The Last of Us - Who Remains

The Beginning of... 09/25/13

The sunlight seeping through the university classroom windows beams onto a dozen students droning over their textbooks. Anna looks up from her notepad, she can't concentrate with the light blinding her. She scans the room and observes the normal things that occur in any tan-walled classroom: Tile floors, cardboard ceilings, and rows of mentally drained college students-- but only one thing draws her attention. A plant.

An Orchid, to be specific. The fragile, little plant had wilted from being under constant sunlight and had a lack of water from a preoccupied teacher who could barely control a room full of kids. The orchid's dried petals surrounded the base of its pot, giving the plant an even more depressing visage. The only bit of color is a single small pink bud reaching for the sun. Forever reaching for something it could never truly grasp; only being able to watch from afar...

"Anna... ANNA," said the professor as he stood above the distracted student.

Anna, startled, whips her head around to face the portly teacher.

"Yes, Professor Smith?" Anna asked sheepishly.

The professor walks back to the front of his splintered desk and sits on the edge of it. He lifts his hand to comb through the little remaining hairs he has left on his balding head.

"Anna, what class material did we just go over?

Anna pauses to contemplate the question as she moves the lock of straight black hair from the front of her face to the side.

"That fungi use organic threads that are used to spread and gain nutrients from the surrounding area, Professor Smith?"

Professor Smith raised his brow in an exaggerated fashion.

"Correct, so my pupil's mind is still with the rest of us rather than in the clouds!" Professor Smith said with exaggerated sophistication.

Anna gave a forced smile and slinked back into her chair.

Anna hated the term "pupil." Professor Smith would constantly call her this whenever she would answer a question correctly or at PTO meetings; always trying to show Anna off as if he created her as his prodigy. It is really embarrassing to think about, she is sure the other students think that she is getting unfair treatment from Professor Smith. The professor himself is a kind and thoughtful man, but Anna felt uncomfortable with how he would try to be more of a friend than a teacher. He would always advertise giving her extra tutoring after class. Anna would always refuse.

Professor Smith continues, now speaking to the whole class. "Plants and fungi rely on one another to survive. When a tree dies and falls to the forest floor, who is there to reabsorb the nutrients? Fungi! Fungus acts as the garbage disposal of the ecosystem remarkably similar to worms for the animal kingdom."

Professor Smith goes on to say, "For a mushroom to spread and reproduce to other areas it must release what?" directing the question to the class.

The students quietly muttered with each other but only one hand was raised. Professor Smith shifts his gaze back to Anna, who is holding her hand up high with confidence and reverence.

"Yes, Anna?"

"Fungi and mushrooms reproduce by releasing spores from spore pods, if the spores get caught in the wind, they can travel pretty far distances," Anna explained.

"Correct again, Ms. Lynn!" Professor Smith walked to the front and drew a classic mushroom on the whiteboard.

A groan could be heard in the back of the room. Anna rolls her eyes, and automatically assumes that it came from him again.

"Fungi are one of the most important kingdoms of the ecosystem and often the most overlooked. Most people associate fungi with either the many poisonous variants of mushrooms or the ones used for cooking. However, the majority of society doesn't know about this harrowingly special type of mushroom."