Chapter 1: King Firefly

"So how did it go down with the Fireflies? Should we be hearing a happy announcement anytime soon?"

Joel was long gone in his thoughts. They were currently at the gates on guard duty. Nothing has happened for the past couple of weeks but that's never a green light to lower their defenses.

Joel was stuck in a never ending day dream that even haunted him in his nightmares. Each one was slightly different from the other, but no less traumatizing.

One would involve Joel failing to save Ellie. The Fireflies caught him and they took her away. His second loss. But this time, he wouldn't be alive to grieve.

Another would be the same except Ellie was replaced with Sarah.

But the worst one of all was the most vivid and detailed. He had given into to Marlene's pleas and handed Ellie back to her. She had allowed him to stay, despite murdering the doctors and half her team. Since the rest of her team had every valid excuse to kill him, he remained in the parking lot for a good month, in a van, with Marlene bringing him food and water three times a day.

But one day, she didn't come. Not once. The next day, Joel went to go find her.

Her look said everything

The vaccine had failed.

Everything, everything had been in vain.

Joel ran back to the parking lot and put the barrel of the gun in his mouth…

"Joel!"

"Huh? Sorry, what?"

"You never told me what went down with the Fireflies? Is there a cure on the way?" Tommy asked.

"There…there is no cure. No vaccine." Joel croaked out.

"Oh, so the plans failed?"

Lying to Ellie was easy, but lying to your own flesh and blood?

That's even harder.

"Not…exactly."

"What do you mean?" Tommy caught the look in his eyes and didn't need any further words.

"You didn't." Tommy muttered.

Joel remained silent, internally preparing himself for the ear chewing he was sure was coming.

"Why, Joel? All this way…and you just back out?"

"They were going to kill her, Tommy." Joel said. "I just…I just couldn't go through that again."

Tommy sighed. Still an open wound. "I understand that. Believe me I do. But…how could you take this away from them? This could have brought an end to this."

"The world took something from me, so I'm taking this away from them." Joel responded, a bit colder than he anticipated.

Tommy relented. As morbid and even selfish as they were, Joel's words held a lot of truth.

"Did you tell her?"

Joel sighed deeply. "No. I told her that there's more like her out there that came before, and failed. So they stopped looking for a cure."

"Jesus, Joel." Tommy muttered.

"Look, Tommy, hear me out for a second." Joel said. "On the way, believe me, I was fighting with myself on whether or not I should let them go through with this. After my first throw down with the Fireflies, I almost turned around and left them to do it."

"So what made you change your mind?"

"I found this tape and listened to it. It started out as a whole bunch of science mumbo-jumbo…but then he said something that struck me."

"What did it say?"

Tommy called back up to the gates and asked them to cover their shifts, saying there was a personal emergency he needed to tend to.

Tommy led Joel to where they could talk in private. Joel reached into his bag and took out the tape. He pressed play.

"...After years of wandering in circles, we're about to come home, make a difference, and bring the human race back into control of its own destiny. All of our sacrifices and the hundreds of men and women who've bled for this cause, or worse, will not be in vain."

"God damn." Tommy muttered.

"I know it sounds a bit ambiguous but it's made me think, y'know?" Joel said, putting the tape away.

"Ambiguous is one word. Come to think of it, I did hear talk about a woman being scratched on the cheek by a clicker."

"And?"

"She never turned." Tommy responded. "But strangely enough, she picked up the ability to use echolocation."

"You mean she could do what those clickers do?"

"Yes indeed." Tommy responded. "But I just thought it was just something to ease the thoughts at night. Though, after hearing that tape...it's got me thinking."

"So now you see why I took her? Why waste her life when there could be others like her out there?"

"This isn't actually their first shot at making a vaccine." Tommy walked over to a chair and sat down, propping his feet on the table nearby.

Joel's eyes widened. He followed his brother and sat down across from him. "What do you mean?"

Tommy looked out the window. "When you came to me all those months ago saying Ellie was immune and that the Fireflies were looking for a cure. I wasn't that I didn't believe you. I couldn't believe it at all." Tommy tsked. "This might take a while."

"I've got all day." Joel responded, anxious to hear what Tommy had to say.

"Ellie'll wonder where you are. You're always home by sunset."

"I left a note, told her I was going to take the night shift tonight."

Tommy raised a brow. "Were you really?"

"No."

Tommy stored this bit of information away. Joel never took the night shift. He always wanted to take morning jobs and be there for Ellie at night. She apparently still had her night terrors from time to time.

"Okay. To start with, Marlene wasn't always the sole Queen Firefly, so to speak. Beside her, there was this guy, King Firefly if you will. He's the one who discovered that certain people were immune. Before Marlene took over, he headed a project that would reverse engineer a vaccine and create the cure. But the only difference was, the host didn't need to die."

"But the fungus grows all over the brain."

"He was a brain surgeon. One of the best ones, if not THE best. He was ahead of his time, back in the day. Really good chemist too. Shit, he and science were just the best of friends. He practiced with several monkeys and managed to remove the fungus without killing them. Monkeys were infection free and made a full recovery with little to no complications."

"So what happened to him?" Joel asked.

Tommy bit his lip. "Not sure. He was working at Long Island College Hospital in 2019. But a group of military stormed the place. They bombed it and the place went up in flames. All his work was gone."

"Did he die?"

"The other Fireflies that were with him, yes. But…" Tommy took a long pause. "...rumor was that he survived and was alive somewhere. Why he didn't come back, we never knew."

"And that's when Marlene completely took over?"

"Don't know the exact details but yeah. She's the one who refounded the Fireflies and she is…well, was their leader."

