Note: Not really a Left 4 Dead fic as such. More of an original story. But yay, zombies!
Prologue:
His legs burned and all he wanted right now was to stop, but that was out of the question. If he stopped now, he'd surely be killed within seconds. The thing was hot on his trail, and a whole new kind of fear seeped its way into Austin's body as the businessman looked over his shoulder and met the eyes of his pursuer, whatever the hell that thing was. It was inhuman, but at the same time it was so human that for the slightest second it could be mistaken for one of the 'normal' people. The only thing that gave it away as being one of them was the red eyes the creature possessed, and if it had caught prey during its lifetime, the stains of blood that latched itself onto the face and clothes of the monster.
Austin looked back ahead and tried to take In his surroundings. From what he could make out through the thick, misty fog, he was in an old junkyard, but he had no idea where this junkyard was, except that it was obviously in Mississippi. Austin didn't think he could run anymore, but as the thoughts of self-doubt entered his head, he heard a sound. It was the cry of another human being, and his senses told him that this human was a human and not one of those creatures. The running behind him stopped, and Austin looked back to see the thing, for lack of a better word, had stopped in its tracks. It seemed to have heard the cry of the human and ran off in the direction it had come from. Austin could follow the thing and attempt to kill it, but that would be very risky. But he couldn't just leave the guy to be killed, could he? Yes. He had to. It was either that or be killed.
Trying to shake away his guilty conscience, Austin stopped running and swallowed as he desperately panted in an effort to regain his lost breath. His throat was dryer than it had ever been, and Austin desperately searched in his worn navy backpack for his bottle of water. He unscrewed the lid and gulped down the heavenly liquid, revelling in its healing powers, so to speak.
"H-Hello," Austin called out, his voice shaky and broken. Nothing answered, so Austin took a few tentative steps forward towards a wrecked car. It had been red, that much was clear, but the paint had been mostly scratched off to reveal the silver metal body that lay underneath. The tires were missing, and so were the doors and windows, but the driver's seat remained intact, albeit worn and ripped. He clambered into the car and pulled the leg of his torn khaki trousers up, and he couldn't help but gasp at the sight. Merely minutes ago, the thing he had fled from had caught him off guard and sunk its teeth into the flesh of Austin's leg. It looked infected already, and it was bleeding profusely . Tears were streaming down the grown man's face as the pain was unlike any other he had felt in his life, and to distract himself, he studied the swirls on the wooden dashboard of the old car, bits chipped away with mistreatment and age.
He could feel himself slipping away. He knew that recovery was hopeless and he didn't have long left. Austin didn't want to die. There was so much he was yet to do in his life. Last month, he had proposed to his girlfriend and right now, all he wanted to do was to call her and tell her how much he loved her. With fumbling hands, Austin pulled his cell phone from his blood-stained jacket pocket. He pressed number one, Jackie's number on speed-dial, and held the cell phone to his ear. It rang, but soon enough, the ringing ended, and he heard a familiar voice on the end.
"Austin? Austin, honey?"
"Jackie!"
"Austin, oh my god. I never thought I'd hear your voice again," she sobbed.
"Jackie…I…" he began.
"I'm pregnant."
Austin dropped the cell phone onto the floor of the car, half with surprise and half because he was in too much pain to even hold something now. He could hear a distraught, panicked voice coming from below him, but he couldn't make out what it was saying or whom it belonged to and it left an echo and ringing in his ears. His heartbeat slowed, his blood began to turn cold, and he was overcome with a violent fit on the seat of the car, repeatedly banging his head in various different places. White foam dripped from his mouth and onto his clothes, and he tried desperately to breathe, only to realised he didn't need to anymore. Suddenly, as quickly as they had begun, the its stopped and Austin felt completely different. There was no more pain. Instead, it had been replaced for an extreme, overwhelming desire of flesh. Not just any flesh, but human flesh. The voice below him was still there, and he reached his ice cold hand down to pick up the cell phone, pressing it to his hear again.
"Austin, baby, please," an incredibly alluring voice sobbed. The voice of a human he desperately wanted. He wanted to rip her apart, piece by piece and listen to her screams. He wanted to taste the bloody flesh on his tongue and he wanted it to make its way down to his stomach and fill him up more than any beef burger ever could. He wanted to chew her organs up until they were nothing more but bits in his mouth. He wanted her to die.
And then Austin suddenly came to the realisation that he was no longer human. He was one of them. A zombie.