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「 two. And if you were my little girl
I'd do whatever I could do
I'd run away and hide with you. 」

"W-WAIT, YOU GOT HIT—" Ellie giggled, laying down on her back beside the blonde girl, "—with a bike," the brunette cackled, "oh, my god. You are an idiot."

Elizabeth cackled, resting her hand against her stomach which had begun to ache due to her laughing, "Shut up, asshole! It wasn't e-even my fault." The girl wheezed, hitting her stomach as she stretched her legs.

"God, you are so weird, you know that?" Ellie stated, opening up one of the month old candy bars Elizabeth had managed to steal from an abandoned base three weeks prior.

Elizabeth grinned, flipping onto her stomach and placing her hand along Bellamy's fur. "Says you, ponytail."

To put it simple— when you leave two, unattended fourteen-year old girls in a room with a very fluffy dog, chances are they'll open up to one another sooner or later. And for them, it just so happened to be sooner.

Everyday for the past ten days, Elizabeth would send one of her 'friends' to distract Marlene whilst she would sneak upstairs to the locked room, pick the lock, and then spend the next few hours trading stories for old pieces of candy.

Ellie was odd. Very odd. But she was good company.

Ellie didn't know what to think of the girl beside her. She was an enigma. The very epitome of surreal strangeness and beauty. She was sharp, as though cut with the sharpest of knives, but tender as though she were the balance of scales.

That didn't mean she trusted her.

Sure, she would've liked too. And perhaps she would over time, but now, as she sat chained inside the dust-covered room, her loyalties lied within herself.

"How'd you even end up with the fireflies?" Ellie asked, sitting up and giving a curious glance to the blonde.

Elizabeth scratched the side of her neck, stretching slightly as she sat up. "Marlene found me when I was very young. No parents. No allegiance. Took me in."

Ellie nodded, "cool, cool." She muttered, leaning back on her arms.

"Whag 'bout you? What's your story?" Elizabeth asked, adjusting the large jacket that warmed up her arms and back.

Ellie turned quiet for a moment, a solemn expression falling over her face, "I don't know. I mean, I was in military school for ages. Finally got out, and got snatched up by your buddies."

Elizabeth gave the brunette an unamused look, "already told you, not my buddies. Anyway, where you alone?" She asked, her eyebrows raising slightly in curiosity.

Ellie looked down, fiddling with the sleeve of her jacket, "Yeah..."

Elizabeth gave the girl an empathetic glance, "couldn't of been easier for you. I almost died without Bellamy." She frowned, patting the dogs head softly.

Ellie simply waved her hand, "nah, it's-it's alright." The girl nodded, turning to the girl a shrug.

Elizabeth could tell from the troubled glaze of her eyes that it was definitely not alright, but she didn't push for an answer. She assumed Ellie had only opened up to her due to the desire to have a friend.

A sudden creak emerged from the room two doors over— Marlene's room.

Immediately, Elizabeth rose to stand up. Silently gesturing for the other girl to be silent, as she sneaked towards the door.

Elizabeth ducked her head out of view of the small, foggy window, turning back to Ellie with a finger over her lips. After a moment, the blonde grabbed the black backpack up from the floor and gestured for Bellamy to follow after her.

"I'll be back tomorrow." Elizabeth whispered, going to open the door as quietly as she could. Ellie creeped forward— as forward as she could with chains on her wrist, "you promise?"

"Promise."

Elizabeth sneaked out the room, narrowly avoiding the floorboards she knew would creak if she were to step foot on them. Marlene had often called her 'fox' due to her sly moves and sneaky approach.

The young blonde slipped over to one of the quiet rooms, sitting against the right-hand wall with a sigh.

Elizabeth jumped slightly as the dog beside her barked, gesturing backwards towards the entrance of the building. Elizabeth nodded, understanding the dogs needs and gesturing him to go.

"Have fun with your little friend?" Elizabeth's head shot up, her body fighting against the tension that poured down her spine. The young blonde turned to see Marlene stood, arms crossed and an elbow leaning on the wall as she stared down at the younger girl.

When Elizabeth didn't reply, Marlene moved closer, "you know, I thought after I told you—specifically—not to go into that room, you'd of listened." Marlene lectured, his tone deepening when she saw the blonde roll her eyes.

"Yeah, well. Never was good at listening, was I?" The blonde pursed her lips, moving to stand from her seat on the dusty floor.

"Where's your guard dog?" Marlene asked, raising an eyebrow at barren space that was usually occupied by a large, golden retriever.

