Fun fact: I posted the next few chapters on AO3... forgot to post them here. Oops. Anyway, with the arrival of HBO's TLOU adaptation, enjoy!

Fifteen Years Later

The knocking on the door jolted Tina from her nightmares.

It was with a sigh that she sat up on her bed, still dressed in her clothes from yesterday and her head pounding; she should have known that drinking before bed was a bad idea, but last night she simply hadn't cared. It was a sorry excuse for a bed, she reflected mournfully: a lumpy mattress with a near-flat pillow and not even a blanket - she'd traded her last one for bullets. It wasn't too bad, she reminded herself, given that it was summer and she didn't really need the blanket anyway; she'd be able to trade for a new one closer to winter, so long as she could find someone willing to trade one for ration cards or meat.

There was more knocking on the door and she huffed as she stood up. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming…"

As she crossed the small room, she gave herself a cautionary sniff; her clothes smelled fine enough, and it certainly wasn't worth changing them right now. She used her fingers to brush some of the tangles from her short hair, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and took a deep breath before unbolting the door and giving knob a turn.

When the door swung open, her stomach sank at the realization of who it was.

"Jacob," Tina said in way of a greeting.

Jacob looked somewhat nervous as he eyed her, clearly not sure now about his decision to see her. He looked even worse than the last time she'd seen him, and that had been at least six months ago; he had once been rather portly, even with the meagre rations those who lived in their Quarantine Zone were given, but now his clothes were sagging off of him. He hadn't shaved for a long time, his scruff already turning into a beard, his hair was in desperate need of a trim, and his eyes were drooping under the weight of the bags underneath them.

To be fair, she imagined she didn't look much better.

Tina cleared her throat and opened the door wider. "Come in."

"Thanks." His voice was hoarse too, she noticed as she closed the door behind him before leaning against it; the man simply looked around the room before eying her. "You been drinking again?"

"You come here to lecture me?" She muttered, glaring at him half-heartedly.

To his credit, Jacob looked apologetic as he shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. How… How you been holding up, Tina?"

"Fine," Tina said in a deadpan. "Fan-fucking-tastic."

He winced. "Yeah, sorry… Stupid question."

She merely gave a hum before going over to the table where she'd left her bottle of whiskey and glass last night; she poured herself a shot before casting the man a glance. "Want one?"

"Uhh… No. No, thanks."

"Suit yourself." She shrugged before knocking back the drink; it burned going down her throat, but she ignored it. "So… To what do I owe the pleasure, Kowalski?"

"Hey, I just wanted to check on you," Jacob mumbled defensively. "No need to get like that with me… And you know you can call me Jacob, Tina, we've known each other four years."

Tina shrugged again, putting her glass down and wondering if it was still too early in the evening to have another one. "Sorry. Haven't seen you for a while, so…"

"Because you've been hiding," He stated with a frown. "I wanted to come and talk to you - I came by for months - but every time I knocked you were either out or you ignored me. In the end, I stopped bothering. Hell, hardly anyone's seen you in months, Tina!"

"I like being alone," She muttered.

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his beard. "Yeah, well…"

She knew she was being impolite and unfair to him; Jacob was a good guy, too good for this world they now found themselves a part of in fact, and so she decided to lighten up on him. "How have you been, Jacob?"

"Honestly? Not great," Jacob admitted, shaking his head. "Haven't been eating or sleeping since… since what happened."

Tina grit her teeth together. "That makes two of us."

"Not that anyone's been eating much anyway," He pointed out miserably. "Everyone's been on half-rations for six weeks. People are crazy hungry now."

"Figures," She snorted, almost to herself. "Fucking military scumbags."

"Yep," He exhaled. "Pretty much."

An awkward silence settled over them; Tina wondered what the hell she was supposed to say - she had only ever talked to Jacob because of his relationship with Queenie, and now-

She poured herself a shot and necked it without thinking twice.

"You been in a fight?" Jacob asked, eying the cut on her brow.

"Something like that," She said dryly.

