14:10 – Day 2

Petra wasn't sure for how long she and Olivia were sitting there in the snow, wrapped in each other's arms. Olivia was heartbroken, sobbing into Petra's jacket until her voice began to crack and give way. Petra was silent the entire time, tears leaking out from underneath her closed eyelids as she held Olivia tightly.

It was so hard to take in. Petra desperately wanted to believe that it was a dream, that she'd wake up again and everything would be fine.

But there was no avoiding the cold, hard reality. They had just lost a friend.

"Olivia." Petra said softly after a while, as the engineer's desperate sobs began to fade. "The time is ticking... we need to start thinking about heading back."

Another whimper left Olivia's mouth as she lifted her head weakly. She looked up at Petra, her gaze heartbroken.

"I know it's hard." Petra responded, gulping to stabilize the quivering of her own voice. She reached up, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "But we're not safe out here. And Jesse and Lukas..."

"What are we going to tell them?" Olivia whispered, wrapping her arms around herself and looking down.

"There's nothing else we can tell them, other than the truth." Petra responded, placing a hand on Olivia's shoulder. "As hard and as devastating as it will be, we don't have a choice."

Olivia gave a small nod in response, not looking up again. Her brown eyes were shining with tears.

"Come on." Petra said gently, taking Olivia's arm. "Let's go."

Olivia sat rooted to the spot for a few more seconds, before she reluctantly gave in and got to her feet. She began turning her head in the direction of Axel again, only for Petra to gently guide her gaze away from the awful sight.

Wrapping an arm around the engineer, Petra slowly began to walk away. Olivia leaned her head over against Petra, a tear drop rolling onto the redhead's jacket.

Despite how desperately Petra wanted to break back down into her own heap of misery, she held herself together for Olivia's sake. Ignoring the heavy beating of her heart, the distant throb inside her head.

It was going to be a long walk back to the cabin, one Petra didn't feel ready for. How were they going to break the news to Jesse and Lukas? More importantly, how would they take it?

Especially Jesse... She already had to deal with the pain of loosing Radar, would she be able to cope with losing one of her oldest friends?

Petra blinked away the burning sensation she felt in her eyes. Even if they made it through the whole thing... Nothing would ever be the same again. Not with one less member on their team. The five of them, now reduced to four.

Petra stumbled slightly, the thought alone making her feel unsteady on her feet.

"Petra?" Olivia stopped, looking over at her. "Are you okay?"

"About as okay as you are." Petra responded grimly.

Olivia blinked a few times, wiping the tears from her eyes. Using the opportunity to focus on Petra to help pull her mind away from Axel.

"But is anything else wrong?" She asked softly.

Petra shrugged as they began to walk again. Olivia raised her eyebrows slightly. Not a yes or a no was usually a sign that Petra was hiding something.

"You know you don't have to hide everything."

Petra sighed at Olivia's words, pulling a hand through her hair. "Liv, stop overreacting. I just kinda tripped over my own feet, you don't have to go all mother-hen on me."

Olivia just gave a silent nod, not bothering to continue arguing. Petra knew she wasn't being a hundred percent honest with Olivia, the whole world was kind of hazy around her at that moment. It was probably just the shock, she'd walk it off in a seconds.

Once more, it was quiet between the two girls as they walked along the snowy terrain. A chilly breeze was starting to blow again, gently tugging on their clothes and hair. They could only pray that it wouldn't turn into another blizzard before they get back.

Petra gritted her teeth slightly, folding her arms and letting her injured one rest on the other, like she did earlier. She couldn't wait to warm up her cold muscles in front of the fireplace back at the cabin.

As the limb gave another dull throb, Petra couldn't help but flinch slightly. Olivia glanced over at her, noticing the warrior's discomfort.

"Arm okay?" She asked.

"Yeah." Petra mumbled in response.

"You can be honest." Olivia said softly, shrugging. "Besides, your arm has occasionally acted up since your Wither Sickness. It's not really a secret."

Petra's eyes flickered over to Olivia for a second, before she fixed her gaze in front of her again. "The infection was on my left arm." She replied bluntly.

Olivia's frown deepened at Petra's words. She opened her mouth to ask Petra another question, before just falling silent again. She had to stop bugging her friend, she knew Petra didn't like it. After all, through everything that had happened, Petra could easily have just sprained it.

Olivia bit her lip, her thoughts starting to slowly work overtime again, like they tended to do. Pushing her grief to the back of her mind and allowing worries and concern to take it's place. Petra was good at hiding things. What if she picked up frostbite, like Lukas? She could be in the process of losing a hand, and keeping it to herself!

