Hey this is my first story on here. I don't own left 4 dead. I also don't own the real people in my story but I do own any more fictional characters that might come into play. This is in the point of view of Zayna…the original story written by my best friend PJH505. So if you want to read the original look it up please R&R! I'll put out more when I can but I get busy so sorry! Thanks!

This place wasn't always so bad. It wasn't always filled with so much destruction. You used to be able to go out on a midnight stroll with somebody you care about. You didn't always have to carry a gun with you or watch your back to make sure you weren't going to be the next to die.

To be honest with you, I can't even believe I'm writing this down, on paper…with a pencil. I'm honestly shocked I lasted this long, mentally at the least. But I'm here to start from the beginning, to tell you my story of survival. A lot of people didn't make it even this far into the Zombie Apocalypse.

Chapter 1: Best Birthday Gift EVA

I woke to the ringing of my phone. I looked at the caller ID, Paul. Oh yeah…I thought to myself, he's 19 today. Is it really already September 15th? "Hello?" I answered trying to shake all my grogginess away.

"Hey, Zayna. What's up?"

"Oh, Paul. Not much. Happy birthday, by the way." I tried to sound wide awake and looked at my calendar to make sure I didn't sound like an idiot if it wasn't his birthday.

"Thanks. Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today. I mean, there's gonna be a party later, but I'm gonna be bored out of my skull just sitting around the house," he sounded bored already just talking to me.

"Yeah, sure. What were you thinking about doing?" I asked already getting ready to jump into the shower.

"I donno, probably go to the mall and hang out for a while." I knew he must be really bored considering our Walmart probably had more in it that our mall.

"Sounds good. Give me about a half hour to get ready alright?"

"Alright, but you better be ready in a half hour. I'm not gonna wait all day for you." I could already hear the smile in his voice.

"Don't rush me. I'll take however long I want and I know you'll wait for me." I said, smirking.

"And how do you know that?" he asked, even though we both already knew the answer.

"Because you're my best friend," I said simply.

"Yeah, your right. Just call me when you're ready then."

"Alright, bye."

I got in the shower and got ready as quick as I could. Despite Paul telling me he would wait for me, I didn't fully believe it.

I called him as soon as I was ready, armed with my favorite jeans, black converse, and Beatles tee. I was never really girly and hardly wore and make up…ever. There's more likely to be paint under my fingernails than on them. My hair was extremely wavy and almost to mid back and the same color as my eyes. My skin is olive due to me being half Native American. My eyes, the color of dark chocolate, are covered with my black rimmed prescription glasses. I don't really consider myself attractive, but I wasn't ugly either.

I heard a honk outside and grabbed my jacked and wallet and headed out to met Paul. I slid into the passenger seat of his Nova, "What's up?" I asked, half expecting him to say "the sky."

"Just chillin'" he said as we began to drive off.

"Same old Paul," I said "just goin' with the flow huh?"

"Yeah," he said, "just livin' each day as it comes. Making up my live on the fly."

"Sounds like a good way of doing things," I replied, I always try to have a plan, with college, with my life, everything, but I could understand his point of view.

"Well, it got me through high school didn't it?"

"Barely," I said, "you almost failed junior year."

"Hey," he said a little defensively and I smirked, "that wasn't all my fault. Mr. Star was bein' a douche bag…him and his laser eye." Mr. Star was a chemistry teacher and his "laser eye" was really glass.

"Oh sure," I said sarcastically, "You were just being lazy, admit it."

"OK, you caught me. I just didn't like chemistry." We both laughed and then he said, "How about some tunes?"

"Sure," I replied. We both busted up laughing as "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie came on. We used to sing it all the time back in school. It was our song, and we danced in the car and people in the cars around us stopped and stared. We were like that all the way to our small one story mall. It was about 30 minutes away from Bloomfield. We talked a lot, mostly about college which we were both starting San Juan in the fall.

"You can't be lazy anymore," I said as we walk towards the mall and I punched him in the arm, "college is a completely different ball game then high school, and I'm not going to let you cheat off me."

"Yeah, you will," he said.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because you my best friend," the same excuse for everything.

"Well, I guess that's a good enough reason," I said smiling, and we walked over to the food court.

"What sounds good?" he asked glancing from fast food place to fast food place.

"Food," I said holding back another smirk.

