THE LAST OF US: Sins of the Father

Based on the video game The Last Of Us, published by Naughty Dog games and Sony Computer Entertainment.

All characters and situations (besides otherwise noted original characters created by myself) are the property of Sony, and Naughty Dog. I own nothing but the original characters.

Prologue:

Tommy saw the soldier raise his weapon and gun down his brother and niece mercilessly. His heart hardened as he grit his teeth and curled his fingers around the revolver his brother gave him, stealthily sneaking up on the armed perimeter guard. Joel pleaded with the man putting his hands up, and muttered through shaky breath, "Please don't…"
Tommy knew the soldier wouldn't hesitate.
Neither did he.
BLAM!
A quick splash of blood spatter to the soldier's helmet due to the Joels' trusty revolver rectified the soldier of any actions, military-related or otherwise, ever again as his lifeless body slumped to the ground beside Joel, relief showing on his face.
Then Tommy looked up. And he knew his worst fears could be realized tonight. "Oh, no…."

Joel looked up from where he was and scrambled to Sarah's side. She had been wounded in the abdomen and was bleeding profusely, tears streaking her cheeks with an anguished expression on her 11 year old face. "Sarah! Move your hands, baby," her father said urgently, his voice breaking. He could make out Tommy in the corner of his vision dropping to his knees. Sarah's pleading cries cut Joel to the core as he applied pressure to the wound in order to stop the bleeding. "I know baby, I know…Listen to me I know this hurts. You're gonna be okay, baby. Stay with me."
Tommy stood up and looked around. "Wait…soldiers….Humvees….Joel!"
He looked up at Tommy."Go! First aid kit! Now!"
Tommy ran as fast as his legs could carry him and back.
He knelt down and opened the kit.
"Hand me the gauze," Joel said urgently. He applied it to her abdomen, despite her protests. The blood was already seeping through. "Alright, baby, I'm gonna pick you up."
He hefted her in his arms and the went to the Humveee parked up the top of the hill which belonged to the dead soldier, with Tommy driving in the front. Joel stayed with his daughter in the backseat, tears stinging his eyes. She was losing consciousness. "Sarah… please stay awake….please stay with me…don't do this to me. Don't do this to me, baby girl, come on….Sarah…..baby?
Her eyelids fluttered, and she muttered quietly in his ear, "Daddy…?

"Oh, thank god….thank you, God….Sarah, we're getting you to safety, okay? Okay, but you gotta stay awake, alright? Can you do that, huh? Can you do it for me?" Joel's heart was aching for her, and he knew Tommy's was too. He put the thought out of his mind, using what was left of his waning energy to hold her body in his arms.
Sarah whispered tiredly into her father's neck as he held her as gently as he could to not upset her wounds any further. "Daddy….why's everything getting colder?"

"Oh my god…" Joel muttered. That was not good. "Tommy, floor it!"
Tommy grunted through grit teeth. "I HAVE been!"

"She's going into shock back here! Aw, god, c'mon….come on, baby! Keep talking, okay? Tell me….tell me about that concert we went to, huh? That band you liked, uh…..the Pelican Dreams?"
Sarah was barely there, but still conscious through the pain, fighting through it. "Huh…..Hal….Halican … Drops…"
Joel smiled thru the tears streaking down his face. At least she was responsive. "Heh….yeah, Halican Drops, that's them, yeah….yeah…I remember….I remember you telling me about how you thought the lead singer was cute, and I joked that he looked like a peacock. You remember that, huh?"
Sarah chuckled and smiled weakly. "Yeah…..yeah…..remember….daddy?"
"Yeah, baby girl, I know, I know it hurts and I know you're scared, but Uncle Tommy's getting us to somewhere safe, okay? "
Her eyes closed, and she went limp in his arms. "Sarah, honey? Oh my god, please…Tommy?
"Look," Tommy said, pulling into a fenced area.
"Triage unit," Joel looked up briefly and the tented areas with incoming wounded from the epidemic end of the world situation going on around them. He didn't know how far it had spread, and didn't care at this moment.
"Stay with me, Sarah…stay with us, c'mon baby girl! You can fight this!" Joel pleaded with tears in his eyes that wouldn't stop.
It was all Joel could do to let the doctors take her and put her on a bed beside a crash cart in one of the many hospital tents and triage units the military had set up. He didn't know why the armed forces had let them pass, as they had orders to shoot on sight anyone trying to get clear of the area. But he didn't care.
Tommy sat down in a heap on one of the empty beds. "Good Christ…"

Joel took a few deep breaths to steady himself, but it didn't work.
"You did everything you could, man-," Tommy started to say.
"Don't," Joel growled.

Tommy stood slowly, and put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

Joel jumped at his touch. "I said don't! Alright, just…" He stopped himself, realizing his brother was just trying to comfort him.

"Damn it, Joel, you're not the only one who cares about her," Tommy yelled. "Do you fucking get that?"

Joel couldn't take it any more…he turned to Tommy, seeing the anguished look in his eye, the concern not only for the only neice he had, but also the pain in the eyes of his brother, then anger, the helplessness…and everything just caved.
Tommy caught his brother just before he hit the ground, Joel's knees giving out from pure grief. He let him cry into the shoulder of his red shirt. "I can't lose her, Tommy….I-I can't…"

Tommy had a lump in his throat he swallowed as well. "I know….I know."

