Ellie

> "*After everything we've been through... everything I've done... it can't be for nothing.*" ― Ellie when Joel suggests to turn around instead of continuing to look for Will
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## Ellie

### Age

14-15 (Background/Early Life)16 (One Night Alone)

17-18 (Jackson's second appearance)

19 (The Delta arc & Jackson's third appearance)

20-21 (Rebuilt Jackson - two years later)

### Family

Anna - MotherJoel - Father figure/protector

Tommy - Uncle Figure

Will - Brother Figure

Jonathan - Brother Figure

### Alliases

Kiddo (by Joel)El (by Robin)

The Wolf (by The WLF)

## Biography

### Relationships

Riley (Ex Best Friend)Erin (Ex Girlfriend)

Dina (Ex Girlfriend)

Jesse (Best Friend)

Nancy Wheeler (Best Friend)

Robin (Best Friend)

## Physical Description

### Gender

Female

​​​​​**Ellie** is a major character in The Walking Dead: New Hope. A twenty-one-year-old survivor, Ellie is "mature beyond her years" as a result of the circumstances of her environment.

## Biography

### Background and Early Life

Ellie was born a few months after the outbreak of the fungal pandemic. As a result, she grew up in an oppressive military Quarantine Zone in Boston, Massachusetts, with little knowledge of the world before infection. Before she left her, Ellie's mother, Anna, asked Marlene to watch Ellie. However, Ellie never really met Marlene until she was 13 years old. After a run-in with the infected in an abandoned mall, Ellie finds out that she is immune after getting bit protecting Riley and herself. The two stay together, not knowing what to do next, scared of what's to come. Riley tells Ellie to keep on fighting, and that she should never give up. Days after she was bit, Ellie didn't turn, despite stopping Riley from turning by killing her, Ellie's turn never came.

> "*There are a million ways we should've died before today. And a million ways we can die before tomorrow. But we fight... for every second we get to spend with each other. Whether it's two minutes, or two days... we don't give that up. I don't want to give that up. My vote? Let's just wait it out. You know we can... be all poetic and just lose our minds together.*" — Riley to Ellie at the mall after getting bit
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#### Boston

Around the time Marlene and Ellie planned to leave Boston for Salt Lake City. Marlene is injured during her search for the smuggler Robert, a man she had initially hired to escort Ellie out of Boston. Desperate to get her out of the city, Marlene hires two well known, feared, and experienced smugglers, Joel and Tess, to escort Ellie out of the city before the military wipes out The Fireflies. She arranges for a small team of Fireflies to meet the three at the Capitol building. Although Ellie insists she's staying with Marlene, the Firefly refuses, hoping that Joel will live up to Tommy's recommendation.

While Tess goes with Marlene to verify the weapons Marlene has promised the pair, Ellie is taken by Joel to an apartment close to the outer wall. While making their way there, Joel asks where her parents are and why Marlene is so fixated on her, among other things. Ellie avoids answering why she is being smuggled but does inform Joel that her parents died and that's she's 14.

Once at the apartment, having avoided the military patrolling to see if anyone is out after curfew, they wait for Tess to arrive. By nightfall, she arrives, the trio deciding to commit and embarking outside the Zone.

   The trio soon leave the zone, Ellie is in disbelief that she's "actually outside". Her joy is cut short when she and the others are captured by a military patrol. The soldiers check them for traces of infection, causing Ellie to panic and stab one of the soldiers. The man knocks her down, preparing to shoot but Joel tackles the man and kills him, saving Ellie's life. With the soldiers dealt with, Joel and Tess find that Ellie is infected, but are forced to bring Ellie along when another patrol approaches.

Avoiding the soldiers as they search for them, the trio manages to escape, taking a brief rest. There, Ellie reveals that the Fireflies have "their own little research lab out West", causing Joel to chuckle at the thought of such a thing. Ellie is angered by him but he ignores her as he asks Tess what they should do next. However, Tess actually believes what Ellie claims, desiring to deliver her as requested. Ellie watches as the two briefly argue before following them towards the outskirts.

After a night of facing Infected, the three are almost at their destination. After crossing plank to reach another building, Ellie is taken aback by the view, her child-like wonder briefly reminding Joel of Sarah. They reach the rendezvous point in the Capitol Building, but they find only bodies of Fireflies and the military closing in. Revealing that she has been infected, Tess insists that Ellie and Joel continue on their own while she buys them some time. Ellie feels guilty about this, but Joel ignores her comments about the issue.

The two later reach a town where Joel believes they can meet Bill, a mechanic who owes Joel a favor and can provide them with a car. Ellie reveals during their journey to and through Lincoln that she has never been in the woods until that day nor has she seen real fireflies. She learns that Joel has also never been to Lincoln, making finding Bill difficult. When Joel gets stuck in one of Bill's traps, Ellie works to free him from, avoiding the approaching Infected and providing Joel with ammunition to cover her.

Once Joel is free, a masked man arrives, saving the pair from the approaching Infected and escorts them to a safe house. Once there, Ellie thanks the man and tries to shake hands. However, the man is irritated by their presence. Having disabled many of his traps and alerting an overwhelming swarm of the Infected to their presence in the process, Bill subdues both of them, fearful that they have been bitten. While Bill checks Joel, Ellie manages to break free of her restraints and beats Bill with a pipe, but Joel quickly gets up and stops Ellie from causing further harm. After a brief argument, Joel asks Bill for a car. Bill agrees to put together a car for the two, but tells them that once it is done, he owes Joel no more favors. Joel agrees to his terms, using the given keys to unlock Ellie from the handcuffs.

They head towards a church which Bill has converted in to an armory. As Bill and Joel converse while loading shotguns, Ellie investigates a pile of comics and magazines on a shelf. She secretly takes two of them, a pornography magazine and a *Savage Starlight* comic book. While putting them away, she is caught by Bill who proceeds to shout at her. Ellie tries to defend herself, lying that she was "just fixing [Bill's] stupid pile". In response to the man's ranting, she replies with an obscene gesture, much to Bill's anger. He turns to Joel, stating she will get him killed.

As the pair go to leave, Bill threatens her, but she slyly says she "doesn't need any of [his] shit". Ellie and Joel learn that they have to reach the local high school, as a military vehicle crashed there a while ago, with a new battery still inside.

They leave the church, Ellie noticing a pile of burnt cadavers. Joel tries to dissuade her from staring but she claims she has "seen worse". While making their way through a block full of Infected, Ellie proves to be useful when she can fit through small gaps in doors and over railings. Bill even remarks that "maybe [they] should have given her a gun". When they do reach the school, they find the battery in the truck is gone. With no other options, they fight their way out the back of the school, having to kill the strongest of the Infected - a Bloater - to do so.

The three make it to a house. While Joel and Bill bicker, Ellie finds a seemingly operational truck in Frank's garage. She is rudely ordered out by Bill, who checks to see if it is working, finding the battery drained but the cells alive. He and Joel proceed to kill several Infected on the street but manage to make it to the top of a hill, where Ellie finally starts the truck. Hopping in the back, the pair signal Ellie to keep driving, since more Infected are on the way. They safely make it back to Bill's church.

Bill makes Ellie stop the truck and goes to leave, Joel getting out to say goodbye. Both briefly remark that Ellie held her own against the Infected, but Bill still believes Joel will die soon. Before leaving, he gives Joel a siphon hose so he can obtain gas from abandoned cars. The pair drive on in the direction of Pittsburgh.

#### Pittsburgh

During the start of the journey, Ellie spends her time in the back reading the *Savage Starlight* article she stole from Bill. Despite saying she isn't tired, she falls asleep during the journey. When she wakes up, she finds Joel has driven all the way to the blocked entrance to Pittsburgh. Joel detours into the city itself, but are ambushed by a pair of hunters. Although they crash, they manage to escape, but are shortly caught by another group of hunters. While Joel is forced to kill a couple of them, Ellie manages to shoot one in order to save Joel, the bandit having Joel's head underwater. Joel confronts her about the use of the pistol, stating that she shouldn't have done that. Ellie retorts, thinking that using the weapon had been her only choice.

As they make their way through the city, Joel spies a machine gun wielding truck being used by the hostile survivors to kill "tourists", the hunters word for unknown survivors. The two bond as Joel answers Ellie's questions regarding life before the disease destroyed the world. One question in particular, regarding a *Dawn of the Wolf* poster, causes to reveal he saw the "dumb teen movie" right before the outbreak. Wanting to know why, Ellie asks such but he dodges the question, claiming he can't remember, wanting to avoid telling Ellie he once had a daughter. To "lighten the mood", Ellie's reveal a jokebook she possesses, quoting several jokes from it as they go to take their minds off of the dangers in the world, if all too briefly.

Ellie eventually becomes separated from Joel when the pair climb an elevator shaft, the elevator giving way, sending him plummeting to the bottom. Ellie, safe on the ledge, tries to climb down to Joel but he makes her stay put, wanting to make his own way to her. Becoming worried and impatient, Ellie makes her way through the hotel, going back down to try to find Joel. She does so, appearing at the last second to save Joel from being drowned by a hunter; shooting the hunter dead.

She admits her sickness at having "shot the hell outta that guy". However, Joel tells her off for disobeying him, causing Ellie to shout at him, frustrated he won't at least thank her. Joel coldly ignores the question, wanting to press on. As they walk, Ellie tries to explain why she ignored his order but just gets more frustrated at Joel's response.

They soon come to some abandoned scaffolding. Joel grabs a hunting rifle from the side, telling Ellie to stay behind cover. They see a group of hunters below, unaware of their presence. Ellie wants to help but still thinks Joel will not let her. To her chagrin, he does so, giving her the hunting rifle, testing to see if she "can handle that". Despite admitting she has only ever shot a rifle at rats, Joel trusts her with the job of covering him. He also thanks her for saving him, warming up to her. Ellie warms back, pleased Joel is start to bond with her. After they kill the hunters, Ellie both feeling impressive but sinister for having killed them, Joel finally feels Ellie has earned the right to carry a pistol, though he declares it is "for emergencies only". She admits she knows how to turn the safety off, ensuring Joel she will be "careful".

