Disclaimer: I do not own left 4 dead and all that jazz.
Zane's back story, which I decided to release on my spare time because Zane's story doesn't have to wait for any event to happen in the main story.
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Mercy Hospital was rife with activity as soldiers and doctors raced around, trying to help all those who had rushed to the hospital for evacuation. The infection hadn't quite spread to the hospital yet so doctors were rushing patients and their families to helicopters that left hourly. A doctor bustled past with his clipboard as a small child of about nine watched him while sitting in a specially designed room. He suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, similar to Schizophrenia in terms. His case was so severe that the first time that he had suffered from the condition, he had set a house on fire. The second time resulted in his elementary school having to call the fire department.
His affinity for fire aside, his age was the only thing that kept him from being locked up in a real mental institution, though at the hospital they made sure that he had no access to anything that could start a fire. After a few escapades, one of the staff tied him up in a custom-made asylum jacket with a note to anyone who managed to catch him that he was "Presumed insane," prompting anyone who found him to return him to the staff immediately. After one such event, he found himself sitting inside one of the special rooms, glaring at anyone who offered more than a passing glance.
His father had long since given up on him, the only person who still accepted him was his mother, who put in long hours at the hospital to care for him, even though he often bit her when she approached him. As he watched all of the people fight over the order of escape on the helicopters, he watched as chivalry was thrown to the winds, alliances, back stabbing, and flat out brawling was induced for a seat on the helicopter. Only the staff of the hospital was trying to keep some form of order, trying to get the patients out with their families to keep them together. Several people were calling foul play and favoritism and were trying to shove their way through the doctors, the soldiers having to step in to keep the peace.
As it was, most of the patients that were flown out first were the ones that could be helped with minimal equipment, the ones who required intense medical equipment had to be flown out in a proper medical helicopter instead of a military helicopter. Mental patients such as the child would be at the last of the line, seeing as they were born or inflicted with the condition and would require people to watch over them instead of medicine. As the people were flown out and the groups started to thin out, even the child's mother was flown out, though she put up a great fuss when she found out her child would be flown out separately.
"Kevin! Hurry up or we'll miss the helicopter!" she called, trying to reach her child.
"Ma'am! We have to go!" roared the soldier, pulling on the small woman's waist as he was being forced to drag her towards the helicopter.
"I'm not leaving my son! He may have been listed as insane, but I'm not leaving Kevin behind!" she howled.
The soldier struggled with her for a long time before he finally managed to get her in the helicopter, promising that another helicopter would be picking up all the remaining patients and delivering them to the encampment.
The helicopter never came.
The infected soon forced their way into the hospital, attacking all of the remaining patients and staff, leaving those who didn't die of their injuries to become infected, the child being no exception. For a few days, he was rendered immobile, unable to move from the pain of his body being altered from the infection. His eye color shifted from brown to green and his skin became paler among other changes. During his change, he often cried himself to sleep, the only luxury left to him as he writhed about on one of the hospital beds. He drifted in and out of consciousness for several hours and became aware of someone stroking his hair during a few moments of him being awake.
A day later, he awoke completely to find a girl stroking his hair lovingly with her long claws. Immediately frightened, he shouted at her to get away, but the sound that came out of his mouth was a ear piercing scream. The sound echoed down the hallway and aroused the infected into coming into the room to see if there was anything to eat in there. The girl rose from her position and took out all of the infected in seconds before coming back to where he sat, sitting a few feet away to keep him from screaming again. "It'll take more than a few infected to kill me, little one." she stated, her voice soothing to his ears. After an hour, he crawled closer to her, letting her run a hand through his hair again as she began to sing softly, despite all of the infected remains around her.
