Just to be clear, this is definitely not an Ellie/Sarah story. 100% Riley/Ellie.

I do not own The Last of Us.

Fire was everywhere. Orange flames consumed Ellie's bedroom door and was creeping towards her. She backed up to the window, looking around in panic. She was trapped. Ellie whipped her head back and forth, desperately trying to figure a way out. The fire was closing in, and Ellie only had one option. She shut her eyes and hurled herself out the window. She braced herself for the impact of the hard ground and slammed into it with a hard thud. Ellie couldn't do anything but lay there and groan to herself. The sky wasn't its usual blue, but a burning red.

"Ellie?" A voice cut through. "Hey, are you okay?"

Ellie propelled forward, clutching the sheets of the bed. Her skin was damp and she was breathing heavily. She shook her head, trying to make sense of her surroundings. Small room, blue sheets, a spinning fan in the corner. And a blonde girl looking at her in concern. Oh. Right. The Miller's house came with Sarah.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ellie rubbed her eyes. "Bad dream is all."

"Don't you hate bad dreams? I only have them once in a while, but they're the worst." Sarah said. "Dad always gets them. If you ever hear anyone bumbling downstairs in the middle of the night, that's him. He's always in a bad mood in the morning after."

"Girls! Breakfast is ready!" A voice yelled from downstairs.

"Speak of the devil." Sarah said. The two girls made their way down to the kitchen. Joel was putting what looked like bacon and eggs onto three different plates. He was wearing a ridiculous looking apron that Ellie was sure no one but Sarah knew about.

"Morning you two. 'Bout time you woke up, Ellie. You slept later than I did." Joel said as he handed the plates to the girls. "Television's on in the living room, might as well catch up on the news."

"That's code for 'this formal and polite shit is over now', Ellie." Sarah said. Ellie cracked a grin, and even Joel looked like he was trying to fight a smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Language, kiddo. Just because Tommy has a trucker mouth doesn't mean you get to have one." Joel chastened, but the hint of a smile on his face took the harshness out of his words.

"Tommy?" Ellie asked.

"My uncle." Sarah explained. "He's a police officer. He goes undercover a lot though, so he's working in the same construction company as Dad as a cover." Ellie nodded, and went back to shoveling eggs into her mouth. Once again, the food was good. Nice to know last night wasn't a fluke.

"Undercover? Like a narc?" Ellie asked.

"Sort of. Uncle Tommy will go undercover for different jobs to catch drug dealers. He's like a narc, but for adults." Sarah said. Her eyes were glinting with excitement. "It's pretty cool, actually."

"And not a topic for kids." Joel's eyebrows knit together. "And how did you even know he was working with me and the construction company?" Sarah shrugged.

"He told me."

Joel sighed and ran his hands though his hair. "Of course he did." He sat up and walked over to the kitchen, putting his dishes into the sink. "Say, Ellie, you'll be needing school supplies for tomorrow, won't you?"

"Uh, yeah." Ellie said. "I mean, it's not that big a deal, just a couple of pencils and a few notebooks. I have a backpack."

"Might as well head to the store, I think Sarah needs some more paper for her binder anyway." Joel said.

"Yes!" Sarah made a fist and pumped the air. "Are we leaving now?"

"Soon as Ellie gets changed." Joel said. Ellie got the message and headed upstairs. She quickly made her way towards her backpack in her room. Ellie pulled on a red t-shirt and the same jeans she wore yesterday. Quickly pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. Same not really blue, but not green eyes and freckles. The scar on her eyebrow was almost invisible in her bedroom light. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be the same for her uncanny resemblance to Ellen Page.

"Ellie? Are you coming?" Sarah called from downstairs.

"Just a sec." Ellie yelled back. Giving herself one last one-over, Ellie left the room and made her way downstairs. Sarah was pacing around the room and Joel was back to watching the television.

"Finally, you took forever." Sarah groaned. "C'mon, let's go." She gestured violently at Joel to get up. He rolled his eyes but walked over and opened the door for Sarah and Ellie. The two girls made their way to Joel's truck.

"Ellie, you take the front. I'm smaller, I can fit in the back easier." Said Sarah.

"Not that much smaller." Joel chuckled.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Ellie crossed her arms. "Did you just crack a short joke? I'll have you know I'm five-two, a perfectly respectable height." Joel and Sarah looked at each other and grinned, shaking their heads. Ellie pouted and crossed her arms. "I am not short." She grumbled.

