American Dreams
Disclaimer: This is a canon story that takes place before the events of the Left Behind. I don't own The Last of Us as that is owned by Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog, and Sony. BUT if I did own The Last of Us this would have been made along with Left Behind for some killer back-to-back DLC content.
"The American Dream Doesn't come to those who fall asleep!"
– Gerald R. Ford-
Prologue: Big Brother's Truth
"You're positive there's no infected?" Ellie asked unsure why they were traveling through an old 18th-century building that was filled with spores. Her gas mask goggle sockets were foggy peering over the shoulder of her guardian Howl.
"Entire QZ is more or less secure and always has been. That doesn't mean the dead don't leave a piece of themselves behind. Eight years back they had this whole awareness campaign going on about keep your mask on or you'll die a moron!" Explained Howl getting a slight chuckle from Ellie over his shoulder. He was giving Ellie a piggyback ride up the stairs as he had promised her on her birthday. Even with a 45-pound flamethrower strapped to his back, he went up the fire escape like a triathlete.
Howl wasn't like other Fedra soldiers. Howl wore the standard dark blue camouflage military uniform all commissioned Fedra soldiers in the Boston QZ were required to wear. Unlike most Fedra soldiers Ellie usually saw the soldier wearing a khaki-colored beret over his scarred head a signifier of a ranger. Tonight he replaced his beret with his anti-fungal respirator gas mask. Sergeant Howl took another breath, his respirator protecting him from an airy barrier of misty yellow spores.
"So when are you going to show off your cool flamethrower?" Ellie pondered still chuckling from the dumb Fedra slogan.
"Right now!" Answered Sergeant Howl opening the fire escape door to the dark open world.
Overgrown ivies covered the open rooftop just across the woods surrounding the Old North Church. This would be Ellie's fifth time visiting the last fully preserved historical monument in the entire Boston QZ. The soldier then pulled Ellie off his back. Pulling off his anti-fungal respirator and igniting his flamethrower. An arcing stream of flames burst from the barrel of his flamethrower into an already-made firepit. Howl proclaimed, "You think they'd give this toy to a manic that misbehaves!"
"Do they?" Asked Ellie.
"What do you think you're gonna do one day Ellie? You know how many times I've bailed you out from being tossed out into the general population!" Answered Sergeant Howl. The lit end of the flamethrower died causing Ellie's smile to wane.
"I haven't done anything wrong though!" Ellie countered. It was true she often got in fights in the past and Sergeant Howl was always there to save the day.
"Ellie, when you get sent to the real deal Fedra school. Bad-mouthing officers, skipping drills, and your terrible taste in music will follow you around until the day you have your first assignment. You're just lucky I met you at the right time. The head principal was heavily considering throwing you out onto the streets after you tried running away for the seventh time!" Said Howl who simply shook his head around the flames of the firepit.
"I stopped running away and have done my best to not start any fights whatsoever! Because of you." Ellie said in a near whisper her emerald eyes beaming at the nonchalant Fedra officer.
He was a tall pale man in his early thirties that was the embodiment of Captain America. Howl took a seat on an empty ivy-covered bench and looked out into the dark forests surrounding the Old North Church and the walls over the horizon. The former Army Ranger growled before shouting, "Know what's out there?"
"Walls and ocean." Answered Ellie while sitting across the rooftop Indian style.
"Tsk, smartass brat!" Replied Sergeant Howl while placing his flamethrower on the bench, "Know why I look after you?"
Ellie raised her scarred eyebrow, her emerald eyes wide in surprise, "Cause I'm your little sister?"
"No!" Answered Howl while shaking his head and with a loud laugh continued, "I may call you little sister from time to time, but as far as you and I are concerned you're just a friend. You're not my daughter and I'm not your father or brother. You'll be on your own one of these days fighting against the insurgency! Do you know that?"
"Think I'm stupid? Last time we were here you told me the same thing. About I'm the future and will one fight the Fireflies!" Ellie answered with some venom, she glared at Sergeant Howl. He was the only Fedra soldier who stood up to the heads of the orphanage and often went out of his way to give her candy, take her out of the orphanage, and even keep her away from getting punished for her actions. Now he was going down a route that made Ellie afraid and she could only say, "What is this all about anyways? Why did you sneak me out of the orphanage tonight?"
"Because I owe a debt!" Answered Sergeant Howl, his hands rubbing his clean-shaven cheeks anxiously.
"And how does this debt concern me?" Ellie asked curiously looking past the flames to the only person she would have considered a guardian to her in the Boston QZ.
