A/N: This is my first story on this account, but not the first story I have ever written. My other account is gar-a-ash (duh, since I'm gar-a-ash2), and I have a few Naruto fanfics that I have written there. However, none of those stories will be completed, so I decided to make a new account.

Anyways, this story was heavily inspired by the story A Hunter Captured, by someone whose name I can't remember. However, it is a brilliant story, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Left 4 Dead. Some elements of this story are very similar to the other story, but most of the ideas are going to pretty much be my own. I'm just borrowing a few things, such as the experimentation, and probably some elements of the room design. I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to steal, because I'm not. The ideas are hers/his, and I am only using elements of them for my own use. If they want me to change my story, I will, but otherwise, this is staying.

This isn't my first L4D fic, but it's the first one I'm putting up online. This is more of an introduction, since it's shorter than what I usually write out my chapters to be. It's only six pages. My chapters are normally ten pages long.

Hope you enjoy it! Please review and tell me what you think!

I waited in the bright- brightbright, too bright!- room, moaning, head held in my talons. Weeks ago, the unsick- prey- creatures had caught me, throwing me in here, doing horrible nasty stuff to me. My strong legs, able to carry me great distances, were chained, bound too-tight, ankles connected to a metal collar around my neck. My sharp, rending claws were locked together, barely able to move. My mouth was muzzled, too-tight, the metal cutting deep into the flesh on my face. My coverings had been removed long ago, leaving me cold and blind. Brightbright too bright! Toobrighttoobrighttoobright!

Another howl of agony worked its way up my throat, building, condensing, finally erupting in a deafening shriek that should have had the unsick creatures cowering, running away. Instead, they made those amusement sounds, sounding similar to longtongues, with the coughcoughwheeze breathing. They laughed at my agony, my suffering. I couldn't understand them. They had caught me, so why weren't they eating me? Why were they torturing me?

A slam of a door- nononononono not again, please not again!- had the unsick creatures quieting, standing up straight, shouting a greeting to the new arrival. She barked back, irritated, and one stepped back a bit, his fear smell filling the room. I clamped down hard on the whimpers trying to leave my throat, the howls of fear. They would only make the female laugh, as they have before. It wouldn't keep her from hurting me. Nothing I did could.

'Has anything changed?'

'No. She's just been sitting there, like she normally does.'

'I didn't mean that, you idiot! She's obviously chained where she can't move! Has her heartbeat changed, anything like that? THAT'S what I want to know!'

I flinched at the yell, though they were too busy with each other to notice it.

'Um, no ma'am, nothing's changed. Still the same, ugly creature she was yesterday.'

'And I had so much hope for the last formula, too. Since the female genes seem more responsive than male, I thought that the vaccine would work on her before her male counterparts….. Guess not. Any luck on finding me a male of the Hunter variant?'

"Finding them's not the problem: catching them is. We've been finding a lot of the males, but the fucking things run in packs, so getting one alone is a challenge.'

'I don't care if they fly airplanes, I want a male. Maybe since the female variant is so rare, the disease is a lot stronger in them than the males. Besides, it'll be interesting to see how the two sexes interact with each other.'

The hand motion had me cringing, imagining a sharpstabbing thing in her hand. No, please don't hurt me…

'Uh, ma'am? Won't they be chained?'

'Not for much longer. The muscles begin to atrophy if kept still for too long. No, the general has been working on building a room for me to keep them in. He has his lackeys working on it.'

'Will it hold them?'

'We'll find out, now won't we?'

She turned to me, apparently done growling to her packmate. She leaned close, peering at me, and I forced myself to growl instead of whimper. It was difficult.

'Anyways, I want another spinal tap done on her. I ran out of the last batch of spinal fluid to experiment on.'

'Want me to anesthetize her?'

'And waste the medicine? No, just give her the paralyzer. As long as she doesn't move, we're fine. Besides, most of the infected don't feel pain anyways.'

'Most?'

'How am I supposed to know if the Hunter variant feels pain or not? It doesn't matter anyways, she's not human. Now give her the injection and get her strapped to the table. I'll be back in a few minutes with the needles.'

I fell silent as she left the room, my own fear-stench permeating the room at the familiar pattern of growls that led to me being hurt. It was so strong, I was surprised the unsick creatures couldn't smell it. I almost choked on it myself.

