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Elizabeth Colton is one of Arthur Leander’s wives, with whom he has a son, Tyler. Elizabeth is a star actress whom Arthur meets on set while he’s still married to Miranda Carroll. While Miranda is introverted, artistic, and self-motivated, Elizabeth is more socially oriented and a people-pleaser. She’s also beautiful and ethereal, and even Miranda admits that she is the sort of golden person whom others are automatically drawn toward. At a time when Arthur’s marriage to Miranda is suffering due to her struggle to adapt to their public life of fame, Elizabeth is a celebrity who understands and enjoys living in Arthur’s world, which is attractive to him. The two begin an affair, and Arthur eventually leaves Miranda and marries Elizabeth. Despite the tense situation, Elizabeth is not unfeeling toward Miranda, nor vice versa. Before Miranda and Arthur’s divorce begins, the two women have a frank conversation where Elizabeth apologizes but expresses that she believes these difficult things happen for a reason, a belief that will become important later in the novel.
Arthur and Elizabeth’s son, Tyler Leander—who will eventually become The Prophet—is born, but their marriage deteriorates, as Arthur soon becomes disenchanted with his new wife. After the divorce, Elizabeth leaves to raise Tyler in Israel. When the apocalypse hits, she and Tyler find themselves trapped in the Severn City Airport, where they both survive the pandemic along with Clark Thompson. Unlike Clark, who quickly catches on to the fact that the pandemic will not pass, Elizabeth understandably struggles to come to terms with the collapse of society and continues to repeat that everything happens for a reason and that they’ll eventually be rescued. As she grows increasingly insane, Elizabeth begins to claim that those who have survived the pandemic must have been chosen by God. Tyler internalizes his mother’s beliefs, and, after getting his hands on a Bible, becomes fervently religious. Neither Elizabeth nor Tyler can cope with the random horror inflicted upon human civilization by the flu, and so they choose instead to rationalize the apocalypse by believing it was a divine event. Elizabeth’s beliefs create the foundation for Tyler to become a cult leader who terrorizes the people of the new world.