Soon after, The pair encounter the Humvee in person when traversing through the streets, managing to out run it despite its heavy fire power. The two decide to enter a building via the balcony in order to get off the streets.

While doing so, Joel is grappled from behind by what he presumes is another hunter Ellie watches

as Joel overpowers him, quickly informing him a boy has a gunned trained on him. Joel subsequently ceases his assault. Once acquainted with the two, Henry and Sam, they agree to chat at their safehouse.

Once there, Sam offers her blueberries, having found "a whole stash of them". She gladly accepts, and the the pair trying to toss blueberries into their mouths while doing so. By nighttime, she wakes Joel, the pair joining Henry and Sam on the way to the bridge.

They make it to the bridge but, as she is pulled up by Henry over a container, the Humvee once again returns. She tries to get Henry to pull Joel up but the man panics, racing off with Sam. Although she could go with the brothers, she jumps back down to Joel; "we stick together." After barely dodging the Humvee's bullets, they come to a halt when they find the upper section of the bridge has fallen through. With the Humvee pounding against the vehicles blocking its path and Joel unable to discover a safe escape, Ellie takes matters into her own hands. Though she knows she can't swim, Ellie recklessly jumps off of the bridge, causing Joel to do likewise. Barely afloat in the water, she calls for Joel's help, her carer managing to grab her only to be knocked out when clashing against a large rock.

Miraculously, Ellie survives, Henry returning to the two in time to save them. He carries them to the shore someway from the bridge, reuniting them with Sam. After a brief confrontation, the group begin towards the sewers to the radio tower.

They escape the hunter area through the sewers and suburbs. The pair has slowly bonded with the brothers but this ended when Sam became infected and Henry commits suicide out of grief for killing his brother.

#### Jackson County

Joel and Ellie move on to Jackson County, where Joel believes his brother Tommy, a former member of the Fireflies, can show them their location. Just as the fall draws in, the two find Tommy in a dam providing electricity to a revived permanent community. During their stay, Ellie learns from Maria of Sarah, Joel's daughter who tragically died at the start of the outbreak. She also sensed that Joel planned to leave her with Tommy, leading her to run away to an abandoned ranch house. When Joel catches up to her, the two have a heated argument where it became obvious to both of them how much they have bonded and cared for each other during their travels. Joel eventually changes his mind and sticks back to accompany Ellie.

With Tommy's direction, Joel and Ellie reach a university where the Fireflies are thought to reside. The Fireflies are, however, nowhere to be found, instead the two are met with a large group of both infected and cannibals. During a brutal fight, Joel is impaled in the abdomen and leaves the fighting to Ellie.

Ellie manages to hide Joel in an abandoned mall, where she dresses his wound with her old shirt from the Summer and some duct tape she finds when rummaging in the drawers. She then decides it will buy her and Joel some time, and goes to find something to stitch up Joel's wound with while Callus keeps an eye on him.

After climbing up a broken escalator, Ellie finds an abandoned store in the mall, Weston's Pharmacy. Ellie hopes to find medicine, but to her disappointment, it has been picked clean of any useful supplies. Heading to the checkout aisle, and finds a first-aid kit behind a locked door. From a note Ellie finds on the ground, she finds that the pharmacist "went crazy", and that one of the employees, unaware of the Cordyceps outbreak, locked him in an American Princess Store next door, and locked away the keys to the first aid kit as well. The note gives the combination to the American Princess Store, 35-30-31. Ellie finds the infected corpse, and removes his key, along with a picture of the man and his daughter in a photo booth.

As Ellie leaves the store, she comes upon a lone Clicker, and quickly kills it with her switchblade. She unlocks the door and quickly opens the first aid kit, but is disappointed to find it is empty, its supplies stolen by other survivors. Ellie kicks it out of frustration, but her disappointment quickly turns into excitement when she finds a crashed military helicopter, convinced it will have something she can use to stitch up Joel's wound. Puzzled on how to get up there, she finds a gate, but it is locked, and the button used to unlock the gate has no power to it.

She finds cables, and remembers Joel's advice to follow them. She attempts to start the generator, but finds it is out of gasoline. Ellie finds an empty gas can in a flooded parking garage, and after killing some Stalkers, fills it up from gas taken from a truck. Ellie refuels the generator, and manages to get the electricity running. Two more Stalkers come running in knee-deep water, but a power line falls into the water, electrocuting the Stalkers in the process. Ellie has to find her way to the other side of the parking garage without touching the water, or she'll "get fried to a crisp."

Ellie, after encountering and killing more Infected, makes it back to the gate. She jumps onto the helicopter, and is relieved to find medicine, embracing the med kit, stating that she's not going to let Joel go. She makes her way back after being ambushed by Cannibals and Infected multiple times, having to quickly distract some when they find the place where Ellie hid Joel and Callus. After killing the Cannibals and The Infected, she makes her way to Joel, who is still alive. After telling him she's an "expert-ish" at sewing wounds, she manages to sew up his wound. She then ties him to a blanket on a sled, and then ties the sled to Callus, and starts to ride him. She eventually gets them both to the Lakeside Resort. There, Ellie hides Joel in a house to take care of him, while also going outside to hunt for food.

#### Winter

Ellie first encountered David when she was hunting a deer during the winter. She was immediately cautious around him and his friend James. David offers to exchange supplies for a share of the meat from the deer that Ellie had tracked and killed. Ellie demanded antibiotics in return, threatening them with a bow and arrow if they tried anything. James left to get antibiotics at the group's settlement and reluctantly left David alone with Ellie. David and Ellie then took refuge from the cold weather and David asked for Ellie's name. Despite his help in giving the medicine, she doesn't reveal her name.

Infected soon attacked their shelter. David helped Ellie fight them off and complimented her skill with a rifle. As they worked their way through the nearby buildings, fighting off several waves of Infected, Ellie's attitude toward him softens slightly.

After completely clearing out the buildings, he and Ellie return to their original refuge. He discusses the philosophy that everything happens for a reason, to which Ellie strongly disagrees. David decides to prove his theory by revealing that it was in fact his men who attacked Joel and Ellie at the university. A returning James overhears the conversation and holds Ellie at gunpoint, but David demands Ellie be given the medicine and set loose, and James reluctantly complies. Ellie returns to the nearby town she had taken refuge in. While there, she administers the medicine to Joel then goes to sleep.

David, having let Ellie leave, has his men track her down. His men mention that they are under strict orders from David to keep her alive, but these orders were ignored when they found out from James that Joel slaughtered half of the raiders at the university. Ellie, riding Callus, attempts to get away from David's group and they begin tracking her which ultimately results in Callus getting shot and killed. While trying to flee on foot, Ellie makes her way through a lodge but David finds her in the dining hall and renders her unconsciousness.

When Ellie regains consciousness in her holding cell, she witnesses James chopping up a corpse on a bench and discovers that David and his group are cannibals. Ellie is visibly disgusted and is hostile toward David. They argue and Ellie reluctantly eats the food that David gives her, claiming that it is venison, nothing more. David pleads with Ellie that he has her best interests in mind, and offers her a place in his group. He then affectionately touches Ellie's hand (he is implied to be a hebephile). Now realizing his intentions, Ellie breaks his finger and attempts to retrieve his keys, to which David responds by slamming her against the cell bars and threatening her life.

The next day, David and James arrive and pin Ellie down onto the table attempting to slaughter her for food. Just before David strikes her, Ellie exclaims she is infected and states that David is infected too because she bit him before she was thrust upon the table. David at first is skeptical, but Ellie insists that he should roll up her right sleeve to show him her bite wound. Upon finding out from Ellie that she is infected, James becomes frightened and disgusted but David claims it must not be real because she would have turned sooner. James weakens his grip on Ellie's left hand and David begins to observe his bite from Ellie.

Ellie takes this chance to grab a butcher knife with her left hand and strikes it towards James' throat, killing him. James' death infuriates David, where he retaliates by firing at Ellie with his gun, missing every shot. Ellie escapes from the room as David grows increasingly frustrated and proceeds to hunt her down again, asking her where she is going and boasting "This is my town" in a demented tone.

David eventually finds Ellie at a decayed restaurant, struggling with her as she attempts to escape from his people out the back door and commenting that she is easy to track. He holds her at gunpoint after throwing her to the ground, asking her how she managed to escape alive. He is momentarily distracted by the building being lit on fire by a lantern knocked over during their struggle.

As the restaurant slowly goes up in flames, he locks the exit and taunts Ellie, telling her that she has nowhere to go and would need to take the keys from him if she wanted to leave. David proceeded to stalk her throughout the restaurant, taunting her creepily and expressing his disappointment that she did not accept his offer to join the group. Ellie simply expresses more of her disgust at David and his obvious insanity as she hides behind the dining booths attempting to take the keys from him by subduing him with sneak attacks.

After Ellie stabs David from behind once with her switchblade, he throws her off and attempts to shoot her with his revolver, missing as she takes cover. He then draws a machete from a back sheath and continues to stalk her, attempting to shoot or slash her to death. He makes use of broken plates on the floor throughout the building to find Ellie if she steps on them.

She manages to elude David and stabs him two more times, causing him to panic and bash her into a table behind him before grabbing her hair and throwing her to the floor. Despite being stabbed multiple times in the upper torso, David is still able to run and threaten Ellie. He and Ellie then black out beside each other.

When they regain consciousness, David is the first to recover. He taunts a weaker Ellie as she crawls towards his machete underneath a cabinet, saying that it's okay to give up. At this time, he doesn't notice the machete he dropped is a short distance off. He strikes Ellie again and pins her down while grabbing her firmly by the throat and nearly strangles her to death.

Ellie manages to reach the machete underneath the cabinet and slashes his arm. Gaining an advantage, Ellie proceeds to violently hack at David's head multiple times, when Joel suddenly arrives and pulls her away from his corpse, embracing and consoling her.

