20 Years Later
We return to find Joel twenty years later. Much of civilization is destroyed by the infection, with pockets of survivors living desperately in heavily-policed quarantine zones, in independent settlements, or nomadic groups. Joel now lives in the Boston quarantine zone and makes his living as a smuggler, getting people, items and weapons through the zone's walls, and appears to have built a ruthless and fearsome reputation for himself. He is woken up by Tess, his friend and business partner, who informs him that she was attacked by Robert's men, a local weapons dealer who is in debt with them. They decide to confront him in his warehouse, but as they are about to go through the checkpoint, a militia-like rebel group known as the Fireflies attack the quarantine zone, forcing Joel and Tess to take a detour through a series of tunnels and the outside of the area.
Beyond the Wall Edit
Joel and Tess go through a series of abandoned buildings and houses. In one of the houses, they are forced to put on their gas masks to avoid the infectious spores released by a dead infected. There, they also find a small group of people desperate to break INTO the zone. As Joel learns from an artifact in the area, they weren't there long before the spores infected most of them. They're all killed by the infected, except for one man who is still alive and trapped under a pile of rubble, with a tear on his mask. He begs Joel to kill him so he will not mutate. Joel then has the option of shooting him or not. Eventually they find the entrance to the slums where Robert is hiding.
The Slums
Upon arriving, as Joel predicts, Robert is afraid and expecting them. His men try to stop Tess and Joel from reaching him, leaving the pair no choice but to kill them. They progress through a series of warehouses with many men patrolling the area, eventually reaching Robert.
The Cargo
After a short pursuit, Robert is caught and reveals to Joel and Tess that he gave the guns he owed them to the Fireflies, to whom he was also in debt. He offers to go after them and get the weapons back, but Tess shoots him dead. As they decide what to do next, Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies appears, nursing a gunshot wound from an earlier skirmish with the military. She offers to give them the guns back and more, but only if they smuggle something to Boston's Capitol Building. After passing by more military patrols, she introduces them to a teenage girl named Ellie, the "cargo". Joel hesitates at first, but agrees to the job after Marlene shows Tess the guns, and they leave later that night.