Chapter Text
It takes 5 years, but the scientists and engineers get the time machine to work.
Tommy relays this information to Joel via the walkie-talkie, nearly missing his brother’s words. Joel has been on a recon mission for the past few days with eight of the younger members of the camp in search of supplies. They were almost back to camp, when they were attacked by a pack of infected (including clickers), which surprises the group for something like this hasn’t happened in years.
Joel pulls his gun off his back immediately aiming and pulling the trigger, taking out two clickers with one bullet. He runs forward, switching to his knife, grabbing one of the infected from behind and using his weapon to slash open her throat. He lets the woman fall to the ground, listening to the sounds of the other people with him firing their weapons and take down their enemies.
The fight continues in this manner for what feels like hours, with Joel trying to take as much of the fight away from his teammates and provide backup at the same time. These kids are well trained; hell, he trained a few of them himself, but he doesn’t know how much more they can take. He can already see some of the group members getting tired. Their weariness isn’t slowing down their reaction time at all, thank god, but he can see it in their expressions.
Joel hears a scream on his right and he turns seeing April fall to the ground, her gun clattering out of her reach. He looks to her left seeing a clicker approaching her from the left. Knowing she won’t be able to react fast enough, Joel moves quickly.
“April, watch out!” Joel runs over the fallen girl, putting himself between her and the clicker. Before Joel can react, second clicker grabs his from behind. Without hesitation, he shoots consecutive rounds through his own abdomen until the clicker stops moving and falls to the ground dead.
Joel sways in place for a moment before falling to his knees. He can hear April calling his name, gunshots, and someone kneeling down next to him.
April pulls her bag off her shoulders and unzips it pulling out a medical kit and getting to work on patching the wound. There’s only so much she can do and both of them know it. Joel needs a hospital and unfortunately, they’re in the middle of the goddamned apocalypse.
“I got him, don’t worry,” she says, wincing as she places the bandages around his abdomen. “You’re going to be okay, dammit. You’re going to be okay.”
Joel can hear more voices approaching. The others must have fought off the rest of the clickers and are heading over to see what’s going on. He can hear a few shocked gasps from the larger group before one of the men (Joshua) kneels on his other side.
“We gotta get him back to camp,” Joshua says. “Aiden, help me.”
Joel hears the other man walk over and grab onto his left arm while Joshua grips his right. The two men help him into a standing, placing his arms over their shoulder. They wrap one of their arms around his back and the other around his waist.
“Alright, ready?” Aiden asks.
Joel nods before they begin making the slow trek back to camp, with the others forming a protective circle around the three men.
**
“Joel, what the hell happened to you?” Tommy demands.
“Clickers did,” Joel answers, as he staggers through the gate with his group surrounding him. They had radioed ahead that they were going to be returning at a much slower pace due to Joel’s injures. Thankfully, he was the only one injured and all of their supplies are still intact.
“Nah, a clicker wouldn’t be able to do this shit,” Tommy says, shaking his head in disappointment. He motions for the Aiden and Joshua to pass Joel over. Tommy throws one of Joel’s arms around his shoulders while Maria takes the other. The trio slowly begins moving away from the larger group, who start heading to their respective homes. When they’re far enough away, Tommy says, “Again, I will ask. What the hell happened to you?”
The brunet sighs heavily knowing that his brother wouldn’t quit until he got a straight answer. He beings relaying over what happened during the mission along with the resulting ambush and how he was injured, feeling his brother’s grip on his arm tighten out of anger. When he finishes the tale, he hears Maria scowl and mutter angrily under her breath.
“Alright, we got to get you to medical,” Tommy says.
“No,” Joel responds firmly.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees his brother’s frown deepen. “What the hell do you mean no?”
“I don’t want to go to medical; I want to go to the lab.”
“The lab?” Maria questions and Joel can hear the anger dripping from her tone. “You are injured in your goddamned abdomen and at risk of bleeding out and you’re worried about time traveling.”
“Maria—” The brunet begins.
“No, Joel,” she says, cutting him off. “I don’t understand where the logic is in all of this is? You need immediate medical attention.”
“Maria,” Joel says in a harsh whisper. “You, Tommy, and I all know damn well that there is a chance I won’t be able to survive these injuries regardless of what I do next. At least, give me the choice to use my last possible moments to do some sort of good.”
“Joel . . .”
“Maria, don’t,” Tommy speaks. “My brother is more stubborn and driven than I am. Once he makes his mind up on something, there’s no convincing him otherwise. Let’s take him to the lab. We can stitch and patch him there while we learn more about this damn machine.”
“Thank you,” Joel says, grateful.
Maria opens her mouth as if she wants to argue, but ultimately sighs in frustration.
