Me: Well, let's take a stab at a L4D story.

Zero: Are you sure you're ready for this?

Me: Yes, Zero I'm sure. Oh and for those reading, Zero is the name of the main character of this tale. It's also told from his perspective.

Zero: I don't think it's that interesting.

Me: You wouldn't Zero, but it's the readers that ultimately decide.

Zero: True.

Me: OK, disclaimer. I do not own Left 4 Dead nor the types of infected. I own the OCs and the plot but thats it!

Zero: That seems a little too natural for you...

Me: Shut up... Read and Review please.


Chapter 1: It Begins

I can't remember much, though truth be told, I don't think I want to remember. The pain of the infection was far beyond what I thought it would be. Now I was like this, this type of creature that could do amazing feats. I admit during life I was athletic, fast, and strong, but this is just overkill. I am now able to leap over twenty feet in distance and scale walls like I was crawling on the floor. Strangely, unlike most others, the infection didn't mutate me that much.

I still look normal, albeit pale, my body is still in relatively good shape, no gashes or any type of scar nor hole, and I have no facial deformities. My hair even remained its usual shade of black. How did I succumb to this disease in the first place? How did I even get the disease? It made no sense, then again, this illness defied all logic. I remember running into a few people who opened fire upon me. They shot at me calling me a 'Hunter' or something at the top of their lungs.

Damned if I knew why they were yelling. Of course, that was also their last word as a horde of infected rushed in and devoured them. Stupid creatures always reacted to noise, though they leave me alone and I'm noisy as all hell. So I am a hunter of some kind? It didn't make sense, but as I said before, nothing did.

I looked down at my sharp, pale hands as my long, black hair fell in front of my face. What the hell was I? Who the hell am I? I didn't know. My memories of things before the infection are nil, but they seem to return in small doses from time to time. No idea why though. I recall hearing crying at one point and investigating. Another group of people were shooting at a girl who was crying in, what I assumed to be, her room.

She mauled them to death and turned to see me looking in through her window. She hadn't been infected beyond the norm either. Sure, now her hands were long and claw-like and she was super skinny, but there were no adverse mutations like the other infected of her type I'd seen. I believe the humans called her a 'Witch'. That was mean of them. She was familiar and after a moment I realized why. She went to the same high school as me. A name tugged at my mind.

"Sarah?" I asked. Her eyes widened with understanding as she moved toward the window. She opened the window and I tumbled in. I remembered Sarah, the poor girl had one hell of a fucked up family. I don't remember her mother much, but her father was a huge prick. I think he sexually molested her or something, poor girl was scared out of her wits when boys walked up to her. Yet somehow she seemed to trust me and my friends.

"The infection got you too Zero?" She asked half crying. Zero? Was that my name?

"Zero's my name?" I questioned. Sarah shook her head.

"No, it was your nickname. You were so fast that everyone had zero chance of catching you or zero chance of getting away. I don't think you ever told anyone your real name." This time her cry had a bit of a giggle to it, as if she was collecting herself. Great, so I'm to be forever nameless. Oh well, maybe I'll stick with Zero. It has a ring to it.

"Oh, I see."

"It's seems we are somewhat special cases," Sarah said.

"Special?" She wasn't making any sense.

"We have turned into... these infecting things, yet we still retained most of our humanity."

"Think there may be others like us?" I asked.

"Could be," she replied brushing her now white hair out of her face. "But we have to get moving if we want to find them."

"Great... Can the uninfected understand us?"

"I doubt it," Sarah answered rubbing her left arm. "I was trying to tell them to go away in between cries. They didn't understand and shot at me."

"Good thing they were lousy shots," I pointed out earning a giggle from Sarah. "How many others from our school are infected?" She shrugged and shook her head, which didn't make me feel any better. "We should get going."

"Go where?"

"Anywhere but here," I said. We walked out of that house and went to the one I was staying in. Not surprisingly, we couldn't find peace and quiet there either. One couldn't find that anywhere these days.

"TANK!" Came a cry from below us. I admit I was curious, so I investigated.

"Don't shoot and I won't kill you!" Came another, annoyed voice from behind the door.

"Ugh, the damn thing's trying to talk! It wants to kill us!" The first voice said. So Sarah was right after all, the uninfected couldn't understand us. Gunfire rang out and soon there were multiple crashes followed by groans. I opened the door and a large, no scratch that, VERY large figure turned and looked at me. This thing was almost all muscle but the face looked familiar. Another aware infected perhaps?

