I do not own The Last of Us, it's contents or it's characters. I only own Jamie.

Chapter 1. The Breakout

Jamie was sitting on the couch with her older sister Sarah waiting for their dad, Joel, to come home from work. Sarah had fallen asleep at eleven-thirty on her younger sister's lap from the long wait. Just as Jamie was about to nod off she saw Joel walk through the door arguing with her uncle, Tommy, over the phone.

"Tommy, I-...Tommy. Tommy, listen to me. He's the contractor, okay? I can't lose this job. I understand... Let's talk about this in the morning, okay? We'll talk about it in the morning. Alright, goodnight." Joel hung up and turned on the light causing Sarah to wake up and Jamie to yawn.

Jamie smiled at her dad. "Hey, daddy."

Joel approached the couch. "Scoot."

"Hey." Sarah chimed in. "Fun day at work, huh?"

"What are you two still doing up? It's late." Joel tiredly pointed out.

Sarah looked up at the clock. "Oh, crud. What time is it?"

"It is way past both of your bedtimes."

"But it's still today, huh, big sis? Should we show him?"

Sarah nodded as she went to the side of the couch and pulled out a small gift box and handed it to Joel. Joel gave them both a look letting them know he wasn't in the mood.

"Sarah, honey, please not right now. I do not have the energy for this." he sighed.

"Just open it, Dad." Jamie demanded. "I think you'll like it."

"What's this?"

"Your birthday."

Joel opened the small box to fin a new watch sitting inside of it. He pulled it out and clamped it around his wrist.

"You kept complaining about your broken watch. . . So me and Jamie figured, you know. You like it?"

"Guys, this is. . ."

"What, Daddy?" Jamie asked.

Joel tapped the watch. "It's nice but I- . . .I think it's stuck. It's not. . ."

"What? No, no, no, no." Sarah cried out as she looked at the watch only to find out Joel was kidding. "Oh, ha, ha."

Joel grabbed the remote and placed his arm around Jamie while Sarah laid back down on the couch. Joel turned on the TV as he wondered how his daughter could afford such a watch.

"Where did you two get the money for this?"

"Drugs. We sell hardcore drugs." Jamie giggled.

Joel chuckled. "Oh, good. The both of you can start helping out with the mortgage then."

Sarah scoffed. "Yeah, you wish."

After a while both Jamie and Sarah had fallen asleep again on the couch. JOel smiled down at them as he turned off the TV. He nudged Sarah's shoulder to wake her up.

"C'mon, honey. Let's get you to bed." He picked up Jamie in his arms. " I've got you, baby." Sarah leans against him for support as he takes them upstairs to their room. He tucked them both in and shut off the lamp.

"Goodnight, baby girls." He softly said as he walked out of the room.

Leter that night Sarah was having the best sleep she ever had in her life. That is until the phone rang loudly. She answered the second time it rang and it was her uncle, Tommy, who seemed to be calling.

"Sarah, honey, I need you to get your daddy on the phone."

Sarah yawned. "Uncle Tommy, what time is it?"

"I need to talk to your dad now! There's some-" The phone line went dead leaving Sarah to hang the phone up. She made her way to her six year-old sister's bed. "Jamie! Jay, wake up!"

"Leave me alone! Let me sleep." Jamie whined.

"Jamie, we got to find Dad. I think something's wrong. Come on, get up."

Jamie groaned. "Fine."

Both sibling searched the top floor of the house for their father. They called for Joel but received no answer. Sarah led the way into Joel's room but was surprised to see he wasn't there.

"Where the heck are you?" Sarah asked.

Jamie pointed to the TV. " Sarah. Let's see what they say on the news channel."

Jamie stood next to her sister watching the news reporters and listening to what tragic event was taking place. There appeared to be an infection that was breaking out nationwide and the people who were infected with it seem to be acting aggressive and show signs of them able to spread the infection just by sharing contact with another human being. An

An explosion was heard not far from where Sarah and Jamie lived. The sister's grew frightened after witnessing the explosion from their father's window.

"Sarah, I'm scared. I want Daddy."

Sarah held her little sister's hand. "It's okay, sissy. We'll find him." She said as they both left Joel's room. "Dad?! What is goin' on?"

