Afterword;

-Don't read until you've finished the story!

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Don't hate me! Please. I'm already probably doing enough of that for both of us. I love these girls so damn much that chapter 40 leaves me in a mess every time I read it.

So, from the moment I started writing this story I knew it would end the way it did. I guess I just really wanted to explore the aspect of the collapsing world of the lone survivor that the canon didn't get into. Obviously there were never going to be any rainbows in that world, but I feel it important to delve into nonetheless. Riley was chosen as that survivor for my story because I thought it would be more interesting to see how the "tougher" of the two still completely crumbled without the other.

The ending, again very sorry, is due to my really dark idea of beautiful. Riley was so connected to Ellie, their lives so fully and completely entwined, that as soon as the connection between them was severed, life itself ceased to have purpose. Life was Ellie essentially. It's also (again, super dark I know) what I expected/kind of wanted for the ending of Left Behind, the two going out together. This is, of course, my own personal view on the entire thing. You're free to disagree.

The story was always going to have one of the girls dying, which is my interpreted equivalence of them being "bitten". So why weren't both bitten like canon? Well, since I wanted to stick with realism, I couldn't have them both injected with the poison due to its... effectiveness. There would've been no capability of being immune to it, thus ending the story a chapter sooner. Which I didn't want to do.

Second to last, sorry I didn't give more time to other characters, e.g. Tess or Joel. Their purpose was always going to be to move along the girl's story. But, in fairness, I think I gave quite a few characters their share of plot: Ethan, James, Marlene, Tess, Henry, Sam, Tino, David, etc. I wanted to add in more, like Bill and Robert, but I couldn't find the right places for them. I also personally wanted more of David since I loved his way of talking, which was incredibly enjoyable to write, but it is what it is.

Lastly, the epilogue. I really wanted to capture that feeling of hope and sadness I felt when Ellie was reading Riley puns from her pun book. It was a nice lighthearted scene, but when the music started playing it made me quickly realize how dark a future they had in front of them... and here they were just having fun and enjoying each other.

So I think that's about it for my comments on the ending chapters and overall. In general, if anyone is interested, there were a lot of references and inspirations I drew from. I can't remember them all, I'm sure there's more, but here are some:

-The refuge and Henry's character, as mentioned, are based on "The Killing".
-Their homeless camp under the highway was based on the one from "Beyond: Two Souls".
-I also got Aiden's name from Beyond.
-The scene where Riley was locked in the basement and restricted to the chair was actually based on a real orphanage practice I read about. Really fucked up place. (If you didn't know, orphanages have had a really disturbing history, which is probably why there's almost none left in America (they were converted))
-The idea of David's "scientific endeavors" was inspired by Unit 731. If you want to be absolutely horrified in what humanity is capable of look this up. It makes David seem like an absolute saint.
-Riley's suicide at the end was not based Leelah Alcorn's (in case you've heard of her), but as soon as I read about it and their almost identicalness, my heart sank. It really screwed me up for the rest of the week.

Guess I'm going to end on that depressing note... Overall, I hope you enjoyed it (as much as you can for this kind of story). This is the first time I've ever written a story, but hopefully it wasn't that super obvious. I've always wanted to write something but I never had the inspiration to do so until I finished Left Behind. So huge kudos to Naughty Dog. Fucking love those guys.

If you have any questions (or hate mail), please feel free to ask, either in a pm or review. I don't plan on doing any other stories for anything, but if I do, they won't be for some time.

So thank you again, so much. I love you guys. Seriously. I had no idea what to expect. I just knew that I wanted to put my story out there and if there was even just one person who read it, it would've made my day. Well, needless to say, it's been made.

-Jess