When the Devil Knocks
School's Out
Krystal was panicking. It had just been a normal Monday morning, get up, get your stuff, and drive to the campus in Savannah, but then she ran into CEDA and everything went to hell. She didn't even know that there was sickness going around until CEDA pulled her small Jetta over and told her to drive to the Vannah hotel for evacuation. They wouldn't let her continue to school, even as she yelled that her professor said that no one was ever allowed to miss a session, even if there was a huge quarantine. They told her to get out of her car and directed her towards the hotel across the street and even her stubbornness was worn down when they told her to go or they would in fact shoot her. Needless to say, Krystal did as they told when they started pointing the guns at her head. She had been fortunate because the second she stepped into that hotel, the small encamp of CEDA workers were overrun by the undead, unbeknownst to the young college student herself.
So here she was, staring in complete shock as the last chopper flew off, leaving her with four other people on top of a hotel.
"Wait! Where are ya goin'? COME BACK! We're still here!" The man in the hat shouted, jumping and waving his hands as the copter got smaller.
"I don't think it can actually hear you..." Krystal murmured as she gritted her teeth and kicked a plastic cup in anger. This sucks, now how the hell was she supposed to get out of here? Grow wings and fly? She thought for a moment, imagining a small day dream of her sprouting wings and taking off like a bird before she realized that the guy in the hat was looking at her.
"Well... I thought I'd give it a try." He gave a sheepish smile and Krystal couldn't help smiling back at the hat wearing southern.
"Dammit, you have to be kidding me! This is freaking ridiculous!" This time it was the other man shouting, the one in the pristine white suit and the slicked back dark brown hair. He gave an aggravated noise most likely gestured towards the helicopter that had now reduced itself to a tiny speck on the horizon.
"Now calm down, youngin' that copter looks like it's headin' to the mall, if we all head there together we'll be able to get there quicker." It was the African American man who spoke this time and the man in the white suit muttered something about going on his own.
"We should grab some weapons, I work for the news and they recommended that people arm themselves if they are heading outside." The only other woman of the group, also African American, said, her own hand fingering the handle of a fire ax in her hands. Krystal was about to ask why they needed to arm themselves when a huge crash sounded from several floors below. Everyone gave each other a look before snatching some form of a weapon off the bench near the doorway. The the man in the white suit snatched up the two pistols quickly before anyone else could, causing the younger man with the trucker hat to pout at the loss of the only guns. The other fire ax disappeared into the hands of the giddy hick; apparently an ax was better than a gun to him. The baseball bat went to their new leader and she was perfectly okay with following him if it meant she got to live.
She really had no choice other than to pick up the crowbar and weigh the metal tool in her hands. For some odd reason the lightweight iron tool felt right for her to hold, after all, she couldn't shoot the broad side of a barn even if it was bright red and two feet in front of her. This was actually a true fact, the one time her best friend took her out to shoot, she missed the intended target completely and managed to shoot Shannon in the foot with a BB. Shannon never really forgave her for that.
Krystal took a moment to think about what it would be like if the quick tempered brunette was here and felt a sense of loss when she realized that she hadn't seen her best friend in over three years. Shannon had disappeared after she graduated from the community college near their small Oklahoman town, no letter, no word even to her parents. Nine years of friendship gone, just as fast as it had flashed by.
Prying herself away from the thoughts of the best friend that abandoned her, she followed behind the group of four who seemed to automatically click together as a team, leaving her to quickly catch up to them. She didn't know what to expect when they opened that door to the main halls of the Vannah, but the living dead, she was definitely not expecting that. They gave these weird gurgles of hunger and squeaks of enjoyment as they sighted the group of five. They were all grotesque, with skin a green molten color and yellow feral eyes. The man in the suit quickly fired at the charging person and with quick succession, the zombie's arm went flying off and then a leg before it fell to the ground dead. Didn't zombies require a head shot to dispatch? She didn't have time to question it before one took a swipe at her. Krystal froze, watching as the zombie/infected person lunged at her in slow motion, its lifeless and yellow eyes glowing with some sort of supernatural ferocity. Then there was blood, but it wasn't her's it was the zombies. The guy in the hat gave her a quick reassuring smile as he removed the ax he held from the zombie's cranium.
"Ya gotta be just a tad bit quicker, but don't worry, I'll make sure nothin' bad happens too ya." He smiled brighter and Krystal couldn't believe he was completely okay with the fact that he just killed a zombie and saved her life. She honestly didn't know whether to consider him really optimistic and peppy or just a moron. Maybe he was a mixture of both.
