DISCLAIMER: The Last of Us and all characters are property of Naughty Dog and I don't claim to own any of this or want to make profit from it. This is just for funsies.

Ellie had always thought that in this world, infected and humans were what you had to worry about. For a long time that belief had proven itself to be true, but now she was learning something else: the cold is a powerful thing.

It bites the unprotected parts of your body and chills your bones. It's a relentless thing that doesn't care if you don't have warm clothes and boots, it doesn't care that you don't have time to find shelter or start a fire. And the really stupid part? You can't shoot or stab the cold.

She hadn't been exposed to the elements like this since that dreadful winter a couple years ago when Joel got hurt. Before that she always had shelter at quarantine zone, and after that at Jackson. But here she was again, in the middle of the woods, in the middle of winter.

The snow seemed to be much thicker and wetter than before. It was up to her thighs in some drift and just above her ankles in others. Now, though, she had managed to pull the snow out from around a large boulder to expose a patch of dead and frozen grass. Her hands were numb but would surely feel raw by morning. The flesh was as pink as her lips and had a few little cuts from catching a piece of ice during her digging. Even after all the runs people went on in Jackson trying to find winter clothes, gloves were still hard to come by.

Looking at the pile of snow that surrounded her she could hardly believe she had moved all that. She kept telling herself it was worth it, that between it and the boulder she was mostly sheltered from the wind...but now that the sun was setting, the warmth from it was replaced by more cold and it was just as uncomfortable as the wind.

"Whatever. It's as good as you're gonna get." She whispered to herself and laid down in her little patch of grass, using her backpack as a pillow, knowing what was gonna be playing in her head the moment her eyes closed.

ONE DAY EARLIER

It had started out like a regular morning at their little house in Jackson. Ellie woke up in her comfortable bed (which had a Savage Starlight blanket that Joel had nabbed, mind you) in her personalized room. It was better than anything she ever had in the quarantine zone or military school. In fact, the whole town was what she imagined "before" must've been like.

The house was two stories, had two bedrooms, electricity, heat, and their cabinets always had something to eat. It was already pretty nice when they first returned from Salt Lake City but had simply flourished since then; they were rarely a struggling community and Joel played his part in ensuring that. Tommy always had something for him to do and Joel was always glad to do it, hence why they had one of the nicest homes in the whole settlement.

Joel was due home that morning but she never payed much attention to what he was up to. Tommy and some of the other big wigs in Jackson had decided a while ago that those under twenty weren't needed on supply runs or hunting and were better off in the 'school' learning what they could about Infected, gardening, hunting, medicine, and a bunch of other stuff she already knew. Of course she hated it. It wasn't an exaggeration to say she had more experience with survival than many of her classmates and would've been much happier if she could go with Joel, but she had come to respect Tommy enough to go along with it.

At that very moment she realized something was off. If years of being on edge all the time had taught her anything it was to pay attention, and that's what she had done, whether she knew it or not.

She took one look at the window and then rolled out of bed. The sun never shone this brightly when she woke up, and Joel rarely let her sleep past ten. The alarm clock on her dresser read 11:17 in big red numbers.

"Oh no." She didn't even bother to take off the sweatpants and tanktop that made up her sleeping attire before pulling on her jeans and sweater from yesterday. She was still putting on the sweater as she pushed open the bedroom door. "Joel?"

His bedroom was right across the hall from hers. "Joel?" She repeated, jogging over and pushing it open. Empty. The bed wasn't even slept in. Don't panic. Stop being stupid. He's never in bed at this hour anyway.

"Hey, Ellie…"

She flinched at the sudden voice and turned to see Tommy limping his way up the stairs. His face was solemn; tone melancholy. "I need to talk to you."

All she could do was nod and follow him.

Once at the bottom of the stairs she could see Maria sitting on the couch. It was an old and tattered thing, upholstery a hideous green, but she loved that couch. Tommy joined his wife, but Ellie didn't move from the stairwell. They were both rigid and looked at each other with sad eyes.

She forced her voice to be strong. "Where's Joel?"

Tommy shut his eyes briefly and sat on the edge of the sofa. He wrung his hands together for a few moments before finally speaking. "There were complications last night."

It sounded rehearsed, like he had practiced this. For some reason that made Ellie angry and she took a step towards them; the hardwood floor was cold against her bare foot. "If you don't tell me-"

"They got overrun." Maria interrupted her and put a hand on her husband's shoulder. "Tommy is one of two who made it back. We lost Clay, Amy, Liah, Neil…" She trailed off as her eyes became misted. "And Joel."

