Her feet drag quietly behind Riley's. The weight of the inevitable dread on her shoulders just about keeps her from moving at all. Ellie feels empty; without purpose. She's a lost cause as she knows it. "We fight for every second we get to spend with each other. Whether it's two minutes...or two days. We don't give that up." Riley's words regarding their situation still don't help. They will both be dead within a few days...or at least, every shred of humanity in them will be. So why was Riley still pushing forward? Towards what does she make Ellie still strive? It took everything in Ellie just to stand up after digesting what had happened. It seems to have taken a long time to maneuver back through the mall, since Riley had stopped every so often to get a final look at the thousands of relics that originated in the world before theirs.
Ellie gloomily dodges the beautiful sight of the Carousel in their obliterated world. Her eyes linger on the bite marks on her arm for a moment, still finding it hard to believe.
"Wanna give it another try?"
"Huh?"
"The Carousel. I can see if I can get it to go again." Riley gestures to the control panel next to the attraction.
"I'm good," Ellie says in a trembling whisper. Riley's positive attitude fades slightly as Ellie lumbers past her. Ellie has no doubt that Riley would catch up to her; she was known for her persistence. After passing through the doors that empty into the halls of the back entrance of the mall, Ellie leans against a crate, using it to support most of her weight.
"Ellie..." She can't look at Riley. The idea of accidentally seeing the bite marks on her best friend's hand terrifies her. Once was enough. Riley appears right next to her.
"Ellie, we shouldn't waste time thinking about it. Let's just go find something fun to do." Ellie shakes her head, studying every detail on her wounded arm.
"There's no point."
"Don't say-"
"We're gonna die sooner or later! What difference does it make if we shoot each other with water guns or read stupid pun books?!" Ellie's cheeks become flushed, showing her internal struggles.
"Don't you want to feel human for the little time we have left as humans?" Ellie shrugs. Her watery eyes beg her to let the tears fall. A moment of inactivity comes and goes before Riley extracts a roll of bandaging from her bag. She carefully wraps Ellie's arm and ties it off. Ellie hardly reacts at all.
"There. No infection. It's only a wound. See?" Riley shows Ellie her hand, now also wrapped in bandaging.
"We're a little old for pretending, don't you think?" Riley laughs.
"And yet we seem to be young enough to enjoy pun books." Ellie can't help but smile at this statement. "Let's get out of here." Despite watching Riley turn away, Ellie drifts back near the door. She cracks it open and squints in the light.
"Can we stay for a little while?"
"Haven't gotten sick of the mall yet, huh?" inquires Riley.
"Guess not." The pair have a seat on a bench inside. The warm lights on the Carousel bring comfort to Ellie. She and Riley sit silently, keeping to their own thoughts. Just as a reoccurring question probes Ellie's mind, Riley speaks up.
"How about of game of 'Would You Rather?'"
"Sure."
"All right. Would you rather...have music follow you everywhere or live without sound all together?" Ellie thinks over the question carefully.
"Do I get to pick the music?"
"No, let's just say it's completely random. Could be anything at any given time."
"I'd still take music over complete silence. What about you?"
"Same. Your turn." Ellie exhales while she thinks of a question to ask.
"Would you rather own a car or a horse?"
"Does the car work?"
"Of course."
"Then the car."
"I'd take the horse," says Ellie.
"Why? A car can go much faster."
"True, but a horse is a living thing. Much cooler than any car of yours." Riley smiles with amusement.
"If you say so. We'll see what you think when I beat you in a race." Ellie smirks.
"Your turn to think of a question." Riley kicks back for a second.
"Would you rather only eat an unbelievably delicious meal twice a week, or eat canned food every day of the week."
"I guess canned food everyday," responds Ellie, not particularly knowing what a delicious meal tastes like. It's always been canned food and other non-perishable food items for her and the other survivors at the school.
"Ugh, I'd take the better tasting food. Your move." They question that's been eating Ellie drifts back into her thoughts before any other possible question. She hesitates to ask.
"How would...if..." Riley raises her eyebrows with curiosity.
"If...if you go first, h-how would you want me to end it?" Riley sighs.
"You'll know when the time comes." Ellie too sighs, but with disbelief at the vagueness of Riley's answer.
"That's not good enough." Riley turns from her gaze. She doesn't like this change in conversation.
"I...I want you to just do whatever it takes to survive. Don't worry about how I'll end up. Just fight or run...whichever you have to do." Ellie nods sadly.
"I need you to do the same if I'm the first," she tries to say bravely.
"Okay. Let's not talk about it anymore," suggests Riley.
