Author's note: Hello everyone. Welcome to my first story for The Last of Us. Tommy was one of my favorite characters in the game, not only because he was one of the very few genuinely decent human beings in it, but also because it seemed like he was the only one who actually accomplished anything worthwhile. So I figured he deserved a story covering his departure from the Fireflies and the decision to set out on his own. The following story is based on the bits and pieces throughout the game where characters talk about Tommy and how he ended up in Jackson County. I just let my imagination fill in the gaps. This takes place roughly 5 years before the events in the game.

May 7th, 2028. 25 miles outside the Boston quarantine zone

Tommy breathed heavily as he sat at his post on the second story of a ruined office building looking out to the street below, a jury-rigged explosive detonator in his hands and a scoped Remington 700p .308 rifle sitting nearby against the windowsill waiting for use. This was it. His big moment. No more working in the behind the scenes in an indirect role. This was the day he would strike a true blow for the Fireflies and against the military's tyrannical rule.

Ever since he had left his brother's smuggling operation and joined up with the Fireflies almost two years ago, Tommy had been itching for an opportunity to prove himself. But the skills he acquired in his past life had actively worked against him. He had spent nearly all of his first year helping the organization construct facilities and working as a mechanic for their vehicles, each request for combat duty turned down on grounds he was too valuable to risk. But after completion of his first year, he had managed to earn an assignment as an assistant and personal guard to the Firefly commander, Marlene. And after months of working by her side, he had finally managed to get himself a spot on a combat mission. Now everything was falling into place. Tommy and the other Fireflies had taken their positions. The charges were set and the ambush was ready. All there was to do now was wait for the military convoy to come rolling through, assuming their intelligence was accurate.

Suddenly Tommy heard footsteps behind him and turned to see his commander, Marlene enter the room, conducting a final review of her troops, more than 2 dozen strong hidden in various positions along the roadway, as they settled into their positions at the ambush site.

"This certainly must be one hell of a mission with Marlene herself personally in command," Tommy thought to himself as he turned to face her. This was the first time he had ever seen her take to the field.

"The convoy should be here any minute now," Marlene said calmly as she knelt down beside him and peered out into the street with a battered old set of binoculars. "Is everything set?"

"Yes mam. Charges are all set. I assure you once the convoy rolls up, they won't know what hit them." Tommy smiled with pride as he finished his reply. His experience with demolitions back when he was working for his brother's construction company was really about to pay off.

"Well just make sure you don't let them get too close," Marlene replied without emotion. "We need to take those trucks intact. There are not enough functional vehicles left in the world for us to mess up the chance to secure some more. But how about you? How are you feeling Tommy? Ready for your first real action against our oppressors?"

"Don't worry about me, commander. Compared to some of the things I did in my younger days, this mission will be a walk in the park," Even as he finished his reply, Tommy realized his comparison was woefully obsolete. To the best of his knowledge, there was not a single park left in the world that was safe to walk through.

"Oh really?" Asked Marlene "And what did these past experiences involve?"

"Working and traveling with my brother Joel. We got into more scrapes then you could possibly imagine. But somehow we always found a way to pull through."

Marlene immediately showed interest upon hearing this. "Brother? All this time you've worked with me I've never head you mention having a brother. Whatever happened to him? Fall victim to clickers or hunters?"

"That might have made things easier to handle then when I left him," Tommy thought bitterly to himself, recalling the angry argument they had shortly before he stormed off to join the Fireflies. "Nah he's still alive and kicking. He runs a smuggling operation taking goods in and out of the QZ. If something has any value left in the world, Joel knows how to find it."

"Sounds like someone we could really use. Any chance you could get him to join up?"

Tommy nearly burst out laughing upon hearing this. "Oh sure. And once I'm done with that, I'll pull a cure for the Cordyceps virus straight out of my pocket. No, Joel stopped caring about things like freedom, liberty, and ideology a long time ago. He's no joiner. These days he's only looking out for himself."

Marlene sighed in disgust. "Figures the most capable people we have left in the world are the ones living on just for the sake of living. Nothing to fight for. I swear people like that would be better off dead."

Tommy wasn't sure why, but this suddenly made him feel very defensive. "Hey, Joel may be selfish, but he's the best at what he does. You ever need a job done, something delivered or brought in unmolested, there's no one more qualified then him. He'll do anything you need to get done as long as you make it worth his time.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Marlene responded, somewhat amused at his change in tone. "But enough of this, we've got-"

Marlene was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the radio on her uniform crackling to life. "Post 3, HQ. Convoy spotted! Three fully loaded trucks and a hummer escort, closing fast. ETA 40 seconds."

Marlene's personal conversation was instantly ended as she snapped into command mode. "Copy post 3, HQ to all posts, convoy inbound! Everyone take positions. Stay down and do not fire until the charges detonate!"

With that, Marlene rushed to a nearby window a few dozen feet away from Tommy and unslung the M4 carbine from her shoulder. "Looks like I'll be with you when the shooting starts, ace. Make us proud."

"Yes mam," Tommy calmly replied before turning back to the street below, his hands clutching the detonator more tightly then ever. "This is it, there's no turning back now."

