AUTHORS NOTE: My first actual fanfic. I've written stories before, but nothing based on someone else's work. I feel I make a capable author but constructive criticism is welcome. I may need to reformat some things by the way. So far I plan on taking this story further, but it may be a while since this was written on the fly, and I need time to think of something that resembles a plot. Read and Enjoy, or Read and don't enjoy, which ever you like.

I own absolutely nothing in regards to The Last of Us.

Chapter One.

"Expired... But not too long, and still sealed, should be good for now." the voice of an older adolescent rang through the emptied pharmacy which had been previously ransacked of most of its more valuable goods. grime and dirt settled on the floor, while the shelves had a coating of dust that required an industrial sander to clean. "Here Jessie, stash this stuff in your bag" his voice barely muffled underneath the grimy and torn red scarf that covered most of his face.

His accomplice peered out from the long desiccated cooler he was digging through to catch the bottles of cough syrup his friend was tossing at him. "Are you sure it's okay to take expired medicine, Blaine?" he asked as he pulled down his own scarf to better examine the last bottle that was tossed to him, he slid the hiking bag back onto his shoulders and pulled back his hood to wipe the sweat from his brow.

"I dunno, do you feel sick right now?" The older teen asked. Going over the bottles that lined the shelves of the pharmacy for any more medical supplies, slowly dragging his fingers over the labels as he mouthed the words.

"What? No, I feel alright. Why?" Jessie shouted back with an eyebrow raised.

"We'll then now you know it's safe. Those painkillers I gave you were about 5 years past expiration." He said with a small laugh, abandoning the shelves that were full of now useless medicine.

"Fuck you." was Jessie's only reply.

They did one more round through the drugstore before deciding there was nothing else worth salvaging, save for the occasional canned good, which were always in high demand in their camp.

"It's getting pretty late, you think we would be safer taking the buildings?" Jessie asked Blaine as they exited the drugstore while he looked around to make sure the area was clear of any infected.

"Better safe than sorry." Blaine replied as he ran across the street towards the adjacent skyscraper and began shimmying up a pipe bolted to the wall before climbing into a large shattered window on the second floor. Jessie followed suit, easily following Blaine's gymnastics, though not as graceful.

The two teens walked, snuck, and occasionally sprinted from various infected and other dangers that riddled the maze of fallen buildings and rooftops, which was still safer than the dangers on the ground, which was a deadly place at night since all the dangers were even more hidden under the cloak of the dark.

They found a place to take it slow in an abandoned office building. Blaine thought the place must have been important at some point before the world went to shit, he could recall seeing the buildings insignia and name in the newspapers that riddled the streets, and from what he could remember, it was not very good legs sore from the all day hike to get into the city to find supplies for the camp, the two teens decided to stop and rest for a while. Feeling as safe as they could on the 5th floor of the building, It was well known that the only people to enter the city were either desperate, insane, or one of the Hunters that killed people to steal their supplies, adding on to the limitless dangers. They sat down at the edge of a window in a nearly empty office building, allowing their legs to hang over the edge, a fear of heights not being something they were allowed to have.

"Are you sure we're gonna have enough supplies to make it through the week?" Jessie asked, while gazing out the window as the last of the blood red horizon transitioned into the haunting black of night.

"Well, Craig said we only needed a couple of more bottles of cough syrup, since we were running low. All the other stuff was more of a bonus" Blaine replied as he recalled what the large older male had said to him earlier. The camp had no definite leader, but everyone agreed that Craig knew what was best. He was sort of a surrogate father for Blaine and Jessie, so each listened to his orders without question. Blaine could remember how he had first met Craig. He and Jessie had both ran away from the military boarding school they had lived in, but didn't get far before they were caught by a group of bandits hoping to hold the two boys ransom. When they got no reply, the bandits had decided it best to just kill them both. the two boys were both looking down the barrel of a gun but before their killers could pull the trigger, one of the other bandits showed up and shot their would-be murderers in the back. That day Craig had given up on his life as a bandit and convinced some others to follow him, he took both Blaine and Jessie under his wing and taught them how to survive, and even to kill when needed.

