Archive of Our Own

The sun was just past its peak as Joel rode the final stretch of the path into Jackson and the coolness of the late summer breeze was doing little to stifle the heat of its rays. His shirt clung to his skin with a very unfortunate mixture of dirt and sweat, and if the sticky air wasn’t unbearable enough to make him wish he was anywhere but atop a heaving thoroughbred, his stomach rumbled with a hunger that only came from a long day’s work. 

He’d had worse afternoons though, much worse afternoons. Here on the aching saddle, the only things between him, a shower, and dinner with his girl were the towering Jackson gates and the time it took to untack a horse. 

And he could untack a horse pretty damn fast these days.

His good ear caught the dull thud of horseshoe against packed dirt approaching from behind and he glanced over his shoulder. His fellow patrol member—a middle aged woman named Rebecca who’d been in Jackson longer than almost anyone—trotting up to his side.

“You trying to lose me, Miller?” she called out. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

“Don’t think I know what you mean.”

He hadn’t been trying to ditch her, honestly. He didn’t partner up with her often, but Rebecca had a quick wit and an even quicker draw that made her passable company and a valuable asset to the patrol team. 

She snorted. “I know I’m no Tommy but I didn’t think my jokes were that bad.”

“Nah.” He gave a noncommittal shrug, tightening his grip around the reins to steady his pace. “Just trying to get the hell outta this saddle.” 

She hummed in understanding. “Guess I can’t fault you for that one. Sometimes the slow ones are the worst ones, right?”

“Certainly makes kitchen duty seem more exciting.”

She laughed, wiping a handkerchief across her brow as they passed through a particularly warm patch of sun.

“I’m not so sure about that. My son just got it for his first work rotation and suddenly he’s very passionate about the merits of at-home dining.”

“Ellie was the same with farming duty,” he shared, a warmth trickling into his chest that had nothing to do with the afternoon heat. “Apparently, dirt allergies are very real and real dangerous to the health of growing young women.”

Rebecca smiled in the way parents did Before whenever the subject of their kids came up. Even after years in Jackson, it was still the tiniest bit weird—the easy chatter about weather, kids, and the humdrum of life in post-apocalyptic America’s most boring city.

They broke through the tree line and the trail gave way to a glorious view of Jackson’s East gate at the end of the sweeping valley beneath the golden peaks of the Tetons. The lights on the watchtowers hadn’t been lit yet, and in the still-long days of summer, they wouldn’t for some time, but he could just make out the outline of the afternoon watch leaning through the cutouts of the structure.

He kicked his horse to a steady canter. Shower, food, and Ellie were just in reach.

“Ellie patrols now right?” Rebecca shouted over the wind as they flew down the hill through waves of wild grain so amber they could make Lady Liberty weep.

“Just started last year,” he called back. “She went out this morning on the shorter route.”

“Can’t say I’m looking forward to those days for mine.”

“You get used to it, eventually,” he lied.

He didn’t even bother to stop as he approached the gate, only slowing to a steady trot and offering a lazy wave to the watchtower. The familiar groaning of wood and iron shook the ground as the gates parted and the dusty main street of Jackson greeted him like it always did, shop-lined streets, quiet pedestrians, and the distant sounds of laughter. He was home.

“Got any plans after this?” Rebecca asked at a more regular volume as they plodded through the thick walls and into town.

“Whatever I get up to, I’m going to be horizontal. Ellie always says-”

It was then that he caught sight of the figure in the stable doorway, a kid he recognized as one of Ellie’s friends and patrol leader, Jesse. 

Jesse stood with his arms crossed, watching them approach with his mouth twisted into a frown that had the hairs on his arm prickling. The moment they locked eyes across the road and the boy’s shoulders went rigid, Joel’s heart sank into the tips of his dust-covered boots.

He was sliding from the saddle before he even crossed the threshold of the barn. Jesse hurried up to his side.

“Mister Miller,” he said, but Joel already knew.

“Where’s Ellie?” he growled, marching over to a worn-down post and grabbing the nearest rope to hitch his horse.

Jesse followed, urgency evident in every step. 

“It was so sudden. I-I swear I don’t know how it happened. One second I-well I just thought that-”

“Where’s Ellie?” 

His ears were ringing. A thousand scenarios were flying through his head, each one worse than the last: she’d gotten lost, she’d gotten shot, she’d broke both of her legs and would never walk again, she-

“She’s at the bank. She-“ Jessie swallowed hard. “Mister Miller, she’s infected.”

___

Ellie was hunched against the wall of the makeshift cell when he burst in. The vault room of the old Jackson Hole bank was lined with long-emptied safe deposit boxes and crates full of whatever the current town residents felt was worth keeping locked away from the general population, creating a cramped sort of feeling even though the space was big enough for a dozen people. 

“Ellie,” he said breathlessly, leaning against the doorframe for only a second before hurrying to the bars separating the cell from the rest of the room.

He sank down to his knees as close to her as the barrier would allow. 

“Are you okay?”

Ellie didn’t lift her head, but her voice came out from between her legs, muffled and scratchy.

“I think I’d make a pretty good clicker.”

He pulled back from the bars, sure he’d misheard.

“S’cuse me?”

“A clicker,” she repeated into her pants. “Think I’d make a good one.”

He blinked once. Twice.

“This ain’t funny.”

She shifted in her seat a little, but still kept her head down in a way that did funny things to his chest. 

“What, think I could make it all the way to a bloater?”

He paused for another second to remind himself that she was the most precious thing in his life and that reaching through the bars and shaking her until she saw sense wouldn’t solve the problem.

“Stop.”

“Just saying-“

“Ellie,” he said, his voice cracking. “Please.”

She finally lifted her head and his heart sank even further; it must have been in the floorboards at that point. 

There was an angry red mark marring her right cheekbone and her bottom lip was split, still trickling a tiny stream of blood down her chin. Her hair was a complete mess, a tangle of strands clumped together with sweat, the rest falling out of the half-up half-down style she’d left with that morning. 

Most nightmarish of all, a dark red patch soaked the collar of her T-Shirt. That was where the infected had gotten her, Jesse had solemnly informed him seconds before he’d turned tail and sprinted out of the barn. 

“Oh, kiddo.”

He dropped from his knees onto the cold tile floor, pressing his shoulder up against the bars as if it would do any good with her five feet from anywhere he could reach. All he wanted was to pull her into his arms and hold her, to wrap up each of her wounds and dare anyone to come within ten feet of her or risk his wrath, but the thick padlock above the cell door was a taunting reminder that he wasn’t in control of the situation, of anything.

“Joel,” Ellie whispered. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”

“Well now that was never in question, was it?”

She managed a smile that was really more of a grimace. “I thought we weren’t joking right now?”

“You’re not joking. I’m allowed to do whatever I need to do to keep myself from ripping the hinges off this damn cell.”

“I’m fine.” Ellie coughed into her shoulder, wincing at the movement. “Speaking of this damn cell, you can thank your brother for that.”

“Tommy?”

“No, your other brother.”

“Now what did I say about jokes?”

Ellie rolled her eyes, as if her biggest burden in life was him cramping her style or whatever the kids were calling it these days rather than being stuck in a cell and missing a chunk of her shoulder.

“Anyways,” she said. “He talked the people at the gate down from putting one right between my eyes the second we rode in. Said that you would burn the town to the ground or something if you could see me before. Turns out there’s a brain under that pretty head of hair after all.”

