Alright, new story! Okay, guys, this is a series of oneshots based off of the characters from my other Left 4 Dead fanfic, called The New Kids In Town. This fic is to show how each of the characters became an infected, and who they were before. This one takes a bit of a more serious and dark turn compared to the other one. Well, anyway, I hope that you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 in any way, shape, or form! I only own my own character, and the plot of this story.
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She could feel her phone buzzing in her pocket again. She never put it onto a ringtone because she didn't like any of the ringtones already on the phone, and didn't want to have to buy new ones. She sighed as she checked the screen. It was her mom again. She promptly ignored the call, slipping the phone back into her pocket. It had been about a week since she had been at home, and her mother still kept on bugging her about coming back. But she wanted to be out on her own. Or at least, away from her parents. She had been staying at her friend's house for a few days. Their parents were constantly away, so there was no one to reject the notion. Her phone buzzed again, this time a text.
"Hey riley u wanna come hang out?" was what the phone read. Yes, her name was Riley. She really liked the name. Apparently it was an Irish name, and it felt unique to her because it was usually a boy's name. It helped her feel like she was different from the masses of other people out there.
"I cant im busy" she replied, still not able to type really fast on her phone. It bothered her a bit, how everyone seemed to be so attached to their phones. She rarely even used her phone. She wasn't really busy, either. She just wanted to walk around by herself for a while. As she walked down the street, she saw a man carrying a large stack of boxes trip over, dropping all that he was carrying. Though it occurred to her that she should help him up, she instead found herself giggling. She couldn't help it. It was like some planned gag out of a comedy movie, and it was funny. People always thought that she was really mean when she laughed at people, but she didn't care. She just thought that people should get a sense of humor already. As she passed by the man while he gathered up his boxes again, she saw that the big screen T.V. on the side of a building was playing the same news story that it had always been playing. It was the story on the strange disease going around. She decided that it would just end up being just like swine flu. She didn't really care. She wasn't around anyone who was sick, anyway. So, she wasn't really worried about getting sick. They were saying how this disease was some sort of advanced form of rabies as she passed by the building. As soon as they said that, she pictured some sort of rabid squirrel in her head, and ended up laughing again. She got a few looks from the people around her, but ignored them. People always looked at her funny anyway. She continued her walk, glancing in through shop windows every now and then. She saw some people driving out of town. A lot, actually. They all had their belongings piled high in their trunks, getting away from the town where the new disease was supposedly going to hit.
"Pfft. Idiots," Riley shook her head as she saw a few more speeding by down the road. There was hardly anyone left. Just those like herself who either didn't believe in the disease at all or couldn't leave. She walked past some stores that were all boarded up, either gone out of business or running away from the dreaded "epidemic". It was all just a bunch of adults trying to get people worked up over stuff in Riley's eyes. As she passed by the hospital, she noticed a large group of people near the entrance, and decided to go over and see what was happening.
"Alright, alright, just calm down," a doctor near the door was calling out to the crowd. "We can get you all checked in a short while, but we're short on staff right now, so you'll have to be patient." The crowd broke out into murmurings and worried cries, and Riley rolled her eyes. It was another one of those panicking groups. But just as she was about to walk away, she heard something strange. Coming from somewhere in the distance was a very odd noise. Some sort of a mixture of growling and howling.
"Wild dogs?" she said to herself. Wild dogs had run through the run down town a couple of times. They had been absolutely crazy, foaming from the mouth and attacking anything that moved. The police had to take them out. Maybe they were affected by the same "disease" that was freaking everyone out so much. The noise came again, this time seeming a bit closer. If wild dogs really were going to come running through again, she didn't want to be outside…
"People, people, calm down!" the doctor shouted as the crowd began to descend into chaos. "We can let you in, but only for a short while, alright? Stay in the waiting area." There was suddenly a surge of people going inside, and Riley was sucked along with the crowd as they all tried to squeeze through the door into the hospital. The doctor was knocked around a bit, to his annoyance. As Riley reached the door, she tried to leave, but the doctor took her arm.
"It's not safe out there," he told her. "Something bad's coming."
"That's why I want to get home," Riley replied, trying to leave again. He stopped her once again, gently pushing her inside and closing the doors.
"Just stay here. You can call your parents from the waiting room." He looked the glass sliding doors so that they would have to be opened manually, and by a key. Then, he jogged off down a hallway deeper into the hospital.
