the story is set twenty years from a cordyceps-type fungus has killed millions, with nature gradually retaking the abandoned cities and towns. the survivors are hemmed within quarantine zones, fully below the heel as to the u. s. military, with order and screening for any infected being viciously maintained below martial law. joel, a hardened black-marketeer inside one among the quarantine zones, goes through an event that makes him promise an previous friend that he is going to get a young girl, ellie, from the the tough regime. they will begin a journey in the usa, avoiding the infected, humanoid creatures whose sole aim has turned out to be spreading the fungal infection, and scavengers that survive outside the quarantine zones who see joel and ellie as their latest prey. other then, added for their issues, the military are determined to locate ellie and deliver her back below their power