wise-0ne - Tumblr blog

[wise-0ne]

Please:Part two

Tw: swearing, mentions of death and violence

We were in one of the only calm places in the QZ. it wasn't quiet, but it was nice. No fighting or weird tweaked. I sat next to my mom and the guy she was trading with. Dad was standing a couple of feet away from us. He was watching us.

This is the first time I've ever been allowed to go with them on these types of things. It's cause I'm sixteen now and they said they want me to explore with them and get to experience things.

Mom was doing a trade and I was sitting with her. The guy she was trading with was sketchy, so I went over to my dad. I walked past groups of people and finally got to him.

He had his arms crossed and was leaning against the wall. I stood by him. I felt the safest by him. He was my protector. He's never let anything happen to me.

While we stood there, some guy comes over. "Hey, friend." the guy says. My dad puts an annoyed look on his face. Dad doesn't like talking to people. He continued to stare.

"Don't worry, I don't want anything." The man said, obviously intimidated.

The man was bald and probably living on the streets.

"But if you're feeling lost-" My dad cuts him off before he can finish.

"If you tell me to 'look for the light' I'll break your jaw," Dad says. He was pissed and looked at the guy. The guy then walks away, not wanting to get beat by a man that was ten sizes bigger than him. My dad looks at me. I'm smiling and trying not to laugh. My dad shakes his head but smirks.

Then the siren buzzes and mom walks over to us, "Well I mean, it cost us a couple of cards, but, uh, we got him." She tells us.

We start walking down the alley.

"He's supposedly taking the battery to a red-tagged building." She continues talking while we walk down the street.

"But get this... corner of Stillman and cross."

Dad tunes in "The one Miguel used to use."

"Yea I'm thinking so." she continues "I mean we could take the subway tunnel under Haymarket, get into the building from below, and take Robert by surprise."

"Let's pay this fucker back," I say while we walk the alleyway.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can't believe you guys let me come," I say excitedly.

"I can't believe that your dad let you." Mom jokes while dad shakes his head.

We are in front of the subway entrance and my dad is cutting the chain that's holding the door. Mom watched the street while I watched dad.

Once the chain was broken, we pushed our way inside. We put our bags down and grabbed our guns and flashlights.

When I turned eight, dad taught me how to use a gun. He told me that when I turned sixteen, I'd get my own. And like he said. I did

We turned on our flashlights "Ready?" mom asked us. We both nodded and started walking down the wet stairs, down to the subway entrance.

Walking through the wet tunnel, we shinned our flashlight at the walls. Then mom spotted a smiley face by a door,

"Oh, that's the one." My mom said while going up to the door.

She unlocked the door and shinned her flashlight in. It was an office. There was a desk and paper.

Then I heard my mom yelp.

"Oh! Oh fuck." dad points his gun toward her and so do I.

It was an infected, entangled in the wall.

"It's dead," I say to her. She sighs,

"I know, I just wasn't expecting it." She then walked over to a ladder.

I stayed and looked at the thing on the wall. It was covered in vines and what looked like mushrooms.

"Hailey, come here." My dad says. I look over at him and go to him.

Mom was climbing a ladder, with a flashlight in her mouth. I look over at dad. He nods his head, signaling me to go up the ladder.

I put my foot on the ladder, and start climbing. The ladder was shaky, but it was safe.

"Looks like they re-framed the whole building, probably in the '80s." My dad said while he claimed up from behind.

"Everyone was cutting down apartment sizes to sell more condos." He continued.

"Oh," I say, trying to focus on not falling.

"This has been 'Construction Corner' with Joel Miller," Mom says sarcastically. I chuckle.

"How much farther, this ladder is sketchy," I say while the ladder rocks.

Mom keeps climbing, "Uh, this far." she says.

Mom then gets into a doorway and dad and I follow.

"What the fuck?" Mom spits.

"It has been blocked." She tells us.

While mom pushes on the door, I smell something odd. I look at my dad and sniff the air.

"Do you smell that?" I ask him. He nods back and me.

"Gunpowder," I say, I then look down and point my flashlight at the door.

Blood.

Dad pulls out his gun and mom pushes the door open.

"Mom-" But I get cut off by the sound of something falling. I then look back at dad.

