Based on the video game "The Last of Us". Unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.

Fall was just about to turn into winter. The air felt crisper, and the nights grew shorter. Sara knew that they needed to get to Tommy's as soon as possible. Their lack of provisions was beginning to become a source of worry. They had been traveling across the country these last three months. The car they were using gave out around Oklahoma City.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Sara muttered under her breathe as they came to a stop in an empty house.

"Quiet" Felicity admonished. When she turned her head to look back at Sara, her eyes widened in panic. Sara had her right pant leg pulled up around her knee, and blood was now gushing out of a wound on Sara's right calf.

"Were you bitten?" Felicity small voice stuttered at the end of her sentence.

"Oh god no! It was that damn barbwire fence about a mile ago, trying to run from those clickers. Sliced me pretty fucken good, didn't seem too bad until I saw a red stain soaked through my pants."

Felicity lowered herself down to a kneeling position to get a better look at the wound.

"Looks deep." she added softly. Without another word, Felicity reached for her backpack and grabbed what little supplies they had left.

"No!" Sara tried to stop her. This was the last of their medical gauze and rubbing alcohol.

Felicity ignored her plea and continued patching up the busted leg. "It will get infected, and then we'll have to chop it off. If you think I'm carrying your pretty ass while a pack of clickers and runners are chasing after us, you have another thing coming."

Sara chuckled slightly as Felicity finished up wrapping the gaping wound.

"You are ready to go Ms. Lance. Good as new!"

It took them another week to reach Tommy's compound, high in the mountains of New Mexico. The temperature dropped at least fifteen degrees within the last couple of days. One more night in the wilderness and Sara was sure they would have succumbed to frost bite.

Thankfully Tommy's men found them first. Sure there were AK 47s being shoved in their faces, but the Fireflies were never that trusting anyways. The only reason they brought her and Felicity back to their base was the Firefly pendant she still kept on hand.

Her time spent as a Firefly paid off in certain situations. Giving her and Felicity the occasional shelter and supplies from random Fireflies they met along the way.

"I need to speak to Tommy Merlyn." That was all Sara's voice could manage to get out. The months of traveling across the United States, constantly fighting off hunters and the infected had started to take its toll.

With one last look back to Felicity, Sara felt herself slipping under.

Everything went black.

"Sara." Her name was being called. Everything sounded like she was under water. Gently she felt herself being rocked back and forth.

"Sara." Someone called for her again. The voice sounded so familiar.

Finally her body began to respond to her actions. She slowly blinked her eyes as Tommy's face came into view. Sara shot straight up, causing the room to begin to spin around her.

"Take it easy!" Tommy chided.

Her head was pounding. "How long was I out?"

"About two days. Felicity was very worried." At the mention of Felicity's name, Sara began to panic.

Where was she? Was she alright"

"She's fine Sara. She actually just woke up a couple of hours ago. I've had Oliver looking after her, making sure she's okay." Apparently she had said those things out loud.

"I'm happy to see you Sara, really I am -"

"But?"

"But, how did you find me?"

"Randall. Our old Firefly buddy, he told me you had come out west. Said you had a whole compound with running water and electricity. It was just me and Felicity and I knew we wouldn't last much longer in Starling."

"You were back in Starling?" Tommy asked incredulously.

"Just outside the city actually. The quarantine zone went to hell about a year ago. Hunters have taken over the city. Felicity and I were able to find a safe house about ten miles from the actual city. We would sneak in to get supplies, but it became too dangerous to stay there. After running into Randall, us three decided to make our way across the country to find you."

"Us three? There were only two of you when we found nearly dead in the forest."

"Randall didn't make it out of the city. He sacrificed himself when a couple of Hunters were on our trail."

They sat in silence for a moment as Tommy let that information sink in. He hated what he had to do next.

"Listen, Sara-"

"That tone is never good." She interrupted.

"What do you know about my tones? I haven't seen you in years." Tommy asked with a chuckle.

"I'm not wrong though, am I?"

"You can stay here as long as you want. I know I can trust you, but this girl you brought to our door."

"What about her?" Sara asked indignantly.

