Riley decides not to, and the two attacked by infected who were drawn there by the music they played from the walkman. Though the two have a good time, Riley reveals that she won't be returning if she goes with the Fireflies, promoting Ellie to tell her not to go. Riley tells Ellie that she became a member after they first met Marlene, and the two explore a mall and play numerous games with each other. Six weeks later, Ellie reunited with Riley, who informs the former that she had become a member of the Fireflies and wants Ellie to come with her.

She was then drafted into the military, and believed that Riley either ran away or was killed trying. Ellie and Riley would have frequently arguments and eventually parted ways on bad terms, as Riley disappeared from the school for weeks. She then met Marlene, who informs Ellie that her mother's name was Anna, and gives her Anna's switchblade after ordering her and Riley to return to the school. The two quickly became friends, and Ellie also met Riley's friend Winston, an older man who tells her of his childhood before the outbreak.

Going to the Boston quarantine zone, Ellie was saved by a girl named Riley after a group of boys tried to steal her belongings. Ellie grew up in the Military Quarantine Zone of Boston, Massachusetts, and didn't learn of the previous life before the epidemic.

Anna entrusted Marlene to protect and watch over Ellie when she died, but Ellie would meet Marlene when she was thirteen years old. Ellie was born between January and April of 2019 to an Unnamed Man and Anna, during the fungal epidemic that was spreading across America.

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