A boy and his Bird

by Necro-Knight Nate

Sampson used to care for people. Sampson used to be smarter. Now he's stuck in an apocalypse with no one but his pet Hawk, Kaw, for company. With the group of survivors we know and love persuade him to come out of his shell and survive? Or will Sampson lose his sanity completely?

Chapter 1- One beautiful bird

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of the Left 4 Dead franchise. They belong to Valve, but Sampson and Kaw belong to me.

"Hey look!" I pointed out to Kaw. "That candy factory FINALLY caught on fire. And I thought our luck was changing." Kaw simply screeched, spread his wings, and flew around a bit before landing on my shoulder again. Kaw was my pet Hawk, and as far as I know, we were the only surviving people on this waterfront town. I'm never good with names, so the town's name never floated to the front of my mind. We sat there for nearly half an hour, watching our only major food source become engulfed in flames. While it was saddening to know that me and Kaw would have to scavenge in the town now, fire always seemed to hypnotize me. The way it just took everything with it and didn't give a damn what happened to itself reminded him of that old dude who died a few days ago; he was restarting a generator so his other friends could stay on the now lifted bridge. I could hear their cries for him an hour after he died. Jeez, they sure did care for that old dude.

Once the flame died down, I stood up and stretched. My legs were kind of numb now, but the blood would come back when I start walking. Kaw turned his head toward me, let out a screech, and flew out the window. "Don't be late!" I shouted after him, without a bit of worry. Kaw always flew out at random times, but he kept on coming back, sometimes with stuff like pain pills, or unlabeled shots of some kind. I walked over to the mirror and messed with my hair a bit. The blood of many a zombie had stained nearly everything I wore, but I felt comfortable wearing my old jeans and a blue shirt that was covered by a leather jacket my mom and dad bought me. Moments like that would be happy for me, but since I was forced to slug both my parents' heads off their bodies, it just made me shiver. I straightened up my untidy brown hair, and rubbed my green eyes. I pointed at the mirror and said to no one "Hey, how you doing? I'm Sampson." Hey, just because there was an apocalypse doesn't mean I wasn't going to run into some female Survivors.

After a minute or so of admiration towards myself, I ran to the back of the room, and accidentally hit my head on a pipe. The one-story apartment I used as a safe house was rather small, consisting of only three windows, one bathroom, a small kitchen that connected with the living room (that had two chairs in it), and a bathroom. The place looked almost square in my mind, yet in truth it was more rectangular. I swore under my breath and kept rubbing my head. "That pipe is gonna be more trouble than it's worth. Curse that underpaid plumber!" I said, as I grabbed the gold club near the bathroom and headed to the kitchen. I pulled my backpack out from one of the cupboards and looked inside. 'Hmmm.' I thought. 'Ammo? Check. Food? Check. Medicine? Check. Wait, where's the flare gun I had a second ago?' I frantically looked in all the cabinets searching for the flare gun I found while exploring the candy factory. I saw it under the chairs in the living room. 'Any longer and I might've needed to hit my head in the wall.' I picked it up along with the few spares on the floor and shoved them into the backpack I had and zipped it up. I ran to the broken window and called out "Kaw! Come on back, we need to start moving!" I went back to the chairs in the living room, sat down, and waited for Kaw's return. After a rough five minutes, Kaw finally flew back in and landed on my shoulder. He held out his claw and nudged me with his wing to get my attention. I looked at his claw, and found that he had managed to find another one of those shots filled with yellow liquid. I took it from him, stroked his back, and began to examine it. I had never actually found one with any description on it, and if I did the writing was usually smeared and impossible to read. This one, however, was readable. "That's why you brought this one back." I said to Kaw, and he let out a short screech as to respond. I looked at the orange description, and began to read it:

WARNING

USE WITH OWN RISK

Adrenaline should only be used in medical situations required where energy must be kept to the body. Under no circumstance should you use this for anything other than a medical emergency. Over usage will result in death.

'So it's an adrenaline shot.' I thought to myself, as I turned around in my fingers. "Those will come in handy, huh Kaw?" I asked still observing the strange liquid. Kaw nudged me with his wing again in reply. "You're right, we need to get going. If I'm gonna help those Survivors, I need to stay calm, collected, and most importantly…" I stared at Kaw for this one. "Quiet." Kaw turned his head. I know he hates being silent, but we can't have a horde hot on our ass when we're trying to help people, can we?

I strapped the backpack on tighter, lifted my gold club, and took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." I said to myself, and pushed the door open… Only to come with something I wouldn't have expected to see for at least another decade.

Authors Note: Oh boy, a cliffhanger! Thanks for taking the time out of your lives to come and read this story. So far we know Sampson is stuck in the "waterfront town". For those of you who don't know it's the town from the DLC 'The Passing'. Sampson has a pet Hawk, Kaw, which we get into more of how they met later in the story. He saw Bill die, and knows the other three survivors are still up there. I bet all you smartasses out there already know what's outside his door, though. Please review and P.M me if you have any questions.

P.S And before I forget, I'm accepting O.C's for future chapters. P.M me your Ideas and I'll see what's up. Thanks again!

-WatchdogWriter