The Salt Lake crew was a close-knit group of former Fireflies from Salt Lake City that later joined the Washington Liberation Front in Seattle. They had the collective goal of capturing and murdering Joel Miller following his massacre of the Fireflies and their head surgeon Jerry Anderson—Abby's father—ultimately foiling their efforts in creating a cure for the Cordyceps brain infection.[1]
History[]
Background[]
Formation[]
In the early 2030s, Abby Anderson was a Firefly stationed at the group's base at Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father, Dr. Jerry Anderson, was leading the research effort to create a vaccine for the Cordyceps brain infection (CBI). She was dating another young Firefly, Owen Moore, and two of her other friends, Nora and Mel, were studying medicine under Jerry's tutelage. Manny Alvarez, who joined the militia group after traveling north from Mexico, also became close to Abby and her friends.
Events of The Last of Us Part II[]
Leaving the Fireflies[]
In April 2034, Abby, Owen and Jerry were out in the city's zoo helping free a zebra from a barbwire fence when news arrived that a smuggler named Joel Miller had successfully brought Ellie Williams to the city, a teenager who was uniquely immune to CBI. Hearing this news, the three rushed back to the hospital. Upon examining the girl, Jerry confirmed she was immune and that performing exploratory surgery on her brain would enable him to make a cure, even though it would kill Ellie. Abby assured her father that, if it was her, she would want him to go ahead with the operation. Reassured, Jerry decided to carry out the surgery.[1] However, as preparation for the procedure began, Joel killed his guard and fought his way to the operating room, where he killed Jerry, smuggled Ellie out and killed the Fireflies' leader, Marlene, as he escaped.[2] Owen and Manny were the first to reach the operating room, finding Jerry's body. Abby soon arrived and broke down in Owen's arms at seeing her dead father.[1]
With Jerry and Marlene's deaths, the Fireflies decided to disband. Abby and her friends all opted to leave together and join the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) in their war against the Seraphites. The leader, Isaac Dixon, dubbed them the "Salt Lake crew" after the city the group had come from. This group in particular were regarded as veterans among the WLF, because of their high levels of experience and exceptional combat skills from their training in the Fireflies, with many of the WLF's other members having respect for them. Abby and Manny in particular became two of the best soldiers in the militia. Abby was filled with a desire for revenge against Joel for what he had done to her father, training extensively to increase her muscle mass and fighting capabilities.[1]
Enacting their revenge[]
By 2037, the WLF gained an advantage over the Seraphites in the war, leading Isaac to allow Abby and her friends to take a leave of absence and travel to Jackson, following a lead that Joel's brother, Tommy Miller, lived there. Hoping that heading to Jackson and finding Tommy would enable her to find and kill Joel, Abby convinced her friends to come with her.[3] As such, Abby, the rest of the Salt Lake crew, and three other friends from the WLF--Jordan, Nick, and Leah-- all set off for Jackson. By March 2038, the eight soldiers settled in the Baldwin place near Jackson to stake out the town.
However, Owen showed Abby privately in the early morning that the town had a community as large as a small city and had patrolmen scouring the area. Believing that the others would want to give up the mission after seeing the opposition stacked against them, Owen urged her to do the same. Undaunted, she left him and headed towards the Mountain View lookout, hoping to find, capture and interrogate a patrol to reveal Tommy's whereabouts. She reached the lookout but was pursued by an infected horde. About to be killed by a runner, she was saved by Joel and Tommy, who were patrolling the area. Fighting their way through the horde, Abby convinced the brothers to ride their horses with her to the Baldwin place to escape the infected.