#### Salt Lake City

The spring arrives as Joel and Ellie reach Salt Lake City, the intended final destination. Ellie has now turned fifteen years old. During the first half of the trip, Ellie is still shaken by the events from Winter, remaining distracted and quiet. Joel, after sharing a heartfelt moment with Ellie, tells her they can turn back now and return to Tommy's. Ellie thanks Joel, but declines, explaining that after everything that they've been through, it has to be worth something. While encountering multiple Infected in an abandoned tunnel, Joel is trapped in a submerged bus.

Ellie tries to help him, but is unsuccessful and almost drowns. While Joel is preforming CPR to save Ellie, Fireflies arrive and, after demanding his surrender, they knock him unconscious. Ellie is revived and immediately taken to be studied on Marlene's order, which may grant the Fireflies the ability to reverse-engineer a vaccine to the lethal fungus. But in order to do so, the mutated Cordyceps must be extracted from Ellie's brain via surgery, killing her in the process.

Joel is told this information by Marlene. He is immediately opposed and demands Marlene find someone else. Marlene refuses, reasoning that there is no one else and no other choice, and it has to be done to save humanity from extinction. She instructs the Firefly guard, Ethan, to escort Joel out of the hospital; If Joel were to resist, Ethan is granted permission to kill him. On the way out, Joel manages to kill him, and make his way through the facility, managing to save Ellie from the operating room.

After fleeing the Fireflies by taking an elevator down to the parking garage, Joel is then confronted by Marlene, who attempts to intimidate Joel by coming up with terrible scenarios that could happen to Ellie, such as death by being torn to pieces by a pack of Clickers, sexual assault and/or murder committed by thugs. She then tries to reason with him, saying that "It's what she'd want, and you know it". Still unwilling to give Ellie up, Joel then shoots Marlene. Later on, Ellie eventually awakes inside Joel's car on the way out of Salt Lake City, wondering what happened during the time she wasn't conscious.

Joel and Ellie finally reach Tommy's settlement, where Joel remarks that they can return to a somewhat normal life. Before that, Joel tells Ellie what happened with the Fireflies during the time she was unconscious. She appears depressed and seems to have survivor's guilt, so (to alleviate said guilt) Joel claims there were dozens of other immune people being studied by the Fireflies, and that it had done no good in helping to find a cure.

Upon reaching the settlement Ellie tells Joel that on the day she was bitten, she was with a friend who also got bitten. She states that they promised to wait together until the end, and that she's still waiting to turn and join her friend. She asks Joel to "swear to me that everything that you said about the Fireflies is true." Joel replies, "I swear". Although she accepts this, it is left ambiguous as to whether or not Ellie believes him.

### One Night Alone

After spending a few weeks or so at Tommy's and having been accepted by the community, Joel finishes his work for the day and searches for Ellie. He finds her listening to her Walkman in her room, writing something at her desk. He knocks on the door, calling Ellie's name but she can't hear him. After a few attempts he enters the room to tap her shoulder, startling her.

Ellie stands up and waves him off, pulling off her headphones as Joel claims he "didn't mean to scare [her]". After a pause, he asks "What's up?" There is some tension in the air—Ellie possibly resenting Joel for having lied to her, though whether she knows for sure is unknown.

Joel starts off slowly, saying that they haven't talked for a little while and he wanted to check in on her. He tells her that some kids found some water guns and were playing with them outside that day. He had hoped to have seen Ellie out there playing too. Ellie quickly responds by telling him that she's more needed repairing the outer wall with Maria and that she doesn't have time for that. Sitting down on the corner of the bed, Joel tells her that everyone has been really impressed with Ellie but that it's okay to take a break from work every once in a while. Joel realizes he isn't getting anywhere, and decides to change the subject.

He talks about how Tommy has made him a town guard and that things have "calmed down out there somewhat." Tommy apparently has paired Joel up with a woman named Esther, with Joel confessing that he thinks Tommy wants to see them "hitched", remarking she has a "great sense of humor" and that she told him a joke.

While Joel starts mumbling to himself, trying to remember the joke, Ellie interrupts. She mentions that it is late and that she needs to get going with the additional repairs needed for the outer wall. Joel is a bit deflated, but quickly recovers, leaving and quickly returning with a guitar in hand.

"What's that supposed to be?" Ellie says, somewhat sarcastically.

"Well I done hear that some people call this a gui-tar." Joel says, really pouring on his Texan accent, getting a quiet chuckle out of Ellie.

"I know that," Ellie says and asks him again what it is for. Joel sits down on Ellie's bed and confesses that he has been working on a song for some time, though "started working on it sometime ago", hinting that he may have originally begun writing it for Sarah. Ellie sits in her swivel chair, drawing up one of her legs to her chest as Joel begins to play and sing select verses from *Future Days* by Pearl Jam.

The musical performance is tender as Joel sings about the pain that they've gone through and how much it means to him that they still have each other — "you and I." As Joel performs, Ellie silently sheds a few tears, wiping them away slowly. As the guitar and Joel fall silent, an emotional Ellie quietly responds "That was beautiful, Joel." The tension and distance between Joel and Ellie is gone now, replaced with genuine fatherly-daughterly love.

Joel thanks Ellie, stands and offers the guitar to her. Even though she says that she doesn't know how to play, Joel reminds her of his promise to "teach [her] how to play the guitar" gifting it to her.

Ellie, touched that Joel remembered, reaches out and takes it saying, "You did." A warm silence falls and Joel begins to excuse himself. "It's getting late and we both need our rest." Joel heads for the door as Ellie falls back into her swivel chair.

"What was the joke you heard the other day?" Ellie says, breaking the silence and bringing Joel to a full stop before exiting through the door.

Joel turns around, and with a soft smile on his face asks, "What's the hardest part about eating clocks?" Ellie shakes her head and puts up her hands, giving up.

Joel smirks and says, "It's time consuming."

They both share a little laugh. "That is pretty bad," a smiling Ellie responds. "Yeah, it's one of the worst I've heard," says Joel. "Well, goodnight, Ellie." Joel walks out the door, a little slow to remove his hand from the door frame, leaving Ellie to play the guitar a bit.

### Washington D.C

A couple weeks into living in Jackson, Ellie decided to go explore the world on her own, just turning 16. Taking her leave after telling Joel, in a lengthy argument, that she wanted to go explore on her own, she took a car and headed in a random direction she picked on the map. Her path led her to Washington D.C, arriving a couple weeks after leaving Jackson. On her journey she stayed away from people, infected, and other mishaps, knowing it's not worth it. On her journey however, after arriving near Washington D.C, she spotted a decently sized group that appeared to be in trouble. In her effort to spy on them from afar, she slipped up and fell off the building she was on and onto a dumpster underneath where she was knocked out for a couple minutes. In that time, the group she was overlooking had found her.

Waking up in a car after hitting her head hard, the first thing she saw was the face of a girl her age, maybe a little older. She tried to sit up, but the girl, who introduced herself as Erin, stopped her and told her to continue resting. Ellie, being paranoid of her seeing the bite on her arm, pushed Erin off. Finding it rude, Erin told Ellie to lighten up, and that they're nice people.

Ellie got to know the rest of the group Erin was part of. It was a small but stable group, ranging from ex-military to kids. Ellie was wowed by the group overall and decided to stay with them until she felt like she should go back. During her stay with them, she got to know everyone better, befriending Erin the most. In the time that they spent together, Ellie started seeing Riley in Erin, even going as far as calling Erin her best friend after only a day.

On their 3rd night together, Ellie and Erin got very personal with their conversation in a game of truth or dare. Ellie spilled her secrets that night, almost unwillingly, as they conversed about Ellie's past, Riley, Boston, and even her bite. Showing Erin her bite, she first marveled at it and Ellie, touching it even, before Ellie explained how she got it and how she's somehow immune. "I don't want to find out if I can get bit again" she told her, rejecting all theories Erin had to make about her surviving getting bit again. That same night, Erin proposed an idea which echoed through Ellie's head, a tattoo to cover up the bite.

The next morning, with the idea from last night still fresh in her head, she decided to go through with it. Luckily for her, Erin was an expert in stick and poke tattooing. It took almost the whole day, but the design and detail of the tattoo was exquisite. A fern and a moth, covering her bite, so that no-one would ever see it or know about it without her wanting them to. The whole time they sat together, they talked more and more, getting closer and closer, revealing their personalities more to each other. After they got done, Ellie was ecstatic about her new tattoo, flaunting it by rolling up her sleeves. Her bond with Erin grew that day as she finally decided to ask her a question that's been on her mind for the last day. "Do you... want to like... date?" she awkwardly asked Erin after they were done. A little shock later, Erin agreed with a wide smile, as the two started their relationship.

In the next month, Erin and Ellie grew their relationship more and more, as well as Ellie growing her relationship with the rest of the group, helping out where she can and entertaining them with her newfound guitar skills, thanks to Joel. One day in particular, Erin and Ellie were assigned to go and scout around the neighborhood, since they have just moved into a new house. As they walked down the street of their new place, they could hear strange sounds, at first thinking they came from the shops, but when they entered the stores around, the sound still seemed distant. As they explored one of the shops, footsteps could be heard behind them as they both turned to see two huge men with guns, who smacked them, and knocked them out.

#### Friend or Foe?

Waking up in a strange place, Ellie and Erin both found themselves tied up in cages next to each other, in a damp, wet, and humid environment as their lungs were filled with the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh. Seeing their situation, they immediately planned an escape. One of the men had been standing observing them as Erin could feel her knife still in her pocket, in an effort to wiggle it out, Ellie distracted the guard, as Erin got herself free and handed the knife to Ellie, distracting the guard just as Ellie had. When they were both free, Ellie made the first move by jumping out the cell at the guard, beating him up. The loud noises drew in another guard who got on top of Ellie as the two got into a scuffle.

Seeing Ellie get in a brawl ignited a fire in Erin. She stabbed the man in the back of the head with her knife, taking it out as he lay dead on the floor and stabbing him again, and again, and again. Ellie stood and watched in near shock, never seeing this side of Erin before. Erin's eyes glowed with zealousness as she stormed outside their room, to a chamber outside, which was full of other guards. Erin made quick work of killing the first one she saw, grabbing his gun and using it to start a gunfight in the chamber.

