The Last of Us:
Year One
A Prequel Fan Fiction
By: Kassie Marie
AN: I reread this chapter and made some changes. Mostly grammatical. Enjoy :)
Chapter 1: Leaving Home
February
Dallas, Texas. The ninth-largest city in America and third in the state of Texas. Now it's only 195 miles away from the third most infected city in Texas, Austin. It's hard to imagine Austin was a normal place just five months ago. When the outbreak happened, the government initialized Marshall Law. Military vehicles road in, personnel swarmed around and took over Dallas in a matter of days. It had become the official quarantine zone for all to Texas. No one is safe, just afraid. Men, women, even children were searched. If the government saw you were infected, you were killed on sight. Now the remaining survivors of the outbreak are moved from city to city migrating north where the infection had yet spread to.
When word spread about the disease, the government denied everything, creating cover-ups to hide the truth and to buy time to create an antidote. They were unsuccessful. Then the Fireflies formed. Since day one they've stood up against the government's oppression, fighting back, showing that not everyone has given up and continued the search for the elusive cure. Refugees running away from the quarantine zones join the Fireflies in the fight against the infected, the government and the search for a cure.
In a tiny rundown apartment complex are Tommy and Joel, both having grown rough, scraggly beards. In the first days of the outbreak they were moved from Austin to Dallas, along with the other survivors from surrounding cities. It's only been them since Sarah, Joel's daughter, was killed. Since then, neither Joel nor
Tommy has been able to trust the military. The sibling's relationship has gone through much strain since. Constant fighting and bickering on what to do, join the Fireflies or become little lap dogs of the government.
After threatening to leave for the Fireflies for months, Tommy had finally had enough after their latest fight and packed his duffle bag. Joel notices this and tries to make Tommy stay.
"Tommy! You can't join those damn Fireflies!" Joel yells. He couldn't lose Tommy, not like this. He can't lose his brother to them. Joel didn't know what, but there was something about the Fireflies that he just did not like, or trust.
"You are not in control of me Joel!" Tommy barked back. "Nothing has been the same since Sarah died. I know you've noticed this."
Joel could only nod.
"Look…" Tommy grabs onto Joel's shoulder and locks his eyes on him. "You're my brother. I love you, but the nothing's the same anymore. People are killing each other out there, and if you want to survive, you join the group with the most guns; and right now the Fireflies are our best chance. We need to fight against the military. You may not want to help them, but I do."
Tommy releases Joel's shoulder; he picks up his bag and walks toward the door. Tommy closes the door behind him with a small thud, leaving Joel alone, standing in the middle of the vacant room. He turns and walks to the couch. On the coffee table is a photo of him, Tommy, and Sarah. Joel picks it up. As Joel holds back his tears, he stares at the picture. This was before his life was changed forever. In the picture was Tommy, him and his Sarah after one of her soccer games. Sarah was grinning from ear to ear. She had just scored the winning goal in that game and was named that game's MVP.
"I'm sorry Sarah," he whispers "I couldn't stop Tommy. I couldn't stop him..." he places picture back on top of the table and sits down. Joel's head falls into his hands.
There was a banging noise coming from the door. He heard someone shout, "Military Police! Open up!"
Joel slowly gets up and opens the door. As soon he opened it, uniformed men stormed in, looking for signs of the virus and infected. The commanding officer walks in. He stands in the doorway and looks at Joel.
"This whole block is being relocated to the Boston quarantine zone," the commanding officer informed him. The officer looked like he has seen battle up close, his eyes hold signs of war, and his face with scars from fighting against rebels and infected. Joel could recognize this right away. "Collect all your essential belongings and fall in outside with the rest of the residents tomorrow morning at 0700. Only necessities such as food and clothing are allowed. No personal items at this time. All personnel items will be collected and brought up to your new quarters in Boston at a later date."
The officer walks out as his men finished their search of Joel's home. The soldiers leave seconds after their commander.
Joel stands alone once again. He scoffs as he closes the door.
"There's no fucking way I'm moving to Boston." He grabs his backpack and stuffs it with a few extra changes of clothes, a flashlight, some food and water and his pistol with extra ammo. He picks the picture off the coffee table. He takes one last look and decides to put it back. He needed to move on, and keeping that picture with him will only make him hurt even more. Joel sneaks out the back door and starts running. He runs and doesn't look back, even after a guard spots him. He doesn't stop. He refuses to stop until he is far from Dallas, far from the pain of losing Sarah, far from the feeling Tommy's disappointment in him and far from his past. There was no hope with this life. He was ready to start over. He needed it. This was his chance, he didn't care about the infected. If he became infected, he would accept it. He would let the virus kill him slowly. Nothing could hurt him anymore than the trauma of the past five months. The only thing he was focused on now was getting out of there. Maybe even surviving long enough to see Tommy one more time.