A/N: Okay, for those of you that haven't gone to my dA account and know nothing past my last author's note on Wings of a Dream, I've been planning on doing a Left 4 Dead fic for a bit now, and here's the first taste of that. Remember, concrit is welcomed and appreciated, as are reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the characters or the story, nor do I make a profit from this, other than personal satisfaction.
Beginnings:
Zoey's Story, Part One:
A woman screamed as her body was ripped apart by the hands of the undead. Her scream ended abruptly in a strained gurgle, as blood filled her lungs and she succumbed to her injuries. Her companions fled from the incoming horde, and sought refuge in a nearby house, the moans of the undead that had them surrounded intensifying as they closed in. The remaining survivors barricaded what they could and waited for their inevitable end, trying to tell themselves that they would be saved.
-click-
The TV flickered and shut off, and a young woman stood up stretching.
"Ugh, that's the third time this week they've played this movie! Isn't there a zombie film that's more intense than this?"
She glanced over at her desk, groaning at the homework that had piled up over the last few days.
She ran her hand through her hair, bunching it up with a scrunchie that was on her desk. She walked out of her room and into the kitchen. She opened up the fridge and looking for a snack. Not finding what she wanted she shut the door, and shouted. "Who's been eating my yogurt again?"
One of her roommates walked out of the bathroom, "Sorry Zoey, I was just on my way out to replace them, need anything from the store?"
Zoey sighed, "Yeah, a better selection of zombie flicks, the ones on TV suck."
"You need to do your studying, and lay off the cheesy horror movies, you know that you'll get kicked out if your grades don't improve, right?"
Zoey scoffed, "Let them kick me out, thee teachers here are boring as hell, I can't learn from them unless they get something more interesting going on. At least TV tries."
"What I don't get is why you haven't been following the news, it looks right up your alley."
Zoey cocked an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"Don't tell me that you haven't even heard, there's some odd strain of rabies going around, it makes people crazy."
"I hadn't heard, that sounds really weird."
"The government has been keeping things in hand wherever it pops up, so I'm not too worried about it. Well, I'm going to run, I'll be back in a bit, seeya Zoey."
"Later Teresa."
Zoey turned to the TV and clicked it back on, flipping it the the news channel, watching for anything on this new disease.
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A few days later Zoey found herself in the office of one of her professors, getting the same lecture about study and wasted opportunity that she had been having with all of her other teachers.
"I hope you understand the severity of your situation, if you don't pull your grades up this semester, you'll have wasted a great deal of time and money."
Zoey rolled her eyes, she had heard it all before..
"I know, I know, I'll work on it."
"You'd better young lady, you're a bright girl and I hate to see that go to waste. Do you nee-"
He was cut off by someone pounding on the door. He turned irritated at the interruption. "One second, I'm not done with you."
He walked over to the door, the pounding hadn't subsided, the person on the other side was insistent on getting in. He turned the handle, ready to explode in the impertinent student's face, when the door was forced open. There was a man, face pale, and most frightening, his eyes lacked any color whatsoever.
"Now see here, I'm with some-"
He was cut off by the man lunging forward, knocking him to the ground, and immediately starting to beat him mercilessly.
"Get off of me!" Zoey watched in horror as her professor was ripped apart by this strange man, fear rooting her in place. She tried to move, when she caught the man's eye, the same murderous rage crossing his face that she had seen when he had jumped her professor. She forced herself to move, grabbing a lamp off of the desk in the room and struck the man over the head when he charged, putting him face down on the ground. He screeched and tried to get back up, when she slammed the lamp back down on his head, cracking his skull open and killing him. She shook, adrenalin pumping through her veins.
"What the hell? That's not normal!"
She flipped open her cell phone and called Teresa.
"Zoey, now is not the time, there's crazy people everywhere."
"Some guy just ripped my professor apart!"
"Get a weapon and get out, it looks like this is going to hell really fast."
