Chapter One: Stalker

"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done" ~Alan Turing

Hunter Introduction:

A day just after the infection began to wash over and overtake North America one person was infected and the course of his journey through the infection will forever change. He managed to overpower the hunter that had surprised him and he could feel something inside him, changing or killing he couldn't be sure. He hoped he would die. He could not bear the thought of being turned into one of those things that were once human. Slowly, while walking along an overgrown road in the middle of nowhere he began to feel nauseous and tried to find somewhere to sit down. He stumbled across an abandon wooden shack and quickly he passed out from exhaustion and a raging fever that had come out from being wounded by that hunter.

After a terrorizing sleep he woke in a cold sweat, having nightmares of what had happened a few days earlier, and not wanting to remember what he had done before he was attacked. He did not recognize any of his surroundings, slowly but surely he got up and walked around not knowing where he was. He walked throughout the shack and tried to find some supplies. He found a black hoodie that had a skull with wings on it and put it on. He also found some dark jeans and boots that he put on as well. He walked into the bathroom to see if there was anything he could find that would help his fever and the massive headache he was having. He walked over to the medicine cabinet and looked in the mirror. His eyes went wide with shock; he looked almost nothing like what he used to. He had fangs now instead of teeth, jagged, sharp, and yellow. His face had paled so much that he looked like a sheet of paper; his eyes were nothing but black slits inside of completely white eyeballs. He tried to scream, but the only thing that came out was a shriek that shattered the glass. He stumbled around and fell over things in his sudden fright to get away from that mirror. Rushing out the door he ran for hours on end not wanting to go back and see what he had become.

He knew what the infected could do but for some reason he didn't feel quite so... infected as if he was infected... but also was not completely infected, almost as if he was only partly infected, he knew that not all of the infected were exactly the same, even among them there were different almost, species of infected, some were crazy, others could even speak in their once human tongues and some looked like walking cadavers, skin flaking away as they walked.

While trying to find his way through the woods he felt like he would be different from any other infected, he could think, but then nobody really knew if the infected could actually think, but he did remember things from before he was infected, but even then they seemed to be fleeting memories, but one thing held strong and firm and he could not let go of it. His name but even this seemed to be only a fleeting memory, he did not know whether this was his real name, or a nickname, or some other kind of name someone had given him, but one thing was set in his mind, that he was once called Wren.

Slowly but surely he began to find his way back towards some sort of civilization, cities in the south seem to have been overrun with the infected, save for the few groups of survivors he saw trying to escape the cities, some even tried to set up places in the cities that could be used as shelters, trying to fortify them against the infected and scrounging for supplies. He began to stalk the groups he saw that fled from the cities from the shadows, he saw that they were always scavenging supplies, carrying weapons and ammo. He caught on quite quickly to what they said and did, while although he could only form words and thoughts in his mind he slowly tried to teach himself to talk again.

