Author's Notes: Yeah, I know I left on a cliffhanger, and I bet you're anxious to see what happens next. I was particularly looking forward to writing this chapter. I'm a massive fan of the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, especially his role as Sherlock Holmes in the TV series Sherlock, and I wanted to include a small tribute to that character in this chapter. To any Sherlock fans: I know I didn't do it justice, but like I said it's just a small tribute.

This will be the last of the "lighthearted" chapters, even though I wouldn't call this one lighthearted. What I mean is that starting next chapter the tone of this story will become much more serious. Just a heads up for the future. For now, enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Last Of Us or the characters in this chapter, except the ones I introduce. All credit goes to Naughty Dog.

Brand New Start

CH. 6: Thief

"Someone's broken into our house." The words immediately put Ellie back into survival mode, which she hadn't been in since arriving at Jackson. Joel forcefully opened the door and the two stormed in. He didn't know if the assailant was armed or if he was still even in the house. "Go into the kitchen and check on the food. I'll check upstairs."

Ellie ran over to the kitchen and opened the cabinet which contained all the food that was stocked in the house. It was empty. All their food was gone. Ellie went upstairs to tell the news to Joel. She walked into the bedroom and found him looking under the bed for their backpacks. "It's gone. All the food is fucking gone."

Joel stood up, furious. "Our bags are gone too." In his anger he picked a lamp off the nightstand and threw it against the wall. Ellie ran around to her side of the bed and lifted up the mattress. "What are you doin', Ellie?"

She pulled her pistol out from between the mattress and box spring. "He didn't think to look here."

Joel looked at her, puzzled. "What the hell was your gun doin' under the mattress?"

Ellie looked back and hesitated before answering. "Just in case," she said defensively. "Hey it paid off, didn't it?" she asked as she shrugged her shoulders

Joel sighed and turned away. "Yeah, I guess it did."

"My switchblade was in my bag though." The two stood in silence for a while. They didn't know what they were supposed to do. "Well, now what?"

Joel waited before answering, thinking about how they should handle this. "We… report this to Tommy and Maria. Hopefully they can sort this out." He was hoping that they would be able to catch whoever did this before their stuff was too far gone, but he didn't have a lot of faith. They didn't have anything to go on, until Ellie found something on the floor.

"Hey Joel…" She bent down and picked something up. "I found this."

Joel quickly walked around the bed to her to see what she had. "What is it?" He held out his hand, and Ellie placed a button in it.

"It's not much, but at least we have some evidence," she said.

Joel looked at it, and realized that they weren't much better off than they were before she found the button. She did have a point though; at least they had something to go on. He put the button in his pocket and heard someone enter the house. "Stay here." He walked out of the room and stopped at the top of the steps. "Who's down there?" he called out.

"It's Dean from next door," he replied. Joel went down the steps to see why he had come into their house. When Joel got downstairs Dean asked him "You guys get hit up too?"

Joel was confused at first as to what Dean meant when he said 'too'. Has the thief broken into other people's houses also? "What do you mean 'too'? Did you get robbed?"

"Not just us. With you saying you got hit up, that brings the total up to eight houses." Joel felt sick to his stomach after hearing that. Who in their right mind would do something as low as this? "Come outside with me." Dean led Joel outside and saw that there was a large group of people outside. Joel assumed that these were the people that had been robbed. Dean called out to the group. "Hey! Joel and Ellie got hit up too!"

Someone in the group who Joel had not yet been introduced to responded. "Yeah, well you're not gonna believe this. The diner's been cleared out of all the canned food as well."

"Goddammit!" Dean was understandably fuming, as the whole town was. "Does Tommy know about this yet?"

"Barry went to report this to him. He should be back soon," Connie informed the group. "We have to catch whoever fucking did this. What if my son was there? Adrian's only six, he can't fend for himself."

Joel stepped in to reassure her. "We'll catch him. And besides, I don't think he had any intention of harmin' anyone.

"Why would someone do something like this?" she asked. "What is there to achieve by doing this?"

"I reckon someone just snapped," Joel weighed in. "Maybe someone ran low on supplies and they went off the deep end."

"There has to be some kind of motive," Dean said. "Nobody would do this just because 'they snapped.'"

Joel shrugged his shoulders. "Ya never know with some people."

Someone in the group turned to look down one of the streets and saw two people jogging towards them. "Barry and Tommy are coming." The group moved to meet up with the two men after Tommy was informed of the crime spree someone has committed in his town.

Tommy approached the group. "Now, you guys wanna tell me what the fuck's goin' on around here?"

Dean explained it to him. "During the party, someone hit up eight houses and the diner. Took any and all valuable supplies."

After hearing what Dean said, Tommy had to hold himself back from striking anyone out of anger. "Oh… that pisses me off to no end. Whoever did this has a whole new kind of hell comin' for 'em. You guys got any idea who mighta done this? Any witnesses?"

Someone in the group spoke up. "We've talked to almost the whole town, nobody saw anything."

Someone else chimed in as well. "Nine break-ins and no witnesses. We aren't dealing with a petty thief, this is a seasoned criminal."

