Left Forsaken: A The Last Of Us Story

Before The Sun Rises

Summer 2023

Ten years now since the outbreak, it felt more like twenty. So many things had happened: the ration cards, the martial law, the spread of the infection, the bombing...

"Lillian!" My father called. "Pay attention." I nodded. My father insisted in giving me these shooting classes, I didn't want them, I didn't want to be a soldier, nor plan on leaving the zone.

"Your arms are too tense, that's why you always miss the shot." He said as he pulled on my elbows and straighten my arm. "Tensed, relaxed." He paused and looked at me, and I nodded.

I remembered when most people my age, back before the outbreak, didn't even get a chance to even touch a gun, and here I was aiming one. I pulled the trigger and hit the target right on the spot my dad told me to.

"There, much better!" He exclaimed. "You got a whole lot better since we started."

Yeah, dad, that'd be true if I hadn't been trying to miss the target on purpose all this time. That's what I wanted to tell him. I wanted him to lose his patience to stop the gun lessons and actually talk to me. I wanted for our life to be normal, like it used to, at least for once. "Yeah. Guess there's no need for any shooting lessons, huh?" He looked at me in that way again - the look that always said, 'Lillian, the world has gone to hell and the only way to survive is through a bullet.' I sighed silently. "Dad, can we please go for a walk today?"

"Well, since you got so good at shooting, maybe we can be done for today." He said taking the hand gun from my grasp and placing it on its holster.

We strolled through the city and ended up on our building's roof. We stared out into the city, what used to be a Concrete Jungle was now a Concrete Wasteland. The buildings that once stood proud and tall were now ruins being claimed by nature. How many people were struggling to survive out there? Why can't we shelter them here?

"What time do you leave tomorrow?" I asked.

"Too early." He answered. "Before the sun rises."

This time they were going to scrounge for supplies since we were running low. "Don't leave without saying goodbye to me..."

"I won't."

. . .

"Lillian, I have to go." I heard my father's voice and opened my eyes. "I promised you I'd say goodbye." He smiled.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and squeezed him. "Thank you."

We let go and he smiled at me. "Take care, and don't cause any trouble. I'll be back." With that he was out the door and gone.

I looked out the window and saw him below, carrying his giant backpack and walking towards the rest of his division. I looked towards the broken city, dark and dangerous... I sighed and walked to bed, and sunk on the mattress. The words he always said to me as a kid before he went to the city came into my head, "I'll bring more Alphabet soup when I get back." I smiled and wrapped the sheet around me.

. . .

The summer heat was strong today, beads of sweat rolled off my forehead and fell into the washbasin I was washing clothes in. Marian told me she got garbage duty this week and most of her clothes got dirty and reeked of waste, so she asked me to wash them for her. I had absolutely nothing to do, so why not? I wringed out the water on the shirt and hanged it on the wire to dry.