As they rode their horses through the lodge's main gate, Abby's friends helped fend off the infected with a mix of guns and Molotov cocktails. Once inside, Abby revealed to Owen that the brothers were who they had come for. She shot out Joel's right knee, while Nick, Jordan and Nora knocked out Tommy. Abby proceeded to torture Joel with a golf club while the crew watched. Some unknown amount of time later, Ellie snuck in and found Joel near death, but was quickly jumped and restrained by Nora and Nick. Panicked, Owen insisted Abby finish Joel off so the group could escape the area before others from town came looking, as well. With one final blow, Abby killed Joel. Manny moved to kill Ellie, with Jordan and Mel supporting the idea of eliminating any witnesses. However, Abby and Owen convinced them to spare Tommy and Ellie, arguing that killing two innocent people would make them no better than Joel. The group knocked Ellie out and fled the area, returning to Seattle.[4]
Downfall and defeat[]
By April 2038, the Salt Lake crew had returned to Seattle. In their absence, the war against the Scars had shifted against the WLF yet again, with Isaac calling for all patrols to focus on securing supplies in their outpost areas and concentrate them at the FOB and stadium. Jordan believed the gathering was the WLF actually falling back and conceding territory they had previously taken from the Seraphites. Abby's friends were quickly reintegrated to the front lines, with Leah posted to a TV station outpost, Nick sent to the company at the Serevena Hotel near the city's walls, Nora assigned as chief medical officer at the FOB and the others placed on patrol duty.[1]
However, their actions in Jackson were not forgotten. Tommy and Ellie were overcome with an urge to enact vengeance against the group for what they did to Joel. The pair, along with Dina and Jesse snuck into Seattle and began hunting down each member from the group. Tommy was first to arrive and captured Nick at the Serevena Hotel. He tortured the man for information regarding the rest of the group, before killing him.
Ellie and Dina arrived soon after and made their way to the elementary school, where Jordan was with Mike and his WLF unit. The group ambushed the girls, Mike personally capturing Ellie. Jordan then attempted to interrogate her, but she refused to talk.[5] Wishing to remove distractions, the WLF leader Isaac gave Mike and all WLF soldiers a new order: kill all trespassers on sight.[6] Mike subsequently returned to kill Ellie, but Jordan stopped him, arguing that he suspected the Jackson community were launching an invasion against the WLF in retaliation for Joel's death. Dismissing him, Mike moved to kill Ellie, but Dina ambushed them. The attack led to a large shootout at the school, leaving several WLF soldiers (including Mike and Jordan) dead and the trespassers gone. The rest of the Salt Lake crew went about the day unaware of Ellie and Tommy's actions, with Leah dying in a skirmish with the Seraphites. Dina and Ellie proceeded to the Pinnacle Theater, where they set up a base of operations to learn about the Salt Lake crew and track down where they were hiding in the city.
The next day, Ellie continued her personal search for more members of the Salt Lake crew. Her search led her to Nora at the Lakehill Seattle hospital. She snuck inside and confronted Nora. The woman was defiant, insulting Joel, declaring she was proud of her part in his murder. Enraged, Ellie chased Nora through the hospital. She eventually escaped the WLF soldiers pursuing them by grabbing Nora and pulling her down through a hole in the floor to the spore-infested basement. Choking and weakened, Nora was no match for the immune Ellie, who quickly disarmed her. Nora tried to explain her reasoning for supporting the group's efforts to kill Joel, but Ellie dismissed her words, only wanting to find Abby. Nora defiantly swore that she would not reveal where Abby or the others were hiding. Ellie proceeded to beat Nora with a metal bar, eventually forcing her to reveal that Abby was hiding at the aquarium. Concurrently, Tommy also learned the aquarium was Abby's hideout, the pair independently deciding to go there the following day.[7]