"But do we have anythin' to go by? Any leads?" Tommy asked.

"Nothing," Connie said.

Joel remained silent for a brief moment, but felt like he needed to share the lone piece of evidence that they found. "I think I might've found somethin' to help with the investigation."

Tommy immediately and quickly came over to Joel. "Give it to me," he demanded.

Joel placed the button in his hand, and Tommy stood under the streetlight to get as good a look at it as he could. Surely there wasn't enough there to know who committed these burglaries, but that didn't stop Tommy. He examined every millimeter, every detail, taking note of everything. The button itself was faux brass. There were threads of denim still attached. The threads were dirty. There was a strand of something among the denim, but it was not any kind of fabric. Tommy's brain went like a computer that detectives would have used before the outbreak to analyze a piece of evidence looking for possible leads. He spent nearly a minute and a half looking at the button as the group waited with anticipation. He looked at the group, and with a smile and his face said "We got our thief." The rest of the group appeared to be stunned that he had made a conclusion with just that lone piece of evidence. "Alright, give me Joel, Dean, Travis, and Barry," he said as he turned to lead the group to the thief.

"You think you know who did this?" Travis asked.

"I don't think, I'm a hundred percent positive," he assured him.

"How can you know? It's just a button, what could that possibly tell you?"

Tommy gave the four men a rundown of his observations, and how he was able to connect them to one person. "The button is from a denim jacket, that's pretty obvious. How do I know it's a jacket? A button for jeans wouldn't be this big because it wouldn't be able to fit through that little hole."

Dean cut him off. "But there's lots of guys that wear denim jackets. You're wearing one right now."

Tommy continued explaining. "The jacket would have gotten a lotta wear for the button to just fall off on its own, so whoever wore it would have been doin' some manual labor. That narrows it down but not enough. There's dirt on the threads which means that they would have worked a dirty job like with the horses or in the crop fields. That narrows it down further. Dead giveaway: there's a strand of somethin' in with the denim but it ain't fabric. Upon closer look, it's a strand from a corn husk. They were workin' in the corn field, and there's only one person in town that wears a denim jacket every day and works in the cornfield."

The group basked in Tommy's brilliance to be able to determine who did it just from a button, and they all knew who had done it now. "Taylor!" Dean called out.

"Bingo," Tommy said.

"That son of a bitch. You know, I knew he wasn't right all along," Dean added.

"Yeah, I had suspicions about him ever since he showed up at the gate. Rightfully so it looks like. This is his house right here," he said as they approached a run-down single story house. It was probably the house in the worst condition in town. He stuck the button in his jacket pocket and went up to the door. He pounded on the door as hard as he could. "Taylor! Open the Goddamn door!"

"What the hell do you want, Tommy?!" Taylor called from inside.

"It's over! You're busted! Now open the door so you can answer for your crimes!"

"The fuck you goin' on about? I ain't committed no crimes!"

Tommy stepped to the side of the door. "Joel, kick the door down." Tommy got into a runner's stance as Joel kicked in the door. Taylor turned and made a break for the back door, but Tommy ran track in high school, and was easily able to catch him. He then used his wrestling training to put the larger man in a half-nelson before lifting him off his feet and slamming him down onto the hardwood floor face-first. A puddle of blood was left on the floor, along with a tooth. Tommy grabbed him by his jacket, dragged him out of the house, and threw him down the front steps. Taylor tried to make a break for it, but Dean and Travis blocked his path. "Where you goin' Taylor?"

The man turned towards Tommy with blood covering part of his face from where he was slammed into the ground. He was larger than Joel and about five years younger. He was completely bald on top, but what hair he had came down to just above his shoulders. "Tommy! You got a lotta balls comin' into my house and beatin' on me like that!"

"Oh, I got a lotta balls? You're the one who's broken into eight houses and the diner, and I got a lotta balls?"

"The fuck you goin' on about? I ain't broke into nowhere!"

Tommy slowly walked over to Taylor while reaching into his pocket. "No? Cause this was found at the most recent crime scene." He pulled the button out of his pocket, and held it up against the right cuff of Taylor's jacket. "Looks a lot like that button right there. Oh, look…" he moved the button over to the left cuff, which was missing a button. "…your left cuff is missing a button." Tommy threw the button on the ground at Taylor's feet, and took a couple steps back.

Taylor held up his hands, admitting defeat, and put them back down at his sides again. "Alright… ya caught me. But I can explain."

Tommy chuckled at that. "Really? You think you can defend your actions."

"Yeah, just hear me out."

Tommy folded his arms across his chest, and gestured with his right hand for Taylor to tell his story. "Go on. I'm all ears."

Taylor hesitated before starting his defense argument. "I did it for pills."

"I beg your pardon?"

Taylor put on a smile before he explained himself, hoping that it would help get Tommy on his side. "You know I used to run with a group of rogues before I settled here. I was addicted to pain pills, and while I wanted to leave that rogue life behind, I didn't want to leave the pills behind. So your barter guy, Paul, made a deal that I could trade supplies for pills. He'd give me my fix. I ain't had any pills in months and it's been drivin' me outta my mind. That's why I did it."

