Hello there!
Short little summary before things kick off, I own nothing that has to do with anything concerning Valve or Left 4 Dead, if I did, I'd be comfortable wealthy. The only thing I own is the Banshee's concept and design, as well as a small handful of characters, anything else is copyright to Valve and the creators.
The Green Flu, some said it marked the end of a civilization, others believed that the population would be reborn as something else, hybrids of the disease and other things. They were close, during this time, all that who were infected with the virus changed, at first, it was little changes, but then the group split in to two sub groups, the commons, and the special infected.
These special infected had horrible abilities, from leaping up to fifty feet across buildings to having more muscle and power then a military issue tank. Most believed that god was to blame, others, the conspiracy theorists, believed that it was the governments fault, and they were right.
It was an escaped man-made virus that mutated, and consumed its victims immune systems completely, and often took their sanity as well. It was a sad state of affairs, the population was slowly decreasing, and they had yet to find any survivor of the infection that was still sane. The government, at this time quietly initiated Project Overcast, a small little research program that set up Laboratories all over the country, and funded the research for the scientists to try and find a cure for the infection.
In charge of this entire project was General A. Thompson who, in addition to Project Overcast, commanded a small group of HAZMAT soldiers to take care of the messy 'clean up' duties.
During the first few weeks Project Overcast was in effect, a Nuclear power plant exploded just outside of California, and had no reason to go up in flames. So he sent in his little troops, and among the ranks were two young men, Shawn Anderson and Jason Black, the both of them had grown up together in the same city and had been close friends for a very long time.
By this time, both had enlisted in the Military's HAZMAT unit and both got approved. Both men had been completely ecstatic and celebrated with a few beers on the base, oblivious to what kind of trouble actually lurked for them in the world of the infected. When they got the call, of course, the men were exited, all except Jason, who was still hung over a fellow soldier, who had sadly, turned down his advances and the girl had broken his heart.
During this time, he became depressed, but of course, nothing would mentally prepare him for the hell he would soon face in the near future.
The sun was hidden behind overcast skies this morning, the smell of moisture was thick in the air, and fog hung heavy, blinding most and the air was chilly, not normal for the month of April, normally, it was warm, blistering hot and so muggy you were hardly able to breathe. The bugle sounded loudly at Five AM sharp, and Shawn sat up groggily, wiping the sleep out of his amber eyes, blinking slightly and yawned.
He licked his lips and swallowed, trying to wet his dry throat and ran a hand through his jet black hair and swung his legs on to the old wooden floor, feeling the grains on his bare feet and took a few deep breaths, looking over across the room to Jason's bunk, the man was already up and pulling on his uniform.
Shawn sighed and cracked his knuckles and pulled on his uniform as well, lacing up his black boots and stood up, shaving the morning stubble from his face, then brushed his teeth, still in a bit of an early morning trance, normally he wasn't so sleepy when he woke up, he thought about this for a moment and asked himself if he had been getting enough sleep recently.
He banished thought after a moment when he nicked the skin under his chin "Fuck off" He grumbled, washing his face and held some tissue paper to the cut until it stopped bleeding. He hated cutting himself with his razor, it was always in the stupidest places and they always stung like a bitch.
Jason on the other hand was having an early morning cup of coffee and a cigarette, his big grey eyes watching the sun rise a little, Shawn threw a towel at him "Look alive soldier" He joked, Jason flipped him off "Bugger off Shawn, I don't piss around with your morning routine, so why are you doing it to me?" He asked, a scowl carved on his face, Shawn laughed a little "Lighten up downer, so what if she rejected you? There are plenty of other broads out there that could use your company"
He spoke, sitting down beside Jason, the taller man looked over at his companion "You think so?" Shawn nodded "I know so" Jason sighed and stood up "Alright, but enough of this sappy crap or the General is going to think that we've gone soft" He spoke, setting his tin cup on the windowsill then went to go make his bed. Shawn nodded "Agreed" He spoke, another fellow soldier was up and walking around, Shawn looked over at him "Hey Michael, do you have any idea why we're up so early this morning?"
He asked, Michael nodded "Sure do, a nuclear power plant exploded just outside of Cali, and now we've gotta go clean it up" He spoke, a hint of distain in his voice, he hated clean up duty more than anything in the world, and would rather be a human guinea pig then a janitor.
The masses eventually found their way towards the mess hall where they lined up to get their breakfast then sat down. Steven made a grumbling noise, picking at this food "God I'm sick of Army food, I can't even tell what the hell this is" Jason pulled a face, but ate his runny eggs "It's like they're trying to kill us" He muttered, Shawn rolled his eyes "Don't be such a grouch" When they had finished, they set their trays on a separate table and awaited orders, General Thompson eventually stepped out and looked at them all
"Look alive men! Today we will be going to a Nuclear power plant, there will be radioactive material on the ground and you will be required to wear your HAZMAT suites and be screened before and after for traces of the Green Flu. We will be there for a total of three days, so every soldier must do their job and do it well, do I make myself clear?" He barked, the troops answered him "SIR! YES SIR!" General Thompson gave a half smile "Off to the trucks with you then!"
The soldiers left the room single file and loaded up in to the trucks, heavy canvas covered the box in the back, Shawn and Jason sat and enjoyed some idle conversation that slowly turned towards relationships "Hey, Black, how's that Nurse of yours? Oh I forgot, you got rejected!" A man laughed, eyes shut, Jason glared at him "Knock it off you putz" He growled, Shawn spoke up "Hey Stetson, why are you still single then?"
The man looked at him and smirked, then pulled a pose and blinked "Because girls are intimidated by my rugged good looks" Jason spoke up next "It's because girls don't like the Grizzly Addams type" The whole back of the truck started laughing, and Stetson quieted down "Trample off" He spoke, Michael pulled out a deck of cards "Anyone for a bit of harmless sin?" Jason and Shawn jumped at the opportunity, Stetson declined, trying to nurse his wounded ego.
After a few hours of travelling, they arrived a few hundred feet away from the plant and the men suited up, Jason pulling his gas mask on and looked at Shawn "I feel like a serial killer in this thing" He laughed, Shawn snickered and the both of them headed off the truck, Jason pulling on his gloves and Shawn pulled the hood of his suit up, a few men were pretending to be Darth Vader, others, just unhappy with the HAZMAT suit in general.
General Thompson briefed them and then they got tested for the Green flu, most passed and then they were shooed off to the rubble. The skies had turned black and thick, and rain pelted them heavily, and made walking a near impossibility due to mud. They had to go on foot for the trucks would have gotten stuck, so they tentatively approached the rubble that was scattered about a hundred feet from the size, Jason pulling a face when he stepped in a puddle of yellow goo
"Oh god that is disgusting!" He growled, wiping it off with a leaf and continued on, Shawn gave a little nervous laugh, not really sure he wanted to be here at this point. Shawn made a small noise in the back of this throat and entered the building, Jason following him closely and shivering a little "Shawn I really don't think we should be here" Shawn gave Jason a look "Don't be a wimp, boy"
Jason held his tongue and didn't say anything else, but disappeared down the next hallway, cussing a little under his breath, and Shawn laughed. However, their day went from bad, to worse when Jason howled bloody murder, and a loud wailing sounded. Shawn ran to go help his friend, his heart pounding loudly "Please let him be alive, please let him be alive!" He thought, running so fast his boots hardly touched the ground, hoping against hope that Jason was okay.