hbo © the last of us
season 1, episode 1

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
LATE JULY ✷ 2023

━━ LENA HAD NOT set foot in downtown Boston in fourteen years.

Whatever had remained of her city — of the one-story Cape-Cod-style house she'd grown up in, of her school, of her favorite restaurants, and childhood hangout spots — was buried six feet under, hidden beneath piles of rubble and bones. The infected ruled the city, while the Fireflies and FEDRA fought over it.

There was a bitter taste in Lena's mouth as she walked through the empty streets, rifle slung over her right shoulder, her hands tightly gripping the hilt of her knives. When she looked at the abandoned buildings, all she could see were the spray-painted symbols and phrases, begging for the Fireflies to set the quarantine zone free, begging for a bloody revolution.

When you're lost in the darkness, look for the light.

FEDRA is killing us, the Fireflies are saving us. Who will YOU choose?

Lena almost let a laugh escape her lips as she walked beside the meaningless words. The people were hungry, the people were sick, the people were hopeless. They wanted to hold on to a savior, someone they could worship like a Sun goddess, but Marlene was not the choice.

Lena hadn't seen or spoken with Marlene in almost a decade and a half — ever since the night of Anna's death — and even though she did not want to admit it, there was a part of her heart that still mourned over their perished friendship.

There was once a time when the two, alongside Anna Williams, — the girl whom Lena had grown up with — were inseparable. As children, everyone around them used to say that when you saw one, you saw the others.

After the beginning of the outbreak, Marlene had decided she'd had enough. Of the three, she had always been the one destined for leadership, with revolutionary ideas fueled by sleepless nights spent writing and rewriting inside a notebook — that would one day become the basis of what Marlene Ray's group stood for.

The Fireflies had first started as a small anecdote for friends, shared over poker tables in those first, uncertain days of the outbreak. No one had taken Marlene seriously, but when she began rounding up annoyed residents and handing them guns as a means of protection, neither Anna nor Lena was quite surprised, either.

In the years that followed, the Fireflies only grew in manpower. Their symbol and their words were not considered encouragement messages written for those that needed a reason to stay alive anymore; they were death sentences, and Lena had seen too many of her friends being hanged for painting them.

At the Fireflies' heyday, there was not a single FEDRA soldier in the state of Massachusetts who had not heard the name Lena Spence or had not seen her face on the "wanted" posters on every utility pole in the city.

Back then, Marlene was the judge, and Lena her executioner.

But time and corrosion had washed away every evidence of the latter being involved with the Fireflies. Even the military officers — most dead, some either too old or too young to remember who she was —had stopped putting prizes on her head years and years before. All that remained of the renowned Firefly were simple stories, of a time when humanity still hoped for order, for a cure.

━━━━━━━━━━

Finding Marlene hadn't been half as hard as she thought. However much time it had been, Boston was still Lena's city, and she remembered all of the secret passages and shortcuts like the back of her hand.

The Fireflies were ever moving, not staying too long in one or the other building because of FEDRA raids, but even back in her days on the lam they always chose empty apartment complexes in zones often too ruined for the authorities to bother rebuilding them.

"Hands in the air where I can see 'em." Lena heard as she approached one of the buildings she suspected Marlene was in. She could barge into a thousand different doors before finding her, but the thick layers of black curtains that hung from floor to ceiling on every row of windows were unusual for empty houses, and it was clue enough to know that her former best friend was still weaving her plots somewhere behind those walls.

"Hey, kid. Why don't you put that down?" Lena replied with another question, slowly placing her knives inside their sheaths, but holding on to the rifle. Afterward, she took her right hand and placed it over her eyes to shield them from the afternoon sun.

The person with a shotgun pointed at her was a young boy, with auburn-brown skin and loose clothes that were too big to fit his starved body. He looked terrified — as if it were his first time coming face to face with an enemy — and he was ready to call for backup when the woman in front of him smiled. "It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you, or your friends. Bet you don't want to do anything stupid, piss your boss off, eh?"

"S— state your name and your— your business here, please." the boy stammered, his hands gripping the shotgun so hard that they were beginning to shake.

"I'm Lena. Lena Spence." the woman answered as cordially as she could, displaying a fake smile and keeping her eyes on the boy as she took a few steps forward and motioned for something that she was keeping in the front pocket of her blue shirt. "I'm gonna get something, alright? My Firefly pendant."

Hers was the first to be made, even before Marlene's or Anna's. It displayed the name LENA SPENCE, underneath which the number 000001 was carved out. She tossed it at the kid and he caught it in mid-air.

