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it hadn't taken dina and jesse long to find the house. ellie's haunting cries had echoed through the open (and most likely broken) door, alerting them of her whereabouts and urging them to get there faster. not a bone in dina's body wanted to find out what was making ellie cry like that, and yet everything in her wanted to pull the girl into her arms and comfort her.
the two practically raced to the house, bursting through the doorway and searching frantically for ellie. dina couldn't hear anything aside from her own panicked breathing and ellie's gut-wrenching sobs. jesse took the second floor, while dina made her way around the first, looking in every possible place for ellie before she found the staircase. it had been partially blocked off by a hastily opened door with a missing handle (courtesy of ellie, probably), and dina could hear ellie's cries and pleas louder. each one felt like a knife to her heart and she felt tears gathering in her own eyes at the thought of anything causing ellie - strong, stoic ellie - to cry as painfully as that.
dina realised that something must have gone awfully wrong.
"jesse!" she shouted, cupping a hand around her mouth to carry her voice further, "they're down here!"
with that, she rushed down the stairs, wincing every time ellie let out another sob. the door was halfway open and she almost tripped over her own feet trying to run in. she saw tommy first, slumped against the floor, obviously trying to pull himself across the room. before she could move to help him, jesse gasped from behind her. it was a fear-inducing sound that had her heart racing as she looked up. her eyes landed on ellie.
ellie was curled up on the floor, sobbing hysterically, with her hand stretched out touching-
dina thought she was going to be sick.
ellie's hand laid on what was left of joel's face. blood was pooled beneath him and rivers of it made their way down from his hair. his hair - oh god, his hair. it was matted with something dina didn't even want to think about. his head dipped in a place, and dina didn't even want to look anymore. ellie's hand was now covered in her father's blood, and the pool girl was laid on the floor with it beginning to soak into her jacket and the rest of her clothes.
dina took a deep breath.
"you- you go see if tommy's okay. 'm gonna go see ellie." she said to jesse. her voice shook and lacked any semblance of authority, but jesse hummed lightly and all but ran to tommy. he was probably happy to be able to look away from ellie and joel.
just walk, she told herself. one foot in front of the other.
"ellie? what happened?" she didn't ask if ellie was okay. of course she fucking wasn't.
"joel- he-" ellie choked.
"hey, calm down. we've got backup on the way, they can help him."
"no, he's- he's fucking dead!" ellie screeched. she moved forwards, sitting up and cradling joel's head in her lap.
dina cringed at the thought of all the blood and guts and other gross stuff that was probably getting all over her clothes, but ellie didn't seem to care. she continued caressing joel's cheek, crying and telling him to, "wake up. you fucking wake up right the fuck now or i swear I'll kill you myself."
but joel didn't wake up.
joel didn't wake up because he was dead.
joel miller was dead.
the guy that had saved ellie's life in more ways than one.
the guy that had fixed her mother's roof when it caved in a year or so ago.
he was like a myth in jackson, one of the strongest (albeit oldest) guys that lived there. he'd led countless patrols, had saved more people than dina could count, and contributed effortlessly to the community.
and now, he was sprawled across the floor with his skull caved in and his daughter cradling his head, sobbing and hyperventilating.
by the time help arrived, tommy was up and holding ellie close to him, his free hand holding desperately onto one of joel's. neither of them seemed to want to let go. maria had come with the help and was almost holding tommy upright but no one could pry ellie off joel. she was folded over him, practically screaming through her tears.
"ellie," tommy said, his voice scratchy, "sweetpea, they gotta take him."
"no," she said. her voice broke.
dina moved forward faster than she ever had before, wrapping her arms around ellie. she shushed her girlfriend (were they girlfriends? she wasn't sure, but the question could wait), stroking her dishevelled hair and whispering assurances in her ear.
eventually, ellie stopped crying. she was seething with anger that dina could feel rolling off her in waves. dina herself was staring at joel's body as people wrapped it up with her arms circling ellie's shoulders. tommy and maria had left some time ago (dina didn't know exactly when, she was pretty sure she'd been dissociating for a while).
people in jackson didn't usually get funerals. it became too much of a hassle, dina's mom had told her, because people died too often. instead, they were either burned or buried with no ceremony or audience. tommy, being joel's only living biological family, had been given the choice. despite initially wanting joel to be cremated, he had chosen for his brother to be buried. his reasoning? he didn't think ellie would be able to handle joel's cremation. he wanted to give her (and himself) a place to grieve, one where he knew of joel's presence. dina thought that was rather sweet.
and so, joel was buried a few feet behind the church. ellie hadn't wanted to see the ceremony, but apparently half of jackson had decided otherwise. joel's impact on the town appeared to overcome their distaste for big ceremonies and waste of precious materials. dina watched silently from the side with jesse. tommy and maria had pulled the two up to the front with them, saying that joel would want them there - they were ellie's best friends, of course.
dina spaced out throughout the whole service, and the meal afterwards. she didn't know what to think, let alone what to say.
neither did the rest of jackson.
after all, the strongest person they knew had been killed.