Disclaimer: I do not own Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 in any way, shape or form. Please do not sue me.
Inform me of any typos I may have missed while proofreading. Feedback is much appreciated.
Chapter 1:
The mutations had done a lot to her physical form, but very little had been done to affect her mind. The only thing that changed that she knew of was her taste in foods, and the further down the road she went, the more she accepted her newer, bloodier tastes. She honestly couldn't remember something that tasted better.
Oh, yeah…memory…
There was a lot she couldn't remember: faces of family and friends, parts of her childhood, social events that would otherwise be meaningless to her. There was a massive part of her memory that was missing as well. The more she thought about it, the more it made her head ache. It was something important-she knew it was important- and it bothered her that she couldn't remember what it was.
Becoming a zombie had done a lot to her, mainly to her physical abilities, appearance, and her appetite. Her mind, except for her memory, had been unaffected. Oh yes, she also now lacked the coordination to open doors now. She is able to jump to accurate locations and pounce on Survivors from great distances and still manage to land a hit…but she couldn't figure out to latch her hand onto a door. She would become so frustrated by it that she would just bash the door down instead of thinking any more about it.
Her eyes were now a tiny bit more sensitive to light, but Victoria noticed that regular Hunters were far more sensitive to light, (she noticed when her Hunter friend mistakenly looked up at the sun and started screaming like a banshee) and she figured that that was the reason why most Hunters wore hoods.
The Hunter, who she now called "Scourge" followed her wherever she went. He talked with her often, and tried his best to keep her fed. Believe it or not, zombies needed food too. It was more of a keeping-up-stamina thing and a eat-to-live thing. There were differences, but they were technically the same thing when injured Special Infected needed to run away from too-good-to-kill Survivors.
When the Survivors came, Victoria would just learn from Scourge. He told her what she needed to do, and just leave the rest to instinct. Plain and simple.
Her first attempt at pouncing a Survivor could have gone better. She missed by inches, and nearly got pelted by gunfire as she scrambled for the safety of a turned over vehicle. Scourge made up for her by pouncing the stronger one while a passing Charger and a Smoker took care of the others. They made it look so simple, why couldn't she do it? Ashamed, she kept herself low in her hiding place and waited for Scourge to find her.
"Friend hungry?" Scourge dropped a full liver at her bloody, blistered feet. She felt that she didn't deserve it, but he insisted that she eat anyway. Honestly, she was surprised that he would even think to save a piece of meat for her. She thought that zombies would stop at nothing for the taste of fresh human meat. It took a lot to resist temptation like that. She was grateful to have him around.
Scourge was something else…he looked different from other Hunters, but maybe she was only noticing it now because she herself was now a Hunter. Perhaps all Hunters were different. But still, there was something different about Scourge. For one thing, he was the only other Special Infected that would tolerate her, whereas everything else hated her like she was public undead enemy number one. Scourge's hoody, though covered in dried blood, was the remnants of who he used to be before becoming Infected. It was a purple zip-up hoody zipped only halfway up, and he also sported worn sneakers and torn-up jeans. If she had to guess, Scourge was probably a skater boy before he died.
To tell the truth, Victoria was saddened that someone like Scourge should suffer a fate like this, but without him, she would have to brave this world alone. She'd have been dead within the first hour.
A Tank sprang from nowhere while they were cutting through a small town It was angry, just like it had been before Victoria became a Hunter. She felt like just avoiding it for now. Scourge had the same idea, apparently, and he kept pulling her in one direction, trying to get away from the dreaded "gorilla man."
No other Survivors were seen that night. But that was fine, they had eaten enough anyway. Scourge comforted her on her failed chance at achieving a kill, and Victoria was somewhat cheered up. "We try again tomorrow. Fresh kill come tomorrow. For now, rest."
Scourge was right, no matter how primitive he made it sound. She no longer cared why he wanted to stay around her, he made being undead bearable, and that was fine enough for her. For now, they would sleep. Killing could wait until tomorrow.
()()()()()
"…you're what?"
"I…I'm pregnant, Daniel." the girl said, her voice barely above a whisper. The boy stood before her, staring dumbfounded at her face, never truly making eye contact. Then he looked at the floor, trying to speak, but not finding the words. He looked back up at her, seeing the tears in her eyes. His first instinct was to leave, to run away from this. But then, he stopped before his legs even twitched. "What are we going to do?"