"So what else is there to talk about?" Riley bites her lip.
"What about that kiss?" Ellie's heart plunges in embarrassment and confusion.
"What about it?"
"Well, what did it mean to you?" Riley asks in a calm voice.
"I...I don't know."
"Would you like to find out?" What did she mean? Why was she even thinking about this, knowing that doom was awaiting them? Riley comes closer to Ellie, her face inching forward. Ellie turns her face away so that Riley misses, pressing her lips against her pale cheek instead.
"I can't," Ellie tells her. It's too hard, especially when their first and last kiss was full of such hope. Hope that was taken away within a matter of minutes. Riley wraps an arm around Ellie's shoulder.
"It's okay, Ellie." Their heads touch for a moment before Riley retracts her arm. Ellie needs to say something, anything to pull her out of her misery for the time being.
"Hey Riley...what's your favorite adventure we've had?" Ellie waits anxiously as Riley thinks of an answer.
"Definitely the time we followed Tino into that library. The look on his face when we saw what he was reading was priceless!" Ellie giggles along with her.
"It's too bad we couldn't blackmail him, seeing as he knew about all the other times we snuck out of the school."
"As least we got to play that really fun treasure-hunting game we made up," recalls Riley.
"Yeah. That was a really fun night."
"What's your favorite memory?" Riley's partner in crime peers at the Carousel.
"Getting to see this place." Riley follows her gaze.
"I hear that this place would be filled with crowds of people shopping every day. Can you imagine?"
"Not even a little."
"What's your favorite store here?" asks Riley. Ellie stretches her fingers.
"The one with the video games in it was pretty cool."
"I think they called it an arcade back then...I like the costume store. I almost made you pee when I had that mask on!" Ellie shoves her with her shoulder.
"Shut up."
"Admit it, I gave you a good scare!"
"Not until you admit that my taste in music isn't so bad."
"Never!" The two laugh together until Riley goes silent.
"I just forgot that we left the music on back at that place. I bet it went through the whole tape by now."
"Probably," replies Ellie as she comes to a realization of her own. She looks up towards the clear glass sky windows above. It seems as though the light of the sun was ascending upon the earth.
"They're probably starting drills soon." Riley picks at her beaded bracelet.
"Wishing you were there?" Ellie shakes her head.
"No." Ellie smiles at Riley, who smiles back.
"I missed you, Ellie." Ellie's smile transitions to a smirk.
"You sap."
"Fuck you! You're one to talk," Riley counters humorously. She scratches the back of her neck with her infected hand. Ellie notices that some blisters had begun spreading from inside the bandaging, engulfing Riley's entire wrist. Ellie glances at her own arm, which is completely clean of blisters outside of her bandage.
This doesn't surprise Ellie, however; many knew that different individuals experience different rates of infection within the span of one or two days that it generally takes for the infection to take over the mind. Still, Ellie remains terrified.
"Riley?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you scared?" Riley makes eye-contact with her for a second then returns her gaze to the cracks in the tiles before her.
"Who wouldn't be?" Ellie kicks at the leg of the bench on her side.
"How do you keep your mind off of it?" Riley pauses before leaning to the side and reaching into her back pocket. She hands Ellie a piece of paper. Ellie unfolds it to find a few words, scribbled in black ink.
"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
"Was my mom's favorite quote. She taught me to live by it." Hugging her legs with her arms, Riley goes on to talk about the few memories she had with her parents. She speaks of the small settlement she and her parents had resided in right outside of a quarantine zone. Ellie listens intensely, hungry for more knowledge about life outside of quarantine zones, especially since military boarding schools were all she knew. It was when her father alone comes up do tears flood Riley's eyes. Ellie attempts to console her, but her contact is shaken off, an action that astonishes Ellie.
As minutes turn into hours, Riley and Ellie swap stories from the time they were separated from each other. It feels as though they have all the time in the world now that their time is limited. Who would have thought time would feel so backwards in a situation like this? In between stories, they crack old jokes and ask each other questions they would've never thought to ask before. Ellie begins to notice the smallest irregular changes in Riley's attitude as they talk. "Am I all over the place as much as her?" she wonders.
"So, when you were with Shawn alone in that room, what was really happening? You told me that he was flirting with you." Riley chuckles before replying.
"I was just messing with you. He was showing me some baseball cards he had found outside of school."
"You don't even like sports, though."
"He was just so excited, I couldn't burst his bubble. And besides, it was interesting to hear about how the game was played."
"And you're sure that there weren't any compliments being tossed around?" Ellie offers a teasing grin. The corners of Riley's mouth form a slight smile as she shakes her head.
