A/N: Hey so this would probably be my first official fic ever and if you're here to read and stay, buckle up because this is gonna be a long haul! For this chapter I basically took the events from Left behind and put my own little twist on them of sorts but this is how it's going to start out then sort of turn into it's own thing. Thank for reading!

Chapter 1: There's No Going Back

Everything that lead up to this moment almost seemed unreal. Was it?

Ellie had no idea, but seeing Rileys face made all doubts dissipate as she aimlessly followed her friend wherever she dragged her in this rugged old mall.

Up until this point she didn't realize how much she really missed Riley. The brunt of it still hadn't fully hit her yet though. That old kindred fire in her belly ran like a wildfire now. How could she ever want to spend the rest of her life doing the same thing everyday knowing she'll never see Riley again.

Ellie almost didn't want to chase her friend. She knew Riley was just trying to spend all the time she could with her but she had to get back. God knows another strike and… she didn't even want to think what they would do to her.

"Goddamn it." a deep sigh escaped Ellie and she followed through the doors that Riley took. "Where the hell did she go? Riley? Riley!"

Ellie repeats Riley's words like a plainsong to herself as she followed down the corridors. Why the hell did she bring her here and do all this if she was just going to leave? It's just going to make things harder now, and that was something Ellie couldn't handle.

Pushing her way through the doors, Riley was standing in plain sight just staring at a fancy city looking little set up.

"You ever see anything like this?"

"Are we just done talking?" Ellie says, ignoring what her friends question.

"I don't know, are we?" with attitude, Riley turns slightly to look at Ellie.

Ellie couldn't quite figure out what she did wrong now. Why was Riley so mad? She made the choice to leave. "You don't get to be pissed off at me. I'm pissed off at you."

Riley finally turns around to face Ellie. She looked almost how she did they day she last left. "For what? Asking what you think?"

Ellie furrows her brow a bit at Riley. "When have you ever cared about what I think?" she says as if she was stating a fact. In reality, Riley did care, a lot, but she would never admit that. "We were good... We were better than good. And then you told me to fuck off. And then you just up and vanished." Ellie rambled on, trying to prove a point. Maybe it was more for herself then for Riley. "This whole day..." She sighs, looking down. "You feel guilty? You want an out? I'm... I'm giving it to you."

"I'm suppose to be holed up on the other side of town. I get caught as a Firefly I'm dead. Guilt didn't make me cross a city full of Soldiers, Ellie. And yeah, I did some shit I don't know how to take back but... I'm trying." Riley's eyes soften as she looked at her friend now, differently.

It almost surprised Ellie. She had expected Riley to lash out again and run off.

But no.

"Speaking of..." Riley takes off her backpack and throws it to Ellie's feet haphazardly. Their water guns slipping out. "Those water guns you've been dreaming of. I nearly got shot for these... Surprise." She said in a totally unenthusiastic way. She had been saving them for the right time but for everything that has been happening, now was better then never.

All Ellie could do is stare at her, her heart sinking like a waterlogged boat in a gray ocean. Riley did care and it made the thought of her leaving even harder to bare more then ever.

But no. She pushed that feeling away again. She was going to have to leave.

Leaning down, Ellie picked one up then the other silently.

"Okay. First..." She held one out to her friend. "I'm gonna destroy you. And then we'll talk."

It was as if they never fought. "You're about to get drenched."

"Let's see what you got, Firefily-girl." Ellie said, that crooked smile ever so present on her face.

Once again it seemed all like a dream. Like she was floating between the earth and sky. As the little water gun fight went on, all Ellie could do was push the sinking feeling away deep inside of her for another time, when Riley was gone. She couldn't ever show her friend that side of her. That sappy stuff was for losers anyways. When Riley wanted to play another around, Ellie could tell she was only trying to delay the good-byes... and that was fine with her.

"Oh shoot, what did I just do? Did you see those skills?"

"Okay."

