I do not own Left4Dead or any of the characters.
Partners
Zoey stirred, opening her eyes and screaming, flinging herself out of the bed, crashing to the ground but grabbing her pistol. She spun to fire at the witch that had been in the bed with her, only for the witch to smash the pistol out of her hands, pinning her uninjured arm to her leg with one hand, grabbing the other and holding it up, growling menacingly.
Zoey stared at the bandages, not sure when she had gotten them. Slowly, memories began to return to her from the chaos the day before. Memories of being abandoned, wounded, and saved by a witch, of all things. She remembered bandaging herself, except the arm, which she remembered the witch doing. Still, though, the reason for the witch being in bed with her eluded her.
The witch allowed her to lower her arm and Zoey stared at the witch before remembering her kneeling beside the bed. Finally she remembered and looked away in shame.
"I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...I didn't mean to offend you," Zoey said.
The witch cocked her head to the side before slowly standing, stepping back. Zoey pushed herself into a sitting position, looking at her ankle. She could probably limp on either of her injured legs, if only the other was healed. She sighed. This safe house had no shower, or fridge, or furniture besides the bed and island counter, where ammo was now piled. She would have to move on to another soon, and she really didn't want to know what would happen if the witch got hungry, even if she had saved Zoey.
"We need to move on to the next safe house, but I can't walk," Zoey said. "I'll need you to carry me. I can use my pistol to kill any infected we meet, but I can't get there alone."
The witch stared at her in silence before walking over and kneeling in front of Zoey. Zoey carefully pulled herself onto the witch's back, the witch standing and walking to the unbarricaded safe house door.
"Just a minute, I'll open-"
The witch placed a hand to the door and shoved, breaking it free of its hinges and making it crash to the ground. Zoey's blood ran cold as the realization that they had never really been safe set in. At any moment they had wanted, a witch could have broken into a safe house. She looked down at the witch holding her. Her mind began to conjure images of what the witch could do to her if it wanted. It was pointless to consider. She had seen what a witch could, and would, do. When the infected had first started to mutate she had seen the results of a startled witch. One had ripped her best friend to shreds.
The witch walked out of the safe house and stopped, looking up at Zoey. She told the witch to leave the mall through the back door, and the witch began to walk in that direction. The mall was empty, completely. There was no sign of any infected, anywhere. After a bit, they came to a pile of soda machines blocking the path and the witch easily shoved them aside, continuing on her way. A few minutes later, they were at the back door and the witch shoved it off of its hinges as she had done the safe house door. Zoey pointed in the general direction of the next safe house, which, if memory served, was a hotel. That meant that there would be a shower, two beds, and probably some snacks in the mini-fridge.
As they walked down the street, Zoey noticed the distinct lack of any infected. She smiled. At least she had their fear of witches going for her. As they turned to walk down a back alley, Zoey heard a smoker cough and looked up. No sooner had she done that did a smoker's tongue wrap around her throat, yanking her off of the which and holding her fifteen feet in the air. She grabbed at the tongue, trying to pull it away from her throat, but it simply tightened its grip, threatening to crush her throat. She raised her pistol but the tongue suddenly swung her away from the wall before swinging her back down, slamming her into the building and making her drop the gun. Just as her vision started to gain spots, a hand wrapped around her leg, pulling her down.
Zoey managed a strangled cry as the tongue was pulled even tighter on her throat. Then, her feet touched the ground and the witch extended the claws on her right hand, slashing the tongue off of Zoey and grabbing it, then yanked, pulling the smoker off of the building, slamming him down on the street. It began to stand instantly, only for Zoey to grab her pistol, screaming in rage and ignoring the pain that radiated through her from her throat in response. She aimed at the smoker, squeezing off shot after shot. As soon as that mag was empty, she swapped it for another and continued to fire. After a moment, a bullet severed its tongue, Zoey continuing to fire. Finally, the smoker collapsed, smoke bursting out of it as it did. Zoey dropped her second empty mag and sighed, loading another before kneeling, picking up the two empty mags and sighing, turning to the witch, who cocked her head at Zoey.
"Thanks for saving me, again," Zoey croaked.
She swallowed and winced. Hopefully that would go away soon. The witch turned, kneeling directly in front of Zoey and Zoey leaned forward, falling more than climbing onto the witch's back and the witch stood, arms wrapping around Zoey's legs. Then, the witch continued. Zoey remained silent as they travelled. The witch obviously wasn't one for conversation, given she couldn't speak, and Zoey wasn't sure that she fully understood what she was saying, or more the general idea of what Zoey wanted when she was asking her to do something.