"Not a single one." Ellie has a hard time swallowing the possibility of another mood change. Only now, did Ellie realize that the blood vessels in Riley's eyes have become slightly inflated. Blisters are more apparent on her arm and even her face now, covering areas right around her eyes and mouth. Ellie again tries to ignore these changes. The two of them drift among their own thoughts for a long time.
"Ellie?"
"Hm?"
"What's one thing that would've been on your list to do before you die?" Uneasiness overcomes Ellie. The more the infection progresses within Riley, the harder it is for Ellie to forget about their fate. Still, Ellie wants to honor Riley's only wish. She has to continue to fight for every second with her. She processes her response carefully.
"I think I would've liked to watch a whole movie. Beginning to end. We always got caught with a TV before we could really even start one." Ellie fixes a daring look upon Riley. "Wanna go see if we can make it happen?" Riley stares beyond her, completely emotionless. Though her hope is faltering, Ellie extends a hand.
"C'mon...Riley?" Riley blinks a couple of times and looks at Ellie, taking her hand. The duo first make a stop in an electronics store, where they find a blu-ray player, as well as a TV. Ellie helps Riley hook it up, since she seems to be having a hard time concentrating. Next, they enter a nearby video and music store.
"Let's hope you don't have a shit-taste in movies too," comments Riley weakly as they search the shelves.
"Psh." Ellie intends to expand her response, but is silenced by the sight of numerous titles with the word "zombie" in them.
"Holy shit. Did they expect this to actually happen at some point?" she whispers to herself. She examines the many different designs of zombies on the movie cases, none of which looks like the real thing.
Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud crash. Ellie rushes to the source of the noise to find Riley bending over, holding her head in her hands. An entire shelf is tipped over and videos are spread all over the floor.
"Riley?!" Ellie cautiously draws closer. Riley screams out and twitches violently.
"Ellie!" she shouts through gritted teeth. Ellie remains frozen in her place, watching the horror. Riley looks up at her. Streams of blood flowed from her eyes while the blisters have appeared to have spread and grown even larger. Riley sends her fist flying into another shelf, causing her to moan in pain. The sounds coming from her seem to have lost their human touch. The sight of her best friend mumbling while slightly hunched over with lifeless glowing eyes sends chills down Ellie's spine.
As threatening as she looks, Riley does not attack. She instead paces around the store a little. As she disappears behind a set of shelves, Ellie is presented with the opportunity to escape. She does not take it, however. Backing into the wall behind her, Ellie sinks to her knees in shock. She can't believe it. It can't possibly be time already. Squeezing her eyelids tightly, Ellie rises back to her feet. As she sharpens her senses, she peeks around the row of shelves and observes Riley, who stands before a collection of movies as though she were studying them. Ellie watches for a few minutes, then steps forward to get a closer look. Fear grows from the pit of her stomach as she edges towards Riley. Crack. Below Ellie's foot is a cracked DVD case.
Almost instantly, Riley turns and charges at her, drooling blood and saliva through the teeth in her tightly clenched jaw. A surprised Ellie barely has enough time to step aside as the infected Riley lunges for her. She catches the wall with her fingernails and growls. Ellie stumbles through a bunch of videos on her way out. She can feel Riley hot on her heels. Ellie ducks into a door at the end of the vast space in between the stores. She glances back just when Riley slams through the door. Ellie scurries through the narrow hall, bumping into a decaying pipe a few feet in. Clutching her shoulder, she hauls herself onward, only to reach a locked door.
"Damn it! Come on!" She rattles the doorknob with desperation, despite knowing very well that she is trapped. Spinning around, she withdraws her pocketknife and spots Riley. Though the room is dim, Ellie sees Riley hit the pipe hard. She tumbles to her stomach. In no time at all, she starts to climb to her feet, snarling at Ellie. This is it. This could very well be the end for Ellie; Riley could rip her neck to shreds. All the same, Ellie could tear Riley apart with her knife, but how could she live with herself after doing so? Either way, Ellie's end is near.
Suddenly, dust trickles down around Riley, followed by a huge collection of debris from the weak ceiling, which directly covers her. Ellie coughs and shields her eyes until the air clears. The sight that appears before her is very well expected but still manages to startle her. A large pile of concrete and Styrofoam remains, along with Riley's body below it all. Her head and right arm is all that is visible. It's hard for Ellie to accept the possibility of her being either dead or alive. Either outcome would be difficult. Ellie kneels before Riley, quickly finding that she is dead for sure. The rear end of her skull had been beat in by a piece of concrete.