“Well,” he sniffed. “Good on Tommy.”

“They were pretty mad about it, but I think they were scared enough of you that they let it happen.”

“Good.”

He’d deal with the mad ones later.

“Joel,” she said softly. If they hadn’t been the only people in the room he might’ve missed it. “I think I really fucked up this time.”

“It’s alright.”

“How? What the fuck are we gonna do?”

Her eyes were round and she looked younger and more lost than she had in a long time. The distance between the spunky little girl he’d met all those years ago and the world-weary, almost-adult young woman he’d come to know along the way had never felt so small. This hadn’t been what he’d meant when he said she was growing up too fast.

He leaned over his knees and took a deep breath in, knitting his fingers together. This was the worst part of having a kid, shoving the terror down far enough to come up with answers when all the body wanted to do was curl up on the floor.

“We’re gonna get you out of here.”

“Joel, seriously.”

“Serious as Janine at the library when you forget to turn in your books for the third month in a row. I’m gonna take care of it.”

“How?” Her nose scrunched like she smelled something bad. “This town is small as shit. Everyone already knows about the bite by now.”

“Did anyone actually see you get bit?”

She made a face that let him know he wasn’t going to like the answer. 

“Jesse…I was saving him.”

He let out a harsh breath, squeezing his eyes shut and willing his breathing to stay even. “Course you were.”

“I’m not sorry I did it,” she said, a hint of challenge in her voice. “I’d do it again.”

“I’m not fighting with you right now. We don’t have time for that.” 

“What do we have time for? Even if there wasn’t a witness, I’d say the giant fucking teeth marks in my neck are evidence enough.” 

“I’ll…I’ll talk to ‘em.”

“People usually shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to this shit.”

He opened his eyes to give her a harsh look. “There won’t be shooting of any sort. Not on my watch.”

“Then what?”

“We could…tell the truth?”

Ellie shook her head miserably, even more strands of hair falling from the little bun at the back of her head. “They’re not going to believe us. I wouldn’t believe us.”

“They’ll believe it when you don’t turn. I did.”

It seemed so long ago that they’d been two messed up survivors fighting their way across the country. They’d come so far. Too far to give up now.

Ellie only sighed, shaking her head again. “Town protocol says you have to put down an infected within an hour after the bite, and I’m already way past that.” 

“I reckon that’ll help us. The longer it’s been since the bite, the more convincing your story is.”

“Or the more desperate they’ll be to take me out.”

“Nobody’s getting near you, Ellie. I won’t let it happen.”

Ellie scoffed, which sounded more like a cough in her current state. “Oh, are you suddenly bulletproof? They’ll kill you too.”

They can sure as hell try, he thought, but kept that to himself. She was too much of a little hero to accept it and the last thing they needed when trying to convince a town full of trigger-happy cowboys that she wasn’t going to turn into a feral monster was to get into a fight.

“We leave then.”

Ellie frowned. “Leave?”

“Maybe I can’t gun us out of here…but I could get Tommy to help cause a distraction. We’ll sneak out. Find somewhere else to live.”

“I don’t want to find somewhere else,” Ellie said, her voice small. God, she was still so small.

“I don’t either, but-”

“We have people here, our house, our stuff…”

“You’re willing to risk your life for that?”

“Maybe,” she shot back, but he knew she didn’t mean it.

He’d spent long enough trying to train the self sacrificing streak out of her to know when she really meant it.

“Well.” He shifted against the bars again, crossing his arms over his knees. “I’m not. How about that?”

She turned away, tucking her chin to her bloody chest.

“You’re fucking impossible.”

“Is that a yes?”

“No…I don’t know.” She dragged a hand through her ragged hair, shaking her head with erratic jerks. “God, I’m so stupid.”

He wanted to agree, to demand she explain just what the hell she was thinking sticking her neck anywhere near the mouth of an infected, but seeing her bloodsoaked and tearstained through iron bars doused most of his ire.

He sighed, leaning forward to rest his forehead against the cell bars.

“You’re not.”

She whipped around to face him, eyes blazing. “How the fuck have I been bitten three fucking times now?! You’ve made it like a thousand years without getting bit once. If I wasn’t so goddamn slow then none of this-”

“Hey, now-”

“Can’t make a cure, can’t tell anyone the truth, can’t stay in one place for more than a couple goddamn years.”

“Stop that,” he admonished. “Right now. Even if any of that was true, which it sure as hell ain’t. There’s no use in wallowing in it. We haven’t tried anything yet.”

“I mean, I tried to tell Cat once-”

“You what?”

“-she thought I was kidding. I had to pretend like I was and she didn’t even laugh. Thought I was being insensitive.” She finished with a moan that would've been almost comical if it weren’t for the gravity of their situation.

“Okay-” He took a long hard pause, staring intently at a scratch on the bars of the cell. “-after this, we’re gonna have a serious talk about what is and isn't appropriate to say to impress a girl.”

“What would you know about impressing girls?” Ellie grumbled.

“More than you, apparently.”

They sat in the heavy silence for another second before he couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’ll figure it out, Ellie. I swear.” 

“Sure,” she said, heavy with skepticism.

“I’m serious. You’ll be in your bed before you know it. Just keep on being immune in here while I take care of it out there.”

“Yeah,” she muttered, pushing a clump of bloody hair out of her eyes. “Whatever.”

___

Leaving Ellie behind in the bank was one of the hardest things he had done in a long time, but as much as Joel wanted to park his ass next to her cell for the next several hours and threaten anyone who got within five feet of it with the hard end of his fist, what was best for Ellie was what he was going to do, and he wasn’t going to do her any good from the dirty floor of the old Jackson bank. 

Still, he didn’t let himself look back as he shoved his way out of the holding room and into the lobby, fists clenched at his side and gaze fixed ahead, a true man on a mission.

Find Tommy. Find Maria. Fix this shit fast.

His willpower, it seemed, was rewarded instantly. The second both of his boots were on the lobby floor, the front doors of the bank were swinging open, carrying a hot breeze and a harried Maria Miller. Her shirt and pants had patches of dirt on the knees—she’d probably been working in the gardens right before—and the handkerchief around her neck hung askew like she’d been nervously tugging at it. 

She swept the room catching sight of him immediately.

“Joel,” she began, her voice cracking as she closed the few feet between them.

“Maria, thank Christ.”

“I came as soon as I heard.” She paused, taking him in with unabashed sorrow and pity. “Joel, I’m so sorry…this-”

“She’s immune.”

It was a bit unrefined on the delivery, but Ellie had been right about one thing: they didn’t have time. 

Maria blinked, like she was trying to figure out if he’d even spoken. “Excuse me?”

“Ellie is immune to Cordyceps,” he said, words that, three hours ago, he would’ve rather died than speak aloud, but now were pouring out easier than a hello.

“Immune?”

“Do I need to say it in French?”

“No, I just…What the hell are you talking about?”

“She’s not gonna turn, because she’s immune to Cordyceps.”

Something akin to understanding passed over Maria’s face, and she shifted in place like she was steeling herself for a confrontation, God-awful sympathetic face dialed up to eleven.

“Joel.”

“She isn’t going to turn.” He dug his heels into the lobby floor. The conversation was already taking too much time, time that he didn’t have. “Ever. There’s no use locking her up in there so you can go on and let her out now.”

“Joel,” Maria repeated more gently. 

He knew that tone. He’d heard that tone from Tommy twenty years ago in an army tent outside of Austin covered in blood that was only half his. He hated that tone.

