"Tai," Ellie repeats. She's not sure how to spell that, T-I-E like a necktie or T-Y or T-A-I or something. Well, she'll do her best if she finds a rock to write on or whatever. At least he'll be here in the ground and not just on top of it.

"I hate this fucking place too, man. I don't like disappearing and not knowing where the fuck I was. I don't remember anything. I can't just have been nowhere. I didn't die or whatever." She kind of wishes she had, but is that better, the whole dying and coming back thing? Jesus. Thinking about it gives her the creeps all around.

"Uh...thanks, though. For saying that." That whole one of us thing. Ellie keeps herself alone and apart from everyone on purpose; losing people is inevitable and it's too much.

I don't know what I'll do when it's you, she told Doc once, and that's still true. But the longer they go, the more of them disappear, the more it's true for the others, the ones she's known longer now. Yeah, it's only been a few months they've been stuck in this hell. And yeah, they'll probably all fucking die here. That's not the point, though. None of them can be an island. Ellie's not Joel, not in the end. She can't really hold herself apart like he could, not emotionally. Underneath her rage, she just cares about other people too much.

That's why she's burying this guy she's never seen before, after all.