Author notes: I don't know the name of the mental condition that makes me write about such weird crosses, I've had it since I was little. ANYWAYS I realise the title makes no sense, as it pretty much is no longer a play on words, and is just a statement, but piss off. Read, review, if applicable enjoy. Also, fair warning, all characters are human, because animals don't talk in the l4d universe (to the extent of my knoledge).
Left 4 Friends
Campaign 1: Tree town
Mission: 0 Prologue
She has no idea what to do. She stands there, dumbstruck and breathing heavily as the banging and moaning goes from a dull roar to a deafening cacophony. A hand smashes through the window and flails aimlessly, trying to find something to latch onto and destroy. After a torturous minute, she is approached from behind by seemingly the only one not out to kill her. A cold piece of metal and plastic is pressed into her hand as she continues to stare at the creaking door dumbstruck. She snaps out of her daze briefly and looks down into her hand to see her fathers gun, the one he always hid under the bed, clutched firmly in her hand. "C'mon Flaky, shoot!" her friend shouts in her ear.
She finally snaps out of her stupor and takes aim at the door, hands still shaking in fear. Her father had taught her how to shoot simply as a hobby, she never expected to have to take aim at a living target. She starts breathing heavily when she is tapped on the shoulder again "Flaky, I love you to death, but we seriously don't have time for this. If you don't start shooting we're seriously going to be dead." her friend tells her again, urging her to fire. Flaky's mind simply raced, trying to remember how it turned to this, why was this happening, was it all just a dream? They were just walking over to their house on the edge of town and passed some people who looked really sick. She tried to help them, but they ignored her. Finally, when she turned one of them to face her, it lashed out! They ran here as fast as they could and- "FLAKY FOR GOD'S SAKE SHOOT!"
Flaky blinked twice and raised the gun. She pointed at the window first, as it was the only clear target. The man looked pale, his skin a dull grey, his eyes black, and his mouth covered in blood. She sighted the top of his head and squeezed the trigger. With a sharp crack the bullet was discharged, and with a sickening pop the bullet blasted clean through the man's head, sending him toppling back, presumable dead. Flaky was about to start hyperventilating again when she heard "That's good, now c'mon, take out the other ones!" She regained her composure and took aim at the door. Though she couldn't see the people behind it, she aimed roughly at eye level and popped off a few more rounds. The bullets tear though the wooden door and hit their target, sending at least one toppling to the ground. Flaky aimed back at the window, where another one appeared. She quickly dispatched this one as well, before turning her attention to the roof. Something, somehow, was banging on the roof... and... growling?
She took aim, trying to hear over the banging on the door where exactly this thing was. Finally, after a few moments of tracing the noise, she let off two rounds. She heard a yelp like a kicked puppy as the bullets tore through the ceiling. Blood trickled in as whatever was up there seemed to leap off the roof. She turned back to the door, confidence growing as the assailants fell before her. She pumped three more rounds into the door and heard two more thuds on the pavement. A hand burst through the rapidly diminishing door and waved around in blind fury. Flaky took aim and let off a shot. The bullet tore the woman's thumb off and seemed to hit her somewhere in the chest. A second shot blasts her hand off at the wrist, but barely seems to faze her as she keeps wildly flailing her bloody stump around. A third shot higher and to the right makes the arm go limp before slumping and sliding out the door. Flaky flips back to the window, where one of the people is trying to crawl through, gut getting sliced apart on the shattered glass. Two shots and he's out. She turns back to the door and pulls the trigger again.
A dull click and Flaky's heart sinks. She looks at the gun dumbly as her mind fails to put the pieces together. She is handed another clip "Here, keep going, you're doing great!". Flaky stares at the clip nervously, breathing heavier with each moment. Her friend is about to speak up when Flaky turns to her.
"I don't... I don't know how."
Her friends cheery face turns to a look of confusion "What? What do you mean you don't know how? Your dad taught you to shoot that good but didn't teach you to reload the damn gun?!"
Flaky shook, the room practically spinning "I... he... He always helped me... I never... he would never let... I... I don't know how."
Her friend was now starting to panic as well "Well, figure it out! We don't have much goddamn time to screw around!" Flaky scramble with the pistol, her head throbbing as her eyes darted around the weapon. She finds a small button on the side of the handle and presses hard, the spent magazine sliding out. "Okay, halfway done." She states, trying to reassure herself. She puts the new magazine in tries to pull the trigger. The trigger refuses to go back, what's more, when her hand moves out from under the handle the clip slides right out. She tries to pick the clip up when she hears an earsplitting crack and sees several of the creatures burst through the door. She stumble back, dropping the gun in her panic as the people quickly close the distance. Her friend lets out a shill scream as one of the beasts literally leaps onto her and begins drawing her back. Flaky simply curls up and weeps as the things begin to pound her back, winding her and sending pain shooting throughout her whole body.
