Word count: 2312
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The front door slams shut. "Tommy, I- ... Tommy, Tommy listen to me, he's the contractor, okay? I can't lose this job.... I understand... Let's talk about this in the morning, okay? We'll talk about it in the morning. Alright, goodnight."
The man walks over to the couch and turns on the light, waking the young girl on the couch. "Hey" the girl says and yawns. "Scoot," the man says as he sits down next to her on the couch.
"Fun day at work huh?" she says "What are you still doing up? It's late." The man asks, his voice laced with concern.
"Oh crud. What time is it?" She asks, perking up. "It's way past your bedtime." The man said matter-of-factly. "But it's still today."
"Honey, please not right now. I do not have the energy for this." She gets out a small gift box from underneath a throw pillow. "Here."
"What's this?" "Your birthday." He opens the small box, a silver watch inside.
"You kept complaining about your broken watch... So I figured, you know. You like it?"
"Honey, this is..." "What?"
"It's nice, but I-...I think it's stuck. It's not..." He says as he holds the watch to his ear.
"What? No, no, no, no." She says she scrambles over to him, before realizing the watch was perfectly fine. "Oh, ha, ha" He chuckles at her.
"Where did you get the money for this?" He asks while admiring the watch.
"Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs." She jokes
"Oh, good. You can start helping out with the mortgage then.""Psssh - yeah, you wish."
They watch tv for a while, and eventually the young girl falls asleep. He picks her up and carries her upstairs into her bedroom, gently laying her down on the soft mattress. "Goodnight baby girl," he whispers.
-Fast forward a few hours later-
The phone starts to ring and the girl wakes up and answers it.
"Hello?"
"Sarah, honey, I need you to get your daddy on the phone."
"Uncle Tommy, what time is it?"
"I need to talk to your dad now. There's some-"
The line goes dead.
"Uncle Tommy? Hello?" She hangs up the phone. "What was that all about? Dad? Daddy? You in here?" Sarah walks into her dads bedroom. A TV report is on.
"It appears that what we initially reported as riots seem to be somehow connected to the nationwide pandemic."
"Where the heck are you?" she whispers.
"We've received reports that victims afflicted with the infection show signs of increased aggression and-"
"That's nearby."
A cop in the background says "There's a gas leak. Hey- move!" "There's some commotion coming from beh-" "Get out of here! Lady get the hell outta here right no-"
A huge explosion goes off.
"Uh... what was that?" she says, worried. She looks out the window and sees a big cloud of smoke in the distance. "Dad? Dad?! What is goin' on?" She walks down the stairs and finds his phone vibrating. "There's his phone. 8 missed calls?" she says as she picks up the phone. The messages read-
YOU ARE READING
The Remnants of Hope
Mystery / ThrillerNONE OF THIS IS MINE EXCEPT FOR EVENTS AND PEOPLE CLEARLY NOT IN THE GAME ALL OTHER CHARACTERS BELONG TO NAUGHTY DOG AND THE DEVELOPERS OF THE LAST OF US Joel loses his daughter, and meets Tess. They get a job from Marlene to deliver a girl named El...
