The scene is a woody cove. Tall pines, and a rocky escarpment thirty feet high. The moon is bright, and the sky, undimmed by earthly lights, winks with stars and the powdery glow of the Milky Way.

Halfway up the escarpment is a blacker section of rock - a cave mouth, half as high as a man.

Inside the cave mouth, Ellie and Joel are lying on the ground, heads on their backpacks. Ellie is wrapped in Joel's coat. Wide awake, she stares out the cave mouth. Lying on the ground, she can see only the tops of trees, and the stars.

"Are you awake?" Ellie whispers.

Joel grumbles, keeps his head on his pack. "Yeah".

Ellie looks back at the stars. "There are so many out stars out here. I think that every night. You couldn't see a thing from the military school 'cause of the floodlights."

"I never thought about it."

"Really? You don't find it - a little comforting? I mean, they don't care what's going on down here. The infected, end of the world, all this - from up there it's just another day."

Joel rubs his eyes. "Whatever got your mind on to a thing like that?"

Ellie crosses her hands behind her head. "In my comic book," she continues, "there's this star commander - everyone calls him Sarge - and he's just made contact with a new alien species. No one in the galaxy knew about them before, they're off the map. So Sarge comes down the ramp arms out, adventurer-style, as though they're gonna bite him" - Ellie sits up to demonstrate. She holds her own arms akimbo, somewhere been balancing and placating, and mimics swaying side to side as though on the ramp of an air-to-land hovercraft - "And what does he hold out in his hand, humanity's first gift for a 'new era of galactic cooperation?'" Ellie gestures spelling the words out in the air.

"He gives them packets of cigarettes! And this guy lights up, and he holds one out to the head alien, and that's where it says TO BE CONTINUED... I mean, come on."

"What is the point of this story?"

"I don't know. It's funny though. This one's from the '60s. Is that what people were like?"

"I wasn't alive then."

"But do you think there could be really be aliens out there?"

"I think that you should be getting some sleep."

"I'm not tired."

Ellie sighs. Joel lifts his head slightly from his pack, observing the silhouette of Ellie's head, faintly silver against the starlight.

An owl hoots - a long, searching note.

"I should sleep by the cave mouth," Joel says.

"I'm not gonna fall," says Ellie absently. Then she asks, "Joel, did you ever smoke?"

"Nope." Joel sits up a little. He scratches his beard. "Actually, I did for awhile. Just after it all started."

"oh."

"But it's impossible to find a pack of cigarettes now."

"I never even saw one."

"Yeah. We smoked our way through 'em, while we could."

Joel sits up. "Move inside, Ellie. I'll lie by the entrance."

Ellie flinches, then turns to face Joel. Her expression is taut, but she is sitting a little straighter, one hand flat on the floor as though ready to push herself up.

"Come on, Joel."

"Now don't argue."

"Where's this come from? I'm being careful. I can handle a cave mouth, after everything we've survived."

"All the more reason not to take chances."

Joel pushes himself to his feet, standing to half height. In the narrow space, he is a towering black shape, . The hairs on his crown brush the cave roof.

Ellie scowls but pushes herself up too, snatching up her pack with one hand. Carefully they slide past one another. Joel puts a hand on her shoulder to help orientate himself, and Ellie instinctively puts her hand on his upper arm in assistance.

They find their new places.

"Toss over my pack."

Ellie picks Joel's lifts off the floor with both hands, passes it to him, then lays down in the space Joel has vacated.

"Good." Joel lays down. "Now get some sleep, Ellie."

"I'm not tired," says Ellie loudly.

Joel sighs. Glances at the view. For a moment, the cave mouth has an absorbing, periscopic effect- the Milky Way feels so tantalizingly close, like another world waiting to be explored, that Joel almost reaches out his hand. It occurs to Joel that he can't remember the last time he looked at the stars, although they've been sleeping rough for so many months. Nor can he remember his last ever cigarette, nor - what would be even better to remember - his last ever coffee.

"Ellie," He rolls over, looks at her dark outline. "Do you remember when you last felt tired?"

She sits up on her elbows. "Shit. I actually can't." Her voice sounds small. "Exhausted - for sure. But tired? I don't know..."

"Where's this come from, Ellie?"

"I don't know."

"But you used to sleep okay before..."

"Better, yeah. I never slept great."

Ellie absent-mindedly rubs the strap of her backpack between finger and thumb. Joel has turned his face to the cave roof. Although she can't see his expression, even in silhouette she can discern it- the slightly tucked in chin, the loose, emotionless jaw, the stubborn stillness. Slowly he settles back on to his backpack, hands crossed over his chest.

Ellie also lies back down. Joel lets out several deep breaths. He seems to be asleep. But then he says, "here's what I learned to fall asleep. It's something the military used to do, so I'm told. You ready?"

Ellie bolts halfway to upright. "You never mentioned this before!"

"Well, I didn't know it was a problem until now."

"You didn't think the end of the world might would give a teenager insomnia?"

"Well..."

"I'm messing with you."

Joel lets out a little harrumph. "If you don't want to hear it, just say..."

"Knock it off Joel, I do". Ellie lies back, arms by her sides toy-soldier style. "Put me to sleep, Joel."

"Put you to sleep?"

"Yeah."

Several seconds pass. Ellie thinks she hears a strange sound from Joel: a kind of sob, created by the eyes squeezing shut and the throat tightening. Then Joel begins to talk. His voice is low, pitched higher than the usual deep Texan drawl, twanging on the first words so strangely that she almost doesn't recognize his voice. Then his cautious, deep tone returns, tinged with only a note of sadness.

"Close your eyes, ok. Just relax, and imagine a yellow dot in front of your eyes. Wherever the dot goes, all the tension leaves you. It just melts away. Imagine the dot moving over you. Top of the head first. Then the forehead. Then the ears. Remember to relax these body parts, ok? That's the trick of it. Next ... is the eyes. Now, take your time. Just focus on the yellow dot. Just focus on all the tension in the world leaving you..."

Can this really be Joel's voice? She tries to picture him saying it in daylight, but her eyes are getting heavier and heavier...