Ellie sighed, looking down at the closest thing she had ever come to a father lying in the compounds medical wing. Armen said he had contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. and while she was grateful for the doctor's help, it had been crushing when he had told her that they did not and could not get enough of the right antibiotics to treat Joel. At first it just seemed like a bad cold, but as time went on Joel got weaker and weaker until he had entered this coma like state. It was tearing Ellie apart, the thought of loosing Joel as well as all the others who had been lost in her life. Now a young woman Ellie had come to call the compound home. It was nice, there was always plenty of power, it was easily defendable and it was mostly welcoming of new members. It had transformed from a small base to something that more resembled a town now. They'd build new houses, a proper building for the medical bay, they'd had some former engineers come in and helped them build new turbines to produce more energy. People had started producing their own goods, clothes and machinery, there where shops set up by residents who would trade with the caravans that came along.

The trade caravans started a few years after Ellie and Joel had come to live in the compound, a group of people had turned up on horseback, pulling carts of tradable goods. The compound had treated as hostiles at first, but they came bringing home spun clothes, real new clothes, weapons, seeds for planting, Metals and coal for smelting and crafting machinery. They'd started trade between all the settlements in the area and had really brought all the settlements together, making treaties, trade deals, immigration policies, that sort of thing. Settlements began to set up their own industries, as their settlement had access to abundant electricity they had become a large producer of manufactured goods, like machinery, toys, tools and a multitude of other products that they traded for clothes and food. There was very little infected presence in the area, as it had been fairly rural before the outbreak, but was now one of the big centres of civilisation in the region. As the trade caravans moved further and further out, they discovered many other small towns and villages cropping up throughout the region. Though it was slow the world seemed to be slowly recovering from the decimation it had suffered at the outbreak of the infection, though not everywhere. Most of the military 'strongholds' where weakening and suffering due to their refusal to trade and deal with what they labelled as 'unofficial' settlements. Their food supplies where dwindling and their poor security meant they couldn't stop the flow of their citizens escaping into unofficial settlements.

Over the years organised bandit activity in the area had all but ceased, the town's militias and the trade caravans guards had decided that it was in everyone's best interests to deal with organised bandit groups to facilitate safer travel. This lead to the capturing of _, and many of the other bandit controlled strongholds in the Mid West. As the caravan's reach increased, America became more and more united. And yet even with all this, there was no way to get Joel the medication he needed. The snake river where their town was located was near the north western edge of the trade network, though there where a few settlement further than them but not many, and the only place anyone had ever heard of that had those sorts or medical resources was Vancouver. If sources where to be believed then Vancouver was making it's way in the world by producing and trading medication in large quantities. But it was doubtful that the trade networks would progress that far anytime soon, as the west coast was still full of violent bandit tribes and military strongholds.

Ellie sighed as she stepped out of the medical wing and walked through the markets. She smiled as she walked through the bustling square watching the townspeople shopping and running around. It always made Ellie happy to watch the townsfolk having normal, happy lives. Fall Creek, as they called themselves, was nothing like what Boston had been like. There where no menacing guards, no random infection checks, no ration lines, as if there had never been infected in the first place.

"AUNTIE ELLIE!" as small voice yelled as something grabbed onto her shins.

Ellie smiled looking down at the six year old, who had attached himself to her leg "Hello there Ryan" she laughed and Tousled his hair. Ryan was Tommy and Maria's son, born less than a year after Joel and Ellie had come to stay, and though Joel was technically his uncle and Ellie wasn't his aunt he always called Ellie 'Aunt Ellie' and Joel 'Gramp'.

Ryan grinned up at her and smiled, pointing at a missing front tooth "Look what happened" he bounced up and down with excitement "Mama says soon I'll have a grown up tooth there" he furrowed his brows as if he was thinking very hard "Wait, does that mean I'm gonna be a grown up?" his eyes lit up "That means that I can go outside Fall Creek with you!"

Ellie giggled "Not quite yet slugger"

His face fell "Aw, please?"

Ellie smiled kindly "No buddy, but don't worry, you'll be big before you know it"

He frowned "But aunt Ellie, I'm plenty big and strong, I can do it!" he straightened his back and began to march around her.

This made Ellie laugh quietly "Ok, buddy. Why don't you talk to your pa about that?"

He grinned "Yeah, great idea Aunt Ellie" he grinned and ran to get the attention of his mother who was buying some fresh fruit from a vendor.

Ellie smiled, Ryan always managed to put a smile on her face, for a long time he was one of the only children his age, until the people from the military strongholds brought children of all ages and he'd flourished in the company of the new children.

Ellie moved over to a bench on the edge of the markets and sat, watching people go about their business and thinking over the state of her life. She loved Fall Creek, it was safe and friendly and prosperous. But she felt like she was missing out, she would have never thought that she would get to twenty-one and feel like her life so far had been wasted. She knew that she had responsibilities here, and it was full of people who cared about her, but every time she saw a caravan a part of her wanted to go with them. She wanted to see the world and make a difference, she wanted to see what had become of the rest of the country with her own eyes, not just others accounts of it. She wanted adventure. Most of her first fourteen years had been filled with adventure and mischief, but now she had to be responsible and down to earth. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, and now Joel, her father figure, her rock, was sick and dying, and there was nothing she could do about it but wait for him to die.

She sat their deep in though until a loud yell caused her to return to reality.

"ELLIE!" one of the lookouts, Mark, was calling her to come up onto the wall. The wall had been built as a protection for the growing town and to create a checkpoint to help monitor population and trade movement in the area.

She jumped up and ran to the gate. "What's the situation?" she asked the lookouts.

Mark cleared his throat "Ma'am, we spotted an unidentified, heavily armed group travelling up river. At first we thought they where a caravan but from what we can tell they don't appear to be carrying tradable goods, nor have they given any signal or warning as to their status as a caravan."

Ellie tensed at the news "Let's give them a nice welcome then shall we?" she turned to the captain of the guard, captain Christensen, who had also been summoned and ordered "Put an armed guard at the gate, let's see who these people are." the captain nodded and ran to inform his men.

Ellie turned pack to the lookouts "I will handle all negotiations. I want Jonson and Carr on top of the gate barricades, and Hopkins and Harries covering me with their rifles." Mark nodded and headed off to the barracks.

Ellie was very well respected among the guard as she was one of the longest serving in the whole group, and many valued the life experience that came with traveling from one side of the country to the other.

She walked to her room and retrieved her weapons and Kevlar vest. She didn't know who these people where, or what they wanted, but she wasn't going to let them hurt the people of Fall Creek.