A/N=urm, I still don't know what I'm doing, but I have 65ish people who have clicked on this story, so it can't be too shit (relatively speaking). Henceforth, I will continue this train wreck of a story. FROM HERE DOWN ITS IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: This chapter will flick back and forth from Ellie in that mall to Ellie talking to Marlene. It starts with the mall.

Disclaimer= *snorts* Please!

She Was All I Had:

Chapter three:

I woke up with a start, the teeth sinking into my neck. I didn't let them sink any deeper however-I threw the infected off me and grabbed my switchblade, before spinning on my heels to face my attacker. When I faced it- or rather her- I stopped dead. Emotions span wildly as and erratically as flames in a fire; anger, happiness, betrayal, forgiveness.

Only when these emotions passed did I find my voice. "Riley?"

The dark skinned girl who I'd been crushing on since we became best friends (a year or two before) layed at my feet, grinning like the Cheshire cat from a book I once read.

"Ouch! I landed on my hip!" she exclaimed, still grinning. As pissed at her as I was, I still couldn't deny I had missed that voice. I'd missed it a lot.

"What the hell!" I said, still kind of in shock from seeing her again, "I thought I was bitten!"

"I know," she sighed, still wearing that inane grin, "It was kinda awesome,"

She seemed to study me for a second, before saying, "you're not gonna kill me are you?" I frowned in confusion, before realizing I still had my switch blade pointed at her. I moved to put it away, and decided to cut to the chase, "I haven't seen you in… I don't even know how long."

"45 days," my best friend informed me as I turned away from stashing my knife under my pillow again, "well…46 technically," she shrugged nonchalantly, as though 46 days where I thought she was dead didn't matter.

"Wanna know what I've been up to?" she asked, her brown eyes piercing my green ones.

I did nothing, except stare at her in awe. How was she so calm and collective? I was standing there, my emotions threatening to bubble to the surface, while she stood there, asking if I wanted to know what she's been up to! I didn't know what to say to her, so I decided to just make a simple, factual statement.

"All this time, I thought you were dead," I said, the situation still seeming almost surreal.

"Yea…" she sighed, as though she felt guilty, "ugh, look!" she said more happily, removing something from her neck and handing it to me. With a closer look, I saw it was a dog tag, though I knew she wasn't a soldier.

"No way," I breathed, upon realization of what it was.

"Still no roommate?" The now dubbed Firefly Girl said, completely blanking me, "I had to sleep under Liz for three years and you know how bad that girl smelled!"

"You're a Firefly." I said. It wasn't a question. The dog tag in my hands was proof of it. At first I didn't know how to react. So I settled with just accepting it without question.

"Ha," Riley muttered suddenly, "you still have it up." I looked up to see her with the picture of us I kept of the wall in her hands.

Instead of awkwardly stuttering a reply, I walked to the door and opened it, checking for soldiers.

"What are you doing?" Riley questioned, sounding annoyed about my ignoring her.

"Making sure I don't get caught with a Firefly in my room!" I exclaimed, my ability to hide my emotions running out.

"Relax," Riley whined, "there are no soldiers on this floor."

"Here," I said tersely, handing her the dog tags, "congrats."

But Riley-always being the quicker one-grabbed my hand, making me happy and awkward.

"Hey." She said looking me in the eye. I had the strong urge to kiss her, but stopped myself, worried about her reaction, "are we cool?"

Are we cool! What a fucking Riley thing to say! She tells me to fuck off, leaves me alone to presume her dead for 46 days, and then asks "are we cool?"! My god I was furious. But I loved her. So I didn't shout. I simply repeated her question with a tone of disbelief to get my feelings across.

"I disappeared and you're mad-" I cut her off with a sarcastic noise, "and I owe you an explanation. Let's get outta here and I'll tell you all about it," she said as if I hadn't interrupted.

"It's almost morning and I have military drills," I lamented, "you know, where we learn how to kill Fireflies!"

Riley just laughed, and through me a pair of jeans, "put some pants on and lets go."

I merely sighed in incredulity, and gave in; I put on the pants she gave me and followed her, all the while sighing to myself "I'm so dumb".

Riley grinned again, "come on now," she exclaimed sarcastically, "when have we ever gotten into trouble!"

-RileyxxxElliexxxRiley-

"So," I said to Marlene, "that's what happened when she came to my room. Thoughts and emotions and all," I said to her, still annoyed about admitting I was crushing on Riley since forever.

"What do you want to know now?" I asked.

"Tell me about what happened inside the mall. What happened when you got there?"