the last of us takes place twenty years in an alternate future where a deadly fungus outbreak has occurred in the united states, spreading throughout earth, creating zombie like creatures from the corpses of the dead. the story focuses on joel and ellie, two survivors that have escaped the soldier patrolled quarantine zones, in hopes to find the cure to the disease that ellie may be the beginning of. throughout their trip, they encounter a variety of different people that sometimes help them, and other times try to hurt them.