The Last of Us: The Phoenix Project

The Cowboy and The Doctor

~~~~~ Summer 2033~~~~~

Boston Massachusetts

"H-h-heyyyy, no fuck you!"

He screamed at me.

I'd only been back in Boston for a week, chasing Marlene was starting to annoy the ever-livin' shit out of me.

"Hey, woah! You kiss your mama with that mouth. I'm tryin' to be nice here, sugar. I just want to know where Marlene went, buddy."

I said to the man tied up in the chair. His partner a woman was tied up and gagged sittin' pretty next to her friend.

"N-No, I ain't talking. You crazy bitch!"

Oh why does he have to be soo harsh, I frowned.

"Oh, what a shame."

My voice was simple yet menacingly playful.

"Ha, what are you gonna do to me, torture me? Good luck. Like I said I ain't talkin' to you bitch."

He mocked. I turned my back and sighed, I quickly turned around to him and smiled at him, making his shit-eating grin disappear off of his face. I looked at his friend. She looked far more terrified than him.

"They should do a better job teachin you kids in school. But I guess they can't do much to the bottom of the barrel these days."

I walked behind the woman and un-gagged her. 

I walked back over to him and knelt in front of him. I put my hand gently on his knee. Watching his face as he seemed to rapidly switch through emotions.

"You know twenty years ago I used to be a doctor. Head of Infectious Disease in fact. I worked on a whole bunch of nasty nasty things."

"W-what kind of things."

The woman asked.

"Mers-CoV, Rotavirus, Dengue, Influenza, Hantavirus, Smallpox, Rabies, Ebola, Marburg virus... just to name a few.."

They looked at each other, then back to me.

"But my most famous was in September of 2013. CBI is a nasty nasty little parasitic fungus. And once upon a time I managed to find a cure."

*****Flash Back*****

September 27th, 2013....Austin Texas.

I was at work in the lab looking through the microscope.

"God fucking damn it..."

I chuckled at my partner, as he slammed his hands down on the table, mumbling under his breath, I heard him adjust his hazmat suit.

"Lizzy this is impossible."

"Well, this definitely is not a virus. You know that much Andy."

I laugh trying to lighten the mood as any drugs we had showed no effect on the fungus pushing myself away from the microscope. I look to my partner Andy.

"Yeah, no shit Lizzy...."

"Agh!" he groaned in frustration throwing his entry journal to the concrete floor.

"Alright, buddy. You need to get yourself  home and get some sleep, Andy."

Andy huffed and stood up from his chair. Collecting his samples which I assumed we're now destroyed.