United States

The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a largely destroyed and mostly lawless country located in North America, situated north of Mexico and south of Canada. It is the main setting of The Last of Us series.

Government[]

Early on in the Cordyceps brain infection outbreak, the government resorted to extreme measures to try to control the infection, including killing civilians. However, some thought that more steps were necessary. Sometime after the initial outbreak, the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) deposed "the bureaucrats" from power. Martial law was declared indefinitely, and nearly all branches of government were suspended, with a few exceptions - FEDRA and the military established and ruled over the quarantine zones, while the Center for Disease Control (CDC) was retained to study the infection.

Bombing campaigns took place in many major cities, as well as some attempts to secure critical infrastructure in rural areas. Not everyone was let into the quarantine zones, and civilians that were denied entry were often culled.

From early on, the remnants of the government were only able to project their power a short distance from the quarantine zones, leaving most of the United States as a lawless no man's land. Over the years, they have lost control over many of these zones, leaving only a handful still within their grasp.

The legitimacy of the FEDRA-led government is challenged by numerous paramilitary groups, like the Washington Liberation Front, who controls Seattle, and the Ravens, who style themselves as "defenders of the constitution", as well as the Fireflies, whose public charter calls for the return of all branches of elected government. Many quarantine zones have been taken over by dissatisfied civilians.

States[]

California[]

By the late 2030s, California is home to several communities that move up and down the coast in caravans. The Rattlers, a gang of slavers, are one of the few fixed settlements and inhabit Santa Barbara in the southern part of the state. Off the coast, Catalina Island has become the new home of the re-formed Fireflies, following their disbandment in 2034. Abby and Lev go to Santa Barbara to find the remaining Fireflies, and they succeed but they get ambushed by the local Rattlers and they are held captive, tied to posts near the beach.

Ellie, who was looking to exact revenge on Abby Anderson for murdering Joel Miller, arrives and fights her way through Rattlers. After freeing the slaves, one of them tells her that she is down at the beach. After freeing her, she leads them to the beach, where Abby sets an unconscious Lev in a boat. Ellie still wishes to kill her and demands her to fight for Lev’s life. She reluctantly agrees, despite having given up fighting her. After a brutal fight, Ellie almost drowns her in the shallow water, but after recalling a conversation between her and Joel, she spares her life and allows her to leave with Lev. They eventually make it to Catalina Island while Ellie returns to Wyoming.^[1]

Colorado[]

Joel and Ellie travel to the University of Eastern Colorado in Boulder, where they try to track down the Fireflies. They eventually find out that they have relocated to St. Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. During the escape, Joel gets overpowered by an enemy and falls onto a piece of rebar, impaling him through his abdomen, and critically wounding him. With Ellie's help, the two were able to flee the University, but Joel loses consciousness. Ellie takes him to the Colorado Mountain Plaza to find medicine for Joel's injuries.^[2]

After some searching, Ellie finds a medical kit in a crashed military helicopter but notices some cannibals from the University having arrived, investigating the area due to the duo’s horse, Callus making noise. Ellie manages to dispatch them before they could reach Joel, who was hidden in a closed mall store. She stitches his wound and puts him on a sled in order to pull him while he was unconscious and takes him to Silver Lake.^[3]

Sometime later, Ellie and Joel hold up at a resort in Silver Lake, trying to avoid the cannibals. She eventually gets some help from a man named David, only to find that he is part of the cannibals. David captures Ellie, but she escapes. Meanwhile, Joel finally comes to consciousness and notices that Ellie is missing. Despite his wound still healing, he gets up and tracks down Ellie, killing several cannibals and interrogating two of them for the location of Ellie. They finally give in and tell him, after which, Joel executes them.

Meanwhile, Ellie flees from the cannibals and ends up in a restaurant, where David chases after her and tries to kill her. Thanks to Ellie’s stealth, she manages to attack David enough times that she finally overpowers him and kills him after hacking him with his own machete several times before Joel finally shows up and comforts her about what just happened. Joel and Ellie eventually leave Colorado for Salt Lake City.^[4]

Connecticut[]

Hartford, a city in the state of Connecticut, is mentioned by Sam in a conversation he had with Ellie. He tells Ellie that he and his older brother, Henry, are from Hartford, to which Ellie replies "I heard some pretty bad stuff was going on down there."^[5]

Georgia[]

Colonel Mackenzie was stationed at the quarantine zone of Georgia's capital, Atlanta, with his soldiers. Captain Mastros sent a report to the zone regarding the riots caused by residents rebelling in Pittsburgh.^[6]

Massachusetts[]

Joel relocated to Boston, Massachusetts after the death of his daughter, where he was working with a woman named Tess as a smuggler. This is where Joel and Ellie first met. The trio navigates through Boston until Tess's death at the hands of soldiers in the Capitol Building.^[7] Later on, Joel and Ellie head for the nearby town of Lincoln, where they hope to receive help from Bill, while also trying to safely navigate through the town's many traps that Bill has set. After repairing a truck with Bill's help, Joel and Ellie leave Lincoln and head for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[8]

New Mexico[]

The Ravens were a militia group based in New Mexico. They were polygamists who ran protection rackets during the time Dina and her sister, Talia, lived there, in the early-2030s.^[9]

Pennsylvania[]