As soon as Sarah and Jamie reached the first floor, they heard his cell phone vibrating loudly. It looked like Tommy had tried calling Joel eight times and left him three messages with one of them saying Tommy was on his way over to the house. Joel burst into the house and shut the door behind him quickly as soon as his daughter had reached the den.

"There you are." Sarah sighed in relief.

"Sarah. Are you two okay?"

"Yeah."

"Has anybody come in here?"

"No. Who would come in here?"

Joel pulled his gun from a drawer. "Don't go near the doors. Just stand back there."

Jamie was trembling in fear. "Daddy, what's wrong? You're kinda freaking us out. What's going on?"

Before Joel could answer his youngest daughter an infected human, his friend Jimmy, banged into the sliding door scaring the three of them. Joel stood in front of his daughters as Jimmy breaks his way into the room, snarling.

"Jimmy, just stay back." Joel warned as Jimmy responded with a snarl. "Jimmy, I am warning you. Don't!" Without hesitating, Joel shoots Jimmy, right after Jimmy tried to attack. He took Sarah and Jamie away from the den.

"Dad, you shot him." Sarah said, still in shock from what had happened.

Jamie grabbed Joel's hand. "Daddy, why did you do that?

"Both of you listen to me, there is something bad going on. We've gotta get out of here. Do you understand me?"

Both girls nodded as they saw headlights flash through the curtains which meant Tommy had arrived to pick them up. Joel picked up Jamie and grabbed Sarah's hand, leading them to Tommy's car.

"Where the hell have you been?" Tommy asked his older brother. "You have any idea what's going on out there?"

"I got some notion." Joel answered as put Jamie in the car. "C'mon, baby. Get on in there."

Sarah helped her little sister buckle up as they began to drive off to leave the city. Tommy explained to Joel about the situation that was taking place in the city and other places. Apparently, the rumored parasite had caused half of the people to lose their minds and turn them into extremely aggressive living organisms.

"Jesus Christ, how did this happen?" Joel asked Tommy.

"They got no clue. But we ain't the only town. At first they were saying it was just the South. Now they're going on about the East Coast, the West Coast...Holy hell."

"Are we sick?" Sarah asked.

Joel answered, "No. No, of course not."

"How do you know?"

Jamie decided to speak out. "I heard that it was just people in the city who were getting sick. Right, Uncle Tommy?"

"Yeah, honey. We're good."

"Didn't Jimmy work in the city?" Sarah asked.

Joel sighed. "That's right, he did."

The small family continued to drive. They did meet a family on their way to the city. Tommy wanted to pick them up but Joel argued with him that he didn't want to risk his daughters to get infected or anything. After a while they reach the city, only to find a traffic jam on the highway. As soon as Tommy stops the car a man jumps out of his car complaining about the traffic when an infected person jumps out of nowhere and kills him.

"Turn us around." Joel says to his brother as the infected person charges towards them. "Tommy. Tommy!"

The infected ran into the window next to Jamie. "Daddy, it's a monster!" she cried out when they turned to get away.

"You're okay, Jamie. It's gone." Joel said to his frightened daughter.

They turned into a different road but had a hard time trying to get through the massive amount of people who were running for their lives. They waited for the crowd to subside then continue to drive around a busted up motorhome. Sarah is the first to see a runaway car coming towards her uncle's car at high speed.

She hurries to unbuckle Jamie. "Look out!" She cries as she embraces her little sister waiting for the impact of the car crash. Soon, they all blacked out.

Joel's POV

I hear Sarah calling me, begging me to wake up and my Jamie crying her little eyes out. Finally, I came to and was back to reality. The car was on it's side when I woke up and the only way out was to break the front window.

"Daddy? Hey." I felt Sarah shaking my shoulder. "Hey."

I had my conscious back now. "What? Get back, baby. Get back." I grab Jamie's little hand. "Look. Daddy's okay."

She wiped the tears away from her face while I kicked the window hoping it would break. It took a few good, hard kicks to break the damn thing down. I had Jamie crawl through first.

"Daddy, I think Sarah's hurt." Jamie cried out.

Sarah called out for me. "Dad?"

