Left 4 Dead – One Too Few
When playing Blood Harvest the other day, I noticed that there were only three sleeping bags at the beginning of the first level.
This sparked a discussion that was the basis for this little writing exercise.
This story is dedicated to Xbolt, the best Francis in the world.
Zoey's POV:
No one expected the plane to crash. Well, no one besides Francis, anyway. While the rest of us were celebrating victory, the biker had confidently assured us that everything was about to go wrong.
And go wrong it did. One minute Bill was talking to the pilot, and the next we were plummeting towards the ground.
Bill lunged for the controls, and our descent slowed just a bit. "Brace yourselves!" he hollered.
For a minute, I thought that the war veteran might manage to keep us in the air. Then we hit the ground.
Francis – the only on of us who'd had the sense to sit down and rig a safety belt – caught me as I was thrown towards the back of the plane. Louis, however, wasn't so lucky. He hit the cargo bay doors with a thud.
"I told ya so," Francis muttered in my ear.
The instant we screeched to a halt, the biker disentangled himself from his improvised restraint system and jumped up. "C'mon, Zoey," he said, offering me a hand and pulling me back on my feet.
"Bill?" I called, scanning the wreckage for him. He limped out of the cockpit a moment later.
"Is everyone alright?" There was a pause, and then we nodded. "Good. Let's salvage what we can and then strike off into the woods."
Bending over to examine the pilot's corpse, Bill continued, "Looks like he turned right about when we started to go down."
"Aww, and here I was thinkin' that he crashed the plane on purpose."
"Shut up, Francis," Bill barked.
Despite the severity of the situation, I giggled as I began to search the cockpit for supplies.
"I hate those stupid vampire pilots."
"Me too, Francis," I answered, tossing him a sleeping bag.
"Hey, look on the bright side," Louis interjected. "At least the plane didn't burst into flames when it crashed."
The biker cast him a withering look and stalked off in search of his shotgun.
"What have we got, kid?" Bill asked.
"No weapons or first aid kits so far. A couple water bottles, though," I replied, passing sleeping bags to him and Louis.
I turned back to pick on up for myself and was disappointed to see that there weren't anymore.
Bill shot me an inquisitive look. "Didn't you get a sleeping bag?"
I shrugged. "There were only three."
"Zoey." I looked over at Francis. "Here, you can have mine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, no problem."
"Thanks," I smiled.
"Anytime, darlin'. I hate sleeping bags anyway."
Since our weapons either hadn't survived the crash or were out of ammo, the four of us headed into the woods with only pistols. Luckily, the zombies seemed to be spread more thinly out here.
On the other hand, it was darker in the woods than it was in the city. Even with flashlights, we could barely see where we were going.
Bill finally snorted and shook his head. "Alright, forget it. This is a complete waste of time. We'd better find somewhere to camp and wait until morning. We'll have better luck with this when the sun is out.
"I hate the sunlight. And camping," Francis muttered, darting off into the woods and smashing a zombie's skull in with a log.
"Why do you have to go after all of the ones that aren't attacking us?" Louis complained as six more of the infected rushed us. "These guys would have left us alone if you hadn't killed that one."
The biker chuckled as he began pummeling one of the zombies with his bare fists. "What, so they can all sneak up on us in the middle of the night while we're asleep and start eatin' us? You know, Louis, you're pretty stupid for a guy who supposedly went to college."
"Francis," Bill warned.
"Hey, I got it! You already tried that stupid 'live and let live' stuff before you met us, didn't you? And a vampire ate your brains while you were asleep!"
Unable to help myself, I let out a giggle.
Louis sputtered and opened his mouth to retaliate. "Knock it off, both of you!" Bill ordered.
We slid down a hill and were greeted by the welcome sight of guns, medpacks, and ammo.
"I'll get a fire going," said Bill as he gathered up kindling.
It only took him a few minutes to start a decent blaze. "Okay, everyone. Spread out your sleeping bags and get some rest. We'll take off early tomorrow."
Francis sat down beside my sleeping bag, staring into the fire.
"You gonna be okay?" I asked, twisting around to look at him.
The biker grinned and nodded. "Sure. I got a plan."
Once everyone else was settled in, he walked over to the edge of the precipice and looked down. "Hey, Louis."
"Yeah?"
"I think I see some pills down there on that little ledge."
"Where?" Louis asked, looking considerably more alert.
"Right down there. I could reach down and get 'em if I wanted, but I don't really feel like tryin'."
"Well, no sense in letting resources go to waste," he answered, getting to his feet and walking over to Francis.
The biker put a finger to his lips for silence as he snuck back over to the campfire and slipped into the vacant sleeping bag.
I barely managed to keep from laughing.
"Hey, I don't see any – Francis!"
"Thanks for getting' the sleeping bag ready for me, Louis! I really appreciate it."
"Will you two shut up and go to sleep?" Bill yelled.
I grinned at Francis. "Nice one. I thought you said you hated sleeping bags."
"Oh, that. Uh, I hate carryin' sleeping bags. But they're okay to sleep in."
With a chuckle, I answered, "Good night, Francis."
"'Night, Zoey."