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「JACKSON, WYOMING」 December 25th, 2037— present day
"Jesse, they're down here!"
Maia stirred at the sound of Dina's voice, was she dreaming? She couldn't tell, but she forced her eyes open anyway, only to be met with the grizzly sight in front of her that she had hoped was a dream.
"Oh my god, Maia—." Riley's voice echoed through the room.
What was she doing here? She was supposed to be patrolling the wall today. Maia didn't want the redhead to see her like this, at what felt like her lowest point. And she definitely didn't want her to see Joel in the state that he was in.
Riley's freckled face came into view as she knelt down beside Maia, she quickly took her rifle off her shoulder and put one arm under Maias back, the other grabbing onto her right hand. As Riley pulled her into a sitting position, Maia let out a pained gasp.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her voice etched with concern.
"I-I think , my ribs—," she struggled to get the words out, each breath she took sent pain shooting through her chest. Instead she used her free hand to lift the layers of clothes she was wearing, sure enough deep purple bruises had begun to blossom across her torso.
"Jesus Christ..." Riley breathed out, " Come on, we need to get you out of here."
Maia nodded but she hadn't anticipated how much pain she was truly in until Riley began lifting her to her feet. As soon as she was standing, she nearly fell again, the searing pain in her ribs and her head would've taken her down if Riley wasn't there to catch her.
As she was walked to the door, her eyes never left Joel's body, it was then she realized there was only three of them that came to the rescue. And there were three injured. One being Tommy, who has yet to wake up from the hits he had taken to the head.
"We can't leave him."
"What?" Riley asked, over the wind outside and the quietness of Maias voice, she hardly heard her.
"We can't leave him." Maia repeated, weakly pointing to Joel, " He—," she drew in a shaky breath, " We can't leave him here, alone, Riley."
"Hey—," Jesse stood from Tommy's side, " We'll come back, before we lose light, I promise." He looked between Maia and Ellie, assuring both of them that he wouldn't be left there.
"But first, we have to get you all back to get checked out."
And they did go back that night, Maia watched from the infirmary as they carried his body in, the sun just beginning to set below the horizon. But she couldn't cry, it hurt to cry, any breath she took made her hiss in pain.
She only felt relief when she was sleeping, though her dreams were plagued with death and the moments before. She saw her fathers fear ridden face as he realized he was about to die and that his daughters would watch. She saw her mothers cracked lips and sunken eyes. She saw Malinas ever present smile and how it faded as her soul left her body. Then she saw Joel.
