I do not own The Last of Us. I do own my OC.

THE LAST OF US

It had been nearly thirty minutes since she heard the crash and the gunfire that followed. Whatever 'tourist' came into town probably hadn't survived that encounter with the hunters. Well, they probably were hunters. The military barely ever ventured too far away from the quarantine zones and if they ever did, it was never good. It'd taken four days of being into Pittsburgh before she heard anything that sounded like people inhabiting the city. It had been so quiet, too quiet to the point where she wouldn't dare sleeping because the quiet sounded too good to be true. She now wished she had slept even just a little bit.

Wrapping her jacket around her hand she punched the glass of the nearest window. After clearing it of any shards she looked out, finally seeing a clear path of the stairs. During the outbreak blocking staircases with furniture to clog the way was a brilliant idea, because it stopped both hunters and infected but over the years it'd become just another obstacle. She looked down and frowned. It's a long way down. She thought as she pressed her lips together, going over her idea one more time. Taking her backpack off she threw it out of the window and it landed hard, and loudly, on the metal staircase while she closed her eyes in hopes that no one heard the noise. A few seconds went by and when no sound, aside from the breeze and birds, came to her ears she went and sat on the edge of the window. She looked down and sighed. And she pushed herself off.

As her feet came in contact, rather painfully, with the metal platform she nearly lost her footing but regained it quickly enough to concentrate on the new sounds that were heard. Again? She thought as gunfire welcomed its way to her ears. It couldn't be the tourist, or tourists, from earlier, could it? No tourists survived long enough when entering areas claimed by hunters. If they did…most of them were women and none of them lasted very long. To her right was her way out of the city and to her left were the stairs that led straight down into a back alley, towards the chaos.

"Ah, shit." She muttered under breath as she threw her jacket on, grabbed her backpack and rapidly put it on as she ran down the stairs. Taking a quick right and then a left she saw another two flights of stairs leading into the building where the commotion was heard. She turned her head to her left and gasped, surprised by the two hanging corpses of soldiers.

"Another three soldiers dead – What's it going to take? Give up!" A message read behind the two hanging corpses and with one body on the ground. The bodies were nothing but bones covered with their uniforms. It looked like the hunters had wished this would serve as a form of warning to anyone coming into their part of the city, especially the military. She regained her composure and took off in a jog, going up the stairs. She stopped when nearing the top of the second flight of stairs.

A hunter was standing, his back to the entrance and gun at the ready. Reaching into a pocket in her jacket she wrapped her hand around the pocketknife she left in there at all times. She quietly approached the panicked hunter, making sure she made no sound even if the gunfire could very well cover the sound of her footsteps. Her left hand grabbed his head as her right one, with knife, slit his throat. His body fell limp to the floor as the hunter held at his neck, choking on his own blood as he slowly died. She ran and took cover behind a fallen desk, going for the gun at her hip.

She took note of the books under her feet as she rose from behind the desk, aiming at a hunter's back and squeezing the trigger once. Then twice. The gun fell out of his hand as he fell down to his knees, hitting the ground seconds later. A shot rang and the bullet flew past her head as she crouched down behind the desk once again.

"There's three of them sons of a bitches!" She heard a hunter yell, frowning at his words. "Come outta there bitch!" She rolled her eyes and rose back up again, shooting into the direction of the hunter's voice. She heard him swear and went back to cover, reloading her gun. She hurried as she heard loud heavy footsteps running in her direction. She swiftly turned around, still crouching, and raised her gun to the hunters face, not thinking twice about shooting the man in the face. She fell back, her chest heaving heavily as she dragged herself up to take cover behind a shelf.

"You bitch!"

"What the fuck, man?! She's just a girl! Get her and shoot her in the fucking head!" She scoffed as they continued yelling.

"I'm a bit busy at the moment! That asshole ain't—holy shit!" That hunter turned quiet. The 'tourist'.

The floor cracked to her left and she turned around, her face meeting with a fist as she fell down. She grunted in pain as she crawled on the floor trying to get to her gun, which had fallen a few feet away from her. She received a kick to her ribs, her arms giving out as she fell and rolled on her back. She looked up at the hunter who had a bat at his side, smirk plastered on his face. He lifted the bat to point it at her.

