Chapter 1

The sky over the field was slowly darkening. Any and all wildlife was silent. A cold breeze swept through the trees. There was a single mound of dirt. A wooden cross was staked at the head. A human shadow was cast across it. She stood there, her red hair matted in sweat and mud, tears running down her cheeks. She had lost her everything that morning. The only person she had ever loved, just gone.

She knelt down and drew pictures in the soft red dirt. After a few minutes, she rose once again. "Goodbye, Joel." She walked away from his shallow grave, dragging her feet as she walked.

She entered her home somberly. Everything felt wrong. There was no smell of meat smoking around the back. No radio playing the collection of tapes and CD's they had collected over the years. No table settings were out, awaiting their next meal. She walked in the kitchen and looked at the small cake Joel had made for her birthday. It was half eaten. They had eaten a piece every night for the last three days. Just three days; he held out 3 days for her. He kept his failing heart going just long enough for her to celebrate her, "Special Day" as he called it. She loved him, and she would miss him until she passed into whatever world waited for her after death.

There was a light rasping on the door. She slowly walked over and cracked open the door. There stood Tommy's boy, Victor. Now nearly eight, he was growing into the spitting image of Tommy, except for those eyes, those were definitely Maria's eyes.

She pulled the door open. "Hey guy, this isn't a great time."

Victor looked up at her. "I know, but daddy told me to come and tell you that he wants to see you at our house."

"Did he say why?"

"He said it was something about Uncle Joel. Something you would want to see." Victor bounced between his feet.

"Alright, run on home and tell him I'll be there in a few minutes." She said, scratching her forearm.

"Okay!" Victor turned and ran down the road, chanting a song she didn't recognize.

She turned back and shut the door. She began to tear up again. She wished she could be that naïve and ignorant again. It would be peaceful and easy. She wandered toward the staircase. She reached the second story landing and turned to her right. She entered Joel's bedroom and looked around, at the dark sheeted bed. At the painting above his bed, he said it was something by some guy named Picasso. She spotted the framed picture of Joel and Sarah at his bedside. She walked over and picked it up. Underneath she found something more. She found the picture he had taken of her, seven years ago with that moose. She put them both back. As she walked out, she looked back, probably for the last time. The rules stated she couldn't have a house that could accommodate more than were in the family. Now, with Joel gone, she'd have to move to a smaller home, making way for a new family to move in. It would be the first time she lived on her own. Alone, something she had never been. She had always had someone. Riley, Marlene, Joel, someone was always there to guide her. Now, she was lost.

She entered her room. She walked up to the moose antlers above her headboard. Everything reminded her of him. The striped jacket in her closet reminded her of ECU, the place she nearly lost him, ten years before. The deer's skull reminded her of the winter of the same year, the horrors she faced and the time Joel proved he would never let anything happen to her. Then there was the stuffed giraffe. The thing that reminded her that no matter what, she could find she could find comfort, here at home.

She flung the closet door open and grabbed her backpack. Sorting through it she found her handgun, the same Model 70 Joel had given her ten years ago in Pittsburgh. She checked the magazine and slid it in her waistband. She ran downstairs and started for Tommy's

When she arrived, Maria was standing outside. "Hey hun', How are you holding up?" She brought Ellie in for a hug.

Ellie built up her nerve quickly. "It's tough, but I'm doing fine." She tried her hardest not to burst into tears.

Maria squeezed her tight before holding her at arm's length. "You can't lie to me, I've known you too long."

She followed Maria inside the house and saw Tommy cooking in the large kitchen. "You wanted to see me?" She said, setting her bag by the door.

Tommy wiped his hands on a towel and turned around. "Yes, how're you feelin'?"

Ellie sat on the couch and Victor came and snuggled in next to her. "Tommy, I'll be fine." She choked on her words and her voice cracked.

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "Well, you've got me sold."

Ellie swallowed with some trouble. "How are you doing?"

"I'll be fine Ellie; he was having trouble a while ago. We were ready for this moment." Tommy looked down. "Still hard though."

Ellie sat Victor up and leaned onto her knees. "So, why'd you send this little guy over?"

"I've got a little something for you. Come with me." Tommy walked up the stairs.

Ellie got up and followed him into their room. He walked over to a gun safe and spun the lock. He messed up the first and had to do it over. He popped it open and reached inside. He pulled out a video camera.

"Here, he gave this to me a couple years back. Told me to hang onto it and to only give it to you if something happened to him." He tossed it to her.

Ellie rolled it in her hands. "Does it work?"

"It might. The batteries are probably dead though." He reached into the safe and pulled out batteries and a charger. "If they don't, try these. They're rechargeable."

"Thanks." Ellie opened up the screen.

"Uh, he said it was for your eyes and ears only. You may want some privacy." Tommy said, reaching out and closing the screen.

Ellie looked at him. "Alright, thanks Tommy."

"Go on now, before I get all emotional and start preaching!" Tommy said with a small laugh.

Ellie turned and went outside, saying goodbye to Maria and Victor on her way out. She slowly made her way home; stopping by Charlie's to grab some of his now ever popular boar bacon. Shortly after walking through the door she flung down her bag and opened up the camera. It powered up, but just. She decided she'd try the chargeable ones.

A few hours later she popped the fully charged batteries in and powered it up. She saw a much younger Joel who was sitting in their living room. He began to speak. "I hope to hell this thing is working. Well, I don't have time. You're over at Jenny's place." He shuffled in his chair. "Well Ellie, right now, you're twenty years old, and I, well, I'm still an old man. I'm making this in the hopes that you won't need to watch this for many more years." Joel pulled some stuff out of his bag and placed it on the table in front of him. "Alright, I've gotten to thinking, now that Tommy and Maria have a kid and all, that I should have let you decide what you wanted to do all those years ago in Salt Lake City. Victor's showed me that you doing what you think is right, is much more valuable than saving yourself from pain." Joel shuffled the stuff on the table around. "However, despite that, I can't risk losing you, so I have to make this video. Ellie, you can still find the vaccine." Ellie sat up, she was extremely interested now. "I take it you remember Old George, god, do I hope that bastard's still alive when you see this." Ellie laughed. "Anyway, he's a firefly, one of the first actually. He knew Marlene. He was one of the main supporters of finding the cure. He can tell you the location of every facility they ever so much as sneezed in." He held up the objects, what appeared to be an old coffee tin, and a manila envelope. "I'm going to give him these." He set them back down. "Just some stuff you might need to find the vaccine. Look, I can hear you in the street." He began to put the things back in his bag. "If you decide you want to find the vaccine, talk to George, or his son if he's dead." He reached up to the camera as if to turn it off. "Ellie, I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. Now, How do you turn this damn thin-" The screen went black.

Ellie closed the screen. She sat for a moment and thought. She threw the camera in her bag and ran upstairs. She quickly began gathering things, clothes, ammo, guns, anything she'd need for a long journey. She turned to exit the room. She stopped in her tracks. She looked down at the giraffe on the floor. She stood for a second before kicking it aside and running into the hall. She stepped into Joel's room one last time. She walked to his end table. She picked up the pictures of Sarah and her. She slid them in her bag and grabbed Joel's backpack. She searched it for anything useful. She pulled out a few things. She would give the bag to Tommy before she left. He might like it. She ran downstairs and stopped at the doorjamb. All of the memories she would have of this house, she would remember them all. She then ran down the road, straight to Old George's place.