The two friend sat and talked about all that had happened in the past week, from one of the women giving birth to a baby girl, to the deer that Jessie had caught on his own two days ago. As the sun set and the various streetlights and flood lights that still worked in the city came to life, Blaine and Jessie decided it was best to hurry up and get back home before their friends and family started worrying. They stood up and navigated the rest of the hallways and offices until they came to an open window. With a running start they leaped out the ten story window, only to land on the roof at a skyscraper leaning precariously on the first. They exited the roof and once again had to sneak past the rouge infected that dotted and wandered the many corridors of the tilted building.
Blaine and Jessie learned early in their adventures that the runners were easy to outmaneuver and lost interest quickly in an escaped prey, it was the Clickers that posed a greater problem, since it's echolocation abilities meant it always knew where its prey was and would chase until it was either dead, or their victim was completely out of reach. Blaine was always the one to take out an infected they couldn't sneak around, since Jessie was only a little over 15 with very little combat experience. Even so, Blaine preferred to avoid killing anything unless necessary. He knew that the people whose bodies that were home to the deadly fungus were no longer the same, but their shrieks and groans as he strangled, stabbed, and bludgeoned them were still human, and always left him with an uneasy stomach. None of this stopped Blaine from making sure he was well armed, he always kept a bow and rifle on his back, and in case of emergencies he made sure he always had his lucky .44 magnum in his bag, lucky on account of him never actually needing to fire it, most hunters they ran into were armed with bats and planks, and the sight of the colossal revolver made them drop their weapons instantly.

They walked down the final hallway before getting to the bottom floor when something out the window caught Blaine's attention. He looked out and his eyes widened. He grabbed Jessie's shoulder and tugged both of them to the ground to hide from what was out the window.

"What the hell!?" Jessie yelped out, but didn't receive an answer, instead he got a hand over his mouth and Blaine's piercing eyes, his way of telling Jessie to shut up. Blaine removed his hand and shushed Jessie as he pointed towards the window above them. Jessie slowly peered up and caught a glimpse of something that justified Blaine's attack on him. Outside they saw about 9 hunters each armed with a rifle, and a couple with fire bottles dangling from their belt. Blaine and Jessie crept away under the window, but a conversation among the hunters caught his attention so he listened as best as he could.

"...Yeah, two tourists. Some old psychopath and a little girl." One of the Hunters nearly shouted.

"No fucking way. You're telling me that an old geezer, and a little brat were able to kill more than a dozen of our guys? There's no way they could have done that, are you sure there's not more of them?" Another hunter chimed in.

"I know for a fact, Rick came running into the warehouse going on about how the old guy took one of our own and used him as a shield as he blew out the others brains, and from what I hear the kid ain't no greenhorn when it comes to a rifle..." Blaine listened as the hunters voices faded into the distance. Blaine stood up slowly to make sure the hunters were gone. Once he was certain he motioned for Jessie to get moving so they could get the hell out of there.

"Do you think those two tourists are dangerous?" Jessie asked somewhat worried that two people could take out that many hunters.

"They're obviously dangerous, what's important is whether or not they're dangerous to us" Blaine said matter-of-factly not sure they should feel safe that there is a distraction for the hunters, or even more afraid that there are even more capable killers in the city.

They took the final staircase and found themselves in the lobby of the building which they had by now, figured was a luxury hotel. They felt that they were in the clear until they heard the telltale vocal clicks of a Clicker. The two boys glanced around quickly and dove behind the main desk before it entered the building and discovered their location. The Clicker stumbled into the entrance but stayed around the exit, blocking off any chance of getting out.

"W-what do we do?" Jessie whispered frantically, glancing up every couple of seconds to make sure the Clicker hasn't pinpointed their location yet.

"Just give me a second" Blaine retorted, staring off in the distance indicating he was trying to come up with something that resembled a plan.
The harder he concentrated, the more his burrows frowed. When something came to mind he glanced around the room and made sure to finalize his idea.