"Call my parents. Yeah, right," Riley chuckled to herself. She was a bit irritated by how crowded it was inside the waiting room when she came in. And it was so loud. People were shouting, babies were wailing, and there was general disorder inside the small space. Not fun. Riley saw that there were no chairs left, and stood a bit grumpily by the door. She didn't want to be there. She could hear the weird howling noise outside again, and it was coming steadily closer, and closer, and closer…She glanced at the door once. There was nothing there yet. But she told herself that the next thing she knew, there would be a bunch of insane dogs scratching on the glass. There was no way that they could get in, though. She wondered what her parents were doing about this. They were probably holed up in the basement, like the one time that they thought that there was going to be a tornado. There hadn't been a tornado. It had all been jumping to conclusions. Just like this was. Riley heard a thump against the window. So, the dogs had arrived. She could see that some of the people facing diagonally out the door of the waiting room, who were able to see the door, were screaming. Screaming like they just saw a monster or something. She laughed quietly, then out loud. They were such idiots.
"Geez. It's just dogs," she shook her head. She could hear more thumping. Scratching. Banging. And it was beginning to sound less and less like dogs. And suddenly, it was a whole chorus of growling, yowling, scraping, banging, and Riley was thinking that this couldn't possibly a dog. Could that whole thing about an advanced form of rabies be true? No…no, it couldn't be. Riley willed herself not to turn around to look as the people in the waiting room continued to panic.
Don't look, just don't look, she thought. It's just my imagination playing tricks on me. They noises outside became more intense. And that growling DID NOT sound like a dog. Neither did any of the other noises, but Riley kept on telling herself, "It's just a dog, it's just a dog, it's just a dog…" But finally, after about fifteen more seconds of that, she couldn't take it anymore. She sighed, then turned around. And she was suddenly frozen in place. Those were not dogs at the door. They were people. Their skin gray, their eyes blank, and their mouths and hands dripping with blood. Their clothes were ripped, bloodstained, and altogether nearly destroyed. And these people had a true blood lust in their eyes.
"Rabid people?" she said in a surprised squeak, backing up a step and bumping into someone. "Rabies my ass! These things look more like zombies!" There was suddenly a shattering of glass. They had broken through a small portion of the door. Another. They were coming through the window at the other side of the waiting room. The people were screaming as these new creatures crawled into the room, ripping and tearing through anyone that stood in their way. Riley could see that they were about to break through the door. She suddenly wasn't frozen anymore. Blood pumped down her legs in one sheer blast of adrenaline, and she was running down the hall deeper into the hospital. She heard the door shatter behind her as she turned a corner, but didn't look back. She couldn't look back. She probably would have frozen up again. But as she ran, she could hear the crazy growling sound ahead of her, too, echoing down the hallway. She was panicking inside her head, even though she told herself to remain calm. It was only the really beautiful girls that got killed off in zombie movies. She never considered herself to be very pretty, so she was attempting to inform herself that she had nothing to worry about, but she found her own reasoning to be very bad. This wasn't a movie. Her second line of defense: She pinched herself. Was this a dream? Some sort of super bad karma nightmare for running away from home? No, it wasn't a dream she was still there in the hospital. She could hear uneven footsteps coming down the hallway, and she did all she could think of: She ran into the nearest room, closing the door behind her with a slam. She was breathing hard, dripping with sweat, some of her brown bangs falling into her face. She brushed them away, scanning the room. Right in front of her, with his back to her, was the doctor that she had seen earlier.
"Oh, doctor, you're okay!" she exclaimed in relief. "I can't believe it! You know how they said that this was some sort of rabies? Well, these guys are like zombies, and…" Riley trailed off. He wasn't turning around. "…doctor?" As he turned around, his footing uneven, Riley saw his sheer white eyes, and knew that she was about to die. She could feel it. He was running right at her. She had to do something. Her pulse was racing, as was her brain: oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! As he charged her, she got the door open and tried to run, but it was too late for that. She ran around to the other side of the room, but her back was to the wall now. He was approaching again. An insane lust for blood was burning in his eyes. As Riley backed up, her foot hit something. She looked down for a moment, and saw one of those zombies at her feet. Dead. Was this what had changed the doctor over…? He was coming closer. She tried to think of what to do. There was nothing…nothing…wait. She grasped around on the wall behind her, finding the case for a fire extinguisher. She grabbed the handle, fumbling it with her hands, then pulling it open. He was coming…he was almost there! She seized the fire extinguisher, and almost dropped it. It was so heavy! She struggled to pick it up again, her hands slick with sweat, but finally managed to grab it. She swung it out at the now infected doctor with a sudden burst of strength that came to her out of pure fear. It hit it's mark, but flew out of her hands, falling with a clank onto the other side of the room. As the man reeled back, blood flying out of the area she had hit him, she decided that she had to get him out of there. Then, she could lock the door. She ran forward, pushing on both of his shoulders, making him back up out of the room. But just as she got him through the door, she felt a sharp pain in her lower arm, a searing, burning sensation that flew up her arm and into her body like an arrow from out of nowhere.