"I'm right here, baby. I'm here. Give me your hand." I turn to look for Tommy but instead an infected tries to attack me. Fortunetly, little brother came to the rescue by delivering a bullet to it's head. After the rescue I check on Sarah and , sure enough, my daughter had broken a leg.

"We're gonna need to run." Tommy suggested.

I pick up Sarah in my arms and glance at Jamie. "Jay, Daddy's gonna need you to run fast. Can you do that for me? Do you think you can keep up?"

"Yeah." she nodded.

I pull my pistol out. "Okay. Just stay on my heels, honey. "I said as I hand my pistol to Tommy. "You keep us safe."

We ran as fast as we could to try and get to safety. It was hard to do because wherever you ran there was either an explosion or an infected person to stop you in your tracks. My Sarah did her best to keep her eyes on me and not pay attention to what was going on around us while my Jamie did her best to stay close to me and keep up. People were on fire and every exit was blocked when every individual tried to escape the massive amount of infected that were headed in our direction.

"Get back! There's too many of them! Through the alley! Go!" Tommy instructed. I did so and, luckily we got past the infected that were trying to get through the fence. We managed to find a way to get away from them temporarily. We rushed into the back of a local bar hoping to escape the mob of infected that were following us. Tommy tried to close the door but he could barely keep the creatures away.

"Get to the highway!" Tommy demanded, struggling to keep the door closed.

I stood there, confused. "What?"

"Go - you got Sarah and Jamie! I can outrun them!"

"Uncle Tommy!" Sarah cried out.

"Alright. I will meet you there."

Jamie glance at Tommy. "Be careful, Uncle Tommy."

I held on tighter to Sarah as Jamie and I ran to escape the bar. Sarah was concerned about my little brother but I assured her he was going to be all right. We were getting close to the highway bridge when I heard infected chasing after us. I swore this was going to be the end but then the infected were shot down by a soldier.

I look at Sarah. "It's okay, baby. We're safe." I felt Jamie hug my leg and I smile down at her to cheer her up. "Hey!" I shouted to the soldier. "We need help."

"Stop!" the soldier commanded.

"Please, it's my daughter. I think her leg's broken."

Stop right there." he commanded again raising his gun after I took one step.

"Okay...we're not sick."

The guy picked up his radio to report what was going on and waited to see what actions needed to be taken at that moment."

"Daddy, what about Uncle Tommy?" Sarah asked, full of concern.

"We're gonna get you to safety and go back for him. Okay?" I told her as I looked down at Jamie. "How are you doing, baby girl?"

Jamie hugged me tighter. "I'm tired and I'm scared."

"It'll be over soon, okay?"

The soldier received his orders. "Sir, there are two little girls." There was a short pause. "But... Yes, sir."

I knew what was coming. "Listen, buddy, we've just been through hell. Okay, we just need-" I saw his finger on the trigger. "Oh, shit. Jamie, duck!"

Jamie did as I told her rolling down the hill as the soldier fired at Sarah and myself, causing me to fall down the hill, dropping Sarah in the process. The bastard followed me and put his hand on the trigger again. I begged him not to shoot and to let me go. Suddenly, Tommy showed up out of nowhere and shot down the uniform before the man could kill me.

"Daddy...Sarah." I heard Jamie sobbing.

Tommy went into shock. "Oh, no."

I got up and saw what it was that had my brother and daughter so scared and heartbroken. There on the ground was my Sarah, crying from the pain she felt from the bullet that had been shot into her side.

"Sarah! Move your hands, baby." I tried to stop the bleeding by pressing on the wound, which only made her cry harder. "Listen to me, I know this hurts, baby. You're gonna be okay, baby. Stay with me."

I continued to try and help her but then I heard nothing but silence. I looked to see my daughter's face express that she was gone. I shook my head and embraced her closely to me, not wanting to let her go.

"Sarah... Baby... Don't do this to me, baby." I gasped through tears. "Please. Oh, God. Please, please, don't do this."

That moment had changed my life forever. My oldest baby was gone. No, not gone but taken away from me. I prayed to God she could rest in peace and to help me take care of my Jamie, who had first witnessed the death of someone she love. I promised she would be the only thing I would fight for and protect her from the godforsaken curse that had intruded into our lives.