They eventually came to a strip mall and the witch stopped, looking around. There were a few infected around here, but Zoey wasn't sure why the witch had stopped. After a moment, the witch looked up at her, growling slightly. Zoey's eyes widened slightly, her heart beating faster. She really hoped the witch hadn't decided she looked like lunch. After a moment, the witch stopped growling and released Zoey, who promptly fell to the ground unceremoniously, landing on her tailbone. She groaned, rolling to her side and massaging her offended rear end, then looked up at the witch as it shrieked, streaking away from Zoey and tackling an infected, the rest scattering instantly. As Zoey watched, the witch quickly ripped the infected apart, then began to eat the pieces. Zoey felt her stomach roll violently and squeezed her eyes closed, trying to ignore the wet squelching, chewing sounds echoing through the otherwise silent parking lot. Finally, the noises stopped and Zoey opened her eyes, seeing the witch walk back over, blood coating her hands and face, as well as having splattered over her front. The witch stopped, turning for Zoey to climb on.
Zoey hesitated for a moment before climbing on. She sighed. She had to be losing her mind. She was traveling with a witch. But, she had no better ideas, and the witch hadn't done anything to actually harm her, at least not intentionally. Plus, the witch had chosen to eat an infected instead of her, so insane or not, Zoey decided her best chance at survival was with the witch. The witch reached the border between city and suburb and stopped, looking up at Zoey. Zoey nodded.
"It should be about another mile that way," Zoey said pointing. "We can stop for a break if you want."
The witch turned back to the front, beginning to walk again. They were heading mostly along the road, though they left it a couple of times as the witch decided to simply ignore a curve int he road, instead walking across the grass or gravel until they met the road again. Once she actually walked through a guardrail, the metal bending against her before breaking like it were wet paper. After about twenty minutes, a roar rang out and Zoey instinctively tightened her arms around the witch, looking around. There was no way the infected would actually attack her with a witch present, right?
The witch began to run, not exceptionally fast, but much faster than she had been walking. Zoey began to grow nervous. If a witch was running from a rush, then it couldn't possibly be normal, right? Infected began to spill out of the buildings around them, swarming out from behind them, scrambling out of manholes, and a couple even managing to squeeze out of chimneys. Zoey shot a couple who got close enough for her to actually hit them, and the witch slashed a handful that got in her way. Then, finally, they rounded a corner and the hotel came into view. It was a Days Inn, nothing fancy, but it was a big one. The witch headed straight for it, the infected swarming behind her. Zoey twisted around, firing back into the horde and dropping a few, tripping others. Then, a charger broke free of the pack, quickly catching up and roaring as it did.
The witch veered sideways, avoiding the much larger infected before heading for the hotel again, Zoey firing at the charger. It turned, charging again, this time on an intercept course, but the witch stopped just shy of it, slashing its abdomen as it passed, its insides spilling out instantly. Then, the witch continued again. As they entered the hotel, however, the witch stopped again. On the ground in front of them was another witch. This one, unlike the one carrying Zoey, didn't have an attractive, normal-human-looking face. Its face was the same deformed, monstrous face that Zoey had thought all witches possessed. It looked up at them, beginning to growl menacingly. Zoey's witch began to growl back, Zoey releasing her and falling to the ground instantly. Suddenly, it was like a switch had been flipped. The two witches both charged, screaming, and began to tear into each other. Zoey watched in a mixture of awe, revulsion, and fear as the witches tore at each other. After several seconds, Zoey's witch was thrown sideways toward Zoey, crashing down before rolling to her hands and feet, snarling, then charging at the other witch again. Zoey scrambled backward as the other witch was tackled by Zoey's, the two rolling on the ground as they tore at each other. Then, the other witch slashed Zoey's across the abdomen particularly badly, not that all of the gashes weren't already deep, and Zoey's witch screamed, falling backward. As she did, the other witch's claw caught her top, ripping it off.
The witch stared at it a moment before shaking it off and lunging. Rage and desperation flooded Zoey and she screamed, the witch stopping and turning to look at her just as Zoey began to unload her pistol into the witch, doing little besides angering it. The witch shrieked in rage, leaping at Zoey. Except, she barely made it a foot before stopping abruptly and crashing back to the ground. Zoey watched as the witch she had been traveling with pinned the other witch to the ground, shrieking, then drove her claws into the other witch's head, killing her. Once she had, she ripped her claws back out and fell to the side, whimpering and beginning to moan weakly. Zoey pushed herself up, wincing but ignoring the pain in her legs as she limped over. She knelt beside the witch, reaching out toward her but the witch flinched, hissing and backing away a little on her hands and feet in a low crouch. Zoey raised her hands in an innocent gesture, staring at the witch. there were numerous deep gashes up and down her arms and on her legs, the gashes in her stomach were almost down to her intestines, and the claw that had removed her top had cut a gash in between the witch's breasts.
"I won't hurt you," Zoey said, holding a hand out to the witch. "I want to help."