A series of rapid, powerful bangs are heard, followed by a spraying of blood and the toppling of bodies. Flaky squeals as the corpses flop on top of her and roll off, their lifeless cold skin and chilling blood crash onto her exposed arms. She continues to breathe heavily, so much so in fact that she couldn't tell that the noises had stopped. After what feels like an eternity of waiting she feels a dull prodding on her back. She at first curls up tighter, fearing whatever it may be, but eventually she unfurls and looks up at the source of the poke. It was a man, an older looking one (early to mid forties), sporting green military fatigues, a grizzled, fuzz covered face, and toting a machine gun.
Flaky got onto her knees, doing her best to avoid touching the corpses, and took a better look at him. His sleeves went all the way down to his wrists, and his pants went down into his brown boots, so she couldn't really tell just how fit the man was, but judging by his rather meaty hands and dress she could guess he was no couch potato. His clothes... HIS CLOTHES! "OH THANK GOD, THE ARMY!" Flaky screamed, leaping to her knees and hugging the man tightly. Her head pressed against his neck and chest, and she felt the firmness of his abdomen through her t-shirt. She squeezed him a few more seconds before she felt him pushing her away, slowly but steadily applying pressure to her right shoulder until they were at arms reach.
He spoke with a much softer voice then his features would suggest he had "Uh, hate to break this to you girl, but I'm not with the army. I've been retired for a good 10 years now." Flaky's shoulders slouched and her soul sank
"But... but, your uniform..."
The man looked down at it "What about it?" He asked, looking for a spot or some form of blemish on his fatigues. Flaky is about to speak up when her friend approaches, trying to wipe the blood off her light pink shirt.
"Hey, thanks. If you hadn't showed up...ugh. Anyway, what's your name?" She asked, extending her right hand.
The man shakes her outstretched hand "Flippy, my name is Flippy. Yours?" He asks, looking between the two girls.
"I'm Giggles" She says, before turning to Flaky "and this is Flaky. We're glad to meet you."
An awkward pause ensues as the girls try and think of something to say, while Flippy tires to phrase what he wants to say. Finally, the silence is broken by Flaky "Hey, um... Flippy? Could... could you hand me my gun?" Flaky asks, pointing to the pistol lying flat on the floor. Flippy strides over and picks up the weapon, weighing it in his hands before sauntering back over and handing it over to Flaky. She smiles weakly, before a second object is handed to her.
"I think you'll need this too." Flippy says, handing Flaky the clip. She took it hesitantly, giving him a weak smile as she inspected the clip. "What's wrong?" Flippy asked, looking at the small, red shirted woman fiddle around with both clip and weapon.
Giggles snatches the weapon from Flaky's hand , handing it over to the ex-soldier. "Sir, can you teach me and my friend here how to reload? Apparently her dad taught her how to shoot like a trick marksman, but not how to put more bullets in the gun." Giggles snarked, before handing Flippy both weapon and clip.
Flippy smiles and handed Flaky his assault rifle, before taking her pistol in return. She was baffled that he trusted them with his weapon, and barely watched as Flippy went over proper reloading procedure. She quickly snapped back to reality as he slapped the pistol back into her hand and asked for his rifle back. She complied, and the three stood in silence for several moments. It was Giggles who spoke up first, her high voice in stark contrast to the feeling of power it let off. "So, Mr. Flippy, do you know what the hell is going on?"
Flippy sighed "Not the foggiest. I was just watching TV when all the sudden the news cut to some special emergency broadcast. Called for everyone to get to the TreeTown hospital for evac. Didn't know what it meant until I saw one of these things try and break down my door. I loaded up on what I could and went out to hunt for some survivors, now here I am. What say we get the hell over to the tree town hospital?" he said, trying to sound as gruff as he could (and miserably failing).
Flaky and Giggles looked at each other. Could they really trust this guy? I mean, he may have saved their lives, but they didn't really know anything about the retired army man. Flaky hadn't forgotten what had happened earlier though, the way he had trusted them with his rifle, which in this outbreak, is pretty much his life... "Ugh, okay, let's make our way to TreeTown hospital... but we still have to look for people, okay?" Flaky tried to bargain.
Flippy laughed "Why, of course! That's why I'm here!" he turned and motioned for the girls to follow. They were about to leave when Giggles snapped her fingers.
"Wait here you guys, I have to grab something." with that, she ran back into the house and up the stairs. Flippy scanned the horizon, looking for possible threats, while Flaky looked at her feet. She still couldn't believe what was happening, still wanting to believe that it was all a bad dream, that she was simply having a nightmare. When Giggles returned, she had Flaky's baseball bat, the one she had swung once before deciding baseball wasn't her thing. Flippy raised an eyebrow "What? I don't have a weapon." she replied. Flippy nodded and the three of them went outside.