"Dammit Zero," the creature began, "why did this have to happen?" He knew me yet I couldn't remember who he was, though if he was this big, he may have been a weight lifter.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" I asked him.

"I see the infection fucked your brain up pretty bad my friend. It's me, Bear!" Now I remember. Bear was on the wrestling team, and used to weight lift to make sure he was the strongest one there. Hell, he could lift a bastard that was three weight divisions higher than he was and not break a sweat.

Bear of course was only his nickname as well. Now that I think about it, only a few of the people I knew to any degree went by their real names. Sarah was one of the only few that went by her real name, but that's probably due to lack of a good nickname for her.

"How've you been?" I asked trying to talk to my old friend.

"Pretty well," he answered. "Aside from these stupid normals that attack every once in a while I'm doing ok."

"Do you know what happened to the rest of our clique?"

"I know Razor died. I saw him get taken down by a few normals the other day. Poor guy didn't deserve the kind of brutality they showed him. Ash is still around though I don't see him much. Bastard turned into what the normals call a 'Smoker' though I think they're just stupid. Gimpy is around somewhere, though I'm not sure what exactly it is he's become. I think the normals called him a 'Charger' or something." Go figure. "I don't know what happened to Sarah, but I hope she's ok." Oh, right... Bear had a crush on her for the last few years. At least I can put his mind at ease there.

"Sarah's alive," I told him. "She's what the normals call a 'Witch'." Bear nodded and looked down. I could almost swear I saw a tear run down his cheek. The infection hadn't taken away his humanity either.

"Anyway," he said as he composed himself, "the others are dead, or have no semblance of humanity left. They're now part of the horde of infected you see mindlessly attacking survivors."

"I see," I said. "Think we should find the others?"

"If we're lucky, they'll find us. If not, they've already lost their humanity and are beyond help, even from us."

"Just perfect, so now what?"

"I don't know. Do you know where Sarah is?" Of course he'd ask about Sarah, it was only a matter of time.

"Yes, she's upstairs." Bear didn't waste any time and rushed up the stairs. Typical. I checked around the house quickly, if only to make sure there were no threats around. I went back upstairs and saw a somewhat interesting sight. Bear had fallen asleep and Sarah was running her claw-like fingers through his short, black hair.

"It's good to see another one of our friends survived," she said, sounding elated.

"Yes," I agreed. "Ash and Gimpy are still around somewhere but the others are dead or part of the mindless horde." Sarah began to sniffle. Our group wasn't big, far from it, but we were all like family to each other, mainly due to the fact that most of us had fucked up home lives. I don't remember what Bear's situation was, nor do I remember my own. Maybe if I went home something will come to me, it was a possibility at the very least.

"We should probably move on in the morning," Sarah mused. "More normals may be heading this way soon, especially if they heard this big guy running around."

"It's hard not to notice a mini earthquake," I joked. Sarah giggled again. I loved making her laugh, if only to show her that there was still some good in the world. Another memory came to me, one of laughter. I remembered her laughing in our high school homeroom after school one day, and how she told Bear and me how we'd just saved her life.

She had planned on killing herself that day because she didn't think there was any good left in the world. When we questioned why she told us about her father, and then... Damn, I can't remember what happened after that. Things usually came about with time, and this was probably no different. I walked over to the closet and pulled out a pillow and blanket. "Take these and get some sleep." I handed the items to Sarah.

"Thanks Zero," she yawned out. Exhaustion, something I haven't known for some time... since I became a hunter in fact, but I could still sleep. I decided to walk around the house again, maybe I'll find something to keep myself occupied for the next several hours. Fate wasn't on my side so I went back upstairs and checked on my friends. They were laying next to each other, almost like a real couple. I smiled. I don't know why but I couldn't help it.

I walked to the open window and jumped out. I climbed to the roof and looked up at the night sky. Since the outbreak, much of the electricity had been shut off and the stars chose to come out to play. Memories rushed to me again. This time I remembered my grandfather.

I recalled how we used to sit and look at the sky when we went camping. I haven't seen him since the outbreak. Did he survive, or is he now one of the horde as well? Did he pass on from this world? I hoped for the first thing I thought about. I also remembered the group watching the night sky and watching a meteor shower. There was no such show tonight. The moon wasn't visible either. So a new moon was out... Maybe it's the brain damage making me think this way but this could be a sign. A new moon to symbolize the start of a new life.


Me: And that's chapter one.

Zero: Hmm, well we'll have to see how good it does won't we.

Me: Indeed.

Zero: Well, until then, bye all!