andmissed: (007)
Joel Miller ([personal profile] andmissed) wrote in [personal profile] atehimrightup 2023-04-02 05:40 pm (UTC)

Four days.

Joel has slept only in snatches in the SUV, ten minutes here, twenty minutes there. He doesn't go to the apartment that apparently belongs to him now. He's scoured the city from end to end, looking for Ellie, and found nothing. No trace of her. He's broken into homes looking for something useful, only to realize these homes are still inhabited.

No one has discovered him yet, no one has called the police.

He's having a fucking breakdown and he doesn't want this. Not on top of everything else. But he recognizes the panic in the kid, the way he backs up against his truck, and Joel casts a glance over at his own SUV, parked by the curb, then back at the kid.

"No one's gonna give you a good answer to that question," he says. His voice sounds old and unused, hoarse, like he hasn't spoken in days. Maybe he hasn't.

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