Hello theeeere! First, don't blame me, blame my lazy butt and the last busy month. *sigh* Sorry for the late update. Soo to make it up to you I wrote an extra looong chapter. Hope you'll like it! Also thanks for the follows, favorites and reviews, I appreciate them a lot. And just to make things clear, this is a Riellie fic, there gonna be a lot of Riellie fluff, to conclude I thought of their relationship to be a romantic one. If you don't like that well, don't read it. Enough talking, enjoy the chapter! Happy new year by the way. ;P

your LSOTA C:

The girl in front of her grins widely.

''There you are. I hope your butt's ready to meet my shoe!''

Was it Liv? Yeah Liv was her name.

''Hey, I'll not really kick your ass, you know?''

Liv laughes, as she meets the terrified look of the girl in front of her.

A nervous laugh escapes Ellie as well, as she begins to play with her fingers, unsure what to say.

Then Liv continues, oblivious about the uncomfortable state of the redhead.

''You won't believe what happened today at school! Let's go in and I'll tell ya everything.''

She eyes Ellie from head to toe and adds.

''What are you doing out here anyway? And why weren't you at school? You know Alex and the others always asked me where you've been, what's going on with you, blablabla.''

She rolls her eyes.

''I mean they have their own phones to text you!''

She takes Ellies hand, which happens unnoticed by the red head, who is obviously blown away by the outburst of the blonde, who now leads her back into the house.

''Your boyfriend can be quite annoying.''

They make their way to the kitchen.

''But I think you know that best!'' She turns around, grinning and winks at her.

Ellie looks dumbly back, as she realises what Liv just said.

Wait...What?Boyfriend?

Suddenly she is taken out of her thoughts, as she bumps into the girl in front of her.

''What the-.'' She looks up, only to see that the blonde is holding something in her hand, which gets her full attention.

What is she doing?

Ellie releases her hand from the girl's and peeks curiously over saids shoulder.

She watchs fascinated, how the fingers of the blonde dart over the display of a phone, so fast and unstopable, that Ellie barely can follow their moves. She can only read the text, which appears, right above the letters, on which the fingers, with red painted nails are thumping.

Wow...maaaan and I just broke mine.

She thinks with a pout, as she reaches out with her hand to touch the surface of the phone as well.

''Huh?''

Liv notices the hand, which appears in her view and looks suprised up.

Ellie suddenly flinches back internal cursing her lost of focus.

Liv gives Ellie a confused look but recovers quickly as she says.

''Sorry, I just told my mom that I'm with you, so she doesn't has to worry, when I'm coming home late.'' With that Liv gives Ellie a small smile, stuffs her phone back in her pocket and made her way to the fridge, leaving the red head standing in the door frame.

While Liv searchs through the fridge, she again speaks up.

''Uhm about today...- do you have something sweet? Like chocolate? Maan I'm starving-...''

Her head disappears behind the fridge door, which makes her voice muffled.

''Anyways, you surely know Mr. Parker right? Well, he again had a little ''disput'' with that senior in the schoolyard, I forgot her name, but it was quite entertaining. It began with... .''

Ellie stops listening at that point. Maybe she is one of a curious, maybe she could listen all day to the stories of that girl. Because, of course she is and has always been interested in the world before the outbreak, even if that means listening to an adulescen who tells a stupid little teenage drama, it still is new to her and exciting. But right now for god's sake, she has totally no time for that kind of stuff, she has to get anwers to her thousand of questions.

She quickly glances over to the babbling girl, who is still busy with the fridge.

Good she's still distracted, now Ellie go for it....

She quietly turns around to leave the kitchen, on her tiptoes.

Don't make any sound, don't make any sound, don't make any sound

''...Riley!''

Ellie whips her head around so fast, she can hear something snaps painfully in her neck.

But she ignores the pain and her eyes are fixaded on Liv, who now takes something out of the fridge, a cup , with something brown.

