"Yeah, I guess that's true. Fuck, this whole place is impossible. I keep thinking I probably just got hit on the head and having some weird ass coma before I poof out of existence or whatever." Ellie doesn't believe in life after death. How can she, when there are so many people whose bodies are taken over by the infection? Are they actually dead? No one really has a perfect answer for that.

She looks up at him, but looks away again almost immediately. She feels so alone here. No one can possibly understand what it's like to come from where she does. That's so entirely new to her, and in some ways it's even weirder than the idea of magic and all that. She closes in on herself subconsciously again, posture folding down a bit.

"There was an infection," she says. "I mean, there still is. But I guess when it started, it just took out, like, a ton of people. The military took over the cities but they're a bunch of douchebags and they'll shoot you over pretty much anything. There's some people that fought back in different places but the cities are still pretty terrible. Honestly, you're just as likely to get infected as you are to get shot to death by some fucking religious wack job or someone who wants to sell you for parts."