After driving away from Lincoln, Massachusetts, Joel and Ellie eventually enter Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the two are attacked by hunters. After being attacked, their truck is destroyed after crashing into a building. The two barely survive the attack and they navigate their way through Pittsburgh, where along the way, they meet two brothers, Henry and Sam, who were also trying to escape the city. Despite some ups and downs with them, the four managed to navigate through safely, although they went through great obstacles to survive. After all of their adventures in the city, they made it to a hideout on the outskirts of the city.^[5]

The four then rest for the night, but unfortunately, one of the brothers, Sam, turned into a Runner due to him being scratched on the leg by an infected. Henry was forced to kill his infected brother in order to save Ellie, whom Sam was attacking; Henry then commits suicide out of grief. Joel and Ellie eventually leave the city.^[10]

Texas[]

Joel, his brother Tommy, and his daughter Sarah all lived in Austin, a city in Texas. The trio had experienced their first encounter with the infected here. The three attempted to leave the city, but Sarah was fatally wounded by a soldier, who was ordered to execute Joel and Sarah. Sarah later died in Joel's arms.^[11]

Utah[]

After all of the adventures together, Joel and Ellie managed to reach St. Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, the main base of the Fireflies. After navigating through the infested city, the two barely survive when Ellie almost drowns inside a flooded tunnel, but the two are then found by Fireflies. They take the two to the hospital, where Joel wakes up in a different room while Ellie is being prepared for surgery.

After learning the surgery will kill Ellie, Joel fights his way through the hospital and makes it to the operating room just in time. He kills the doctors, then narrowly escapes to the parking structure, where he is confronted by Marlene once again. Marlene attempts to talk Joel down from taking Ellie away from them, but Joel shoots her and puts Ellie in a car. He then kills her with a head shot to the head and drives away back to Jackson in Wyoming.^[12]

Washington[]

The Washington Liberation Front (WLF) were stationed in Seattle, Washington. The WLF were engaged in a war of ideologies against a religious group, the Seraphites, who lived on a nearby island. The WLF suffered a crippling defeat during an attack on the island. Ellie, Dina, Jesse and Tommy travel to Seattle in search of Abby, seeking revenge for the murder of Joel.

They fail to kill Abby; Jesse is killed, Tommy loses his ability to move normally after suffering a bullet wound to the head, which he survived, and Ellie and Dina were badly injured after their fight against Abby, but they succeed in killing all of Abby's friends and they return to Jackson, Wyoming.^[13]

Wyoming[]

After the outbreak, FEDRA attempted to maintain certain infrastructure in rural areas of Wyoming, such as the hydroelectric dam near Jackson. Later, Maria created a community with her husband Tommy after the outbreak. The community grew to at least twenty families and was powered by a nearby hydroelectric dam.^[14] While having to deal with infected and bandits, the community has thrived in the post-apocalyptic world. Joel and Ellie lived here for four years after Tommy invited them to stay.^[15]

The peace is interrupted when the Washington Liberation Front arrive to kill Joel after he has killed a certain surgeon in Salt Lake City four years prior. The daughter of the surgeon, Abby Anderson finally finds Joel after being saved by him and his brother, Tommy. They flee from the infected to the Baldwin Lodge up the hill from Jackson. After arriving, the brothers formally introduce themselves, much to the surprise of the WLF, as they finally found the man they were looking for. Abby shoots Joel in the leg with a shotgun to prevent him from running and attacking while some members restrain Tommy and knocks him into unconsciousness. Abby proceeds to torture Joel after applying a tourniquet to ensure that he does not die from blood loss.

Ellie and Dina, who received word from Jesse that Joel and Tommy were gone for a long time, goes to investigate the lodge area. Ellie enters the lodge and heads down into the basement, where she finds Abby beating Joel with a golf club. Ellie attempts to save him but is easily overpowered by the WLF. She tries to plead for Joel’s life, but the WLF is deaf to her pleas. Desperately trying to tell Joel to get up, he does nothing except look at Ellie one last time, aware that he is going to be dead soon. Abby finally strikes Joel in the head, killing him, much to Ellie's horror and sadness, even threatening to kill them. The WLF panic due to Jackson patrols soon going to be searching the area and they consider killing Ellie to ensure that there are no loose ends, but Owen and Abby decides to spare her. She is knocked out and is eventually found by Dina and Jesse.^[15]

Ellie and Tommy survive and return to Jackson while also burying Joel in town. Ellie decides to set out to Seattle, Washington, where the WLF was living to avenge Joel, with Tommy having went by himself in order to prevent Ellie from getting killed, but Maria allows her to leave.^[15] After the events in Seattle, Ellie, Tommy, and Dina return to Wyoming, where the girls settle into a farmhouse somewhere close to Jackson, while raising Dina's new born son, JJ. After receiving word from Tommy that Abby is in Santa Barbara, California, Ellie is unable to live with herself knowing that Abby is still alive. Despite Dina's pleas, Ellie goes regardless.^[16]

After finishing things up in California, Ellie returns to the house only to find it empty, with Dina and JJ having moved out somewhere. After playing Joel's guitar in her room, she finally forgives Joel for his actions in Salt Lake City and leaves the guitar near a window sill. She then leaves the house and heads for an unknown location.^[17]

Behind the scenes[]

• Wyoming, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Utah are the only states to appear in more than one game; Colorado and Massachusetts appear in The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Left Behind while Wyoming and Utah appear in both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.

References[]