The next day, both Tommy and Ellie made their way to the marina to reach the aquarium. Tommy arrived first, confronting Manny and his team who were attempting to secure the boats for the WLF's planned invasion of the Seraphites' island. Tommy killed Manny's team and began suppressing Manny. Abby arrived from the aquarium and assisted Manny, the pair managing to advance up to Tommy's position and corner him in a restaurant. However, Tommy ambushed the pair, shooting Manny dead and nearly shooting Abby, as well. The two enemies grappled on the pier, with Tommy gaining the upper hand... only for Yara to suddenly appear and attack him. The distraction was enough to allow Abby to push him over the railing into the sea, and escape with Yara to the Seraphites' island. Tommy eventually got back to land and, with Jesse's help, made his way back to the aquarium.[8]
At the same time, Ellie broke into the aquarium and found Mel and Owen within. She confronted them at gunpoint and began demanding they tell her where Abby was. Owen and Mel grew defensive, Owen eventually attempting to wrestle Ellie's gun from her grip. Ellie shot him in the stomach, causing Mel to attack her with a knife. In the struggle, Ellie managed to tackle Mel to the ground and stabbed her through the throat, killing her. She then attempted to interrogate Owen before he died, but he only mumbled that Mel was pregnant. As Ellie began to break down in a panic attack, Tommy arrived with Jesse. Seeing how broken Ellie was, he escorted her back to the theater, inadvertently leaving Ellie's map behind.[9]
Later that night, Abby returned to the aquarium with Lev. Seeing Owen and Mel's corpses, Abby was left enraged by Ellie's and Tommy's actions. Finding Ellie's map, she and Lev proceeded to the Pinnacle Theater and snuck inside.[8] Simultaneously, Tommy, Ellie and Jesse were planning their return journey to Jackson. Ellie still wished to kill Abby, the final member of the Salt Lake crew still alive. Tommy disagreed, believing killing the others and leaving Abby to live with losing them was justice enough. However, Abby confronted them in the theater, killing Jesse and capturing Tommy. Ellie attempted to surrender herself, arguing the reason this all started was because Joel saved her life in Salt Lake City. Furious that Ellie and Tommy had come to Seattle and killed her friends after they'd left the pair alive back in Jackson, she moved to kill Ellie.[9] Tommy tried to stop her, only for Abby and Lev to wound him. Ellie fought back, retreating to the backstage area. Abby chased her, the women engaging in a brutal fight that ended in Abby nearly beating both Ellie and Dina to death. Only at Lev's intervention did Abby decide to spare them, on the threat that Ellie never come looking for her again.[8]
Several months later, Ellie had attempted to move on from the events with the Salt Lake crew by starting a family life on a farm with Dina and her son JJ. However, she suffered from PTSD and convinced herself that killing Abby would enable her to move on. As such, she left her life with Dina and began searching for Abby again.[10]
Meanwhile, Abby traveled to Santa Barbara with Lev to find Fireflies who were still working to find a cure. However, they were captured by Rattlers, a slaver gang in the area, and forced into slavery. The pair attempted to escape but failed, the Rattlers leaving the pair to die, chained up on pillars on the beach. Ellie eventually found them, freeing them and following them to the shore. When Abby refused to fight her, Ellie threatened to kill the weakened Lev otherwise. With no choice, Abby fought Ellie in a brutal hand to hand battle. Ellie managed to choke Abby under water, nearly drowning her. However, Ellie had an epiphany about Joel, leading her to change her mind and spare Abby.[11]
The women then parted ways, with Abby taking Lev to Catalina Island while Ellie returned to her now abandoned farm near Jackson, the Salt Lake crew finally defeated.[12]
Members[]
- Abby Anderson
- Jordan (deceased)
- Leah (deceased)
- Manny Alvarez (deceased)
- Mel (deceased)
- Nick (deceased)
- Nora Harris (deceased)
- Owen Moore (deceased)
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Seattle Day 1"
- ↑ "The Firefly Lab"
- ↑ "Seattle Day 2"
- ↑ "Jackson"
- ↑ "Seattle Day 1"
- ↑ Isaac's mandate
- ↑ "Seattle Day 2"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Seattle Day 3"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Seattle Day 3"
- ↑ "The Farm"
- ↑ "Santa Barbara"
- ↑ "The Farm"
