The Last Of Us (Fanfic)

Joel Lives PT. 14

For weeks Isaac left Joel in isolation until he started asking him questions about Jackson. Asking who ran it, how many people lived there, and more; Isaac had plans to expand and take over the other Quarantine Zones in the country once this Scar problem was resolved. He wanted to completely wipe out FEDRA and implement a new world order while taking over settlements along the way. He didn't initially plan on heading to Wyoming first, but here he had an important member of a large community - how could he not use this gift he'd been given?

  Joel didn't speak much, even after the torture began. He knew he was at the Fob and something big was going on, especially after listening in on the chatter outside the door. This place was too big to just take over, and he hoped that no one was coming after him after getting a general understanding of this place and how they treat outsiders.

Half his face was swollen, not something he'd experienced in a long time, he almost forgot the taste of his own blood. He spent his time watching and talking quietly to God as if he were in the cell with him, laughing about the irony and how he knew he deserved to be where he was, but pleaded not to let others be brought down with him. He was fed old stew or half-eaten cold burritos that seemed to be a favorite around here, and he ate without a word. Some of these kids had old phones and DS games that made me feel nostalgic, thinking back to when Sarah had asked for one for months leading up to her 13th birthday. He'd bought one right before the outbreak and wondered if it was still tucked somewhere in his closet back in Texas, badly wrapped in purple tissue paper and 'Happy Birthday Kiddo, love dad', scribbled in Sharpie.

Some people would come by to taunt him regularly, some he didn't recognize, and some part of the group that brought him in. The girl he'd come to know as Mel would visit on occasion to tend to the wounds of the prisoners Issac wasn't ready to let die, but after a few months - when she started to show - she stopped coming. It was raining outside today, and it would hit the window making him feel a little more relaxed than usual, picturing himself back home on his porch, picking at his six-string guitar with a cup of bitter coffee on the table beside him. He could see it so clearly, and that's part of what kept him together, only to be undone with thoughts of Ellie and wondering if she was alive and praying she stayed far away from here. Though Tommy on the other hand, he was already cursing him in his head, knowing his brother wouldn't be able to sit still for very long, but trusted that he at least would be able to hold his own out here.

  So many people filtered in and out today, whispers of war and scars, and multiple dead flittered through the air - and it was clear to Joel that Issac was concerned about something, but to the others he seemed put together, stoic. Something was going on, someone was kicking the hornet's nest, Joel just couldn't determine whether or not it was the Scars or the WLF doing the kicking or being the nest. That afternoon they moved him to an isolated room after overhearing that they planned to execute the prisoners before they left for the Island. They sat him in a chair and cuffed his hands to the legs of the chair, the room was dark and cold, smelling of mold. They'd taken his clothes in the first few days, he was only allowed to wear a pair of dirty sweats that hung off his starving frame. Issac thought that leaving Joel in the dark for hours would stress him out, anticipating when someone would come in and ask questions that they both knew he wouldn't answer. But after a while, he savored those moments, the silence, but often thought about those he'd put in similar situations. Like those men back in Colorado, that belonged to that Silver Lake cannibal group that took Ellie for their leader. They weren't the same, but he couldn't help but draw the parallels between the two; he was just thankful that they didn't decide to drag Tommy along to pit them against each other.

A young soldier, by the name of Wayne, would usually sit by the elevator with headphones on to block out the sounds of torture. Today, he sat outside the door of the room Joel was in, guarding it and shifting comfortably in his seat. He didn't know much about Joel, just some circulating rumors of the things he'd done - not that he truly believed that an old man was capable of such things now. He heard him groaning in pain through the music in his headphones but just shook his head, thinking he was faking it and didn't really care otherwise. Then Owen tapped him on the shoulder and asked if Isaac was inside with him. Wayne looked puzzled and said no, he was making Joel wait for a while because he wanted to do some more questioning before heading back to the arena to brief those who'd be staying behind. Owen simply nodded, then asked if he could get some time with him, which Wayne felt uncertain of.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Isaac made it clear he wanted him to be isolated, and aren't you going out with Danny?"

"Yeah, in the next hour and I need to talk to him, so come on Wayne. Just five minutes and Isaac doesn't have to know."

Wayne sighed, "I'm going to take a leak, and I'll be back in three minutes - and you won't be here." He said, moving his chair aside and pushing open the door for Owen to walk in.

Joel sat there unmoving, his head hanging low, his breath quiet and slow - it made Owen wonder if he were still alive. He sat in a chair opposite of him, staring at his unmoving form and, slightly hopeful he was already dead so he didn't have to go through with this ideal plan of killing him. Owen had this idea in his mind that if Joel were out of the picture everything would go back to normal, and no more innocent people have to suffer for the choices - or weaknesses - of others. He didn't care for Jackson, but Isaac did, and Abby wanted him to suffer with the knowledge that everyone he knew was in danger. Owen often drank himself to sleep to forget the idea that he would be somewhat responsible for whatever Isaac does in Jackson, especially when he knew better than to take Joel. If they had just killed him it would all be over. 

"You just gonna sit there and think, or are you gonna do what you came here to do?" Joel asked in a raspy voice, looking up slightly to show his bruised face and swollen eyes.

Owen could hardly look at him, suddenly forgetting why they even went after him in the first place.

"What do you think I came here to do?" He asked.

"Just do what you came here to do, boy."

 Owen sat in the chair positioned in front of Joel, the chair Isaac usually sat in when he did his form of interrogation. Owen had witnessed him do it once and couldn't stomach it like Manny or Abby could, he always thought Isaac took it too far, not that anyone said that to his face, "Why'd you do it?" Owen asked, "Why'd you kill all those people, destroy any chance there was of having a cure - for a girl?"

"It wouldn't have worked anyway."

"You don't know that, so many things could've been different if -"

"If what? I let you kill a girl on a hunch? Give you another dead end, or Let your people decide who gets it and who don't?"

"Thousands could've been saved..."

"If it worked, or if they followed your cause, right? You just have too much faith in people with power. Look at the man you're runnin' with now - hellbent on killing people for land that ain't got nothing to do with him."

"How'd you- "

 Joel scoffed, "All of you talk too much."

  "I used to live in the Denver QZ, with my parents and my brother and for the most part, it was tolerable. That was till my mom got assigned to clean up duty outside the gate, something the guards were supposed to do. Well, she went because they threatened to extradite her to another zone for going against orders of the government," He laughed humorlessly.  "My dad offered to take her place, but they refused based on the sheer principle of following orders. You see my mom was partially deaf and wasn't great at hearing if someone or something was coming up on her - and as we feared, she got pit a few days later..."

 Joel just sat there listening, without a word. 

 "She came home and told us, and we planned to take care of it but somehow FEDRA caught wind and dragged her out of our house and shot her on the street. I remember thinking - 'If only there were a cure,' so when the opportunity presented itself to join the fireflies, I did because I believed in the cause and you just stole the last bit of light we had to hold onto. And what did you end up doing with her? Sell her to the highest bidder?"

 "I saved her." He said through clenched teeth. 

 At that moment it settled on him, "That girl back at the lodge with the red hair. That was her, she stayed with you this whole time even after what you did? Or does she even know?"

 He didn't answer, he didn't see the point in answering his questions.

  Owen stood, his knife in hand, and stepped closer to Joel who just looked at him stoically, waiting for that final blow, and hoping that at the end of it all, he'd be forgiven for all that he'd done. But Owen just stood there studying him.

 "You care for her, that's why you saved her... Tell me, was it worth it? Even if it put you in that chair, put you here to be tortured?"

 "Even if it put me in the ground, I wouldn't have changed a thing."