Hello Fanfiction! After about what...two years or so of not posting anything, I have returned to tell you the tale of a lone survivor living life in the zombie filled world of Left 4 Dead. Original, isn't it? This will start out as a classic fic, survivor runs around and meets a special infected, yadda yadda yadda. But hopefully, I can try and put my own little twist on the story. Let's see how that will work out.
Disclaimer: I do not own L4D. Just my own characters.
The Survivor's Guide to Surviving the Infection
Chapter 1: A is for Accident
It all started with an accident. At least, that's people wanted to think. Some wanted to believe it was just a small scale accident that would get picked up and thrown in the trash. Others thought it was something totally different. Either way, after the first outbreak of the Green Flu, things went to hell...fast. Anything after that could be accidental or intentional.
In a world ruled by zombies, accidents will occur. So don't do anything stupid. Life has become more fragile than ever imagined.
Two weeks after first infection
Traversing the city late at night has always been risky business, especially for young women. They could be mugged, kidnapped, raped, even murdered. Possibly even all four. But since the Infection broke out, that would be the least of anyone's worries. Now it was all about running and hiding, avoiding anything that moved or made a sound. It was a life or death situation, every little move made affected survival.
When it first happened, Divine practically threw a party, knowing that her longest belief had finally come true. Zombies had finally invaded! They weren't real zombies, just very sick people who had a new homicidal urges. But why correct her? After about three days, there was nobody left to tell her otherwise. She did what any smart person would have done; she went out and got herself a gun. Taking the first step outside was the hard part. Divine knew she'd have to leave her apartment eventually, yet she wasn't willing to immediately risk it. Instead, she sat insider her room, guarding the door and windows, trying to be quieter than a mouse.
Anything that needed actual cooking was thrown out, couldn't risk attracting unwanted attention. So when the safe food had run out, she packed a small bag, grabbed her bat and the biggest pan she had off the stove, and ventured out into the wild. It was fun at first, feeling a person's head cave in, hearing the whack of her bat against their skull. The fun ended quickly, the farther she went on, the harder things became. Every little movement or sound made could easily call a horde of these...creatures. The bigger the sound, the worst it was for her. Light was okay, so long as she didn't shine it in someone's face.
But Divine quickly found out the trouble with lights. A girl sitting in a corner, barley clothed and crying her eyes out. Divine tried to help, racing over to the girl's side. She didn't notice the bodies slumped against the floor, the huge gashes in their stomachs. As soon as the light hit the girl's face, she instantly changed. Divine found herself running like hell, her screams mixing with the terrible cries of the weeping girl's. She didn't know how long the chase lasted; this zombie-girl was persistent. Somehow she got away, somehow made it to safety. The steel red doors helped out a bunch. She managed to run in and close the door behind her, and the weeping girl thumped into it, attempting a break in. Eventually she stopped, and Divine could hear the girl crying again.
That was her first encounter with the Special Infected. Over the next few days of slinking around the city, Divine had encountered much more than the weeping girl. The normal ones looked like regular people, except they moped around and threw up their insides. There was one that could jump from over a mile, a single bound and their prey was caught and killed. Divine knew a friend of hers would be impressed by such a feat, the jumper wasn't trying to kill her. If anything, running from that was more interesting than running from the weeping girl. It could scale tall buildings, leap down like a wild cat, and would stop at nothing to catch its next meal. Eventually, she managed to sneak attack it by bashing her bat on its head as it turned the corner to look for her. It was just a man in a hoodie. Just some random dude...in a freaking hoodie! But he was definitely something to fear.
Her next encounter with a Special was the one who could snare someone with a tentacle, from his mouth. When Divine shot him, a cloud of smoke arose, blinding her and sending her into a coughing fit. Once it had passed, she got a better look. Various boils and lumps covered his arms and face, spores still floating around them. The tentacle from his mouth was actually his tongue, and Divine had the guts to pull at it, wondering how long it was. To put it simply, it took a while. The tongue was a solid mass of muscle, able to bind and constrict its prey, much like a snake. Yet, it was easily breakable, like a lizard's tail. All because of a stupid flu. This was no flu.
Finally, Divine had the misfortune of meeting up with the puker. The fat man that threw up on his victim's, calling in the regulars. She had watched him from afar, sniping him from a distance. They were like balloons, get a sharp point and they explode. Except these balloons exploded blood, guts, and puke. She knew getting near one would be a very, very bad idea. This was why Divine nearly wet herself when she rounded the corner and saw him standing there. She could hear him gurgling, but didn't seem to notice how loud they were getting until he was right there. Somehow, they came to a stand-off. He prepared to puke, and she raised her gun, finger ready at the trigger.
