Ya'all can call me El if you want

I can empathise with Ellis. Perhaps not his Southern stereotype, but the role of the team he fits into.

He is no experienced, super-cool dude that has some back story creating a hard-as-nails kick-ass character.

He's just a bloke who got swept up in things, carried along and found himself in an extraordinary position with people who are better than him in every conceivable way.

He carries no weight with them because he has no inherrent qualities of leadership or respect and even if he did, his companions are greater. This is demonstrated by his introduction:

"My name's Ellis but some people call me El. I prefer Ellis though 'cuz El kinda
sounds like a girls name. But ya'all can call me El if you want"

Because he is on the bottom rung he doesn't try to dictate their actions because he knows he cannot. He is simply a worm being carried along with them.

He also has a naivety about the world, not quite viewing things in the way they should be but with a tint more often associated with a child. The rose coloured hue of a kid's eyes.

"Man, it's like we bought the [theme] park for ourselves! Ya'know,
that was the first thing I was going to do if I won the lottery"

Ah well, I suppose I'm not like him to the extent that I'm not surviving a zombie apocolyspse.

But one can always dream....