This dream was inspired by a game of Pandemic II, where I finally managed to infect the whole world with a virus (appropriately named "The Green Flu" and released into the North American region) and won... after nearly a hundred retries.

Zoey

Drip... drip... drip...
I have a horrible feeling... something's watching me...
Creak...
It's waiting for me...
Splash... splash... splash...
Help me...
Splash...
Why can't I remember anything?
Thump, thump, thump...
Where... am I?
Cough...
Who am I?
Thump...
Fight...
Wheeze...
Survive...

A lone figure made its way through the dark, ruined city, looking frantically at its surroundings and noticeably flinching every time something moved nearby. Already, this solitary traveler had gone through hell and hellfire just to get to the other side of the urban jungle, fighting off monsters at every turn with every ounce of willpower it possessed.

Its bruised and battered hand clutched a rusted railing on the side of a building before the figure pressed on, desperate to find any kind of shelter from the hellish world it found itself in. Fresh rainwater dripped from the grey structures that had once stretched towards the heavens before falling to the cracked asphalt below. Large puddles had formed in the streets and alleys of the forsaken city, the muddy water splashing loudly in the urban jungle each time it was stepped in. Dirtied fingernails worriedly brushed against sopping wet clothing, their owner currently too preoccupied with making it out of the city alive despite being alone to worry about cleaning them. Its companions had been mercilessly killed off by the savage creatures that prowled the city looking only for their next meal. Perhaps that's what made the darkness so unsettling despite being able to see near perfectly due to its eyes being used to the lack of light.

The moon shone brightly overhead, suddenly piercing through an opening in the dark gray clouds to shine its rays upon the post-apocalypse wrecked world. All around, the buildings were colored black and grey from the numerous fires that ravaged the infected city, all efforts to save it having been abandoned by CEDA and the American military some time ago. The lone figure repressed a shiver as its wet clothes clung to its pale, cold, and clammy skin, a gust of wind having enhanced the already terrible chill. Earlier it had leaped into an open manhole to escape the monsters that only lived to kill. Having seen such a monster up close and personal, one that had almost succeeded in killing it, instilled a morbid fear within the battered figure's mind. Therefore, it had its eyes and ears constantly on the alert for more of those… things…

It stopped, nose registering a scent that seemed almost alluring, if it had not been for higher senses sending frantic warning messages. A brown, bushy haired head tipped upwards, its gaze nearly reaching the rooftops before its ears registered an eerily familiar sound that forced it to hurry up and get out of this forsaken place as fast as possible.

A dark figure watched from the rooftops, silently following after the young fellow on the ground as it nervously entered an alleyway like prey trying to avoid a predator. A slimy tongue brushed against sharpened yellowing teeth. Cracked and dry lips twitched upwards into a demented smirk as a horrible sound was uttered from its throat reminiscent of a laugh. Its normally cleaner clothing was completely covered with filth, dried and caked blood of its victims and Boomer bile from an earlier encounter of the bloated infected being the main offenders. Hands decorated with razor sharp fingernails drummed against the bricks and concrete beneath it, and the creature snarled in irritation as it watched the young mammal below slowly navigate through a dark alley.

Loud coughing and hacking echoed from behind it, loud enough to attract its attention, but subtle enough not to cause the poor organism wandering below to recognize their presence. Turning around, it gave a curt nod to the oddly-dressed Smoker that waited behind it before prowling on the rooftops to get to a better spot. Crouching, it watched as its prey moved into its sights. Its rancid breath came out in heavy pants, leg muscles tensing and hands clenching and unclenching in preparation for the kill. The figure below flinched momentarily, looking around wildly like a caged animal before nervously pressing forward once again. The crouched figure staring at its pitiful existence from above smirked, feet positioned on the ledge of the building and powerful, toughened muscles flexing...

The Hunter never saw it coming.

Zoey uttered an earsplitting scream as she shot towards the alley at her prey at over sixty miles per hour. The Hunter screeched in surprise as it was suddenly slammed into the cold, wet, unfeeling ground below. Raising her claws triumphantly, Zoey dug her sharp nails into the pale skin of the Hunter's shirt, punching through the blue fabric of its shirt in the process, before bringing them upwards, the dark infected blood and shredded intestines of the Hunter spilling onto the concrete and asphalt below. Leaning closer to the infected, Zoey growled in the same feral language all infected used.

"You don't like it so much now that the tables are turned, do you?" Zoey growled between clenched, jagged blood stained teeth, saliva dripping onto the Hunter's face.

The Hunter made no reply besides a few, panicked squeals and grunts. Its own clawed hands were busy trying to fend off his demented attacker, weak shoves being traded with ferocious blows from the petite female. Zoey bared her bloodied fangs in response and sunk them into the Hunter's neck with the viciousness of an evil monster, determined to get to the vein where the precious life blood flowed thickly.