The gunfight ended with Erin killing all the guards outside the main door, where both Erin and Ellie stood now. Erin yelled at whoever was behind the door to give up. Seeing the fire in her eyes, the man who had planned their captivity announced himself as Sarco, and declared that he had Erin's gun, Yamato. This inflamed Erin further, as Yamato was her heirloom gun, given to her by her father. She kicked the door open, greeted by Sarco, who shot her in the shoulder with her own gun, throwing it at her before leaving her bleeding out with Ellie, as he made his escape.

Erin knelt down next to a slowly dying Erin, who was losing consciousness fast. Erin begged Ellie to grab her gun before they ran out, and Ellie followed, apologizing every step of the way for not doing anything. This felt like the mall all over again with Riley, and she loathed it. The feeling that she couldn't do anything, it hurt her.

Barely leaving the chamber alive, they climbed out of a hatch, which led them back to the store they were in before they got knocked out. Ellie dragged Erin with her, as they headed back to the house. Busting the door open, Ellie placed Erin on a couch where she did her best to stop the bleeding, as she did with Joel a couple years ago at the mall. Ellie stayed at her side for most of the day afterwards, as Erin faded in and out of consciousness.

At night, when everyone had fallen asleep, Ellie finally went to sleep after her eyes kept shutting, laying her head on the back of the couch, as she sat on the ground under Erin. Around this time, Megan had been in the area, as she saw the lights in the house go out. She also spotted a few men coming up to the house. She hid and watched them, as they slowly flooded the house with gas, trying to finish the job they failed earlier, killing Erin and Ellie. She waited for the men to gather together and killed them before they could leave, quickly running into the house, and grabbing everyone out as the gas slowly caught on fire as well. After getting everyone out, they moved again to a nearby hotel, as everyone questioned Megan's reasons of helping them.

As they entered the hotel, Ellie stood next to Erin as she laid her down on another couch. Megan saw the worry on Ellie's face as well as the blood stain on Erin, walking over to them and offering aid. Megan sterilized Erin's wound as well as removed the bullet and stitched the hole it left. Ellie was amazed at her work, seeing how what she did before was nothing compared to this. Questioning her work, Megan revealed to Ellie that she used to be a combat medic in the military, and that she's dealt with worse.

The next day, Megan decided she would go and figure out what the men were planning, after learning what they did to Erin from Ellie. Ellie decided to go with Megan, as the pair went back to the hatch, and explored the underground area. As they entered Sarco's office, they saw that the monitoring equipment he used was all disconnected and destroyed, as well as notes scattered everywhere. Ellie and Megan read through them, coming across one which struck Ellie as a slap in the face. There was a letter to Sarco from Marlene, describing Ellie in full detail as well as something about Anna. She told Megan to leave and go as far away as she could before the pair returned back to the hotel where Erin was waiting for her. She held Erin tightly as she explained how she had to leave because she endangered Erin just like Riley. After a hard exchange between the two, Erin agrees, after offering Ellie her gun. Ellie rejected it, telling her that they would "meet again" and that she shouldn't ever lose hope. Giving Erin one last kiss goodbye, Ellie ended their relationship resentfully, hoping that one day they would meet again under better circumstances.

### Jackson - Second Appearance

A couple of weeks after the events at Washington D.C, Ellie returned to Jackson, as they welcomed her with open arms. In the time that Ellie spends living in Tommy's settlement, she becomes acquainted with Dina, a resident of the community. Ellie and Dina's friendship develops and, along with Jesse, the three help other Jackson residents patrol the outskirts to defend against hordes of infected and any wandering marauders that could pose a threat.

In their time of peace, Jackson was a thriving settlement, with cause for celebration after one of the biggest hauls they had in a long time. A party was held at the church, where the trio had all attended to celebrate with the rest of Jackson's residents. In their drinking and partying, Ellie and Jesse got into a persona conversation of his relationship and about Dina. Seizing the opportunity, Dina noticed them talking and whisked Ellie away from Jesse, starting to dance with her. As the two danced, they got closer together, sparking a relationship between them, as they grew from friends, to something more.

> "*I'm just a girl... Not a threat."* — Ellie to Dina at the dance
>
>

In the following days, Ellie and Dina would grow their relationship, spending more and more time together, as they got to not only know each other, but get a feel for each other. Ellie lived her life through Dina, seeing that it was the second time she felt the rush of a relationship ever since ending her ties with Erin. She felt almost safe with her in a way, as if being with Dina was a small little world that protected her from everything outside. Their relationship was one that everyone knew about, and nobody talked about at the same time.

months after getting to know each other, the pair had started going off on their own, exploring, gathering, hunting, or whatever else they could do to help Jackson while living life a little. One eventful day however, would change Ellie forever. As the pair hiked and rode horses in the snow, they came across a lodge, thinking it would be a good idea to loot it, they decided to head in, climbing to the top, as they overlooked the valley that Jackson laid in. Spotting another building in the distance, the two headed there, seeing activity in it.

They formulated some ideas as to what was going on in it, whether the people were friendly or not, whether they needed food, or help, or anything else, or if they wanted to take their lives. Dina raced off to the building, as Ellie slowly caught up behind her. Walking in, it was too quiet, hearing some noises coming from the basement after some time of walking around, she went to go check it out, as it became more and more apparent what the noises were; a muffled Dina. Ellie raced down the stairs and kicked the door open, seeing Dina as she nearly dropped her gun in horror at the sight of Dina tied up. As she dropped her guard, two men tackled her, and beat her, as the third shot Dina in cold blood, forcing Ellie to watch it. She screamed at the gunshot, watching Dina dying in front of her.

It fueled Ellie with anger, causing her to free an arm and grab her knife, stabbing one of the men in the neck, killing him, as she kicked the other off, jumping on him as well, stabbing him as he tried to buck her off, causing them to knock into the third man. Falling off the man she just stabbed, she landed on top of the third one, who she beat to a pulp, leaving nothing under her fists but a bright red and purple bruised face. Her anger slowly draining, was replaced by sorrow, as she stood in front of Dina's body, as it drained from life. She cried for what seemed like hours over her, after checking that she stopped breathing, and her heart wasn't beating anymore, before taking her bracelet off, and keeping it as a reminder of her.

That night, Ellie came back to Jackson alone. People watched silently as Ellie resentfully and silently trotted through Jackson, down to the church, where her and Jesse talked about what happened. Ellie cried for a bit more, as Jesse tried to comfort her, alongside Joel and Tommy, who have come out due to the commotion of Ellie yelling at Jesse, before she stormed off to her room.

### Seattle

In the subsequent days, Ellie prepared to leave Jackson again after the events with Dina. She couldn't bear knowing that those people were still out there and she isn't doing anything about it. After she prepared, she played one last song on her guitar, knowing that she might never get to do it again. Her playing attracted Joel into the room, who hasn't heard her play it in a long time. She had told him her plans earlier, and he decided to check in on her. He asked her if she really wanted to go through with this, and she said yes, getting up and leaving as she finished the song. She took her horse out, and trotted out of Jackson, turning one last time as Jesse, Tommy, Maria, and Joel all stood and watched her leave.

Her nineteenth birthday wasn't too far now, after it has been a couple months since she left Jackson. She lost track of the days quickly and was unsure of when it was. She didn't care anyways, life got shittier as she grew up, and it wasn't getting better. To her modest surprise however, her mood cleared a bit as she came across a city. She hasn't been in one of these in a while, and took a trot into it, uncovering what she can find to be useful. The tracks led her here after all, and following them wasn't easy. The people who killed Dina led her straight to Seattle, where she made quick work of the city's landscape to plan out her next moves. Tracking down the group that called themselves the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), Ellie made her way to a more rural area of the city, where she was being watched without knowing. Ellie didn't know about the WLF or how she was following, but she knew they were here. As she thought about her attack, she heard a loud noise, followed by her horse bucking her off as it ran off, trails of blood behind it. It was clear that her horse was shot and someone was on her. She ran off, knowing it's too dangerous to be there, and hid as more gunshots could be heard closer to her.

As she was going to plan her attack, one of the men snuck up on her from her left without her noticing, and started chocking her. She was quick to react however and butted his head with the back of hers, turning around as she was freed from his grasp and stabbed him in the throat. During the struggle, more men had come up behind her, noticing how close they were, she took out her gun and started shooting at them before running to a road nearby and hiding under a car, where she waited for the right moment, before running off into the vegetation nearby.

She spent days in the forest, as she heard them check it every night. She slowly crept out of the city, still being hunted by them. In her time in the forest with them, they gave her the name, "The Wolf" since she would pick them off one by one, leaving their bodies behind for their friends to find. It was a scare tactic on Ellie's part, one that kept them on their toes at least. She managed to make it out of harm's way, or so she thought, before coming across a large group of them in the forest who spotted her. Using the trees as cover, she picked off one by one, as she always did. The group quickly caught on and stuck together, drawing her out of the trees. This didn't work, as it only resulted in Ellie shooting back at them, killing a few more of them. Nothing they tried worked so far, so they did something they didn't think of. Two of the men ran at the tree Ellie was behind, one grabbed her while the other punched her in the stomach, winding her, and causing her to drop her gun. She quickly reacted by taking out her knife and stabbing one of them in the neck, as the other shot her in the shoulder. She screamed in pain from the bullet, grabbing the barrel of his gun and yanking it from him, smacking him up top the head with the butt of it, knocking him out.

Finally making it out of their clasp, she made it to more forest, where she walked at least fifty more miles from Seattle, leaving the city for now. Being outmatched and outnumbered was usually not a problem for her, but this was beyond her, and not to mention, risky. Now without a horse, Ellie had to trek all the way back to Jackson on foot. She didn't know where to even start, or how long it would take, but she was stuck now and had to deal with it.