''Bingo!'' The girl cheers. With a victorious grin, she closes the fridge with a swing of her hips and makes her way to the kitchen table, but not before fishing a spoon out of a drawer nearby.

Did she just?

''Riley?''

Ellie repeats slowly, not remembering when she heard the name the last time or even saying it by herself. It sounds nearly strange to her.

''Yeah, I think her name is Riley. I'm sure you know her, sporty, dark skin, brown eyes, brown hair, quite popular, can't really miss her. And it's not the first time she made a scene at school, that's for sure.''

Liv says, while spooning out the cup in her hand and countinues with full mouth.

''Luckiely she's a genius and wins the science tournament for our school every year, 'cause outherwise she would be kicked out by now for her not so commendable actions, if you ask me.''

Ellie remains silent and still stands like stoned in the door frame, eyes wide.

It can't be possible. Don't be an idiot and make yourself any hopes.

But she asks the next question anyway, ignoring the warnings of her inner voice and approchs the kitchen table.

''Uhm, what is her last name?'' She asks innocently, sits herself across from Liv, who tips with the spoon at her chin, apperantly thinking.

''Mhhh Riley..., Riley..., ah yes! Riley Smith, yeah that's her name.''

A wave of disappointment rushes over Ellie, as she just replays ''Oh.''

She practically hears her inner voice laughing at her naivete, but she just shakes it off with a frown.

''Why are you asking?'' The question hits her unexpected and she quickly answers sheepishly.

''Ah, well I'm just curious, that's all.''

Liv gives the red head a leery look, but before she can say anything else, a sudden sound interrupts the, for Ellie, uncomfortable conversation.

With a quick motion, the blonde fishs her ringing phone out of her pocket and brings it up to her ear, while she holds up a finger to Ellie, for the girl a sign to wait.

And so she does, not sure why, but she waits patient, until Liv ends her call, with a happy expression on her face.

''Sooo, I just got a call from Kate. She and Lucy are at the mall and they just asked if we want to join them. What do ya think?''

At first she never takes a trip to the mall as an option, she wasted enough time by chatting with this random girl. But now as she considers it again, it could be a good idea, especially for her lack of supplies. Well she surely has enough food, but she has only a switchblade as weapon and a map could be useful, too. And if Joel really is in Texas in his old home, where he used to live before the outbreak, then there shouldn't be a need to worry.

He must be save, right?

''Helloooo, is someone in there?''

Ellie feels a light knock against her skull, as she suddenly comes back to reality.

She's met by an inpatient Liv, standing next to her, who mere seconds before tapped with her finger against her friends head.

Hell, stay focused!

As she notices she got the attention of the girl in front of her, Liv asks again.

''Are you coming or not?''

Ellie who jumps up from her chair makes a quick decision.

''Yes!''

There is also another reason, why she wants to visit the mall, maybe the main one too, her curiosity is killing her.

After an hour passed, they're finally sitting in a bus on their way downtown. Ellie can't stop to gawk at the other people, who join and leave the bus, when ever it comes to an halt.

There are so different kind of people, kids with their parents, teenagers her age or older, even old people. Their clothes are, of course typical for these days, clean, fitting and without holes. Something is missing, but at first Ellie can't really say what it is. The whole atmosphere is different, light and blithe, there is no tension in the air. This kind of tension, in which bitterness of broken people, who try to be strong, anxiety of danger hidden in every corner and the apprehension that every day could be the last are aggregated to one big, miserable burden. A burden, taken off of Ellies shoulders and apparently going under in the happy chatting of the people around her. At that realization, an alleviating feeling spreads out in Ellies chest and rushes through her body. And as she watches a maybe three year old boy laughing and fidgeting in his mothers arms, while she attacks his belly with ticklers, cheeky grinning, she can't no longer force back the smile, forming on her face.