He frowned, folding his arms. "Who did that to you? Soldiers?"

"Just some assholes," And then, at his look, "It's nothing, I just got jumped on my way back into the QZ. I'll live - they won't."

Jacob sighed, finally moving his gaze away from her. "Jesus, Tina…"

"It was them or me," Tina reminded him, unable to keep the spite out of her tone now. "So, what is it that you actually want, Jacob? Or do you just take pride in judging me?"

"I wasn't."

"Bullshit, I can see it on your face-"

"I'm gonna be leaving the QZ soon," He admitted.

Tina stopped short and furrowed her brows. "Are… Are you serious?"

"I got served the papers this morning," He stated quietly. "I've been selected for 'outside work duty'."

"Urgh," Tina rolled her eyes. "Such crap. Soldiers are supposed to handle the outside shit."

"Yeah, well, I'll make sure to tell them that," Jacob muttered. "I just… I wanted to stop by to let you know. I leave tomorrow morning."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And…" He hesitated now, seemingly unsure as to whether or not to continue on. "And I guess I wanted to tell someone other than Millie."

She all but slammed the shot glass down on the table before striding across the room, wiping the back of her mouth with her sleeve. "Great. Good to know."

"Hey, what… what are you-?"

She picked up her rucksack from the floor and shouldered it without looking at him. "Good for you, Jacob, honestly. Must be nice to be able to move on to some new piece of ass."

"Tina, that's not what I-"

When she turned to glare at him, it was with venom and anger. "That's all that she was to you, wasn't it? Some blonde little hussy you could have your way with before moving on?"

For the first time since she had met him, Jacob was furious. "You've got it all wrong, Tina, and you know it! You know it wasn't like that between Queenie and I, you damn well know how we felt about each other!"

"Which is why you're fucking someone else already," She spat at him. "But yeah, sure, you loved her-"

"Queenie's been dead a year, Tina!" He snapped. "She's gone! What do you want me to do, spend the rest of my sorry life alone and crying for her?! Being as alone and miserable as you are?!"

It was obvious he regretted his words the moment they came out; as his eyes widened and he began to splutter apologies, Tina turned so that he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes and began to walk away. "I'm going - you better be fucking gone when I get back."

"Tina, I didn't mean-"

The rest of his words were lost as she slammed the door on him.

It was still a few hours until curfew - enough time to get a job or two done. Hopefully that would be enough time for Jacob to disappear.

Tina clenched her fists as she marched up the street, willing herself to calm down and for her tears to go away - she refused to cry, especially over this . Why should she care about Jacob or whatever he was doing? She no longer had any reason to talk to him, not now, hadn't for more than a year. No, she didn't care: if he wanted to stick his dick in whatever girl held his fancy then that was his problem, not hers.

She kept her head low as she passed a group of people being forced out of their building and onto their knees by a trio of soldiers; one had a device in hand that he pressed up against their necks, moving on when he saw they were clean. As he reached the third person, however, the device beeped - everyone knew what they meant.

"Got a live one."

"No, no, please, I'm clean! The scan is wrong-!"

The gunshot echoed through the street; someone sobbed. Tina forced back a shudder and walked even faster.

As she turned the corner and saw the heavily guarded security gate that separated her area of the QZ from the neighbouring one, she took a long deep breath; she really did need to calm down or the soldiers would never let her pass. She had the papers that would let her through the gate, but if they suspected something was even remotely out of the ordinary, it would be her neck on the line. There was already a supply truck that had just been waved through, probably full of more ammunition than survival necessities like food, and she had to try not to let her eyes linger too long on the heavy guns that the guards carried.

"Ma'am, got your ID?"

She took it from her pocket and unfolded it before presenting it to the man who had spoken. "There you go."

He glanced at her ID before looking at her face again. "What's your business here?"

"Got the day off," She lied easily. "Visiting a friend."

"Alright, move on through."

