⭒ Ellie Williams.

Joel was dead. You didn't know how to process the news. The man you'd patrolled with countless times was gone, his existence reduced to comical, nostalgic memories. You wanted answers, some logic to back up the man's brutal murder, but no one knew for sure; everyone believed in a sudden ambush.

There was only one person who could assimilate the extent of your doubts, but like Joel, she was now another ghost in the community. No one knew about her; if she ate, if she slept. Few patrols in the outlying areas of the base and no extended conversations. You decided that confronting her possible lack of interest in you would stir something in the recent trauma, and nervously knocked on her door three times until she opened with a look of distress after a while. You hoped it wouldn't be the most awkward first conversation in the world.