Tommy was awestruck, and not in a good way. He was awestruck at the sheer stupidity of Taylor and his defense, which he wasn't even sure if he heard correctly because it was so idiotic. "That is the worst defense I have ever heard."

"You ain't buyin' it?"

Tommy stepped forward. "You break into nine places, clean them out, and give me that story expectin' it to get me on your side?"

Taylor shrugged his shoulders. "More or less."

"You may be the stupidest son of a bitch I have ever met in my life."

Taylor was getting defensive. "C'mon Tommy. You have to see where I'm comin' from."

Tommy's voice was filled with anger now. "No, you see where I'm comin' from. I got a town to run, my town has laws. You just broke a bunch of those laws, and I won't have any of it."

"So what are you gonna do 'bout it?"

Tommy moved closer to Taylor until he was mere centimeters from his face. "Hit the road."

"You can't do that."

"Fuck yes, I can. This is my town. My town has laws. When you break those laws you ain't welcome in my town."

"I thought this place was founded on second chances. What happened to second chances?"

"You got your second chance when you stepped into the town. You don't get another second chance. I ain't gonna say it again, show yourself outta my town." Tommy turned and started walking away, when Taylor spoke up again.

"You're makin' a mistake."

Tommy stopped in his tracks, then turned around with his fists hanging by his sides. "You wanna run that by me again?"

"I said you're makin' a mistake…" the smile turned into a very serious, threatening expression. "…a big mistake."

Tommy looked down for a second before responding. "Nah. I don't think I am. Only mistake I ever made was… lettin' your rotten little bitch ass into my town in the first place." He was trying to goat Taylor into taking a swing at him. Tommy was just itching to beat him down, but he didn't want to initiate the scuffle.

"Don't test me, Tommy."

"I had my doubts about you all along. Probably because of that retarded-ass hair you got." He slowly started walking towards Taylor.

"Last warnin', Tommy!"

"You know, you're real cute when you're tryin' to sound threatening. Like a little puppy trying to sound vicious."

Taylor reached into his jacket and pulled out a 9 millimeter pistol aimed right at Tommy. Before anyone could grab him a shot rang out… but not from his gun. A bullet struck the hand holding the gun, severing his middle finger at the first knuckle. He fell to the ground, and the group turned to see Ellie standing with her gun raised. She lowered it and ran up next to Tommy. "Nice shootin' Ellie," he told her.

Dean and Travis grabbed Taylor by his arms and stood him up. Taylor turned to Ellie with a menacing look in his eyes. "You little psychotic bitch!"

"Look at yourself," Tommy said to Taylor. "You got part of your hand blown off by a little girl."

"That how it works, Tommy? Huh? You gonna let your people shoot each other but you throw a shitfest when I try to get a fix?"

Tommy didn't respond to Taylor. Instead he gave instructions to Dean and Travis. "Show him to the gate."

The two moved off with Taylor in their grasp, struggling and shouting. "You're gonna regret this, Tommy! I'll be back, I guarantee it!"

Tommy smiled at Taylor. "Lookin' forward to it. See ya 'round, Tay," he said as he waved to him.

Taylor was still screaming at the men holding him. "Let me go, fuckers. Let me fuckin' go!"

Joel walked up to Taylor and punched him in the jaw, knocking him unconscious.

Tommy went to pick up the gun Taylor pointed at him. He pulled the slide back to reveal that the gun was loaded, and the safety was off. Taylor was planning to use the gun all along. "Shit. That motherfucker wasn't bluffin'." He turned to Ellie as he took the gun. "Thanks for savin' my ass."

"It's my job," she simply said.

Joel and Ellie got back to their house with all their supplies in several bags. "I guess I should be glad you didn't listen to me," Joel told Ellie.

"You should have learned by now that I never do what you tell me to," she said playfully.

"Yeah, and that needs to change."

"Pssh," was her only response.

Joel stood there thinking about how he should tell Ellie about the mission he had the next day. In all the craziness with Taylor he had forgotten about it. "Ellie, there's somethin' I need to tell you."

She looked up at him, slightly worried about what he was going to say. "What is it?"

"Tommy had a whole thing planned where he and a group of some other guys were gonna go out to this building along the road and try and turn it into an outpost for guards. They need to clear the building out first, and I'm gonna be one of the guys to do it. I'll be gone most of the day, so you're gonna need to stay outta trouble."

Ellie did not like the thought of Joel being away for so long. "You can't go," she said.

"I don't have a choice, Ellie. I have to go because three of the guys backed out."

"What if something happens, Joel? What if you don't come back?" She was starting to cry. "If you die out there, I don't think I could go on. You're everything to me. You're the closest I've ever had to having an actual dad. I don't want to lose you."

Joel came over to her and gave her a hug. "I don't want to be away from you either, baby girl. I worry about you every time I'm away from you too. But I swear to you, I'll be back."

She hugged him and buried her face in his chest. Through the tears she was able to give a muffled reply. "Okay."

That concludes chapter 6 of Brand New Start. In the next chapter: The community of Jackson is rattled as tragedy strikes.

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