"Thanks-"

Before she could take a single step, an explosion of white knocked her backwards and off her feet. Her ears were ringing and eyes burning as she clambered up and looked around; the gate was now tightly shut, the soldiers on the other side loading their guns as they headed towards where the van they he waved through minutes earlier had exploded.

"Fireflies!"

"They're running, shoot them!"

"Call for back-up!"

The soldier who had checked her papers waved her away from behind the bars. "Get outta here! Go!"

Tina didn't need to be told twice; she quickly turned and raced back down the street she had come from, pushing a woman who got in her way. She heard the sirens start to blare, the spoken warning accompanying them loud and clear.

"Attention. Checkpoint Five is now closed until further notice. All civilians must clear the surrounding area immediately."

Instead of heading back to the apartment building she used as a home base, she dodged up a set of stairs and through a set of double doors; to anyone else, it looked like a normal building - but she knew better.

"So much for the easy route," She huffed to herself, slamming the door shut behind her and looking around to see where she was going. "Right… left."

They're gonna close all the checkpoints, she thought to herself in irritation, which means I'm gonna have to go around the outside… Fantastic.

As she turned the corner, she saw the men in the corridor tense before immediately relaxing - they knew her, she was one of them and would not snitch on them for the secret entrances and tunnels they all used. It was against the QZ rules, but who even followed those anyway? They greeted her as she passed before returning to their conversations; she merely nodded to them in greeting, her mind fixed on what she had to do.

"Hey, Goldstein, you see that shit?" One man called, falling into step beside her.

She snorted, not slowing down. "I was there. Hey, how's the East tunnel looking?"

"I just used it - it's clear, no patrols or anything. Where you off to?"

"Paying Abernathy a visit," She said casually, hefting her bag further over her shoulders.

"You too?"

This stopped her in her tracks for a moment. "Oh? Who else is looking for him?"

"Travers. He's been asking around, trying to find him."

It took great effort for Tina not to wince as she started to walk down the hall again. "Travers? What do the Fireflies want with Abernathy?"

"What, you think he'd tell me?"

"Well," She sent him a pointed look. "What did you tell him?"

The man grinned. "The truth. I got no idea where that sack of shit is hiding."

Tina smirked. "Good. Stay out of trouble, alright? Military's gonna be out in force soon."

"Gotcha. Stay safe, Goldstein."

As he went through a doorway into a room, Tina found herself frowning in thought; Travers looking for Abernathy? She didn't like it. She needed to find the slimeball before the Fireflies did, and fast.

Entering the room at the end of the corridor, she greeted the men sitting at the table playing cards but didn't stop to chat - there wasn't time for it. They said nothing as she walked up to the lone bookshelf in the room and gave it a push to reveal a hole in the wall: the entrance to the tunnel. Already the stench was hitting her nostrils, something she still wasn't used to even after all of these years, and she mentally made a note to tell the guys to watch what they threw down the hole.

Okay, she thought, bracing herself with a deep breath: Let's go.

It was all too easy to track down and find Abernathy - no one had any qualms about giving up his location or pointing her in his direction, and when he tried to run she caught him easily. The idiot didn't know the area half as well as she did, and soon she had him cornered against a locked gate.

"Hello, Abernathy," She said loudly, and she felt a thrill at the panicked expression on his face when he turned.

"Tina…" He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to straighten up. "No… No hard feelings, right?"

"Hmm? Oh," She clicked her teeth, bending to pick up a nearby abandoned pipe. "No, none at all."

"Alright…"

And then he bolted.

Without hesitating, Tina swung the pipe and struck him across the kneecaps; he fell to the floor with a yell of pain. "FUCK!"

"I missed you," She joked, adjusting the weight of the pipe in her hand. "Been too long."

"Look, whatever it is you've heard," Abernathy gritted out, holding up a hand in defense. "It's not true, okay? I just-"

"Oh, so you didn't steal my supplies?" She interrupted, raising her brow. "You didn't sneak into my apartment and take my belongings? And…" She barked out a harsh laugh. "You definitely didn't used to pester my sister like some little sex pest, right? That definitely was not you, of course!"