"Do it and I fucking shoot" she warned, not sure if he understood. Her words may have been lost to him, but the sight of her rifle made him pause. The puker swallowed his own bile, and tried to inch his way through. She followed. They reversed positions, so that they were on opposite sides of each other. Divine slowly backed away down her original path, the puker doing the same. His gurgling never ceased, but he made no move to attack. Her first encounter with the fat man, and she was going to live! Finally, a mutual understanding between her and the zombies. They were like bees, you don't bother them and they won't bother you. How swell this was turning out, the zombie apocalypse could be conquered. She'd be a hero, a star, the greatest survivor of all ti-
A piercing scream sounded off, echoing around the area. Startled, Divine's finger clenched down on the trigger, and BOOM, the puker was gone. Cursing loudly, she turned and ran, bile covering her front side. She could hear them, the horde was coming! The first set of zombies met her, and she greeted them with a couple bullets each. So much for living through the day and becoming a fucking hero. If she lived, she was so finding a working shower. If she died...well, it was better not to think that. Divine had to find a safe room, fast. Her bullets were disappearing fast, and she knew that her baseball bat couldn't be relied on for long. Then she saw it, right next to the path that the zombies were taking. She aimed, fired, and the propane gas can blow up, killing anybody near it.
That did the trick, for little zombies came afterwords. Divine took a breather, the adrenaline slowly draining out of her system. How long would this all go on? How long until there were no more uninfected people? So far, she had encountered infected, but not uninfected. Real people didn't seem to exist anymore. They were probably dead, or got help from the CEDA. Pfft, the CEDA, fuck them. She saw signs of the CEDA everywhere, but the CEDA themselves were nowhere to be seen. They were gone, and they obviously weren't coming back. Anyone else left in the city had been left for dead, including her. This meant she'd have to get out of town herself. So be it then! The hard part was actually finding a safe route out.
It felt safer to travel by day, that's when the least amount of infected were about. She tried to find shelter at night, but it was hard finding a place that wasn't totally overrun. And judging by the lengthen shadows among the alleyways; she really needed to find a safe room. Fast. Crazy shit went down after the sun did, and Divine knew she didn't want to be around to see it. Lately, she had been hearing a loud roaring sound in the area, followed by mini-earthquakes. Something was out there, something really big. This wasn't California where earthquakes were the norm. The flu had created a much deadlier being, one that even scared the regulars. But what? She hoped she would never find out.
Night was falling faster, and still no end to the alleys, no red doors in sight. Left, right, left, left, right, another right. It felt like Pac-Man, with zombies instead of ghosts. Turn the corner, a crudely drawn red house drawn on the wall. Yes, at last! She was almost there! Those spray painted houses always meant a safe room was nearby. Thank God, the sun was practically gone by this time. She raced forward, a sense of hope and accomplishment pulsing through her. Almost there, almost there, almost-got caught. Stopping dead, Divine managed to save herself from stepping into a bear trap. Why the hell would anyone put bear traps in front of a goddamn safe room? Apparently the last guy to come through here thought it was a fantastic idea, because traps littered the ground, some open, some occupied with the dead bodies of the infected. And one was still moving.
His leg was caught, the teeth clamped firmly into his pant leg. He must have given up trying to escape, for he just sat there and growled at the contraption, his claws useless against the steel holding him. After a moment, he looked up at her, face half-concealed by his hood. As soon as he looked at her, his growls turned to whimpers, and she was sure he was staring at the gun in her hands. 'Poor jumper' she thought, eyeing him over. 'Trapped and waiting for death...oh God...'. What could she do? Shoot him? Put an end to his misery? No...no, couldn't do that. She believed that someone should go down fighting, not trapped and defenseless. Whoever attacks a defenseless man is a coward, and should be the ones to die.
"Can't believe I'm doing this..." Divine muttered, tiptoeing towards him. His whimpers increased, and he tried to hide himself inside his hood. Closer now, she could see the giant Z sewn into his hood, turned red from all the blood. Z...she wondered what it stood for. His name? A brand of clothing? What? 'That's right...he was human once. He was somebody once..but now?'. Divine crouched down next to him, putting her rifle down.