Crimson red liquid poured out of the Hunter's veins and spilled onto the rain splattered ground below, leaving thin scarlet trails in its wake. Light spilling from a blinking floodlight displayed a menacing feminine figure brutally mauling a defenseless man, blood spraying all over their clothing and the surroundings; rainwater pooled in the potholes displayed a similar reflection before the image was shattered by droplets of the Hunter's life blood.

Zoey gave the dying Hunter a sick grin, her grass green eyes that once showed warmth and affection now hollow and bloodthirsty. The infected's rebuttals were becoming weaker and weaker with every stroke Zoey made against his pale flesh. It was purely exhilarating, watching the Hunter become the hunted. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, the thrill of the hunt and finally achieving her revenge fueling her desire to the see the last vestiges of life fleeing the body of one of the infected humans that had tortured her almost endlessly for weeks on end.

The loud hacking sounds of another zombie caught her ears and she didn't need to turn around to know who or rather what was behind her. The Hunter, hoping to take advantage of the distraction, now resorted to trying to kick her off. Zoey snarled in response and forced her attention back to the struggling zombie pinned beneath her, ignoring the one edging closer to her from his vantage point within a building. That Smoker glared at the female hacking away at his compatriot with her clawed hands through his infected orbs, preparing to punish her...

...and found himself falling out of the window a mere second later. Bill smirked as his tongue curled around the mangled, infected flesh of the Smoker and pulled again, taking great pleasure in doing so. The mutated veteran's tongue snugly curled around the Smoker's tumor ridden arms, pinning them to his side before he began to slowly but surely crush the zombie's ribs. The zombie desperately tried to shoot his tongue and incapacitate the raging young woman, but the diseased tongue crushing his chest with ever growing intensity reminded him of his dire predicament as he was pulled from his vantage point to fall to the ground before the tongue tightened and he found himself suspended a couple of feet from the ground.

The Hunter whimpered as his partner in crime was rendered helpless by his attacker's friend. It raised its hooded head and his eyeless face stared at Zoey's own vestige sadly as if it were begging for mercy. Zoey merely smirked at the Hunter and shook her head slowly, tauntingly, her wild, loose hair flying in front of her face as a gentle breeze blew by. The Hunter seemed to tip his head in acknowledgement, now knowing the full weight of his guilt and accepting his inevitable fate. The young adult raised her hand once more in the night, the moonlight reflecting off of the glistening blood covering the full length of her arms. Zoey's clawed hand sailed through the air and landed with a sick thump on the Hunter's chest.

Blood splashed onto the white concrete of the buildings nearby, staining them a bright red color. The water collecting in the puddles rippled and shimmered as red droplets fell like rain. The ensnared Smoker watched the scene helplessly from its final position, suspended two feet above the alley by another Smoker's tongue.

The university student now turned to the choking Smoker with a growing toothy smirk. The defenseless zombie thrashed helplessly in Bill's unnaturally strong grasp, labored coughs and wheezes forced out of his chest. Its yellow, diseased eye slightly widened in horror as Zoey lapped up some of the Hunter's blood, the metallic scent and tang of the liquid driving her into a frenzy.

Whipping around, the maniacal college girl turned to face the slowly dying zombie, her eyes shining brightly with malice as she slowly licked her lips and bloodied hands in a manner described to be close to a feral behavior. Blood dribbled from her chin and onto her red track suit and white T-shirt, now stained blood red from her recent kill. Slowly rising from her position, her eyes flicked to a side of a dumpster as her keen eyes recognized a shadowed form that had a bright glint in the moonlight. She bent towards the ground, reaching out for the object that had drastically stood out from its dreary surroundings.

The katana almost felt unnatural in her mutilated hands, but that did not stop her from exploring the weapon, admiring the Japanese weapon for its simple beauty and its capability for mass destruction. She had used this weapon once, when she used to be human, but the feeling of sheer domination over everything that crossed her path was still fresh in her mind. Her thin, gray-pink lips pulled back to reveal more of her sharpened teeth and her hands firmly grasped the katana's handle.

The heels of her red Converse sneakers dug into the rocky ground as the unhinged female abruptly turned around, clutching the blade tightly as if it were completely made out of precious metals and gems. Slowly advancing towards the helpless Smoker piñata, the edge of the katana's blade scraped against the rough ground. The zombie's struggles became more urgent, the Smoker resorting to slamming his body against the building, just to receive a temporary reprieve from his torment. Bill uttered loud screeches in pain as his tongue was brutally scraped against the building's concrete and brick wall and thrashed the Smoker against the same wall in reproof.

The blade glistened in the few rays of the moon that made it through the broken clouds as Zoey stopped and raised it above her head, the instrument of death shining a bright silver color in contrast to the depressing picture feverishly painted by the Green Flu virus. A whistling sound was accompanied by a dull thud as the blade sailed through the air and hit its mark. The blade cleanly sliced through the Smoker's chest like a hot knife through butter, only a hair away from cutting into the veteran's tongue.