He noticed some survivors carried backpacks and other things to help carry supplies and couldn't help but feel he should try to help them in some way. So, he began to follow survivors to where they would scavenge for supplies, taking some of the things they could not, and when they had fallen asleep he would place them nearby with a note, barely readable, scratched into the dirt, "Not every zombie is a demon." Many times over, some infected tried to reach these camps when the humans were asleep, and using his claws he would silently slit their throats and drag their bodies to the supplies, leaving them by the note so that the humans could read it and hopefully understand.

~~~Main Story

He had been following this one group longer than any other now. They came running out of a mall with dozens of infected behind them. They seemed pretty well armed, most having a shotgun or a rifle or some kind of gun and always carrying some kind of medical supplies. One of them, older than the red but seeming like he would die for anyone in the group, pulled out what appeared to be a pipe bomb and yelled "Pipe bomb out!" All of them ran as hard as they could to put as much distance between them and the small horde that was amassing around that pipe bomb.

They stopped about two miles away in the middle of the woods and set up a camp. One of them, seemingly the youngest of the group, seemed like he had lived in the woods or country most of his life, he started by setting up things about fifty feet from their little camp, twigs, leaves, things to trip over so they would be alerted if anything came by. *You should always watch the high ground…* He did not seem to bother with trying to set anything up in the trees, all the better, so that they didn't seem him hiding and watching them. When it had gotten late that night they all sat down around a small fire and started chatting about what they were going through.

"Youngins, where do you think we are going to go to now?" "I don't know Coach. It might be good to try and head back in to town, but it might be safer just to stay out here for a while, maybe try to find a different town or something we can hide out in for a bit." "Did y' guys see all those zombies? Woo Coach that was a nice pipe bomb I tell you what!" "Yeah yeah Ellis I get it." "Hey overalls, you want to take out some of that food now or what? I'm starving!" "Hey guys, what do you think about going to camp out in that building over there?" The girl said, pointing at a building about a hundred feet away, Wren could see infected milling around in it. "I don't know little sister; I think I can see some of them creatures walking around in it." Rochelle nodded in agreement, figuring they should not waste any of the few bullets they had left. Wren watched, and they continued to talk and banter back and forth and it seemed like it had been hours once they had finally fallen asleep and Wren could move out from his perch within a nearby tree.

Wren walked over to the building and set to the task of getting rid of the infected. There was about a dozen of the common infected in there but none of them even gave him the slightest bit of attention as he walked up and slashed his claws across their throats, letting them bleed out on the floor. Wren walked up to the second floor of the building and set down his supplies. He still had several packs left, although all but two of them were empty. He still had his pack of food and ammo and one pack with a few basic medical supplies in it, gauze, alcohol, and some painkillers. He heard something break in the woods; he rushed out the building and saw two common infected stalking toward the humans' camp. He snuck over as quietly as he could, going from tree to tree. Once he was right above them he hooked his legs around the branch closest to the ground and swung down, bringing his claws across the front of both of their throats.

He went back to his hideout and grabbed his pack of food and ammo. He found a spot about twenty feet from where the survivors were at, but right in the line of sight of one of the humans when they woke up, granted they didn't move in their sleep. He put the pack down and slowly and quietly dragged the two bodies over to where he set the pack down, and spent about ten minutes scratching a message in the dirt, so that it was as easy to read as he could make it, and perched up in a tree to wait for them to wake up.

He noticed that morning when one of the humans, in a bright yellow shirt wearing a blue hat approached the supplies and eyed the message, and then looked down at the zombies lying next to it. He picked up the supplies and walked back to the group, three more humans, an older looking man, balding but seeming to be a man of morals but also seeming... distant... as if this group is one of convenience. The third, a woman who looks to be young but older than the first that Wren had spotted, wearing a pink shirt she quite literally stood out in many ways, for one, the pink shirt was a dead giveaway even in the dark of the early morning hours, and she was the only female Wren had seen since the infection began almost... *No! How long has it been?! When did this start? When was I infected? When... when...*

Feeling the sudden panic Wren could not help but let out a small shriek, he froze visibly, fear present in his eyes noticing one of the humans look directly towards where he was hiding, in a branch of a tree, thankfully covered thickly in leaves, this one, seeming older than the woman but younger than the older man, wore a white suit and rings, seeming to be someone that would pick a fight just for the hell of it. The others had heard it too, they began to feel wary, brandishing their guns and keeping a sharp eye out for anything that might move.

After what seemed like hours they began to move again, the first human walked up to the woman and said something to her that Wren could not make out. He saw her gesture for him to show her and he could barely hear the audible words "Sure, let me see it Ellis." Ellis. That was this one's name, *Ellis* Slowly they approached the message, the location not more than ten feet from where Wren was sitting, still covered in the thick amount of leaves on the tree, it was obvious that the woman was still on alert, especially after being told of a message near some supplies.

"What do y' make o' this Ro?"

Peering down at the message "Ro" read it and her face visibly paled, while also eyeing the corpses next to it, "Not every zombie is a demon." After reading, Ro looked thoughtful for a moment and then peered around their surrounds, trees littered the place around them, save for the one thing that was almost... out of place... in the area, the broken down warehouse.

"I don't know Ellis... but maybe we should back away from this building, just because this message might almost... seem friendly, doesn't mean it is..."