"Oh, Riley..." Ellie can't stop her tears. She tucks her hand in Riley's outstretched one, not having a care in the world about the blood it was covered in. She sniffles as she stands up straight. She has to get out of there now. Her heart feels as though it's about to give out. After picking the door's lock with her knife, Ellie rushes to the nearest bathroom. She stares intensely into the mirror. Surely, her time is to come soon.
"What? What the fuck?!" No blisters are present on Ellie's face. No blood is draining from her eyes. Why does she appear normal? She's infected after all! Ellie tears the bandage from her arm. Except for the fact that the bleeding had stopped, not much appears different. Is this some cruel trick? Would she never turn? Ellie shakes her head as though she were emptying her head of these ideas. No. Her body is just more efficient in resisting the infection.
"Shit..." She wishes the infection would take her already. Gazing at her pocketknife, she considers the faster option for a minute. It'd be no less painful, however. Ellie sighs and pockets her weapon. Riley wouldn't want that for her. Once she establishes this truth, she runs out of the bathroom. She heads straight for the place where they were dancing together, determined to recover a belonging of Riley's. Without too much trouble, she finds Riley's Firefly pendant. Closing her fingers around it, Ellie also retrieves her pack and slumps down against the wall that sits closest to the Music Center.
"This is bullshit," she whispers breathlessly, opening her hand to study the pendant. She had never seen direct combat with the Fireflies, yet she saw one die right in front of her today. And it had to be the only one she cared for. It isn't fair. She sits for a couple hours, waiting solely for the infection within her to spread. Every once in a while, she would flip through a couple of pages of a comic book from her pack. She even snacks on some dried berries, though it's pointless.
Ellie spends the most of the time just holding Riley's pendant and thinking of her. The details of her infected facial features are still fresh in her mind, yet Ellie still wrestled with the possibility that this was all a nightmare. If she can't have that way out, though, the infection will provide her with one.
The Firefly symbol on the back of Riley's pendant intrigues Ellie. She thinks of all the graffiti with the words "Look for the Light," marked with the Firefly symbol. "What light even exists in this world?" Ellie wonders. "Where could there possibly be light in this situation? How does one dance in the rain at this point?"
More tears sting Ellie's eyes. Being bitten was bad enough; now she is alone. She grasps the pendant tightly. "Fight for Riley. Gotta fight for Riley..." Ellie's pack serves as a pillow when she decides to lay on her side. "Maybe the infection will take over in my sleep." She wills herself to shut her eyes. Sleep is troublesome, but it comes eventually.
It's dark. It's dark and something is definitely looming nearby. Shadows descend upon Ellie, slowly waking her.
"Do whatever it takes to survive. Just fight or run...whichever you have to do." These words repeat in Ellie's mind as a horde of the infected close her in. Ellie finds that they are all identical. Before her, stood numerous infected bodies, all with Riley's lifeless face. Ellie can't see an easy way out. She cowers as they draw even closer. The closest one snatches her wrist.
Ellie's eyes flash wide open. Startled, she shakes her wrist. A rat hits the ground and scurries away. The girl tucks her head into her hands, coming back to reality. She waits for her heart to slow down and her breath to come back. Once again, she checks her arm, finding that once again, nothing has changed hardly.
Ellie jolts to her feet dashes back to the bathroom. Her face crinkles in confusion when she sees no changes anywhere. The skin on her face remains clear, except for a little dirt and sweat.
"Fuck..." The dream she just had comes to mind. She knows that this one means something; it means that she wasn't truly fighting for Riley. Her best friend didn't want her to just sit and hope for the infection to come in her sleep. She wanted Ellie to keep moving, despite the infection.
Ellie wonders what Riley would want her to do, now that she's alone. She then changes her perspective. "What would Riley do in my place?" Ellie sets her sights on the pendant, which rests on the floor next to her pack, then back on her arm. It has to have been a little over a day now, and Ellie has seen no change in herself. Deep inside, she feels as though something isn't right. Whatever the case may be, she knows that Riley would return to Marlene. But for what reason would Ellie make contact with the Fireflies? The reason she's searching for comes to her, sooner than expected.
Ellie gathers her things and ensures that her pocketknife is safely secured in her back pocket, while Riley's pendant is tucked away in her pack. She takes a light jacket from a clothing store. After pulling the sleeves over her arms, Ellie heads for the nearest exit. The cool, morning air strokes her face as she gazes out over the city. Exhaling slowly, she closes the door behind her and prepares to move forward. She's going to find Marlene to return Riley's pendant.