Hey there guys, I gave another crack at Left4Dead and decided to stick with this. So read and review as you please.
Chapter 1
The streets were empty and bare, the alleyways were dark and unforgiving, and the buildings leveled in every way imaginable. The pandemic was hard on the world, but most of all in my town, we never stood a chance. I took note of the broken down and beaten barricades in front of the shops, as me and my two friends made our way through the wrecked streets. I watched from cover as I watched Derek scout ahead for any nearby dangers, seeing none he beckoned us over to him. Running as swiftly and quietly as we could me and Lynch made our way over to Derek without a sound.
"So what's the status Derek?" I asked quickly, eying the stupid grin he had on his face. "And what the fuck are you smiling about?"
"Nothing really, I mean we're alive aren't we Zach?" He replied with his grin fading slightly. Pointing across the street to a bright red steel door, he slowly exited cover, beckoning us behind him. "I think I found our new break room."
Looking over at Lynch who nodded without a word, I shrugged and followed, drawing my favorite machete just in case. It looked pretty far away from where we were standing, and even though it was a straight shot, it looked a bit suspicious to me. Continuing cautiously down the street with Lynch is careful pursuit we struggled to keep up with Derek, who was near skipping towards the open safe room door.
"Derek damn it wait up! You're going to get us all killed you bastard!" I hissed at him in hopes he could hear me. But he continued to near skip towards the sure-fire death trap that was awaiting him just ahead.
Inches away from the safe room door, a long slimy tentacle like tongue shot out from the top of the building to our left, wrapping itself around Derek and dragging him out of view. Sprinting as fast as possible me and Lynch were at the end of the street in seconds, rounding the corner I watched as I saw a horde of about thirty or so marching down the street straight for us, running up to the tongue I used the machete to chop it off as Lynch helped pick him back up. Shoving them both towards the direction of the safe room, I turned and readied my weapon for a fight.
"Zach stick together! We all gotta make it through this as a team." Lynch yelled back at me as he helped Derek limp his way into the safe room. "I am not leaving you out here by yourself!"
The horde was a sight to behold, the multitude of infected people pushing each other out of the way, vaulting over cars, manholes, and random debris in the streets to get to it's next meal. The sheer number of common infected was enough to deter anyone no matter how thick headed, the infected we strong together, and together they were heading straight for us.
"I'll be fine, just get Derek to the safe room!" I replied backing towards the safe room myself as the first infected approached me screeching and clawing.
Taking my defensive stance, I swung the machete at the zombie's head, nearly taking it completely off and watching as it dropped to the ground unmoving. Wiping my weapon off on my cargo pants I readied for another attack as this time four approached me, driving my foot into the first ones stomach I knocked it back and swung around to take the second ones arm off, preventing it from grabbing me. Though it didn't stop the other two from raking my back and shoulder with their claws. Crying out in pain I spun around to drive the weapon into the third's stomach, but as I did the machete got lodged in it's chest cavity preventing me from pulling it back out as three more infected joined the frenzy.
"Zach hold on!" I heard a voice call out as I was struck in the side of the head and knocked to the ground, with the infected beating on me and clawing my sides and back, all I could do was hold up my hands in some sort of a defensive manner.
The pain was beginning to lessen as I thought it was almost over for me, but I was wrong. Peeking through my fingers I watched the infected literally fly off me as a hand was extended, which I grabbed and used to drag myself to my feet. Getting up I was faced by no other than Derek and Lynch themselves, Derek's greasy blonde hair was matted and messy from the slime of the tongue, but he looked fit as ever, and Lynch's face was scratched up and bruised. Both were wielding shotguns, and seeing I had nothing left, Derek stepped up and offered me an Uzi as Lynch used the barrel of his gun to knock an infected away.
Happily accepting the Uzi I open fired on the rest of the horde still continuing their quick approach towards us. With a few dropping and a few more being stumbled by the rounds I slowly stepped backwards towards the safe room, followed by my friends we made our slow retreat back to safety. Stumbling through the door first I yanked the other two by their shirt collars through the door way and slammed the door shut pressing my back to it.
The banging and clawing sounds of the infected throwing themselves against the impenetrable door eventually stopped as the commons gave up, wandering off in search of a new food source. Feeling weak in the knees, I slowly slumped to the floor, taking a moment to rest. I wondered if, since the guys had found weapons, maybe they had found any medical supplies, staring down at my bloodied and torn arms and legs, I took note that I wasn't bleeding all that much however.
"Hey guys, you find anything back there? I think I might start bleeding' out any second now." I asked nervously, feeling slightly numb in my lower half.
"What's that Zach- Holy shit!" Derek near screamed staring at my torn up limbs with disgust and worry, unable to process seeing all the blood on me. "Lynch, grab a med pack, or some bandages or something dammit!"
With that Lynch strolled casually into the room tossing the medical kit off to Derek, who then tossed over my way, which I caught gratefully. Unzipping the small red kit, I sighed in relief when I saw the multiple rolls of gauze and pain killers it contained. Taking the gauze in hand first I began to bind my legs in the life saving white medical tape. Finishing up with my wrists, I turned my gaze to the painkillers, considering it didn't hurt all that much, I figured I would save the pills for later, in case anyone else needed them.
"I don't know about you two, but I think that was just fuckin' awesome!" Derek said excitedly as he paced back and forth quickly returning to seat himself next to Lynch on the couch.