It wasn't long before the convoy rolled into visual range. Three trucks and an armed hummer escort, just as their intelligence had reported, and the trucks appeared to be heavily laden with supplies from their daily salvage operation. This would be quite a haul indeed; a vital victory for the struggling rebels. Tommy did his best to focus on this fact alone, but there was no getting around the larger issue at hand: It wasn't trucks and hummers he was about to fight, it was people. Real living people. For the first time in nearly two years, Tommy was about to kill again.

Desperately Tommy tried to shrug the feeling off, summoning up all the anger at everything he had witnessed the military do over the years: Torture, kidnappings, imprisonment without trial, public executions of anyone suspected to be a Firefly sympathizer, conscription into dangerous (sometimes near-suicidal) work assignments outside the zone. Tommy himself had been on the receiving end of the military's brutality on more than one occasion, and while it was true in those cases he often was guilty of breaking some law, he saw this as no justification.

"Who gave them the right to make our laws? Who elected them into leadership?" Tommy bitterly thought to himself as the Convoy approached. Now they were close enough he could see the soldiers on board, along with the main threat he would be facing; the armored Hummer and it's deadly .50 caliber turret. It wouldn't be long now.

At first he, like most others, had seen the military as heroes and protectors. They had saved as many people as they could, fortified the zones, kept the infected out and given everyone in the QZ some semblance of a normalcy. But as time wore on, the military had taken on the role of abusive parents, who felt their protective and providing role justified every action they took and every abuse they dished out. It was clear they had no plans whatsoever for giving power back to an elected civilian authority, and having long given up any effort to find a cure for the Cordyceps, they simply planned to rule forever, using humanity's near-extinction as an ever-present excuse for their continuing reign.

Well Tommy had enough. He had not survived the end of the world only to live his life cooped up like he was living under some third-world dictatorship from days gone by. Something had to be done, and the Fireflies would provide it. The restoration of elected civilian government, the end of military rule, and most importantly, a cure for the plague. It didn't matter how impossible all this sounded. This was his cause now. These were things worth fighting for.

The convoy was drawing ever closer. Now it was close enough that Tommy could make out the soldiers onboard, all blissfully unaware of the terror that was about to be unleashed upon them. Less then 10 seconds remained before the detonation point. There was no more time to ponder such political matters. This was the cause he had signed on for, and he had no regrets. But even as his hands tightened around the detonator, Tommy couldn't quite shake the feeling that he was about to participate in something very wrong...

"Do it Tommy!" he heard Marlene shout as the convoy reached the ambush point. Without hesitation, Tommy immediately pushed the plunger on the detonator down and the effects were instantaneous. With an enormous boom that seemed to shake the entire ruined city, the building across the street and adjacent to the roadway exploded in a brilliant storm of dust and debris, instantly clogging the road with rubble. Reacting on pure instinct, the drivers of the four vehicles slammed on their breaks, the path ahead of them hopeless blocked.

And this was just the beginning of their troubles. As soon as the explosives went off, the Firefly rebels quickly opened up from their well fortified positions, catching the convoy in a hailstorm of gunfire. Marlene scored the first kill of the day, taking out the driver of the lead truck with a well aimed headshot from the scope of her carbine, while rifle and machine gun fire from rooftop positions raked into the truck beds, killing anyone not quick enough to jump off.

Now it was Tommy's turn. He quickly through the detonator aside, grabbed the Remington 700p rifle, and took aim through the window at the hummer. As it swung it's deadly turret in the direction of the fireflies, ready to spray them with .50 caliber hell, Tommy zoned in on the gunner and took him out with a well aimed blast to the forehead. He barely had time to rack his bolt and snap in a fresh round when another crewman popped up to take the controls, but this man fared little better then his predecessor, only able to put out a short burst before Tommy's rifle felled him as well. With the enemy machine now silenced, Tommy turned his attention to to other targets.

By now the few surviving soldiers who remained had found cover behind their vehicles and the surrounding structures, but Tommy kept at it, targeting and firing at every body he found moving up to return fire and scoring several more kills before he heard Marlene give the order to advance.

"Now Everyone! Onward to victory!" he heard his commander shout, causing the Firefly warriors on the lower ground the storm out from their positions and finish the battle. At this point only a handful of soldiers from the convoy remained, and the only ones brave enough to resist the final onslaught were quickly cut down by Tommy, Marlene, and other snipers on the higher levels before the assault element even reached the road. The assaulting element made to the vehicles almost unopposed and overwhelmed the last of the defenders.

Tommy could tell Marlene was in high spirits from their decisive victory as she supervised the mop-up operation, but she still maintained her professional demeanor. There was still much work to be done and very little time to do it.

The convoy had been taken without a single fatality on the Firefly side, and while the vehicles had plenty of new sources of ventilation, all them had been captured fully functional. The group had even managed to take four soldiers alive, something quite rare on both sides of this bitter fight. Now Tommy helped keep watch on the prisoners with a few others, his rifle slung on his back and a Glock 19 pistol in hand, as his fellow fireflies quickly went to work pillaging the dead for weapons and supplies.

