The art of survival (Maya Hart/joshaya)

Chapter 27

Josh doesn't want to see you anymore...

What? Suddenly the room felt cold and the warmth of the soup was long gone. For a second I forgot how to breathe. Riley noticed and hugged me tightly.

"Why?" I whispered, she placed my head in the crook of her neck and it made me calm down a little bit.

"I honestly don't know Maya..." She whispered in my ear, this made the tears that was burning under my eyelids finally find their escape down my face,

"Is he safe?" I asked, my voice breaking by the shivers down my spine. Riley looked me in the eyes, they were filled with concern.

"Physically yes, mentally I don't know. He hasn't really spoken to any of us since we got back. He is building another camp, on a higher level so that it will be safer from growler herds. He just asked if you will be okay and then he left..." She said, her voice sounded shaky and I understand her, it can't be easy to know that a member of your family is pushing you away.

"Can I see him?" I asked. Riley shook her head.

"Maya something is wrong with him, I haven't seen him like this since Auggie died and it's even worse now. He is just completely blank." Riley cried.

"Riley where is he? I need to talk to him." I said holding my best friends hand. She wiped her tears and nodded.

"We can drive you tomorrow, you just woke up and you need to regain your strength a bit first." Farkle said. I looked down on my body again, noticing stuff I hadn't before. My ribs were sticking out and I had literally zero fat on my body. I looked like a wreck. I tried to stand up from the bed only to fall back down again. With the help of Farkle and Riley they helped me walk a couple of steps until I was exhausted. The only thing that kept me going was that I had to stay strong for Josh.

The rest of the day I slowly learned to get control over my body again. It started with the easy stuff, like how I put one foot in front of the other while walking and after a while it got to the more detailed parts like bending my fingers one at a time. Riley and Farkle stayed by my side the whole day, helped me through my regular panic attacks and made sure that I didn't push myself too much. I learned that we were in the "hospital" of Danvar since I needed constant care. They almost wasted all their supplies on me and I feel very guilty over that, as soon as I am better I will get them back. That's the promise that keeps the guilt from eating me alive. The only times I had woken up was a few times when they needed to feed me and even though I had been pretty well drugged I still had managed to make the worst of it. I don't remember it and it's probably for the best, it sounded pretty bad.

When the sun of a new day shined through my window I felt ready to confront Josh. Since I would be too weak to protect myself, Shawn and Cory promised to come along to keep us safe. Riley had even taken the opportunity to go get a wheelchair from an abandoned hospital which made everything a lot easier. I had along with the wheelchair a pair of crutches just in case.

The ride went well, some bumps on the road hurt a little bit but we weren't having any problems with growlers at least. After forty minutes or so we had arrived. Cory and Shawn got out first and started to inspect the work but the only thing I noticed was a certain brown haired boy coming straight towards us. I saw the pain in his eyes from this far away. He looked tired, with purple bags under his eyes. He started to speak to Cory and Shawn and while he was occupied doing so, Riley and Farkle helped me out of the car. I stood with my crutches when Josh noticed me.

"Maya..." He breathed and started to walk towards me and I was sure that he would take me into his arms but suddenly he stopped. It looked like he suddenly realized something that made him unable to move closer to me. For a split second a fire was burning in his eyes before he shook his head. When his head stopped his eyes were dead cold.

"You shouldn't have come." He said before quickly turning on his heel, eager to get away from me.

"Josh, wait!" I shouted as he walked away from me. I started to jump after him with the help of my crutches. I stopped when Josh got into a house and literally slammed the door shut. The sound echoed through my ears and I realized that this hurt way more than the weeks of torture I had been through.