"There's too much glass on the floor so we can't sneak out, I'm gonna distract it and get it to chase me, you just run back to the camp, I'll catch up later" Blaine said getting ready to get the clickers attention, trying to give Jessie no time to object.

"Wait! I'm not gonna leave you, what if that thing kills you?" Jessie asked frantically, holding Blaine by his arm.

"It won't, I'll find another way out of the building, you need to get that supplies back to the camp." Blaine said as he shook his arm out of Jessie's grip.

"I'm gonna get his attention, when he starts chasing me, run out the door and don't stop until you get to the camp." Blaine continued, he looked Jessie in the eyes with determination to show that he was serious. Jessie gave a reluctant nod, and with no hesitation Blaine stood up and began shouting at the clicker to get its attention.

The Clicker reacted almost instantly and charged Blaine, flailing its arms trying to hit anything that was in its reach, Blaine turned on his heel and ran back through the building, making sure to make extra noise to keep the infected juggernaut on his tail. When the Clicker was out of sight Jessie made a mad dash to the door before stopping to look back, showing great concern for his best friend, but he knew that Blaine would be pissed if he failed to make it back to the camp. Jessie stifled his concerns and continued on to the camp.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid. What the hell was I thinking" Blaine muttered to himself as he was running away from the Clicker that was closing in on him fast.

He did a quick turn into an open room, almost slipping on the broken glass that seemed to line all the hallways. A quick glance around the office revealed a large hole in the ceiling. With fluidity only capable of someone close to death he jumped up and grabbed the ledge, swung his leg over, and rolled onto the upper floor. Standing up to dust himself off he stood for a second, staring down at the Clicker trying to climb up the ceiling just as he did, but to no avail. He let his body relax as the Clicker gave up and went back to searching for prey and left his field of vision.
It wasn't until he turned around that he realized that he was not completely in the clear. The room was full of newly infected runners, they were easy to sneak by, since they did nothing more than stand around with their heads hanging, still Blaine took caution as any infected posed a great danger. He took a deep breath and exhaled before kneeling down. He crept, and weaved between the still bodies trying to make as little noise as possible, every creak of the floor made Blaine's heart jolt, and his breath hitch.
The runners stayed in place except for the occasional twitch of their muscles, which always made Blaine jump. He was within 3 feet of the door when a slight misstep and some well placed dust caused his foot to slip on the floor out from under him and Kick the desk to his left. The desk slid with a loud shriek as the metal grind against the floor and the rubble on top came tumbling down with rapid succession. Blaine didn't look back to check to see if the horde was alerted, he stood up and dashed as fast as he could out the room, a smart move because as soon as he turned right down the hall, the swarm of infected was right behind him. The growls and howls of the runners grew further and further, but with no way to hide from them all Blaine could do was keep running. All the hallways seemed to be straightaways with doors on each side, but every door Blaine zipped by seemed to either be completely buried under a pile of debris or held shut with the military containment locks. Blaine was approaching the end of the hallway fast, and not one of the doors seemed usable.
Blaine thought about jumping out the window at the end of the hall, but he had to have been on the third floor and with no idea of what was on the other side, it was a stupid idea. Just when it seemed like a dead end, a final door on the right was actually unlocked and clear, but Blaine would have to think of a plan fast once he got in...

"C'mon, give me your hand." a deep voice with a slight southern twang called out, " we need to hurry before it gets too late" he said, kneeling out the window to help his partner climb up.

"Yeah, yeah I hear ya" the voice of a younger girl returned with annoyance lining her tone. She grunted as she jumped up to gab the older man's hand, and with relative ease he hoisted her up. From the awning she was standing on.

Joel and Ellie examined the room for any obvious dangers but only found a couple of destroyed desks and fallen file cabinets, the room barely illuminated seemed eerie, and the groans of Runners could be heard from all directions, but somehow seemed to far to actually determine where. They began rummaging through the various drawers and cabinets, Joel looking for anything to patch up his bruises and bloody arm, and Ellie aimlessly searching for something that she thought was interesting. After a couple of minutes an nothing valuable found, Joel let out a sigh.