Mom walks into the hallway and points out her gun. Dad and I follow her.

Bodies were everywhere, along with blood.

We walk forward and see Robert, dead on the floor with a truck battery by him. I see dad and mom look around, but I bend over to look at the battery.

"The battery shit," I tell them.

They both look over at me, and I shake my head.

We're all looking at the battery, but then we hear a groan from down the hall. Our heads all turn and we grab our guns. Dad slowly walks down the hall, and we follow. We hear more winces and dad pokes his head from around the corner. Mom and I follow him as he raises his gun at the two girls at the ends of the hall. He got to a door when suddenly a girl jumped out at him.

He throws her against the wall and points the gun at her. I point my gun at the girl and she tries to grab the knife that she dropped, but my dad steps on it.

"Joel?" We hear a woman say. It was Marlene.

Dad looks at her "Marlene?"

Marlene then looks down at the girl.

"Are you okay?" she asks. The girl nods and she tries to get her knife again, but dad kicked it back to me.

The girl started to get mad, but Marlene said "Ellie, calm down."

The girl looks at her, and she pauses. "Oh shit," she says seeing the gun wound that Marlene had.

"I'm alright, but you can't be stupid like this," Marlene reassures her.

Mom then walks in front of me, "so this is who Robert screwed us over for."

I chime in "Must be going shitty if you're buying from him."

"Yea, it kinda has been." She yells. "The merch was bad, and he didn't take fuck off for an answer."

"Give me my knife." The little girl said, sitting on the floor.

My dad then asks"What do you need a truck battery for?" while still pointing his gun at Marlene. Then the girl tries to get up.

My dad aims the gun at her "Don't."

"Not at her," Marlene says while pointing a gun at my dad. Mom and I raise our guns at the women.

"Point it at me," Marlene tells my dad. My dad looks at her and back at the girl. The girl was scared and had her hands up. He then moves the gun toward Marlene.

"I need that battery for a more important reason than you do," Marlene says to dad while putting her gun down. Dad looks at her confused.

The other woman next to Marlene then says "That was a lot of gunfire, FEDRA is going to be here soon."

Marlene nods. "We were gonna move Ellie out of the zone tonight, but we won't be able to now."She pauses. "Now I'm thinking, you're gonna do it.".

Dad looks at her "The hell we are."

Ellie yells "I'm not going with them!"

"Who is she?" I ask Marlene.

Marlene looks at me "To you, she's cargo."

"We don't smuggle people." My dad says.

"There's a team of Fireflies waiting for her at the old State House."

Dad scoffs.

"I know what's out there," Marlene said.

"We were going with an entire squadron for that very reason."

She pauses, "But now I don't have a truck, I don't have a squadron, FEDRA's five minutes away."

I look at my dad. "What I do have is you," Marlene says.

"You get her there safely, and they'll give you what you need." She says in a bribing voice.

"Not just a battery. The whole thing. Fueled-up trucks, guns, supplies, all of it."

"I swear." She says

"Do you trust her?" Mom asks my dad. His face says it all.

"No, me neither, but she seems desperate." Mom looks at me.

"Firefly vehicle usually means repurposed FEDRA stuff," I say

"So better-than-decent chance makin' it to Tommy in one of those," Dad says.

Dad starts a sentence but gets cut off "The second we hand that kid over..."

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

Mom walks back over to them, and Dad and I follow.

"Okay. Here's the deal." Mom says.

She looks back at dad.

"We'll get her to your crew at the State House.'

"But before we hand her over, they give us everything that we want. If not, we kill her, there and then." Mom says She's not kidding.

"Deal," Marlene responds.

Ellie looked at Marlene, "Really? That fast?"

Marlene looks at her and calmly says "You are all that matters."

We all pause and Ellie stands up.

"Remember what I told you?" Marlene asks Ellie.

Ellie nods and Marlene grabs her shoulder. "Now go get your backpack."

Ellie walks into the room, stomping. She was angry, but I understand why. I wouldn't want to go with strangers.

She comes out with a backpack and sweater. She stares at The three of us.

"Let's go." Dad demands. Before he can walk away, Marlene stops him.

"Joel... don't fuck this up."

She pauses "Please."

Marlene then sighs as we take Ellie, not knowing anything about this girl, nor why we are taking her. But we do know, she is important.

