The Last Of Us
The world had burned for two years straight after the outbreak, it was constant hell, and everyone was sure that there wasn’t going to be any coming back from the apocalypse that was wiping out the entire Earth. That was just the panic that was going around at that point. Within the fire of the panic and the destruction of the weaker parts of community arose survivors and warriors. People that deserved to be alive. Kylo Ren didn’t consider himself to be one of those people, despite being stronger, being able to evade the same dangers that other people should have been able to survive.
The world was still burning after the first two years of the outbreak, but the burn became slower, and people were able to survive despite the walkers that roamed the streets. Security companies reigned and small populations of people all over America were willing to shell out any money they had left to get to one of the government sanctuaries that was halfway across the country and far away from the outbreaks in the big cities.
Kylo Ren worked for the First Order, one of those security companies. He was considered one of the best runners they had, with a success rate of ninety percent. Most people couldn’t afford the rates that he paid to get them from one place to another, they pleaded with the secretaries of the First Order and they just laughed in their faces. Kylo Ren didn’t really care though. He spent the days where he wasn’t doing anything drinking, trying not remember the first days of the outbreak.
Two Years Before
“We need to get out of here,” Ben had told his mother and father. It was dark and he could hear sounds of panic, of people screaming in the streets. “It’s going to shit out there and I don’t think that we should sit any longer.”
“Where could we go?” Leia said.
“Ben you need to just get out of here yourself.” Han told him. “We’re too old. Too slow. We’ll only slow you down.”
“No,” Ben told them, “no I’m not gonna leave you.”
“Listen to your father,” Leia said, “I don’t know what’s going on right now and you just need to go. You need to go and never come back.”
Someone knocked on Kylo’s door. “Hey, dumbass.” Phasma shouted. Kylo rolled his eyes.
“Keep talkin’ that loud and you’re gonna get us killed.” He picked himself up, the gears in his arm turning to put the bottle he was nursing on the table in front of him. This goddamn thing, gotta get this fixed again. Kylo went to open the door, and Phasma smiled when he opened the door.
“Got a new fuckin’ job for you,” She said, “One that’s worth around fifty thousand credits and ten thousand ration cards.” Kylo found himself liking Phasma’s presence at his apartment a little bit more. “Thought that you would want it.”
“And why aren’t you going for it?” He asked her.
“Because,” She said, “I don’t do runs that involve taking someone from Texas to New York.”
“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me.”
“Hey, you have to admit the reward is better than anything you’ve ever gotten.”
“And what does this job entail besides a copious amount of walking?”
“A girl,”
“And what’s so special about this girl, is she a millionaire’s child or something?”
“No,” Phasma said, “she’s just a nobody, but the government wants her for some reason. They ordered the First Order to take care of her and they wanted the best to take her to the Dragonfly Hospital and Sanctuary in New York. It was either you or me and well, she’s a nineteen year old little snot who talks too much so I thought that she would be just the girl for you.”
“You really are an asshole,” Kylo rolled his eyes.
“You know you love me.” She said. “Come on. I’ll take you to the safehouse where we left her.”
“Hold on,” He waved her away and went to his bookshelf. There wasn’t any books on them. Just a first aid kit, two pistols and several clips filled with loads. He still had the machete that Phasma had gave him for his twenty eighth birthday clipped to his side. It never left his side either. The good thing about where Ren lived was that he cleared enough of a path that walkers wouldn’t go through that he could get to most of the local sanctuaries and safe houses within about thirty minutes without having any encounters with any other walkers.
Phasma lead Kylo out of there, familiar enough with the clockwork traps of the First Order’s Elite living quarters that she got past them with ease. Tick, tick, tick, tick. Each tick reminded them of the millisecond of time that passed, of the fact that every second they worked, the First Order kept them safe.
They moved past the brass and plexiglass fence and kept going into the main street. “You know, I think that if you do get rich off all the shit the government is willing to pay for this kid, you should donate to the less fortunate.”
“Uh huh,” Kylo rolled his eyes, “sure thing.”
“I’m serious, not all of us can afford the ridiculous amount of money that it is to get food and guns outside of the Southern sanctuaries.”
“Right,” he said. “You know you could do this run with me and then we could split the profits.”
“I have a client that needs to get to Georgia,” Phasma said.
“I thought you weren’t going to take that one,” They rounded a corner, “he wasn’t offering enough.”
“Yeah well, I’m feelin’ extra generous today and his wife is pregnant so maybe a discount is in order.” Kylo shook his head. “What? Do you think I’m lying or something?”
“No,” He said, “I just think that it’s fucking stupid to try and raise a kid in times like these. Either the kid’s gonna die or the parent’s gonna die and there’s no inbetween.”
“You’re real pessimistic, Ren.” She said.
“I just like to call it realism,”
When Phasma and Kylo reached the safe house, they could smell sausage and beans that had just been cooked. It contrasted with the grimey rusted feel of the rest of the place. “By the way I should tell you something,” Phasma told him as they pulled down the two sets of folding barriers that kept the walkers out and kept walking.
“Tell me what?”
“You know if you keep trying to touch me Benji will bite off more than your left finger.” The girl that Phasma was talking about said. There was a mix of British and Southern in her voice, it was interesting to say the least. Kylo was a little bit more than annoyed though.
“Who the hell is Benji?” He hissed at Phasma.
“She has a wolf,” Phasma grimaced, “didn’t think you’d take the job if you knew—”
“You know I don’t do pets. Especially feral creatures like—”
“Ren, come in here and get this stupid girl off my hands.” Kylo rolled his eyes and rounded the corner to a very amusing scene. The nineteen year old girl had Hux in a headlock, switchblade pressed to his throat. “ Ren,” Hux warned. “Don’t just stand there, do something,”
“What the hell did you do, Hux?”