A nurse came by an hour later, and gave them good news and bad news. Both Joel and Tommy were relieved that Sarah had survived her wounds and was stabilizing well.
But it broke both of their hearts to know that her internal organs suffered damage so extensively that they would take a bit more time to heal. It was also a possibility that Joel could never be a grandfather.
and any chance Sarah had had for children was lost to her the second that soldier pulled that trigger.
They sat up with her day and night in the makeshift hospital bed as the doctors tended to Joel's wounds as well. Tommy made it through with a few scratches, none from the infected. They were put through toxicology scans and everything came up negative, much to everyone's relief.
But both Joel and Tommy wondered what kind of world they were going to step into tomorrow.
Joel wondered fleetingly what kinds of things they would have to do to survive now that the entire world had taken only weeks to go to hell from the infection and its spread.
And he made a solemn vow.

Whatever it takes. Whatever the fuck it takes, that's what I'll do.

Hours later he fell asleep on the edge of Sarah's bedside. She put a hand to his hair to wake him up.

"Dad?" she said.
Joel picked his head up and looked in her eyes. She was a little pale from the blood loss, but the healthy flush was coming back into her cheeks. She smiled at him.
Joel couldn't help smiling back, grateful to whatever God or deity existed that he could look on her face another day. "Hey, baby girl." He kissed her on her forehead, a tear streaming down his cheek.

"What happened?" her tired eyes pleaded as she looked into his eyes.
Joel wasn't sure how to broach the subject, so he opted out. "You're here, baby. That's all I care about for now."

Sarah's eyes trailed down to her abdomen. "Are we at a hospital? Where's Uncle Tommy? Is he okay?"

"Uncle Tommy's fine, he's just fine, honey. He's getting us some water and food. He'll be back in a little bit."
Sarah looked up, her eyes betraying her fear. "You got shot too, are you—?"

"I'll live, honey, I'll live. A couple of minor wounds on my back and my legs, that's all. The doc's say that…that you'll be able to be up and around in a few weeks. But if you move around too much it'll loosen your stitches. So just….don't get too excited, okay?"
Sarah nodded, relieved. "Okay."

It was then that Tommy came back to the tent. He set down a few supplies including food and water in a corner of the tent. "Dinner is served! How we doing in here? Hey, Sarah, how you holding up, honey?"

Sarah smiled at him. "I'm okay I guess. What's that?"
Tommy handed Joel and Sarah two cans, clam chowder for him and canned peaches for her, as her stomach couldn't quite handle anything more solid at the moment.
Joel put his can down and looked at Sarah. "Listen, me and uncle Tommy gotta go outside and talk, okay?"
The expression he hated showed up again on her face. Fear. "Daddy, please don't go-?

"We'll be just outside the tent, baby, I promise, okay? We're not going far. Just eat and sit tight okay?" he cut her off gently and kissed the top of her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
"Deal," she said, relieved for the moment.

They left the tent, and she ate her peaches. After she was done, she looked around the tent, she barely realized she was in a hospital gown, then she looked at something in a corner. Her clothes. Her Halican drops tee and her pink plaid pajama pants lay in a corner, stained with blood.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to eat. She lay on the side of her body that didn't hurt, and fell to sleep. She hoped she wouldn't have any more nightmares.

"What is it?" Joel said, a few yards away from the tent and out of earshot of Sarah.
Tommy weighed his words carefully. "This triage unit is taking people up north. They say there's less infected there, and people are setting up these, uh…..quarantine zones. They're a little….well…president declared martial law pretty much last night if you believe the rumors."

"You want to go there, don't you?" Joel crossed his arms.
"I know you've got Sarah to worry about, but…seems pretty legit to me. They've got QZs set up already in Mass," Tommy said.
Despite his hesitation, Joel mulled it over. "Whereabouts?"

"Boston."

Joel sighed. "Long way from here. Damn…I feel bad uprootin' Sarah from all that she knows here in Austin, but…"

He turned away from Tommy as his brother just stood there dutifully waiting on his decision. Joel took a deep breath and peeked inside the tent. Sarah was fast asleep.

Tommy took a step closer, whispering as not to wake his neice. "Look, seeing as how you got a daughter to think of…maybe I could go on ahead and then find a way back, get some kind of message to you guys while I'm there—"

"Whole worlds gone to hell, Tommy. Come on, man, think about it, no mail system, no internet, no radio. How the fuck are we gonna know you're even alive? Morse code?"
Tommy shrugged, but knew his brother had a point. "Either way, our window's closing. This unit's spreading out in all directions to avoid the infected, people are looting all over the country…military's splintered up, President's either dead or not doing a damn thing to help. And there's nothing coming from the White House or the joint chiefs. Everybody, it seems is on their own, Joel. That includes the three of us."

"Ahh, God," Joel sighed rubbing his eyes.
Both of them were silent for a minute.

"Gimme a minute with Sarah, will ya?" Joel asked. Tommy nodded and went off to talk to one of the soldiers at the maing guard fence post.

Within a few minutes he was walking back to Sarah's recovery tent.

Joel was holding Sarah's hand and she looked up at her uncle with a sad but accepted look on her face.
"We're in," he said to Tommy.

"Boston," Tommy said.
Joel nodded. "Boston."

Days later, all that was left of the triage unit were a few stashes of empty crates, the tents, and the air wafting thru the trees as the military convoy with all of its patients including Joel Miller, his daughter Sarah Miller, and his baby brother Tommy Miler, were headed to Boston and other safe zones already set up around the country.