"Daniel, is it really you?"
"Yeah its me."
FOUR YEARS LATER
The ranch that Ellie and I had been tasked to search was not far from the dam that we called home.
"I'll take upstairs." I announced.
"Ok."
The place was nice, unlike most other buildings across the country, it was clean besides a few bloodstains from a fight that happened six years earlier.
I walked into what was obviously a teenage girl's bedroom. Pink walls, made bed, cushions on the window sill, Dawn of the Wolf posters on the wall. A small box was on a bedside table that caught my eye. I opened it to find two identical, golden rings. I pocketed them just in case.
"You find anything, Dan." She yelled up the stairs.
"No, nothing." I yelled back.
"Ok, should we head back?"
"No, not yet. Its not often we get privacy." I ran down the stairs to find Ellie waiting for me.
"You're not wrong." She kissed me.
"Mmmmmm, your lips taste good." She laughed at my playful remark as I kissed her back.
We returned to the dam a couple of hours ago and we were in its recently converted mess hall filled with other members of the six year old township. I was eating with Ellie beside me and I was contemplating about the pair of rings in my pocket.
Should I? What if she says no? I'll be embarrassed in front of every body, Joel, Tommy, Maria, but then. I thought to my self. Fuck it. I concluded as I swallowed the last mouth full of food and stood up with my hand clasping the rings tightly in my pocket.
"Ah, I have an announcement to make." I started as the room fell silent. "And it involves the one person in the world that I feel at home with. The one person who has saved my life. The one person who I love."
I noticed that Ellie was watching eagerly, as if she knew what I was going to do.
I knelt down on one, held out the pair of identical rings and asked the question that has been on my mind for what seemed an eternity. "Ellie, will you marry me?"
I knelt there waiting for her make one of the largest decisions of her lifetime.
"Daniel, if there was anyone that I would spend the rest of my life with," She paused for a few seconds that felt like a lifetime, "it would be you!" She jumped up at me and hugged me tightly as the crowd cheered.