Ellie smiled proudly. "Someone should revoke that dog tag!" It was almost a little hint to Riley that she didn't want her to go. But she obviously didn't get it.

"Wow! Now you're just mean. Uhh-uh, thats it. We're going again." Riley said, smiling back, holding the water gun at Ellie playfully.

She had to do it. She had to stop this. She had to go. Choking back any sadness, Ellie carefully pushed away Riley's water gun. "Riley... I would love to do this all day. "

Riley nods, understanding. "But you gotta go back." Riley felt the first real twinge of sadness really hit her, and now all she wanted to do was delay Ellie even longer. She had to figure out something.

"I gotta go back."

"Okay. Fine. Can I at least walk you home?"

The air was thick with both of their hidden emotions. You could clearly tell they the two didn't want this to end. Didn't want the perfect dream to stop.

Ellie felt a bit fidgety now. Like she was eager to do something but she couldn't figure out what. "I guess."

"Come on, let me get my backpack." Riley turned, following her footsteps back. Ellie followed her like a lost puppy. She always did.

"Hey. so..."

Riley turned around. She was trying to find the perfect opportunity to delay things.

Ellie shakes her head eyes following down to her friend's feet then back up. She took a deep breath. The girl was never good at saying sappy things. She was always sarcastic and funny. "I said it like an asshole but... I totally meant it. You should go."

Riley actually looked surprised. She expected Ellie to ask her to stay, knowing how her friend clung to her for dear life. It almost disappointed her and was clear in her face that she was. Riley was trying to find something, ANYTHING that indicated Ellie wanted her to stay and as soon as she would say it or even show it, Riley would take it. Ellie was to good though. She was to good at hiding things.

"This is something that you've wanted for... You know, forever, so..." Riley remembered back to the day she told Ellie about how once she turned 16, she'd have to train to be a soldier and that she wanted to find a way out before then. "Who am I to stop you?"

"The one person that can." Riley couldn't help but to admit it. A small glimmer of hope was still left in her that maybe Ellie would change her mind.

"No. Please, don't go. I'll be so miserable without you." Ellie said almost sarcasticly, but in a sweeter way.

That had been what Riley wanted to hear... but not in the way she wanted. However, she couldn't help but to smile. Ellie was cute, that was a total given and her friend somehow always found a way to make her happy even in the darkest of times.

But no. She couldn't. She needed to delay this.

"I'll be fine... And you'll be fine." Ellie said, brushing off the feeling inside of her once more. She was lying... She wasn't going to be fine. "And we'll see each other again."

Another lie.

"You should keep these. Not gonna do me any good." Riley sighed, handing the other water gun to her friend. She felt a small panic inside now. There was nothing she could find to delay any longer...

But wait.

"You still lug that Walkman around?" Once again the glimmer of hope sparked in her. 'God please still have it.' Riley chanted in her head.

"Pshhh. Always." Ellie opened her bad, looking for the Walkman to prove it.

"Let me see it." It was perfect. Riley had found herself a few more moments. "

"Here." Once Ellie pulled it out of the bag, Riley didn't hesitate to take it from her like a hungry raccoon taking food from a human.

"What's in it?"

"That tape you gave me." Ellie looked up at Riley, almost embarrassed.

Riley's heart fluttered a bit. She had really kept it? That and the picture of both of them on the wall. Maybe Ellie wasn't so good at hiding how she felt after all. "You really will be miserable without me." She said, walking away quickly past her friend, giving her a playful shove on the shoulder.

"Shut up."

She was right.

"Leave that. follow me." Riley demanded.

And Ellie followed without question.

"What are we doin'?"

"You'll see."

Riley searched through a bit till she found the right radio, hooking up the Walkman to it. She knew exactly where the tap was.

Perfect.

Turning it on. Riley's heart jumped in excitement. "Yeah!"She climbed up onto the glass counter and started to dance.

Ellie looked at her with both an excitement and like her friend was crazy. "What are you- Really?"

"C'mere."

And Ellie followed without question.

