It was only the lack of groaning that didn't send Ellie into an immediate, nightmarish panic. She was very, very accustomed to the sound of a shuffling, groaning infected, had been dreaming about it every time she slept. Kept waking up with a start as they closed in on her.

Alone.

Not for the first time did she wake up with a sharp, intense feeling of loss. But she kept it to herself. Joel wasn't here.

She'd lost everyone. Again.

When she woke this time, to the shuffling, she froze so fast and immediately that she might have been cast in stone - eyes wide open and staring upwards. Once she could pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from she carefully, and quietly, uncurled herself from her space in the hollow of a tree and looked out.

R.

She recognized him instantly and relaxed slightly. He was still a threat (though she was having a hard time rationalizing that to herself, whatever he warned her), but--

That bag. She sucked in a breath, watching him from behind she couldn't see his missing jaw.

"R?" She called out, softly. Carefully. "R, that you?"