"Of course not." Sarah laughed. "But you do realise that five-five is the average height of a female, right?" Ellie narrowed her eyes and made a 'hmpf' sound.

"Now, now girls, no fighting." Said Joel.

"You're the one that started it." Ellie grumbled. Joel just laughed and pulled out of the drive way.

"Are we going to the one in the city, Dad?" Sarah asked.

"No, the one just outside." Joel made a right turn, and they started down a dirt road. Ellie noticed a farm that looked like it had seen better days.

"But the one in the city is so much better." Sarah whined and pouted. "Please?"

"The one outside will work, Sarah. We're looking for pencils, remember?" Joel said. "Besides, it's right up ahead."

"And next to a Home Hardware." Sarah said. "That's why we're going to this one, isn't it?"

Joel didn't answer and pulled into the parking lot. Sarah was right, on the left of the office supplies store was a giant hardware store.

"Now, I'm gonna head in and pick up some supplies-"

"Knew it." Sarah whispered to Ellie.

"You two go in there and pick up what you need." Joel pulled out his wallet and handed the two some bills. "What you need, Sarah. Not what you want." He gave her a stern look and headed into the hardware store.

"He just trusts us to buy school supplies with this?" Ellie asked disbelievingly. Sarah just shrugged.

"He trusts me." She said. "Now come on, inside there's air-conditioning." Sarah pulled Ellie through the doors. The blasts of cool air were beyond welcome. Ellie had been boiling in the Texan sun. The heat here was different from Florida. There it had been a moist heat, and the option of jumping into the ocean was always there. Here, it was a dry heat that sucked out the moisture from everything.

Sarah grabbed a cart and the two picked out supplies. Ellie made sure to pick out the ones that were as cheap as possible. Sarah raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. At least the girl wasn't completely nosey. Ellie didn't have the energy to explain that she didn't want to feel like she owed the Miller's anymore than she had to. She found that the less she accepted from her foster families, the less guilt she had when she ran away, and it didn't hurt as much if she was kicked out.

"What the fuck man? You think you can just show up here after what you did?" A muffled voice cut through Ellie's thoughts. A very pissed off muffled voice. Ellie whipped around until she found the source. A group of people had gathered in the parking lot, and they were shouting at each other loud enough for Ellie to hear in the store.

"Ellie, we need to move to the back of the store." Sarah gripped her arm so tight it was almost painful.

"Wait." Ellie breathed, fascinated with what was going on outside. There was an obvious size disadvantage between the two groups. It looked like the fight was six on two, and it looked like the two weren't doing so well. The guy that looked like the leader of the group of six had pinned one of the other guys down onto the ground, and was punching him repeatedly.

"Ellie." Sarah shook her. "We need to find Dad." The fight was growing uglier, as the other one of the two had his hands forced behind his back and was getting punched in the stomach.

The sharp sounds of police sirens filled the air, and the winning group let go of the other two immediately and bolted out of the parking lot. By the time the police pulled in, the six were long gone. Ellie watched as the two on the ground were handcuffed and put into the back of the police cruiser.

"Oh good." Sarah relaxed. "That was freaky. I thought they were going to…you know."

"What?" Ellie raised and eyebrow. "Kill the two guys?" Sarah visibly winced. "They wouldn't have, not with this many people watching. Who even were they?"

"I didn't know at first, but I got a glimpse of a dog tag while they were running away." Sarah bit her lip. "They're called Fireflies."

"Fireflies?" Ellie cocked her head in confusion. "Like the bug?"

"Well, yeah. It's the name of their gang. The Fireflies have been getting bigger and bigger the last couple of years. They're always in the news because they do…things. Really bad things." Sarah looked uncomfortable, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "They scare me, a little."

"How'd you know?" Ellie asked. "That they were Fireflies, I mean."

"Like I mentioned, I saw their dog tags. Every Firefly has one." Sarah said. "Pretty stupid if you ask me. Why would you have physical evidence if you're in a gang wanted by the police?"

"Are they that bad?" Ellie asked. She looked again at the spot where the Fireflies had been arguing, and at the blood splattered on the ground.

"Worse. Dad always says that if you ever meet anyone who's a Firefly, you need to get as far away from them as possible."