Hearing it out loud hit Ellie like a ton of bricks. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of her and she'd been electrocuted simultaneously. The mental image that forced it's way into her mind wasn't pretty. Thinking of Joel, looking dirty and furious like all Runners did, screaming and running at the mere sight of fresh meat...her head spun so she shook it defiantly. "Did you see him die?"

Tommy's eyes widened briefly. He had expected the girl to ask many things, but that wasn't one of them. "There were so many Runners , Ellie, there's no way-"

"He could be alive!" Her voice echoed off of the walls around her as she raised it. "He could be alive and you just left him!"

"You don't understand." Tommy spoke around the lump in his throat. "I don't know what the hell went on in that place. It was a gated community, we stopped there to rest before we got to the city. But as soon as the seven of us got past the first couple houses they just came out of nowhere and we all scattered. I managed to get into a house and believe me, I tried to fight them off and find the others but the more I shot the more it drew them in and I eventually ran out of ammo." He pulled up the leg of his jeans to expose dark bruises and swelling around his ankle. "I only made it because I jumped from the second story window into the back of Clay's truck. Kelsey was already in the driver's seat and we had no time to wait for the others."

She sunk down to the floor and sat with her back against the wall.

Maria shared a look with Tommy and walked over to crouched in front of her. In a soft voice she said, "I know this is a lot to take in, but Tommy and I talked it over and you're welcome to stay with us."

"What?" She breathed in amazement. "So that's it? You're not even gonna check if any of them are alive?" She stood up and stepped onto the stairs to put distance between herself and Maria. Eyes wide in disbelief and anger, she looked to Tommy.

"There's no way." He snapped.

Maria cut him a look of exasperation. "Tommy needs to rest, it's way too cold today for the trip all the way back there, we're getting low on resources…" She trailed off as she caught Ellie's gaze, then redirected her own to the floor. The look in the girl's eyes was pure fury and betrayal. "You have to understand that nobody wanted to leave them behind."

"You have to at least try!" She exclaimed.

"Joel's my brother but this is bigger than that." Tommy ran a hand down his weary face. "This place is mine and Maria's to run. We already lost too many there and what if I go back and get taken down too?"

Ellie could see what they were trying to say. It was risky, and though this was only her third winter in Jackson she had already figured out that it was always hard on them. But still, she had to do something. For them to expect her to just sit there while Joel could still be alive was simply too much to ask. "Then let me go."

Tommy couldn't help himself from chuckling. "Ellie, please, what makes you think you'll survive it when five adults didn't?"

She discreetly pulled up her sleeve to expose the scar so only Tommy could see. "I think we both know I have an advantage."

He seemed to think about it, but only for a moment before he shook his head adamantly. "That doesn't make you invincible. We just have to live with this. If Joel made it he'll come back on his own." Rising to his feet, he beckoned Maria over with his hand then placed an arm around her. She looked a little confused, as she didn't know about Ellie's immunity, but stood by Tommy with her hands on her hips."We'll give you some time to gather yourself and your things, since you're still welcome to stay with us."

When Ellie didn't respond and they were left in uncomfortable silence, Maria shrugged. "We lock up the house at seven."

She watched them take their leave, then sat on the stairs thoughtfully. Joel had gotten out of some pretty tough situations more than once over the years so just for that she had trouble believing he'd go down just from a bunch of Runners. Though he had slowed down a little after he got injured at the university, she felt confident that he had ducked into a house or whooped some ass to escape. Or maybe the worst outcome was the correct one, and Tommy was right in saying Joel just couldn't have made it. Either way, she knew one thing for sure: "I'm gonna go see for myself."

Naturally, Joel and Ellie had accumulated their own little arsenal in the house's cellar. "It's just was just a backup plan," Joel said when she asked about it. "In case the bandits ever actually do somethin'." She knew it had a padlock but also a combination, which she found after rifling through his nightstand for a few minutes.

"I'm coming Joel." She mumbled to herself after getting dressed in clean clothes. She'd probably be outdoors for a while so she picked what was warmest - a thick brown parka overtop a blue sweater, blue jeans, and sneakers similar to the ones she had been wearing for a long time, only slightly newer and in a larger size. Then she grabbed her old backpack from the bottom of the closet and headed down the basement stairs. They rarely came to this part of the house so there were no lights other than from the flashlight she'd snagged in Joel's room.

In the back of the large and dusty room was a huge, solid metal door. It looked pretty secure so she never really understood what the point of the padlock was.

Nevertheless, she read the numbers aloud while she turned the little knob."Two left, sixteen right, thirty-three left." The lock popped open with a quiet click.

"Holy shit..."