Elizabeth shrugged, turning her eyes back to the knife in front of her, "dogs have to piss too."

Marlene let out a huff-like laugh, moving to kneel before the girl.

Marlene had known Elizabeth far longer than Elizabeth had known her. The older woman had first discovered her over eighteen months before Elizabeth had discovered her.

It had been mid-winter, and Marlene had sent out thirteen of her men to hunt for food. Only five made it back—the rest had been mauled by an unusually vicious dog that was deemed overprotective of a pre-teen girl.

Marlene, out of curiosity for this strange girl, decided to take a slow approach—occasionally, watching from afar just to study wether or not she were a threat.

It hadn't taken Elizabeth long to notice. Bellamy had barked much more than usual, and she could sense the eyes pointed at the back of her head.

"What'd she tell you?" Marlene asked, referring to Ellie.

Elizabeth simply shrugged, "Nothing you'd wanna know. Just regular teenage girl shit." She stated, flipping the knife in the hand.

"Huh," Marlene scoffed, "really? I doubt either of you are the type to sit down for a one-on-one session about boys and who's on the cover of 'teenapocalypse magazine'." The woman challenged, raising an unamused eyebrow.

"Well you never know."

Marlene huffed, "listen, Lizzie. That girl in there, she is not your friend. What we're doing is so much bigger than us all. You'll see that one day, and so will she. Then you'll thank me." Marlene insisted, nodding her head with a blunt tone.

Elizabeth nodded, her eyebrows raised in challenge as though Marlene had dared her a losing game. "Oh, yeah, I'm sure." She replied, sarcastically.

Marlene huffed, standing with an irritated expression. "Remember who your real friends are, fox."

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ELIZABETH KICKED THE DOOR OPEN CARELESSLY, unaware of Marlene and Kim's important discussion she'd just interrupted. The blonde looked around the room, a curious look on her face. Marlene stood shaking her head slightly at the younger girl, whilst Kim stood on the other side, a deep frown covering her face.

"Oh, wow. Now what's going on here?" The younger girl joked, trying to lower the bubbling tension in the room. Kim and Marlene remained unfazed, both sporting unsettled looks.

Suddenly, Kim turned back to Marlene, "Speaking of teenage girls. Why'd you have some random girl locked in a room?"

Marlene turned with a roll of her eyes, reloading the gun in her hands with a loud 'click!'

Elizabeth nodded, moving to sit on the old swivel chair at the table besides Kim. "Good question, kim, I'd like to know that too. Why do you have some random girl locked in a room, marls?" She asked, raising her eyebrows as she sank back into the chair.

Kim spared the younger girl a glance, "our people are asking questions, Marlene, asking what's going on and I don't know what to tell them." The woman stressed, expressing her hands hopelessly.

Marlene turned, a snarl etched into her voice. "Tell them to follow fuckin' orders." The woman growled, looking between the two other fireflies in the room and pointing to the door, "you two go to south-east now."

After the two left, Marlene turned back to Kim and Elizabeth, "Kim."

"Marlene." The woman dared.

"We are in a war against the military dictatorship to restore democracy and freedom, is that right?" Marlene questioned, her expression leaking with overflowing annoyance.

"Yes." "Yep."

"Are we winning? Are we beating FEDRA here? Are the fireflies beating FEDRA anywhere?" Marlene insisted, looking between the two with a harsh glint in her dark eyes.

Elizabeth pursed her lips with an optimistic shrug, "Well, maybe-"

"Rebellion takes time." Kim advised, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared down Marlene with a stern gaze adorning the deep of her eyes.

"Five or twenty years and you get nowhere, you're not a rebellion." Marlene scoffed, "you're just spray paint." She added, gesturing the large, blue spray-painted firefly.

Elizabeth looked at the woman with an offended frown, "I did that."

Marlene rolled her eyes, walking toward the table. "It's wonderful, Liz, but we're not hitting FEDRA all over the QZ." The woman confirmed, pointing to a plot on the map, "we hit them here, here, here, here, here."

Marlene then looked to the two, "where are we right now?" She tested, narrowing her eyes lightly as she watched the two share a glance.

Lizzie spun the chair closer, pointing to a plot on the map. "Right here, Marks."

Marlene nodded, "and I want FEDRA everywhere, but here." She added. Kim and Elizabeth shared a look, both unsure at what the woman was getting at. "I want them as distracted as possible because tonight," she stressed, "every firefly in Boston is gonna gather in this building, and we're gonna leave the QZ. Permanently."