Turning her gaze back to Petra, Olivia was prepared to say something. She couldn't help but feel her heart rate accelerate a tiny smidge. Was she just anxiously starting to imagine things, or was Petra looking quite pale?

"Petra, listen." Olivia said, stopping. "I'm worried about you. If something's wrong, please tell me."

Petra stopped too, turning to face Olivia. She slightly shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she stood.

"I'm fine." Petra brushed Olivia off, her voice hardening. "I know you're on edge right now, Liv, but stop assuming something's wrong with me."

Olivia sighed, her shoulder's sagging. She gave a small nod. "Yeah, okay... sorry."

Petra nodded in response. She swiftly turned back around again to continue walking forwards, when the sudden movement all of a sudden caused the world to snap out of focus. She staggered slightly on the spot, only just managing to keep her balance as gravity threatened to take over.

"Petra!" Olivia gasped, grabbing the redhead by her – thankfully uninjured – arm. "Are you okay?"

Petra didn't get a chance to reply as Olivia pulled over over to a nearby snowed-over rock and letting her sit down on it.

"Oh my god." Olivia breathed worriedly, touching Petra's skin with the back of her hand. "You're starting to burn up."

"I am?" Petra asked almost breathlessly, looking up at Olivia.

The engineer gave an anxious nod. Immediately, she began to think of the worst possible scenarios. "Do you... do you think you could have whatever Jesse does?"

"It's possible, but that's not what I think it is." Petra responded, raising her sore arm.

Her reluctance for being honest quickly faded away with the increased seriousness of the situation. She rolled up the sleeve of her jacket, revealing the bandage to Olivia.

"You're hurt?" Olivia asked, her eyes widening. "Why- why didn't you say-"

"The wound itself isn't that bad." Petra cut Olivia off. "I didn't even think about telling you all after I was able to dress it, because I had promptly forgotten about it."

She took a deep breath. "I was bitten. By a wolf. And this is just a hunch, but the thing's been unnaturally sore for the past few hours. If I'm starting to grow a fever as well... it could mean an infection."

"Oh my god." Olivia took off her beanie and pulled a hand through her black hair. She bit her lip anxiously. "Let me see that."

Petra didn't bother objecting as Olivia knelt beside her, starting to very carefully undo the bandage. She gritted her teeth upon feeling the bandage and the wound separate.

"That's not good." Olivia whispered as they both flinched at the sight of the raw wound.

"I mean, on the bright side, an infection can be treated." Petra responded, trying to refrain from looking away from her own wound. "Our situation would be a lot more dire if I had... well, whatever Jesse does."

"We should get you back." Olivia said firmly. "We might not have medication, but we can at least clean that thing up and you can get some rest."

"Yeah." Petra nodded. "There's some more bandages at the cabin, so I can just change it when we get back. For now-"

"We're not putting that thing back on again." Olivia said quickly, gesturing to the bandage that had formerly been on Petra's arm.

"Well what else do you want to use?" Petra asked in frustration. The fact that she wasn't feeling well made her short temper flare up even more.

Olivia bit her lip, before carefully taking out the thin green scarf. Petra's scowl faded, sympathy clouding her gaze.

"Olivia, no... that's all you have of..."

"He would want you to use it." Olivia said, managing a small, sad smile. "Give me your arm."

Petra reluctantly held out her arm, allowing Olivia to gently wrap the wound. When she was done, she rolled Petra's sleeve back down over the scarf before opening their backpack. Petra gratefully accepted the water bottle that Olivia held out to her.

"Will you be okay to walk back?" Olivia asked worriedly. "You seemed to be really dizzy earlier."

"We don't have a ton of choices." Petra responded, handing Olivia back the bottle of water. "I'll be fine."

"If you need to lean on me, just say so, okay?" Olivia insisted as she helped Petra back to her feet.

The two of them began to walk on again, Olivia keeping her one arm looped through Petra's to help support her, just in case. Both of them were painfully unaware of the animal cowering in the shadows. Its grey eyes hungrily following them, it's nose twitching at the delightful smell of blood.

"Do you hear that?" Petra asked, lifting her head with a frown.

"What?" Olivia responded.

"I could have sworn I heard something-" Petra started, when both of them suddenly heard a low growl behind them.

Swinging around on the spot, the two girls found themselves face to face with a large wolf. Its ears pulled back, it's teeth bared.

Olivia let out a frightened whimper while Petra ripped out the hunting knife. Both of them stood frozen, eyes locked with the wolf.

"Don't. Run." Petra breathed, noticing the engineer's muscles tense up.

Olivia bit down on her trembling lip, giving a small nod to show that she understood. For a few seconds, it was deathly quiet between the two girls and the animal.