Kylo went into the room a little more to be greeted by an ominous low growl. He looked to the side to see a wolf standing there, waiting for the command to attack him. Phasma was ultimately the one to defuse the situation. “He touched my ass, fucking perv.”
“Tell her you’re sorry.”
“Hell no,”
“Hux? I have a feeling she’s gonna kill you and maul Ren if you don’t so just do what I say.”
“Fine. Sorry.” Rey let go of him.
“Call off your dog,” Kylo was already getting annoyed.
“He’s a Mexican Gray Wolf, not a dog.”
“I don’t give a shit.” Kylo said.
“Benji,” Rey looked pointedly at the dog and he came to her without another word.
“Follows commands like a dog, it is a dog.”
“Fuck you old man,” The girl said. Kylo looked back to Phasma.
“You’re right. She is annoying.”
“If she wasn’t worth so much I’d kill the little shit myself,”
“I’d like to see you try,”
Two Years Earlier
“Like hell I’m leaving,” Ben said. “You two are coming with me, and you’re not going to ask any questions. We’ll take the minivan.” He grabbed his father’s shotgun and gave his father his pistol. “Come on,” He said. “We’re going to get you guys to safety.” Leia looked like she was going to cry, he had never seen his mother so scared and he really didn’t blame her.
“Ben, you should just go.”
“You’re coming with me. We can go get Luke and then get the hell out of the city. Find a way to survive. It’ll all be okay, mom. You have to believe me.” Leia stared at Ben for a minute before she finally said,
“Okay,” She said. She got up. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Okay, girl. I know you’re trying to show big your balls are but you’re not proving anything here. What’s your name?” The girl was silent, and then Phasma said,
“He asked you a question.”
“Rey,” She rolled her eyes. “You?”
“Kylo,”
“That sounds made up,”
“I don’t give a shit,” He hissed. “Why does the government want you?”
“I’m not allowed to tell,” She muttered.
“We gotta leave your pet behind,”
“Not doing that.”
“Then tell us why you need to be taken to New York.”
“ I can’t tell.” She hissed. “Come on, old man I just—”
“You know I’m twenty eight, only nine years your senior.” He was tired of her calling him old. She didn’t really care though. She looked like she was about to flip him the bird when he went to Hux. “How’s the payment coming through?”
“They want her delivered alive before they pay anything,”
“What the fuck?”
“Yeah,” He said, “good luck, Ren.” He sneered. Kylo was starting to regret this a lot more than most of the decisions he made in his life.
Two Years Earlier
Ben was a Marine before the Outbreak, he had just been honorably discharged for losing an arm to an IED. Back then the prosthetic that he had gotten was at the top of the line, the cogs and brass ticking in time to his every thought and move. It helped Ben kill three men and get his mother and father out to the minivan. All three of them got in and Ben got out of the driveway. His mother was shaking. “Everyone’s okay, right?” He asked.
“Yes,” The both of them said in unison. Han seemed more into comforting Leia than anything else, but Ben didn’t blame him. He had never seen his mother so scared and he hated it so much, but she had protected him for so long and now it was time for him to protect her.
He drove as fast as a steam powered car could take him through the city. People were screaming, pleading for him to help them but he couldn’t listen. Even when his mother got her voice and wanted to save them. “My priority is getting you and dad to safety and then going back for Luke,” He swerved as someone came out into the middle of the street. “Motherfucker!” He shouted. His heart was pounding as fast as it did in the field. This was different though, he had something to lose. Two things to lose. His mother and father had helped rehabilitate him even though he was depressed and not easy to work with, and he loved the shit out of them for it.
In the past few months they got closer than they had been in a long time, and Ben didn’t want to lose that now. It seemed that all of his hopes were being crushed right before him though, because another car slammed into them and turned the car over. Ben woke up to his mom shaking him. “Come on, Ben.” she said. “We gotta go.” They were trapped.
“Get back.” He told her. It didn’t take much for him to break the glass of one of the windows and get his parents out. They kept moving, someone came at Han and tried to clamp their mouth around his neck, Ben shot him in the face and kept going without looking at his parent’s reactions. They made it all the way to the clearing before three people in army outfits approach them.
“Drop the fucking guns!” One of them yelled.
“Hey, we’re clean!” Ben said. “We’re clean!”
“Drop the fucking guns and get on your hands and knees.” They did what they asked. That should have been okay. That should have been okay. He should’ve gotten his parents to safety. The soldiers had a different idea.
“Sir, are you sure?” Dread ran through his stomach as the shots started and Ben sprang into motion, he grabbed the gun on the ground and shot the first one. The second one shot his prosthetic arm, and Ben retaliated. Once all three of them were dead, he turned to his parents. Han was already dead by the time he turned around, but his mother had been shot in the shoulder and once in the hip.
“No, no, no, no, no.” He shouted. He fell to his mother’s side. His arm was starting to malfunction. “No, mom, mom…”
She opened her mouth to speak but instead whined in pain. “Is Han—?”
“Yeah,” Ben said, “but you gotta stay awake okay.” He put pressure on the wounds. “I can save you and I know that it hurts. I know it hurts. I got shot twice overseas and it’s not fun, but you’re so strong mom, You’re so strong.” Her eyes were starting to flutter, breathing getting more shallow.
“Honey, I’m sorry.”
“Mom, please. You can’t do this to me, not now. Not now. I need you. I need you.” Tears were streaming down his cheeks. His chest hurt. His mother died that day. Ben had never cried so much. He had bit the inside of the his cheek to stifle his cries as he hovered over his mother's dead body. And thus the flame devoured the old him, and Kylo Ren was born from the ashes.