He held his breath for a moment, then embraced her. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out." Something had to be done about this. Something needed to be done about this.
He wasn't ready to be a father.
()()()()()
There was a sense of sorrow in the morning air when she woke. Victoria shook the stiffness out of her limbs, and stretched out. Scourge wasn't there with her. The spot where he lay before was now cold.
She was surprised to know that she had dreamed last night. She didn't even know zombies could dream. She would say that the dream meant nothing to her, but the name "Daniel" rang a giant bell in her head. Was it one of her missing memories? She didn't know. After a few moments, she stopped thinking about it. If it was a missing memory, it didn't bother her as much as any of the others.
What really concerned her is that she had been jerked out of the dream by an awful noise. There was an ear shattering scream. It didn't exactly belong to a Hunter, whose screams were more dominant that angry. It couldn't have belonged to a Spitter, because her vocal chords were too burnt up by the acid for her voice to carry this far. The Tank's screams were too angry, not exactly ear shattering either. So that means it had to be…
"Witch!" she hissed. Slowly, Victoria climbed over to the window. She was near the top floor of the apartment complex, but she couldn't see the Witch from where she was. Most of her view was blocked by other taller buildings. By the sounds of it, Survivors were nearby, and they had startled the Witch, and one of the Survivors hadn't gotten away quick enough. "I'll have to leave soon, even as I am I'm no match if a Witch manages to clip me. Where is Scourge?"
Unfortunately he was nowhere in sight, and her question would have to go unanswered for a moment. (She just hoped he was okay) Something down in the streets caught her eye, and she was easily distracted by it.
A lone Survivor was running across the road! The Witch must have chased him off. Victoria licked her lips; just one Survivor shouldn't be too hard. It was the entire group of four she had the trouble with, and attacking Survivors that were stupid or selfish enough to run out on his own without any help was a Hunter's specialty! Surely, she could do this.
He was hurt, she could smell it, and she could see him limping. He stopped to shoot zombies that were pooling around him. Now was her time to act. She exited the apartment room through a broken window, dropping twenty feet before landing with ease on the pavement, hiding herself behind a truck.
Growling quietly, she crawled underneath the truck, stopping only when the Survivor showed that he knew she was there.
The common zombies went down, and he had taken more hits that he should have. As he limped toward his sanctuary, a big red door that was so close, she decided to make her move.
Victoria crawled out into the warm sunlight, resting her claws against the pavement. She rested back on her haunches, readying a pounce, and upon instinct, she let out a loud Hunter yell.
But before she could leap, her victim was stolen from her when a Smoker appeared, as if from nowhere, and caught the Survivor in its slimy grasp. The Survivor, now helpless as the Smoker's tongue constricted his arm movement, was pulled up a staircase, and let out a terrified yell before his doom. The Smoker emerged, looking satisfied with how it did, carried a few hunks of meat from the Survivor and took off the opposite direction from Victoria, through an alleyway next to the Safe Room.
"Blast it! I had him. The damn Smoker got lucky." she growled in frustration. She stared at the retreating Smoker as it disappeared behind a corner. It would only take a moment to catch up and pounce the Smoker and kill it instantly; Smoker's were fragile that way, at least to other Infected. Victoria knew better, though. Attacking a fellow Infected would solve nothing. Rotted meat tasted nothing like the fresh human meat, anyway.
Victoria turned and crawled away, feeling dejected at her lost kill. Growling sadly, she crawled away.
When she returned to their hiding spot, it was dark again. Victoria had spent the rest of the day searching for Scourge, trying to forget about her lost kill, but had no luck finding him, so she decided to go back to their hiding place and wait for him there. As she climbed into the apartment, there was a pile of human meat on the floor. Scourge was asleep curled up like a dog in the center of the bed, the scent of human blood covering him from head to blistered toe.
Obviously, he had brought the meat back for her, it cheered her up slightly, but she did not feel like eating right now. She ignored the precious meat for now, and crawled up onto the bed with Scourge. As she lowered herself onto the bed, she heard a mournful wail echoing in the night.
The Witch is still around?