Her view wanders to the girl next to her, Liv. She's looking out of the window, earplugs stuffed in her ears, she lightly nods her head, probably to the beat of the music. She suddenly turns around and meets the longing look of Ellie. She pulls one plug out and offers it to the redhead, with a knowing grin.

''That's what you get, when you cruelly break your poor phone. You have to beg for music.'' Ellie rolls her eyes, but takes the plug gratefully and stuffs it in her own ear. She has no idea what's the deal with this phones anyway. When they were still at home and Ellie told Liv, after the blonde asked her why she didn't answered her messages, what happened to her phone. The blonde nearly freaked out.

''WHAT?! Nooooo you didn't...show it to me!'' Ellie just gave her a confused look, but showed Liv her broken phone, after they made their way to her room.

''Ellie?! How could you, that's an iPhone 5! An iPhone 5 Ellie! I can't believe it! You just bought it last week.'' She whined and looked meaningful to Ellie, while she carefully petted the broken surface of the gadget. Neither knew Ellie what's going on with the girl in front of her or why she made such a big deal of a broken phone, nor did 'iPhone 5' said her anything. So she just shrugged and said impenitently.

''It was an accident, I didn't mean to break it.''

Liv frowned and gives the readhead an unbelieving glance, but dropped the issue.

After that Ellie thought they would finally leave and head to the mall. But she was shortly proven wrong, as Liv studied her appearance from head to toe. Ellie knows people, especially teenage girls cared a lot about which jeans go with which shirt or which shoes fit best with the outfit. But she never thought it was that bad, until now. Liv insisted that Ellie and she won't leave the house, until she changes her clothes completely. She herself took a look at the blonde as in turn. The girl in front of her wore a white t-shirt with a motive, a jeans jacket, beige trousers (yeah, she knows the colour beige, thanks to the couple of magazines she found) and brown sandles, which reveal feet, with ten cleanly, red painted toenails, Ellies expression remains sceptical. Then, after ten full minutes of discussing, if it matters or didn't matters what to wear, Ellie finally gave in with a groan and a muttered ''So stupid.''. Now her clothes are replaced by a creme-colored, a few size too big, wool pullover, black jeans, which fit her perfectly and black boots. With that she earned Livs full permission to leave the house and after a short dispute about the backpack, in which Liv argued how ridiculous it looks to walk around in the mall with a backpack and which Ellie fortunately won, they finally left and walked to the bus stop.

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones

Enough to make my system blow

She almost forgot that she has an earplug in her ear, so eventually the song, which blasts in her ear, gets her full attention. And she closes her eyes.

I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus

This is it, the apocalypse

Mhh not bad.

Suddenly she feels the earplug pulled roughly out of her acoustic meatus, which causes the readhead to whine in protest and surprise. Her head snaps to her right and she is meet by a cheeky grinning Liv, her eyes beaming.

''We are heeeere!'' She squeaks, jumps to her feet, takes Ellies wrist and pulls the, at first, irritated girl to the now open doors of the bus. Ellie, who quickly shoulders the backpack, which rested the whole ride in her lap, eagerly follows the blonde out of the bus.

...wow

They are certainly surrounded by skyscrapers, the sun is slowly setting behind the high buildings, leaving long shadows in the streets. But what really catchs her attention, is the life which floods through the, for her once empty streets. There are people, lots of people, where ever her eyes land. Chatting voices from everywhere fill her ears, as well as, the roaring and honking of vehicles, making their way in walking speed to their destination. She takes a sharp breath through her nose, which causes the smell of exhausts and other odors, she can't really assign, to reach her nostrils.

These new impressions, fill all her senses, collide on her and leave her back dizzy.

Liv who notices the state of her best friend, asks with a glint of worry in her eyes.

''Are you alright? You look kind of pale there.''

Ellie just nods dazed and eagerly takes a hold of Livs arm. She wouldn't do that, if her legs aren't about to give in, but they feel like jelly and she needs kind of mentally support. Liv doesn't seem to mind at all, as she smiles at her.