[wise-0ne]

Hello!

Please put your age in your bio so people know if they can follow you or not.

Also, can you please format your fic post so that it has a ‘read more’ cut somewhere in the beginning of the post to make it shorter on the dash?

Or at least format it so that it doesn’t have so much empty space between paragraphs?

Thank you x :-)

Of course, I can! This is my first time using Tumbler so I apologize for this 😂 thanks for the help 👍

[wise-0ne]

Please: PART ONE

SUMMARY: ~𝙋𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙎𝙀, 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙋~

After Sarah died, Joel found his new happiness. He loved his daughter, Hailey.

But when the unexpected comes, he's in need of help and happiness.

What will Joel do when he loses the people he loves?

Joel Miller x Daughter o/c

No trigger warnings just swearing.

You can't live in fear here. It just doesn't work that way now, or that's how my dad put it. These days, living in fear is a weakness. Living in fear will get you killed. Fear is not an option.

I was born after the outbreak. I'm 16 years old, my birthday was yesterday. It's 2023 and everything is just as bad as when it started. City's ruled by FEDRA, raiders, smugglers. Nothing is safe.

Even though I feel safe, I'll never know if I am. I know that as long as I have my parents, I'm safe. My parents made a promise to me when I was 6. They told me that they would never let anything happen to me as long as they were here. Luckily, for ten years, they've kept that promise.

My dad, Joel, had a daughter. Her name was Sarah. She was his ray of sunshine and my dad loved her more than anything. But Sarah was shot back in 2003 when the outbreak happened. My mom said he wasn't happy, nice, kind until I came.

When he found out my mom was pregnant, he told her that it was a bad idea to keep me. I was a one night stand baby. My parents were best friends and they got drunk one night.

He didn't want the same thing that happened to Sarah, to happen to me. He was scared for my mom and me. He didn't want to lose more people than he already lost, so he tried to convince my mom to get rid of me. Obviously it didn't work.

But when I was born, he was a different person. My mom, Tess, said he was so happy. From what I've been told. When he first laid eyes on me, he cried and said I was a miracle. His miracle.

Since then, he's always made sure I was safe and protected. I'm not allowed outside without him and I can't go with them anywhere that isn't in the QZ. They never let me outside until I I turned 15 because kids were supposed to be in the FEDRA school. They didn't want that for me, so they kept me locked up in our apartment.

I know they want to keep me safe, but it gets annoying. Knowing that I'm safe and loved makes me feel better about that though.

I love my dad and my mom. They would do anything for me, and by anything, I mean anything.

They are smugglers, so I am home alone sometimes, but they always have someone check on me. They usually have something to bring back to me. No matter if it's food or games, I'm always happy.

I love my parents, and if I were to lose them. I don't know what I would do.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was a long day of sitting inside, reading, and watching the civilians walk around while I sat on the couch in the living room of our one-bedroom apartment. The bedroom is not even really a bedroom. More like an open space with a wall. It was small, but in the QZ, we're lucky to even have this apartment. There are people who live on the streets, so we are really lucky.

The QZ is very full and most people don't have a lot. Like us. We live off of food rations, cards, and whatever my parents smuggle in. I'm very glad we are here. Dad said if we weren't, we'd be dead.

Both of my parents are working, and I was inside, alone. I was used to being alone in the daytime, but I made sure the door was locked at all times. So I was safe. You can't trust people.

Mom and dad were gone most of the day. I knew dad picked up an extra job, and mom was out dealing with things. For all I know she could be dead, but I know she isn't.

I was sitting on the couch, reading, when the door knob rattled. I looked up and saw the door swing open. It was my dad. He looked mad, he didn't see me and he just walked into the bedroom. I put my book down and scoot over to the other side of the couch so I could see what he was doing. I heard him stomping and then he bent over to move the dresser that covered his stash of stuff hidden under the floorboards.

Under the floor was some maps, an axe and more things that he kept hidden.

I watched him pull out a map and then he walked into the kitchen area and sat down with a map at the table. Dad was obviously mad about something, so I know not to bother him. I adjust myself on the couch and watch as grabbed his bottle of bourbon and stared at the map. Pointing and dragging his finger on the map, he sighed and took a drink. He drank half the bottle and didn't even look back at me.