"I got you bitch." She held his gaze, rapidly thinking of an escape route. The hunter suddenly turned around, "What the fu—" A man grabbed the hunter at his neck and shoved his head into the corner of a desk. He did so over and over again, until the hunter stopped moving and fell limp on the ground. The man stared at the dead hunter for a few seconds before going for the gun at his hip, turning around towards her and pointing the gun down at her face.

"Who the hell are you?" The man's gruff voice sent chills down her spine. He definitely wasn't someone she'd want to mess with. She looked from his gun to his eyes, thinking of what to say. Her lips parted but her attention went to the running that came from behind the man.

A young girl appeared from behind him, "Holy shit, Joel." The girl couldn't be older than fifteen. Her hair was an auburn color and tied into a ponytail. The man, Joel, looked back at the girl and told her to stay back as he turned his gaze back towards her.

"Answer. Who are you?" Joel asked again, stepping closer to her.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, "I'm Peyton."

"You alone?" He asked as she nodded, whispering a small 'yeah'. Don't move. Just answer his questions and he'll let you go. At least, she hoped he would. "Ain't lying are ya?"

"I'm not…" She began, staying quiet until he gave her a nod to continue. "Just tryin' to find my way outta this place when I heard the commotion."

He frowned, "And you decided to come and look instead of runnin' the other way? That's pretty crazy if you ask me."

"Good thing I didn't ask then…but we live in a crazy world where people do crazy things…" she stopped, "I guess that makes me normal according to todays' standards." His jaw tightened. Don't be a smartass Peyton. Just shut up and be nice.

She caught the girl's gaze before looking back at Joel, "Call me crazy or whatever the hell you want but I made the decision to risk my ass for you people even," she emphasized, stopping him from cutting her off, "if you never asked for help."

His jaw tightened then slackened, "What do you want?" Her eyes widened at his question and she scoffed, making him frown. "You find this funny?"

She cleared her throat, "Well, I want that gun outta my face and to get out of the city. Been looking for a way out since I came in…" she licked her lips and pushed herself with her arms to rest on her elbows, "whole freaking city is a mess."

His stance loosened up and so did the tension in his face, "That what you want? For me to escort you outta here?"

She shot him a look, "I don't need to be escorted. What I need is a way out…" she paused, "so it's either you let me go and we go our separate ways or we stick together until we get out of the city, assuming that's what you're trying to do."

He bit the inside of his cheek then took a step back, lowering the gun as he walked towards her gun. He took it in his hand under her watchful eyes and looked at it before giving her a look. She, very slowly, got up on her feet, holding her side with one hand as she came to stand in front of him. He handed the gun back to her and she stared at it, taking it in her hands. Looking up at him her eyes flying to meet his cautious gaze. She then extended her hand out, handing the gun to him. He looked at her and she gave a shrug. He took her gun and shoved it in his bag. He still cautiously watched her every move and she cocked an eyebrow when he gestured for her to walk in front when she waited for him to lead the way. She led the way out of the building, tracing her steps back to where she had been earlier.

They descended down the stairs and she, again, looked at the hanging soldiers before looking down at her feet. She watched as the girl looked around the alley, probably trying to scavenge anything they could find.

She turned around to look at Joel, "You know the way out of here?" She asked, him looking up at the sky before looking at her.

Hesitantly he answered, "There's a bridge…if we can get to it, it'll take us out of the city."

She nodded and started walking, turning to give him another look, "Then I'll be out of your way." She said.

She heard a sigh leave his mouth as she turned to her right and slowly made her way to the stairs she'd been on before. Arriving to the small platform between the first and second flight of stairs she looked at the torn apart railing where, right under them, a truck was strategically placed. With her foot she cleared the glass from her earlier and sat on the edge, the pain from the earlier fall reminding her to never jump from too high again. She pushed herself off and landed, without pain this time, on the truck. Walking to the edge of the truck she did the exact same and landed on the ground, an alley clearly leading unto a bigger street seen to her right. She waited for the other two to come down before continuing.

Finally exiting the small alley it opened up on a much larger street filled with wrecked cars and overflowing with water, as well as vegetation growing on the building as it reclaimed its place in the world. The moment they jumped over a cement block they were welcomed with the sound of voices in the distance. Joel quickly hid behind an old rusted taxi as they followed behind him, crouching down in the hopes to not be seen.

"Alright," he paused, his head peeking to see where the men had gone, "I don't think they saw us."