The witch stared at her for several moments before reaching out hesitantly. She stopped before her hand had reached Zoey's however, pulling back slightly. Zoey moved her hand to the witch's, turning the witch's hand upward so the palm was facing her, then pressing her own palm against it. The witch stared at her, as though studying the difference between their fingers, as she had done before bandaging Zoey's arm the first night. Then, slowly, the claws began to retract. Once they had, Zoey smiled. She was about to pull her hand away to grab her medkit, but before she could, the witch's hand moved, slowly turning so that their fingers were staggered before her fingers began to slowly curl, slipping in between Zoey's. Zoey stared at their joined hands for several moments before curling her own fingers, giving the witch's hand a gently squeeze for a moment. The witch stared at her before slowly applying pressure. For a moment, Zoey was afraid the witch's monstrous strength would crush her hand, but the witch stopped squeezing not much harder than Zoey had before letting the pressure back off. Zoey smiled, shifting a little closer and slipping her hand out of the witch's, grabbing her medkit and setting the witch's hand in her lap, palm up, noticing, for the first time, that there was also a gash there.
She grabbed a cloth from inside, which she wasn't sure exactly what it was actually for, and used it to clean the blood from the witch's hands and face. Then, she gently placed a small bandage against the wound in the witch's palm before pressing the end of the bandage against it, wrapping it around the witch's hand several times before securing it with some medical tape. Next, she began to wrap that arm, bandages soon covering the forearm and a spot just below the witch's shoulder. The other arm she had to bandage from just above the wrist to just below the shoulder. As she finished that arm, she glanced at the witch, who had been staring at her the entire time she worked. She wasn't sure if witches could heal, but she figured that it was probably better safe than sorry. She pulled out the rest of the bandages and turned back to the witch, gently guiding the witch to open her legs and prop them up a bot so she could bandage the gashes there. A few minutes later, both legs were finished, leaving only the witch's abdomen and the scratch on her chest. This part would take a bit longer, however.
Zoey glanced back at the door. In all the commotion of the witches fighting, she had forgotten about the horde outside. It was still there, standing just outside the door and watching them. However, it seemed they didn't dare come inside, thankfully. Zoey sighed, turning back to the witch and getting the bandages ready.
"I have to touch this one," Zoey said. "It's going to hurt. Please don't get mad."
The witch cocked her head slightly and Zoey leaned forward so that she could reach around behind the witch, passing the end of the bandages to herself before pressing it to the witch's worst gashes. The witch jumped, yelping in pain before swatting Zoey's hand away and hissing. However, this time, Zoey noticed the witch had started bleeding from moving. Quickly, too.
"I have to bandage it!" Zoey said. "It's bleeding! Look!"
She pointed and the witch looked down, staring. Zoey grabbed a handful of bandage pads and grit her teeth, praying she wasn't going to get herself killed, Then, she pressed them to the witch's abdomen, trying to slow the bleeding. The witch all but screamed, claws extending and hand pulling back before stopping. Zoey felt her eyes burn, despite her best efforts. She was terrified she would be killed by the witch, but she knew that if the witch died, the horde would kill her anyway. She quickly brushed her tears away, pressing the end of the bandage to the witch's abdomen. The witch hissed again, flinching, but since Zoey didn't die, she assumed she had been given as much permission as she'd get to tend to the wounds, so she leaned forward again, beginning to wrap the bandages around the witch, making sure they were tight enough to not fall off. Finally, she finished by wrapping the bandages diagonally up between the witch's breasts to cover the scratch before securing the other end of the bandages, marveling that she had had exactly the amount of bandages she had needed.
"There," Zoey said. "I'm finished. We should find the safe house now. I think it's on the top floor."
The witch nodded, standing, but her legs gave out and she began to fall. Zoey caught her, sucking in her breath to keep from shouting in pain as her ankle and bullet wound both flared. The witch made a sound that Zoey could almost swear was a whimper, and Zoey took one of her arms over her shoulders, helping her walk. Before they had gone more than four feet, however, Zoey stopped as she found a pipe bomb on the receptionist desk. She picked it up and lit the fuse with her lighter.
"This is loud," Zoey warned, hurling the pipe out the door before covering the witch's ears.
She screwed her face up, bracing herself to take the full brunt of the explosion's sound, and when it went off, sure enough, pain stabbed through her head from her ears. She released the witch's ears, her own ringing, and took the witch's arm over her shoulders again, heading to the elevators and pressing a button. Nothing.
"Of course," Zoey grumbled, sighing. "We have to take the stairs."
She pushed the door open, looking through, then helped the witch through, turning and starting up the stairs. Progress was agonizingly slow. Not only because of her own injuries, but the witch was clearly exhausted, and was moving just as slow as Zoey. Finally, they reached the fourth floor, after what had to have been nearly thirty minutes. Zoey opened the door to that floor and walked through with the witch, looking around. On the wall to the right, way down at the end of the hallway, someone had spray painted the safe house symbol and an arrow pointing left. Zoey headed in that direction, feeling the witch's weight settle on her shoulder more and more as they walked, her own legs trembling. As they turned the corner, they found the door to the safe house, and the hunter investigating it. Zoey drew her pistol, the hunter turning just as she fired, sending a handful of bullets into it and killing it before it could attack them. She sighed, limping into the safe house with the witch, making her way to the bed before gently setting her down and returning to the door, managing to get it closed and sliding the bar into place.
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