Bodies where strewn across the lawn, many dead from Flaky's own hand. She cringed at the thought, at the possibility that she had taken a life, but remained silent, heading up the rear of the group. Flippy motioned for them to go right, towards the inner parts of TreeTown. The girls followed, knowing they had little choice in the matter. After about a block of walking, they hear something, something moaning. Flippy scans the area as Giggles prepares her bat. After a few brief seconds, he pops off a few rounds down the street, and sure enough, a pale body hits the pavement.
"LOOK OUT!" Flaky screams as she points in the opposite direction. About a dozen more of the creatures where closing in fast, running and writhing at the group. Flippy wasted no time in emptying the remainder of his magazine at the horde, the mass collapsing into a heap a few feet from them.
"Good eye!" Flippy said, putting another clip into his weapon. Just as he pulled the hammer back, a figure lunged onto him, giving a screeching battle cry. Flaky screamed again as the creature pinned Flippy to the ground, and began tearing into his flesh. After about two swings, Giggle snapped into action, smashing her bat into the small of the leaping things back. The creature barked in pain as the bat smashed its vertebrate with a sickening crunch. It fell onto its side, legs twitching as the neural signals were cut off. Flippy rolls onto his feet with surprising speed and puts a bullet between the creatures eyes, ending its incessant yelping.
While Flippy regained his composure, feeling blood slowly trickle from the slicing wounds, Giggles approaches Flaky, who is still on the ground panting. "C'mon girl, your not the one who got pounced." she said annoyed, reaching her hand out to Flaky. She gives a nervous and ashamed chuckle as she takes the hand, allowing it to pull her up.
Flippy tells them that the streets aren't safe, and asks them to keep up. He then begins booking it to town, slowing only to pick off some straggling infected. Giggles and Flaky trail by a good twelve feet, avoiding any and all of the monsters that they could. Flaky was gasping for air after about half a dozen blocks, unused to running for these kinds of distances. Giggles was likewise getting winded, but was in generally better shape, allowing her to keep up. Flaky is about to ask to slow down when something snags her, something long and slimy, wrapping around her neck. She gasped as the tentacle like appendage wrapped itself around her waist, forcing her arms down to her sides. Finally, she hits the end of her tether, the beast able to hold its ground, and she is flipped onto her back. She lets out a strained cry for help as she begins to be dragged back.
It takes a few seconds for her compatriots to slow down, turn and assess the situation. The thing drawing her back is a nightmarish being, standing nearly 7 feet with long spindly limbs, massive cancerous growths and boils sprouting from over the things entire left side, and a long, thick, powerful tongue, wrapped around Flaky's body. Giggles charges the beast, bat at the ready before Flippy can even take aim. Flaky is just within the towering freaks grip when a sickening splash like sound is heard, with blood and flesh splattering over her. The tongue goes limp and falls to the ground, as the creature falls back as well. Flippy had fired a shot clean through its mouth, severing both the tongue and the spine in one fell swoop.
Flaky and Giggles are then assaulted by a horrific stench and thick billowing gas, coming from the dead beast. Giggles, coughing and wheezing all the while, lifts Flaky to her feet and pulls her out of the smoke cloud. When out, they both stop to catch their breath, nearly throwing up at the sickening stench. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the two have recovered, breathing only slightly heavier than normal. Flippy waves them over "C'mon, hospital is only a few more blocks!" he said cheerfully.
They continued down the street, killing when necessary until they finally saw the hospital, a two story white building, a sanctuary. The four of them approached the building, relieved, when Flaky notices something. "Uh, guys? Where is the helicopter... or the people trying to escape for that matter?" she asked, looking at the empty entrance, and noting the complete lack of uninfected. Flippy notices this with concern, but tries to shrug it off.
"Maybe they got on an earlier helicopter? I mean, they said they'd be running one every hour, maybe they were able to pack more people on them than they thought..."
They were about to enter the building when they noticed a figure, darting past the counter inside, hunched over in the shadows. Flippy raised his rifle, Flaky getting behind him to cover his back. Flippy waited and watched, trigger finger clenching slowly. When the figure appeared again, skittering past the entrance and over to the other side, Flippy shouted as authoritatively as he could "Friend or foe?"
The being turned, like a deer in headlights, not saying a word. Flippy pulled the trigger, spraying the glass door with bullets. The being leapt behind the counter for cover, bullets smashing into the ground and glass shards flying about like shrapnel. After a few more seconds of barrage, Flippy ran dry again, the weapon clicking to a stop. He had just popped the clip out when the three of them heard a voice emanating from the hospital "HUMAN TARGET ASSHOLE!" it said, with a mix of fear and anger. Then, they saw a piece of lab coat and pipe, fashioned into a white surrender flag wave from behind the counter.