"Ellie, I made a promise a long time ago to a good man… he was an officer like me in the Ranger corp. He was my superior. He lived here in Boston his whole life along with his lover. She was one of the most beautiful women in the entire QZ. Every man from the Old North Church to Congress Street wanted to court her but this woman cared little for all the attention she had on her back. Then one day something interesting happened the good man and the pretty woman fell in love." Ranted Sergeant Howl looking back into Ellie's curious emerald orbs.
"What does this have to do with us sneaking out to see the Old North church?" Ellie asked unable to grasp what Howl was going on about.
"Wanna know why I look after you? Every fight you get into, every little crumb you steal from the kitchen, every little infraction I'm always there backing you up. Ellie, you're last name is Williams?" Sergeant Howl tried to explain only to ask Ellie the rhetorical question.
"You knew my father?" Questioned Ellie unable to fathom the information she was hearing for the first time, "What was he like? Who was he? Is he alive?"
Every question brought the thirteen-year-old girl higher off the ivy covered rooftop until she was nearly shouting down at Sergeant Howl. He looked at Ellie sadly unable to say a word. The intensity of Ellie's eyes grounded the man to his ivy covered bench. Placing his hands at his side the Fedra Ranger looked Ellie in the eyes and said in a near whisper, "Your father went by the name of Joseph Williams or good ol' Joe as we called him."
"Joseph Williams." Repeated Ellie bewildered by the revelation.
"Yes, good ol' Joe. Fourteen years ago he was about to be transferred to the Stanley Island QZ over in New York City. He would have been under General Jefferson Green right under the head of the entire QZ. Told me he was going to bring his entire family over, but your mother put her foot down. Then came the day he had to be deployed. He left without Anna… everyone thought she died. He died about ten years ago Ellie long before I even knew who you were." Finished Sergeant Howl his head staring at his feet and his chest shrinking as if he had been exercised of guilt.
"Both of my parents are dead. Wh-why? Why are you telling me this?" Cried Ellie unable to fathom how Sergeant Howl knew about her father. What if sergeant Howl was lying? No that wasn't possible. Could it?
"Ellie, I wanted to tell you this because I'm being deployed." Answered Howl, which did little to calm Ellie down who felt like her heart was hollow and about to tear.
"Where!" Ellie shouted.
"Denver QZ, in a week." Began Howl getting up from the bench. "Middle America, the link between east and west. Fireflies are everywhere Ellie especially out west. To me they're a bunch of multiplying cockroaches who destroy everything around them. When I'm done exterminating the cockroaches maybe one day I'll come back and see you grown up and married to someone you love. Such is the life of a Ranger!"
Howl then walked over to Ellie and patted her right shoulder.
"Come follow me!" Called Howl before moving to the edge of the rooftop. The firepit blazing behind their backs. Howl smirked, leading Ellie behind the fire exit and climbing a short seven-foot-tall ladder. He walked to the edge of a platform made of wood going from the fire exit rooftop to the adjacent rooftop of another building. The other building had cracked walls with vines growing out of artillery holes. It was only seven feet higher than the one they were currently on. Ellie climbed up the ladder and stood behind Howl.
"You don't expect me to cross that?" Asked Ellie, not sure what they were up too, but at least she wasn't so caught up in her thoughts anymore.
"This is just wood see." Said Howl with a smirk as he crossed the platform to the other side, "If you have the heart of a ranger you'd cross the platform."
Howl held out a hand to Ellie who followed the older man's example. Helping Ellie down from the platform and walking over to the edge of the rooftop eastward. Ellie peered out northeast from the half-crumbled rooftop wall. She saw the Old North Church outlined in a dark orange hue because of the still burning firepit on the ivy-covered rooftop.
"I spoke to Joseph almost fifteen years ago Ellie. I don't remember much but the whole squad was up here after we thought we defeated the Fireflies during the first war. You wouldn't believe this place…" Began Howl his wide jawed mouth nearly shut his teeth clattering for fifteen seconds.
"This place? Maybe before the outbreak this place was different. My whole life I've never seen nothing but crumbling walls and more orphans arriving for Social Studies. Yesterday Mr. Louis said something about Americans dreaming, but all I've ever dreamed about since I met you is you staying. Please stay Howl! Haven't you done enough for Fedra?" Ellie looked up to Howl who stood towering 6 feet 3 inches over Ellie's small 4-foot 10-inch frame.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"You know I can't. My wife already deals with two crying kids at home. If she wasn't so wound up, I'd have taken you back home years ago. Since the fireflies destroyed the supply depot in February, I have to work double the shifts just to bring food on the table." Howl counseled gently while giving Ellie a very light hug.