"Get your ass up here."

"So stupid..." Ellie said with a sarcastic sigh as Riley laughed at her. Really, she loved this. But how could she ever tell Riley that? Ellie felt sort of mesmerized just staring at her friend but she was quickly snapped out of it by Riley.

"Come on!"

The two danced and laughed. How could anything be anymore perfect then this... then Riley?

And all in that moment, it fully hit Ellie. Riley was the dream would be over.

She would be alone.

"Here-"

Emotions where flooding like a over filled dam and it was clear by Ellie's expression that something was wrong. It stopped Riley in her tracks.

"What is it?" Riley's voice soften to a caring tone. "Hey... What's wrong?

That had pushed Ellie over the edge.

"Don't go."

Even with music playing, everything seemed silent in that moment.

And Riley followed without question.

Reaching up carefully, Riley ripped off the dog tags, throwing them to the ground. Those words were all she needed. From here on she promised herself she'd never leave Ellie's side.

Ellie's heart felt as though it was going to burst. Like something greater then she could ever know took her over and in one swift motion she leaned up, kissing her friend without a word.

It didn't seem like enough but at the same time it felt like forever. Ellie broke the kiss and that damn crooked smile took to her face.

"Sorry." Ellie whispered.

"For what? Riley had said, almost like she had been waiting for that kiss all night. Like she worked for it and finally got what she wanted.

And she did.

Ellie had been a bit thrown off by that but felt overjoyed. But now wasn't the time to linger about it. She pushed it away as if it almost didn't happen.

"What do we do now?" Ellie asked. She was the type to have a plain a head of time. She only felt comfortable knowing what was gonna happen next.

"We'll figure it out. But I don't think Marlene's gonna go for it. She's going to have a shit fit. It doesn't matter though. I'm not going to leave you and if she doesn't like that... well, to bad."

Ellie felt so overjoyed. She wanted nothing more then to hug Riley but that might have been pushing it after that kiss. She was worried she might have scared Riley.

"Here, come on. Lets get going." Riley said, jumping down from the counter, holding her hand out to Ellie to help her down.

More then happy to take Riley's hand. Ellie hopped down and brushed her pants off awkwardly as Riley turned away to grab the Walkman.

"So... about that kiss." Riley asked, turning down the music and unplugging the Walkman.

"Y-yea? What about it." Ellie stammered, straightening up quickly at the mention of it.

Riley walked over to her and Ellie backpack, stuffing the Walkman in her own. Walking back over to Ellie, she held out the backpack to her friend. "What exactly was that about?"

"Nothing." Ellie quickly exclaimed back.

"Allllright." Riley turned and shrugged, heading to the middle of the little store.

"What? It was nothing." Thank god Riley couldn't see her. She figured she was redder then a tomato right now.

A loud thud was heard somewhere on the other side of the store and it made Ellie jump as she put her backpack on. Thats when she saw it.

A runner.

A lot of them.

They must have heard the music.

"Riley!" Ellie yelled, running to her friend as fast as she could with the runner at her feet.

Riley had already pulled her gun out, taking a shot at it right to the head. "Come on! We need to go, NOW."

Ellie was practically being dragged by Riley as they ran through a door. Ellie tripped and almost fell as she stumbled over to the side.

"Barricade the door!" Riley demanded.

And Ellie followed without question.

Together they both shoved what seemed to be a metal worktable in front of the door. Riley looked around quickly for a way out. "This way." though Ellie had been in a sort of shock. "Ellie!"

Snapping out of it, Ellie followed her friend, quickly jumping over a longer worktable. "What way?" Ellie asked. Riley was already heading to a door.

"Oh shit!" It was clear they weren't going that way as Riley shoved the door closed on a runner about to jump through, baring it up with a long piece of metal she had found.

They had to figure out something. A way out. Ellie wasn't ready to die. Not today.

It almost seemed like every door they go through or every corner they turned there was a runner suddenly. It started to seem like there was no hope.

