A/N: Hey guys, this is my first Last of Us fanfic. It follows an OC called Damon who meets Ellie and Joel 6 months after the events of the game. It's basically a series of flashbacks of how he got there and his story. I completely love TLOU it's my favourite game, favourite story, favourite apocolyptic setting etc. Feel free to leave feedback and enjoy :)
I do not own The Last of Us or any of it's characters. I only own the characters of Damon and Tara.
Ellie picked up the axe and swung at the wood. Snow slowly fell on the wood and she hoped it wouldn't be too damp to start a fire with. Water vapor in the air curled in front of her face as she exhaled, building up the energy for another swing. She went for her second swing when she heard a thump in the snow. She immediately dropped the axe and pulled out her 9mm.
Fucking runners! She thought aiming the pistol at the noise she heard.
She squinted her eyes and peered through the falling snowflakes to see it wasn't an infected. Instead, it was a boy. Dark skin, short black dreadlocks and a faded, black tattered hoodie.
He was shivering as he knelt in the snow after falling to his knees trying to stay concsious and upright.
"Holy shit." Ellie said putting her gun in her back pocket. "Joel get out here!"
The now 15 year old Ellie ran through the cold towards the towns perimeter fence. She clutched the metal seperating them. She took out her knife and began cutting a hole in the fence large enough for her to crawl through. The boys eyes flickered as she stood up and took her first steps outside of the town in 6 months. She ran to him and the boy fell as she got there.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Joel shouted as he shook the fence. "Get back here right now!"
"Look it's a kid, help me get him through the fence." Ellie said pulling the unconscious body through the snow. She noticed he left drips of red in the white snow and looked down. His feet were bleeding through his tattered converse shoes.
"We don't know who he is Ellie, let the guards take care of it." Joel said frustrated.
"He'll be dead by then Joel."
"Don't you remember the ambush in Pittsburgh, we don't know who this kid is."
"Shut up and help me carry him inside."
The two placed him on Ellie's bed and searched his pockets.
"No guns, just a broken bow and 1 arrow...And a notebook." Ellie said holding up a worn out notebook with 'T.A.S.T' on the front.
"F-Firefly." Joel said.
"What?"
"The kids a Firefly." Joel said picking up the pendant."T. Broderson..."
Shit they've finally come for her, Joel thought to himself. We have to leave. But I can't bloody well tell her why...
He looked down at the firefly boy.
"The fireflies really pick them young dont they..." Eliie said solemnly remembering Riley.
"W-We have to get him to the town patrol. They'll take care of him." Joel said realising he had to get the firefly away from Ellie as soon as possible.
"Yeah I guess, let's patch up the poor guy first and let him rest." Ellie said.
"Sounds like a plan." Joel said trying not to sound suspicious. All he had to do was protect her one night. He'd sleep on the living room couch. With his gun.
He saw her. Her face stayed clear in his mind. Except in his dream it was torn to pieces by a clicker as she screamed in pain. Then it turned to him. Damon shot up in cold sweat. A strange girl slept loudly on the floor. He lay in a strange bed. In a strange house. In a strange place. He tried to recollect his thoughts, but the last thing he remembered was snow. Just mounds and mounds of snow that made it even harder than it already was to walk. He lifted the blanket and looked at his feet. Bandages had been placed all over them. He had been walking for days. He didn't know where he was going. He just knew he had to run. Her last wish was for him to run. Not 'Please run', or 'You have to run', just 'Run'. Even in her last moments she continued to show no regard for others. Or how Damon would feel if she sacrificed herself. But it was her last request and he planned to complete it. He'd keep going. The word rung clearly in his every waking moment. 'Run'.
He looked around for his bow and remembered it had been snapped in half as he tried to protect himself from a runner. He saw the miserable looking weapon that had saved his life countless times on his 3 day trek broken on a bedside table. He then looked for her firefly pendant and found it next to the broken bow. He flipped it multiple times in his hand. T. Broderson, 000179. He had memorised the familiar number and repeated it in his head. 000179, 000179, 00017-
"Oh you're awake." Ellie said yawning.
Damon quickly put the pendant around his neck and pulled out the switchblade from the seam of is jacket.
-Tara's Apocalypse Survival Tip (or T.A.S.T) No. 16
Always have a weapon. If someone takes your grenade launcher, have a pistol in your back pocket, if they take that have a knife in your drawers, if they take that as well keep a toothpick under your tongue.
"Jesus! Look put down your knife we're trying to help" Ellie said taking out her 9mm and placing it in front of her before raising her hands.
-Tara's Apocalypse Survival Tip No. 5
Never surrender to an enemy or a stranger.
"Put down the knife boy, before I put one between your eyes." Joel said bursting through the door with a rifle aimed at his head.
Damon tried standing up but fell back down due to the pain in his feet.
"W-Who are you people?" Damon said keeping his knife up trying not to show his fear or pain.
"The people that saved your life, you better put that thing away, right now."
Damon looked at the 15 year old girl and the rugged 6"0 ft man that looked like he could kill a bear with his bare hands despite his age.
He put away his knife. Not because he was scared but because he believed them.
-Tara's Apocalypse Survival Tip No. 1
Don't trust, believe or grow fond of anyone.
What did she know anyway? Her lack of ability to follow her most important rule got her killed. She died because she grew too fond of a bratty kid that took her for granted.
"S-Sorry I'm just a bit...confused. Where the hell am I?" Damon said.
"A refuge town in Wyoming." Ellie said.
"Wyoming huh...All the way out there."
Joel stayed quiet and only dropped his gun a few inches. "So you're a...You're a firefly kid?"
"What? Oh no this is a fr- This was a friend of mines." Damon said pulling out the pendant from out of his shirt. "My names Damon."
Joel breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey Joel." Ellie said.
"What?"
"You can put the gun down now psycho."
Joel lowered his gun.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ellie this is Joel." Ellie said shaking his hand.
"Hi..."
"So uhhh...how long have you been walking?"
Damon looked down at his feet.
"About 2 and a half days."
"Non-Stop?"
"Non-Stop."
"Fuck." Ellie said intrigued. "Why didn't you just, stop."
"I don't know. I passed a police camp but I just kept walking."
"Did you eat?"
"No. Geez I guess I haven't eaten in a 3 days."
"Make that 4 days. You've been lights out for 29 hours." Ellie said. "You want some canned beans? Cold of course, for your enjoyment."