Petra blinked a few times, her vision fogging up ever so slightly. She was too uncoordinated, if the wolf launched, she wouldn't be able to fight it very well...

Another deep growl sounded from within the wolf's throat. It's tail flicked sideways a few times, it's silvery-grey eyes moving from Petra, to Olivia and back again.

Then it shot forward, right at them.

In pure terror, Olivia and Petra's thoughts immediately left them and they bolted on pure prey instead. Soaring on adrenaline, they bolted across the snowy landscape with the wolf beginning to gain on them.

It flattened its ears, putting in another burst of energy as it locked onto it's target. Then it leapt up with a voracious growl, bringing a screaming Petra down to the ground.

Olivia dug in her heels, letting out a feared shriek as she saw the wolf dig his teeth into her friend's back, Petra letting out screams of agony as she tried to struggle free.

Olivia's eyes landed on the hunting knife that had flown out of Petra's hand, bolting over to it. She clasped her gloved hand around it's wooden base, throwing herself at the wolf without even thinking. The wolf immediately let go of Petra as Olivia plunged the knife into it's shoulder, howling in pain. The moment she ripped out the knife, seconds before she could bring it down for another blow, the wolf made a run for it.

Olivia only allowed herself a few deep gasps to get her breath back before immediately focussing on Petra. Her hands began to shake violently at the sight of her friend.

Petra's eyes were squeezed shut as she took short gasp-like breaths. Dark red was slowly spreading across her clothes from the deep wounds, seeping into the snow beneath her. Chunks of flesh had been ripped away from the lower part of her back, skin ripped to shreds.

"Oh my god, what do I do?!" Olivia asked in panic, her hands immediately starting to fumble with the buttons on her own coat as she tried to get something to try and stop the bleeding with.

"N-no." Petra's eyes weakly fluttered open, and she managed to grasp Olivia's one hand with her own. "D-don't.."

Her voice broke off as she let out a moan of pain, tears glazing over her dull blue eyes. Her breathing faltered as her eyelids fell close, before weakly opening again.

"Just hold on, okay?" Olivia gasped, her hands gripping Petra's. "I'll do something!"

Petra blinked slowly, looking up at Olivia. She let out a bitter chuckle, pain lacing her face as she did. "I-I'm not going to m-make it, am I?"

"No! Don't say that!" Olivia begged as tears pooled in her brown eyes. "We're.. we'll..."

"Olivia." Petra's eyelids fluttered again, her voice dropping worryingly low. "It's... not... worth it...." Her breathing was deep and heavy. "...This is... the... end... for me..."

"Please, no, don't give up!" Olivia begged, her tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. "You're Petra, you can't give up!"

Petra's face had grown deathly pale, her skin nearly as white as the snow. Her breaths began to slow as her eyes closed all the way, the rising and falling of her chest barely visible.

"No, no, no, no, Petra please!" Olivia begged, heaving her friend's limp body onto her lap. "Don't go, we need you!"

For a few more seconds, there was no response from Petra, when she suddenly convulsed on Olivia's lap. The engineer's eyes widened as Petra began to cough, blood dripping out of her mouth and onto Olivia's jacket. Her body shook violently as she began to physically hack up more blood.

And then she stilled.

"No!" Olivia cried out, desperately shaking Petra's limp body.

But it was no use. Petra's eyes were closed, her breaths gone. Heart no longer beating.

"Please, no! No, no!" Olivia pleaded, clutching Petra tightly. "Don't leave me, Petra! I can't loose you too!"

There was nobody to listen to the engineer's heartbroken cries as she hugged her friend's body to her chest.

Mourning another loss.

___

I can't express to you guys, how much I actually didn't want to do this-

Petra's death was in the outline in my head all along, but when I eventually came to this chapter, I was tethering on the edge of not going through with it and keeping her alive. And even now, who-knows-how-long since I wrote this, I still wonder what the story would have been like if I didn't choose to kill her off.

I can officially say that removing my favourite character from the plot is not something I like doing, despite how much I like torturing her. I legitimately have a higher chance of straight up murdering Jesse, before Petra xD

Enough ranting about my internal struggles though, lol, DID YOU ALL LIKE THE SURPRISE DEATH!?

Axel's death, everybody was kind of expecting that. But I'd be surprised and impressed, if somebody actually saw this coming-

*Evil chuckle* we have some really dark chapters up ahead, double the grief now.

I need to shut up now, or this A/N is going to be longer than the actual chapter, lol. I am so looking forward to the reactions on this chapter, haha.

If you guys have any theories, I'm all ears! And yes, there will actually be more than just tears to the next chapter xD

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, or more accurately, I hope you all cried on this chapter! I'll see you all in five days with a nice, dark, chapter 23!