"I… I can explain…"

"Go on then."

He hesitated, watching as she laid her pipe down. "It's… It's complicated, alright?"

"Well, let me make this simple for you then," Tina muttered. "First things first: my shit. Where is it?"

"Okay, hear me out! I-." She cut him off with a kick to the face; as he spluttered an expletive, she took his arm and began to pull it backwards. "FUCK! Stop, stop!"

She dropped his arm and pulled out her gun, kneeling in front of him and all but waving it in his face. "Quit squirming. You were saying?"

Abernathy was panting heavily as he looked up at her, eyes filled with pure fear. "I sold it. All of it."

"Excuse me?!"

"Look, I didn't have much of a choice!" He blubbered desperately. "I owed someone!"

"You owed me!" Tina snapped, absolutely enraged by this. "That was MY stuff - my supplies, my belongings… You even took my sister's fucking coat!"

"I can get it back!" He pleaded hopelessly. "Just give me a week, I can go back and-"

"You know," Tina tutted. "I might have done that if you hadn't tried to fucking kill me five minutes ago. Who has my stuff?"

Abernathy paused for a moment before shaking his head. "I can't. Just give me a couple-"

Without thinking twice, Tina lifted her gun and shot him in the leg; he screamed and rolled onto his side in agony.

"You fucking bitch!"

"I won't ask you again," She snarled. "Who. Has. My. Shit?" She raised her gun and pointed it straight at his skull.

"Fireflies!" He sobbed. "I owed the Fireflies so I gave it to them, said they could use it to trade! Happy?!"

The blood was pounding so loudly in her ears that she almost wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly. "You what?!"

"Look," Abernathy begged. "They're basically all dead, you know that! We could just… go in there, you and me! We could finish them off! You get your stuff back!" He was laughing in an almost delirious way. "What do you say? Fuck those Fireflies! Let's go get them!"

Tina paused. "That…is a stupid idea."

Before he could say anything more, she aimed her gun at his head and pulled the trigger twice; the first bullet did the job - the second was purely for her own satisfaction.

And for Queenie, she told herself - served the bastard right, given how he had pawed and ogled at her sister, like she was meat at a market. At least the creep wouldn't be around to harass anymore young women, if nothing else.

With that out of the way, Tina exhaled. "Now what?"

It was obvious: she had to get her stuff back. Most of it was just supplies like ammunition for her gun and some food, but she was more focused on getting back Queenie's coat than anything else. She kept most of her own personal belongings on her at all times, but she'd left Queenie's coat in her room because it was too big to cram into her backpack and would only take away valuable storage space while she was out. It was a simple little thing that her sister had made herself with some fabric they'd found while searching an old factory years ago, and it had been Queenie's favourite shade of pink. It was all she had left of her sister.

"I need to find a Firefly," She muttered under her breath.

"You won't have to look very far."

She spun around, startled by the voice; a figure emerged from the shadows, holding his blood-soaked side.

"Travers," Tina said tonelessly.

Well, what do you know? I've run into King Firefly himself.

Travers was watching her with a rather cool gaze, clearly still confident and composed even with the wound on his side. "What are you doing here, Goldstein?"

"Business."

"I see. And where is Abernathy?"

She didn't need to speak, instead just gesturing behind her; it almost thrilled her to see how annoyed the older man suddenly looked.

"I needed him alive, Goldstein."

"And?" Tina folded her arms. "The stuff he gave you? That wasn't his to sell, and I need it all back."

He chuckled in an almost pitying way. "Doesn't work like that, Goldstein, you should know that by now."

"The hell it doesn't," She bit out tersely. "It's my stuff."

Travers walked closer to her, so much so that she could smell his rank breath. "I paid for the things he gave me. If you want them back, Miss Goldstein, you'll have to earn them."

There were a few things this could mean, but she considered the two most likely: the first would be that he wanted however-many ration cards. That was the usual currency in most QZs, and while it would suck to have to give up her food for however long, she could deal with hunger. The second most likely way to "earn", as she had learnt over the past fifteen years, meant prostituting yourself out - so far, she had avoided this and made a point of making sure her sister had never had to resort to this either while she was alive.

