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PREVIOUSLY ON SACRIFICE ═══════════════
"What the hell, Maria?" her eyes were wide. Her arms were outstretched in a do-you-have-an-explanation-for-all-this sort of way. "Where the hell is Ross? People are wondering, Maria. Do you know how bad this looks? The two of you go, only one comes back. People are asking- talking."
Maria picked her head up, facing the ceiling and brushed the tears from her eyes with her middle finger and thumb. "Ross is dead. Infected by spores."
Robin spoke up with confusion lacing her sweet voice. "But Ross knew what spores look like. He knew what they could do. Why would he-"
"That building, the one that had collapsed, the one we turned around at- there was a radio transmitter inside. He said it was one used by some Fireflies. Didn't wanna risk the signal being destroyed. He got the coordinates to their next location. Said they knew abound the dam. Said if we caught up with them, we could get good information."
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Maria's eyelids got heavier and heavier, her brain foggier and foggier as the night carried into a new day. A couple more hours it would be until the morning sun sluggishly made its appearance over the trees.
The tossing and turning of bundled blankets which were wrapped around a certain blonde nine year old brought Maria from her studious stare. She set the pen down, folding the map up, calling it a night.
The older blonde laid back against the hard wooden floor before a warm bundle gathered herself in Maria's lap.
"What are you still doing up? It's gotta be about four-thirty," Maria chastised softly.
Jeanie shrugged her shoulders, burrowing further into the blanket, laying her head on Maria's chest. "Can't sleep."
Maria rubbed the girl's back. "Bad dream?"
Jeanie didn't answer and just when Maria thought she'd fallen back into a blissful slumber, the girl whispered into the cool, crisp air, "What happened to Ross, Mia?"
The woman closed her eyes, preparing to answer the question that Jeanie deserved an explanation to. Jeanie wrapped her arm around Maria, pulling the two blankets over the two of them. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Maria pulled Jeanie closer, putting her face in the girl's hair, and wrapping an arm around her. "Yeah, Jean. He's dead."
