The Last of Us Part II (A Complete Rewrite)

14. The Sewers

The three of them headed towards the sewers once they were ready. On the way, Ellie and Dina answered Tommy's questions about how they had gotten to Salt Lake City. He had never heard of the FEDRA Research Facility, and neither of the Descendants.

"I still can't get over the fact that Jene tried to murder you," he said when Ellie and Dina had finished telling him everything. Her actions had utterly shocked him. "I would've never thought she'd be capable of something like this."

"I didn't expect anything like that either," Ellie replied. "She just came into the house at night and nearly killed Dina." She had told him about everything but the file. It still was tucked into a side of her bag where she had left it the previous night. She had almost brought it up, but something had stopped her. And thankfully, Dina hadn't pressed it either.

"You're lucky nothing else happened. I need to talk this out with Maria. I'm not gonna let this just pass. Jene's dug her own damn grave here."

"If it wasn't for Dina though, I wouldn't be here right now."

"It's a good thing you two have each other then," Tommy said. "And it's a good thing that you didn't kill Jene. It'd just have complicated things, and I don't know what would've happened back in Jackson while we're out here." He looked at both of them. "You girls weren't kiddin' when you said you could handle yourselves," he told them, an admiration in his voice. "I didn't come across any of this."

"How'd you get here?" Dina asked.

"Found a straggler from the Fireflies group. Knew it was them as soon as I saw the chain 'round her neck. Didn't take much to figure out where Joel could've gone after that."

"I guess. Do you know this guy? Abraham?" Ellie inquired.

"I do, actually," Tommy answered. "Well, not personally, but I saw him around Marlene a few times when I was a Firefly myself. Think he joined just before I left the group. I spoke to him, maybe once or twice. There was something off about him though."

"What do you mean?"

"The way he spoke, it just seemed like he had this illusion in his mind that the Fireflies were some kind of modern-day messiahs. And that was the time Marlene and I had our differences. She'd started taking on a more militant approach, and that didn't sit well with me. I think Abraham was the one who put the idea into her head."

"But you did try talking to her, right?" Dina asked.

"I did. But she wouldn't listen. She was forgettin' everything the Fireflies stood for. Especially when she tried to kill Ellie. That's not the Marlene I knew. She used to fight for people and make a difference to their lives."

"Yeah, she's looked out for me a lot," Ellie recalled. "And she probably looked out for mom, too."

"She used to be a completely different person even before you met her. Everything that happened in Pittsburgh changed her a lot. I don't blame her for changin'. Being the leader of a group like that was bound to take a toll, but she began losing her morals, too. And that's something you rarely come back from."

"Mom and I used to hear a lot about the Fireflies," Dina remembered. "I even told her to I wanted to join them. Almost went looking for them after she died."

"It's unfortunate what they became," Tommy said. "They could've done such a lot."

"They could have. But it's probably not easy to make a difference either."

"That I can agree with. However, doesn't change the fact that the Fireflies were already finished thanks to Marlene's approach."

"Do you think Abraham's gonna kill Joel?" Ellie asked after a momentary silence. She already knew the answer to the question, but she found it slipping off her tongue nonetheless.