“No.” He shook his head furiously. He didn’t have time for misplaced pity. “Maria, I know you think you understand but you really don’t.”

“I know what Ellie means to you, I care about her too, but if you really think-”

“You don’t have a goddamn clue what she means to me-” 

“That’s not fair.”

“-but that ain’t what’s important right now. What’s important is that Ellie won’t turn, now or ever, and you have to get her out of there before some idiot with a shotgun tries to...to…”

“Joel,” Maria whispered.

”She’s not sick,” he finished stiffly.

Maria’s eyes glistened, but her lips pressed into a firm line, like she suddenly couldn’t decide whether to hug him or sock him in the gut. 

“You can’t be serious.”

He threw his hands up in frustration. “Why does everyone think this is goddamn comedy hour?! Keeping her in that cell is more likely to kill her than any infected bite.”

“I don’t want to do this with you right now, Joel.” Maria huffed. “Keeping her in that cell is the only reason why you were allowed to see her in the first place.”

“Has anyone even cleaned her up?” He struggled to keep the desperation from his tone. “It…it could get infected.”

Poor wording, but Maria graciously didn’t throw it back in his face.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, shoulders drawn tightly before letting them drop and meeting his gaze.

“I’m so sorry.”

“If you just listened to me when I tell you she’s immune-”

“No,” Maria said fiercely, pointing an accusatory finger at his chest. “I need you to listen to me when I tell you that if you want to waste the time you have shouting fairytales at someone who cares about you and Ellie, that’s your prerogative, but if I were you I would go back to your girl and say what you need to say before you can’t say it anymore.” 

“Don’t you dare-”

“I’m not going to tell you to be grateful, because God knows I’m not, but let me remind you that, right now, there’s a hell of a lot of people out there who wish they had the chance you’re getting right now.”

The edges of his vision blurred. Worn wood paneling and old storage containers were beginning to look a lot like sterile white walls and discarded medical equipment. Maria was beginning to feel less like the sister in law he’d come to love and more like a soldier in a field with a machine gun and orders to kill, like a surgeon on a righteous crusade to save the human race.

“She’s not sick, Maria,” he repeated. “I swear.”

Maria didn’t falter. 

“You have an hour. We’ll let you be the one to do it if that’s what Ellie wants, but we can’t afford to let her turn. You have to see that.”

He took a step forward. “I won’t let you do it.”

“I can keep you from this building, Joel. I can keep you from seeing her at all. I don’t want to, but I will.”

It was scary how plain the path forward was, how he had already mapped the region of his sister-in-law’s skull he would have to hit to render her unconscious and the time it would take him to get back into the holding room to free Ellie from her cage, how in the matter of seconds, the closest place he’d had to home in nearly twenty-five years and everyone in it had become nothing but an obstacle between him and getting his girl to safety.

His fingers curled up into his palms and his body weight shifted back, but before he could put his plan into action, the doors of the bank burst open throwing everything off kilter all over again.

Maria spun around, wholly unaware of just how close she’d come to having her temple meet the dusty floorboards.

It was Tommy, red-faced, wild eyed, and gasping-for-air.

“Maria!” he cried, skidding to a halt right in front of them.

“Tommy?” Maria said. “What on earth are-”

“Been looking for you two for the past hour,” he huffed. His collar was damp with sweat and his hair stuck haphazardly to the sides of his face. “I made it all the way out to the farm before the folks on rotation said someone’d already came and got Maria. Guess I didn’t beat the noon patrol back either, but that ain’t important anymore. Maria, Ellie is immune.” 

Maria just stared, dumbfounded. “Excuse me?”

“She’s immune. Ellie’s immune.”

“What are you saying?”

“Joel’s not lying. She’s immune to Cordyceps.”

“Tommy,” Maria said hesitantly. “You have to know how this sounds.”

“I didn’t believe it when Joel told me either, but he wouldn’t lie about this..”

Maria put a hand on her hip, all of the gentle compassion she’d extended to Joel minutes before gone. “Don’t do this, Tommy.”

“Maria, you’ve gotta believe me.”

“Stop,” she warned, eyes flashing. “Joel isn’t in his right mind right now. You can’t just-”

“S’not just right now. He told me years ago, the first time he and Ellie came to Jackson.” Tommy pushed off of the wall and came to Maria’s side, gently grabbing her hand. “Maria, I’ve seen the healed bite marks myself.”

Joel could practically see Maria’s head spinning, no doubt pouring over every second of her memory of their first encounter. 

“Healed bite marks?”

“On her forearm.” 

“The burn…” she muttered.

Tommy nodded eagerly. “Did it herself so people wouldn’t ask questions. Not one of her brighter moments, I know.”

Even though he wholeheartedly agreed—had given half a dozen lectures saying basically the same thing and more—Joel still felt the urge to defend Ellie when she wasn’t there to do it herself. One ‘shut the hell up and let me handle this’ look from Tommy had him stepping back and closing his mouth.

Maria brought her hands to the side of her face, dragging them down her jaw as she slowly shook her head.

“Tommy, this is…”

“I swear it, Maria,” Tommy said in a low voice. “I swear it to you on our own child’s life, on the lives of every child in this town.” 

“I…” 

Maria turned away, pacing over to the old teller’s counter and bowing over it. As far as Joel knew, she wasn’t a religious woman, but the movement was akin to a prayer. A heavy silence settled over the room, broken only by Tommy’s still-heavy breathing and the creaks of the old building.

Finally, Maria lifted her head from her hands, turning back to the two of them.

“You really believe him?” she asked, looking pointedly at Tommy who nodded.

“I know it sounds insane, but it’s not. Ellie’s immune and she needs our help.”

“It’s…impossible,” Maria whispered, but a hint of something flashed in her, like perhaps, for the first time, she was considering that they could be telling the truth.

It wasn’t lost on Joel that she had lost a child to Cordyceps once before and he knew better than anyone that grief could do funny things to the brain. Even if it weren’t an unheard of scientific miracle, it couldn’t be easy for her to process that there could be any sort of future for an infected child.

“Twenty years ago,” Tommy began, “we would’ve said deadly mushroom meat puppets were impossible. Fifteen years ago we would’ve said this entire town was impossible. Five years ago we would’ve said Joel coming to live in Jackson all soft and tamed was impossible.”

Maria pursed her lips and tilted her head. Joel’s heart leapt. It was Maria’s problem solving face. They’d won her over.

“Even if I believe you, the council already knows about the bite,” Maria trailed off, looking mildly ill at the implications of what she was saying. 

“So we tell them too. You, Joel, and I can convince them, right?”

“The community isn’t going to listen to her family’s claims of immunity. They’ll think we’re delusional, desperate, and putting everyone at risk.”

“So what then?” Tommy said angrily. “We just stand by and let them shoot her?”

“Of course not,” Maria snapped. “We can…we can-”

“Six hours,” Joel interrupted.

Maria and Tommy froze, turning to him in unison.

“Six hours?” Tommy asked in a tone similar to someone trying not to spook a deer.

“The bite is on her shoulder. It’s already been a few hours and most people would have started showing signs by now. In the QZs they had signs that showed the time frame for full infection. Shoulder bites are supposed to take over in fifteen minutes, but even the ankle took twelve hours. If she got bit on the morning patrol it would have been six hours already.”