She has to admit that she feels less uncomfortable, rather comfortable around the blonde, much to her surprise. She never was a social type and of course not good in making friends, but with Liv, it was like she met an old, long forgotten friend again. It is kind of strange, but in a good way, she concludes.

Liv leads them over a street and they walk around a corner, through the crowds of people.

Eventually they arrive at their destination. A high cement building with big windows, revealing any number of vitrines with mannequins and other kind of things in departments of technic, toys and clothes, which are flooded in bright, warm light.

A staircase leads to the two-door entrance, which is as well made of glass and welcomes them with open arms.

Excitement grows in Ellie at that view and a thrill of anticipation filled her mind.

She can hear a laugher next to her, which brings her back from her ecstasy. She glances startled to her right only to meet an amused looking Liv.

''That look of yours, like you just saw a mall for the first time.'' She snickers and starts to walk up the stairs, Ellie following suit.

Under this circumstances, yes.

She smiles sheepishly with a slight blush.

They quickly make their way into the building, skillfully avoiding to bump into other people, who are entering and leaving the mall at the same time. They are met by a wave of warm air and happy chatting of people , which mixes with the low music, playing in the background. They begin to walk over the different shops and Ellie takes a look around. Busy people are leaving and entering the shops with bags and smiles carved on their faces. There are also restaurants, from which delicious scents make their way into Ellies nose. Her mouth begins immediately to water again and she has to stifle the urge to follow these seductive smells. That's how she always imagined how malls looked like before the fungus. But this is much better! Suddenly an idea forms in her mind and she turns to Liv, who again (for the dozenth time now, yes she counted it) fiddles around with her phone. Ellie can't help rolling her eyes, but she asks regardless.

''Do you know where the arcade is?'' Excitement swings in her voice as she thinks about finally having the chance to play Double Phoenix or better The Turning.

''Yeah, why?'' Liv asks absent, her view still remains on the phone.

''I want to play!'' she beams and doesn't notice how she begins to bounce up and down, she probably looks like an excited child.

Liv abruptly stops and finally looks up from her phone, to stare at Ellie in disbelief. ''But, I thought you hate video games, Ellie.'' At first Ellie furrows her brows in confusion, but she quickly realizes what's Livs point.

Maybe the Ellie she knows doesn't like video games.

But before she can form an answer, a high, cheerful scream interrupts their conversation.

''Ellie! Olivia!''

Before she knows what happens, two slender, but strong arms are wrapped around her middle, suddenly a sweet, pungent scent fills Ellies airway and she can't restrain a sneezer.

Urgh!

As the ''attacker'' pulls back, Ellie is met by two big, blue eyes staring happy back at her. The owner is a small girl with dirty blond hair, which reaches her shoulders. Her face remembers the redhead immediately one of a doll, she once found in a wreckage.

''Hi!'' The girl squeaks with a beam.

''Uh..Uhm hi?'' Ellie replies, still woozy from the strong smell and slightly startled by the sudden contact.

The blond just giggles in her hand and turns her attention to Liv, who welcomes the following bear hug, grinning and with open arms.

''Hey Katy.'' She breaths, holding the smaller girl.

So that's Kate...

''Hey Livy.'' She says in the same tone as the girl in her arms and laughs.

''How's going you two?'' A fourth voice with a slight accent, from a dark haired, tanned girl, can be heard. She stands next to Kate and gives the two newcomers a frank smile. She is tall and her hair nearly reaches her hips, she looks like a latin.

Then that has to be Lucy.

''Good, sorry for the long wait. Blame the ginger here.'' Liv replies and playfully pokes Ellies arm. A faint blush paints the redheads cheeks and she tries to cover up her discomfort with an annoyed eye-roll.

''Don't worry, you get quite used to it.'' Lucy says with a wink. Liv just smiles apologizing and clasps her hands together. She looks expectant between the girls.

''Sooo ladies what are we going to do now?''