### So, It Begins... Again

The walk in the forest was long, tiring, and devastating for Ellie. Every orifice of her body let out sweat as the weather changed from a cold chill to a deathly heat. She had taken her blood soaked hoodie off earlier and still wore her blue shirt and off white t-shirt, her shoes of choice still being converse, and her ripped jeans with a few more rips than she remembered. It was little details like these that kept Ellie distracted from the time she had walking in the forest. It was empty, quiet, and lonely. She was used to it by now, the emptiness nearly devoured her, until she stepped on a road. She made out a silhouette of a boy around her age, and another who was much younger, riding on a horse. She cautiously approached the pair, who seemed friendly enough. She didn't want to do anything too chaotic, specially with a child, but she couldn't be too careful. With a hand near her hip, to reach for her knife at any moment, she approached them. Getting close enough, they motioned her over, as the boy her age introduced himself as Sean. They talked for a bit before the younger one introduced himself as Will. Ellie liked Will from the start of their conversation, seeing as to how he reminded her of herself as a kid, lost, confused, worried, and scared. She tried comforting Will by talking about one of his favorite topics, horses. They talked on and on about Callus as well as Ammy, Will's horse. After talking to the two for some time, they mentioned they had a group, who they went back to meet up with.

The group which Ellie returned to was a small one, one that didn't look menacing at all, especially that it consisted of mostly kids. The group's leader at the time was Sean of course, followed by the members Daniel, Sean's brother, as well as Heather, James, and the Garcia family, consisting of Gabe, Mari, and Kate. Ellie decided to stay with them, for many reasons, none of which she really can put a finger on. She just had a feeling that she should stay. Venturing with the group deeper, Ellie got into her first argument with James over being a whisperer, resulting in the group almost picking sides. This dispute got settled when they found an empty cabin, deciding it would be for the best to let it go and try to settle in it. Ellie alongside Sean made sure the cabin was clear before they had all settled in. Not before long, Ellie had returned to talking to Will, learning more and more about him, and his family. She got too personal and it ended up upsetting Will, as he went outside. Ellie, disappointed at herself, followed him out where she found him with Ammy. Exploring the area outside, she saw a shack behind the cabin and thought she should explore it. Inside, she found broken down tools and other equipment, but most importantly, in one of the shelves, was a necklace, and at the end of it, a mustang. She held it in her hand and walked outside to Will, handing him the necklace as an apology. From that moment, they knew they were destined to be friends.

As the sun set over them, they decided it for the best to try and hunt for food before the night kicked in, after all, Ellie was starving after walking for so long, and eating so little. Her and Sean went out to hunt, and on their path, met a group of other people who they weren't sure were friendly. They spied on the group for a couple minutes, seeing that it was only three people, they didn't think much of it. There was a girl, nearly Will's age, two women, and man. They had many ideas as to what the group was, whether the girl was their daughter or not, but they weren't too sure. They decided to keep their distance and continue hunting until they heard loud yelling coming from where the group was. Ellie and Sean walked over to investigate and saw them getting held up by a group of what looked like marauders. Ellie, letting her emotions get the best of her, decided that they should help them, specially considering it's a little girl.

As they got closer to the scene, Ellie picked up on what they were talking about, something about recruiting people for a "war". This immediately struck Ellie as odd, remembering that the Fireflies did the same. In an effort to stop them quietly, Ellie shot an arrow at one of them, while the rest looked in confusion, she shot at them, as they retreated slowly, dragging off the adults with them. Ellie cursed under her breath, chasing after them but to no avail. She returned to the girl who was talking to Sean. She introduced herself as Clementine, and the kid with her as AJ and the other people with her as Carley, Luke, and Jane. Clementine told Ellie that the four of them were looking for a place to stay, and have had a run in with The Delta before. Ellie and Sean were a little confused at first but Clementine cleared things up for them on their walk back to the cabin.

On their way back, Sean realized that they never killed the man that Ellie shot, and left him to die, forcing them to go back. As they reached the spot where they shot him previously, they could hear his groans as he laid down in a pool of his own blood. Ellie, angered by the whole situation, held him by his shirt collar and beat every detail she could out of him, learning more about The Delta and their plans, even taking a map off of Eddie before taking the arrow she shot him with and stabbing him with it in the throat, killing him.

Back at the cabin with the rest, Ellie formulated a plan to get Clem's friends back, specially considering that this "Delta" group might be associated with the Fireflies somehow. Both kidnapped people for their cause, this was enough for Ellie to suspect them for something. After at least twenty minutes of planning, Sean and Ellie's small talk led her to take some time off to talk to him. Realizing that Will wasn't with them, she went to check in on him, seeing how he was doing after what happened. She saw him with Heather and decided not to indulge herself in their talk, leaving them alone she returned to planning for the rest of the night.

#### The Delta

During the night, when Ellie and the rest had fallen asleep, fiddling with the door handle woke Ellie and Sean up, as they realized someone was trying to open the door. Ellie followed the noises around to the back door, where she opened the door before whoever it was to open the door, surprising them, and putting her knife up to their throat. The stranger explained how she was looking for a place to stay, and as she talked more and more, Ellie started recognizing her voice. It was Vera, one of the residents of Jackson that was the same age as her. Ellie had talked to Vera before, even considered dancing with her at the party, but never did. She let her in as they talked through the night, explaining how she left Jackson around the same time she did, not really knowing where she was headed.

As the sun rose, Ellie decided it was time to set her plan in motion, as they got ready to move out. Heading outside, the second argument between her and James broke out. They argued over saving the people of Delta and why it even mattered to her. The argument escalated when Ellie told James he shouldn't force Will and Daniel not to kill, to a point where the two fought, beating each other, with Ellie nearly wanting to stab James, but deciding against it. It ended after Sean started yelling at them to stop, as Will and Heather ran back into the house. As James walked away with a broken nose, after Ellie showed them the monster which hid inside him, "Where's pacifism when you're hurt..." Ellie scoffed at him as he walked away. James then made Sean choose between her and him, warning them about the path Ellie is leading them down. Refusing to choose, James left in anger, never to be seen by them again.

> "*We're done here... I just wanted to see the same monster in you too.*" — Ellie to James during the fight
>
>

Heading back to the cabin to get Will and the rest, after they ran off from the fight, Sean explained the situation to them, as they all took sides. The Garcias decided to leave alongside James' boyfriend, leaving only Ellie, Sean, Daniel, Will, Heather, and Clem behind. While they packed up, they heard gunshots coming from the road outside. Worried at the safety of the group, Ellie and Sean rushed outside to see what was happening. They saw three people, and a dead walker on the ground. Ellie looked at all of them as she knew what happened, her gun aimed at them she confronted them. The leader of the group, Julia, told Ellie that they were just trying to hunt when the walker scared her and she shot it. Turning around, she saw and heard a lot of infected coming. "You just alerted every living thing next to us." Ellie told them they better get ready to run as they all followed the map to the lake.

Reaching the lake, they could see a large walled off settlement on the other side. Ellie knew that was The Delta as the map ended there. The group thought of how to cross the river to get to the other side, seeing a torn down canoe, they could use it to get across the lake if they can fix it. As they worked on it, A man walked up to them, introducing himself as Alex. He posed no threat and was ready to work with them, so Ellie had no problem with keeping him. Him, Julia, and Sean got along nicely, as Ellie fixed the boat up with an idea she thought might work. Using a deer skin Julia had, she created an airtight seal on the hole in the boat, nailing it down with arrows. Testing it on the water, Ellie was happy to see it worked. She knew it wouldn't hold more than three people, so it was a discussion of who would go now.

Ellie of course would be one of the people, and so would Clem, being her friends that are getting rescued. and it was up for them to decide who would stay behind and who would go. Julia voted herself to go, and they all agreed. Sean decided to go as well, but Ellie coerced him into staying, for Daniel's sake. She chose Will too, knowing that even though he's small, he's just as powerful as she was when she was her age. They originally agreed on three people, but Will and Clem's combined weight would count as one person, so they decided that would be who would go.

A day on the water later, they arrived outside the walls at night, sneaking near the base into a forest. In the forest, they found a campsite, one that had recently been covered. Seeing that, Ellie was a little superstitious, thinking there might be guards in the forest at well, but it was like there was a familiar smell at the camp as well. She shook it off as they walked near the walls, seeing a hole in the ground in one of them, like a sewer system, where they all entered in. Coming out at the other side, it was like being in a small town, with buildings everywhere. Ellie and the rest used the darkness to their advantage, sneaking up to what looked like a prison where they might be keeping the people. Taking cover in an alleyway, Ellie was ready to sneak into the base, taking out a bottle to distract the two guards outside the gate. As she was about to toss it, a hand covered her mouth, as the others stared at the large man behind her. She was going to turn around and fight, but it felt familiar, the smell and the touch. She slowly put her arm down as she turned to look at the man. To her surprise, it was Joel.

> "*What the hell are you doing here?*" — A surprised Ellie to Joel in The Delta
>
>

As the two stared at each other, Joel told her he wasn't going to let her do this alone, and how he followed her trail from Seattle, mocking her about how easy it was to track her. As the two joked for a second, it turned more real as Joel agreed to help her, knowing what she was planning, and knowing what The Delta have been doing. The pair snuck up to the building together, knocking out the two guards as the rest of the group followed.

Entering the prison, they made their way through as quietly as they could, taking down guards one by one. As they neared the cells, one of the guards caught wind of what was happening and raised the alarm, causing them to panic a little as they hurried to unlock the cells. Getting her group out, Clem and Will both got attacked by Minerva one of the people The Delta have indoctrinated, as Ellie and the rest held the guards off. Clementine and Will teamed up on her, ending with a knife to the head for her, as they got Luke, Carley, and Jane out. Getting them out, Ellie told Joel as they planned their exit, with guards now flooding The Delta.