It was impossible not to think back to the last infected bite he’d seen on someone’s shoulder. Sometimes the Boston years felt more like a story he’d heard about someone else in a smoky corner of a bar than a majority of his adult life, but he would never forget how it had ended: Tess’ brave face staring directly into his soul before her final stand, the way the tendrils crawled up her neck but her amber eyes stayed her own. 

For her, a bullet was preferable to waiting for infection to take root, for Ellie, not so much.

“Give her six more hours,” he finished. “If she’s still herself by then…it’s gotta count for something, right?”

“I’m not sure,” Maria said. “It’ll still be perceived as a major risk. Everyone knows there are exceptions.”

“We have to ask.” 

“Are you ready for them to know?”

“Do we have another option?” 

Maria was silent,

“She’s all I have, Maria, please. If it doesn’t work and she turns…I swear, I’ll end it myself.”

Tommy’s brows shot up and Joel refused to meet his gaze. It was a lie of course, if Ellie somehow had lost her immunity in the last few years he wouldn’t want to make her suffer, but he knew he was too weak to do it himself. Maria seemed moved by the promise anyways.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she promised.

He sagged into himself. “Thank you.”

“Six hours,” she repeated. “No symptoms.”

“Six hours,” he echoed with a jerk off his head.

Maria turned to Tommy, yet again losing the compassion she’d been giving him seconds before. “And after that girl is safe, you and I are going to have a conversation about why I wasn’t made aware of this before now.”

“Yes ma’am.”

___

Ellie didn’t seem to be losing much more blood and it was only for that reason (as well as her vehement protests against being left alone with Tommy and his terrible jokes) that kept Joel from breaking into the clinic for stitching supplies.

That was the crux of what made the situation so unbearable for him, it wasn’t something that could be fixed with breaking, and breaking things was all he was good at. Even back in Boston, Tess had had to handle the more delicate situations and he had just let his fists fly where she pointed.

This time it was him against thousands of people who knew his face and family, who had walls and weapons and a functioning government that people actually respected if not revered. That was more dangerous than anything the Fireflies and FEDRA could muster, and the most useful thing he could do against it was sit on a ratty carpet and watch through bars as Ellie’s blood dried on her shirt.

A knock on the door half an hour later signaled Maria’s return. Joel and Tommy stepped back into the lobby where Maria—looking worn, but satisfied—informed them that the council had agreed to hold a hearing if Ellie made it six hours without a single symptom of infection.

“The hell does that mean?” Joel demanded, glancing back to the door of the vault room and lowering his voice. “If they don’t like how she coughs they’ll shoot her?”

“It means, they’re going to give you more of a chance than most sane people would,” Maria said. “Also, you aren’t allowed to testify at the hearing.”

She had added it as if it were an afterthought, but he knew her well enough to know it was her attempt at softening the blow.

“That’s bullshit! I’m the only one who actually saw her get bit before today.”

“It’s the opinion of the council that you aren’t a trustworthy source when it comes to Ellie. Some people think you would do or say anything to protect her.”

“Who? Give me names and I’ll talk to ‘em right now.”

“Me, for one.”

“You said you believed me!”

“I do, which is why I’m here. If I didn’t believe you I would be saying the same things they did.”

“Joel,” Tommy said, gentle but firm. “It ain’t Maria’s fault. She’s on our side now.”

“I’m also going to be representing Ellie at the hearing. I’ve already put out some feelers to see if anyone has evidence to support your story, anything at all.”

“Will they let me talk?” Tommy asked. “I’ll tell them everything Joel and Ellie have told me. I’ll tell ‘em about the shit I took on patrol the other day if they want.”

Maria pursed her lips thoughtfully before nodding. “They should agree to that, sans shitting in our woods.”

Joel huffed, unable to appreciate Tommy’s humor. “What the hell am I supposed to do then?”

“Go home,” said Maria.

“If you think I’m gonna up and leave her-”

“The council doesn’t want you to have access to her during the quarantine period,” Maria explained. “There’s a guard outside with orders to make sure you stay clear of the bank until the hearing.”

Half an hour ago, he’d have given anything to be able to leave the bank, but now he .

“What, they think I’m going to let her turn and sic her on the town or something?” He took in their blank looks, frustration rising. “Are you serious? You too, Tommy?”

Tommy shrugged. “I know she’s safe, but they don’t. Like Maria said, it’s no secret you haven’t always displayed the rational side of yourself when it comes to your girl.”

“Marcus still won’t come within ten feet of your house after you nearly wrung his neck for bumping into her at the dining hall last year,” Maria reminded.

He scoffed, eyes flicking up to the exposed ceiling beams. “Yeah, well. This is different, and he deserved that.”

“I’m sorry, Joel,” Maria said. “I’m doing everything I can. I’ll stay here with her myself and you’re allowed at the tribunal if you want, but they aren’t going to budge on this. It’s just for safety.” 

“What about Ellie’s safety?”

“People like her. She’s a good patroller and a valued community member and no one wants anything to happen to her. This will be a fair trial.”

“She is immune,” Tommy reminded. “They’re giving us a chance to prove that. We’ll get up in front of the council and Maria’ll talk circles around ‘em and we’ll all be back at your place by supper to make fun of your cooking.”

Joel turned to Maria, giving her the hardest look he could muster. “I’m trusting you.”

To Maria’s credit, she didn’t so much as blink, meeting his gaze with her own honest compassion.

“I won’t let you down.”

___

In the end, Joel went back to his house to grab a change of clothes for Ellie and a bag of medical supplies for when he got her out of the cell. By the time he’d secured every item she could possibly need and paced a hole into his living room carpet, there were still four and a half hours left until the trial. 

As much as every muscle in his body yearned to take out his council-assigned guard John’s weak left knee and bolt for the bank, he stayed put, opting for washing the breakfast dishes instead. Nobody could say he wasn’t a reformed man.

It was the very fact that he knew that John’s name was John and that he had a weak left knee (and a one-eyed dog and a leaky faucet in his kitchen sink and a grumpy wife who baked the best bread in town) that made all the difference.

Standing in his far-too-large kitchen, scrubbing Ellie’s chipped juice glass with a flowery dish rag, it was impossible to escape the truth. Jackson had made him soft. Somewhere between his drug dealing days and riding out for patrol that morning, he’d come to call the place home and he knew Ellie had too. 

But if he’d slipped a loaded pistol in the hidden pocket of his jacket when John had his back turned, no one needed to know. At the end of the day, people are who they are.

___

The following hours crawled by. An unfortunate side-effect of knowing that Ellie wasn’t at risk of turning into a mindless monster (a fact he was still very much grateful for,) was that every passing second just felt like it was bringing him closer to the actual danger.

Jackson wasn’t like the raiders or the Boston QZ, but it also wasn’t brimming with constitutional lawyers and ethical thought leaders. Those just weren’t the sort who typically made it past the end of the world. Their approach to justice was generally delivered on a case by case basis and supported by precedence rather than a codified set of laws, but there was no precedence for a bitten person who hadn’t turned.

He could hardly remember how a functioning judicial system worked before the outbreak, let alone after. The only memories he had of trials post-virus were group arguments from his time at the raiders which were generally settled by whoever had the quickest trigger finger and FEDRA tribunals which were more so methods of thinning out the population when rations got too scarce or the voices of dissenters got a bit too loud.

What if the council felt like they couldn't risk it? What if they had already decided to kill Ellie while he’d been pacing around in his comfy house getting mushy about his neighbors?

