The Last of Us Fanfiction Alternate Ending

4/23/15

Editor's Note: I came up with this idea in mid-2014 I think, but for some reason didn't write it up till this year.

Setting: Right after Ellie was saved by Joel at the Firefly hospital, at the end of the game.

While Joel was transporting a sleeping Ellie, he was thinking about the event that just occurred 20 minutes ago. Shooting that woman…listening to her speak of Ellie being a test subject on another attempt at a cure…trying to understand why the Fireflies lied this whole time. He thought of the innocent soldiers that he had to kill to get to Ellie and how they could have seen the truth in all the chaos. Truthfully speaking, they were soldiers obeying orders from people that thought they knew how to solve the worldwide crisis. They knew nothing of fixing this, yet.

Joel thought of how he might have saved the woman he shot. Maybe she could have realized what she was about to do and turn from it? Naw…she made that choice once she had placed the IV lines in her body. Joel would think about that moment for a while, but now since Ellie is free, he needs to decide what to do next.

Driving down the former interstate in a Ford pick-up truck, seeing the moss taking over the concrete road lanes like vines growing on a long branch, he came to a decision that Ellie must not know the truth. This decision was for her safety; to keep her image of the Fireflies being the "saviors to the world" alive. Suddenly he heard a small moan in the back seat. Ellie was awakening from the drugs that were put inside her from the hospital. "Mhhhmm cough cough…where are we?" she croaked. Joel replied, "Safe." Simple and to the point. Where they would go is what they discuss next.

Back at the hospital, the remaining soldiers and medical personnel grouped together and decided it was time to leave to the next Firefly refuge. That place was a fifteen acre campground located to the south of where they currently were at, but it was a solid 4 hour drive if they found working vehicles. So the new leader of this group explained the need to find working cars, trucks…anything with four wheels and a working engine with gas. There was a gas station outside the hospital that four of the soldiers got reparable recently without an electric pump. Somehow it didn't get destroyed when this hell on earth first began.

Out of 46 soldiers and 18 doctors that were at the hospital, there was one soldier that had not shown up to the group meeting. 5 soldiers were sent to find him. Each day for 4 days, they reported back to their leader that nothing was found. That was going to change very soon.

On the fifth day of the search, they located the missing soldier in a shed near the hospital. He was in lots of intense pain…he had been bitten two days ago by a clicker, but the infection was taking its time turning the soldier into an infected pile of skin. It was his left calf that got bit while on patrol. He never got the message, from the messengers sent out by the leader, of the group meeting because he wasn't seen by them. That was a huge mistake. Located on the fifth day by the search team, they realized time was short; this man needed medical assistance now. The five soldiers took him, quickly, to the medical staff, showing what he had come across. They were both shocked and excited: this was another opportunity to find a cure! That little girl they once had was taken by the man with the brown backpack and had escaped earlier in the day, so they were out of the picture.

The group's leader saw the opportunity and he okayed the procedure to surgically remove the bite lump that was growing off his calf. This was an extremely and painstakingly complicated surgery. It took two hours, but there was making sure the wound was completely clean and sanitary. Time of recovery for the patient was expected to take three days, while the process of looking for a cure took as long as necessary.

To many peoples surprise, including the group's leader, a cure was found several days later. They reversed engineered the process of the bite's deformation into a parasitical virus with some of the patients own blood from inside the wound. It's hard to explain in simple words, so the medical engineers showed a small syrete of the liquid to their leader. He authorized one test subject…a dog that they kept around to keep the soldiers company. Not many liked the dog…he was prone to biting and being overly aggressive, and had a bite mark that was mutating slower than normal. Everyone was okay with this. Thus the cure was given. One day…two days…three days..5 days passed, and something incredible happened: the dog was nearly completely healed!

This was what humanity needed, this cure reversed engineered from human blood and a bite mark. This would change everything, for the good of all. Now they needed to find a way to mass produce it and spread the good news!

"Safe? Better than the hospital, for sure." Ellie's drugs were still wearing off, and she hesitated on how to thank Joel for what he just did, "Joel…Thanks. Thanks a LOT." Joel wasn't sure what to say either, "Ah huh…Ellie, mind telling me what they were 'bout to do to you back there?"

"I overheard them before they put me to sleep; they thought they knew how to find a cure. I was thinking this was more bullcrap, but they were really insistent on it."

Joel replied, "Not no more. Maybe they did finally find a cure to all this darn BS…I don't really know what to believe. Are there more Fireflies's out there looking for cures?"

After a moment of hesitation, Ellie replied, "Yup, there sure are. None of them probably have gotten very close."

"Ok…then we had better gear up, find some gas somewhere so we don't run out and get ambushed by Clickers, and get a move on. There is a refugee camp 'round here that Tess once told me about….so that's where we head after we find some supplies. "

"Yeah…Gotcha", she nodded, with a look of rekindled hope in her eyes.

"First thing to find, after finding some spare gas, maybe even a new vehicle and gas, is ammo. Then if we can't find you and I new clothes, then the refugee camp ought to spare some. We've been in these rags for far too long. Lastly, let's be careful and find some grub...maybe" Joel stated.

"Sure thing!"

"After all this…this crap is over, or done for now, we need to talk about your future. Don't you worry about mine. You…are what matters most to me now. I had a daughter, as I once told you, and she would want to make sure you are okay. Heck, you two would have been good friends, now since I think about it." Joel cracked the first smile Ellie had seen from him since they found the giraffes a few hours ago. The small thought of remembering his daughter nearly brought a tear to his weary eyes.

"I wish I knew her.", Ellie replied, with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Oh, the other hand, I happened to run across a couple of those black tapes that have music on them…back in the last town we were in. Both say "AC-DC" on them. Does this make you all nostalgic?!"

"I know who they were, but they were before my time…way before my time. Still, I thought they were pretty darn good band."

"Oohhh…that's what they are. Cool! Well what are ya waitin for?" Ellie hands Joel both tapes, assuming the tape player inside the pick-up still worked. He slid one gingerly in the open slot, hit the play button, and it began to play the first track. "This will make this trip much more relaxing."

Joel couldn't help but chuckle and give a small laugh. He felt better than he had in days. "It sure will."