Lizzie raised an eyebrow in thought. FEDRA was a pain in her ass— getting away would be nothing short from perfect. But Elizabeth wasn't stupid— there was always a catch.

Kim, however, seethed in anger. "You're quitting?"

Marlene shook her head, "No. We're taking Liz and that random girl locked in that room west." Marlene looked down at the girl beside her, pulling out a small, tea-stained piece of paper and handing it to Kim. The woman made sure Elizabeth remained unaware of the vital information on the piece of the paper. It wasn't her time to know.

"Is this real?" Kim's eyes widened, staring at the woman in surprise, to which Marlene nodded. Kim gasped slightly, "Whatever you need. Whatever it takes."

"Whatever what takes?" Elizabeth drowned, trying to peer over at the piece of paper, only for it to be dragged away from her sight.

"We'll get her where she needs to go."

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THE LAST GODDAM THING ELIZABETH EXPECTED, WANTED, OR NEEDED FOR HER DAY, was to almost get impaled with a six-inch long knife. She and Bellamy had been on their way to see Ellie again, when a loud colliding sound echoed from the room beside them.

Suddenly, a man—bald with a gingery beard— stumbled from the room. The foreign man's eyes glinted dangerously with malice as he brutally sliced at the male firefly until he was dead, turning to Elizabeth with the same vicious look.

The man scanned her up and down. "You're a fuckin' kid." He sneered, eyebrows creased together in surprise.

Elizabeth let out a fake scoff of amazement. "Wow. You, Sherlock Holmes, are going places." Elizabeth didn't actually know who Sherlock Holmes was. It was just something she and Marlene would say whenever they tried to outsmart the other. She assumed it was somebody before her time.

Bellamy's barking caught both their attention. That and the wails of somebody down the hall.

And with that temporary moment of weakness, The man swung at the girl. His knife narrowly missed her stomach as he drove it towards her in a dangerous swoosh.

Elizabeth was quick to move, kicking the man in the top of the thigh and grabbing the blood-tainted knife from his grasp.

The man quickly recovered, pulling on her leg and making her crash to the floor with a loud yelp. "Come here, you little bitch." The man snarled, wrapping a hand around her throat and lifted her upward body slightly, then slammed it back down against the hard flooding.

Elizabeth yelled, her eyesight flickering due to the impact of her head hitting the floor. Elizabeth was beginning to get desperate, searching her pocket's desperately for anything she could grasp. She could've cried tears of pure joy when her hands curled around the cool metal of a lighter.

It was either kill or be killed. And Elizabeth wasn't planning on dying under an octopus-lookin' man.

Grabbing the forgotten knife, Elizabeth slammed the tilt on his head, and successfully landed a painful kick to his chest.

Though, it seemed she didn't even need to use a lighter. Bellamy's teeth had already sunk into his arm, and the sound of creaking footsteps behind her increased.

"What in the shit." A female voice muttered, looking down at the scene before her. A blonde teenage girl with blood dripping from the side and back of her head, with a large dagger in one hand and a lighter in the other.

"shit." The woman muttered, sharing a look with the man as they pointed their guns. Immediately, Elizabeth stood up like a wounded animal. "Woah, Woah, Woah! What the fuck are you doing? Who even are you?"

The woman looked over the barrel of her gun with lightly reluctancy, as though she didn't want to hurt the random teenager she'd now found. "Why the fuck is there a kid here, Joel?"

Elizabeth assumed Joel was the man next to her. "Wait, I'm not even fuckin' dangerous! This was literally self defence, I swear on the virgin Mary!" She screeched, holding her hands up in defence.

Suddenly, a wail sounded almost six feet away. Kim crawled on the floor, Marlene beside her. Both woman were covered in dried and recently drawn blood.

"Holy fuckin' Jesus." Elizabeth muttered, watching the door next to them—Ellie's— door open, and for the girl inside to jump out with a knife. The man besides the unknown woman slammed the teenager against the wall harshly, letting her fall to the floor beside Elizabeth.

"Hey, bitch." The blonde greeted, giving the girl a half-lipped smile.

"What the fuck?" The brunette teenager muttered, looking up at the man before her with a dark glare as he pointed his gun at the two.

"Joel?" Marlene called out in surprise, clutching her side in pain with an agonised grimace—Kim struggling beside her.

Joel stared a her for a moment, his face dropping slightly in recognition. "Marlene?"

Both Kim and Marlene held guns pointed to the man, unsure expressions etched across their faces as they stared.