He would raze the town to nothing, he thought furiously, but as soon as the thought crossed his mind he knew it wasn’t true. He had always been more of a protector than an avenger. If Ellie didn’t make it, he wouldn’t have the will to throw a single punch.

The shadows on the cluttered countertops grew longer and he continued wearing holes in the kitchen floorboards, trying not to focus on the evidence of Ellie in every corner: her dirty socks beneath the table, the spoon she had been making faces at that morning, the scuffs on the wall from when she careened in with her hooligan friends to raid the pantry at odd hours of the morning.

He kept his hand resting over the pocket where his pistol remained hidden, heart aching. Even if the people of Jackson accepted Ellie’s immunity, what were the odds that life would remain unchanged once her secret was out? Would they have to move? Would they be allowed to?

Finally, on what must have been his thousandth lap, a knock came from the door.

“I’ll get it,” Joel snapped at John, who only raised his hands in surrender.

He opened the door to find Tommy standing in the porchlight, looking grim, but no more so than he had back at the bank. It was reassuring enough for Joel to feel a flash of irritation at his brother’s presence.

“Maria is keeping her company,” Tommy said before he could even speak. 

It wasn’t like he hadn’t been about to demand why his brother wasn’t with Ellie so he didn’t bother defending himself.

“Is she okay?”

“Ansty, tired, but still her. The council just agreed to hold the hearing.”

“That’s…this is good, right?”

Tommy nodded. “It’s good. I think there’s some mixed feelings in the ranks, but they’re willing to hear us out. Maria was right, people want to give her a chance.”

“Am I allowed to speak?”

“No, but you still have permission to come and watch. Think they want to keep an eye on you if I’m being honest, but still. Better than being shut out entirely, right?”

Joel wanted to be pissed off, and he was, but Tommy was right. He didn’t care what reasoning the council had for letting him the room as long as they did, as long as he was close enough to jump into action if things went south. 

“When?” was all he said in response.

“Right now.”

“What?!”

“The people don’t exactly want a suspected infected girl sitting around in the center of town for long.”

“Why the hell didn’t you start with that?”

___

The door of the church-turned courtroom was ajar when they arrived, a warm glow spilled onto the dark street along with a steady buzz of chatter that could only come from a sizable group. Through the opening, Joel could spot at least a dozen bodies milling about the pews, heads bent in conversation. 

“What are all these people doing here?” he hissed at Tommy, stopping just before the bottom step.

“Word gets around fast,” Tommy answered with a shrug. “Don’t pay ‘em any mind.”

Without waiting for a response, Tommy turned to the door, leaving Joel with no other choice but to clamber after him and enter the lion’s den.

The Jackson church was nothing new to him. As one of the largest spaces in town, it hosted most of the larger community gatherings: weddings, funerals, dances, as well as council hearings. He’d been in the pews with Ellie just last week for the Christening of the town’s newest baby, making pleasant enough small talk and trying not to look too amused when Ellie nodded off in the third verse of All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Now, he walked along the side of the room behind Tommy and avoided making eye contact with any of the nosy spectators who were very plainly trying to look anything but. 

“Goddamn vultures,” he grumbled as they passed Janine the librarian and Roger the butcher who were all at once overcome with interest in the notice board. 

“Keep it down,” Tommy muttered back. "You're not doing her any favors being prickly."

Joel stifled a scoff, but kept his scowling to a minimum until they settled into an empty pew closer to the front. It felt exposed, but it aslo seemed wrong to hide in the back, like the coward's way out or an admission of guilt.

“When is Ellie coming?”

He craned his neck around the room. At the front, a long, wooden table had been set up and was already occupied by several of the members of the town council. Maria was already sat at the far left, scanning the crowd with her hands folded in her lap.

“As far as I’ve heard she isn’t,” Tommy answered.

“What?” Joel whipped back to his brother. “Where is she?”

“At the bank with a guard. Don’t think they want her in a crowded room right now.”

“That's bull-”

The rest of his protest was cut off by the sharp thwack of something hard against wood. A hush fell across the room and all eyes traveled to the front where a man who Joel recognized from patrols took his seat at the center of the council’s table. He peered out over the crowd with a hawklike stare before turning back to his fellow council members

“Is the council present and ready to convene?”

“Why is Mike leading?” Joel whispered to Tommy as the men and women at the table voiced their agreement. “Maria’s up there.”

“Maria’s speaking on behalf of Ellie. Guess they thought it’d be too much of a conflict of interest. She still gets a vote though.”

Jackson’s town council was made up of five community members (Tommy thought he was hilarious for calling them the Jackson Five when Maria wasn’t within earshot) that were elected every two years. Joel hadn’t had much interaction with them in any official capacity in his time in the town, but it was a small enough community that he knew them well enough. 

The apparent leader of the session, Councilman Mike, was around his age. Calling Mike a no-nonsense man would be like calling FEDRA a no-nonsense government. Where most patrollers had set pairs and only switched for scheduling conflicts, Mike bounced between the roster, inflicting his authoritarian hatred of fun onto every unsuspecting partner that was unlucky enough to get matched with him.

Joel was decidedly not comforted by his role in Ellie’s hearing.

The others were a mixed bag: Maria, of course, was on their side, and though Tommy’s attempts to set them up were tiring, Councilwoman Esther was nice enough. Councilman Earl was an old engineer who was eccentric enough that he might believe in immunity, but was a man of science who wouldn’t believe in anything without concrete evidence. The final council member, a middle aged patroller named Greg, kept to himself for the most part, a trait which Joel usually appreciated but was wary of when it came to showing compassion to Ellie’s situation

Back at the front, papers were being shuffled and last minute notes were being scrawled. Finally, Mike cleared his throat and re-addressed the room.

“Good afternoon everyone. We’ve gathered here today in response to a recent threat to our community which I have no doubt that you’re all aware of. Maria, you’ve agreed to cede your spot as chair of the council to speak on behalf of Ellie Williams?”

Maria dipped her head. “I have.”

“Any objections?”

Mike’s eyes swept the room, stopping for a moment too long on Joel and Tommy. They, along with everyone else in the room, remained silent.

“Good. Let’s not waste any time then. First we should hear from the primary witness. Is Jesse here?”

“Right here,” Jesse’s deep voice came from the front row.

He stood up from his seat and Joel was able to get a better look at him. He'd changed clothes from the stables, but otherwise looked just as haggard as before.

“You can take a seat over there, young man,” the councilman directed, pointing to the lone wooden chair next to the long table. “We just have a few questions for you.”

Jesse gave a jerky nod, squaring his shoulders as he trudged to the front of the room and lowered himself into the chair. He rested his hands on his knees, turning to the council’s table.

“I’m ready.”

“You were on patrol with Ellie when the incident occurred, correct?” Councilwoman Esther confirmed.

“Yeah,” Jesse answered quickly. “I mean, yes. I was.”

“How long have you and Ellie been paired?”

“One year. I was her assigned mentor, taught her the routes and stuff.” He hung his head. “It…was my fault we ran into the horde, my fault she got bit.”

“Can you tell us what happened?”

Jesse nodded, adjusting his chair so he was facing both the council and the audience. “It was a pretty quiet morning. We were a little ahead of schedule so when we made it to the first outlook we stopped for a breather. Ellie was in the other room looking over the log book when I thought I heard something outside. I figured it was nothing so I didn’t say anything, went over to the clearing right outside and saw a runner.”

“Just one?” Esther, asked.

“Just one.”

“And was that the infected that bit Miss Williams?” Esther confirmed.