She severely hoped he meant the first option.

"How many cards are we talking about?"

To her surprise, Travers scoffed. "I don't care about ration cards, Goldstein, we have enough of those." And then he paused, eyeing her up; it took all of her effort not to bristle under his gaze - it felt strangely dirty and intruding, so much so that for a split second she feared he was going to demand the second option of her. "What I need is something smuggled out of the city - do this, you can have your things back as well as enough ammunition to last you a month."

She considered this for a moment. "How do I know you've even got my stuff still? And besides, the way I hear it, the military's been wiping you guys out - you'll need all the ammunition you can get."

"You're…sadly not wrong. I can show you your things, if you like," Travers offered.

As Tina pondered this, the sound of voices nearby interrupted their conversation - soldiers, she realized after a moment.

"Search the area!"

Travers started to walk backwards, raising his brow at her. "We need to move - what will it be, Goldstein?"

I need that stuff back… I need her coat.

Tina gave a quick nod and started to follow him from the alley; she wasn't entirely sure if this was a trap or not, but something in her gut told her it was better than returning home with nothing. To add, the Fireflies were so weakened these days that it was likely that they were just as desperate as she was.

She kept her hand on the gun in her holster, just in case.

It was already past curfew by the time they reached the small building Travers' was leading her to, checking over his shoulder for any lingering soldiers or spies who may have followed them.

"What the hell is it I'm smuggling?" Tina asked as she stepped into the building - it had to be something extremely valuable for him to be this anxious.

He merely looked grim as he closed the door behind them, locking it for good measure. "You'll see."

They went up a small staircase before taking a left into what looked like a sitting room of some kind. There was already somebody sitting there on the couch, a young man about her own age - maybe a year or two older - who looked awkward; he had rather messy reddish-brown hair, and his face was covered in a mess of freckles. When he noticed them entering, he jolted to his feet and stepped forwards.

"Mr Travers, what…" He sounded rather British.

Travers merely waved the younger man off irritably. "Nothing that isn't fixable, now don't crowd me!"

The man backed away, mouth pressed together in a firm line; he looked up at Tina briefly before casting his eyes away, as if he'd rather look anywhere else. She ignored him, folding her arms and looking to Travers expectantly.

"Well?" She prompted. "Where's my stuff? And what am I smuggling?"

The older man's lips curved into a half-hearted smirk and he tilted his head in the direction of the stranger. "You're looking at it."

Tina's jaw nearly dropped with shock. "I'm smuggling him?"

"This is the smuggler?" The young man questioned in surprise.

"Scamander, meet Tina Goldstein… Goldstein, meet Newt Scamander," Travers introduced seriously, as if this was completely normal.

"You said something," Tina stated incredulously. "Not someone!"

The older man shrugged. "My apologies - I didn't realize that the wording was so important to you. Regardless, I need you to smuggle Mr Scamander out of the city and to the first Fireflies you can find - do that, you get your stuff back."

She honestly didn't know what to say to this request. "And where is my stuff?"

"I have it safely stored away at our camp," Travers promised. "I would take you there to show you, but I'm not bringing Mr Scamander to that part of town - besides, this task is of the utmost importance. The sooner you do it the better."

Newt looked baffled and started to speak at the same time as her. "I'm not so sure that this is a good idea-"

"Bullshit! What the fuck is this, Travers?!"

He held up a hand to silence them both before turning his gaze to Newt. "You'll be in safe hands with Goldstein; I know she's young, but she's well-known for her survival skills. Frankly, I don't think there's a better person I could be sending you off with."

She tried not to feel too proud at his words, reminding herself to focus on the issue at hand. "Who even is this guy? He doesn't look like one of your militia buddies."

"He's not," Travers said briskly, now turning his attention to her. "I knew his brother, Theseus; he used to be one of our leaders."