After about fifteen minutes, the trio arrives in the lab. Shannon and Tamera look concerned at Joel’s condition, but he waves them off saying he’ll be fine. Maria had disappeared as soon as Joel was settled, only to return a few moments later with a medical kit. She wanted to do the patching herself, but Joel said he would be fine on his own. Maria pursed her lips like she wanted to argue or yell, but instead silently hands him kit and moves to sit next to Tommy, who is settled in a chair on the other side of the room. Joel opens the med kit and starts patching himself up.
“So, the machine,” Tommy begins, breaking the silence. “Will it work?”
“In theory, it should,” Tamera answers.
“In theory?” Tommy explains with a raised eyebrow.
Shannon nods her head. “Even though we’ve spent years working on this, time traveling is something that has never been attempted before. The machine should work, yes, but we have no idea of the after affects or anything of that nature. We don’t even know if he can return to this time period.”
“How will it all work?” Maria asks, eyes darting between the scientists, Joel, and her husband.
“Joel will sit in the machine while we prep everything. When we give him the go ahead, he’ll turn the key in the ignition and that should transport him back to whatever time period he chooses.”
While the two women continue explaining the specs of the machine and going into detail about paradoxes, Joel avoids his brother’s burning gaze. Both men know that no matter what, a paradox will not be an issue because he’s going to die—whether by the machine or his injuries, they don’t openly say.
**
“Are you ready, Joel?” Shannon asks.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Joel responds.
“All right, if you could just step into the machine, please, then we can get started,” Shannon says, with an encouraging smile.
Joel climbs into the machine while the scientists rush around the room, pressing buttons and flipping switches on the various machines surrounding him. He looks up, meeting Tommy and Maria’s gaze both of them looking upset and angry. Joel knows they don’t want him to do this, but why waste medical supplies that others need when he knows he won’t make it out of this alive.
“We’re all set. Are you ready Joel?” Tamera asks from her place next to Shannon on the other side of the room.
Joel nods. “I’m ready,” he says. He turns the key in the ignition before a bright light consumes him as he thinks of finding Ellie.
*
The light fades and Joel’s eyes widen as he finds himself sitting in the machine surrounded by broken and unused cars. “Shit, it actually worked,” he says, completely shocked as he climbs of the machine and looks around the area, noticing that he’s back in Boston.
He steps away from the machine as if in a daze, eyes widening even further because he remembers passing by this years ago with Tess and Ellie on their way to the Firefly encampment at City Hall. He starts to wonder how the machine got from Boston all the way out to Salt Lake when the shock wears off and he remembers his injuries and the shitty patch job he did.
Joel sucks in a breath, feeling new wetness intermixed with previously dried blood. His vision blurs and he stumbles into a nearby alley, barely managing to get himself into a sitting position on the ground before passing out.
*
“Hey! Hey Mister, are you alright?”
Joel slowly opens his eyes and sees a younger version of Ellie sitting in front of him, her eyes wide with worry and unshed tears. The dark haired man smiles slightly and tries to say her name but no words come out. He feels a wetness leaking from his abdomen and Joel knows he doesn’t have a lot of time left. He has to tell her before it’s too late.
Ellie’s eyes roam over Joel’s torso, lingering on the room her lips parting with a slight gasp. “You stay here; I’m going to get some help—”
“Wait,” Joel says, his voice hoarse as he reaches out to grip Ellie’s arm before she moves away. “No help.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Ellie says, mouth twisting into a frown. “You’re bleeding heavily with no sign of stopping. You could—You could die.”
“I’ve been dying for a long time now,” Joel says. “But, you can be saved.”
A suspicious look crosses Ellie’s features. “Excuse me? Just who the hell do you think you are—?”
“Don’t go to the mall.”
Ellie’s mouth snaps closed and she gives him a confused look. “What?”
“Don’t go to the mall,” he repeats. His body has a numb tingling sensation and he’s becoming delirious from the blood loss. He doesn’t have a lot of time left.
“Why would I go to the mall? We’re not allowed after curfew.”
“Trust me. An opportunity will arise for you to go and you have to say no.”
Ellie furrows her brow, anger flashing in her eyes. “You don’t know me. How do you know something like that will happen? No one I know would ever dare to break curfew.”
“It happened to a friend of mine; she was given the opportunity to break curfew, went with her friends, and watched them die. No one else should have that fate.”
Ellie’s look softens and she shifts her position so she’s sitting next to Joel. She looks scared but understanding at the same time. “Okay, I won’t go to the mall.”
“Promise me.”
She nods her head and offers him a small smile. “I promise I won’t go to the mall.”
“Okay,” Joel says with a slight nod. He returns her smile before closing his eyes and allowing the world to slip away.