❝ After a while you went quiet and I
Got mean, I'm always pushing you
Away from me but you come back with
Gravity. ❞

— I KNOW THE END, PHOEBE BRIDGERS

VIENNA WINDSOR only knew one thing and one thing only, and that was surviving.

     From the moment she was forced to flee her home in the midst of the cold, dark night, her eyes casted upon the dead feasting on the living, horror and fear glimmering in her frightened gaze. The woman knew she had no choice but to prevent herself from becoming the monsters she would later sought to destroy. That feeling was only amplified when she gave birth to her son, Ezra Windsor. She nothing more than to protect him from the cruelty of the new world, even if that meant sacrificing others along the way. Those sacrifices included letting her son's father die an excruciating death.

Ezra would grow up to resent his mother for the decision to let his father die, unbeknownst to him the kind of the man he was before his untimely demise. He blamed Vienna. He saw her as the monster who took away his father. Vienna took the weight of the blame and channelled it into anger, a blazing fury of hate she had for the dead world. When it came to a point where he didn't even recognise his own mother anymore, Ezra left one night and never returned, living out his teenage years in the Boston QZ where he found an unlikely pair who took him under his wing. Of course Ezra thought about his mom every day. But he knew that if he didn't leave when he did, he wouldn't have survived much longer.

For two full years, Vienna wandered aimlessly through the city, or otherwise known as The Valley of Death, surviving day and night, the blood of her enemies smeared across her skin, while she searched for some sort of purpose in the world. That was when Vienna crossed paths with the infamous Fireflies; a revolutionary militia group who revolted against military oppression, hoping to rebuild the world on their own. They gave Vienna the purpose in life she had been desperately searching for. Especially when a young girl claiming she's immune comes wandering through the streets of despair and misery.

Vienna is then given the task to join forces with a group of smugglers to get the girl out of the city in hopes that the Fireflies could manufacture a cure for the same disease that had ravaged the world for the last twenty years. However, complications soon arise when Vienna comes face to face with not only her son, but her former best friend, Joel Miller — someone who she believed to have been dead for the last twenty years.

     And although Vienna wants to be happy to see a familiar face after two decades of separation, the reunion is far from celebratory because things had changed. Joel had changed, and so had she. They weren't the same people they once were before the apocalypse — both of them beaten and bruised by the cutthroat world they now lived in. They were nothing more than ghosts wearing the faces of their former selves, who have no choice but to team up to deliver the cure for humanity to the Fireflies and save the world. It was easy enough. Vienna just had to draw a line between the job and her feelings.

But the longer she spent with Joel, the more blurry the line between love and duty became. Vienna was once a woman who prioritised her own survival above all else. But Joel Miller always had a knack of getting under her skin when he wanted too because although Vienna did her best to keep the walls around her bitter heart strong enough to withstand a tidal wave of emotions, it only took one man to knock down those same walls all over again. And deep down she hated him for it. She didn't want to feel again. It only put her own survival at risk.

Because there was a time when Vienna Windsor would've died for Joel Miller. And truth is. . . she still would.

LAUREN COHAN / . . . VIENNA WINDSOR

𖤓

A WOMAN SCORNED. SURVIVOR.
FIREFLY.

DYLAN O'BRIEN / . . . EZRA WINDSOR

𖤓

A BROKEN BOY. SMUGGLER.
A WALLFLOWER.

TAYLOR RUSSELL / . . . MARGO BURRELL

𖤓

KANSAS CITY'S MOST WANTED.
VICTIM. ORPHAN.

WALKER SCOBELL / . . . KAI ANDERSON

𖤓

THE INNOCENT.   THE LONE WOLF.
TRAITOR.

⋆☀︎｡

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃ THIS WORLD
IS ONLY GOING TO BREAK
YOUR HEART ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

&

jake gyllenhaal / JACK LAWSON
pedro pascal / JOEL MILLER
bella ramsey / ELLIE WILLIAMS
gabriel luna / TOMMY MILLER
anna torv / TESS SERVOPOULOS
the rest of tlou cast / THEIR RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS

authors note.
This story was a long time coming let's be for real right now. The last of us is literally my favourite game of all time, I've literally lost count of how many times I've played it, and I did have a fic a while back for this but I just didn't enjoy the plot as much. Then the trailer for the hbo series came out and this plot was born, and I can't wait to get into it and write these characters. Act one is going to focus on Vienna and Joel's relationship, then act two will focus on Ezra and Margo! And is it a good time to mention that Margo is going to be Henry and Sam's sister??? yeah...prepare for emotional damage.

Layout inspired by warrensdrums <3

warning.
This story will contain intense violence, gore, mentions of physical and mental abuse, mentions of sexual assault, self harm, suicide, and many other triggering topics throughout. Please read with caution.

dedications.
This story is dedicated to heywardswhore starlightsuns smokesgnls sweetvinyls jonnybernthai wiredjaws reaperes folkflu egohearts siIenthills robinswheeler simplyyobrien hmulupin elfaouly voidjuniper katsukist infwects paIedeath bIoodbags hacksaws lcversqvrrel aaronhtchnrs cupidsarrcw finalgrls stuhhhhlinski mazernrs natureskiss & anyone else who loves the last of us <3