The boy studied the pendant for a few seconds. He knitted his eyebrows together, but soon, his face changed into something else as a wave of realization swept over him. "You're—"

Lena wanted to laugh at how much of a celebrity status the necklace awarded her. In the right places, the Fireflies pendant would be ten thousand times worthier than a FEDRA badge.

"Yeah, it's me. And I got something important to tell Marlene. Will you let me in?"

Her words stunned him. He was the one holding the gun, but Lena had gotten so close that she could grip the barrel of his weapon even before he even dared press his finger on the trigger. She would give him such a good beating, he would remember her name until the end of his days . . .

His judgment call came a second too late. The door burst open, and it was Marlene herself who appeared in the doorway, alarmed by the unknown chit-chat outside.

She looked barely older than when Lena had last seen her. She had the same nose, the same lips, and the same mischievous eyes she'd always had. Only now, her face was ridden with soft wrinkles and her hair was salted with streaks of white hair. She was forty-six now, as old as Lena, but no one would consider them as old.

Marlene was so shocked to see Lena that she had to support her weight against the door so as to not fall down. She blinked three or four times before she even gained the lucidity to mutter some words. "Good. Fucking. Grief. Spence, is that you?"

Lena remembered the night the two had parted ways. All of the words she had wanted to spew in Marlene's face — words that were locked inside her heart for so many years — were gone from her mind as soon as the other woman opened her arms and stepped out in the sun.

Lena was hesitant. After all, Marlene had become a stranger. But after a few seconds of just staring in awe at each other's faces, the first let her walls down and allowed the latter to come near her.

Marlene's embrace was still as tight and (slightly) uncomfortable as it had ever been, but Lena allowed herself to be enveloped in a hug as her friend buried her face in her shoulder and let a few tears spill over her blue shirt.

"Good God, it's been so long. I— I was thinking about you today. You won't believe what happened, what I found out. And you, you don't look so different." the words blurted out of Marlene's mouth faster than she'd ever heard. "Jesus, Lena. Say something. You look like you've seen a ghost."

Lena parted her lips and coughed dryly, but nothing would come out. It rarely happened to her, — to be so stunned she could not even speak — and she hated that it had happened to her twice on the same day.

Suddenly, the memory of Cess came rushing at her head like a ton of bricks. She became austere again, her expression hardening once more. "It's good to see you're alive."

Those motherfuckers couldn't kill me even if they tried for a hundred years."

". . . But I'm not here on a trip down memory lane."

"I figured." Marlene sighed. "Come on in. Luke, close the door behind us. And keep that gun straight. Don't shoot yourself with it."

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Marlene's office was in what had once been the garage of the apartment complex. The cars, now too old and rusted to be used, had been pushed against the black-mold-ridden white walls — leaving the center of the room to be filled with chairs and tables covered by an endless sea of papers.

Lena was offered a cup of steaming green tea and a tray of chocolate chip cookies by a couple of young girls, but she politely declined them with a wave of her hand.

Marlene clapped her hands together. "Everyone, clear the room! Go with Andrea and Joe. To the old house."

Some of the people looked curiously at Lena as they made their way out of the garage, but she couldn't recognize any of them. Most of the soldiers were young, really young, no older than twenty years old.

So that's what had become of the Fireflies now. Marlene was the leader of a militia made up of armed children.

"Sit." the woman offered Lena a seat, and she reluctantly took it.

"You know," Lena began, after taking a few seconds to study the papers that were spread on the table. Evacuation plans of Boston, a map of the Capitol building, sketches, and blueprints of the underground sewer systems. Escape plans, she quickly realized. "Maybe we could chat about the good ol' times when you were too important of a leader to do your chores yourself."

Lena raised a finger at the blood stains on Marlene's clothes, at her disheveled hair, at the bruises on her bare arms. The latter was pouring herself coffee into a dirty paper cup and almost spilled boiling water on her hands from laughing at Lena's comment.

"You act like you were the butcher in the shadows, and that I was the master puppeteer. You know I always did everything I could, and that included getting myself bloody."

Lena took another glance at the cookies that were still on the table and realized that her stomach longed for food. She changed her mind, but before she could stretch her hand and reach for the plate, she remembered what she'd always been taught as a child: don't accept gifts from strangers.

Marlene had become a stranger . . . or had she?

"I've killed so many people for you and your cause that you could fill an entire cemetery with them. And either way," Lena rolled her eyes. "Whoever has been backing your ass for all of these years is doing a shit job at it."

"I told you the Fireflies would go through a bad while without you, Lena. You left. But we pulled through." there was a sharp edge to Marlene's words. It meant that not all had been forgiven.