"Ellie, you with me?" Riley quickly asked as she ran, making sure her friend was still there.

"Yeah, I'm right behind you! Keep running!" More and more space was put between them as they ran. Ellie already had to save Riley once as they were running from one of the runners that had jumped onto her.

Riley explained that they needed to get to the scaffolding. It was going to be their only way out. Once again it seemed like more and more space was put between them as they neared the room with the scaffolding. Riley had already climbed up it in a quick but careful manner and now Ellie was trying to climb up it.

"Reach up! I got you."

But everything was going wrong.

Ellie had jumped onto it wrong and it fell back with her weight. The wind was knocked out of her as she hit the ground hard. She didn't have any time to recover as a runner jumped onto her.

"No, no no!"

With all her strength, Ellie tried to shove him off and in the process of it all it had bit her arm without her even noticing. Gun shots rang in her ears. Riley was trying hard to help.

Everything seemed like slow motion now as Riley shot the runner and shoved him off of her.

But no time to think. No time to recover.

Another came at them, knocking both of them back. It was right at Riley's face but she was able hold it back just far enough. Even though she felt so tired and weak, Ellie found it in herself to shove the runner off of them both, diving at it with her knife, plunging it into it's head.

Everything became still and quiet.

Looking around, Ellie nodded. "I think it's clear." What a relief.

But it was short lived...

"Ellie... Ellie,You're arm."

Ellie looked down, the knife slipping out of her hand. The shock hit her hard as she brushed away the blood.

"No." She brushed at it again, doing it over and over as if it would make the bite go away.

"No, no, no, no, no..."

Riley looked at her, pained, and the real reality of the situation set in for both of them.

"Elli-"

"God dammit!" Ellie yelled in anger. A million thoughts ran through her head and it confused her, only making her more angry.

Slowly, Riley stood up and made her way to Ellie who was kicking around anything she could find. "Ellie. Calm down. Come here." Ellie stopped, leaning forward a bit with a heavy breath. Riley placed a hand on her back and Ellie tensed up for a second but stood back up.

It was instant, Ellie hand melted into her friend's arms, crying. "Hey. Come on. It's alrig-" Riley stopped what she was saying, pulling Ellie even closer. She moved them back and sat down, pulling Ellie with her. She leaned Ellie onto her chest and wrapped a arm around her.

"What are we gonna do Riley?" It was apparent that Ellie had no idea what to do anymore. But Riley didn't say anything. Not a word.

For the longest time they sat there in silence. It gave Ellie time to think though. She pushed away from her friend and stood up, looking down at her. Riley looked like she was ready to cry, but nothing came. She was strong and it almost made what she was about to say harder.

"Look... Riley... We both know whats going to happen, and god knows when. Could be in a hour or it could be in a few days." Ellie paused, just staring at her friend. Everything they went through today. All those emotions and feelings. Ellie had finally shown Riley how she somewhat felt and now it was going to waste.

"Leave."

"What?" Riley questioned.

"Just leave. I don't want you here when it happens. It's over for me anyways. At least you can go do that Firefly stu-"

Riley stood up, interrupting Ellie. "No, I'm not going to leave you Ellie." She said, giving her a stern look as she just about got in her face. "I made a promise to myself. That I'd never leave your side no matter what and I'm not about to break that, you hear me?"

Silence fell onto them again as Ellie looked at her.

"Now you're not gonna argue with me anymore. I'm not going anywhere."

And Ellie followed without question.

Ellie didn't speak, she just looked at her friend. She was scared but at the same time happy. Happy that she had someone who cared so deeply. She wanted to kiss Riley again.

But It didn't happen.

"Now come on. I know where we are gonna wait this out." Riley said in a softer tone. Ellie followed her back up where the scaffolding use to be. She was helped up to the window then reached down for her friend. Once the two where outside, they looked around.

The sky was already well lit and bright blue. It was beautiful out, and a warm breeze brushed by. It was relaxing until the bite started to sting. It was like she wasn't allowed to have a moment of peace.