"You bit me!" she screamed, even though she knew that he would know. She tried to dislodge him from her arm, then finally swung her leg out as she had learned in her "self defense for young girls" class. He took a big hit in the stomach, stumbling out into the hallway. Riley grabbed the door handle, slamming the door shut. It looks like self defense for use against rapists works against zombies, too. She backed up into the room after locking the door, feeling hot tears run down her face out of the pain in her arm, and her intense fear of the situation. Her arm hurt like hell, she was stuck in a zombie infested hospital, everyone else was probably dead, and she didn't know what the hell to do. The pain from her arm was intensifying, and her vision was blurring.
"Great, I'm going to be a freaking rabid zombie now!" she screamed, pain, fear, and anger all marking her voice. Her vision blurred in, and out, in and out. She found herself curling up on the floor, clutching her arm. It hurt so much! It hurt, it hurt, it hurt…Her thoughts were slowing. She was confused. She felt herself slowly losing consciousness, and all she could think was, it hurts…it really really hurts…
Her eyes flew open suddenly. What light that could be seen from the high and small window on the wall was dark and luminous. Was it night time?
"I'm…" she whispered to herself quietly, "I'm…alive…? And I'm not a zombie…?" She tried to sit up, but felt slightly weak. But she kept at it, and eventually sat up. There was now a mirror shattered on the door. Had that happened while she was there? What had even happened? She couldn't remember…she couldn't remember anything.
"Where…where is this?" she mumbled to herself. Her whole mind was blank. She couldn't remember. She just couldn't remember. She sifted through her thoughts, only to realize that she couldn't even remember her own name. Everything was all fuzzy…
"What…what was it again?" she murmured. "Oh well, I have to get out of here…" She heaved herself up, taking a few tries to do it. She stumbled forward, catching herself on the door. She paused when she got there. "How do I work this again…?" She fumbled around with the handle for a bit, discovering something: It turned. How strange…She continued turning it until it stopped, then found that the part of the wall in front of her actually opened. She went out into the hallway, trying to get the hang of moving around. She was getting a little bit better at it, but still tripped every now and then. As she went down the hallway, she found herself among a desolate scene. Dead bodies were lying everywhere. Oddly, the bloody smell coming off of them didn't seem so bad. But suddenly, she saw something move. She felt a sort of growl rising in her throat, but tried to make it go back down. Why was she growling? There was a man. A man was moving towards the shattered glass that lay around the entrance. He was looking straight at her. With true fear in his eyes. Taunter couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. He was scared of her?
"What? Are you scared of me?" she continued laughing. This guy was so stupid…
"S-Stop it!" the man stuttered. "All of you…you're all just taunting me! Stop taunting me like that!" The man took a step back. And suddenly, she felt herself running at him, suddenly able to move, ripping, tearing, biting, she wanted his blood…It was all in one motion, and suddenly, the man lay dead before her. As her normal thoughts took back over, she looked down at him in shock, then back at her bloodied hands, wiping blood away from her mouth.
"What…the frick?" she backed away. She looked around feverishly, finally finding a mirror. She saw her own reflection. Brown hair was partially covering up glowing gray slate eyes. Her skin was a pale gray, and her clothes were ripped, her worn out gray hoodie torn where she just noticed that she had a gaping wound. She came a step closer, looking at herself in the floor length mirror that lay inside the office. Dropping to her knees, she felt a small laugh escape her throat.
"Well…damn," she said to herself. "And here I thought that I was okay. Looks like karma really is out to get me after all." And with that, she let out another laugh, and another, and went into a fit of wild laughter, unable to stop, even as tears began to flow down her face. But who was she? Who? She remembered what the man had said. He had said, "Stop taunting me." That's it. That's who she was…Taunter. That was who she was now. Taunter, the zombie. That was who she was. And that was all she would ever be.
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Sooo, what do you guys think? Good? Bad? Stupid? XD I hope it's good. :P Anyway, not only will I be doing chapters for everyone's OCs, but I'm also going to be doing chapters for Hunter, Smoker, Boomer, Tank, and Witch. If you're reading this, vote for who you want the next chapter to be about in your review! Also, tell me what you think of this chapter! ^^ Thanks for your support guys, as always. :D