"Kids that are old enough to be our children, running around with guns? That's what you call 'pulling through?'" Lena sunk deeper into her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, spare me. This is a joke, even for you."

Marlene tsked. Lena could tell she was beginning to get annoyed. "I know why you're here, Lena. And before you jump at my throat, I told Philip it was a bad idea to bring her here. But it wasn't him. She came of her own free will."

"Where is she?"

"Not here." Marlene replied nonchalantly. "She went with Lip to the old State House."

"The Capitol?" Lena asked. "What's my daughter doing there, Marlene?"

The other woman put down her cup of coffee and approached the table at the center. She unfurled one of the maps and fixed it in place with three rusted candle holders. She began pointing at some yellow dots over the streets of Boston. "You see this? And this, and this, and this?"

Lena wasn't in the mood for Marlene's charades, but she figured that she wouldn't lose anything from keeping her calm. She nodded.

"There are just some of the spots we've been bombing. Meaningless FEDRA checkpoints. You know why?" Marlene asked. "It's 'cause we need them distracted and dispersed. We're going to pack our bags. Tonight, the Fireflies are leaving the East Coast forever."

Lena almost choked on the saliva she was swallowing. "You're quitting? I've got to admit, old friend, none of us is as young and fierce as we were twenty years ago, but I never took you for a quitter."

Marlene gave Lena one of her Machiavellic smiles. It had always annoyed the latter, even when she was a child, the way her friend grinned — like she always had the better of everyone. This time wasn't different.

"That's what I want them to think so. But tonight, after two decades, the Firefly revolution finally begins."

Lena scratched the sweat off her brow with her overgrown nails. She took another good look at the map, trying to decipher any message she might've lost on Marlene. "And why is that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We've got an important delivery to make. Out West." Marlene answered. "Does the name Veronica ring any bells for you?"

Lena thought about all of the Veronicas she'd ever known. Her first cat, dead for thirty-seven years. Her Algebra teacher who'd had a heart attack in the middle of class; also dead. And the girl whom she'd gone to chess club with in high school, dead in a car accident long before any human could come to dream about a Cordyceps outbreak.

"No, I don't think so."

"And Ellie? Does that—"

"Ellie? Anna's Ellie?" Lena raised an eyebrow. Shame washed over her as soon as she came to a realization."I . . . forgot about her."

Marlene shook her head, slowly. "No. I took care of her after she was born, but I sent her away somewhere safe before she could understand who I was. I've always been watching over her, from the shadows."

The newest information took Lena aback. The night the girl was born had been such a decisive moment in her life, — all of the fury and resentment and pain that had been boiling inside her for months on end finally gained enough force to leave her — but Lena had never forced herself to think about the little girl that Anna had left behind. Of who she was now, of what she ate, where she slept, if she was even alive.

"What's she got to do with the delivery?"

"She is the delivery." Marlene replied promptly. "I feel like the tides are finally changing for the Fireflies, Lena. Maybe this is it. Maybe we're finally going to be free."

Lena didn't understand what Marlene was talking about — nor did she try to. She simply nodded and half-whispered, "I am happy to hear that."

"Chelsea was here this morning. Left a couple of hours before you showed up." Marlene said. "I'm sorry. If I would've known that you were looking for her, I would've made up an excuse to keep them here for a little while."

Before she could realize what was happening, Lena felt a single tear roll down the corner of her eye. She wiped it while Marlene turned around to stack some papers inside a wooden box, and prayed that she hadn't noticed.

Crying is a weakness, and I don't show weakness.

"Hey, Lena?" Marlene asked, turning on her heels, her hands gripping a round object behind her back. "Happy belated birthday."

She placed the weapon on the table and slid it toward Lena, who wrapped her left fist around its hilt and help it upwards, looking at her crystalline reflection on the curved surface of the blade.

"My sickle." she spoke, looking up at Marlene with a smile.

"I knew you'd come back for it one day. And I kept it, in case you ever needed it again." Marlene laughed. "I promise you that no one touched it."

The sickle had been Lena's first real weapon. On the night of her leaving Boston, she'd dropped it at the Firefly house and was too stubborn to go back for it. Fourteen years later, her beloved (What a strange way to think about a weapon, Lena thought) blade was still as shiny and sharp as the last time she'd picked it up.

She wanted to thank Marlene with another hug, but before she could, the door of the garage burst open, and in walked Kim, the dark-skinned woman that now seemed to be the Firefly's second-in-command.

"He's here."

"Who's here?" Lena asked.

"Robert." Marlene replied. Upon seeing the confusion on Lena's face, she asked. "You know Robert, right?"

