thankfully, the old man who had talked to her wordlessly came over and grabbed his legs as she grabbed his upper body, silently offering his help. Giving him a single nod, the two went over and dropped him onto the pile.

"So, what do they call you?" she decided to ask, whipping her hands against her worn-out jeans. She guessed asking him his name was her way of saying "thank you for helping me lift the corpse and dropping it into the fire."

It was silent for a long moment before Maeve heard him begrudgingly say, "Joel."

"Joel," she repeated as the two made their way over to pick up the last few bodies. "I'm Maeve."

ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ

MAEVE KNOCKED THE DISTINCTIVE PATTERN AGAINST the door to her and Noah's little living space. She'd managed to get it not long after they were left homeless due to their lack of parents, it wasn't the best but at least they had a roof over their heads.

She smiled when she heard the thundering footsteps of her little brother, and not a moment later the door swung open and on the other side stood Noah Solace. He looked younger than he was, at eight years old he was quite short and skinny, even though Maeve tried her hardest to get jobs in order to eat, he was still on the smaller side, though he never complained about the way they had to live, he had his sister after all, and that was all he needed.

"Evie!" Noah exclaimed, "You're back early."

He quickly ushered her inside, as Maeve wrapped an arm around him, "Hey little dude, guess what I got. . ."

She reached around into her very old and very worn backpack and pulled out a comic that was almost in mint condition, its cover was slightly faded but one could still see the title clearly, Spider-Man.

"No way!" Noah quickly snatched it out of her hands, gazing at it as if it was heaven itself. "Where did you find it?"

"Had to sneak into the old mall to get it," Maeve sighed as she dropped herself onto the only armchair they owned, and watched as Noah threw himself onto their bed, already starting to flick the pages.

Their space was small, but one might be able to call it homey. They had one bed, its size big enough to fit them both, one small table with two chairs, and a little electric stove, in which Maeve would occasionally cook what little food they had, there was also a counter pressed up against one of the walls, where a sink resided. Their bathroom was positively tiny, but they made it work. The walls beside the armchair were covered in the covers of comics Maeve had managed to get Noah over the years, and they had a window that overlooked the streets, where they liked to sit while it rained and make raindrop races.

"Isn't that place forbidden?" Noah's eyebrows furrowed innocently.

"Big time," Maeve nodded, looking out the window, seeing the sky become grey. "That's why I had to be sneaky about it."

"You didn't get hurt?" he pressed worriedly, going over to sit at the armrest of the armchair.

"No, buddy, I'm good," she smiled reassuringly, brushing his overgrown curls away from his face. She'd have to give him a haircut soon. "I promise."

"Oh! I forgot!" he suddenly sprung up from his sitting position, going to kneel beside the bed and retrieve something from underneath. "Close your eyes, Evie!"

Maeve rolled her eyes but hid her smile as she complied.

"Hold out your hands," she heard Noah say.

"You better not be dropping something disgusting on them," she grumbled as she stuck her palms out, but all she felt was a small piece of paper being dropped into them.

"You can look now!"

Maeve blinked her eyes open and stared down at the hand-drawn picture on the paper. It was her and Noah, both standing outside a house, a big house, by their side was a dog, or at least that's what she made it out to be, they had smiles on their faces, and they didn't look like starved children, it actually looked like the drawn figures had been eating well.

"Happy birthday," Noah smiled, as he started to point at the picture. "That's me and you and the house you told me we'd have when we get older, you didn't promise a dog but. . .well we need more company, we'd have all the food in the world too! And the garden you always wanted!"

"Thanks, Noah," Maeve pecked his cheek before wrapping him in a hug. "It's a beautiful present, I love it."

Noah beamed as Maeve grabbed their last bit of tape and stuck the picture on the wall, "wanna read the comic with me?"

She would normally tell him they should eat first, but as she looked around and saw the space void of any food, she gave a little shrug, "Sure, scoot over."

They both took up the space on their bed, with Noah placing his head on Maeve's shoulder as she started to read about the great superhero Spider-Man. They didn't last long however, very soon they started to drift to sleep, and Maeve—exhausted from her daily activities—hadn't noticed the shift in the bed very late at night, she didn't hear the creak in the door, or the light footsteps. When she woke up unexpectedly at four in the morning, her stomach dropped when she looked to her side and saw an empty space.

"Noah?" she called out into the darkness of the room, but there was no answer.

She threw away the covers from her body, forcing herself to become awake as she scanned the space, only halting when she saw a note placed on the table.

I'ᒪᒪ ᗷE ᗷᗩᑕK SOOᑎ! I ᒍᑌST ᗯEᑎT TO ᒪOOK ᖴOᖇ YOᑌᖇ OTᕼEᖇ ᗷIᖇTᕼᗪᗩY ᑭᖇESEᑎT! ᗪOᑎ'T ᗯOᖇᖇY EᐯIE, I'ᒪᒪ ᗷE SᑎEEKY ᗩᗷOᑌT IT ᒍᑌST ᒪIKE YOᑌ SᗩIᗪ!
—ᑎOᗩᕼ

"Fuck!" Maeve was quick on her feet, stumbling to the other side of the room and grabbing her backpack as well as gun and magazine, she threw open the door of the room and quickly ran down the stairs, not caring if she woke up any neighbours, she had to be quick. . .the mall wasn't only a place to be feared because of infected, but Fedra was also really strict about their restrictions, if they saw someone breaking their rules. . .

Maeve forced herself to go faster, ignoring the harsh raindrops that smashed against her face, and the fast wind that made her teeth rattle together from the cold. She had to get to him in time, she had to.

ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄ ᖭི༏ᖫྀ

Helloooooo, so, welcome to this book! Again! Haha.

This book was originally published around a year ago but I have no idea WHY I lost interest in it and took it down, but now it's back! And I'm very motivated! I've been getting into the tlou fandom again and you can also thank that one Seattle-Ellie edit that appeared in my fyp. Girl's so fine that she swayed my mind.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the ride! It'll certainly be a bumpy one ;)

Remember loves, don't be ghost readers <33