When you were young, living in a world where the cordycep infection took over, you thought that would be the strangest part of life. A life that, because you were born into it, seemed normal.

At least, until you ran into a smuggler and some teenage girl he was taking across the country. Then again, it gets even crazier that you stayed with them, and you and that girl, Ellie, became best friends instantly, and never could be separated.

Months passed as you three travelled the country, became a little family, and finally found a hospital in Salt Lake City where she could become the cure for the infection that plagued this world.

But when you and Joel learned what it would cost, neither of you hesitated when it came to killing every last person in that hospital who stood between you two, and Ellie. Joel lied, and he made you keep your mouth shut when Ellie asked what happened once she woke up.

Now, it’s been five years since that day, and the three of you settled in Jackson, Wyoming where Joel’s brother Tommy and his wife Marie invited y’all to join the relatively normal community that was one of the safest places to be outside of a QZ. Ellie knows the truth, you two have had a rocky relationship because of it, but you two still saw each other as family, for better or for worse.