Left Forsaken: A The Last Of Us Story

Ten years worth

   The familiar sound of spitting rifles woke me up in the middle of the night. After ten years living in Dayton QZ, you'd think I'd be used to it by now. It was just another environmental sound. But I am not, shooting always meant trouble. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and looked out the foggy, dirty window, I could barely make out the skyscrapers that surrounded the University. It's been a long time since I could lay in my sleeping bag without feeling scared; without the thought that an infected would attack me in my sleep, or a hunter would shoot my exhausted face, crawling into my head.The feeling of absolute safety wasn't something I was familiar with anymore.

Despite being awfully tired from the long travel we took to get here, and all the times we had to run, I couldn't find sleep. My mind was racing. I sat against the window frame, looking at the distorted scenery it showed me. The empty city: empty of people, empty of hope, empty of safety. Same as every city I have crossed. An endless wasteland of nothing. The nothing that can kill even the strongest soldier. 

Accepting now that sleep was not coming anytime soon, I wondered out of the room my group peacefully slept in. I walked into a dimly lit hallway. I believe like everybody, the fireflies were ruled by the law of saving resources, so the use of power was always limited, like the ammo, like the food, like every single resource; make each use count. They used flashlights to walk about or sometimes -- I saw a few-- candles. Some walked around in the dark, apparently they knew how to navigate their building in the dark already.

I found a door that led to the University's balcony. Opening softly, carefully, like I got used to doing with every door I came across while walking across the cryptic silence of the city, at times I could even hear the wind break as the door slowly swung open. Once nothing jumped at me and ripped me to pieces, I crossed the threshold and headed to the metal rail.

"Can't sleep, hellcat?" I heard a voice say to me before I leaned on the rail. I spun to the source, placing my hand on my holster, ready to defend. Instead, I found sitting there the man that pinned me down against gravel earlier today, a beer can on his hand and the rifle neatly lying on his lap - as if he was a Texan watching over his farm for coyotes. 

I relaxed when realized there was no real threat, we were allies now, and I found no reason to waste a bullet. "I knew something smelled like dead rat."

"Maybe you should've showered better." 

He gave a subtle chuckle. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the rail. The full moon lighting the nothingness of the broken city. 

"I'm Davis." He said plainly.

"Lillian Kari." 

"They told me you were from Ohio. That's pretty far."

"It is..." I sighed, "So how is it you are a scout and a night guard? Do you ever sleep?"

He chuckled, "Well, that would be something we'd have in common, isn't it?" I raised an eyebrow. "It keeps me busy. Nobody can afford to take it easy anymore, right? Plus nobody complains if I take consecutive days off.." He grinned.

"Smart," I commented.

Silence crept over for a while before he finally asked, "What did you do at Ohio, anyway?" After understanding my confused silence, he explained further. "Everybody has a duty, ration cards came at a price, but I meant out of QZ duty."

"I read medicine books with this lady that kind of looked after me whenever my father was away. She was a retired nurse before this shit went down: Marian was her name." I paused remembering Marian's sad glossy eyes when I walked out the door.

"So you are the new nurse," he added.

"Nurse?"

"They talked about a nurse coming to help out with the investigation and such, and the rest of the medical affairs." As far as I knew, the only one that knows about my knowledge in medicine was Albert; if he had told them, that would explain why they recruited me without much trouble...