'That injection ready?'

'Right here, sir.'

'What are you waiting for, then? Stick the pig!'

A weaker unsick one held the sharpstabbing thing, looking uncertain, then walked forward to me, hesitantly placing on hand on my leg to keep me steady. I could smell the familiar bite of the slowdeath, the poison that kept me from moving, and panicked, thrashing around. The unsick one yelped and pulled quickly away, and I snarled to keep him back. Don't come near me, don't- don't don't, please don't, it hurts hurts the pain, not the pain, stop the pain, fight kill defend kill kill kill no don't hurt, please don't hurt, no NO!

The leader of the pack grabbed the sharpstabbing thing from his weaker packmember, growling at him before stabbing me in the leg himself. I yowled as I felt the burning liquid enter my body, spreading through my veins like fire, killing my body as it traveled. The first part to die was the leg it had been injected into, becoming a dead weight that I could feel but couldn't move. It spread through my body quickly, and within moments, I was killed, unable to move but able to feel. Why did I have to still be able to feel?

'That's how you get it done, private. She's tied, she can't do anything to hurt you. Now get her chained to the table, face-down. Spread her legs like a whore, secure her ankles to the table tightly. Don't want any energy to enter those legs, now do we? Good God, look at the amount of muscle she has. Hate to be kicked by that, don't you agree? Break you right in half. Is she tied good? Excellent. Now get ready to watch the show. See, she can't move when the needle goes in, but she can still make some sounds. She can also move a little of her face too, and her eyes are another thing to watch. Creepy as all hell, but it's fun to watch her look around for an escape. Sometimes, if the doctor hits a nerve, we'll even get a twitch in a hand. Perfectly safe, and entertaining to watch. Ah, hello doctor! Got her all tied down.'

'I'm sure you did. How much did you give her?'

'Enough to keep her down for fifteen minutes, maybe. You know how her body burns it off.'

'Do you have another injection ready?'

'Course we do! Have another three ready, just in case.'

'Good. Now be quiet, I have to concentrate.'

Drool escaped my mouth, with me unable to swallow it and keep it from dripping onto the table. I wanted to flinch at the sudden cold liquid on my back, swabbing a spot on my spine, but I was only able to raise the pitch of my exhale, whimpering slightly. My eyes were unfocused, blind in the bright light- brightbright, too bright!-, but that didn't keep me from trying to find a way out of my prison. I was desperate. When I was first caught, I wouldn't have allowed even the slightest bit of weakness to show. Now, I whimpered without shame, howled my fear and pain, waiting for the day they finally stopped torturing me and decided to kill me.

I cried louder at the sight of the giant sharpstabbing thing that I knew would be put in my spine, crying for help, in whatever form it could come. But I knew it was hopeless, and I closed my eyes in preparation for the pain, even though it wouldn't help. Nothing helped.

Nononono, please no, stop, I won't hunt you, I'm sorry, no more pain, no more, I'm done, I'm sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry-AHHHHH! PAINPAINPAINPAINPAIN! STOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOPIT! AHHHHHH PAIN HURT DEFEND CAN'T DEFEND PAIN STOP AHHHHHH STOP PAIN PAIN PAIN STOP PLEASE STOP I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY STOP STOP STOP IT STOP IT PLEASE AHHHHHH PAIN STOP PAIN KILL ME! KILLMEKILLMEKILLME! STOP!

I tried to scream in agony, but the muscles around my throat were dead too, only allowing me to make a continuous whine, quieter than what it should have been. My body should have been flailing, but it was motionless. I was forced to keep the pain in my mind, echoing and growing, building until nothing existed in my mind except the memory of pain, only it wasn't a memory, it was real, and it was killing me. Only it wasn't killing me, I was still alive, I wished I was dead. Dead. Let me be dead after this. Let me die.

An eternity later, the giant sharpstabbing thing was pulled out of my back. It didn't matter anymore, though. My mind was numb with pain, as my body was numb.

'Alright, I'm done here. Chain her back up again and return her back to her room. The cell should be up in a few days.'

'Yes ma'am. Same thing next week?'

'Of course. We've been doing spinal taps every week for the past six weeks, haven't we? What makes you think we're just going to change suddenly?'

