The Last of Us Shrinking

Day In The Life

Life in Jackson, although free from most threats, was just as, if not more, tiresome than before. Joel split his time between construction and running scout routes with Tommy. A long day of riding under the grueling summer sun, fighting off infected, and clearing buildings along the way was a comforting career to the man. He would come back home from work, check in with Ellie at her place, and then retire to his couch in front of one of the few working television sets in the city. Such had been his life day in and day out for the past week. The worst of it had been trying to balance how often he visited Ellie without coming across as too needy or clingy. In the end, their relationship was entirely up to her, and after all he had said and done, Joel had to accept that they might never be as close as they once were.
Joel woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and the stale blue light of early morning seeping in through the window. Sleepily, he rolled out of bed and stretched his weary bones. Tomorrow was his first day off since entering Jackson, and he was eager to go exploring for a spot to spend Ellie’s birthday in a couple of weeks. He hadn’t seen the girl yesterday nor the day before and made a mental note to pay a visit when he got back. Putting his boots on and slogging his heavy backpack over his shoulder, Joel walked outside and towards the stables.

“Morning, Joel,” Tommy said, standing against his horse, already packed for the day’s route. “Mornin’,” Joel replied, still groggy from poker the night before. The two set off in a new direction, out towards a small town a few miles east of Jackson. Joel’s eyes lit up when he spotted an old guitar store on the other side of a beat-up-looking gas station. “Hey, let’s look inside there! Been meaning to find a guitar for a while now,” Joel yelled up ahead to his brother. “Yeah, sure, haven’t been inside there for a long time, might be infected inside,” Tommy warned. The store was lined with guitar strings and sheet music, but not a single working instrument was in sight. Joel frowned as he turned his flashlight on and began exploring deeper inside. “Anything?” Tommy shouted from outside. “Nah, nothin’. Hold on a minute though, got a locked door towards the back.” Wrapping his arm around the front desk, Joel’s hand searched blindly until he encountered a cold metal object. “Bingo,” he whispered under his breath. Snagging the key out from the desk, Joel made his way to the back door and unlocked it. The metal door creaked open, revealing a back office covered in red and pink fungal growths. Sitting at the desk was a decaying body of a man covered head to toe in fungal plates, sitting somewhere between a clicker and a bloater. In its lap, however, was a sealed guitar case that looked completely untouched. Carefully, Joel made his way towards the body and slid his fingers under the case and began to pull. The case was almost out of its owner’s grip when suddenly, a horrible screech erupted from the body’s mouth. The monster exploded out of its chair and tackled Joel to the ground. The creature snapped its jaws and clawed at the man’s face, small red spores spilling out of its foaming mouth. With one hand against its fungal-plated chest, Joel used his free hand to unholster his revolver and bring it to the creature’s unprotected neck. In a loud BANG, the infected keeled over and dropped to the ground dead.
“Christ, what the hell happened?” Tommy shouted as he walked through the door.

“Agh, fuck, it’s nothin’, Tommy. Damn thing surprised me is all,” Joel responded through strained breath as he pulled himself up onto his feet.

“Maybe you’ve lost your touch, big brother?” Tommy teased and returned to calm the startled horses. Bringing a hand to his mouth, Joel coughed into his sleeve, leaving behind unnoticeable red spores on the plaid fabric. Joel grabbed the case off the floor and opened it. Inside was a brand-new guitar in pristine condition. Joel’s eyes sparkled as he closed the case and strapped it around his back. “Tommy, wait up, I got to tell you something.”

Tommy sat in silence, listening to his brother speak. “I don't know what happened. I was supposed to take her to the Fireflies and walk away.” As Joel relived the events of the hospital, Tommy’s sympathy fell on the day of the outbreak and the day Joel lost his daughter. Before Joel could even finish, Tommy already knew what had happened and how much Ellie really meant to him. After Joel stopped speaking, Tommy hesitated before responding. “Goddamn. That's... that's a lot. What does Ellie know?”

“I told her they just ran some tests. I told her... her immunity meant nothin’,” Joel answered coldly.
“And she believed you?”

“Didn’t say otherwise.”

Tommy stood up and gestured toward his brother. “We should head back.”

Ellie came home after many hours spent working outside and collapsed into her chair. The sun had been beating down on her all day as she pulled potatoes and carrots out of the ground. She was covered in a layer of grime and sweat, and her feet were burning inside her sneakers. If there was one good thing about her job, it was her partner Dina, another girl her age who had been put into a similar predicament by her overprotective older sister. Ellie smiled to herself, recalling some of the jokes they had made and how similar Dina was to her. Grabbing a Walkman off her desk, Ellie put in the earbuds and began to doodle a sketch of them inside her journal: an old hobby she had back in Boston. So far it consisted of only sketches and a couple of snippets of nerdy poetry about space. Joel had been the primary subject of her work, but she could never really get his face right. Every portrait she started was scratched out at the top with smaller prototypes of eyes and smiles as she tried to get him right.

Joel approached the small wooden door of Ellie’s garage and knocked gently on its surface. A couple of minutes went by without a response, so he knocked again, this time harder. Still no response. Joel felt an old sense of worry and took it upon himself to enter unannounced just in case something was wrong. He slowly pushed open the door and let out a heavy sigh at the sight of Ellie scribbling calmly at her desk, her hair bouncing as she nodded to the music playing in her ears. Joel chuckled and went to tap her on the shoulder when a strange feeling of nausea overcame his senses and the world seemed to turn upside down. Unable to handle the changing world around him, Joel squeezed his eyes shut. When they opened, it was as if he had been transported to an alien planet. Huge monoliths stretched out in the distance. Weird stalks of material half his height surrounded him like a field of wheat. Looking out in front of him, Joel finally realized where he was. He hadn’t left Ellie’s home at all; he was still there. As he stared at the god-like being in front of him, reality finally set in. He had somehow shrunk down to less than an inch in height and was left to face his surrogate daughter, now thousands of feet tall and completely unaware of his presence!