She heard the young girl sigh in relief, "Whoa, there's our bridge." She pointed towards said bridge and relief slowly set inside of Peyton, realizing she'd soon be out of their air and on her way to somewhere new.

"Let's keep at it." He said, looking back to the both of them. "Come on." He darted off in a light jog as he headed further down the street, leaving both girls to follow behind him, but before Peyton could follow the young girl clearing her throat caught her attention as she turned towards her.

Fidgeting slightly she spoke, "I'm Ellie by the way."

"Peyton." Giving each other the lightest of smiles they were called by Joel to hurry as they rapidly caught up to him, walking on top of a car that was half buried under water.

"What's going on?" Peyton asked, meeting Joel's eyes for a mere second as he looked back at their dilemma.

"I can't make that jump." He indicated towards the distance between the car and the overturned vehicle.

Ellie walked beside him, "If you can get me up there I can move that plank." She reasoned as he looked around, squinting as he tried finding anything that would possibly help him get her up there.

"Wait here." He told them as he entered the green-looking water, sending Peyton a look that said 'watch her' as she nodded. She was rarely frightened but he held such a hard gaze when he looked at someone that she would never attempt to defy his orders.

And there went Joel, swimming away as he looked for something that would allow Ellie to get up unto the vehicle and allow for them to make their way across, but just as he was swimming further away their heard the sound of gunfire as she spotted what looked like some kind of vehicle making its way across the overpass.

"Shit."

"What was that?" Ellie asked.

Shaking her head, Peyton looked to Ellie, "I don't know and I don't want to find out to be completely honest."

The sound of water moving caught their attention and there was Joel with a pallet, slowly making his way back towards them until he finally reached them. Not making him wait a second, Ellie jumped on the pallet as soon as he placed it close enough to the car and he made his way towards her destination. Ellie easily climbed up and Joel turned towards Peyton, indicating that it was time for her to get in the water.

Letting herself fall as gently, and quietly, as she could in the water they swam towards a container with an opened door and she followed him in the total darkness. Once they exited the dark container she recognized what their surroundings was before its destruction. It was a coffee shop.

Oh, how she missed her coffee.

They made their way out of the water and after scrounging for supplies they met up with Ellie atop the container, crossing over towards a hotel. Peyton kept quiet throughout the search in the hotel lobby, continuously looking for anything that could help them.

As she walked around she found a ladder, attempting to lift it but failing as the ladder was too heavy for her to carry. Running around the scaffolding, her eyes searching for Joel as she found him and called out to him. His head snapped around and watched her as she raised a hand pointing towards the scaffolding.

"Found somethin'?" He asked.

"Ladder." He nodded and headed her way, Ellie in tow. He walked around her and finally set his eyes on the ladder.

"Now we're gettin' somewhere." He mumbled as he grabbed and lifted the ladder, bringing it over to where they needed to go. He climbed up first, hurrying Ellie to climb second and she did, leaving Peyton to climb last. "Let's go."

"Fancy." Peyton mumbled under her breath as she took in the size of the hotel.

"Watch your steps." She heard Joel tell Ellie as she looked up, seeing them already walking up the stairs and was quick to catch up to them. As they reached the next floor they were met with a blocked hallway and blocked staircase, boxing them in as it left them with the broken window as an only option to continue further.

As they stepped onto the rock-covered roof the voices of men discussing with each other were heard and they immediately crouched down, quickly taking cover to avoid being seen. Leaning her back against the flat surface she breathed heavily and looked to her left where Joel was crouching, peeking his head out to figure out where the men were inside the hotel. Joel turned around and met her gaze as he reached inside his bag, looking down for a second before looking back at her. She held his gaze, searching his eyes for whatever it is he was trying to tell her.

His hand moved towards her, causing her to look down as she caught sight of the object in his hand before looking back at him, her eyes wide in surprise, "I'm thinkin' you're gonna need that."

It was her gun.

Well, it took me a long while to post again for this story and I'm unsure of how I feel about this chapter but it's a question of getting into the rhythm. And it also might have to do with the fact that I'm exhausted.

I don't know how long this story will go on for. I don't know if I'll cover the whole game but if there is stuff you'd want for me to cover, send me a message and I'll definitely consider it. =)

Once the story is done I'll definitely go over the story and fix it if I feel it needs to be, which I think it may but it may also be because I criticize myself a lot.

Reviews are very well appreciated! Constructive comments are also appreciated, but please no bashing.

Enjoy! =)