After leaving the prison, the streets were filled with guards shooting at them as they ran to their supposed escape plan, which Joel came up with earlier. As they made their way to the docks, Ellie tried her best to cover the kids as they followed Joel. She had no idea how she would have done it alone if it wasn't for Joel. Miraculously making it to the docs unscathed, they fought their way up to the large brig which The Delta used for their operations. Joel ran into the engine room, trying to get the boat going as the rest defended it from the guards running up to secure it. Ellie handed Will her rifle, trusting him with it as she continued firing at the guards with her pistol. Will got a few shots off as well, his first kills in a long time. She looked at Will, nodding, encouraging him for his work. As Joel got the boat working, they rode off as the gunshots faded, and they finally rested, knowing they just started a war.

At the helm, Ellie and Joel talked through the night, as they caught up on what happened the last few months. They talked about Seattle, Jackson, and Ellie's birthday. She didn't want to stop talking but Joel told her she deserved some rest. She went and sat with Will as the two talked for a bit before she fell asleep on the top of the ship.

#### A Favor From An Old Friend

As they arrived back to the lake, Sean and the rest were amazed at the sight of The Mobjack, as Joel parked it to collect the rest of them per Ellie's instructions. Joel was planning on heading back to Jackson, but before they can do that, they needed something else first, something he knew Ellie would despise. He brought her over to the helm again where he told her his plan. They were to go gather supplies from an "Old friend" before heading back to Jackson, since without Ellie, Jesse wasn't able to do all the work alone. Ellie agreed as they spent the next few days on the ship, heading back to Boston to meet this "Old friend".

As they docked the boat, the fresh Boston air triggered Ellie's memories of her being here. This caused Ellie to tell Will about Riley, and her time in Boston before. The longer they walked to reach Joel's destination the more and more they all got bored. As night was starting to fall, they all set camp not too far away from where Joel planned on heading. The next morning, Will woke up before the rest, waking Heather up as well. He thought it would be a good idea to go teach Heather how to use a rifle, just as Ellie showed him on the boat. The two walked far into the woods to not wake anyone up, as they fired some shots nearby. Ellie woke up to the shots and woke Sean up as well to investigate, specially since they found Will and Heather missing. Ellie kept her cool, seeing that her gun was gone, knowing that the two were either defending themselves, or maybe out hunting. As they reached them, they could hear other sounds, groans of some sort. Realizing what it was, Ellie rushed over to Will and Heather who were being swarmed by a horde of walkers. In her anger and distress, she told them to run as she fired into the crowed of walkers, leading them far away from the camp before returning half an hour later.

Although she was mad, Ellie never showed it, specially not to Will. She might have slipped a word or two that made Will think she disliked what he did, which she did, but she told him she agrees with that he tried to do. "Teaching Heather is the right thing" she told him, "You never know when you're gonna need it" she said to him as that gave all of them the rush to finally get going again.

A couple hours later, they had almost reached their destination. Ellie caught a whiff of what Joel was up to, and had her suspicious confirmed when he told her they were heading to Bill. After making a fuss out of it, her and Joel told the rest of the group about the first time they met Bill, talking about the traps he had set up, and the other shenanigans they had to deal with before getting the car to Pittsburgh. The story came off as funny because the way Ellie told it, as she reminded Joel of the parts where he hung upside down for ten minutes while Ellie struggled to cut him down.

Reaching the gates of Bill's town, they met their first challenge, the lock. Ellie suggested using the knife Will found after some time of thinking, as they tried prying the chain open from the outside. To no avail, She suggested another plan, climbing up the wall and down to unlock the gate. Alex agreed to help Ellie and Will up as the pair climbed the wall, landing on the other side. Prying the lock, and breaking the knife in the process, they all walked in, as Ellie and Joel remembered how dangerous it is just to walk around in the town.

Per Joel and Ellie's memory and instructions, they slowly made their way to the workshop, dismantling one trap after the next, making their way back to the same warehouse that Joel got stuck in. This time, not noticing the same trap, Ellie opened the door, stepping right in it. She yelled at them to cut her down as they laughed at her.

> "*I **hate**. Every. Single. One of you."* — Ellie to the group as they watched her hanging up side down
>
>

Exclaiming how she hated everyone, they finally cut her down and the noise of the fridge dropping down as a counterweight alerted Bill, who came dashing to them at the ruckus which drew infected out from hiding. Seeing who it was only infuriated Bill, as he scolded them for coming into his home twice like that. Joel calmed him down before asking him for a favor, which Bill scoffed at before turning him down. As the infected drew closer, Joel forced Bill to help them in exchange for clearing his town for him. Bill couldn't help but agree, seeing that infected where flooding the entire town again, just like the last time they were here. He complained the entire way as they ran for their lives, as Ellie made remarks about how fat he still was. Joel told her to zip it, just like last time, as they all ran to his home, taking shelter from the storm of infected outside.

After the walkers had calmed down, and discussing the supplies they needed, Bill let them go after a long and outraged chat with Ellie in which the two had an insult war. Joel ended it by telling Ellie to shut up, and to be thankful that Bill helped them. She didn't want to argue so she agreed, and the group got the supplies they needed before heading back to the boat, where they rode it back to Jackson.

### Jackson - Third Appearance

As they all arrived back to Jackson, Ellie had a sickly feeling. It felt like it's been too soon since she's been here, as if it was suffocating her. She got over it quickly, as she immediately had company to attend to. Seeing Tommy and Jesse after such a long time made her happy again. As Ellie and Jesse joked about Joel, the rest unloaded the supplies and restocked Jackson, as they got ready for Joel's real plan. Jackson remained much the same as Ellie remembered it, only a few more shops, but that was it.

They spent the next couple weeks planning their attack on The Fireflies, not only for revenge, but to end them once and for all. After Joel caught wind of Marlene surviving the hospital in Boston, he had started formulating a plan and following The Fireflies' every step. Now armed with more than just Ellie willing to fight, he had to rethink his plan through, this time, a lot more thoroughly. As the days went by, Joel reconstructed his plan with the help of Ellie, as she also balanced work and friendship with Jesse and Will.

Ellie not only taught Will how to hunt and get better at riding horseback, she also taught him how to use a bow as they prepared their attack, as well as teach him something she never thought she could, relationships. As Will and Heather's bond grew, he looked to Ellie for help with what to do, after telling her he couldn't rely on Jonathan's aid since he wasn't there. Ellie and Will got personal, discussing not only Jonathan, but he's relationship with Heather, and even his hometown, Hawkins.

A day after their teaching Will and resting up, Joel finally set his plan in motion. He gathered Ellie and the rest and headed to the boat. On their way to where they docked it, he explained to them everything he knew so far about them, telling Ellie how Marlene never died, and her time in Seattle only set them off after discovering she was there.

### When You're Lost In The Darkness...

Ellie and Joel both looked for a place to dock as they neared Seattle, almost a week after they left Jackson. Ellie has been in and out with conversations with the group, as the journey took longer than they thought. Finally docking the ship, they made sure to disable the engine so that nobody can mess with it while they were gone. Joel using his knowledge of the city, as well as Ellie's, they both made their way to the heart of the city, where they could see Firefly signs spray painted all over, the closer they got. They all went over the plan again, one last time, as they set up camp for the night.

The next morning, they were ready to set the plan into motion, as they made their way to the main Firefly tower. The building was massive, and the firefly logo on it looked huge from where they stood. Ellie's eyes widened looking at how massive they got, as well as Joel starting to rethink his decision, seeing the amount of followers Marlene has gathered now. As they stood in the middle of the road to the building, they noticed someone fighting two fireflies in a shop not too far away. She looked like she was a bit older than Will, but younger than both Sean and Ellie. The group was ready to fire at her, but she was clearly on their side since she was killing Fireflies. Seeing that she might be useful, Joel approached her, as the rest followed. She introduced herself as Jodie, a defector from The Fireflies. The didn't necessarily tell them that however, she just revealed that she knew a lot about them. As a patrol was catching wind of their operation, Jodie let them down a manhole into the sewers, where she had been camping out earlier.

As they all climbed down into her foothold in Seattle, Ellie couldn't help but question how Jodie even lived this long with the heavy Firefly presence right on top of her. She diverted the question, by telling them that she had been fighting them for a while, as they reached her camp. It was a small little thing, a worn down mattress and a fire, with some of her belongings scattered. Ellie took one keen look and noticed something familiar, dog tags, but they weren't any ordinary dog tags, they looked familiar. She picked them up as Jodie rushed to take them away from her. Before she did however, she noticed the Firefly logo on them, remembering Riley's dog tags. She yelled at Jodie for lying to them, and called her out for being part of them. Jodie explained everything and how she was just like Riley, confused, until she saw their true and deranged nature. She explained how the tower is like a fortress, and how tight security is. She knew her ways in and out of it and can help them plan their attack in exchange for a better life. Joel and Ellie agreed, as they re-planned again.

Ellie came up with the bright idea of poking through the building in two groups while the patrols weren't looking. The plan was solid, and everyone was on board with it, so they decided to follow through with it. With the aid of Jesse, Ellie surfaced again at night to explore the patrol's night routes. They took time intervals of when the front door was left unguarded and took the information back to the rest of them, where they all planned the next steps. Jodie suggested she takes someone as small as her with them to sneak in and open the doors for them. Ellie suggested Will, knowing his capabilities. While Jodie was skeptical at first, Ellie's coercion led to them agreeing, as they surfaced again with a new plan in mind. Ellie and the rest waited for Jodie and Will to sneak in using the ventilation system which Jodie had used to first escape. They were on a three minute restriction before the second set of patrols moved in. On their second minute, Ellie saw the doors open and Jodie motioning them over. As they were about to enter, Joel spotted a guard up on the tower, watching over the entrance. Ellie hadn't seen him before, which threw a bit of a wrench in their plan. Before he spotted them, Ellie put a quick arrow in him, as Joel told her to, then entering the tower with the rest.

Inside the tower, they had to be careful not to draw attention to them again, it was dangerous now that they were just about locked inside. With the door closing behind them as Jodie and Will joined them, they were now on their own inside. As they were walking through, with Jodie's guidance, they killed as many guards as they could quietly, leaving a trail of bodies behind them. One slip up however, caused a guard to fire at them, which in turn caused the alarm to go off, as Fireflies flooded the building. They started running to the top of the tower now, and in their distress, got split up. Ellie was with Will, Jodie, and Julia, while the rest were on their own. Still following Jodie, they shot their way to Marlene's office, where they were abruptly stopped and overwhelmed. As Ellie fought for her life, she was overpowered and got knocked out alongside the rest of them.