“No. I didn’t think I needed to drag Ellie outside to take out a single runner so I went to do it myself." He pressed his fingers to his eyes, shaking his head. "I-I was such an idiot…they don’t usually travel alone like that. I knew that!”

“That isn’t relevant right now,” Mike said curtly. “Stick to the story, please, Jessie.”

“Right, of course.” Jesse cleared his throat. “So I followed protocol, got behind the runner and took it down easy enough, but the second I did, four more came out of nowhere. I tried to fight them off on my own, but one got me on my back. I was sure that was it for me, but next thing I know, it’s on the ground next to me and Ellie is standing over me with her knife in her hand and blood dripping down her neck.”

“So Ellie saved your life?” Maria prompted.

“If she hadn’t taken that bite I’d be gone," Jessie answered solemnly. "Ellie Williams is an excellent patroller and a goddamn hero and…if she really is immune somehow…Jackson is only stronger for it.”

Joel felt a rush of affection for the young man. He’d always been wary of Jesse for how much time he spent around Ellie, but it was touching to see she had such a good friend. People in the pews were exchanging glances that he couldn’t quite decipher, but they didn’t seem to be reaching for pitchforks.

The lead councilman, however, seemed unimpressed. 

“Yes, thank you for that glowing review of her character which was never in question,” Mike said stiffly. “Speaking of her supposed immunity, has Miss Williams ever mentioned an immunity to Cordyceps before?”

“What?” Jesse made a face. “No. I mean, I think I’d remember something like that.”

“Has she ever given any indication that she’s different in any way?” Esther asked.

“She doesn’t really talk about her life before Jackson much. A few stories about growing up in a QZ every once in a while, but she keeps quiet about it for the most part. That's not that weird, lots of people don't like talking about their lives before Jackson.”

“What was her reaction when she discovered she was bitten?” Councilman Earl asked, leaning forward in interest.

“She was freaked out,” Jesse said, pursing his lips in thought, “but mostly she just kept checking on me.”

“Did it seem like the reaction of someone who knew they weren’t about to die?” He pressed.

As much as he wanted the council to believe in Ellie’s immunity, the excitement in Earl’s eyes stirred discomfort in Joel’s stomach. 

“I-I couldn’t say, but if there’s even the slightest chance she’s immune, we have to give her time. I’ll guard her myself, I’ll-”

“That’s enough,” Mike said. “Thank you, Jesse.”

Jesse’s legs wobbled as he stood up, but he held his head high as he returned to his seat, taking a moment to give Joel a supportive smile before he sat down next to his mother.

At the front of the room, the council were exchanging muttered words, Councilman Earl said something that made Mike sour and Maria shake her head. Joel could only sit back and pray that Tommy would do his job.

Unlike Jesse, Tommy didn’t so much as bat an eye as he marched up to the chair, plopping himself into it and facing the council directly.

“What do you want to know?”

“Are we sure we should be hearing from the girl’s uncle?” Mike asked, squinting at Tommy like he was searching for a weapon bulge in his jacket pockets.

Tommy bristled. “Who the fuck do you think you-”

“Are you suggesting my husband would risk the town’s safety by lying at a public hearing?” Maria demanded, shooting Tommy a warning look.

“His brother would,” Earl said doubtfully. “Everyone knows Joel’d say whatever he can to keep her alive a few more hours, even if it kills us all.” 

The number of nods around the room had Joel nearly rising out of his seat, but Councilwoman Esther beat him to it.

“Which is why Joel wasn’t allowed to speak today, Earl," she reminded. "We agreed that Tommy was a good compromise. Let’s just hear him out and decide for ourselves if his story is solid or not.”

“Fair enough,” Maria said, far too calm for Joel’s taste. “Who’d like to start?”

“I can,” Esther answered, turning back to Tommy. “When did you first meet Ellie Williams?”

Tommy squared his shoulders, serious in a way he usually wasn’t. “About three years ago when she and Joel first came into town.”

“And when did you first hear that she was immune to Cordyceps?”

“That same night. Joel told me.”

Whispers broke out in the crowd, even Maria looked like she hadn’t known that Tommy had been keeping the secret for so long. A bead of sweat trickled down Joel’s neck that had nothing to do with the stifling heat of dozens of bodies packed into the small space. Would it hurt Tommy’s testimony that he hadn’t spoken up for so long?

“Have you seen Miss Williams recover from a bite before?”

“No, but-”

Mike cut in. “And has she ever confided in you about her supposed immunity?”

A crease appeared on Tommy’s forehead. “Not exactly, but-”

“So what reason should we have to believe your testimony today?” 

“I’ve seen the bite marks myself,” Tommy insisted.

“I thought they were burned off,” Earl recalled.

“Before that. She kept ‘em covered most of the time but I’ve seen them a few times when I was around Joel’s place.”

“But you didn’t see her get bitten,” Mike confirmed.

Tommy huffed, his fingers gripping the edge of the seat like he was keeping himself from lunging across the table to wring Mike’s neck. “No. I didn’t”

“So then there’s no real evidence the bites were from infected.” 

“You know who’s actually seen her get bitten and not turn?” he demanded. “Joel. You could ask him if you wanted a firsthand account.”

“We’ve already discussed this,” Esther said evenly. “We’re asking you.”

“Well I don’t have one, alright? Joel told me she’s immune and I believe him.”

“Do you believe that your brother would lie to you to protect her?” Earl asked.

Joel’s own hands were gripped in his lap, taking it all in with increasing alarm. He’d hoped that Tommy would be able to keep his cool, but he couldn’t have predicted that the council would be so full of skeptics, that they would be so untrusting of their own citizens.

“I-” Tommy faltered. “That’s not the question you should be asking.”

Esther lifted an eyebrow. “Is that a yes?”

“No.”

“So you’re saying that Joel Miller wouldn’t lie to protect Ellie Williams.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Tommy snapped before taking another steadying breath. “Listen, whatever you think of my brother, he’s not delusional. If he really thought Ellie was infected, he wouldn’t want to make her stick around and suffer. He loves her too damn much for that.”

He sat back and lifted his hands in the air in surrender.

“That’s all I have to say.”

The council looked amongst themselves, murmuring. Someone whispered something to Maria and she shook her head. Finally, Esther rested her hands on the table and spoke loud enough for the room to hear.

“I’ve heard enough.” 

Maria nodded, looking to her husband. “Thank you for your time, Tommy.”

Tommy let out a harsh laugh, already rising from his chair. “Yeah, let’s not make a habit of it.”

Laughter bubbled around the room, but Joel didn’t share in their amusement. Tommy did as well as could be expected under pressure, but he hadn’t actually proven anything. Ellie was still under the chopping block and all he could do was sit on his thumbs as other people continued debating her fate.

“Well,” councilman Mike announced before Tommy had reached his seat. “It seems awfully convenient that the only people who report having prior knowledge of this miraculous immunity are the girl’s guardian and his brother.”

Tommy turned around, finger pointed in accusation. “Now that ain’t fair-”

“Sit down, Tommy,” Maria ordered, her tone sharp. “You’re not helping.”

“Do we have any other evidence?” Councilwoman Esther asked, looking around the room as Tommy slid back into the seat next to Joel. “Anyone at all who hear about this immunity before today?”

Tommy opened his mouth but was cut off by a quick, “Anyone other than Joel Miller.”

For the most excruciating ten seconds, no one spoke. The only sound filling the packed room were the cicada screams from the open back door and the blood rushing through Joel’s ears as Ellie’s future slipped away in front of him.