"We'll, let's head on out. We need to find that dam, and the night is getting darker by the minute."

"Why does Tommy always send us on these stupid jobs?" Ellie replied, she had found a spot to sit on a desk and let her legs dangle, relishing in the short moment of rest.

"Your answer is as good as mine" Joel let out, talking more to himself than Ellie. It had been 2 whole years since the incident with the fireflies at the hospital, and with Ellie still in the dark about what happened, every day Joel feared that she would find out and hate him for it. After the incident no news on the fireflies was heard, leaving Joel to believe that he had singlehandedly destroyed most of their militia. Ellie did not want to believe the story Joel told her about the fireflies no longer searching for a cure, but when no fireflies were heard of or seen, she had no choice but to believe. Over the past 2 years their bond had only gotten stronger, though they wouldn't say it out loud, it was obvious they cared for each other, Ellie came to think of Joel as a father, and Joel thought of her as a daughter, and if it were up to him, she would stay back whenever they went on their various odd jobs, but Ellie had shown that she was more than capable of watching out for herself, and had many times saved Joel's life.

"How do we even know the people maintaining the dam are even friendly?" Ellie asked as she pulled out her signature switchblade to clean some grime from under her fingernails "for all we know, it could be run by a group of bandits."

Joel knew she had a point, but still, they had to try. Without any new parts, the dam wouldn't last their little community they called home much longer.

"I guess we're just gonna have to hope the world hasn't gone completely to shit" Joel's words were enough to lighten Ellie's mood, at least enough to keep pushing forward.

"Well, let's get on with it" Ellie said with very little enthusiasm as she hopped off the desk. Before she started heading to the door she felt Joel's grip on her arm.

"What th-" but she was cut off by Joel quickly shushing her, she listened. At first she didn't hear it, but the loud footsteps drew closer and closer. She and Joel both hid behind a desk, waiting to see where the footsteps would end up, and whether or not it was worth using the last of their ammunition to fight.

Blaine finally made it to the door, and without stopping barged the door with his shoulder, it flew open with an ear ringing bang, and fell off one of the hinges, Blaine surveyed the room with desperation until he saw the large open window on the other side of the room, he ran directly towards the window planning to vault over the desk in his path, but before he could find out what to do next, he felt a brick shatter over his mouth, surprised and shocked he doubled over and fell to the ground. He sat up and quickly crawled backwards until he sat against the wall and finally took a look at his assailants. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he saw before him a man who couldn't be much older than 40, and a smaller teenage girl. He didn't question it further as he tried to pull out his lucky magnum to make a stand against the coming horde.

"Joel!" Ellie shouted out. "He's got a gun!"

Blaine looked back at the man, and saw him swiftly pull out a 9mm out his belt and aim it at his face.

"Wait! Wait!" Blaine threw his hands up and dropped his gun at his side. "I don't want to fight you!" Blaine shouted, he hoped the man wasn't a cold blooded killer and listened to his pleas.

"Oh yeah? Then why the fuck did you barge in here and charge at us with a gun?" Blaine heard the younger female yell out, with her own gun now pointed at his head.

Blaine opened his mouth to explain, but the sound of footsteps resonated through the room and rattled the floor, he pointed to the door "Is that a good reason?!"

On cue the infected began pouring into the room, but the doorway was enough to bottleneck them, so that they were easy targets for Joel and Ellie. Both of them were easily holding them back, the infected falling over from bullet wounds to the skull, occasionally needing a little more incentive to finally die, but soon, the runners began overflowing, and they were getting closer and closer before they would be put down. The pair thought they were going to have to make a run for it. It wasn't until the large booming of Blaine's magnum that the infected started falling two or three at a time, with destroyed limbs or torsos. With the mix of gunshots, shrieks of the dying runners, and the growls of the ones still living, the noise was enough to catch the attention of anyone within the city block. The flood of runners had stopped, all three of the survivors standing on edge in anticipation of another attack. When no other infected showed, they all relaxed, all except for Blaine who caught a swift blow to the cheek and was yanked up to his feet and held up against the wall by his throat.