#### ...Look For The Light

When they woke up, they were tied up in chairs, all next to each other, as Marlene and a couple guards stood in front of them. Ellie was the first to wake up, seeing the rest tied up infuriated her. She lashed out at Marlene, telling her to give it up and that she would kill her if she wasn't tied up. Marlene took every threat Ellie had with a grain of salt, laughing over her being the one tied up. After further insults by Ellie, in a fit of anger, Marlene pushed over Julia's chair and shot her in the head, killing her in front of Ellie. This only angered Ellie more, causing her to scream at Marlene. Marlene in exchange, got up to Ellie's face, whispering to her about how she still continues to fail people. Ellie retaliated by spitting on Marlene's face when she got close enough, as well as head butting her, breaking her nose. Marlene, fed up with Ellie's behavior, made a guard take the now fully conscious Will out of the room, on orders to kill him. Ellie kept yelling at Marlene, cursing at her, as her bond with Will had grown so much, letting him die would be like failing Riley all over again. Seconds go by and the silence was finally broken with a gunshot. Ellie screamed in pain as she moved in the chair, knocking herself over. Her blind fit of rage just wouldn't end as Marlene tried to put her back up, continuing to taunt her endlessly. As Ellie started to cry, Marlene left her to gather her strength again, leaving the room with the guards.

While Marlene was distracted, Jodie had managed to free herself, and worked on untying Ellie as well. The two stayed quiet and waited for the guards to come back, as Jodie comforted Ellie. Ellie told Jodie to just be quiet, fed up with what Marlene did, with nothing other than burning rage in her eyes. The second the door opened, Ellie kicked it with all her might, slamming the guard's head against the door frame. As he was down on his hands and knees, Ellie slammed the door against his head again, and again, and again, until she couldn't see anything other than the dark red of blood, as Jodie watched in horror. Satisfied, Ellie grabbed his guns and headed out to find where they took Will. As her and Jodie both took on another guard, shooting him in the head at first sight, Jodie led Ellie straight to the room where Will was. To much of her surprise, Will was still alive, just knocked out, and was being used as a way for Marlene to play with Ellie's feelings. Feeling a mix of anger and being toyed with, she told Jodie to stick with Will as she barged out of the room, with more guards flooding the area after the gunshot, she took them down one by one, leaving the last one with a bullet in the stomach. She threw her gun aside as she walked up to the half dying guard, pulling him up by his collar. "Where is she!" she yelled at him, as she proceeded to beat him, again and again. He finally gave up and told her she was in the cells with Joel and the rest. Ellie took her knife out and stabbed him in the neck, finishing him off, as she took deep breaths. This was far from over.

Her rage still brewing, she restocked on her guns and headed to the cells, Jodie and Will still with her. The pair looked at her in horror, as she was soaked in blood, but none dared to talk to her. As they made it down to the cells, the first guard she saw met his fate with a bullet to the head, as she freed the rest of the group in the cells. They all questioned where Julia was, and Ellie bluntly told them she was dead. Joel told Ellie to go get Marlene while he set fire to the building. She agreed, as Jodie now informed Ellie that she was outside giving a speech. Ellie told them she was going for her, Jesse, knowing Ellie, said he would go with her. And the two ran back out to the surface.

As they made it back up, they can hear Marlene's voice loud and clear, talking more nonsense about the infection and Ellie's cure. Ellie walked outside the front doors where Marlene was standing giving her speech, telling Jesse to "Watch this" as she shot Marlene in both her legs in front of all her Firefly followers. She held her by her hair and looked at the crowd, telling them if they move, she kills her right then and there. Too scared to lose their fanatic leader, none of the Fireflies tried doing anything, specially with Jesse aiming at them. Ellie looked at Marlene mocking her as she couldn't say a word with the amount of pain she was in. "Cat caught your tongue Marlene?" she mocked her as the rest of the group came out of the tower that was now burning, using a back door, Jesse told Ellie to hurry up, as she dragged Marlene by her hair into the tower, with Jesse following her, as the crowd starting yelling at them. Jesse fired a few shots at them before walking in the building with Ellie and shutting the doors.

Ellie dragged Marlene to the stairs that led to the basement. telling her about the four long years she had waited to do this, as she threw her down the stairs. She turned to Jesse and told him to leave if the crowd gets out of hand, and that she can handle this, before disappearing into the basement with Marlene. All Jesse could utter out was "Holy Shit..." as Ellie made her way down the dark staircase, hearing Marlene's echoes of pain all throughout. Ellie propped Marlene up against one of the walls and knelt down next to her.

> "*Remember Riley?! That was the first person you ever took away from me!"* — Ellie during her confrontation with Marlene
>
>

She eyed Marlene up and down "where do I start?" she said as she took her switchblade out. She brought up Riley, as she was the first to go due to Marlene, stabbing her in her leg as she laughed at her, telling Ellie that Riley was just as dumb as Ellie. Ellie lashed out at Marlene, cursing at her, telling her to not talk about Riley like that as she punched her with all her might, knocking a tooth out, as she cut her knuckle on Marlene's teeth. Ellie asked her how it felt to watch her world fall apart, to which Marlene tried to laugh again, responding with "Y'all are weak.". Ellie got up, nearly infuriated by Marlene. "We're Weak?" she responded, as she recalls to Marlene how she's the one about to die in her own base, and how she should have killed Ellie when she had the chance. She kicked Marlene in the face, before remembering all the suffering she put her through. "And Dina?!" she continued, "You took away the only person I loved!", she yelled at Marlene as the memory of Dina triggered something inside Ellie. She grabbed Marlene by the collar, slamming her head against the wall before noticing the metal bars on the cells. She dragged Marlene over to the door, putting her head in the frame, as she pushed the metal door with all her might right into Marlene's head, cracking her skull open. Satisfied with the blood flowing down Marlene's head, she stopped for a second, hearing Jesse fire shots upstairs. Marlene proceeded to tell her how Jesse's going to die alongside Ellie, which caused her to finally snap. She told her how she would die knowing she took back everything Marlene took away from her, as she stabbed her three more times in her stomach out of anger, then drenching her with a can of gasoline that Joel had left behind earlier while setting the building on fire. "Fucking burn Marlene." she said as she lit the gas trail on fire, Not leaving the basement until she watched Marlene burn, as her screams echoed throughout.

> "*Everything you’ve ever done stabbed me right through my heart and broke me. And now, I’m breaking **you***.” — Ellie, seconds before killing Marlene
>
>

Making her way back up, she saw that Jesse was still holding them off "Waiting for me doesn't mean you die!" she said as she led him outside to the rest of the group, where they reunited as the Fireflies entered the burning building, in an effort to look for Marlene. As the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh rose in the air around them, they knew that they were done here. Just as they were ready to leave, a horde of infected rolled around due to the sounds of gunfire. As well as a large amount of Fireflies that were still on their trail. They ran, leaving the Fireflies to deal with the infected, as they made their way back to the boat.

### A Not So Quiet Winter

It's been Weeks since Ellie's confrontation with Marlene, and she's never felt better. Images of Marlene still haunted her, as her brutality peaked for the first time in a long time. She was glad nobody saw it, but at the same time, scared of what she did. After arriving back at Jackson, everyone eased back in to living normally, as relationships started to blossom again.

Tommy, seeing them all come back in one piece, threw a huge party for them, much like the one they held before when Dina was still around. Ellie agreed to join, in the spirit of having all her friends with her. As she chose what to wear, she dressed up the same way she did the last time she went to a party, the same green shirt and black t shirt she wore and the same ripped jeans and worn converse. It reminded her a lot of a better time, when she had someone to look forward to being with every day. She adjusted Dina's bracelet on her hand, as she walked out and to the Church, meeting up with everyone.

After a few drinks with Jesse, Ellie and him got into a personal conversation about Dina. They both remembered her and drank in her memory, missing her equally. Meanwhile, Everyone found their place at the party, with Jodie being interested in the music, Vera interested in dancing, Sean talking to a stranger that Ellie didn't recognize, and Will sitting and watching everyone with a warm smile on his face. Jesse pointed out the way Vera was looking at Ellie, but she brushed it off, until Vera finally walked up to her and asked her for a dance. Jesse smirked as Vera pulled Ellie to the dance floor, as the two started slow dancing, getting reminded of Dina again. She got a little sad, but soon forgot about it due to her drunkenness. The two shared a moment as they kissed in the middle of the dance floor. Much like everyone else, Ellie hadn't known about Vera and Sean's complex relationship, and when Sean saw this, he stormed out of the church. Nobody really knew why he did, but nobody questioned it either. The night ended with both of them going their separate ways, as Ellie found her way back to the cabin.

The next morning, Ellie woke up with a minor headache, as she threw on some new clothes, walking downstairs. She saw that everyone was still asleep and sat on the couch, overlooking the street outside. She slowly started to hear a commotion going on, stepping outside, she heard Sean and Vera arguing. Confused at what was happening, she made her way over to the yelling. As she stood behind Sean, she listened in, as the two yelled back and forth at each other about last night, and how Vera betrayed him. Ellie interfered by saying it was really her fault, which made Sean shove Vera. Angry at Sean, she turned him around, yelling at him to stop. This caused him to shove Ellie down as well. In her anger, she got up and punched Sean in the nose, breaking it, as he laid down on the ground. She stood over him, with her fist up in the air, ready to punch him again, as Will came out and looked at her. Vera told her to stop as Will watched on. Realizing the situation, Ellie backed off from Sean, as he got up and walked away. She looked at Vera, asking her if she was okay and what the hell it was all about. After standing with her and talking for a few minutes, Ellie had learned about why Sean did what he did, and suggested Vera give him some space and talk to him.