I watch him put his hand on his forehead and sigh. I know he's stressed and angry. I wish I could help him in some way, but I don't want to make things worse.

I watched him take some pills and without looking at me, he got up, went to lay on the bed, and passed out.

This was usually the routine when he was having a hard day. He has a lot of those.

I then got up and walk over to the bed. I check his breath make sure he's alive. He's kinda old so I worry. And while he slept, I cleaned the apartment. I cleaned the table, did dishes, and organized the cabinets to keep me busy. I waited for mom to come home, but eventually, I sat on the couch and drifted to sleep.

Usually, we all share the one mattress we have. It was big enough for all three of us, but I didn't want to wake him up. He needed sleep.

__________________________________________________________________________

In the morning, I woke up to my mom making tea. I stood up off the couch and rubbed my eyes. I stumbled a bit but walked over to the kitchen. My dad walked into the room at the same time I did.

Sitting down at our table, I looked at my dad. He sat at the other end of the table and he was hungover and looked tired. My mom then walked over to us. I look up at her while she sets a cup of tea in front of me.

Her face looked terrible.

"Mom, your face," I say in a concerned voice.

Her face was bruised and cut. She had a black eye and looked terrible. She then sat down by my dad.

Dad looked over at her. His face said it all. He was pissed.

He slammed his hand on the table and almost got up.

"I got jumped by a couple of guys." She said calmly. Grabbing his hand

"What guys?" my dad questions her.

"Just a couple of teenagers." Dad then grabs her face.

"Said some shit probably shouldn't have," Mom said while my dad moved her face around. He then got up. My mom grabbed her cup and took a sip.

"Come on. You know these guys were born after the outbreak. Never learned how to argue." She said trying to calm him down.

"They just start swingin'." She took another sip.

"Fuckin' 19-year-old pieces of shit." I chuckle.

It's always funny when she those jokes. She made them a lot because she knew they made me feel better in these types of situations.

My dad came back over to the table. He had a bottle of alcohol and a towel.

"It's a miracle you're alive." He says while he pours some of the alcohol on a towel, he gently taps her face, making sure not to hurt her. She chuckles "It's a miracle any of us are alive."

I take a sip of my tea. I know my mom wasn't safe at the time, I was just lucky she was now. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without her.

As my dad tapped her face, he turned her head, "These aren't new."

"No, I was in FEDRA lockup all day."

Dad pauses. His face looks confused.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter." My mom says. She then takes a breath and grabs my dad's hand.

"I need you to take a breath," she says calmly

"What?" My dad says, putting down the towel.

"Joel-"

"What?"

She takes one more breath "The guys who jumped me were with Robert." She pauses.

"He sold our battery to someone else."

I set my cup down and hear my dad's chair scoot back. Looking over at them, I see my dad put his face in his hands.

"What the fuck." I say angrily.

"Nothing is lost. Shit like this is gonna happen. Now we shake it off and get our cards back or the battery." She says looking at me and my dad.

"We need the battery, Tess," Dad says and slams his hand on the table. He gets out of his chair and walks over to the bedroom.

"Trucks no good without one." He yells "And if I don't get to Tommy soon, he's gonna die out there."

"Okay, Fuck it. We get our money back, and the battery." She says, getting up out of her seat and walking over to dad.

"But Joel listen, Robert is terrified of you." She looks him in the eyes. "If you go to him about this, he's gonna get wind of it and skip."

I then get up out of my chair and walk over to them. I sit next to my dad. I lay my head on his shoulder, "Take a breath." I tell him. He looks at me with sadness and anger in his eyes.

While still looking at me, he asks mom "Who'd he sell it to?"

"Don't know."

"Well, where is he?"

"Don't know... Yet" She says.

"But we're gonna find out quietly."

"Understand?" she asks my dad. He nods and looks at the floor.

"Now I promised Robert you wouldn't hurt him, but I would very much like for you to hurt him," Mom says smiling.

She gets serious again, "So let's go hunt that mother fucker down, and get our battery, and our truck and go find Tommy." she takes a breath "Alright?"

My dad nods again "Alright."

Mom gets up and walks over to the other side of the bed.

I pick my head up, and my dad leans down to get his gun.