There were few people Lena remembered from her time as a Firefly. Most of her memories had been wiped off her mind like the database of a computer. All that remained were names and their matching blurry faces, but she could never figure out who they were or what they did.

Lena never even tried to recall the people of Boston she'd known after the outbreak. She would often end up with a headache that could only be calmed by drinking herself to sleep — and she hated it.

"Robert? Uh, the bearded guy . . . who sold guns? Didn't he die during that shootout with FEDRA?"

"It seems not." Marlene replied. She hastily opened one of the locked drawers of the table and pulled out an AK-47 and a carton box full of two-inch bullets."

"Jesus. You really need all that?"

"Jesus is not going to protect you if you don't." Marlene replied, pushing the weapon toward Lena. "I've been dealing with this guy for a long time, but his shit has gone stale, and he's crossed me too many times. He owes me a car battery. If he's lying to me, he's dead."

Marlene slung the other AK-47 across her torso and marched out of the room. As she held out the door for Lena, she added. "Come on."

"You think I'm gonna fight for you? I swore I wouldn't. Ever again." the woman raised an eyebrow, though she was beginning to fill the magazine of her rifle with the tiny bullets.

Lena could almost swear she saw Marlene smiling. "Try not to get yourself killed, will ya?"

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It all happened too fast. One moment, Marlene was shaking Robert's hand over the battery he had brought the Fireflies. Then Kim took a quick glance at the object and motioned at her boss. It's dead, she mouthed.

The man was aware of their plan even before the Fireflies could realize that they were being tricked into another unfruitful trade.

Lena didn't have time to react. In a fraction of a second, she felt the cold barrel of a gun dancing at the nape of her neck, the AK-47 thrown out of her reach, and her weapon belt unbuckled with a soft clink. There she was, again, feeling naked as the day she'd been born.

For a moment, Lena thought she'd reached her finish line. She closed her eyes and tried to picture Cess' face one last time, wanting to go with the knowledge that the last things she had seen were the features of her daughter, not some half-rotten, molded walls in an abandoned apartment complex. She sent a quick prayer to God — if he was even listening — and waited for the moment she could simply stop feeling.

The shot came quicker than she'd expected.

She remained locked in place for a few seconds, expecting to fall to the ground or see devils ready to take her to hell. Slowly, she opened her eyes and understood that she was still alive. She looked toward Marlene and saw her small handgun — pointed somewhere behind Lena — blazing with smoke.

So it wasn't Lena that had died. It was the motherfucked that had tried to kill her.

"Duck away!" Kim yelled, forcing Lena to drop on all fours as she directed her weapon to Robert and pressed the trigger.

The shot came too close to the woman's ears, making her head ring — but it didn't stop her from regaining the grip on her AK-47 and hiding behind one of the door casings.

At first, Lena thought she oughtn't to join the fight. After all, she could barely discern who was a Firefly and who wasn't, but she was quick to note that there were no more Fireflies other than Kim and Marlene — and herself, for all it mattered.

All of them, children, women, and men alike had been sent out to the old State House building and were now too far away to make out the sounds of armed struggle.

Three to eight, Lena counted. Nothing I haven't dealt with.

Lena crouched and aimed her weapon at a blonde woman that stood a few feet away with her back turned. The body dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes; and the kill had been much easier than Lena had expected — if not for the fact that her position had been revealed.

She rolled over and sloppily hid behind a flower vase, but another blonde woman, possibly the sister of the one she had killed, screamed in rage and hurled one of Lena's own daggers from the weapon belt to her head.

The woman heard a couple of shots and realized, with a pang of her heart, that Marlene had been shot in the abdomen.

"God, god!" Lena yelled, rushing to catch her friend before she could fall. Marlene accepted her arm for support but after a few moments, she reclined herself on the wall and shook her head vehemently.

"No, no, no. You've got to go," she repeated, lifting a shaking finger toward one of the doors. "Ellie's in there. No matter what, you've got to protect her, you understand me? Now go! I'll cover you!"

Lena nodded with determination. She understood that there was no time for tears or mourning. If Marlene's time had finally come, she'd at least allow her to die in decency, as she'd always wished: a good-hearted rebel's way, with a bullet in her body and twenty more in the magazine of her gun.

Before any of Robert's guys could understand what she was doing, she sprinted across the narrow hallway and pressed her weight against the metal door.

i really thought that this first chapter would cover the entirety of episode one but turns out i got too lost in the first section — which doesn't bother me because i got myself writing some clues about lena's back story. anyway, i hope you enjoyed it! much love, ali ♡

word count: 3932 words

started: january nineteenth

finished: january twentieth

published: january twentieth