Now I'm normally not the kind of person who's into all that 'action packed first-person-shooter' stuff when it comes to video games, but I just loved this series. Plus I'm a Resident Evil fan! The layout of these song fics will be something a bit like: Verse, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. But it will vary depending on the song, and which character I'm writing it for.
First character up is Nick, and I used Green Day's song titled 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' because I thought it suited him well. Get it? Suited? Anyway, hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Left 4 Dead 2 and all its characters rightfully belong to a crew of geniuses at some kick-ass company named Valve. x3
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
A brief silence overtook the elevator while smoke from the fire began to slowly consume its occupants. One may even begin to comprehend just how much the smoke surrounding them further emphasized the visible anonymity in one of their newfound comrades; the last survivor to introduce himself after everyone else.
"Name's Nick," he said, "But don't bother learning it 'cause I ain't sticking around much longer."
As if on cue, just after that last sentence, the smoke in the room thickened while the elevator continued its descent.
I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known.
Don't know where it goes but it's home to me and I walk alone.
So much for that riverboat gambling cruise circuit; now he was a suited up gambler and a conman stuck in Savannah in the middle of a freaking zombie apocalypse! On top of that, he had to escape alongside three complete strangers in order to survive. This whole experience would force him to become dependent on their attention to his capability as a team member.
'Well la-di-dah for you all. The last thing I'm going to do is pledge allegiance to anyone's company, let alone the three of you.'
"I've barricaded myself on the roof with ample provisions...but in my haste, I forgot Cola!" said the gun shop owner, "Now here's my proposition…"
After hearing the full instructions given to the group by the gun shop owner, named Whitaker, Nick couldn't help but roll his eyes in disbelief at the oldest survivor standing next to him.
"Nick, don't give me that look," said Coach, "Cola and nuts might be this man's last meal. We can't deny him that. We get him his snacks, he helps us. I'm good with it."
Nick still couldn't believe it. The fact that he had to rely on these people for his own survival was troublesome enough. But having to go and fetch Cola, among other things, before proceeding made his state of destitution seem even more ridiculous. Well, at least he was allowed to keep the free shotgun.
He stepped up to the intercom built into the wall and said, "So let me get this straight, we go get you your shit and you'll help us get to the mall." There was a surveillance camera hanging from the corner of the ceiling above him, Nick turned to face it, "Alright. Okay. You screw us?" He cocked his new shotgun, "And I'm gonna kill you with your own gun."
I'm walking down the line that divides me somewhere in my mind.
On the borderline of the edge and where I walk alone.
"Tank! Tank!" exclaimed the youngest survivor, Ellis, who'd caught sight of the hulking great zombie between the CEDA tents right outside the mall.
"We are screwed." Nick said at upon seeing it.
"Come on, Nicolas!" The one female survivor, Rochelle, appeared beside him, "This is just part of the chaos of what we've started calling the zombie apocalypse." She moved forward and began shooting the fast-approaching Tank together with Coach and Ellis.
"What the hell kind of sign of the apocalypse is that?!" he called out after her.
She didn't hear him, not that he was expecting an answer. They were screwed. The zombies were screwed. Hell, this whole 'apocalypse' in itself was freaking screwed.
Nick joined the fray and was utilizing all the bullets in his shotgun. 'Screwed up, more like it.'
"Look out!" Coach shouted.
Momentarily lost in his thoughts, a sudden knock to the chest sent Nick flying backwards before he could come back to his senses.
"AAAAHH!" he cried, and then landed roughly against the wall of a CEDA tent, knocking it over in the process. Groaning after his first attempt at getting up, Nick was sure he had broken something. He swallowed the pain and feebly pulled out the pistol in his possession and continued shooting. Much to his discomfort, the Tank wasn't done with him yet, because he saw it moving towards where he lay.
"Got it!" He heard Rochelle announce. And then he watched the Tank cease movement, collapsing just meters in front of him.
Relieved that the Tank was dealt with before it could finish him, Nick made another attempt at standing up from his awkward position on the ground. Despite landing on the CEDA tent's plastic wall, he was greeted by a harsh pain somewhere on his shoulder.