With that they slowly backed away, returning to the rest of the group. Wren watched as the first human... Ellis, he was called, slowly began to open the supplies, while following other groups Wren would steal the occasional empty backpack, nothing major as some groups would even leave behind the empty carriers, why, he could not be sure, but it did give him something to store things in so long as he kept feeling the need to help people, to gain back some shred of his humanity that may have been forever lost with this infection. Wren headed back up to get some rest while they were still sitting around.

The when the sun started to come up he awoke to the sound of a shriek, jolting awake and to the window he noticed the survivors jerking their heads to the sound of the sudden piercing cry in the otherwise still morning. He could smell it, another one of those things that infected him. He knew it by the smell, another hunter was stalking around. Slowly he crept out of the building in search of the hunter, determined to stop it from harming these humans he had almost become... attached to. Feeling somewhat more akin towards this particular group, just something about them seems... friendlier almost more... fulfilling about this group but he couldn't quite place it.

*FOOD!* There it was again, this time sounding closer to the humans. Wren quickly picked up the scent and tracked it deftly, being used to tracking because he loved to go hunting. He found the hunter sitting in a tree, eyeing one of the humans, Wren could tell in the way the hunter was tensed he was about to pounce. Almost at that exact moment of though the hunter started to lunge forward, Wren knew it would tear the throat out of the first survivor it landed on and they wouldn't stand a chance.

One of the survivors heard it shriek and it was almost too late, turning into the direction of the shriek the woman, "Ro" saw it coming straight at her and froze in place, the survivors all seemed startled when the hunter did not land on Rochelle but instead something collided with it in midair and they could hear its strangled yelp as it went careening off into the bushes with something that almost looked... exactly like it did but yet not completely like a hunter, in an instant the hunters' shrieks and yelps were cut off with a resounding *CRACK* and they knew the fight was over. They stood, in stunned silence, for a few minutes wondering if that second... thing would come out and attack them. It never did, so they set about gathering things up again to move on to a safe room somewhere, while trying to follow the river that was still about a mile or so away from them.

At noon the survivors set out, Ellis went back to check on the message one last time, Rochelle following him, only to find a backpack and a new message, "Not all shadows contain something to be feared." With that Ellis looked at Rochelle with a confused look on his face.

"Do y' think that could be that feller that saved ya earlier Ro?"

Thinking for a moment Rochelle answered, "I don't know, but something is definitely keeping an eye on us..."

Slowly, the group began walking the distance to the river, finding a minimal amount of infected along the way. Moving up the river, the survivors came to the rundown outskirts of a city in hopes of being able to find supplies and a safe room. It was getting dark, but they trudged on anyway. Slowly walking through the city, Wren noticed the woman, Rochelle slow behind the others to check something out; they didn't seem to notice her. Wren would keep an eye on her while also watching the others move on ahead. He noticed that a few blocks away the other three had found a safe room, and had gone in to set up. Only then did he hear a quizzical voice from Ellis "Hey yall, where's Ro at?" Looking around for the first time they noticed that she wasn't with them. Suddenly, they heard a shriek from outside but didn't have the nerve to go outside.

*Stupid! You forgot about the girl!* Quickly and deftly Wren started jumping and leaping from rooftop to rooftop back the way they had come in search of the girl. Suddenly he heard what sounded like dozens of people running together, he found the girl, but he also found her running in the completely wrong direction from the safe room, but then again she WAS being chased by a horde, so really that would probably be a logical thing that could happen. Wren heard the tell-tale sign of a smoker, and saw Rochelle being grabbed by it, quickly he leaped at the smoker, ending its life with a quick slash to the throat. Gently but as quickly as he could he picked up the human as she gasped and choked for air that had been quickly choked out of her, Leaping quickly up to the rooftop while holding her onto his back he began the trip back to the safe room. Arriving at the safe room door Wren quickly unlocked the door, spying on the humans as they opened it the first time, he leaped to where the three were sitting, setting down Rochelle and out the door in that same instant, the humans didn't even have time to register what was happening until the door had closed and Wren was gone.

Wren made the trip back to where he had spotted Rochelle stepping off to look at something, it must have seemed important because it seemed it would have only been caught out of the corner of her eye. Finding the object and picking it up, he noticed it was some kind of locket. Opening it he could see the face of Rochelle but... younger, with three other people in the picture, what seemed to be a mother, father, and sister. This could be important to her, slowly Wren closed the locket back up, careful not to damage it, and set it in his pocket and went to look for the location that he had found Rochelle being choked by the smoker.

Finding the location, Wren saw that there was still a few infected milling around aimlessly. Walking up to them Wren quickly slashed their throats as so they could not cause problems for any other humans that came through here, and quickly continued on to where Rochelle had been grabbed. He found the supplies she had been carrying, an assault rifle, barely holding any ammo, some pills, a med kit and what looked like two more clips of ammo. Wren quickly went to a rooftop where he had watched the three enter the safe room earlier, and on his rooftop where he had left backpacks he always carried with himself full of supplies.

Grabbing one backpack, he put the ammo, pills, and med kit into it while also grabbing some things from his other packs to stick in as well, things he never would have thought to grab if he had not seen survivors running around looking for medical supplies so often. He had managed to grab what he saw them get most frequently, gauze, alcohol, medical tape, and even found some actual medicines, thinking to be generous he put in some morphine as well, and gently he set the locket down into a pocket on the side of the backpack and grabbed some items from another backpack he had grabbed, grateful that he did because he figured he would never be able to write in the dirt forever.