“Well,” Mike said. “If that’s all then-”

“I did,” a soft voice called from the back of the room.

As if they were being controlled by a machine, the entire room turned in unison to the source of the sound where an arm covered in ink was raised. A young woman had stood up. Joel recognized her immediately from the countless times he’d seen her at Ellie’s side, in the streets of Jackson, in Ellie’s room when she thought he’d gone to bed.

Tommy leaned over. “Ain’t that Ellie’s old…”

“Yeah,” Joel muttered back, feeling even more like an idiot that he had in a while. Ellie had told him that she’d tried to share her secret once before, but he’d been too hung up telling her off to realize that she may have saved herself by being loose lipped around pretty girls.

At the council table, Esther was peering over the top of her papers. “Catherine? You’re claiming to have evidence of Ellie William’s immunity to cordyceps?”

Catherine, or as Ellie always called her, Cat, stepped through the crowd until she was in the center aisle. The poor girl looked like she would rather be anywhere other than at the center of a town hearing, but to her credit, she didn’t sit back down.

“Not…exactly evidence,” she said, her eyes darting around the roomm “but you said no one had heard about the possibility of her immunity before aside from Joel and Tommy Miller and that isn’t true. She told me.”

The murmurs in the room had shifted, looks being thrown in Joel’s direction that seemed almost contemplative. Was this the tide changing in their favor?

Councilman Greg, who had been completely silent until that point, cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses and leaning over the table. “Ellie Williams told you that she was immune to cordyceps before today?”

Cat nodded. “Yes.”

“Why don’t you come up here, Cat?” Maria gestured to the chair the other witnesses had sat in. “You can tell us your story.”

“Okay,” Cat said softly.

She approached the chair warily, sitting at the edge of the seat as if considering bolting out the back.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Maria said kindly.

Cat took a deep breath before starting. “We were…um…hanging out one night, about a year ago. It was just the two of us and she had that burn on her arm that Tommy mentioned before. I asked about it.”

“Do you remember her response?”

“We were talking about the tattoo she wanted me to do. She just said that it was to cover up a burn at first, and then…she told me the burn was to cover up an infected bite.”

“And what was your reaction?”

“I thought she was joking. She tells weird jokes sometimes, you know? But now…now when I look back, she didn’t say it like she was joking.”

“Can you think of anything Ellie would have to gain from lying to you about an infected bite?” Maria asked.

“No, she seemed a little nervous, honestly, like she was scared I’d freak out and attack her or something. Like I said, she didn’t seem like she was joking.”

The murmurs in the room grew. The people almost sounded…excited. As greatful as Joel was for every word coming out of Cat’s mouth, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sort of sadness at the story. He was a long way from feeling comfortable at the thought of everyone knowing, but for the first time, hope mingled with his fear. If they could get through this, maybe she wouldn’t have to keep secrets in her own home.

Back at the front of the room, the lead councilman rapped his knuckles against the table, bringing the noise level back to a hush.

“This is compelling, I’ll admit,” he began, “but this is still a major threat to the safety of the town. If we’re mistaken we could be putting everyone at risk.”

“It’s been nearly eight hours since she was bitten on the neck,” Maria insisted. “She’s been monitored the entire time and she hasn’t shown a single symptom. Have you seen that before?”

“It could be a delayed reaction,” volunteered Earl, putting himself squarely back on Joel’s shit list.

“And if it’s not?” Maria countered. “If they’re telling the truth and you kill her?”

“We could let Ellie tell us herself,” Esther suggested.

The room broke back out into uneasy rumbles, quelled only by another smack of Councilman Mike’s hand against the table.

“Are you suggesting you let a confirmed infected into a crowded room?” Mike demanded.

“Half of this room are patrollers,” Esther said, rolling her eyes. “If we can’t take down a single teenager, infected or not, I’m not sure we deserve this town.”

“What is she going to say that hasn’t already been said?”

“Excuse me.” 

The voice came from the front of the room this time, from the seat directly next to Jesse. Joel recognized her too from the group of young Jacksonians that Ellie was always running around with, Dina.

Oh kiddo, if only you could be here, he thought. Two pretty girls coming to your rescue in one day.

“Dina?” Esther said.

Dina nodded, rising from her seat to face the council. “Can I say something?”

“This isn’t a courtroom drama,” Mike complained. “We’ve already had one unplanned outburst from one of the girl’s friends.”

Unlike Cat, Dina seemed unfazed by all of the eyes in the room going to her. She stood tall, facing the council with unabashed confidence.

“Just…hear me out, okay? I think you guys are missing something. Something really big.”

“Fine,” Mike ground out. “You can say it from your seat.”

“Thank you,” Dina flashed a polite smile before turning serious again. “Ellie wouldn’t lie about this.” 

“Is that all?” Mike said, looking more and more irritable by the second.

“What? No! I’m telling you that Ellie would never lie about something that would put Jackson in danger.”

“Not even to save her own life?” Esther pressed.

“Never. I know she keeps to herself a bit, but we’ve been friends for a long time, school, patrolling, hanging out with each other’s families. I know her inside and out and she cares about Jackson as much as any of us. If Ellie really thought she was about to turn, she wouldn’t be trying to fight this. She’d want us to do what needs to be done. Whether she’s infected or not, we should trust what she has to say.”

The council huddled at the front of the room, trading furious whispers that Joel doubted he could have heard even if his hearing wasn’t shit. Finally, they broke away and Mike faced the crowd looking annoyed, but resigned.

“Fine.” He turned to the patroller acting as a guard at the side of the room. “Bring her in.”

The minutes that followed felt even longer than the hours he’d spent pacing back at his house. Unlike before the trial, the crowd stayed completely silent, rooted in their seats. The entire room felt like it had taken a collective inhale that it refused to let go.

Finally the side door of the room where the guard had left opened and Ellie entered the room.

Joel rose from his seat an inch, nearly detaching his head from his neck to see her.

She was flanked by one of the larger patrollers and looked a bit worse for wear. Her hair was even more of a mess than it had been when he’d seen her last and she still wore the same bloody clothes from patrol.

At the same time, it was impossible to deny that, even with her life on the line, she was worn rather than twitchy, beaten down rather than on the verge of losing herself to a mind-destroying infection. From the looks exchanged in the room, it appeared that Joel wasn’t alone in his observation.

A hand rested on his arm and he turned to see Tommy watching him. 

“She’ll be okay,” he said in a low voice. “She’ll set ‘em straight.”

Ellie didn’t say a word as she approached the council table and plopped into the witness chair. She looked out in the crowd, scanning warily until her eyes locked with his.

He did his best to exude comfort and support and her shoulders sagged a little, the tiniest of smiles gracing her lips. It wasn’t enough, guilt still pooled in his stomach watching her all alone facing down a room full of people who were deciding whether she deserved to live. It sickened him that he could get arm pats and kind words from Tommy when she could only get a supportive look from ten feet away.

The council re-shuffled their papers and shifted in their seats. Then, Maria cleared her throat.

“Hello, Ellie,” she greeted.

Ellie turned back to the council’s table, giving Maria a small wave. “Hi.”

The crowd leaned forward at the single word.

“How are you feeling?”

“Hungry,” Ellie answered, “and my neck kind of hurts.”

Any trepidation Joel had had at the decision to bring Ellie into the room evaporated. This was the evidence people needed. Not stories of burned off bites or late night confessions, but the living, breathing, proof that Cordyceps hadn’t taken over an inch of her personality.