"Well, duh," he said, "but what kind of food?"

"The edible kind," I couldn't help but to laugh a little as he looked at me smiling.

"OK, now you're just being ridiculous," we both laughed and got subway and sat down to eat. "So how's Luke been?" he asked. Luke was my boyfriend since September 2009. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me. He treated me so well and we were going to get married, we just hadn't told anybody yet.

"He's been good," which was absolutely true. He was going to school and he had a pretty good job.

"What's he doing today?"

"He has to work until 3."

"Oh, that sucks. He's more that welcome to come to the party after work though."

"Yeah, I'll tell him." We talked a little more and finished our sandwiches.

"Shit," he said, looking at his watch, "It's already 1:40. We gotta go now." We rushed out of the mall and got back to his house as fast as we could, almost getting pulled over several times. We pulled into his driveway and found only his parents were home. His parents were divorced but Paul was doing ok I suppose. His dad was about 5'9, black hair, dark skin, and eyes, and he was pretty built. Paul's mom was about 5'2 and had brown hair, both of them has streaks of gray. Paul was taller than both of them at about 6 foot and he was big, almost scary with his hair combed back, but he was really just a big teddy bear. We said hi and started talking to them.

"Just figured that I'd give you your present now," Paul's dad handed his present over and said, "Happy Birthday." In Paul's hands was a shotgun, a Remington 870 12 gauge. He looked it over and took aim.

"Wow," he said, sounding grateful, and he lowered the gun, "Thanks dad."

"Your welcome," Paul's dad looked at him proudly, and the mushy crap was getting to me.

"Whoa, Paul," I said, ruining the moment. "Don't hurt anyone with that now." He looked kinda scary holding the gun so easily. He just laughed and carried the gun back to his bedroom. He put the gun in his gun case, I couldn't have told you the names of them then but now I can vaguely recall an AR-15, two M1911's, an M-16, and a nine millimeter. I know there was more but I don't remember the names.

He came back to the living room as there was a knock at the door. Three very different guys walked in, Will Chavez, Michael Gilliam, and Seth Schreffler. Will was my second best guy friend next to Paul. He was about the same height as Paul, and had blue/green eyes, freckles, and shaggy sandy brown hair. Michael had dark hair and eyes. His hair was the same length as Will's but straight and everything about him was lanky. Seth was big, beefy big, and had a full beard. Seth glared at me as he walked in, and despite the size and gender difference I still wanted to punch him in the face. Knock that stupid smirk right off of him.

See, Seth and I had never gotten along. Even when he was dating my good friend Sam. I'm not sure why I don't like him, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't know why he doesn't like me, but on my part it might have something to do with his rude remarks he made about me in middle school. Remarks about how my boobs were the biggest he had ever seen. But this was Paul's birthday and I wasn't going to ruin it by getting Seth's blood on his carpet…and I wasn't totally sure Seth wouldn't hit me back.

Since everybody, except Luke, has arrived we began the party. Video games and snacks, any guys' heaven. I even played a few rounds with the boys. 3 o'clock rolled around and I stepped outside and dialed Luke's phone number.

"Hey babe," Luke always made my insides go all mushy…gross I know.

"Hey, are you gonna head over?" I really wanted him to come. He was my better half and I always felt better with him by my side.

"No, right now I'm just on break. Somebody called in sick, I have to work late."

"How late is late?" I asked instantly feeling nervous.

"I don't know," he sighed, "No later than eight I hope."

"Well, I love you," I said, a little disappointed.

"I love you too babe," I could almost see him smile. "Have fun with your friends."

"OK," I said, "Bye." I hung up and sighed, I could feel someone watching me. I knew it was Paul and didn't bother to turn around.

"What's up Zee?" he asked and for a moment I just listened to his footsteps get louder as he got closer.

"I just talked to Luke," I paused, trying not to sigh again, "and he's not gonna be able to make it. One of the other guys called in sick and now he has to work until eight."

"Oh, I'm sorry," we turned to walk back inside.

"Its fine," I said, "Besides you guys are plenty of fun." As soon as we walked into the house I could hear Will and Seth arguing.

"Come on, Seth," Will said, "You know that kill was bullshit." Those two were always fighting and if Seth wasn't so much bigger, I think it would get physical more often.

"I don't know anything," said Seth with that stupid smirk on his face.