Slowly and horribly Wren began to write a note on a piece of paper, wishing he could write in the dirt outside the door but figured it would be best to slip in leave the items inside the safe room rather than leaving it to chance and have it left outside. Silently he opened the safe room door, noticing that the survivors were sound asleep he quietly stepped up to where the woman was resting, laying the pack next to her, turning around he froze in his tracks, the first human he had seen, Ellis, was staring at him, eyes wide in disbelief. Wren forcibly removed himself from being frozen in place, scared of what would happen because the survivor had seen him and rushed out the door throwing caution to the wind and slamming it shut behind him, unfortunately waking up the other three survivors. Groggy from the sudden noise but startled none the less the survivors quickly awoke and saw that Ellis had already been awake they looked at him for an answer but he just shrugged.

"I think that fella from earlier found something for Ro." That is when they noticed the pack next to her, she looked through it with her eyes widening in disbelief at the bounty of medical supplies they received. Rochelle quickly past it out to the others calling it out loud just not believing their luck.

"Gauze.. medical tape.. alcohol... morphine... so much stuff we can use!" Then she noticed her own items that got left behind under everything else, "Even my med kit is in here, my pills too, and ammo for my M16!" The others stared at her in disbelief, Coach spoke up for the first time since they first saw their deadly shadow, "Well, that is mighty odd for someone to come leaving this stuff around, don't they need this for the apocalypse?" Ellis looked at Rochelle for a moment, smirked, and Ellis said to Coach, "I don't think our friend is someone who will need this stuff." Coach paused for a moment, remembering the hunter that had pounced on the one just earlier that day and saved Rochelle's life.

Then, Rochelle let loose a little cry of joy when she reached into the pocket of the backpack, seeing something all too familiar, the others looked at her as she opened it, disbelief and pure joy lighting up in her eyes. Nick saw the object and wondered why Rochelle seemed so happy to see it "Have you seen that locket before?" he asked, that's when Rochelle turned around and showed them what was inside of it.

"It's my family, or... at least... what it was before the infection started, although only one of them was still with me..." They decided to drop it at that and try to get some sleep, when Nick and Coach had dozed off Ellis scooted closer to Rochelle and asked her "Did that fella leave a message? He always has before." Rochelle remembered that and quickly looked through the rest of the backpack to look for one, then realizing, that something else was in the pocket of the backpack, not noticing it at first because she was so entranced by the locket. "Yeah... and this one is even stranger than the last" she said. "What's it say?" asked Ellis, leaning in to read it.

"Shadows beckon and fall as day turns to night and night into day." At that they decided to leave it be and try to get some sleep. Ellis sat awake for a while pondering that message, while the others were asleep he decided to slip outside the safe room door to see if he could catch a glimpse of their little helper.

Wren watched from a nearby rooftop and listened as he heard the survivors talking and Rochelle's sudden shout of happiness *Must have found the locket* Wren thought to himself. After a short while when everything had died down Wren noticed one of the humans step out of the safe room and close the door quietly. It was the one he had first seen, Ellis. He noticed that the human was not wandering around looking for anything, but rather, scanning shadows and buildings.

*He's searching for Me.* Thought Wren. He contemplated whether or not he should go down and say something or, at least try to say something to this human. Then, all of a sudden, he heard something, almost no more than a whisper, "You can come down feller." He was being called down, it was almost unreal Wren sat in utter shock for a moment that he was actually being called out from hiding. It was surreal to think that someone would want to see who has been helping them, even if this one at least, has seen what he really is.

Slowly he came down from the building he was in, and approached Ellis. The man's eyes went wide again, but only for a moment. Ellis walked up to the hunter, but was wary of his claws; still not sure what kind of control this hunter may have over himself or what not because of the infection. He asked a question that froze Wren in his tracks for what seemed like an eternity, quietly Ellis whispered, "What's your name?" Wren thought to himself for a moment, wondering whether or not he should answer. Then, in a sudden movement Wren helped up his hand, gesturing for the human to wait. He went back quickly to his rooftop, going a less direct way so as not to alert the human to where he was actually staying, and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen to try and write with. He quickly went back down to the human and looked at him. Ellis, being the optimistic person that he is noticed the pen and paper and thought to himself excited *Holy cow! Can this guy really write?! But then again, he has been leaving notes...*

Ellis watched as the hunter painfully and surely scrawled something on the paper before handing it to him. Ellis eyed the note carefully because of how hard it seemed to read it, and slowly tried to read it out "W... Wr... Wren? Is that your name? Wren?" The hunter gave him a slight smile, and at that Ellis gestured for the pen, which Wren handed to him and Ellis quickly scrawled something on the piece of paper. He handed it for Wren and was going to wait from him to read it but then suddenly they heard another shriek. Wren quickly looked at Ellis and gestured for him to go into the safe room and hoarsely croaked out the word "Sssssstayy..." Ellis' eyes went wide with disbelief as he went back into the safe room. A few minutes later he heard a yelp that was definitely not Wren's and wondered when the next time would be that he see the hunter.

~ If you would like to play L4D2 add me on Steam as ViridianK, if you find others by that name read profile info it will be REALLY obvious when you find me. Updated Chapter 1! J Hope you guys enjoy it, the big line across is separating the huge addition from the rest of the story which is just minor details/fixes.