Disclaimer: I do not own skins or rights to The Last of Us. I do own the game, but that's about it.
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I fell asleep on the couch at some point, waiting for Gina to come home from work. She's raised me alone, since my dad fucked off long ago. Today wasn't any different from any other day, I went to school, avoided my sticky classmates, and ate lunch alone. My reason for being asleep on the couch, and not in my big comfy bed? It was Gina's birthday today, and I let the soppy loon in me take over; I bought her a present and was so excited about it that I did my best to stay awake. She's working later than usual lately, she got laid off from her day job so this week, she wakes up late and works late. I don't exactly hear her come home, but when she turns on the light and I hear her talking on the phone, I suddenly wake. She is talking to Kieran, I am sure of it. They work together and he is her boss of sorts, and she sounds stressed.
"I can't loose this job, Kieran... Yes I know... Look, let's talk about this in the morning okay? Yeah, goodnight." She drops her cellphone down on the table as I stir awake, and I greet her tiredly as I raise myself up off the couch so she can sit.
"Hey mom" I yawn.
"Hey monkey" She greets back, sitting down on the couch where I was once dreaming on.
"So, interesting day at work, hey?" I joke, trying my best to lighten the mood.
She sighs, shakes her head, and decides to take the motherly approach to my question. "Why are you still awake? You should be in bed, you have school in the morning."
Shit! I jump up off the sofa and check the clock behind me above the couch, and see there is still fifteen minutes left before midnight. Yes! it's still her birthday.
I quickly scurry over to the other side of the couch where I stashed my present, and neatly place it in my mother's lap; wiping the top of it clean as I do so. "Here" I say "Did you forget it was your birthday today? So, you're like, 80 now right?"
She gives me one of her famous Campbell eye rolls and a dissaproving nod in my direction, before carefully examining the box. She opens it slowly, and I explain my present choice as she does so.
"You were so upset when you lost your necklace, so I bought you another one. Here" I reach out, "Let me put it on for you." I take the necklace out of the box and lock it up behind her neck, and sit back. She is holding the pendant now, it's a gold locket with a tall sailing ship engraved on the front of it. As she examines it, I'm ashamed to say I get impatient as I click my fingers on my kneecap.
"Open it!" I say excitedly after a few moments, and she obeys. Opening it slowly, she reveals a picture of her and I together at a carnival last year. It was my 10th birthday and we had multi-colored candy floss in our teeth, smiling into the camera like two crazies. But I know it's her favourite picture, it's mine too.
She looks taken aback by the gift, and hasn't seemed to have found the words she is searching for. She looks up at me, and I guess she decides to go the cheeky route instead of sentimental. No wonder I'm concidered the 'Ice Queen' at such a young age.
"Where on earth did you get the money for this, love? Are you a drug dealer?"
I scoff. "Yup. Sold crack to all my classmates in the playground today, made a fortune!" I reply back.
"Good" She leans back into the sofa, flipping on the telly as she does so. "You can start helping out with the mortgage then." She ruffles my hair and I frown playfully at her, as I place my head in her lap. She starts to rub my scalp, and places a gentle kiss on my temple.
At some point during the night, I fell asleep again. I remember a littly hazy bit where my mom carried me upstairs to bed, but not much after that.
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I wake with a start, the phone is ringing. I check the clock, 2:30am. Who the hell is calling at this time of night? I answer the phone, a little too groggy for my liking, and am greeted on the other end of the phone by a frantic sounding Kieran. "Love? Where's you mum! I need to speak-" Click. The line goes dead, and I can't seem to get a dial tone. What the hell is going on?
"Mom?" I shout out into the room, but there's no answer. So, I place the phone on my nightstand, swing my legs over the side of the bed and start looking for my mom. The light of the telly is on in her room, so I walk down the hallway and into her room. I open the door, and find it unoccupied. The covers on her bed are strewn all over the mattress and the floor, and there is an empty glass of wine on her nightstand. There is some news feed flashing about on the screen, and before I have a chance to figure out what it is reporting on, I see a huge ball of light explode outside the window and a loud rumbling sound echo through the night. "What the fuck? MOM!" I yell again, and when I am greeted with more silence I decide to sprint around the house to try and find her.
"Mom!" I yell.
"MOM!" I pad quickly down the stairs, grazing my hand on the picture frames hanging on the wall as I do so. I make my way to the bottom step, into the foyer, and rummage around in the kitchen. I look past the kitchen table, and I see her office door is open, and so is the sliding glass door leading outside. I inch my way slowly through the office doors, when I see Gina dash back into the house, lock the door, and jump back from it.
"Mom?" I ask. She looks at me, fear evident in her face. "Naomi!" She bellows. "Get away from the doors and windo-" She is cut off mid-sentence by on of our neighbours slamming against the glass of the back door. It's Charlie from next door, but something is wrong. He looks bloody and is slamming against the glass, trying to get in. I hear his blood curdling screams rattle the door, and some of his teeth are missing.
"Mom? What's wrong with Charlie?" I ask, I'm bloody terrified.
"Naomi, get-"
Charlie smashes through the glass and my mom pulls out a gun from her belt. When did we get a gun? "Get back Charlie!" She shouts. "Charlie! I said get back!" In a matter of seconds, he launches himself at her and she pulls the trigger. BANG! BANG! He drops to the floor. The volume of those gunshots is only mirrored by my screams of terror.
