That night, Ellie returned home with a warm feeling spreading through her entire being. A full stomach, the blurred light of the electric bulbs outside her window, and the elation of a night of conversation with peers lulled her mind into a happy haze, she drifted off to sleep so quickly that the next thing she knew was awakening to a knock on the door.

"Ellie?"

"Y-yeah?" she said, sitting up and pushing her hair back from her face, her eyes remaining sealed shut against the obtrusive light of the dawning.

"You up?"

"You bet, just... getting dressed," she managed, sliding from the edge of the bed and rubbing her eyes into wakefulness. There was no reply from the corridor.

"Joel?" Ellie jumped into her jeans and hopped to the door, cracking it open. "What are you doing today?"

"Um..." Joel scratched his head, and then squinted. "You just now wakin' up?"

"Maybe." Ellie pursed her lips.

"Ellie..." Joel eyed her. "We got work to do."

"But we stayed up late last night, it was fun!"

"Yeah... Saw you over there with Matt and the other girl. You three seemed to really hit it off."

Ellie nodded her head vigorously. "So, can I come with you to do whatever you're doing? I might see them again."

Joel took a deep breath, hesitating, then his eyes smiled. "If you want. Though I warn you, if you're gonna tag along, you're liable to get put to work."

"That's fine!" Ellie called, slamming the door again, and zipping on her sweatshirt. Frantically, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and glanced in the mirror. Cursing under her breath, she rubbed at the flaky remains of dried saliva in the corner of her mouth, and regarded her reflection again.

"Hi, Anna," she mouthed, grinning, and putting her hands on her hips. "Wanna be friends?"

"Ellie?" Joel called, and she jumped, uttering, "Yeah?" with a slight squeak.

"I'm headed down to the stables, you gonna meet me there?"

"Sure, coming," she called back, taking a deep breath, and pronouncing, "Breakfast," to her reflection, before glaring at herself and scampering from the room.

Maria's back was to her in the kitchen as she was busy storing the remains of the leftovers from the night before. Ellie stood on her tiptoes and peeked over her shoulder, uttering her best imitation of a clicker's call.

Swearing loudly, Maria jumped, and whirled around. "Ellie!" Her eyes were wide, her hand clenched upon the nearest implement, a wooden spoon. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," Ellie giggled, covering her mouth to hide her snickering. "Couldn't resist. Can I have a biscuit?"

"I should say no, after that..." Maria muttered, a smile pulling the corner of her mouth in spite of herself. "You could get hurt. Good thing for you I didn't have a knife."

"Or a gun," Ellie added, swiping one of the hard drop biscuits, and taking a nip from one of the peaks of hardened dough.

"Gotta go, helping Joel," she called, sticking the biscuit in her pocket, and heading toward the door.

"Have fun," Maria called, and Ellie stopped, turning around a line between her brows.

"Okay...?"

"If you see Matt and Anna, that is."

Ellie swore good-naturedly. "You all are totally on my case, aren't you."

"Totally." Maria gave her a swat. "Be careful."

"'Kay."

Throwing open the saggy screen door into the morning, Ellie inhaled a deep lungful of the cold air, and thought what a wonderful thing it was to be alive at this precise moment. Flutters of insecurity were pushed aside, as she licked her lips, and scanned the courtyard from the porch, not, however, searching for a bearded man in a plaid shirt, but a girl with long dark hair...

"Ellie?" A voice startled her from her staring, and she caught sight of Matt waving, and striking across the compound. "Morning! I brought your book back!"

"You finished it? Holy moly." Clattering down the steps, Ellie took her precious copy of Savage Starlight into her hands, and looked up at the young man. "You are one heck of a fast reader."

"Couldn't put it down," Matt admitted, his eyes holding her gaze. "Fascinating plot. There was a character in there that reminded me a lot of someone I know."

"Yeah? Who was it?" Ellie asked, tucking the book under her arm, and adding, "I don't guess I need to say I didn't finish yours. It's gonna be a while, I think, that's a freakin' long book."

Matt chuckled. "It's alright, take your time. Look at this and guess." He pulled the comic out from under her arm, and flipped to a page near the center, showing a young woman standing with her feet apart, brandishing her weapon with a determined look on her face.

"Yeah, that's Daniela Star."

"Remind you of someone?"

Ellie peered at the picture, then shrugged. "What I wish I was like?"

"My dad told me that he talked to Joel and Tommy a lot last night, and that Joel explained your trek. That is quite the adventure. He spoke well of you."