"God dammit god dammit god...dammit!" he struggled, just as the rest of the group caught up.
Ellis was the first to reach him, and stepped onto the flattened CEDA tent holding out his hand for Nick to pull. "You musta 'knocked' your senses to have ended up down there." He joked, "Up we go!"
"Hilarious." Nick answered dully. With Ellis's help, he managed to get back onto his feet.
"So what's wrong with you?" Rochelle asked upon reaching them.
Nick felt his shoulder where the pain from before was hurting and simply said, "Nothing much."
"I knew you'd be okay." She said.
Coach held out his pain pills, "You make sure you use this now."
Nick gave a reluctant nod in thanks and took them from him. Honestly, he didn't actually bear an irrational resentment towards these guys. And he'll admit, he was thankful that they were looking out for him. However, if they were helping him today, they'd be wasting their time if they continued helping him tomorrow. Put simply, on HIS account, what kind of loser would actually want to stay alive in a world full of zombies?
Read between the lines. What's fucked up and everything's alright.
Check my vital signs and know I'm still alive and I walk alone.
"Aw, hell. I coulda got my picture taken with Jimmy Gibb's stock car? I HATE this apocalypse!"
Ellis was admiring the red, blue and white posters on the walls of the safe house deep inside the mall.
"Oh, hey! Jimmy Gibbs!" Coach was, too.
Upon seeing the man in the posters, Nick said "I'm getting sick of looking at this guy's face."
"Well trust me - in these parts, he's as famous as...Elvis." Coach stated, "Or the President."
"Really? 'Cause he looks like an asshole."
Ellis made a face at Nick's comment, and Coach slowly turned to where Nick was standing; both of them unimpressed with his skepticism.
"Mister," said Coach, "I don't think I like your attitude."
"Whatever."
I walk alone. I walk alone.
These people didn't get it. They didn't understand anything. Working together – the word together wasn't really part of his vocabulary – demonstrating loyalty, asking him for favors…why would you ask something of someone who has lost everything? He had nothing to give them, he didn't want them to ask for anything.
'That way…you won't lose anything. You can go on without being hurt.'
It had only been half a day. And it was clear that these strangers were eager to survive, and that they wanted him to survive along with them. However…
Nick had learnt and experienced enough from being a 'drifter of the underworld'.
Don't trust anyone. That was his motto.
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me. My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating.
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me.
Til then I walk alone.
The new escape plan out of the mall was a success. But just when things were starting to look up, the survivors were now stranded on a deserted highway weighed down by abandoned cars that went on for miles.
"Sorry, folks." said Ellis, "This car is capable of miracles, but it can't drive over twenty miles of parked cars. I think we're walkin'."
"God DAMN you, Jimmy Gibbs Junior!" Nick cursed.
Ellis glanced at him, "Now that was uncalled for. Serious."
"The question is, where do we start heading now?" Rochelle asked, having no interest in their little dispute.
Coach started walking a few steps ahead of the group.
"Look!" he exclaimed, and turned left to climb onto the roof of a nearby car, "Well now, if we're picking directions, I say head towards the spinning lights."
"You don't mean…" Ellis began, and then ran forward to stand on the roof of the car next to Coach. He squinted his eyes in the same direction Coach was facing, and exclaimed, "Dude, they got the park all lit up!"
"What park?" Nick asked.
"My guess is the one on that sign over there." Rochelle indicated the highway billboard sign advertising a Whispering Oaks amusement park. "Alright, that looks like our next stop." She patted Nick's shoulder as a sign to follow, before walking past him, reloading her submachine gun.
Nick cringed slightly from both the previous shoulder injury and at realizing their next objective, 'You have got to be kidding me.'
The highway itself, although deserted at first, happened to be infested with zombies, and the group continued to advance past the abandoned cars. As they travelled, Coach took notice of the direction in which all the cars were facing, aside from all the zombies.
"We ain't the only ones that thought to take this short-cut." he said, "Looks like people were heading towards Whispering Oaks."
Ellis had just beheaded an attacking zombie using his axe while he digested what Coach had said. His face fell.