The two of them had a sort of secret hiding spot. It was a old long abandoned home that was totally bored up. All except for a window on the second floor, up an old fire escape. It was close to the mall so they were able to get there with no problems. Once they got the fire escape and into the room, Ellie plopped onto the bed, letting a depressing sigh fill the room.

It looked as though it was a kids room at one point in time, but the two of them had made it there own. The bottom part of the house was impossible to get to since the stares had long been broken off.

Ellie looked at the bite on her arm that was still bleeding, thinking of all the thing she did wrong and all the things she could have done right to prevent this but it wouldn't change now. It would never.

"Here. Let me get that cleaned up for you." Riley said softly. Grabbing her flashlight, Riley went down the little hallways and into the bathroom where they had stored some supply's for if they had ever gotten hurt. She grabbed some wraps and antibacterial, quickly heading back to the room. It seemed like Ellie was in a trance, staring at the bite. She had to do something. Get her mind off of this whole mess. Make her friend's last moments wonderful.

"Here." Carefully, Riley pulled Ellie's arm over, looking to her. "This is gonna hurt." She said opening the bottle. Ellie closed her eyes and Riley started to pour it over. A loud yelp rang through the room and Riley quickly slipped her hand into Ellie's, letting her squeeze it as hard as she needed to.

Once Ellie seemed to calm down, Riley started to wrap it up nicely. At least the school taught her something while she was there.

"There. Feel better?" Riley asked, scooting a little closer to her friend.

Ellie nodded slowly. "I'm just a little tired now... you know... after all the running."

Riley didn't even need to think of her next actions. She crawled onto the bed after kicking off her shoes and laid down, patting the spot next to her. Ellie didn't question. She follow suit, kicking off her own shoes and crawling up next to Riley.

Riley didn't like the space between them though. She wrapped a arm around Ellie and pulled her as close as she could possibly make them. It didn't seem close enough though. Ellie's face heated and it was as if Riley knew without even having to look. She had a sort of smug but content smile on her face.

"Rest, Ellie. I'm sure you're tired. I'll stay right here with you, watching over you."

Ellie wanted to argue but she didn't have it in her. She was so unbelievably comfortable and already way to tired... so she nodded. This felt right, and she wouldn't want to be with anyone else in this world other then Riley. She couldn't. At least she would die that way. It brought her peace and she was able to accept this unforgiving fate suddenly. It eased her into a comfortable sleep.

Riley could feel Ellie relaxing. Once she new she was asleep, she carefully sat up, leaning Ellie so she was on her back. Riley stayed on her side, propping herself up with her arm. All she could do was stare at Ellie. She was so pretty. How was she ever going to stand being without her now? She traced her facial features, trying to remember every last detail of her. She never wanted to forget her face, or her laugh... the sound of her voice. That was all going to end and she wasn't going to have her Ellie anymore... Her Ellie?

Eyes stopped upon Ellie's lips and it was as if suddenly time stood still. She remembered the kiss. Riley smiled subconsciously. Ellie doesn't do things without purpose and Riley knew exactly why Ellie had kissed her... But she dare not admit that, because she feels the same way. Riley didn't seem like the sappy lovey dovey type, but deep down she really was.

Leaning down, Riley carefully placed a soft kiss on the corner of Ellie's mouth. It has caused Ellie to smile in her sleep and it made Riley's heart flutter as if it could jump right out of her chest.

Rolling over, Riley laid down onto her bad, Ellie quickly clinging to her side. Now she had time to think to herself. It hit her then.

Riley had made a huge choice. She was dedicating her life to Ellie... She had forgotten that Ellie was even bit in the process of all this thinking. She couldn't walk away from Ellie now. The girl would fall apart.

Ellie was like a perfect storm. Beautiful but dangerous. Riley could get completely distracted by her and that's what happened today in the mall. Riley should have seen those runners coming. In the midst of her thoughts, Riley had slipped into a sleep.