Your head was still buzzing from where you’d been hit, thrown down the second you charged through the door behind Ellie.

Joel lay limp and broken on the floor, his breath rattling against the stillness. His face was swoIIen and unrecognizabIe on one side, bIood crusting and coating him. Purple and black with bruising, both eyes swoIIen shut. Crimson trickIed from his nose, his mouth, the side of his head. His legs—

Don’t think about the legs. Not now.

You could hear threats spilling between Ellie’s lips, directed to the blonde who’d orchestrated the attack as she and the group with her began to file out. But the blonde didn’t stop no matter how loud you begged and pleaded, and she had been close to stabbing a now lifeIess Joel in the neck, when one of the men with her suddenly snatched the object from her hand.

“Abby! It’s done.. it’s done.. let’s just go.” He spoke firmly, though there was an underline of urgency.

With a heavy grunt, the blonde, Abby, relented, settling for one last kick to Joel’s now mangIed face, before leaving at last.

Your lips were shaking profusely, whimpering as you crawled forward to him, your head ducking down to press against his. For a long moment it seemed like there was no breath left in his body, leaving you to sob over as Ellie pulled herself bedside you.

Then…

A faint groan. Barely audible, but just enough. He was still there, even if barely..