Now that it was peaceful once more, without being hunted, or having any problems between people, Jodie quickly became like family, as she got along with Clementine nicely as well as Will. The three of them would go hunting with Ellie sometimes, but she liked spending most of her time around Will. When Ellie wasn't doing anything, she would rather be around Will, either talking, or just teaching him more things to benefit him.

One day, after Sean apologized to Vera, she went and told Ellie. The two spent the day together afterwards, as they talked about relationships and all the baggage that comes with them. As night rolled in, Ellie invited Vera back to her cabin, as they laid there together in bed, looking at the ceiling. They haven't talked much after they kissed but it was a burning topic on Ellie's thoughts. She talked to her if she had ever done that before, Vera replied telling her this was her first time. Ellie teased in return telling her she was a great kisser, to which the two laughed before moving on to serious topics. They talked about their past, reminiscing about how similar their lives were, dismissing all of their childhood thoughts as trivial to what their worries are now. The two kissed again, before they slept in each other's embrace. Ellie missed this, missed having someone to talk to, someone to care about more than a friend.

Days went by, and life was normal again. But it didn't last long. There was yelling coming from Jackson's gates, as Ellie and the rest went to go see what was wrong. To their instant shock, as they came up to the gate, a shot was fired, and one of the guards fell off his post. Fighting broke out afterwards as they all took up their guns and defended Jackson against the siege. A couple trucks rammed the gates, and broke in, as people poured out. With minor injuries, they managed to fight them off, even keeping one alive, who Ellie beat to a pulp trying to get information from. He told her they were a group in Seattle who branched out here. Ellie instantly realized they were the same people that attacked her and Dina, putting a bullet through his head, mercilessly killing him. She told Joel about it, as he told her they can't spare any people to go with her. She told him she'll go alone and finish it herself. Sean wanted to go with her as well, since he had friends in Seattle and he knew his way around. She accepted, as they all made their way to the boat.

#### Rematch

Back on the boat, Ellie, Sean, and Alex, who decided to go with them later, all sat as Ellie tried to helm the ship. Getting it on the right path, she sat with them, telling them her plan as they broke down the map of Seattle. They would split off, Sean would look for whoever he wanted to with Alex, as Ellie took on the WLF on her own again. They all agreed on the plan, with Alex making sure Ellie doesn't need help. She told him she's old enough to take care of herself and doesn't need a hand to hold along the way. She disliked Alex already, trying to act as Will's father earlier and now this. She didn't care however, she was too focused on what she would do when she got there.

A day later, they arrived back at Seattle, docking where they docked the first time they came here. As they got off the boat, they went off the plan once again, walking into the City, as they split off before Ellie got back to the same neighborhood she was in a couple years ago. They all said they would meet at the camp they made earlier then split up. As Ellie made her journey down the neighborhood in Seattle, she could see a pillar of smoke in the distance, as she came to a clearing, where the entrance of the neighborhood was.

She walked in deeper, following the smoke, as it lead her straight to the neighborhood where the WLF was camping in, just like the man she interrogated said. In the neighborhood however, she got the same feeling she did when she was here a couple years ago. She heard some talking as she got closer to one of the houses, crouching down and walking inside it. She checked around, walking up the stairs and peeking out one of the windows, seeing a couple people in the yard outside. She got out the window, and onto the roof, where she took her backpack off, taking out a makeshift suppressor she made and put it on her pistol, just in case, then drew out her bow, with a bottle in one hand. She wanted to separate them, so she threw the bottle behind her, as it broke and one of the two men went to go look at what made the noise. As the other one stood there alone, she shot him with an arrow, coming back down, and collecting it. As she did, she heard a low growl coming from her left. As she looked between the slits in the fence, she could see a dog. She backed up from the fence and quietly made her way around it, as the dog started to pick up her scent. She could hear someone else coming at the other end of the fence and stood waiting for him. As he turned the corner, she grabbed him and took out her knife, stabbing him. The noise made the dog bark, as she ran off to another house.

Hearing the dog bark, a group of men came to see what happened, seeing two of them dead, they were alerted, telling each other to get ready for anything as they started scanning the area. Ellie was already long gone, as the dog picked up her scent, leading them to her. She was in another house, as the dog walked into it before the men did. She tried her best to avoid it, as she walked up the house, the dog losing her for a moment. When she got upstairs, she could see the men walking to the house where she was in, following the dog. She opened the window, shooting one of them, as the other one saw her. She jumped down the stairs, which alerted the dog to her, as he ran to her. She fumbled to get her gun and the dog ended up jumping on her arm, biting it. As he did, she shot him right through the head, as it leg go of her arm. Blood started to drip down her arm now, as she shot the other man that ran in through the door. Getting down on her knees, she took her backpack off and mended her arm. It wasn't too bad, since the dog didn't manage to bite her too deeply. The pain started to kick in as the adrenaline faded away, and she started to walk outside to where she saw a makeshift base.

She walked in, seeing it was quiet, too quiet. She walked through the base, it wasn't big as it was a reconstructed house, made to fit their needs. She walked down one of the halls which led her down to the cells, near the garage. As she walked in, she could hear some whimpering. Walking up to the cell she heard the voice coming from, she saw a girl that was her age. She whispered to the girl asking her if she was fine and what her name was. She introduced herself as Nancy, and told Ellie about her time here. As the talked, one of the guards walked up behind Ellie quietly and grabbed her, as he started choking her. She kicked and struggled, finally managing to get herself free. She took her knife out and stabbed him in the chest, getting him on his knees as she kicked him down to the ground, slamming his head into the cell door, killing him. She then got the keys off him and opened the door for Nancy, as the two joined together and went to check the garage.

In the garage, they found a truck, one that Nancy told Ellie they can use to get away. Ellie agreed as Nancy went to go look for her belongings as well as the keys. She thought them to be in the storage room so that's exactly where she haded to with Ellie. In the storage room, Nancy found her belongings as well as the key to the truck. In the meantime, Ellie was more interested in the supplies the WLF had. She grabbed as many crates as she could, putting them in the back of the truck to take back to Jackson. As they were all loaded up, they drove out the garage as more guards came down to the garage, leaving just in the nick of time as the door they barricaded had just come down and they started firing at them.

Fleeing on the truck, Ellie told Nancy about Sean and Alex, and how they had no room to go pick them up. Ellie decided to go deliver the supplies to Jackson then come back for Sean and Alex. Nancy told her it was a good idea as they left to head to the boat. Nancy asked Ellie to tell her more about Jackson since Nancy was skeptical at first, but now that she saw the boat as they arrived, she wasn't as doubtful. They got on the boat and headed back to Jackson, trying to make the journey back as fast as she could. She kicked the engine on the boat to full throttle as they made their way out the dock and back to Jackson to drop off the supplies.

#### First of Many

Arriving back to the mountains, Ellie said she would drive as it would be easier to get back to Jackson that way. Nancy was again skeptical of Ellie's skills since she has only drove a few times before, but she proved to her that she could as they drove back to Jackson. As they reached the gates, Ellie told them to open it, as they did, parking the car in the middle of Jackson. As she got out, she started unpacking the supplies. Joel and Tommy walked out to meet Ellie after she told some guards to go and grab them. They thanked Ellie and Nancy for the supplies as they all unloaded them. Will saw them through the window in the cabin and ran out, seeing someone that looked familiar next to Ellie. Ellie saw Will come out and waved him over to help, as Nancy heard his name as well, she turned and saw him, amazed at who it was, she went to go hug him. Ellie learned that Will and Nancy are friends that grew up in the same town before Will had to move and she felt a smile come across her face. She told Nancy that any friend of Will is a friend of her, before leaving her and Will to enjoy their time together before going back to get Sean and Alex from Seattle, not wanting to leave them there for too long.

Two days later, after they had all come back, things in Jackson still went fine. Ellie started getting along with Nancy, as they talked with Will about their past lives, as well as Hawkins, their hometown. The supplies that kept them lasting for a long time, as well as the peace of finally getting the WLF off her back and getting a new friend, Ellie felt good for the first time in a while. The next couple days were quiet again, as the winter calm down a little, the snow stopping, as the season started to turn.

### Goodbye, Jackson

Calmness wasn't in Jackson's nature as it seemed, since problems arose again not so long after. One day, during the morning, while everyone was doing their jobs, Will and Clem decided to go out on a ride, one in the forest. During their time outside, they felt like they were being watched, and little did they know, they were. An arrow landed right next to Clem, scaring her, as a couple figures in the forest around them started yelling at them. The pair ran right back to Jackson, as the arrows behind them stopped, making them think they were safe. They came back to Jackson, as one last arrow landed right at the gate. Entering inside, they couldn't help but show the worry on their face. Sean noticed right away the worry on Will's face, asking him what was wrong. As he told him what had happened, Sean got mad at him, causing Will to burst out into an argument. The pair yelled at each other and got Clementine involved, drawing more and more people out. Will gave up and ran back outside, getting back on Ammy and running of with Clem, with Nancy following them.

As Ellie got back to the cabin, she saw both Sean and Alex standing there and talking about what they did. Jodie told Ellie that Will ran away and so Ellie got worried and told Sean and Jodie to come with her. Not knowing that Sean was the one that caused this, she took two horses out, one for her and Jodie, and the other for Sean. She rode off to where the fresh hoof prints in the snow led her, and as they neared the forest, the tracks got lighter, nearly disappearing. Ellie kept going in the same direction, it was unlikely that they got far or changed directions. later down the path, Ellie and Jodie noticed something on the ground. Ellie got off of the horse to check, kneeling down to check what it was, seeing that it was Ellie's hat, with an arrow next to it. There was no blood in sight, but Ellie still got mad.

> "*I swear, I will kill whoever did this."* — Ellie to Jodie and Sean after finding Clem's hat
>
>

Ellie got back on her horse with Jodie, as Sean decided to tell Ellie he's the one that made them run off. She was too mad to even scold Sean for what he did, all she had to tell him was that if anything happened to them, he would pay for it. He showed some remorse for it, which Ellie didn't care about, this wasn't something he should feel bad about, it's something he should be disgusted by. Seeing a building in the distance as well as Ammy outside, she knew they were here.