Five years ago, you saw your old friend Joel again for the first time in 20+ years and this sarcastic little girl clinging to his side in the harsh snowstorms of Jackson. If someone told you Joel was captured and brutally killed in a cabin uphill from the little town you all found together, you wouldn't believe it. Joel just doesn't die. And the role he took on for that girl, Ellie, showed you it was even more reason for him to stay alive.

Joel is dead. Ellie witnessed it with her own eyes and couldn't do shit about it. She and Dina came back utterly distraught and beat up. Jesse had a dead look in his eyes. The rest of the people that were sent out filed in through the big doors. Your teenager came through on the back of Jesse's horse with a saddened expression. They got off at the gate and approached you, worried.

"What happened? You alright?" You asked while you checked their face for any wounds or cuts. Or bites. They gently pulled your hands away before responding.

"I'm okay, ma," they said. Morale clearly shot to shit.

"What's going on?" You looked up at the trio in the distance. "Where's Joel?"

"..."

You said their name before meeting their eyes again.

"He's dead." They said quietly. "That's all I know." They added and walked past you to get to the cabin you all stayed in. You were left there standing in shock.

A few days pass and Ellie hasn't spoken a word since Joel's burial. It's no wonder, they weren't even on good terms. You were something of a mother figure to Ellie. More aunty-like. You'd known Joel since childhood and never forgot that one night you promised you'd watch out for her should something happen to him. He said it so...like he could feel it coming. But you, without hesitation, reassured him you'd be there like she was one of your own.

And now? She needs you more than ever.