"Aww…" he uttered sadly, realizing what Coach meant, "All the people who never made it to Whisperin' Oaks…"
Nick fired a series of shots at the zombies that lurched after him, before casting a sideways glance in the direction of the lights. He remained quiet; being in the deserted highway full of abandoned cars and dead people – zombies included – drove him to consider their chances of getting rescued.
He was also reflecting on the possibility of how he could make it this far on his own.
I walk this empty street, on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone.
"WOW." said Nick, upon noticing the burned bodies in the pool at a motel in the highway, "These people SUCKED at high diving."
"Look at those poor people." said Ellis, "All they wanted to do was go for a swim."
"Well, at least they weren't diving in the shallow end." Rochelle stated.
Nick raised an eyebrow at her, "And how is that better than being burned alive…and getting dumped into a pool?"
"That's the whole idea, isn't it?" she replied, "Well, I guess now that you mention it, it is rather ironic. The pool doesn't even have water in it."
"My point exactly." Nick said.
"Come on y'all, let's get a move on!" called Coach from the other side.
They all followed him into the motel where they encountered more infected and were able to collect some more supplies on the second floor level.
"You sure you're alright, Nick?" Ellis asked, concerned that one of his team mates was reacting to an old injury made new.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Nick scoffed in response.
"I thought your shoulder got better after we left that mall behind, but it looks like it came back after you fell right on it when that Smoker outside grabbed your foot."
Nick groaned, remembering the incident and being dragged awkwardly along the floor, "Don't worry about me, Ellis. I'll be fine."
As if he didn't hear him, Ellis took off his own med-pack and held it out, "Here man, take it."
Nick gestured that he didn't need the offer, "No. I told you, I'll be fine."
"I'll be even finer!" Ellis replied, then grabbed Nick's arm and shoved the med-pack into his hand, "You can repay me later."
"I'd rather not." Nick grabbed Ellis's arm and shoved the med-pack back into his hand, "I don't like owing favors." He turned away.
"Well, aren't you a stubborn mule." Ellis remarked as a joke somewhat.
Nick stopped mid-walk, and turned his head to glare at him.
"Who's being a stubborn mule?" Rochelle asked with a hint of a smile in her voice as she walked into the room with Coach at her side.
"He is." Ellis crossed his arms while he specified Nick, "Says he don't healing even though I saw him havin' trouble earlier."
"What? Is your shoulder acting up again, Nick?" Coach asked in an uneasy tone.
"No." Nick replied firmly, and then moved past them, leaving the room.
"Hold on!" Rochelle called out from behind him, "Nick, we need you to stay in top condition!"
"We don't want you struggling when something bad happens!" Coach's voice.
"Just let me heal ya!" Ellis hadn't given up.
Nick spun around to face all of them, very irritated.
"Anyone in the camp die here?" he asked impatiently, "No? Then let's move out."
He began trudging a distance ahead of the group, picking off any infected that stood in his way.
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me. My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating.
Why were they suddenly so concerned for his survival? Could he really trust them with his life? How did he suddenly get caught up in all this? Why was the world suddenly full of zombies? It had been more than a day, and Nick was still having trouble coming to terms with the whole situation.
Nick was naturally self-reliant, and was not a man so easily fazed. Cheating in back-alley card games, getting involved with the roughest, toughest and most powerful gangland patrons, his profession as a conman, and on top of that, a short-term marriage to possibly the most foul woman on the planet…you'd think he'd be screaming for help after a such an experience.
Now he was experiencing the zombie apocalypse, and for the first time ever, Nick had come across a problem that couldn't be solved with his usual single-handed methods. Maybe he would eventually accept that he was now part of a team and not surviving on his own, or maybe he never would.
'But the sooner we find rescue, the better.'
After all, Nick had learnt and experienced enough from being a 'drifter of the underworld'.
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me.
Til then I walk alone.
Thanks for reading! I'm sorry if I made him sound like too much of an assclown throughout, I know he isn't like that all the time. For that reason, I only did the first two campaigns. I believe that as the game progresses, it's revealed deep down that he's really a big softie, like Coach! And I don't mean that physically...
Rochelle is going to be the next character I'll be doing, so stay tuned.