Ellie suddenly remembers why she wanted to come here in the first place, but before she can conveys a request, Kate squeaks with her high piercing voice.

''We have to go to that small shop over there!'' She shakes her head to a direction behind Ellie. ''They have that cute skirt, I was looking for month! Can we go there first, pleeeeease?'' She makes puppy eyes, her lip forming to a pout.

''Fine! Maybe we can find something for us too, eh?'' With that Liv elbows Ellie and gets a unsure smile in replay.

''Sure.''

Okay, I think that's the point where I'm good on my own.

As they begin to head to their destination and the three others are deepened in a conversation, Ellie slowly but inconspicuously starts to fall behind.

She continues to walk backwards, convinced that she gets rid of the other girls. Of course her absent won't stay unnoticed, so she has to hurry.

Ellie finally turns around and walks in the opposite direction.

When I got my things, I can make a short trip to the arcade.

She thinks in anticipation and takes a look around.

Wait a minute!

''No fucking way!'' She screams out and a few people turn to stare at her, but she doesn't pay attention to them. She instead begins to run around to drink in her environment with recognition. She can't believe it, this mall is the mall. The mall which she, oh so often visited with her best friend, the mall where she first rode a horse, the mall where they often used as a playground for water-gun battles, the mall where she had her first kiss, the mall where she got bitten and of course the mall where...

...I lost her.

She suddenly has a bitter taste on her tongue and she feels the all to familiar pain in her chest. As she pushes the thoughts out of her mind and waits until the pain goes numb, her eyes are suddenly locked on something in the distance.

A wave of nostalgia rushes over her as she comes closer to the photo-booth. She carefully touches the surface of the small cabin with her hand, a weak smile playing on her lips.

Suddenly it begins to vibrate under her palm and she startled takes a step back.

What's happening?

A thin, long paper slides out of a small slot which belongs to the machine. Ellie hesitant takes the paper out of the slot and eyes it suspiciously, as five different pictures appears at the surface.

''Woah!'' She yells and begins to study the paper thoroughly, hoping the secret behind it would be quickly revealed.

''Excuse me miss, can we have our photos please?'' Ellie didn't notice how the curtain of the booth opened mere seconds ago, she's only met now by a woman and her daughter, who patiently wait for a reaction of the girl in front of them.

Ellie first confused, looks at the paper in her hand and back to the kindly smiling woman.

''Uh..Uhm sure, here.'' She hands the photos to the woman.

''Thank you, have a nice day.'' With that, both, mother and daughter turn around and walk away.

Ellie follows them halfway and eventually takes another way.

So if that's the mall, that says I'm in Boston!

She thinks relieved.

But why didn't I notice that earlier?

Ellie wonders, as she walks by the different shops, with no specific destination. It eventually hits her. Of course in her memory the city was a sea of ruins and where ever your view drops, there were garbage and debris in the streets. 21 years is a long time and enough for a city to change that much.

Anyways that makes the whole thing much easier for me.

''HOLD THE THIEF!'' That causes the people around Ellie to gasp terrified for air, as they look for the source of the voice. Ellie reflexively turns around and before she can react a body crashed against her own and she suddenly falls backwards on her back, luckily her backpack offset the impact. But instead her head hits the ground pretty hard and she sees for a few seconds stars.

''Oww, what the fuck!'' She screamed in pain.

As her view clears, a pair of widened dark eyes look back down at her and she becomes aware of the weight on her chest. The owner of these eyes is a dark-skinned guy with short black hair. He seems familiar. Her eyes widen, her face mirroring the same expression like the guy.

''S-Sam?'' Ellie stutters.

Heavy breathing the guy looks rushed over his shoulder and is suddenly back on his feet.

''Sorry.'' He mutters and continues his escape, while he accidently pumps here and there into clueless people.

Ellie lifts herself up, shocked. She carefully touches the back of her head, only to wince at the pain.

That's gonna be a nasty bump.

