Tess watches him carefully, and after a moment moves to the kitchen to get a bottle of booze - something like bourbon, though not an exact match - pours two drinks, one for each of them.

If he doesn't want his, she'll drink it. She'll probably need it.

"Ellie's fine. She's here, lives in Wood Sector. The one with the treehouses," she starts off with that - she's been here long enough, talked to Ellie enough times, to know that the girl has become very important to him. That, after she - well, died, they developed a connection of some kind.

She doesn't miss the look on his face, the way his eyes track to her neck, and after she takes a sip of her drink, she pulls her shirt back, showing him the unblemished skin where a nasty bite used to be. No scars, nothing to indicate she was ever bitten. "There's no infection here, Joel. I don't know how, or why." Another drink. "I remember - all of it." Dying. "Then I woke up here. I've been here a few months, now. Ellie's been here longer. It's some crazy shit, but I don't think it's the afterlife. It's too good to be hell and not perfect enough for heaven. Besides, they'd never let me in that place."