"I think that you almost got us killed you god damn retard!" I near shouted at Derek across the room watching his face go from over cocky bastard, to scared child as I scolded him. "I swear to god sometimes it's like you want us all dead."
Getting back on my feet, I quickly scanned the room, by the wall to my left was a two person couch which was currently being occupied by my two friends. Just at the end of the room was a doorway that led to a small hall, which from where I was standing I could see even more doorways, but other than that the place looked destroyed. Aside from the couch that remained strangely intact, chairs, tables, picture frames, and blood was strewn callously across the room. There were holes and collosal dents in the walls with crack running up and down the length of it, I almost felt bad for whoever had holed up here.
"Well guys, I believe it's time we take a quick look around. We want to make sure we can gather as many supplies as possible." I said as I proceeded across the room to the doorway, and scanning up and down the hallway, waved my hand behind me in a 'follow me' manner.
Hearing Lynch and Derek get off the couch and follow down the hall, we made sure to double check each room up and down the hallway, but upon discovering every room was empty, we stumbled on a staircase. Taking the rail, I proceeded cautiously up the stairs, each step creaking underneath my weight. With Lynch and Derek following closely behind, our combined weight giving off a cocauphoney of creaks and squeals, we finally reached the top to enter yet another hallway. This one only had two doors across from each other as opposed to the four that were downstairs.
"Alright me and Derek, will check the one on the right, while you get the left, deal?" Lynch asked as I simply nodded in reply and proceeded to the left side door, readying my weapon.
To make sure there wasn't anything waiting for me on the other side, I gave the door a quick tap. Hearing nothing in answer, I slowly pushed the door open to be met with the horrible smell of death and decay, laying just across the room, was a body. Fighting the urge to vomit, I took notice that it was a women, from what I could tell, the top and back of her head was missing, and there was a shotgun propped against the wall next to her, blood literally layered the wall behind her. It looks like she didn't have much of a choice from what I could see, what with the carnage downstairs, I was about to turn and exit when I noticed a small slip of paper laying discarded in the corner, picking it up to examine it, I noticed there was a small poem written on it.
Got bit,
Fever hit,
World gone to shit,
May as well quit.
I couldn't help but laugh a little at the small bit of poetry that poor girl had managed to pull out before opting out. I guess even the suicides had some small bit of humor to them.
"Hey Zach we found some more-whoa." Derek said suddenly stopping when he laid his eyes on the body. "Hey Lynch get in here, I think we found Zach a potential girlfriend!"
"Go fuck yourself Derek, at least I got a better chance then you." I said with a chuckle, by that time Lynch had entered the room, and backed out the instant he did, after seeing the body.
"But seriously guys, this is just sad. We shouldn't be joking about this, we should at least move her or something. I mean what did you guys find in the other room?" I asked looking to Lynch for an answer.
"We found some more ammo and medical supplies." He answered in a hushed tone. "There's plenty for us if you want to go stock up now." he said walking back into the other room across the way.
With a nod, I bent down to take the shotgun from the bloodied mess that layed propped against the wall. Exiting the room, I shut the door as quietly as possible behind Derek, as I feared that if I made too much noise she may rise yet again. Following the two into the other room I stumbled upon the multiple piles of assorted ammo that were layed in neat piles all over the room. Marveling in the miracle that was ammunition, I took note of the four med packs in the corner, all neatly stacked together in a row against the wall.
"I think someone's looking after us guys, I honestly do." Derek said with a smile, digging through the boxes of twelve gauge shells, reloading his shotgun in the process. "I mean whoever left this for us here was very well organized."
I nodded in agreement as I began looking for the ammunition for the Uzi and the pump action I had just acquired. It was a few moments of digging through the piles before I finally found the ammo I was looking for, sitting just next to it was another slip of paper, much resembling the first.
Good luck to you traveler,
remember strength lies in numbers,
hold your friends close.
Quickly folding the piece of paper up and shoving it hastily in my pocket, I began to load the Uzi. "So you guys find out what you're looking for?" I asked getting a nod from both.
"Well then I think I'm going to go get cleaned up." I said staring down at my bloodied clothes and setting the two weapons down. "I'll be back."
Proceeding down the stairs to the bathroom we had previously found, I stared in the mirror at my greasy, bloody, and matted, black hair as I turned the faucet on, which to my surprise actually yielded water. The water was cold, but much welcomed as I rinsed my hands and ran them through my hair, making an attempt to wash the blood away, my clothes were gonna be a challenge, but I would worry about them later as I moved to rinsing my face. The removal of the grime and blood revealed several scratches and bruises.
With that I was done washing, I flicked the light off and exited, quietly shutting the door behind me. Returning to the staircase, I grabbed the rail and repeated my ascent, reaching the second floor in just a few moments. I walked back into the munition room to find the two of them propped against opposite walls, sleeping soundly. Looking out the window I noticed it was getting dark, so following suit, I propped myself against the wall near Lynch.
Slowly drifting off to sleep, I thought of the girl just across the hall, and how she had managed to get into the mess she must've been in. I also wondered to myself if she had been the one that laid out all the supplies for us. These questions would probably never be answer I thought to myself as I slowly and silently fell asleep.
Tomorrow is a new day.
There's a Walking Dead reference in here somewhere if you read enough to find it, tune in next time to find out who's leaving all these mysterious notes!