A man comes to her and helps her up, asking her if she's okay, she just nods. Two men in uniforms run by both.

Ellie looks in the direction in which the boy mere seconds ago disappeared in the crowd, where now the men are hurrying too.

Was that really him?

She has to admit, she hit her head pretty hard, so it wouldn't surprise her if she just imagined it was him. But can you really imagine something, which is just a few inches away from your eyes? She isn't really sure, so she just shrugs it off.

''Ellie!''

Shit!

She turns around and sees a quite worried looking Liv rushing to her, followed by a terrified looking Kate and a calm Lucy, but her eyes with a glint of concern. The blond takes a hold of Ellies shoulders.

''Hey, we just saw what happened, are you alright?'' She asks, as she eyes Ellie, probably searching for any injuries.

Ellie suddenly feels guilty. These girls care so much about her and she just turned her back to them and scrammed.

She nods, but the throbbing pain in her head tells otherwise.

''Sure?'' Kate probes sceptically.

''Yes, I'm sure.'' The redhead sends them a reassuring smile and a relieved sigh escapes the three of them.

Kate plants herself in front of Ellie, akimbo. ''Where have you been, we searched for you everywhere!'' She asks with reproachful look.

''Well, apparently not everywhere.'' Lucy comments, only earning glare from the blond.

''Sorry, I had to piss and I guess I got lost.'' Ellie lies, but her apologizing look is sincere.

Their looks remain sceptical, until Liv finally sighs and adds.

''Fine, but please don't do that again, especially when you have no phone with you.''

''Wait, what happens with her phone?'' Kate asks astonished.

Oh no, not that again.

After half an hour in which they trudge round a few shops (mostly clothing stores), the four of them decide to take something to eat, much to Ellies favor. She can't see any cute skirts, or enchanting tops anymore. As they finally arrive at a small, cozy restaurant Ellie sinks in one of the cushioned, red benches with an exhausted sigh. Liv seats herself next to the readhead and places the shopping bags between them. Kate and Lucy situate themselves on the opposite bench.

''Too bad you couldn't find something for you, Ellie.'' Says Kate, while she looks through her own shopping bags. ''You know that blouse would have had fit you so well.'' she says dreamy.

''Yeah, am sure of it.'' Ellie grunts and rubs her eyes with her fingers.

''You know what? I have to piss again.'' With that she stands up and makes her way to the counter. She quickly asks where the toilets are and heads to the direction, where the man behind the counter points.

As she enters the restroom, she walks to a sink, the pain again throbs in her skull.

She begins to splash cold water in her face, which soothes the pain a little. Ellie doesn't notices how the door of a stall opens right next to her, until a face appears next to hers in the mirror. The sight lets her freeze and she can't help to stare. Chocolate-brown eyes, once light chubby cheeks, replaced by high cheekbones, full lips with a short cut just above the upper lip and a small nose. The girl has dark skin and dark-brown hair, which falls lose over her shoulders. All in all she is quite beautiful. The taller girl seems to notice Ellies gaping as she lifts a questioning brow.

''Is anything wrong?'' she asks, slightly annoyed, while she washes her hands.

That voice...

''Or is it the first time you see a girl in a restroom for women?'' She continues teasingly and finally turns her view away from the mirror to face Ellie fully.

''Y-you are...,No! That's impossible, I mean you can't just...!'' Ellie screams strident,as she finds her voice again, taking a few steps back from the girl in front of her, while she misses the water-puddle on the floor.

''Hey, calm down!'' The girls voice suddenly softens and she tries to reach out for the readhead. But Ellie flinches back, causing her shoe to slip over the wet ground she again falls backwards. But this time her head doesn't hit the floor, but the marbled wall. A burning pain rushes through her head. The last thing she senses are to slender hands grasping her shoulders and the silhouette of a panicking Riley, who slowly disappears in the darkness.

See you in the next, hopefully soon update, stay tuned!