"It's Tess' body, but that's not Tess," Ellie thinks to clarify now that she can think a little bit clearer. She still feels like shit, limbs heavy and body sore, but--that's something that had brought her peace, in a way. "The... cordyceps infection, it's in the brain. The host is dead. So."

Is Tess dead, now? Fuck. Ellie doesn't know. And if not--well, she's going to have a rude awakening when (if?) things go back to normal and she can tell Ellie what it was like, being infected.

She lets Steve move her head with a small wince. There's a little bit of blood, but it's clearly not pouring out of her as it was before.

"I don't wanna cause a whole panic, but if she bit other people, they wouldn't just be fucked up like me. They'd turn, become infected like her, and then..." Spread. "I mean, it's... probably good we're not hearing screaming and fighting?"

There are a million stories of life going to hell in seconds when the outbreak occurred.