Weeeeeeell it's been a while since I've written anything, so seeing as L4D2 is just around the corner, I should make a oneshot linking the two together. Happy sequel, peeps! Without further ado, I give you my oneshot: Again.
This entire story is Zoey P.O.V./ thoughts
*
Slowly and steadily, Francis drove the car through the woods, being ever so careful not to hit a tree. The night seemed almost ominously silent…Ominous… I would never have thought of a word like that 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks seems like a lifetime. My life as a college freshman seemed like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since it all began.
I was woken from my chain of thought when Louis and Bill left the car to open the wire gate. Beyond the chain link fence I could see out last beacon of hope – the Lighthouse. We had been given instructions from the military to make our way here and proceed to the generator room for further instruction.
Francis and I left the car into the chill night air. I shuddered and zipped my jacket all the way up to my neck as the ocean breeze practically froze my blood. I patted the car on the bonnet as a sort of thank you before rejoining the others. Bill shut the gates after us whilst we slowly walked to the generator room. Everything was still quiet. I'd hate to be so cliché, but it was almost dead quiet.
And it was.
The generator room was like an abattoir. Slaughtered men in uniform were strewn around the small room, and some of them were half dragged through a shattered window. I saw the bottom half of a boomer amongst the shattered remains of the military. Looking out of the window, I saw a young man, no older than 25, laying face down with the best part of his back sliced by vicious claws. I guess he must have tried to make a run for it. I wouldn't blame him.
Right above our heads, I heard a maniacal cackle. The others must've heard it too, because Louis suddenly pointed his weapon towards the door, Bill readied his rifle, and Francis looked straight up and reloaded his auto shotgun. Bill signaled for me to follow him out of the door, whilst Francis and Louis clambered out of the window. After giving Bill some stern words about being old enough to make my own choices, I went first up the ladder to the roof. Strangely enough there was nothing there…
Louis yelped.
Francis screamed.
Bill swore and ran for the others.
Thinking quickly, I scurried the rest of the way up the ladder and readied my hunting rifle. What I saw was like nothing I had seen before.
A smallish man with a hideous hunch back was on Francis' shoulders, clawing insanely at his spine. Its hands were large and hideous, almost like a witch's, and its muscular forearms had ripped the seams of the T-Shirt it wore while it was human. Then I thought back to the soldier with the marks on his back – this thing was mauling Francis in the exact way he had been butchered. I also came to realize that the soldier probably wasn't moving of his own free will, because Francis was being directed this way and that by the thing's manipulative hands. Another surprisingly feminine squeal for help from Francis brought me straight back down to earth. I blinked to clear my head and aimed straight down the scope of my gun. It was hard to be dead on target because of all the chaos. Francis was stumbling and twirling, Bill was firing madly, struggling to keep up with the manipulative movements of the monstrosity, and Louis just stood and watched in horror. Steadying my hand, I closed my left eye and looked into the scope with my right. My finger tightened on the trigger. I fired and closed my eyes. I heard a thud and then I dared to open my eyes again. Had I hit Francis?
No I hadn't.
I sighed in relief and dropped gently from the roof and wandered over to the others. I smiled to Francis, who thanked me. He was having a go at Louis for not doing anything, and I was feeling distinctly smug. I saw Bill's back to us.
He was crouching over the monster. Looking it up and down, trying to appraise it for what it was. He stood up and his limbs seemed rather stiff.
"What the hell was it then?" asked Francis. Louis was nursing his back wounds and Francis hissed from the stinging.
"They're changing," said Bill. Louis stopped tending to Francis' wounds when he heard the saying. One week ago, Bill had said the exact same thing. Only one week ago.
"We've only just began to understand them, but they're changing." He said again, a twinge of what was almost sorrow creeping into his voice. We all stared at him blankly as he turned to us, a look of fear on his face.
"Again."
And to the south, in Louisiana, four more survivors, fearing for their lives, gather in the town of Savannah…
*
A nice touch for the ending I think. The infected featured here was, in case you didn't know, a Jockey. And if you didn't know that, then perhaps you shouldn't be reading L4D fanfiction =P
Not really, your all awesome! =D
R&R!!!