"Please! You're the only person I trust in Boston!" Ellie said loudly hoping the Fedra ranger would listen. Instead, Sergeant Howl ignored her.
"Ellie, your father saved my life the day the outbreak started. He was a legend among the Boston QZ rangers. I was a hell raiser like you, grew up a street rat, skipped school, and was on a bad path. Then the outbreak happened, turns out Fedra needed rangers. I was placed in with the rangers, orders from your pops. You wouldn't understand Ellie, your father sacrificed everything to save us kids who didn't have families or futures. Fedra expected us to be nothing but cannon fodder for C&D and S&R missions. Your father saved my life a dozen times. This QZ wouldn't be standing if it wasn't for your father leading the Rangers." Howl said, turning away from Ellie, revealing a long orange glowing scar that ran up the back of his neck up to the top of his head.
C&D stood for "clear and hold" a strategy employed by Fedra early on after the outbreak. S&R missions revolved around searching for survivors and rescuing them back to the QZ's. They were archaic military strategies used in the past to combat CBI, also known as the cordyceps brain infection. A fungal parasitic disease that made whoever unfortunate enough to be infected evolve into monsters that would consume and attack whatever wasn't infected around them. Of course, Fedra couldn't defeat the deadly fungus.
No one could.
"Then what made the rangers so badass?" Ellie asked curiously why Howl always was given respect and leeway with everyone in the QZ.
"Know this Ellie, Fedra is the only thing keeping what's left of humanity from having to endure the brutality beyond those walls. Us rangers have been on the front lines since the very beginning of the outbreak. Many of us died," Howl solemnly said trailing off but then staring at an abandoned machine gun nest, "But we saved so many more. During those years just four rangers could clear half-a-thousand infected from an area!"
"Bullshit!"
"Yes too!"
"If you guys were so badass then why haven't you cleared the city?" Questioned Ellie.
"Those were the hay days! These days are different, enough said! We haven't done any C&D and S&R missions since the Oh, So, great Attorney General Arthur Monroe thought it better to preserve resources. A Fedra grunt is more likely to die from some Firefly than an infected! Bunch of lousy good-for-nothing terrorists!" Howl said with disdain in his voice for both Arthur Monroe and the Fireflies.
"What did my dad tell you all those years ago to America's future badass?" Asked Ellie, trying to bring Howl away from his rants on the fireflies.
"I'm probably one of the only ones alive who remembers Joseph's speech. Everyone thought Marlene was dead. The entire QZ was celebrating. People were kissing each other on every corner and every kid in the QZ was playing in the streets far after curfew. This dump for once felt alive. A home worthy of preserving! Joseph Williams brought our squad and fifty other soldiers picnicking below this machine gun nest." Howl said his right hand pointed to the dark horizon. Ellie watched intently as Howl began to reenact Josephs's speech.
"Your father talked that day about peace and the American Dream. Everyone in this QZ dreams every day and night. Most people dream they'll survive to see the next day. Joseph called this phenomenon American Dreams if everyone in America dreamed about a specific purpose. If that purpose was to improve this QZ everyone's dreams would come true. Maybe, just maybe, one day, this war with the infected will end. One day, American Dreams will be about something that isn't about death and survival!" Finished Sergeant Howl his eyes watery.
"You think my dad was right?" Asked Ellie surprised and happy her father could have hoped for such a world.
"I didn't give that speech any justice, but when I heard it that day I wanted nothing more in this world than to believe he was right. Tsk, then again, the American Dream was dead long before this outbreak ever happened." Explained Sergeant Howl with a loud sigh.
"I hope he was right," Ellie said sadly.
"I might sound like a dinosaur trying to explain the world to you, but it's late little sister. Time to head back, before you get in more trouble!" Laughed the Fedra ranger who gave a silent prayer to the Old North Church one final time.
Ellie walked across the platform to the previous building leaving Sergeant Howl by himself by the ruined machine gun nest. She thought she heard him sadly say, "I'm going to miss you Boston!"
This is the prologue. If this opening is to your liking please follow, favorite, and review. Thought this was a Last of Us story worth putting into story format as its canon. American Dreams was a short 4-issue comic book that tells the tale of Ellie meeting Riley and their adventure across the Boston QZ. Sergeant Howl is based on an unnamed canon Fedra soldier from the comic. Wanted to expand on his character as he and Ellie shared a mutual relationship where he protected Ellie from being thrown out of Fedra school.
Other than thank you all so much for making it this far!