"Yeah?" Ellie ducked her head, a strange tingle painting her cheeks. "Well, the journey was hell, that's for sure."

"Sounds like you're a really brave girl. How's your foot, by the way?" With a surprising amount of tact - for the skill seemed to have survived the pandemic in puny proportions - Matt deftly changed the subject.

"Oh, my foot? Fine, I guess. I hadn't thought any more about it." She stomped firmly, then winced. "Okay, a little sore. I feel like a wimp."

"Don't." Matt's eyes were serious. "Frostbite is nothing to sneeze at. I know."

"Yeah, how did you get frostbite anyway?" Ellie asked, furrowing her brow. "Sounds like a story to tell."

"Well," Matt took a deep breath, crossing his arms. "There's this thing called winter? And if you're in it without proper shoes, you know..." He gestured.

"Oh, ha ha." Ellie twisted her mouth in a sideways grin. "By the way..." She hesitated. "Where is Anna? Do you know?"

"Oh, I think I saw her with the group gathering kindling. She wanted to get put to work right away, she's good at making friends."

"Wanna go help?"

Matt looked slightly bemused. "Okay."

"Awesome. Lemme tell Joel, and I'll be right back."

On feet that seemed to have never known the meaning of frostbite, Ellie sprinted across the courtyard and disappeared in the stables. A brief moment later, she emerged again, and bounded up beside him.

"Okay, let's go."

They walked in brisk silence for a long while, and then Matt spoke up.

"I'm going to write a book, I think."

"Oh yeah? What about?"

"I'm not sure yet, that's the trouble..." Matt chuckled.

"I've got some ideas," Ellie shrugged, delving her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt, and pushing them together until she could rub her fingers through the fabric.

"Lack of ideas is certainly not the problem," Matt smiled, tipping his face skywards and squinting into the harsh sunlight. "It's narrowing them down. Choosing which are worth writing. Because in a world like this..." He hesitated. "I don't mean to offend, but reading comics and stories about whales is not that important."

"I think it is," Ellie retorted quickly. "Stuff like that keeps people's minds off all the crap they have to do day to day just to survive."

"True," Matt admitted. "But if I'm going to write a book, I don't want it to be made-up. I want it to be real, or at least extremely important."

Ellie bobbed her head, and seemed to ruminate on this for a long moment.

"I guess I could write a book," she offered at length, looking at the ground, at her sneakers marching one in front of the other as they passed the last dilapidated building and reached the north gate.

"Yeah? What would it be about?"

"Stuff. People. It would be real, and important." Her voice was low. "Because then they wouldn't get forgotten."

Matt took a deep breath, realizing she spoke of someone, something hidden in her past. "The past is like desert," he began slowly. "Each new wave of golden-grained sand that sweeps over the surface buries the first, until one is no longer certain which was first, and which has simply shifted to cover the mixing of all the grains. They're hidden amongst each other in their vastness, impossible to sort out, and heavily inscrutable to sort through." He paused for a moment, and saw from the tail of his eye that Ellie was staring at him.

"Is that from a movie or something?"

Matt looked confused. "Is what from a movie?"

"What you said."

He shrugged. "No... That's just what I think."

"You talk like a movie," Ellie remarked with resolve in her green eyes. "It's cool."

"Well, thanks," Matt chuckled, chafing his cold hands together. "I write things in my head all the time. But wait." He met her gaze. "You were talking about what you would write."

They paused at the top of the rise, and looked out for a moment among the snowy trees, and didn't catch sight of Anna or the group.

"They'll come back soon," Ellie murmured. "I guess we'll just wait, I don't have any weapons."

Matt nodded, and then elbowed her gently. "Your story?"

"Oh. Yeah, it would be real." Ellie's face was tilted downwards, her lips red against the paleness of her face in the cold. "Meaning, like, it really happened. A long time ago."

"It happened to you?"

She nodded. "I had this best friend. She was –" Ellie pursed her lips as if trying to formulate the best way to describe what was tumbling about in her head. "Her eyes were brown, and had all these different colors in them. It was like, around the outside was almost black, and in the middle was that color that's like, in the cracks of wood when it's wet."

Matt listened in silence, as Ellie's voice grew tight.

"And when she'd look at you, it was like the world was going to be fine, even though it wasn't, but it was just because you knew there was somebody who was thinking of you sometimes, and would do anything for you. I would write about that."

She hardly realized that she was crying until she felt the chill of a tear drip from her nose, and Matt regarded her with a gentle look.

"That sounds like a story worth telling," he said quietly.