"Used to," Newt repeated tensely; it surprised her to see that he seemed to dislike the other man almost as much as she did. "He left you and your group."

Travers glared hard at him. "If you recall, he left you too - abandoned you practically… But he was a good man."

"Why don't you just ask him to do it then?" Tina questioned. "He'd probably be more comfortable travelling with his brother anyway, and I wouldn't need to even be involved."

"Because Theseus left seven years ago," The older man informed her, rather irritated again. "He's probably not even alive anymore, and if he is then it could take months - years even - to find him."

"He's alive," Newt muttered, almost to himself. "He is. I know he is."

Travers ignored him. "Think of it like this, Goldstein; Scamander is just cargo. Take him, hand him off, you're done. Easy."

It did sound easy - too easy almost. She huffed, folding her arms across her chest. "Why is he so important anyway? Why does he even need to be smuggled?"

A silence fell over the room; the two men looked at each other before the older one nodded. Newt cleared his throat as he turned back to Tina, reaching to roll up the right arm sleeve of his shirt. It took her a moment to see - and then she recoiled in horror.

There, on the inside of his pale freckled arm, was a ring of unmistakable human teeth marks and cysts.

"What the fuck, Travers?!" Tina spat, reaching for her gun.

"Please, I can explain-"

She turned to Newt when he spoke, narrowing her eyes as she aimed the weapon at him. "Stay the fuck away from me!"

"Goldstein," Travers said sternly. "If you calm down then I will explain."

"There is no way I'm risking my life for an infected man," She stated, her voice laced with venom. "Why shouldn't I put a bullet between his eyes right now?"

"I'm not infected!" Newt protested, lifting his arm up as if to give her a better view. "Look at this!"

"I don't care how you got infected-"

"It's three weeks old!"

"Bullshit! Everyone turns within two days!"

"It's three weeks! I swear!" He was practically begging her now, his green-blue eyes focused on her intently. "Why would the Fireflies set you up, Miss Goldstein?"

Before she could answer, Travers was pushing Newt aside and speaking to her in a serious tone. "It's the truth: he was bitten three weeks ago, and yet he hasn't turned. He's the first person that we know of who hasn't… Don't you understand how monumental this is, Goldstein? What this could mean?" She tried not to recoil as he put a hand on her shoulder, gripping her hard. "If we can figure out what happened to him - why he didn't turn - we could find a way to reverse engineer a vaccine."

Tina rolled her eyes in exasperation but lowered her gun. "Jesus Christ… Yeah, because no one's heard that one before."

"Well, whether you believe it or not," Travers practically growled at her, starting to lose his temper. "It's perhaps our only real chance to develop a cure… All you have to do is get him to the first group of Fireflies you find outside of this city. That's it. Don't you think it's worth even a try, Goldstein?"

For a moment, her gaze drifted to Newt; he was still watching her, eyes pleading, and she frowned. Despite being bitten, he seemed completely lucid - a little awkward, yes, but lucid and completely human. She had seen people who had been bitten turn within the hour, it was an extremely quick process and everyone knew that: could this man really be immune? And if so, could he really be the key to finding a cure?

Tina wasn't sure what ultimately made her agree; maybe it was the part of her that still believed that a cure could be found, that things could one day go back to how they were before, back when her family were still alive. Maybe it was just her desire to see her belongings - her sister's coat especially - again.

Or maybe she just couldn't stand the pleading look that Newt was fixing her with, his eyes seeming to burn right through her.

So, fun fact: that scene between Tina and Abernathy was very cathartic for me because of what's been going on with his actor (long story short, I met him in 2019, was really happy, and now he's in jail for SA so... yep!) Maybe it's a bit violent on my part but the guy's shown himself to be a scumbag so...

I know that Tina was very hard on Jacob and I hated writing it! But - to state the obvious - she's been through some stuff and seen things from a very young age. It's really messed with not just her head but a lot of people's too. I can only hope that everyone forgives me for what I've done to Queenie :(

I've really enjoyed hearing your feedback so far, and as always, comments are so appreciated!