Left Forsaken: A The Last Of Us Story

Rise

Weeks have passed after I lost my father to the infection, I worked on more shifts across the quarantine zone, even if the payment was shit, it helped keep my mind off my father's death. I damned the Cordyceps and the soldiers with every night I cried myself to sleep. "Don't worry, baby girl, I am covering for teddy. No one will touch you as long as I am here." But who was protecting you, daddy? These memories of him would make me nostalgic and deprived me of any sleep...

I was walking back home after finishing my duties around the quarantine. While crossing Checkpoint 3, I overheard the soldiers talking about a Firefly attack out on Checkpoint 12. "About five of them," The soldier said. "Stabbed in the neck. They took their guns, gas masks, Kevlar vests... Everything they found useful."

"Sneaky bastards." The other commented. "Means we need to be on high alert."

"I wish I'd been there to shoot them dead and end this shit already." He said before I left the checkpoint.

I decided to go to Albert's place before I went home for the day. I haven't seen him for days, and usually he'd visit me every so often. I knocked on his door but, no answer came. I waited a bit longer to knock again. Maybe he wasn't home.

I turned and set for the stairs before I heard the door creak open and hear Albert's voice. "Lillian." He called. "I wasn't expecting you."

I turned to see him completely beaten: his tired eyes, a swelling blue bruise across his cheekbone, his upper lip broken. "What happened to you?" I was concerned upon seeing Albert like this.

"Oh, it's nothing, Lilly, really."

"Well, it doesn't look like nothing to me."

"I already took care of it." He said gesturing to his face. "Come in, please." He stepped aside and let me in. His apartment was in utter disorder, clothing everywhere along with bottles of alcohol, and cans of food.

"Jesus, Albert, I leave you alone for a few weeks and you become a lost cause."

"Well," he scratched the back of his head. "I was cleaning up just now."

"Sure, you were." I raised an eyebrow. "Will you let me take a look at your face?"

"I can't argue with you, Doc!" He chuckled. He sat on a nearby table, and I looked at his wounds. They looked pretty fresh, I'd give them a day or so, and they weren't any serious.

"Mind explaining?"

"Fight club." He stated plainly.

I scoffed, clearly a lie. I stepped back, letting his face be, "Well, poor little bastard is healing alright. You're going to be okay." I sat on his sofa, letting myself take a break from the exhausting day. Then as if it was already programmed to pop into my mind were the Fireflies: the attacks, the robberies, "Did you hear about the Firefly attacks?"

"Who hasn't?" He said sarcastically. Of course, he did.

"Are they still going to search for a cure?" I thought of the possibility of a cure, how the death of my father could've been avoided. If only there was a cure to the Cordyceps... We could return the world to what it was, and we wouldn't have to suffer any longer; to live among those things.

"I guess." He plainly replied.

"Do you know where to find them?"

His eyes widened, and stared at me, silently asking me: Why?

"I don't know, Albert... Maybe I want to support their cause..." I sighed. I want to do something that would honor my father, do something that would contribute to the world just like he had done. "I think I..." I stammered and Albert stared at me silently, as if he could read my mind. "I think I believe in the Fireflies, Albert. I want to rise with them."