"Alright y'all, we definitely need to stick together now, keep yer weapons close and stay with the group alright?" You didn't have to Krystal twice, she stuck next to the hick who had just saved her life like glue. Part of her said that she should be flipping out or crying or just spazzing in general but she just felt this odd sense of nothing. No fear, no terror, no sadness, no anger, not even panic, she just felt calm. Krystal was a pacifist though, so the idea of lobbing off a person's head, zombie or not, wasn't very pleasing to think about.
They searched the nearby rooms and found several medical kits, enough for each person to carry on their person in case they were injured severely. They also found a map that had Xs over everything except New Orleans. Krystal had been to New Orleans once with Shannon to celebrate Mardi Gras, Shannon, of course, did not like it as much as Krystal had but she was happy to know that her friend was happy just hanging out. She liked New Orleans. New Orleans had a really interesting culture to the young medical student and the fact that a few people there spoke French was even better. But New Orleans with zombies? Probably wasn't as fun as New Orleans with the colorful masks and beads.
Nevertheless she followed the brigade of apparent professional zombie killers with no trouble, that is until fire blocked their escape and the only option was to go out on the ledge.
"No! I am not going out there, do you see how high up we are? I'll fall and die and then zombies will pick at my corpse and and and..!" She had her hands braced against the metal of the window pane, not even the prospect of the zombies scared her as much as the fact that they were five floors up from the ground. The man in the suit was the only one left behind her and before she knew it, he pushed her. Not expecting someone to actually knock her out onto the balcony, Krystal went sprawling through the window and screamed. She expected to be falling to her death, but someone had a hold of her the back of her shirt and she was stuck staring straight down to the road she just nearly became extremely personal with. With a jerk from behind she was back completely on the ledge, shaking and bracing herself against the side of the hotel. She stared at the man in the white suit as he let go of her shirt before crossing his arms and glaring at her.
"Why.. How.. Why. You're an asshole." She tried to give him her best glare but she was shaking too much to do anything else but shake and stare wide eyed at the man who had both pushed her out of the window and prevented her from dying. The man snorted before checking his pistols for ammo and continuing across the ledge past their aggravated looking leader and into the next room off the ledge.
The man in the hat gave her a concerned look before placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Hey yer alright now aren't ya? Come on, you can hold my hand if ya want, I'll make sure ya don't fall." He held out his hand with another smile and Krystal quickly snatched it, heart still thudding from her near death experience.
"I swear my life just flashed before my eyes right there. Thanks.." The man gave another quick smile before a collective roar emitted from the hotel. "I think I just told every zombie in the area that we're here..."
The hick gave her another quick grin before pulling her into through the entry way and back onto solid, less life threatening ground. "Then we better get movin'!"
The group rushed through the halls of the once well occupied Vannah as they searched for a way to get out of the burning hotel. They had decided to try and find a working elevator because the stairs as they found out were on fire and crumbling. This was not Krystal's day, first zombies, then ledges, now an elevator? It seemed like someone wanted to expose her every single irrational fear to the world and make her look like a scared little girl.
Then the growling started.
It was low pitched and feral as it slowly got louder and more menacing. Krystal hoped to every divine force in the world that it wasn't a zombie dog, because if it was, then she was jumping off the first ledge she saw because that's just going too far. There was a screech in the darkness and something slammed into her shoulders, digging claws into her shoulders and sending her straight to the floor. The new type of zombie had it's face right up against hers almost but any true features were covered by the hood of it's hoodie. It screamed into her face then all of a sudden it was kicked off and received an ax to the face curtsey of the news woman.
Krystal was still in shock, but when the woman patiently offered her hand Krystal took it. "What the hell was that?" She asked, staring at the now deceased jumper zombie that had thrown her to the ground. Duct tape was wrapped around it's arms and legs and it's dark navy hoodie did not hide the menacing claws in had on both it's hands and feet. Small boils also covered any section of skin that was exposed by the rips in tears in the jacket and pants. It looked horribly infected by something and Krystal finally came too understand that these weren't zombies, but individuals infected with something horrible that mutates them to grotesque monsters out of some horror movie. Krystal always hated horror movies.
"I don't know y'all, but we better get to the mall and fast. Let's find that elevator."
[I honestly hate this chapter... I reallly hate beginning something especially if it's something like L4D2 storyline. Writing it is worse because it just feels so awkward writing the beginning but everything has a beginning, no matter how crappy. I may reedit this later but this is what I have so far. This is also based off of a roleplay between me and my best friend, so yes, it will have self inserts, don't like then why the hell are you reading? This chapter was an experimentation also so try not to get too pissy with me. I'll feel better when I can actually introduce the main cast of L4D2 rather than just sitting there and calling them "that black dude" or "the hick". I'm honestly not going to listen to critique for this first chapter because it's total utter bollocks and I hate it anyway and just want to throw it through a meat grinder and beat it out a window. Anyway, it will get better I hope, if not, then I'm just crap and I'll scrap it.]
-LittleNecromancer