Marlene looked to the girls on the floor, noticing the blood crusting around the blonde's head. "You alright, Liz?"

Elizabeth nodded sarcastically, "No, Yeah. I'm doing brill." She stated, widening her eyes as she gestured to the blood on her head.

Joel looked down in distaste as a sniffling sound came from below him, to his absolute horror, a large, golden-retriever covered in scarlet-red blood sat below him, staring up at him with a panting breath and a wagging tail.

Ellie went to grab her knife during Joel's momentary distraction, but the man slammed his boot down on it and gave her a warning glance.

"Ellie." Marlene exclaimed, "Ellie!"

"You cant be stupid like this, Ellie." Marlene scolded, her voice rasping with agony as she lowered her gun.

"So this is who Robert screwed us over with?" The woman from before scoffed, looking between the two women and then to the girls. "The Che Guevara of Boston. The war must be going pretty shitty for you to be buying from scumbags like him."

Marlene let out an annoyed scoff, "Yeah, it kinda has been. The merch was bad, and he obviously didn't take 'fuck off' as an answer."

Ellie stared down at the knife under Joel's boot, "Give me my knife."

Joel, itngoring the girl, still stared at Marlene in confusion, "What do you need a car battery for?"

Elizabeth went to move, beckoning the dog Closer to her, however, was stopped when a gun was pointed between her eyes. "Don't." The man warned.

Marlene raised her gun back. "Not at her, Joel." Noticing the woman's gun being raised too, Marlene stated calmly, "Point it at me."

Joel scoffed, looking down at the two girls infront of him. Raising his eyebrows in intimidation before pointing the gun at Marlene.

"And to answer your question, I need it for a better reason than you do. No offence, but Tommy's just one man." Marlene began, noticing Joel's face drop at the mention of his brother, "It's our business to know things."

Joel scoffed, "to know things. You're the cause of it. You turned my brother against me." The man snarled.

"Okay, Joel." Kim muttered. "That was a lot of gunfire. FEDRA's gonna be on the way."

"I know." Marlene hissed.

Marlene looked down at the two girls for a moment, then turned back to Joel and the woman. "We were gonna move them both outta the zone tonight, but we won't make it anywhere like this. Not for a while at least. So now I'm thinkin' you're gonna do it."

"The hell are."

"No! What happened to stranger fuckin' danger?"

"I'm not goin' with them."

"Let me take them." Kim insisted, looking at Marlene as though she were a mad woman.

"We don't have time for this." Joel commented, looking back at Tess.

"Oh, you don't have time?" Marlene scoffed.

"Who are they?" Tess asked in curiosity.

"To you? Ponytail's cargo, blondie is classified." Marlene stated. Elizabeth's eyebrows creased together in offence and uncertainty. Marlene had never called her 'classified' before, and she didn't know what the fuck it meant.

"We don't smuggle people. Sorry." Joel shrugged.

"I can do it!" Kim pleaded, her eyes trained on Marlene.

"Kim, you don't have a fuckin' ear on your fuckin' head!" The woman barked, "Could you please?"

Marlene turned back to the four, "there's a team of fireflies waiting for them at the old state house." She informed Joel and Tess. "I know what's out there. We were going with an entire squadron for that very reason. But now I don't have a truck, I don't have a squadron, FEDRA's five minutes away. What I do have is you. I know what you're both capable of. For better or worse."

"What are they capable of?" Ellie whispered to Elizabeth. The blonde simply shrugged, "probably top-notch shit. I don't know."

"You get them there safely, and they'll give you what you need. Not just a battery. The whole thing. Fuelled-up trucks, guns, supplies, all of it. I swear."

After a tense moment, Marlene pleaded again, "I swear."

Tess and Joel shared a glance. Then, the man used his foot to kick Ellie's knife a good couple of feet away. "Asshole." Ellie hissed.

Joel and Tess moved to talk away from the fireflies in private for a moment, a tense blanket washing over them as they pondered their choices.

"Y'all talk it through, but please remember that I'm bleeding out." Marlene stressed.

Tess turned away from Joel, "Okay. Here's the deal. We'll get them to your crew at the State House. But before we hand them over, they give us everything that we want. If not, we kill them, then and there."

"Deal." Marlene agreed.

"Marlene! Really? That fast?" Elizabeth gawked.

"You two are all that matters. My team will not jeopardise that. Remember what I told you, Ellie?" Marlene informed, looking between the two, "Now go get your backpacks. Now."

"This is definitely not a good fuckin' idea." Elizabeth muttered.

☼

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