"It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna help" she reassured, gently placing her hands down on his ensnared leg. He peaked out at her, growls mixing with whimpers. "It's okay, it's okay" she repeated, giving experimental tugs at the trap. They moved a little, but not enough to free his entire leg. She needed more strength, something else to replace his leg. But what? A thought sprung to her mind, and she snatched up her rifle. The jumper began to panic, thrashing around, trying to get away from it. "Hold still!" Divine ordered, placing the barrel right at the spring, pointing the tip away from him. She fired, then fired again. The spring looked weaken, and she pulled at it again. It moved much easier now, though still not enough to fully free him. "Okay, new plan. When I tell you, I want you to bring your leg up. I'll open it and stick my gun in there. Be fast, cause I don't know how long we'll get before it closes. Got it?" she asked, staring straight in the face. He gave no indication that he understood, not even a growl or a whimper. Oh, whatever.
"Alright ready? And...now!" she shouted, prying the jaws open and worming the rifle into place. His leg wretched free of its prison, and the jaws clamped down on her gun. Well, the safe room usually had a shotgun lying around, so she could always get a new one. The jumper sat up, and tried to do what he did best: jump. But he stumbled instead, letting out a screech of frustration. "Let me fix you!" Divine said, taking off her pack to rummage around for medical supplies. He ignored her, and tried again, this time coming dangerously close to another bear trap. "Stop moving, dammit!" she ordered, grabbing his good leg and pulling him closer. Ignoring his threatening growls, she tore off the damaged part of pant leg, revealing his wounds. Punctures marks dotted his leg, ending close to the ankle.
Divine cleaned it the best she could wiping away blood and spraying on disinfectant. It must have stung, for the jumped let out a howl of displeasure, attempting to break away from her. She held him down, holding on tightly to his legs. "Stop. Fucking. Moving" she growled at him. He stopped, looking at her with a small look of surprise. Oh, so now he listens! Once the jumper had stilled, she wrapped up his leg in some gauze, knotting the end to keep it from unraveling. "There, all better" Divine declared, letting him go. He carefully retracted his legs towards his body, rolling into a crouched position, resting on the balls of his feet. They sat there, staring at each other. Now what? He could probably kill her right there and then. Save for her bat, Divine was practically weaponless; her gun had replaced the jumper's leg in the bear trap. After several minutes of silence, Divine stood up, the jumper following suit.
It was weird seeing one standing. They usually crawled around, and were rarely seen standing normally. Though a little hunched over, the jumper was surprisingly tall, a few inches above her. Silence overtook them once more, Divine studying him. If it wasn't for the blood all over his clothes and his paled skin, the jumper easily could have been a normal person. Just one of those dudes who wore hoodies all the time, except this guy had duct tape on his sleeves. Oh, to cut down on wind resistances of course, like most parkourist do. Parkour...that totally made sense! It must have been why his kind was so adept to jumping and landing. That's all they ever did when they were healthy. Just like a good friend of her's did back in high school. Would that mean if he got sick, he too would become a jumper as well? Interesting possibility.
Still, she wondered what the Z meant on his hood. It probably wasn't important, she needed to get inside. Been exposed for far too long, no real weapon to speak of.
"Well...take care of yourself, I guess. Stay out of bear traps" she advised, moving away towards the safe room. She picked her way through the traps, successfully making it without any injury. Looking back, she saw the jumper still standing there. "Going somewhere?" she asked, not sure why he hadn't moved. As if to answer her question, he crouched down, leapt, and a second later, he landed right next to her. Divine jumped back in surprise, not expecting such swiftness from him, especially with his injured leg. The infected were fucking amazing.
Divine pried the door open, peering inside to make sure nothing was within the confines of the safe room. She stepped inside, looking for the basics. Everything seemed to be there, except for...Looking over her shoulder, she could see the jumper crouched just outside, unsure of what to do with himself. Divine let out a exasperated sigh, rolling her eyes. "Get in already" she growled, knowing that would get the message across . He hesitated, but got over it and crawled inside. Divine shut the door behind him.
The day's events finally caught up to her, and she flopped down on a sleeping bag, a sigh of relief escaping from her lips. Oh at last! She could sleep for days, maybe weeks. It always felt so refreshing, so rejuvenating being able to lie down like this. Running from a horde took a lot of energy, energy she no longer had. Divine buried her face into the bag, content with just lying on top of it instead of snuggling up inside it. A shadow suddenly loomed over her, reminding the girl that she wasn't alone this time.