"She ex-Military! I saw the tattoo on her wrist. It was a fucken ID number" Tommy stated angrily.

"She was a little girl when all this shit happened, Tommy! She grew up in a militarized quarantine zone. She had no choice. She left the Military years ago-"

"You brought an ex- Militant to our base. An organization that's one goal is to kill Fireflies, and you brought her here."

"What like we're any better, Tommy? How many people have I killed, or you for that matter? Too many to count, that's how many."

Sara stood up abruptly and began pacing back and forth.

"The day I met her, Tommy, was her first day on the "job". I and this group of about five were trying to head back to our safe house. She had caught us, and oh was I ready for a fight. I was just waiting for this girl to make a move, but she looked so frightened. For no reason at all she let us go, but not before her fellow solider saw us getting away. And then I heard two things. One, he asked for back up to come and track us down. And two, he got the go ahead to execute her on sight."

"I went back for her, when no one else wanted to take the risk. She told me that was the first time she ever had to take someone's life. She couldn't do it; she told me later that night that she would never take a person's life if given the choice. Now you tell me, who in this this fucked up world is like that anymore?"

After her rant Sara realized she was panting and her hands were shaking quite a bit. She didn't realize how much this girl had begun to mean to her. They were family. If Felicity couldn't stay, she wouldn't stay. Plain and simple.

All of sudden it dawned on her, "When you say Oliver is looking after her, you mean he's guarding her, don't you?"

"I needed to be sure Sara. This isn't the fireflies anymore, okay! I have families here. We've built a, some-what cohesive community here. I just can't let anyone come in and mess it up. Too many people are counting on me to protect them. We have an acre of protected land. These walls keep out those monsters, but they aren't the only monsters out there, are there? We have people killing and raping left and right. I just needed to be sure."

At those words all of Sara's anger seeped out of her, realizing he was just doing what he thought was right to protect his own.

"How many?" Sara asked quietly. When he didn't respond right away she clarified, "How many people do you have here?"

"About 60 people in total. Most of my men are ex-Fireflies who were ready to make a real difference. To be honest this was mainly Oliver's idea. They elected me to be a leader. I didn't want the responsibility at first. I thought this was Oliver's mission of mercy, but you know how he can be with people. He's not exactly sociable, that being the understatement of the century. So I agreed. Haven't looked back since."

"So, is all this security for little old me?" Felicity asked the broody guard standing across the room from her. His back facing her as he looked out a window.

"I must be a dangerous crazy person" She said, exaggerating her hand motions, waving them in the air wildly.

"You can stop talking now."

"I've never been good at that."

"What shutting up?"

"No, you big jerk! I meant taking orders. It's the reason I left the military."

"Ah, so you admit it."

"What? Being a soldier, excuse me, ex-soldier? It's the reason I'm here, isn't it?"

"Wasn't so sure if you'd actually come out and admit it."

"Got nothing to hide, anyways, you were the ones with guns pointed at two helpless girls."

He actually snorted at that. "Whatever it is you are, helpless is definitely not one of them."

"The name's Felicity Smoak."

Silence.

"And you are?"

"Getting sick and tired of playing this game with you."

"Wow!" Felicity said sarcastically "That's a mouthful. I hope you don't mind if I call you something else." With that Felicity contemplated her next words. She began to tap her finger on her chin, pretending to think about it.

"How about I just call you…umm...Prick?"

That got his attention as he whipped around to face her. His face looked annoyed or amused. She couldn't really tell. Before he could retort the door flew open and she saw Sara run into the room, followed by a handsome man who instructed Oliver to let her out the cell.

Once Oliver opened the cell door, she flew into Sara's arms.

"Are you okay?" She mumbled into Sara's shoulder.

"I'm fine. They didn't hurt you?" Sara asked quietly so only Felicity could hear.

Felicity shook her head no.

"His bark is worse than his bite." This time both males heard what she said.

This made Tommy laugh out loud, and Oliver looked even more annoyed than before.

Notes:

If you want to know more about "Hunters", "Clickers", "Runners", and "Fireflies" go to my profile page.