Zoey flipped her phone shut and looked around, there was nothing suitable in the area to be a weapon. She left the room carefully shutting the door behind her, trying to make as little noise as possible. She made her way through the halls, outside she could hear people screaming, a mixture of terror and pain filling the air. She tried to keep from shaking, and smirked at the irony of the situation, she had spent more time watching zombie movies than studying, and ironically, that would serve her better than anything that school could teach her. She made her way silently towards the athletic department, slipping inside and shutting the door behind her. She looked around carefully, deciding on an aluminum softball bat as her weapon. She rested it on one shoulder, feeling much more secure about her situation. She moved out of the building and into the chaos outside.
"Holy hell." Her jaw dropped at the scene, there were infected tearing people apart everywhere as they tried to flee. The infected moved quickly, and attacked everyone that was around them. She gripped her bat tighter, and started to move in the direction of her home, sticking to the bushes and hoping that she wouldn't be seen. Her hopes were dashed as she heard an inhuman shriek, and froze. Her head whipped around and saw one lone infected pointing at her, and then it charged. She hoisted her bat, and when it got to her, she swung with all the strength that she could muster, when it connected, the infected dropped, a dent in the side of its head. It was dead, but it was only one of many, Zoey decided that standing and fighting would be suicidal, so she took off running.
"Shit, they're fast, good thing the go down easily." She angled towards her home, she was hoping that she would be able to hook up with her friends before they were killed and turned. She heard gunshots in the distance and her face lit up, thinking that the military had been sent in to contain the infection. She continued running, hitting the porch at full throttle, sliding into the door. She grabbed the handle twisting, finding it locked. She reached into her pocket, finding her keys, and unlocking it. She threw the door open and hurried inside, only to be greeted by a pistol shot hitting the wall next to her head.
"Teresa! What the hell?"
Teresa was standing there a 9mm pistol in her hands, shaking, Zoey reasoned that that was the reason that she had missed. Teresa sighed in relief. "Zoey! You're alive! This is terrible, people are dying everywhere, and the military is having trouble getting people safe, I'm holing up here, and praying to be overlooked."
"If you do that you'll likely die, we've got to get to an evacuate, get out while we can." Zoey said, locking the door as she shut it.
Teresa shook her head violently, "I'm not going anywhere, not unless there are soldiers around. You go ahead and try to escape, that's where everyone else is going, and that's where those things are going to be attracted to. I'm going to try to be quiet and stay out of sight until they get driven out and killed."
Zoey sighed, Teresa had a point. "Fine, we'll hole up for a few days, and then try to get out, agreed?"
"Fine, hopefully it won't take that long to restore order."
Zoey didn't hold out that kind of hope, she mentally prepared to fight of an apocalypse.
----------------------------------------------------
Zoey and Teresa boarded up the house, working in relative silence, keeping a keen ear for any infected. They spoke very little, only enough to keep each other alive. They had managed to scrounge up a few extra pistols from infected cops that they killed and others that had fallen to the ever growing horde. The days passed and the situation grew worse and worse. There were radio broadcasts that told survivors that there were safe, controlled places nearby, and to seek them out. It got to the point that defending a house with just two people was no longer feasible.
Zoey fired two rounds hitting another infected in the chest and head, dropping it. "Teresa, we've got to get out of here, before we get overran. This is wearing me thin, I haven't slept well or anything for way to long, I feel like I'm going to pass out if I can't get some rest."
Teresa nodded wearily. "It's time, we've got enough ammo between the two of us to last for a while, I vote we leave in the morning. Let's set up a barricade in one of the rooms and get some rest."
Zoey holstered her gun and grabbed some furniture that was being used to block one of the hallways and hauled it into her bedroom. Teresa followed suit, and they both blocked up the doorway and window, creating a temporary haven. They slept in shifts that night, getting more sleep than they had gotten in the last few days. They woke up the next day feeling slightly better, and packed some non perishables and ammo into their backpacks. They removed the barricade from the door, and stepped out into the rest of the house. They both checked their guns and made sure that they were ready, nodding to each other they opened the front door, and stepped out into the sun.