Flippy lowered his rifle and looked at the girls, who gave a quick shrug "Sorry about that, thought you were one of the things!" Flippy called out.
The being got up quickly, throwing his arms out in anger. He looked to be in his mid twenties, with thin limbs and a tattered, patch covered ankle length coat. He wore a fedora and black glasses on his overly round, patchy face. "What the fuck is your deal man?! You could've killed me!" the man yelled, quickly closing the distance between the two, crowbar in hand.
"Sorry, but in my defense, you didn't say anything when I called out." Flippy responded, standing to his full height as crowbar guy slowed his pace, now only five feet away.
"Yeah, you surprised me, haven't seen a living face for the past three hours. Only these goddamn freaks." he responded, motioning at the desolate city around him.
Flippy frowned "Three hours? Isn't their supposed to be a helicopter supposed to come every hour?"
"Ha, you heard that bull shit broadcast to, eh? Well, they ain't coming back. I saw one leave three hours ago, saying it was the last chopper out. I guess the feds have more important places to save than some half dead little town." he sighed, shoulders slouching as the anger in him turned to sadness.
"Why didn't you get on the helicopter?" Flaky asked, looking at the man with confusion. He looked at his feet, almost ashamed of what he was about to say.
"Ugh, my idiot brother. Were as close as... well... brothers. I couldn't find him and I wasn't leaving without him... don't even know if he's still alive." Flaky looked like she was about to cry, but the man stopped her, holding up his hand "Hey, don't go weeping cause I'm stupid."
Giggles approached him, hand outstretched "Well, if that was the last heli out I guess we'll have to find another way out. I don't know if the roads will be safe... we'll be awfully exposed."
The man raised an eyebrow "We?"
Giggles smiled and shrugged "Well, you could use all the help you can get, and so can we. I think going together will be safest... so... partners?" The man stared at her hand a long time, considering his options longer than he would like to admit. A bust of gunfire erupts from Flippy's rifle as he mows down a small pack of the infected. He looks at him and motions for both of them to hurry up.
The man groans and shakes his head, before shaking Giggle's hand. She smiles "Great to hear. By the way, I'm Giggles."
The man looked up "Shifty, my name is Shifty." he then looked back at the hospital. "Listen you guys, I've gotten all the good stuff I could out of that place, most of it picked before I was even their... but I couldn't carry everything. Their are some guns on the roof you guys could get." he said, motioning towards the hospital. Flippy looks at the girls, then looks at the city. Getting guns would probably not be a bad start. He nods and the group follows him in. They make way through the abandoned hospital, stripped of all equipment, and with all bodies either splayed across the ground or shot in their beds. They make it to the stair well and Giggles notices a distinct rattling coming from under Shifty's coat. He didn't look to be carrying a lot, but was moving up the stairs quite slowly, as if weighed down.
At about the third floor, they all hear a moaning gurgle, as if someone was choking. Flaky is about to run down the hall when Shifty stops her, wide eyed and nervous. He gives a simple nod and tries to get the group to follow, but Giggles runs towards the sounds. Shifty curses and runs after her, the other two following shortly there after. When Giggles finally rounds the corner she freezes in horror at the eldritch abomination that stood before her. The thing was pot bellied, its gut bursting from a thin pair of rotting jeans. The thing's hair was tied in long ponytails that draped down to its neck, and its jaw hung off its face, practically rotted into its own extended neck. The creature gurgled and turned to face Giggles, who was slowly backing away in horror. The thing gagged and hacked up a ball of viscous green liquid, propelling it right at Giggles face. Shifty arrived just in time, tackling her out of the way as the slime slammed into the wall behind her, dissolving the wall paper like a powerful acid. It was Flaky this time that took the shot, shooting the thing in its protruding gut.
The creature made a quick screeching noise before being blown in half, acid spewing about ten feet in all directions, causing Flaky to back up quickly. Shifty slowly stood, weighed down by the equipment in his coat, while Giggles breathed in deeply. "See? this is why you don't follow the weird noises. If it don't sound human, it ain't." Shifty said, grabbing Giggle's arm and dragging her to her feet. She simply nods, picking her bat up as she rose.
The four of them rush to top, where they are greeted by a red emergency door. "Okay, I'm gonna need your help on this Army boy, this door is shut pretty tight." Shifty said, jamming the crowbar into the edge of the door. Flippy gave his name before getting to the end of the crowbar and aiding in cracking the door. After several seconds of struggle the door finally budges open, and the group is greeted by an ammo cache and some items of interest.