Chapter 1:

Joel sat on the recliner in the living room of his one bedroom apartment and scratched gently at the track marks on his arm. As he sat, Joel tried to think of what he had done that day. He remembered waking up, eating breakfast (a few pieces of burnt toast and jelly), and then heading out to get his fix of heroin. That had been exactly what he planned on doing...but then he had seen the crowd at the park. The park had been an empty dirt lot, until the city decided that it would look better if they had grass laid out. It had been the place where bands had gone to play plenty of times-Joel had even gone to a few of the concerts there.

But it what had struck Joel as odd was the contrast between the man standing on the small, hastily built stage and the crowd of people listening to him. The man had been dressed in an expensive, three-piece suit. The crowd looked like a bunch of lower class citizens, the kind that had never even worn a suit in their lives, and hated the people who could afford one.

Joel had had every intention of just walking by; ignoring the man on the stage and the crowd of people. But when he had tried to go on his way, he had found that he was too intrigued to just walk away. For a moment he had stood there on the sidewalk and watching before looking both ways and crossing the street. He had stood on the outer edge of the crowd and listened to the man on the stage, trying to listen to what he was saying.

"Do we have freedom?" The man on the stage cried out. The crowd cried out "No!" Joel listened intently, trying to hear every word. He didn't know why he wanted to hear what the man had to say so bad, but he couldn't pull himself away.

"Do we have equality?" The man cried.

"No!" The crowd cried back.

"America is no longer the country for every man, it is a country for some men-rich men." The crowd roared. "Our government is corrupt! The rich control it, money is the sole goal for almost every man out there. To those people, it doesn't matter who is hurt, they only care about the money they are able to gain!" Once again the crowd roared. Joel had only listened, trying to figure out why he was so interested in that revolutionist bullcrap.

"I am tired of always hearing about the foreign countries and their plans against America. I'm tired of the corrupt government officials! If we want to make a change, we're going to have to fight for it!" The roar of the crowd was tremendous.

Joel had decided to not go and get the heroin. He had decided to stay and listen the rest of the man's speech. He even got in on the cheering at one point. Before Joel had realized it, hours had passed. The speech had carried on, and on, and on. Joel looked at the watch given to him by his daughter, Sarah, who was away for college. It was almost two in the afternoon.

Joel had been about to go, when he had made eye contact with the man on the stage. Joel had been captivated. The man's eyes had had a yellow tint to them; like the eyes of a reptile. The man had motioned for Joel to wait a moment. Joel waited.

"Good evening." The man had said, shaking Joel's hand. A shiver had run down Joel's spine. The man's hand had been icy cold. " Olivier-my friends call me Dr.X"

"Joel." Dr.X had gently released Joel's hand, and to Joel's surprise, leaned in. For a moment he had thought the suited man was about to kiss him. Instead he'd brought his lips within inches of Joel's ear and whispered something in his ear. Joel hadn't been able to catch it. But he suddenly felt numb; he felt like a doll.

"Why don't you give me your number?" Dr.X asked. "You could get involved with our cause." From his pocket, Dr.X produced his cellphone. Without even thinking, Joel had recited his phone number; he didn't even blink while doing it. Dr.X programmed the number into his phone. "I'll be calling soon. Why don't you head home? Wait for me to give you a ring?" Again, Joel had been done as he was told without thinking twice.

Now Joel sat in his living room, scratching at the track marks and thinking about the man-Dr.X. What had possessed him to even do that? Was he honestly waiting for sone old man in a suit to call him? Someone he had only met a couple of hours ago? These thoughts had just passed through his head when his phone rang.

It it had to be Sarah. She had promised to call him once a week when she'd left for college, and had stayed true to that promise. Without even looking at the caller ID, Joel pulled his cellphone from his front pocket and answered it.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end was the voice of Dr.X. He had whispered something on the other end that Joel hadn't caught, but whatever he had said filled Joel with a kind of dread that he couldn't understand. Acting out of a kind of instinct, Joel hung up his phone and dropped it onto his lap. He stared at it as if it had just grown legs and started walking. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Why had he even reacted like that? It didn't make any sense to him.

His phone began to ring again. He stared at it. Should he answer it? Joel had a strong feeling that answering it would be a bad idea. But suddenly, he felt numb again, it was almost like the time when he had tried PCP. Joel picked up his cellphone and answered the call before putting it to his ear.

"There's a warehouse out by the docks. Furthest one from the water. Be there in an hour, my people will be waiting for you." Then Dr.X hung up.

Joel stared at his phone for awhile. He still felt numb. With a grunt, Joel stood and grabbed his tan colored jacket. He pulled it on and slipped into his boots before walking over to the door. He would go down to the warehouse, see what Dr.X's cause was. Hell, he might even be somewhat interested.

AN: Well, there you have it: the first chapter of Mindcrime. What did you think? Do you like junkie Joel? Is he making a mistake by listening to Dr.X? Also, quick note: the only TLOU characters that will be directly involved will be Joel, Ellie, Tommy and Sarah. And Tommy and Sarah aren't going to have very big roles in this at all. Bur that's all I've got to say for now. Stay tuned to find out what happens to junkie Joel.

~Exangellion