A mere second passed, and the sound of an exploding bag was accompanied by a large plume of acrid green smoke. The bottom half of the Smoker came free of Bill's tongue and fell to the ground with a dull thump.

Zoey wiped the diseased blood off of the katana with the deceased Smoker's pants and gave a short nonverbal greeting to Bill, who then coughed in response and retracted his tongue.

Turning her head to the heavens, Zoey carefully strapped the katana to her back and took to the skies, leaping onto the side of a bloodied building before turning around and bouncing to another building on the other side of a deserted alley, rapidly ascending to the top of the higher buildings which surrounded the alley she was occupying.

Rooftops became blurs to the infected female as she flew by them, though a strange sight did catch her attention. She swore she saw two hulking figures with their hands interlocked with one another in the brutal show of strength in arm wrestling as she leaped into a shattered window of a decrepit building. One had a tattered tie hanging from his swollen neck while the other had bits of what used to be a leather vest covering his shoulders lingering over an abandoned car, both Tanks squabbling in a series of grunts and roars.

She pushed the thought out of her mind and began cautiously making her way through the littered remains of the apartment, pausing as her nose registered a familiar scent. Practically crawling on the floor, drawn in by the magnetizing smell, Zoey drew closer and closer to its source. Coming closer, she could faintly make out two limp figures in the dark, as well as intestines and brains practically all over the floor; it was obvious that their corpses were treated more as a snack bar than anything else to the infected that had moseyed into the building. Still, they hadn't exactly been eaten to the point where they weren't recognizable anymore- some untouched pieces of their faces revealed their identities.

Moving closer, Zoey gently brushed the back of her hand against their cold, clammy skin, wistfully gazing into their empty eyes. Memories rushed into her head once more, and she nearly keeled over as they forced their way into her mind, into where she was most vulnerable. She dully remembered the blissful, yet short-lived, years that both parents had lived with each other and loved every member in their family unconditionally. After an argument that turned for the worse; they had separated, and now were practically spitting venom at each other whenever both of them met.

However, the longer Zoey stared at their corpses, the more memories she remembered, as with the familiar wedding vow she had once heard in movies long ago- the vow that the couple would stay together until death parted them.

"Mom... Dad..."

Her lips creased into a deep frown as she gazed at the remains of her parents' bodies. Curling up into a small ball, she nestled as close to their rotting forms as she could, staring at the remains of the city outside through the broken windows before settling in. She held the dead forms of her mother and father close to her, as if they could still protect her even in death, nervously clenching and unclenching her teeth.

"I'm lost..."

Storm clouds started gathering in the horizon. Thunder loudly rumbled and lightening flashed from the sky, illuminating the world for one moment before fading into darkness again. Rain started to pour from the dark gray clouds and drenched everything within seconds, washing away the city's accumulated filth and sins.

"Help me..."

[Page Break]

Grass green eyes snapped open instantly. Zoey practically shot out of her sleeping bag upon awakening and uttered a loud gasp, her body completely covered in a slick layer of sweat. Francis snorted in his sleep, grumbling more objects he hated before his thunderous snores rocked the safe room once more. Her hands were sore from unconsciously tightly clutching her Hunting Rifle for at least an hour. By the ache in her teeth and the taste of grime and gunpowder in her mouth, she deduced that she had been chewing on the gun too. She ran a hand through her loose, unwashed hair and combed it before replacing her green hair tie.

It had been so unnatural... so real...

The college student edged towards a corner as quietly as she could, hoping to sort out what she had seen... what she had felt. The odor of lingering cigarette smoke reached her nose, and she turned towards the veteran, who had his eyes closed, but from his breathing pattern, she knew he was still awake. Zombies mutely shuffled outside, not making a sound besides quiet grunts to each other. Zoey gazed through the steel bars of the safe room door, feeling a cool breeze as it blew through the room. She wrapped her arms around herself, chilled to the bone not from the wind, but from her dreams and lingering doubts on her group's abilities to survive the zombie apocalypse in the long run.

Zoey sighed and closed her eyes, allowing herself to fall into sweet unconsciousness once more just as the first of the sun's morning light crept through the room, causing trees to cast long shadows on the forsaken world.

Her dreams were far from peaceful.

I might do more than one chapter for each of the survivors (I had another one for Zoey), but I'll see how I do with Francis and Louis.

Despite Hunters not being able to hang off the side of buildings, as seen in the intro clip to the game, human players in Versus mode can climb buildings by pouncing to the side of a building, rapidly turning and pouncing again (to a building on the other side of the alley), and repeating the process [by leaping to and from the side of the starting building] until they have reached the rooftops.