"I tell you, this was one fine haul indeed," an enthusiastic Firefly Lieutenant reported to Marlene. These trucks are loaded with enough supplies to sustain our operations for months!"

"Glad to hear it," replied Marlene calmly, trying to keep the pride and satisfaction out of her voice. "We'll send one to our lab out at ECU and keep the rest for ourselves." Then she turned to two nearby subordinates. "You two will take it there. I'll give you a map showing the safe route and refueling stops at our bases along the way."

Suddenly another Firefly approached. "Commander, we've finished the salvage operation! We've got everything worth taking and were ready to roll."

"Good, then lets get to work clearing this debris out of the road. We've got to get it clear before any infected show up." With that, Marlene went over to Tommy.

"How you feeling now, Tommy?" She asked as some of the other warriors started moving the heavy rubble off the road. With Tommy her tone seemed more personal. "This what you signed up for?"

"Damn right it is!" Tommy shot back. "We really took it to em today, didn't we." With such a great victory achieved and his own vital role in it, the doubts that were lingering early had all but vanished from his mind. He felt like he had finally done something, and not for himself, but for a real cause.

"Yes we scored a great victory for the Fireflies today. You should be proud. We all should. But now we've got the dirty work to do. It's time to take care of these fascist dogs," said Marlene, pointing to the prisoners on their knees with their hands behind their heads, covered by the guns of Tommy and a few others.

"No problem," replied Tommy. "We'll get them bound and loaded up on the vehicles before the others are done clearing the road."

Suddenly Marlene's tone became far serious. "Tommy...that's not what I meant. These grunts don't have anything valuable to tell us, and we don't have enough food for ourselves, let alone the enemy. We're putting them down, just like they'd do to us in the same situation.

Tommy was shocked to hear this, and even more shocked to see the prisoners didn't seem surprised at all. Perhaps this was what they expected, but for him it came as a complete surprise. "Whoa hold on a second. You can't be serious!"

"I'm dead serious, Tommy. We don't take prisoners, and neither do they. It's how it is."

Tommy was furious now, and had to fight hard to keep himself from screaming. "Like hell! If we can't take prisoners then we'll let them go. Let them find their own way from here. If they can make it back without weapons or supplies, then they earn their right to keep going."

"And risk them reporting on our operation? Not a chance. I don't like it, but there's no other way. You know what would happen if they captured any one of us"

Tommy couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was as though his entire world had been shattered in an instant. Enemy or not, these people were human beings. They had fought bravely for what they believed in and they didn't deserve this, no matter which side they were on. Tommy's mind raced as he desperately tried to think of his next move.

"Marlene, I didn't sign up for this! We're supposed to be better then them! We're supposed be the ones fighting against the oppressors! This is no way to do it."

By now, Marlene had been unable to contain the dispute from getting out of hand. Nearby fireflies had heard them and approached the scene with their weapons. "Can it, soldier! You have your orders, now carry them out at once!" Said the Lieutenant as soon as he got close.

Marlene sighed and motioned them to stand down. "Enough, Lansing. I'll handle this." Then she moved closer to Tommy. "Look Tommy, you're a good Firefly and a good man. I understand this kind of thing is hard to take and you don't have to participate. Just stand aside and we'll get it done ourselves."

But Tommy refused to budge. He was still stunned with disillusionment, unable to comprehend how the side he fought for could be capable of such brutality. It was like his entire world was slipping away and he was unable to think of a proper response. "Marlene...this isn't you. This isn't right!"

"I know...but it's necessary. We're in a bad situation and sacrifices have to be made. I was worried you wouldn't understand. It's why I kept you out of combat assignments for so long. I thought by now you'd realize how desperate we are, but I see I was wrong. We'll deal with this later, but now you need to let this go. We simply don't have a choice."

With that, Marlene turned slightly away to give orders to her surrounding warriors, but Tommy didn't give her a chance.

"I beg to differ."

Before Marlene even realized what was happening, Tommy suddenly wrapped his left arm around her waist, pulled her in against his body, and pressed the Glock in his right hand against her head.

The effects of his actions were as instant as the explosives he had set off earlier. All at once, he found himself starting down the barrels of over two dozen weapons, with nothing but his human shield holding them back.

"Tommy! What the fuck are you doing?!" Shouted Marlene in amazement. She knew Tommy would have reservations about her methods but couldn't believe he would take his objections this far. That he would throw away everything he had been working for over the last two years. Disregard it all for them. Military lackeys who would shoot him on sight if they had the chance.

As it turned out, Tommy was just as surprised at his own action, but no less committed. "Like you said, Marlene. I'm doing what's necessary. Consider this my letter of resignation." Then he turned to the surrounding soldiers with their weapons trained on him. "Everyone! Back off and put your weapons down or else you'll need to find a new commander!" As he said this, he pressed the pistol against Marlene's head even tighter to make a point.

For someone with a gun against her skull, Marlene seemed remarkably calm. "Think about this, Tommy. You're on your own here and you've got nowhere to go. So what's your plan, huh? What's your next move?"

From his position behind her, Tommy smiled as he took in her point. He had to admit, there really was nothing to dispute there.

"As soon as I find out, you'll be the first to know."