Maria nodded. “Why does your neck hurt?”

“Because a runner decided that he was hungry too.”

“So you admit you were bitten by an infected?” Councilman Mike cut in.

“Yeah,” Ellie’s eyes narrowed, staring back at the council members in confusion. “Did you guys not already know that?”

“Just trying to get a baseline.”

“Oh, okay. Then yeah, I was.”

“Was this the first time you were bitten by an infected?”

Ellie crossed her arms in front of her, staring at her elbows. “No.”

Someone in the room gasped, a bit dramatic in Joel’s opinion when they’d already had two witnesses say the same thing, but he seemed to be the only one. A quick scan of the room showed that Ellie’s easy confirmation came as a shock to many.

“Can you tell us about that?” Esther asked.

“I was fourteen. It was on my arm.”

“And have you ever shown any symptoms of the Cordyceps infection since then?”

“No,” she looked up at the unimpressed faces. “Well, at first it looked like there were tendrils growing around the bite, but they stopped pretty quickly. You can look at it if you want.” 

She held out her arm and the entire council leaned back in their seats.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Ellie glanced around the room nervously. “I also can breathe in spores without a mask. Joel’s seen it. Did he say that already?”

Murmurs rumbled in all corners of the room.

“We have no way of proving that today,” Mike dismissed.

“I just said Joel saw it.” Ellie scanned the council with narrowed eyes. “Is that not enough for you people or-”

“Ellie,” Maria said, tone warning.

Ellie folded her arms in front of her again, rolling her eyes. “Fine. What else do you guys want to know?”

“Do you have any idea how you might be immune?” Earl asked eagerly.

Ellie frowned, tilting her head to one side. “Sort of, yeah.” 

“Care to elaborate?”

“My mom…she was bitten while giving birth, I think. Some...people...thought that there was some sort of chemical thing that happened that made the fungus think I was already infected.”

The few faces Joel could see in the room were nothing short of awestruck. It was one thing to tell a story of magical immunity, but to give a scientific explanation? It was so simple, so beautifully, tragically obvious that some must be wondering how they hadn’t thought of it themselves.

“Incredible.” Earl whispered, practically vibrating in his seat. “Do we have any way of knowing that’s possible?” 

“The doctor is here,” Maria suggested. “Carl? Do you want to weigh in?”

From close to the front of the room, a tweedy bespectacled man rose from his seat. He straightened his glasses, eyes fixed on Ellie who stared back with a blank expression. 

“I’m not a mycologist or a neuroscientist,” he began, “but I know pregnancy. The umbilical cord does essentially make the mother and child one unit and it’s entirely possible for things that impact the mother to transfer to the child. If we view Cordyceps as an organism rather than just an infection, I can see how it might recognize some of itself in her.”

“And the time window?” Earl questioned. “Is it enough for you?”

“If it’s been over eight hours since she got bitten on the neck and she’s sitting in front of us telling her life story without so much as breathing heavily…I can’t believe I'm saying this, but inclined to believe her.”

“So we just, what?” Mike demanded. “Let her go?”

“I don’t know about that,” Carl said warily. “There are delayed reactions. Not usually in someone of her size but it is a major risk. If she turns in the middle of town it could be catastrophic.”

“What if she can make it 48 hours?” Maria suggested. “What would you say about her immunity if she can make it 48 hours without turning.”

“If a girl of her size can go 48 hours after an infected bite to the neck without a single symptom, well, I’d be willing to let her bite me myself.” 

Earl turned to Ellie, burning with curiosity. “Have you ever bitten anyone?”

“I mean…when I was a kid. I don’t think it works like that. I’ve…I’ve kissed people since then too.” Ellie’s cheeks were aflame and she ducked her head. “No signs of infection.” 

“So 48 hours of quarantine. Say that window passes and she’s actually immune,” Esther said thoughtfully. “Then what?”

Joel was halfway out of his seat and read to say “you won’t do a damn thing” but Ellie spoke first.

“Then we research.”

At that, Joel shot fully out of his seat. 

“Absolutely not,” he declared.

“Joel,” Maria snapped. “Sit down.”

He had no intentions of listening, was fully prepared to march to the front of the room and drag Ellie back to the cell himself, but Tommy grabbed his arm and forced him back down into the chair.

“Joel,” he hissed. “Cool your fuckin’ jets and let her speak.”

Joel could have gotten free from Tommy’s grip fairly easily, but then he saw Ellie. She was watching him, not like everyone else in the room who had shrunk away like they knew he had a gun in his pocket. This was a look that she’d given him a thousand times in the years they’d spent growing up together, a look that said ‘I love you, but I’m going to do this no matter what you say.’

Usually, the look exasperated him, let him know he was in for a few sleepless nights or at the very least a bad headache, but something about the way made him pause and sink back into his chair. This was more than her running head in danger.

“Fine,” he muttered, even though Tommy was the only one who could hear him.

“What do you mean by research?” Maria asked as if there hadn’t been an outburst at all.

“I’ve been trying to read about it on my own since we came to Jackson,” Ellie explained, looking at Joel rather than the council. “Chemistry books, biology books, I never got far, but if everyone knows now…maybe one of the doctors here can find something I can’t. I think we should try to see if we can make a cure.”

Those damn books, Joel recalled sitting at the desk in her little garage room and looking at her small book collection. He’d always assumed the science books were for school or an extension of her interest in space. Looking back, it was obvious she would be researching the immunity that had made her the person she was today.

“Well, that is certainly an interesting proposition,” Councilman Earl said.

“I’m not saying you can cut open my brain,” Ellie said, “but we can take tissue samples, blood samples. It’s got to have something, right?

A few looks were exchanged, looks that made Joel a little more than uneasy, but Maria tapped a finger on the desk before he could rise from his seat and start yelling again.

“I think that’s certainly something to keep in mind. Are we ready for an official vote?” 

A murmur of agreement went through the council’s table and Mike stood up, placing both hands flat on the table and giving the room one last sweep before turning back to the council.

“All in favor of allowing Ellie William’s a 48 hour observation window to prove her immunity?”

One by one, each hand rose, until Mike himself lifted his.

“The vote is unanimous,” Mike announced. “The 48 hours will begin now.”

___

The floor inside the cell in Jackson’s bank was no more comfortable than the outside, but the lack of panic and desperation in the air made it feel like a completely new space.

“You worried that the third time’s the charm?” Ellie asked from where she lay, a cot that had been shoved into the corner of the cell.

Her neck was wrapped in fresh bandages and she’d been given food and water, but her skin was still pale and the last time she’d stood up, he had to catch her before she dropped back onto the cot. He was almost grateful they were forcing her into a room with only him and a bed. She probably would’ve tried to sneak onto patrol the next day otherwise.

“Nah,” he said. “I’m just here because nobody else can stand to hear your yapping for 48 hours.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Mhm.”

Things were silent for a little longer and Joel assumed Ellie had fallen asleep until she spoke again.

“This isn’t going to be like the hospital.”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

“I know you think I’m a paranoid old man, and shit, maybe I am, but even if Jackson ain’t perfect, it’s our home. I wouldn’t risk losing that unless I had to.”

“What if you have to?”

“Then I’ll handle it, but a lot of people came out to support you today. I think if someone tries to pull something, I won’t be the only one who’s got a problem with it.”

For once, he didn’t have to lie at all.