"I second that," Michael added and I bit my lip to hold in a laugh.

"Shut up Nigel," Seth snapped back. Nigel was Michael's nickname…don't know how he got it and frankly I don't really care.

"Ok guys," Paul said, shutting them all up, "calm down. I really don't wanna have to kick you guys outta here." They all calmed down and mumbled what were supposed to be apologies I guess.

"So what's up Paul?" said Seth, putting down his controller. "I want some cake, man."

"You guys all wanna cut cake now?" Paul asked. We all nodded and headed to the kitchen and sang "Happy Birthday" and Paul was pretending to enjoy it. At least I think he was pretending. We each got some cake, which was amazing. And our good time joking was interrupted by an emergency broadcast on TV.

President Obama's face filled the screen, and he was addressing the entire country from D.C. "My fellow Americans," he started.

"This oughta be good," Seth mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear. I could almost agree but something just felt different about this.

"It has come to my attention that our nation will soon be facing a new epidemic. Scientist were conducting experiments with the rabies virus. Through mutation, the virus has been made to affect humans more drastically. Last night, some of the samples were stolen from the lab and released into the air. We do not yet know it the virus will spread through air, but it's better to take all precautions. Remain in your homes, avoid all contact with the infected, and wait for official instructions. We will keep you up dated as we learn more about this crisis. Thank you, America." The TV went back to the TV show and we all sat in a shocked silence by what we heard.

"Well," Paul's mom broke the silence, "looks like you kids are gonna be staying here for a while." We sat in shock, made a few phone calls, but we were all so bothered by the news. We made arrangements for where we would sleep. All of us kids would take the hang out room in the back. Since Paul's parents were divorced Paul's dad took Paul's room and his mom took her own room. We all tried to not get down, it was Paul's birthday after all, and we joked and played games, and talked about anything other than this new epidemic.

It was a little past eight when we were sent to bed by Paul's mom. Paul and I were sitting on the futon, in the back "hang out room." Will and Michael were sitting in bean bag chairs, and Seth was sitting in the computer desk chair rocking back and forth, he looked a little jittery.

"So…what do you guys think about this new virus?" Michael finally brought up the one thing we had been avoiding since we heard the news.

"I think everyone is just overreacting," said Will voicing his opinion first, "It'll all blow over by tomorrow."

"And what if it doesn't?" asked Seth, "Just what the hell are we supposed to do then?"

"Well," Will replied, "what's the worst that could happen? The virus kills all of humanity?" He didn't look convinced…not that I could blame him. If swine flu didn't end the world, why would this?

"It might not be that simple," I turned to look at Paul who seemed to be deep in thought, "maybe it's one of those population control things."

"If they were gonna thin out the population like that, do you think they'd just tell us?" I had to admit Seth had a point. My mind started working, maybe they told us because it's already infected enough of the population. Maybe it's getting out of control. I was about to voice my thoughts when Seth said more, "There's something goin' on and it isn't your run-of-the-mill false alarm."

Instantly I got another idea. "Well they said it was rabies, right?"

"Yeah," suddenly I had everybody's attention.

"And they said that it can now infect humans. So the worst result is probably going to be some crazed lunatics running around." Since animals start to be crazed when they get rabies why not humans?

"You mean, like, Zombies?" Seth was looking at me as if I just gave him the best birthday present ever.

"Zombies?" I looked at him as if he were crazy. "Really Seth?"

"Ya never know," said Michael, "It could happen."

"Still," said Will, "it's not very likely. I mean, this is real life. Not some horror flick you see on late night TV."

"I donno guys," Paul was sitting next to me and all this talk made me scoot closer to him. "I'm kinda more with Seth on this one. I mean, think about it. Think about what rabies does to animals, it makes them wild. They attack anything and everything. If that happens to people, that basically makes them zombies. Not legit 'rise from the dead' zombies, but still zombies."

"Well who's to say that it won't just kill people?" asked Will.

"I'm just saying," Paul spoke up again, "it's a possibility. There's a slim chance of it happening, but it's a possibility."

I was starting to get exhausted and more than a little overwhelmed with everything that was happening and the crazy theories these guys were spinning. I curled up in a ball and I could hear the boys talking but it was starting to die down…we were all tired. After a couple of minutes I could hear nothing but snores and soft breathing and quickly I soon feel asleep too.