She moved the flashlight around to see that inside the small room was an assortment of rifles, pistols, nail bombs, molotovs, and more ammo than they'd ever know what to do with. It seemed odd to just be all stockpiled here when surely the other residents of Jackson could use it from time to time but she supposed he'd become paranoid.

Only a couple of the weapons were ones she knew how to handle so those were the ones she took. A rifle with a scope along with a bow, and into the backpack went a handful of pistols, bombs, ammo, and a molotov for good measure. Left behind were different types of guns she either hadn't seen before or only Joel had used, like the flamethrower.

"Good enough." Ellie backed out of the room with the flashlight held between her teeth and shut the heavy door with a soft thud. The lock reset, she hurried up back upstairs only to stop as soon as she reached the living room doorway.

Voices, albeit muffled, were coming from right outside. The front door's knob rattled and she ducked into cover right before it opened.

From the position she was in - straddling the kitchen wall - she could see who entered.

Two men in Firefly uniforms were on either side of Tommy, guns drawn. Behind him a female had a pistol shoved into the dip of his back, and behind her were three more.

"Where is she?" Asked the man on the right; he was nearly twice the size of Tommy and had a long, fresh cut running all the way down the right side of his face. Tommy himself looked like he had put up a fight; his jacket was torn and his face was already bruising. He stood slumped over.

He went to raise an arm and the left Firefly roughly held it down. "Speak!"

"All I know is that she lives here, not what room she's in."

The female Firefly put the gun in her waistband and stepped back. She took a deep breath then spoke loudly. "I am Emily Villier, here on orders from Nathan Lancaster, leader of the Fireflies." She stepped around Tommy and her coworkers to stand at the bottom of the stairs.

"Ellie Williams, you are hereby ordered by to show yourself now and come with us peacefully. If you resist, we will have no choice but to use any forces necessary to contain you."

The young woman shook her head, and Ellie thought she could see a smirk on her face. She turned to the other Fireflies and said one word. "Go."

All the others all started heading in opposite directions while the cut man handed Tommy off to Emily.

"What are you doing?" His voice was taut with panic.

She wrapped her arm around his throat, pressed her revolver to his head and pulled the trigger in one swift motion.

Brain matter and bone fragments splattered the clean surroundings as he dropped to the floor like a bag of dirt.

Ellie didn't have time to think about what was happening or why. She didn't have time to think of the man who had just been callously shot, or why Marlene wasn't the leader of the Fireflies anymore, or what the Fireflies were even doing looking for her now. It took everything she had to pull her eyes from the horrible sight. A man was rapidly approaching the kitchen with his gun drawn. Luckily the back door was just to her right while the doorway was on her left, so she moved briskly and quietly to slip out onto the back porch before he entered the room.

Jesus, they're everywhere! Two uniformed women were just coming around the side of the house.

"There she is!" One of them yelled. Ellie couldn't pinpoint the emotion in her tone. It wasn't anger, but...excitement?

They only fired two shots - both of which missed - before Ellie pulled one of the molotovs from her bag and lit the two little bitches up. They went down in a screaming, smoldering mass as she took that opportunity to run for the woods with all she had.

Before, she had hated that her house was on the edge of town because it was a long walk to school. Now, she was thankful, because it was a matter of minutes before she made it into the woods and highly increased her chances of escape. Sure, they might be able to track her from the prints in the snow, but she didn't have to go through town where more of them surely were.

If they were as good as they think they are they would've had someone guarding the backdoor.

She ran until she physically couldn't anymore and collapsed into a snowdrift. Her legs felt like rubber and she wheezed and coughed with every intake of breath. The air hurt her lungs every time; it was too cold, too crisp.

Once she could finally hear over her own noise she listened long and hard for any sign of movement. There was none and that meant it was time to get moving.

She had no idea where she was or where to go. She felt weak and tired, and it was at the same time she realized that she forgot to pack food.

It didn't matter why the Fireflies were after her again or she had just witnessed her second favorite person killed. Joel said that you had to keep finding something to fight for, and in that moment he was her something.

A/N: So, here's the first chapter of my first TLOU fanfic! I don't have a set schedule for updates but I'm excited about this so it shouldn't be long until the next chapter is up. Honestly, I'm kind of self conscious about my writing in this and wish I could do better so constructive criticism IS appreciated. Feel free to tell me your thoughts - is Joel dead? Will Ellie find him, or will the Fireflies find her first? Also, I know both a friend of mine and myself have trouble remembering at times that Ellie doesn't know the truth about what happened at the hospital, only what Joel told her so keep that in mind. Anyway, thanks for reading!