The Last of Us: Part III

Prologue

Early summer, 2039

Will's wounded back refused to stop throbbing restlessly - courtesy to the abysmal suspension of which this ancient army truck had possessed. Sitting amidst the astringent smell of gasoline and clamor of the engine, his discomfort was only amplified by the bumpy road on which they were currently hurtling across. As Will looked down from the begrimed window, he could see long, narrow fissures making the heavily discolored asphalt road look like the mountain ranges he had admired yesterday in Oregon.  Weeds grew savagely high on the fields along Interstate 5 Highway in place of crops, constantly blocking Will's sight on the distant mountains. The sky was as blue as it was clear, allowing the sun to spray its radiance freely across the whole Central Valley. The cloudless weather and admirable mountain ranges were the only two things satisfactory about Will's first trip ever in California. And now that Will was deprived of the latter, he couldn't help but to wonder if a bit of cloud could do him some good. The summer sun in Seattle would be much more tender when it hits you straight in the face, Will thought gloomily, unlike the unobstructed sunshine. Sitting in the back of a Humvee sweaty and with both hands cuffed, Will knew his life was doomed forever. Should have let them shoot me in the head the same way they did to Ryan and John when I had the chance, at least there would be freedom in death. But I am too much of a coward to face that.

"How's our wolf faring back there, is he still breathing?" growled Andrew in the driver's seat.

"What wolf? I don't see no wolf around here." Nile giggled in his shrill tone. "But if you are looking for a sheep, I can give ya one." He patted Will on his right shoulder, not so kindly.

"Sounds good to me, haven't had any mutton for a long time."

Will was very much used to the mockeries from the gnarly Andrew and Slim-Jim Nile - both of whom couldn't endure a whole hour without threatening to cut Will's gut open - to a point that he was too numb to be scared. Laugh all you want, as long as you don't beat the shit out of me.

A certain amount of self-preservation was necessary for one's survival, but by indulging this excuse too freely it would turn into cowardice. Will was aware that he had fallen into the realm of the latter case.

It was not like he had always been so scared of death. In his youth, Will was a robust, ambitious boy who was eager to sacrifice his life for a brighter future for the humanity in a way every other robust, ambitious boy does. And just like every other boy driven by the impulse of youth, he had joined the cause of overthrowing FEDRA's tyranny. 

Will was born in Denver a few years ahead of the outbreak. Though he had already forgotten his own birthday, he couldn't have been older than six when the pandemic started. Out of so many quarantine zones the Army had raised in Denver, he and his mother had luckily gotten into the right one, as most of the others had soon fallen to the infection. His father went to New Mexico on a business trip just a few days before everything went down. They had never heard anything of him since. Though being relatively safe behind the concrete walls built by the Army, his mother didn't survive long either. The life in the QZ was grim and her grief for her loss had crushed her. She passed away when Will still had fuzz on his lips. Will blamed it on the FEDRA, his mother had never been given enough food or medicine to overcome for her sickness. Thereafter he joined the Firefly, despite his mother had explicitly forbidden him not to do so on her deathbed. He could still remember the day he visited his mother's grave after Denver was liberated by the Firefly, praying that his feat would bring consolation to her in heaven.

As a Firefly, he was instructed to do a lot of things - some of which he would sooner forget - for the sake of the Resistance and a goal that was becoming ever vaguer. He could not say that there had never been any doubt, but these were duties, and he followed, until everything began falling apart.