"Go away, I'm tired" Divine mumbled, curling up into a ball. The jumper leaned down to sniff at her face, and nudged her with his hand. She batted him away, just wanting sleep to overtake her. "Go to sleep or something, just leave me alone!" she whined. He responded with a growl, but moved away. Then came back to lie down next to her, his back pressing up against hers. Heat radiated off him, and Divine found herself trying to get closer to him. It was like lying next to a furnace, one that smelled like dried blood and sweat. Right now, Divine could care less. He was warm, and hadn't killed her yet. What's with him? Was he thanking her somehow? You let me live, so now I let you live? That was a possible chance, but Divine was too tired to think any more of it.
"Don't eat me...okay? Or else...I'd have...to kill..."
She drifted off into sleep, her eyes closing shut, her lips barley forming the rest of the sentence. A wave of darkness crashed in, and the world was gone to her.
Surprise, surprise, she lived through the night. Whoever invented these safe rooms were very generous, for there was plenty of food rations to feed a person for a month or two. The jumper wasn't all that picky about what he ate, in fact he downed two rations before Divine had even gotten halfway through her first one. "Slow down, Tiger, or else you'll choke" she chuckled, watching him take down another one. His table manners were apparently gone. He savagely ripped open the packages, and licked up everything he could get into his mouth. Probably didn't taste as good without any blood. Again, her eyes drifted over that Z, that one little letter that existed simply to mock her. Dammit to hell, that letter.
"What does it stand for anyway?" Divine asked aloud, getting a confused look in return. "You know…the Z...what's it stand for?" she asked again, tapping her head. Another confused look and a head turned to the side. "Is it for your name?". He scratched his neck. "I think it is" she concluded as the jumper went back to devouring the rations. "Is it...Zeus?". No answer. "Zed? Zipper? Zapp Brannigan?" she suggested, sounding a tad more excited with the last name. Still no answer. Then again, who would name their kid Zipper or Zapp? "Well crap, the only other name I can think of is Zachary" Divine sighed. The jumper's head snapped up at that word, looking eager. "Zachary?" she repeated, watching him get more attentive. A smile spread across her face, excitement coursing through her. "Zach. Zachary~" she sang, making him squirm a bit. He remembered his name...there was a bit of humanity left in him! So then...there was a possible chance that this infection could be cured, hopefully. No one has yet to discover the cure for cancer, but that didn't mean the Green Flu would be just as difficult. Perhaps over infected could be helped as well. It was worth a shot.
"Hey Zach, wanna help me with a little science project? You keep me safe from other infected, and I promise not to shoot you! What do ya say?" Divine asked. Zachary only stared at her, again not understanding her proposition. "Hey man, you fucking owe me. I saved your damn life, so pay up" she growled, now fully knowing that would be the only way to make him listen to her. He still said nothing, and probably would have continued to be silent, if not for the sudden growl that sounded just outside the door. He screamed at it, hissing at whatever lay outside. Another jumper, most likely. Divine did see them more often than the others, though they weren't very common during the day.
Rolling her eyes, Divine snatched up a shotgun and walked over to the door, poking the gun's barrel through the steel bars. Two short blasts later, the other jumper lied dead in a bloodied heap. She pulled back, then open the door to allow Zachary to investigate for himself. He sniffed the dead body, growling and swiping at him. "He's not gonna fight back you know" she told him, leaning against the doorway. The hooded infected continued to prod at his fallen brethren, and it was several minutes before he deemed the other infected truly dead. Zachary crawled back inside the room to continue eating away at the food. Divine closed the door before re-joining him.
The infected were so weird.
While traversing through an infected area, accidents can happen at every turn. It is best to proceed with extreme caution, and be sure to look for early signs of trouble. Not everyone can escape such dastardly foes such as the ones encountered. Watch your lights, watch your guns, watch out for everything. Beware the girls who cry, keep an ear open for any signs of a Special nearby. Don't go looking for trouble. And if you hear a mighty roar, and the feel the ground begin to quake, hide. Don't run, just hide and hope it goes away. People die when they run from such things.
If it's super dangerous, don't risk it.
It was rushed, I agree. Don't worry, I'm working on it. I haven't written much of anything in the past...ever, so my story writing skills may be a little rusty here and there. So, leave a review, tell me what I need to improve on (which will probably be a lot), and tell me what you think so far.