"Little one, why are you here in this place?" she asked, her silver hair brushing against his red hair as she cleaned his face off with a cloth that she found. He told her everything that he could remember, though most of his memories were fading fast. Before she could answer him, a small sob reached his ears and he listened for a bit. Looking up at her, she placed a hand on his head and rubbed it gently. "Another one like me. They cry through the day, they cry through the night. Don't ever go near one otherwise they will kill you." He looked up again, wondering if it was even safe to be near her. Seeing the worried expression in his eyes, she laughed slightly before trying to loosen the belts restraining his arms. "I'm safe. As safe as one of my kind will ever get. I don't feel like harming anyone, this is the hand life has dealt me and there's nothing I can do about it but keep on playing. Plus side to all this I guess is an adopted child, you, and no lines in the restaurants anymore."
He became very close to her over the course of only two days, her singing and wandering around the hospital with him, her taking out every infected that looked at her wrong, and helping him speak simple 'original English' as she called it. She was more of a mother to him than his original mother ever was. She actually cared about his well being. The other infected were occasional nuisances, but he could overlook any of that just to be with the one person who cared.
But such good things rarely ever last...
On the second day, a helicopter landed on the roof of Mercy Hospital. Several soldiers, armed to the teeth came out and started to poke around the Hospital, shooting at infected and even herding a few into cages. A Hunter screeched miserably when it was shot in the shoulder and rounded up before it could escape or enact revenge. The girl kept a close eye on the soldiers, making sure to stay out of sight and kept the child close by her at all times, checking each area before moving him away from the soldiers. The one time she was spotted, she knocked down the soldier without killing him and fled before he could call for help, hurrying along with the child.
She made a decision to leave the Hospital with the child in tow, taking him through the darker areas of the hospital to avoid detection by the soldiers. Her decision came too late however, soldiers had blocked most of the exits while looking for infected. Clutching the child closer, she lifted him up to her eye level and set him one one of the bed so that he could still see her. With a swipe of her long claws, she ripped through all of the belts on his clothes, freeing his arms. Her red eyes were full of tears as she spoke to him, gently stroking his hair. "I... I have to go away for a while... but... please...promise me that you won't cause trouble. Please." she pleaded to him. He nodded his head as she wiped away at her tears and stood up. "The hospital isn't very safe now, so stay out of sight until all of the humans leave, and... take care of yourself."
He was confused as to why she was talking to him like this, but it became clear in a few seconds as she hurtled at the door, screeching as a soldier walked in. Her long legs made contact with the man's head as she kicked him out of her way and raced down the hallway, still screeching. He got up from his bed and ran after her, following her screams but stood in horror as she was carefully rounded up in a refined cage and taken away by helicopter.
She had left him. Just like everyone else had.
In a fit of rage, he threw back his head and screamed his frustration, his anger towards the men who had come, towards the infection that had left him this way, towards the people who had left him behind. His scream echoed down the hallway and throughout the hospital, calling all infected within hearing range. The remaining soldiers scrambled to avoid the massive mob of infected that included Hunters, Smokers, Boomers, and even a Tank as he continued to vent his frustration. The men were overwhelmed and torn to pieces by the oncoming waves of infected as the child left the area with tears streaming down his cheeks, his anger far from diminished, but no target to unleash it on.
Slumping down on the last place he and the girl had been together, he curled up into a ball, praying that this was a bad dream, that when he woke up, he would feel her hands stroking his hair like she always did.
However, reality is never kind.
A few times he wandered about the hospital, searching for her, and every time, he returned to the bed and cried until he fell asleep. One one of his searches, he encountered a Tank that seemed to have a problem with everything and it viciously attacked him, narrowly missing his head as he frantically tried to escape the enraged giant. While running, he almost fell from the backlash as one of the ripped belts on his clothes got stuck on a pipe that was jutting out of a wall. Using his teeth, he tore it loose from the pipe and escaped the Tank by climbing into a vent and using the ventilation system to escape.
Once the Tank had given up on him, he made his way back to the room and collapsed on the bed, worn out from the day's events. Staring up at the pale white ceiling, he wanted more than anything to be back with the person he considered his mother, to have her care for him again. Crying for the fifth time that night, he went to sleep but was awoken a few hours later by gunfire. Fearing that the men had come back, he inched around the corner to check. Three men, one of them carrying a woman, and two people who he could smell were infected, Hunter and Smoker respectively, were storming down the hallway, bringing Armageddon to any infected in their path.
"Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee..." he couldn't help himself; that was the strangest thing that he had seen in a long time.
All of them began to tense up and start searching the rooms, whispering about a "screamer" and walking with their weapons drawn. His hearing was sharp enough to the point where he could hear their entire conversation and eventually figured out that they were searching for him. Listening to their footsteps, he simply weaved in and out of the rooms and stayed out of sight of the individuals while watching them.
They were an odd bunch, he would have to give them that. After they had temporarily given up on searching for him, he listened as they talked. The two infected were eagerly talking about what they were going to do when they reached a 'survivor encampment' and everyone else in the room was silent. When they did speak, he could tell that they were choosing their words carefully, so as not to alarm the two. Getting closer, he screamed in fright when the man in the vest shot close to place he was hiding, calling the infected. As the horde rushed by him, the Hunter leaped over the horde with clear killing intent and he took off running, desperate to escape death for the second time in a week.
The Hunter was more persistent than a Tank, and he eventually found himself running through the darker parts of the hospital which he had tried to avoid before. It was a giant maze down there, and he would have preferably wanted to avoid it at all costs but the Hunter wasn't giving him much choice. Turning the corner, he came to a dead end, mentally and physically.
There was no way out of this one; He was dead.
The Hunter growled behind him and he whirled around, getting a glimpse of a battle worn Hunter before crouching to the ground and beginning to cry. There was no point in trying to scream for help or try and fight, that was pretty much the end for him. "Sniff...Sniff...Waaaahhh..." he sobbed, wishing that he was still with his new mother.
The Hunter stopped and started to stare before coming and putting a clawed hand on the child's shoulder. Terrified, he moved backward and slid under one of the still working lights, squinting slightly from the sudden brightness. The Hunter continued to stare at him as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve before looking around while muttering to himself.
"Now what?"
The Hunter then knelt next to the child and stared into his eyes. "Why did you scream earlier?" he asked gently."Why did you scream earlier?"
"The man… He scared me." he answered, fearing that the Hunter would tear him apart if he tried to lie.
"Well, since you so kindly alerted the locals to our presence, I'm now separated from my group and it'll take me forever to find them, even though I can follow their scents." the Hunter grumbled before looking around again.
The child dropped his eyes, ashamed of himself for getting himself into this situation. "I'm sorry…Sniff…" he started to cry again, the tears spilling from his eyes. The Hunter was certainly going to kill him and then go back to his group.
The Hunter sighed to himself before telling him"Look, I'm sorry that Francis scared you but I have to go back to my group." and started to leave the room. He stood up and wiped his face again, his other sleeve hanging to the floor as he listened carefully, hearing the other individuals yell, calling for the Hunter, presumably.
"They're looking for you." he told Ark. Ark started to walk away as the child looked up at the light coming from above and followed the Hunter at a safe distance. "I can hear them calling for you." he added. The Hunter ignored him and walked away as he followed, trying to make amends, before snapping at him.
"Will you stop FOLLOWING ME?!"
Startled, he started to cry again as the Hunter sighed to himself. "Zoey and the others are going to love this one." He muttered, lifting him. He wiggled back and forth as the Hunter looked him over before appearing to go into deep thought.
"Zane." whispered the Hunter.
He looked down at the Hunter with a look of confusion. The Hunter certainly didn't mean him, did he? "Huh?"
The Hunter shifted him to his other shoulder before answering. "That's your name now. Zane."
The child stared at him, a look of confusion displaying across his face. Was he just...named? The newly dubbed Zane continued to stare at the Hunter as he walked back to his companions. As kind as that one simple act was, he wasn't going to get attached to them, all they would do is leave him behind.
After all, that's what everyone else did. That had never changed.
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and, Done! Ciao!