"And there's no sign of him anywhere? Not a single trail?"

Tommy sighed and looked out the window again. "I don't know. There was a guy here, former Firefly, who was close to him and kept in contact with him after the explosion. But something happened and he lost contact."

Joel sat back, speechless. A lie he had come up with, some of it right out of his ass, might actually be the truth. It significantly eased up his guilt about lying to Ellie.

"Now, it's time for you to answer me this." Tommy said. "What did you take the night shift for?"

Joel sighed. He was hoping to keep this under wraps.

"Joel?"

"Back at UEC, Ellie…she saved my life."

"How so?"

Joel stood up and rose up his shirt.

"Holy shit! How'd that happen?" Tommy stood up as well and went over to Joel to get a better look at the wound. It was still a bit red around the edges but the stitches were still in there. Overdue to be removed.

"Fell on a piece of on rebar." Joel let his shirt fall down. "Ellie knew what to do. She stitched me right up and took care of me for three straight months."

"Damn." Tommy muttered. "So what does this have to do with you taking the nonexistent night shift?"

"She asked me something a little before this happened and turned it into a bet. If she got me out alive, I would do it for her. So…now I'm working on that."

"Which is?"

"Call it a gift." Joel said with a small smile.

Tommy smiled and patted his shoulder. "Ah, okay. I suppose I got enough information out of you today. I'll let this one slide."

"Tommy, come in. Is everything alright?" Maria's voice spoke through the walkie-talkie.

"Yeah, just something I had to care of with Joel." Tommy responded.

"Is he okay?"

"Everything's fine, Maria."

"He better not be fixing to take you away again." Maria spoke sternly, sending a chill up Joel's spine

Joel laughed with a hint of nervousness. That woman is scarier than she lets on.

"Nothing of the sort, Maria. I'll be home soon. Is it okay if Ellie stays over tonight? Joel needs to take care of some personal business tonight."

"Sure, I'll get the room ready."

Tommy clicked off the walkie-talkie.

"Well, what're you waiting for then? Night shift starts in an hour." Tommy smiled.

"Thanks Tommy. I'll be on the outside of the settlement tonight, but I won't be far."

"Take care that the guards don't mistake you for someone else. Wouldn't want them giving you something to match that right there."

"Sure thing."

"I'll keep an eye on Ellie for you. She'll be in safe hands."

Joel nodded. He stood up and quickly ran home. Ellie was going to be home from her shift soon and he needed to be long gone by then. He didn't want to ruin the surprise. After months of pestering and asking, she would finally get her wish.

After Joel left his home, Tommy grabbed his walkie-talkie and turned the dial until it was on the desired channel.

Night fall soon shrouded the settlement. The night was cool and the full moon shone brightly in the sky. People were either going home to be with their family or on their way to their night jobs. Joel was in that crowd but he had a different purpose.

He spotted Tommy and saluted at him. Tommy nodded and mouthed good luck and be careful.

Joel then went to the doors of the settlement and walked out, making the sure the doors were securely shut behind him. They haven't had a break in for weeks, but he wasn't about to be the cause of another one.

Joel walked a few yards away until he reached what he deemed to be a good spot, not too far away from the settlement but far enough where the night guards wouldn't spot him and mistaken him for a threat. Protocol tends to lean more towards "shoot first, ask questions later" at night.

He sat down, leaning slightly against a tree trunk and began to build a small fire. The cool temperature was at a comfortable level now, but it could topple at any moment. Spring weather tended to act that way these days.

Once the fire was lit, Joel reached into his bag and pulled out his notebook and pencil. He opened it and went directly to work.

A good half hour of silence went by before Joel's consciousness was pulled back to reality.

"Joel, is it?" A voice behind Joel said.

Joel immediately dropped his pencil and notebook and grabbed his gun. He stood and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"No, I'm not here for that." The man stepped out of the darkness with his hands up. No sign of a visible weapon on him.

"Could have fooled me." Joel kept his gun firmly pointed at the man.

"I just want to talk." The man said, his voice remaining soft yet deep, steady, and confident.

Joel took in the appearance of this man. His brunette hair was noticeably long, being held back in a small bun. His soft green eyes were bright in the slight darkness. He wasn't too tall, probably standing at 5'9" or 5'10". He was also in shape but not too bulky. He wore an open plaid blue button down shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, jeans, and black sneakers. He wasn't young, possibly around Joel's age if not at least five years younger. His face was covered with dirt, living in this world can do that to a person. He also had a slight presence of a beard growing in. But the noticeable freckles on his face gave him the appearance of a young child.

Almost like…

"Alright." Joel said.

"May I have a seat?" The man asked.

Joel nodded.

The man sat down in front of the fire. Joel sat across from him and kept his gun in close proximity, just to be safe.

The man brought his hands together, brought them to his lips and closed his eyes, as if he were uttering a silent prayer. After a brief moment of silence, he let out a deep breath and finally spoke up.

"I understand that my little girl is in that there settlement? Tommy's settlement? Safe and sound?" The man fired these questions off without skipping a beat.

Joel brought his gun up and pointed it at the man, nearly pulling the trigger. "I think you are talking about the wrong person." He growled

"Ellie, I think it is? That's what she named her? Beautiful name."

Joel's eyes widened and the grip on his gun wavered a bit. "Who the hell are you?" His voice was shaking.

"My name is Edward Williams. You can just call me Ed or any variation you like." He said softly. He paused. Joel dropped his gun once more and subconsciously leaned in out of anticipation.

"And…" The man paused once more. "And…Ellie is my daughter."

Inspiration of this story came from listening to Viva La Vida by Coldplay.

Thanks for reading and please review =)