'Just making sure, doctor. Alright, get her tied up again before the drug wears off, and get her back to her room. And somebody give her some water, we don't want to have to catch another one, do we? Females are hard to find.'

'Yes sir'

My strong legs were forced together again, chained tootight, the back of my collar tugging as my ankles were attached to my neck again. As my head was forced around for the muzzle, strings of drool remained attached to my face, making the unsick ones make the amusement sounds again. I didn't care. I just wanted to sleep the pain away. I just wanted to sleep and not wake up, ever again. Just let me sleep.

Restrained once more, I was picked up and carried back to the toobright room, thrown down in the center of the cold, hard floor, dropped. One dumped cold water on me, and I wanted to lick it up, I was so thirsty, but I was still paralyzed, and could only moan as it ran away from me, into a drain in the floor. Again making the amusement sounds, the unsick creatures left the toobright room, leaving me alone.

My body still dead, I cried to myself, shivering as the water dried from my skin.

~X~

The predator's head lifted, sniffing the air, interpreting all scents. His lips slid back from his teeth, baring them in a sadistic grin as he smelled the food. His pack had chased him off for killing the leader, instead of following him as they should have, and he had sat here, waiting for them to come back. He had killed the leader. Yes, he was a runt-killer, and yes, the leader had already been injured, but he had still killed him! He, the smallest of his pack, had killed the strongest! It was only a matter of time before his pack came crawling up to him, licking his face as they asked for forgiveness, bringing him food in apology. And then he would be leader! He would lead his own pack!

The foodsmell moved, and his eyes followed the source of the scent, seeing everything in the dark night. It was an unsick-prey-creature, something unusual for around here. Still, it would taste much better than the stupid sick ones he had been eating. And it would be easier to kill.

He shifted slightly before lightly jumping to a new branch, closer to his prey. He smelled no other predators around, nothing to steal his food. He and his prey were alone. Good.

Hissing slightly, he slid down the bark of the tall tree, climbing down until he reached the ground, then crawling stealthily through the brush as he tracked his food. His target was completely unaware. Perfect.

Settling into a crouch, he waited for his food to walk into his jump path. His claws kneaded the ground impatiently, he had to force himself to not growl and alert his prey. No, he was hunting alone, so he had to be silent. He had to be sneaky, and he had to kill it brutally. Then he could bring the food to his old pack, and they would have to accept him as leader. He would kill an unsick one, and would allow them to take a few bites off of it. They would have to follow him then.

His prey stepped right into the path of his jump, and the predator bared his teeth in a grin before sounding his kill-shriek, leaping through the air in a perfect arc, a millisecond away from tackling his target to the ground and ripping him to shreds.

He didn't know what happened. One moment, his claws were just a short distance away from sinking into soft flesh, the next his body was coursing with electricity, causing him to scream and twist in agony. More unsick-prey-creatures poured from their hiding places, throwing ropes around him and binding him while he couldn't attack. He hissed and spat at them, screaming in defiance, inwardly panicking. Where had they all come from? He hadn't smelled even the faintest trace of any others!

Once his body was wrapped so tightly he couldn't move, the electricity shut off, allowing him to regain control of his body. He screamed and tried to attack, but his legs had been tied to his neck with a cord, and when he tried to jump, he ended up almost breaking his own neck.

He yowled and tried to twist his way out of the ropes, and one of the unsick-prey-creatures suddenly flashed a bright light directly into his eyes, blinding him and causing him to scream in agony. The toobright light stabbed into his brain, and he closed his eyes in an attempt to protect them. While his eyes were closed, a muzzle was hurriedly shoved over his head, fastened tootight over his mouth. Then, bound as tightly as he possibly could be, three of the unsick-prey-creatures picked him up and carried him into one of their loud-metal-beasts, throwing him harshly into the back and locking him in there.

Still blind, he didn't see his old pack watching him as he was thrown in, hidden safely in the shadows of the tree branches. He didn't see as they grinned at him, laughing at his pain. Instead, all he was aware of was the shouting voices, the bumping and growling of the metal surrounding him, and the searing agony his body was in from the combination of the lights, the ropes constricting his body painfully, and the remnants of the electricity still playing with his nerves.

And he was aware of the smell of fear that surrounded him, his own, and the smell of other sick creatures before him. Yes, he could smell their fear quite well.