"Who the hell are you, and why shouldn't I put a bullet in your skull right now!?" Joel screamed into the kids face "You almost got us all killed!"

"L-look man, I'm just trying to get back to my camp" Blaine managed to choke out, his fear obvious in his voice.

Joel ripped the scarf from his mouth and saw the face of a boy who couldn't be much older than Ellie.

"So your not a bandit then." Joel released his grip from the boys neck. Blaine fell down to his knees and coughed and gasped for air. When he had a sufficient amount of air in his lungs, he spoke up.

"No, no. I'm just a survivor, and you're welcome for also SAVING us all." Blaine rubbed his neck trying to soothe the bruise that formed. He paused with a realization. "You... You two wouldn't happen to be the ones laying waste to all the hunters are you?"

Joel glanced at Ellie who had a look of concern. He looked back at Blaine. "So we were making that much noise, huh? Joel reached down and offered a hand to Blaine.

"Oh yeah. But I guess I should be giving thanks, while they were out searching for you, my friend was able I get out of the city and back to the camp." Blaine explained as he reached out for Joel's hand, who helped the boy to his feet.

"So, what are you guys here anyway?" Blaine spoke up, after a couple of seconds of silence.

Ellie spoke up first "We're supposed to find out who runs the dam, and if we-"

"Ellie!" Joel cut her off, burning holes through her skull with his gaze. After all their experiences, Joel still felt that she got comfortable around strangers to fast, and actually meeting someone her own age made it even worse.

"Ha! Well good luck with that. The military took control of that dam a long time ago, and I doubt they'll want anything to do with two random survivors" Blaine butted in, as he readjusted his scarf and put it back on his face. "What did you need from them anyways?"

"It doesn't matter, because now our entire journey here was for nothing" Joel said defeated, as he leaned against the wall and slid down until he was sitting. Thinking of what to do next, he rested his eyes as he massaged his temples. Ellie was doing no better, as she too had lost all her motivation as she sat on a desk, slumped over with her head hanging low.

"Well... I'd hate to have you guys go back for nothing. So... How about I show you guys to our camp, It's just outside the city" Blaine said, feeling a little bit of pity for the two survivors, he knew well what it felt like to do an important task for nothing.
"I'm sure you two could use some food and rest." he explained as he slowly reloaded the cylinder of his magnum.

Joel was cautious, trusting a complete stranger was an easy way to get killed, but Blaine would have to be the youngest Hunter he had seen, if he was one. He also couldn't deny that without Blaine's help they would all have been sitting in the belly of about 15 runners right now.

"Alright, we'll go to this camp of your's" Joel answered, but held up a finger to show he wasn't finishd
"But try anything stupid, and I won't think twice about putting a bullet in your spine"

Blaine gave a nervous laugh, and a simple 'Don't worry' before explaining the rout they would have to take, and the various 'secret' paths that he knew of. They hopped back down onto the awning that Joel and Ellie had just entered from, and climbed back to street level as Blaine lead them towards the edge of the city.

Ellie ran up to match Blaine's pace "Sorry... about the brick, I thought you were... y'know, attacking us" she apologized, not something she was used to doing sincerely. Most people she attacked had deserved it to begin with.
"Don't worry about it, if I held a grudge against every one that gave me a split lip, I wouldn't have very many friends" Blaine joked, earning a small giggle from the girl that walked next to him as they fell into casual conversation.

Joel stayed back a few paces to cover their rear, he wasn't sure if he liked the idea of the boy Ellie was talking to was around her age. Still, he thought it was healthy of her to actually meet someone who might have some idea of what she was going through, being a teenager in a world that was hard on even the most calloused adult. He was remembering what it was like to be an overbearing father again.