"Mom" I squeak "You... you shot Charlie..."
She grabs my shoulders "Naomi, listen to me. Something bad is happening, we have to get out of here, now. Do you understand?" I nod frantically at her, and she grabs my hand and leads us outside to the front door where Kieran is waiting with his car running. We get in the car and he speeds away, my mom and him talking in the front while I shift my gaze in any and every direction in the back seat. There are flats on fire, houses ripped apart, and people running and screaming everywhere. I hear sirens and see flashing lights in every direction that I look, and as Kieran maneuvers around a collapsed double decker bus, I see there are people climbing out of the wreckage. "What the hell is going on!" I croak.
"Naomi, don't look outside, okay?" Kieran says quickly. "You don't need to see-"
"Kieran!" my mom cuts him off.
"Shit!" he yelps, as he swerves to miss a predestrian. We stop in the middle of the road, turn around, and see the man we just missed get tacked to the ground by another man who then starts to... eat him? Holy fucking shit, he's ripping that guy apart!
"Mom!" I scream.
"Drive, Kieran!" My mom yells. And he does, speeding down a side street with hundreds of people occupying it.
"Get passed them" my mom orders.
"How am I supposed to do that, Gina? They're fucking everywhere!"
"Just keep fucking driving!" My mom screams. I see bright lights to my left then, and I almost manage to scream 'look out!' before we are slammed.
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I awake to my mom shaking me to get up, and I am in complete and utter agony. There is chaos booming around me, and my leg feels like it's broken. My mom senses my displeasure, and pulls me out of the upturned car as quickly and as gently as she can. I yelp in pain, and she tries to soothe me. "I know baby, but we have to go, come on" She pulls me out and I do my best to stand up straight, but I can't manage any pressure on my right leg.
"It's broken, I think." I manage to speak through my sobs of anguish.
"Okay baby" she says, before scooping me up in her arms and giving Kieran the gun.
"Protect us!" She orders.
They run through the streets, there is fire and screaming people everywhere. I can see some of those crazed people chasing, hunting others. They tackle someone to the ground behind us and start gnawing on their necks like ravenous wolves, and I am utterly petrified. Mom carries me through the streets while Kieran fires off round after round, at crazies that got too close. We turn a corner, and there are two of them charging towards us. Kieran fires one shot, and kills one of them. He goes to shoot again, but the gun clicks; indicating there are no bullets left. He quickly looks at me and my mom for one last time, before launching himself at the hungry frantic monster charging us.
"Run! Towards the highway..."He is struggling with the man now.
"GO!" He screams.
My mom carries me and runs with all her might, and there are three of those... things, chasing us now. She is getting closer and closer to our destination, breathing fast and heavy. I can feel her heart beating out of her chest as she dashes. Adrenaline is a crazy thing.
Suddenly there is light flashing in our face and shots are fired off, killing our hunters. My mom shields me from the bullets by turning her back towards the gunfire, and when it ceases; we turn around again. There is a man standing guard, in millitary gear and a big gun with a flashlight attached to it. He is wearing a face mask, and my mom yells to him. "Hey! We need help!"
As she sprints towards him, the soldier aims at us and yells "Stop right there!" My mom stops dead in her tracks then, still pleading with the man.
"Look son, we've just been through hell..." His demeanour hasn't changed.
"We're not sick!" She shouts angrily.
I hear him talk into his radio then, and I can hear stress in his voice. "But sir, there is a little girl..."
We stand there, not sure of what to do next, and he starts to raise his weapon again. My mom realizes something that I don't in that moment, because just as the soldier starts firing off round after round at us, my mom turns around to shield me as I scream in terror. We go flying down the slight hill, and land in opposite sides of a patch of grass. I see him walk right up to my mom, and she has her arm outstreched to him; begging for him to stop. There is a pool of blood soaking through her shirt at her torso, and I'm frozen. I'm watching the sight unfold before me and I plead with any God in the sky to wake me from this nightmare. Someone, anyone, make this a bad dream. Am I about to witness my mother's murder? And in that second, she turns her head to me, arm still outstreched in front of her, and mouths the words 'I love you' to me before a bright spark and a loud BANG!
She is shot dead.
"Mom! No!" I scream. Why the fuck is this happening? What have I done? I'm only 11 years old for fuck sake! What did Gina ever do to anybody except open her home to those in need?
The soldier looks over at me then, and starts to walk over to me, his reticle aimed at my head. My whole life flashes across my eyes in that moment, and it's the sound of gunfire that snaps me out of it. The soldier falls limply to the ground, and I see Kieran standing over me; his arm still firmly in the air. "Naomi" He breathes, and pulls me up off the ground. "Come on dear, we have to go."
He looks over at my mom now, lying on the ground with a fine coating of blood pooling around her lifeless body. I see his eyes start to well up with tears, as he urges me forward. I tell him to wait, as I limp over to my mothers' lifeless body. I am sobbing hysterically now, but I know we have to go. So I place a soft kiss on her forehead, and tell her that I love her. As we're leaving, I see her necklace strewn across the dirt a little ways away from where we fell.
I reach down and fasten it around my neck.